That fall in Padstow on May Day 2004 didn’t just send a shiver down Sturrock’s spine, it fractured it: a teardrop fracture of the C5 vertebrae for the doctors in the house. Sturrock faced potential paralysis and an end to his blossoming stage career.

He has said that writing a dramatised version of the accident and what happened next was not cathartic, but what we see in Mayday Mayday – originally seen at the Old Vic last year as Frankenspine, part of Ferment – could easily be interpreted as Sturrock’s way to come to terms with what happened to him that fateful May day.

Mary Shelley may not play quite so large a part in this one-man show anymore, but lying in his hospital bed, Sturrock relies completely on medical staff to piece him back together, so the comparison between him and Frankenstein’s monster still exists.

We are drawn into Mayday Mayday by Sturrock’s charm, playing a version of himself that is far removed from his most recent appearances on the Bristol stage. He looks at his audience knowingly, conspiratorially.

We are with him before the accident, when he falls and during his recovery, not standing next to him but there with him, wedged in that gap between wall and garage, and then every tentative step of the way as the process to fix his broken body begins.

That Mayday Mayday is based on a true story makes it all the more poignant, for there are moments here of real anguish as well as many lighter touches, the seriousness of his situation after he falls for example contrasted with a jovial paramedic, the climactic operating theatre scene soundtracked by opera and performed by a surgeon whose hands are dancing, and many other memorable moments.

Directed by Sturrock’s wife Katy Carmichael, the other half of Theatre Damfino and who features heavily in the background to this story, Mayday Mayday reminds us of the fragility of life with a lightness of touch. It is an engaging and compelling show from one of Bristol’s star performers. We should be thankful he is still with us to share his talent.

Mayday Mayday is at Bristol Old Vic until February 4. Click here for more info.

The only entrant on this list with their own entry on IMDb, Simon Cook, best known for playing Andrew in the Channel Five soap Family Affairs, juggles his acting and business career with the deputy leadership of the council and the arts and culture portfolio.

He of the red trousers, architect George Ferguson almost single-handedly rejuvenated south Bristol with his ambitious plans for the Tobacco Factory. He is a Merchant Venturer and former Liberal councillor with firm views.

If Hartlepool can elect a man in a monkey suit as their first elected mayor in 2002 (since re-elected for a third term), then Bristol can choose somebody dressed as a pirate, especially as Captain Gas is now retired as Bristol Rovers’ mascot.

John Grimshaw makes things happen, exactly what an elected mayor for Bristol needs to do. Grimshaw helped transform Bristol cycling group Saddlebag into UK-wide charity Sustrans, which has since built 12,600 miles of the National Cycle Network.

Council leader Barbara Janke professes displeasure at the idea of an elected mayor for Bristol, maybe because if we do get one, it is her position that will be most affected. One of the few to have experience of representing Bristol on the national stage.

Former Bristol City chairman Steve Lansdown may have recently moved to Guernsey, but part of the reason why he did so was his utter despair with how Bristol and the UK is run. From his bedroom, he built up Hargreaves Lansdown into a global business.

Evening Post editor Mike Norton has put his face and name to the paper’s current campaign, ‘We need to talk about Bristol’, stressing that Bristol may be a great place to live but is an underperforming city, which needs radical change if it wants to compete.

For political heavyweights, look no further than Dawn Primarolo, Bristol South MP, former Cabinet Minister, Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons, who recently announced she would be standing down from Parliament at the next General Election.

Heading a task force established by the Conservatives to look at maths in schools nailed the political allegiances of Carol Vorderman firmly to the mast, as did her appearance on Question Time in 2010. Will add a bit of celeb glamour to proceedings.

MP for Bristol West since 2001, Stephen Williams was a Bristol councillor for four years. Wales-born and Bristol University-educated, the Liberal Democrat’s first openly gay MP has already indicated that he might stand for the position of elected mayor.

Slideshow photo credits: bbc.co.uk – bristol247.com - bristolrovers.co.uk - carolvordermanfan.blogspot.com - guardian.co.uk - holdthefrontpage.co.uk - johnmilesorganisation.org.uk - stephenwilliams.org.uk – telegraph.co.uk

So what has changed? This is still a Scream pub, but like the White Harte on Park Row it has now lost some of its more ostentatious yellow branding.

One wall has been painted with a colourful representation of a cider press and a crate of apples, while the exposed air ducts remain alongside some funky modern lighting.

Scream pubs are firmly aimed at the student market, and there are drinks discounts aplenty here for those with Yellow Cards, available only with an NUS card.

Bath Ales Barnsey (the new name for Barnstormer) and Gem are the ales on tap here, alongside a generous lager selection but, surprisingly, not too many ciders.

Cider connoisseurs drawn to the pub by its new name certainly would not approve of the Brothers pear cider on tap; the fruit juice from concentrate of the cider world, the Babycham for the alcopop generation.

As evidence of the food menu, look no further than a beer, burger and chips for £4.50. Or go gourmet and have a pizza, now made on the premises. Now there’s a change.

The Cider Press, 86-90 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol. 0117 989 2471.

www.screampubs.co.uk/theciderpressbristol

Confused? The storytelling in the first half was eclipsed by the impressively quick footwork and the outlandish special effects that make this show so popular. The two fiddlers, playing out to a backdrop of the Irish countryside, were a particular highlight. Their high energy, polished performance provided an interesting contrast to the sharp sounds of the Irish tap.

A first half performance that was engaging and energetic, if the action was a little bit hard to follow, was more than matched by the superb performances in the second half. The Little Spirit was again our guide, bringing the excellent Don Dotcha and the Lord of the Dance to blows.

David McCabe’s Lord was technically inspiring but did not initially encapsulate the brilliance of Flatley. But he relaxed into the role throughout the show and by the finale he was showing off like the Lord of the Dance himself.

By contrast, Brendon McCarron’s Don Docha brought charisma and atmosphere to the stage from the beginning.  He was a true baddie who cultivated animosity from the crowd and even drew a few boos towards the end.

The leading ladies, Laura Jones as Saoirse and Sarah Frances Smith as Morrighan, brought purity and seduction to their respective performances.  However, the audience is shown that things are not always as they seem as the seemingly innocent ladies fight back against the temptress by showing that they too are not afraid to bare all.

The soaring vocals of Erin the Goddess (Deidre Gilsenan) provided the icing on the cake to this exuberant show, exemplifying why it has become such a global success story.

Review by Lucy Holloway and Joe Pymar.

Lord of the Dance is at Bristol Hippodrome until January 29. Click here for more info.

Skins   Monday, E4
The sixth series of Skins leaps onto our screens this evening. College Green has always been a favourite hang-out for the teenage cast, engaged in Daily Mail-bothering antics, and it’s always fun spotting other Bristol locations as skateboarders jump in the air in the Lloyds Amphitheatre and end up at the top of Park Street.
www.e4.com/skins/

Belleville Rendez-Vous   From Tuesday, Brewery Theatre
The delightful French animated film is turned into a touring stage production by the Greenwich Theatre and FellSwoop Theatre following sold-out shows at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. Follow orphaned cycling fanatic Champion as he travels from countryside to metropolis, accompanied by puppetry, physical theatre and live jazz.
www.tobaccofactorytheatre.com

Jelli Records BrisFest fundraising concert   Tuesday, Colston Hall
A coming-together of one of Bristol’s best record labels and BrisFest, which this year will be held at Ashton Court. The evening features “rocky experimentalist quintet Parrington Jackson, soft-voiced songstress Sadie Fleming, road-ready troubadour Paul Garry and the observantly thoughtful songs of Rebecca Cant”.
www.colstonhall.org

La Dame Gâteau launch party   Thursday, No. 1 Harbourside
One of our favourite purveyors of cakes and other sticky treats, Erica O’Connor of La Dame Gâteau now sells her delicious goodies from inside No. 1 Harbourside, where she will be celebrating with a party featuring some of her scrumptious creations. Our top recommendation is the Malteser Mayhem.
www.ladamegateau.co.uk

Slapstick Festival   Thursday to Sunday
A diverse programme of events make up this year’s festival, taking place at the Watershed, Colston Hall and Arnolfini. Highlights include Griff Rhys Jones hosting the annual Gala, Terry Jones in conversation with Sanjeev Bhaskar after a a special screening of Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, and Ian Lavender talking about Dad’s Army.
www.slapstick.org.uk

These photographs were taken by Bristol photographer Lisa Furness who spent November last year visiting Occupy sites across the UK and talking to protesters.

In April and May, Lisa is planning to hold a series of installations and guerilla galleries showing people’s experiences of the Occupy movement in an event that she wants to be “collaborative, organic and surprising”.

If you have been involved with the Occupy movement anywhere in the world, Lisa wants some of your experiences. She needs images, text, audio and video files to create the installations from.

Email occupationinstallation@gmail.com or visit www.occupationinstallation.org.

There are in fact two punch bag machines permanently located in the Bierkeller, the kind of machines where after a few beers you challenge your mates to see who can best channel Mohammed Ali.

The machines are an intriguing juxtaposition, as on stage, separated from much of the club by black drapes, is a group of women at a refuge, most of who have fled from violent husbands.

Rescue Me, written and directed by Jared Morgan, is a brave play for the Bierkeller Theatre to host as the first production of its inaugural season. It is performed by the all-women cast of Far Out Man Theatre, who confront some serious issues as two new residents with mysterious pasts arrive at the refuge.

There is genuine hatred between some of the troubled residents, and the bickering and sniping are some of Rescue Me’s best moments.

Jasmine Smart plays a character who had a child with her former music teacher. Her story is one of the most intriguing of the lot and Smart is convincing as a gullible young girl and then a distraught mother as the story reaches its breakneck conclusion.

The problem is that there is far too much going on, from troubling back stories being all too rapidly blurted out rather than fully explored, a concluding scene more suited to next week’s Slapstick Festival than what has preceded it, and an unsatisfactory and frustratingly abrupt ending.

Bristol’s newest theatre is yet to find its feet, but in this debut season the Bierkeller will be transformed into a host of settings including the belly of a whale for Moby Dick. No stein has ever been consumed in there before. There is plenty to look forward to with interest.

Rescue Me is at the Bierkeller Theatre until January 26. Click here for more information.

Rather like Lahloo Pantry’s Bristol Brew tea, the Bristol sherries and sherry cocktails will be very popular here, especially those carrying the Harveys name, the aforementioned Bristol Cream, alongside Fino and four varieties of VORS.

On a visit to Harveys Cellars last night, as well as the Harveys Bristol Cream I also sampled a terrific cocktail, the Bristol Punch, made up of Bristol Cream, Licor 43, also from Spain, Pampero Gold dark rum from Venezuela, and Orgeat almond syrup, shaken with slices of lime and pineapple juice. Delicious and decadent.

12 Denmark Street has been steeped in the sherry business since 1796, when William Perry first used the cellars of a thirteenth-century Augustinian monastery to trade as a wine merchant.

Cellar workers used to push oak barrels down underground tunnels from the boats arrived from southern Spain, moored a few hundred yards away in the docks.

The Harvey family joined the business in the early 1800s, and it is their name that the cellars are most associated with, a wine museum once drawing visitors here, alongside the renowned Harveys restaurant, which closed in 2003 and was the last holder of a Michelin star in Bristol until Casamia in Westbury-on-Trym bagged one in 2009.

There are a few hints of what this place used to be, from the small display of Harvey’s memorabilia (below), to the restaurant cloakroom with its signage still in situ.

The drink selection is extensive, while for food I recommend the chorizo in red wine and the patatas bravas  that I sampled last night, easily as good as in El Puerto. Other tapas on offer includes a selection of Spanish cheeses and a sherry fruit trifle.

Accessed via a discreet door from a road not known for its charms, Harveys Cellars is made up of a maze of interjoining rooms, passageways, corridors and hideaways.

In what probably constitutes the main room, the bar is in the centre with high-backed chairs encircling it and a few tables against the walls. This is where my friend Kristan and I sat, but when I come again I will make sure that I explore further in to the cellars, as this is where things get exciting, with one feature wall made up entirely of Bristol blue glass bottles, and a smaller bar with barrels for tables.

Another room has a baby grand piano, while another still has a view of some of the items salvaged from the museum collection. There is also a gallery which will feature a changing collection of work from Bristol artists.

Harveys Cellars is a piece of Bristol history brought back to life, whether you remember it as a popular haunt when it was a restaurant, or if you step further back in time to when Bristol was one of the most prosperous ports in the world, with a sherry to match.

Harveys Cellars, 12 Denmark Street, Bristol. 0117 929 4812.

www.harveyscellars.co.uk

The process will further delay the club’s plans to build their new stadium (right), focusing on whether the council registered village green status for part of the Ashton Vale site in a lawful manner.

This month, Bristol Ice Rink has been given the last rites and Gloucestershire CCC have been refused planning permission to develop their Nevil Road cricket ground, with talk that the club may have to move outside Bristol in order to continue to host international cricket.

A planned 10,000-seat arena for Bristol was abandoned in 2007, despite the now-disbanded South West Regional Development Agency spending £13m purchasing and clearing a nine-acre site for the arena near Temple Meads.

Murray took to Twitter (@scotty_murray) yesterday morning after the judicial review appeal was granted, just the latest in a long list of setbacks for stadium supporters.

“Well it looks like a small minority are desperate for bristol to stay in the dark ages been here 14 yrs and everything is still the same,” went his first tweet.

“And that don’t just mean the shambles of a decision about the city stadium am speaking about all sports including rovers attempts as well.”

The former Scotland B international (left), now plays for Bath City as well as working in the commercial department at City.

He added: “This is one of if not the best city in the uk let’s catch up with the rest before its too late.”

His impassioned, if not grammatically correct, ranting soon got him on BBC Radio Bristol, and very quickly picked up support citywide, with a few tweeters even suggesting that the 37-year-old should stand as Bristol’s first elected mayor.

“We need the facilities in this region improved badly not just footy or were gonna be the laughing stock for a long time to come sort it out,” he wrote after a busy day of re-tweeting and responding to many other people who took to Twitter in order to share their own feelings about Bristol’s future development, both sporting and cultural.

The frustration among many is that Bristol City Council are holding  the city back. “I dont want to be known for just combine harvesters, I want Bristol to be known for great arenas, great sports stadiums etc,” wrote Tom Leat.

Andy Hall said: “Only in Bristol could a few dog walkers prevent thousands of jobs and facilities for the whole of the south west.”

Murray was still at it yesterday evening: “Even though am a massive red I feel sorry for the gas as they have been and still are playing in a stadium that’s well past its sell by date.

“This aint about being a red or a blue this beautiful city needs a massive revamp in all sporting facilities from bottom to top.”

Former world champion boxer Jane Couch also got stuck into the debate, with specific emphasis on the need for an arena which could host high-profile boxing bouts in Bristol among other large-scale events.

An arena could be built at Ashton Vale next to the new Bristol City stadium. The diverse profile of events that this arena could hold is exemplified by the Nottingham Arena, in a city which is smaller than Bristol in terms of population but shares many similar characteristics, including two universities, two football teams and a county cricket team.

But they have a 10,000-capacity arena (right), and we don’t. In their arena over the next few months will be Strictly Come Dancing Live, Snow Patrol, The X Factor tour, Florence & The Machine, Dancing on Ice, Blink 182, Michael McIntyre and Noel Gallagher. Regardless of personal taste, it is unlikely that any of that lot would ever play in Bristol because we have not got the facilities to host them.

I dislike seeing music in arenas. The passion is often sucked out of a band that may be so far away that you watch most of the gig on a big screen. But Bristol is losing out to Cardiff and Birmingham, our two nearest arenas, and missing out on the biggest events.

Elton John played at Nevil Road in 2010, and Westlife and Jon Bon Jovi have played at Ashton Gate over the last two summers. But those are big one-off outdoor gigs. The Colston Hall is normally our one chance in Bristol of watching some of the bigger acts on tour, but not the biggest, unless like Lee Evans they decide to play a smaller, more intimate show. A damning indictment of a city without an arena.

Scott Murray has brought this debate into sharp focus. It is now up to the city council and a few judges in London to decide whether Bristol should have the facilities, the stadiums and the arena, that our city badly needs.