Ballet proves a winter warmer

Balletomanes flocked to St Martins Lane Hotel last night for the English National Ballet’s annual Christmas party and a performance afterwards of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum.

Among the guests were ballet star Darcey Bussell, Homeland’s David Harewood, and Andy Serkis, who plays Gollum in the new Hobbit film.

Also there was Les Misérables starlet Isabelle Allen. Allen’s one complaint of working with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman in Les Mis? “I had to have bare feet for the whole film,” she said. “My feet were freezing all the time.”