Buckingham Palace

Ted Lasso star Annette Badland played villain Babe Smith in EastEnders for three years, and her portrayal was so convincing that the BBC received serious death threats on her behalf

BBC bosses issued a rare “red alert” safety warning to former EastEnders actress Annette Badland after a crazed fan sent death threats that were deemed credible by security experts.

The individual behind the chilling threats was never definitively identified, Annette said. Speaking on Sally Lindsay’s podcast, Annette explained on Sally Lindsay’s podcast: “Because I was leaving, they racked up my villainy and I actually got thrown out of, literally, thrown out of the pub by Danny and cursed them.

“But I had death threats. I got the call from the BBC security saying, ‘We’re getting death threats. There are red alert code words in this, so we have to take it seriously’.”

She was warned that she should only leave her house if it was absolutely necessary, and that if she did go out, she shouldn’t tell anyone where she was going.

Annette says she was effectively under house arrest throughout the six-week investigation: “They eventually traced it to just outside Liverpool. It was in a school, but they didn’t think it was a child. But because it was a public computer they didn’t feel they could get much further.”

Despite that harrowing conclusion to her EastEnders tenure, Annette says she cherished her time on the BBC soap. She holds particularly warm memories of Danny Dyer, whom she describes as “bright, kind-hearted…and daft.”

She recalled Danny’s extraordinary generosity, revealing he taught her to “say the C-word,” which proved tremendously useful when she moved on to Ted Lasso and was handed a script riddled with crude language. She joked: “I said to myself, ‘I’ve worked with Danny Dyer, I can do this’.”

Ironically, however, that “very funny” scene ended up on the cutting-room floor and has never been seen by the public.

It was an unscripted moment, early in her EastEnders stint, that made the show’s writers recognise that in Babe Smith, they had the foundations of a truly iconic villain: “I had a scene with Tim [Timothy West, who played Stan Carter on the show] and he was watching the television.

“I’d been in love with him when I was young and he’d married my sister and I didn’t like that – that was the cause of all my pain and anguish.

“It wasn’t scripted,” Annette added, “but I picked up the remote control and turned the television off. I told him what I thought, put the telly back on, and left. And I think they thought, ‘Ooh, she can be nasty’.”

What followed was three years packed with drama, reaching its peak when Babe was locked inside a freezer and left for dead by an unknown attacker, who was ultimately unmasked as Lorna Fitzgerald’s Abi Branning.

In a dramatic farewell, Babe was caught red-handed stealing from the Queen Vic’s safe, but it was her savage outburst at Linda [Kellie Bright] – branding her a “stuck-up cow” – that saw Mick Carter finally remove her from the pub, and banish her from Walford for good.

New research shows more Brits have visited the Eiffel Tower than some of Britain’s most iconic landmarks, with cost of living and lack of time cited as the main barriers to exploring closer to home.

Britons are more likely to have visited landmarks overseas than those on their own doorstep, according to new research.

A survey of 2,000 adults found that more people have laid eyes on the Eiffel Tower (55%) than some of Britain’s most beloved landmarks, including the Tower of London (54%), Tower Bridge (53%) and Trafalgar Square (52%). The findings also revealed that people were better at identifying foreign landmarks than those closer to home.

More than three quarters (78%) of respondents could identify the Eiffel Tower, while 71% recognised the Leaning Tower of Pisa and 61% could identify Rome’s Colosseum. By contrast, fewer people were able to recognise St Paul’s Cathedral (58%), Westminster Abbey (53%) and Edinburgh Castle (52%).

In honour of these landmarks, Railcard.co.uk, which commissioned the research, collaborated with ‘Sand in Your Eye’ to craft a variety of attractions and famous sights from across Britain in sand. The sculpture was revealed on Blackpool promenade and will stay there for the public to view until the weekend.

Constructed using 12 tonnes of sand and taking three days to complete, the creation showcases the attractions topping Brits’ wish lists: Tower of London (22%), Edinburgh Castle (18%), Stonehenge (18%), Eden Project (18%) and Scotland’s Loch Ness (18%).

Catherine Lyver, from railcard.co.uk, which commissioned the research to encourage Brits to make the most of British landmarks by offering a third off travel for adults and 60% off for children, said: “It’s easy to overlook the iconic landmarks and hidden gems on our doorstep, yet Great Britain is full of incredible places to explore.

“We’re encouraging people to do a third more with their break, making it easier and more affordable to tick off some of the bucket-list-worthy destinations closer to home.”

“Whether you’re still looking to tick off historic favourites like the Tower of London or have added the modern Eden Project to your list, there are plenty of opportunities to make your summer go further when you travel by train.”

The overwhelming majority in the OnePoll.com survey for railcard.co.uk (79%) said they would like to discover more British landmarks – but the cost of living (43%) and lack of time (33%) are the primary obstacles preventing them.

When visiting British landmarks 23% will travel by train, because it’s relaxing (59%), more convenient (46%) and don’t have to worry about parking (43%).

THE 10 MUST VISIT ATTRACTIONS IN BRITAIN:

1. Tower of London
2. Edinburgh Castle
3. Stonehenge
4. Eden Project
5. Loch Ness
6. The British Museum
7. Buckingham Palace
8. Lake Windermere
9. Windsor Castle
10. Jurassic Coast

July 20 (UPI) — Andy Burnham was set to become British Prime Minister on Monday after a private audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, at which he will ask the former Manchester Mayor to form a government.

Burnham is expected to head to the palace late morning after outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a farewell speech outside No. 10 Downing Street at around 11:15 a.m. local time and departs to make the 1-mile journey to meet with the king to officially tender his resignation.

Burnham will be the country’s seventh prime minister in 10 years and brings to five the number among those leaders installed in Downing Street by their respective parties and without initially winning a mandate from the electorate.

He takes over just two years after Starmer led the party to a landslide general election victory that returned Labour to power after 14 years in opposition.

On his arrival in Downing Street but before going inside, Burnham will make his first speech as prime minister in which he is expected to promise to give people “breathing space” from cost of living pressures.

Afterward, he will head inside for briefings on classified national security matters, including the launch codes for the country’s nuclear missile arsenal, before getting on with appointing his chancellor of the exchequer, foreign and home secretaries and the rest of his cabinet, as well as other ministers and departmental heads.

Burnham inherits a daunting in-tray of complex, deep-seated problems to tackle that Starmer was perceived as failing to get to grips with or failing to do so with sufficient pace, which led to his downfall.

Those issues include cutting spending on welfare, sickness and disability benefits which is projected to rise from its current $78 billion to $105 billion by 2030, finding $12.1 billion a year to fund the outgoing administration’s Defense Investment Plan, fixing the “social care” system that looks after the elderly in the community or in retirement homes, meeting a 300,000 a year house-building target, and getting over a million 16-24 year-olds into work.

What little specifics Burnham has set out include ditching a national digital ID scheme, easing a ban on new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea by allowing existing fields to expand into adjacent untapped areas, some form of public control of water utilities, and cuts to taxes on local businesses funded by major multinational corporations which currently pay a lower rate.

Emma Burnell of the LabourList website told the BBC that while the mood within the party was upbeat, members of the Parliamentary Labour Party believed it was their last chance to get it right.

“It’s going to be a long, hard project. I don’t think he’s going to be able to do it overnight, he will need to show that there is real, tangible progress being made,” she said.

In a letter to Burnham posted on X on Sunday, Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch accused Burnham of lacking “a clear plan on any of the issues facing our country” and avoiding legitimate questioning regarding his intentions.

“You have refused calls to come to Parliament for questions from MPs, and you have not submitted yourself to serious media scrutiny. This is not a promising start.”

She vowed the Conservatives would back any bid to slash benefits, saying the country was in danger of becoming “a welfare state with a country attached” and called on Burnham to rule out tax rises and to grant new licenses to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea.

“Where we support your agenda, I will say so. But I will always stand against the instincts of Labour MPs for higher taxes and more spending,” wrote Badenoch.

July 6 (UPI) — A confusing situation played out Monday in the British royal family, as a representative for Prince Harry first said the prince had accepted an invitation to stay at the royal residence for one night — only for royal authorities to announce that he was not welcome after all.

Representatives for both Prince Harry, the duke of Sussex, and Buckingham Palace had different stories about the events leading up to the about-face, BBC News reported.

Prince Harry arrived Monday for a weeklong stay in Britain, with his family possibly arriving later this week.

The prince’s camp said Buckingham Palace withdrew an offer that had been formally accepted. The palace, however, said it offered accommodation to the prince, who did not confirm if he would accept and then declined the offer, only to change his mind later that day. By then, the palace said, it was too late to make arrangements, The Guardian reported.

Prince Harry, his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, live in California. The prince and his wife stepped back from the role of senior royals in 2020.

Tension between the prince (the younger son of King Charles III) and other members of the royal family has continued, although Harry and King Charles met last year for a conversation. This trip was expected to be the first time his children met their grandfather since 2022.

Harry is in Britain to promote various charities and the 2027 Invictus Games for injured military personnel and veterans around the world. The games are expected to take place in Birmingham, where the prince will travel later this week.

Originally, the duke of Sussex’s entire family was going to travel to both London and Birmingham, but the government declined his request for a security detail outside royal residences. Meghan and the children may meet the prince in Birmingham for the second half of the trip. It was not clear if they would meet the king.

May 13 (UPI) — King Charles III set out the British government’s legislative program at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday, focusing on expediting new agreements on closer U.K.-EU economic ties, tackling the cost of living, boosting defense AI and tech innovation and easing financial sector regulation.

The king’s 17-minute speech in the House of Lords referenced 37 bills in total, including legislation to renationalize British Steel, a Competition Reform Bill to fast-track reviews by the competition watchdog and a bill to help small businesses by hiking the interest suppliers can charge clients that fail to pay on time.

Charles opened his address with the geopolitical situation, saying Britain faced threats from an “increasingly dangerous and volatile world,” with the conflict in the Middle East the most recent example, and warned every “element of the nation’s energy, defense and economic security” would be challenged.

Honing in on the economy, Charles said the government would harness the power of the state “in partnership with business and enable reforms that support higher growth and a fair deal for working people.”

“My Government believes that the United Kingdom’s economic security depends on raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom. My Ministers will support measures that maintain stability and control the cost of living. They will use public investment to shape markets and attract further private investment,” he said.

The speech pledged progress on airport expansion and highway infrastructure projects and a Northern Powerhouse Rail program to better connect the big cities in the north with each other and the rest of the country, along with reforms to the police, National Health Service and criminal justice system.

An immigration and asylum bill was also promised to help tackle the issue of migrants and asylum seekers arriving on small boats.

One issue that received no mention was cutting welfare spending, an area where the Labour administration of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has twice been forced to back down in the face of his own MPs since coming into office in 2024.

While the address is called The King’s Speech, it is purely ceremonial with the speech actually given to him by the government to read out.

It was Charles’ third time to open parliament, a historic tradition that dates back to the 16th century as a way to periodically bring together three normally separate elements of British polity: the democratically elected members of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Crown.

The proceedings include Buckingham Palace taking an MP “hostage” to ensure the king is returned unharmed and a “search” of the basements of the Palace of Westminister for dynamite by the King’s ceremonial Yeomen bodyguards, a throwback to the gunpowder plot to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605.

Wednesday’s opening of parliament comes amid a leadership crisis at the top of government with scores of Starmer’s own MPs demanding he either stand aside or set a timetable for his departure after the party suffered heavy losses in local elections on Thursday.

“There’s deep uncertainty as to whether Starmer will be leading the government over the next 12 months or so. So it’s a bit of a paradox,” Craig Prescott, an expert in the constitutional and political role of the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, told NBC News.

Starmer has insisted he is staying put and will lead his party into the next election, not a big stretch given his 165-seat parliamentary majority and that no MP or cabinet member has mounted a formal challenge to his leadership.

Nevertheless, Prescott described the parliament into which the king ventured on Wednesday as “febrile.”

“The politics of all this is a bit too close for comfort,” he said.

The BBC said allies of Health Secretary Wes Streeting had told it that he would formally challenge Starmer as early as Thursday. The pair held talks in Downing Street early Wednesday but there was no word on the outcome of their meeting.