childhood

Netflix drama military drama Boots is based on the true story of gay Marine Greg Cope White

Boots, a military drama on Netflix, follows the journey of gay teenager Cameron Cope (portrayed by Miles Heizer) as he enlists in the Marines corps alongside his best mate, despite the inherent dangers.

The series is set in the harsh environment of the 1990s US Marine Corps, a time when homosexuality was still outlawed in the military. It traces the lives of Cameron and Ray McAffey (played by Liam Oh), the offspring of a decorated Marine, as they become part of a diverse group of recruits.

Together, they form unexpected friendships and discover their true identities while being pushed to their limits.

Netflix commented: “With sharp wit and plenty of heart, Boots is about friendship, resilience, and finding your place in the world – even when that world seems determined to keep you in line or leave you behind.”

Greg Cope White, a former sergeant in the US Marine Corps, served as a writer and executive producer for the series.

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He is an ardent advocate for LGBTQ+ and veteran rights, and has appeared in the PBS docuseries American Veteran and published work in the military journal Zero Dark Thirty.

Reflecting on his journey from his days in the Marine Corps, he posted on Instagram: “At 18, I illegally enlisted in the Marine Corps to find my place as a gay man in the masculine world.

“The book honours my lifelong best friend Dale, who got me through a chaotic childhood, and the Marines who took a chance on me and changed my life.

“And to send a message to others who are bullied: Bullies don’t matter. You do. Hold on.”

Greg completed six years of service with the Marines, achieving the rank of Sergeant, before relocating to New York City to pursue studies in acting and writing.

He eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he secured his breakthrough in writing through employment with Norman Lear.

The Pink Marine website details how joining the Marines represented Greg’s initial struggle, as he “has to cheat to pass the physical and then lie on the enlistment papers about his sexuality”.

The protagonists Cameron and Ray draw inspiration from Greg and his closest mate Dale, with the website outlining the dangers they both faced.

It states: “It’s insanely dangerous for both of them. But as fate would have it, the Few and the Proud turn out to be a bunch of oddballs and eccentrics – and a brotherhood is born.”

Boots is available on Netflix.

Meet Farah and Myriam — two young girls from Gaza.

For Farah, night means fear — a reminder of loved ones killed in the darkness.

For Myriam, her home was destroyed, taking her mother and sister. Her aunt’s body remains buried under the rubble.
She lives in a tent beside the ruins and this is where the two girls meet to share their grief, fears and hopes for the future after two years of war.

Farah and Myriam is directed by Wissam Moussa. It’s part of From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza, initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, to tell the untold stories of the current war.

From Ground Zero was the official submission of Palestine, in the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025.

I don’t remember the picture being taken. Somewhere in Scotland, sometime in the 1980s. It has that hazy quality you get with old colour prints: warm but also somehow melancholy. I’m wearing blue jeans, white trainers, an army surplus jumper – and am perched on a standing stone.

My mum gave me the photo when I turned 50. She found it up in the loft. Some of these childhood pictures, souvenirs of trips with my grandparents to historic sites, have the place names written on the back. This one was blank, a tantalising mystery. Though I didn’t recognise the location, something about the landscape and quality of light suggested it was Islay, an island I’d visited just once – when I was not quite 12. So I decided to see if I could find the spot, slipped the photograph into my notebook and set off.

Islay is the southernmost point of the Inner Hebrides, lying on the same latitude as Glasgow. That makes it sound an easy hop from the city, but the watery fractures of Scotland’s west coast require a long drive north and then south along the shores of sea lochs, before a two-hour crossing from the port of Kennacraig. Islay is the eighth largest of the British Isles (bigger than the Isle of Man and Isle of Wight) and yet not, I think, well known. Some of its communities – Ardbeg, Bowmore, Lagavulin – have given their names to famous whisky brands, but the island as a whole feels a little obscure.

A saltire (Scottish flag) flapped on the prow as the CalMac ferry eased up the Sound of Islay. The cloud-shrouded mountains of nearby island Jura were a dark presence to starboard. Islay, to port, appeared far more friendly, with its purple heather and bright strand. But appearances can deceive. A cormorant – the devil’s bird – flew in front of the ship in the direction of Islay, not Jura, and I wasn’t at all surprised. I remember, as a boy, being much taken by an illustrated map in which the island was made to look like a demon. The Rinns peninsula formed its horns and snout, the Oa peninsula its claws, and the north-east headland its leathery wings. It sat hunched on the edge of Scotland, poised to take flight for Irish shores.

Disembarking at Port Askaig, I drove to Port Charlotte, where the Museum of Islay Life, housed in a former church, is a charming jumble. A wooden figurehead poses next to the island’s old telephone switchboard; a stuffed red squirrel sits glassy-eyed in a bell jar; and an American flag, sewn by Islay women to be flown at the burials of the many US soldiers whose bodies washed ashore when the SS Tuscania was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1918, hangs faded with age.

I’d spent a lot of time in this museum during my childhood stay, fascinated by one exhibit in particular: the skull of an Irish elk. It had been found in a peat bog in the 19th century, and in my recollection was stained almost black, but seeing it again now I realised that memory had played me false; it was greyish brown, no darker than an oatcake. Yet I had not misremembered its great size – an almost 2-metre span between the tips of its antlers. This creature, now extinct, lived and died on Islay about 12,000 years ago, at about the same time, it is thought, as the first people, a party of hunters, arrived on the island, travelling from Scandinavia or northern Germany. Perhaps they glimpsed the elk across the virgin landscape. Perhaps it scented the unfamiliar human stink and wisely kept its distance.

Islay has a great many ancient sites. The standing stone in my photograph could be any of them. I had arranged to speak with Steven Mithen, an archaeologist with a particular interest in the island, in the hope he would identify it. I was lucky to catch him. The University of Reading professor would soon leave for a few days camping on Nave, a tiny island off Islay’s northern coast, where he hoped to find a Viking boat burial. We met for a cuppa and I showed him the picture.

“That’s Cragabus,” he said. “Lovely photo. Wonderful place.”

The stone on which I was sitting, he explained, was a surviving part of a chambered cairn – a Neolithic stone tomb probably built around 3,500BC. It had been excavated in 1902. Human remains were found along with fragments of clay vessels, known as beakers, their presence indicating that the cairn had been reopened in the bronze age and used by those later people for the burial of their own dead. I knew a bit about beaker burials. I’d excavated one myself – in 1984, the same year, I think, as my visit to Islay, helping my grandparents to trowel up the bones of the person buried alongside a decorated pot.

My grandfather, Eric Ross – Grumps to his grandkids – was a coachbuilder. That was how he earned a wage, building buses in a factory, but archaeology was what he loved. He fell for it during the second world war. He had joined the RAF in 1941, aged 20, serving in north Africa and Italy. “He was the only man I knew who had used a genuine working Roman bath,” one of his friends once told me. “Just before the victory parade in Tunis, his squad was given a few minutes in the still-operational baths fed from the hot springs.”

So, washing desert sand from his body in Roman ruins is how history got under his skin? I like this very much as an origin story. I wish I could have asked him but, of course, it is too late. People slip away before we are ready to hear their stories. I wish, too, that I had become an archaeologist myself. Whenever I think back to our old adventures, it feels like a path not taken. This trip to Islay, and my new book, Upon a White Horse: Journeys in Ancient Britain and Ireland, are attempts to walk it a little.

Prof Mithen told me where to find Cragabus: in the south-west of the island, just off a single-track road, marked on the map with that gothic type so evocative of strange old places. At Port Ellen, I followed a sign marked Mull of Oa and was soon there. Climbing a farm gate, I walked up a short, steep rise. There was the megalith I had sat upon: nearly 2 metres tall, the same distinctive shape, tip bristling with a pelt of lichen, its lower parts soft with snagged wool where sheep had rubbed. I propped my phone on a fence post and took a photograph, 41 years after the first: a middle-aged man touching a stone.

People who were taken to ancient places as children often have fuzzy old photos of themselves at the sites. Such pictures increase in power as the years go by. The people who took us pass away, and we ourselves grow up and change, but the stones stay the same. So, when we return as adults, we can measure ourselves against them, see our little lives in relation to eternity. That was how I felt at Cragabus: bigger yet smaller, older yet no age at all.

Peter Ross’s Upon a White Horse: Journeys in Ancient Britain and Ireland is published by Headline at £22. To buy a copy for £19.80, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

SHE was just seven years old when she landed a job on Emmerdale – catapulting her to fame almost overnight.

But without warning, Daisy Campbell’s career was ‘ripped’ away from her when she was brutally axed, after dedicating 13 years of her life to the soap – leaving her ‘in a dark hole’ and questioning her future.

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Suddenly Daisy, now 22, who played Amelia Spencer, found herself without steady work, struggling to find purpose and reflecting on how much of her childhood she had sacrificed for the ITV soap.

Now, Daisy has opened up to The Sun for the first time about her shock exit, telling us: “When it’s been ripped away from you, because that’s what it genuinely felt like, it was so out of the blue – you do just get into a bit of a hole of, oh god, like, can I do this?”

Remembering the moment her world as she knew it fell apart, she recalls: “It was weird, because it was so abrupt, obviously Liam Fox, who played Dan, my dad, he left the year before (in 2023), and I just had a feeling… I always get gut feelings.

“It was at the beginning of the year, things were quiet. Obviously, we had the new producer come in. And then when it came to contracts, nothing came through, so I was like, “oh”… and then obviously it happened.

“It was upsetting, because I loved it, and I loved the job.

“You always think selfishly, like, why is this happening? Like, why me?

Daisy says she ‘fell into’ acting after her dance teacher suggest she tried a drama school because she was so confident.

She says: “I feel like if I were to look back on myself now at younger me – I would have always been an actress because it’s what I love doing – performing.”

Daisy, who lives near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, suddenly found herself looking back over the past 13 years, admitting: “You have so much time to reflect when you’re not working, especially this year.

“I feel like I did miss out a lot during my childhood – with friends and stuff. I used to want to stay at school with my friends rather than be on set.

“But I wouldn’t change it. I was in such a privileged position. 

“It was always such a hard job, but I never wanted to leave because Emmerdale’s the most stable job you will have in an acting career.”

Daisy’s was written out of the soap after her character Amelia decided to move to Leicester and leave the village following her manipulative boyfriend Tom King’s conviction.

Not long after her exit, Daisy landed a role on Casualty – she played Georgina Birch for just one episode, but it was enough to make the young actress feel confident she would be OK.

However, it wasn’t long until she was struggling to find work and unsure about what her next step should be.

She says: “I left Emmerdale in October, and then I filmed Casualty November, and it’s a depressing month, it’s darker nights, and I had a lot of time to think.

“At first, I liked just having my own time, being a bit free and not really having a schedule. Working there from being seven, I’d never had freedom before.”

When the new year came round, Daisy landed a number of auditions after being approached by some ‘amazing people’ but none came to fruition. 

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“I found it hard,” she admits. “I love my acting, I do, but I wanted something stable for myself, because I’m so, like, wanting to keep myself busy all the time. I was like, what can I do that’s gonna make me not just want to sit at home all the time?”

After a trip to New York and having some space to think, Daisy then came up with the idea of her own studio, named That Pilates Place, which will be officially opening next month. 

Using the money she had saved up from being on the soap, Daisy and her grandad spent hours transforming a 200-year-old court house in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, into a stylish and practical work out space – as well as training to be a teacher.

Her boyfriend Nick, who she has been dating for over a year, has been ‘incredibly supportive’ and she says he’s delighted she’s found a purpose.

“I passed both my exams first time,”  she explains. “And I really wanted to do a studio. I want to use what I’ve got from Emmerdale and put that into something positive that can give me longevity.

“I was always so good with my money and I was just saving, saving, saving, saving, putting it away, and then I was like wait, what do I do with this now?  I don’t want to spend it on crap, that I just don’t need.

“I couldn’t touch it until I was 18, so that’s why it’s nice to put it into something that hopefully will grow into something nice and big.”

She adds: “I want to build a community of people. I think from being on a soap and having that attention on you all the time, I feel like people don’t really know you… I want to take a bad situation, because it was a bad situation last year, and put it into something positive and just bring people together.”

And it seems that is exactly what Daisy is going to do. But does that mean she’s given up acting for good?

“Acting is something I can never let go of, but for now this business comes first, ” she says.

“When you’ve been in the industry for such a long time, you never really get sick of it. It’s just that sometimes you need that little bit of a break to focus on something else.”

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, building on the effort by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to curb vaccine requirements and other health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level “Make America Healthy Again” commission modeled after similar initiatives pushed at the federal level by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

On the vaccines, state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as an “immoral” intrusion on people’s rights bordering on “slavery,” and hampers parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

“People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” said Ladapo, who has frequently clashed with the medical establishment, at a news conference in Valrico, Florida, in the Tampa area. “They don’t have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them.”

The state Health Department, Ladapo said, can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature. He did not specify any particular vaccines but repeated several times the effort would end “all of them. Every last one of them.”

Florida would be the first state to eliminate so many vaccine mandates, Ladapo added.

In Florida, vaccine mandates for child day care facilities and public schools include shots for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP), polio and other diseases, according to the state Health Department’s website.

Under DeSantis, Florida resisted imposing COVID vaccines on schoolchildren, requiring “passports” for places that draw crowds, school closures and mandates that workers get the shots to keep their jobs.

“I don’t think there’s another state that’s done as much as Florida. We want to stay ahead of the curve,” the governor said.

The state “MAHA” commission would look into such things as allowing informed consent in medical matters, promoting safe and nutritious food, boosting parental rights regarding medical decisions about their children, and eliminating “medical orthodoxy that is not supported by the data,” DeSantis said. The commission will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis.

“We’re getting government out of the way, getting government out of your lives,” Collins said.

The commission’s work will help inform a large “medical freedom package” to be introduced in the Legislature next session, which would address the vaccine mandates required by state law and make permanent the recent state COVID decisions relaxing restrictions, DeSantis said.

“There will be a broad package,” the governor said.

Anderson writes for the Associated Press.

WHEN Rio Ngumoha curled in his historic goal for Liverpool, fans of Chelsea AND Manchester United should have felt a kick in the guts.

Because although the teenage winger left the Blues’ Academy to join the Reds last year, London-born Ngumoha was a childhood United fan who spent time with the Red Devils before opting for Anfield.

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The wonderkid’s sensational winner against Newcastle made him the youngest scorer in Liverpool’s history and the fourth youngest in the Premier League era.

At 16 years and 361 days, Ngumoha was just one day older than Wayne Rooney when he announced himself to the world with an amazing strike against Arsenal in October 2022.

And it left Chelsea supporters in particular wondering how the club let one of English football’s greatest young talents get away.

Stamford Bridge legend John Terry is among those devastated that the club lost Ngumoha to their rivals.

Terry told SunSport: “He is a very ambitious boy that wanted to play first-team football and believed that was his pathway into Liverpool’s first team.

“I’m still in contact with him, but just a fantastic player. 

“There’s going to be many more over the years that as an academy you lose, but there’s always one that you think, a bit gutted we missed out on that one.”

Terry has been back at Chelsea for a couple of years as a mentor to players at the club’s Academy and knew Ngumoha was something special.

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Terry said: “We had a really good under-14 team and he was a big part of that.

“Just seeing him taking it and driving the defenders, being a defender myself, [I was] thinking I wouldn’t have liked that at all.

“You don’t see too many players that are exciting like him anymore. 

“He was a very confident player, taking the ball on the back foot, lots of personality, very confident in himself.

“Since the likes of [Eden] Hazard and Joe Cole and those types of players that are very confident and get the fans off their seat as well…I think football’s become a little bit stale and a little bit kind of tactical over the last four or five years. 

“It’s refreshing to see players like him in the team and I’m sure the Liverpool players are speaking very well of him.

“He will be a top, top player, I’m sure of that.”

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From the moment Ngumoha came on against Newcastle, he showed the same confidence that had seen him grab the headlines in pre-season.

Terry was speaking after the winger had crowned a brilliant run with a fabulous finish in a friendly against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield, following an earlier strike against Yokohama Mariners during the Reds’ Far East tour. 

Terry said: “He’s still only 16, which is incredible, but the confidence to kind of shrug people off, well-known established players in the Premier League, and go on and kind of chop inside and then put it in the bottom corner is a very good thing to do.

“But he showed that ability in the academy and unfortunately we’ve lost him.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on the boy, and I wish him well because he’s a great player.

“He’s also a great little kid as well, someone who wants to learn and wants to get better.”

Chelsea fans will be as gutted as Terry about losing Ngumoha, but United supporters should also wonder what might have been.

Because in one of his few interviews, he revealed that he was a United fan.

In a viral TikTok video promoting Adidas’ F50 boots, in which he was made to choose between David Beckham and Jude Bellingham, Ngumoha admitted: “I’m a Man United fan, I didn’t really watch Beckham, but I have to go with David Beckham”

In June last year Ngumoha spent time with United, who pushed for his signature, but admitted defeat to their rivals who were further ahead in the race to sign the talented youngster. 

Mystery surrounds the details of Ngumoha’s move from London to Anfield.

Often when the hottest young talents change club, the saga is played out in public in a bitter row. 

In response to losing one of their most talented teenagers, the Stamford Bridge hierarchy reportedly DENIED accreditation requests from Liverpool and Manchester United scouts who would be looking to poach their top players – though those in charge denied having done so.

In Ngumoha’s case there is radio silence, with no confirmation of what compensation Liverpool have had to pay Chelsea to snatch the player who joined the Blues Academy when he was eight.

Compare and contrast what happened when the Reds poached two other youngsters from London clubs.

Fulham were furious when Liverpool moved for Harvey Elliott in 2019 when he was 16.

It was not until February 2021 that the Reds were ordered to pay £1.5m, plus up to £2.8m in performance-related add-ons – a record fee at the time for a player of that age.

Further back, Liverpool caused controversy with their signing of Raheem Sterling.

The QPR youngster was only 15 when the Reds made their move in 2010, joining for an initial fee of £450,000 which would rise to up to £2m.

Ngumoha’s brilliance was no secret to anyone involved in youth development in English football.

He played a key role in Chelsea’s under-16 team being crowned national champions.

Ngumoha’s amazing individual goal for the Blues against Wolves in the Premier League Cup final for Under-17 sides in April 2024 was perhaps the first time a wider public saw his talent up close.

Ngumoha joined Liverpool officially in September last year, a few days after turning 16.

That is the age at which young players can sign two-year scholarship terms at clubs which combine more intensive training with ongoing academic execution.

Only Chelsea know what they offered him to sign scholar’s terms.

Transfer commentator Fabrizio Romano reported that the Reds broke their usual pay structure for young players to sign Ngumoha.

Others, including Terry, say that Ngumoha was impressed by the pathway for young players at Anfield after Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah were fast-tracked into the first team.

But the reality is that clubs poach each other’s top young talent all the time and Chelsea do it as much, if not more, than anyone else.

Tyler Dibling, like Ngumoha, was 16 when he left Southampton for the Blues in 2022, only to return to the Saints later the same year.

Dibling has just joined Everton in a deal worth up to £40m and is regarded by some as a potential superstar. 

But Terry is not the only one to believe that in Ngumoha, Chelsea lost a generational talent.

And the young man himself has big dreams.

“I truly believe I can win the Ballon d’Or one day.

“I want to be regarded as one of the best players to ever play football and be a legend of the game.

“The love for football started when I was four or five, I was watching my brother, and I wanted to be like him.

“I was going to academies from a young age, and it was a big thing when so many clubs wanted to sign me.

“I have learned you have to be resilient and believe in yourself, you can have a few bad games, but you have to have that belief that you are the best.”

What Ngumoha did on Monday night at St James’ Park was the first step to fulfilling those dreams. 

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Sheridan Smith has taken on a new role that claimed was her toughest yet as she played real-life hero Ann Ming who battled to put her daughter’s killer behind bars

Sheridan Smith has admitted that a traumatic childhood memory helped her to take on one of the most challenging roles of her career. The actress has opened up about her new project, I Fought the Law, as she claimed it was “the hardest job I have done” and left her “bawling her eyes out.”

Sheridan, 44, has also confessed that she is “sober for real” while discussing her addiction battle. Speaking in a new interview, Sheridan talks about her role, telling the real-life story of Ann Ming, who spent 15 years campaigning for the UK’s 800-year-old ‘double jeopardy’ law to be overturned following the murder of her daughter Julie Hogg.

Sheridan said that she would draw on her own experience to fulfil the role. She told The Guardian, “I’d remember the night my brother died and my mum screaming, so I’d tap into that. Now, as a mum, I imagine what if something happened to your child.”

Sheridan’s brother Julian died of cancer when he was 18, and Sheridan was just eight years old. She said playing Ann “took it out of her” and made her think about the kind of roles she will take in the future.

She explained, “I have to always remember that the real-life characters have actually gone through this, but I think a little bit of each character stays in me.” Sheridan then addressed her sobriety saying: “I was always going back and forth between drinking and sobriety. But this time I feel it’s for real.”

Ann Ming’s daughter Julie was murdered by William ‘Billy’ Dunlop, but jurors failed to find him guilty twice, which meant he couldn’t be tried again legally. But Ann and her husband Charles – who sadly passed away in 2013 – did not give up and kept campaigning until they got the law amended.

Billy is now serving a life sentence after the brutal murder of Julie, who was just 22 when she died and a mother to a three-year-old, Kevin. Julie’s body was found 80 days after Billy murdered her, concealed underneath the bath in the bathroom of her home.

Police officers and forensics teams had carried out extensive searches of her home but failed to find the body, which was eventually discovered by her family as they investigated a smell. Billy had strangled and sexually mutilated Julie.

Ann said, “My daughter’s killer was wrongfully acquitted, and a number of years later confessed to her murder, for which he could only be prosecuted for perjury due to the 800-year-old Double Jeopardy Law. I wasn’t going to let this stand in my way of getting justice for Julie. I’m overwhelmed that Sheridan Smith will be playing me.

“Having such an iconic and talented actress portray me is truly wonderful.”

Speaking about the role, Sheridan said, “I am so honoured to have been asked to play the role of Ann Ming, a mother so determined to fight for justice for her murdered daughter that she spent 15 years campaigning for the Double Jeopardy Law to be changed.

“She is a truly courageous and remarkable woman to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.”

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New docuseries shows what really goes on behind the scenes at WWE

I was a childhood fan of WWE and Netflix have just added the series I always wanted to watch.

While it was still referred to as a federation, I grew up as the wrestling company entered its Attitude Era. I was all about the rivalry between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dudley Boyz smashing tables and Triple H’s feuds and that Hell in a Cell match.

However, it lost it’s hook in me. Getting older means understanding the soap opera nature of WWE but for some reason or another I lost interest and couldn’t enjoy it in the same way. I did however, still wonder just how the sauce was made. How did they do it?

It’s a common question to ask just how much of it is real. Now, a new docuseries now streaming on Netflix, WWE Unreal, finally gives me the behind the scenes glimpse I’ve craved. It’s almost enough to reignite the passion for the greatest in sports entertainment.

For the first time ever with Unreal, fans are invited to step into the WWE writer’s room and in areas outside the ring that dictates what goes on with your favourite Superstars. According to the synopsis, the drama can be just as intense offstage as it is under the spotlight.

The five-part series shows how WWE made the transition from traditional broadcasting, to its Netflix debut, leading up to this year’s Wrestlemania event.

When Netflix released the Mr McMahon documentary, it didn’t feel like we were being given the full picture of how the company is run. It felt like there were some corners the cameras were still not allowed to focus on. Although it really attempted to hammer home that it was a family business run by people who apparently cared most about the fans.

That last point seems more poignant than ever with Unreal. From Head of Content Paul Levesque, AKA Triple H, AKA Hunter to ‘face of the company’ Cody Rhodes, a soon to be retired John Cena and team of match producers, all who are experienced former wrestlers. Each one of them speak with so much passion about what they do.

Many of the current performers have wrestling in the blood. From Ric Flair’s daughter to Rikishi’s sons they all have no problem showing what being part of the industry means to them.

It’s tough to dismiss their jobs as just faking it. They are all aware they are putting on a show. They just want it to be one of the best shows you’ve ever seen.

This time around, unlike Mr McMahon, Unreal even allows some warts to show. That includes when their Superstars suffer severe injuries but are promised their comeback will be all the sweeter. There’s a debrief when a move goes wrong and plenty of bitter rivals hugging backstage.

There’s even a tense moment when two performers go off script and allow their verbal altercation to get a bit too personal. A message is quickly sent to their locker rooms that it will not be expected and they must keep their professionalism.

WWE Unreal plays a big risk in showing just how much shown during Raw, Smackdown and its pay-per-view events is manufactured. Yet it still dares viewers, in particular, the lapsed fans like myself, to dive right back in.

WWE Unreal is streaming on Netflix.

Skip Brittenham, a prominent Hollywood attorney whose clients included Harrison Ford, Henry Winkler and Eddie Murphy, has died at age 83.

Brittenham died Thursday, said Ziffren Brittenham LLP, the firm he founded in 1978.

“Everyone in our industry knew of Skip’s legal prowess,” the firm said in a statement. “But some may not have known of his quiet generosity, his ability to find humor and opportunity in the darkest moments, and his unwavering belief that media and the entertainment industry must serve people, not the other way around.”

The firm did not disclose the cause of death.

Brittenham was known in the entertainment industry as a powerful dealmaker. Beyond his starry client list, Brittenham helped to forge Pixar’s initial deal with Disney, was behind the splitting of DreamWorks and ushered Disney’s acquisition of Miramax.

“What amuses me most about Skip is he often represents everyone in the deal,” Ford, who was a client before he rose to fame with “Star Wars,” told The Times in 2005. “And, he does a really good job for everybody … I’ve always walked away from every negotiation and thought, ‘Jesus, how did he get that?’”

Ken Ziffren, one of two lawyers with whom Brittenham founded the firm, told The Times in 2005 that early in their partnership, the two discovered they were wooing the same prospective client, comedian Richard Pryor.

“Skip did not back down,” Ziffren said. “He got Pryor.”

Born Harry M. Brittenham, the eldest son of an Air Force fighter pilot, he spent much of his childhood moving from one base to another. Although he attended Air Force Academy, Brittenham got hit in the eye with a squash racket in 1963. His 20-20 vision — a requirement for pilot training — was gone.

He spent four years negotiating contracts for the Air Force before enrolling in law school at UCLA.

Outside of his professional life, Brittenham was a passionate fly-fisher with decades of experience. He competed in and won several worldwide fishing competitions and practiced the sport across six continents.

The love of nature Brittenham tended to as he pursued fly-fishing led him to serve as a longtime board member of Conservation International, a leading environmental organization that honored him with its Heroes of Conservation Award.

Brittenham was also an avid fan of science fiction, and he authored a sci-fi graphic novel titled “Anomaly” in 2012. Speaking with The Times ahead of the book’s release, Brittenham said he wanted to dabble in his creative side and tap into his childhood love for Marvel and DC Comics to show people he was more than just a negotiator.

“I don’t like to just try things out,” he said. “I like to jump all the way in and figure out how to do something unique and different.”

Although Brittenham is remembered as a tenacious lawyer, he also had a reputation as a family man, often leaving the office by 5 p.m. to be with his wife and children.

Brittenham was married to actor and screenwriter Heather Thomas, and he had three daughters: Kristina, Shauna and India. He is also survived by his brother Bud, two devoted sons-in-law Jesse Sisgold and Avi Reiter, and four grandchildren.

A fascinating Sky Documentary airing tonight tells the shocking scandal of British Airways Flight 149, that was held as a hostage of war by Saddam Hussein in 1990

Jolting, rocking and explosions left the passengers on a British Airways flight terrified before their flight became a hostage of war. The extraordinary – and until recently, officially denied – scandal is told in the fascinating Sky Docs and NOW TV documentary Flight 149: Hostage Of War (on tonight, June 11th, at 9pm). It explores the unbelievable story of what happened when a civilian plane unwittingly touched down in the middle of a warzone in 1990.

Jennifer Chappell was just 12 years old when she was one of those taken hostage in Kuwait on Flight 149 – and the terror of those four months has left her traumatised for life. She says: “My future was stolen. The danger was very real and present, there were soldiers with guns. It was such a horrible experience. That was the last shred of my childhood gone.”

The tragedy unfolded on August 2, 1990, just after Saddam Hussain’s forces stormed Kuwait, when BA Flight 149 stopped there to refuel on route from London Heathrow to Madras. Jennifer, who was travelling with her mum, dad and older brother John, recalls: “I was looking out of the window and I saw two planes go past and then I saw things fall from the bottom. I thought I was seeing a horrible midair collision.” Then came the realisation it was bombs.

The passengers and crew found themselves trapped, held as hostages by Hussein, becoming pawns in a rapidly escalating international crisis. For over three decades, the British government denied any prior knowledge of the invasion, but new information has come to light and some of the hostages are taking the British government and BA to court to seek justice and the truth. Passenger Barry Manners says: “I’d like the unvarnished truth.”

*Flight 149: Hostage Of War airs on Sky Documentaries and

There’s plenty more on TV tonight – here’s the best of the rest..

SPEED CAMERAS: ARE THEY OUT TO GET YOU? 5, 8pm

Are speed cameras targeting us for extra cash, or are they innocently keeping us safe? Well obviously we could all just drive a bit slower, but this tongue-in-cheek show is packed with drivers complaining about these “sneaky” cash cows. In England and Wales in 2023, we racked up 2.6 million speeding offences, costing motorists over £200 million. The money goes to central government where it can be spent on anything.

Not ideal says motoring expert Quentin Wilson, who says: “If the public saw that the revenue raised from speeding fines made a visible difference, then perhaps the public would be more behind them.” However, Chief Constable Jo Shiner, National Police Chiefs Council lead for roads policing, says: “We should be trying to educate people that there’s a speed limit for a reason and it’s there to make our road’s safer.” This documentary also looks at 20mph roads, the impact of driving awareness courses and meets people looking at our driving behaviour, all hoping to slow Britain down.

EXTRAORDINARY, ITV2, 10.05pm

The return of this sharp, fresh sitcom that is set in a world where everyone over the age of 18 develops a superpower. Everyone that is, except for Jen. Breathing new life into the over-done superhero genre, this follows Jen (Máiréad Tyers) as she struggles to be the only adult she knows who is a completely ordinary human. Her best friend Carrie (Sofia Oxenham) can channel spirits of the dead, while friend Kash (Bilal Hasna) can rewind time, like a slightly clunky superman. Watch out for Siobhan McSweeney as Mary, Jen’s mother who can control technology.

As season two starts, everyone seems to have a romantic dilemma. Carrie and Kash try to move on from their break up, while Jen works out whether to give up on on amnesiac shapeshifter Jizzlord (Luke Rollason) when she solves the mystery of his past. Jen also enrols at the clinic, hoping that a therapist can help her find her power.

EMMERDALE, ITV1, 7.30pm

The police arrive at Tug Ghyll with a search warrant. Tracy remains adamant that it’s pointless, but is gobsmacked when the police reveal Nate’s phone was found in Frankie’s playhouse. Tracy can barely control her fear as the officers lead her out to question her at the station. Tracy later spots Cain and wastes no time in making it clear she still suspects him of Nate’s murder. Battle lines are drawn. Vinny is horrified to realise he’s forgotten his and Gabby’s anniversary.

EASTENDERS, BBC1, 7.30pm

Kat is at a loss as Jean encourages her to talk to Alfie. Patrick meanwhile gives Alfie the same advice. The couple finally have a frank conversation about their issues. But when Kat mentions the video she found, Alfie is confused. Yolande opens up to Denise about the state of her relationship with Patrick. Felix tells Elaine that he saw George and Cindy together looking cosy. Drew gives Elaine a pep talk, after which she makes a shocking decision.

CORONATION STREET, ITV1, 8pm

On the morning of Craig’s memorial, Sarah is concerned to discover that Kit has already left for the day – especially as he’s making a speech. Lou continues to wind up Maria in the salon who orders her to hold the fort while she attends the memorial, but will she be welcomed? Theo assures Todd that he’s only moved out for the sake of his kids and their relationship is far from over. Sally and Tim discuss their training session with the fostering agency.

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