David

A special announcement was made during his birthday celebration special programme on BBC One.

The BBC has made a major announcement about the future of Sir David Attenborough.

The legendary broadcaster was honoured with a special event at the Royal Albert Hall to mark his 100th birthday.

Hosted by Kirsty Young, it saw guest appearances from the likes of Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Palin, as well as historic clips of Sir David’s TV career.

And while he may be 100 years old, the national treasure clearly has no plans to slow down, as the BBC has now confirmed a new series of Blue Planet.

Moments before David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth came to an end, Kirsty announced: “Well, even though it’s his birthday week, David has still been hard at work, voicing a brand new series.

“Tonight, I am thrilled to announce that launching this autumn is Blue Planet III.

“We felt that we couldn’t go this evening without sharing a little glimpse, recorded just a few days ago, into 100-year-old David Attenborough’s typical working day.”

The show then aired a clip of Sir David voicing over an animal’s ‘mating call’, with Kirsty hailing him “an inspiration to us all”.

As the latest Blue Planet series was announced, viewers took to social media to share their excitement.

“Ooohh Blue Planet III so excited,” one person said, while another wrote: “Blue Planet 3!!! Always so hyped and it’s not even out yet.”

Wildlife documentary series Blue Planet first aired in 2001, with the sequel following in 2017.

This comes after a film producer who has worked with Sir David addressed the centenarian “slowing down”.

Joe Loncraine appeared on Good Morning Britain last month, where he recalled the privilege of working with him over the last decade.

He said: “I first worked with him just before his 90th birthday, and I thought, I’m so glad I got to work with him because surely he won’t be making films for much longer now that he’s nearly 90.

“Since then, I’ve worked with him on five projects, five different films over that time in the last ten years, and I’ve stopped thinking he’ll be slowing down. You’ll lose that bet if you have it any time.

“He always surprises us, he’s always wanting to do more. He remains very curious about the world and wants to learn more and show people what he’s learnt and show people what he’s excited about.

“I imagine he’ll probably rest a bit more, he’s earnt it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he keeps doing stuff for as long as we want him, which will be as long as we can have him.”

Back in 2019, Sir David, then 91, said he would retire from broadcasting if his work became substandard, or if he could no longer walk up and down stairs.

“I would like to think I would be able to detect when I couldn’t find the right words any more,” he told the Radio Times. “If I think I’m not producing commentary with any freshness or which is apposite or to the point, I hope I would be able to recognise it before someone else told me.

“If I thought I was turning in substandard work, that would stop me.”

He added: ““If I can’t walk up and down steps any more, that will stop me.

“Yes I do dread not working, although there are things I can do without running up steps six times – books to be written, things I’ve never got round to.”

David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Britain’s famed natural historian David Attenborough is celebrating his 100th birthday. The broadcaster has made some of the world’s most iconic wildlife documentaries, in a 70-year career that saw him become a global voice for conservation and climate change advocacy.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This newsletter is about going to the movies, of course, but it’s about writing and reading about movies, too. And so it was exciting news this week that Film Comment, the venerable but shuttered publication that helped foster cinephilia in America, would return as a quarterly online publication.

A complete archive is now available online, going all the way back to the earliest issues in 1962. Looking for landmark writings by Manny Farber, Paul Schrader, Richard Corliss, Amy Taubin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones or countless others? It’s all there and well worth digging into. I began my career as an intern at Film Comment, publishing some of my own earliest pieces, and still consider it a North Star for writing about movies. Its return is most welcome.

Agnès Varda’s bruising brilliance

Sandrine Bonnaire in the 1985 movie “Vagabond.”

(Criterion Collection)

Though she became better known for her free-spirited, pixie-ish persona later in life, French filmmaker Agnès Varda was also capable of the bruising emotions of 1985’s “Vagabond,” arguably her greatest fiction feature and winner of the Golden Lion at Venice and the César for best actress for star Sandrine Bonnaire. Opening with the lead character found dead in a ditch, the film flashes backward to piece together her life from the memories of others, creating a fragmented portrait of an enigmatic young woman’s life.

Mezzanine will screen the film on Saturday at 2220 Arts + Archives, followed by a conversation between art critic Megan O’Grady and former Times staffer Carolina Miranda. Writing about the film in 1986, Sheila Benson said, “Just how Agnes Varda has kept ‘Vagabond’ from being a monumental downer is interesting, but she has. It is haunting. It is melancholy … but ultimately, beyond its central tragedy, it is an exhilarating film, the sort you leave burning to talk about with friends.”

A cartoon comes to life

Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall in the 1980 movie “Popeye.”

(Paramount Pictures / Getty Images)

It is one of the most deranged credit blocks imaginable: an adaptation of “Popeye” directed by Robert Altman, produced by Robert Evans, with a screenplay by Jules Feiffer, music by Harry Nilsson and starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. When it was first released in December 1980, it was seen as too weird for kids and too naive for adults, but it has since been reconsidered as a unique snapshot of intersecting talents — a strange, wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie.

Vidiots will screen the film on Saturday afternoon with actors Paul Dooley and Donovan Scott, who played J. Wellington Wimpy and Castor Oyl. In our original 1980 review that is more positive than one might expect, Charles Champlin wrote, “Its difficulties arise not from a lack of ambition and innovation but from excesses of them.”

Neil Young + Devo = gloriously weird

Neil Young in the 1982 movie “Human Highway.”

(Shakey Pictures)

Neil Young’s place as a singer-songwriter and musician is unassailable — he’s an irascible, restless troubadour. But his sidebar work as a filmmaker, typically under the name Bernard Shakey, has had more sporadic and unpredictable output.

Young’s 1982 film “Human Highway” is probably the pinnacle of his work as a director, starring Young himself in an offbeat story of a small community in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Devo and even former Times music critic Robert Hilburn all appear. Now Instant Image Hall will be screening the film on Saturday and Sunday along with a selection of Devo music videos in celebration of an exhibition at the MutMuz gallery.

After Young premiered a new cut of “Human Highway” a decade or so ago, I somehow found myself sitting across from him at a diner on a rainy midnight in downtown Toronto. (This job does have its moments.)

“My films are not super commercial, but they mean something to me,” Young said.

An Oscar-winning debut

Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson in the 1983 movie “Terms of Endearment.”

(Paramount Pictures)

Part tearjerker, part family drama and part comedy, 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” trademarks a certain bittersweet tone that is still just pure magic. The story of a mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Debra Winger) across many years of ups and downs in their relationship, the film was the feature debut for James L. Brooks as writer-director and won five Oscars, including three for Brooks. The Academy Museum will play the film in a new 35mm print on Sunday afternoon.

When the movie came out on 4K disc in 2023, I spoke to Brooks about it. He talked about how even though it does have moments of great emotional weight, it was intended to play with a lighter tone overall.

“The whole thing was to make it as a comedy,” Brooks said. “The whole thing was to clock laughs. You had to, in order to do it right. And of course, once the audience leaves and it has its afterlife, it’s a drama because people are watching it alone. But I swear to you, in the theaters it was a comedy.”

A ’90s noir ripe for rediscovery

Jason Patric, left, Bruce Dern and Rachel Ward in the 1990 movie “After Dark, My Sweet.”

(Kino Lorber)

Set in the Coachella Valley with the woozy feel of a day drunk and a sense of uneasy menace, 1990’s “After Dark, My Sweet” is an adaptation of the novel by pulp icon Jim Thompson, directed by James Foley.

Jason Patric, then only 23, stars as Kevin Collins, known as Collie, a former boxer who escapes from a mental institution and is now just drifting. He falls in with Fay (Rachel Ward), an enigmatic, lonely alcoholic widow, who in turn introduces Collie to a shady man known as Uncle Bud (a delightfully sleazy Bruce Dern). Soon Collie is ensnared in a plot to kidnap a sickly rich boy that immediately goes off the rails.

On Tuesday at Vidiots, there will be a screening of Patric’s personal 35mm print of the film — a gift he received some 20 years ago and has never watched before. (It is said to be in pristine shape.) Along with a video introduction from actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, there will be a Q&A afterward with Patric moderated by critic and scholar Travis Woods, who contributed a commentary track to a recent Australian Blu-ray release of the film.

Patric organized the screening as a tribute to director Foley, who died in May 2025 at age 71. “After Dark” landed in between Foley making “Who’s That Girl” with Madonna and the David Mamet adaptation “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Among his other credits are “At Close Range,” “Fear” and the last two “Fifty Shades” movies.

“He was a good friend of mine at the time,” says Patric on a recent phone call from Santa Monica. “I know this was his favorite movie and it was closest to him. It’s the only movie that he had actually written that he directed. And I thought the best way to do that is just to show the movie.”

Patric, who says Collie is his favorite character in a career that also includes “The Lost Boys,” “Rush” and “Your Friends & Neighbors,” was first given the script and in turn gave it to Foley; developed it further together, trying to retain the language of Thompson’s novel. (The screenplay is credited to Foley and Robert Redlin.)

“It’s really a subjective piece of filmmaking,” says Patric. “So as Collie’s figuring things out, the audience is figuring things out.”

In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson wrote that “Collie is one of those roles actors lust after, the damaged dreamer, maybe dumb, maybe dangerous, and Patric demolishes the conventions of the role with breathtaking skill.”

“After Dark, My Sweet” landed just ahead of the Tarantino-inspired crime movie boom of the mid-’90s, alongside such noir-influenced precursors as Dennis Hopper’s “The Hot Spot,” John Dahl’s “Kill Me Again” and Stephen Frears’ Thompson adaptation “The Grifters.”

“This is just such an exciting film to want to reintroduce to audiences,” said Woods in a call. “And to get the opportunity to see this film on the big screen, which most people haven’t had that opportunity for 36 years, it’s just one of those really cool, really only in Los Angeles cinematic moments.”

New this week

Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, photographed at the Sunset Marquis in April.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

• The unlikely duo of James Cameron and Billie Eilish co-directed a 3D concert film drawn from Eilish’s 2025 tour, “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).” Film critic Amy Nicholson and pop music critic Mikael Wood traded their thoughts on the movie.
• Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel is among the world’s most accomplished filmmakers and the true crime tale “Our Land (Nuestra Tierra)” is her first documentary. Carlos Aguilar spoke to Martel about it.
• “Mad Bills to Pay” expands to multiple Laemmle venues after a weekend run in the Vidiots microcinema. Carlos Aguilar spoke to director Joel Alfonso Vargas about portraying the Dominican American community in the Bronx.

The much-revered broadcaster and natural historian has been sent hundreds of items in the post

As birthdays go, they don’t come much bigger than Sir David Attenborough turning 100 – as the postmen of Richmond-upon-Thames have discovered.

In the run up to the big day today (FRI) the BBC natural history star has been inundated with hundreds of cards, packages and gifts from across the UK – with some even coming from abroad.

Yesterday Sir David issued a statement of gratitude. In it, he admitted that he’d been hoping for his milestone anniversary to slip by unnoticed, but added that he’d been “completely overwhelmed” by the messages he’d received.

READ MORE: Sir David Attenborough’s inspiring career at 100 from selling newts to teaching the world

In a message recorded for social media he is shown holding a harvest mouse, from the Wild Isles series about British wildlife. He said: “I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly – but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.

“I’ve been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings, from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages.

“I simply can’t reply to each of you all separately, but I would like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages and wish those of you who have planned your own local events tomorrow, have a very happy day.”

As the posties have arrived carrying armfuls and boxes of letters in recent days, Sir David has been seen answering the door to his home in Richmond, south west London, looking surprised and delighted by the scores of thoughtful messages people have sent for his birthday.

He will mark the day itself with close family in the daytime and then attend a live event staged in his honour at the Royal Albert Hall, to be shown on BBC1.

Called David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth it aims to showcase his groundbreaking career at the forefront of natural history storytelling and will feature the BBC Concert Orchestra plus special guests expected to include Prince William.

The event will take audiences on “a journey through a century of exploration and discovery in the natural world, seen through the prism of David’s extraordinary life”. It will feature wildlife stories accompanied by live music from his programmes, plus reflections from leading advocates for the natural world and those he has collaborated with over the decades.

Accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, it will feature original compositions from some of David’s best-known landmark series. Alongside the music, guests will include some of those he has collaborated with from the world of conservation and wildlife filmmaking.

It was commissioned by BBC specialist factual boss Jack Bootle who said at the time: “It’s impossible to overstate what Sir David Attenborough has given us. His programmes have changed how we see our planet and our place within it.”

He added: “It’s also a moment for all of us at the BBC to say thank you to David — for his generosity, for his brilliance, and for a lifetime spent bringing the wonders of nature into our homes.”

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As he reaches 100, broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough has spoken of the changes he has seen in his lifetime – and the horrifying consequences of climate change in the years to come

Legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough made a worrying prediction for 2030 – and predicted the state of the planet is likely to get worse after that. The iconic naturalist celebrates his 100th birthday on Friday (May 8) and he has long been heralded as the natural world’s biggest champion.

He has also been vocal about the threats facing the Earth. In 2020, as the world was in lockdown as a precaution against Covid-19, Sir David made what he called a “personal witness statement” about the threat of climate change. Many of the dire predictions he made about the world are beginning to come true.

Back in 2020 he warned that 10 years from that date, with much of the Amazon rainforest becoming a dry desert and the polar icecaps shrinking, the effects of climate change will become truly irreversible – and threaten the extinction of humanity.

As he released his Netflix documentary, A Life on Our Planet, Sir David made a personal appeal to world leaders. He said: “There are short-term problems and long-term problems. Politicians are tempted to deal with short-term problems all the time and neglect long-term problems.

“{Climate change] is not only a long-term problem, it is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. Please examine it, and please respond.”

The prognosis for the rest of the century looks pretty bleak if Sir David’s predictions are to be believed. He said that if he had been born in 2020, instead of 1926, he would be witness to the full range of climate collapse: “In the 2030s, The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, degrades into a dry savannah, bringing catastrophic species loss… and altering the global water cycle.

“At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. Without the white ice cap, less of the sun’s energy is reflected back out to space. And the speed of global warming increases.”

By the 2040s, just 14 years from today, Sir David predicts: “Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically.”

Through the 2050s, as today’s schoolchildren reach middle age, the world’s seas will become a sterile desert: “As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, coral reefs around the world die. Fish populations crash.”

Into the 2080s, mankind truly becomes an endangered species: “Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. Pollinating insects disappear… and the weather is more and more unpredictable.”

The stable climate that has endured longer than human civilisation will be lost forever by 2100, Sir David says.

“Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer,” he adds, “Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. Millions of people rendered homeless. A sixth mass extinction event… is well underway.”

He describes these various tipping-points as “a series of one-way doors,” with each bringing irreversible change.”

As he muses on his long life, Sir David warren that someone born today who lives as long as he has will see almost unimaginable change: “Within the span of the next lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden… will be lost.”

Average global temperatures have risen by more than 1C since the 1850s. Since 2015, every successive year has brought record high temperatures – causing heatwaves, floods, droughts, and fires as well as irrevocable habitat loss for many species.

Sir David thinks that humanity is the species most under threat. He said: “I used to think this was about saving the planet, and now I realise it’s not …nature will always look after itself. It’s about saving us.”

He was one of the first to sound the alarm about humanity’s impact on the environment. In 1937, the total human population was around 2.3billion. Carbon in the atmosphere was measured at 280 parts per million, and 66% of the planet remained unspoiled wilderness: “Everywhere you’d go, there was wilderness. Sparkling coastal seas. Vast forests. Immense grasslands. You could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness,” Sir David said.

Sir David was one of the first to sound the alarm about humanity’s impact on the environment. In 1937, the total human population was around 2.3billion. Carbon in the atmosphere was measured at 280 parts per million, and 66% of the planet remained unspoiled wilderness: “Everywhere you’d go, there was wilderness. Sparkling coastal seas. Vast forests. Immense grasslands. You could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness,” Sir David said.

By 1960, less than 30 years later, the change was already measurable. The global population was now three billion, atmospheric carbon was measured at 315 parts per million, and the remaining wilderness had shrunk to 62%.

Fast forward to 1997, the population had more than doubled to almost six billion, carbon in the atmosphere had increased to 360 parts per million, and much more wilderness had been lost – now down to 46%.

“The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the ’90s,” Sir David said. “But it now appeared this was only because the ocean was absorbing much of the excess heat, masking our impact. It was the first indication to me that the earth was beginning to lose its balance.”

Unsustainable logging, overfishing, and above all the reckless use of fossil fuels was pushing the planet to a tipping point, he warned: “The average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born,” he said in A Life on Our Planet,” speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years.”

The wildlife that has been Sir David’s lifelong interest has been pushed to the margins: “Half of the fertile land on earth is now farmland. 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. The vast majority, chickens.

“We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. A further 60% are the animals we raise to eat. The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%.”

Despite the bleak outlook, Sir David says all hope is not lost. One is to stabilise population growth and another is to switch to renewable energy.

DAVID Beckham has shrugged off estranged son Brooklyn’s snub once again after celebrating his birthday with family. 

The former footballer, who has turned 51, enjoyed his day being ‘blessed’ and ‘spoiled’ by loved ones, despite being dealt another blow from Brooklyn and his daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz.

Taking to his Instagram, David shared two sweet snaps of him as a child and him present day smiling as he blew out his birthday candles. 

He added the caption: “I feel very lucky & blessed to have had a very special day today being spoilt by my wife, kids , family and friends from the moment I opened my eyes till now.

“And I just want to say thank you and I love you all so much @victoriabeckham & my beautiful family thank you (heart emoji).”

On the star’s birthday, David was met with a barrage of birthday shoutouts from the Beckham clan.

READ MORE ON THE BECKHAMS

bday bust up

Brooklyn Beckham snubs David’s birthday as Cruz’s girl brands him ‘best dad’

GOLDEN BOY

David Beckham poses in tiny speedos as Victoria shares gushing birthday tribute

Former Spice Girl Victoria led the birthday shoutouts for her husband and gushed over him by sharing a series of unseen private snaps including David on a boat in only a pair of tiny red shorts.

In the caption, the fashion designer penned: “You are our world, our everything. We love you so much!!!

“Happy birthday to the best husband, daddy, son, brother, and friend.”

Brooklyn’s brothers, Romeo and Cruz, also praised their dad by sharing photos of their younger selves with David. 

Cruz wished his father a happy birthday with Romeo penning the message: “Happy birthday dad love u so much. Thank u for everything you do.”

Eldest son Brooklyn chose to remain silent for the second year in a row, which comes as no surprise considering he and wife Nicola’s major fallout with the rest of his family.

Earlier this year Brooklyn had launched a nuclear attack on his family stating that he did “not want to reconcile” with his them, and accused his parents of “controlling” the narrative.

Last month Victoria broke her silence on her long-running feud with Brooklyn.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal magazine, Victoria did not refer to Brooklyn by name when asked about the rift but discussed how she had only ever tried to “protect and love our children”.

The Spice Girls star said: “I think that we’ve always—we love our children so much. 

“We’ve always tried to be the best parents that we can be. And you know, we’ve been in the public eye for more than 30 years right now, and all we’ve ever tried to do is protect our children and love our children.

“And you know, that’s all I really want to say about it.”

DAVID Beckham has posed in a pair of tiny speedos as his wife Victoria gushes over him in a sweet tribute to mark his 51st birthday.

The former professional footballer is celebrating his birthday today, and his wife Victoria has shared several sweet posts – including unseen photos and private family snaps.

One of the posts Victoria shared saw David posing on a boat in only a pair of tiny red shorts.

Showing off his incredible physique, David’s six pack and muscles were on full display.

Victoria accompanied the slew of snaps with a gushing tribute to her husband.

In the caption, the fashion designer penned: “You are our world, our everything. We love you so much!!!

posh’s privilege

David Beckham playfully mocks ‘working class’ Victoria on her birthday

FAMILY FIRST

Victoria Beckham addresses ‘publicly challenging year’ amid Brooklyn feud

“Happy birthday to the best husband, daddy, son, brother, and friend.

“To the kindest most generous soul. We will spoil you all day!!!!

“Nobody deserves it more than you xxx.”

Commenting on the post, one person penned: “Happy birthday!! Please stay together forever.”

A second person swooned: “He ages like a fine wine.”

“We all love your husband as much as you do,” added a third.

While a fourth said: “Happy Birthday David!! He just gets better and better.”

And a fifth wrote: “Happy birthday Sir David .. and Lady Victoria that was beautifully written. Have a fabulous day.”

She also shared a selection of images from a night out where David blew candles out on top of a birthday cake.

David was seen posing with his mum and dad, as well as other family members.

Victoria then shared some sweet photos of her and her hubby posing on a yacht.

David’s doting wife is not the only person to wish him a happy birthday on his big day.

Romeo Beckham took to Instagram to share several sweet posts in honour of his dad where he dubbed him as his “best mate”.

Cruz also shared two snaps of him and his dad, wishing him a happy day.

His girlfriend Jackie Apostel has thanked David for being a role model to her boyfriend in a sweet post.

And as the family feud rumbles on after Brooklyn launched a nuclear attack on his family earlier this year, he is of course yet to wish his father a happy birthday publicly.

Brooklyn said at the start of the year that he did “not want to reconcile” with his family, and accused his parents of “controlling” the narrative.

Coronation Street’s Murder Week came to a shocking end but the drama isn’t over as fans are convinced Jodie’s parting words for David spell trouble ahead

Coronation Street have revealed that Jodie is not the murder victim in their upcoming whodunnit – but that doesn’t mean she’s safe.

The ITV soap have been leading up to this week with dramatic twists and turns, teasing who might die. On 1 May, the ITV soap aired a dramatic set of scenes, in which Theo Silverton was found dead in an alleyway, Carl Webster flatlined in hospital and Maggie Driscoll was left unconscious on the street. As for Jodie Ramsey – after trying and failing to get brother-in-law David Platt to sleep with her, she’s run away from the cobbles.

Before she fled, Jodie also tried to convince David and his sister Sarah that he came on to her and she rejected him. On her way out, she left a voicemail for David saying again that she turned him down after he came on to her and that he needs to stop trying it on with her.

READ MORE: Coronation Street mystery as two more exits ‘sealed’ – and it’s not MeganREAD MORE: Is Maggie dead on Coronation Street? Exit ‘confirmed’ as actress warns of ‘plan to kill her’

Fans are convinced Jodie is trying to set David up and frame him for murder. One wrote: “Jodie is like doing Gone Girl on David.” In Gone Girl, Amy Dunne orchestrates her disappearance and then fakes her own death to set up her husband for muder after finding out he cheated on her.

Another fan echoed this sentiment, saying they they thought Jodie would go “missing”, just like Amy Dunne. They said: “My money’s on Jodie missing and will reappear at some stage to cause havoc.”

Fans are also certain that Theo will not be the only death in the near future. Many have pointed out that Carl and Maggie have both been hurt and could succumb to their injuries in the coming episodes. One said: “What we know after that episode – Theo: Dead? Maggie: Attacked. Carl: Fighting for his life. Jodie: Alive. Megan: AWOL. So could we have multiple deaths here?”

Another agreed: “Might be all 5 of them dead, we dont know where Megan and Jodie are.” Others argued that Jodie seemed to be the only one that won’t die. One fan asked: “I’m guessing Jodie is probably the only one who is still definitely alive then….?”

Over the past week, Corrie have been focusing on one character per episode. Jodie’s episode happened on Wednesday 29 April. During the episode, Jodie was about to leave Weatherfield when she was caught by her niece Lilly.

After Lilly had left, two men arrived at number eight, where they spotted Shona, Jodie’s half-sister and David’s wife, outside. She pretended not to know anything about Jodie. But when they attempted to take hold of her, Jodie shouted after them, and they left. Viewers will recognise the two men who arrived in scenes that aired last week.

Still credited as Bloke 1 and Bloke 2, they had been putting pressure on a little girl called Olivia to get hold of a USB stick that was in Jodie’s possession. She handed it over to Bloke 1 and Bloke 2, and they threatened that they would be back if what they wanted was not on it.

After the ordeal, Shona convinced Jodie to stay, but when Jodie found proof that Shona had known where she was as a child and chose not to make contact, she was furious. She stole Shona’s phone and reacted to a text message from a drunken David and then crawled into his bed, pretending to be Shona, when he came in. He only realised she wasn’t when they started kissing. After her plan failed, she started to leave again, only to be confronted by Lilly, who wanted her to stay.

Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X.

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MIAMI — A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was convicted Friday in connection with a secret $50-million lobbying campaign on behalf of Venezuela during the first Trump administration.

Jurors found Republican David Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, guilty on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of their work for former President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, one highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for corruption and anti-Communist crusaders among its sizable exile population.

It included testimony from Rubio, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified that they were shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera’s consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

In an 11-count indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections from Rivera’s time in Congress to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard-line stance and ease crippling sanctions on Venezuela.

As part of the charm offensive, prosecutors alleged, Rivera and Nuhfer, a political consultant, manipulated influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions, like “pawns on a chess board.” The goal: to try to normalize relations with the new Trump administration at a time when the Maduro government was buffeted by serious accusations of human rights violations.

“As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.

‘Massive secret’ threatened to damage Rivera’s political career

But the two held onto the “massive secret” and didn’t disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera’s political career as an anti-Communist stalwart, Cruz said.

To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also set up an encrypted chat group called MIA — for Miami — with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who was subsequently charged in the U.S. with bribing top Venezuelan officials.

Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the “bus driver,” Sessions “Sombrero,” Rodríguez “The Lady in Red,” and millions of dollars “melons,” according to copies of text messages presented to the jury.

“It was all about la Luz,” Cruz said, referring to the Spanish word for light, which Rivera and others repeatedly used to discuss payments from Caracas.

Attorneys for Rivera and Nuhfer said the two acted in good faith and believed they were under no requirement to disclose their work. The three-month, $50-million contract with Rivera’s one-man consulting firm, they say, was focused exclusively on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera’s meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which occurred after the consulting contract had expired and was focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the U.S.

“He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.”

Nuhfer’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, likened the government’s case to the 17th century Salem witch trials, presuming ill intent that was belied by the flimsiest of evidence.

“My client does not have a dark heart,” he said.

Exxon meetings for Rodríguez

Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with New York-based PDV USA as cover for illegal lobbying.

Once exposed, the partners tried to hide the work — backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorrín’s luxury yacht.

The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodríguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, the two roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodríguez with the CEO of ExxonMobil that had succeeded Trump’s then-secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. After a secret meeting in Caracas with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.

The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro and labeled him a “dictator,” launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat the president.

However, nearly a decade later, Rodríguez has emerged as the second Trump administration’s trusted partner after the U.S. military’s ousting of Maduro.

Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator. During that time, he shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became the Florida House speaker.

Rivera has previously faced controversy, including allegations that he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped the case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated — but never charged — for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1-million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida legislature.

Goodman writes for the Associated Press.

Adam Thomas has claimed David Haye lied to him while they were in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! South Africa camp, leaving the actor at a complete loss for words

Adam Thomas has claimed David Haye lied during their time on I’m A Celeb. The Waterloo Road star was crowned the winner of I’m A Celebrity… South Africa last week during a tense live final.

Throughout the series, former boxer Haye came under fire for comments he made, including branding his girlfriend, Sian, an “ugly duckling”. He said: “She’s like tall, blue eyes. She’s lovely. She’s got the personality of a proper ugly bird.” He added that “ugly girls” need to have “a personality and banter,” to overlook “the fact that they’re not aesthetically amazing”.

Elsewhere, when Adam, who suffers from psoriatic arthritis, stated he didn’t feel physically able to take part in a trial, Haye branded him “useless,” adding he didn’t “give a s**t”. While the pre-recorded show was airing, Adam explained that he felt “broken” in the camp and considered leaving.

Adam has now spoken out on his podcast, claiming that David lied to him in an attempt to rile him up. Despite his struggles in the camp, Adam never spoke to anybody about his feelings. “I didn’t talk about it to anyone,” he told his brothers, Scott and Ryan on At Home With The Thomas Bros.

He went on to say: “It wasn’t until I was with David, and I came back from this trial, and he was goading me about fainting, that’s when I finally had the courage to go, ‘Listen, shut up now, enough is enough’.

“He got pulled to the Bush Telegraph, and then he came out and he sat me down and said, ‘They’re worried about your mental health. They’ve told me to stop now. Have you been crying about me in there?’

“So that was when I realised, I was like, ‘So, they know, they know what’s been going on’, and that upset me more. Because it’s the fact that I’ve never once talked about [David] or mentioned what [David’s] done to me in here to them.”

Adam later confronted the producers of the show to ask why they would disclose such information to David, who confirmed that there had been no conversation about Adam’s mental health. “I asked David when I got out and he said ‘Yeah, I just made it all up,'” Adam said.

He fumed: “I was like, ‘Wow, you really fu***ng manipulated the s*** out of me!'” Following the dramatic final, Ant and Dec broke their silence tonight, branding it “weird”.

In the preview to their podcast Hanging Out with Ant & Dec, the duo joked about the chaos from the event, with Ant joking, “If you didn’t see it, I bet you read about it!”

“It was quite the night!” said Dec, promising to explain the “ins and outs” of the event. Ant replied: “It was a weird night of TV,” adding that there were “walk-outs” Highlighting the main topics of the upcoming podcast episode, the pair promised to discuss Jimmy Bullard as Dec said: “The first question was to Jimmy about why did you call I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.”

Ant added in response: “On the night I said I disagreed with him,” likely speaking about Jimmy Bullard, whom Ant publicly disagreed with when Jimmy asked him to confirm that Adam was aggressive on the show.

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Adam Thomas has revealed David Haye reached out to him following his I’m A Celebrity win, but admits he fired back a blunt response as he opens up on his tough journey in camp

Days after the chaotic final, Adam Thomas has candidly opened up on his time in the I’m A Celebrity camp and explained exactly what went on between him and ex-boxer David Haye. The duo were embroiled in a bullying row on the ITV show and soap star Adam has now had his say.

The actor said he feels ‘dead inside and numb’ and claimed he wouldn’t have appeared on the show again even if he was paid ‘£10million’ , saying the ordeal has ‘eaten away at his soul.’ Adam said he felt the colour ‘drain from his face’ when Ant and Dec announced him as the winner as his worst nightmare came true.

While David is reportedly planning to sue the broadcaster for their portrayal of him in camp, Adam admits he believes the footage showed was the truth. He also revealed that David, who insists his alleged ‘bullying’ was nothing but ‘banter’ reached out to him over the weekend.

Speaking on his The Thomas Bro’s podcast with brothers Scott and Ryan Thomas, Adam said: Adam went on: “The most disturbing is that I look at David and even after the show and after everything he did, you know he sent me a voice note and was like ‘oh mate, what a great show that was. I’m so happy you won. Congratulations.'”

And he revealed the blunt message he sent his former campmate back. “I just sent him a message back just saying, you know ‘I think this is where we draw the line and I hope that you find happiness bro, but I’m done.'”

Adam said: “The relationship with me and David is even after the camp, even after he told me [out of camp] ‘you’re the nicest guy I’ve ever met and I just wanted to break you’, like, it’s cool. He apologised. I moved on.

“You know, we had voice messages back and forth and we’d just been bantering and having a laugh. I’d just put it all to bed. I think for David and some of the campmates that have come out and been on the live show and everything, I feel like it’s just a show for them. It’s entertainment. It’s fun. For me, it’s not about entertainment. I’m not playing a character or here for anyone else’s agenda. I’m just here to have a laugh and have fun and enjoy this experience.”

The actor said he felt he was “exploited” in the live show. “I think you can see at the end of it, I felt like I was just in the mist of it all and it wasn’t even about me.”

In camp, David was slammed for branding Adam “useless” after he declined to participate in a trial due to a medical condition. Meanwhile, Adam and Jimmy clashed when Jimmy withdrew from a trial, leaving Adam at risk of being sent home early.

Despite the show being filmed months in advance, things hadn’t eased between the trio. On Friday, as Adam was crowned, Haye reportedly goaded the star saying: “You’re not a worthy winner,” before Adam fumed: “This is bullying.”

Gemma Collins stuck up for Adam after his win, calling out David and Jimmy’s actions. Sharing a snap of the star wearing his crown, Gemma fumed: “What a show up!!! Absolutely disgusted with Jimmy and David’s behaviour, the biggest show up in TV history!!! What an embarrassment! To all the took part in the show it was a discredit to the production crew, cast, Ant and Dec biggest disrespect ever!

“Last night was meant to be a celebration instead it was very upsetting!! X Let’s hope Adam will find some energy to absorb his victory!”

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Gemma Collins has doubled down on her opinion that David Haye and Jimmy Bullard’s behaviour was ‘disgusting’ in the live I’m A Celebrity final, which crowned Adam Thomas as Jungle Legend

The I’m A Celebrity fallout continues and Gemma Collins isn’t prepared to let it lie. The former Towie favourite is very much Team Adam in the feud between Adam Thomas, David Haye and Jimmy Bullard.

And she has once again hit out at the former sports stars, doubling down that their behaviour in the live final was “disgusting”. The GC reposted claims the duo had been kicked out of the live show and again took aim at the pair.

Referencing the alleged kicking out Gemma wrote: “Good job!” She went on: “Behaviour [sic] was disgusting for rest of cast the right move was made as we all felt so uncomfortable.”

READ MORE: Ex I’m A Celebrity star Anne Hegerty has damning two words for David HayeREAD MORE: I’m A Celebrity’s Anne Hegerty shares telling message to Jimmy Bullard amid brutal fall out

The words echoed Gemma’s statement a day earlier as she once again raged at the pair’s antics. While Jimmy called Adam’s behaviour “intimidating” after the former Fulham player’s decision to quit the show almost cost Adam his place, David has been labelled a “bully”.

David admitted in his exit chat he may have taken the “banter” too far, but Adam says he actions left him “broken”. And Gemma firmly stuck up for her soap star pal.

And after the live show, she shared a clip of her and step-son Tristan cuddling in. She said: “Good morning Tristan, we loved the I’m A Celebrity final last night but we were very upset wasn’t we? Tell everyone why we were upset.”

Tristan then said: “Because someone was bullying Adam.” Gemma went on: “And it was hard to see wasn’t it?. And did it ruin our night? Upset us very much? And what has it taught us in life?

Tristan continued: “Never bully.” As she spoke to her fans, Gemma added: “Adam, it was really difficult to sit there and watch you go through that last night. It was disgusting. And what a shame because we all…I mean the jealousy is real.”

During the live show, Gemma stormed off stage as the heated arguments took place. Ant McPartlin, who initially had tried chatting to the trio about the events, even appeared agitated with how things were playing out.

Body language expert, Judi James, told the Mirror: “You could see the rigid, unhappy and blank poker faces of Gemma [Collins], Scarlett [Moffatt] and Ashley [Roberts] as the lead men continued to steal the spotlight by continuing their arguments during the live final. Gemma, Scarlett and Ashley looked drained and resigned here while the battle for screen time raged about them.”

She added: “When Gemma walked, Ant reached peak anger signals. Dec stopped mirroring him here and it was Ant taking total control as authoritative leader.

“His angry stare suggested this was not an act for the camera, and he stabbed both hands onto his own chest in a gesture that signalled he was in charge before engaging in a pointed finger ‘duel’ with Jimmy. There was one final, stabbing point gesture from Ant that should have warned Jimmy that he needed to stop.”

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After back-to-back appearances at both weekends of Coachella, David Lee Roth popped out Saturday at Stagecoach to sing Van Halen’s “Jump” with Teddy Swims for the third (and final?) time. To discuss what he called his “three-peat,” I caught up later with the 71-year-old singer, who wore a bedazzled jacket and a leather vest.

Have you bought property in Indio? Do you just live here now?
No, I’ve bought property in the American musical fabric that extends beyond time frame, that extends beyond shoes and haircuts. It includes cowboy hats and yarmulkes.

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Next weekend this place is gonna be barren. Will you be back to sing “Jump” with nobody?
There’ll be plenty of people here for the Diamond Dave Big Rig Trucking School and Day Care Center.

You’re on your own tour right now. How are those shows going?
They go exquisitely because if you enjoy what you saw onstage [tonight], it’s that times 22 songs.

Twenty-two songs in the set.
Oh yeah. I wrote every word that I sing, I wrote every note that I sing — all the melodies — and I stacked all the harmonies. Ed [Van Halen], of course, contributed all the great guitar parts. And we wrote all of those parts literally sitting in a tiny little alcove room where you put a washer and a dryer. We would sit knee-to-knee the room was so small, and he’d play the electric guitar. His mom wouldn’t let him plug in because it would be too loud, so I had to lean over. Every song that you know of Van Halen, I heard from an unplugged-in electric guitar from four inches away, going, “Too long.”

Tighten it up.
Cut it short. All great musicians finish long after the ending.

Last time we talked, you said you were wearing Artemis II. What’s the outfit tonight?
This is classic Nudie’s western wear from Lankershim. This is from the ’50s. This has been all over the world. This is made by Nudie’s of Hollywood, who made all of Roy Rogers’ and Jean Autry’s [clothes] and all of “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “Rawhide’s” wear. Look up Nudie of Hollywood, OK? This baby’s worth more than my shoes, and they’re custom-made. This jacket’s worth more than my teeth — same thing.

Body language expert, Judi James, gives her analysis of the battle between the male stars during the clash on the I’m A Celebrity… South Africa live final and she reveals who came out on top

Male dominance took centre stage as the stars of the I’m A Celebrity… South Africa final battled out their differences during the live final on Friday night. Campmates Jimmy Bullard and David Haye clashed with show hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly in tense scenes.

Speaking to the Mirror, leading body language expert Judi James shared her take on the shocking scenes that unfolded onscreen as she admitted seeing the men embroiled in a conflict rooted in a desire to obtain attention and the spotlight. Judi explained: “For this series the winning of that spotlight looked brutal, with arguments being the main form of currency to get attention on the final show here.

“You could see the rigid, unhappy and blank poker faces of Gemma [Collins], Scarlett [Moffatt] and Ashley [Roberts] as the lead men continued to steal the spotlight by continuing their arguments during the live final. Gemma, Scarlett and Ashley looked drained and resigned here while the battle for screen time raged about them.”

Judi also pointed out how Ant appeared to be particularly ‘angry’ as he fought to maintain his “professional authority” in the midst of the chaos. She continued: “And the rage did look real, especially from Ant, whose professional authority as host and as real star of the show with Dec also became compromised, leading to a stand-up spat between Ant and Jimmy.

“Jimmy made this show about him by dominating air time that should have been evenly dispersed. It became the Jimmy show and that appeared to be David’s cue to try to regain some attention by joining in. David’s body language display suggested a strong desire to gain profile interest and power by performing a full splay, throwing his arms out wide in a signature pose from his time in the ring.

“It suggested a desire to hold alpha status in the group too and it prompted Ant and Dec to try to close him down with an authoritative approach and some ‘cancelling’ hand gestures to stop a new conflict.

“At this point we could also see Sinitta vying to gain attention from her end with a raised arm and point. When she walked we could also see how she showboated to the cameras on the way out in an attention fight-back, whereas Gemma just walked out in what looked like genuine frustration.”

Judi then highlighted how one male cast member tried to disassociate himself from the antics of the others as Ant showed his position as the “authoritative leader.” She continued: “In one key moment of conflict we had David splaying, Jimmy standing and Harry Redknapp puffing dramatically and looking down to exit from any connection to the drama.

“When Gemma walked, Ant reached peak anger signals. Dec stopped mirroring him here and it was Ant taking total control as authoritative leader.

“His angry stare suggested this was not an act for the camera, and he stabbed both hands onto his own chest in a gesture that signalled he was in charge before engaging in a pointed finger ‘duel’ with Jimmy. There was one final, stabbing point gesture from Ant that should have warned Jimmy that he needed to stop.”

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Sir David Jason has opened up on the prospect of an Only Fools and Horses revival, saying ‘let’s go for it’

Television icon Sir David Jason has spoken candidly about a potential revival of Only Fools and Horses – but acknowledges there’s one significant obstacle to resurrecting the beloved sitcom.

The BBC programme ran for seven series and 16 Christmas specials between 1981 and 2003 and is frequently voted the UK’s greatest ever sitcom. Only Fools transformed Sir David and co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst, who portrayed wheeler dealer brothers Derek and Rodney Trotter, into household names.

However, while there have been spin-offs in the subsequent 23 years, alongside a successful stage production, there hasn’t been a return to fresh TV episodes.

Sir David, 86, declared “let’s go for it” – but only if they “get a good script”. The actor believes this might prove somewhat problematic as the programme’s creator, John Sullivan, passed away in 2011. The Only Fools star described the scriptwriter as “a genius”.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “But the problem (with a TV revival) is that the man who created it is no longer with us. He wrote every episode and just happened to be a genius.

“I’m not so sure that we have a writer clever enough to take on his mantle. No one could write characters like he could. Providing we have a good script, let’s go for it!” reports the Express.

The Only Fools creator died in April 2011, six weeks after contracting viral pneumonia. Only Fools and Horses The Musical, penned by Paul Whitehouse and John Sullivan’s son Jim Sullivan, enjoyed a West End run spanning more than four years before concluding in April 2023. The programme centred on the Trotter brothers, market traders from working-class Peckham in south-east London, chronicling their schemes to strike it rich fast.

Sir David also shared his thoughts on cancel culture, as Only Fools and Horses repeats now feature trigger warnings. He revealed no one has criticised the programme to him directly.

The actor continued: “Not one person has ever complained about any show that I have done. No one has said they didn’t believe in it or didn’t enjoy it.”

Meanwhile, Sir David delivered a heartbreaking eight-word response after viewing a lost Only Fools scene.

The actor reunited with Tessa Peake-Jones, who portrayed his on-screen partner Raquel Turner. The duo filmed a new docuseries, Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive. The two-part programme featured the show’s stars watching previously unseen material from more than 10 classic episodes.

Grantchester actress Tessa has revealed that David made an emotional remark about the cast being “so young and so successful” while revisiting footage of himself and his co-stars.

Speaking on Lorraine, she shared: “David Jason was very, very poignant about it. There was one bit where he was like, ‘We were so young and so successful then.’ It’s quite depressing.”

Actor David Jason has reflected on the highs and secrets of Open All Hours as he took on one of the most iconic comedy roles on television in the 1980s

Sir David Jason famously landed two iconic comedy roles in the 1980s. One was the lead in Only Fools and Horses as wheeler dealer Del Boy Trotter.

The other was playing second fiddle to Ronnie Barker as unlucky-in-love errand boy Granville in Open All Hours. With such a workload, some actors might have ditched the co-star role and concentrated solely on being ‘the star of the show. But not Sir David.

Looking back on Open All Hours’ 50 ^th anniversary, he says he would never have turned his back on the loveable put-upon corner shop assistant. He says: “I was never grand about ‘Oh I’m above playing Granville.. I have got my own series.’ No, I was just happy to be doing another character which was so different. I had this character that was the total opposite. The leading man, the driving force, the wheeler dealer.”

READ MORE: Only Fools and Horses new series and David Jason announcement – all you need to knowREAD MORE: Sir David Jason reveals the present he wants for Christmas this year from the BBC

Open All Hours is regarded as one of Britain’s top classic sitcoms. Viewers fell in love with penny-pinching stuttering shopkeeper Albert Arkwright (played by the late Ronnie Barker) and his endless efforts to woo ‘the lust of his life’ – the very buxom Nurse Gladys Emmanuel (the late Lynda Baron) while a string of regular customers would pop in and out of the shop in Yorkshire often being conned by his latest crafty tricks.

Added into the mix was Arkwright’s over-worked shy and awkward nephew Granville played by Sir David. The show was made for Ronnie in 1973 as one of seven new comedy pilots by the BBC who had lured him away from LWT to work for them.

Sir David, who is now 86, was excited to be among its cast as it meant working with the comic genius. Their paths had crossed when he appeared in his sketch show Hark at Barker in 1969 and he claims he learned so much from him over their years together.

In a new TV special called Open All Hours: Inside Out marking its 50 ^th anniversary this year, Sir David pays a fond tribute to the legendary funny man saying: “I couldn’t wait to work with him to see what I could learn from him.

“When we first started to work together he was a big star and I was in his shadow for years. Ronnie was at the top of his trade if you like. The rest of us crawled about underneath desperately trying to learn how to be as clever as Ronnie B but with that came the generosity of spirit he was so wonderful to work with he was good fun and he was respectful.

“It was a huge learning curve in my career to work with Ronnie B. It was a great journey to have travelled with him and learned his respect for showbiz and what it meant to be in it and to entertain people. A brilliant man.”

Audience research for the pilot of Open All Hours was very positive but the BBC wanted Ronnie for another show called Prisoner and Escort (which became Porridge). It meant Arkwright and Granville stayed on the shelf for three more years as the comedy was not fully commissioned until 1976.

But there was unrest about its scheduling on BBC Two on a Friday at 9pm. Writer Roy Clarke calls it ‘terrible’ and adds: “That was the equivalent of burying it.”

Even Sir David comments: “BBC One would have had the kudos over BBC Two but at least it was going out I suppose.”

Ratings for series one topped more than six million each week but, remarkably, the BBC went cold on the show. They wanted Ronnie to do more Porridge and more of The Two Ronnies with his pal Ronnie Corbett and writer Roy busied himself penning more episodes of Last Of The Summer Wine.

Meanwhile, Sir David landed the lead role in a new ITV sitcom called A Sharp Intake of Breath in 1977 and then in 1981 he was cast as Del Boy in a new BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses.

It was an immediate hit.

But at the same time, the Beeb decided to revive Open All Hours for a second series. This time it was scheduled to go out on BBC One. Sir David had no hesitation in juggling both roles as he loved playing Granville and knew fans loved the character too.

He says: “Granville appealed to the viewers as people saw a bit of themselves in him – a dreamer who wanted to see the world. Granville was wistful and a bit romantic. I was so happy to be working with that sort of personality.”

Ratings for the sitcom soared with an average of 13 million viewers tuning in. In addition to its main stars, the shop’s badly behaved till became a character in its own right. And the Carry On style humour appealed to the masses especially when Nurse Gladys used to comfort Granville in her ample breasts – something which always made Arkwright jealous.

Sir David now recalls those scenes with a chuckle: “She was so padded everywhere you couldn’t get any pleasure about being pulled into her bosoms.”

Open All Hours bowed out in 1985 after 26 episodes and even beat Corrie in the ratings. It always remained popular whenever it was repeated but fans never expected to see the corner shop again especially since Ronnie passed away in 2005 aged 76.

However, in 2012, Sir David went to the BBC head of comedy with an idea for a sequel. He says: “I always wondered what would have happened to Granville if Arkwright left the shop to him.. and the rest is history as they say.”

And in 2014, Still Open All Hours was launched with the actor reprising the role. However, the new twist was that Arkwright had died and left the shop to Granville who had turned into a miser just like his uncle and was now tormenting his errand boy son Leroy played by James Baxter.

James says: “I had the toughest role. I was nervous at the beginning but I was in very safe hands with David. He built this world, him and Ronnie and Roy so I never felt too scared. Arkwright and Granville are icons of British comedy. I will stand in that shadow. That is fine by me.”

Some characters from the original made appearances too including Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole and Maggie Ollerenshaw. It was a huge hit and ran for six series. A seventh was planned but ended up being cancelled when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the series was shelved for good.

Sir David – who has also starred in The Darling Buds of May, A Touch Of Frost and A Bit Of A Do – comments: “I always felt it would be nice to see how we round it all up so that we the audience would go ‘Oh that’s lovely, you know’.”

His wish is granted in the new TV special as he gets to dust down his old shopkeeper overcoat one more time as Granville for a final sketch penned by Roy Clarke. And he jokes about the script: “It might be rude. Knowing Roy Clarke it might be very rude.”

On the show’s 50 ^th anniversary he concludes: ““It’s as much as that? 50 years? Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun? I was so lucky to work with such lovely people who were so good at their job and had a wonderful sense of humour because this is what it is all about.”

* Open All Hours: Inside Out airs on U&Originals on Thursday 7 May at 8pm.

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ATLANTA — U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat and the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has died. He was 80.

Scott, who was seeking his 13th term in Congress despite challenges from within his party, was once a leading voice for Democrats on issues related to farm aid policy and food aid for consumers and a prominent Black member of the party’s moderate Blue Dog caucus. But he faced criticism and concerns in recent years because of declining health, enduring a primary challenge in 2024 and facing another one at the time of his death.

Democrats on Capitol Hill praised the longtime lawmaker.

“The news of Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday.

“David Scott was a trailblazer who served district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House Ag Committee,” Jeffries said. “He cared about the people that he represented. He was fiercely committed to getting things done for the people of the great state of Georgia, and he’ll be deeply missed.”

News of Scott’s death came during the Congressional Black Caucus’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill. The Black Caucus’ chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, told lawmakers at the outset of the meeting, according to a person who insisted on anonymity to discuss a private conversation. Many lawmakers in the room, some of whom had served with Scott for decades, were shocked and saddened by the news.

Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year.

The congressman was not especially active on the campaign trail in 2026. But he had been dismissive of pressure to retire.

“Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” Scott said in 2024.

David Albert Scott was born in rural Aynor, South Carolina, on June 27, 1945, in the era of Jim Crow segregation. He graduated from Florida A&M University, one of the nation’s largest historically Black college campuses — and in office he was an outspoken advocate for federal support of HBCUs. Scott also earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

He was already a veteran state lawmaker in Georgia before being elected to Congress in 2002.

Barrow, Brown and Amy write for the Associated Press. Brown reported from Washington.

It’s not only easy to get lost in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries, it’s inevitable, intentional — and one of the best things about the place.

The museum has deconstructed the traditional, boxy narrative of art history and rendered the story itself a matter of curves and continuities. Art in the collection is freed from its departmental silos and put into conversation across genre lines, place and time.

The museum has physically invalidated the binaries of center and periphery, major and minor arts. In a startling and largely gratifying way, LACMA has done what the poet Audre Lorde, alluding to a different but not unrelated aspect of patriarchal dominance, deemed impossible: used the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.

The change goes far beyond a remodel. It’s a reinvention, a recalibration, a revisionist fever dream.

The vision conceived by museum director and Chief Executive Michael Govan and architect Peter Zumthor is not perfect, and brings with it a modest set of frustrations, but as a whole, the installation registers as ravishing and bracingly fresh. It thrusts us midstream into the ageless, ceaseless flow of makers worldwide reckoning with life, earth and being.

It prompts us, as we bob about, to reflect on our own proclivities and preconceptions, our patterns of reception and perception.

It compels us to recognize that what matters is not just what we see in the museum but how we see, what pulls us close and why, what private histories we bring to the occasion, what expectations, what tools.

Over two visits to the new building, getting my physical bearings mattered less and less as I surrendered to the generative sensations of not knowing. The museum has produced a dense guidebook to the new galleries, whose title, “Wander,” doubles as invitation and imperative. Even at 430 pages, the book is only minimally useful as an orientation device. For help with that internal navigation, Rebecca Solnit’s moving 2005 book, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost,” proved a better compass.

LACMA’s guidebook to the David Geffen Galleries, called “Wander,” doubles as invitation and imperative.

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Solnit, citing the cultural critic Walter Benjamin, writes, “to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery.” She goes on to recall how roaming freely as a child was key to developing self-reliance, which feels apt to the LACMA strategy. We are put in charge of making our own way, through tapestries and tea sets, past ancient jug and contemporary sphinx, without heavy-handed authoritative direction.

The history of art reads here as one long, free verse poem-in-progress, gorgeous and absorbing. Even so, many of the most memorable moments come in the form of cogent micro-essays, smartly curated ensembles of work bearing a legible, lucid premise. Some of these are contained within four (rectilinear) walls; some occupy less demarcated spaces. “Tonal Variations: Photography and Music,” for instance, gathers images by Paul Caponigro, William Eggleston, Lisette Model and others. These artists were also serious pianists, attuned, no matter which instrument they were using, to the qualities of rhythm, pattern and progression.

Lisette Model, “Window at 5th Avenue,” 1940, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

In a section headed “The Global Appeal of Blue-and-White Ceramics,” a long display case houses a timeline articulated sculpturally. The sequence advances from a 9th century bowl made in Iraq to a 13th century vessel from China, a 14th century example from Thailand, another from 15th century Syria, up to work by a 20th century German artist who transformed a functional vessel into personal adornment by cutting a string of beads out of the planar surface of the bowl.

Dish, Turkey, Iznik, c. 1530-35, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

On the wall facing this display is a huge vitrine containing an 18th century Talavera jar from Mexico, paired with a 2025/26 color photograph by Brooklyn-based Stephanie H. Shih. In the still-life composition, a cheeky visual lesson on the collision and convergence of cultures, the jar holds flowers, cactus and edible Mexican treats influenced by Chinese and Filipino flavors.

Top, Stephanie H. Shih, 梅國 “(Still life with chamoy and Dirty T Tamarindo),” (2025- 26); bottom, Jar (c. 1700-50)

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Shih is one of a handful of artists commissioned to create new work using the museum’s collection as muse. L.A.-based Lauren Halsey is another. Her formidable, untitled 2026 sphinx regally commands its space among ancient Egyptian and Roman sculpture, a marvel of the cross-temporal and cross-spatial, spiked with specific references to Black self-determination.

Setting recent works among older ones is an effective element of LACMA’s overall plan to shed outworn hierarchies. It recasts every piece of art by every artist throughout the single-story space as equally relevant. The seamless integration of old and new feels stealthy, and a touch subversive, a doubling-down on the museum’s approach to time as nonlinear, sinuous and delightfully slippery.

Lauren Halsey’s untitled 2026 sphinx.

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

That said, a few words readily available would help connect the dots without undermining the provocation. Text — where and how it appears, or doesn’t — is my only major complaint about the installation of the new galleries.

Text panels announce, in one or two paragraphs, the themes of each given section: “Images of the Divine in South Asia”; “The Evolution of Abstract Painting in Modern Korea”; “Textile Conversations: Africa and Black America.” Individual object labels are kept minimal, containing only basic identification about each work, no commentary. When asked about this decision during my first walkthrough, Govan replied that more time reading means less time looking — “and we have the internet.” Every thematic text panel has a QR code that links to the Bloomberg Connects app, an aggregate guide to museums and other cultural sites that offers selected, augmented entries.

Determining how much didactic information is insightful and sufficient, and how much constitutes excessive artsplaining, is a delicate, ongoing challenge for museums. Where LACMA landed on this contested plain strikes me as unfortunate and counterproductive.

A few lines of explanation or context on a wall label can add perspective for even the most informed visitor, and provides crucial support to those with less foundational exposure and access to art.

You can take or leave text on a wall without breaking your stride, but text accessed via QR code is another matter. (Never mind that connectivity is spotty inside a sprawling concrete shell, and several times when I tried to get information from the app, I couldn’t.) Encouraging us to shift our gaze from the wall to our devices — to assume that accursed downward tilt of the neck when splendors abound before our eyes — is simply detrimental. It breaks the spell of being fruitfully lost in the present, and retethers us to the digital distractions that dominate our days.

Wall text beside Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” (1969), at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Shouldn’t the imaginative minds that created this space, this opportunity to revel in direct sensual experience, want us to keep our attention where our bodies are? Why this fallback to current convention, when the rest of the experience is about radical reinvention? This feels like a missed opportunity. I’m hoping a more experimental, exploratory approach to providing information, context and interpretation, in keeping with the rest of the enterprise, might yet come.

Does the new structure serve the art? Mostly, very well.

The lighting is varied, treated as another texture in the space, palpable and rich. There’s a generous amount of natural sunlight, but some spots are noticeably dim. Some gallery walls are glazed in deep hues (reddish and eggplant), and the intensity of the color is jarring at first. But neutral, white-box viewing spaces (with even, predictable lighting) can be found elsewhere on LACMA’s campus and pretty much anywhere art is shown. Here, the very irregularity of the interior environment, including the concrete surfaces — richer and more textured than I expected — heightened my alertness. And keener senses tend to make for more consequential experiences.

In deciding how to organize roughly 2,000 works of art across 110,000 square feet of exhibition space, LACMA devised a conceptual schema that isn’t apparent in the galleries themselves. The “Wander” guide maps out the division of the space into four regions correlating to bodies of water: the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. While the zones and their boundaries aren’t indicated by obvious signage, and I caught one laughable categorization (Ansel Adams’ photographs of the Pacific shoreline landing in the Atlantic section), this schema at least doesn’t get in the way.

And what does work about the propositional structure is its comprehensive realignment. It moves to retire art historical frameworks of the past, dependent on borders between places and times.

Throughout this installation, we are repeatedly reminded of the impact of trade and migration, the fluid movement of resources and belief systems. We’re reminded of porousness and simultaneity, and that all art histories are, in the end, propositional structures.

Here’s a new one, the Geffen Galleries say. Try it out. You might get lost. Indeed, you will get lost. And what wonders await you in the uncertainty and mystery.

NATALIE Appleton’s son Ace looked every inch the grown-up rockstar as he attended a new Bowie exhibition with his famous Mum.

​The pair posed on the red carpet at the opening night of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone at The Lightroom in London.

Ace is the son of the All Saints star and her husband, The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett.

​Natalie is around 5’5″, while her famous other half, Liam, is 6’1″, and it looks like Ace certainly inherited his Dad’s lofty genes.

The 22-year-old towered over his Mum as the mum-and-son duo posed for photographers at the showbiz event.

​Liam Howlett and Natalie have been together for 25 years after they met at V Festival in 2000.  They married in 2002, and Ace was born in 2004.

seeing double

All Saints’ Natalie Appleton shares picture of rarely seen daughter Rachel

ABSOLUTELY APPLETON

What you need to know about All Saints star Natalie Appleton

​Natalie also has an older daughter, Rachel, 33, from a previous relationship with Dreamboys stripper Carl Robinson.

Despite their fame, Natalie and Liam have kept their family life relatively private, choosing to let their son carve out his own path.

And it seems that approach has paid off, with Ace now making a name for himself on the London music scene in his own right.

​Following in the footsteps of his musical parents, Ace is bass guitarist for the Camden-based group, Pedestrian Band, with his proud Mum known to plug his music on her socials.

Ace’s band Pedestrian are still emerging on the London indie scene, but they’re already turning heads with their experimental sound.

The trio have released their debut EP and built a cult following, earning a reputation as one of Camden’s most exciting up-and-coming acts.

​

While he isn’t relying on his famous surname, Ace is well-connected in music, with cousin Gene Gallagher, son of Nicole Appleton and Liam Gallagher.

Meanwhile, Natalie and her sister Nicole shot to fame in 1996 alongside Shaznay Lewis and Melanie Blatt in the girl band All Saints.

The group proved a massive hit and brought fans songs like Pure Shores, Black Coffee, and Never Ever.

The foursome became huge stars, with Nicole and Natalie going on to date some big celebrities, before settling down with Liam.

Nicole once had a high-profile with Robbie Williams between 1997 and 1999, which included an engagement and a terminated pregnancy.

Natalie and Ace attended the launch of Lightroom’s latest exhibition of immersive Bowie content projected onto it’s 11-metre-high walls and floor.

​The hour-long experience features live recordings, interviews and unseen footage from the David Bowie Archive.

​With a huge sound system and Bowie as narrator, it’s considered the closest to experiencing the late icon live.

​David Bowie: You’re Not Alone will run at Lightroom near King’s Cross from 22nd April 2026.

Tickets are priced from £25 for adults and £15 for students and concessions.