The “forgotten” Dolomites lie to the east, far from the crowds of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Val Gardena. Belluno is the main gateway, two hours north of Venice by train or a drive up the A27. From here, the upper Piave valley leads into the quieter Friulian mountains. The land rises gently, opening into pasture, then stone lifting into spires above the meadows.
Traditional local councils, the Regole di Comunità, still manage the land and forests collectively here, sustaining artisans and alpine farmers in scattered hamlets shaped by shared work and resilience. Pastìn (a minced, seasoned blend of pork and beef), malga cheeses and polenta, once staples for long days in the mountains, are still shared over grappa at the end of the day. Beyond the hamlets, paths lead towards Monte Pelmo or drift into the beech woods of Cansiglio, where deer call at dusk. It’s a fine place to experience mountain culture, and these are some of my favourite places.
Alpine lakes and pools
Lago di Calaita is beneath the Pale di San Martino peaks. Photograph: Denis Perilli
The Val del Mis lies west of Belluno, where the narrow SP2 road follows the shore of Lago del Mis. The lake is worth half a day on its own – paddle north by canoe or kayak towards the Cascata della Soffia waterfall, or explore the side gorge of Falcina, where you can swim in still, deep pools of crystalline water under the Passerella del Peron suspension bridge, just off the SR203 past Ponte Mas. Alternatively, from the car park at the northern end of the lake, it’s a 10-minute walk to the Cadini del Brenton – a series of turquoise pools carved into white rock cascading from one basin to the next, some more than four metres deep. A wooden bridge trail leads between them, but bathing here is forbidden.
From the Val del Mis, head north-west towards San Martino di Castrozza, then south through Fiera di Primiero, following signs for the Val Vanoi on the SP79, then climb the road to the spectacular Lago di Calaita, at an altitude of 1,621 metres beneath the ramparts of the Pale di San Martino. At dawn, the rock above is grey; by sunset, the whole massif turns gold. Open meadows line the shore, and Rifugio Miralago serves canederli (bread dumplings) and polenta with tosèla di primiero, the local cheese. In winter, the lake freezes, and the meadows are used for snowshoeing. A two-hour uphill walk leads to the darker Lago Pisorno, said to be haunted.
Mountain viewpoints
From Monte Penna there are spectacular views of Monte Pelmo. Photograph: Denis Perilli
Head for Agordino – the group of valleys along the Cordevole river, south of Cortina d’Ampezzo – for the highest viewpoints. You’ll experience the same massive Dolomite walls but without the crowds. Park near Rifugio Staulanza and take CAI trail 472. In a couple of hours, climbing gently through sparse larch and open grass, you’ll reach the slopes of Monte Penna and look straight at Monte Pelmo’s immense north-west wall – sheer pale rock rising from the valley floor. You’re standing on gentle grass; across the valley, the mountain is vertical stone. The central basin – the Trono di Dio (Throne of God) – is visible in full. To the west is the jagged profile of Monte Civetta.
For a closer look at Civetta, take the old mule track from the hamlet of Piaia, through woods dotted with tabià, the traditional wooden barns used for storing hay at altitude. After a two-hour climb, the trail opens on to the broad pasture of Sasso Bianco, looking directly at Civetta’s sheer face. Note that the road to Piaia is very narrow; parking at the end is limited.
To the south-east, the Alpago basin opens out. From the small Malga Pian Grant farm, the Costa Schienon ridge leads to the rocky peak of Cima delle Vacche at 2,058 metres. It makes for a fine full day’s hike, with the view widening at every step – Lago di Santa Croce shimmers below, and the Dolomites tower beyond.
Farther north, the Campanile di Val Montanaia rises some 300 metres from the floor of its glacial valley. The walk from Rifugio Pordenone takes about three hours over scree and is suited to experienced hikers. The Perugini bivouac beneath the spire offers overnight accommodation – when climbers reach the summit during the day, they ring a small bell, which peals across the valley below.
Restaurants
Outdoor dining at Agriturismo Bon Tajer near Lentia. Photograph: Alberto Bogo
The isolation that once made these valleys hard to reach has also kept their culinary customs intact. Near Lentia in the Valbelluna, Agriturismo Bon Tajer has hundreds of hand-painted wooden plates and chopping boards hanging from the ceilings and walls. Four generations of farmers have run the kitchen where the dishes are made with local herbs and valley produce – egg custards arrive cooked in their own shells, starters come on beds of moss with foraged flowers. Finish with the farm’s own idromele, a fermented honey drink. The mountains glow purple at sunset from the terrace. It’s a 30-minute drive up from Belluno.
Higher up, above Feltre, Malga Campon sits on the summit plateau of Monte Avena. It’s a stone-and-wood hut surrounded by cattle, horses and donkeys grazing freely, with views across the Vette Feltrine peaks, the Lagorai chain and the Monte Grappa massif. In early spring, the meadows fill with white and purple crocuses. The food is homemade – thick slices of bread with pastìn and malga cheese, best eaten under a tree with the animals grazing nearby. Malga Campon is also a starting point for hikes across the plateau. It’s a 30-minute drive from Feltre.
Rifugios and farm stays
The cosy, remote Bivacco dei Loff. Photograph: Denis Perilli
In the north of the region, above Domegge di Cadore, the road ends at Rifugio Padova. But hike on up through the woods and meadows surrounding the Casera Vedorcia dairy under the jagged limestone peaks of Spalti di Toro, to Rifugio Tita Barba di Pieve(open June-Sept but book ahead, €50-80 a night including dinner), a gorgeous alpine log cabin. The hike takes about two and a half hours on the CAI 342 and 352 trails, but the rifugio serves delicious meals and has comfy beds. From the nearby viewpoint on Monte Vedorcia, the panorama stretches over the Centro Cadore lake to the Antelao and Marmarole peaks.
For something even wilder, Bivacco dei Loff, which perches beneath the cliff of Crodón del Gevero, is a cosy stone bothy with a fireplace, a loft for sleeping and a table at the window overlooking the Valle del Rujo – on clear days, the view reaches the Venetian lagoon. Below, the Via dell’Acqua follows the stream past ruined mills and washhouses down to Cison di Valmarino. It’s about a 90-minute hike from Passo San Boldo on trail 991. You can’t book and it’s free to stay, so bring a tent in the event it’s full.
In the far eastern edges of the region, the Cansiglio plateau rises into a forested tableland. Agriturismo Filippon is just a 30-minute drive from the A27, hidden in an alpine meadow ringed by fir and beech. Mountain cattle graze the clearing and wild deer also visit. Meals are prepared with farm-fresh goods and there is a barrel sauna and open-air bathtub. The old Gran Bosco de Reme di San Marco, where Venice once sourced timber for boats’ oars, beckons above, and you could walk for days here, lost in mountain air.
It was 6.30am, the cockcrow slot at Jubilee Park lido, and still not quite light. I hadn’t wanted to come this early – it was the only time I’d been able to book. But as I slid into the pool – heated to a delicious 29C – I realised it was a gift. Vapours rose dreamily into cool air laced with owl hoots and the whiff of dewy blooms, and I swam into a sunrise that became more vivid with every stroke. A man in the next lane paused to admire the reddening dawn too; he was hungover, he said, but had come to do his morning lengths nonetheless. A cure of sorts.
Bath, Harrogate, Buxton – Woodhall? This Lincolnshire village isn’t one of Britain’s headline spa towns. Most probably don’t know where it is – 18 miles (29km east of Lincoln, for the record. But at the turn of the 20th century, Woodhall Spa was among the most fashionable places to be seen, to be healed.
The Petwood Hotel, once the mess for wartime RAF officers. Photograph: Tim Scrivener/Alamy
Those wellness-seekers didn’t come, as I had, for the 90-year-old lido (open April to November). They came for the springs. In 1821, a hopeful entrepreneur sank a mine shaft here, prospecting for coal. He discovered water instead, which was found to be high in iodine and bromine, thought to be beneficial for everything from rheumatoid arthritis to gout. The first proper bath house was built in 1838; trains arrived in 1855. Woodhall Spa was on the map.
The village’s Edwardian heyday is long gone. The railway has closed, the baths are no longer in use – the original building is now a beauty salon. But Woodhall Spa still has a deeply restorative feel. With its broad, leafy avenues, red-brick and half-timber villas, protective shroud of trees, numerous cafes and delis, and promise of simple, bygone pleasures, it’s like a safety blanket; a place to escape the world’s horrors for a few days.
Tina Delaney, a director at Woodhall’s Cottage Museum, agrees. She came here on holiday from Bedford six years ago and ended up staying: “My husband describes it as moving 100 miles north, 80 years back in time.”
The little museum occupies a rare 19th-century prefab of yellow corrugated iron and documents Woodhall’s history, from its early fortunes to its part in the second world war. The 1st Airlanding Brigade trained here for Operation Market Garden, the ill-fated plan to seize bridges in the occupied Netherlands; of the 2,500 men who left, fewer than 500 returned. Many became prisoners of war. Also, Squadron 617 – the Dambusters – were briefly stationed at RAF Woodhall Spa; the officers’ mess was in the grandiose mock-Tudor Petwood Hotel. I wandered there after the museum and sat on the terrace, looking out across the elegant gardens with a half of Petwood Bomber ale.
The Kinema in the Woods, all rich reds and deep-plush seats, is housed in a converted 19th-century sports pavillion. Photograph: Sarah Baxter
While officers hung out at the hotel, lower ranks frequented the Kinema in the Woods. This late-19th-century sports pavilion was converted into a cinema in 1922 and nicknamed the “flicks in the sticks” by airmen, who were shown top-secret reconnaissance films here. It is now a cinephile’s delight. The lobby is all rich reds and movie memorabilia, with separate counters for popcorn and ices. In screen one, deep-plush seats face a stage through which a Compton organ sometimes rises, played by the resident organist – but sadly not for my showing. There was an intermission, though, during which I devoured local-made Dennetts’ apple pie ice-cream.
When I emerged the owls were hooting again and I headed back to Bainland, an 18-hectare (45-acre) holiday park of reclaimed-timber lodges on the edge of the village, large but nicely done. My lodge was smart and cosy, set on a teeny lake. The next morning I breakfasted outside, listening to acorns smack the decking, watching mallards skim through perfectly reflected trees.
I was in no rush. My plan was to borrow one of Bainland’s bikes and make the most of Lincolnshire’s flatness. First, I headed north-east. The railway, so key to Woodhall’s former prosperity, may be defunct but its old trackbed forms part of the off-road Spa Trail, an easy ride (around three miles) to Horncastle, via ancient woods and excellent sculptures: there are steel Viking ships and oversized plants, nodding to Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour expedition, who grew up near Horncastle. Banks also brought the canal to Horncastle, transforming it from backwater to busy market town. The canal, which I followed briefly, is quiet and unnavigable now; these days, the town’s main trade is antique and secondhand stores. I browsed around, wishing I had a bicycle basket to load with dog-eared books and comedy toby jugs.
I also cycled the Water Rail Way, a mostly traffic-free route following the former Lincoln to Boston Railway, by the River Witham. In the middle ages, Lincolnshire had one of England’s greatest densities of monastic houses – abbey-averse Henry VIII called it “the most brute and beastly shire” – and the greatest concentration was in the Witham valley. I started at one, Kirkstead Abbey, where the merest sliver remains, and rode northward for six miles to another, in Bardney, where there was even less. But it was a joyful pedal, along the river, fenlands spreading either side, dotted with more sculptures, swans and defunct stations that now serve only walkers and cyclists.
Woodhall town centre is full of cafes and attractive streets. Photograph: Eye35/Alamy
Finally, I followed the same route a few miles south to Tattershall, home to the enormous, light-flooded Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity and one of England’s first brick-built castles. My timing was good, arriving just as National Trust guide Nigel was starting a tour of the castle’s moated 33.5 metre-high Great Tower. It was constructed in the 15th century by Ralph, third Baron Cromwell, treasurer of England, who wanted a show-off home befitting his self-importance. Nigel described it as “ eight million bricks and a fashion statement” – exposed brick was avant garde at the time.
We climbed up the storeys, from the vaulted basement buttery (used as a prison during the civil war) to the turreted roof. A superlative lookout – and power move – for Cromwell, it’s still the highest point around; Lincoln Cathedral’s gargantuan towers, visible when it’s clear, are 18 miles away. I looked north towards Woodhall Spa, too flat to be perceptible amid the fuzz of green, hidden despite being so close. Indeed, the ideal spot to hide away.
The trip was provided byBainland Lodge Retreats, which has lodges from £649 for four nights (sleeping two) and bike hire from £15pp. For more information see visitlincolnshire.com
However, a new series will rewind the clock back to World War II and feature younger versions of beloved characters Sisters Julienne, Monica Joan, and Evangelina, originally portrayed by Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt, and Pam Ferris, during the London Blitz.
The three-part mini-series, called Sisters In Arms, is expected to take pride of place during the forthcoming Christmas period.
Fans will no doubt hope Dr. Turner’s character is explored in the prequel, given his previous hints of a troubled past.
The much-loved family man has been a staple of the drama since its launch, and viewers have been gripped by his professional and personal life.
Fans will remember the touching moment when Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann) found love with former nun, Shelagh Mannion (Laura Main), with the couple now raising four children together in their cosy home.
However, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Dr. Turner, as it was revealed that he suffered a severe mental breakdown in 1945. The horrors of World War II became too much to bear for the doctor, requiring a five-month stay in a psychiatric hospital.
During series three of the BBC show, Dr. Turner and Shelagh attended an in-depth adoption meeting where he was asked about his career break from April to December 1945.
“I was injured”, Dr. Turner protests before declining to comment further on the reason why he was discharged from the army.
He sternly added, “You must understand. It was the end of the war. I was medical Corps, trying to save lives at the front.”
It was then confirmed that Dr. Turner had been an inpatient at Northfield Military Psychiatric Hospital for five months, where he was treated for war neurosis, now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), leaving Shelagh shocked.
“I was worn out. There was too much death. I recovered. I’m recovered”, he bravely confirmed as heartache wiped across his face.
As he failed to tell the finer details of his agonising experience, the Call the Midwife prequel should explore the trials and tribulations of Dr’Turner’s life during World War II.
The former armyman has an extraordinary medical knowledge, but how did he cope with the war? What was Dr. Turner’s experience of a psychiatric ward during the 1940s, at a time when treatment consisted of electroconvulsive shock therapy?
We are so invested in the character that we need to see how his historic experience during the conflict shaped his commitment to being a doctor, serving the gritty community in Poplar and becoming a much-loved character.
Call the Midwife is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
Early in “The Drama,” things are still good between Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson). The young happy couple, about a week away from getting married, have enjoyed a whirlwind romance. As this dark comedy’s opening credits roll, they’re blissfully practicing their first dance, laughing and stumbling as they try to get their twirls and steps right.
But the scene’s highlight is the song that plays in the background, airy, gentle and simple. Spare guitar chords give way to a female voice that sounds unpolished but beautiful: “I want to lay with you/ In an open field/ Where yellow flowers are suns of Earth.”
For many viewers, this will be the first time they’ve ever heard “I Want to Lay With You,” one of the most gorgeous love songs of the 1970s. It’s also likely they’ll have no idea who the singer is. Her name is Shira Small, and in 1974, she recorded an incredible album, “The Line of Time and the Plane of Now,” when she was 17. She never recorded another — at least, not yet. Now nearly 70, Small may finally be getting her moment in the spotlight.
“I’m cracking up,” says Small over Zoom from her Cooperstown, N.Y., home, “because I had no idea whatsoever that that movie was coming out until my dear sister informed me via you.” Flashing a relaxed smile and sporting long gray hair, Small knows little about the controversial “The Drama,” an A24 film with a heavily guarded twist.
Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in the movie “The Drama.”
(A24)
But it’s becoming a delightfully frequent occurrence that Small learns after the fact that her music is featured prominently in a movie or television show. “The record company does what they do and then they send me royalties and I get it in a statement,” she explains. “I had a song that HBO bought for ‘Pause With Sam Jay.’ They sent me an email that was not even to me — it was this interdepartmental thing. At the bottom, it said, ‘Oh, by the way, it airs tonight.’”
Jemma Burns, music supervisor for “The Drama,” had been a fan of Small’s album, thinking “I Want to Lay With You” would be perfect for this idyllic scene, right before Emma and Charlie’s relationship implodes over a disturbing revelation that turns their dream wedding into a nightmare.
“He was trying to set up the rom-com tone,” says Burns of the movie’s writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, “one that would contrast with the modernity of the setting and where the film goes. He wanted something that was from a bygone era, but also something that felt disarmingly charming. The two lead characters are very switched-on, fashionable, arty. So it felt like something they would’ve had in their record collection.”
The youngest of five siblings, Small always loved singing. But even as an adolescent growing up in Harlem, she felt like an old soul, her thoughts running deeper than the average kid’s.
“My focus was on not understanding war and hatred and bigotry,” she says. “I was seriously into trying to make love happen everywhere.”
Against the backdrop of the war in Vietnam and the Black Power movement, Small was well on her way to becoming a hippie, a transformation amplified by her enrollment in a private Quaker boarding academy, George School, in Newtown, Penn., on a full scholarship. When she arrived at George School, Small recalls, laughing, it was “very rich and very white. But I’ve always been a flotation device. I can walk around like I don’t have a clue about things.”
Shira Small, photographed in 1971 at George School in Newtown, Penn.
(Courtesy of Shira Small)
At George School, Small sported an Afro and smoked weed. She was drawn to theater and music, impressing music teacher and classical pianist Lars Clutterham, who saw she had talent. They worked on songs together, with Small coming up with the lyrics and vocal melodies. Every student had to complete a senior project, so Small proposed that hers be an album. Not long after, she and Clutterham drove to a Philadelphia studio for a one-day session.
The 10 songs on “The Line of Time and the Plane of Now” — each recorded in only one take — mix folk, soul and jazz, radiating innocence. The arrangements, awash in old-school analog warmth, are straightforward: guitar or piano supplemented with drums, leaving plenty of space for Small’s lilting voice, which contains both idealism and, even as a teen, traces of real-life sorrow.
Her mother died while she was at George School, inspiring “My Life’s All Right,” a ballad about surviving tough times, which later appeared on the Sam Jay show. “Eternal Life” sprang out of her in one burst, celebrating the power of love to transcend life’s harsh realities. As for the movie’s “I Want to Lay With You,” it was about a boy Small liked. She just can’t remember who anymore.
“It was somebody who was just as much a friend as a person that I had a crush on,” she recalls. “I honestly felt that we could have a life together.”
Small laughs at her adolescent self. “Like I knew what it would be like to have a freaking life together! To be able to wake up with somebody and have a beautiful day and always make them smile.”
According to Small, George School’s parents and students raised money to pay for the album and 300 copies were produced. “It was a joyous time,” she recalls. “I was on my way — to somewhere!” After graduation, though, she struggled to find her footing, eventually graduating summa cum laude from the City University of New York with a theater degree. But then she chose pre-med, becoming a physician assistant.
“When I became pre-med, it was so hard for me that I was just tunnel-visioned,” explains Small about why she said goodbye to music. “I had to devote my whole self to it. It was so all-encompassing that I could think of nothing else.”
But there was another reason she walked away from music. From an early age, Small suffered debilitating stage fright. “It was so bad that it would twist my stomach into a knot,” she recalls. She gutted it out to do plays at George School and, later, record her album. After a while, though, “It just got to be too much.”
Still, didn’t she miss singing? “Constantly,” replies Small, who retired about five years ago from the medical profession. “I sang unconsciously a lot. My patients always picked up on it — they’d be like, ‘Every time you come in, you’re singing.’”
But although Small abandoned music, “The Line of Time and the Plane of Now” never went away. In 2006, the Numero Group, an archival record label, put together a compilation, “Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From the Canyon,” devoted to under-the-radar female singers from the 1970s. Numero Group co-founder Ken Shipley made sure “Eternal Life” was included.
“I was the first person to ever reach out to Shira,” he says proudly in a separate phone interview. Shipley heard “Eternal Life” on a burned CD of femme-folk artists that was making the industry rounds at the turn of the millennium while he was putting together his “Wayfaring Strangers” lineup. “Shira was a top want for me.”
The Numero Group put “Eternal Life” on Spotify in 2013. But when the label released the full album digitally in 2022, “I don’t know that anybody really cared,” Shipley says. Undeterred, he reissued it on vinyl the following year. Maybe listeners just needed time.
“Music finds a way,” Shipley says. “Music’s like water. It’s going to get down the creek into the river into the ocean. It’s going to find its audience.”
Sure enough, strange serendipitous moments started happening for Small. A future bandmate’s ex had one of her songs on a playlist, having no idea it was Small. She recently started working part-time at a local opera house and one of the opera singers adored “Eternal Life,” unaware that Small was an employee.
And now, royalty checks arrive for the usage of her songs in films like “The Drama.” It still feels unreal to Small that her album generates revenue. “It was never for commercial purposes,” she says. “I can’t believe that I am collecting any royalties on that music and that it just keeps going and going.”
Small’s husband died in 2019 after 34 years of marriage. It sent her spiraling, but then something remarkable happened. “The day I came out of it, the music was gushing out of me so fast that I couldn’t keep up with it,” she says. “I had to walk around with a voice memo. I hadn’t spoken to Lars in more than a decade. I sent him all of these voice memos and he sent me a note: ‘Shira, you still got it.’”
In 2024, she released her first song in 50 years, “Why,” which lays out her fears for the world. Her voice is different, deeper, possessing a lifetime of experience that her teenage self couldn’t have possibly imagined. Small is now plotting out an album and has some shows lined up. Even better, she’s worked through her stage fright.
Eventually, she’ll perform her old songs, but she’s figuring out how to hit that higher register from her youth. “I’ve gone through decades of hormones and cigarettes and all the other things that I did that I’m happy I lived through,” she says, wryly.
“I still have a thing about yellow flowers in open fields,” she admits. “We have these huge sunflower fields here. The whole idea of being in such a beautiful place with yellow flowers that light up a great day is what popped into my head when I wrote that lyric.”
I ask her what she makes of that young woman she hears on “The Line of Time and the Plane of Now” today.
“I know her so well,” replies Small. “You know why? Because she’s still here. I am, at this point, everybody I’ve ever been ever, leading up to this moment.
“I still feel the same way about many things,” she continues. “I’m probably angrier now than I was when I was a child, but I still have this underlying thing about looking at a bigger picture to help me keep my lid on. When I think back on ‘Eternal Life’ and ‘My Life’s All Right,’ that music was born from my core. And my core does not have an age.”
A CLIP of a ‘baby’ Louis Tomlinson on Waterloo Road, long before he was a global superstar, has tickled fans.
The BBC soap dug through the archives to unearth a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from former One Direction star Louis.
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Louis Tomlinson has re-appeared in an old clip from soap Waterloo RoadCredit: BBCOne Direction star Louis can be seen in the resurfaced footageCredit: BBC
The clip shows a baby-faced Louis playing an extra during the show’s very first series in 2006.
In the footage, a concerned-looking Louis can be seen in the background of the school playground as fan-favourites Janeece Bryant (Chelsee Healey) and Donte Charles (Adam Thomas) get into a heated row.
To help fans catch the four-second appearance, the clip has been given the slow-motion treatment, asking: “Can you spot One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson in Waterloo Road?”
The Sun were the first to reveal at the start of the year that Zara and Louis had begun dating each other just weeks after she split from long-term partner, reality star Sam Thompson.
Singer-songwriter Louis is embarking on a world tourCredit: Getty
Fronted by James Blake, the hour-long film exposes a heartbreaking side to the manosphere’s influence
Samantha King Content Editor
17:08, 18 Mar 2026
Men of the Manosphere is now streaming on BBC iPlayer(Image: BBC)
Louis Theroux’s deep dive into the manosphere is officially the most-watched film on Netflix right now, with the documentary lifting the lid on the lives of some of the most well-known content creators in the space.
The respected documentary-maker meets influencers across Miami, New York and Marbella who all have amassed huge online followings by promoting an uber-macho way of life. Among those he meets is Fresh and Fit Podcast host Myron Gaines, who has carved out a niche humiliating female adult content creators on his show.
Louis also shadows streamer Harrison Sullivan who goes by the moniker HS Tikky Tokky and has developed a following for his fitness , dating and finance content. When viewers meet him in the film, he has half a million followers on Telegram alone who are consuming his tips on how to make a quick buck, though Louis finds little success with his own £500 investment.
However, months before Louis made his documentary on the topic, TV presenter James Blake fronted one for the BBC titled Men of the Manosphere. Rather than focus on the loudest voices in the space and give them an even bigger platform, he met three young men based in the UK and Northern Ireland who had been taken in by the manosphere’s messaging.
It makes for a heartbreaking watch, showing how the words of manosphere influencers can have dangerous consequences for those that buy in to it all. Rather than stoke fury and anger at the subjects on screen, it encourages tenderness, kindness and understanding in the face of horror.
Sam, an isolated 16-year-old is one of the subjects in the film. He admits he has swapped real-life friendships for an online community made up of like-minded males all seeking self-improvement.
One of these boys is a 17-year-old from the US named Vincent, who Sam says is his best friend, despite never having met in person. He shows Vincent’s attempts at making his own YouTube videos, in which he tells his viewers: “You should do things that hurt every single day because that’s what makes you grow. You should hate your body so that you have the motivation to get nice and strong.”
Elsewhere in the film, James also meets university graduate Shayne, from Liverpool, who struggles to feel secure in his relationships and finds solace in the ‘red pill’. Meanwhile builder Jack, from Northern Ireland, is chasing discipline, status and direction when James meets him.
Documentary host James said his film was about “understanding”, and this is clear from the opening minutes. His calm approach and genuine curiosity results in some fascinating – and deeply disturbing – revelations from his interview subjects, with the consequences of the manosphere’s insidious messaging laid out plainly for all to see.
Men of the Manosphere is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
THE OSCARS is back for another year, and will see the crème de la crème of Hollywood clamouring to snatch one of those famous golden statues.
But despite the prestigious nature of the Academy Awards, they don’t always guarantee an A-list life forever in Tinseltown – as these past winners have found out…
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Mo’Nique
Mo’Nique was riding high in her career when she scooped the Best Supporting Actress gong for PreciousCredit: AlamyHowever, shortly after winning the gong, the actress says she was ‘blacklisted’ from HollywoodCredit: Getty
Let’s kick off our look at forgotten Oscar winners with Mo’Nique, who claimed she was “blacklisted” after her win at the Academy Awards.
When she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2010 for her performance in Precious it was her acceptance speech that got people talking, which began: “First, I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.”
Mo’Nique was referring to a fallout which started long before the Oscars.
It came when she refused to travel the world to promote the film – against the advisement of director Lee Daniels and producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey – despite the movie having “Oscar buzz”.
Following this fallout, Mo’Nique declined to thank filmmaker Lee during her acceptance speech, leading to a HUGE Hollywood feud – during which the actress alleged that he had “blackballed” her from the industry.
And shortly after winning the coveted statue she practically vanished from Tinseltown.
The star has since reflected on being a victim of so-called “Oscarscurse” – where stars suffer bad luck in their career after winning an Academy Award.
Speaking to CNN in 2020, Mo’Nique said: “I believe winning that Oscar award, just as Hattie McDaniel, she said, ‘I felt like I was cursed instead of winning something that should be congratulated’.
“That award was something that I did not ask for, but because I didn’t respond the way people thought that I should have responded, as Lee Daniels said, I was blackballed.”
Mercedes Ruehl
Mercedes Ruehl won the Academy Award for The Fisher King in 1992Credit: AlamyThe actress returned to the stage after the movie roles failed to pour in after her Oscar winCredit: Getty
At the 1992 Oscars, Mercedes Ruehl was having the time of her life after scooping the Best Supporting Actress gong.
Despite her movie The Fisher King being led by Hollywood heavyweights Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, Mercedes was the one who took home that coveted gold statue.
But even though she won such a huge award, the movie roles failed to pour in after her night of glory and the actress “vanished” from Hollywood.
Reflecting on the “curse” of winning such a top prize, she told the HuffPost: “It’s hard to get a job after that.
“People think you want more money.”
Instead, Mercedes returned to the stage and went on to win a Tony award the same year as her Oscar – she has remained a fixture of Broadway ever since.
Harold Russell
Harold Russell (centre) won the Best Supporting Actor gong for The Best Years of Our LivesCredit: AlamyHarold was the first non-professional actor to win an OscarCredit: Getty
Harold Russell’s Oscars tale is very different to the others.
The late star lost both his hands in World War II and had them replaced by hooks.
Harold had never acted before when he played the role of Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946.
He was cast after the director of the film saw him in Diary of a Sergeant, an Army film about rehabilitating war veterans.
Despite his lack of acting experience, Harold proved to be a huge hit in The Best of Our Lives, and he won not one, but TWO Oscars for his role.
At the 1947 Academy Awards he was awarded the Best Supporting Actor and a special Honorary Academy Award for bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans.
Harold was also the first non-professional actor to ever win an Oscar.
But despite all this glory, he took a step back from acting and didn’t appear in another film until 1980.
Instead, he decided to get a business degree and devoted his life to charity.
Speaking about why he didn’t continue his Hollywood career, he told the Los Angeles Times in 1996: “Wyler (the director) told me I should go back to college because there wasn’t much call for a guy with no hands in the motion picture industry.
“I figured he was right. [In the handful of roles I’ve taken since then,] I always play a disabled veteran.
“And this is what Wyler said, ‘After a while they’re going to run out of ideas’—and he was absolutely right. How many times can you play the same role?”
Harold died in 2002 at the age of 88.
Roberto Benigni
Italian actor Roberto Benigni scooped the Best Actor gong and Best Foreign Film at the 71st Academy Awards in 1999Credit: AlamyThe actor is seen here at the Venice Film Festival in 2021Credit: Getty
Next up we have Italian actor Roberto Benigni, whose double Oscar win in 1999 caused quite a reaction.
The star won two gongs for the foreign film La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful), taking home the statues for Best Actor and Best International Feature Film – as he directed the movie too.
The film was the first non-English speaking picture to win the Best Actor award.
But Roberto, who was up against Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Nick Nolte and Ed Norton for the award, faced a huge backlash for his “over the top” reaction to winning the coveted gong.
He was seen climbing over audience seats to accept the award, which was slammed as being “chaotic”.
Roberto was also criticised for his “disingenuous” acceptance speech, where he appeared to make light of winning such a huge award.
“This is a terrible mistake. I used up all my English!” he joked, upon being handed the award.
Despite his big win, the actor retreated back to his native-Italy to make films instead of in Hollywood.
Speaking about life as a two-time Oscar winner, Roberto once told The Guardian: “The most important thing is to continue to be yourself.
“The day after the Oscars, you have to get on with your life. To be honest and true to yourself. I could have made a small film and kept all the money from Life is Beautiful. Instead, I spent more money than I had on Pinocchio, a very risky film.”
The actor is referring to his 2002 movie Pinocchio, which was only released in Italy and received mixed reviews from critics, with one calling it “the worst movie ever made”.
Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden won the Best Supporting Actress award for Pollack in 2000Credit: AlamyThe actress later called her win ‘disastrous on a professional level’Credit: Getty
Marcia Gay Harden beat the odds to scoop the Best Supporting Actress award for Pollack in 2000.
Critics were also shocked that Marcia won the Oscar as she hadn’t been nominated for any other major award in the run-up to the ceremony.
Despite the actress’s huge win, her movie career stalled and she headed back to the small screen.
Reflecting on being a victim of the “Oscar curse”, Marcia once told the LA Times: “It’s disastrous on a professional level.
“Suddenly the parts you’re offered and the money become smaller. There’s no logic to it.”
Mira Sorvino
In 1996, Mira Sorvino was the toast of the OscarsCredit: AlamyHowever, these days she is best known for Romy and Michele’s High School ReunionCredit: Getty
Mira Sorvino
Fans of the quirky movie Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion may be surprised to know that the film’s co-leading actress, Mira Sorvino, actually won an Oscar before starring in the cult classic movie.
A few years before, the actress won a huge amount of praise when she played a prostitute in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite.
She wowed so much, she scooped the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1996 for the role.
Despite going on to star in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion the following year, the movie roles after that failed to pour in and she has switched her focus to TV.
Marisa Tomei
Film fans may be surprised to know that Marisa Tomei won an OscarCredit: Corbis Historical – GettyThe actress faced some backlash over her Oscar win, with a rumour going around that she was ‘given it by mistake’Credit: Getty
It may come as a surprise to film fans to find out that the actress won an Oscar in 1993 – but that is nothing compared to what happened on the actual night.
Shockwaves went through the prestigious ceremony when the relatively-unknown actress at the time scooped the gong for Best Supporting Actress, beating veteran stars like Joan Plowright and Vanessa Redgrave.
But it didn’t stop there, as poor Marisa, who won the award for her role in My Cousin Vinny, faced rumours that she had been given the Oscar “by mistake”.
Vicious gossip began to circulate that suggested that presenter Jack Palance had misread the envelope and mistakenly given the Oscar to Marisa instead of “its rightful owner”, Vanessa.
However, the Academy addressed the conspiracy theory and denied that she had been given it by “mistake.”
Speaking about the cruel rumour, Marisa once said: “That was really hurtful at first.”
Despite the fall out from her Oscar three decades ago, she has been nominated for two more since.
These days Marisa is best known for playing Spider-Man‘s mum in the famous franchise.
Thousands rallied in central Madrid calling for an end to the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, with protesters warning the conflict could escalate into a global war.
Gardening expert Charlie Dimmock has presented numerous TV shows beyond Ground Force and Garden Rescue and fans rated them highly
17:43, 12 Mar 2026Updated 17:43, 12 Mar 2026
Charlie Dimmock has been a fan favourite for decades(Image: BBC)
Fans of gardening expert Charlie Dimmock could be excused for not exploring much beyond Ground Force and Garden Rescue.
With over 150 episodes of Garden Rescue available to watch and 97 instalments of the ’90s favourite Ground Force, there’s no shortage of content. However, throughout her career, she’s created numerous other gardening programmes that slipped beneath most people’s notice.
One such programme is Charlie’s Garden Army, which aired in 1999 and 2000 across 12 episodes. The series featured Charlie alongside volunteer teams transforming derelate wasteland into beautiful public gardens.
She subsequently secured a presenting position on 2002’s The Joy of Gardening and 2001’s Charlie’s Gardening Neighbours, reports the Express.
In 2005, Charlie featured at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show as a television presenter, and she’s also participated in coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show throughout the years.
Judging purely by IMDb ratings, though, several programmes actually surpass Ground Force in terms of viewer scores.
Ground Force’s typical rating stands at 7.2 stars out of 10 – but it’s eclipsed by Garden Rescue at 7.9 stars, and the Great British Garden Revival with an identical rating.
Charlie inadvertently fell into a television career whilst employed at a garden centre, and during the ’90s, she maintained that she “wasn’t famous” and didn’t perceive herself as a TV personality.
Reflecting on her television work in a 1999 interview with The Guardian, Charlie remarked: “In some ways, the television stuff isn’t unsatisfying, it’s very interesting.
“But the other day, I was at work [at the garden centre], the first time I’d been there properly for three or four weeks, and I thought, ‘God, this is nice!’
“‘You see people you know, regular customers, and there’s no hassle. You fall out of bed, go to work, potter around. It’s all right, really.'”
Garden Rescue is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
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