inspired

AS the car turned, there it was – a towering island next to an isolated and ruined castle, emerging from the water – it truly was a real-life Neverland.

Located in the Inner Hebrides in Scotland is a tiny island with a population of just nine people.

Known as Eilean Shona, this tidal island is completely car-free and was the inspiration behind J.M Barrie’s creation of Neverland in Peter Pan.

As my boat approached the shores of the island, it was obvious why.

Towering green trees and serene still waters were both welcoming and peaceful.

Once I reached the island, the soft soil, earthy smells, chimes of birds and light breaking through the trees made it feel magical.

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The island is littered with a number of houses and cabins for visitors to stay in – for my stay, I was in the main manor house.

Stepping inside, I found myself in a Traitors-like castle, decked out with tartan features, roaring fireplaces and cosy corners with well-read books.

The feeling of being somewhere else continued when I found my room – a plush bed stood proud in the centre, and old-style windows looked out onto fresh green grass just as if I was in my own magical bubble.

The main house sleeps up to 18 people and inside has a number of spaces including nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, a dining room, library with a full-size billiards table, a drawing room, and a large kitchen.

Guests can either book the house as catered or self-catered, and for prices, you will need to contact the island (though split between 18 people it wouldn’t work out too expensive per night).

Whilst there isn’t much to do on the island, it is the perfect retreat away from the modern world and the stresses of day to day life.

Thanks to there being no shops, no restaurants and patchy phone signal, it really helps you disconnect from your mobile (and consequently social media).

This particularly hit me when I ran a bath, and the water ran yellow-brown.

Initially, I was disgusted, thinking it was dirt, and reached for my phone to do a quick Google search.

But I stopped myself.

Instead, I embraced it and later asked one of my hosts why it was that colour.

Turns out the water is in fact so clean – cleaner than most places in the UK – and the colour comes from the peat found in the surrounding landscape.

I was told it is perfectly safe to drink and bathe in, and in fact carries minerals that are good for you.

One of the activities to do on the island that is well worth experiencing, though, is taking a cold water plunge or swim – the scenery is stunning and the water is serenely calm.

Heading off the pier, I floated for a few minutes in the water, taking in the smell of the fresh, earthy air and noting the silence around me.

For those who aren’t too fond of a cold dip or want to warm up quickly afterwards, there is also a sauna near the water’s edge.

During the evening, I headed to the Village Hall, which is the island’s social hub.

Here you can enjoy a weekly pub night, table tennis, wildlife books and board games.

After enjoying my dinner, I snuggled up to the fire cocktail made from a Sapling Spirits – a climate-positive vodka brand that first started on the island.

For each bottle sold, the brand plants a tree, something I even got to do with my own tree sapling – perhaps it will be used by the Lost Boys to find their way home.

Obviously, the island has an endless amount of walks you can take, and a couple of mine included heading to the summit and to the opposite side of the island where I found Shoe Bay, with a white sand beach and crystal clear waters.

For guests who want to venture around the island’s shores, there are kayaks, canoes and paddleboards available for hire.

And whilst exploring the island, make sure to keep an eye out for wildlife as birds of prey often circle overhead.

In less than 24 hours I had completely fallen in love with the island.

It really did feel like Neverland for adults wanting to escape the modern world and I cannot wait to go back.

There are a few ways to get to the island, including via the Caledonian Sleeper to Fort William.

From there, Eilean Shona is about an hour’s drive or in a taxi.

Alternatively, you could fly to Glasgow Airport, then hire a car and make the three-hour trip to Eilean Shona.

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For more hidden UK islands, here are the best in the UK, and they look more like the Caribbean and Maldives.

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There are plenty of people speculating how one of the most popular baby names for those born this year and in 2026 in the United States and Japan will be Shohei after what Shohei Ohtani accomplished in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, hitting three home runs and striking out 10 in the Dodgers’ clinching win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

What’s also clear is how much inspiration Ohtani is providing for high school baseball players who want to hit and pitch like him.

“It’s pretty crazy to do, especially as the leadoff hitter, to strike out three, then hit a home run. He doesn’t have time to regroup,” Huntington Beach junior pitcher/outfielder Jared Grindlinger said. “It’s definitely inspiring to know it’s possible to do both at the next level. I hope other kids become two-way players.”

Grindlinger might be the best two-way player in the Southland next spring. He throws fastballs in the 90s and has lots of power as one of the best players from the class of 2027. He said he has studied Ohtani’s experiences.

“He goes through struggles,” he said. “It’s not like he goes 20 for 20. It’s good to know you’re going to fail and bounce back and it’s going to be all right.”

Joshua Pearlstein, an All-City outfielder and pitcher at Cleveland, said he was in awe watching Ohtani’s performance on television.

“It’s inspiring to me,” he said. “I was in shock. It was pretty cool to see him do everything at the same time. I think the biggest challenge is working on both at practice. It’s a challenge but I’m up for that challenge.”

Pearlstein said he studied when Ohtani was in high school in Japan, how “he was putting in the work every day. It inspires me to work at home to achieve the same goals he has reached.”

Another two-way player is Birmingham sophomore pitcher/shortstop Carlos Acuna, a diehard Dodgers fan.

Sophomore pitcher Carlos Acuna of Birmingham is also a hitter.

(Craig Weston)

“It’s awesome,” Acuna said. “That’s who I want to be like as a pitcher and hitter.”

Coaches have to be careful with two-way players because you don’t want to place too much of a burden on them at practices, something that might lessen or affect one of their skills.

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman told The Times: “When you’re getting older and older, you kind of veer toward one avenue. I do think you’re starting to see more at the college level and potentially letting guys [do both] because of Shohei , which is really cool because he’s changing the game. I don’t know if you’re going to see another person. Most people don’t see what Shohei is doing in between and underneath. He’s two different people and has to do it day in and day out.”

Grindlinger agrees practices are where a balancing act takes place.

“I get to do my pitching stuff first, then my hitting stuff afterward,” Grindlinger said. “Or my dad will throw to me afterward. You have to plan around it. Sometimes I can’t do heavy lifting because I have a bullpen day. It’s definitely a challenge but a fun one.”

A BEAUTIFUL underground train station in London could be mistaken for somewhere in Moscow.

From the outside, Gants Hill looks like nothing special, being on a roundabout in Zone 4.

However, the interiors were designed by modernist Charles Holden, known for creating most of the London Underground system.

Originally starting works in the 1930s, Gants Hill station wasn’t able to open until 1947 due to delays caused by WWII.

During this time, it was even used as an air raid shelter during the war.

It was inspired by the Moscow Metro system, after Holden returned from the Russian city having been there as a consultant.

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The barrel vault ceilings are similar to Elektrozavodskaya metro station in Moscow.

The central concourse even has the nickname “Moscow Hall”.

Joshua Abbott, author of the Modernism in Metroland blog, told local media that the underground “should be listed.”

He added: “It is unique among Holden’s stations due to the Moscow Metro influenced platform design and lack of surface buildings.

“Gants Hill should be very proud of its most secret building.”

Some commuters have raved about it as well.

One wrote: “For an underground station Gants Hill has amazing interior architecture.

“Definitely, a place to visit if you’re into building structures and design.”

If you want to visit it yourself, you can easily hop on the Central Line from London, with the line ending in Essex.

Another unusual metro station was Marlborough Road in North London on the Metropolitan line.

It opened in 1868 before closing in 1939 and later even becoming a Chinese restaurant where the “chopsticks rattled because of the trains”.

And earlier this year, the London Underground ran vintage 1930s trains – here’s everything you need to know.

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who spent the week Googling Ed Gein.

“Monster,” the gruesome and graphic anthology series from longtime collaborators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, has dramatized the chilling story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and the highly publicized and complex case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers who were convicted for the 1989 murder of their parents. The third installment of the Netflix series, which was released last week, puts its twist on the legend of Gein, a killer who inspired fictional villains like Norman Bates and Leatherface. Brennan, who wrote the season, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the fantastical approach to the season and that “Mindhunter” hat tip.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a “Frontline” documentary that continues its chronicle on the lingering impact of poverty and a spinoff of “The Boys” set at America’s only college for superheroes.

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Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

A still from “Frontline: Born Poor,” which filmed over 14 years with kids from three families, from adolescents to adults, to explore how poverty has affected them.

(Frontline PBS)

“Frontline: Born Poor” (PBS.org)

Television is glutted with “reality,” but there are still filmmakers who prefer to look at how people live when they’re not contestants in a dating game or bunked up with competitive strangers. Jezza Neumann’s “Born Poor” is the third installment in a moving documentary series that began 14 years ago with “Poor Kids,” and, like Michael Apted’s “7 Up” films, has visited its subjects in intervals over the years since. Set in the Quad Cities area, where Illinois meets Iowa along the Mississippi River, it follows Brittany, Johnny and Kayli from bright-eyed childhood into chastened, though still optimistic adulthood, as they deal with life on the margins — power lost, houses lost, school impossible, food unpredictable. Now, with kids of their own, all are concerned to provide them a better life than the ones they had. With Washington waging a war on the poor to protect the rich, it’s a valuable watch. — Robert Lloyd

Derek Luh (Jordan Li), from left, Jaz Sinclair (Marie Moreau), Keeya King (Annabeth Moreau), Lizze Broadway (Emma Meyer) in “Gen V.”

(Jasper Savage / Prime)

“Gen V” (Prime Video)

Just two weeks out from its Season 2 finale and the satirical superhero series continues to deliver merciless dark humor and sharp topical commentary on America’s great crumble — inside of a tale about misfits enduring the rigors of college life.

Spun off from the brilliant “The Boys” franchise, this series from Eric Kripke, Craig Rosenberg and Evan Goldberg follows a group of students at Godolkin University, an institution designed to identify and train the next generation of superheroes. But the co-eds soon discover that their supposed higher education is in fact a clandestine operation to create “Supe” soldiers for an impending war between the super-powered and non-powered humans. Returning to the fold is Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), who emerges as the rebel group’s most powerful weapon against the school’s nefarious plot. Working alongside her are Emma (Lizze Broadway), Cate (Maddie Phillips), Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh) and Sam (Asa Germann). The wonderfully unnerving Hamish Linklater (“Midnight Mass”) joins the cast as the school’s new dean.

Is “Gen V” just as gory as “The Boys”? Absolutely. Watch with caution. But nothing else is quite as fearless in calling out the contradictions and absurdities of our times, be it corrupt politics, corporate domination or false religiosity. — Lorraine Ali

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in an episode of “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.”

(Netflix)

“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” stars Charlie Hunnam as the so-called “Butcher of Plainfield,” whose gruesome crimes in 1950s small-town Wisconsin went on to inspire pop culture classics like “Psycho” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The season leans into Gein’s diagnosed schizophrenia and his legacy in Hollywood to present a deeply fictionalized version of his horrifying activities. All eight episodes of the season are now streaming. Ian Brennan, who co-created the anthology series with Ryan Murphy and helmed the latest installment, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the season’s approach to fact vs. fiction, that “Mindhunter” nod and the documentary that earns his rewatch time. — Yvonne Villarreal

We often hear from actors about the roles that stay with them long after they’re done filming. Are there elements of “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” that you still can’t shake?

Ed Gein was schizophrenic, and I find the internal life he would have suffered through for decades — alone and hearing voices, primarily that of his dead mother — completely harrowing. He wasn’t medicated until late in his life, and until he was, his mind was a hall of mirrors of images he saw and couldn’t unsee — most shockingly photos of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust. I believe the only way he could cope was to try to normalize these things — digging up bodies, skinning them, making things from them — and the nagging voice of his mother ultimately drove him to murder at least two women, Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, maybe more. Ed Gein wasn’t the local boogeyman — his neighbors didn’t find him scary — he was the guy you’d have watch your kids if the babysitter canceled last-minute. And yet, in those four inches between his ears there existed a bizarre, terrifying hellscape of profound loneliness and total confusion. Every day in this country we see what happens when the lethal combination of male loneliness and mental illness goes ignored. The thought of an Ed Gein living just down the street from me is chilling.

“Based on a true story” depictions typically have a loose relationship with the truth due to storytelling needs. This season of “Monster” bakes that idea into the narrative — whether because of Ed’s understanding of events or the way in which he, or his crimes, inspired deeply fictionalized villains like Norman Bates (“Psycho”), Leatherface (“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”) and Buffalo Bill (“The Silence of the Lambs”) — in trying to unpack the “Who is the monster?” question. What questions were swirling in your head as you tried to weave this story together? And how did that inform where and how you took your liberties?

Ed’s story is, in many ways, fragmented — he didn’t remember many details of the acts he committed, and he passed polygraph tests when interrogated about cold cases police suspected he may have perpetrated. So we knew from the very beginning that there would be gaps to fill in when telling his story — and it seemed the obvious way to do it was to let the true story interplay with the fictionalized versions of Ed Gein that he inspired. There’s a subtle thematic bleed between the versions of Ed we see in the series and the monsters in the movies he inspired — in the first three episodes, we see a “Psycho”-inflected Ed Gein obsessed with his mother; next a much more sexualized, violent Ed Gein that would become “Leatherface”; then an Ed Gein who so fetishized the female body and who was made so ill by the repression of that urge that he became obsessed with building a suit made from women’s bodies. These versions of Ed, to me, are like the blind men feeling different parts of the elephant in the parable — each true in their own way, but each also just a fragment of a shattered whole that will probably never be fully understood.

The season finale features a “Mindhunter” nod. Happy Anderson, who played serial killer Jerry Brudos on that show, reprises his role as the Shoe Fetish Slayer, talking to characters meant to be Holden Ford and Bill Tench, though they’re named John Douglas and Robert Ressler, the real FBI agents who inspired the fictional ones. When and why did you realize you wanted to have that hat tip? Was there an attempt to try to get Jonathan Groff or Holt McCallany?

Having written three seasons of this anthology so far, we’ve realized each time that the emotional climax always comes in the penultimate episode and the finales are always particularly difficult to figure out. We knew we needed to top the episodes that had preceded it by shifting the show’s look and tone — and we had in our hands the nugget that John Douglas and Robert Ressler had, indeed, interviewed Ed Gein in person. Ryan and I both find David Fincher’s oeuvre almost uniquely inspiring, so once we pictured an episode that played as an homage to Fincher’s tone and style and narrative approach, it was something I, at least, just couldn’t unsee. If we were going to go down the rabbit hole of what this chapter of Ed’s story might have looked like, I could only really picture it in Fincher’s terms — so your guess is as good as mine as to why casting the “Mindhunter” pair of Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany in the roles didn’t feel right (we both love both of those actors), but it just didn’t.

There are so many dark moments for the actors. What scene struck you as especially difficult to write and shoot?

I was at once excited and terrified by the challenge of depicting necrophilia on our show. I’m fairly certain it’s never been done before on TV, and I knew it ran the risk of seeming arbitrarily shocking or exploitative (though I think choosing to tell Ed’s story in an easier manner by avoiding this chapter and not showing it would be the actually exploitative choice). Needless to say, even after I’d written the scene, it preoccupied me, as I had to also direct it. I felt greatly helped by the new industry standard of intimacy coordinators on set — and ours, Katie Groves, was spectacular — but still I worried about the scene just playing as cringey or unwatchable. But Charlie Hunnam, as with every scene he acted in on the show, came at the sequence with honesty and deep concern to capture all of the strangeness of the bizarre, disturbing act we were depicting — and what it said about what was going on inside Ed to lead him to commit such an act.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I just saw PT Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” — which was shot by one of our two directors of photography, Michael Bauman — and was just completely floored and delighted. I’m sure it’s rife with homage to films that have gone before, but I could detect no inheritance at all; it felt like a genre to itself — completely original and new. And I still find the time I watched Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone of Interest” to be among the most profound experiences of my life. He took what is maybe cinema’s most settled, well-trodden genres and turned it on its head in a way I found shocking and revelatory. If there is a better portrait of the proximity and ubiquity and the banality of human evil, I haven’t seen it. I think it is as brilliant a slice of human ingenuity as has ever been crafted. I have thought about that movie every day since I first saw it.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

It’s annoying to say it, but I don’t watch a lot of television. It’s like spending all day at the sausage factory then coming home to watch sausage footage. But the big exception is Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary “Get Back” [Disney+] chronicling the making of the film and album “Let it Be.” I basically just watch it over and over again. I came late to the Beatles (I loved the Who and resented that they always sat squarely in the Beatles’ shadow), but when they hit me, they hit me hard, and watching them in this documentary at the height of their powers is a master class in the craft of collaboration and the hard work of genius. Also, everything I thought I knew about the Beatles at the end of their stretch as a band is wrong — fighting all the time? A bit but not really. Paul hated Yoko? He actually seems to really like her. I don’t know how many hours the documentary clocks in at, but I wish it were 10 times as long.