Sharing the spotlight with Robert Rinder, Liz Hurley stars in The Inheritance as The Deceased – an eccentric winemaker. But she admits she isn’t the biggest fan of alcohol.
Liz Hurley portrays an eccentric vintner in The Inheritance(Image: Channel 4)
Liz Hurley recently opened up about her relationship with alcohol – and it may be the secret to her ageless appearance.
Her admirers may be surprised but Liz Hurley is a Traitors superfan. So, when the chance came to star alongside Robert Rinder in C4’s The Inheritance, she didn’t hesitate.
In the new reality game show, Liz plays The Deceased, a glamorous winemaker with a lavish estate. Barrister and broadcaster Robert portrays The Executor in the show and ensures the stipulations of The Deceased’s will are followed to the letter.
“I really enjoyed The Traitors and loved the idea of being part of a show in which audiences were really invested,” Liz says, “I thought Robert Rinder and I would be a good combination.”
Though she wouldn’t mind following in the footsteps of celebrity vintners like Kylie Minogue and Brad Pitt, Liz has her own spin in mind.
“I can certainly see the glamour of having your own wine, and Brad Pitt’s rosé is actually delicious,” she says. “But I drink alcohol so rarely that I’d be more interested in trying to create an exceptionally fabulous alcohol-free wine.”
Liz Hurley and Robert Rinder team up in The Inheritance as The Deceased and her Executor(Image: Channel 4)
At 60, Liz is still gleefully playful about her roles – even if that includes lying in a coffin. “I quite enjoyed it, it was very restful,” she quips. What really stole her heart, though, was the shoot’s picturesque setting.
“Shooting at an exquisite country estate was a real treat,” she says. “The air was so fresh it felt like we were at a health retreat. It can be easier shooting on a sound stage, but I prefer real locations as it really helps with getting into character.”
Liz shines on screen but she admits she’s never been tempted to join a reality show as herself. “I have been invited on a few really good ones, but I prefer scripted work,” she says. “I don’t much like being myself on camera; it feels like I’m invading my own privacy!”
Talk of inheritance sparks a softer note. Liz treasures porcelain coffee cups passed down from her great aunt. “I think of her with every espresso,” she says.
Material possessions don’t matter much, though. “I’m not desperate to inherit anything,” she says. “I want everyone I love to check out empty, having spent every penny on enjoying themselves.”
The new C4 reality show follows 13 contestants as they battle it out to get their hands on The Deceased’s fortune(Image: Channel 4)
Produced by Studio Lambert, the powerhouse behind BBC’s The Traitors, the show takes 13 strangers, locks them inside a grand stately home, and pits them against each other in challenges to prove themselves worthy of inheriting part of The Deceased’s fortune – and it’s no easy feat.
Contestants must show cunning, teamwork and nerve, all while enduring surreal challenges that embody Liz’s camp and larger-than-life alter ego.
“They’re very right for this lady and her estate,” she says, “As the show goes on, she comes up with some interesting things.” The absurdity is clear from the very first episode.
Tasked with creating The Deceased’s trademark rose, players must gather white wine from the bottom of a lake and pick out the perfect red wine from a string of barrels. “That’s absurd, isn’t it?” Liz says, “Everyone has to put on their diving suits. I wouldn’t want to do that!”
Karen Pirie is back and she’s set for a whirlwind – but off-screen, things were just as intense for series creator Emer Kenny, who couldn’t rely on her famous (and busy) husband.
07:00, 20 Jul 2025Updated 07:40, 20 Jul 2025
Lauren Lyle reprises her role as Karen Pirie in the second season of the hit ITV show(Image: ITV)
Karen Pirie’s second season is packed with intense drama and explosive bombshells – but things were just as intense behind the scenes. Series creator Emer Kenny juggled triple duties as writer, executive producer and cast member as Karen’s best friend River… while also being a new mum.
“Filming was hectic,” she says, “My baby was 12 weeks old when I started writing the season and he was 18 months old when we were shooting. He came to Glasgow with me for three months.”
Emer had a secret weapon, but it wasn’t her husband, presenter Rick Edwards. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my mum,” she says. “My husband was away working in Germany at the Euros because he’s a presenter, so I had my mum with me at all times.”
Kylie Minogue helped too, making a daunting experience a delight: “Kylie has her own brand of rose that we drank the whole way through. It was absolutely crazy but I never feel more alive than when we’re making stuff. It just feels thrilling.”
Lauren Lyle returns to the ITV crime drama as the sharp, scrappy Scottish detective in the second season of Karen Pirie, and DI Karen’s ready to ruffle a few feathers.
Freshly promoted – albeit reluctantly – she’s still got everything to prove. “She’s determined to prove herself,” Lauren says. “Even though she’s been promoted, she’s still doubted.
It’s a reluctant promotion. Where her boss says, ‘You’re difficult but you’re great so you deserve it.’ That’s what drives her. There’s a general frustration with men being in her way and having to listen to them.”
Karen Pirie investigates the case of Catriona Grant this season – a young mother who was kidnapped at gunpoint with her toddler son(Image: ITV/ITVX)
The TV adaptation of Val McDermid’s best-selling novel series was a hit during its first season. So it’s no surprise that Emer also felt the pressure.
“It was a little daunting,” she says, “Season one was my first time writing a show. Coming back, you really hope you can match the energy and bring another good story. So I was a little daunted but the book has a really exciting story.”
Based on A Darker Domain, the second novel in the Karen Pirie series, the new season dives into a case that’s haunted the nation for decades: the 1984 disappearance of heiress Catriona Grant and her toddler son, Adam.
“She’s kidnapped at gunpoint, and then a ransom note arrives at her family home with a polaroid of her, and she is never seen again,” teases Emer. “There’s never a handover. No other ransom note was received.” Until now.
When a body is found in a remote quarry, it blows the case wide open. But it’s not Catriona. “It’s a man,” says Emer, “But her car key is in his pocket.”
As the investigation unfolds, so do the secrets – including Catriona’s steamy, hidden affair with Mick, played by The Last Kingdom’s Mark Rowley.
“Julia (Brown) and Mark were amazing together,” Emer says, “When I got their auditions in, I knew it would work. It was really important that their love story felt romantic and real.”
Outlander star Lauren Lyle reprises her role as the cold case expert (Image: ITV/ITVX)
But Catriona isn’t the only one getting her heart tangled this season. Karen’s own love life heats up with DS Phil Parhatka, played by Zach Wyatt, but she’s keeping it strictly under wraps.
“Karen’s under the impression a woman can only have one of the other – a career or a home life,” Lauren says. “Phil’s a good, smart man who’s willing to support her, but Karen thinks she has to choose her career to keep getting ahead. Her career gives her a sense of worth, but it can damage her love life.”
But the cold case earns her more attention and Karen struggles to keep the balance. “No one at work knows they’re together and she wants to keep it that way,” Emer says. “But there’s a whole new level of public interest. This is an even bigger case than the first one so she has a lot of eyes on her.”
If the stakes are higher, the humour’s sharper too – something inspired by Miss Congeniality. “Lauren and I always talk about Sandra Bullock’s character in that film as a big touchstone. We love her humour and her no-nonsense personality,” Emer says.
Other icons helped shape Karen’s DNA: Helen Mirren’s steely Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, Kate Winslet’s bruised brilliance in Mare of Easttown and Toni Collette’s grit in Unbelievable.
The new season of Karen Pirie blends romance, mystery and secrets(Image: ITV/ITVX)
Season two took the cast from gritty Glasgow streets to the sun-drenched chaos of Malta. “We had to move the shoot to September because it was too hot in Malta to shoot,” Emer remembers.
“We had tons of running scenes through the streets of Malta in 40 degree heat. But I think they loved it. I think they loved having their inner James Bond moments.”
Audiences clearly love it too and with eight novels in the series (and counting), there’s no shortage of source material. “There is potential for another season and ITV are really supportive,” Emer says. “It just depends on whether the audience wants more.” But for now, Karen is here to stay – and she’s fiercer than ever.
Celebrities and the world’s toddlers adore the long-running Aussie children’s TV entertainers, but now in it’s third reincarnation, the punishing schedule has taken its toll on the kiddie supergroup
(Image: Getty Images)
Robert De Niro, Dolly Parton and Jessie J are fans, they’re worth millions and play sell-out concerts around the world. The Wiggles – aka The Beatles for toddlers – are a preschooler’s entertainment juggernaut that has taken over the world.
They’ve got a new country album out, Wiggle Up Giddy Up, featuring two songs with the rhinestone queen herself, Dolly Parton. And tickets to their current world tour are hotter than an Oasis reunion gig.
They have previously sold out Madison Square Garden in New York for 12 days in a row and, ahead of this week’s show in the US, Hollywood legend De Niro, 81, was granted a backstage pass with his two-year-old daughter, Gia, to meet her idol – founder member, Anthony Field (Blue Wiggle).
Like most people over the age of five, De Niro didn’t have a clue about this global phenomenon until he had Gia with professional martial artist girlfriend Tiffany Chen, 45.
The Wiggles sang their classic banger Rock-A-Bye Your Bear for the veteran actor’s family, which drew a rare smile. And De Niro admitted: “I didn’t know of them until I started seeing them and my daughter loves to watch them… but they’re great!”
Jessie J and son Sky meet The Wiggles and Tree of Wisdom at their Bouncing Balls Tour in Croydon in May 2025(Image: Mike Marsland/Getty Images for T)
With the advent of YouTube and the arrival of their shows on Netflix, a new British audience is embracing The Wiggles.
When they came to the UK recently, Jessie J met them with her son Sky and was treated to some of the Tree of Wisdom’s viral TikTok dance moves.
They’re also part of a wave of Australian children’s TV, like Bluey, that is captivating British kids, giving them Aussie accents and pushing CBeebies off the map.
Borkowski PR’s Gregor Cubie expects his 19-month-old to join the fan club soon, and wonders if ‘Aussie-ness’ is the magic ingredient wooing international audiences.
“In the same way that Bluey is almost universally popular and accessible, The Wiggles’ sheer Aussie-ness might work in their favour when it comes to their reputation,” he says.
But, scratch the surface, according to Gregor, and you’ll find a long-running supergroup, dogged by controversy, ill health and accusations of “going woke”.
The Wiggles’ original line-up Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, Greg Page and Murray Cook perform in Sydney in December 2012(Image: Getty Images)
One of Australia’s most successful exports, The Wiggles take it in turns with pop sensation Kylie Minogue and Hollywood actor Russell Crowe to top the Aussie rich list.
Majority owner Anthony is estimated to be worth £25m, on top of the £10 million a year the band rakes in from tours, TV shows, new releases, merchandise and sponsorships.
They have their own TV series Ready, Steady, Wiggle, have produced 62 studio albums, sold 40 million books, CDs and DVDS, and attracted more than 5 billion views on YouTube and 3 billion streams across various music services.
They’ve been making ear-worm sing-a-long pop since 1991, when kindergarten teaching students Anthony and Jeff Fatt, who were members of the R&B pop band the Cockroaches, and got together with two fellow students – Murray Cook and Greg Page – in Sydney, to make an album of simple, catchy songs for pre-schoolers
After Anthony’s infant niece tragically died from sudden infant death syndrome, the Cockroaches disbanded.
Founder Blue Wiggle Anthony performs at Falls Festival Melbourne in December 2022(Image: Getty Images)
One of the songs Anthony wrote, Get Ready to Wiggle, inspired the new band’s name because they thought “wiggling” describes how children dance.
“We met at university doing a course in early childhood – this connection with music and teaching is what became The Wiggles,” explains Anthony.
While The Wiggles has evolved since those early days, the four original members hold a special place in people’s hearts – Anthony and Jeff Fatt (Purple Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red Wiggle) and Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle). And their hits like Hot Potato and Fruit Salad, were toddler dance floor fillers for the next two decades.
While members have changed, the primary colours of red, yellow, blue and purple that they wear is no doubt the secret of the Wiggles’ success with the ankle biters.
In Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles 2023 documentary, Anthony says: “It doesn’t matter who wears the skivvies, as long as we reflect our audience and communicate with children.”
The Wriggles with stand-in Sam Moran after he replaced Yellow Wriggle Greg Page who had to leave the band due to illness in 2006(Image: Getty Images)
Like any band, they had to break America to go truly global – and when the Disney Channel played them four times a day to their 85 million subscribers, their success was meteoric. All of a sudden, they were playing 10,000 seater arenas.
PR, Gregor puts their success down to a “combination of their prolific output with its ceaseless ability to hypnotise toddlers”.
He adds: “Also, a less extreme version of the Royal Family’s ‘never complain, never explain’ approach. Instead of saying nothing, they say the bare minimum and carry on as if nothing happened.
“You rarely see naval-gazing and the consistency and popularity of their work keeps generations of kids coming back for more.”
While there aren’t many skeletons to rattle in The Wiggle cupboards, behind their happy faces and signature finger point, members have been dogged by setbacks.
Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook, Greg Page and Anthony Field attend the Hot Potato: The Story Of The Wiggles world premiere in Sydney in October 2023(Image: Getty Images for SXSW Sydney)
Controversies include the Hot Potato incident two years ago, when a council in Western Australia played their famous song on loop to deter anti-social behaviour at a homeless shelter.
The Wiggles complained, saying their music should only be used to “spread joy and happiness” but the damage was done.
But the fact De Niro was happy to be pictured with The Wiggles is a massive endorsement.
“Robert De Niro seems increasingly like the kind of guy who considers how his every public appearance and utterance might affect his legacy, so it’s a pretty major stamp of approval that he’s happy to be publicly associated with the Wiggles. Fundamentally they are free of reputation risk,” says Gregor.
“The irony is that the Wiggles have had a few controversies which are fairly stereotypical of long-running bands – walkouts, inter-band marriages and divorces; allegations that a song is racially insensitive, accusations of going ‘woke.’ They’ve been ruthlessly parodied on 30 Rock and, of course, the Hot Potato incident was unpleasant.”
Robert De Niro meets Captain Feathersword aka Paul Paddick of The Wiggles on June 28, 2025 in New York City(Image: Getty Images)
For members of The Wiggles, the squeaky clean expectations can be tricky.
“During my time in The Wiggles, I was out at a gig one night and I was having a drink, and the next day a newspaper reported: ‘The Wiggles member caught having a beer’, and that was a shock. I am an adult!” says Murray.
And doing 400 to 500 shows a year – cramming up to three gigs into a single day – took its toll on the original members, with Jeff, Murray and Greg retiring for health reasons in 2012.
A mystery illness forced Greg to leave in 2006. He was replaced by Sam Morans, but came back in 2012. Then he suffered a heart attack on stage during a 2020 reunion show. That same year, Murray had open heart surgery.
Revealing his own struggles, Anthony released a memoir Out Of The Blue last year, detailing the years of mental and physical health problems he’s suffered, including depression, undiagnosed ADHD and chronic pain.
The second Wiggles line-up, left to right, Simon Pryce, Emma Watkins, Lachlan Gillespie and Anthony in New York in 2015(Image: Getty Images)
Yet Field created a second generation of Wiggles with Simon Pryce (Red Wiggle), Lachlan Gillespie (Purple Wiggle) and the first female, Emma Watkins (Yellow Wiggle).
“We might be responsible for their first experience of music,” says Emma, speaking about their responsibility to their tiny fans
Sadly, trouble soon upended their paradise, as shortly after Yellow Wiggle Emma married Purple Wiggle Lachie, they divorced and she left the group not long after.
Another shake-up in 2021 saw 15-year-old Tsehay Hawkins becoming Yellow Wiggle.
Now 62, Anthony is the only remaining original Wiggle, in a group of eight performers – Tsehay, Lachlan, and Simon, as well as Caterina Mete, Lucia Field, Simon Pryce, Evie Ferris, John Pearce – who are as gender-diverse and racially-diverse as their millions of fans.
The new extended Wiggles crew at Croydon meeting Jessie J in Croydon in May 2025(Image: Mike Marsland/Getty Images for T)
Costumed characters, played by the more junior Wiggles, include Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog, and Captain Feathersword.
While some of the newer members say their estimated £72,000 earnings are a fraction of the big bucks of the original members, they have given the group a bigger presence on social media, where the Tree of Wisdom (played by Anthony’s nephew, Dominic Field) regularly goes viral on TikTok, with his exuberant dance moves.
And, in recent years, they’ve been noticing something new – a generational crossover, as kids grow up, but remain fans.
Dorothy the Dinosaur is also now a DJ, who remixes the original Wiggles classics for the older audience. And they’ve been getting down with the cool kids – covering songs by Fatboy Slim, White Stripes and Tame Impala’s Elephant.
“We’re bringing back happy memories,” says Anthony. “And it’s a real privilege to do that.”
Altogether now, kids, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!
Classic kids TV groups down the years:
The Monkees, 1960s – Four cute surfer boys Davy Jones, Mickey Donlenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith running around in zany plots to brilliant pop tracks, in a sitcom that captured the spirit of the era.
The Banana Splits, 1970s – Four costumed animal characters who’d perform songs and comedy skits in a psychedelic world, was just as weird and fun as it sounds. The makers had clearly been on the wacky baccy.
The Teletubbies on their 25th anniversary in 2022(Image: PA)
Rainbow, 1980s – Presenter Geoffrey and his camp puppets Zippy, George and Bungle and hippy singers Rod, Jane and Freddy took us “Up above the streets and houses, Rainbow climbing high” every week. I still miss them.
Teletubbies, 1990s – Some called it the most disturbing children’s show on TV – but even now millions of babies are glued to repeats of these four tubby aliens, Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-laa, and Po, with coat hangers on their heads living on a mini golf course.
Zingzillas, 2000s – Puppet monkey band Zak, Tang, Panzee and Drum lived on a tropical island and made real music together and introduced tots to rock, soul, jazz and samba styles – along with some dodgy titles like Do You Didgeridoo?
