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NHS worker Francesca Longhurst says the fine is worth it as they wouldn’t have been able to afford the holiday when schools break up

A couple who were fined £640 for taking their children out of class for a Disney World adventure say they have no regrets as the fee was still far cheaper than splashing out for a trip during the school holidays. NHS worker Francesca Longhurst, 32, and plasterer Liam Longhurst, 37, worked hard and saved for years to take their children Lily, 11, and George, six, on their dream vacation.

With steep pricing during school holidays, they say they had to pull the kids out during term time or not travel at all. Wanting to give their kids life-long memories, the hard-working pair decided on the former – and were subsequently punished. Francesca and Liam were handed fines of £160 per parent per child – leaving them with a total bill of £640 for a two-week absence.

But they say they would still do it all over again. The pair say going during term time likely saved them £9,000 minimum.

“It was a holiday we have dreamed of for years but never thought we’d be able to afford it as it’s so expensive,” said Francesca, from Sandwell, West Midlands. “We put every but of money we had spare into this trip and works extra hours and days to be able to afford it. To be able to take our kids on this once-in-a-lifetime trip was so magical.

“They thank us everyday for taking them and letting them experience it. We went in term time in June because the price is triple the cost to go during the holidays. I priced up for Easter holidays and the holiday was coming to £12,000 just for the flights and hotel – and that’s without park tickets on top.

“It’s the same for every holiday you look at even those in England at caravan parks and holiday camps.”

In the end, the family splashed out a total of £7,500, including £3,000 on flights and accommodation and £4,500 for theme park tickets.

They received their penalty notices on August – around two months after returning home. Although the couple were able to afford the £640 fine because they had budgeted for it, Francesca worries such “ridiculous” penalties could cause financial hardship for other families.

She said: “We knew we would have to pay this when we come back. The fines are ridiculous but what’s more atrocious is that if we did this again within a three-year-period we could be prosecuted and sent to prison for child neglect, when all we have done is taken our children on holiday.

“Every child deserves a holiday but not every parent can afford to go during school time. The amount is what it is – it’s a small price to pay compared to what we saved by going in the school holidays, but I’d love to know where the money goes to.

“You have real criminals out on the streets yet you are sending innocent families to prison for taking their kids out of school. The whole system is a joke.”

The parents deliberately waited until Lily had completed her SATs before travelling and believes neither child missed any essential learning. Francesca said: “While we was away, she missed out on two school trips, one to Alton Towers and the other to the Black Country museum, which we have been to many times.

“She also missed out on sports day. We were walking 20,000 plus steps a day. It was the holiday of a lifetime and we went to some of the best theme parks in the world but it was also very educational.

“We swam with dolphins, fed alligators, learned about wildlife and they tried different foods. What they learned in those two weeks I can guarantee was more than they learn in the last few weeks of the school year when everything starts to die down.

“The school was also closed or open partially due to the heatwave so we are being fined for our kids being off school when others were allowed because it was too hot. Both of my children are either excelling or exactly where they need to be in regards to education and have an excellent attendance other than when we go on holiday.”

While Francesca says she understands why attendance rules exist, she believes parents should be allowed a limited number of authorised holiday days each year. She added: “We unfortunately cannot take our children on holiday again during school time due to the risk of being prosecuted.

“I work for the NHS – this would mean me losing my job as you cannot have anything on your DBS. Myself and my husband have always worked and work hard and we don’t have fancy jobs.

“Any holidays we go on, we have to save hard for. It could really put families under financial strain. We live in a cost of living crisis, you can have a good week one week and a bad one the next.

“If you’re having a bad week or month when these fines come through with a date stating it must be paid by a certain date or you will be prosecuted, this could worry people, put them into debt and affect their mental health. I’m not saying I don’t agree with the fines completely, but I do think every child should be entitled to say 10 authorised days from school a year.

“After this then yes, send the fines out because education is important.”

A Sandwell Council spokesperson said: “We recognise that there is financial pressure on families and term-time holidays may be tempting. But attendance at school is vitally important for children to reach their potential, and to gain the skills and qualifications that will give them the best start in life and the best future.

“Like all councils across the country, we work with schools to implement Government policy on unauthorised absence.”

SHE described the year her father Ozzy Osbourne died and her subsequent split from fiance Sid Wilson as the “hardest” and “worst” of her life.

But things are looking up for Kelly Osbourne, as we can reveal she has been secretly dating a tattooed OnlyFans model, 13 years her junior.

The Sun can reveal mum-of-one Kelly, 41, has been spending time with hunky Brad, 28, for months after connecting online.

Brad, who goes by the name Uglynorth on the over-18 platform, charges fans £10 to view his racy content, telling them: “If you like a man who’s loyal, eager, and easy to please… I’m right here. Just say hi, or slip something into my tip jar.”

Other posts are much more explicit and he offers followers the chance to collaborate with him and film sexual acts together. 

His big-money earner, however, is selling his used underwear to his fans. In January, he sold off 12 pairs.

Alongside another saucy snap, the model, who is also a tattoo artist, added: “If you want exclusive attention… show me you’re serious. I treat daddies very well.”

He has been described as “insanely hung” online.

His Instagram account is however much tamer, mostly showing off his tattoo work. Kelly has been showing her appreciation by liking his recent posts. 

Kelly – who split from former Slipknot DJ Sid Wilson in March – was seen linking arms with Brad in a hotel lobby.

The pair looked smitten at a restaurant launch party at Manchester’s Treehouse Hotel on Wednesday night.

They then joined the boozy bash upstairs, spending time together in a private area where she placed her hands under Brad’s T-shirt and up his back.

One onlooker said: “There were hundreds of people around them but that didn’t seem to bother Kelly.

“They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Kelly is clearly really happy with him.

Just months after splitting from Sid, Kelly is said to be unconcerned about Brad’s racy side hustle.

The onlooker added: “Some people might be snooty about dating someone who does adult work, but Kelly isn’t worried. 

“It has raised a few eyebrows amongst her close friends, but she doesn’t care. 

“She’s been through so much with Ozzy dying and her split from Sid, so it’s lovely to see her smiling again.”

TV star and singer Kelly spent around three hours at the party before being driven home to Buckinghamshire.

And it seems Kelly could be gearing up to hard launch her new man as last week, Kelly shared a snap online of them together watching Bon Jovi at Wembley.

Sources say Kelly started chatting to Brad, from Doncaster, South Yorks, online following her split from Sid, 49, and things became flirty between them. 

Kelly and Sid began dating in 2022, having been friends for more than 20 years before that.

She gave birth to their son Sidney in November of that year.

In July 2025, Sid proposed to Kelly backstage at the last concert for her dad Ozzy’s band Black Sabbath at Villa Park in Birmingham.

During the proposal, Ozzy jokingly told Sid: “F**k off, you’re not marrying my daughter!”

Ozzy, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for years, died of a heart attack 17 days later aged 76.

Kelly and Sid split earlier this year, with insiders claiming he “has a lot he needs to work through on his own”.

They also said that Kelly “doesn’t want the drama in her life right now”, and that her priority is being there for her mum Sharon, 73.

After the split, Kelly was romantically linked to non-binary LA-based hairdresser Kiinicki, 37.

But in July of this year, the star swore off men and dating, declaring: “Dating is the last thing on my mind. I love being single.”

“I’ve got my baby. I’m ambivalent. All men are the same. It’s rough.”

She spent the summer concentrating on herself and her well-being. 

It came at the right time –  Kelly had sparked concern with her increasingly tiny frame since her father Ozzy’s death last year.

It seemed overnight the once bubbly star had drastically shrunk in size, which led to her receiving thousands of cruel comments about her appearance online. 

She admitted earlier this month that she was gobsmacked when she saw a picture of herself from the Brits.

“I looked like the f****** Crypt Keeper. I said, ‘This is scary. I didn’t know I looked like this.’ My spine – you could see every single bone,” Kelly admitted.

She added: “I couldn’t see what other people saw because I was in so much pain. I just saw a broken person.”  

But since then Kelly has gained weight again and is starting to look happy and healthy once more, proving there is light after the deepest grief.

She might have declared herself off men, but after a tragic twelve months, no one can blame her for her romantic U-turn, or for enjoying every second of it.” 

A representative for Kelly said: “Kelly and Brad are not dating.

“They share a close friendship and their relationship is entirely platonic.”

There is a lost EastEnders Christmas special which showed groundbreaking gay character Barry Clark come out to his homophobic dad.

In 1986, bosses on the BBC drama cast the first ever gay couple on the soap with Michael Cashman and Gary Hailes playing Colin Russell and Barry.

The two characters were the first openly gay couple to share a kiss in a British soap. Gary Webster joined EastEnders in 1987 playing Barry’s protective older brother Graham Clark who accepted his sibling was a homosexual man.

Former Minder star Webster has now revealed that an entire Christmas episode was filmed in 1987 around Barry emotionally revealing his sexuality to their father, who hated homosexuals.

Webster insists the unique episode was in the can and due to air on Christmas Eve but when he sat down to watch it, bosses had lost their nerve and left it on the cutting room floor instead airing an episode forcing on Pauline and Arthur Fowler’s broken oven and Sharon Watts coping with Christmas with her parents Angie and Den separated.

None of the scenes were ever shown on the soap.

Webster said: “I was very proud to be a part of that storyline, absolutely. “That was really groundbreaking writing. Not only having Colin and Barry’s relationship out there, accepted or not accepted. It wasn’t for effect it was a reflection of what was happening to people in those relationships.

“It was fantastic writing, the idea that his brother would be fully accepting of it as well, when everyone thought the brother would find it unacceptable. At that time they could have gone further. I remember we shot a whole Christmas episode of the father of Barry and Graham – my character – finding out his son was gay, and he wasn’t accepting of it. It had all been building to that culmination of the father coming into the pub.

“We filmed 15 scenes and it was a whole episode at Christmas. I sat down to watch it at Christmas and they had pulled it and had shot something else. I think they just lost their bottle a little bit at that time.

“No, never broadcast. I don’t what happened to it. All I know is that my parents were sitting down with my aunt and uncle, my current girlfriend at the time was sitting down with her parents on Christmas Eve. I’d told them I’m featured in this episode a lot, this is going to be a big episode. I was sat down on my own, I saw the opening scene and I suddenly realised, ‘Oh my god! This has changed. This is not the episode that we shot.’

“Back in those days if you got an episode on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day it was the pinnacle of your career. Then I thought, ‘I just look like I’m a big liar. Now I’m going to have to take the flak of people going, ‘Right, so you were going to be in a big episode?’ Everyone doubted me for years afterwards.”

Webster – who stars in new independent British horror movie Harbinger – believes the episode was dropped because bosses on EastEnders feared the British public weren’t ready for it.

Despite that history-making episode never making it to television screens, Webster says being a part of the Colin and Barry story is one of the proudest acting jobs of his long career.

He said: “To be a part of that storyline, to work with Gary Hailes and Michael Cashman who played Barry and Colin – I still keep in contact with them both – I look back on that and I am proud of my part of that storyline. It was EastEnders at its very best. “What everyone forgets, people in my industry and in that London scene, we probably lived in a bit of a bubble than what was going on in the rest of the country.

“I felt that maybe people at that time weren’t ready for that yet. But I think people are ready for it at any time. You have to have more faith in the public.”

Webster made a return to EastEnders in 2016 as new character Neville Peacock. The actor still watches the soap and insists it is vital it remains on screens as it is a hotbed of new talent.

He said: “EastEnders is in a battle but I still think the basics and foundations are great, the same with Coronation Street and all the soaps. They are a great breeding ground for great talent whether it’s in front of the camera or behind the camera. People still like that regularity of storyline and characters they now and love. It’s just getting it out there, because there are so many other platforms.

“I did about four episodes of EastEnders as a different character in 2016. There was some hope that I might return. Hope is one thing, reality is another. It doesn’t bother me if something doesn’t quite work out, that’s just the nature of the business we’re in.

“If they called me again I would be thrilled and honoured to be in the show. “I still think there is a lot of value to the soap operas. In this country we do them extremely well. It’s a hot bed for new talent, discovery of new talent across the board that we would lose at our peril. If we allow that to just slip away I think the industry would suffer across the board. I’m a great advocate of retaining all those returning dramas.”

The BBC declined to comment but a soap source said EastEnders had “a rich history of championing LGBTQA+ storylines and characters over its 41-year tenure”.

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The estranged wife of former Chargers defensive end Marcellus Wiley has been granted a three-year restraining order against the former Los Angeles sports radio personality two months after she accused him of raping her and physically abusing her and their children.

The former Pro Bowl player has denied the allegations that Annemarie, a nurse anesthetist and former cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” made in a declaration submitted July 6 to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County with her request for a restraining order against her husband of 12 years. She filed for divorce the same day.

Marcellus and Annemarie Wiley both testified in person during a hearing on Wednesday. Evidence presented by both sides included texts and WhatsApp messages, social media posts, court filings and media coverage of the couple.

“The Court finds that Petitioner has met the burden of proof by preponderance of the evidence,” Judge Esther P. Kim wrote in her ruling, which was issued the next day. “Petitioner’s request for a Domestic Violence the minor children are included as protected person in the Restraining Order After Hearing.”

Annemarie Wiley was granted full legal and physical custody of their three children, with a visitation plan detailed for her husband.

“I’m grateful for the court’s decision and welcome the opportunity for our family to finally begin healing after an incredibly difficult and trying time,” Marcellus Wiley said in a statement to The California Post on Thursday. “From the beginning, my fight has been about being present in my children’s lives, loving them, supporting them, and being their father every day.

“I’m thankful I get to return to that role. Annemarie deserves the space to protect her peace, our children deserve the love and presence of both parents, and our family deserves the opportunity to move forward without conflict defining us. My hope now is simple: healing, peace, and getting our family back to a place where love leads the way.”

On July 4, Marcellus Wiley was arrested in Florida after his wife told police he poked her in the face with his finger and threatened to kill her. He was released the next day on $1,000 bond and faced a possible charge of misdemeanor domestic battery. Last month, the state opted not to file charges because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

In the declaration she submitted with her restraining order request, Annemarie Wiley documented numerous alleged incidents that she said demonstrated “a continuing and escalating pattern of physical violence, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, financial control, and intimidation, much of which our children have witnessed.” She also mentioned four instances in which her husband allegedly raped her, once in 2012 and three times in January.

A temporary restraining order was granted on July 7. On the same day, Marcellus Wiley wrote on X that he has “videos, photographs, text messages, emails, and other evidence that directly contradicts those baseless claims and provides a factual record of our family and the events leading to this unfortunate divorce.”

KATIE Price has taken aim at Love Island stars after an awkward run-in at the National Television Awards on Tuesday evening.

She recalled the incident at the glitzy bash while speaking to her sister Sophie on the newest episode of her podcast, The Katie Price Show.

Katie, 48, fumed: “I’m nice to everyone, some look at me like their s**t don’t stink.

“Are you actually for real? You went on Love Island or Love Island before.

“Just in general, loads are so nice, you always get some who think their s**t don’t stink.

“As Nikki Grahame used to say, ‘who are you?’.

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“It just makes me laugh, up their bloody arse.”

She debuted a dramatic new look on the red carpet as she wore a white shirt tucked into sheer black shorts with a flower-print.

Katie brought her look together with black tights and a pair of heels.

The mum-of-five went for a very bold make-up look with heavy eyeshadow and overlined lips.

She slicked her hair back in a wet-look style and wore some huge gold earrings.

Ahead of hitting the red carpet, she told fans she’d been ditched by her glam squad.

The reality star explained that her glam squad decided “to pass” on getting her red carpet ready after they had a disagreement.

She said she wanted to do something “different” with her look and her glam squad were just not on the same page.

Katie expressed: “So originally I did have a glam squad by they’ve passed on doing my glam for the NTAs, because I wouldn’t wear the outfits they wanted me to.

“They wanted to do something different. But the outfit I’ve chosen myself is still different, because I don’t like to follow what everyone else follows.

“So in a way they did me a favour by saying they’re going to pass on my glam because I wouldn’t use the whole team.

“So someone I could never even dream of working, this is beyond art, iconic.”

Earlier that day, the Celebrity Big Brother winner took to Instagram to reveal she’s been left with a swollen face, black eyes and bandaged boobs after going under the knife again.

Cheryl looks poised to replace Sir Tom Jones on The Voice following his explosive statement on his axing and the latest bookies odds which seem to be in her favour

Cheryl looks poised to replace Sir Tom Jones on The Voice. The former Girls Aloud star, 42, has taken time out of the spotlight in recent years but, almost 20 years after she joined The X Factor, it’s thought that she could be about to become a TV talent show judge all over again.

It all comes just days after it emerged that music legend Tom, 86, who first appeared on The Voice in 2012, had been axed from his position and made it clear that he didn’t want to leave.

A source told The Sun: “They adore Tom but felt Cheryl Tweedy would be better suited taking his seat. Talks were ongoing with both of them but everyone knew Tom was the backup option in case Cheryl fell through.”

The insider went on to claim that the whole situation could’ve been dealt with better and alleged that Tom’s fans have been left “furious” by the whole thing.

It comes as bookmaker Coral has priced up the contenders to join the new coaching panel on The Voice UK, with former I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! star Aitch long odds-on at 1-8 and Cheryl even shorter at 1-10 to take one of the hot seats.

With ITV reportedly planning a major shake-up to the hit singing show, Coral makes Olly Murs 6-1 to be signed up, Rita Ora can be backed at 8-1 and Jess Glynne is 10-1.

“The odds suggest Aitch and Cheryl look very likely to join the new-look coaching panel on the next series of The Voice. Both have been popular in our betting, and it would be a big surprise if they did not appear on the red seats next year,” said Coral’s John Hill.

In his post, Tom said he was ‘not thrilled’ by what ITV have offered him. He wrote: “To be clear, I did not want to leave The Voice as I love the show and really appreciate the audience. “ITV made this decision – obviously a while ago, and I was just told recently.

“The reason given is because of a financial difficulty with insurance. They now say in the press they want to ‘refresh’ the show, and a new coaching line-up there wouldn’t be a chair for me.

“They are offering a much-reduced role where I would make an appearance but without being actually involved from the start, and I’m not thrilled about that. So the only thing I know right now is that there’s never a good time to fire an 86-year-old who’s still pretty good at his job.”

A spokesperson for The Voice told the Mirror: “We have loved working with Sir Tom Jones over the past nine years on The Voice UK. While he will no longer be a full-time coach on series 15, we continue to talk to Sir Tom and his team about his involvement in the next series.”

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Known for being ‘The GC’ on screen and larger than life, viewers will see a different side to Gemma Collins in her new Sky documentary series.

Gemma Collins admits she has had “the worst year of her life” which corresponded with a time she had cameras following her every move.

The former TOWIE star, also known by her celebrity persona ‘GC’, and was due to get married to partner Rami and start a family during filming for Sky documentary series called ‘Gemma Collins: Everything. All At Once’. The series was originally called Four Weddings and a Baby, but as Gemma admits “things didn’t go to plan”.

Her relationship with Rami has had issues, the pair have also been sadly unable to conceive, and worst of all Gemma’s beloved mum Joan died at the end of July after several years of health issues. Admitting her life and TV series hasn’t been going to plan, 45-year-old Gemma said: “Mum’s been unwell for sixteen years and I’ve been dealing with that on the side, but her health started going downhill during filming and she passed away last month[actually July 2026].

“My fiancé Rami has also been struggling with his mental health and using alcohol to cope, and on top of that we had fertility issues. It was like drowning. It was the worst year of my life. I couldn’t keep hiding it.

“Being The GC was escapism. I could put the make-up on, get the hair big, and forget what was going on in the real world. But there’s been a real turn in media where people want to see the real me again. They’re sick of the bluff. I’m not afraid and I know I don’t need to deal with all this on my own.”

In the eight part series viewers will see Gemma embark on her fertility journey, and she questions whether she has left things too late, putting her career before having a family. On trying for a baby Gemma says: “Rami and I went to the Portland, and I started thinking maybe there could be a miracle. We could get an egg donor and make it work. But, as you’ll see on the show, it got increasingly difficult.

“I still have Tristan, and my nephews. I’ve known Tristan since he was three: I did his nappies, I gave him his bottles. I love that boy. With my mum gone, I’m going to be the mum of the family now, the matriarch, and I’m really happy and excited for that. If it’s meant to happen, my mum will send it to me, and a miracle will happen. If it doesn’t, I’m at peace with that.”

Gemma admitted she found filming on some days very hard but insisted she had to continue. The other deeply personal issue in the series is the loss of her mum Joan, and Gemma allows the cameras into moments like when she deals like this and when the bravado she usually uses on screen drops.

She said: “The camera crews are at your house and you’re thinking, ‘This is my life, it’s so s**t. How can I let people see it?’. But unless you go through hard times, I don’t think you grow as a person. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also the thing I’m most proud of.”

On her mum Gemma added: “My mum passed away peacefully, and we were all in the room. She’s come back to me in so many ways already, which gives me great comfort. She comes back to me in spiritual ways and sends me signs. There was this butterfly in the house towards the last few days of my mum living, and it wouldn’t go away. When she passed, Tristan went to me, ‘There’s Nanny’. He went, ‘Nanny, if that’s you, flap your wings ten times,’ and it did.”

* Gemma Collins: Everything. All At Once launches 15 September on Sky and streaming service NOW.

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EXCLUSIVE: There were arguments aplenty and several walkouts – but Jackie Bassett and Peter Davies say they’d still do it all over again, given the choice

In 1964, 14 children aged seven were plucked from obscurity to take part in the TV experiment Seven Up!, which would follow them every seven years to see how their different starts in life would affect them.

The nation has long been fascinated by these kids, who have now (mostly) reached the grand age of 70. Two of them have died, along with the show’s long-term director Michael Apted, who went on to have a career making films in Hollywood.

Two of the most outspoken were Jackie Bassett and Peter Davies – and both say that, despite everything they didn’t like over the decades, they’d do it all again.

Left-wing Peter, from Liverpool, was working as a teacher at a comprehensive in 1984 when 28 Up aired. He was vilified by the right-wing press for calling the Thatcher government “the most incompetent, uncaring bloody shower we’ve ever had” and pulled out for many years after that, not returning until 56 Up, when he realised it was a good way to promote the music he was releasing.

“I think for a long time I felt cynical about the programme and the way in which individual stories were shaped,” he says now. “I’m thinking particularly back to when I did 28 Up – I think one of the headlines was, ‘Would you let this man teach your children?’

“At the time I was quite shocked because I’d never experienced anything like that – the sheer level of vitriol involved in some of the comments. I was quite taken aback.”

He held Michael partly responsible for the way in which he was portrayed. “I actually spoke to Michael and said, ‘You know, you’ve really condensed me there almost to a caricature – the angry young man from the North of England.’”

But “on balance” he’d still do it all again, because of how it turned out. “It’s not a decision I’d have taken lightly because there has been a downside as well.” This downside, in turns out, is the fame that the show has inevitably brought the participants. “I’ve found that intrusion difficult at times,” he admits.

Jackie has now left Scotland, where she brought up her three sons, and moved to the Norfolk coast. “I love my children, I love my grandchildren, but it was time for me to have a life and that’s what I’m doing now,” she declares. “It only took me 65 years to get there, but I’m finally pleasing myself.” She agrees that sometimes the public’s reaction to the show can feel a bit much. “The thing is, they see you for 15 minutes on that screen and suddenly believe they know everything about you. And that’s ridiculous, as most normal people would understand.”

Peter feels the show’s aim of showing the class system evolved into “something much bigger” but still didn’t explore certain areas enough. “I think something they missed was the emergence of a new lower middle class perhaps – people like myself whose parents were working class, but who were able, by virtue of a properly resourced welfare state and state education system, to move out of that background, go to university, change our lives.”

Prior to film-maker Michael’s death in 2021, Jackie enjoyed sometimes putting him in his place, famously challenging him on camera in 2005 for asking the women about marriage and children rather than anything else.

Later, she would point blank refuse to speak about certain topics. “He never saw us, never had contact with us. So he’d come back from America to do a film with me, or Peter, or whoever, and he just sat down and started throwing questions at you. And sometimes he didn’t like the fact that we didn’t want to answer them. I was not going to talk about something that would affect my family, my children – so I basically just told him no. He didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.”

That said, she also had warm feelings for him, and knew he gave her opportunities she wouldn’t otherwise have had. “I probably would do it all over again yes,” she confesses. “Because Michael opened up a whole different world to me with the screenings of his films and things like that. Obviously there’s points on the programme that I’ve not enjoyed, usually because I sort of opened my mouth without engaging my brain, but I think I would do it.”

She thinks it was outrageous to only have four girls alongside ten boys – comprised of herself and two friends Lynn and Sue, all from the same primary school in working class East London, along with solo upper-class Suzy, who liked ballet and thought she’d probably hire a nanny one day.

“The quote wasn’t ‘show me the boy and I’ll give you the man,’ it just says ‘give me the child at seven’,” Jackie points out. “I think it was partly because at that time women were mostly at home looking after children. Women didn’t have careers – you may have had one or two, but they were few and far between. It was just, ‘well, we’ll keep it to a minimum because they’re not going to go very far and they’re not going to do very much.’ But they knew they made a mistake. They really did.”

Peter says Michael actually admitted he’d got that wrong. “It was outrageously sexist, but this was the early 60s and people behaved in outrageously sexist ways all the time.”

They have not yet seen the final films and know that watching themselves for a final time is going to feel emotional. “I’ve been told to take plenty of tissues. I have no idea what to expect, and it’s probably going to feel strange,” Jackie says. Peter believes it will be “momentous”, reasoning: “It’s just the culmination of so much, isn’t it?”

The pair of them enormously enjoyed making the double-bill 70Up finale, with new director Asif Kapadia. “I think it had become a little formulaic,” Peter says. “So having someone new on board was going to shake things up a bit. And I think he did. Some of the questions he asked were difficult to answer, but they were interesting and made me work a bit harder.”

Jackie concurs. “I’ll second that. I think it had got very staid and in its box, and Asif came in like a breath of fresh air. It was far more relaxed, nowhere near as formal. I think it actually should have worked pretty well, fingers crossed.”

They feel that now is the right time to pull the plug. “The last thing we want is us all walking in with Zimmer frames or in wheelchairs or whatever age does to us. I think it’s very appropriate to end on 70,” Jackie says., laughing: “I have no idea why it fascinates people, not really.”

“It can’t go on forever,” Peter agrees. “Two of the cast members have gone, Michael’s gone. So yeah, this feels like the right time to end it.”

Seven Up! launched in 1964 with 14 participants – 10 boys and four girls – picked to represent different elements of the UK’s class structure. They are:

• Andrew Brackfield – Upper class schoolboy who read the Financial Times aged 7, went to Oxford and became a solicitor
• Bruce Balden – Schoolteacher who attended a prestigious boarding school and wanted to be a missionary
• Charles Furneaux – Kensington prep school boy who became a documentary producer and left after 21 Up, returns this time – but only in audio
• Jackie Bassett – Working class schoolgirl from East London who moved to Scotland and had three sons
• John Brisby – Upper class schoolboy whose father died when he was nine, he became a barrister and is angry over his portrayal
• Lynn Johnson – Jackie and Sue’s friend Lynn died from a brain condition in 2013. She thought she would work in Woolworths but was a children’s librarian
• Nick Hitchon – Yorkshire farm boy who became a nuclear scientist and moved to the US in 1982. He is featured despite his death, from throat cancer, in 2023
• Paul Kligerman – A carehome resident who moved to Australia and settled in to family life
• Peter Davies – A middle-class lawyer and musician from Liverpool who dropped out after 28 Up but returned for 56 Up
• Neil Hughes – Peter’s classmate, wanted to be an astronaut but became a local politician and preacher and has experienced homelessness
• Sue Davis – Jackie’s schoolfriend who was a single mum in 42 Up and became a university administrator who has remarried
• Suzy Lusk– Upper class schoolgirl who dropped out of education at 16 and later became a bereavement counsellor
• Symon Basterfield – Brought up in a Barnardo’s children’s home, he has fostered more than 120 children.
• Tony Walker – Working class “cheeky chappie” from Essex who dreamed of being a jockey but became a London cabbie.

– 70 Up: The Final Chapter, 15 & 22 September, 9pm, ITV and ITVX

Even had you never read Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” or even known of its existence, the odds are good that you have somewhere encountered its much quoted opening and closing lines: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and (spoiler) “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known,” respectively, the latter possibly in the course of a Ronald Colman imitation. (Please do not ask who Ronald Colman is.)

Reckoned to be Dickens’ most popular novel, it has been several times filmed for the big and small screens, going back to 1911 — the big-budget Colman version came in 1935 — but has not been mounted in this century, until now, with a four-part adaptation premiering Sunday on MGM+ in a co-production with BBC One. It stars Kit Harington, whom “Game of Thrones” people know as Jon Snow, as Sydney Carton, a disheveled, cynical, self-loathing, alcoholic, yet clever London lawyer. London is one of the two cities whose tale this is. Paris, before and during the Revolution, is the other.

Daniel West’s adaptation hits the major plot points and select lines of dialogue, but has typically, unavoidably, been streamlined and compressed. Characters disappear, or have their attributes and actions assigned to different characters. But much has been added as well. Most of these alterations are trivial, although one major change, coming near the end, is a very bad idea. I can’t tell you what it is, though.

Francois Civil, left, and Kit Harington in “A Tale of Two Cities.”

(Marcell Piti / MGM+)

Other than that, the most substantial changes are to Lucie Manette (Mirren Mack), the female lead, in order to give her a more active, heroic role in the story, this being 2026. (Not that Dickens didn’t write a heroine or two.) So we meet her, a Frenchwoman raised in England, sneaking out at night to dissect corpses in a sort of one-woman underground medical school — knowledge that will come in handy when Charles Darnay (François Civil), a Frenchman living in London, shows up at the place where she lives, dying from a knife wound acquired in the process of chaperoning into England a young woman in danger from the French ancien régime (the king is still in his counting house); laying him out on the dining room table, she cauterizes the wound.

Darnay has also been tasked with delivering the message “Recalled to life,” which refers to the fact that the father Lucie believed dead has merely been languishing in the Bastille for 18 years and is now out. In the novel, he is simply released, but here he has escaped — or rather, has been escaped, since he is something of a wreck, as you might imagine — and is being hidden at the wine shop of the pre-revolutionary Defarges, Ernest and Thérèse. Like the novel’s first and last lines, Madame Defarge (Roxane Duran), with her knitting needles, has transcended the text into folklore.

“A Tale of Two Cities”

(Marcell Piti / MGM+)

But before a recovering Darnay can clear any of this up, he’s dragged away by English police, accused of spying for the French for the benefit of the Americans — our own revolution is in progress at this point — and put on trial. Lucie, having exhausted all other possibilities, and needing Darnay in order to find her father, hires a very reluctant Carton, who in a trick worthy of Perry Mason, gets him off when a witness cannot tell him and Darnay apart. (Make a note of their resemblance; it will be important later.) By this time, both men are in love with Lucie, which, historical action scenes and social commentary aside, is the real point of the story, which might as easily be titled “A Tale of Three Citizens.”

All this gets the miniseries off to an energetic start. After this, there will be a lot of going back and forth across the Channel; crimes of the aristocracy; Darnay’s own Big Secret revealed; more trials, more imprisonments. Still, though it wakes up when we get to the storming of the Bastille, economically but effectively rendered, and, later the Reign of Terror, in between it can turn into a murky, mopey slog. It is often dark, visually and temperamentally; the music tends to moodiness. The actors speak quietly, as if fearful of being overheard, whether or not there is anyone around to hear, and often regard one another with pained or stunned expressions. It’s not necessarily inappropriate — there’s a lot of death in the book, and in a love triangle, someone is bound to lose, at least in the pre-polyamorous 19th century. But this “Two Cities” does lean into the worst of times.

Nevertheless, as Lucie, Mack makes a consistently vital impression — one can see why everyone’s in love with her. (Harington, the big name here, is less vivid; he’s more interesting before Carton falls for Lucie, when he’s still a bit of jerk and not simply sad most of the time.) And as Madame Defarge , who will become the symbol of the revolution’s bloodthirsty overreach, Duran is splendid; she’s a monster, finally, but layered and human. She has her reasons.

VENICE, Italy — “My actual personality is not very friendly, I’m afraid,” claims Korean actor Jeon Do-yeon. “Myself and actor Sul Kyung-gu, we can be a little bit brusque. We don’t really have the talent to make the set fun.”

As she says it, though, Jeon and co-star Cho Yeo-jeong are laughing — making the assertion rather harder to believe when it arrives in English from Korean via an interpreter. Throughout our conversation, in fact, the pair chuckles, nods along to each other’s answers, interjects sounds of assent. Enough for me to understand that their chemistry comes naturally, whatever Jeon’s protestations.

“In the film I play a character that chases [Jeon’s character] and it really suited me, almost to the point where I didn’t really need to try and act this role,” as Cho puts it. “I was almost like a sunflower, constantly facing and chasing actor Jeon.”

The actors needed every ounce of the sublime chemistry they forged to portray the magnetic but fatally flawed relationship at the heart of auteur Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight years, “Possible Love,” which premiered Sunday at the Venice Film Festival. South Korea’s international feature submission for the 2027 Oscars, the Netflix film sees Ye-ji (Cho), a documentarian married to a wealthy businessman (Zo In-sung), cozy up to Mi-ok (Jeon), whose husband (Sul) has been seriously injured in a brutal crackdown on striking factory workers, in order to secure an interview with him — only for divisions of class and professional ambition to expose the fault lines in their relationship, and in turn their marriages.

“It seems like they want to be friends with each other, but then there seems to be a line that just cannot be crossed between them,” says Lee, also through an interpreter, of the actors’ accomplished double act, referring to a scene in which Ye-ji bristles at Mi-ok’s suggestion that her high-end clothes are out of place interviewing unemployed laborers. “[Jeon and Cho] knew of that and they went into shooting that scene knowing that it was quite challenging to express. There were, of course, some things that were up to the camera in bringing that about, but I think that was a scene where the two were able to express just how nuanced and quite strange the relationship can be.”

The film itself is just as slippery and multi-layered, down to Lee’s heady admixture of documentary and dramatic aesthetics. Inspired by real-life labor conflict in South Korea, “Possible Love” uses Ye-ji’s nonfiction study of laid-off workers as a window into the lives of ordinary people swept up in large-scale social change, against the backdrop of which the two women’s competing priorities are thrown into stark relief. Can a filmmaker who totes a $4,000 Lora Piana backpack, however well-intentioned, truly understand the plight of the working class? Is a subject eager to publicize a political struggle prepared for the risk that her personal privacy will be invaded in the process?

To choreograph the film within the film — so compelling that I almost missed seeing its conclusion when “Possible Love” shifts the focus to interpersonal fireworks in the third hour — Lee cast a real-life documentary director and cinematographer as Ye-ji’s crew, lending what Cho calls their “natural energy” to the movements of the camera. Cho herself prepared by consulting the late master of the form, Frederick Wiseman, who was unabashed about the tension between documentary filmaking’s often radical politics and the privilege required to turn it into a profession.

“[Wiseman] was posed the question by some students studying film and documentary: ‘How can I pursue this work in reality?’” she recalls. “And he replied with the immortal words, ‘Marry a rich man.’ And you know, I was preparing for the role of Ye-ji, so it was such an apt response for her situation.”

Jeon, left, and Cho in “Possible Love.”

(Joo Jae-bum/Netflix)

The potential for conflict bursts into the open at a seaside home that has been in Ye-ji’s husband’s family for years, where the group has decamped for a supposedly restorative holiday. Reminded of the setting by the location of our conversation — a set of green-curtained, pink-carpeted suites at the Hotel Excelsior, overlooking the northern shores of the Adriatic — I ask the actors what’s going through their characters’ minds when Mi-ok and Ye-ji’s promising connection ultimately severs.

Mi-ok “doesn’t really want to reveal to anyone else what’s going on in the family … She only wants to show the good side that they are trying to live their best life and trying to improve and move forward with hopefulness,” Jeon says, citing an early scene in which Mi-ok asks the crew not to film her son’s awkward taekwondo at a school field day. When the camera’s prying eye becomes more intrusive, though, she “feels a great sense of betrayal, that her family is being used and exploited.”

For Cho, who says Ye-ji is “constantly balancing the ethical dilemma” between documenting the truth and treating her subjects with care, the break was always inevitable, and no amount of Ye-ji’s remorse or guilt can repair the damage.

Against this microcosm of the class war Lee sets the emergence of artificial intelligence, which threatens to further destabilize labor across a range of industries — including his own. Although he’s uncertain if, when or how AI will “intrude” on the “entirely creative” filmmaking process, the “Poetry” and “Burning” director is already using it for everyday tasks.

“Before going to see the doctor, I like to ask AI all the symptoms that I have, ask what’s wrong with me. Or I would ask, you know, ‘What’s the weather like in Venice?’” he says. “AI gives us instant answers, and it goes even beyond that to where it gives you advice these days. And in that sense, AI has indeed really gotten deeply intertwined in my daily life.”

Similarly, Jeon is open to using AI for more “trivial” matters, such as simultaneous translation from English to Korean and vice versa. But she admits to more “extreme thoughts” than Lee about the technology’s role in the future of screen acting.

“I’m going to be starring in a [Korean-language adaptation] of Anton Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard” upcoming in New York. And I was wondering, actually, is the stage the last place that cannot be conquered by AI, and will not be replaced by AI?”

Perhaps. But the scene in “Possible Love” that best captures the finely honed chemistry of its female leads, in which Mi-ok and Ye-ji drunkenly bond over soju and Korean barbecue as their bemused husbands look on, seems to me beyond the capabilities of AI — it’s too warm, too meticulously rendered to be anything other than fully human, the sort of acting one hopes the Venice jury will remember when it hands out the Volpi Cup for best actress on Saturday.

“It is quite difficult technically and practically — it was a scene that we shot all night long,” Cho says. “But I remember shooting it with a lot of pleasure.”

No protest there.

The truth about the last words uttered by Australia’s famed ‘Crocodile Hunter’ have now been laid bare, two decades after the Wildlife Warrior’s untimely death

A close confidant of legendary eco-warrior Steve Irwin has detailed the Aussie icon’s final moments, just as he realised death was moments away.

September 4 marks the anniversarry of Irwin’s untimely death. The passionate animal lover was known around the world for his infectious approach to conservation, capturing hearts with his zoo, TV show, and adoration for all creatures great, small, and even scaly.

It’s been two decades since Irwin’s shock death, and family and friends have paid tribute to a man considered an icon and animal-loving legend Down Under.

ICYMI: Irwin died while doing what he loved; he was out on Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, filming a nature documentary about stingrays when he copped a barb to the heart from the very creature he was there to film.

Cameraman Justin had been filming the crocodile hunter at sea when disaster struck. Speaking on 60 Minutes’ Steve Irwin: A Wild Life, Justin revealed the devastating moment Steve realised he was dying, and his final moments.

Justin told the programme: “We zipped around for 10-15 minutes before we found the stingray. And then, it was like, okay, game on. I mean, we’d only filmed with stingrays a hundred times before. They were awesome to film with. So we both slipped over the side of the rubber ducky and, yeah, started filming this amazing massive — it was massive — bull ray.

“Anyway, we chatted about the final shot, which would be the opening shot, because by now, the stingray was calm. It had buried itself in the sand. I said, ‘We’ll start this thing. I’ll just be close in front of this stingray. I’ll be a couple of metres from it. You go round behind it and swim up behind it.'”

Justin went on: “He swims up, swims over the top of it. It doesn’t move. But as he’s directly over the top of it, of course, it thought he was a tiger shark and started stabbing madly towards him with its tail. The water just boiled. I couldn’t see anything that was going on. Bubbles and thrashing.

“And then, all of a sudden, it stopped. The stingray swam away, the water calmed, so I just panned with the stingray. And as I let it go out of shot, as I panned back to Steve, he came jumping up out of the water, screaming, and the water around him is now full of blood.

“And he screamed out, ‘It’s punctured my lung!’ I threw the camera into one of the rubber duckies, dragged Steve into the boat. His khaki shirt is open, and he’s just got blood pouring out of a gash like that in his chest, right over his heart. But he’s conscious, and he says to me, looks me right in the eye, and he says, ‘I’m dying’.”

Bindi was just eight years old when her father died, and she shared a video of him as he recounted “the most incredible wildlife encounter of my life” – the birth of his daughter. Bindi said: “Twenty years ago, today, the world lost the most passionate and dedicated wildlife conservationist. Our family lost our superhero. My mum lost the love of her life; my brother and I lost the greatest dad.

“Grief never truly leaves us; we walk alongside it every day. Where there is enormous grief, there is even greater love.I always thought that my dad’s legacy is wildlife conservation; it turns out, his legacy is love. For our planet and for each other.”

Bindi added that her five-year-old daughter watches her grandfather’s documentaries every morning and feels “utterly loved by her ‘grandpa crocodile’, despite never meeting him. She went on “My dad left a lasting impact so poignant that it will ripple out for generations to come. I believe with my whole heart that his love will live on forever.

“Dad, I love you with my whole heart. Thank you for being our guardian angel. And most of all, thank you for watching over my daughter now, too. She loves you so much. We all do.”

Robert also shared a snap of him and his father with the caption: “Your legacy is forever.” Terri, also remembered her final few weeks with her husband, saying “grief still walks with me like my shadow”. She said: “With the passing of time I have gained more perspective and understanding. We were together as a family, on our crocodile research expedition, for what was to be our final six weeks together.

“Ours was to be a long and sweet goodbye. Steve spent time with Bindi and Robert building swings and climbing trees. We all slowed down. Time slowed down. I believe that all of us, every one of us, gets to say goodbye.

“We just may not know that we’re saying it. Hold every moment dear with the ones you love. Until we meet again.”

One could say that I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment.

It’s a musical event some might have thought unlikely or impossible — but to me, it wasn’t a matter of if Beyoncé would ever release a collaboration with Selena but when. And on Thursday night, with the release of the special anniversary edition of Beyoncé’s sophomore album, “B’Day,” it finally happened.

Alongside an expanded track list that includes remastered versions of the 2006 album’s original songs, plus new remixes and collaborations, there’s “Irreemplazable (Como La Flor),” a mashup of Beyoncé’s first Spanish-language release and one of Selena’s most beloved hits.

In her tragic absence, Selena’s estate gave a rare blessing to Beyoncé for the collaboration. A press release for the album noted that this “resounding approval” from the Quintanilla family “made it possible for this timely and meaningful duet.”

“Two women from Texas. Two unmistakable and irreplaceable voices that broke down and continue to break down barriers,” read the statement.

But not everyone was happy about the remix. Some fans viewed the collaboration cynically, criticizing it as a way for Beyoncé to capitalize on Selena’s legacy, or to court more Latino fans. Some voiced their dissatisfaction under a post from Selena’s husband, Chris Pérez, on Instagram — but he was quick to shut them down.

“Shout out to Beyoncé for showing respect to an ICON,” wrote Perez on Instagram. “In my opinion, nobody will ever, CAN ever, top Selena’s performance. But, dammit … can’t you just appreciate that another iconic/amazing artist chose to highlight Selena in this way?”

For those who need reminding: This isn’t Beyoncé’s first foray into Spanish-language music — and it’s not even her first tribute to Selena.

Long before Beyoncé reached superstardom, she was a girl from Houston who grew up listening to Selena on the radio. In 2007, she credited the “Queen of Tejano” with inspiring her to release “Irreemplazable,” a Spanish-language companion album to “B’Day.”

Working alongside Cuban American composer Rudy Pérez, the songs on that record were workshopped to retain the spirit of their English lyrics without being word-for-word translations: the catchy “To the left, to the left” refrain in “Irreplaceable” became “Ya lo ves, ya lo ves / Te olvidé, te olvidé” (“Now you see, now you see/I forgot you).”

Like Selena, Beyoncé learned to sing in Spanish phonetically, and in a 2007 MTV Tr3s documentary on the making of the album, you can see her angling toward perfection as Pérez and a friend corrected her pronunciation. Some of the lyrics she was tasked with delivering were tongue-twisters, even for native Spanish speakers. Try saying “Tú creías que eras imprescindible” five times fast and in key.

“I spent a lot of time on it making sure it was perfect because I didn’t want to disrespect the language, because it’s so beautiful,” Beyoncé told People en Español that year.

At the time, Beyoncé wasn’t the only major American artist making waves in Latin music. The pop landscape was undergoing a massive shift, thanks to the work of such crossover sensations as Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Shakira — and artists in the States were eager to tap into the burgeoning Latino market.

And while that was certainly a part of Beyoncé’s calculus when plotting “Irreemplazable,” she has a personal attachment to Spanish music. “A lot of my family, a lot of my friends who I grew up with speak Spanish, I grew up in Texas,” she said in the MTV doc. “I just have so much respect for the culture, and I really relate to it.”

“The heart and rhythm of the music and the drums and the spiciness,” she added, in her People interview, “it all reminds me of Creole, which is my heritage, and where I come from.”

While Beyoncé’s early solo releases were built on R&B, she demonstrated a curiosity for global sounds like reggae, Latin and Arabic music. Selena’s background was in Tejano, yet she was heavily influenced by heavy-hitters in pop, disco and R&B — namely Jody Watley, Janet Jackson and Donna Summer.

The two share a similar cultural background, one forged by migration, changing borders and centuries of history. And, as second- and third-generation Texans, Beyoncé and Selena were both able to take their heritage and interpret it, while also melding it with the melting pot of influences they were surrounded by.

Twenty years after the release of “B’Day,” Beyoncé has had the luxury of growing and maturing as an artist. She’s delivered masterful musical dissertations that challenge rigid ideas of “genre” and reemphasized the Black origins of traditions like country, rock and Americana.

Selena didn’t have the benefit of time; but in the years since her death, her music has been kept alive, replayed, reinterpreted, and remixed, so that new generations continue to celebrate her Tejano roots. With “Irremplazable (Como La Flor),” Selena and Beyoncé’s artistry gets to coexist.

It’s a blending of their worlds and voices — the merging of two songs empowering women to move on from their heartbreak, as well as a union of two artists who are so different, but so very much alike.

WHILE most shy away from pain, Ellie Goulding leans into hers for new album I Know Too Much.

And it makes the ten-track record, out today, one of her greatest pieces of work.

Her searingly honest lyrics shine a light on the last two years of her life, while the mix of pacy beats and stripped-back acoustic ballads elevate her ethereal voice.

Part heartbreak, part rebirth, I Know Too Much takes listeners on a journey through deceit and betrayal before ending in a place of euphoria with final song Ravers.

The end of her marriage to art dealer Caspar Gopling has most definitely inspired some of the tracks.

But you can also see how fans might link some lyrics to her apparent unhappiness with her old management team, with whom she is now locked in a nasty legal battle after they parted ways earlier this year.

READ MORE ON ELLIE GOULDING

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Ellie Goulding opens up about bitter split from managers in ‘divorce’ album

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From Olivia Attwood to Ellie Goulding, I tested celebrity drink ranges

Two ultimate diss tracks, Always Thinking Of You and Misremember You, are sure-fire hits for the broken-hearted.

Lyrically, the latter is raw, with Ellie singing: “All my friends would die if they knew I still see you in a good light from time to time. But I won’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

“I’ll leave out all the details that don’t add up to your glory.”

On Always Think Of You, Ellie chides: “Run your mouth, when I post a pretty picture you would make me take it down.

“The s**t you did then I would never put up with now.”

She continues: “Losing your s**t over something small, throwing a fit like you’re two feet tall, blame it on me, or the alcohol, what do you know now, Mr know it all?”

For Your Entertainment and Loser are my stand-out favourites, with the lyrics on Loser enough to make any of her former flames cringe.

“See you got a new job, new life, got a new girl that’s fine, you’re not fooling anybody,” Ellie sings.

“You can change all your clothes, baby you’re still a loser.

“Change your cologne, you still smell like a loser.”

I’ll be singing that on repeat any time someone gets on my wick.

Love Island host Maya Jama’s mysterious role in the Gentlemen season two has been revealed.

Love Island icon Maya Jama has made her debut in The Gentlemen season two on Netflix.

A number of new faces are being welcomed into the fold of Netflix’s epic crime drama The Gentlemen season two, including Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville.

But someone who subscribers may not have been expecting to see in the eight-part second outing is Love Island presenter Maya Jama as it marks her first major scripted TV debut.

The only other acting experience that the 32-year-old has had was in a breif cameo role for Katherine Ryan’s The Duchess on Netflix six years ago.

With The Gentlemen season two now ready to binge-watch, fans are eager to find out all there is to know about Maya Jama’s role.

When does Maya Jama appear in The Gentlemen season 2?

It isn’t long before Maya Jama pops up on our screens as she features in the first episode of The Gentlemen season two.

She is mostly seen speaking to Kaya Scodelario’s Susie Glass but shows up once again in episode four.

Maya Jama’s The Gentlemen season 2 role explained

Maya Jama portrays a character named Aisha in the second season of The Gentlemen on Netflix.

She plays the wife of one of Eddie Horniman’s (played by Theo James) criminal associates, Prince Amir bin Abdullah al-Hadidi, brought to life by actor Amra Mallassi, reports the Express.

Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) describes her as a “clever girl” and “aspirational”, saying: “Looks after herself and everyone who comes within her orbit. She moved out to the Middle East five years ago to work in hospitality. Now she’s snagged herself a seat at the royal table.”

Talking about her experience shooting The Gentlemen, Jama described creator Guy Ritchie as “very personable” to Variety.

She continued: “He’s really kind and nice. He doesn’t feel as intimidating as you’d think, being who he is. He’s very personable and he would be like, ‘Yeah, you’re doing well’, and reassure me, which was really nice.

“He’s just really involved and kind of a genius to watch, because everyone’s practising their lines and then he says something that’s way better than the original. You just feel like you’re in the presence of greatness.”

The Gentlemen is available to stream on Netflix.

Emmerdale star Olivia Bromley shed real tears when she filmed the tragic death of her character, Dawn Fletcher, tonight. Due to marry bad boy Joe Tate, their plans were scuppered when Jimmy King crashed into the wedding marquee, causing a big explosion, and pregnant Dawn was rushed to hospital.

Sent into premature labour, while Dawn gave birth safely to a baby boy with Joe at her side, she had a serious internal bleed. Suddenly, without warning, she crashed and, despite medics’ best efforts to resuscitate her, she died.

In her first interview since the explosive scenes, Olivia, 30, who was originally signed by Emmerdale for just 12 episodes in 2018, tells The Mirror: “It was the toughest storyline I’ve done during my time in the soap.

“I was surprised by how emotional I found it and it was way more emotional than I was expecting. I did cry. It is very strange to kill off your character as an actor and in front of your colleagues. But that said, what a gift to be given. Often people leave and just slip off.”

The actress was told earlier this year her character would be at the heart of a huge exit storyline during the soap’s biggest week of the year. Having reached a crossroads playing Dawn, she says it was almost a relief to have the decision over what to do with the role made for her.

She says: “This is a good time for me to go on a personal level. I had felt ready for the character to go. This character felt like she had done so much and I didn’t know what direction she could go in next. I had played her for a long time, and it felt like I needed to do other things. I am proud this was such a big finale to my time in the soap.”

But news that Dawn was being killed off came as a bolt from the blue and she confesses she would have liked to have left the door open to one day return.

Despite the initial shock, she says: “Psychologically, now I have had time to reflect, I know it’s good for me, because I can say bye to my Emmerdale chapter. It’s been brilliant. I was originally only signed up for 12 episodes and I’ve stayed eight years!”

And if viewers found her final scenes surprisingly realistic, she can now share the secret – that real life paramedics, rather than actors, were used to make the medical scenes convincing. She says: “They had real life paramedics and intensive care workers who came in to play those parts. Emmerdale is a fast-paced soap and we often don’t have time to train actors up, so they bring supporting people in with a lot of experience.”

Likening it to an “out of body” experience, she adds of her character’s death scenes: “They had rehearsed the crash response with Ned [who plays Joe Tate] and the supporting artists first and, right at the last minute, they put me in the scene. I had no idea what was going on.

“They went into the crash response, and it felt like an out of body experience lying there. They were all so professional and brilliant at what they did.”

But Olivia is sad that Dawn’s life ended so tragically. She says: “Even though she was able to cradle the baby with her children and Joe by her side, nobody had picked up on her bleeding internally. Finally, she had got what she wanted and so it was a sad end for her.”

Dawn originally arrived in the village as a drug addicted sex worker. Her big storylines included finding her long lost son and her on-off romance with her big love, ex-husband Billy. But she fell for Joe Tate in January 2025, after embarking on an affair behind Billy’s back.

They got engaged in December 2025 and by February 2026 discovered they were expecting a baby. But in recent months, Dawn, who had two other children and an adopted daughter, had been troubled by her lingering feelings for Billy.

And when he was attacked last month, she believed Joe was responsible and had planned to escape with Billy, rather than marrying the bad boy. However, in a massive plot twist, it became apparent Billy had actually been attacked by Kev – making Dawn want to marry Joe after all.

Olivia says: “Only a few weeks ago, she was talking about escaping with Billy, but in the end chose Joe. If Dawn hadn’t returned to Joe at the end, she would still be alive now. Billy is her true love but ultimately, she is an addict and she was drawn to Joe.”

She continues: “I’ve loved playing Dawn and I’ve enjoyed watching her develop and change. I’ve made many friends too and I am going to miss them a lot – especially everyone at Home Farm and Jay, who plays Billy. We are like brother and sister; we get on so well.”

Away from Emmerdale, Olivia lives happily in Leeds with her partner, who she keeps out of the public eye. She says: “My life has changed since joining the show. It has given me stability and, alongside the character, I’ve grown and changed. It’s made me ambitious in different ways and taken my life in a different way.”

After graduating from Oxford School of Drama, Olivia moved to London to work in theatre, before the call from Emmerdale came. She says: “This did change things for me and to be a working actor for eight years has been very special.”

And she would love to continue working in TV drama. She says: “I want to try some new things. It’s an exciting time and I would love to do a period drama or a gritty 9pm drama like Line of Duty.”

Now awaiting auditions, she has her leaving party to look forward to next weekend. She says: “It’s themed and I think we all deserve a drink after such a chaotic, complex end for Dawn. I’m also looking forward to just being me and not Dawn!”

As for Emmerdale without her? Olivia says: “The audience will go on a rollercoaster I am sure! I will always be so grateful to Emmerdale for giving me this role and to have been able to play Dawn fully until the end has been so much fun.”

*Emmerdale airs every weekday on ITV1 and STV1 at 8pm. Episodes can also be downloaded on ITVX.

OLIVIA Attwood has sent fans into a spin after she shared a sweet snap of Pete Wicks wearing an “I love my girlfriend” t-shirt.

The documentary stars have finally been giving followers the relationship content they want to see after months of keeping their romance under wraps.

In a round-up of her week, Olivia posted a picture of her beau Pete donning the top while they played a game of pool.

The candid snap saw Pete, 37, chalking up his cue stick with quite the serious look on his face.

Olivia has been giving fans more of glimpse into their dynamic after hard-launching him on Instagram earlier this week and opening up during her Cosmopolitan interview.

“Love this round up and Pete’s t-shirt,” wrote one fan.

Read more on Olivia Attwood

LIV-IN’ IT LARGE

Olivia Attwood and Pete Wicks look smitten on date night

sticking up

Olivia Attwood defends boyfriend Pete Wicks against ‘f*** boy’ reputation

Another fan penned: “The T-SHIRT, absolutely no notes.”

A third person said: “Love the t-shirt Pete xxx”

Meanwhile, a fourth fan added: “Can’t wait to hear Sam Thompson’s take on the t-shirt.”

Reality TV personality Pete made his intentions clear as he took matters into his own hands and hard-launched his romance with Olivia a whole month before she did.

Olivia recently revealed it was Pete who made the first move and since then their relationship has moved very quickly.

Last week, Olivia dropped a huge hint that things are getting serious with Pete as she leaked a telling WhatsApp message.

Olivia carefully omitted who sent the text which read: “You are the love of my life.”

She then finally went social media official with Pete, sharing a slew of steamy snaps of the pair looking loved-up in Ibiza.

The couple were seen heading out on a date night to the Broadwick hotel in Soho just days ago – the same venue where they were first spotted locking lips.

Loose Women panelist Olivia has reached new career heights this year and she’s certainly been busy as she shared some exciting moments alongside the picture of Pete.

The 35-year-old could be seen at multiple different shoots, her Savano cocktail party, at the gym and she of course showed fans the huge poster she had made for her magazine cover.

Love Is Blind UK star Ryan has faced viewer criticism since the Netflix show aired, and he has now addressed speculation about his reasons for joining and whether he wanted to ‘boost his profile’

Everyone’s currently talking about about the latest series of Love Is Blind following its Netflix debut on August 19. Presented by celebrity duo Matt and Emma Willis, the social experiment sees British singletons dating in “pods” before getting engaged without ever laying eyes on one another.

While series 3 has now concluded its main instalments, fans can still look forward to the reunion episode, which drops on the streaming service today (August 30). From the 30 singletons who stepped into the pods, we followed six couples who emerged engaged. However, two of these pairs called it quits during the cohabitation stage.

These were Jordan and Yasmin, along with Ryan and Cuba.

The latter duo encountered difficulties after settling into a London flat together, as Ryan’s regular absences owing to work commitments and a family bereavement led to the relationship breaking down.

Cuba sensed his heart wasn’t entirely committed, and Ryan confessed his body was “resisting” the commitment. They formally ended things during episode 9, roughly a week ahead of their scheduled nuptials.

Ryan, 33, has encountered substantial online criticism since the episodes went live. Audiences have strongly condemned how the public speaker behaved towards Cuba after exiting the pods, particularly when he promptly flew off for work and subsequently claimed he required “independent alone time” to unwind away from her.

The criticism reached its height following their split scene in episode 9. After informing Cuba his “body was resisting” the commitment, Ryan bizarrely asked Cuba if she fancied any mango (she declined) before the cameras switched to Ryan aggressively and wordlessly devouring the mango.

Viewers deemed the moment peculiar and detached, sparking viral memes. Ryan has subsequently shared a TikTok (while consuming another mango) justifying his behaviour, clarifying that an entire day’s worth of intense discussions was compressed by producers into “a short, sharp focus on fruit.”

In a separate video, Ryan has now revealed why he genuinely participated in the programme, following questions about how genuine his motivations were.

Posting a reel on his Instagram account, he informed his 15,000 followers that people continuously questioned him ‘why he bothered to apply’ for the programme.

He clarified that he didn’t apply, and was instead contacted by producers, which he maintained ‘was the same for most of the guys’.

Ryan stated: “When I initially had the call, I didn’t know what Love Is Blind was, I’d never heard of it before.”

Following a producer’s explanation of the concept to him, he considered it sounded “crazy” and acknowledges he still believes it is, though he notes it ‘clearly has a track record of working’ in certain instances.

He mentioned that as he progressed through the experience, he was “very vocal about his apprehensions”, yet his “curiosity was peaking”. Ryan also revealed that when weighing up whether to appear on the show, he found himself reflecting on the role of appearance in today’s world.

“Yes, they’re important,” well to me they are anyway and I think to most people,” he said in the clip.

“We live in a very image-focused world, where most people put most of their pride and joy in how they physically appear, instead of what’s inside.”

With that in mind, he said he ‘genuinely thinks the experiment is a really interesting concept to see if you can connect and communicate with someone deeply without ever seeing him. ‘.

“That’s what really got me in,” he admitted.

Ryan described himself as “open” to getting married, because he was single. “I was so scared, but open to it,” he said.

The public speaker also hit back at suggestions he had simply signed up to the show to “boost his profile”. He retorted: “I think that most people know that when you go on a reality show, you are seen and there’s massive drawbacks and some benefits to that.

“I don’t need or want some plastic clothing contract off the back off this, that’s not what I’m about.”

Which Love Island Blind UK series 3 couples got married?

In the finale of Love Is Blind UK season 3, a record-breaking four couples successfully walked down the aisle and got married. These were Sophie and Taylor, Ciara and Ajay, Faye and Jack and Francesca and Joseph.

Nearly everyone in the pods got engaged during Season 3 of Love Is Blind: UK. Out of the 30 singles who entered the experiment, a staggering 14 couples got engaged.

This shattered a global record for the entire Netflix franchise. Because there were far too many engagements for the production team to physically follow, they had to make difficult editorial choices. As a result, viewers only saw six couples on screen.

The Love Is Blind UK Season 3 Reunion will air on Sunday, August 30 2026 on Netflix

Sammy and Jonathan were one of a number of couples whose romantic journeys were never shown on the Netflix show

Love Is Blind UK’s third season saw a record number of engagements – but only a handful were shown.

The Netflix reality dating show sees 30 singles sent on a string of blind dates in the show’s pods which are designed to prevent the contestants from ever seeing each other. The only way they can meet a potential partner face to face is if they accept a marriage proposal from them.

An unprecedented number of contestants became engaged during the latest season – 14 to be precise – though just six of those love stories were shown to viewers at home.

The show’s executive producer, Nazleen Karim, previously addressed why they cut some couples on the programme but kept following others. She explained: “When there are more engagements than we can physically follow, we have to make difficult editorial choices. We’re looking for a range of different relationship journeys and stories that together capture the full experience of the experiment.

“Not being selected isn’t a reflection of the strength of a relationship – many couples continue exploring their connection once they leave the pods.”

Now, one couple who were cut from the show revealed what happened to them afterwards, and the remarkable journey they have been on since.

Tech recruiter Jonathan, 32, and wellbeing coach and entrepreneur Sammy, 31, found a connection in the pods and became engaged, but their dates, nor that all-important proposal, were ever shown.

In a tell-all Instagram post, Sammy recounted that she asked a producer to give Jonathan her number after they were told they would not be continuing on the programme, and the pair continued to date in the real world.

Since leaving the show in August last year, they have jetted off on holiday together, met each other’s families, got a dog together named Poddy in homage to the show, and remain engaged to this day. Sammy also revealed the devastating news that the pair had suffered a silent miscarriage in June.

“We lost our baby to a silent miscarriage and honestly, we really struggled,” she shared. “Grieving whilst still living on opposite sides of the country was one of the hardest things we’ve had to face together.”

While she admitted the pair were still navigating the loss, Sammy revealed their love story still endured. She added: “We didn’t get picked to continue on Love Is Blind. At the time, that felt like the end of our story. Turns out, it was the beginning of the best bit.

“No cameras. No experiment. No guarantees. We just kept choosing each other, and now you’re finally in on the secret.”

Love Is Blind UK series three is now streaming on Netflix. A reunion special will air tomorrow night (August 30) at 9pm.

Summer is nearly over and TV is gearing up for winter TV, and this Love Island star could be the new face of the jungle

Love Island favourite Chloe Burrows has been tipped to be heading Down Under after reportedly entering talks for this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

The 30-year-old shot to fame on Love Island in 2021 and proved a huge hit with viewers, eventually finishing runner-up alongside her then-boyfriend Toby Aromolaran. Now producers are allegedly keen to sign her up for I’m A Celeb, with Chloe said to be enthusiastic about swapping her home comforts for life in camp.

She is said to have held a number of meetings with bosses behind the ITV jungle show ahead of its return to Australia later this year.

A source told The Sun: “Chloe is in advanced talks and they love her. She was hugely popular in Love Island. She made it clear she’d love a chance to go to Australia to be on the show.”

Her sizeable online following is also reportedly attractive to producers as ITV continues to bring social media personalities into the jungle.

The insider added: “She has a very big following on social media too, very much like Angry Ginge and GK Barry, and ITV bosses think she could bring in a younger audience.

“ITV moves with the times. They’ve seen the surge of popularity with influencers.”

YouTuber and streamer Angry Ginge was crowned King of the Jungle last year after securing 13million votes, while podcaster and social media star GK Barry finished fifth in the 2024 series.

Since leaving the Love Island villa, Chloe has successfully built a career away from the dating show. She now hosts her own podcast, Chloe vs The World, and can also be heard on Kiss Breakfast alongside Strictly Come Dancing star Tyler West.

It wouldn’t be her first experience of being pushed outside her comfort zone on reality television either. Last year, she signed up for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, although her time on the gruelling Channel 4 programme was short-lived. She chose to leave the process during the second episode after struggling with its demanding challenges.

If she does sign on the dotted line for I’m A Celeb, Chloe is expected to fly to Australia’s Gold Coast ahead of filming beginning in November.

She isn’t the only famous face being linked with this year’s line-up. Paralympian and television presenter Ade Adepitan, 53, and Gavin & Stacey actress Joanna Page, 49, have also reportedly been approached about taking part. It’s worth nothing, however, no contestants have yet been officially confirmed.

After The Mirror reached out for comment, ITV said, “Any names suggested for I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! are just speculation.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

The ITV reality star was shown falling from a horse while riding in Meet the Owens.

Former Love Island star Gemma Owen’s horror horse riding accident has been aired in her new show Meet the Owens on Prime Video. The six-part programme follows former England footballer-turned-horse breeder Michael Owen and his family, including his feisty eldest daughter Gemma.

In a harrowing episode on the show, Gemma, 23 is shown falling from a horse and appearing to hit a railing while she is training to compete in the charity race the Magnolia Cup. Gemma, who represented Team GB in Dressage at youth and junior levels, is an experienced horse rider and the fall came as a shock to her family.

Luckily, Gemma escaped the fall without any broken bones, however she did get whiplash and sustained cuts to her face, as well as being covered in bruises. Gemma was riding her father’s horse He’s A Gentleman when she suffered the accident, after the horse appeared to bolt.

Audiences were shown images of Gemma’s huge bruises and she could be seen sporting a cut on the left side of her face, near her chin. The accident came six days before she was due to compete.

Speaking about the incident, her father Michael, 46, said Gemma was “tough as nails” and got back on a horse the day after. Meet the Owens then showed Gemma competing in the Magnolia Cup, despite being hardly able to move her neck.

Despite the accident, Gemma ended up coming fourth in the race after being initially stuck in 12th position when she was boxed in early on in the race. Michael later commented in a VT: “She came fourth but it’s just the start” as he knew Gemma would be gearing up to race another day in the future.

Reflecting on the fourth-place position, Gemma said she was “beyond gutted” and confirmed she would be doing it again, saying, “because I need to b****y win!” She also conceded that her father Michael had been right when he’d encouraged her to try horse racing.

She’s initially been skeptical about becoming a jockey, but over the course of training Gemma realised that this was what she wanted to do. Gemma was previously a contestant on season eight of Love Island back in 2022 and was a runner-up in the dating series.

Along with focusing on Gemma, Meet the Owens also delves into Michael and his wife Louise’s sweet marriage after the pair grew up together and attended the same primary school. They also touched on a tough point in their marriage during Michael’s move to Real Madrid, which had left new mother Louise isolated and without a support network.

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Michael’s only son, James, and his degenerative eye condition are also spotlighted in another episode. James was born with the genetic condition Stargardt disease, which means he is clinically blind.

Despite this, James showed his ambitions to become part of Michael’s family business, Manor House Stables and help to get potential investors on board. At one point, Michael and James even went to Bahrain together in the hopes of securing some more potential buyers and money for the stables.

Meet the Owens is streaming on Prime Video now

Shelley Fabares’ cause of death has been revealed.

Fabares was known best for her television roles , including Christine Armstrong on the ’90s sitcom “Coach,” Francine Webster on the 1970s sitcom “One Day at a Time” and Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show,” as well as her Billboard Hot 100 song “Johnny Angel” and appearances opposite Elvis Presley in “Spinout,” “Clambake” and “Girl Happy.”

The actor died Saturday in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones after battling pneumonia, her family told The Times on Thursday. In the 1990s, Fabares fell ill, but doctors struggled to pin down what the problem was. After years of health problems, she was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. Doctors ultimately discovered severe liver deterioration, and she spent nearly two years on a waiting list for a liver transplant. She received the lifesaving surgery in the fall of 2000.

In 2011, Fabares told PBS Houston that after suffering liver failure and facing death, her outlook on life completely changed. “It really brought home the fragility of life and how fast everything can change and how extraordinarily lucky we are to be alive, and to have this opportunity to be here, and in my case, to get really an entire second chance,” she said during the appearance. “It does make things more precious.”

She said that, after the close call and lengthy recovery, she feared death less.

“To her family and friends, Shelley was a source of love, strength, laughter, and comfort,” Fabares’ husband, “MASH” actor Mike Farrell, said in a statement.

“She was a devoted wife, cherished stepmother, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, family member, and loyal friend whose warmth, generosity, humor, and grace made an enduring difference in the lives of everyone who knew her. She had a remarkable ability to make people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.

“For millions, Shelley was a beloved actress whose work became part of the fabric of American television and film. … But to those closest to her, her greatest legacy was personal: the love she gave so freely, the friendships she treasured, and the family bonds she held dear.

“We will remember Shelley for her kindness, loyalty, wit, courage, and beautiful spirit. We will miss her deeply — not only as a celebrated performer, but as the loving and extraordinary person she was in our everyday lives.

“We are heartbroken by her loss, yet profoundly grateful for the years we shared with her and for the joy, compassion, and love she brought to so many. We ask that our family’s privacy be respected as we grieve. We take comfort in knowing that Shelley’s work and the memories she created with those who loved her will continue to live on.”

She is survived by her husband and her daughter, Erin.

The FBI has charged two men with scamming at least 26 women out of $1.3 million in four states. One of the alleged fraudsters posed as a San Francisco 49ers player.

Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, have been charged in federal court in Portland, Ore., with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

From February 2022 until they were arrested on Monday, Love and Chan solicited money from women in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho through lies and misrepresentations, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Portland.

Love portrayed himself on Instagram as a 49ers wide receiver who went undrafted but worked his way onto the roster. He met most of the women through dating apps and developed romantic relationships with many of them, according to the FBI. Chan falsely posed as Love’s financial adviser.

In an Instagram Story titled “NFL Journey,” Love held a 49ers helmet while driving and said, “I’m on my way to get my mom. I know I get a lot of fans who want to know how football works or how I got involved in the league…. If you know me and see me in person I’ll explain.

“I chose SF because it was the right time. I was kind of already living in the Bay and it just worked out for me.” Love’s monologue is interrupted momentarily by beeps from his car and he says, “I’m in my new McLaren and it’s just real touch-and-go.”

Then he posts a screenshot of a webpage AI Overview that says “Daejon Love is a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, and information about his position, contract and teammate texting habits is available online. He is also associated with the team in various social media content and articles.”

Back on the screen, Love says, “That’s Google. That’s not me, that’s Google.”

He goes on to explain why he isn’t playing, lifting a crooked finger to the camera and saying he is injured. He concludes the story by again saying he wants “full transparency” because “people ask, what do I do? How can I afford a $500,000 car? How can I afford a $300,000 [Lamborghini] Urus? “

He repeats that he’s going to pick up his mom, then concludes by inviting those watching to reach out to him to meet in person.

“The scheme relied on Love’s creation of fictitious personas and display of a lavish lifestyle which Love presented to victims both in person and on social media websites,” federal authorities said in a press release.

“Chan and Love also hosted three-way FaceTime calls in which they showed victims falsified investment gains and encouraged victims to part with their money. Victims sent Love and Chan money due to their belief that their money would be invested in legitimate investment vehicles on the victims’ behalf.”

The FBI said Love instructed several women who did not have cash to invest to take out personal loans, assuring them they would quickly be repaid.

Love and Chan were taken into custody on Monday at the Boise (Idaho) Airport and have a court appearance Thursday in Portland.

Love, who traveled to New Mexico, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Idaho since July 15, according to investigators, allegedly has used several names including Jon Love, Daejon Love, Avril Lyto Love and Jordan Love. Twenty-six potential victims have been identified, and the FBI believes there are more.