miles

Ben Miles has landed a part in ITV’s upcoming six-part space thriller First Woman

The Crown’s Ben Miles is set to appear in ITV‘s “suspenseful” new space thriller centred on a woman who goes missing during a lunar mission.

The actor, known for portraying British Royal Air Force officer Peter Townsend in the royal drama, joins Adolescence star Ashley Walters in six-part series First Woman, reports Wales Online.

Ashley takes on the role of Ben Reith, who awakens one morning to find his wife Claire (Andrea Riseborough) has vanished. This sparks a global media sensation “because Claire is an astronaut crewing the UK’s first moonbase and she’s disappeared into the long lunar night”, the broadcaster’s synopsis reveals.

It continues: “Claire is the first woman to set foot on the moon.

“A biologist taking part in a groundbreaking research project, her disappearance throws suspicion on her fellow astronauts and China’s rival base.

“With hundreds of thousands of miles between them, can Ben uncover the truth behind his wife’s disappearance?”

The ensemble also features Pride and Prejudice star Jennifer Ehle and Alex Hassell, who will shortly return as Rupert Campbell-Black in the second series of racy Disney+ sensation Rivals.

Ben, who also starred in conspiracy thriller The Capture, joins First Woman’s cast alongside The Tower’s Jimmy Akingbola, Fra Fee from Unchosen, You’s Kathryn Gallagher, Nautilus’ Shazad Latif and Neuromancer’s Christian Ochoa Lavernia.

Teasing the casting news on Instagram, ITV revealed: “A groundbreaking project. A missing biologist. A mystery that reaches across the stars.”

Polly Hill, ITV’s director of drama, promised the series would transport audiences on “an incredible journey”, saying: “I wanted ITV to make this the moment I read it.

“The team that has come on board on and off screen is incredible, and a testament to the wonderful and original scripts.”

When the project was first unveiled, creator Lydia Yeoman explained: “Set in the exciting (and as-yet-unexplored) world of private space travel, First Woman is a thriller unlike anything else we’ve seen.

“This is the story of a marriage put through the ultimate test. It’s rare that you get given the opportunity to tell a story with such ambition and scope, and we’re eternally grateful to Polly at ITV and Alcon for allowing us to do that.”

A HISTORIC railway station is set to open soon after being reconstructed brick by brick – nine miles from its original location.

The Victorian station was originally built in 1867, but fell into disuse over the last century.

Wansford Road station, near Peterborough, had been facing demolition to make room for the proposed A47 dual carriageway.

However, in 2022 an agreement was reached between Nene Valley Railway (NVR) and National Highways for the building to be dismantled and re-built.

National Highways also granted nearly £200,000 in funding towards the project.

Having been dismantled in April 2024, the limestone station has almost completed its re-location to Peterborough, now under the new name of ‘Woodstone Wharf Station’.

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The historic building will serve as a gateway to both Railworld Wildlife Haven and the NVR, and features a booking office, waiting room and administration office.

Stan Bell, who led the project at The Wansford Road CIO, said: “It’s clear that the building will have a huge rejuvenating impact on this often-forgotten part of Peterborough.

“We’ve been incredibly lucky to have the support of National Highways.”

The original railway served passengers from Stamford to Wansford, although it closed by 1929.

The building was then converted into a private residence, before falling into disrepair.

The £100 million proposal to create a dual carriageway for the A47 was also scrapped in July last year, due to planning complications and rising costs.

The high-speed rail tunnel extends as far down the mountains as some of the deepest mines on the planet

Nothing stands in the way quite like Europe’s highest and most extensive mountain range. With France on one end and Austria the other, the Alps sprawl 1,200km across eight countries in a massive crescent shape.

Historically, Alpine crossings were perilous journeys taken on foot or mule. For as long as people have been in Europe, they have sought to cross this mountain range so vital for travel, trade and war.

The Romans fought battles to control routes through the Alps. Historic figures, including Hannibal — with elephants in tow — then later Napoleon, led armies over the mountains to gain a strategic wartime advantage.

They’d have wished for something like the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a corridor between northern and southern Europe that opened in 2016. At the cost of about £11.5bn, it is the longest and deepest tunnel ever built.

It’s a crucial link for travel as well as the transport of goods across Europe. Used by freight and passenger trains, it cuts travel time from Basel to Zurich and Milan to Lugano by up to an hour.

The Gotthard tunnel extends 57km — a 20 minute journey underneath the majestic Alps that loom above. Remarkably, its depth of 2.3km is comparable to some of the deepest mines in the planet.

Trains are able to zip through at a maximum speed of 155mph due to their clever design.

Where older tunnels spiral their way up the mountains, the Gotthard is completely flat. It’s the first flat route through the Alps or any other mountain range.

As the world’s longest tunnel, it bypasses the Channel Tunnel running between England and France by 7km.

It beat out the previous world record holder, Japan’s Seikan rail tunnel, by 3km. The Seikan tunnel connects the country’s two largest islands, Honshu and Hokkaido.

The tunnel was created to replace the first Gotthardbahn rail tunnel, an engineering marvel of its time that was completed in 1882.

Plans for its replacement began a century later in the 1980s. It was an ambitious and arduous project that took 17 years to build.

With 35 miles of mountain pressing down on the route, one of the critical challenges was how to prevent the tunnel from collapsing in on itself. Fortunately, reinforced steel rings spanning the tunnel support the weight of the mountain above.

The project required the use of a massive drill the length of four football fields. At 410m long and 10m wide, it carved through 40m of mountain a day.

A 26-year-old Nottingham woman said she was burnt out and cried every single day in work before she started a new life on the other side of the world — and she has no regrets about leaving

A burnt-out Brit who was so stressed she cried every day at work quit the UK for Australia — and claims she now makes double her salary.

Wynter Yeomans moved to Sydney, Australia, with her partner, Luke Richards, in February 2025 seeking a better work-life balance.

The 26-year-old, who worked in pharmaceutical marketing, landed a marketing job within three months of the move, claiming her pay packet and quality of life skyrocketed.

Wynter, who earned £25,000 in her previous job, said she now earns £48,000 ($90,500 AUD) and no longer ‘lives for the weekend’ — enjoying all free time outside of work.

While Wynter spends $1,500 (£795) on rent, she said other expenses like food and coffee are lower than in the UK.

Wynter, whose hometown Nottingham is 10,000 miles from where she now lives, said: “We loved the idea of living abroad so we decided instead of moving into a place in the UK to move to a place in Australia.

“I finish work and I’ve got the whole evening — people go to the beach and have BBQs with friends. There’s a lot less focus on the weekend, people are out most of the weekdays. I feel like in the UK you live for the weekends.

“I went travelling, I did Southeast Asia around 2022 for about five months and I loved it. Coming home after travelling really made me realise how much bigger the world is than your home town — meeting people and seeing different countries.

“As soon as I got back it was a shock to the system. When you’re travelling you are doing so much and then you come home and everyone is doing the same thing. I make so much more money, in the UK I was on £25,000 and here I’m on £48,000 for an entry position.

“I used to pay my mum £150 rent a month. Now I pay $1,500 in rent. I used to cry to my mum that I can’t afford her rent and now I don’t bat an eyelid.

“Things are so much cheaper here compared to the UK. You can get coffee for £2. You have your happy hours and people eat out all the time.”

After travelling in South East Asia in 2022, Wynter saw her mental health decline when she returned home in July 2023, describing the first six months back in the UK as “a dark place”.

Due to the stressful nature of her job, she claimed she would cry daily and break out in rashes.

In February 2025, Wynter and Luke, who now works as a tree surgeon, jetted out to Australia and say they now enjoy a better work-life balance.

But she warns of the difficulties of moving abroad that might not be visible on social media.

Wynter said: “I really struggled, I really didn’t fit it. The first six months were a dark place, I really struggled to get back to reality.

“I landed a corporate job. I would cry every day at work and I was so stressed, I was breaking out in rashes. It was cold, it would be dark when I drove to and back from work.

“We appreciate the summer in the UK and Brits love a pub garden, but the work-life balance — I found no one I worked with had that. My mental health was not great, I love the sun so we had a good reason to push to leave.

“It’s easy to see people on TikTok living amazing lives, it took me three months to get my job. I have a science background and did pharmaceutical marketing in the UK.

“It can be really scary picking up your whole life and moving, everything is so uncertain. You can try it and if it doesn’t work out you can go back home.

“I came with my partner and I’m very fortunate in that. You just have to trust the process.”