During the latest edition of the ITV morning programme (October 30), Ranvir Singh and Paul Brand announced the death of Sir Patrick Stewart. The legendary Star Trek and stage actor died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday (October 28) at the age of 86, following a “brief and poignant journey” with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Just moments into GMB, Ranvir said: “Sir Patrick Stewart, the star of everything from Star Trek to Shakespeare, has died at the age of 86. Born in Yorkshire, he conquered the world of acting.”
Ranvir went on: “I think there was a whole nation going, ‘Oh no,’ about Sir Patrick Stewart, what a giant of stage and screen. [He has] sadly died at the age of 86, following a short battle with dementia. Friends have paid tribute to the actor, calling him a titan of his craft.”
Paul added: “Sir Patrick’s talent saw him move effortlessly from performing Shakespeare, to delivering epic Hollywood performances, becoming one of the most loved performers of his generation.”
Philip Sime then looked back on Sir Patrick’s career in a pre-recorded segment. He began: “To millions around the world, he is Jean-Luc Picard, the calm and courageous commander of the USS Enterprise.”
Sir Patrick was born in Yorkshire, into a home marred by poverty and domestic abuse. Acting first on stage, then on screen, was his escape. He would go on to play Professor Charles Xavier in the blockbuster X-Men films, securing his position as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
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William Shatner said: “He brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did.” Hugh Jackman simply called the star “one of the greats of stage and screen”.
Philip went on: “Sir Patrick’s swansong, though, will be the upcoming Avengers film. One last appearance alongside a lifelong friend.”
Back in the studio, Ranvir said: “A remarkable man, an absolute hero… He was an ambassador for Women’s Refuge, because, of course, his mother suffered domestic abuse at the hands of watching his father attack his mother when he was young. He spoke about it so openly, and it definitely changed lives, especially for young boys growing up in those environments. So many people want to thank him this morning.”
GMB viewers were quick to pay tribute across social media, with one X user writing: “A Yorkshire legend who will be forever immortalised in Sci-fi, Shakespeare, and comics.” Another added: “Not just a sci-fi actor but brilliant comedy actor and his classical work would leave you breathless. I was SO affected by his role of Macbeth at Gielgud Theatre. I still have the framed poster on my living room wall.”
A third said: “I don’t think I realised just how much Patrick Stewart meant to me until I saw this news tonight. Been sitting here watching old clips with tears in my eyes. My childhood, my heroes, my Captain. Thank you for everything, Sir Patrick.”
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More information about dementia is available via organisations including the NHS and Dementia UK
Coronation Street’s Debbie Webster and Ronnie Bailey faced a split on Friday night, as the pair clashed amid Debbie deteriorating following her dementia diagnosis on the soap
Coronation Street’s Debbie Webster and Ronnie Bailey faced a split on Friday night(Image: ITV)
Fans of Coronation Street were left fearing for a popular couple after Friday’s episode of the ITV soap. Debbie Webster’s out-of-character behaviour continued, and it put pressure on her relationship with her husband Ronnie Bailey. Debbie has dementia, and recently she’s deteriorated hugely.
She’s starting to struggle with recognising people she knows well, and has even called Ronnie the wrong name. Making mistakes at work has also added to the strain, and she has moments where she forgets things have happened.
Ronnie shared his concerns this week about being intimate with his wife, in case she forgot who he was. Things worsened on Friday after drama with a bride and groom at the hotel.
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Events led to Debbie and Ronnie rowing at home, and Ronnie admitted she wasn’t the woman he had fallen in love with. Struggling to care for Debbie and to deal with her condition, Ronnie claimed Debbie was close to throwing herself at another man.
Calling her “so random”, he admitted he didn’t know what she was going to do next. It’s then that he left Debbie heartbroken by his comment about her not being the woman he loved, and she kicked him out of the house.
As Ronnie left, a broken Debbie burst into tears, reeling that her marriage might be in crisis. But will Ronnie’s comment lead to Debbie ending things? Will Ronnie struggle to be with Debbie going forward, and could this lead to a devastating split for them?
Fans were heartbroken by the scenes, with one writing: “I truly feel for both Debbie and Ronnie. Of course you want your partner to desire you, but when you become someone’s caretaker that kinda gets pushed to the back burner.”
Another said: “Debbie breaking my heart in today’s episode. Sue is incredible.” A third viewer posted: “Wish they’d give Debbie some good times. Life’s tough enough for her and Ronnie. Give her a break writers.”
A final fan said: “I think it’s only just begun and the heartbreak to come will be deserving of an award from all involved and especially Sue Devaney.” It comes following the show announcing that former character Owen Armstrong is returning after a decade away.
Actor Ian Puleston-Davies is reprising his role, and there’s set to be trouble for Gary Windass. Owen decides to move back to the Cobbles to live with his daughter Izzy Armstrong, amid trouble with Owen’s young grandson Jake.
His scenes won’t air until January 2027, but actor Ian is back filming very soon. After nearly 11 years, Owen returns to the Street, and it’s said he is far from impressed by Gary’s behaviour of late.
Blaming Gary for Izzy and Jake’s own drama, it’s been teased Owen’s comeback could spell trouble for Gary’s business at the builders yard. Commenting on his return after his exit in 2015, Ian said: “I can’t wait to pick up where I left off ten years ago! It’s brilliant to be back and to get stuck into a cracking storyline. Owen’s back and he’s still angry!”
EXCLUSIVE: His co-star Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Raquel, says it was ‘poignant and quite sobering’ watching the comedy legend grapple with the past
21:31, 18 Oct 2026Updated 21:32, 18 Oct 2026
David Jason was at the peak of his career in the 1990s
Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones has told how Sir David Jason felt saddened watching himself playing Del Boy in lost archive clips, as he hankered to be back in his prime.
The actress, who played his wife Raquel from 1988 for 15 years, says she enjoyed sitting with him, and other actors from the hit BBC sitcom, to watch newly discovered gems that they all believed had been lost many decades ago.
But she revealed that at times the 86-year-old became maudlin as he looked back. “You know, he’d just been knighted, he was in every programme going, Darling Buds of May, all of them. And he said, ‘There I am in my prime, and now here I am as an old man sitting watching it.’ I found that really quite moving.
“He just said, ‘Oh, I’m finding it very sad,’ and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ I ended up becoming his therapist on the sofa and he said, ‘I just I look at myself then in my prime as the best I could possibly be,’ which of course he was then – in his forties and fifties, he was more famous than anyone in Britain on telly.
“And I knew what he meant when he said he felt sad because this is us looking back on what we were, particularly for him because he was at his absolute peak. It must have felt very peculiar. You’re not ever going to be what you were then.”
And she added: “He’s still a very vibrant man, he’s got a lot of energy, he’s doing things all the time, but it was just very poignant and quite sobering.”
At the end of the first episode, which airs on Tuesday, David can’t get over how good the pair of them looked back then. “It is difficult because we are looking back at a time when we were both beautiful,” he says. Tessa responds with positivity, telling him: “Maybe we still are but we don’t see it as easily.”
But speaking afterwards she said she had also found watching the lost archive clips and outtakes difficult at times too. “Some actors really like looking at themselves. I will run a mile, I absolutely loathe it. So it was slightly torturous for me, particularly because not only are you watching scenes that you’re acting in, but you’re 30 years older.”
She believes that the secret of the comedy’s longevity is that its humour, written by the late John Sullivan and also starring Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney, had universal appeal. “John didn’t leave anyone out. He really cared about family and he cared about what people shared watching on telly.
“I know we all go, ‘oh, isn’t Del awful with all his scams’, but at the end of the day he’d do anything for anyone. He was kind. Looking at comedy these days, bar the odd brilliant one like Ghosts, some of them are quite cruel. It doesn’t make me laugh when you see someone being horrid about someone else.”
Tessa, now 69, says that she has received thousands of letters from fans over the years wanting to talk about her role as Raquel.
But even though she was in Only Fools for many years, she still gets more fan mail for one tiny role that she played in 2013.
“I had 30 seconds of screen time on Doctor Who,” she laughs. “But it happened to be when one Doctor becomes another. I was in a Christmas special when it happened – it was Matt Smith leaving and Peter Capaldi coming in. I must have had six lines in it, maybe seven. But I’ve had more fan mail about that 30 seconds of screen time than anything I’ve ever done in my career.”
She said the Only Fools fans aren’t far behind the Doctor Who ones. “We have many extremely obsessive fans who are almost as as powerfully connected.”
Tessa said the remaining cast from the hit sitcom were all astonished to hear that 66 bits of film, including full scenes and outtakes, had been discovered. “What’s so hilarious is that I believe all these bits and bobs were found in like a drawer at the BBC in White City,” she laughs. “Think what other gems are in drawers somewhere in those buildings. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it?”
She said it had been hard at times to work out if she even knew whether the clips had been cut from the original upsides. “I suppose you’re you’re wound up in the general whirly gig of all of it. You’re rehearsing constantly. You’re filming every weekend – life’s marching at quite a pace. So I suppose even when you record these things, if they don’t get put in, you sort of forget them.”
But, in the films, Sir David marvels at just how much ends up on the cutting room floor. He laughs: “I remember discussing it with John – we cut more jokes out than other shows had got in their entire episode.” The extra bits span 10 episodes from the 90s and cover the stories about blow-up dolls, Peckham Spring water, Cassandra’s miscarriage and Raquel giving birth to Damian., as well as the Jolly Boys coach trip to Margate.
By the time Tessa joined in 1988 the show had been on air for seven years and was a huge hit. The actress is enormously proud of the reaction her first episode got, when Derek Trotter first met Raquel on a blind date. “John wrote that brilliant script and it’s the only time the programme’s ever won a BAFTA,” she recalls. “He did that just to see what would happen for Del Boy’s character if if he was to fall in love.”
Having conceived Raquel as a one-off character, the writer quickly changed his mind. “John saw the public response and thought he could take this character of Raquel further – that it might change the dynamics of Derek and Rodney Trotter’s relationship. He thought, ‘Iet’s bring her back and see what happens’. And then a lot did happen. Such a lot.”
Unlike Sir David Tessa does not consider Only Fools to be the pinnacle of her career. “This was one of many, many things. I wouldn’t call it the thing I’m proudest of, I don’t think it’s my greatest achievement being in Only Fools, much as I’ve loved doing it. I’ve still got to meet my peak,” she laughs. “I might reach it next year.”
And well she might because 2027 brings viewers not only the last series of ITV’s Grantchester, in which Tessa has played vicarage housekeeper Sylvia Chapman since 2014, but also new Channel 5 crime series The Last Resort, in which she stars as a sixty-something sleuth alongside Caroline Quentin and Jason Watkins.
Tessa believes that, for fans, these new documentaries will be the last surprise from Only Fools and Horses, which is marking its 45th anniversary having launched in 1981.. “We’re all too old and also there is no one to carry John Sullivan’s mantle,” she says. “He was a one-off genius. So I don’t think there can be any other surprises. Thank God for things like UK Gold – who knows, in 100 years people might still be watching it.”
– Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive, U&Gold, Tuesday 20th & 27th October
Charlene White, Brenda Edwards, Judi Love, and Kéllé Bryan returned to ITV screens this morning (Thursday, October 15) to front today’s instalment of Loose Women, where they were on hand to discuss the latest news and headlines from around the globe.
Just seconds in, today’s hosts shared some “sad news” that came as a shock as they expressed their love and support for their co-star, Ruth Langsford.
Earlier this week, Ruth took to social media to share the heartbreaking news that her dog Maggie had died, paying an emotional tribute.
On the show, Charlene said: “We’re going to start with some really sad news, actually. It came as a bit of a shock to all of us this morning when our Ruth shared the news that her beloved dog Maggie has sadly passed away.”
Sharing the emotional tribute Ruth had paid this morning, Charlene then added: “Loads of you watching will of course have known Maggie for years, wouldn’t they? All of us, she’s like a part of our family.”
Brenda said, “We were literally on the panel on Monday talking about Ruth and Maggie. Maggie is in every single conversation, and I’m sending so much love to Ruth right now because this is really sad.”
Admitting she didn’t understand the connection between owner and pet before she got her own cat, Judi added cat Bella is now a ‘part of the family.”
Charlene added: “We just absolutely adore Ruth, and we just know what a hit this will be”, as Kelle replied: “Absolutely, and I think the relationship between Maggie and Ruth’s mum has been one that we’ve all followed, and it’s been so lovely that every time Maggie goes in, mum lights up.”
The panel then sent their love for their co-star as tributes continue to pour in from fans and loved ones on social media.
In an emotional statement online, Ruth shared a photograph of Maggie as she wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that I tell you our beautiful Maggie has gone to sleep forever.
“She was 16 years old, and sadly, this was her time. Her passing was painless and peaceful, and we were with her until the very end. We are so thankful to have had her in our lives for 15 years… she gave us so much joy & unconditional love. We will treasure our memories forever. Rest in peace, our beautiful girl.”
