The listless team of the previous two games was gone. The inspired team of the previous month was back.
Earlier this week fans were asking, who are those guys? On Friday they emphatically answered that question by finally, forcefully, being themselves.
Faced with elimination in Game 6 of the World Series, the Dodgers rose from the presumed dead to haunt the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre with a 3-1 victory to knot the duel at three games apiece.
And they did with the most unlikely of saves, a game-ending double play on a lineout that Kiké Hernández caught in left field and threw to Miguel Rojas at second base.
How do the Blue Jays come back from that? How can the Dodgers not gain all the momentum from that?
The quest to become the first team in 25 years to win consecutive World Series championships lives.
The stage is set for all sorts of dramatics after a night when the Dodgers took an early three-run lead on the back of slump-busting Betts and then cruised to victory on the back of another brilliant pitching performance by Yamamoto and a surprising three-inning shutdown from the Dodger bullpen.
It didn’t end smoothly, but it ended splendidly, after reliever Roki Sasaki began the ninth by hitting Alejandro Kirk in the hand with a two-strike pitch, then Addison Barger hit a ball to center field that lodged under the outfield tarp for a ground-rule double.
With runners on second and third and no out, Tyler Glasnow made an emergency appearance and recorded that memorable save, retiring Ernie Clement on a first pitch popout and ending the game by inducing Andrés Giménez into a lineout that Hernandez perfectly threw to Rojas.
The Dodgers have been here before. It was just last year, in fact, when they needed consecutive wins against the San Diego Padres in the division series to save their season.
They calmly won both and rolled to a championship. A similar path could end in a similar destination this weekend after the Dodgers rebounded from two lifeless losses at Dodger Stadium to weather the loud Game 6 storm with calm and cohesion.
“Yeah, I mean, we all know that everything has to go perfect for us to be able to pull this off,” said Teoscar Hernández before the game.
So far, so good, beginning Friday with the much-maligned Betts, who smacked a two-out, two-run single in the third inning to give the Dodgers a lead they never lost. Next up, Yamamoto, who followed consecutive complete games by giving up one run on five hits in six innings.
Enter the bullpen, which had given up nine runs in the Dodgers three losses in this series. But the sense of dread lightened when Justin Wrobleski worked around a two-out double by Clement to end the seventh with a strikeout of Giménez.
On came Sasaki, who immediately found trouble in the eighth inning by yielding a single to George Springer and walking Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But the rookie remained calm, and retired Bo Bichette on a foul popout and Daulton Varsho on a grounder.
This set up the breathtaking ninth, the inspired Dodger tone actually set by manager Dave Roberts a day earlier. Roberts did his best Tommy Lasorda imitation by literally leaving it all on the field during Thursday’s day off when he challenged speedster Hyeseong Kim to a race around the bases. Roberts gave himself a generous head start, but as Kim was passing him up around second base, Roberts tripped and fell flat on his face.
The moment was caught on a video that quickly spread over social media and actually led the FOX broadcast before Friday’s game.
Roberts looked silly. But Roberts also looked brilliant, as his pratfall injected some necessary lightness into the darkening team mood.
“I clearly wasn’t thinking,” said Roberts. “I was trying to add a little levity, that’s for sure. I wasn’t trying to do a face-plant at shortstop, and yeah, the legs just gave way. That will be the last full sprint I ever do in my life.”
He lost, but he won.
“Of course it makes you smile and it makes you have a good time,” said Rojas. “When the head of the group is…loose like that, and he’s willing to do anything, that’s what it tells everybody, that he will do anything for the team.”
The spark was lit in the third inning Friday after Blue Jay starter Kevin Gausman had struck out six of the first seven batters.
Tommy Edman, one of last fall’s postseason heroes, ripped a one-out double down the right-field line. One out later, after Ohtani had been intentionally walked, Will Smith ripped an RBI double off the left-field wall.
It was the Dodgers first hit with runners in scoring position since the fifth inning of Game 3, but the surprise was just beginning.
After Freddie Freeman walked, the bases were loaded for Betts, who was the biggest villain of the Dodgers hitting drought with a .130 World Series average while stranding 25 consecutive baserunners. He had been dropped to third in the batting order in Game 5, and then dropped again to fourth for Game 6, and it finally worked, as he knocked a two-strike fastball into left field to drive in two runs and give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.
The Blue Jays came back with an heroic run in the bottom of the third when, after Addison Barger doubled down the left-field line, wincing George Springer fought off a painful side injury to drive a ball into right-center field to score Barger.
Catherine Tyldesley says her returning Coronation Street character Eva Price is set to lock horns once more with nemesis Maria Connor, while a ‘scary’ new arrival will also see a clash
21:00, 19 Oct 2025Updated 21:11, 19 Oct 2025
There’s set to be plenty of drama on Coronation Street as Eva Price makes her big return(Image: ITV)
There’s set to be plenty of drama on Coronation Street as Eva Price makes her big return.
Catherine Tyldesley reprises her role very soon, and it seems there’s more than one character she will clash with. Viewers will recall Eva’s feud with Maria Connor over Aidan Connor, with catfights and even a fight in a water fountain on Eva’s wedding day.
Well, we can confirm that conflict between the characters is still very much there, and it will be reignited when Eva makes her comeback. But it isn’t just Maria that Eva is set to clash with, as a “scary” new character features in dramatic scenes with the new Rovers Return landlady.
Catherine told The Mirror: “I was so thrilled when Kate Brooks said we’d be playing that out [between Eva and Maria]. Kate referenced Gail Platt and Eileen Grimshaw, which I just absolutely loved.
“She is a dog with a bone, she will lock onto things in the same way that Maria does. And Eva really loved Aidan, she really loved him. Although she’s moved on and she loves Ben, she finds that very hard to let go of and she loves a grudge, so I think that’s going to be a long-term thing. Don’t let them near any water features, I think.”
Then there’s Eva’s “mother-in-law from hell” Maggie Driscoll, and the pair do not get on. Catherine spilled: “I’ve watched a lot of what Pauline McLynn’s done and when I’m watching what she’s doing on set, sometimes I’ll just watch the monitor and I know I am seeing a Corrie icon.
“The writers have structured things for our characters, it’s hilarious, it’s constant jibes. But I think deep down, there’s a moment that we did not so long ago where Eva, in a roundabout way, says ‘If I wasn’t with Ben and I’d just met Maggie, I think we’d be mates.’ There’s a lot of similarities.
“They both love the family, they’re both striving for the same thing, it’s just that now and again they come to blows. But that’s great fun to play.” Things will get heated between them, with Catherine hinting that scenes will reveal just how “scary” Maggie can be.
She explained: “It’s an interesting one, because early doors, I wouldn’t say she’s scared of her, she’s more irritated by her. But as time goes on, Eva does start to see this side to her that’s like ‘Wow, okay, I’ve got your number’ and I think that element develops where she goes ‘Yeah, I am a little bit scared of her now and intimidated’, yes.”
There’s more nostalgia too when Eva bumps into her ex Adam Barlow, but Catherine says Eva’s new partner Ben has nothing to worry about. She told us: “The day that Eva left Weatherfield, Adam was slightly heartbroken but said ‘I really care about you.’
“They’ve maintained that and they’ve stayed in touch. You know when you can be friends with an ex – it’s rare, but it happens – and they’ve kept that. Ben doesn’t have anything to worry about there.”
Catherine also offered a glimpse of what we can expect with Eva being the new landlady. She shared: “I think it’s easy to underestimate Eva as a dizzy blonde. She does have that side to her and she’s great fun and can be dizzy and spontaneous but she is a very strong woman and we start to see even more reasons why, as time goes on, why she has got this inner strength.
“And also, she’s her mother’s daughter, Stella was a really strong woman, and that is probably part of the reason why her and Maggie clash so much, they’re such strong personalities. But again, to bring that fun dynamic into The Rovers, especially with Sean and Glenda, has just been an absolute scream.”
Catherine’s also thrilled to be reunited with co-stars Jane Danson and Georgia Taylor, who play Eva’s sisters Leanne and Toyah Battersby. She teased: “I’ve pretty much stayed in touch with everybody, so it’s extra lovely to come back to. That dynamic, the three witches reunited, it’s great.
“It’s strong women, again, and when they’re together, they’re even stronger, they’re a real force to be reckoned with. They’ve got each other’s backs, it’s that solidarity, it’s such a joy to play as an actress. The three concubines of Nick Tilsley, and the girls are just a dream and we’ve stayed in touch. I felt really welcomed by everyone, especially my sisters, so it’s great that we’ve got lots of stuff coming up together.”
THOMAS Skinner’s two-year-old twin daughters have been rushed to hospital.
The Strictly star opened up about his children’s “so so scary” dash to A&E overnight.
1
EROTEME.CO.UK FOR UK SALES: Contact Caroline If bylined must credit BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing Picture shows: Tom Skinner his wife and children Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke Hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman NON-EXCLUSIVE: Date: Saturday 20th September 2025 Job: 250920UT11 London, UK EROTEME.CO.UK Disclaimer note of Eroteme […]Credit: Eroteme
He told fans: “We are having a proper s*** time recently.
“My twins have spent all night in the hospital.
“Thank you to the wonderful NHS for looking after them.
“Back home with them now.
READ MORE ON THOMAS SKINNER
“They’ve both now had 2 fits each and it is so so scary.”
Host Giovanna said: “I know that in the years to come you do find yourself in a place where you are completely comfortable with your body.”
Natalie, who has been promoting her new bookHappy Days, replied: “I am but I think it damaged me doing that.
“Well I still would look in the mirror and go ‘oh I could be this, could be that.’
“But I think that is just us today.
“I just think it’s what we’re seeing all the time as women and men, but as women, I think it’s a scary world when you think about what we look like all the time.”
The soap actress opened up about signing up to do the DVD at a vulnerable time – and said she regrets her decision.
She added: “I’d lost mum at 19 so all of that weight stuff was happening through all of that time.
“Silly decisions were being made, shouldn’t have done that, not the right guidance.
“It’s a silly thing to do but if someone says ‘here’s £100,000 you want to lose some weight?’ I was like ‘yeah, I’ll take that’.”
EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy reveals she has finally ‘forgiven herself’ over horrific family loss
Natalie said losing weight for the DVD left her “worse off” with her body.
She explained: “It took a turn for the worse, I put loads of weight on very, very quickly afterwards, if not more.
“I think I just ate loads and then I started taking laxatives at some point.
“And you know I would never say I had an eating disorder, I’m very fortunate to say that, but you know I think if I had carried on with laxatives and this and that, who knows where I’d be.”
Natalie said that raising her daughters Eliza, 14, and Joanie, eight, helped her snap out the cycle.
She said: “I think because you’re not the be all and end all. You have those kids and that’s it. You forget about yourself.
“All you worry about, all you focus on is if they’re well cared for, their dinner, what they’re eating, what they’re wearing, are they sleeping. that that was my focus and the idea of worrying about what I look like kind of fell to the wayside.”
6
Natalie, who plays Sonya in Eastenders, shared how she was offered the DVD when ‘silly decisions were being made’Credit: BBC
DIET PILL RUMOURS
However, attention on her weight has not eased up over the years.
Just last year, Natalie, who has been with her BBC cameraman fiance Marc Humphrey since 2014, was forced to deny she used diet pills to lose weight.
Her fans were targeted by scams online and the actress took to her social media to clarify that she recently lost her weight by cutting out treats.
The actress previously told The Sun: “I cut out rubbish. I cut down on alcohol too, even though I love white wine.”
“Alcohol is full of hidden calories, which all add up when it comes to a person’s daily limit.”
Natalie explained: “I’ve never gone through any injectable route.
“I’ve not done Botox before or lip filler. I just haven’t. So to inject something, I’m just scared of it.”
Giovanna, 40 – mum to Buzz, 11, Buddy, nine, and Max, six – gave her own views on weight loss jabs and admitted that they have come up on her radar.
It’s a silly thing to do but if someone says ‘here’s £100,000 you want to lose some weight?’ I was like ‘yeah, I’ll take that’
Natalie Cassidy
The wife of McFly’s Tom Fletcher, explained: “Only because I’ve had people going and doing it in a way where it’s almost discussed in a way that they’re trying to encourage you to do it.
“I’m like, I don’t want to do that. No, I’m not interested.
“It feels so bizarre to go from ‘this is me’ to a ‘let’s change myself’, and for what?
“I don’t think anyone would like me more if I’m skinny.
“I don’t think anyone would love me more. I don’t think I’ll be happier.
“I think it would do the opposite.”
6
Giovanna Fletcher opened up about her views on weight loss jabsCredit: PA
What are the side effects of weight loss jabs?
Like any medication, weight loss jabs can have side effects.
Common side effects of injections such as Ozempic include:
Nausea: This is the most commonly reported side effect, especially when first starting the medication. It often decreases over time as your body adjusts.
Vomiting: Can occur, often in conjunction with nausea.
Diarrhea: Some people experience gastrointestinal upset.
Constipation: Some individuals may also experience constipation.
Stomach pain or discomfort: Some people may experience abdominal pain or discomfort.
Reduced appetite: This is often a desired effect for people using Ozempic for weight loss.
Indigestion: Can cause a feeling of bloating or discomfort after eating.
Serious side effects can also include:
Pancreatitis: In rare cases, Ozempic may increase the risk of inflammation of the pancreas, known as pancreatitis, which can cause severe stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Kidney problems: There have been reports of kidney issues, including kidney failure, though this is uncommon.
Thyroid tumors: There’s a potential increased risk of thyroid cancer, although this risk is based on animal studies. It is not confirmed in humans, but people with a history of thyroid cancer should avoid Ozempic.
Vision problems: Rapid changes in blood sugar levels may affect vision, and some people have reported blurry vision when taking Ozempic.
Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar): Especially if used with other medications like sulfonylureas or insulin.
No one goes to Cannes expecting to be frightened by a film about a long-dead British writer. Unless, of course, that writer is George Orwell.
When Raoul Peck’s documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5” premiered at the festival in May, the crowd reacted with the startled tension of a horror screening — gasps, murmurs, a few cries — before finally breaking into thunderous applause.
What they saw on screen felt both familiar and terrifyingly current. Peck builds the film entirely from Orwell’s words, delivered in a low, steady burn by actor Damian Lewis (“Billions”), repositioning the dying author of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in his final tubercular days on the Scottish Isle of Jura, into today’s world. His vision of power, propaganda and language as a weapon meets a barrage of torn-from-the-news imagery: refugees adrift on boats, authoritarian leaders twisting the truth, AI hallucinations blurring what’s left of reality. The film, to be released nationwide on Friday by Neon, plays less like a documentary than a séance in which Orwell’s ghost watches his own warnings play out: urgent, relentless, immersive as a nightmare.
Peck says the Cannes reception didn’t surprise him.
“I knew it would touch a nerve,” Peck, 72, says over Zoom from New York. His calm, French-accented voice — he’s based in Paris but travels frequently — carries the quiet fatigue of someone who’s spent decades watching history repeat itself. “It’s not just a problem of the U.S. — it’s everywhere. We have all sorts of bullies and there’s no reliable sheriff in town. Even the most powerful institutions are on shaky ground. I knew the film would either break people or energize them. If you’re a normal citizen, a normal human being, you must ask yourself questions when you come out of it.”
There are no talking heads in Peck’s film, no experts spelling out the relevance of an author who died in 1950. Instead, he draws from the writer’s letters and diaries, as well as the longer-form works like the barnyard political allegory “Animal Farm” and the dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” He also weaves in fragments from past screen adaptations of Orwell’s titles, including the 1954 animated “Animal Farm” and Michael Radford’s stark, desaturated adaptation of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” starring John Hurt, cross-cutting them with current images of drone wars, surveillance and algorithmic control.
A scene from the documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5.”
(Velvet Film)
“Raoul has been unbelievably thorough,” says narrator Lewis via Zoom from his home in London, where he regularly rides his bike past one of Orwell’s former residences. “The film is dense in the best way, thick with ideas and images. You come out of it feeling like you’ve been through something important.”
Lewis, who delivers Orwell’s words with a steely intensity that builds toward alarm, says his warnings have only grown more urgent.
“I read recently that about 37% of countries in the world are now categorized as not free,” he adds. “That’s getting dangerously close to half the planet. What Raoul’s film captures — and what Orwell saw so clearly — is how authoritarian ideas don’t arrive overnight. They creep up on us, little by little, as words like ‘democracy’ get redefined to mean whatever those in power want them to mean.”
Peck’s filmmaking has long blurred the line between art and activism. Born in Haiti, he fled with his family from François Duvalier’s dictatorship in 1961 and grew up in what was then the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where his father worked for the United Nations. After studying engineering and economics in Berlin, he returned home to serve as Haiti’s minister of culture in the 1990s. His breakthrough, the Oscar-nominated 2016 film “I Am Not Your Negro,” channeled James Baldwin’s words to examine race and power in America and the country’s uneasy reckoning with its past. He continued that exploration in HBO’s “Exterminate All the Brutes” (2021), tracing the myths of empire and white supremacy that shape the modern world.
“If I can’t mix politics and art, I probably wouldn’t make a project,” Peck says. “That’s what Orwell himself said — ‘Animal Farm’ was the first time he was really trying to link politics with art. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do all my life as a filmmaker.”
Few writers have been more quoted — or misquoted — than Orwell. Decades after coining ideas such as Newspeak (state-controlled language) and doublethink (the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at once), he’s been claimed by every side: Fear-mongering politicians cite him, pundits weaponize him, partisans wield “Orwellian” as shorthand for whatever offends them most. Even President Trump recently praised Orwell in the same breath as Shakespeare and Dickens at a state banquet at Windsor Castle.
Asked what Orwell would make of that, Peck gives a small, mirthless laugh.
“He would probably faintly smile,” he says. “Because that’s exactly what he wrote about — how thought corrupts language and language corrupts thought. We’re living doublespeak now in an exponential way, the bully using the words of justice and peace while bombing people at the same moment. It’s so absurd. That’s why I feel so close to him. Coming from Haiti, I learned very early that what politicians were saying never matched my reality.”
George Orwell, author of “1984” and “Animal Farm,” whose warnings about power and language echo through the timely documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5.”
(Associated Press)
Peck came to the project warily. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to touch Orwell,” he admits. “Where I come from, Orwell had been turned into a kind of Cold War mascot.” Raised under Mobutu Sese Seko’s U.S.-backed regime in what became Zaire and later educated in America and Europe, he was keenly aware of how Orwell’s legacy had been co-opted, from the CIA’s funding of the 1954 animated “Animal Farm” to the deployment of his books as Cold War propaganda.
“That was not something that interested me,” Peck says. “I grew up deconstructing everything I was getting from the West, including Hollywood movies.”
Then came a call from his friend, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and producer Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side”), who was involved with a project that had secured the rights to Orwell’s complete body of work and wanted Peck to direct it.
“How could I say no?” he recalls. “For a filmmaker like me, who loves to dig deep into someone’s mind and work, it was an incredible gift.”
What Peck found wasn’t a prophet or a symbol but a man full of contradictions: a writer wrestling with class, illness and empire, trying to fuse politics and art before his own time ran out. That realization deepened when he came across a photograph of Orwell as a baby in the arms of his Burmese nanny, a white child of the British Empire cradled by the colonized woman charged with his care. Born into what he called the “lower-upper-middle class,” Orwell gradually recognized his own complicity in the system he opposed and came to despise his role as a kind of middle manager in the machinery of oppression.
“His own biography — born in India, sent to Burma as a young soldier, doing what he did there and being ashamed of it — drew him closer to my own experience,” Peck says. “We were from the same world. We saw the same things.”
To embody Orwell, Peck turned to Lewis, also known for “Band of Brothers” and “Homeland.”
“I knew I was telling a story, not making a traditional documentary,” Peck says. “So I needed a great British actor, someone with real stage experience. I knew Damian could bring the presence I wanted — to be Orwell, not imitate him. That was the main direction I gave him: to work from the interior.”
“If we don’t bring rules around AI very rapidly, we won’t be able to put the paste back in the tube,” says filmmaker Raoul Peck. “AI is an instrument and should stay an instrument. That means we’re using it. It’s not using us.”
(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)
Lewis, who had previously voiced Orwell for the international Talking Statues project — an app that lets passersby scan a QR code to hear historical figures “speak” — approached the feature-length performance with similar restraint.
“His language, the rhythm of his prose, dictates the rhythm of delivery,” he says. “Raoul was very clear that it should sound intimate and conversational, not overly formal. That’s what we tried to aim for — something direct, specific, detailed and personal.”
Much of “Orwell: 2+2=5” unfolds like a fever dream, Orwell’s words colliding with scenes from the present, including bombed-out streets in Gaza and Ukraine. “There were too many conflicts to include,” Peck says. “So I had to find the connections — what repeats, how bodies are treated, how power behaves.”
In one of the film’s most charged moments, Peck turns Orwell’s warning about political language into a montage of modern euphemisms: “peacekeeping operations,” “collateral damage,” “illegals” — and then, pointedly, “antisemitism 2024.” He knows the inclusion is provocative but says that’s the point: to show how words can be twisted or emptied of meaning, including in debates over Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Every word is precise,” Peck says. “I don’t say the Jews, I don’t say Israel, I say the Israeli administration. But even then, there’s a reflex — you can’t touch this.”
At Cannes, that moment drew applause. One of Peck’s closest friends — a Jewish writer who, he notes, agrees with him on nearly everything politically — told him later that while she was deeply moved by the film, she’d felt a jolt of fear as the audience clapped.
“We talked about it,” Peck says. “In France today, you can’t touch that term. And for me, that’s the beginning of the end — when you can’t speak your mind.”
He recalls being in New York after 9/11, unable to voice unease about the flag-waving and rush to war. “I cried like everybody else,” he says. “But when, after five days, you’re asked to wave a flag, that’s using your humanity for war. The point is the same — to shut down conversation.”
Peck carries Orwell’s warning into the digital present. The writer’s words play against AI-generated images and voices, echoes of the future he once imagined.
“He wrote about it without knowing it would be called AI,” Peck says. “He said someday you’d be able to write whole books and newspapers with artificial intelligence — exactly what’s happening now.”
For Peck, the technology is the next front in the battle over truth and power. In his film, every AI-generated sound, image and piece of music is clearly labeled with onscreen text.
“There should be transparency about that,” he says. “If we don’t bring rules around AI very rapidly, we won’t be able to put the paste back in the tube. Profit is the only guideline right now — nobody’s controlling its impact, not on energy, not on children, not on schools. AI is an instrument and should stay an instrument. That means we’re using it. It’s not using us.”
Even as “Orwell: 2+2=5” reaches theaters, Peck is already working on two new documentaries, including one about the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
“It’s an incredible geopolitical mess,” he says. “Every day I discover more. I need to go back to fiction for a while — documentaries are exhausting. But I can’t complain. I wish everyone could be as passionate about their work as I am.”
For all its darkness, Peck insists on leaving a sliver of light. He points to Orwell’s line in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”: “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
“The civil society is always the one who saved the day — the civilians, the students, the churches, the alliances,” he says. “Like the civil rights movement. Blacks, Jews, whites, churches, everybody sat down around the table and decided to have a strategy. And unfortunately, that’s the only thing we have. It’s long and it’s hard, but that door is still open. It’s us, individually and collectively, who have to make that choice.”
What keeps him going, he says, isn’t optimism so much as duty.
“If I lived completely engulfed in my own bubble, I’d probably be desperate,” he says. “What keeps me grounded is that I still have friends in Congo. I still work with Haiti every day. I talk with journalists who risk their lives in Gaza. So I can’t afford to look at those people and say, ‘I’m tired.’ They’re still doing the work.”
He pauses, his voice tightening. “People laugh at the latest stupidity from the president, as if it’s funny,” he says. “But that’s a dictatorship coming. He’s attacking every institution — newspapers, academia, justice, business. It’s the same playbook. They change the laws first, because most people would rather obey the law than say ‘No, two plus two equals four.’ That’s what authoritarian leaders count on.”
He sits quietly for a moment. “People are waiting for miracles,” he says finally. “But there are no miracles.”
Married At First Sight UK is introducing three more couples to the chaotic E4 experiment, with The Mirror revealing a first look at one of the nervous couples
17:45, 06 Oct 2025Updated 17:45, 06 Oct 2025
Married At First Sight UK is well underway, but the E4 programme likes to keep things interesting by introducing several new couples almost two weeks after the experiment begins. Three more couples will join the chaos of the already tense series, which has many of the couples struggling to get along.
In a first look shared with The Mirror, Abi, 34, is seen with her new hubby, John, 38, taking professional photos. John has been single for five years and calls himself a ‘Romantic Romeo’, claiming he’s single as he gives off ‘single man energy’. Meanwhile, Abi revealed she’s never had a relationship that lasted longer than a year.
The clip starts with John asking his wife whether she walked down the aisle with her mother, to which she confirmed that she did.
She then said: “Just to warn you, she’s never liked any of my previous partners. She’s quite hard to please. So you might have a bit of a grilling from her.”
During a confessional, a determined John said: “I would try to and prove myself to Abi’s mum. It’s scary, really, before Abi separately confessed that her mum “isn’t afraid to say how she feels”.
A teaser clip that aired on Sunday night gave fans a glimpse of Abi’s mother’s “honesty”. John said in the voiceover: “Today is now or never, everything is riding on this.”
The narrator then teased drama and says: “But will an over protective mum derail the first new couple’s first day?”
Abi’s mum insisted she “will not see her hurt again” during the confessional and later told the groom: “The last thing I want to be is upset by some arrogant person that comes along.”
Her mum said to the camera in another clip: “I am the one that vets everybody, I am the bad guy. Beware.”
Other new intruder latecomers to the show include April, who has been single since 2023, and Leisha, who hopes to settle down and start a family.
Meanwhile, Leo, 31, calls himself bombastic and a “yes man” who has been single for five years, while Reiss, 33, is a painter and decorator who has been unattached for six months.
The three new couples arrive as the original contestants continue to navigate their difficult relationships.
Former England captain and World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi sensed some frustration from Mitchell.
The Red Roses head coach confirmed he will rotate his squad for the second pool game against Samoa next Saturday so everyone has played, which could further affect cohesion.
“Mitchell is not happy with that performance,” Alphonsi told BBC One.
“He will take away that England were not accurate. They had six weeks together and didn’t really execute.
“It is interesting to see how he reacts as he will expect more from his second group when they come out against Samoa.
“They will want to put out a performance that shows what they can do as you have to build it up.”
England last became world champions in 2014 and are on a 28-game winning run, having not lost since the World Cup final defeat by New Zealand in 2022.
Simon Middleton, who was in charge of England for that showpiece game three years ago and the 2017 final loss to the Black Ferns, disagreed that Mitchell would be unhappy with the opening performance.
“I think Mitchell will be all right with that as it was a difficult game,” Middleton told BBC One.
“You train, train, train and it was a typical opening game of the World Cup. The biggest thing is that it looks like they have come out of it with no injuries, which is so important, particularly at half-back.
“I thought their discipline was fantastic. Games like that can get loose. I thought they were aggressive around the contact area.
“The set-piece was great and the scrum was fantastic. They played with real tempo. There are always things to fix up.”
It’s common for food served on flights to seem different and while some passengers enjoy it, others don’t. A well-known UK doctor has spoken about why he doesn’t eat plane food.
A doctor has spoken out against eating in-flight meals (stock photo)(Image: Getty Images/500px Plus)
Air travel is the main way holiday-goers choose to visit exotic destinations, especially in summer, and regular flyers will be familiar with the food available on planes. Many airlines, such as easyJet, TUI and Jet2 provide a variety of snacks and drinks that passengers can buy on board and longer, international flights often include complimentary meals.
Some travellers look forward to their inflight meals whereas others prefer to bring their own food with them. Dr Rangan Chatterjee is thought to be one of the most influential medical doctors in the UK and is best known for his TV show Doctor in the House and for being the resident doctor on BBC Breakfast. He is also the author of the number one Sunday Times bestseller Make Change That Lasts.
The healthcare professional recently posted a video on TikTok featuring a clip from his Feel Better Live More podcast where he discussed the ‘scary truth’ about plane food with surgeon and wellness expert Dr Darshan Shah.
Dr Chatterjee recalled a time when he spoke to a cabin service director onboard a flight who allegedly said he always brings his own food on planes only because “the stuff that needs to be added to plane food so that you find it tasty at altitudes, if you knew you wouldn’t touch anything on here.”
Dr Shah also shared: “I noticed that if I eat the meal that they gave me in the flight, not only does my glucose shoot up but it would stay up for hours and I was like, ‘I’m going to fast on every plane trip now. It’s just not worth eating’.”
Plane food often has increased salt and seasoning to make up for the reduced ability to taste flavours when flying at high altitudes.
The magazine Prima reported that reduced air pressure and dry cabin air dry out our noses, which dulls our ability to taste.
It further revealed that chefs and scientists have also discovered that umami, a new flavour known as the ‘fifth taste’, enhances the taste of many foods when you’re flying.
This is especially abundant in food like tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
Conde Nast Traveller spoke to Ellie Birch, senior nutritionist at Holland & Barrett about the food served on planes.
She told the publication : “Food on planes also typically tends to be ultra-processed and low in nutritional value. The meals tend to be lower in fiber and higher in sugar, salt, and preservatives, which can cause digestive issues, too.”
In his TikTok post, Dr Chatterjee remarked that the conversation he had with the cabin service director was “quite interesting.”
He added: “I already wasn’t eating plane food anyway, but that made me even more convinced.”
Dr Shah responded: “Oh that makes total sense because it just feels like the food has a tremendous amount of additives to it.”
The TV doctor’s TikTok clip has garnered 326,800 views, more than 9,300 likes and almost 200 comments, at the time of writing.
One user agreed: “He’s right, I used to work for an aviation food manufacturer and they have labs to make sure it tastes right because our tastebuds change at that altitude.”
Another added: “I’m always bloated on flights after a meal and I don’t normally get bloated.”
However, some viewers weren’t as concerned about the food on planes as a third said: “Depends on how often you fly. It makes perfect sense for a steward to avoid it.”
A fourth chimed in: “Stuff they add to our everyday food, if we knew we wouldn’t eat anything.”
A Benidorm expert has warned Brits that a common crime in the popular tourist hotspot has taken a “scarier twist” in recent times – and she knows from personal experience
Liam McInerney Content Editor
08:00, 17 Jun 2025
Stock image of people walking along the Benidorm promenade(Image: GETTY)
A Benidorm specialist has issued a stark warning to Brits, stating that a common crime in the popular holiday destination has taken a “scarier twist”.
Michelle Baker, who moved to Spain 40 years ago and raised a family in Benidorm while running a newspaper for two decades, now shares information through her Facebook group, Benidormforever. She has urged visitors to stay alert.
“Phone theft is the No1 crime in Benidorm and it’s now taken a scarier twist,” she penned, revealing details about a new phone scam.
She added: “I’m generally very positive about Benidorm, but several people I know personally have told me this happened to them recently (all of whom I consider streetwise individuals and none were drunk).”
Michelle revealed that she nearly fell victim herself to this crime in recent weeks, describing it as “clearly common and very easy to fall for”, before explaining what the crime involved.
Michelle Baker has lived in Benidorm longer than most Brits (Image: Benidormforever)
She explained: “You’re approached by an agitated young individual who has ‘lost’ his friends and can’t remember where he’s staying. He explains vaguely where he thinks it is and you open Google Maps on your phone to help him find his way.
“Once your phone is unlocked he snatches it and runs FAST; with adrenaline on his side he’s a two second head-start before you even react. Quickly passing the phone to tech savvy experts, within minutes passwords were expertly changed and large amounts of savings swiped.
“I was lucky; I didn’t get my phone out I simply told the chap who stopped me where his hotel was… but my friends weren’t so lucky and are absolutely gutted to have fallen for this.
“It’s even sadder when you consider the many recent genuine stories of tourists getting lost, sometimes with tragic endings..
“So the moral of the story is; keep your phone out of sight; at best it’ll be swiped from a bar table and sold on for a few euros… but now it appears you’ll have all your money nicked too.”
Brits in Benidorm watching King Charles’ coronation in the sun (Image: Getty)
Michelle emphasised that while the incidents were non-violent, they could still “ruin your holiday”.
She added, if you are approached by someone seemingly lost asking for help, guide them to the nearest hotel rather than whipping out your mobile.
Following the incident, two young individuals, aged 19 and 20, were apprehended by the Policia Nacional.
The authorities subsequently issued advice to never enter passwords or codes into your phone if there are onlookers, and to utilise different passwords for banking applications as a precaution against theft.
The Foreign Office has issued a warning to travellers, stating: “Be alert to the risk of street crime. Thieves use distraction techniques and often work in teams. Take care of your passports, money and personal belongings, particularly when collecting or checking in luggage at the airport, and while arranging car hire.
“Do not carry all your valuables in one place. Keep a copy of the photo page of your passport somewhere safe. Make sure your accommodation has adequate security. Keep all doors and windows locked. If you’re concerned about the security of your accommodation, speak to your travel operator or the property owner.”
