show biz

During a podcast interview, Alex Jones has opened up about the sexting scandal, which saw her former The One Show co-presenter Jermaine Jenas sacked by the BBC last year

The One Show star Alex Jones has said she was “the last to know” about Jermaine Jenas’ sexting scandal, which saw him sacked by the BBC. The TV presenter and football pundit, 42, was axed in August last year over claims he had sent inappropriate texts to female colleagues. He was removed from his role as a presenter of The One Show and a pundit for BBC Sport after an internal investigation was launched.

Jenas’ BBC contract was terminated and he also parted ways with his long-term agents MC Saatchi in addition to being let go from his role presenting Formula E. Now Alex, 48, has spoken about the scandal while appearing on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast.

The TV star, who worked alongside Jenas until his departure from the show last year, said: “JJ and I had become good friends. I was the last to know. The BBC dealt with it, and I think if people feel uncomfortable, they have to deal with it.

READ MORE: Six bombshells from Jermaine Jenas sext scandal as guilt leaves star ‘like a zombie’

“If it was my daughter, and she was at work in whatever industry and she felt uncomfortable, I would hope to God that I’d given her the tools to be able to speak up.” She added: “If she was brave enough to speak up, because it is a brave thing to do, I would hope that the company, corporation, whoever, would deal with it.

“Lots of journalists are asked, ‘Have you ever had experiences that are uncomfortable?’ I mean, if you go back to the 90s, early 2000s, there was stuff and there were ways that things were said that weren’t great. But, nothing has stuck with me, nothing makes me shudder. And I know the type of girl I was then, and I wouldn’t have handled it.”

Alex said she has “a lot of respect” for the women who spoke out, which she described as “an incredibly brave thing to do.” In addition to the professional repercussions, the scandal also led to the breakdown of Jenas’ marriage. In March, Jenas’ Ellie Penfold announced her split from him. Ellie, who shares four children with the presenter, took so social media to confirm the end of their 16-year relationship.

“I never imagined I would have to share something so personal with the public, but given the situation, I feel it’s necessary,” she said. “After 16 years together and 4 wonderful children, Jermaine and I have decided to part ways.

“We will remain friends and continue to co-parent. We kindly ask that you respect our children’s privacy during this challenging time. Thank you, Ellie.” After the allegations emerged, Jenas said that he was “ashamed of himself” after the allegations came to light, and that his wife was livid and not speaking to him.

The axed host has stressed he has done nothing illegal and said he was sorry if he made any of the women he had messaged feel uncomfortable. Jenas spoke of his shame after his world collapsed following the corporation’s confirmation and an “excruciating” meeting with HR and execs. The former One Show star denied sending any explicit pictures or videos.

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LIAM Payne’s sister has paid an emotional tribute on the anniversary of the late star’s funeral.

Pop star Liam tragically died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires in October last year.

Ruth posted an emotional tribute to her brother, one year on from his funeral – with an early image of the siblings together.

Alongside the post, Ruth wrote: “A year ago today, the hardest goodbye I’ll ever have, a funeral I should never have had to plan and every day since, I should have never had to live without him.

“Missing him now is part of breathing, it doesn’t get easier, that’s just a lie to make it feel better: Infinite love, infinite loss.”

Ruth’s post comes after she shared another tribute on the one year anniversary of Liam’s death.

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In an open letter to him, a devastated Ruth wrote: “I underestimated grief, woah, did I underestimate it. I am paralysed by it daily.

“I thought I had felt it before but I know the losses before you were just intense sadness, you are the loss of my life, the one person who l will miss at every single occasion in my life.

“I’d taken for granted that my little brother would be there through life. 

“You shouldn’t have died.”

Ruth also revealed she’s been having a recurring nightmare that places her in Liam’s hotel room moments before his death on that fateful night.

She said, in it, Liam “can’t hear me screaming for you, my brain is locked on your last minutes on this earth, the unaccounted minutes, the minutes I will never have the answers to, the minutes that changed everything.”

Such is the loss, Ruth said that the life of the Payne family has been “extinguished” and is “impossible to mend”.

She continued: “You died which is something that happened, but your absence is something that happens to me everyday before I even open my eyes.”

In gut-wrenching paragraphs she details how she’d love to spend just five more minutes with him and the things she would tell him, from catching up on plans, to listening to the birds and swapping jokes.

Liam’s Last Days

By Scarlet Howes

SEPTEMBER 20: Liam and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, arrive in Argentina for a five-day holiday.

OCTOBER 2: The star goes to see ex-bandmate Niall Horan while he is on tour, telling fans on Snapchat: “It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

OCTOBER 12: Kate flies back home to Florida after two weeks away, leaving Liam in Argentina.

She tells her followers on TikTok: “Love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long and we were supposed to be there for five days, turned into two weeks and I was just like, ‘I need to go home’.”

OCTOBER 13: Liam checks into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel alone three days before he died. He was reportedly asked to leave his previous hotel.

OCTOBER 15: Hours before his death, he spends some time with Aldana Serrano, 31, and Lucila Goitea, 27, who arrived at the hotel at about 11.30am local time and left at 4pm, just one hour before he died.

At about 5pm, Liam is said to have been arguing over money with a mystery woman in the lobby, before falling 45ft and landing in the inner courtyard of the hotel.

Ending her letter to Liam, she asks people to remember that there is a family at the heart of the story who have lost someone very dear to them.

She says: “Whilst I am still on my knees struggling to regain balance since my world burned down and every time I try to take a step, something comes and sets fire to all the progress I thought I had made in my mind, in trying to understand where or why Liam isn’t here helping me through this.

“Everyone only seems interested in the public side of this, some sadly seem more interested in the fame they can gain off this, but on the human side people need to remember when they speak, there is a son without his Dad, parents without their child and I am lost without my brother.

“Love always Liam, in every lifetime.”

Liam died shortly after 5pm on October 16, 2024 when he fell from his hotel balcony.

Liam, who was the dad of seven-year-old Bear, shared a post on Snapchat only minutes before his death and showed him and his girlfriend Kate Cassidy looking into a mirror.

The singer-songwriter was staying at Hotel CasaSur in the neighbourhood of Palermo.

Liam had flown to Argentina with girlfriend Kate Cassidy for a five-day holiday, to see his ex-1D bandmate Niall Horan in concert.

Liam extended the trip but Kate returned home to the US.

It is claimed Liam then turned to drink and drugs.

An autopsy confirmed he died from multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding.

A toxicology report revealed alcohol, cocaine and an antidepressant, which would have left him severely impaired.

Ezequiel David Pereyra — who is awaiting trial for allegedly selling the singer cocaine — recently spoke out for the first time from jail.

Pereyra, 22 — locked up in Marcos Paz jail two hours from the capital — claims hotel bosses turned a blind eye to all of Liam’s drug use in October 2024.

He said: “They had him in an isolated bunker and let him do anything he wanted including drugs in the room, and in public areas of the hotel.

“Bosses said he was making them too much money — triple the money.

“But I think the biggest mistake was not calling an ambulance when Payne passed out in the lobby.

“If the hotel had acted differently Liam could have been saved.

“They lifted him by his arms and legs and carried him to the room via the elevator. He should have been kept where he was and an ambulance called.

“But because that day they had many foreign guests checking in they decided to take him to the room in the condition he was in.

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“After that they called police instead of an ambulance. They made the call only after leaving him in the room alone. By the time they were making the call it was already too late.

“What happened was very sad. Liam’s death was truly tragic and could have been prevented.”

Do you like your “Wicked” sweet or sour?

How you answer may be the key in how much you enjoy the sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” which opens today and is on track to sell more tickets in its first weekend than its predecessor.

Will the new movie once again cast a spell at the Oscars? The answer, for the moment, is confusifying.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and someone hoping to see a movie at the Village before the Olympics land in L.A. in 2028. Which film should they book to kick off its revival?

‘Wicked’ can’t defy gravity this time

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform at the 97th Academy Awards in March.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Who wasn’t charmed by the first “Wicked” movie last year? Film critics gave it more than a pass, with reviews scoring a respectable 73 grade on aggregator site Metacritic. Audiences loved it, powering the film to a $758 million worldwide box office haul. And Oscar voters fell in line, rewarding “Wicked” with 10 nominations and wins for production design and costumes. Gratitution abounded.

Repeating success is a taller order, our beloved Dodgers notwithstanding. As noted, multiplexes should be full this first weekend and, you’d expect, the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend as well. But the reviews haven’t been as kind this time around. “Wicked: For Good” sits at a 60 on Metacritic. Empire magazine’s review sums up the sentiment: “‘Wicked: For Good,’ sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.”

Sequels rarely land as well as the original film, so the drop-off isn’t surprising. And, if you’ve seen the Broadway musical, you already knew this was coming. All the best songs are packed into the show’s first act, culminating in the soaring, sustaining final notes of “Defying Gravity.” But you can only beat that gravitational force for so long before you fall flat on the ground.

That splat you hear is “Wicked: For Good.”

Not everyone feels that way. The Vulture review sports the grabby headline: “‘Wicked: For Good’ is actually better than the first.” Times film critic Amy Nicholson agrees in her write-up titled: “The first one was a candy-colored slog, but ‘Wicked: For Good’ is pleasantly sour.”

Which brings me back to the question I first asked you: What are you looking for in a “Wicked” movie? I enjoyed all the spirited dancing and singing and, yes, the bright, candy colors of the first movie. You want a slog? The sequel takes almost an hour to bring together the two characters you truly care about — Elphaba and Glinda.

To get to that moment, you have endure a lot of filler, as if the musical doesn’t have enough material to sustain two movies totaling nearly five hours. (It doesn’t.)

The so-so critical reaction shouldn’t keep “Wicked: For Good” from picking up a best picture nomination, provided the movie’s fans keep showing up at theaters through the end of the year. With so many high-profile festival films — “The Smashing Machine,” “After the Hunt,” “Die My Love” among them — failing to connect with audiences and critics, there’s room at the inn. Academy voters will likely keep the light on.

Equaling the first film’s 10 nominations will be difficult. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the Oscars ceremony last year in spectacular fashion, but a reunion might not be in the cards. The pair were arguably co-leads in the first movie. “For Good” belongs more to Glinda than Elphaba, charting the Good Witch’s journey from complacency and compliance to … less complacency and compliance. Maybe Glinda’s going to learn from all this and take principled stands moving forward, though the movie doesn’t do enough to convince me. Grande’s dimple has more depth.

Still, Grande figures to score another supporting actress nomination and, who knows, she may well win. Voters love big theater-kid energy in this category, giving Oscars to Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) in recent years.

Erivo, placed in the more competitive lead class, might not be as fortunate, as she no longer centers the movie. She still masterfully conveys Elphaba’s vulnerability and sadness, but she’s also saddled with a chemistry-free love story with Capt. Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). I won’t count her out. But Erivo could well lead the “snubs” and surprises list come nominations morning.

Repeat nominations in production design and costume design, the two Oscars the first movie won, seem safe bets. Hair and makeup does too, as does sound since voters love movies heavy on music. “Wicked: For Good” might pick up another nomination in the newly created casting category, as it won’t be a spot where voters feel like they’re repeating themselves. And while the first movie didn’t have any new songs, “For Good” sports two. Look for “The Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Grande, to pop.

Eight nominations? That’d be a win. The loss would be if “Wicked: For Good” followed the path of the two “Black Panther” movies. The first, a critical, commercial and cultural sensation, earned seven nominations, including best picture, and won three Oscars. The less-regarded sequel picked up five nods, winning one. It was not nominated for best picture.

Sometimes being popular isn’t enough.

Read more coverage of ‘Wicked’

Emmerdale’s Bradley Riches – who stars as Lewis Barton in the ITV soap – revealed that acting classes had on big impact on him

Emmerdale star Bradley Riches revealed that acting “saved” him as he opened up about being on the autistic spectrum.

The actor – who plays Lewis Barton in the ITV soap – was diagnosed at nine and did not use words to communicate until he was 10.

However, during an appearance on ITV’s Loose Women on Friday (November 21) he told how drama classes had helped him.

Discussing his experience, the Heartstopper star told the panel: “So, with me, for example, especially with my childhood, I didn’t use words for formal communication until I was 10.”

Asked how he communicated, Bradley explained: “Through, like, sound, movement, communication cards. For example, if my shoes weren’t feeling right, I would have a card and slap it to communicate with my parents.”

Asked if drama classes had helped, he said: “Yeah, I feel like acting definitely saved me in a lot of ways. It’s like, obviously, growing up, not speaking, and then my nan being like, ‘Oh, let’s just throw him into a drama class for confidence.’

“I was like, OK, that’s bonkers. But I went in there and then I would start listening to you know, like you’re watching TV, like these American accents, and slowly over time, I was putting these accents on, and through characters, I kind of learn via myself.

“So through a character, I’ve kind of embedded, OK, how would Bradley say this? How would I do this?

“Through acting, it was kind of an escapism, and it was kind of changing.”

Bradley, 23, joined ITV’s Emmerdale this year as Lewis Barton and revealed that he jumped at the opportunity.

He told the panel: “When I found out Lewis was an autistic character, it was, everything I do, every job I take, I’ve always wanted to kind of fly the flag for the community I’m a part of, like, be it the queer community or the autistic community.

“So, when I found out, you know, Lewis was a double, gay and autistic, I was like, get in there!”

“I mean, I have always wanted to tell stories, autistic stories, especially positive ones,” the actor added.

Loose Women airs at 12.30pm on ITV on weekdays and Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 at 7.30pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX

ADAM Peaty’s troubled brother James has made a bizarre move as he joins social media amid a family feud.

Adam, 30, recently took to social media and accused his family of “encouraging” false claims about him and his fiancée Holly Ramsay, 25.

Now, his brother James has joined Instagram and posed topless for his profile picture with Adam’s photo in the background.

Adam has uninvited his whole family, bar his sister, from the couple’s imminent winter wedding over their family rift.

Guests at the event in Bath are expected to include Holly’s chef dad Gordon, as well as David and Victoria Beckham.

Adam’s aunt Louise branded his fiancé Holly “divisive and hurtful” after his mother Caroline wasn’t invited to her hen do at Soho Farmhouse.

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Holly later called the police while her husband-to-be was on his stag do in Budapest over concerns he could be assaulted by his brother when he got back to the UK.

Five officers met 30-year-old Adam’s plane when it arrived at Manchester Airport and escorted him through passport control.

It has since emerged that James, 34, was arrested at his Staffordshire home and later bailed.

A source close to Adam and Holly said: “This feud is heart-breaking from both sides.

“But the reality is that Adam sees his mum Caroline to be enabling his brother’s actions rather than pushing him to deal with his demons.

“Poor Caroline must feel utterly torn and it’s just very hard for everyone.

“Gordon has been incredibly supportive of Holly and Adam; after all, he’s been through similar issues with his own brother.”

Adam’s father Mark previously told The Sun: “They’re brothers.

“They’ve always been close but like any normal family, brothers fight, argue, fall out, make-up and start all over again. But it’s got out of hand.

“There’s been very little empathy towards Jamie’s genuine mental health difficulties.”

However, Adam recently assured fans there were two sides to the story and insisted he only has good intentions.

It follows claims that he has changed since meeting Holly and becoming part of the Ramsay clan, distancing himself from his working class roots.

He continued: “Bethany, Holly and myself cannot go into detail given an ongoing police investigation into serious matters that arose long before recent events.

“For those who know me personally, you know that I work so hard on trying to improve myself as a person who wants to contribute to making the world a better place.

“I am continuing to learn about myself and how I can be the man I want to be; a worthy partner, father, businessman, friend and athlete; even through these challenging times.

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“Bethany, Holly and I will get through this – we do not ask for sympathy. We just need people to be aware that there are always two sides to every story.

“To those of you who have reached out and shown kindness and understanding – thank you. It is deeply appreciated.”

The final film of the late Glenda Jackson and, if he remains true to his word, of Michael Caine, “The Great Escaper” has made its way to America two years after its U.K. release. Premiering Sunday under the umbrella of the PBS series “Masterpiece Theatre,” the film tells the true-life story of Bernie Jordan, who, at 89, set off unaccompanied and unannounced from an English retirement home to attend celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France. (This event also inspired a Pierce Brosnan film, “The Last Rifleman,” which came out about the same time.) Love and time and duty are its themes. Written by William Ivory and directed by Oliver Parker, it’s a simple story, simply told — sweet, but not saccharine, and moving even when you know what’s coming.

Bernie (Caine) lives with his wife, Rene (Jackson), in a care home by the sea in the town of Hove. She needs more medical attention than he, but both have their wits about them. Having missed securing a spot among the groups traveling to Normandy, Bernie, a Royal Navy veteran, with Rene’s encouragement, decides to go it alone. Though he uses a walker and can seem tired or abstracted at times — he has much on his mind, and a specific mission to fulfill — the trip itself is not especially hard on him. It becomes all the easier once he meets, on the ferry across the English Channel, Arthur Howard-Johnson (John Standing, very fine), an RAF veteran who offers him a place with his group and a bed in his hotel room. As the film goes on, he becomes more and more focused, growing alert and lively and taking charge of Arthur, who had earlier taken charge of him. Each, it will transpire, carries a burden of guilt dating from the invasion.

Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson in “The Great Escaper.”

(Rob Youngson / Masterpiece, Pathé, BBC Films)

Back in Hove, the staff, represented by aide Adele (Danielle Vitalis) and manager Judith (Jackie Clune), is not immediately aware of Bernie’s absence — he’s allowed to come and go — and Rene, who has a tendency to fence with them anyway, is keeping quiet in order to give him time to get away. When they learn he’s missing, a search begins; eventually, Rene lets the truth slip, the exploit hits the press and Bernie, unaware of any of this, is given the nickname “The Great Escaper.” He’ll return home an annoyed celebrity.

Flashbacks, with Will Fletcher as young Bernie and Laura Marcus as young Rene, recall the couple’s wartime meeting and Bernie’s interactions with a young soldier on D-Day. Integrated as memories, they enrich the present action without overexplaining it.

Jackson and Caine, you may know or should learn, were icons of British thespian glamour in the 1960s and ’70s, she in “Marat/Sade,” “Women in Love” and “Elizabeth R,” he in “Alfie” and the Harry Palmer films (“The Ipcress File,” et al.); in 1975, they starred together in Joseph Losey’s “The Romantic Englishwoman,” co-written by Tom Stoppard. Always politically active, Jackson took off 23 years from acting, from 1992 to 2015, to serve as a member of Parliament, and returned to play “King Lear” in London and on Broadway and win a Tony for a revival of Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women.” Caine, notwithstanding some slow times, made movies all along, all sorts of them, playing Scrooge in “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” Mike Myers’ father in “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and Alfred in the Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy and parts in five other Nolan films. Watching “The Great Escaper,” you’re seeing history.

Neither has lost a step. (I find it pleasant to remember that, however frail or confused an older character may be, the person playing them is doing a job that requires strength and thought.) Given both the eminence of the actors and their age — Caine was 90 when “The Great Escaper” premiered, while Jackson, 87, died shortly before — it’s hard not to watch with a double consciousness of the players and the parts. But rather than a distraction, it redoubles the impact. Jackson and Caine wear their years proudly; there’s no vanity in their performance or their appearance. The couple’s eventual reunion is deep and real and, like their whole relationship, gorgeously ordinary.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT has never been an artist to repeat himself.

With a diverse back catalogue, the Canadian singer’s latest project sees him dive into the world of Kurt Weill with the Pacific Jazz Orchestra, releasing an album following a string of concerts.

I’m A Stranger Here Myself: Wainwright Does Weill is a richly dramatic and stylish collection that breathes new life into the German composer’s timeless songs from the 1920s-40s.

Rufus tells Jacqui Swift about finding new meaning in the music and why now felt like the right moment to record it . . . 

WHEN did you first hear Kurt Weill songs, and which means the most?
I first heard his songs after buying an album I saw in a record store when I was about 13 that looked super cool.

It was a funky lady, smoking a cigarette with a big smile. That was Kurt Weill’s wife Lotte Lenya [the album was called Lotte Lenya Sings American Theatre Songs Of Kurt Weill].

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So it was really Lotte’s picture that got me going first.

Surabaya Johnny is my favourite Kurt Weill song. It’s a song I wish I’d written.

How did his songs influence your own writing and performance?
He was a fan of drama and atmosphere – two elements which I definitely incorporate in my own work.

And I love how he’s willing to tackle the troubling subjects of the day, something I’ve never shied away from.

How do you approach a song like Mack The Knife and make it your own?
My strategy was to combine the German version and the Bobby Darin version to have a kind of mid-Atlantic version.

I don’t usually have trouble with that, because my voice is so bizarre that everything I sing always ends up sounding like a Rufus Wainwright song.

Did any song surprise you once you started working on its arrangement?
It Never Was You was a song I always overlooked and felt it just didn’t touch me.

But certainly, after my mother passed away I looked at it in a whole new light.

How are you balancing staying true to Weill while bringing your own personality and style?
The thing about this whole project is that it’s great, but it’s also incredibly tragic.

Kurt Weill died at 50. I started doing these songs and performing them professionally when I was 50.

In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m transferring a lot of his spirit into his latter days, an age that he wasn’t able to really experience.

So I feel responsible for giving him a little bit more time on the earth.

When did you realise your live performance of these songs should be an album?
Really, when we got there, after we heard the recordings.

None of this was ever intended to be a record.

We all just did it off the cuff and decided to record it last minute.

But once we listened to the tracks, we realised that there was something really special there, especially considering that the songs were written during a very troubling time politically.

This is a good moment to put that type of material out, since we are also in deep water at the moment.

How did the Pacific Jazz Orchestra come on board?
They made the initial offer. I had sung some Kurt Weill songs at the Carlyle Hotel in New York for a small residency.

Then they came to me and said, ‘You know, we’d love to do something with you. Anything’.

And I put two and two together.

Your back catalogue is diverse and varied. Where does this work fit in?
I consider my catalogue, my career and my life, in many ways, to be a tree that has many, many branches.

I would say this is connected to it.

Let’s say this is a sprouting flower from a twig.

Was this one of your most challenging projects?
It was, but mainly because I was doing so much around it.

I was producing a musical in the West End called Opening Night and also putting the finishing touches on my Dream Requiem, which was to be premiered in Paris after this concert.

So yeah, I was spread super, super thin, and it was incredibly challenging, but that adds a manic energy to the performance, which works well with his material.

You can’t be too rested when you sing Kurt Weill.

What’s next?
I’m shutting down the shop. I’m 100 per cent working on a new pop record.

I need to go back to my bread and butter and see what the kids are up to and take one more swipe at it.

You played Want One and Want Two for BBC Proms, was that night as special for you as it was for the audience?
Yeah, it’s always special doing those records.

They represent such a pivotal moment in my life and they really made me who I am today.

Any more special performances of these albums in the future?
I’ll do one periodically, here and there, for sure.

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I’m doing the Judy Garland record in June at the Royal Albert Hall so, yeah, I’m still pretty schizophrenic musically.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT WITH THE PACIFIC JAZZ ORCHESTRA

I’m A Stranger Here Myself: Wainwright Does Weill

★★★★☆

There was a time when KevOnStage was a very literal description of comedian Kevin Fredericks as a hungry comedian looking for stage time. These days, he might as well be called KevOnEverything. You can find him cracking jokes on live comedy tours, TV sketch shows, books, podcasts and just about every social media platform you care about. From books like his 2025 New York Times bestseller “Successful Failure” to his latest podcast, “Not My Best Moment,” the idea has always been about forward momentum to breed a funny brand that, just like his name, continues to stick with a sense of humor that ultimately succeeds at being relatable.

Moving from Washington state to L.A. with his wife and kids to fulfill his comedy dreams, he focused his comedy on the Black church and family life in a way that hadn’t been done before. The result was his breakout success with the show “Churchy” that started as a self-funded series that was picked up by BET and recently ran through its second season. It created a lane for him to expand his content universe with sketch shows like “The Hospital” and “Safe Space” on Tubi that allows him to retain creative control and put on more comedians working with veteran stand-ups like Tahir Moore and Tony Baker. The latter is his podcasting partner in crime whom he’s been touring with on the Bald Brothers comedy tour which wraps up in L.A. at the Wiltern on Sunday. Recently we spoke to KevOnStage about the secret to building his comedy brand — by being everywhere.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

I love that this is a year where so much is happening for you from so many angles.

It’s wild.

You’re KevOnStage, KevOnPodcasts, KevOnBooks, KevOnTV …

[Laughs] Literally KevOnEverything.

When did you decide to go from being Kevin Fredericks — working a regular job and doing comedy on the side — to becoming “KevOnStage”?

I was working at the Spanaway [Washington] branch of Key Bank and I was on Twitter. This must have been 2009 — very early on Twitter. And people were just making jokes and people were getting fired [from their jobs over their jokes on Twitter]. People would not like a joke you said, search your name, Google you, find out where you worked and email like your boss, and people were getting fired. And I was like, “I can’t afford to lose my job over some ports take.” So I’m gonna take my full actual government name out of my handle, which was just Kevin Fredericks at the time. And I was like, “I’m Kev and I be on stage.” And that was literally as much thought as I put into it. I was just not trying to be easily found and fired. So I switched my handle to KevOnStage because I was doing stand-up all the time at that time and it stuck. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have just kept Kevin Fredericks, which was my Facebook name, but I think KevOnStage is cool as a moniker. I’m trying to be like Beyoncé, Bono, Sting, Oprah, KevOnStage — one name. People think my actual name is Kevon because of that. If they think that, then I know they found me because of the internet. Which is also fine. As long as people know me, it doesn’t bother me.

KevOnStage with Tony Baker on the Bald Brothers comedy tour.

(Joshua Gonzales )

When did you really find your tribe of comedians in Washington state that you still hang out with today?

In Washington state there was only really like Nate Jackson, he was the only working comedian who was working nationally. In Washington it was me, Nate, Big Irish Jay, a comedian named Terrence — those are the only people that were kind of doing comedy consistently. And then we had the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition, I don’t remember what year it was, and I met Lance Woods, who I’m still cool with. But then when I moved [to L.A.], that’s when I met Tony Baker and Tahir Moore through All Def Comedy. Because I didn’t really do stand-up on stage that much when I first moved to L.A. My wife was like, “we’re not gonna move to L.A. and then you’re on stage four or five nights a week.” And it was hard to get on stage … you have to go and hang out, go to Denny’s and like hang out all night. And [my wife] was not going for it and I had small children who had to go to school. So the majority of the people that I know I met through All Def.

You brought up an interesting point about the lifestyle of comics because it is a lifestyle that doesn’t really agree with everything else for most of the 9-to-5 working world — especially being married and having kids. So how did you then decide to focus more on content creation as a means to perform?

Well, interestingly enough, it started before I moved to L.A. There’s hardly any entertainment opportunities in Washington. There’s very rarely a TV show, even shooting there, much less a show you can actually audition and be on. So what happened was we were doing plays. We’re trying to be like Tyler Perry, David E. Talbert or Je’Caryous Johnson. And we were on our way, but there weren’t enough people in Washington to mount a successful black play — or “urban plays” as people called them. So we did our best, but even if we got 3,000 people, that was only for one night. And we weren’t doing that, by the way. We’re getting like 68 people. So I was watching a lot of YouTube at the time and I was realizing these people have fans everywhere. So I was like, we can do internet comedy and make people laugh on the internet and hopefully we get fans all across the United States. And from the first two videos we did, I was like, forget the play thing, I think the internet is the thing. Just like focus on that. I think we do that, we will build our own audience, and everything will be easier for us.

As far as the ability to own your content and guide however you want, how has that been important for your comedy career?

For me it’s been like, “He who pays says.” Like if you pay for it, you get the final say. So for a long time, it was by default because nobody’s getting paid. I’m just making it and posting it. The first big thing we did that was like really expensive was “Churchy” [on BET]. And there was a lot of [money from previous brand deals] that I saved, a lot of [money from doing] Spectrum commercials that I saved. I made eight episodes of “Churchy.” And shout-out to Jamal Henderson, he helped us meet executives at BET and they bought it. And they couldn’t have any creative control because it was already done.

So that’s kind of a process that we’ve repeated with [my sketch shows] “The Hospital” and “Safe Space.” We pay for it and then license it or partner with a company and make it now. And with Tubi, they’re a little bit different. They let you have creative control, even if they pay for it. They’re like “hey, we trust that you built your audience, you know your audience.” They’re the only platform that I’ve worked with that’s completely like, “we don’t have any say-so, no notes, you don’t have to send us a script, you don’t have to send an edit for approval, we trust you.” And that’s fantastic for me because you get to make it as close to [the original vision] without any impurities as possible.

Now I gotta be honest, when I work with BET, we had amazing executives and they’ve given us a lot of great notes, but they also give you some notes that you don’t agree with that you have to take. And that’s also part of just making things. It’s not a full negative. They also made [the show] better in a lot of different ways. And the one thing that I’m very grateful for with our partners at BET is every note they gave was to make the overall project better and for more people to enjoy it. I am a comedian at heart, so sometimes I’m loyal to the joke to a fault. The executive is like, we gotta tell the best story — so it’s not all bad. A lot of times we hear people bemoan partnering with people, and it has its negatives, but also my TV exec was more experienced than I was at making good TV, so some of their notes were really helpful, and I can carry those with me when I’m making other projects.

“The Hospital” and “Safe Space” are both like sketch shows. What was important about the formats for both shows — one at a hospital, the other on a therapist’s couch — that allow you to find the funny?

Richard Washington, who is a creative exec at KevOn Stage Studios, head of T V and film, and I built the systems and then we allow the people to work within the systems to the best of their personality. So I think the great part about “Safe Space” is the talent. Like you give them a premise, you find the right people, and then they take it and make it funny. “Safe Space” was really the same with “The Hospital.” Like, you know, we hired more sketch writers for the hospital, but Safe Space was more improv than even “The Hospital.” We had some fully written sketches for “The Hospital,” but we didn’t stick to everything exactly. Some are almost all improv. Like comedian CP’s episodes, he’s just riffing. So it’s as close to a stand-up version of content as you can get. And what I mean by stand-up is the audience is sitting there not knowing what the person’s gonna say. And that’s why I think it works.

KevOnStage recording a podcast.

(Mike Folabi)

As a creator of these shows, you often hold the door open for new talent to shine. How does that help your own vision of allowing there to be space for new actors and comedians to come up?

I grew up playing sports and then I went into plays. And with both of those elements, it’s it’s a team environment. You need other people to be successful and you gotta rely on other people to do their thing. With plays, you wanna have the best show possible. And then you put it all together and it’s the best product. And I think that’s the same approach that I take to creation. A lot of comedians, I’ve been told, they won’t take the best comedians. They’ll take people who are OK, but nowhere near as good as them.

Considering you post three to five videos a day, how do you find the time to produce as much content as you do?

So the thing is like this is my job. And I work really hard. I think people compare themselves to me, but they also have a job. Like you’re thinking of “how does he do this?” because you’re thinking of your actual day job. For the most part, I get up and think of funny things to say all day. And the other thing is I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what I’m gonna do or editing it at all. If something funny happens right now, if I walk out of here and I trip and fall, I’ll probably make a video immediately and within five minutes that video’s gonna be on seven different platforms. So I’m not really precious about what I make. And I feel like people think it’s hard, but this is not hard for me. It’s something I love to do, I create freely out of joy. The guy who runs my doughnut shop who hasn’t taken a day off in 20 years, literally I was talking to him about this. He never takes a day off. Twenty years he’s at that doughnut shop, every night at 8 p.m., he makes doughnut, preparing for the day. Every day at 4 a.m., he comes and bakes them. That is hard. Not to say what I’m making is not hard. It is, but it’s not hard like that. People have hard jobs. I just be silly for two minutes and post it within five minutes. That’s not really hard for me.

“For the most part, I get up and think of funny things to say all day,” says KevOnStage.

(Joshua Gonzales )

I guess you’re not getting cellphone calluses.

Not at all [laughs] … I kind of designed my content to be able to make it easily because I feel like my approach is just inundating you with Kev. Like I want to be unavoidable. Yeah. I want to make content on so many different topics. It’s not even always comedic. I want people to just share you and or have a thought or make you have a thought. Right now I’ve been doing a lot of podcasts. So if you don’t follow me, but you follow for example “The Pivot,” which I did last week and they collab with me, now you’re seeing me on “The Pivot” or Funny Marco or I interviewed Issa Rae for the first episode of [my new podcast] called “Not My Best Moment.” And Issa Rae doesn’t do a whole whole bunch of interviews if she’s not promoting something. So if you’re interested in what Issa has to say, you got to hear me because I asked the question. So people rip my stuff, I’m like, “this is great!” They rip it and post it on threads. This is like as close to getting bootlegged as possible.

That’s what you want.

Yeah, bootleg me! Obviously I’d love to make the money, but it’s like the exposure will become capital or currency later. I just want to be out here so much that you’re eventually like, “All right, what is he talking about?” Because think about how many videos do you see in a day now. Back in the day, we used to have to be like, OK, I want to watch the videos. I’m gonna go to my computer and go to like, I remember before YouTube, I used to go to Break.com and watch videos. It was a thing I did for some time and then I went on about my day. Think about how many videos you consume on a daily basis. … So you gotta really hit ‘em over and over before they make a decision. So that’s why I just wanna flood you. I want you to be like, “Oh, my God, enough!”

Well, add one more to the pile right here.

Yeah, absolutely. Once I saw cameras here [at the L.A. Times studio], I was like, “Yeah, baby, I thought this was just an interview, we got video content, baby. Let’s go!” So yeah, it’s like that’s my approach. Just keep going — a lot.

Trans people in the UK could be banned from single-sex spaces based on their appearance, according to a leaked document.⁠

⁠On 19 November, The Times reported that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) drafted new guidance for ministers nearly three months ago, aimed at “preserv[ing] the dignity and safety of women.” The guidance has not yet been published by Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities.⁠

⁠A copy obtained by The Times revealed that “places such as hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres” may question trans women over their use of single-sex services based on “how they look, their behaviour or concerns raised by others.”⁠

⁠If there is uncertainty about an individual’s gender identity, they could be prohibited from accessing these services once those in charge have taken into account “relevant factors.”⁠

In response to the leak, Trans+Solidarity Alliance founder Jude Guaitamacchi called on the government to reject the guidance.

“These leaks reveal that not only does the EHRC’s proposed code of practice seek to require trans exclusion, it instructs service providers to police this based on appearance and gender stereotypes,” Guaitamacchi said, per The Independent.

“This is a misogynist’s charter, plain and simple, and the government must reject it.”

A spokesperson for the TransActual organisation echoed similar sentiments in a separate statement.

“Astonishingly, the UK’s ‘human rights watchdog’ is attempting to mandate that staff at cinemas, hospitals, bars and cafes must try and judge whether users are trans or not based on appearance alone. This is a license to discriminate based on looks, plain and simple,” they said.

“We’ve seen this before – people trying to make our society into a place that is only safe for ‘normal’ ladies. Not just loos. But sports centres, changing rooms and more.

“We offer our solidarity to the many cis women who have been targeted and harassed for their appearance by ‘gender critical activists’ who believed they were trans, and who would be put even further at risk by these rules.”

Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister also addressed the “big implications” the new guidance can have on individuals during an interview with Times Radio.

“These are massive issues and I think that the public, now looking at the draft guidance from the EHRC, will recognise that when you drill down into examples of how this might be applied, it has big implications for individuals, it has big implications and public services,” he said.

The leaked guidance follows an April 2025 Supreme Court ruling that defined “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act as referring to biological sex, a decision that allows organisations to restrict trans women’s access to single-sex services.⁠

As of this writing, the UK government has not announced when the new guidance will be published.

However, on 20 November, Phillipson told reporters that she was going through it “thoroughly and carefully.”

“I have responsibilities to make sure that’s done properly, and we’re taking the time to get this right,” she added, per The Guardian.

The film now streaming has been celebrated as one of the best of the year

A film has just been added to Netflix’s extensive library which has already been dubbed a ‘phenomenal’ period drama featuring an actor’s ‘performance of a lifetime’.

Train Dreams is streaming from November 20 on the service and looks to be the latest high profile, must watch title. Like most new releases, subscribers can expect it to be available from 8am on the release day.

Like a number of big releases from the streamer that have come out this year, such as Frankenstein and Ballad of a Small Player, it has enjoyed a limited release in cinemas. Now, it is easier than ever for film fans to watch as it can be streamed from home.

The film is an adaptation of the bestselling novella of the same name written by Denis Johnson. According to the synopsis, the story follows Robert Grainier, whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th century America.

Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation’s railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys and they build a home together.

However, his work often takes him far from her and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.

The cast includes Star Wars and Black Mass star Joel Edgerton, William H Macy, Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones and Irish actress Kerry Condon.

Following its run in theatres, Train Dreams has managed to earn an impressive 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have lavished it with praise with many suggesting that it is one of the must watch titles of the year and earning it plenty of awards buzz.

One reviewer claimed: “Train Dreams is the most hauntingly beautiful film of the year.” Another added: “Train Dreams is without a doubt one of the most extraordinary films of this year, the type that will stick with you, deep in your mind and heart, long after the credits roll.”

Other reviews have suggested that the film might be considered as one of lead star’s Joel Edgerton’s finest performances of his career. One verdict claimed: “In an age of spectacle and noise, Train Dreams dares to whisper. It invites you to slow down, breathe and notice the spaces between moments. A simply stunning film from start to finish.”

Another review went so far as to declare: “This is one of the great films of the year. In time, it will become one of the best in a decade, then one of the movies that people speak of when asked what inspired them in their life. It is a masterpiece.”

Fans who have gone along to the cinema to see the film on the biggest screen possible before it streams, have shared similar views. Sharing their thoughts online, one person posted: “Phenomenal character study. Simple, yet compelling story. Gorgeously shot.”

Another added: “Beautifully melancholic tale that highlighted so many paradoxical aspects of life in a magnificent way. 10/10 would recommend.”

While a third commented: “An incredibly poignant and artful masterpiece. Joel Edgerton quietly pulls off a performance of a lifetime. Clint Bentley adds another notch in his belt for delivering a moving film that feels like an intimate journey.”

Someone else listed plenty of reasons to watch it as soon as possible. They said: “Such a beautiful film. Absolutely loved the scenery and what a soundtrack, timeless. Joel Edgerton, with his amazing performance and screen presence, really took the audience on a trip with him through each phase of this extraordinary story. Be sure and not to miss this, this is definitely one to remember!”

Train Drams is streaming on Netflix.

DENISE Van Outen was all smiles as she hit the decks and kicked off Christmas party season. 

The actress and presenter was a surprise DJ at the Toca Social VIP press night at Westfield Shopping Centre. 

Dressed in a glittering jacket and black trousers, Denise beamed as she got the party going with the big day barely a month away. 

It comes just weeks after the star opened up about hitting the studio to work on an Ibiza inspired album. 

Chatting to The Sun last month, Denise said: “I’ve been writing not just this kind of music [ballads] but also dance tunes. 

“I’ve started to get a real feel for what’s out there and I’ve been playing around with writing.

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“I just love it, I like the creative process.”

On whether she will release her electronic tunes, she added: “I’m working on one at the moment, so yeah, 100 per cent.”

Also at the bash was nepo-baby royalty Princess and Junior Andre. 

Taking a leaf out of mum Katie Price‘s book, Princess, 18, opted for a tight black top and leggings and draped a faux fur jacket over her arms. 

The budding fashionista matched the fluffy garment with a pair of maroon PVC boots. 

Girl group Sweet Love looked effortlessly cool in coordinated crop tops and loose trousers, while Love Island’s Harry Cooskley cut a a stylish figure in a tight long-sleeve top and pleated trousers.

WASHINGTON — Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison for a case in which he was convicted of illegally funneling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to then-President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

Michel, 52, declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.

In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The trial in Washington, D.C., included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

Justice Department prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence for Michel, whom they said “betrayed his country for money” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.”

“His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed,” they wrote.

Defense attorney Peter Zeidenberg said his client’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence, according to his lawyer.

Zeidenberg had recommended a three-year sentence. A life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel given that it is typically reserved for deadly terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys said in a court filing.

“The Government’s position is one that would cause Inspector Javert to recoil and, if anything, simply illustrates just how easily the Guidelines can be manipulated to produce absurd results, and how poorly equipped they are, at least on this occasion, to determine a fair and just sentence,” they wrote.

Michel, a Brooklyn native whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, was a founding member of the Fugees along with childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Their hip-hop band won two Grammy Awards and sold tens of millions of albums.

Michel obtained more than $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho — also known as Jho Low — and steered some of that money through straw donors to Obama’s campaign.

Michel also tried to end a Justice Department investigation of Low, tampered with two witnesses and perjured himself at trial, prosecutors said.

Low, who has lived in China, was one of the primary financiers of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a movie starring DiCaprio. Low is a fugitive but has maintained his innocence.

“Low’s motivation for giving Mr. Michel money to donate was not so that he could achieve some policy objective. Instead, Low simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then-President Obama,” Michel’s attorneys wrote.

In August 2024, the judge rejected Michel’s request for a new trial based in part on his defense attorney’s use of a generative AI program during his closing of the trial’s arguments. The judge said that and other trial errors didn’t amount to a serious miscarriage of justice.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Angela Rippon, a veteran broadcaster with nearly 60 years of experience, was described as the “dream signing” when she agreed to take part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2023

Angela Rippon — Strictly Come Dancing’s oldest ever contestant — is interested in presenting the BBC flagship show, reports claim.

The veteran broadcaster dazzled viewers with her jaw-dropping high kick when she was a competitor in 2023. She was the eighth celebrity to be eliminated, getting the boot in Blackpool after she and pro partner Kai Widdrington performed American Smooth to Tea For Two by Ella Fitzgerald.

But the former newsreader, who presented the original Come Dancing series between 1988 and 1991, has thrown her hat into the ring to host the much-loved revamp. Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly are both leaving after the current season, which will reach its finale next month.

When asked about stepping into either of their shoes, Angela, who is 81, said: “If they asked me, of course. It’s a very popular programme. Claudia and Tess have done a fabulous job, but no job is for life.”

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The shock move would come more than three decades after the BBC’s then-director-general, Lord (John) Birt, told Angela she’d “had her day” when she was a spring chicken aged 50. The Daily Mail says, though, the journalist — who has more than 60 years of experience in broadcasting — would excite fans of the flagship programme.

Speaking this week at the Starry Night Gala supporting the charity Action for Children at The Peninsula London, Angela said the next host must be “someone that will bring the glamour, and just what everyone loves about Strictly”. Indeed, she competed in it — becoming the oldest contestant ever to do so — at the age of 79 in 2023.

Angela, the daughter of a Royal Marine, has had a long and varied career in the media, including her post as Top Gear presenter in the 1970s and, more recently, as host of Holiday Hit Squad with Helen Skelton and Joe Crowley.

And when she was snapped up to take part in Strictly two years ago, one source said: “She is the dream signing. The audience at home will love her, and many of them will remember her from her days hosting the show in its previous incarnation.”

The broadcaster, originally from Plymouth, Devon, has remained close to her Strictly partner, Kai, 30, and the two recently teamed up to launch “Let’s Dance!”, a project designed to inspire people of all ages to experience the joy of dancing.

But, even despite her interest and experience, Angela faces huge competition for either of the Strictly vacancies. Former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby has been linked with the gig, as has Alan Carr, following his The Celebrity Traitors triumph.

“PAUL will say to me, ‘There’s only four of us – now sadly two of us – who know what it’s like to be in The Beatles’.” 

So says Giles Martin, producer son of late producer, Sir George Martin, who some call “The Fifth Beatle”. 

For the past 20 years, Giles has been one of the chief keepers of The Beatles flame, involved in myriad releases from the band’s archive. 

For these, he maintains regular contact with those “two” — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. 

The latest project to summon his skills is the one which, arguably, gets to the beating heart of The Fab Four more than any other — The Beatles Anthology. 

We’ll hear much more from Giles later but, to set the scene, let’s wind back to 1995 and catch what drummer Ringo has to say with his usual cheery charm. 

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“Now you can hear it from us,” he affirms. “Paul, George and myself — and old footage of John, of course — telling what it felt like to be a Beatle.” 

In 1995, it is 25 years after The Beatles split and 15 since the shocking assassination of John Lennon, and it is time for the world’s most famous band to tell their story. 

Over the previous four years, Macca, Ringo and George Harrison have been busy masterminding Anthology, a wildly ambitious, groundbreaking (you wouldn’t expect anything less) multimedia project. 

By using their own words, film and, of course, their immortal songs, they are in a unique position to reveal all — from the horse’s mouth. 

Here’s their chance to revisit their humble origins in Liverpool, cutting their teeth at the city’s Cavern Club and in the music dives of Hamburg.

They can relive having a first hit single, Love Me Do, Beatlemania, leading the British Invasion of the US, making madcap films like Help! and their eventual retreat from the live arena. 

They can share views on creating their psychedelic masterpiece, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the spiritual quest which leads them to India, their final studio hurrah, Abbey Road, and the various reasons behind them going their separate ways in 1970. 

This all results in an eight-episode documentary series filled with archive footage and candid interviews, three double albums of demos, alternate takes and snatches of spoken word and, later, an illuminating book. 

Now, in 2025 to mark the project’s 30th anniversary, we are being treated to an additional ninth episode of the series and a fourth volume of music. 

For his part, Giles Martin has created new audio mixes for most of the music featured on film, remastered the original LPs and curated the new album of 36 songs (13 previously unreleased). 

Episode 9 presents unseen glimpses of Paul, George and Ringo coming together in 1994 and ’95 to reflect on life as members of the Fab Four.  

Time, they say, is a great healer and the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, the three clearly enjoying each other’s company with some of the old banter returning.

We’ve heard from Ringo but what does Macca have to say about it?  

“We decided we might try to do the definitive story of The Beatles, seeing as other people had had a go at it. 

“We thought it might be good from the inside out rather than from the outside in.” 

Harrison, who died aged 58 six years later, gives this telling perspective: “I’m glad it didn’t get made until now.  

The good thing about Anthology is that it’s four of us, even though John’s not here, he is here. He’s represented, he talks — it’s old interviews and stuff.

Paul McCartney

“I think it’s been nice for us and the public just to forget about The Beatles for a while, let the dust settle, and now come back to it with a fresh point of view.” 

And it’s up to the “quiet” Beatle, not so quiet in this setting, to sum up the band’s immortality. 

“We’ll go on and on,” continues Harrison, “on those records and films and videos and books and in people’s memories and minds.  

“The Beatles have just become their own thing now. The Beatles, I think, exist without us.” 

Of course it was all done with a gaping Lennon-shaped hole but Paul, George and Ringo are hugely mindful of their fallen comrade who they clearly miss very much. 

“The good thing about Anthology is that it’s four of us,” says McCartney. “Even though John’s not here, he is here. He’s represented, he talks — it’s old interviews and stuff.” 

Harrison adds: “I feel sorry for John because the Beatles went through a lot of good times but also went through some turbulent times.  

“And, as everybody knows, when we split up, everybody was a bit fed up with each other.  

“But for Ringo, Paul and I, we’ve had the opportunity to have all that go down the river and under the bridge and to get together again in a new light. I feel sorry that John wasn’t able to do that.” 

‘Unfinished business’ 

One of the key elements of Episode 9 is how the three Beatles make new music together under the watchful eye of the Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne, a fellow member of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with Harrison. 

Using Lennon demos from the 1970s, given to them by his partner Yoko Ono, they finish Free As A Bird and Real Love, employing John’s vocals backed by their vibrant new arrangements. 

Quite simply, it’s the nearest thing we’ll ever get to a full Beatles reunion. 

Another song, Now And Then, gets mentioned as “unfinished business” but, as you may remember, it finally saw the light of day in 2023 thanks to technological wizardry. 

Watching Paul, George and Ringo playing and singing along to John’s vocals is captivating, some of the old spark clearly etched on their faces. 

The affable Giles Martin, who I meet in Leicester Square this week and not at his usual stomping ground, Abbey Road Studios, has this take on the Anthology footage. 

“From talking to Paul and knowing him as much as I do, and from talking to Ringo, I know that the other Beatles were the favourite musicians that they ever played with.  

“Forget personalities, it was purely about being in a band — the best band they’d ever been in. 

“After they broke up, and I include my dad in this, they were looking for each other the whole time.  

“That’s the truth of the matter. I know that Paul misses my dad, and I know that Paul misses John.” 

So, in approaching Anthology, he clearly wanted to show how songs evolved. A bit of studio banter, all that kind of stuff

Giles Martin on his father George

This brings Giles to a significant moment during the completion of Now And Then, The Beatles’ final single. 

“I remember doing the string parts, and being with Paul,” he recalls. “He said, ‘That’s George playing the guitar again. Let’s listen to that because I want to respect what he’s doing, because he’s got great ideas’.”  

The original Anthology project wasn’t just a reunion for three Beatles but also for George Martin who came back into the fold to curate the double albums released on three separate dates between late ’95 and late ’96. 

Giles says: “My dad loved The Beatles — and he loved spending more time with them. 

“What I find interesting is the vulnerability on display, my dad included. Because no one else talked to them like that.” 

Being a Beatle or even The Beatles’ revered producer means that, out of respect, us mere mortals are not given to taking the p*ss. Seeing Harrison’s quip to McCartney, “Hello mate, vegetarian leather jacket?”, is a laugh-out-loud moment. 

Paul, with his famously meat-free diet, replies: “Yes it is. And my boots are vegetarian leather boots!” 

There’s a great scene where the band describe putting “uppers” in a teapot to get George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick to keep going and stay late into the evening for a session at Abbey Road. 

“My dad always denied it but he wouldn’t have known,” says Giles. “It was probably some sort of amphetamine or caffeine. 

“He used to say that, with each passing year, The Beatles started work an hour later.” 

You might imagine that the producer, with his schoolmasterly image and close attention to detail, was a perfectionist. 

But Giles says: “I don’t think he was a perfectionist — although he was upset at me once for not measuring out Pimm’s properly!  

“The music wouldn’t have sounded like it did, fresh and alive, if he had been one. 

“So, in approaching Anthology, he clearly wanted to show how songs evolved. A bit of studio banter, all that kind of stuff.”  

Giles adds that The Beatles were on board with this, seeing it rather like “a trawl through the photographs that don’t make it into the family album”. 

‘Close to John’ 

“A good example is [the early version of] Yellow Submarine with John originally coming up with the idea and singing, ‘In the town where I was born, no one cared, no one cared’. 

“Obviously, that was not right for Ringo to sing so Paul got involved and they changed it, developing it into the Yellow Submarine that children sang in schoolyards.” 

I ask Giles to describe his father’s relationship with each of the four Beatles and he begins with Lennon. 

“He was very close to John to begin with, because John was perceived as leader of the band. 

My dad and Ringo always loved each other. Ringo was an ardent fan and he was also the glue which kept things together.

Giles on his father’s relationship with Ringo Starr

“He was the older one out of Lennon and McCartney and they were like the two favourite children which George felt rather bitter about.”  

On Anthology Vol. 4, you hear the producer calmly encouraging Lennon to sing rehearsals of the White Album song Julia, about his mother who died when he was just 17. Both agree that it’s a “very hard” song to sing. 

Giles maintains that, as The Beatles’ journey progressed, his dad’s dealings with Lennon changed. 

“John wanted things to be immediate, to be rock and roll, but my dad’s process was different. Then it annoyed him when John went with Phil Spector [for Let It Be] and all that multi-layered stuff.” 

If Lennon made wayward comments after the band split up, an encounter just before he died helped heal the wounds.  

Giles says: “In 1980, John contacted my dad, who went to see him at the Dakota Building in New York.  

“Yoko went out, and John admitted he’d said loose-tongued things in the past, when he ‘was high’. 

“John told my dad, ‘I wish we could record everything again, properly this time’. Dad goes, ‘How about Strawberry Fields?’. And he replies, ‘Especially Strawberry Fields!’.  

But they talked about working together again. Then my dad flew back to England and John was shot, yet there was a weird kind of redemption to the whole thing.” 

As for McCartney and George Martin, Giles says: “Paul always maintained a very close relationship with my dad. 

“Towards the end of The Beatles, Paul was the one trying to keep the band going, but with his vision. Then, as we know, he went off to Scotland and decided to make it on his own. 

“But he got back with my dad for Live And Let Die [in 1973] and they had an ongoing friendship.” 

And what about Starr? “My dad and Ringo always loved each other. Ringo was an ardent fan and he was also the glue which kept things together.” 

There’s a wonderful scene in Anthology’s Episode 9 when McCartney and Harrison joke about doing a stadium “mud-wrestling” contest and Ringo interjects with, “I’ll be the ref!”.  

And finally, we arrive at George Martin’s association with George Harrison. 

Giles says: “My dad always felt guilty that he didn’t give George the attention he deserved — but he couldn’t do it all.  

“So George would go off and do his own thing, like Savoy Truffle. He could be quite stubborn and driven, like they all were.” 

But Giles remembers the abiding affection Harrison had for his father, first encountering him at a Simon & Garfunkel concert in 1982 at Wembley Stadium “when I was very young”. 

“I went to the loo and this man said, ‘Are you all right?’. I was a bit embarrassed but I said, ‘Yeah’. 

“When I went back out, he was standing with my parents. It was George. 

“My dad said, ‘This is my son, Giles’. And he said, ‘We just met having a p*ss’. I remember thinking that he was really nice.  

“When my father became ill the first time around, with prostate cancer, George was the one who went to see him and sat by his bed.” 

As we prepare to go our separate ways on this cold November day, I can’t help thinking how Giles Martin has inherited a deep affection for The Beatles from his illustrious father. 

kell no

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MUM PAIN

I was arrested in front of daughter for WhatsApp message, £20k won’t erase trauma

He’s currently working on the FOUR Sam Mendes-directed biopics, each one presented from a different band member’s point of view. 

Following in the footsteps of Dad, it’s a long and winding road that won’t end any day soon. 

THE BEATLES
Anthology Collection

★★★★★

The king of cheeses is ready for the spotlight.

The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, the governing body of the Italian cheese, has reportedly signed with United Talent Agency in order to pursue product placement opportunities in film and TV projects. According to a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, the organization is looking to “introduce Parmigiano Reggiano to a wide pool of partners [and] further its message of gastronomical excellence and high quality ingredients, production and distribution.”

The formaggio faithful know that Parmigiano Reggiano is a hard cow’s milk cheese that can trace its origins back to the Middle Ages. Because it has protected designation of origin, only the cheese made in the Italian provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantua can legally be called Parmigiano Reggiano. (That’s why the common grated variety you may remember shaking out of a green container onto some spaghetti as a child is called Parmesan.)

According to its website, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium traces its roots back to the early 1900s when the chambers of commerce in Italian cities were looking to establish a way to authenticate the origin of the hard cheese produced in their region. The organization was formally established in 1928.

Among the association’s objectives is to “organize and take part in initiatives aimed at promoting ‘Parmigiano Reggiano’ cheese, at enhancing its fame, image, reputation, circulation and consumption both in Italy and abroad.”

“Parmigiano Reggiano is not just a symbol of excellence rooted in tradition, but increasingly a truly iconic global brand,” Carmine Forbuso, Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium’s head of marketing, said to the Hollywood Reporter. “This partnership with UTA … allows us to connect with new audiences in an authentic and relevant way. With just three natural ingredients and centuries of artisanal know-how, Parmigiano Reggiano stands for simplicity, quality and depth and we’re excited to explore new formats and platforms to express this story globally.”

So move over, pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano is looking for a new kind of pairing. Netflix and night cheese, perhaps?

Ed Sheeran teams up with Adolescence’s Philip Barantini for this hour-long Netflix special – but those hoping for candid personal revelations will be disappointed

A guitar-wielding Ed Sheeran takes fans on a musical journey through both New York and his back-catalogue in Netflix’s One Shot – with the help of Adolescence director Phillip Barantini.

The award-winning director, who is best known for producing singularly-shot projects, follows pop icon Ed across New York as he surprises unsuspecting, over-excited fans ahead of an upcoming gig.

The hour-long special, shot in real-time, sees Ed leave show rehearsals at New York’s Manhattan Centre to “go about the town for a little bit” in the hour before his gig.

The 34-year-old dad doesn’t give his voice a breakout, however, with him breaking out into song at rooftop parties, helping a fan with his proposal, crooning at cab drivers and thrilling subway passengers with his chart-topping singles.

From his 2011 breakout hit The A Team and crowd-pleaser Sing, to newer tracks like Galway Girl and Azizam, Ed dives through his discography with just his guitar, his impressive pipes and occasional help from selfie-seeking New Yorkers.

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He’s even given a lift at one point by regular collaborator Camilla Cabello, who picks him up in a four-by-four and feigns surprise with the unconvincing line: “What are you doing in New York?” They duet Ed’s 2015 tune Photograph with Camilla behind the wheel in a scene reminiscent of Carpool Karaoke (which comes as no surprise considering James Corden producer Ben Winston worked on the film).

While One Shot showcases Barantini’s impressive cinematography skills and Ed’s playful performances, those hoping for insights into the Brit Award winner’s life will be left disappointed.

Rather than a follow-up to his candid 2023 docuseries The Sum of It All, One Shot is essentially a very long music video. Ed briefly chats about his calamitous proposal to now-wife Cherry Seaborn while striding through the city, revealing that he got down on one knee in their kitchen after rain dampened his original plans.

He later invites Camilla round for spag bol, telling her that daughters Lyra, five, and Jupiter, three, “will be so excited” to see her. But otherwise, Ed sticks mainly to serenading and fist-bumping his fans.

For hard-core lovers of Sheeran’s ever-growing collection, One Shot is a must-watch if you fancy a dance down memory lane. Plus, it’s much cheaper than paying today’s tour ticket prices.

Those not too bothered by the British pop prince may find themselves switching over fairly quickly – although it’s worth tuning in to admire Barantini’s hypnotic, film-making skills. Much like Adolescence, One Shot will leave viewers scratching their heads as to how certain shots they pulled off the one-take wonder.

One Shot with Ed Sheeran is available to stream on Netflix.

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