show biz

Netflix bosses have raised UK prices for the second time this year – with the cheapest plan going up by a third

There is bad news for Netflix users after bosses raised the prices of UK subscriptions for the second time this year.

The streaming platform, which houses Stranger Things, Love Is Blind, Bridgerton, Selling Sunset and many other beloved programmes, has updated its pricing – with the cheapest rising by a third.

Customers will be given 30 days’ notice by email before the changes. Those with the standard plan with ads will now pay £7.99 a month, up from £5.99, while the advert-free option has moved from £12.99 to £13.99.

Users who have a premium plan, which allows them to add extra members and stream on more devices, will pay £20.99 from their next billing cycle, a change of £2.

For viewers who want to add an extra member for their subscription, they will have to pay £5.99 under new guidelines, up from £4.99.

This is the second time that the prices have increased this year, with previous changes being introduced in February.

A spokesperson said, via Deadline, that the changes “reflect improvements to our wide range of entertainment and the quality of our service.”

“Our approach remains the same: we continue offering a range of prices and plans to meet a variety of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we reinvest in quality entertainment and improve their experience by updating our prices,” the statement added.

“We know members have never had more choices in entertainment, and we’re committed to delivering an experience that meets and exceeds their expectations.”

The news was confirmed just after the second series of Guy Ritchie’s acclaimed drama, The Gentlemen, landed on the platform, with many high-profile releases still to come.

Keira Knightley will be returning in season two of Black Doves in November, while a documentary on late Friends actor Matthew Perry will hit screens at the end of October.

In recent years, original shows including Adolescence, Baby Reindeer, The Crown and Ozark have collected a string of awards. Fans have also raved about Netflix’s film slate, including Voicemails for Isabelle, Nonnas, Carry-On and Rebel Ridge.

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Loose Women star Coleen Nolan revealed she was ‘devastated’ after Nadia Sawalha and Denise Welch both left the ITV daytime show

Coleen Nolan has described her ‘devastation’ after it was revealed that both Nadia Sawalha and Denise Welch had left Loose Women.

The 61-year-old has been a staple of the ITV daytime show for decades, and has appeared beside both women countless times over the years.

Amid reports that bosses have lined up two new stars to replace them, the Celebrity Big Brother star revealed her heartache at returning without her pals.

“It’s back to school for me on Monday. Loose Women is back on air and I’ve really missed it and can’t wait to see everyone,” she penned in her recent newsletter for the Mirror. “We’ll be missing two of our longest-serving Loose Women – Nadia and Denise – which I’m a bit devastated about.

“I love Nadia and she’ll be a big loss to the team. I’m so pleased for Denise, who left to focus on acting, which is her first love and she’s brilliant at it. At 66 she’s had a whole new lease of life and has never looked better.

“But it’ll be exciting to welcome new people in. One of the things I love most about the show is that it incorporates every age group, from women in their 20s to Gloria Hunniford, who’s 86. I think a show that offers that when women still have to battle ageism and having an opinion is something to be celebrated and cherished.”

Hitting back at scrutiny of a feud behind the scenes, she insisted: “I’m always reading stories about us not getting on, but it’s just not true – unless I’m missing something! I’ve never seen it and never felt it.

“So, thanks to those of you who’ve stuck by us through thick and thin for all these years, and hopefully we’ll be sticking around for years to come.”

There has been a shake-up on the panel in recent months, with Denise, 68, confirming her departure in a video in August, explaining that she would be focusing her attention on her acting career.

Nadia had been away from the show for a while before speaking out over her absence, telling the Mirror that she threatened legal action, claiming that ITV bullied her out of her job.

Discussing her exit, the 61-year-old previously said that she feared she was being targeted over speaking out for Palestinian rights.

It was recently claimed that singer Anastacia and entrepreneur Emma Grede – who recently stole the show on Dragons’ Den – were being lined up to join the panel, following the high-profile departures.

According to the Sun, they have been offered short two-month contracts with those behind the scenes hoping they will ‘bring in new perspectives’.

“If we are honest, Loose Women has become a bit of a train wreck. The past 12 months have seen scandal after scandal. Mix that with the cuts and it’s been a perfect storm,” a source told the Sun.

“ITV have offered both Emma and Anastacia contracts that will see them appear on the show as panellists. Both have been on as guests so they know the set up.”

The insider added: “Emma was a huge hit on Dragons’ Den and it’s hoped she would bring in a younger demographic to the show. Anastacia is a household name and brings in a new perspective and isn’t shy when it comes to speaking her mind.”

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Patsy Kensit, who first appeared on Emmerdale in 2004 before leaving two years later, is back in the village and has recalled how she made one demand when she returned to Emmerdale as Sadie King for a six month stint

Patsy Kensit made one demand when she returned to Emmerdale – that Sadie King wouldn’t be killed off.

Iconic character Sadie is back in the Dales, arriving this week by helicopter in a nod to her previous arrival in the village a number of decades ago. Patsy, 58, first appeared in 2004 before leaving two years later, but is back in the village once more after two decades for a six months stint.

She’s quickly at the heart of the action when it was revealed that Sadie had been having an affair with Jimmy King (Nick Miles), who died in a devastating marquee car crash and left Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) struggling with the financial burden of raising their kids and trying to fund university education for their eldest.

It was a joy for Patsy to return, but she had one demand for bosses. “It came out of absolutely nowhere, which is sometimes the nicest way things can happen,” she says.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to kill the character off, though, because I would love to think that she may return again.’ So the team of writers are phenomenal… and people will be shocked.”

Such was her return a secret that she booked into a hotel up North with a fake name to keep things under the radar. “The hotel, I had to put under a fake name there. And my agent and I came up and sat and chatted and just was like, ‘Yeah, you know, why not? Let’s do it,'” she says. Of how it’s changed since her first stint 20 years ago, she added: “I think one episode I’m in 60 scenes or something… It used to be six days a week when I did it first time around.”

Her return doesn’t just impact grieving Nicola’s life, but Sadie soon crashes into a number of her character’s conquests.

Her tryst with Robert Sugden (then played by Karl Davies and now played by Ryan Hawley) was a big part of her original appearance, as was her romantic connection with Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).

“Ryan and I have had a lot of stuff to do together… He’s very funny, and that’s been great,” she says, “It was quite a daunting day with Jeff Hordley scenes. It was all about putting that relationship to bed. There was a lot she revealed that happened to her after he left her on the runway.

“Jeff’s such a brilliant actor, as is everyone on the show. I’m learning so much every day again… but we decided to sort of play against that and just make it a real conversation between two people that had shared some time together.”

Her return marks the reunion of two of the soaps ‘super b***ches’ as Claire King’s Kim Tate goes head to head with Patsy’s Sadie. On working with the soap legend, she says: “Claire King is the queen, and I’m so happy to be working with her.

“I’ve got so much respect for Claire… I’ve always been a super fan. Our paths cross a couple of times and then some barbed comments, which is very Dynasty.”

Despite her glittering acting career, it didn’t stem the nerves when she returned to Emmerdale this time around. “I was so nervous my first week. Mark [Charnock] called me up just to say, look, you know, ‘We’re so thrilled that you’re coming back,'” she says.

“And I said, ‘Mark, I’m just I’m absolutely s***ing myself.’ And he said, ‘You know what? It would be weird if you weren’t.'”

“There’s nothing like a warm Yorkshire welcome… It’s the nicest place to work. Everyone genuinely cares about the show. It’s hard work, I’m not going to say it isn’t, but it’s rewarding,” she says.

Patsy feels very “protective” over Sadie and she is thoroughly enjoying living vicariously through her character.

“For me, it’s a role that I’ve really cherished, and I’m very protective about her. It changed my life when I did it, you know, 20-odd years ago, and it’s just wonderful to be back for a little while and just get to say all those horrible things to people with delight,” she says.

“It’s wonderful to live vicariously through this woman who seems to have no shame in her game. But does she really have what she had before when she left? They’re really taking apart who the woman is.”

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“Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton’s longtime tenure on the popular game show is officially over.

A spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television, which produces “Wheel of Fortune,” confirmed in a statement shared with The Times on Friday that Thornton’s “employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately,” following an investigation. Sony suspended Thornton on Tuesday amid an ongoing probe into then-unspecified allegations.

A legal representative for Thornton, 61, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.

A day before TMZ first reported on the announcer‘s firing, the outlet published numerous photos that show Thornton on his laptop aboard a flight visiting a website that describes itself as a support chat for “people who are attracted to children.” In photos taken by a neighboring passenger, Thornton’s computer screen appears to show messages of one user saying they “saw a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl” at a restaurant they referred to as an “All-you-can-eat Boyfett” and a second user referring to “CP,” commonly shorthand for child pornography. The photos published by TMZ also show Thornton, who is wearing a black jacket embroidered with the “Wheel of Fortune” logo on his sleeve, appearing to type into the chat room.

Thornton’s attorney Allison Hart told TMZ that he became a suicide-prevention advocate after a loved one took their life two years ago and he has since spent time visiting crisis chat rooms to offer “support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation.” According to TMZ, Thornton claimed an acquaintance from a suicide prevention group sent him a link to an unrelated, non-crisis chat room — the one seen in the photos. Thornton also reportedly said he quickly left the disturbing chat room “once he found out what it was.” Time stamps seen in the photos show Thornton remained in the chat room for nearly an hour.

The passenger complained about Thornton to a flight attendant and shared the photos with the crew, according to TMZ. American Airlines informed the outlet that a passenger was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on May 14, although the airline did not identify the individual.

Thornton’s attorney also told TMZ earlier this week that he “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”

“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” his attorney said.

Thornton’s “Wheel of Fortune” tenure traces back to 2011 following the death of his predecessor, Charlie O’Donnell. His game show credits include “The Price Is Right,” “The Soup,” “Jeopardy!” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” He has performed voice work for the movie “Monsters, Inc.,” and video games including “Wall-E” and “Mafia II.”

Times staff writer Andrea Flores contributed to this report.

Gogglebox fans have shared their verdict after two new families made their debut on the Channel 4 favourite

Gogglebox has introduced some new faces.

The Channel 4 hit show returned to our TV screens on Friday (4 September) night, as the sofa watchers shared their hilarious reaction on the best and worst of this week’s TV. Long-running favourites Jenny and Lee, Pete and Sophie, Ellie and Izzi and the Malone family were all back as they welcomed viewers into living rooms yet again.

This time, they weren’t alone as fans of the BAFTA-winning series welcomed the show’s first cast member with Down’s syndrome as two new families joined the hit programme.

The newest additions include Newcastle brothers Steve and Mark, as well as Sandy and her TV fanatic son Max, who is the first person with Down’s syndrome to feature on the show. Opening up about joining the show, Max joked: “I’m much funnier than my mum, so that’s good.”

“I’m all about spreading the love and showing other learning-disabled people what we can achieve. And my mum is my greatest supporter,” he added.

Sandy called joining Gogglebox “total magic”, sharing: “To have people see the superstar, who is my son, and realise that a person with a learning disability can be smart, opinionated and hilarious is very important for me. My greatest joy is being his mum.”

Speaking about signing-up for the series Max further shared: “Friday nights with Gogglebox and wine has been a tradition in our house for years. It’s one of my favourite shows ever.

“So, it’s surreal that we’re going to be part of it, and it’ll be such a laugh doing this with my brother. He’s super funny and it’s a great excuse to hang out.”

Viewers watching at home have wasted no time sharing their reaction on social media to the newcomers and it’s clear they can’t get enough of mother and son duo, Max and Sandy.

One viewer wrote: “Go Max and Sandy! Lovely friends of mine, knocking it out of the #Gogglebox park.”

Another commented: “Really like Max #gogglebox.” A third said: “This was the first time I’ve ever instantly loved a new family on #gogglebox smiled from ear to ear with Max. How lovely. Not sure on the other new additions yet.”

Another said: “#gogglebox Loving Max and his mum! Brilliant!” Another fan commented: “Love Max and his mum. The new brothers are ok too. #gogglebox.”

One wrote: “Absolutely L-O-V-E Sandy and Max #Gogglebox.” Meanwhile another fan added: “Max and his mum are a good addition. They make me laugh in a good way.”

You can stream Gogglebox on Channel 4

Ten years ago, I went with my older daughter and a group of her classmates to see Gloria Steinem speak. Though they were part of a feminist group recently formed at their all-girls Catholic high school, some were not quite sure who Gloria was, exactly. My daughter knew her mostly as my former “boss”; my first job out of college had been as an editorial assistant at Ms. magazine. That was back in the ‘80s — ancient history.

I was a tiny bit nervous about how the evening would go. Gloria herself was in her 80’s by then; how would she connect with a group of teenagers who had come of age post-post-everything in a social media world of makeup tutorials, fit checks, and so much rage bait?

By being precisely herself, as it turned out. Calm and witty, impassioned and informed, clear-eyed yet hopeful, Gloria enthralled them — and the entire audience — for almost two hours. By the time we left, the girls were ready to follow her anywhere.

“She’s a rock star,” my daughter breathed.

That she was. Gloria Steinem did not invent feminism, not even its second wave, but for many years she was its most recognizable frontwoman. Tall, slender, with (for many years) aviator glasses framed by her signature long, straight hair, she was the Jackie Kennedy of the women’s movement: a physical dismissal of all those childish critics who deride feminists as an army of unlovely and unloved women, devoid of humor and, most likely, surrounded by far too many cats.

Even so, how she looked was beside the point. No feminist I know ever wanted to look like Gloria; we all wanted to be like her. Smart, funny, incisive, generous and, perhaps above all, unflappable.

For an activist organizer, she had a low center of gravity. Her speech was measured, her tone was mellow — even when calling out the most outrageous hypocrisies, the most sinister forms of oppression, she rarely if ever raised it. Though by her own admission she was often furious about many things, her sharpest weapon was always a deadly talent for stating the obvious. “If women could sleep their way to the top, there‘d be a lot more women at the top.” “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career. ” “A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.” “This is what 40 [or 50] looks like.”

She believed in shaping the future by being fearlessly frank about the present and the past. For more than seven decades, she helped millions strip away the veils of hierarchy, patriarchy and all the stories spun about gendered expectations to confront the actual experience of women’s lives. “If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?”

She never incited anger; she simply pointed out the facts as she saw them and let human nature take its course. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”

Gloria listened as much as she spoke, and with great attention and democracy. When I worked at Ms., she was always running late, invariably having been pulled into some conversation or other. Her assistant groaned over her calendar; Gloria would say “yes” when asked for help, even if it meant being two places at once.

She often came in for staff meetings to which everyone was invited and, when discussing ideas for future issues, would ask for, and attentively listen to, the opinions of even a lowly editorial assistant like myself. Her interest was sincere, astonishing and made for very long meetings. Wherever she went, it was the same. She needed to know what all manner of women thought about a wide variety of topics. More important, she wanted them to learn the habit of speaking up. In a private meeting or a public forum, to colleagues, politicians, friends, the boss or even a feminist icon, she wanted women to be unafraid of saying what they thought.

When I worked at Ms., and for many years after, people would invariably ask me: “What’s Gloria Steinem like?” and it was, and remains, impossible to describe. She was kind when she didn’t need to be, generous with her attention when no one expected it. She didn’t want laws and social constructs to be fairer, less dangerous, more fulfilling for women as a concept; she wanted it for you, for me, for the lady in the back row.

She gave aura but also advice about where to find discount shoes. She instantly claimed any room she entered and then made sure there were snacks. She believed that the world could change, that with work, we could change it. But she also believed in having fun; otherwise why bother?

On the day Gloria Steinem died at 92, I awoke to a text from one of the friends I made all those years ago at Ms.; soon there were four of us on the thread. I had just arrived in New York to take my youngest daughter back to college, and we had planned to meet one of those friends in Union Square at noon. Instead, we met at Gloria’s brownstone and laid flowers along the fence outside her door. It seemed the least we could do.

My youngest never got to hear Gloria speak and, at 19, she is too young to know who Gloria was, exactly. Which was always the point of all that Gloria did. She didn’t want the future to feel beholden to the past; she just wanted it to be better. And despite the recent setbacks, particularly in reproductive rights, and all the work that still has to be done, it is.

There stood my daughter. Like her sister, she never doubts for one minute that she is a first-class citizen, entitled to equal rights, bodily autonomy, basic respect and a life of her choosing. God help the poor souls who try to tell them different.

“She’s a big part of why you are here,” I tell her. “Of why your life at 19 is so better than mine was, and why mine, at 19, was so much better than hers.”

That’s not just a rock star; that’s a revolutionary.

ITV bosses have wiped “uncomfortable” footage of Miriam Margolyes from the edition of This Morning that appears on its ITVX service.

Miriam Margolyes has been met with a wave of fury after using a highly offensive term to describe Andi Peters’ skin colour during an ‘uncomfortable’ appearance on This Morning.

Viewers have branded the 85-year-old ‘disgraceful’ following her interview on the ITV show and bosses have scrubbed the remarks from the ITVX footage.

In the interview to promote her book, which aired on Thursday’s episode, she began dissecting Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent before turning her attention to her co-host.

“What accent would be normal for you? What are you?,” she asked the 56-year-old, leaving him baffled. The presenter responded: ”This is normal. What am I? I’m me!”

“You’re a mix, aren’t you? You’ve got a Black daddy and a white mummy,” she said. He explained that both of his parents are Black, jokingly questioning whether his make-up artist had used a “lighter shade than normal”.

“I think you’re high yella. That’s what they call it in America when someone isn’t deeply black,” she continued, with Andi quipping that he “didn’t even know there were shades”.

The presenter then pointed to his earpiece and revealed that bosses were intervening, explaining that they were “getting nervous”.

“There are shades and this is what we have to incorporate,” the Harry Potter actress added. “Don’t be nervous, we welcome everybody. That’s what I want to write about in my book, it’s about inclusion.”

The Merriam-Webster US dictionary defines the term – sometimes spelt high yaller – as a dated and often offensive piece of slang used to describe a black person with a light complexion.

ITV bosses have yet to issue a statement over the segment but the offensive footage has been removed from the episode on ITVX. However, the rest of her interview still remains.

Viewers were left reeling over the segment and quickly rushed to social media with one saying the term was “super racist” and many calling for further action to be taken.

One person wrote on social media: “That Miriam Margoyles clip is just about the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like a scene out of The Office.” Another agreed: “I do not accept that it’s just her age or character. She uses words and phrases that are totally unacceptable. I hope #thismorning never brings her back on the show.”

One posted: “That Miriam Margolyes interview is the most uncomfortable thing to sit through what the hell was she thinking.”

Another said: “Just watched @thismorning interview from this morning Miriam Margolyes is disgrace what she said about Andi Peters is way out of line she should be banned from @ITV @SkyNews @BBCTheOneShow she was way out of order.” They added: “@andipeters i am standing with you [sic].”

The Mirror has approached ITV, This Morning, Andi and Miriam for a comment.

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An Escape to the Country buyer was left torn between two dream Nottinghamshire homes but there was a huge issue

An Escape to the Country guest was left facing a difficult decision.

The buyer fell in love with two very different properties in Nottinghamshire but was left unable to put an offer in for any of them. During Friday’s (September 4) episode of the popular BBC show, presenter Denise Nurse was tasked with helping Shane with swapping his busy life in Greenwich, south-east London, for a quieter life in the Nottinghamshire countryside.

The former investment banker, who was born in Canada, was joined by his friend Chris, who was on hand to offer a second opinion during the property hunt.

Shane had a hefty budget of £1.1 million and a clear idea of what he was looking for. He wanted a spacious property with a modern interior and at least three bedrooms, as well as a garden big enough for his two dogs.

As he travels a lot, good transport connections to London were also important, while he wanted to live somewhere where he could become part of a community.

Denise arranged a number of properties for Shane to view, but it was the first two homes that really stole the show. Property number one was not what Shane initially thought he wanted. Having specifically asked for a modern home, he was surprised to discover just how much he liked the traditional property.

The 18th-century property was on the market for offers over £1 million and featured six bedrooms, four bathrooms and almost half an acre of land. Inside, the property had a huge kitchen and plenty of space, while the substantial grounds offered the kind of outdoor space Shane was looking for.

Despite initially believing a modern property was essential, Shane found himself seriously considering the traditional home. Then came property number two, which appeared to tick almost every box Shane had originally given Denise. The striking contemporary home was also on the market for offers over £1 million and offered spacious, modern living.

It featured a large open-plan kitchen and an impressive main bedroom with a split-level en-suite. The property was also energy efficient and had a high EPC rating, while outside there was a secure landscaped garden which was ideal for Shane’s two dogs.

When it came to making a decision, Shane admitted that Denise had made his choice considerably more difficult.

He said: “Country living is different for me, especially property number one. When I said I wanted something modern in a country setting, I was pretty sure that I wanted modern but property number one surprised me, how much I really liked it.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about that I wouldn’t have previously thought about, which for me has been the biggest takeaway. You’ve made it harder in a lot of ways, so thank you very much for that.” Denise quickly replied: “That was not the plan.”

Shane said his next step would be to explore the villages surrounding both properties before making a final decision. It was later revealed that Shane went back to view both property one and property two. Although the traditional first property had made a huge impression on him, property number two was the front runner.

However, there was one major problem standing in his way. Despite finding the home he appeared to favour, Shane was unable to put an offer forward because he had yet to sell his current property in London. His dream move to Nottinghamshire was therefore left hanging in the balance.

You can stream Escape to the Country on BBC iPlayer.

KRISTEN Wiig has stunned in sexy black lingerie for her raciest look yet in a new photoshoot.

The actress turned heads with her makeover for her spread in the latest issue of Perfect magazine.

Kristen, 53, looked completely transformed in her skimpy all-black outfits, which were considerably more revealing than her usual attire.

One photo captured the comedian posing in a body-hugging mini dress and a blazer.

The dress featured beading over her chest and a matching design on the cuffs of her coat.

Meanwhile, her legs were on full display, with her dress’s super-high slit showcasing her upper thighs.

Kristen finished the look with white pointed-toe heels, heavy makeup, and her tousled blonde hair at her shoulders.

The Bridesmaids star kept the edgy style in another photo, modeling a skintight dress with a see-through lace top.

She slouched in a chair, her hair covering half her face, showing off dark eye makeup and massive gold statement earrings.

Kristen’s third outfit again showed the TV star in a different light as she rocked pants and a matching blazer, with nothing underneath.

The Masters of the Universe star ditched her bra and a shirt to tease her bare breasts beneath the blazer.

She wore long, dangly earrings with the same messy hair-look and heavy makeup.

Kristen continued to stun in her photos, as another captured the Saturday Night Live alum standing by a pool in a bra and panty set.

She added see-through lace tights and high heels to her bottom half, keeping her abs and toned arms exposed on top.

The Despicable Me star concealed her eyes with a massive bucket hat, posing with her hands on her hips.

Kristen wore a similar ensemble during a baking session in the kitchen, including a tiny bra, leggings, and leather boots.

She perched one leg on a table while mixing ingredients in a bowl, oversized sunglasses covering her eyes.

A couple of other inside shots captured the Palm Royale actress in a form-fitting strapless dress with a deep V-neck, and a long-sleeved sweater dress with big fur sleeves.

It’s rare to see Kristen in such daring looks, worlds apart from her hysterical costume in her iconic Target Lady sketch on SNL.

She also wore a prim-and-proper wardrobe with bright colors and perfectly styled hairdos in her latest TV series, Palm Royale.

The Apple TV series, which follows her character Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons as she vies to become the belle of 1960s Palm Beach, was canceled earlier this year after two seasons.

The hit Channel 4 true crime documentary series recently returned with a brand new special, but fans are still waiting for the second half to air.

Channel 4 has issued a fresh update on its beloved true crime series 24 Hours in Police Custody.

The long-running documentary series has amassed a devoted fanbase since its premiere back in 2014. It offers an unflinching look at police work in the UK and the lengths teams go to in order to bring criminals to justice.

After a months-long wait for new episodes, fans were finally informed they had a new two-part special to look forward to. That was The Ambush, which aired its first half just last week on Sunday night (August 30).

Many fans were left confused when the second part didn’t air the following evening on the Bank Holiday Monday, as a number of fans had expected the double bill to unfold over two nights. They were sadly mistaken, as the second part had always been scheduled to air exactly one week after part one, meaning it will be shown on Sunday, September 6.

Channel 4 has now directly addressed the legion of baffled fans with a cheeky post on its dedicated documentaries Facebook page. The broadcaster posted a series of screenshots of the flurry of remarks regarding the special episodes, including fans asking “Can’t find part two?” and “When is part two?”

The post was captioned: “POV you’re the Social Media Manager reading the comments on the new 24 Hours in Police Custody,” before clarifying exactly when fans can see the new episode. It added: “Watch part two of ‘The Ambush’ this Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.”

Reacting to the post, many fans admitted they had been left confused and preferred watching both back-to-back. “I wish you’d air the episodes over two nights rather than have to wait a week,” one fan said accompanied by a crying emoji.

Another fumed: “Next time I’ll binge both on the day the second is released. I hate that wait!” Meanwhile a third series fan added: “I’d prefer not to wait a whole week. Had I known in advance I would have waited and watched them both at the same time. Still looking forward to it though.”

Yet another posted: “I’m waiting till Sunday to watch both and ignoring the spoilers,” as one vented: “Please listen to the feedback and NEVER again make us wait a week for part two!!! Consecutive days is long enough.”

24 Hours in Police Custody: The Ambush returns to Channel 4 on Sunday, September 6 at 9pm.

The brand new series shows the ‘unfiltered’ side of a well-known social media star

A beloved social media star’s new Netflix show has come under fire just hours after landing on the platform.

The streaming giant added Earle Meets World to its lengthy reality TV roster on Friday (September 4), and it has already divided viewers. The eight-part show promised to showcase influencer Alix Earle’s “unfiltered” life away from social media feeds.

A synopsis teases: “Gen-Z’s ultimate It Girl, Alix Earle, is making the next big jump in her career. Can she balance her burgeoning business empire with being that unfiltered, twenty-something, hot mess that America fell in love with? Now she’s taking her candid chaos from your FYP to TV… and nothing is off limits.”

We follow the 25-year-old as she comes to terms with her first major breakup from long-term partner Braxton Berrios, as well address her ongoing feud with podcaster Alex Cooper.

Despite her online following of over 13 million, Alix’s venture into TV has been hit with brutal reviews. One viewer took to TikTok to confess they switched off the show during its first episode, penning: “I can’t get past the first 20 minutes and I love Alix and reality shows.”

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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV bundle.

This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.

Critics have also shared scathing verdicts, with Variety stating: “The same relatability that makes Earle a dependable brand ambassador also makes her everyday life almost painfully boring to watch, with the few juicy nuggets either overhyped, downplayed or both.”

Time agreed, writing: “If the show made a genuine effort to fulfil the 25-year-old social media star’s vow to reveal the rawest, most intimate aspects of her life, then the only reasonable conclusion to draw from it would be that there just isn’t much to see.”

Meanwhile, The Sunday Guardian published a more generous review stating: “Fans of Alix Earle will probably enjoy getting more access to her family, career and personal life”. And it seems they were spot on because Alix’s fanbase are completely hooked on the series.

“I love the show so far,” someone posted on TikTok. Another person added: “LOVING already so excited to watch more.”

A third viewer praised the show for its authentic approach to the genre, saying: “As someone that is a chronic reality TV watcher, the show is not over-produced and that has been my biggest qualm with the reality TV shows that I watch.”

Someone else admitted: “No guys I’m so invested,” and a final captivated viewer shared: “Oh they got me hook, line and sinker!”

All eight episodes of Earle Meets World are streaming now on Netflix

Viewers tuning in to the new series of The Grand Tour have been left curious about the title card

The Grand Tour fans have been left intrigued by a title card featured in one episode.

The six-part series premiered on Prime Video today (September 4) with a fresh set of hosts: Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland. The trio replace veteran stars Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, who gladly handed over the baton to the newbies.

The new series of The Grand Tour even saw the former Top Gear trio make appearances throughout the episodes. Jeremy appeared in the opening episode as he gave some blunt advice to the newbies, while Richard helped to judge a competition to find the toughest car, and James hosted the line-up in his pub.

Episode five of The Grand Tour featured an exciting race between Thomas in a hypercar against Francis and James on a train as they tried to get from the UK to the Belgian Grand Prix. The instalment titled A Relaxing Spa Weekend also featured James delving into the incredible history of the BMW Isetta and its Cold War history.

The episode ended with a title card which featured two images of Klaus-Günter Jacobi, who built the smallest-ever escape car used to cross the border between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Many are curious about the figure mentioned in the title card. Here’s what you need to know.

Who is Klaus-Gunter Jacobi?

Klaus-Günter Jacobi was a mechanic who helped his best friend escape from East Berlin into West Berlin, crossing the heavily guarded border crossing of Checkpoint Charlie. He hid his best friend Manfred Koster in a tiny and concealed compartment in the BMW Isetta.

Manfred was trying to escape East Germany as he was set to be drafted into the army. Thankfully, his friend Klaus came up with the cunning plan.

Klaus-Günter modified the Isetta, reduced the fuel tank to a bare minimum and managed to build in the hiding space. He had also removed other unnecessary components and provided heat protection.

However, they only had an hour to cross the border before it closed for the night. The men were delayed and almost didn’t make it, with sniffer dogs checking for anything suspicious.

If they had been caught, the pair might have paid with their lives for trying to leave. The guards inspected the vehicle thoroughly and let Klaus through without suspecting what he was carrying.

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Klaus’ story was immortalised in the mini-film The Small Escape, which was produced by the BMW Group. After word spread of the escape, the Isetta was used by other defectors to escape East Berlin.

The BMW Isetta was conceived post-WWII by Italian refridgerator company boss Renzo Rivolta and his company Iso Spa. The car essentially had the engine of a scooter, the door of a fridge and seating for two people. BMW was on the verge of bankruptcy when they licensed the design from Iso Spa and set about making it more into one of their cars, thus saving the firm from ruin.

After sharing the unbelievable true story, James then asked Thomas to try and get into a similar-sized space. Despite his best efforts to assume a foetal position, Thomas was unable to get into the space and this illustrated just how tiny this compartment was.

Later in the episode, the two men stopped at a pedestrian crossing as Klaus walked across and waved at them. He now serves as a tourist guide at the Berlin Wall Museum in Friedrichstrasse.

The Grand Tour is streaming on Prime Video now

In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen paying a visit to a familiar farm.

The new Grand Tour hosts witnessed Jeremy Clarkson in action behind the meat counter at Diddly Squat Farm.

The Grand Tour is back on Prime Video with three new hosts taking the wheel – train enthusiast and social media star Francis Bourgeois, and YouTube hosts James Engelsman and Thomas Holland. The streamer announced the new series would feature cameos from the original trio, but the extent of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s involvement was kept under wraps.

Now, it has been revealed that the new hosts visited Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, featured on the hit Clarkson’s Farm, to get Clarkson’s seal of approval. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, host Holland said it was a “weird experience”. He shared: “About two years earlier, I went to the farm as a tourist, just for fun, I just happened to be here.

“I went into the tent and had a beer and did whatever you do when you are there, and the next time I was back there it was to talk to Jeremy Clarkson, so that was a bit weird.” Engelsman enlightened viewers by revealing “Jeremy does 9-5 shifts behind that [meat] counter”. While many fans already know Clarkson had warned the new trio “don’t f*** it up”, it was actually another part of his testimony that resonated most with the new hosts.

Engelsman explained: “It was strange, we have seen the footage now and after we left, he delivered that message to camera. That slightly longer, more sincere message, I think, for me at least, it resonated a lot harder than just the brief piece of advice.” What Clarkson had told viewers once the trio had walked away was: “I have got to be honest with you, I have actually been watching what they have been up to for the last year and a half, and they are very, very good, I think you are going to love it.”

Holland expressed to The Mirror: “We didn’t see that in the moment, we didn’t know that happened until much later on, so seeing that played back was like ‘Oh, that’s nice’.” Bourgeois agreed, adding: “It means a huge amount to us and also gives us quite the superpower, to have his blessing is just a phenomenal start for us.”

In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen driving through the English countryside when they pulled into Diddly Squat Farm. They paid a visit to The Farmer’s Dog, which featured the original Grant Tour sign hanging from the tent ceiling.

Nervously, they approached Clarkson, who was behind the butcher’s counter. “Hey, how’s things?” he said with a smile. “So, how can I help?” Francis joked: “We have come to ask, please may we use the tent for our studio?”

Clarkson looked at the three blankly before saying: “Not really. I mean, you could, but it’s got a butcher’s in it now, and a bar, and a shop, and an off-licence. It’s usually quite busy as well, so it wouldn’t be an audience so much as customers. I want to help, but look, it’s been repurposed.”

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The joke referred to a Clarkson’s Farm moment when Jeremy called on the help of his old Grand Tour boss to supply a tent to house various projects like the farm shop and butcher’s counter. Following the skit, Clarkson got serious, saying: “Listen guys, seriously, have fun with this. I mean it, good luck, and don’t f*** it up.”

Speaking directly to viewers, it was then that Clarkson gave his heartfelt speech that resonated with the new hosts, who had been totally unaware of his kind words.

The Grand Tour is streaming on Prime Video

Good vibes weren’t invented in Marin County. But reading “Morning in Marin,” David Perlis’ history of the place and its outsize cultural influence for much of the 20th century, you get the sense it served as America’s leading countercultural way station.

Hosts of spiritual-minded sorts called it home: Alan Watts popularized Zen Buddhism in the ’60s, alongside poets Gary Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth. Francis Ford Coppola decamped there to write his script for “The Godfather,” and it’s where his compatriot George Lucas conjured up the “Star Wars” universe. (The cuddly Ewoks in “Return of the Jedi” were named after the region’s Miwok tribe.) Jack Kerouac sought enlightenment there; his compatriot Neal Cassady was imprisoned there, in San Quentin. It was the Grateful Dead’s retreat, Robin Williams’ launchpad, and the solid ground upon which Philip K. Dick questioned reality.

Why all these people, in this place, at that time? Perlis, an artist, radio host and Marin native, doesn’t strive for sociological or demographic explanations. His strategy is to sinuously move from moment to moment, artist to artist, as if in one continuous tracking shot, pausing only for a moment to catch some of the interesting characters he spots along the way. Over there, film critic Pauline Kael; and there, poet and sitcom star Suzanne Somers; and look, there’s bar-band singer Hugh Cregg, who’ll eventually use the stage name Huey Lewis.

Author David Perlis

(Jordan Blackman)

Still, Perlis breaks the flow just enough to offer a few reasons why the region became America’s affluent bohemia. It is, of course, gobstoppingly gorgeous, with Mount Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, Point Reyes and Bolinas practically designed to be edenic retreats. (Fairfax, he writes, is “ribboned with waterfalls, tufted with moss.”) Its isolation made it a counterculture haven for those looking to avoid San Francisco’s bustle: Gay poet Elsa Gidlow made her home there in the 1940s, among the first of many misfit pioneers. Wreckage from the 1906 earthquake was used to build the first “arks,” houseboats in Sausalito, providing a quirky infrastructure. Add some slow-growth initiatives, and you get artsy scrimping arrivistes; add LSD, legal until 1966, and you have a party.

So by the late ’60s, Marin had become a haven for a particular type: creative, interested in Eastern spirituality and profoundly disinterested in social convention (not to mention conspicuously white). Perlis’ portrait of the county at the height of the decade suggests a region that had escaped — or at least refused to look at — the worst of America’s turmoil. “Despite atomic bombs, rampant racism, political violence, and the war in Vietnam and Marin, there is hope, a sincere, emphatic belief, in an imminent inner revolution,” he writes. “When Zen, acid, or whatever your trip is, opens enough minds that people can outgrow this absurd, unwinnable conflict with nature and themselves.”

Perlis writes that with a slight smirk — of course nobody outgrew the conflict. Sure, a lot of people made a mint on the dream of transcendence: The Grateful Dead became a premier touring act, Lucas taught the country the ways of the Force and Sausalito’s Record Plant became the studio of choice for Sly Stone, Fleetwood Mac and more. But in the process, Marin became a kind of parody of itself, satirized by the writer Cyra McFadden in her 1977 novel, “The Serial.” In a world of what Perlis calls “swimmable wealth,” enlightenment sure looked a lot like narcissism in caftans. “I have no idea how I manage to do it,” Dick muses about his productivity at one point, prompting Perlis to bluntly break into the narrative: “I do. Drugs.”

Perlis could have gone further than that. One of the peculiarities of the Marin cultural scene, at least in Perlis’ reckoning, is that it hardly seems like a scene at all. Otis Redding and Frank Herbert and Linda Ronstadt and Anne Lamott and Shel Silverstein and Van Morrison all had little in common and interacted even less; if Marin was an incubator, it’s one where every egg hatched a different, brand-new species. Communal activity seemed relegated to the checkout aisles where locals kibbitzed over “The Serial,” or druggy extravaganzas that would in time claim Dick and various Dead members and associates as victims.

The irony, as the region stumbled into the ’80s, is that between its wealth and carefully cultivated isolation, Marin came to exemplify the ethos of conformist America: every man for himself. The actor Peter Coyote resisted: “When a Buddhist is thinking about shooting out traffic lights, it’s time to leave,” he quips. Others dug in: Huey Lewis and the News climbed the charts with a song titled “Hip to Be Square,” though to his credit, he explains to Perlis that it was meant to be a song about the difficulty of reconciling affluence and bohemian values. The man knows where he lives.

Perlis’ book isn’t a dismissal of Marin’s cultural moment, or even really a critique of it: His story is more something to be wondered at, like fog rolling over Mount Tamalpais. And Perlis’ storytelling skills make it seem like good fun as he pingpongs from artist to artist, each somehow inventing a meaningful, or at least recognizable, cultural touchstone. Marin gave us New Age music and Pablo Cruise; it also gave us Jim Carroll’s indelible punk classic, “People Who Died.” But one of the things to wonder at amid the good vibes is whether a different, more coherent, more sober scene would have been more meaningful, more enduring.

A regular contributor to The Times, Athitakis is a writer in Arizona and the author of “The New Midwest.”

Since its monumental debut in March, “sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles” has been active.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

That’s the official name of Lauren Halsey’s public sculptural park nestled at the corner of 76th and Western in South-Central. In its first few months, the park has hosted intimate jazz shows, Kemetic yoga classes, art workshops and album listening parties where artists like Childish Gambino and Vince Staples have performed. For Halsey, a contemporary visual artist who began dreaming up the space 17 years ago, it’s all been part of the plan.

“At a museum or a gallery, I can program in a context that makes sense there, but at the park, it becomes a venue that is limitless,” she says. “So I can have a music series. People can roller skate. It can be a classroom. It can be a dance floor. It can be a theater, so I’m getting to know it every day, which is just so cool.”

She adds, “It’s just very alive so I love it.”

Now, Halsey is plotting on her next project: “emajendat,” a music festival that merges fine art, music and community activation all in one night. Featuring live performances from Erykah Badu, the Alchemist, Flea (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), DJ Pee .Wee (a.k.a Anderson .Paak) and the Charles Gaines Collective (with Black Nile and Devin Daniels), the immersive event will take place on Sept. 29 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Ahead of the big night, the South-Central native shared her itinerary for a magical day in L.A. It involves listening to rare ‘70s funk and soul music at her favorite brunch spot, supporting all of her favorite vendors (including a henna artist) in Venice Beach and bowling at Lucky Strike.

6:30: Coffee and produce at the Westchester Farmers’ Market

I wake up early no matter what. I’m out of my door between 6 to 6:30 a.m. I’d do my walk around my neighborhood and wait until my partner gets up then we’re off to the Westchester Farmers’ Market, which we go to sometimes. There’s this really amazing vendor called Gus’ Coffee. He makes coffee with his daughter. I’d get a black coffee with a tiny bit of milk or a horchata-based coffee and we’ll just shop for produce. We’d get some yellow watermelons, which are in season right now.

11 a.m: Brunch and ‘70s funk music at RVR

I’m going to my favorite restaurant RVR in Venice for brunch. I’m talking to the chefs, Travis and Ian. I’m listening to amazing music because they have this wonderful vinyl program led by Carlos Niño. So I’m listening to this rare B-side of the B-side ‘70s soul and funk while eating amazing plates. They change their menu quite often because it’s a call and response to what produce is available seasonally. No matter what, I start with the pickled vegetables then I get one of the hamachi rolls. Right now, I’m getting the melon salad, egg plate and the spotted prawn. Depending on the day, they’ll have six or 21 of the prawns, so sometimes they’ll hold me one when they know I’m coming in. Then I’m getting the dessert. Right now it’s banana ice cream with blueberries and it’s heaven.

2 p.m.: Get blasted with henna tattoos in Venice Beach

Then we’re racing to Venice Beach, which has been my favorite since I was a kid. It’s just so wild and grungy and weird and fun yet family friendly and safe. My girlfriend’s best friend lives on the boardwalk so we’ll go see him. I’ve always loved the vendors there so I have my favorites. Right now I’m really into Martha who is a henna tattoo artist, so I just get blasted with henna tattoos. She has a fat notebook of [inspiration], so I’ll pick some and then I’ll remix them with her. It’s this really cool collaboration. I do it every few weeks. I’ll sit with her for like two hours while life is happening, watching the roller skaters, the families, the cool outfits, the riffraff. Sometimes I’ll go to a lady to get the back of my hair wrapped in thread, which I used to do as a kid. It’s just another way I can adorn myself with color. Also, I love a hat, so I’ll go to everyone who’s selling a hat and maybe we’ll buy some fruit.

5 p.m.: Bowl and live my WNBA dreams at Lucky Strike

We’re going bowling at Lucky Strike, which used to Bowlero. We have the summer season passes and we just go ham. We go to the arcade first and I just live my WNBA dreams. Then we’ll go bowl two or three games. My partner usually orders the chicken wings. I don’t eat meat, so I’ll do a beer, French fries with “truffle,” shrimp tacos and maybe some candy.

8:30 p.m.: Head home to prepare for the week

Next, we’re going home. I’d look at my calendar for the week and answer emails. Then I’d take a shower and watch something with my partner. I’m into heist films and basketball. She’s into the psychological thrillers and those sort of crime investigation shows, so we meet in the middle. It’s going to sound so silly and I don’t care, but the last good show I watched was Tyler Perry’s “Beauty in Black.” His imagination is wild, so we just can’t wait until Season 3. It’s ridiculous that it’s so good. We’d watch something until I fall asleep usually by 10 p.m.

TREVOR Nelson has revealed when he’s returning to Radio 2 after undergoing brain tumour surgery.

The 62-year-old announced in June that he was stepping back from his work commitments before revealing last month that he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had “very serious” surgery.

But now he’s looking onwards and upwards as he returns to work.

Trevor confirmed today that he will be returning to host his BBC Radio 2 show from Monday (September 7).

He will be back in his 2pm-4pm slot at the beginning of the week before returning to his BBC Radio 1Xtra show on Sunday (September 13) at 11am.

The iconic DJ said: “I will be slowly easing my way back on to the airwaves from Monday on Radio 2 and next Sunday on 1Xtra. I look forward to being with you all then.”

READ MORE ON TREVOR NELSON

BRAVE TREV

Trevor Nelson reveals he’s been battling a brain tumour & had ‘serious surgery’

off air

Trevor Nelson hinted his working days were numbered – days before Radio 2 break

The news was revealed in a trail on Sara Cox’s Breakfast Show this morning at 8:50am.

Trevor popped up to ask: “Oh hi Sara Cox…. Have I missed anything?

“Now where were we before I was rudely interrupted?

“It’s been a minute, I know… but over the next few weeks I’m getting back to where I belong… In the Radio 2 studio, behind the microphone and spinning some records!

“It’s so good to be home and I’d be delighted if you could join me Monday afternoon from 2. Just ask your smart speaker to play BBC Radio 2, but for now Sara…  “It’s FRI-YAYYYYY.”

He’ll be making a staggered return with two days next week, three days the week after, four days the following week, before returning full time on the airwaves on Monday 28 September.

DJ Spoony, who has largely covered for Trevor in his absence, will be stepping in for the days he’s not in, as well as Clara Amfo.

He returned to social media last month as he addressed speculation after suddenly stepping away from work two months prior.

Trevor expressed: “There’s been a lot of speculation as to what’s wrong with me, I know that much.

“My phone’s blown up 20 times over with people asking what’s wrong with me.”

The dad-of-two said he felt he wanted to share more details due to the outpouring of love he had received.

However, he said he wasn’t going to do a “deep dive” just yet, rather that would come at a later date.

He continued: “I was minding my own business and then it was discovered I had a brain tumour.

“As you can imagine, I was shocked. In fact, my world was turned upside down.

“Quite literally, my head was all over the place. I knew I had to stop work because I couldn’t be that guy on the radio knowing I had that going on.”

After confirming his surgery was a success, Trevor said he’d been at home “recuperating and resting” and having post-op treatment.

He went on: “I can only tell you the truth, and the truth is I feel great right now.”

Trevor added he was back playing golf and in the gym and living his old life, except for the radio and gigs.

STACEY Solomon has shared an emotional goodbye to Pickle Cottage after selling her £1.3 million home. 

Yesterday she and husband Joe Swash confirmed to fans they had sold their “dream home” and would be moving out “imminently”.  

Now Sort Your Life Out host Stacey, 36,  has shared a montage of her favourite memories from living in Pickle Cottage, which they bought in 2021. 

Writing on Instagram, she said: “Thank You & Goodbye Pickle Cottage.

“A little montage of some of the best years of our lives… We will forever be grateful for the last 5 years at Pickle. 

“What a special place & how lucky we’ve been to have lived there. Memories that will last forever… 

PICK OUT

Emotional Stacey Solomon reveals she’s SOLD £1.3m ‘dream home’ Pickle Cottage

IN A PICKLE

Tensions boil over on Turkey holiday between Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash

“Wishing all of the love & happiness to the new family who get to love pickle cottage. And here’s to the next chapter…”

Stacey, who is mum to Zachary,  18, Leighton, 14, Rex, seven, Rose, four, and three-year-old Belle, yesterday explained how she and Joe, 44, are moving to a new property with more land so they are able to rescue more animals.  

She said: “Leaving Pickle Cottage was a massive, massive, decision for us, we had a lot of people we needed to speak to, we needed to get the kids around to the idea and speak to all our neighbours and lovely friends in the area. 

“There were so many people we needed to speak to before we told everybody.

It’s a really special place to us. I gave birth to both of the girls there, we got married there, it’s just so special to us.

“But for a little while we have always wanted to rescue more animals, grow more vegetables, my vegetable patch, I have got so much joy out of it, but it’s on Farmer Scott’s land. So if he decides to do something with that land, it’s gone.”

Stacey added: “We saw somewhere, found somewhere, and I was like ‘Oh my God’ and I was like, we could have a massive vegetable patch and we could offer our land to animals who need it.”

SHE’S long been known as one of Towie’s most fiery personalities, but Ella Rae Wise has now broken her silence on a fresh fallout with a co-star – and revealed exactly what’s going on behind the scenes with an ex she once couldn’t be in the same room as.

Speaking to The Sun, the 26-year-old lifted the lid on the real story behind her rocky relationship with former best friend Dani Imbert, addressed another friendship that has quietly crumbled away from the cameras, and explained what it’s actually like filming alongside ex Dan Edgar these days.

When it comes to Dani, Ella insists there was never one big bust-up, but rather a realisation that the loyalty she was giving out wasn’t being returned. 

She said: “I would just say we decided not to be friends anymore. I don’t really know why on her behalf, but for me people always scream loyalty, but when the shoe is on the other foot, loyalty probably isn’t that strong towards me. 

“But I’m the one that needs to be seen to have loyalty everywhere and cut my nose off to spite my face. With this specific friendship, she was okay doing what she wanted to do behind my back with people who didn’t like me. 

“So, it wasn’t a mirrored friendship. It was one-sided is how I feel. With time going on, I think I prepared myself for this… I could see it coming.”

Ella and Dani first became close after Dani joined the show in 2021, quickly forming an inseparable trio alongside Junaid Ahmed that dominated cast trips, nights out and red carpet appearances for the best part of two years. 

Cracks first appeared in early 2023 when Dani admitted on camera to lying to Ella about a secret kiss with co-star Roman Hackett, but the real turning point came later that year during a cast trip to Cyprus, when Ella fell ill and says she was left feeling completely “frozen out“ by both Dani and Junaid. 

Matters were made worse when Dani and Junaid began socialising with Chloe Brockett – Ella’s long-running nemesis on the show – something Ella viewed as the ultimate betrayal, accusing Dani during fiery on-screen rows of being spineless and easily led by Junaid.

The pair did appear to patch things up by March 2024, but Ella admits the relationship never really recovered, and their apparent truce hasn’t lasted. 

In a teaser shared on Towie’s socials with Ella and her co-star Jodie Wells, Ella reflected on a moment where she found herself defending Dani in her absence, saying: “I defended her in a room she wasn’t in with Jonnie… why was I being so nice?” 

Jodie pointed out that Ella had been “really defending Dani… which is really nice considering she wasn’t being that much of a friend to you at that time,” before asking where things stand between them now. 

Ella replied: “I’d say the friendship is probably quite non-existent. I didn’t ever think I’d be in this position with Dani. We’ve fell out before and we always made a pact that we wouldn’t fall out again.”

But it seems the girls have gone back on their word, with Ella adding: “I don’t see where the friendship can go,” while Jodie suggested: “Maybe you’ve outgrown each other.” 

Asked by The Sun whether she and Dani have fallen out again, Ella made her feelings clear, admitting there’s little chance of a reunion this time round. 

The pair have now settled into two firmly separate camps within the cast, with Dani remaining closely aligned with Freddie Bentley, while Ella sticks by her pal Harry Derbidge.

The two groups manage to film together during big cast scenes and parties, but rarely mix on a personal level.

Dani isn’t the only co-star Ella has fallen silent with, though.

She also confirmed she and former best friend Freddie are no longer on speaking terms, telling us bluntly: “No. I’m alright with it, though. I don’t feel any type of way about it.”

Ella and Freddie were close pals long before Freddie officially joined the show and, when he did make his debut, he wasted no time stepping up as one of Ella’s fiercest defenders on screen, backing her throughout her dramatic falling out with Dani and Junaid. 

The two became practically inseparable, filming together constantly and championing one another in the media, but their bond hit a wall during a Towie Christmas special when an explosive row – fuelled by shifting group loyalties and Ella’s closeness with Harry Derbidge, who already had history with Freddie, triggered a complete breakdown in their friendship. 

Freddie later confirmed on GK Barry’s podcast Saving Grace last year that the pair were “not friends” anymore, and while the two briefly appeared to patch things up during a cast trip to Vietnam earlier this year, secondary drama involving Saffron Lempriere and Elma Pazar reignited old tensions, with a frustrated Freddie quitting the trip early and flying home. 

Freddie has since buried the hatchet with Harry but, as Ella’s own words confirm, his friendship with her shows no sign of being repaired heading into the new series.

Dani and Freddie are far from the only names on Ella’s list, either – the star has built up something of a reputation over the years for falling out with those closest to her. 

Her rivalry with Chloe Brockett remains one of her longest-running and most explosive, with the pair’s friendship collapsing not long after they joined the show together in 2019 when Ella began dating Chloe’s ex, Harry Lee – a feud that has seen the two repeatedly clash on camera ever since, each branding the other insincere. 

Her fallout with Junaid also stemmed from that same Cyprus trip, with Ella accusing him of being controlling and toxic and of deliberately turning mutual friends against her. 

Meanwhile her relationship with Amber Turner has been fraught since 2022, when Ella claimed Amber’s then-boyfriend (and her now-ex) Dan Edgar behaved inappropriately towards her on a night out. The feud reignited in 2024 once Amber and Dan split and Ella and Dan struck up a holiday fling of their own while filming in Bali.

Which brings us to the one relationship that, remarkably, appears to be going in a positive direction. 

Despite that turbulent history, Ella insists she and Dan have found a way to move past their issues, telling us: “We’re literally amicable, polite to each other, keep it moving. And it’s easy because we’re in the same group. 

“The boys banter it and break up the awkwardness. It’s been fine. This series has really been a good series for me. I’m feeling comfortable around everyone.”

It’s a far cry from the tension that once defined their dynamic, after Ella and Dan’s relationship first hit headlines in Bali following his split from Amber.

Things later boiled over during the cast trip to Vietnam for season 36 when Courtney Green accused Dan of “flirting” with Ella and being disrespectful to his then girlfriend Chloe Lewis. 

But with their wider friendship group having shifted considerably since then, the pair have settled into a far calmer footing – something Dan himself has previously credited to their mutual closeness with Jodie Wells and James “Diags” Bennewith.

As for her own life away from the group dramas, Ella tells us this series has marked a real turning point in how she feels in herself. 

She said: “It’s been fun. It’s been nice to do different things and have happy moments. This series is so different. So much better. 

“The change is probably how I feel in myself. I think I needed to focus on how I feel in myself to be able to get over things. So, I did that, and yeah, I’m over it!” 

She added that rebuilding her confidence has come from learning to love herself again and leaning on easier, less intense friendships, saying: “I think it’s more finding love for yourself again. That comes in time, doesn’t it… And the friends you have around you. That’s changed.

“I have a lot more easy-going friendships. They’re not hard work. We don’t have to be attached to each other 24/7. We’ve all got our own lives. It’s been good.”

Ella’s newfound sense of stability comes as she’s also settled into a new romance away from the cast, having gone public with new boyfriend Ricky, 34, in early August while on holiday with mutual pals Lorri Haines and Ferne McCann. 

The pair were pictured kissing at Marbella’s luxury Don Carlos Hotel and even sparked marriage rumours after Ella was spotted wearing a gold band.

TOWIE continues on Sunday and Monday every week on ITV2 & ITVX.

At the top of Gloria Steinem’s “Famous Last Words” interview on Netflix, Brad Falchuk describes the writer and activist as “the face of the feminist movement” for the last 50-plus years — and Steinem says she hopes that isn’t true.

“I hope I wasn’t the face of the feminist movement,” Steinem says during the intimate conversation released Thursday on the streamer after her death at age 92. “Because it’s not right. … It’s a diverse movement, and, actually, on the issues, in public opinion polls, women of color are more likely to support the issues than white women.”

According to a Netflix news release, Steinem sat down with Falchuk in February 2025 for the interview she knew would not be released until after her death. In “Famous Last Words: Gloria Steinem,” the celebrated feminist reflects on her life and legacy in terms of her political activism, as well as her family and upbringing, relationships with other feminist figures and her hopes for the future.

Steinem maintained her hopes, even in a post-Roe vs. Wade world. When the landmark decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, it meant states could again outlaw abortion.

“I get angry or disappointed and so on [thinking about it], but I don’t lose all hope in the future,” Steinem said, before sharing observations about previously living near an abortion clinic.

Women are “still struggling,” she said. “There’s still religious restrictions that many people feel. There’s, I’m sorry to say, race and class restrictions.

“We have, right as we speak, Trump in the White House. So we have no shortage of things we need to do in order to be compassionate toward each other.”

One of the most recognizable feminist figures of our times, Steinem was known for her role in launching Ms. magazine as well as organizations such as the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Action Alliance. When asked by Falchuk to reflect on her “feminist awakening,” she mentions that her time in India studying Gandhi was when she “realized that patriarchy was made up. Racism was made up.”

But the interview has its lighter moments. For instance, Steinem reveals she finds joy in reality TV, including “Dance Moms.”

“It’s shows in which you see real people being who they are and disclosing their own stories,” Steinem said. “Those are more fun.”

And although she seems hesitant about contemplating her own “nonexistence,” she does share how she wants to be remembered: As “this person who tried to make the world a little more equal, compassionate, joyful, funny than it was when I showed up.”

“I just hope that I have, however accidentally, left behind some words or actions or stories or something that is useful to the people — and pleasurable, hopefully — to the people who are going to continue long after you and me,” she said.

Falchuk, also an executive producer of the “Famous Last Words” series, described Steinem in a news release as “the steady heartbeat of a revolution, but in this room, she was a woman reflecting on the simple, profound beauty of human connection.”

“She spoke about the intersection of race, gender, and peace with a wisdom that only comes from a lifetime on the front lines. Even in her final moments, she was organizing us, challenging us to keep moving forward. It is an extraordinary privilege to share her final thoughts with the world.”

After her conversation with Falchuk, Steinem was given the opportunity to share her final words alone, directly addressing the audience through the camera. Read her full message below.

“Hello, all you unique individuals out there. I’m so glad to be meeting you through the magic of the media. I wish I could meet each one of you in person. But in a way, this is what allows us now to see each other’s lives, to influence each other’s lives, to respect each other, and to, therefore, perpetuate what we hope is a global democracy.

“Please feel free to respond in any way you can. And please tell your own story. This is the most important thing we can do for each other — to know each other through stories. And I hope so much that whoever you are, listening right now, you are able to do what you love [and] to be … the unique person you are.”

Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer and writer whose work advocated fiercely for working landscapes and working people, died “suddenly and peacefully” on Monday at his home in Port Royal, Ky., according to his family. He was 92.

His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his death. On Thursday, she told The Times that her father, until about six months ago, was still writing regularly in his cabin on the banks of the Kentucky River, a place he called “camp,” where many of his more than 50 volumes of poetry, short stories, essays and novels were written.

Berry championed sustainable farming and rural community preservation and railed against industrial agriculture and corporate agribusiness.

“He was fierce and he was fearless, and he remained fearless,” she said, explaining that her family taught her the erosion of rural places wasn’t inevitable but “destruction by design,” engineered by corporate interests and political policies.

Berry, whose writings were often fueled by an anger toward the forces that have driven the destruction of the rural land and communities that he dedicated his life to defending, softened in his final years, according to his daughter. “He was always a tender man, and that part of him got stronger. He was rereading a lot of books that he had loved in his life, and he told me he was looking for the tenderness in the books, and that’s a lovely thing.”

Berry’s most influential work began with a list of the problems he’d observed in modern agriculture, scribbled onto a legal pad as he traveled the long stretch of road between Kentucky’s Henry County and Spokane, Wash., where Berry would deliver a speech at the “Agriculture for a Small Planet” symposium in 1974.

“I was asked to talk about labor-intensive microsystems agriculture. That’s not my language, and it’s not the sort of language that I wish to use because it’s the way people speak when they don’t want to be understood by most people,” he began.

Berry spoke of the six generations of farmers who worked his land before him, and the concerns for farming communities and their agricultural economy that he inherited from his father. He decried “the experts and politicians who have prescribed, encouraged, and applauded the disintegration of such farming communities all over this country into our allegedly miraculous modern American agriculture.”

The speech would later become Berry’s 1977 manifesto “The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture,” which launched a sustainable-farming movement and cemented Berry’s authority on agrarian issues on the national stage.

Beyond his cultural critiques, Berry wrote notable novels including “The Memory of Old Jack,” “Jayber Crow” and “Hannah Coulter.” He was a prolific poet as well. His verse included his debut collection, “The Broken Ground,” and his celebrated Sabbath Poems series, which explored living in harmony with the land.

Over the course of his career, he was honored with the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry and the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among other accolades. In 2010, Berry was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Obama for his achievements as a poet, novelist, farmer and conservationist. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.

Wendell Erdman Berry was born on Aug. 5, 1934, in Louisville, Ky., to John Marshall Berry Sr., a lawyer and tobacco farmer, and Virginia Perry Berry. Wendell was the eldest of four children, two boys and two girls. In high school, his parents shipped him off to Millersburg Military Institute, a former military boarding school in Kentucky, where rather than conform to the teachings, he later wrote that his takeaway was, “Take a simpleton and give him power and confront him with intelligence — and you have a tyrant.”

He went on to study English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky. There he met and wooed Tanya Amyx, who would become his wife and the mother of his two children, Mary and Pryor. He landed a Wallace Stegner writing fellowship at Stanford in 1958, and in 1961 he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to pack up the family and live in Tuscany and southern France.

After Berry’s scholarly pursuits took him to the West Coast, then Europe, then the East Coast, where he taught at New York University, he accepted a job at the University of Kentucky, allowing him to return home and back to his roots, on a farm near the river.

Then-President Obama presents the 2010 National Humanities Medal to Wendell Berry during a ceremony March 2, 2011, in the East Room of the White House.

(Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

“Within a few years, Mom and Dad were raising 85% of the food we were eating,” Mary told The Times. “We had a milk cow, raised hogs for our own use, and by the time I was a teenager, I resented the whole thing pretty seriously, and I remember saying to them more than once, ‘I did not choose to live this way, and I don’t know why we have to do everything the hardest way possible.’ We had no television. … But I was in a heck of a position with my parents because I never really thought they were wrong about anything, and I still don’t.”

When Mary would gripe, she said, her dad would laugh or “just keep working.” But “he talked about what we were doing and why we were doing it,” she said. “He told my brother and me from the time I can remember to look and see that this is good and don’t forget, and I have not forgotten.”

In 2011, when Berry was nearly 80 years old, he joined a high-profile sit-in at the office of Kentucky’s then-Gov. Steve Beshear to protest the destructive mountaintop strip-mining of coal. In an interview with Bill Moyers shared by the Berry Center in 2025, Berry said that he and his compatriots had had enough of the state government ceding control of resources to the coal companies. “In our society,” he said, “people with money are bigger and more powerful and more noticeable and count more as citizens than people without much money. … So we did confront the governor and tell him we weren’t going to leave.”

His attempt at civil disobedience was turned on its head when the governor invited Berry and the Kentucky Rising activists to stay.

“We did stay,” he said. “The whole weekend.”

“We were beautifully treated by the security staff and people who sent us food and bedding and good wishes and even came in and gave us massages. And it was altogether one of the loveliest weekends I’ve ever spent in my life.”

Berry continued writing into his old age.

Next month, Counterpoint Press will posthumously release “Dispatches From Rural America,” a collection of 15 essays. In one, “The Problem Is Industrialism,” Berry wrote about a 2021 conversation he had with a friend of more than 40 years, author Wes Jackson.

“To the extent that we were talking in earnest, our subject was the set of calamities that the media and the commentators frequently take up, typically dealing with each one in isolation from the others and representing each as an emergency more or less apocalyptic, and in tones recalling a number of vernacular alarms, from ‘Last chance for beer’ to ‘Prepare to meet God.’”

He continued later that the two discussed how industrialism “grows only by consuming, once and for all, the living world.”

Mary said she wanted people to know that, yes, her father was worried and wouldn’t have written so much if he weren’t terribly concerned about the future of rural America, but she wants people to understand that he was a man of great hope.

“Hope he felt was a duty, and I learned that from him,” she said. “As he said in one of his many poems, hope is what we owe people younger than ourselves.”

Mary said she was continuing her father’s work through the Berry Center, a nonprofit that aims to put Berry’s writings to work and advocates for farmers, land-conserving communities and healthy regional economies.

Berry is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Tanya, his daughter Mary, son Pryor, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A brand new series has returned with 12 new hopefuls battling it out for the winning title

RuPaul’s Drag Race descended into chaos with an apparent feud exposed just minutes in.

The latest season of the hit show has returned to BBC screens tonight (September 3) with an impressive roster of celebrity guests.

As always, 12 new hopefuls will be battling it out for the coveted title of the next Drag Race Superstar. Resident judges Alan Carr, Graham Norton, and Michelle Visage have returned to the BBC panel alongside an A-list rotation of guest judges including Hollywood actress Thandiwe Newton.

The brand new season kicked off this evening, with episodes available on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three.

But it wasn’t long before the show was plunged into chaos when an apparent feud became known. Paris Baby was the third contestant to be introduced as she admitted she liked to “start some drama”.

However, introducing herself to her cast members, she confessed to “saying some things” about former drag queens that have previously been seen on the show.

Stating she had been blocked after messages were “leaked”, she was then asked what she would do if one of the girls walked in the room today, to which she replied: “Ask them why they blocked me.”

And it wasn’t long before tensions started to rise, when Flesh walked in the doors, drag related family to previous contestants Bones and Krystal Versace.

Appearing to be one of those who had “blocked” Paris Baby, the two soon met face to face. When asked about their history, Flesh replied: “I don’t think we’ve ever met before”, as Paris Baby explained.

Speaking to cameras, Flesh admitted: “I didn’t immediately recognise Paris until I sat down and she said we had beef. We’ve never met but I saw her perform once and I left before the number had finished. I thought it was rude to laugh.”

Explaining to the group, she continued: “We are a super tight family so anyone speaks about your family you’re obviously going to say well you’re not going to be in our space.” Flesh then branded Paris a “troll” before a tense head to head that had had the group in fits of laughter.

But some fans watching at home were left unimpressed as one person said on X: “Flesh VS Paris Baby – The two have their first encounter of the season and well …” Another wrote: “Is Paris Baby becoming already one of the least liked queens from the franchise already?” However, one viewer said: “I love Paris baby so so much already I just know she’s only gonna last like 2 episodes though”

A synopsis for the episode reads: “A brand spanking new series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK returns! Over the next ten weeks, a cast of fabulous new drag queens will compete for RuPaul’s seal of approval and the much-coveted title of UK’s Next Drag Race Superstar.

“International drag legend RuPaul welcomes the queens into the werkroom for the very first time. Entering one by one, they meet their fellow competitors, and of course, they meet RuPaul, who sets them a surprise first challenge.

“The queens are tasked with staging a talent show at the Werkin’ Queens’ Club – RuPaul’s very own twist on a traditional working men’s club.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race can be streamed on BBC iPlayer

The Grand Tour’s new lineup is filled with “testosterone-fuelled petrolheads” again, and it’s certainly not a progressive apporach to things, says Nicola Methven

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ the old adage goes, and that’s certainly what they’ve gone for with The Grand Tour.

Perhaps you can’t blame them. Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond proved enormously popular after they de-camped from the BBC’s Top Gear and so having three white blokes is a tried and tested formula that no one can argue with.

Testosterone-fuelled petrolheads is what we are used to, and what we are getting.

Andy Wilman says it’s ‘comfort food’ for the audience. But progressive? It certainly isn’t. And the notion that sticking a female car expert into the mix would somehow turn the show into a box-ticking exercise does rankle. What is this, the 1990s?

On the question of whether a male presenter could have infiltrated the fashion world formerly occupied by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine (20 years ago!) I’m going to say, yes, he could. Let’s ask Gok Wan what he thinks.

This whole gender-based stereotyping is just incredibly tedious and without anyone ever pushing back, will never change.

But when it comes to the trio they have chosen, Wilman is not wrong when he says they are likeable. They really are.

Between them, James, Francis and Canadian Thomas have about a trillion followers across every platform imaginable. They eat, breathe, and sleep the one same thing: cars.

Watching the first episode as they race around in motors worth more than some people’s houses, you can feel the passion oozing out of them. Their interaction with guest driver Jenson Button is also very funny.

None of them can hide their glee at being let loose on some of the fastest vehicles on the planet. But they show just as much enthusiasm when it comes to winning races in clapped out old bangers worth £100.

The secret to their imminent TV success is their authentic joy for what they are doing, which is contagious for the viewers. After a few minutes of watching, everyone at home will have adrenaline levels that are sky high, to match theirs. Also, they look so damn happy, you can’t watch without getting a bit of that feel-good glow.

Of course, a woman would be capable of all this too.

When it comes to moving forwards, this show is stuck in a rut. But will it be a car-crash? Absolutely not.

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