show biz

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Thursday announced its inaugural film programming, which will be screened nonstop during museum hours in two dedicated 299-seat theaters. Entry to the theaters is included with each general admission ticket, and visitors can enter and exit at any time, creating a free-flowing set of ancillary exhibition spaces with a goal of furthering the museum’s mission of exploring storytelling in its many forms.

One of the theaters will play museum co-founder George Lucas’ student films, made between 1965 and 1969, among other rare offerings. A schedule of screenings will be provided to visitors as they enter so they can plan their day around what they’d like to see, and programming will be changed periodically through the year. The theaters will also be used for special events.

“The film program, like so much in the museum, is unique in its structure and content. It is an open-door program that runs continuously throughout the day, allowing people to come and go at their leisure,” Ryan Linkof, senior curator and head of the museum’s film programs, wrote in an email. The news was first revealed Thursday during a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con. “In this way, it fits within the larger mission of the museum to allow visitors to choose their own path through the museum and discover content at their own pace. It is also a varied and diverse program that includes everything from the earliest cinema experiments to avant-garde film, documentaries and animation, providing a platform for many underrecognized and rarely seen films and filmmakers.”

Adjacent to each other on the ground floor, off the north lobby of the $1-billion museum, the theaters are named after two giants of film history: Robert J. Flaherty, whose 1922 silent film “Nanook of the North” revolutionized documentary filmmaking; and early Hollywood montagist, cinematic artist and experimental filmmaker Slavko Vorkapich, who also served as chair of the USC film department from 1948 to 1950, more than a decade before Lucas enrolled in the program.

Two 299-seat theaters will be located on the ground floor of the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opens to the public Sept. 22.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

The Flaherty theater will be dedicated to documentaries, including those that chronicle the work and artistic process of many of the artists and storytellers featured in the museum’s opening exhibitions such as Norman Rockwell, Jim Lee, Charles M. Schulz, Maurice Sendak, Diego Rivera, J.C. Leyendecker and Weegee. The museum will also screen “Seeing Is Believing: The Story of Narrative Art,” a new documentary series it commissioned from Robin Dashwood. It will also show episodes of the 2024 television series “The Power of Film,” created by Howard Suber and directed by Laura Gabbert, and the 1988 Ron Mann-directed doc “Comic Book Confidential.”

The experience will be more avant-garde in the Vorkapich theater, which will contain programming “showcasing cinematic innovation and imagination through experimental and formally inventive short films that speak to the essence of cinema: the magic of seeing still images come to life,” wrote Linkof.

Offerings include Lucas’ student films, as well as montage sequences by Vorkapich for movies like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”; silent films by Georges Méliès, Émile Cohl, W.K.L. Dickson, Edwin S. Porter and more; early animations by Winsor McCay; experimental films created by Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy; early sound animations by Walt Disney and Fleischer Studios; experimental films by Canadian animator Norman McLaren; Looney Tunes cartoons; abstract “visual music” works by Mary Ellen Bute, Oskar Fischinger, Jordan Belson and others; excerpts from Busby Berkeley musicals; experimental films from the 1960s by Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger; experimental animation by Vince Collins; “Cowboy Bebop”; and an episode of “Star Wars: Visions.”

The Lucas Museum opens Sept. 22. Tickets went on sale Tuesday and were going briskly, with digital wait times reported of more than four hours in queues with as many as 13,000 guests. Museum representatives declined to comment on how many sold that first day, noting, “We’re grateful for the response and early enthusiasm from our Founding Member community and first wave of visitors. We look forward to welcoming them in September.”

Chadwick Boseman’s brothers, Derrick Boseman and Kevin Boseman, are taking the actor’s widow to court over her handling of his multimillion-dollar estate.

The pair filed a petition with a Los Angeles court to remove control of the “Black Panther” actor’s estate from his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward. They claim Ledward has mishandled distribution of the funds and “cannot be trusted with the continued administration of the estate.”

According to court documents reviewed by The Times, the brothers filed the petition last week on behalf of their parents, Leroy and Carolyn Boseman, whom they say each inherited 25% of their son’s “sizeable” estate while Ledward inherited 50%. The petition states that the estate included residuals and royalties, rights to his image and intellectual property, investments, insurance policies, personal property and multiple bank accounts. Because the actor did not leave a will, the estate was passed to his parents and Ledward.

Ledward, the petition claims, “was also appointed as administrator” but never “fully distributed [Boseman’s] estate. … Instead, she continues to exercise complete control over his estate without input from Leroy and Carolyn.” The filing asks the court to have Ledward distribute the remaining estate assets, make a case for why she shouldn’t be “held in contempt for disobeying the court’s order,” and provide a “full accounting with receipts for her time as administrator.” It also asks that the court remove her as administrator.

The brothers asked the court to pass Ledward’s role as administrator to a private fiduciary and forensic accountant, who they claim will be essential in investigating Ledward’s alleged “mismanagement of the estate and marshaling any unaccounted-for assets.”

Reps for Ledward did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The actor’s brothers allege that, because of their lack of access to Boseman’s estate, they are “blocked from pursuing lucrative business opportunities” that might benefit their “elderly parents.”

“For years, our parents have sought clarity regarding matters connected to the estate of our brother, Chadwick Boseman, including his intellectual property and legacy,” the brothers said in an emailed statement shared by their representative. “On behalf of our parents, we are committed to ensuring that transparency, accountability, and respect guide the resolution of these matters. Our hope is that this process brings clarity, honors the Court’s orders, and ensures the responsible stewardship of Chadwick’s legacy.

“We love our brother, and we remain committed to preserving his legacy with dignity, integrity, and respect.”

The Oscar nominee died in 2020 at 43 years old after privately battling colon cancer for four years. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2016, the same year he made his debut as comics superhero T’Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther, in “Captain America: Civil War.” The acclaimed actor also portrayed real-life icons Jackie Robinson in “42,” James Brown in “Get on Up” and Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall.”

Boseman and Ledward, an R&B artist who uses the stage name sahn, started dating in 2015 and quietly wed in 2020 before the actor’s death. In a December 2020 interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” Boseman’s friend and the producer of the Netflix movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Denzel Washington, said that while on the set of the film he watched Ledward care for the actor in the midst of his cancer battle and told him to “put a ring on that finger.”

In recent years, Ledward has advocated for colon cancer awareness and spoken at multiple events. In 2024, she spoke at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, saying, “Colorectal cancer is killing young people across the country, and most are vastly underestimating their risk. I’ve seen how this disease moves, and I know now how treatable it is when it’s detected early,” she said, per NBC Boston.

“My personal advocacy stems from this understanding, and from the disappointment I feel in the lack of awareness in my community,” she said. “We who have this knowledge have an obligation to inform our fellow man. Spreading awareness will save lives.”

KATIE Price has slammed Madonna as “rigid” and “not all there” after her World Cup final performance.

The 67-year-old performed at the first ever World Cup Final Halftime Show on Sunday as she crooned to some of her biggest songs.

But it doesn’t look like Katie, 48, was a fan and she hasn’t held back on sharing her opinions.

Speaking on her podcast, The Katie Price Show, she expressed: “I have to say, Madonna‘s performance, she was so miming innit?

“I’ve always been a fan of Madonna always but can I say something? I think it’s time she hangs the coat up.”

Her sister Sophie said: “No, don’t say that about Madge.”

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Katie continued: “I’ve been looking at all of her videos, I don’t know if it’s me or if anyone else thinks it, and I say it how it is, she looks rigid.

“She doesn’t look like she’s all there at the minute.”

Sophie remarked: “Well she is over 70,” as Katie jumped in: “She’s not that old Soph.”

Sophie insisted: “She is!,” before deciding to Google what her actual age is and finding out she’s 67.

Throwing a compliment her way, Katie said: “She is good for 67!

“When I see her trying to climb on tables and I’m like, ‘ahhh, she looks rigid’ but that will make sense, I thought she was younger.

Madonna’s performance saw Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho make a surprise appearance alongside her.

Ronaldo was behind the wheel as Madonna was driven out onto the pitch while she sung her classic hit Music.

And the legendary striker’s former Brazil team-mate Ronaldinho, sat in the passenger seat.

Madonna shook up the stadium with her choice of outfit as she wore a plunging silver bra, a sheer pink lace waist-cincher corset, and pink silk bloomer shorts.

She completed the outfit with thigh-high lace-trimmed tights, towering purple leather lace-up boots, and wrapped sporty sunglasses.

She transformed the pitch into a clubby discotheque, wearing the custom Saint Laurent look.

The Vogue singer wasn’t the only performer to take to the stage as BTS, Justin Bieber and Shakira and Burna Boy also lit up the stadium.

The final saw Spain take on Argentina as Spain proved victorious with a 1-0 score following extra time.

“I’VE got a statement drafted, I’m ending it,” Katie Price told me of her fledgling marriage to Lee Andrews.

That was on February 1st.

This statement, as we all now know, never materialised. Because that’s how conmen like Lee operate: over the resulting four months he lied, scammed, obfuscated and wormed his way back into her affections.

Time and time again he has dismissed the seemingly never-ending allegations against him as a scurrilous and damaging pack of lies.

Katie, in her misguided loyalty, has sucked it up, and let him back in. But today I am going to lay bare the damning Lee Files: past recordings, voice notes, messages and shameless untruths. 

Unverified rumours of a gay affair, allegations of more people cheated of their hard-earned savings, a forthcoming appearance on Piers Morgan’s global YouTube show, horrific allegations of mental and physical abuse from former partners, mental health fakery and what really happened with the couple’s new dog, Dubaii: all shall be revealed.

My hope, in so doing, is to expose this man for the pathological liar he really is – and ensure he never, ever hurts another woman (or man) again.  

Lee, a source tells me, has left Katie no choice but to consult a divorce lawyer. 

She is also, I can confirm, refusing to return to Dubai. And with Lee locked-up, with travel ban, a reunion any time soon seems unlikely.

For Lee, literally and metaphorically, there is no coming back.

JULY 23, 2011, was one of those days when most of us remember where we were.

It was the day Amy Winehouse died.

In my case, it was a music festival in Gateshead on the banks of the river Tyne.

The tragic news spread through the crowd like wildfire that balmy late Saturday afternoon.

The initial reaction was a combination of shock and dismay at the loss of Britain’s finest female singer.

But, for me and for those I spoke to that day, there was also an air of inevitability about Amy’s death at 27, joining an unwanted “club” with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.

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She was a shooting star, burning bright for a fleeting moment and then she was gone.

Fifteen years on from her passing, the love for Amy and her music only gets stronger and deeper.

She had the voice, the image, the songs, the wit, the heart and the soul — but the story she told through her music was also filled with pain.

Her second album Back To Black charted in unflinching detail her turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil as well as her persistent problems with alcohol.

Of course, it scored an emotional bullseye with her listeners, becoming a ­Grammy-grabbing chart-topping sensation.

Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Love Is A Losing Game, Tears Dry On Their Own and the title track are all indelibly etched into our collective consciousness.

Though she drew comparisons with some of the greatest soul/jazz voices — Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Etta James — there has been nothing quite like Back To Black before or since.

With that rich expressive contralto, she could hold us in the palms of her outstretched hands.

In 2004, the year after she released her debut album Frank, Amy, then 20, was asked by Jonathan Ross if music industry types had told her to change the way she looked or spoke or behaved.

“Yeah, one of them tried to mould me into a big triangle shape,” she replied, laughing and forming a triangle with her ­fingers. “And I went, ‘Nooo’.

“I’ve got my own style and I write my own songs. If someone has so much of something al­ready, there’s very little you can add.”

When she chatted to my SFTW colleague Jacqui Swift to mark Back To Black’s release, Amy, 23 by then, opened up about her inspirations while also displaying more of a fiercely independent nature.

She described reaching her lowest ebb and being begged by management to go into rehab, to which she famously responded “No, no, no!”

“Rehab is like Butlin’s — it’s a holiday camp,” she said. “It’s an everyday thing for some people, like going to Tesco’s.”

She elaborated further: “I was having a particularly nasty time with things and just drinking and drinking.

“My management decided to stop buying for me and said they were taking me to rehab. I asked my dad (Mitch) if he thought I needed to go. He said: ‘No, but give it a try.’

“So I did, for 15 minutes. I went in, said hello, and explained that I drink because I am in love and have f***ed up a relationship. Then I walked out. I didn’t need help because, if I can’t help myself, I can’t be helped.”

Five years after she aired those feelings, Amy lost her life at her house in Camden, North London, the coroner recording a verdict of “death by misadventure”, an unintended consequence of heavy drinking after a period of sobriety.

The tragedy led to acrimony and blame games around why she wasn’t given enough support.

Blake, her family and record company execs were all in the firing line at various times.

Some believed it was her own self-destructive nature — but it is Amy’s voice and songs that define her legacy.

Musically, she and legendary “Godmother Of Punk” Patti Smith had little in common apart from their raw, honest approach and unbridled spirit.

But soon after Amy died, Patti recorded a heartfelt tribute in the form of a poem set to music, beginning with the lines, “This is the girl for whom all tears fall”.

During a trip to London, she told me: “I’m heartbroken as a fan and as a human being.

“What Amy did was magnificent and I had been looking forward to see how she would evolve. It would have been wonderful to go through life hearing what Amy did next.”

Though Patti vividly remembered herself at Amy’s age, wild and impulsive, This Is The Girl came from a different perspective.

“I actually looked at Amy in a maternal way, she was a similar age to my kids,” she said. “I was very concerned about how things were managed around her.”

What to her, I asked, was so special about Amy’s music?

“I loved Joan Baez when I was young and Darlene Love and all the R&B singers,” said Patti. “I really love Adele’s voice but Amy was a cut above us all I think.

“She had a gift you seldom hear. There was an authenticity to her voice. She understood R&B and jazz from the deepest part of her. It was organic.

“Not only did Amy have that thing from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties but she was modern. When she sang Rehab or Back To Black, she wasn’t stuck in the past or nostalgic.”

In 2026, Amy’s legacy is plain to witness through those who followed in her wake, including fellow BRIT School alumni Raye and current chart favourite Olivia Dean.

Just as she was breaking through, Olivia paid this tribute to her fellow Londoner: “I don’t think Amy had any interest in being a pop star — she just wanted to be herself.

“It was clear in her music that she was using it as a form of therapy and then we just so happened to be hearing it. It was so personal.”

Of Back To Black, she added: “My interpretation of the lyrics is that you can’t have all of her. Amy was a free spirit. We were very lucky to have her.”

Another BRIT School success story, Adele, had this to say: “Amy paved the way for artists like me. She made people excited about British music again.

“I don’t think she ever realised just how brilliant she was and how important she is.”

From the States, where Back To Black was equally huge, Lady Gaga gave a typically singular view: “I don’t believe what I do is very digestible and somehow Amy was the flu for pop music.

“Everybody got a little bit of the flu — and fell in love with Amy Winehouse. And now, when more flu comes along, it’s not so unbearable.”

Lana Del Rey, a singer like Amy known for her retro styling, said: “I believe in Amy Winehouse. I know she’s not with us any more but I believe in who she was, and, in that way, she got it right.”

As if to prove that Amy’s flame burns as bright as ever, the Rolling Stones recorded her You Know I’m No Good for their recent No1 album Foreign Tongues.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood told me that he, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards jumped at the chance to pay their respects.

“Amy was such a jewel,” he told me last month. “A very lost jewel in a jewell­ery box but she was ­wonderful.”

Ronnie remembered how he had provided a shoulder to cry on “shortly before she died”.

“She was asking me, ‘Oh Ron, what am I going to do? And I was going, ‘Don’t worry because everyone knows you’ve got vodka in your water bottle. Just don’t hide it and try to go on stage tonight’.

“Amy needed a carer or else she went off the rails.”

But Ronnie also recognised her stellar talent and added: “She was like Billie Holiday. She had that once-in-a-lifetime deep blues.”

Back To Black co-producer Mark Ronson told SFTW: “Amy was an incredible singer. She had so much power in that tiny frame.

“I was so spoilt because everything she was coming out with was so spectacular.”

Salaam Remi, who worked on both of her studio albums, gave us a wonderful insight into Amy’s playful character.

He said: “She was one of those people who could make you cry with laughter — or say something deep. Her character was a big part of her talent.

“She cleaned my kitchen one time and it was better than any cleaning lady.

“It was three or four shades whiter when she’d finished. She said, ‘I’m meant to be a Jewish mum, of course it’s sparkling.’ ”

One of Amy’s final recordings was with the last of the legendary crooners, Tony Bennett.

She was so nervous that there were several false starts before they nailed the sultry jazz standard Body And Soul.

It was typical of Bennett’s kind manner that he was able to put his duet partner at ease.

He said afterwards: “People think that anyone can sing jazz, but it’s a spirit you’re born with . . . or not. Amy was born with that spirit.”

It’s also important to salute Amy’s striking image, developed during the Back To Black era in step with her Sixties girlband influences such as The Shangri-Las — her sky-high bee­hive, that winged cat-eye make-up and those daring halterneck minidresses.

She once said: “I’ve always had my own style. I’ve always been different.

“I don’t like to wear anything that anyone else is wearing because it’s very important for me to make a statement.”

In her short life Amy made a statement — and then some.

The last words are with Dale Davis, her bass guitarist and musical director who still leads The Amy Winehouse Band on its frequent tours.

He told me: “For a long time I was her favourite person to go anywhere with — then I was second after Blake. After they split up, I was back to being her favourite person.

“If she liked you, she really liked you. If she loved you, she loved you hard.

“She was a warm, beautiful, generous person who made me feel special right from the off.”

Dale estimated they played around 170 shows together, the last being a desperate performance at an outdoor venue in Belgrade in June 2011.

“That final one was my most difficult night on stage,” he said. “To this day, I can’t believe we played for an hour and 20 minutes.

“It was a funny thing with Amy because I thought she only needed to take one step to be happy, but that step was too difficult. She was never far from being OK.”

Amy and Dale’s final conversation took place by phone on the night she died at her Camden townhouse.

Clearly finding the memory painful, he recalled: “I talked to her at 11.30pm, three hours before she went to bed. She was on good form.

“She said, ‘Dale, I’ve just been watching myself on YouTube and I can sing, can’t I?’.

“I replied, ‘Of course you can sing. You’re the best’.”

MODEL Jodie Kidd has hinted she could get behind the wheel again for the new Top Gear series.

Jodie, 47, set a lap time of one  minute, 48 seconds in the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment in 2003.

The BBC show is set to return, four years after Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash halted filming.

Asked if Top Gear bosses had approached her, Jodie told Biz on Sunday’s Emily at a fashion event at Silverstone: “I am not saying a word. That was big news.”

She said of former hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond: “Their chemistry was extraordinary.”

Jodie added: “I think it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be an interesting casting. It’s going to be tough casting. 
And yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome.” 

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Jodie is an ambassador for M&S which has partnered with Silverstone Circuit for the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix.

Earlier this month the British brand put on a pit lane fashion show at Silverstone Circuit where they showcased a range of stunning looks. 

Of the partnership, she said: “They are totally iconic brands combining and being very British and running off that heritage. 

“It is really quite extraordinary. My 13-year-old son wore a menswear Autograph outfit to Silverstone and he looks phenomenal. 

“So you have me who is nearly 50, my son who is 13, my mum is 80 – the whole family will go and find something beautiful and that is a really tough thing to be able to do and M&S has nailed that.”  

However Jodie, who is working towards her helicopter licence, struggled to choose between two M&S favourites – Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar. 

She said: “That’s the hardest question. Percy. Percy has got me up many mountains.

“I’ve climbed and ridden around the UK on Percy’s. He will be in the helicopter.

“Every single massive endurance fundraising charity – it is Percy. Actually, the only sweet I’ll ever eat.”

“I’VE got a statement drafted, I’m ending it,” Katie Price told me of her fledgling marriage to Lee Andrews.

That was on February 1st.

This statement, as we all now know, never materialised. Because that’s how conmen like Lee operate: over the resulting four months he lied, scammed, obfuscated and wormed his way back into her affections.

Time and time again he has dismissed the seemingly never-ending allegations against him as a scurrilous and damaging pack of lies.

Katie, in her misguided loyalty, has sucked it up, and let him back in. But over the next 1,500 words I am going to lay bare the damning Lee Files: past recordings, voice notes, messages and shameless untruths. 

Unverified rumours of a gay affair, allegations of more people cheated of their hard-earned savings, a forthcoming appearance on Piers Morgan’s global YouTube show, horrific allegations of mental and physical abuse from former partners, mental health fakery and what really happened with the couple’s new dog, Dubaii: all shall be revealed.

My hope, in so doing, is to expose this man for the pathological liar he really is – and ensure he never, ever hurts another woman (or man) again.  

Lee, a source tells me, has left Katie no choice but to consult a divorce lawyer. 

She is also, I can confirm, refusing to return to Dubai. And with Lee locked-up, with travel ban, a reunion any time soon seems unlikely.

For Lee, literally and metaphorically, there is no coming back.

So, where to begin? 

Lee and I have history as anyone familiar with this sorry saga may remember.

The “multi-millionaire businessman” persuaded me to “invest” £1,000 in his latest (non existent) project, promising a £4,000 return. Needless to say those funds never arrived. 

After my piece ran, and Lee first emerged from Al-Awir prison, he sent me a series of messages insisting the money was still on its way (LOL). I told him not to bother paying me back as my bank, HSBC, had refunded me.

Our early exchanges post-prison – to recap, I had earlier joined the model, 48, in trying to hunt down Lee in the UAE – were cautious.

We sent one another “disappearing messages” on WhatsApp, both nervous the other might release them.

When I filmed an Instagram video describing Lee as a “bad man” and a “sociopath”, I awoke to a flurry of seething messages from him saying: “Clems you are not allowed to discuss a persons case files publicly it comes with 3 years sentence and 200k fine (sic).

“The UAE authorities will arrest you for this. And the facts are wrong on this bill oh dear clemmie what have you done. I have to make a police case for this now.”

I am still awaiting that lawsuit. 

In response to my disclosure that Lee had had a hair system fitted – aka a toupee – he added: “And you can’t discuss a person’s appearance online.”

From here, I clawed things back and we went on to start chatting again more regularly.

He sent me photos of his shackle marks and hand cuff ties – things people had mocked online in the wake of his claims he’d been taken at gun point to a black site – and said he’d had a hard time in jail.

This I believe.

And on 15th July, unfortunately whilst I was having Botox shovelled into forehead, I missed two calls from Lee in Al Awir prison.

It was utterly bizarre. He left me a voice mail: “Obviously I think you know where I am. I want to run something past you.” He thanked me and signed off. To this day, I have no idea what he wanted. 

Anyway, I honestly didn’t know if I would ever release this dossier, and even now, there is a part of me that feels enormous guilt.

Because Lee can be funny, charming, interested and interesting. It is hard not to like him, on a superficial level, and I can understand how and why so many women have fallen for his charms.

I have, though, since spoken to an anonymous account online, going under the name Chaos Corner, who claims to know someone personally conned by Lee.

They have posted several damning videos about his past behaviour, and much of the evidence stacks up. There is, after all, no smoke without fire.

I have also chatted at length to his brilliant ex-fiancee, Alana Percival. She is an incredibly courageous and powerful woman, and the first to come forward with allegations – and proof – concerning her ex’s treatment of her, and other women.

She has subsequently set up a support group for women who have been hurt by this man, using her voice for good, and gaining hundreds of thousands of supporters online in the process.

She tells me: “Based on my own experience, I believe Lee is a dangerous, sick and deeply harmful person. I believe he should be held accountable through the proper legal process. 

“My hope is that no one else has to go through what I went through and that anyone who has experienced trauma through him or his actions, abuse or manipulation, feels able to find their voice when they’re ready.

“That’s why I don’t judge Katie at all. Unless you’ve lived through that kind of manipulation, it’s incredibly hard to explain the hold someone can have over you.”

Over the past five months we have witnessed, in real time, the car crash of this marriage. Like rubber-neckers, we haven’t been able to get enough.

But, as the love-loving mum of five has always reminded me, this is HER life we are all gawping at. And only she can call time on this marriage.

It is, though, a sorry state of affairs that has left Katie teetering on the brink of losing public support, something she should be basking in off the back of her recent hit four-part documentary.

But as she herself said in our interview earlier this year, “never underestimate The Pricey”.

Kate is canny. She has, I can reveal, ALL the receipts of Lee’s lies, and WILL deploy them in a court of law should she need to.

Lee may have hoped to take a pretty penny from this marriage – but I doubt he will get one.

She has also NEVER paid for his release from jail contrary to public opinion.

And whilst Lee has garnered something of a celebrity status himself – flogging personalised Cameo videos for around £30 a pop – no TV network would dare to platform him with so many serious allegations hanging over him.

Indeed, a few weeks ago he was in talks with Piers Morgan to undertake a lie detector test. Piers confirmed they were in talks, but on Wednesday told me he had pulled the plug, describing Lee as “dangerous to deal with”.

He is dangerous I fear – which is why I am now blocking him across all forms of communication. I do not wish for his wrath or recrimination.

Doubtless Lee will feel I have betrayed his trust. And, yes – I have.

But, then again, this is a fraudster, currently holed-up for the third time in 10 months, and someone who took to Instagram on June 2nd to tell his 150,000 followers that his mental health had taken a battering after being relentlessly trolled 24/7.

This, I can now reveal, is yet another blatant lie. And one, for me, that crosses a line.

“Obviously you know I am not depressed,” he told me in a voice note.

“That’s there to get my legal side up, to get my doctor to sign me off. Do not repeat that!”

Well, I’ve repeated it, because it makes a mockery of those kind, decent folk genuinely battling daily with mental health struggles.

Elsewhere, despite his endless wealth brags, a source tells me a brief £300million partnership he obtained with the UAE Royal Family Offices was terminated after representatives sent in accountants to check Lee’s financials.

He had pledged a bond of around £10million, but when they checked his accounts, it is claimed, found only 27 Dirhams sitting there.

Lee, naturally, will likely deny this – and given he is in prison I am unable to put this historic allegation to him.

But then again, he denies all allegations.

Including a slightly surreal one earlier this week, in a post by Chaos Corner which purported to show loving text messages between Lee and another younger man.

Screenshots of the WhatsApps, in which he promised to leave Katie to be with this anonymous chap – homosexuality is prohibited in Dubai – also showed a credit card with Lee telling the man to treat himself to something nice.

The owner of the account sent me the telephone number of Lee given to them – and it matches the one I have. 

I can reveal Katie put this latest twist in the tail to her husband on the phone on Tuesday night – and he adamantly rejected them.

Another recent dispute came over ownership of the couple’s Pomski whom they rescued from a pet shop, and named Dubaii.

Katie paid for the seven month-old pup, but Lee assured her he had sorted care for the poor animal after he got banged-up once again.

Instead, it emerged, he dumped the dog with a registered pet sitter. 

When she couldn’t get hold of her best friend, Katie contacted Lee’s ex, Dina, who runs an animal rescue sanctuary, to take him in.

Lee also told Katie he had paid for Dubaii to be flown back to the UK.

Surprise, surprise, he had not. 

More lies from a man who makes Pinocchio’s nose seem miniscule.

Even in own sister, Kelly, who has been a rare voice loyally supporting him, seems to have turned against him.

Family friend Becky Smith bravely posted on Facebook: “Kelly Andrews and I just want to take a moment to speak the truth.

“Recent information shared by Chaos Corner has brought forward evidence that has left us both shocked. We are the first to admit when we’re wrong and now that there is proof, we feel it’s important to acknowledge that. (It is) incredibly painful for the family.”

And his dad, of course, recently enjoyed a jail stint by proxy, presumably, by being Lee’s father.

Latest unedifying accusations over a recorded video call – released on Chaos Corner, supposedly show Lee scamming an American man out his late mother’s inheritance. Again, Lee will presumably claim this is AI and untrue.

Lee’s litany of lies, should I detail them in full, would take me way over my word count.

But, in short, he’s bragged about a cameo on EastEnders (denied by the BBC), being arrested for espionage (reality: fraud), a sex tape (never filmed), arms dealer (he posed with a paintball marker), an interview by wife Katie on live stream on June 25th (been and gone), a boxing match in York on July 27th (he is still in prison and has a travel ban), returns to the UK (see: aforementioned travel ban), home ownership (rentals), gifts (a Ferrari “bought” for his wife who has a driving ban), adopting his wife’s five kids (he has not). And I will eat my mortar board if he has a PhD from Cambridge University.

In short, this is a man who wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked him around the hair piece.

He has hurt far too many people… must never be allowed to hurt again. Katie, if you’re reading this: get out. Now.

Last night Lee was unavailable for comment, and Katie declined to comment.

Damien Molony now plays Jim Bergerac, a role held for many years by John Nettles

Bergerac star Damien Molony has opened up about John Nettles‘ reaction after he replaced him in the series.

John starred as detective sergeant as Jim Bergerac in the original run of the British crime drama, which aired from 1981 to 1991. The much-loved series has now been rebooted, with Damien as DCI James ‘Jim’ Bergerac.

Asked if John had given the show his blessing, Damien told Radio Times they they had spoken about it and that he was “thrilled” with what the original Bergerac had to say.

He said: “We met and he said, ‘I’ve watched the first episode and I think it’s fantastic. It’s very different to what we did, it’s much darker – I loved it.’

“He didn’t need to say that, and I was thrilled that he did.”

The Bergerac reboot started in 2025, airing on U&Drama. It follows the police detective as he solves solves crimes in Jersey, while also dealing with issues in his own past.

Viewers have been enthusiastic about the new take on the series, with one posting on IMDB.com: “I have fond memories of the original with the gorgeous John Nettles, so there is always a bit of anxiety regarding a remake.

“However, this Bergerac, with the mesmerising Damien Molony is a different deal altogether. The general feel is much darker and less of a glossy travelogue for Jersey.. Have just binged this and can’t wait for the next season!”

Someone else said: “Like the reboot. Love the cast. Good plots and clever twists. The setting of the show is also an added bonus. I really like the actor playing the lead role, he is very likeable as this character.”

“I loved it,” one viewer posted on review site Rotten Tomatoes, although another added: “An entertaining reboot although not as good as the original.”

One reviewer commented: “Bergerac is not Superman, he is flawed and sometimes makes dumb decisions, and he wields the double-edged sword of obsessiveness, which leads to breakthroughs but can just as backfire.

“But he is very watchable, and Molony is able to persuasively carry Bergerac’s darkness and dynamism.”

Bergerac aired on on U&Drama.

As EastEnders’ king-hearted teen Barney Mitchell lands himself in hot water, let’s take a look inside the life of actor Lewis Bridgeman.

EastEnders has aired shock scenes for the teenagers of Walford this week, and Barney Mitchell could be hiding a very dark secret.

Actor Lewis Bridgeman arrived on the BBC One soap in the summer of 2024, alongside his dad, Teddy (Roland Manookian), and Harry (Elijah Holloway), and drama quickly followed.

It was soon revealed that self-confessed bookworm Barney is the product of an affair between his mum, Nicola (Laura Doddington), and Zack Hudson (James Farrar), leaving both Barney and Teddy devastated by the truth about his paternity.

Sweetheart Barney appears to be an innocent extension of the Mitchell family with a passion for friendship and education, but the schoolboy is now taking center stage, as he may be hiding a sinister side following a violent incident involving Joel Marshall (Max Murray).

In recent episodes of the BBC soap, Joel returned to Walford following a six-month prison sentence for violently attacking his step-mum, Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), who was determined not to live under the same roof as the tearaway teen.

He soon realised he was not welcome in the Square and planned to leave without saying goodbye to his dad, Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw). However, before Joel left the Square, he was attacked by Walford’s teenagers who tied him to a fence and soaked him in beer while making fun of him.

Lily Slater (Lillia Turner), Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James), Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd), Nugget Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury), Ricky Branning (Frankie Day), Denzel Danes (Jaden Ladega), and Barney Mitchell (Lewis Bridgeman) later went back to free Joel after Will Mitchell (Freddie Phillips) ordered to let him go.

But when they returned, Joel was found unconscious on the floor with a serious head injury. On Thursday (July 23), the group was sickened by the sight of his body, and the police soon arrived at the scene.

DC Craig Ingram (Matthew James-Bailey) assured the teenagers were not under arrest as their parents gathered at the station, though they were all witnesses to the assault.

The group later gathered in The Arches to get their story straight as Joel received treatment in the hospital, but Barney looked visibly sheepish.

Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway) arrived and told them to leave, saying that the garage owner, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), would be furious if he knew they’d used his premises as a meeting point. It then transpired that Barney had taken his spare key.

With everyone gone, Barney asked his brother if he’d found anything. Harry pulled a carrier bag from his coat that contained a hammer and said he needed to know everything. Did Barney attack Joel?

Who plays Barney in EastEnders?

Barney Mitchell is played by actor Lewis Bridgeman. The 19-year-old actor was born in Maldon, Essex, and attended Plume School with aspirations to become a drama teacher or an actor from a young age.

In 2021, Lewis joined the National Youth Theatre, which allowed the soap star to participate in workshops and stage productions and opened up opportunities for professional acting contracts.

The young actor has since appeared in various theatre productions, including The Wind in the Willows and Goodnight, Mister Tom.

Lewis’ talents do not stop at acting, as the soap star is also very intelligent. At the age of 12, he took Mensa International’s acceptance test and passed, indicating an IQ above 132 and placing him in the top 2% of the world’s population.

Lewis has been diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia, and his mother, Jayne Bridgeman, was worried he would struggle at school.

“Lewis has wanted to become an actor since the age of six,” proud mum Jayne told Maldon Standard in 2021.

“He adores everything to do with theatre and film. I’m very proud, I love the theatre, and we geek out together on Star Wars and Marvel things.”

Lewis went on to achieve four grade 9s and studied drama at A-Level whilst attending Chelmsford Drama Centre at weekends.

He landed the role of Barney Mitchell in EastEnders in 2024, with his first scene airing the same summer.

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One and iPlayer

A wartime science fiction thriller is available on BBC iPlayer and viewers are hooked

A World War I drama hailed as “brilliant” by viewers is available to stream now.

The Sentinels, an eight-part French wartime sci-fi series from STUDIOCANAL, has been snapped up by the BBC and can currently be viewed on BBC iPlayer.

Starring Louis Peres, the series was drawn from the graphic novels Les Sentinelles by Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia and is billed as an “adrenaline-drenched steampunk-style thriller”.

It follows a soldier, played by Louis, who who has been injected with a super serum and joins an elite unit on a mission to end the fighting.

“At the outbreak of World War I, Gabriel Ferraud – a gravely wounded soldier – is recruited into a top-secret French military programme designed to create the ultimate weapon: enhanced humans,” said a synopsis.

“After being injected with a mysterious serum, Gabriel gains extraordinary strength, speed, and resilience. He joins an elite unit known as the Sentinels – augmented soldiers forged for the front lines.”

However, as the conflict goes on, Gabriel discovers “a terrifying truth”.

“The Sentinels is a fully immersive war drama, drenched in adrenaline,” said Nick Lee, head of BBC programme acquisition. “Prepare for something totally different and unforgivingly entertaining.”

The series has won over viewers, with one posting on IMDb.com: “If you like superheroes (antiheroes), war movies and aren’t afraid of some action with a touch of grim dark sci-fi in a first world setting… then you’ll love this!”

Another wrote on review site Rotten Tomatoes: “This is absolutely brilliant if you’re into war dramas, thrillers and superheroes. The characters are well developed, both protagonists and antagonists – there’s three main storylines which are all equally compelling, and the action set pieces are entertaining bringing all the gritty brutality of fighting on the Western Front combined with the dirty combat. All in all, something different to the usual.”

“I thought this show absolutely ruled and hope to see more seasons,” another viewer commented on Reddit.

“This was a really great watch,” agreed somebody else. “Loved the costume design, and the action wasn’t cringy and badly done like a lot of shows.”

The Sentinels is available on BBC iPlayer.

In the Mid-City neighborhood where Syd grew up, lots of people now refer to this 34-year-old musician as the mayor.

“During COVID, I’d spend all day on the grass waving at everybody,” she says with a laugh. More recently, a bunch of “unruly teenagers,” as Syd describes them, have been doing doughnuts in the street near her parents’ house.

“I’m out there talking about, ‘Hey! Stop!’ I had one of my trucks parked in front, so I was like, ‘Y’all ain’t finna mess my s— up.’ But also they were hanging out the window — it was really dangerous.” She laughs again.

“I’m an old head when it comes to safety.”

Syd’s new album happily embraces a sense of maturity — of “feeling more sure of myself than I ever have,” she says. Released last week, “Beard” — the title was inspired by Syd’s wife’s request that she maintain the peach fuzz on her upper lip — sets thoughts of romantic commitment and professional achievement against gleaming R&B grooves that occasionally nod toward Afrobeats or bossa nova. It’s Syd’s third solo LP since she emerged nearly two decades ago as a member of the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future; it also comes eight years after her most recent album with the Internet, the Grammy-nominated soul-music combo she shares with Matt Martians and Steve Lacy (the latter of whom dropped his new “Oh Yeah?” on the same day Syd dropped “Beard”).

Yet for all the growing up she’s done, “ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says. “Beard’s” blurry cover photo, which shows her shaved head and slightly doleful eyes, “captures exactly what I was trying to portray with the music,” she adds. “It’s kind of this nonbinary image, where if you’re looking at it and you don’t know who I am, you might wonder: Is that a 12-year-old boy?”

Syd and I are talking over coffee at a crowded spot on Jefferson Boulevard that she says she visits every day. (So many people say hi to her that I’m inclined to believe it.) The restaurant isn’t far from her house, which itself is just an eight-minute drive from her folks’ place; eventually, she says, her parents plan to swap homes with Syd and her wife, the model Simone Clay, so that the couple can fulfill their dream of becoming foster moms in the larger house.

“With all my privilege and with all the peace I’ve been able to create for myself, I would love to spread that,” says Syd, whose full name is Sydney Bennett and whose younger brother Travis (known as Taco) also came up through Odd Future before finding success as an actor.

Syd recorded “Beard” between a studio she built at her parents’ place and a studio in North Hollywood owned by Raphael Saadiq, the veteran R&B star whom Syd counts as something of a mentor. The singer says she can relate to the way Saadiq moves between making solo records, working in a band (in his case Tony! Toni! Toné!) and writing and producing for other artists, as Syd did on Beyoncé’s 2022 “Renaissance” album.

“Syd is just looking for things in music that are breathing,” says Saadiq, who plays bass and co-produced several cuts on “Beard.” “She keeps developing, and she’s not developing to be relevant — she’s developed because she loves doing it. People like Syd and myself, we’ve been at this since we were kids. We were the ones in the neighborhood who’d walk outside and say, ‘Anybody want to get on this track? Anybody want to play?’”

Songs on “Beard” like “Closet” and “My Love” reflect recent changes in Syd’s life, not least her decision to get hitched last year, which she attributes in part to an uncertainty about how long same-sex marriage will remain legal in the United States.

“You know the Supreme Court,” she says with a shrug.

She also quit drinking after realizing that she was waking up more often than not with a hangover. “People around me weren’t like, ‘She be drinking,’” Syd says. “But it was every day, and it was just at the crib. Everybody has a different relationship to it, and I found that mine was tied to boredom, which I think is probably better than it being tied to sadness. But that’s also what made it a little bit harder to call it a problem, you know what I mean? I had to realize: OK, this might not be a problem for someone else, but it’s not serving me.”

So two and a half years ago, she stopped — and on a holiday some can’t imagine without booze.

Says Syd: “I raw-dogged New Year’s Eve, bro.”

“Ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says.

(Nabil)

“Beard” encompasses shifts in Syd’s business too. After fulfilling her contract with the Columbia label, the singer signed last year to Warner Records, where an old high school pal, Tim Hinshaw, oversees a boutique label called Free Lunch. The new deal inspired her to mix up her creative process and hold a songwriting camp with an assortment of writers and producers, among them the duo Nova Wav, who’ve also worked with Beyoncé; on “Beard,” the duo co-wrote and co-produced the hooky “Callin” and “Jasmin 17,” a lusty boudoir jam titled after the unisex fragrance. (Additional collaborators on the album include James Fauntleroy, Van Hunt, Rodney Jerkins, Big Sean and Jordan Ward.)

Given her high-profile gig writing and producing Beyoncé’s “Plastic Off the Sofa” — a sensual retro-soul number that went on to win a Grammy — I tell Syd that I assume the offers came rolling in immediately afterward to join other A-list acts in the studio.

“To be honest, that opportunity didn’t give me any more producing opportunities,” she answers, to my surprise. “Nobody was reaching out — like, ‘Hey, can I get beats?’” She’s not bothered, though, since what the experience did do was “give me the confidence to produce this album for myself.”

And anyway, she’s got a solo tour coming up, not to mention a long-awaited Internet LP to finish. The band has been recording intermittently at her place, and last month she spent a week working at Martians’ studio in rural Georgia.

“We’re closer than we’ve probably ever been,” Syd says of the band, whose drummer, Christoper Smith, put out yet another solo record on the same day as “Beard” and Lacy. Syd doesn’t want to reveal too much about the Internet’s new music. But she will say that so far the group has avoided using Auto-Tune, the vocal-processing software that she feels has become sadly ubiquitous.

“I want nuance, I want texture, I want the lack of perfection,” she says. “I’d rather mess up naturally than not mess up unnaturally.”

“The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove,” a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at UC Irvine’s New Swan Shakespeare Festival, relocates the comedy to a Southern California beach town in the 1950s. The surf’s up, a chocolate-covered-banana stand is hopping and a washed-up Elvis-like rock star named Johnny Falstaff is trailing chaos.

Those merry wives aren’t actually all that merry about the state of their marriages. Margaret Page (Sonya Cooke) has lost all patience with her grinning, gadabout husband, George (Evan Lugo), who floats through life as though it were as lighthearted an affair as “Beach Blanket Bingo.” Margaret’s best friend, Alice Ford (Sarah Hentges), has more serious problems with her jealous husband, Frank (Abel Garcia), who suspects infidelity whenever she leaves the house.

When Falstaff (Wyn Moreno), motivated by avarice and a mania for cuckolding, comes a-wooing, sending identical letters to Margaret and Alice, the wives grow merrier as they set a trap for their shameless suitor, whose uncontrolled appetites make him an easy mark.

Margaret and Alice are the forerunners of Lucy and Ethel, and Shakespeare’s comedy, written expressly to entertain, gives us a sense of what an Elizabethan-era situation comedy might look like. The Falstaff of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is not the complex figure of the “Henry IV” plays. (The late scholar Harold Bloom, a Falstaff fanboy, called this version of the character “pseudo-Falstaff, “ and considered “Merry Wives” to be, along with “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Shakespeare’s “slightest” comedies.)

Sonya Cooke (Margaret Page) and Sarah Hentges (Alice Ford) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Jesus Lopez Vargas)

Revivals of “Merry Wives” are not all that frequent. I’ve seen Verdi’s “Falstaff,” which heavily relies on Shakespeare’s plot for the opera, more times than I’ve seen the play. But Margaret and Alice’s quick-witted machinations provide the basis for a merry outing at the theater.

When the possessive and paranoid Frank Ford runs into Margaret as she’s scurrying to meet his wife, Alice, he pointedly remarks, “I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry.” To which she replies in savvy screwball fashion worthy of Carole Lombard: “Be sure of that — two other husbands.”

I have a soft spot for “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The refreshing sight of the women teaming up against Falstaff never fails to amuse. And I appreciate the frank and forgiving light the play sheds on long-term marriage.

But swaths of the comedy are antiquated. And the language has a dashed off quality in places, suggesting there’s some truth to the legend that Shakespeare wrote the play at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who was said to be so charmed by Falstaff that she wanted a sequel depicting Sir John in love.

Falstaff isn’t exactly in love in Shakespeare’s comedy. And he definitely isn’t motivated by pure romance in this adaptation, written by New Swan founding artistic and producing director Eli Simon and Anna Fitzgerald, with music by Zachary Dietz. As in all things, Falstaff is led by his belly, a gargantuan metaphor for his gluttonous nature.

Megan January (Nym), Wyn Moreno (Johnny Falstaff) and Sam Schneider (Pistol) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Jesus Lopez Vargas)

The pastiche score, indebted to the pop charts of the 1950s, isn’t allowed to dominate. As modern musicals go, this is a low-key affair. The comedy is still the thing in this frolicsome outdoor production, which takes place in the charming ambiance of the festival’s portable, mini-Elizabethan venue.

The cast is principally composed of UC Irvine students, past and present, with a few guest artists in the mix. Under Simon’s direction, the presentation is smooth and professional, though the ensemble reflects different levels of experience.

My general note is particular to the genre: Comedy works best when exaggeration arises the way it does in nature, as a fact of personality rather than as a calculated theatrical effect.

Certain members of the cast push the humor a little too vociferously. How much funnier Shakespeare’s motley crew can be when we’re allowed to discover the variety of eccentricity and ludicrousness on display for ourselves.

Falstaff’s girth is worked into the comic mayhem, but the character should be more than a sight gag. Moreno tries to preserve a measure of dignity while wearing a jumpsuit from Elvis’ Las Vegas era. But the sight gag nature of the characterization is overworked.

Garcia’s Ford seems not just jealous but borderline apoplectic. (Garcia is more nuanced when Ford is operating in disguise to suss out Falstaff’s true intentions.) As Doctor Cayo, one of the risible suitors for Anne Page (Marilyn Alonzo), Heriberto Cruz Jr. delivers a flailing, full-body performance that practically holds the audience hostage for laughs.

Evan Lugo (George Page), top left, Sonya Cooke (Margaret Page), top right, Zane Caputo (Abraham Slender), from bottom left, Zach Trent (Skateboard Fenton) and Heriberto Cruz Jr. (Doctor Cayo) in “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove.”

(Elijah Waller)

Robert Shallow (Greg Ungar) does what he can to promote Abraham Slender (Zane Caputo, appropriately zoned out), his socially inept nephew, as a prospective husband for Anne. But neither gentleman is what anyone would call efficacious. In truth, both performers seem more at home as members of the Banana Splits Band, the quirky onstage combo that ushers in the show’s retro beat.

In a nicely balanced performance, Alejandra Villanueva’s Mistress Quickly, the play’s go-between and overseer of mischief, embodies the free and easy spirit of Simon’s production. Lugo’s George has a simple affability that’s infectious. And Alonzo’s Anne and Zach Trent’s Skateboard Fenton, the young lovers swerving around parental obstacles, are a delightful throwback to those gaga California kids from the age of “Gidget.”

Cooke’s Margaret and Hentges’ Alice remain, as they should, defiantly in charge. The adaptation delves more into their marital melancholy, but I felt I understood them better in Shakespeare’s original, which recognizes the power of suggestion and interpretive restraint.

Yet “The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove” succeeds in extending a warm communal embrace to its audience, which is the ultimate aim of this mischievous and kind-hearted comedy.

JO Whiley was left in tears as she recalled how she told her sister with a learning disability that their dad was dying.

The BBC Radio 2 host, 60, shared the sad news that her beloved father Martin had passed away as she shared a gushing tribute to him on Instagram yesterday (23 July 2026).

During the latest episode of Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball, which was released yesterday, the pair discussed Jo’s dad’s ill health following on from his Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis in 2025.

TV presenter Jo opened up about they navigated explaining what was going on to her sister Frances, 53 – who has a rare chromosomal disorder called Cri du chat syndrome – during the last few moments of his life.

Frances also has learning difficulties and diabetes.

Opening up about how she dealt with the tough time, Jo said: “Frances has been extraordinary and she completely understands what is going on, she knows that he’s not going to get better, she just keeps saying ‘Not going to die?’ and instead of sugar coating it you just have to say ‘Well, he is not going to come home’.

STAR’S PAIN

BBC Radio 2 host Jo Whiley left heartbroken as she reveals her dad has died

JO’S REGRET

Jo Whiley apologises to Fearne Cotton after ‘bleak time’ over paedo ex arrest

“And she kind of pauses and she’s like ‘Okay, where is he going?’

“And my mum is a really, really devout Christian and she says ‘Well, he’s going to Jesus and that’s where we all go.’

“Frances is like ‘Okay, how old is he?’ He’s 86, ’87?’ And we’re like ‘No, he is not going to be 87’ and she thinks about it and she’s like ‘Okay’.

“She’s just been so tender with him, it’s been beautiful to watch, I’ve talked about her accepting grief before and coming to terms with things.”

“And then there was this really lovely moment when she was leaving the other day, and it was when he was on the cusp of consciousness and she was going ‘Say my name, say my name!’ And he actually said the word Frances.”

An emotional Zoe simply replied: “Oh wow.”

Holding the tears in, Jo continued: “It was lovely. It was really good.”

But getting overwhelmed by her emotion, wiping the tears from her face, she said: “And she keeps saying ‘Daddy said my name!’

“It couldn’t have been better.’

Many fans rushed to the comments section on YouTube where the podcast can be watched to share the love.

One wrote: “Sending you love and strength Jo we are all holding you in our heart xx.”

Another added: “So very sad for the loss of your dear Dad Jo, sending you love & strength xx.”

“Arh Jo, woke up to see the news that your dad had died and then watched this episode. So sorry lovely, such a hard time for you all. Big love and hugs,” a third said.

On Thursday Jo took to Instagram to share a slew of sweet snaps and short clips of her dad.

In the carousel of memories, Jo could be seen cuddling her dad in one heartwarming photo.

Other snaps showed him at family parties enjoying himself, while one throwback pic also saw the star when she was younger with her father.

Jo then penned an emotional tribute, which started with: “My lovely Dad died today.

“He was the kindest man, who lived solely to make others happy. He was supremely selfless and loved nothing more than caring for others and making people laugh.”

Jo talked about the “challenges” Martin faced in his own childhood, before meeting her mum and “finally knowing what love is”.

She also thanked her dad for giving her, her “love of music”.

Jo ended the sweet tribute with: “We’re going to miss you so very much. You absolute legend.”

There are a lot of rules to be aware of when it comes to TV Licensing

TV Licence rules can be easy to misunderstand. If you’re not sure whether you have to speak to or let a visiting officer into your home, here’s what the official guidance says.

According to TV Licensing, officers will show their ID and explain the purpose of the visit. They will act lawfully without threats, respect privacy and only enter with your permission, they say.

However, there is one circumstance where they can enter your home without permission. Officials confirm their officers can “enter your property only when you give permission, unless a search warrant has been issued.”

They explain that when officers visit a property, they will:

• Show their ID card. If requested, they’ll also give you a telephone number so you can call and confirm the details on their card
• Explain why they’re visiting
• Be polite and fair
• Follow all laws, regulations and policies
• Not use threats. Or any intimidation
• Respect your right to privacy. And confidentiality
• Enter your property only when you give permission, unless a search warrant has been issued
• When necessary, complete a record of interview. And ask for your signature to confirm that their notes are correct
• Make sure the person being interviewed knows what may happen as a result of watching or recording any live TV or BBC iPlayer without a TV Licence
• Stop the visit if you ask them to leave, unless a search warrant has been issued
• When necessary, use detection equipment or apply for a search warrant if they believe that someone at the property is committing an offence

TV Licensing also confirms that you do not need to say anything. Discussing the “rules that apply to a record of interview” it explains: “Officers may interview a person they believe or suspect to have committed an offence under the Communications Act 2003. But only after they’ve cautioned them.

“This is in line with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 in England and Wales. Or equivalent in other areas. An Officer will take the details of the person being interviewed, ask to check the TV receiver and write down everything that’s said under caution.

“The person being interviewed doesn’t have to let the Officer into their property and has the right to remain silent. They can ask to speak to a lawyer and can refuse to sign the record of interview. They can also ask for changes to be made to it if they disagree with anything before signing.”

TV Licence cost and fine for not having one

A standard colour TV Licence now costs £180 per year, while a black-and-white licence is £60.50. The most recent price rise took effect on April 1.

Watching, recording or downloading TV programmes without a valid TV Licence can result in prosecution. If you’re convicted, you could be fined up to £1,000, alongside any legal costs and compensation the court tells you to pay. In Guernsey, the maximum fine is higher, at up to £2,000.

What can I watch without a TV Licence?

If you don’t have a TV Licence, you can legally watch:

• On-demand films or TV shows that you watch, rent or buy online from providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky, EE TV, Sky, Apple TV+, Disney+ or Now
• DVDs or Blu-rays
• YouTube streamers’ videos or clips live or recorded
• Catch up programmes on services other than BBC iPlayer, such as ITVX, All4 and My5
• S4C programmes on demand

If you do have a TV Licence, you can watch all of the above, as well as:

• Live streams of programmes, news or sport on services like ITVX, Sky, YouTube or Netflix
• Live TV on any channels included in a package you pay for, like Virgin, EE TV or Sky
• Live TV on all free channels, including BBC One, ITV2 and Sky News
• Everything on BBC iPlayer, including award-winning British TV dramas and thousands of other boxsets exclusive to BBC iPlayer
• Live sporting events, like the Rugby World Cup, UEFA Euros and the Olympics
• Other memorable live events, like the King’s speech, Royal weddings, Glastonbury and the Eurovision Song Contest

TV Licensing adds: “With a TV Licence, you can watch all of the above on any device.”

Television favourite Claudia Winkleman is still amazed that she is asked to present Channel 4 talent show The Piano when she has zero musical knowledge. Speaking ahead of the launch of the fourth series on Sunday, she says: “I still know absolutely nothing, but nobody seems to mind. They haven’t shouted at me, so I’m like the idiot of the group.

“I know what moves me, but I’m just there as a conduit. I’m there to chat to people and make them as comfortable as possible and try and hear as much of their story as possible, so that the mentors can then get to know them a bit before they play.”

The show sees amateur pianists showing off their skills on instruments placed in bustling railway stations, unaware that professional musicians are secretly watching and judging them. Claudia, who will be working alongside Lebanese-born pop star Mika, known for hits including Grace Kelly and Lollipop, would love to see more Elton John numbers on the show. She says: “I am longing for someone to play some Elton John. I just want somebody to play his amazing music.”

Claudia and Mika will be joined by new mentors, including Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland, who will help to weed out stars of the future. Claudia, 54, says of The Piano: “I love it so much. We’re so lucky because when we did it for the first time, we thought we’d only get one go.

“It is an absolute privilege to wait in stations for these amazing pianists who surprise us. We learn about their lives, meet their friends and family and we learn about why playing the piano is important to them. For all of us involved it’s an honour. I can’t wait to see who we’re going to meet. What’s so thrilling about this amazing show, is you have no idea who’s just around the corner and is just walking towards you through the station.”

Welcoming her new army of mentors, she says: “They all bring very different perspectives. In every location, they will choose somebody to play at the final concert, so it’s going to be fascinating.

“What I loved about having different mentors is that they love the idea and they love the show. So, what was brilliant was to have people who were so enthusiastic. I love the fact they wanted to be part of it. It’s not glamorous and we adored them for wanting to be there. It was ‘hello, welcome to Birmingham New Street station, can I get you a Greggs?’ They were all absolutely up for it.”

Now a household name after 30 years in showbusiness, which has seen her present hit shows like Strictly and Traitors, Claudia would advise wannabe media stars to go for hands-on experience over a degree. She says: “Don’t study at university. Go, but don’t study subjects like media studies. I would study something else. It is just about experience. I don’t think you need to study media. Just work around it.”

Claudia comes from a media background. Her mum, Eve Pollard, is a former newspaper editor, who was once at the helm of The Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express and her dad, Barry Winkleman, was a book publisher.

When she felt the urge to try TV, after working in a gallery, she says: “At the age of 24, I applied to the former TV company Planet 24 and got a call from Janet Street-Porter’s office and I just continued. I worry about people who know what direction they want to go in. That is nerve wracking. It is OK not to know. “

But Claudia admits that her career has involved some weird assignments. She says: “Once I dressed up as a fruit for Fruit Awareness Week on This Morning. I was a kiwi! I remember going ‘we are going to go live as a fruit.’”

Claudia graduated with an honours degree in fine art from Cambridge University, although her cheeky charm was nurtured during her days as a pupil at the City of London School for Girls. She says: “I had the most amazing history of art teacher, but my friend and I thought it would be easy. We wore fishnets, smoked fags and flirted with boys. It was like ‘paintings? Yada-yada.’ We were not bad but naughty.

“I remember one day our teacher, Mrs Dale, in the first lesson, clicked her fingers and made us all walk to St Paul’s Cathedral. She said ‘I have had enough. You look up and this is what we are going to teach you’. She was unbelievable and the way she introduced art to us was great. She took us to Venice and made us appreciate Titian. She was brilliant.”

Her father, Barry, who was divorced from her mum Eve in 1975, when she was just three, also loved taking her to galleries. She says: “My parents impacted me massively. My dad used to take me to The National Gallery and the only rule was we were only allowed to look at one painting.

“He did not want to bore me to death. Now, when I take my kids, we are in for the duration. But there was no rush when my dad took me and it made me want to go back. My dad taught me so much. My mum and dad both taught me things like, ‘make the tea and be early. Be the last one to leave. Don’t worry what you look like. It is just a shell and that is going to go’.

“I was brought up by a brilliant feminist. Once I asked my mum for a Barbie doll and she was like ‘don’t be ridiculous. That is not what you are supposed to look like’. I was told to ‘be interested, don’t worry about being interesting and ask questions.’ I was told ‘don’t be one of those tools who sits there and waits.’ I was never daunted by what they did. Only grateful. I always felt grateful that they worked so hard.”

Claudia, in turn, passes on her experience to her three children, Jake, 23, Matilda, 20, and Arthur,15, who she shares with her film and television producer husband, Kris Thykier. And she says they teach her too. Claudia continues: “I have learned everything from my kids. Life before was just waiting for them.”

Like many parents, she has steered her children away from social media. She says: “Social media is awful. It is an absolute nonsense. I would never put my kids on it. I have tried to explain to them how awful it is. I don’t post a lot of stuff on social media. I have posted six times this year.”

Instead, Claudia – who likes the ethos of her favourite filmstar, ET, whose catchphrase is ‘be good’ – gets her thrills from doing live TV. The Traitors presenter, whose BBC1 chat show – which launched in March – was recently axed after lukewarm reviews, says: “Live is exciting. It is like doing exams at school, I know it is weird but I like being tested. I like a test.

“Not a driving test as I failed many of those. Turns out head on chin is not helpful. I do get incredibly nervous though but it wakes you up. I like the nerves. When I used to do Strictly with Tess I just used to grip her upper arm all the time.” Let’s hope there’s no arm-grabbing on The Piano – to avoid any bum notes.

*The new series of The Piano continues on Channel 4, Sunday at 9pm.

A BRITISH indie icon has been rushed to hospital after a nasty scooter accident.

He confessed he felt “stupid” and “embarrassed” as this comes just days before he’s set to headline a huge weekend festival.

Frontman of Reverend and the Makers Jon McClure has revealed he’s in a lot of pain and could be dealing with a broken rib.

Taking to Instagram the musician told his fans all about the “daft” incident that left him “shaken up.”

“A little update from me. I had an accident yesterday doing summat daft on a scooter,” wrote Jon.

“It’s my own fault and I feel a bit stupid and embarrassed tbh.”

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The 44-year-old is set to appear onstage at the Tramlines Festival in Sheffield – his home town – and has assured fans it will still go ahead.

He said: “This weekends gigs @togetheragainfest and @tramlines will go ahead even if I have to dose myself up . Hopefully it’s just a knock.

“Might need a cuddle though. Proper shook me up. Feeling a bit blue.”

One fan penned: “Take it gentle Rev, you will still have the crowds bouncing.”

Another fan added: “Ouch! Get well soon bud – if you are going to take a fall being daft on a scooter feels like the way to do it though! You know you are the heart beat of Tramlines – come what may you and the gang will smash it this weekend.”

Jon, nicknamed “The Reverend,” and his band shot to fame in 2007 after releasing their debut album The State of Things.

They then landed a UK top 10 single with Heavyweight Champion of The World, which peak at number eight.

In 2009, the band were invited to support Oasis on their final major stadium tour before they split.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner‘s widow and his mother are on opposing sides of a legal battle over $1.2 million, a year after “The Cosby Show” star died suddenly at age 54.

Tenisha Warner, the actor’s wife and mother to his daughter, on Monday filed a civil complaint against her mother-in-law alleging breach of contract. The complaint, filed in DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia, alleges that Pamela Warner — trustee of the Warner Family Trust — owes her daughter-in-law an approximate total of $1,276,042.46 stemming from the spouses’ premarital agreement and the actor’s other alleged financial obligations to his wife, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show,” died on July 20, 2025, in an accidental drowning while on vacation at Playa Grande, Cahuita, Limón. He married Tenisha in May 2022.

According to her complaint, Tenisha and Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s premarital agreement stated that the actor should purchase and maintain a term life insurance policy of $1 million with his wife as the sole beneficiary. Malcolm-Jamal also agreed in their prenup to maintain and contribute the maximum annual amount to a Roth IRA account for his wife, a financial obligation worth $30,500, according to court documents. Tenisha also claims Malcolm-Jamal agreed to pay her $16,000 a year for each wedding anniversary and a monthly salary of $5,500 “for her service as his Chief of Staff.” The complaint includes a copy of the premarital agreement.

In a statement shared with The Times on Wednesday, Tenisha said she has attempted to privately settle Malcolm-Jamal’s “complicated estate and honor his last wishes” and that the actor “had every intention to provide for our nine-year-old daughter and me.” Tenisha also said her late husband intended to finalize a new estate plan — “the stale plan created [was] in 1996 when he was 26 years old” — but was unable to do so before his death.

“I have been struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider. Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired,” she continued. “We thank you for your support, love, and understanding as we work through this painful process while honoring Malcolm’s life on the first anniversary of his death.”

According to the complaint, Malcolm-Jamal died “without having satisfied his obligations” to his wife and Tenisha has not received payments related to her agreements with the actor. “The full amount of the obligations described herein remains due,” the complaint said.

Tenisha’s complaint also seeks a declaration confirming the validity of her premarital agreement.

Pamela Warner commemorated the anniversary of her son’s death on Tuesday, sharing photos from their past on the Instagram page dedicated to her son’s memory. In between photos from Malcolm-Jamal’s childhood, Pamela included a lengthy statement about moving forward amid a year of “pain, hurt, loss and emotional de-stabilization.” Her statement talks about purpose, healing and a journey to “be better, improve and transform our spiritual selves.”

“During my year long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” she wrote, seemingly alluding to the legal battle but not naming her daughter-in-law. “I have also discovered the depth of love, care, concern and support that humans are capable of. All of which I have been the recipient of. The good, the bad, and the ugly. These are the lessons that I apparently will need as I continue my journey.”

Over the weekend, the Academy Museum announced that it will honor Mexican and Mexican American film history in an upcoming exhibition titled “Cinelandia: Celebrating Mexican American Cinema.”

Currently scheduled to open in September 2027 — likely to coincide with the onset of Hispanic Heritage Month — the showcase will span from the silent film era to the present day and examine movies from both sides of the border.

The idea for the exhibition was first discussed back in 2019 and work on it officially began in late 2022, Academy Museum associate curator Sophia Serrano told The Times.

“It grew from a previous research and programming project we did as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles x Latin America initiative, before we opened the Academy Museum in 2021,” Serrano said.

The display will focus mostly on Mexican American cinema, but examines those films in conversation with Mexican features and other Spanish-language movies, made both in Hollywood and internationally.

Films included in the exhibit will be Day of the Dead flicks like “The Book of Life” and Disney’s “Coco” — as well as the Spanish-language version of the 1931 horror classic “Dracula,” plus director Luis Valdez’s “La Bamba” and “Zoot Suit.” Three groundbreaking works by Gregory Nava will also be honored: the Oscar-nominated “El Norte,” “My Family/Mi Familia” and the Jennifer Lopez-led biopic “Selena.”

Among the classic Mexican films included are the 1932 film “Santa,” which was the first Mexican narrative sound movie, as well as 1946’s “Enamorada.” Features from Mexico’s Oscar-winning “three amigos” of cinema — Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro Iñárritu — will also be highlighted.

Along with curator Serrano, “Cinelandia” is guided by a 12-person advisory panel: cartoonist  Lalo Alcaraz; UC Santa Cruz professor emeritus Rosa-Linda Fregoso; LACMA curator and head of contemporary art Rita Gonzalez; animator-director Jorge R. Gutiérrez; writer-director Cristina Ibarra; Pitzer College professor Jesse Lerner; director-writer Carlos López Estrada; University of Arizona assistant professor Orquidea Morales; director Gregory Nava; UCLA professor Chon Noriega; University of Texas at Austin professor Charles Ramirez Berg; and USC professor Laura Isabel Serna. 

Given that L.A. County’s population is almost 50% Latino, Serrano noted that part of the exhibition’s aim is to connect to the millions of Latinos in the county and show how they’ve been critical in informing the cultural landscape of L.A.

“Mexican American cinema is … a big part of Los Angeles’ history,” Serrano said. “We want this exhibition to connect with the broader Los Angeles community, as well as illuminate the history behind many of the beloved films from Mexican American and Mexican filmmakers. The exhibition is designed to offer something for everyone and bring people of all ages and backgrounds together to celebrate this important cultural heritage.”

As with previous exhibitions centered on minority populations, the Academy Museum won’t be shying away from the uncomfortable truths around Latinos in Hollywood — from the demographic’s stereotypical portrayals in film to its underrepresentation in the industry that continues to this day.

“Many of the films and artists featured in the exhibition draw attention to or push against these challenges in a variety of ways,” Serrano said. “A guiding principle of the exhibition is foregrounding the voices of film artists themselves via interviews, written quotes, and guest curations and collaborations alongside the hundreds of original objects that will go on display, and this aims to tell an earnest and engaging story about this history.”

“We are also aiming to show how vast the contributions of Mexican American artists are, and these histories are often unknown or underrecognized. It’s essential that the exhibition celebrates these moments of impact and influence in a dynamic and educational manner.” 

“Cinelandia” isn’t the museum’s first foray into identity-based exhibitions centered on underrepresented populations. In 2022, the museum opened the “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971” exhibition which highlighted the work of Black creatives from filmmaking’s early days through the civil rights movement. The showcase — which closed in April 2023 — tackled such themes as the representation of Black people in early cinema (1897-1915), the era of “race films” made by Black filmmakers for Black audiences (1910s-1940s), musical films and stories born of the civil rights movement.

The museum’s ongoing showcase titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,” explores the stories of the Jewish filmmakers and studio founders who helped cement the L.A. area as the world capital of entertainment.

Coronation Street fans have wondered why Gail Platt has not been mentioned whilst her daughter Sarah has been charged with murder and issued a plea for her to return

Coronation Street fans have wondered if Gail Platt could be about to make a comeback to the ITV soap. The legendary character was played by Helen Worth for 50 years and, during that time, she was known for several ill-fated marriages and raising her children Nick, Sarah (Tina O’Brien) and David.

The former GP receptionist and café waitress, who was also known for her long-running feud with fellow legend Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) finally found the one in Jesse Chadwick and they departed for a quiet life in the France after tying the knot on Christmas Day 2024.

There has been no shortage of drama for the remaining members of the Platt family since her departure and, most recently, Gail’s middle child Sarah has been charged with the murder of Theo Silverton, after hitting the abusive scaffolder over the head with a pipe.

On Wednesday’s episode of the world’s longest-running TV soap, Maria Connor was once again trying to get details out of her husband Gary Windass (Mikey North) about that fateful night, aware that he had something to do with it. Viewers will remember that Sarah roped Gary into the whole thing because she felt unable to alert her current partner, DC Kit Green, because of what it might mean for his career.

He said: “She needed an alibi, so I sent a text from Theo’s phone. Does it really matter now, babe? And then I got rid of the murder weapon.” At this point, Maria well and truly lost it and exclaimed: “She has made you an accessory to murder! You came to her rescue? Well it didn’t work, did it? She’s been arrested!”

Whilst enjoying dinner at the bistro with his family, Gary was spotted by his nemesis Kit, who is determined to do whatever it can to get Sarah off the hook – even though he knows that she is guilty. Storming out of the restaurant, Kit raged at Gary: “She’s in a cell while you’re playing happy families. Fact is, you’re free. You don’t have to do a long prison stretch. You get to see your kid grow up. What is it with you? Did you just feel flattered?” Just as Kit began to issue a threat, Maria waltzed out of the bistro herself and Kit warned him: “One day, your luck is gonna run out.”

But one thing that was bothering fans throughout it all is that Sarah’s mother seems yet to be informed of her latest ordeal. Viewers flooded social media wondering why Gail, who last appeared via a video call last Christmas, doesn’t seem to have been contacted. One fan said: “Has anyone told Gail about Sarah? Trying to imagine next time she phones, if David answers. “Oh hi, Gail. Everything ok here. Oh yeah, Sarah’s in prison for murder, but y’know…”

One fan wrote on Reddit: “Now that Sarah has been charged with murder , I can’t help but wonder why no one has mentioned Gail? It’s one thing not informing her of run-of-the-mill dramas but she deserves to know that her daughter is about to go to prison

“This is where things fall down, once someone leaves that single backstreet, they are never spoken of again. Even if Helen Worth did a quick return via a video call, or, at the very least, Sarah or David was seen on the phone to her. It just kind of makes no sense otherwise. Maybe she’d just say “Not my problem now, au revoir!” and hang up.”

In response, another said: “I assume that what we see are only snippets of their life on the show and the characters we don’t see are living their lives between dramatic plot lines in the background. Therefore, I assume that Sarah talks to Gail, Kevin talks to Rosie and Sophie, Rita talks to Jenny, etc, we just don’t see it or hear about it.” Fans were also quick to issue a demand for an appearance from Sarah’s grandmother Audrey, who has not been on screen since November last year but has not been written out. Taking to X, one fan said: “Has Gail or Audrey been informed about Sarah? Hopefully there’s a mention of them soon.”

Another said: “Surely now Sarah’s incarnated (sic) warrants either a visit from Gail or brings Audrey home. The family need them.” Prior to joining the soap in July 1974, Helen had acted in Z-Cars, and appeared in the movie musical Oliver! before making an appearance in Doctor Who.

Helen’s only other role after joining Coronation Street came in 1981 when she voiced the part of cat Molly Silknose in Peter-No-Tail, and she appeared as Gail in a charity crossover with EastEnders for Children in Need in 2010.

Gail had been married six times, with one of her husbands being tragically stabbed to death and another was a serial killer. Other storylines include Sarah’s teenage pregnancy, and the death of her fourth husband Joe McIntyre, who died during a failed life insurance scheme.

Opening up on her time on the show and reason for leaving, Helen made a rare public appearance at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester earlier this year. She said: “It was only a bit towards the end when I got a bit tired. But the first, how many years? 49 years, were a dream.”

“My final husband, John Thomson, was absolutely gorgeous to me, because by then I was rattling a bit. It was around about 4,000 episodes and I was rattling a little bit. I had good and bad days… but then you forget the bad days and you just remember the good days.”

Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X.

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Two siblings went on the BBC show in the hope of recovering never before seen home movies

A brother and sister battled tears as they said an emotional fix on The Repair Shop had given them “peace” after the family experienced a trauma.

Siblings Zaff and Nasari went on the BBC show with a broken projector that had been used to film home movies they’d never been able to see.

Their dad had recorded footage of them as children with their relatives during their childhood in Uganda, but after they were forced to flee the country in the 1970s under Idi Amin’s rule, it was packed up and not touched.

Both of their parents had since died, and Zaff and Nasari told experts Dominic Chinea and Mark Stuckey that they hoped fixing the projector would mean they would get to see them “walking around” again.

Discussing their childhood, Zaff said: “It was, yeah, very, very fun times, but the trauma that came after, with leaving Africa. Dictatorship. Idi Amin. We had 90 days to leave the country, and we weren’t allowed to take anything with us.”

The show explained that after staging a coup in 1971, military dictator Amin seized control of Uganda in East Africa. Accusing the country’s Asians of exploiting the economy, he ordered the expulsion of their entire population, forcing over 70,000 people to flee.

The family ended up leaving and starting “from scratch”, building a new life in the UK.

The siblings’ mum died at 45 and their dad died soon afterwards aged 50. The projector was “locked away” for 40 or 50 years, with the pair trying to fix it a few times but having no luck.

When they left the barn, Mark set about restoring the precious heirloom and was thrilled to get it working. Recovered footage showed Zaff and Nasari playing in Uganda as children, while their grandfather were also seen.

Both looked tearful as they viewed the films, with Zaff saying it was “astonishing” and Nasari saying: “I just feel my dad touching it. I feel like he’s here and he’s putting it on.”

“It brought me peace, seeing my mum and dad and how we were, and my grandfather, how much time we spent together,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “It’s my dad. Everything about it is my dad.”

She went on: “After them passing away, it’s been that long, you forget who they were and how they looked, and the feeling came back again. It made me feel at peace.”

The Repair Shop airs on BBC One.

IT was 15 years ago today that the shocking news broke that Amy Winehouse had died, aged just 27.

She had released just two albums during her eight-year career, but her massive success and larger-than-life character meant her death sent shockwaves around the world — and today her impact on culture is more apparent than ever.

In music, fashion and art, she has inspired an entire generation of artists. British music is being dominated by women whose sound, style and brand is packed with references to the late superstar.

In recent weeks rapper Cardi B and actress Zendaya have been spotted dressed like Amy, with her trademark beehive hairdo.

And one artist who is frequently compared with Amy is Raye, who, much like the late singer, has become a celebrated industry darling, thanks to her brassy Motown influences and brutally truthful lyrics.

But Raye feels the weight of comparison more than most, and said: “I’m aware that what she did is irreplaceable and inimitable.

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“Amy did it so well that no one can ever do what she did. And, God rest her soul, she gave her whole life for us to enjoy the music that she left behind.”

Like Amy, Raye went to South London creative arts academy The Brit School, whose starry former pupils also include Adele and Olivia Dean.

Raye recalled her years at the school, and how she would walk down the corridors and see photos on the wall of alumni such as Amy and say: “That’s gonna be me one day.”

Amy’s star certainly burned brightly, but all too briefly. Her body was discovered at her home in Camden, North London on July 23, 2011, by her security guard Andrew Morris.

Toxicology reports later revealed her blood alcohol content was five times the legal drink-drive limit, and the coroner’s report stated her “sudden and unexpected” death was caused by misadventure due to alcohol poisoning.

Amy had battled drug addiction for years, inspiring her 2006 single Rehab, but she had got clean from illegal substances before she died.

As a fiercely unapologetic woman in the music world, she blazed a trail for a new way to be an artist — and for future star Lola Young, who was just ten years old when Amy died, she was an inspiration.

The One Thing singer carries a gritty London identity similar to Amy’s and produces familiarly confessional lyrics.

She is even managed by Nick Shymansky, the same industry executive who guided Amy’s career during her breakout success.

After Amy, he swore he would never manage another artist, but was so won over by Lola’s talent — and subtle similarities to Amy — that he decided to take her on, and she has since sold millions of records.

When Amy found fame in the Noughties the music landscape was dominated by indie and processed pop, but she forged a new path with her neo-soul, Sixties pop and jazz sound — and now that sound is everywhere.

Olivia Dean’s easy-listening collection The Art Of Loving is on course to be the biggest-selling album in the UK this year, despite the fact it was released last September.

And even more recently, British newcomer Sienna Spiro has followed Amy with her vintage aesthetic and her breakout single Back To Blonde — mirroring Amy’s 2006 album and single Back To Black.

It is paying off, as last week Sienna shot to No2 in the charts with her debut album Visitor.

The impact of Back To Black, Amy’s second album, was felt worldwide. With classic songs such as Rehab and Tears Dry On Their Own, it became the fifth best-selling album of the 21st century so far, shifting 20million copies.

Amy sang about toxic co-dependency, addiction, dating disasters and her flaws, all in graphic detail, then wrapped them up in palatable and catchy songs.

It was all the more interesting for listeners, as her tumultuous personal life, including a rollercoaster relationship with her boyfriend and then husband Blake Fielder-Civil, and her drug use, became front-page news.

The saga taught lessons to youngsters such as future superstar Billie Eilish, who saw the tragedy unfold as she was growing up in California.

She said: “The things that inspire me about Amy are also the kind of things that are sad about it.

“You knew she wasn’t doing anything that she did for attention or in a weird, fake way because from what I gather, she didn’t really want that s**t, you know.

“It showed me that she was kind of raw for what she was creating, and she wasn’t trying to be anything she wasn’t, because she didn’t even want to be that.

“She changed a whole generation of music. Everyone, when listing off the people that inspired them, Amy Winehouse is always in that list.

“Everything about her, she just mixed a whole bunch of stuff together, and created the most beautiful things.”

And it’s not just female fellow stars who are Amy’s admirers.

Mark Ronson, who produced her Back To Black album and co-wrote the song of the same name, has credited Amy with his entire career.

Accepting the Outstanding Contribution to Music prize at February’s Brit Awards, he said his multiple chart-topping collaborations with other artists would never have happened if it wasn’t for her.

He said: “I realised on the way here that on Thursday, March 6, it’ll be 20 years to the day that Amy Winehouse came up to my studio in New York City. We went upstairs and talked for four hours and that night we wrote Back To Black, and that day changed my life for ever.”

Mark has since gone on to sell millions of records by working with superstars such as Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus.

But he added: “I know the music I made with Amy is the reason any of them know who I am anyway. That’s why I’ll always treasure her voice, her talent, our bond, all of it.” And this month The Rolling Stones have celebrated Amy’s legacy by covering her song You Know I’m No Good on new album Foreign Tongues.

Guitarist Keith Richards said: “Loved the song. Always thought that Amy was a sad story in many ways, but she was one of the best to come out of England, and probably had so much more potential.”

Such was her star power, she shared the stage with the Stones at the 2007 Isle of Wight Festival, covering the Temptations’ Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, just four years after releasing her debut album Frank.

Street artist Pegasus was a close friend of Amy’s and launched his career on the day she died.

He has since become famous for his stencilled portraits of the singer, such as his “Fallen Angel” mural near Camden Lock, close to where they used to hang out.

Pegasus, whose real name is Chris Turner, told The Sun: “Amy was one of those people who come along every so often, makes a massive impact, unfortunately isn’t around for long but leaves a lasting legacy.

Her light will always shine bright. Her unique style, her love for the greats, like Etta James, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, introduced and inspired a generation of artists that came after her.

“I am always seeing bits of Amy everywhere and it makes me so proud.”

Two winners have been crowned for the 2026 series of Bake Off: The Professionals after an emotional final.

Bake Off: The Professionals has crowned its season 11 winners.

12 teams of pastry chefs were whittled down to the final three, with the final airing on Wednesday, July 22.

Hosts Ellie Taylor and Liam Charles and judges Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden had taken the teams through technical challenges, showpieces and epic patisserie tests before the final task.

In the grand final, the remaining teams had 12 hours to complete a masquerade-themed challenge, with one pair eliminated halfway through.

The final two raced to finish desserts, building monumental showpieces out of sugar, chocolate sculptures and making a total of 200 creations across five desserts per team.

Edwardian Hotels’ Ashish and Loki were up against The Stafford London’s Aubin and Avneet, before the winners were officially crowned.

Ahead of announcing the winners, presenter Ellie admitted how difficult the decision had been for the judges.

She shared: “This has been quite possibly the closest final in the history of Bake Off: The Professionals, but after much deliberation, Benoit and Cherish have made their decision.”

She announced Ashish and Loki the winners, with the pair celebrating with their family and friends at the banquet.

“Can’t believe it,” Loki said, as Ashish added: “The emotions came out in that moment.”

Despite their defeat, Aubin and Avneet praised: “Honestly, Ashish and Loki they nailed it.”

Judge Benoit added: “Every year I’m amazed that we find pastry chefs of this calibre.”

“They’ve both worked so hard, they’re so determined, passionate and most of all, very resilient, it’s incredible,” Cherish agreed.

Channel 4 had previously teased: “In a completely new challenge for the spectacular final, the remaining teams are throwing every ounce of passion, skill and patisserie prowess into one monumental twelve-hour Masquerade Ball Banquet-themed challenge – where only absolute brilliance will be enough to claim this title.

“Judges Cherish and Benoit demand the teams hit the ground running in the longest challenge ever set, as they produce two desserts for a brutal halfway judging.

“After six relentless hours, one team will be sent home on the spot – leaving just two to go head-to-head for the coveted trophy as they work to complete a further three desserts and their banquets, producing five desserts in total…45 of each… over 200 stunning creations in total.”

Bake Off: The Professionals is available to watch on Channel 4.