Simon Cowell, who was known for his brutal takedowns of fame-hungry hopefuls, is ‘back’ according to Britain’s Got Talent co-star Amanda Holden, who says his toned-down persona is gone
Amanda Holden says ‘the old Simon Cowell is back’ as BGT judge ditches ‘Mr Soft act’(Image: Netflix)
Amanda Holden believes her Britain’s Got Talent co-star Simon Cowell is back to his former, more straight-talking self, having ditched his “Mr Soft” act. As the ITV talent hunt gets underway, Amanda is glad to see the return of Simon’s infamous “one liners”, on the “chaotic” new series.
The new series, which began on 21st February, has already frustrated viewers at home. During the first episode fans were getting worked up over the ‘overuse’ of the infamous golden buzzer. As Ant and Dec reminded viewers at the start of the show, the golden buzzer is used when one of the judges deemed a contestant good enough to bypass the rest of the auditions and go straight through to the semi-final.
But while fans were already complaining, Amanda Holden has promised this series will be full of drama. As reported by the Mail, she explained: “Simon is back. He’s been Mr Soft in recent years, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that KSI is so honest on the other end of the panel.”
Explaining he is done with ‘sugar coating’ his comments, she added: “I’m glad to see that Simon is no longer being soft serve ice-cream, although it was nice for a year or so!”
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Amanda says the new series “feels very loose and very chaotic”, with KSI helping the show thanks to his “succint” answers. Meanwhile “the old Simon” is back, with the Heart Radio host saying she is “loving” that Simon’s “one liners are better than ever”.
Simon has assured fans there will be “lots of surprises”, with more behind-the-scenes filming, letting the audience at home “behind the Wizard of Oz’s curtain”. But Amanda has recently admitted he “hated” one aspect of filming the new series.
The star was forced to step into head judge Simon’s role, after he had to miss filming after falling down some steps and hitting his head. The brief shake up saw Amanda thrust into head judge duties, with X Factor runner up Stacey Solomon joining the panel as a guest.
As reported by the Daily Star, Amanda explained: “I must admit I hated sitting in that seat! I’ve been on the show the longest, so I understand why I probably need to sit in that seat, but when I was there, I felt very outcast on the end.
“It’s okay if your team are sat to the left of you, Simon’s got dozens of staff and family watching from the side and communicating with him. Mine all decided to eat my snacks and sit in the dressing room paying no attention to the show or me whatsoever!
“Simon said to me, ‘You must have loved it. Did you feel powerful?’ I said I hated it because I had to keep leaning in to be part of the conversation. I never want to sit in that seat again! I’m juicy in the middle, it’s such a good spot.”
Elsewhere, talking about Stacey joining the judging panel, Amanda said: “She’s so lovely and I think we’ve got quite a similar style of judging.
“She’s warm, she’s super funny, she has a great understanding of what it’s like to be on the other side, because she obviously auditioned for The X Factor all those years ago.
“Even though she’s smashing it in the real world now, she’s very down to earth and doesn’t have an ego, so I think that worked really nicely for the day that she was pulled in. We’re all fans of her and her crafting is through the roof. If only I could be that type of mother!”
Our present podcast era has bred a new generation of interlocutors from the public sphere, veteran interviewees turned journalists. Harper Simon is among the many pro musicians who have taken on the role of insatiably curious interrogator. The singer-songwriter, who is the son of Paul Simon, has made four solo albums and toured the country both as a solo artist and sideman, but it wasn’t until he was tapped by music manager Michael Lustig in 2016 to host an internet series called “Talk Show” that Simon found his new avocation.
The cream of Simon’s interviews have now been collected in “Thinking Out Loud,” which is published by L..A. imprint Hat & Beard Press. I chatted with Simon about the art of the interview, Pink Floyd and Ed Snowden.
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I have found that people who have been interviewed a lot are good at interviewing others. They know how to avoid the banal and obvious questions.
I’m not a trained journalist, so the conversations were closer to what Andy Warhol’s “Interview” magazine used to be. More of a casual back-and-forth, rather than me trying to ask questions or having someone promote their product. So the book is really a combination of folks that I’ve known my whole life and others that I just asked to interview.
Interviewing public figures can be a very stilted experience. And then you wind up not getting much of anything.
Interviews with journalists are a funny thing. There is always this weird, uncomfortable hierarchical relationship, where the journalist might feel superior, or the subject feels that way. It creates this strange imbalance. The journalist might feel the need to wrest some hot information from the subject, or find some aha moment and then the subject gets their guard up. I feel like the interviews in my book are very relaxed. You’re going to get some truth, even if it’s a modest truth. There were some interviews I left out of the book because the subjects seemed too media trained or too guarded.
Some of your interviewees, like Eric Idle and Buck Henry, are people you’ve known your entire life, having grown up with your dad in that kind of very stimulating artistic milieu. Does that help or hurt?
I think I might get better material from folks like that. There’s a warmth there, but I’m also a huge fan of their work, so I want to hear about Eric Idle’s work with Monty Python, or Buck Henry hosting “Saturday Night Live.” There are still plenty of stories that I’ve never heard.
Harper Simon, the artist and son of Paul Simon, has released three solo albums and toured the country. His latest project is a collection of interviews.
(Demme)
Someone like Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour has been interviewed hundreds of times in his career. What is there left to ask?
It’s kind of like my father, where the legacy is so familiar and well-known, what is there left to be said? What is there left to say about “Dark Side of The Moon”? But it turned out to be a really good interview. He had some great things to say about [Pink Floyd founder] Syd Barrett, how Gilmour felt like the other members had behaved callously towards him at times. He also speaks with great warmth about his own family.
Harry Dean Stanton is in the book, and I have to empathize. He was by far the most difficult interview subject I’ve ever had to deal with. A man of few words.
It’s funny, because I wound up doing some projects with Harry Dean, like this big tribute event to help raise money for Vidiots in Eagle Rock, but even after all of that, we didn’t get any closer. He was a very hard person to know.
You interviewed James Woolsey, and you guys were definitely not on the same page, but the tone remains civil. Don’t you think it’s important to have a reasoned discourse with someone you don’t agree with politically?
Absolutely, but that was one that definitely became contentious at times. James Woolsey had been the former head of the CIA under Clinton. So I came into the interview feeling very outgunned. I’m not a trained political journalist. But somehow I had gotten it in my head that I was Abbie Hoffman and he was J. Edgar Hoover or something. This was 10 years ago, and Edward Snowden was the big story in the news. So I led with that, and Jim Woolsey, being a good CIA man with very strong convictions, felt that Snowden was a traitor. But then he said he would like to see him hung by his neck, which felt aggressive. Then things really went off the rails when we somehow got locked into a discussion about Israel and Palestine. I remember him saying to me, “You’re just parroting the talking points of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Now I found those words echoing in my thoughts when I listen to some people discuss the current situation. I respected him and enjoyed the conversation but it was intense. I thought I held my own reasonably well but he was a tough guy to get in the ring with.
(This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
📰 The Week(s) in Books
“‘Second Skin’ is more sociological than sexy; more anthropological than animalistic,” writes Meredith Maran.
(Los Angeles Times illustration; book jacket from Catapult)
Meredith Maran thinks Anastasiia Fedorova’s book “Second Skin” does a great job of busting open the taboo of what is commonly regarded as deviant sexual desire. The book “advocates for a person’s right to like what they like and to get it consensually,” writes Maran.
Victoria Lancaster has a chat with Emily Nemens about her new novel “Clutch” and the challenges of writing about midlife among a clutch of close female friends. “I was cognizant of balance and understanding the lazy-Susan of it,” says Nemens. “Making sure I was spinning all the way around the table and touching each piece in each storyline.”
Two new novels about game-changing women in history — Janet Rich Edwards’ “Canticle” and Paula McLain’s “Skylark” — find favor with Bethanne Patrick. What these books “get right about their very different heroines and time periods is that change doesn’t happen overnight. … [But] change can and does happen, one determined woman at a time.”
Finally, on the occasion of the new screen adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,”six authors weigh in on their love of Emily Brontë’s enduring romance novel.
📖 Bookstore Faves
Skylight Books on Vermont is a staple of the Los Feliz literati.
(Joel Barhamand/For the Times)
Let us praise Skylight Books, which for over 30 years has remained a pillar of its Los Feliz community, with the main shop and the arts annex just a few doors away from each other on Vermont Boulevard. Store manager Mary Wiliams tells us what her customers are sweeping off the shelves right now.
What is selling right now?
“Vigil” by George Saunders is our biggest seller right now. Aside from that, it seems like great recent fiction in paperback is dominating the bestseller list — “Rejection” by Tony Tulathimutte, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” by Haruki Murakami, “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar, and “All Fours” by Miranda July all are books that keep on selling really well for us, month after month.
Do you sell more fiction than nonfiction, or is it a tie?
We sell a good amount of both, but fiction is the bigger seller. Especially literary fiction, which is our bread and butter. On the nonfiction front, “Everything Now” by Rosecrans Baldwin is a perennial bestseller out of our Regional section — it’s a great collection of essays about Los Angeles. And everything Patti Smith touches turns to gold, so her book “Bread of Angels” is also a hit here.
Your arts annex is unlike anything else in L.A. I suppose there is still a market for cool periodicals and expensive art books that the internet hasn’t knocked out?
Our goal with the annex is for it to be a place of discoverability — where you can find the weird cool art book, comic or magazine you didn’t know you needed. We hope even our customers who are well-versed in art books find something new every visit. A fair amount of what we carry isn’t widely available online in the U.S., so when we put it on our website in our Annex Picks section and advertise it in our newsletter, we get orders from around the country.
Skylight Books in Los Angeles is located at 1818 North Vermont Ave.
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
Travel expert Simon Calder warns that dual British citizens with expired UK passports could face £589 certificate fees as new electronic travel authorisation rules come into force from February 25
14:11, 20 Feb 2026Updated 14:11, 20 Feb 2026
Mr Calder issued the advice for Brits heading to the airport(Image: Getty Images)
An ETA serves as digital travel permission – it’s neither a visa nor a tax and doesn’t guarantee UK entry – rather, it authorises someone to journey to Britain. However, Mr Calder highlighted another aspect that could trip people up.
Speaking to the Independent, he warned that British citizens holding out-of-date passports might encounter problems. He explained: “There’s growing confusion and concern about electronic borders. The first change that’s going to be happening is on the 25th of February.
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“It’s going to be mandatory for everyone who is not a British or Irish citizen and who wants to travel to the UK to register for the electronic travel authorisation. This is the online permit that increasingly many countries are demanding.
“That is clear, except that it also means that dual citizens who have the right to live in the UK have to enter on a British passport or have a certificate of entitlement to live in the UK. British passports cost £94.50. That certificate of entitlement is £589. And there is concern that a lot of people who are British citizens but don’t have a valid passport for all sorts of reasons-they’ve never needed one, they had one but it lapsed, they’ve got a perfectly good passport from somewhere else-they are going to have to have either that passport or the certificate of entitlement if they want to come to the UK.
“Again, this does not apply to anybody with the immense wisdom and good fortune to have an Irish passport, because that is the passport with superpowers that will get you in and out of the UK and indeed the European Union without any problems at all.”
According to the 2021 Census, approximately 1.26 million usual residents across England and Wales held multiple passports. The Home Office has cautioned that airlines will be verifying passengers have the correct documentation.
The right of abode that Mr Calder references permits you to live or work in the UK without any immigration restrictions whatsoever. If you possess the right of abode, you do not require a visa or ETA to enter the UK.
There’s no cap on how long you can remain in the country. Concerns have also emerged regarding Europe’s new biometric border system currently being introduced.
Several airports have allegedly experienced delays stretching up to six hours, prompting warnings of potential travel ‘chaos’.
The European Commission indicated it might be feasible to suspend the new system during busy periods until September. Mr Calder explained: “The European Union’s entry-exit system started to be rolled out in October. By the 9th of April, it is supposed to be in a position where everybody is able to enter or exit through those Schengen area frontiers, just being fingerprinted on the first occasion and having a facial biometric taken. After that, it’s going to be the facial biometric all the way.
“Now, the airports and the airlines are saying it’s a terrible thing, it’s not working properly. We’ve already seen two-hour queues; they’re warning of four-hour queues in the summer. They want it to be suspended. No sense that it will be or not at the moment. Europe says it is going well, but don’t be surprised if it is.
“The only advice I can offer, because this is simply something that’s done to you-you don’t need to prepare for it-is when you’re coming back from the Schengen area, I would turn up at the airport really early just to make sure you make your plane, because it applies on the way out as well as on the way in to the Schengen area.”
Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell both returned to the judging panel of Britain’s Got Talent, alongside Amanda Holden and YouTuber KSI, while Ant and Dec returned as the show’s hosts
BGT’s Alesha Dixon shares horror injury after fighting against Simon Cowell(Image: WireImage)
Britain’s Got Talent is back, and the nation is ready to watch along as the search for the next big thing gets underway. But for Alesha Dixon, filming the show resulted in a horror injury.
Speaking to the press at a launch event for the show, which kicks off its 19th series on Saturday, 21 February, Alesha revealed how a fight against Simon Cowell left her physically hurt. “I injured myself trying to stop Simon pressing the Golden Buzzer,” she said.
During the audition phase of the series, the judges – Alesha, Simon, Amanda Holden and KSI – can press the Golden Buzzer to send an act straight through to the live semi-finals. Simon shared that he and the other judges were “fighting over the Golden Buzzer a lot” this year.
In one case, this meant Alesha hurt herself. “There was an act where we were quite competitive for the Golden Buzzer. And I could sense Simon getting up, so I literally dived across the desk.
“I’ve never done that before, I dived onto the desk. And then they wanted me to recreate this dive. So how can I recreate this? Because I injured myself just to stop him getting his way.”
Alesha has been a judge on Britain’s Got Talent since 2012. Two of her fellow judges, Amanda and Simon, have been on the show since it began in 2007, but YouTuber KSI is a newcomer. Having made a few guest judging appearances last year, he took over for Bruno Tonioli this year.
Speaking on the series as a whole, Alesha said: “It was so funny. For me, overall, this season felt like we were back to the chaos that we love on our show. More than ever, it just felt bonkers.”
This comes just weeks after the Mirror reported that Alesha’s band Mis-Teeq were in talks to reunite for their 25th anniversary and were eying up a potential Britain’s Got Talent performance.
A reunion had previously seemed unlikely, as Sabrina Washington had launched legal proceedings against Alesha and their prior label, Universal, for royalties six years ago, but she and the BGT judge now seem to be on talking terms again.
Sabrina had claimed that Alesha had “wrongfully claimed” credits for writing their first two singles. At the time, a spokesperson for Ms Dixon said: “Alesha wrote the raps on both Why? and All I Want and that is why she gets a split. The rest of the song was written by a production team. Sabrina has no reason to sue Alesha.”
This now appears to be water under the bridge for the stars, though. Speaking to the Mirror, a source said: “There’s always talk of a reunion and projects on the table, but it’s a matter of trying to get everyone together. Alesha and Su both have children; Su’s in Australia permanently, and Sabrina has been doing a lot of solo gigs across the UK and Europe.
“Sabrina and Su participated in the Girlbands documentary, albeit separately, but it raised more questions than answers, with Sabrina being visibly upset when asked about how the group split, following their UK label’s collapse. Su mentioned there was a potential new record deal for the group at the time, which then became an Alesha solo deal. Nobody’s sure if Sabrina was aware of that, or if the first time she found out was watching the documentary. “
Our source added: “They will want to do something that’s meaningful, but they haven’t been in a room as a trio, together, since their split in 2005. They’ve seen each other individually and speak to each other, but some are most closer than others. They haven’t physically been together yet, and it seems there’s a lot to discuss before they’re in a place to do a reunion.”
A source also told The Sun : “One thing that has come up is the idea of a one-off show. It could be an intimate gig for their die-hard fans or a performance on a big TV programme such as Britain’s Got Talent.”
