Corporation halts production on world’s longest-running sport quiz after 53 years and says it is ‘not the final whistle’
The BBC is pulling Question of Sport, the world’s longest-running sport quiz, citing “funding difficulties”.
The show began in 1970 with David Vine as presenter, followed by David Coleman, Sue Barker and the current incumbent, Paddy McGuinness, who took over two years ago.
Continue reading...‘I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this “Larry David” persona and become the person God intended me to be,’ star says
After almost 25 years playing Larry David, Larry David has announced that his award-winning comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm is ending with the next season.
The Seinfeld co-creator has played a curmudgeonly version of himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm since 2000, making it HBO’s longest-running comedy. Much like Seinfeld, the show draws on the humour in everyday life but the dialogue is mostly improvised around an outline written by David, who plays a semi-retired television writer.
Continue reading...Emmy-winning actor, who also starred in Homicide: Life on the Street, died at age 61
Andre Braugher died from lung cancer, a representative said on Thursday.
When the Emmy-winning actor who starred in the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide: Life on the Street died on Monday at age 61, his representatives said only that he had been through a brief illness, but his publicist Jennifer Allen gave the cause on Thursday.
Continue reading...The actor who played the deadpan Captain Raymond Holt and starred in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died after a brief illness
Andre Braugher, who starred as Captain Raymond Holt in the hit comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and as Detective Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died aged 61.
The actor died on Monday after a brief illness, his publicist confirmed.
Continue reading...In a recording in 2020, the actor made a case for giving ‘human beings true agency over their bodies at the end of life’
• Read more: ‘Push me over the edge’ – Diana Rigg’s daughter Rachael Stirling writes about her mother’s dying wishes
Diana Rigg made an impassioned case to legalise assisted dying in a message recorded shortly before her “truly awful” and “dehumanising” death from cancer three years ago.
The actor’s statement calling for a law that gives “human beings true agency over their own bodies at the end of life”, published today in the Observer, adds to the ongoing debate on assisted dying, with MPs expected to publish recommendations to the government within weeks.
Continue reading...Actor, 50, sustains injury hours before the quarter-finals, leaving just four celebrities in competition
Nigel Harman has withdrawn from Strictly Come Dancing after sustaining a rib injury just hours before the quarter-finals of the competition.
The Casualty actor, 50, had been due to compete with a Charleston to Step in Time from Disney’s Mary Poppins with his partner, Katya Jones, on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Actor played Thelma Ferris, wife of Rodney Bewes’ Bob, in popular BBC1 sitcom that aired from 1973-74
Brigit Forsyth, who starred in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, has died at the age of 83, her agent has confirmed.
The Scottish actor played Thelma Ferris, the long-suffering wife of Rodney Bewes’ character, Bob, in the 70s BBC sitcom. She died “peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her family” in the early hours of Friday morning, her agent, Mark Pemberton, confirmed.
Continue reading...Christmas alumni episode had one blind entrant and another who was neurodivergent, both of whom say they did not get help
The BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.
The festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, hosted by Amol Rajan, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.
Continue reading...Actor paid $15,000 for an exam proctor to change her daughter’s answers on the SAT and spent 11 days in prison in 2019
The actor Felicity Huffman says she paid to have her daughter’s college testing scores raised – breaking federal law and getting imprisoned over it – because she felt pressed to give her child “a chance at a future”.
Huffman, an Emmy winner who starred in the TV series Desperate Housewives, expressed that sentiment in an interview published on Thursday by the Los Angeles news station KABC. The interview marked the first time Huffman had discussed her role in the 2019 scandal that ensnared dozens of prominent, well-connected parents across the US accused of illicitly plotting to get their children into college.
Continue reading...The conservationist compares ITV reality show to pursuits that are ‘the sad preserve of psychopathic criminals’
Chris Packham has written a letter to Ant and Dec, accusing I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! of exploiting animals.
In the missive, released on X (formerly Twitter), he states that this is not the first time he has tried to engage with the show’s presenters about animal welfare standards on the reality show, but that his previous “polite, reasonable and constructive” attempts were ignored so “this time I’ll be a little more frank and forthright”.
Continue reading...Divisive Brexiter will be tasked with helping fellow contestants 2,000 miles away on Gold Coast
Nigel Farage will be stranded in the middle of the Australian outback when I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! gets under way.
He will be one of three unsuspecting stars who will be dropped in the red desert in the scorching heat and tasked with helping his campmates thousands of miles away.
Continue reading...Actors joined Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc in posting tributes to their late Friends co-star, who died unexpectedly last month
Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow have published tributes to their late Friends co-star Matthew Perry, a day after Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc did the same.
“Oh boy this one has cut deep,” began Aniston’s Instagram caption, posted on Wednesday alongside a photo of the two young actors, a text between them and a clip of the series finale farewell between their two beloved characters, Chandler Bing and Rachel Green. “Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep.
Continue reading...Robert Fico describes leading broadcasters and newspapers as hostile and says they are ‘unwelcome guests at government office’
Slovakian journalists and international watchdogs have expressed alarm after the new prime minister, Robert Fico, described leading media outlets as hostile and threatened to restrict their access.
Fico, who took over as Slovakia’s leader in October as part of a coalition government led by his populist Smer party, said this week that some of the country’s biggest outlets were not welcome in his office.
Continue reading...Elizabeth Debicki has spoken about filming car chase through Paris that led to Diana’s death for final season of royal drama
The actor who played Diana in The Crown said the moments leading up to her death must have been “completely unbearable” after the cast reenacted the car chase through Paris that led to her death for the final season of the divisive royal drama.
The sixth season of The Crown deals with the weeks preceding Diana’s death, as well as the fallout, after a car crash in Paris in August 1997. The first instalment of the season is released on 16 November.
Continue reading...Kathy Burke and Daniel Kaluuya among alumni of her London school, credited with making stars of often working-class students
Tributes have been paid to Anna Scher, an influential drama teacher who taught actors including Kathy Burke, Daniel Kaluuya and Adam Deacon, after the announcement of her death on Sunday, aged 78.
Scher, who had taught children in north London to act for more than 50 years, has been credited with creating numerous stars, and was known for championing people from a working-class background. The Anna Scher Theatre (AST), which started as a drama club in January 1968, has a long list of well-known alumni, including Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson, Martin Kemp, Natalie Cassidy, Patsy Palmer, Sid Owen, Jake Wood, Reggie Yates and Brooke Kinsella.
Continue reading...Former Ukip leader has reportedly been offered large sum to appear on ITV show, which begins this month
Nigel Farage has been seen at Brisbane airport in Australia, adding to speculation that he will be joining the lineup in this year’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!.
The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party did not confirm when asked whether he was entering the jungle as part of the ITV show, but did tell a reporter that he “might be going in”.
Continue reading...As sci-fi show’s 60th anniversary nears, a collector pleads for BBC to offer amnesty to those with recordings discarded by corporation
For Doctor Who-lovers they are the missing crown jewels: lost episodes of the first series of the TV sci-fi drama, shown in the 1960s. But now film recordings of not just one, but two of the early BBC adventures, both featuring the first doctor, William Hartnell, has been found in Britain by amateur sleuths.
The episodes, one featuring the Daleks, would offer viewers a chance to travel back in time without the use of a Tardis. But the Observer has learned that the owners of the rare, rediscovered footage are not prepared to hand it over to the BBC, even as the clock ticks down to the 60th anniversary of the show’s launch this month.
Continue reading...Actor and singer was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and revealed it was terminal last August
Johnny Ruffo, the former Home and Away actor and X Factor contestant, has died aged 35.
Ruffo was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017, and underwent surgery to remove a tumour, but the cancer returned three years later. Last August, Ruffo revealed that his diagnosis was terminal.
Continue reading...Sag-Aftra union hails agreement of ‘extraordinary scope’ with Hollywood producers, bringing to a close historic work stoppage
Hollywood actors are set to end their nearly four-month strike, the Sag-Aftra union announced on Wednesday, bringing to a close a historic work stoppage that had brought the film and television industry to a standstill for months.
Sag-Aftra and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday, ending film and television actors’ longest strike roughly a month after writers signed their new contract. The deal came after parties had resumed talks last week following stalled negotiations in early October.
Continue reading...New series, Archie, screened in English hometown of Hollywood legend many think of as being wholly American
He is better known as a debonaire habitué of sun-splashed Californian beauty spots and glamorous New York nightclubs, but a flurry of screenings and special events this month will focus attention on a sometimes overlooked aspect of Cary Grant’s life – his very modest roots in Bristol, England.
A preview of a biopic of Grant called Archie – with Jason Isaacs taking on the tough task of playing one of the most famous of all film stars – is being screened in Bristol ahead of its showing on ITVX, and a new guided walk through Grant’s former haunts in the West Country city is being launched.
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