It’s no joke for new shows as classic favourites live on while investment in sitcoms and sketches falters
There is a quip beloved of comedians, when asked if their industry is going down the pan: “Nostalgia? It ain’t what it used to be.”
But for fans of well-worn jokes, and the shows in which they appear, 2024 could be truly a golden era.
Continue reading...RedBird IMI, which is majority-owned by the UAE vice-president, has invested in five media firms since its launch a year ago
The Abu Dhabi-backed company that is trying to take over the Telegraph newspapers has announced a £1.15bn deal to buy the production company behind Fleabag and the Traitors.
Under the deal, RedBird IMI, which is headed by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker, will take over London-based All3Media with the agreement of its owners Warner Bros, Discovery and Liberty Global.
Continue reading...Husam Zomlot says family members who died while sheltering in city include seven-year-old twins and 15-month-old
The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah have been killed in an Israeli strike.
Husam Zomlot identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna. In the image that has been posted on social media, Sidra’s body can be seen dangling from the ruins of a building after attacks on Rafah on Monday.
Sharing a blurred version of the image, alongside pictures of his other relatives, Zomlot posted on X on Wednesday: “This is seven-year-old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago.”
Continue reading...Keir Starmer says ‘people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government’, as wins by Damien Egan and Gen Kitchen put further pressure on Rishi Sunak
Gen Kitchen, the new MP for Wellingborough, said she was “ecstatic” at the result, adding that the double byelection win for Labour shows that people are “fed up” and want change.
“The people of Wellingborough have spoken for Britain. This is a stunning victory for the Labour party and must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street,” she said.
Continue reading...Gen Kitchen takes seat for party for first time since 2001 general election to temper fears after testing week
Labour has overturned a Tory majority of over more than 18,000 to secure victory in the Wellingborough byelection, winning the seat for the first time since the 2001 general election.
Labour’s candidate, Gen Kitchen, won with 13,844 votes, beating the Conservatives’ Helen Harrison who received 7,408 votes in the largest swing from the Tories to Labour since 1994 and second largest since the second world war. It was Labour’s fifth byelection gain from the Conservatives overall in this parliament. The party also gained a Tory seat in Kingswood, dealing a double blow to an embattled Conservative party that has lost 10 byelections in a single parliament, more than any government since the 1960s.
Continue reading...The Return of the Buffalo Herd, by teenage prodigies Edward and Charles Detmold, can be seen at Bateman’s after conservation
A rare watercolour depicting the aftermath of a climactic moment in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is to go on display at the author’s country home after conservation work.
The painting, The Return of the Buffalo Herd, is one of 16 created by twin brothers Edward and Charles Detmold, who were just 18 when they were commissioned to illustrate Kipling’s much-loved story. Only four of the paintings have survived.
Continue reading...‘Closed quasi-detention conditions’ mean death of Leonard Farruku should be examined, lawyers say
The family of Leonard Farruku is calling for an independent inquiry into his death on the Bibby Stockholm barge, the Guardian has learned.
The Albanian asylum seeker, 27, was found dead on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, on 12 December last year, after a suspected suicide.
Continue reading...Blow for Rishi Sunak as former Lewisham mayor Damien Egan elected in South Gloucestershire seat
Labour has overturned an 11,000-plus Tory majority to win the byelection in the South Gloucestershire constituency of Kingswood.
Damien Egan, who resigned as the mayor of Lewisham in south-east London to contest the seat even though it is being abolished at the next general election, is celebrating victory after a professional and energetic Labour campaign. He won with 11,1176 votes, to 8,675 for his nearest rival, the Conservatives’ Sam Bromiley, a majority of 2,501. Labour won on a swing in the share of the vote of 16.4 percentage points – some way above the 11.4 point swing needed.
Continue reading...Violin-shaped Höfner vanished around the time the Beatles split up but has now resurfaced after a global appeal
A Höfner bass guitar bought by Paul McCartney for £30 in 1961 has been returned to the former Beatle after a global search to find the stolen instrument.
The distinctively shaped guitar, bought by McCartney before his rise to stardom and reportedly his favourite, was last seen around the time the Beatles were recording their final album to be released, Let It Be.
Continue reading...Labour aiming to win two byelections as chancellor defends Sunak’s record, saying ‘economy is turning a corner’
On Sky News this morning Jeremy Hunt claimed that he would “only cut taxes in a way that was responsible” in the March budget, and the chancellor refused to be drawn on specific measures.
He told viewers:
You will know that chancellors don’t talk about budgets just a few weeks before and that is for a very good reason, because I don’t yet know the final numbers that I will receive from the office for budget responsibility.
I would only cut taxes in a way that was responsible, and I certainly wouldn’t do anything that fuelled inflation just when we are starting to have some success in bringing down inflation.
I am a passionate supporter of the NHS and all our public services, but in the long-run the best thing that I can do as chancellor for the NHS is to make sure that our economy is growing healthily. So what you will see in everything I do in the Budget on March 6 is prioritising economic growth.
Continue reading...UK economy shrank by 0.3% in October-December, worse than expected, putting UK in a technical recession in a blow to the PM
Net trade, household spending and government consumption all contracted in the final quarter of last year, helping to push the UK economy into a technical recession.
Household expenditure fell by 0.1% in real terms (adjusted for inflation) in Q4 2023, following a downwardly revised fall of 0.9% in Q3, as consumers cut back in the cost of living squeeze.
Continue reading...Treasury looking at reducing projected rise in public spending from 2025, FT reports citing insiders
Jeremy Hunt is considering making billions of pounds of spending cuts to fund pre-election tax cuts in the next budget, according to a report.
The chancellor is looking at “further spending restraint” after 2025 if official economic forecasts suggest he does not have enough headroom to pay for “smart tax cuts”, the Financial Times reported, citing Treasury insiders.
Continue reading...Governments try to generate a feelgood factor before an election. The UK has the opposite: a feel-bad factor
In the end it wasn’t really that close. The UK economy is now technically in recession after contracting by 0.3% in the final three months of 2023.
The official data brings to an end a miserable year for the UK. Growth in 2023 as a whole was just 0.1% – the weakest performance outside the Covid pandemic year of 2020 since 2009.
Continue reading...Boundary changes mean the 2024 British general election will be fought in altered seats. Enter your postcode to see a map of your constituency and how these seats would have voted in 2019
The next general election in the UK will be fought across 650 new constituencies after boundary changes were approved by parliament.
While no election has taken place along these boundaries yet, research by psephologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, academics at the University of Plymouth, has estimated how, based on 2019 results, these new seats would have notionally voted in that election.
Continue reading...Web of orange on tube map revamped to celebrate city’s unique local history and culture, says mayor
The London Overground is to be rebranded into six lines with names inspired by the capital’s and the country’s diverse modern history, from Windrush to the Lionesses.
The web of orange on the tube map will be replaced by six colours and routes in August to help make the capital’s public transport network easier to navigate.
Continue reading...Comments draw Britain into debate about European security without US providing bulk of Nato’s nuclear deterrent
The UK could contribute to a new European nuclear shield if Donald Trump becomes US president again, a senior German minister has suggested, drawing British politicians into the debate about how Europe’s security could be bolstered in the event of the Republican frontrunner winning in November.
Questions over a European nuclear deterrence have intensified after Trump’s remarks on Saturday that he would not defend any Nato member that failed to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence – and would even encourage Russia to continue attacking.
Continue reading...Andrew Bailey says cost of living had been higher than expected in December despite ‘encouraging’ inflation news
The Bank of England governor has doused hopes that better-than-expected inflation news last month will accelerate cuts in interest rates, stressing the need for further evidence of wage moderation before Threadneedle Street moves.
Appearing before the House of Lords economics committee on Wednesday, Andrew Bailey said it was “encouraging” that inflation had remained unchanged at 4% in January but the previous month’s figure for the cost of living had been higher than predicted.
Continue reading...Guy’s hospital and Sheffield clinic may have used faulty freezing solution that could damage eggs and embryos
Scores of women have been affected by the use of a faulty freezing solution at fertility clinics in London and Sheffield, with frozen eggs and embryos potentially destroyed as a result, the fertility regulator has said.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed the issue was limited to Guy’s and St Thomas’ assisted conception unit in London, and Jessop Fertility in Sheffield.
Continue reading...Lawyer for complainant hails ‘moral victory’ after court says proceedings ‘fell short of required standards’
A woman who claimed Greek authorities failed to conduct an effective investigation into her allegation of rape has won a resounding victory at the European court of human rights.
Almost three years after lodging the case, the complainant, from West Yorkshire, was said to be delighted after learning that the Strasbourg-based tribunal had criticised Greece over criminal proceedings that it said had “fallen short of the required standards”.
Continue reading...Robert Macfarlane, Feargal Sharkey and Matt Haig are among artists to react with fury to message about funding risks
Artists, writers and musicians have reacted with fury to an Arts Council England (ACE) warning that “political statements” could break funding agreements.
In a series of updates recently made to its policies, ACE advised the organisations it funds to be wary of “overtly political or activist” statements made in a personal capacity by people linked to them.
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