Winner took 25% of the vote, with Doctor Who in second place and Line of Duty and Sherlock tying in third
Call the Midwife has been voted the best show of the last 25 years in a poll.
The BBC period drama, which is loosely based on real events, follows a group of midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s as they cope with the pressures of their everyday lives as well as the changing times they are living through.
Continue reading...After stunning run ends with defeat at Wembley, German team receives praise for inspiring nation and winning new fans
Germany reacted with disappointment after being beaten by England in a nail-biting and historic final at Wembley.
“A hundred and twenty minutes of pure passion and pure struggle weren’t enough today,” tweeted the official account of the German team, after their 2-1 defeat. “Respect and congratulations to the Lionesses.”
Continue reading...Family accommodated in a Midlands hotel were sick after eating meal provided by Serco
Children at a Home Office hotel unwittingly ate worms that were in food provided to them by government contractors, the Guardian has learned.
A four-year-old boy, not realising that his meal of fish and chips contained worms, began vomiting soon after he started to eat it. Paramedics were called and the boy was taken to hospital.
Continue reading...Marine archaeologists stunned by priceless cache long hidden beneath the Bahamas’ shark-infested waters
It was a Spanish galleon laden with treasures so sumptuous that its sinking in the Bahamas in 1656 sparked repeated salvage attempts over the next 350 years. So when another expedition was launched recently, few thought that there could be anything left – but exquisite, jewel-encrusted pendants and gold chains are among spectacular finds that have now been recovered, having lain untouched on the seabed for hundreds of years.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) went down on the western side of the Little Bahama Bank, over 70km offshore, but the newly discovered treasures were found across a vast debris trail spanning more than 13km.
Continue reading...Increased workloads, class sizes, low pay and Covid legacy are leading to more absences and an exodus of staff
Teachers have spent at least 1.5 million days off work owing to stress and mental health issues, new figures have revealed, amid continued concerns over the increasing pressures they are facing in the classroom.
With long-running concerns about workloads and growing class sizes, new data seen by the Observer suggests that the number of days lost to mental health issues in some council-controlled schools in England and Wales has increased by 7% from the previous year. It is also up by almost a fifth compared to three years ago.
Continue reading...New report says policy changes are needed to protect ‘hidden workforce’ from exploitation
Live-in care workers recruited from overseas to care for disabled and elderly people in Britain are being exploited by “unscrupulous” agencies who dock their pay to cover “accommodation costs”, according to new research.
The workers, who live with clients to provide round-the-clock care, in some cases had their pay reduced by hundreds of pounds a month despite being paid only the minimum wage to begin with.
Continue reading...Poldark creator among writers and film-makers lining up to reconstruct spat between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney
A big-budget drama featuring major characters in the Wagatha Christie case is to join the slew of documentaries already in production, as the race to bring to the small screen the rancorous details of the high court battle that ended on Friday hots up.
The row between two high-profile footballers’ wives, which ended last week when the judge ruled in favour of Coleen Rooney, is to be turned into television serial by one of Britain’s leading screenwriters. Debbie Horsfield, who adapted Poldark for the 2015-19 BBC series, is to write a drama chronicling the notorious public row between Rebekah Vardy, wife of leading Leicester goal scorer Jamie Vardy, and Coleen Rooney, wife of Wayne, the renowned former England player and, until last month, manager of Derby County.
Continue reading...Observer victory after judge rules in transparency battle in family courts in England and Wales
A judge has ruled that a court-appointed expert can be named after their qualifications and conduct were challenged by a mother who claimed key evidence they provided led her children to be removed from her care against their wishes.
The case raises questions about the regulation and use of psychological experts appointed to the family courts, in particular when allegations of “parental alienation” are made – meaning a child has unjustly rejected one parent due to manipulation by the other. The Observer won an application to name the expert in the case after making a series of submissions to the family court.
Continue reading...Famous fans get behind England for a gripping contest against Germany that is expected to set records
An all-female RAF flypast will grace the skies above Wembley on Sunday in celebration of a women’s football team that this weekend received good-luck messages from the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the royal family before the Women’s Euro 2022 final against Germany.
“Your passion for the game, your tenacity in tricky spots and above all your astounding talent on the pitch have already created a summer of fantastic memories for millions of us,” Boris Johnson wrote in a letter to the England team.
Continue reading...Woman was reportedly handed information from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children at London clinic
A pregnant woman who told her GP she was considering having an abortion says she was left “shocked and traumatised” after being given a leaflet for an anti-abortion group.
The woman, 38, says she was seeking treatment for a bladder problem on 19 July when a doctor at All Saints Medical Centre in Plumstead, south-east London, asked whether she was pregnant.
Continue reading...Employment conditions can tie staff to roles for up to five years and impose fees of £14,000 for an early return home
• Trapped and destitute: how foreign nurses’ dreams turned sour
The NHS must halt the use of “repayment clauses” in contracts for international healthcare workers, MPs have said.
Members of the Commons health and social care committee came to this finding after an Observer investigation in March revealed how some workers were being forced to pay thousands of pounds if they wish to quit their jobs before their agreed contract ends. Widely used in both the private health and social care sector and in the NHS, the clauses are designed to help with retention of workers and recouping costs associated with overseas recruitment.
Continue reading...His team told his general-election style campaign too slick and unfocused as time runs out to sway electors
Rishi Sunak’s team is being urged to overhaul his “general election-style” campaign in favour of a grassroots effort speaking directly to Tory members in a last-ditch attempt to beat Liz Truss to the Conservative leadership.
With some supporters of the former chancellor in despair over the apparent grip Truss has assumed over the contest to replace Boris Johnson, allies have warned that there has been too much focus on polished social media content, TV appearances and visits to swing voters that have not won over Tory members.
Continue reading...Head of party’s biggest union donor warns members feel ‘crushed’ and may vote not to pay millions to Starmer
Labour is becoming “irrelevant to workers” and it is now hard to justify handing the party millions in funding, the head of the party’s biggest union donor has warned.
In an interview with the Observer, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said she felt Labour’s leadership was, in effect, “sticking two fingers up” at workers with its response to strike action and its abandonment of pledges to renationalise public utilities.
Continue reading...‘Special shuttle’ is only service running in Birmingham after the latest industrial action on the network in England and Wales
Rail strikes brought fresh misery for millions across the country on Saturday, including major disruption to Birmingham as it hosted one of the busiest days of the Commonwealth Games.
The latest round of strikes during a summer of chaos for passengers prompted bitter exchanges between union leaders and ministers.
Continue reading...Australian soap ends after nearly four decades with double-episode special on Channel 5
Three million viewers tuned in to say goodbye to Ramsay Street as Neighbours came to a close after almost four decades of constant drama.
The final episode of the Australian soap aired on Friday night in the UK on Channel 5, with stars including Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie making one last appearance on the show that brought them fame.
Continue reading...University council supports claim for 97 artefacts, including bronzes, currently held in city’s museums
Oxford University could return almost 100 artefacts that were looted by British colonial forces in 1897, after Nigeria requested the repatriation of the cultural items this year.
The 97 objects, including bronzes, were taken from Benin City by British troops and are currently held in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Continue reading...Head of Aslef says transport secretary ‘misrepresenting’ the truth after claim the union was ‘dragging its feet’ in pay talks
Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP for City of Durham, has expressed solidarity with Aslef union members as they strike.
LNER, which runs trains between London and Scotland, is warning customers of its “extremely limited services” today.
Continue reading...Supplier warns of Covid-related disruption, amid calls for VAT on over-14s’ school clothes to be axed
The holidays have only just begun for many children but families are being warned not to leave uniform shopping to the last minute because of potential shortages of official school blazers and jumpers.
The specialist retailer School Uniform Direct, which supplies scores of UK schools, has written to thousands of customers urging them to place orders for branded clothing as soon as possible.
Continue reading...Detectorists uncover 12th century horse harness pendant with England’s heraldic emblem
Football may or may not be coming home to England in Sunday’s Euros 22 final at Wembley, but a new archaeological discovery illustrates quite how long the Three Lions have been cherished in the team’s home country.
A tiny medieval pendant, made from copper alloy and featuring the famous heraldic emblem, has come to light after being found late last year by metal detectorists in Wormleighton, Warwickshire. Dating from the 12th century, the pendant was designed to hang from a horse harness, its motif picked out in red enamel and gold.
Continue reading...Rebekah Vardy probably isn’t buzzing at the ruling, a character assassination that has left her well and truly stung by libel
Oscar Wilde, Barbra Streisand, and now – Rebekah Vardy. When news broke that Vardy had lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, she joined this heady roster of celebrities who have launched brain-bogglingly misguided and self-wounding legal cases. Like Wilde – who sued the Marquess of Queensberry for revealing his homosexuality – Vardy went to court to deny something that a rock could see was true: she’d passed on private stories about Rooney to the press. And like Streisand – who sued a website for featuring an image of her house, thereby drawing the world’s attention to it – she believed going to court was the best way to control her image. She was wrong.
Vardy traded private details of her husband’s colleagues and their wives in the hope of currying positive coverage in the media. And because of that, Mrs Justice Steyn delivered a verdict that was even more of a character assassination than Vardy’s own memorable description of Rooney to a Daily Mail journalist: “Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon: you can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.” Well, Rebekah, you’re covered in shit now.
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