Melanie Chisholm, the former Spice Girl Mel C, dates her past struggle with eating disorders and depression back to an incident at a Brit awards ceremony, she reveals on Desert Island Discs on 23 February.
In 1996, before the girl group was officially launched, Chisholm was almost chucked out of the Spice Girls for unruly behaviour, following “a scuffle between me and Victoria” that she has only recently admitted to.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs
The SDLP’s Colum Eastwood asks about the involvement of the IRA in the murder of Paul Quinn in 2007. It was claimed Quinn was a criminal, he says. That was a lie, he says.
Johnson says the government will implement the Stormont House agreement so as to provide justice for victims.
The SNP’s Owen Thompson asks when the report into Russian interference in UK elections will be published.
Johnson says it will be published when the intelligence and security committee is reconstituted. He says conspiracy theorists will be disappointed by its conclusions.
Continue reading...After a shocking week for the broadcaster, what are the issues it must tackle to keep its place in the nation’s cultural landscape?
In his eye-catching pitch for his new job as chair of the powerful parliamentary group that monitors the BBC, Julian Knight, MP for Solihull, promised, among other things, to run the culture, media and sport select committee, as an “unofficial ‘Royal Commission’ on the future of the corporation”.
Last Thursday, a victorious Knight swiftly underlined his plan to “ask difficult questions about the BBC’s future funding model”. He also applauded a suggestion from fellow MP James Cartlidge that a more commercial BBC could become “a top export service”. These words sent a renewed January chill down the corridors of New Broadcasting House.
Continue reading...Michael Grade and Danny Cohen hit out at ‘unjustifiably offensive’ News at Ten piece
The former BBC chairman Michael Grade and Danny Cohen, its former director of television, have joined criticism of the broadcaster over an “unjustifiably offensive” News at Ten report that appeared to link Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.
Orla Guerin, the BBC’s international correspondent, made the reference at the end of an interview with Holocaust survivor Rena Quint ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Continue reading...Veteran war reporter will leave role as broadcaster’s Africa correspondent to aid recovery
The veteran war reporter Fergal Keane is stepping down from his role as BBC News’s Africa correspondent after several years of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, the broadcaster has said.
Keane, who has reported from conflict zones across the world over several decades, including the Rwandan genocide, has decided to move away from the role to help his recovery, according to an internal announcement.
Continue reading...Andrew Shaw, 63, on how he switched to a new career and life in another continent
Name: Andrew Shaw
Age: 63
Occupation: Jade carver and author, China
Income: £48,000
I took early retirement from my job as a BBC reporter 13 years ago to travel to China to pursue my dream to learn to carve jade. At one time I loved reporting live from major events such as 9/11. It was as if I was witnessing history rather than covering the news. But the death of my mother made me rethink my life.
Continue reading...The presenter said she was glad the case had been won and thanked the NUJ, her lawyers and barrister outside the BBC in London. Judges condemned the BBC’s defence that Ahmed’s job as presenter of the audience feedback show Newswatch was significantly different to Jeremy Vine’s on Points of View and criticised the difference of pay between her £440-an-episode rate and the £3,000 Vine received per episode
Continue reading...Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved it
Greta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.
Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump
Continue reading...Svante Thunberg says he was concerned about his daughter’s school strike but that her campaigning had helped her beat depression
Greta Thunberg’s father has opened up about how activism helped his daughter out of depression but still worries about how she will deal with the impact of her international fame.
Speaking to the BBC to mark his daughter’s guest-editing slot on the Today programme, Svante Thunberg revealed he thought it was a “bad idea” for Greta to stage the school strike that catapulted her into the public eye.
Continue reading...Sarah Sands, editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, admits it ‘felt awkward’
Putting a presenter on a flight to Sweden to meet climate activist Greta Thunberg “felt awkward”, the editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has admitted.
The 16-year-old campaigner, who was a guest editor on a special edition of the show, avoids air travel because of its environmental impact.
Continue reading...Foreign correspondent with a knowledge and love of Africa who worked for the Guardian, the Independent and the BBC
The journalist Alex Duval Smith, who has died of cancer aged 55, was a free spirit with a remarkable gift for connecting with others across social, language or cultural barriers.
For more than two decades she worked as a reporter and correspondent in European and African countries, for the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the BBC, Radio France International and France 24. She had a deep knowledge of and love for Africa and was a citizen of the world – with two nationalities and three languages; she had lived in almost a dozen countries.
Continue reading...Newsnight was granted a rare audience with the royal ... and after a decade of silence, he was unstoppable. Its presenter shares the secrets of the interview of the century
Series 3, episode 4: The Crown. A BBC van pulls up at Buckingham Palace to record a royal documentary.
As in life, so with television: timing is everything. Had The Crown aired its new series one week earlier … Had the fictional Queen been spotted squirming at the TV crews in her midst … Had the distant memories of a now-banned palace interview been fresher in our minds … It is entirely possible, and more than probable, that the Prince Andrew interview would never have happened.
Continue reading...Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
Continue reading...American tells BBC she was told to have sex with royal by Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell
A beleaguered Prince Andrew faced fresh embarrassment after his accuser Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked as a teenager to have sex with him, appeared on television to implore the British public to “not accept this as being OK”.
In her first UK broadcast interview, Giuffre repeated allegations she had sex with the prince when she was aged 17 on the instructions of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and close friend of the US financier and sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.
Continue reading...The broadcaster cut out laughter during leaders’ debate on Question Time in later news bulletin clip
The BBC has claimed it made a “mistake” in editing a clip where it cut out an audience laughing at Boris Johnson, insisting the decision was made due to time constraints rather than political bias.
In the Question Time leaders’ debate special, broadcast on BBC One on Friday night, an audience member asked the prime minister: “How important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth?”
Continue reading...Amanda Thirsk will run mentoring initiative, as Barclays becomes latest organisation to sever ties with the prince
Barclays has become the latest among a growing number of organisations to sever ties with Prince Andrew, as it emerged that the aide who orchestrated the beleaguered royal’s disastrous interview about his links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is no longer his private secretary.
Amanda Thirsk, who was said to have played a key role in persuading him to agree to the BBC interview, has reportedly moved on to run his business mentoring initiative, Pitch@Palace.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Epstein’s victims say they were ‘almost completely ignored’ in interview
Prince Andrew is facing a transatlantic backlash over his extraordinary defence of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers who represent 10 of the billionaire predator’s victims branded the royal unrepentant and implausible and demanded that he speak to the FBI.
After the royal’s defiant Newsnight interview on Saturday triggered a disbelieving reaction from the public and the media, the prince was under growing pressure from critics in the UK and US on Sunday who demanded an apology for his conduct and said that his defence of his actions was simply not credible.
Continue reading...Appearance was secured after six months of negotiations and royal’s team referred decision upwards
As television interviews go, it was one of the most excruciating – and most sought-after – in British history. But when Prince Andrew’s painstakingly negotiated head-to-head with Emily Maitlis in Buckingham Palace finished, the royal appeared oblivious to the damage that had been done. In fact, he was so pleased with how things had gone that he gave the Newsnight team a tour of the palace afterwards.
On Sunday, as the prince’s team picked up the pieces from an interview widely perceived to have been disastrous for his reputation, the remarkable story of how it came about emerged – from the departure of a key aide to drawn-out discussions and a last-minute message to the Queen.
Continue reading...Prince speaks publicly for first time about paedophile financier found dead in prison
Prince Andrew has said that he failed to uphold the standards of the royal family when he visited Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile’s release from prison, admitting: “I let the side down, simple as that.”
The prince made the statement in an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme, the first time he has spoken publicly about his friendship with Epstein, to be broadcast on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Family and friends recall ‘her powerful ability to turn around people’s lives for the better’
The award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tazeen Ahmad has died, her family have said. Ahmad was praised for her work in shining a light on important stories with “care, sympathy and integrity” across her extensive career.
She worked for the BBC and was part of the Channel 4 Dispatches team that won an RTS television journalism award and was nominated for a current affairs TV Bafta for the documentary The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs.
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