Art Craft and Leisure news

Hill and Jean were speaking ahead of Diaspora Calling! By Ms. Lauryn Hill, a one-day festival that will make its UK debut at the Milton Keynes National Bowl on Friday.

The event will feature performances from Hill, Jean, Erykah Badu, Giggs, Fireboy DML, YG Marley and Zion Marley, with comedian Dave Chappelle hosting.

Reflecting on the anniversary of The Score, Jean said the Fugees’ ambitions had always extended beyond music.

“I remember saying from a very young age, we’re not going to do music, we’re going to be a movement,” he said.

He said the themes explored by the group three decades ago remain as relevant as ever.

“When you talk about the idea of refugees, look where we are today. We were saying these things 30 years ago. It was never just about us – it was always about the movement.”

Hill said the Fugees themselves embodied the idea behind Diaspora Calling.

“Our different places of origin came together to unite culture, reflect culture and show people how beautiful, powerful and resourceful that culture is,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Hill and Jean surprised fans with a pop-up appearance in London’s Piccadilly Circus, performing an a cappella rendition of Ready or Not.

Hill said London was the natural place to launch the festival.

“There’s so much of the diaspora in London,” she said. “So many people are represented here. It felt like a full-circle moment for us.”

Sydney Towle, a popular social media influencer who shared her experience living with a rare, aggressive form of cancer, has died at the age of 26.

Towle’s family announced her death, from complications related to bile duct cancer that had spread to other parts of her body, on her social media accounts on Thursday.

“Syd went peacefully last night after an almost three-year-long battle with cholangiocarcinoma,” her brother Austin said in a video message, alongside their mother, on TikTok.

Towle, who was moved to hospice care earlier this week, had over a million followers on TikTok and over 200,000 on Instagram.

She spent the last three years chronicling her daily life as a young person going through chemotherapy and living with cancer, with all its hopes, joys and struggles. She had been living in New York City at the time of her death.

“We are so proud of how hard Sydney fought and for sharing her journey with so many people,” Towle’s family said in a statement.

“She wanted to raise awareness for rare cancers and was passionate about promoting self-advocacy. We will continue her legacy and honour her in every way we can.”

Following the announcement of her death, thousands of followers posted messages on Towle’s social media accounts paying tribute to her and sending well wishes to her family.

“Sweet angel. Fly high,” actress Alyssa Milano commented. “Praying for all who loved her. She is really something special.”

“You were such a bright light and will be missed,” one person wrote on Instagram, while another said: “How lucky we all are to have found you on the internet. Thank you for sharing yourself and your story.”

Amanda Knox, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007, has defended her solo comedy show following calls for it to be cancelled.

The sold-out show called Cartwheel, which Knox will perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, discusses motherhood and how she will explain the case to her daughter.

Knox told the BBC she is not the first person to use comedy to talk about traumatic events and said her material focuses on “how the world is unsafe and unfair towards women”.

But Stephanie Kercher, the victim’s sister, said she is concerned it will “normalise and trivialise” violence against women, and Meredith, in particular.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Stephanie Kercher, said: “What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well.”

Responding to the comments, Knox said: “The interesting irony of that is that my daughter is a huge motivation for me doing this show.

“It’s about how the world is unsafe and unfair towards women and what it means to raise a daughter in that world, knowing how bad it can be.

“If they [Kercher’s family] saw my show, they would recognise that.”

A petition against the show, set up by a friend of Meredith, has been signed by nearly 5,000 people.

It states the show disrespects her memory and risks making light of such a harrowing event.

A judge has granted Donald Trump’s request to delay handing over financial records to the BBC as part of his $10bn (£7.4bn) lawsuit against the broadcaster.

The US president is suing the BBC over an episode of Panorama that edited together two different sections of a speech he gave before the 2021 Capitol riots.

The BBC has asked for some of Trump’s financial records in relation to his argument that the documentary damaged the president’s business interests.

A judge granted that request in July and the first documents were due to be filed on Thursday, but another judge has now agreed to an emergency motion filed by Trump’s lawyers earlier this week to pause the disclosure.

The president’s legal team said disclosure of the financial records would cause him “irreparable harm”.

They argued that no such revelations should be made until the court rules on an objection to the order requiring the disclosure.

Trump has also recently asked to amend his main case, which his lawyers said would make the document release unnecessary.

The president has asked for his central complaint against the BBC to be amended so it no longer claims the documentary damaged his brands and businesses. His lawyers have asked that the case is amended to claim for damages for “the reputational injury to the President, full stop”.

In a ruling on Thursday, the judge said the order for financial information disclosure would be paused until the amendment question is resolved.

The BBC had said Trump’s request for a delay to disclosure was “a transparent effort to evade this court’s clear and direct order and to continue to avoid the discovery obligations that the plaintiff took on when he chose to file this lawsuit”.

“In fact, this is just the latest in [Trump’s] months-long refusal to provide documents, sworn answers to interrogatories, deposition dates, any meaningful information to support his pursuit of $10bn from the BBC for a documentary the BBC never aired in the United States.”

Trump’s lawsuit – filed in Florida – accuses the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” the speech he gave outside the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

The BBC has apologised for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.

However, the BBC has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the programme doesn’t meet the legal criteria for defamation and wasn’t made available on its US platforms.

Last month, Trump’s lawyers admitted they had no evidence that the documentary was available in the US on the BBC’s BritBox subscription service, as they had originally claimed, or on BBC.com, BBC Select or through US broadcasters.

Trump also recently agreed to drop the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Studios from his lawsuit, after the BBC argued the company had “no role in creating or producing the documentary”.

A Glasgow Life spokesperson said: “We’re very excited to be working on this fabulous exhibition for the city.

“What could be better than celebrating a Scottish national treasure, Sir Billy Connolly, in Glasgow’s very own treasure trove, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum?

“We look forward to sharing more details soon about the opening date and what you’ll get to see in the exhibition.”

In March the museum’s Jane Rowlands said Connolly, widely regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time, was the obvious choice to present a personal guide to the art gallery.

She said: “We weren’t looking for facts and figures about the building or our collections.

“We were looking to hear his memories and it comes across with such personality and he speaks about the place with such fondness that you can’t help but be engaged by it.”

The comedian was knighted in 2017 for services to entertainment and charity.

After serving half his original sentence, Bear was released from prison, but between 1 March 2025 and 21 July 2025 began posting on Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Facebook about the case and Miss Harrison.

The court heard these were “consistently posted messages of the most abhorrent and harmful type”.

Addressing Bear, Judge Morgan said: “What you did in that three to four month period is simply victim blaming.”

Georgia Harrison did not attend court, but the prosecution read out a statement where she described feeling isolated, exposed and unsafe, and asked for the restraining order to be extended.

She said the significant stress made her worry about her unborn child and said it “caused her to spiral” on some occasions.

“I shut him out of my mind for a long time and it’s not fair that he’s managed to crawl his way back in,” the statement read.

Bear arrived for Thursday’s sentencing with his wife, who is eight months’ pregnant.

As he walked in to court, he refused to answer questions but gave a thumbs up and said: “Wish me luck guys. See you soon, hopefully.”

As his barrister spoke about why Bear should be given a reduced sentence, he appeared to briefly cry.

He shook his head as he was taken away to begin another prison term.

For the second part of her report on this year’s edition of the Talking Pictures TV festival in Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre, Julia Deli hears about paranormal experiences, shonky Doctor Who props and fielding Merthyr Town FC-related enquiries from Her Maj.

Following an excellently entertaining opening day to this, the latest visit to Monmouth by Noel Cronin and Sarah Cronin-Stanley’s travelling Talking Pictures TV Festival, Lola Lamour kicks off day two with songs to fit a Sunday morning, and the Aston Belles freak out in a 60s Monkees-via-Tina Turner medley. Andre Vincent’s second foray into comedy history follows, with a talk titled ‘Funny Men Of Monmouth’.

We learn of mid-18th century comic Richard Winstone, from the town but finding fame at Drury Lane before taking over the Bristol Old Vic to put on satires, and Charles Danby, dubbed “the first saucy comedian”: attached to the Gaiety Theatre, he toured the USA 37 times between 1858 and 1906. Biographies of character actor Paul Whitsun-Jones, Usk’s Lyn Harding and Newport’s Desmond Llewelyn (best known as Bond movie staple Q) follow – and then there’s Victor Spinetti, “born just up the road, over the Marine fish and chip shop”.

Winning a place at the Royal Welsh School Of Music & Drama, Spinetti’s very first job was in South Pacific. Asked to play roles in all the Beatles films – “because my mum fancies you,” George Harrison informed him – he later directed a play based on John Lennon’s book In His Own Write. From Mog Edwards in Under Milk Wood to voicing Texas Pete in SuperTed, audiences loved his characterisations.

Now aged 91, beaming like the alchemical sun as ever, writer, broadcaster and paranormal investigator the Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe chats with Mike Reid next. He was born in Norfolk, but Wales has been the Rev’s home for decades; growing up in a Methodist family, he became a journalist, a teacher, joined the Masonic brotherhood and was ordained as an Anglican priest, all in furtherance of his quest. Known for hosting Fortean TV, he claims there is no clash of ideologies.

“I feel we live in such a wonderful universe, and if we believe that God created the universe, we should be investigating all those things deemed paranormal, not running away from them. If we live in parallel or infinite universes, there may be intelligent beings that have visited our world and are responsible for many of the mysteries… or perhaps there are interplanetary beings, or psychic beings who have never had a body, or souls left trapped when the body departed. It’s a great philosophical and spiritual debate.”

Reid wonders, as we all do, if Fanthorpe has had any paranormal experiences himself. “In my teaching years,” he tells us, “I had a colleague, Bill. My best friend, in fact. He sadly became ill, and died quite young; I asked the priest if I could share the funeral service with him, which I did.

“During the service, I quite clearly saw Bill standing there – no longer ill, and asking me for a certain reading. The other priest couldn’t see him, but he blanched when I began the reading. He said, ‘That’s the very thing I read to Bill just before he died!’ I still shiver when I think of that moment – and I feel my friendship with Bill is still alive, and has lasted all these years.”

Deciding to eat lunch by the Monnow River, sitting on a bench that said “happy to chat” on the back, I find my neighbour is Jeremy Rees – a former journalist from the Swansea valley with a background in support work, also spending the weekend with TPTV.

“Since I got my bus pass,” he tells me, “I visit towns to see what we can do there for free. There are so many cultural places that cost nothing to visit, charities that offer what people might need, community projects, eco-gardens… Swansea High Street, for example, has had a bad rep for years, but now organisations and creative groups are offering positive experiences to people who otherwise might be marginalised and left to the streets.” Rees’ podcast A Penniless Pilgrim recounts these journeys: as a collective, Footage Detectives are a fascinating bunch.

A trailer for Australian kangaroo-centric kids’ series Skippy introduces one of its human stars, Liza Goddard. Her father David was a producer and director, and when the Goddard family moved to Australia, she landed a job as the kangaroo’s partner in justice. “Actually, there were quite a few Skippys!” she tells us; “between takes, they were hung up in special bags, made like their mother’s pouches.”

Moving back to the UK, Goddard found work in Take Three Girls, and its followup, Take Three Women. Many prestigious parts followed, but she has fond memories of the classic teatime sci-fi.

“I was a space pirate in Doctor Who, with a fantastic gun and my hair all brushed back. But every time I’d pull the gun out of the holster, the end dropped off! We were in stitches. At a Doctor Who convention recently, a man came up to me with that very gun – he’d bought it on eBay.”

Goddard’s recent work in theatre has included playing Maxine in Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel. “I’m about to play Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d at The Mill,” she adds. “Dinner there is wonderful, too. You have to think about these things!”

With her CV also including a half-decade as team captain on Give Us A Clue, a round of the Charades-themed gameshow is worked into today’s Footage Detectives quiz, with Goddard joining Mike Reid’s team. And the quickfire silliness continues with multi-award winning magician Mark Shortland, in a fast-paced show which heralds a break to refuel with tea and cakes.

Savoy Theatre trustee and director Chris Ryde shares with me some of the history of a building which has been many things to its community, and had many changes of name. “We’re said to be the oldest theatre site in Wales, apart from the Roman amphitheatre down the road in Caerleon!” he says. “The foyer was the old Bell Inn, and the auditorium was built in 1829 as an assembly room for meetings and entertainments. The Chartists met here to pass on political information, and in 1850, a touring theatre – or ‘fit-up’ – put on a season of plays for the first time.

“Later it was a corn exchange, then a temperance hotel. In 1909, it was a rollerskating rink for a year, during the Edwardian craze; in 1910, the first film screen was put up, and Cinevariety, a combination of films and acts, continued until 1930. Cinema entrepreneur B.T. Davies bought the building in 1958, and the family still own it. Monmouth Council helped with a large sum to refurbish, and we now run as the Savoy Charitable Trust. At the moment, we have 55 volunteers.”

Back in our seats, we learn of the joys and perils of setting up in broadcast, with Noel Cronin and Mike Reid discussing ‘How do you launch and run your own TV channel?’ Reid then turns interviewer again, welcoming broadcaster and comedian Owen Money. Born Lynn Mittell in the family’s Merthyr pub, his dad played the piano, and the future Owen learned to sing along.

“I was playing bass with The Crescendos, and my bandmate Clive John and I went along to audition for another band, The Rebels. We started rehearsing harmonies and discovered Micky Jones had a falsetto voice – a diamond in the band. The bands came together and we became The Bystanders in 1962.” Playing with Deke Leonard and Martin Ace, future members of prog rockers Man, they were part of a wave. “South Wales had its scene, like Liverpool or London. There were thriving scenes in lots of towns then.”

His first standup gig was in the 1980s. “Somebody had pulled out, and I filled the slot and got £80 for half an hour. I couldn’t believe it! Bands were getting £50 a gig between them in those days.” In 2007, he received an MBE – cure for a textbook Owen Money tale. “It was a great day. I met the Queen, and she knew I was then the president of the football club, but I was amazed when she said, “and how did Merthyr get on on Saturday?” The only other Welshman there was Mark Williams, the snooker player – neither of us knew the other one was getting an MBE, but we were both dressed like this, in white suits. Now I’ve started doing over-fifties discos, I wear this suit cos it’s like John Travolta’s. Though someone thought I was from Randall & Hopkirk…”

The ghosts of Victorian children, the actors and ushers and the spectre of friendly Fred, begin to gather in the wings as the last reel of the festival is loaded. A hush descends as we contemplate the fact, then we’re swept into the arch humour of a recovered Inspector Hornleigh film, starring Alastair Sim and Gordon Harker.

People say their farewells: “See you in Redditch!” “Catch you in Wimborne!” Some superfans attend every TPTV festival; others are dressed in vintage finery. Co-founder Sarah Cronin-Stanley, herself in fetching peacock blue and feathers, has time for a last word about what it was like growing up in a film family.

“People were always popping in the house with cans of film. Chloe Annett helped me with my homework! I used to fetch Gemma Craven’s lipstick and handbag for her when she was due on set, and Bernard Hill was a frequent visitor, being great friends with mum and dad. I often think, if only I’d known then what I know now about the great actors that were part of my everyday life.

In her teens, Sarah starred alongside Russell Brand, Brooke Kinsella and Russell Tovey in shortlived kids’ comedy drama Mud. After school exams, she changed tack, though remained in the orbit of filming. “I was doing aid work in East Africa, but if there were film crews in the area, I was always pointed out as someone with knowledge about film. So I ended up being a fixer and a runner quite often.”

Returning to the UK, she made documentaries for Sky’s Real Lives strand, before returning to the fold. “I worked in Renown, the archive side of dad’s company, doing some production. Renown had been distributing film stock to TV channels, but those channels suddenly stopped wanting black and white films. Dad and I were talking and he said, ‘There isn’t much on the schedule I’d like to watch these days. I wonder how many people feel like me?’ We were privileged in having the originals of many great films, and in the position to set up a channel to show them.”

Talking Pictures Festival Of Film & TV, Savoy Theatre, Monmouth, Sat 18 + Sun 19 July

words JULIA DELI

The controversy, she alleges, prompted ITV to remove her on repeated occasions from the line-up of its long-running lunchtime programme.

“ITV have continued to take me on and off Loose Women, forever changing the goalposts whilst also saying they couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t take me off again as it would depend on what was said,” she said.

Sawalha added that she was “hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I’ve never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show”.

The presenter also said she wanted to express “how sad I am that it’s got to this – believe me, I have appealed to ITV’s hearts and minds, but to no avail”.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC), external, which supports pro-Palestinian cases, has written to ITV on her behalf, alleging she has been discriminated against because of her “anti-Zionist beliefs, which are protected under the Equality Act 2010”.

Sawalha has appeared regularly on the daytime panel show, which sees four female media personalities discuss topical subjects, since 2013.

She also had an earlier stint on the panel between 1999 and 2002, shortly after playing Annie Palmer in EastEnders.

Her other TV credits include Casualty and The Bill, and she is also a former winner of Celebrity MasterChef.

The sister of Meredith Kercher has criticised a solo comedy show by Amanda Knox, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering the British student in Italy in 2007.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe website says Knox’s show, Cartwheel, is about motherhood and how she will explain what happened in Perugia to her daughter.

Stephanie Kercher, addressing Knox directly on BBC Breakfast, said: “What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well.”

A spokesperson for Knox said the show, set to run over 11 days from Friday, honours Kercher’s memory.

Her comedy show’s title Cartwheel references a story that once claimed she did cartwheels in the police station after her friend’s death.

Knox told the Telegraph newspaper, external last week: “I don’t joke about Meredith’s death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don’t joke about her murder.”

Asked if Meredith Kercher would have found her comedy funny, she added: “Yeah, I think so. I mean, it is funny!”.

Responding to that suggestion, Stephanie Kercher told the BBC: “Meredith absolutely wouldn’t find these topics of any comedy value.”

She said: “Our family’s pain is immense. I can’t explain to you how much pain our family have been through, and also we’re talking two decades later now, this pain.”

A petition against the show, set up by a friend of Meredith, has been signed by just over 2,400 people, and says the show disrespects her memory and also risks normalising violence against women by making light of such a harrowing event.