Art Craft and Leisure news

Fans were able to see the pop legend while the traffic lights remained on red.

“Nobody really got chance to speak with him,” said Morton.

The tour guide revealed it was not his first encounter with the star, having come across him when he used to work at the Cavern Club.

“We were told not to take photos but I managed to sneak one,” he said.

Sir Paul, who famously first found fame in his home city with The Beatles before they became global superstars, was in the city to present actor Stephen Graham with an award in a ceremony at his performing arts school.

Graham, who grew up in the Merseyside town of Kirkby, will be presented with a companionship of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) by the former Beatle and co-founder of the school.

LIPA has other Beatles connections, as it is based at the former Liverpool Institute school attended by Sir Paul and George Harrison and is neighbour to Liverpool Art College, where John Lennon studied.

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the proposed $110bn (£85bn) merger between media giants Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery.

The decision follows a lawsuit brought by a coalition of 12 US states, including California and New York, aiming to halt the deal over concerns it would stifle competition and raise consumer prices.

Prosecutors representing the states said merging two major studios would cause “substantial harm on movie theatres, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences nationwide”.

In response, the media giants argued that the states had misread the market and that merging would improve streaming efficiency.

US district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the temporary restraining order on Monday following legals arguments heard last week.

Under the 14-day injunction, neither company can finalise the deal or start joining the businesses together.

In her ruling, the judge noted that the state coalition raised “serious questions” regarding the deal’s impact on movie distribution.

She warned that allowing the merger to proceed now would make it “extraordinarily difficult to unscramble the egg” if the court decided later to block it all together.

Judge Martínez-Olguín also pushed back against the companies’ arguments, highlighting that “public’s vital interest in antitrust enforcement” outweighed any temporary delay to the merger.

She said that Paramount and Warner Bros “will continue to operate as separate, viable companies competing in the marketplace” while legal proceedings continue.

TikTok Shop says its UK sales grew by more than 30% year-on-year in June, with live shopping the fastest-growing format.

It says it now has more than 6,000 livestreams taking place every day.

At an event in the centuries old Covent Garden market, it hosted 20 small businesses with stalls who were also selling live to customers all over the UK.

With nothing more than a smartphone, a lighting kit and a fridge full of fresh meat, halal butcher Manny Malik from Wolverhampton had around two hundred people tuning into his session.

“Last week we did a TikTok live for three hours and we sold £8,000 worth of meat,” he says.

It would normally take him three to four days to sell this amount in his family shop, Malik Butchers.

They’re now opening a second store in Stoke. TikTok, he says, is helping to drive his expansion.

But there are fees.

TikTok Shop UK keeps up to 9p from every £1 sold on the platform, as its standard commission.

As a comparison, eBay’s marketplace business sellers typically pay between 6.9p and 14.9p depending on the category. Businesses selling on the dedicated live selling format, eBay Live, pay a combined fee of up to 8.42p including payment processing.

“It’s a lot,” says Manny.

“For us in the meat game, there aren’t huge margins. However, it’s opened up a new platform. We didn’t have these sales prior to TikTok. We’re not losing money, we’ve got enough profitability in there,” he adds.

If you’re from the generation that grew up with martial arts morality tale The Karate Kid, you’ll remember the weight of expectation on the shoulders of Daniel, the movie’s lead character. Imagine, then, the sort of pressure that comes with playing him in the new musical adaption! That’s what Gino Ochello is doing, in a touring production that’s about to open in Cardiff, so Oliver Howells chatted to him.

“Breathe in, breathe out…” Following the sage advice given to The Karate Kid’s title character, Daniel LaRusso, by his mentor Mr Miyagi is all well and good – but when you’re trying to sing and perform karate moves at the same time, it’s easier said than done. Then of course, there’s the flesh wounds to contend with.

“I’m full of bruises every night!” says 19-year-old Gino Ochello, who’s making his professional acting debut as Daniel in The Karate Kid – The Musical. ‘‘We do actually make contact with each other. Obviously not to the extent that it looks like on stage, but we’re making contact with the floor and with our fists and stuff. There’s some things that are inevitable – and it’s live theatre, so things are bound to go wrong…”

The show premiered in late April before touring the UK; with several performances now under his gi, how has debutant Ochello found it? “Rehearsals started on March 16,” he recalls, “and within two days we’d learnt the whole thing – which is crazy, given it’s a brand new show and there’s 15 songs.

“It’s been a whirlwind of emotions. I mean, the nerves from that opening night – I wish I could bottle it up and relieve that experience, because you just have so many emotions passing through your body at the same time. You’re super grateful to be there but you’re so nervous because it’s everything you’ve wished for and there’s this pressure because all the sacrifices you’ve made come down to this one performance.”

And with Ochello’s family members flying over from Gibraltar, his home country, to watch the opening night, even more was at stake. “I know I have nothing to prove because my family love me regardless. But you want to show your family that this is exactly what you’re meant to be doing.”

Amusingly enough, as regards the actor’s upbringing, I thought I’d picked up a distinctly Welsh lilt to his accent. Not so! “It’s funny – everyone I’ve ever met thinks I’m Welsh because of my accent. But I think everyone from Gibraltar sounds a bit Welsh, because we’ve got that singsongy thing.”

The original Karate Kid, from 1984, has spawned various sequels and spinoffs, the latest as recently as last year. The musical adaption – written by Robert Mark Kamen, who also wrote the original – is largely based on and faithful to it, though features a few surprising extras. “You do have glimpses of other things,” says Ochello. “You get to meet Mr Miyagi’s wife, for example!”

Speaking of which, was the teenager an established Karate Kid fan? Recalling the excitement of his father on hearing he got the role, Ochello says he’d seen several of the films, thanks in part to that paternal enthusiasm, yet had been unsure this role was right for him. “I don’t think it’s my kind of casting,” he’d told his agent, who eventually succeeded in persuading him otherwise. Ochello recorded an audition on tape at home, and ended up getting the part.

Still, he says now, landing such an iconic role was “daunting”, and posed challenges beyond acting and singing. “I’d never done any type of martial arts in my life – but not only was I going to have to learn karate, but perform it live on stage every night!” Ochello signed up to a local dojo for two months, prompting questions as to where his sudden interest in the discipline had came from and why the temporary basis; obliged to keep his iconic role a secret, he had to stay schtum.

Grateful to have others alongside him for this new journey of his, Ochello speaks well of his co-stars: Adrian Pang, who plays Mr Miyagi, and Sharon Sexton, Daniel’s mother Lucille. “I feel like they really take on not only the fatherly and motherly figure within the show, but also outside of the show – and, you know, on a personal level. Working with them is genuinely a gift, and they’re such giving performers. Being in scenes with them, I know I’m able to relax.”

The Karate Kid – The Musical, Wales Millennium Cente, Cardiff Bay, Tue 28 July-Sat 1 Aug

Tickets: £19-£71. Info: here

words OLIVER R MOORE-HOWELLS

There must nothing better on a sultry summer night than to be packed into a small venue like this one. The air conditioning may be on 11, but Dead Air are sweating buckets and putting in a hard shift.

Taking the well-trodden route along the M4 and over the Welsh border, these Londoners are causing heads to turn. The band are your archetypal rock’n’roll three-piece, with a sound as tough and muscular as Queens Of The Stone Age or Rage Against The Machine. Guitarist Lyle Salvatore is economical but effective, chopping out sweeping chords with abandon – and they say a band is only as good as the drummer, and boy does Richard Greenbury hit his drums, to the point where cymbals are falling off their stands. 

Meanwhile, Dead Air lead singer Reuben Moonasar is everything you want from a frontman: his commanding stage presence bolsters a vocal delivery that’s both understated and powerful. He’s modest, too – letting us know just how astonished he is to see so many here for the band’s Newport debut.

Highlight of the evening, though, comes when Greenbury grabs the mic to announce that he’s getting married in two weeks. Is his choice of wedding song appropriate, we’re asked? Whereupon Dead Air launch into a raucous version of RATM’s Killing In The Name. Let’s hope the bride and in-laws share either or both of his humour and music taste – as for this crowd, unsurprisingly they go mental, a few invading the stage for good measure.

A triumphant night for the band, who depart with a Terminator-esque proclamation, “We’ll be back.” When it rolls round, get your tickets quick. Gigs – and venues – like this are where the real rock’n’roll bread and butter is to be found.

Dead Air, Le Public Space, Newport, Fri 17 July

words and photos PAUL WINDSOR

Laura Warner, who directed Maternity: Broken Trust – which won a Royal Television Society journalist award – is also an executive producer of the new series.

She said despite following the Hawkins for a year for the documentary, there was “only so much” they could fit into it.

“What you can’t fit into a documentary is just the sheer depth of trauma and pain and frustration and struggle, that not just Jack and Sarah, but all the families in Nottingham have been through,” she told the BBC.

“We barely scratched the surface with the documentary, as much as we tried hard, but I feel that this way, dramatising it, we can really try and put ourselves more into Jack and Sarah and the other families’ shoes.”

A transmission date for the series has not yet been announced.

Tracy Pilcher, chief nurse at NUH said: “Jack and Sarah Hawkins have been through unimaginable pain since the tragic loss of their daughter, Harriet, while in our care.

“Not only did we fail to care for them in our hospitals, but we also repeatedly failed them when they tried to get answers, and for that I am truly sorry.

“Through the pain and grief, they have campaigned relentlessly for answers and for change.

“The Independent Maternity Review into our services was a watershed moment for them and all other families involved in the review, getting the answers that they have fought so hard for.

“But the work doesn’t stop there, there is still much to do to improve maternity care, and we are absolutely committed to listening, learning and creating a better maternity service for the women, babies and families in our care.”

Separately, in a letter to MPs in June, Ofcom said it would examine the findings of Channel 4’s review into welfare on the show, and would “urgently” consider whether any further action is required.

At the time, the watchdog called the allegations exposed by Panorama “shocking and deeply disturbing”.

Earlier this month, BBC News revealed that a cast member from the show had been arrested on suspicion of rape following the Panorama programme.

The individual is not being named; nor is the alleged victim. Anyone who makes an allegation of rape is entitled to anonymity by law.

Billed as a “bold social experiment”, Married at First Sight UK – known to many as MAFS – sees single people agree to “marry” total strangers, after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings.

The UK version, which has been running for 10 seasons, is one of Channel 4’s biggest shows, with audience figures often topping three million.

In May, Channel 4 pulled all episodes of the show from its streaming service just hours ahead of the transmission of the Panorama investigation.

No decision has yet been made on whether to broadcast the latest series of the show, which has already been filmed.

The broadcaster has commissioned a review into contributor welfare on the show, which is due to be finished later this summer. However, it only intends to publish “a summary of findings”, rather than the full report.

Lawyers for CPL, the independent production company that makes the UK version of the show, have previously said its welfare system is “gold standard” and industry-leading.

If you have more information about this story, you can reach Noor by email at noor.nanji@bbc.co.uk

Helen Walsh’s tender love story about love and longing amidst a fishing community on Anglesey is a slow-burn character piece that makes the most of the bleakly beautiful coastal landscapes. Barry Ward plays Jack: a taciturn man in midlife, part of a family business with his brother Dyfan, portrayed by Madfabulous director Celyn Jones. They are mussel farmers: out in all weathers, knee deep in freezing salt water, scraping by.

Jack is married to Maggie (Liz White); the couple’s teenage son Tom (Henry Lawfull) is acting out, mixing with the wrong kids and reluctant to be a part of the family business. When deckhand Daniel (a tattooed Lorne MacFadyen) appears on the scene, helping out on the trawlers, there is an instant attraction between him and Jack. Can a relationship bloom within this close-knit community, where masculinity follows certain patterns and Jack has a family and a business to lose?

Told with economy, amidst grey rugged skies, On The Sea has a real air of authenticity. The day-to-day struggles and hardships of fishing, and the men sucked into its world, are well-drawn, if at times there are slips in the north Walian accent from an otherwise excellent, emotionally repressed Ward and his estranged wife, a sympathetic White. Other actors from the region round out the cast – notably the excellent Leisa Gwenllian, so good in Effi O Blaenau, as Tom’s girlfriend as well as stalwarts Julian Lewis Jones, Lisa Jen Brown and Robert Gwyn Davin.

It’s a film that feels lived in, and which takes its time to build to an emotional climax as the stifling atmosphere closes in, causing inevitable friction as MacFadyen and Ward fall for each other. The consequences for the pair, in a local society where church still holds sway and what it means to be a man is written in stone, are portrayed sparely – but hold weight under writer/director Walsh’s empathetic gaze.

Dir: Helen Walsh (15, 111 mins)

In cinemas from Fri 24 July.

A preview screening takes place at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff on Tue 21 July, featuring a Q&A with Lorne MacFadyen and producer David Hughes (tickets: £5-£9. Info: here).

words KEIRON SELF

Three-time World’s Strongest Man champion Tom Stoltman has joined the cast of the BBC hit show Gladiators.

The 32-year-old, 6ft 8in (203cm) tall athlete from Invergordon in the Highlands was the first Scot to win the title when he was first crowned champion in 2021.

The fourth series of the Saturday night primetime show is set to start filming in Sheffield next month before returning to BBC iPlayer and BBC One in 2027.

Stoltman’s Gladiator name has yet to be announced.

The Scot retained his World’s Strongest Man title in 2022 before winning the competition for a third time in 2024.

He is still officially Britain’s Strongest Man after winning the title for a fourth time in February, beating Adam Bishop and Paddy Haynes.

But a hand injury blighted his chances of being named 2026 World’s Strongest Man, and he was knocked out in the qualifying heats.