After careers as a teacher, cookbook author and TV chef, Sue Kreitzman’s life took a different path.
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Alicia Upano has crafted a beautiful debut novel full of emotion, heartache and discovery, which follows the aftermath of a tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii. A Hawaiian herself, the author immerses the reader in the island’s cultural practices and everyday routines; its tropical beauty is emphasised, but Everything To The Sea isn’t your typical summer read. The heartbreaking twists and gut-wrenching turns make for a story you become emotionally attached to.
Flitting between Kenji and Jane’s experiences of the tsunami, we get a dichotomy of lives that have each taken a different turn. Both characters, though highly flawed, are extremely likeable making you root for their love right until the very end. Themes of family, friendship, belonging, tragedy and love all culminated to create a relaxing book that is impossible to put down.
The dynamic of the push and pull between the comfort of your home town and the aspirations of a far-away city has a relatable quality; anyone struggling with homesickness, or dissociating from where they feel they belong, will understand Everything To The Sea on another level. A thoroughly enjoyable, inventive twist on a classic romance tragedy; if only I could read the ending again for the first time.
Claudia Winkleman has announced she is quitting the BBC chat show she launched earlier this year after one series.
The TV presenter, who stepped down from Strictly Come Dancing last year and also hosts The Traitors, fronted seven episodes of the chat show, which was made by Graham Norton’s production company.
In a statement, Winkleman said she was “incredibly grateful to the BBC” for commissioning the programme, but had ultimately been “too nervous to enjoy it”.
“Maybe one day I will give it another try, but for now I already have the best jobs in the world and absolutely love the shows I’m doing,” she added.
During its seven-week run in the spring, Winkleman interviewed guests such as Lisa Kudrow, Jeff Goldblum, Niall Horan and Rachel Zegler.
Ralph Fiennes, James McAvoy, Jamie Dornan, Vanessa Williams and incoming Strictly co-host Josh Widdicombe were among the other guests on the sofa.
In her statement, Winkleman said: “I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for giving me the opportunity, to the guests who agreed to come and chat to me, and the production team who were simply excellent.
“Sometimes you have to try something to see how it fits, and I realised I was just too nervous to enjoy it.”
Most episodes of The Claudia Winkleman Show attracted an average combined audience of between 1.5m and 2m viewers.
A peak audience of 24 million people tuned in to watch England’s defeat by Argentina in the World Cup semi-final, making it the most watched live television event in the past five years.
The BBC One and iPlayer audience was the biggest for a broadcaster since the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy, which was held in 2021.
England’s 2-1 loss in Atlanta averaged 22.1m viewers on BBC One and iPlayer.
There were an additional 12.6m streams on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.
Anthony Gordon opened the scoring for England early in the second half before Enzo Fernadez equalised with five minutes left.
Lautaro Martinez’s stoppage-time header earned defending champions Argentina a place in a second consecutive World Cup final.
The BBC Sport live coverage page on the website and app was viewed more than 24.6m times globally, including 18.8m in the UK.
England face France in the third-place play-off in Miami on Saturday at 22:00 BST.
Argentina play Spain in the final in New Jersey on Sunday at 20:00.
Both matches will be live on BBC One, iPlayer, radio and the BBC Sport website and app.
“Last night may not have brought the result England fans were hoping for, but it was another occasion that united millions across the UK in support of the team,” said BBC Director of Sport Alex Kay-Jelski.
“The extraordinary reach of our coverage across TV, iPlayer, BBC Sounds, the BBC Sport website, app and socials reflects the enduring power of major sporting events to create shared experiences on a remarkable scale.
“We’re incredibly proud to have been alongside audiences throughout England’s World Cup journey, bringing every moment to fans across the UK.
“While England’s campaign has come to an end, the story of this World Cup is not over.”
The third part of Julia Deli’s megafeature on her weekend at the Workhouse Party in Llanfyllin last month profiles the great work done by Creative Stuff Newtown, a collective who put on socially enterprising events in the north Powys region and who were running a DJ booth out of a horsebox at the festival.
Rounding a corner in the labyrinthine Workhouse, we’re suddenly in the Front Room: a chillout zone full of sofas, cushions and chintzy lamps, a safe space which also offers DJ sessions and other workshops. Speaking to Chris Jones, founding member of Creative Stuff Newtown, we discover that the project started as a response to lockdown, especially to support young people when all the youth clubs were closed.
“We’re a community arts and not-for-profit organisation, and many of our team have a background in therapeutic support, welfare and special education. In the pandemic, Sorelle, Meg, Binty and myself were very concerned about special needs students, looked-after children and those with neurodiversity.
“So we worked with the local authorities to provide a meeting place once a week, according to the latest social distancing advice. Later, we collaborated with Oriel Davies and Open Newtown to host an open-air disco for the community, creating areas on the ground so that people could dance within their bubble.”
Jones has a long history of putting on community events – as part of Bristol’s Tribe Of Doris crew, and with Time Out Of Town, which took young people from cities on camping holidays in the countryside. Moving to Wales, he co-founded the Authentic DJs collective and his festival Vinyl Vibe ran for 10 years.
Creative Stuff’s converted horsebox, with its 6K soundsystem, provides a stage and training for budding DJs of all ages. “We noticed that kids’ areas at festivals were great for the little ones, but not so entertaining for their parents and didn’t necessarily provide for teenagers,” Jones says. “We like to mix the generations up. It’s brilliant to watch a seven-year-old b2b-ing with an 80-year-old!
“Powys is the largest county in Wales, but also the most sparsely inhabited, and people have to travel to find their tribe. Having the horsebox helps us get out and about and reach more people. We host free events in the green spaces of Newtown, and run a weekly free-to-access DJ club in town.
“We survive with donations, volunteering and putting on small events. This year, our Summer Holidays Kids Club is a week of workshops where young people learn about DJing, decor, booking bands and all other aspects of putting on a festival. At the end of the week, they can invite their mates to a Friday night they’ve organised themselves!”
Creative Stuff’s workshops this weekend include Dress Up, Pom Poms For Peace, Open Tuneiversity and Kitten-Gazing Meditation. “People give us great clothes, so that anyone can create a ‘festival look’ and maybe find a new self over the weekend. Pompom making is a fun craft that occupies hands and allows minds freedom to communicate in very therapeutic ways. Our Tuneiversity rescues singles from charity shops – there are some classics to be found! – and people can choose a playlist for our DJs, who’ve mostly learnt with us.
“At one of the Recycling/Reuse events we support, an older, very well-dressed lady brought us Bomber by Motörhead to play. I couldn’t resist asking why – she didn’t seem the type – and it turned out she’d been friends with Lemmy years ago, seen him at Donington, and got to go backstage. The single brought all those reminiscences flooding back.
“Most choices have memories attached, and we love talking to people about their music. A man on the Dementia/Alzheimer’s pathway was excited to find a load of rock’n’roll singles in the box, and he danced for over three hours. It was his birthday and he said it had untapped a lot of memories for him. Young people often select songs they say help them through personal challenges. Music truly can heal us all, and lyrics offer a different way to understand our lives.”
And the Kitten-Gazing? Not to spoil the mystery, but let’s say that those who’ve experienced it say that 457 Hz of purr can have profound effects on the human psyche.
Info: creativestuffnewtown.org.uk
words JULIA DELI
The award-winning children’s cartoon series Bluey has been translated into Australian Indigenous language for the first time.
Five episodes were released in Yolngu Matha, a collection of dialects from north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
The BBC’s Simon Atkinson spoke to the producers of these special episodes, who hope the project will amplify First Nation voices, and help language preservation through storytelling.
Ten unreleased tracks by David Bowie are set to be shared with the public, recorded in the early part of his career when he was known as Davie Jones.
David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings has been billed by the singer’s label as “the most complete collection of tracks recorded by a nascent David Bowie” with his then-producer Shel Talmy.
The collection includes contributions from guitarist Jimmy Page, who would go on to form Led Zeppelin, and pianist Nicky Hopkins, who also worked with the Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones.
One of the unheard singles, I Want Your Love, was uploaded to streaming services on Wednesday ahead of the release of the full collection on 18 September.
Other previously unheard songs set to be released include Cupid, Leave Her to Me, You Gotta Tell Her, Certain Woman, Today, I Live in Dreams and I Do Believe I Love You.
Some singles from this period of Bowie’s career have previously been made available – including Can’t Help Thinking About Me and Do Anything You Say.
Other tracks set to be included in the new compilation are titled You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving and Baby Loves That Way.
Writing in the sleeve notes that accompany the album, music historian Alec Palao said: “David Bowie the artist is a book of chapters, the turn of each page delivering something completely different and unexpected from the last.
“Each fascinating phase in his career should be considered complementary. This collection, a primary chapter if not the very earliest instalment in David’s musical journey, deserves legitimate consideration.”
An investigation has been launched into whether TikTok is doing enough to keep children off its platform.
The probe by media regulator Ofcom comes a month after the UK government announced that under-16’s would be banned entirely from a range of platforms.
Ofcom will examine how the video-sharing app assesses if a user is a child and whether it has adequate systems to prevent children from viewing harmful content.
“We’re confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate it,” a TikTok spokesperson said.
It follows a review by regulator in May which criticised the platform for not being “safe enough” for children and called for stronger action on children’s online safety.
Kate Davies, Ofcom’s group director for strategy and research told BBC’s Today programme: “This is where TikTok comes in. We found that some method of age checks being used by social media are not working well enough”.
At the heart of the regulator’s probe into the platform is its use of technology known as “age inference”.
This essentially relies on estimating how old a user is based on how they use the platform, such as the videos they watch or others they interact with.
Davies said Ofcom had “serious doubts” over whether such tools are good enough at checking the age of users.
The regulator requires social media platforms, among others, to use “highly effective” methods to check users are old enough to use them and prevent children from seeing harmful material.
“We have very serious questions about whether age inference can be highly effective,” she said.
But a TikTok spokesperson said: “We strictly enforce age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers.”
They said the company had invested “billions” in online safety since launching in the UK eight years ago.
The test uses a sample of blood taken in a heel prick shortly after birth.
Nelson said: “After years of campaigning, it means so much.
“Today is a day of hope. Knowing that future families will have access to early diagnosis and the opportunity for the best possible outcomes is something I’m incredibly proud to have supported.
“This is a victory for every family affected by SMA. Whilst it can’t change the future of our children, I know it marks the beginning of a brighter future for future SMA families.”
Hundreds of thousands of babies are expected to be screened for SMA as part of the study, which will be led by scientists at the University of Oxford.
That will help the UK National Screening Committee make a final decision on whether SMA testing should become a permanent fixture.
James Murray, the health secretary, said he was “in awe” of campaigners who had worked to raise awareness of SMA.
“No parent should have to watch their child lose the ability to move or breathe, knowing that earlier treatment could have made all the difference,” Murray said.
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, who passed away on Monday at a Sydney hospital, died from pneumonia, his agent has confirmed.
Best known for his roles in Jurassic Park and Peaky Blinders, the 78-year-old’s family described his death earlier this week as “sudden and unexpected”.
Neill’s long-time agent Philip Grenz released a statement on Thursday about the cause of death after speaking to the actor’s family and due to what he said were “inaccurate and outright falsehoods” in the media.
In April this year, Neill announced he was in remission after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of blood cancer – years earlier. His family said he had “remained cancer free” when he died.
“As Sam Neill’s longtime rep, I spoke with his family and wish to clarify some details for his fans,” Grenz said.
“Sam passed away from pneumonia. Prior to becoming sick, Sam had valiantly fought and beaten lymphoma through a new treatment called CAR-T therapy.”
Grenz said that during the past year, Neill had “filmed four projects back-to-back… all of which will be released within the coming months”.
Neill, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in New Zealand, was “an intensely private man who loathed a fuss”, Grenz said.
He added that Neill’s family “will honour him with a private family memorial at his farm in New Zealand at a still-undetermined later date.”
“I’d like to thank those who were truly close to Sam for considering his privacy with the respect he earned and his loved ones need and deserve during this immeasurably difficult time,” Grenz said.
News of Neill’s death saw tributes flow from fellow actors, politicians and fans, with his Jurassic Park co-star Laura Dern describing him as “my beloved lifetime friend”.
Australian actor Toni Collette called him a “hero”, “legend” and “sweetheart” while New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was “one of the greats”.
Neill played Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and also appeared in films including The Piano, The Hunt for Red October, Dead Calm and Event Horizon, as well as BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Neill amassed more than 150 screen credits.
His last film appearance came in The Fox (2025) and his last TV appearance came in Netflix series Untamed (2025). He is expected to make posthumous appearances in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort in 2027.
In his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, he revealed details of his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“I’m not afraid of dying,” he told the BBC at the time. “What I don’t want to do is to stop living, because I really enjoy living.”
He added: “I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless.”
Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.