1 hour ago ‘A lot of these scary blokes doing time are terrified little boys’: Dennis Kelly on writing a new kind of prison drama

The new project from the creator of Pulling and Utopia is the real-life tale of a teacher whose life is upended by working with inmates. ‘It upends your prejudices,’ he saysWriter Dennis Kelly has a few mantras he’s always lived by. They’re all there, clearly defined in his very earliest interviews, right from the start of his career. Write like you mean it (perhaps that’s why his plays have so much heart and drive). Never write for money and never compromise (maybe that’s why two of the best TV shows he had a hand in, the controversial conspiracy drama Utopia and the Sharon Horgan comedy Pulling, were cancelled after two series). And finally: make sure your writing always contains a secret.In the case of Matilda, the smash-hit stage adaptation he wrote alongside Tim Minchin, Kelly only figured out the secret hidden inside his writing long after the awards came flooding in. It turns out that Matilda, a show that glows with love but also aches with a sense of a loss, was al...

Events

2 h. ago Why do we love a spooky ghost story at Christmas? A psychologist explains

The thrill of collectively engaging with a scary tale can create a sense of bondedness and shared identity

Politics

43 h. ago Moment brazen thief breaks into I'm A Celeb star Lady Colin Campbell's castle and steals one of her children's Christmas presents

The socialite, 76, who starred in the 2015 series of the reality show, is offering a reward for help catching the burglar who broke into her home at Castle Goring near Worthing, West Sussex.

Events

46 h. ago Even Happy Birthday has a dark side: my quest to tell the history of the world in 50 pieces of music

The Nazis adopted Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Happy Birthday hides a tale of corporate greed. And Putin uses Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony as a call to arms. That’s why I put them in my soundtrack to the complexities of human existenceThe idea was always a ludicrous one: to reduce millennia of human musical history – not to mention billennia of the Earth’s sonic geology – into a book of 50 pieces of music. And yet that’s the challenge I decided to take on. The most pressing question was: why? To which my answer was: the inevitable failures and gaps of the project are precisely where its interest lies.The next concern was how. Called A History of the World in 50 Pieces, the book is not a digested history of music, nor a list of my favourite songs, performances or recordings. Instead, it’s centred on the definition of a “piece of music”. This is a democratic principle – a belief that works don’t belong only to their creators but are shared and reinterpreted by generations of musicians...

Culture

48 h. ago Stunning 15th century Scottish castle with magical grotto perfect for a festive winter walk

VisitScotland has named the estate one of the country’s best winter walks, praising its beautiful grounds and excellent winter routes

Politics

48 h. ago Lady Colin Campbell's life from being 'raised as a boy' to owning a castle

Lady Colin Campbell appears in Murder in Monaco after publishing a book allegedly based on Lily Safra, Edmond Safra’s widow.

Politics

52 h. ago Viddal Riley on why stigma – and Andrew Tate – didn’t put him off joining Misfits

Exclusive: British cruiserweight champion Riley reveals to Will Castle why he rejected Matchroom and Queensberry to join MF Pro, a new promotion for professional boxers affiliated with KSI’s polarising crossover brand Misfits

Politics

52 h. ago Trump’s $10bn attack on the BBC doesn’t have to make sense. In his absurd world, he has already won | Jane Martinson

The legal action has made news and it will do damage. A potential disaster for the corporation and the UK, but a good day’s work for this presidentLove Actually may be a terrible movie, but it provides one speech that’s hard not to wish into reality this Christmas. Keir Starmer, the actual, nonfictional UK prime minister, needs to channel the one played by Hugh Grant – and stand up to an absurd US president now bullying the BBC with a $10bn lawsuit.Just imagine for one moment that Starmer decided to make Donald Trump’s claim against the BBC the final straw for a special relationship that is increasingly special only in a bad way. That would not be outlandish, for not only has Trump taken aim against a British broadcaster, but earlier this week it seemed that his promise of an AI “prosperity deal” (bought, let’s not forget, with gurning invites to Windsor Castle) is set to evaporate. As the fictional Love Actually PM once said: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend Since bul...

Politics

53 h. ago Bog Queen by Anna North review – a tale that could dig deeper

This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincingAnna North’s fourth book, Bog Queen, is a stranded or braided novel. First “a colony of moss” speaks – or rather, does not speak, but “if such a colony could tell the story of its life”, here’s some of what it might say. Then we have Agnes in 2018, American, tall, awkward, expert in forensic pathology and uncertain about everything else, including much of life in England. And then, in the first person, there is an iron age teenage girl, the druid of her village, riding towards a Roman town with her brother Aesu and friend Crab: “I had been druid for two seasons at that point and everyone said I was doing very well.”Agnes has a post-doctoral fellowship in Manchester, from which she is summoned to the discovery of a body in a peat bog in Ludlow. The story shadows that of Lindow Man, found by peat harvesters in a bog near Wi...

Politics

55 h. ago A winter tour of Luxembourg’s fairytale chateaux – on the country’s free bus network

This tiny country is awash with atmospheric castles, many of which you can stay in, making for a magical wintry break. And it won’t cost you a cent to travel between themThe top of the tower had disappeared in the mist, but its bells rang clear and true, tolling beyond the abbey gates, over the slopes of frost-fringed trees, down to the town in the valley below. Final call for morning mass. I took a seat at the back of the modern church, built when the Abbey of Saint Maurice and Saint Maurus relocated to this hill in Clervaux, north Luxembourg, in 1910. Then the monks swept in – and swept away 1,000 years. Sung in Latin, their Gregorian chants filled the nave: simple, calming, timeless. I’m not religious and didn’t understand a word, but also, in a way, understood it completely.Although mass is held here at 10am daily, year-round, the monks’ ethereal incantations seemed to perfectly suit the season. I left the church, picked up a waymarked hiking trail and walked deeper into the for...

Society

2 d. ago Conor McGregor shares his first dance with wife Dee Devlin as they let loose at a lavish castle reception after tying the knot in a secret ceremony in the Vatican

The nuptials had been kept a closely guarded secret, but it emerged last week that the couple tied the knot after they were pictured driving through Rome in their wedding car.

Politics

3 d. ago Jerry Seinfeld says his sitcom ‘never would have happened’ without Rob Reiner in heartfelt tribute

Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment produced Seinfeld’s eponymous NBC sitcom

Politics

3 d. ago Michael Douglas on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: ‘My half of the producing fee I gave to Dad’

The actor looks back on his first foray as producer as the Oscar-winning drama reaches its 50th anniversaryOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at 50: the spirit of rebellion lives onHis early career was defined by the Vietnam war with early roles in political films such as Hail, Hero! and Summertree. So it felt natural for Michael Douglas, just 31, to make his first foray into producing with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a tale of one man raging against the system.Fifty years since its release, Douglas is struck how Cuckoo’s Nest resonates anew in today’s landscape. “It’s about as classic a story as we’ll ever have and it seems timeless now, with what’s going on in our country politically, about man versus the machine and individuality versus the corporate world,” the 81-year-old says via Zoom from Santa Barbara, California. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago I drank a whole bottle of Rioja to survive the night in Britain's most haunted castle, reveals ROBERT HARDMAN

Hardman described his own experience spending a night at the 'scary old castle' - and the unorthodox strategy he used to survive it.

Events

3 d. ago Libya looks to its past to build a new future as national museum reopens

It is hoped the institution can help foster new bonds in a fractured nation, but such optimism will be a stretch for someIt was a night at the museum like no other. As the staccato sound of firecrackers and explosions rang out across Martyr’s Square in the heart of Tripoli, for once it was not Libya’s militias battling it out for a larger stake in the country’s oil economy, but a huge firework display celebrating the reopening of one of the finest museums in the Mediterranean.The National Museum of Libya – housing Africa’s greatest collection of classical antiquities in Tripoli’s historic Red Castle complex – had been closed for nearly 14 years due to the civil war that followed the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall. Its ceremonial reopening came at the climax of a lavish show compressing Libya’s rich history and attended by diplomats and Arab celebrities, with a full-size Italian orchestra, acrobats, dancers, arches of fire and lights projected on to the fort. It did not l...

Politics

3 d. ago Cameron Menzies cracks in the cauldron as darts faces an uncomfortable truth

The Scotsman is a wry, slightly daft ex-plumber who wears his heart on his sleeve. So why does the Ally Pally crowd enjoy goading him?By the time Cameron Menzies finally leaves the arena, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand has trickled its way down the whole hand, down his wrist, part of his forearm and – somehow – up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappears down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of the Professional Darts Corporation.The physical scars from Menzies’s encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby will be gone within a few weeks. Most probably there will be a fine of some sort. What about the rest? Man loses game of darts, punches table three times in fury, goes to hospital, repents at leisure: simple cause and effect. But of course this is not, and this is never, the whole story. In a way this tale is...

Events

3 d. ago White Castle recalls thousands of frozen sliders due to undeclared allergen

The sliders were primarily sold to convenience stores across all 50 states

Events

3 d. ago Review: Jack and the Beanstalk panto reboot as a thinly veiled criticism of academy schools

The Hammersmith Lyric's Jack and the Beanstalk panto is four out of five stars, telling the classic tale where pupils are inmates at an austere school.

Culture

4 d. ago Horror as car ploughs through Scots primary school gates during 'police chase'

The incident happened at Castleton Primary School in Castleton, Glasgow this morning (December 15) - a man in his 40s has since been arrested, police have said

Events

4 d. ago From Seinfeld to Shawshank, Rob Reiner changed Hollywood for ever

Reiner’s own films reshaped modern comedy and drama with their intelligence, empathy and range. But through his company, Castle Rock, he paved the way for Seinfeld, Sorkin and many moreNews: Rob Reiner found dead in apparent homicideGallery: Rob Reiner – a life in picturesMeeting Reiner was like a visit from SantaAs a film-maker, Rob Reiner championed humour, civility and intelligence – qualities you suppose would be out of step with the Hollywood of the 1980s where he made his name, and in the 1990s where he scored a series of extraordinary, far-reaching successes. Reiner had a family interest in the workings of on-screen comedy: his father Carl had played a key role on Sid Caesar’s TV shows, which themselves were revolutionary, and helped birth a new generation of screen comics by directing Steve Martin’s film debut The Jerk. Rob had become a household name as Meathead, the liberal foil to Carroll O’Connor’s bigoted Archie Bunker in 70s sitcom All in the Family (the equivalent to ...

Politics