3 d. ago Ibiza Final Boss Jack Kay's love life in trouble after girlfriend 'dumped him'

Jack Kay is enjoying his overnight fame after his lego-style haircut went viral but it's not all plain sailing for the internet sensation as he's reportedly fighting to save his relationship.

Events

8 d. ago ‘Flyovers can be incredibly beautiful!’ Long Blondes singer Kate Jackson’s new career as a motorway artist

In her neck scarf and beret, she sang songs that defined the 2000s. Now the frontwoman has a second life – turning unloved roads, bridges and service stations into dazzling ‘pop art’ scenes full of romance and possibilityAs the singer in cult indie band the Long Blondes, Kate Jackson experienced all the thrills of the mid-00s music scene: chaotic gigs, hedonistic parties, an abundance of winklepickers and angular fringes. But years later, when she went back over all the photographs she’d taken during that period, things looked rather different. “I’ve got tons of photos of airport lounges and long stretches of road in Europe,” she says with a shake of the head. “Lots of German service stations. Nothing of the band! No backstage fun, no frolics!”Jackson may regret not capturing more of the band’s short but spectacular heyday, but the road has always been important to her. As a Pulp-obsessed teenager in Bury St Edmunds, she would gaze out of the kitchen window and dream of escaping sma...

Transport

9 d. ago From Emily in Friends to Che Diaz: the TV characters so bad that they ruined shows

One-note comic disasters, unconvincing panto villains, children who set your teeth on edge some characters are so awful they’re painful to watch. We round up the worstSometimes, all it takes to change your relationship to a TV show is one character. Viewers are all enjoying the One Day-meets-High Fidelity vibes of BBC Two’s nostalgic romance Mix Tape. However, none of them can stand the cassette-crossed lovers’ spouses. Yes, for every role that becomes a firm viewer favourite, another is reviled by the show’s fanbase. Lena Dunham’s latest creation, Too Much, seems to be entirely populated by unappealing characters.Meanwhile, Peppa Pig devotees are in a porcine pickle over the imminent onscreen arrival of a new little sister, baby piglet Evie. Cartoon swine devotees fear this gimmicky addition will upset the delicate balance of the four-way family unit that has been beloved by preschoolers for 21 years. If the oinking blockbuster ain’t broke, why fix it? Continue reading...

Culture

4 w. ago ‘I threw it in the bin with everything else he gave me’: the mix tapes that defined our lives

In heart-tugging drama Mix Tape, two ex-lovers are thrown back together with the music they wooed each other with 20 years earlier. Here, writers dig out their most treasured tapes and CDs full of meaning, mishaps and mega-tunesAt 18 my go-to albums were Dog Man Star, His ’n’ Hers and a mix tape called Really, Basically, In a Sort of a Way, Volume 1. Named after the mutterings of a particularly long-winded lecturer, it was the first of many TDK D60s – always the same brand! – from my mate Pat. We had met at our university’s registration day a few weeks earlier and would be friends for more than 20 years until his death in 2018. By then he’d not only been on staff at the NME – teenage Pat’s dream job – but also written a book about its history. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Jim Sturgess says his early days in Hollywood were ‘a bit scary’

‘I didn’t have anybody guiding me,’ said British actor

Politics

4 w. ago CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Mix Tape: A blissful wallow in the nostalgic afterglow of innocent young love

Funny thing - until the advent of the Pill in the 1960s, most young women married their first serious boyfriend.

Politics

4 w. ago ‘I wish I’d enjoyed my fame a bit more’: Jim Sturgess on regrets, romance and the art of the mix tape

He broke Hollywood in his early 20s, and found it all extremely scary. Now starring in a beautiful TV romance, Sturgess talks love, Walkmans – and why he might have just found his forever screen partnerLike all good love stories, this one starts with a chance meeting and ends with a reunion. It was 2008, pre-Hardy and Hiddleston, post-Bale and Grant; Jim Sturgess was a rising star and the latest handsome young Brit to break Hollywood. Having landed the lead role in casino thriller 21, Sturgess needed a love interest: cue a slew of chemistry tests with a roll call of beautiful young women, a process Sturgess remembers now as “the most exposed blind date you could ever possibly put yourself through, with five producers watching you from afar”.Kate Bosworth got the role, but one actor lingered in Sturgess’s mind: an effervescent Australian called Teresa Palmer. “When you do those chemistry tests, they put you through it, so we spent the whole day together,” Sturgess says. “I was really...

Politics