95 m. ago No forgetting my encounter with two giants of the stage | Tim Lewis

Old pals Ewan McGregor and Michael Grandage prepare for their new play, My Master Builder, by chuckling about everything that could go wrong and hasFor today’s Observer New Review I had the not-exactly-onerous assignment of spending an hour with the actor Ewan McGregor and director Michael Grandage, as they prepared to put on a new play, My Master Builder, in London’s West End. The two men go way back, and mostly they were cracking each other up with knockabout old stories – much of which there wasn’t room for in my article. McGregor recalled one of his first roles on stage, as Orlando in As You Like It, and how when Simon Callow – multiple Olivier and Bafta award winner – played the part in 1979, he walked out on stage at the National Theatre only to promptly forget the first line of the play.“If you’re a woman and you’re about to have a baby, everybody tells you nightmare stories about childbirth,” said McGregor. “And when you’re an actor about to do a play, everybody tells you te...

Politics

1 hour ago Sex toys and exploding cosmetics: Inside the bizarre ‘Russian parcel fire sabotage plot’

Details of a bizarre, suspected Russian-run sabotage plot have been revealed following three depot fires in the summer of 2024.

Events

3 h. ago Woman 'taken by aliens' in 'abduction of century' says how to tell if you have been too

Alien abduction stories have been circulating for decades, with some people claiming they were taken by extraterrestrials and subjected to strange experiments on board their spaceship

Politics

4 h. ago Russell Brand's fall from a Hollywood star married to one of the world's most famous popstars to an online conspiracy theorist now charged with string of sex crimes

The 50-year-old is believed to be in Florida having cut most of his ties with the Uk over the past 18 months ago and moved there with his wife Laura and their three children.

Events

4 h. ago Mystery of the Lake Michigan triangle with strange disappearances, sinkings and weather that defies nature

The Great Lakes have been the final burial grounds for 6,000 ships, but Lake Michigan alone has eaten a quarter of those.

Events

5 h. ago Sara Pascoe: ‘I still identify as an infertile, childless woman’

The standup used to joke about not having kids, but then she had IVF and found herself an ‘eroded’ mother of two. Now she’s back with a show about motherhood in her 40s – but don’t expect any cute parenting storiesMy favourite Sara Pascoe joke is her imaginary riposte to people asking if she’s going to have kids. They mean well, these prying parents – they just don’t want her to miss out on a life-enhancing experience. The thing is, the comedian has had some life-enhancing experiences of her own. “But I have never, ever said to anybody: ‘Oh, have you been on QI? Ahhh, you should go on QI!’” she insists, settling into her archly patronising pep talk. “No I didn’t think I wanted to be on QI until I was on QI, and then it was like I looked back and my entire life had been leading up to me being on QI. Yes it’s very tiring being on QI, but it’s so worth it. I just wouldn’t want you to leave it too late and they’ll have stopped making it!”As a skewering of smug, insensitive acquaint...

Politics

6 h. ago Man shot dead by cops in Milton Keynes 'built his own gun' and feared 'poltergeist'

David Joyce, 38, had a 'bizarre' conversation with a neighbour on the day he was shot dead by police at Milton Keynes railway station and posted about 'gun fights' on Facebook

Events

7 h. ago I went on a blind friendship date with five total strangers after being matched by a personality algorithm

ELLY BLAKE: I stumbled across Timeleft on Instagram. A glossy-looking advert promises me the chance to 'meet new people over dinner'. In the pursuit of 'trying new things' I sign up.

Politics

7 h. ago ‘Too sticky. Too saucy. Too weird’: could I persuade my son to eat the food of my heritage?

Before she became a mother, Samantha Ellis secretly judged other parents who let their children subsist on white bread and pesto-pasta. And when her son was born she couldn’t wait to share the Iraqi Jewish food of her ancestors. Unfortunately, he had other ideas My family takes food very seriously. So seriously that when my mother’s family left Iraq in 1971, limited to 20kg of luggage each, they found room for not one but two rolling pins. The truth is that, having used the rolling pins, I think they were right. Born in England, I grew up on my father’s stories, too, of going to a Baghdad street stall to buy hot samoon, Iraqi bread shaped like a teardrop, with a puffy middle and a crunchy crust, with amba (mango pickle) oozing out of it. But he left Baghdad even earlier, in 1951, in a mass airlift along with most of Iraq’s Jews. I grew up in Britain, homesick for a place I’ve never been to, and will probably never see. There are now just three Jews left in Iraq.Scattered across the ...

Politics

7 h. ago Experts issue warning after world's most common painkiller has a bizarre and unexpected side effect

In a series of experiments involving almost 550 people, US researchers found those given the drug were far more likely to make a potentially life-changing decision than those on a placebo.

Events

7 h. ago Beverly Hills 90210 star Tori Spelling makes bizarre sex tape claim

Beverly Hills 90210 Tori Spelling has revealed she and her ex-husband Dean McDermott once made a sex tape - and she's gutted the footage never saw the light of day

Politics

7 h. ago Your ultimate guide to Spring TV: 30 treats you won't want to miss

Deliciously suspenseful dramas, tantalising true-crime documentaries, shiny new game shows... we've picked a fresh bunch of beauties for you.

Politics

9 h. ago Fans convinced Justin Bieber threw major shade at Selena Gomez's recent engagement

Singer-songwriter Justin Bieber's recent cryptic Instagram stories and impromptu livestreams have fans convinced that he is not taking the news of his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez's engagement well

Politics

9 h. ago Today's rugby news as sport finds new superstar and released Welsh coach returns home

The latest rugby news stories from Wales and beyond

Sport

10 h. ago Grand National favourite's unlikely links to infamous Roy Keane scrap and legendary drink

Intense Raffles has been well-backed in the build-up to the Grand National but its unlikely link to an infamous Roy Keane scrap makes for a bizarre tale

Politics

11 h. ago 10 of the wildest music conspiracy theories ranked, from Paul is Dead to Taylor Swift as a government psyop

Armchair sleuths will have you convinced that Justin Bieber is really a lizard and Stevie Wonder isn’t actually blind. Ellie Muir and Roisin O’Connor unpack some of the weirdest rumours around our biggest pop stars

Politics

18 h. ago Fan fears for Zac Efron as costar reveals his bizarre call for help before vanishing months ago

On Thursday's podcast episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger, DeVine said his former co-star once asked him for a place to crash but ended up ghosting him.

Politics

19 h. ago ITV Britain's Got Talent's Simon Cowell left terrified after being gagged by act in bizarre twist

Simon Cowell was left terrified after being gagged by a Britain's Got Talent act during a bizarre twist

Events

20 h. ago Moment thief performs bizarre dance moves to pickpocket distracted victims on streets of Birmingham

Anis Bardich, 27, was jailed after being spotted on CCTV throwing strange shapes to distract his targets while he stole their wallets and mobile phones.

Events

20 h. ago And finally... news presenter Sally Magnusson hosts BBC Scotland's flagship news show for the last time

She has been a prominent teatime figure on Scotland's screens for almost 30 years, covering some of the country's biggest news stories.

Politics