3 d. ago How the hairdryer treatment from a science teacher over a flunked exam changed my life | Michael Akadiri

After my whole class flunked a mock GCSE, Miss T’s home truths helped instil a work ethic that has been crucial to my career“Fix up. It’s not me who needs their GCSEs – it’s you!” These words were barked at my year 10 science class by our science teacher and form tutor, Miss T. And deservedly so, because we had just suffered the ignominy of collectively flunking a GCSE mock exam. All 30 of us.Miss T was relatively young, but she was old-school in her approach – she had a low threshold for nonsense. While I considered this mock an inconsequential test – a pre-season friendly, if you will – she treated it like an FA Cup semi-final. To put it another way, it was half-time and we were losing badly, so she gave us the hairdryer treatment: a relentless, 15-minute tirade berating us for our lack of aptitude and our attitude.Michael Akadiri is an award-winning standup comedian and junior doctor. His debut Edinburgh fringe show, No Scrubs, was nominated for the Biggest Award in Comedy and is...

Society

7 d. ago Comedian Susie McCabe to bring new show to Stirling as part of 2026 tour

The Glasgow comic will hit the road next April and May following her successful run at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

Culture

7 d. ago The funniest, strangest, and most brilliant things from this year’s Fringe

From established Edinburgh legends to breakout comedy stars, these are the 2025 shows everyone will be talking about

Politics

2 w. ago Iran faces return of sweeping sanctions from UK, France and Germany

Decision by European powers follows Iran’s failure to readmit UN inspectors to all of its nuclear sitesThe UK, France and Germany are expected to announce on Thursday that they will reimpose sweeping sanctions on Iran for failing to readmit UN inspectors into all of its nuclear sites.The decision, under consideration for months, is likely to provoke the worst crisis in Iran’s relations with the west since Israel’s attacks on the country’s nuclear sites in June. Iran is already preparing countermeasures. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Return of UN nuclear inspectors to Iran met with protests by MPs

Some Iranian officials say readmission breaches law passed after Israel and the US attacked the country in JuneThe partial return of UN inspectors to Iran for the first time since Israel and the US attacked Iran’s nuclear sites has been met with protests by officials in Tehran, who claim the strict preconditions they set have been breached. Some even described the return as criminal.Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, tried to quell the backlash by saying the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would not be visiting any of the bombed sites and that discussions about these were still to be had. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Edinburgh Festival Fringe Awards 2025: Here are all the shows that won prizes this August

There are no shortage of prizes on offer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - here’s who won them this year.

Events

2 w. ago Voices: I went to the Edinburgh Fringe in disguise to avoid my exes

As the Edinburgh Festival winds down for another year, Victoria Richards relays the desperate measures she took to avoid bumping into people she knew on her first visit to the Fringe

Politics

2 w. ago Trans woman scoops award for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Fringe

The show Baby Doomer explores life as a trans woman and won the Taffner Family best comedy show prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

Events

2 w. ago First trans woman wins at Edinburgh Fringe as 'burgeoning trans icon' scoops prize

Sam Nicoresti was described as "a fresh, bright voice that we need in 2025".

Politics

2 w. ago Show on life as trans woman scoops best comedy show award at Edinburgh Fringe

Sam Nicoresti’s Baby Doomer show won the Taffner Family best comedy show prize.

Events

2 w. ago Sam Nicoresti’s Baby Doomer wins best comedy show award at Edinburgh fringe 2025

Playful set about Nicoresti’s life as a trans woman wins main award, with Ayoade Bamgboye named best newcomerThe Edinburgh comedy award, the annual “Oscar of comedy” given to the best show at the fringe, has been won by Sam Nicoresti for Baby Doomer, which is based around a humiliating experience in a department store changing room.The Birmingham standup becomes the first transgender winner of the prestigious award after near-misses for Jordan Gray in 2022 – and Eddie Izzard 34 years ago. Nicoresti pockets £10,000 in prize money and, on accepting the award, joked they had promised their partner the win a year ago to help pay for their upcoming wedding. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Edinburgh Fringe has become 'behemoth of industry', comedy award winner Sam Nicoresti says

Nicoresti said the Fringe had “changed fundamentally”

Events

2 w. ago The Scotsman Fringe First awards: The best photos from Fringe First awards as final four winners revealed

The ceremony featured special guest presenter Miriam Margolyes

Sport

2 w. ago Hamlet by New York Circus Project review – a flashy, dreamy spin on Shakespeare

Assembly Roxy, EdinburghThere’s a hint of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet in the cocksure, poppy aesthetic of this charismatic display of acrobatics, tumbling and clowningIt wouldn’t be the Edinburgh fringe without at least one new spin on Hamlet. This spunky 60-minute version created by Sam Landa and Emma Owens combines a radically trimmed text with aerial acrobatics, tumbling and clowning. Sensitively delivering Shakespearean verse and executing sophisticated circus requires a niche skill-set; some lines fall flat but Landa and Danielle Diniz’s choreography often deepens a story limited to the personal not the political. The enterprise is executed with panache by a charismatic cast of 10.Who’s there? A ghost in white, twisting and turning to the song Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, later returning to use an aerial pyramid. The show casts Old Hamlet (Arthur Morel Van Hyfte) and Hamlet (Maddox Morfit-Tighe) at a similar age, which movingly emphasises how they see themselves in each oth...

Politics

2 w. ago 'I love autumn, right after the Fringe ends' – comedian Laura Davis on Edinburgh’s other 11 months of the year

For Edinburgh-based Australian comedian Laura Davis, Auld Reekie isn’t just for Fringe time, it’s for life

Politics

2 w. ago Scotsman Fringe First awards: our final four winners of 2025 revealed

Our prizes for outstanding new writing premiered at the Fringe are announced each Friday during August - today we reveal our final week of winners.

Sport

3 w. ago An Actor's Process: how voice of Wallace, Ben Whitehead, brought Elon Musk to The Fringe

I’m always curious about an actor’s process, especially when they move from the world of voice over (or screen work) to live theatre. What changes for them in the process and how do they do it? Well, I was lucky enough to catch an interview with actor Ben Whitehead during his run as Elon in ‘Elon Musk: Lost in Space’ at The Edinburgh Fringe to find out how he went about it.

Events

3 w. ago Miriam Margolyes makes £10,000 gift to Gaza and Edinburgh Festival Fringe fund charities

Miriam Margolyes has split the money between two charities

Economics

3 w. ago Funniest Jokes of the Fringe 2025: Here are the 19 best jokes told in Edinburgh this year

These are the jokes that have had audiences rolling in the aisles this August.

Politics

3 w. ago Australian breakdancer Raygun is lampooned in a new musical but the Olympics fiasco was no comedy | Lyndsey Winship

Rachael Gunn’s disastrous summer at the Paris Games in 2024 has inspired a silly show about ‘Spraygun’ but its jibes are unfairEveryone can have a bad day at the office. But for most of us, it doesn’t take place in front of millions of viewers at the world’s biggest sporting event. Such was the lot of Rachael Gunn, AKA B-girl Raygun, who scored a memorable nul points for Australia at the Paris Olympics in 2024 with her routine topped off with a kangaroo hop. Gunn was pilloried on social media, partly over the quality of her dance (more on that later), but mostly just the usual sexist guff directed at any woman in the public eye deemed to be in the wrong. A year later, the pile-on continues: this time in musical theatre form at Breaking the Musical, an Edinburgh fringe comedy that is either a funny bit of bants or a cruel character assassination, depending on your point of view. The cardinal sin Gunn appears to have committed in Aussie comedian and writer Steph Broadbridge’s eyes is ...

Culture