News articles

BBC News • 27th May 2025

Young actors revealed for Harry Potter TV series

HBO has announced the young actors who will play the lead trio in its TV series adaption of JK Rowling's book series, Harry Potter.Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout have been cast as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.An open casting call for the roles was announced last year, and more than 30,000 children auditioned.Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and executive producer and director Mark Mylod said in a statement that "the talent of these three unique actors is w...

BBC News • 9th March 2025

Not so demure any more: The rise of 'free the nipple' fashion

Six months ago, a viral TikTok trend made us obsessed with being very demure and very mindful - but now, modesty has taken a back seat among celebrities who have made see-through outfits all the rage on red carpets and catwalks.At the Brit Awards last week, big winner Charli XCX went full brat as she wore a sheer black dress, prompting hundreds of complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.She used one of her acceptance speeches to address the controversy of her outfit. "I heard that ITV were complainin...

BBC News • 23rd February 2025

How accurate are the viral TikTok AI POV lab history videos?

Imagine waking up in Rome 2,000 years ago, on the Nile in ancient Egypt or on the streets of London during the Black Death in the 1300s - complete with realistic sights, sounds and daily struggles.In recent weeks, AI-generated videos showing the points of view of people waking up in different historical time periods have gone viral on TikTok.Dan and Hogne are the creators behind two of the accounts - POV Lab and Time Traveller POV. Dan, based in the UK, tells the BBC he creates these videos as t...

BBC News • 30th January 2025

Russell Brand: BBC apologises after report into comedian's behaviour

The BBC has apologised to staff who felt they could not speak up with concerns about Russell Brand's behaviour because he was seen as "too influential" and they felt he "would always get his way and therefore they stayed silent".The apology came as the BBC published the findings of an internal review into Brand's time as a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music between 2006 and 2008.The investigation considered eight complaints, two of which were made while he worked for the corporation.One of th...

BBC News • 20th November 2024

The Sidemen: We've hit YouTube limit so are moving to Netflix

The Sidemen are used to making content for YouTube, but say they've now "hit the limit" on what they can achieve on the video sharing platform so are moving "to something even bigger".The British YouTube superstars have announced that the second season of their reality show, Inside, will debut on Netflix next year. The streaming giant will also make a US version.The Sidemen - the seven-strong group that includes content creator, rapper and boxer KSI - have more than 146 million YouTube subscribe...

BBC News • 16th November 2024

Timothee Chalamet to Harry Styles: Celeb lookalike contests are more than good looks and big egos

There is something quite bold about telling people you look like someone famous - especially if your supposed doppelganger is one of the world’s biggest heartthrobs.But that hasn't put off the hundreds of men in the UK and US who have taken part in a recent craze for lookalike competitions.It all started with the Timothée Chalamet competition in New York three weeks ago, which even attracted the real actor himself.Since then, similar contests have attracted crowds of young people hoping to get a...

BBC News • 3rd November 2024

Are celebs such as Charli XCX and Addison Rae making smoking 'cool' again?

Brat summer might be over as we grapple with how dark it is at 4pm, but the concept of being a brat – “pack of cigs and a Bic lighter”, according to the singer Charli XCX – lives on.There's Rosalia gifting Charli XCX a bouquet of cigarettes on her birthday, Addison Rae smoking not one but two at the same time in her music video Aquamarine, and the actor Paul Mescal saying he refused to give up smoking when getting into shape for Gladiator II. The risks of smoking are well known – it's still the...

BBC News • 31st October 2024

Lily Collins: I'd love an Emily in London spin-off

She’s eaten croissants by the Eiffel Tower, drunk espressos outside the Colosseum and now, could it be time for fish and chips on the London Eye?Emily in Paris star Lily Collins has told the BBC she is keen for an Emily in London spin-off as it "would be so fun".Collins, 35, has been living in London for the past few months while preparing to make her West End stage debut in Barcelona.The romantic thriller sees Collins play an American tourist who has a one-night stand with a handsome Spaniard,...

BBC News • 4th October 2024

Married at First Sight counselling 'nothing like the real thing'

The eight couples have wedded, their week-long honeymoons are over and now they are adjusting to married life, living on top of each other in small London apartments. But can they really be coached into loving each other? Channel 4's Married at First Sight is a bold social experiment, where single people marry total strangers, meeting for the first time at the altar.In this series, several couples are off to a rocky start - issues of attraction, clashing personalities and avoidant behaviour has...

BBC News • 27th September 2024

Maggie Smith's most memorable performances including Harry Potter, Downton Abbey and Lady in the Van

Dame Maggie Smith was one of Britain's best-loved and most celebrated actresses, with a career spanning eight decades.Her first performances came on stage in the 1950s, and her last screen role was just a year ago, when she starred in The Miracle Club. She was one of a select group of actors to win the treble of big US awards, with two Oscars, four Emmys and a Tony - as well as seven Baftas and an honorary Olivier Award in her home country.Here are six of her best-known performances:

Dame Maggi...

BBC News • 25th September 2024

Phillip Schofield: Broadcaster returns to TV in Channel 5's Cast Away

In May 2023, Schofield agreed to step down from ITV’s This Morning “with immediate effect” after more than 20 years, following reports of a rift with co-presenter Holly Willoughby.A week later, he admitted to having had an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger male colleague and has not made a TV appearance since. Speaking to the BBC last June, Schofield said the affair was "consensual” but his “fault" and his "biggest, sorriest secret".Schofield had presented This Morning since 2002, w...

BBC News • 23rd September 2024

Sally Rooney's Intermezzo is 'utterly perfect' say critics

Intermezzo - a chess move, a composition of music, and now, Sally Rooney's latest novel, which critics have called "utterly perfect".The Irish author's fourth book swaps out her usual female protagonist and instead follows the relationship between two grieving brothers who are both in age-gap relationships and think they have little in common. Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player and a "complete oddball" according to his older brother, Peter, a smooth-talking barrister.The Guardian's A...

BBC News • 16th September 2024

Booker Prize 2024: Women dominate this year's shortlist

Two of the novelists, Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner, have previously been short-listed for the award. Everett's James is a retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written from the perspective of the runaway slave, Jim.Kushner's Creation Lake is a spy thriller which sees an American woman infiltrate a radical anarchist collective in rural France. Edmund de Waal, chair of the judges, praised the six novels shortlisted and said: "My copies of these novels are dog-eared,...

BBC News • 9th September 2024

Beetlejuice: Juice is loose as sequel is box office hit

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has had a stellar opening weekend as it earned an impressive $110m (£83m) in the US box office.The film, which is the highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton's 1988 Beetlejuice, is the second biggest September opening ever after 2017's IT.The supernatural comedy is also the third biggest debut of 2024, behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4 million).Michael Keaton has reprised his role as the titular chaos-causing ghoul in the sequel. Cather...

BBC News • 9th August 2024

BBC asks Huw Edwards to return more than £200,000

Huw Edwards has been asked by the BBC to hand back more than £200,000 salary he earned after being arrested in November on child abuse image charges.The ex-presenter "behaved in bad faith" in continuing to take his salary despite knowing what he had done, said BBC Chair Samir Shah in a letter to staff.Edwards, formerly the BBC's most high-profile newsreader, continued to earn his salary for five months after he was arrested on three counts of making indecent images of children.He was suspended i...

BBC News • 2nd August 2024

Bafta awards add new children's and family film category

Children's and family films are to get their own dedicated category at the Bafta film awards.The prize is open to any genre of film that Bafta says has a "specific inter-generational appeal to children, young people and adults".Films with a certificate rating of U, PG or 12A will be eligible.It is the first new film category to be introduced by Bafta for five years, and will be awarded for the first time in 2025.Films can be nominated in more than one category - for example Inside Out 2, which r...

BBC News • 23rd July 2024

BBC pay 2023-2024: The full list of star salaries

The BBC has published the salaries of its highest-paid stars as part of its annual report.Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker is again the corporation's top earner with £1.35m, followed by Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball with £950,000.Huw Edwards, who left the BBC in April 2024 on "medical advice", saw his salary rise by £40,000.Greg James, Stephen Nolan and Fiona Bruce also had an increase in salary.Match of the Day presenter Alan Shearer earned £380,000, having taken home £445,000 last yea...

BBC News • 22nd July 2024

Strictly Come Dancing left Paralympian Will Bayley with injuries he'll 'never get over'

A former Strictly Come Dancing contestant has said his time on the show left him with "injuries that still affect me to this day".Paralympian Will Bayley, who appeared on the show in 2019, was left in "horrific pain" after practising a jump in rehearsals with his professional partner Janette Manrara. The 36-year-old table tennis champion told The Sun he didn't want to do the jump , externaland his coach had also told the show beforehand that he "can't do jumps".A BBC spokesman said it had "longs...

BBC News • 16th July 2024

Feltham Young Offenders' Institute is most violent - watchdog

A young offenders' institution in west London has the highest levels of violence of any prison in England and Wales, an inspection has found.HMP Feltham A, which holds children aged between 15 and 18 who are on remand or have been convicted, has seen incidents of disorder triple since the last inspection of the prison two years ago. The review, by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in March, found that conditions had significantly deteriorated and self-harm and levels of violence were on the rise. it co...

BBC News • 15th July 2024

Police told me to accept abuse as part of job - MP Stella Creasy

An MP has said that police told her to accept street harassment as part of her job.Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, told The Times, external that she had experienced abuse and intimidation after she was harassed by an anti-abortion campaigner.When she reported the crime to the police, she was told "the problem was my response, in that I told him it wasn’t appropriate, and that I have a problem with people disagreeing with me".Commander Simon Messinger of the Met said the allegation...

BBC News • 14th June 2024

Russell Brand: Informal concerns 'not adequately addressed'

Informal concerns raised about Russell Brand while he hosted Big Brother spin-off programmes were "not properly escalated or adequately addressed", according to the findings of an investigation.The comedian and actor fronted shows including Big Brother's Big Mouth and Big Brother's Celebrity Hijack on Channel 4 between 2004 and 2008.An investigation by production company Banijay UK has said managers were alerted to allegations that he asked staff to get audience members' phone numbers, and that...

BBC News • 29th April 2024

London elections 2024: 'No-one represents us young people'

In a few days, thousands of young people in the capital will head to the polls for the first time.They will have the chance to vote for the mayor of London, a position that comes with a £20.4bn budget. But what are some of the issues they really care about? At Kingsley Academy in Hounslow, west London, sixth form students have been discussing the upcoming elections and the matters they would like to see the newly elected mayor address.

In a few days, thousands of young people in the capital wil...

BBC News • 24th April 2024

Two Strangers: Critics rave about new millennial rom com musical

From Richard Curtis classics to the so-bad-they're-good movies, the world is not short of romantic comedies.Despite this, a new rom com musical about two twentysomething strangers meeting ahead of a wedding has impressed critics.Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) sees optimistic brit Dougal (Sam Tutty) arrive in the city for his absent father's second wedding. At the airport he is met by native New Yorker and sister of the bride, Robin (Dujonna Gift).With wedding bells ringing in the d...

BBC News • 6th March 2024

Gabriel García Márquez: Sons publish last novel that late author wanted destroyed

When Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez died a decade ago, he left behind a novel he had written while struggling with dementia.In his final days, he told his sons the book must be destroyed.However they defied their father and, in what they have called an act of "betrayal", have published the book.Until August has received mixed reviews, with The Guardian's critic describing it as a "sketch, as blurry and flawed as sketches generally are"."But a sketch from a master is welcome,"...