REMEMBER those big rectangular pre-digital VHS tapes?
Well, Shooter Jennings, son of late country music great Waylon, has held on to a few of them.
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Waylon Jennings is remembered as a pioneer of the ‘Outlaw’ country sceneCredit: HandoutWaylon with The Dukes Of Hazzard stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider in 1984Credit: AlamyWaylon’s son Shooter Jennings
Now I’ll explain why they’re so precious to him.
They contain episodes of a TV show almost as popular as Dallas in the early Eighties — The Dukes Of Hazzard.
As the opening credits roll, you see “The General Lee”, a souped-up 1969 orange Dodge Charger, careering into view.
Inside are outlaw cousins Bo and Luke Duke, on the run from crooked officials, Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane.
You hear the rollicking theme tune, Good Ol’ Boys, being sung in commanding, if tongue-in-cheek fashion by — you might have guessed — Waylon Jennings.
He also serves as the show’s laidback narrator, The Balladeer, and one of his pearls of wisdom is about poster girl Daisy Duke, remembered for her skimpy denim shorts.
“She drives like [stock car racer] Richard Petty, shoots like Annie Oakley, and knows the words to all of Dolly Parton’s songs.”
But he doesn’t appear on screen until season seven when, after demands from fans, he is presented as an old friend of the Dukes in an episode titled Welcome, Waylon Jennings.
‘A massive cultural moment’
“Just last night, my wife and I were watching some episodes,” Shooter tells me via Zoom from America’s West Coast as we discuss a fabulous new project involving his father’s previously unreleased music.
“It made me think what a massive cultural moment the show was,” he continues. “Just how perfect my father’s voice was for it.
“I think he loved doing those shows and it wasn’t a lot of work for him. He’d be on the road and just stop by a studio and do the voiceovers.
“There’s real humility about them. He seems to be making fun of himself the whole time. It’s really funny to hear.”
Waylon is remembered as a pioneer of the “Outlaw” country scene, a singer who wrestled the Nashville music-making machine and won control over his recorded output.
Hellraiser, maverick and bearer of a rich baritone, he was an obvious choice to join fellow renegades Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in Eighties supergroup The Highwaymen.
Born in Littlefield, Texas, in 1937, he was consumed by music at an early age and, in 1958, came under the wing of Buddy Holly, who arranged his first recording session.
Shooter says: “If my dad had got on the plane, the music world would be quite different. I often think what it must have been like for him to have survived that.
“Throughout his life, Buddy was huge to him and he used to talk about him all the time.
“A lot of his spirit and energy came from rock and roll, from Buddy, who gave him little lessons in songwriting.
“But he also loved country music, the beauty and sentiment of it, and his voice was just so vulnerable and awesome.”
From the mid-Sixties onwards, Waylon would become a fixture at the top of the country charts but his best work appeared after he gained creative control from RCA Records in 1973.
He delivered a string of fine unvarnished albums including Lonesome, On’ry And Mean, Honky Tonk Heroes, Dreaming My Dreams and Are You Ready For The Country.
In 1979, he and fourth wife Jessi Colter, a fellow “Outlaw” country singer, had their only child together, Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings.
The Albright comes from Richie Albright, Waylon Snr’s right- hand man and drummer in The Waylors.
And the main reason I’m talking to Shooter is because he has unearthed a goldmine of unreleased Waylon recordings, taped between 1973 and 1984.
This has resulted in the appearance of Songbird, the first of three albums culled from the material and lovingly restored by him with the help of surviving members of his dad’s band, along with younger musicians and backing singers.
‘Passion and soul alive today’
“It’s been surreal,” says Shooter, a singer in his own right and in-demand producer. “Everything has lined up for me to have this purpose.
“This project has given me an entirely new chapter in my relationship with my father and working on this music has brought a whole new understanding about how, when and why my dad made music.
“The hard work is there on the tapes and the passion and the soul within is as alive today as it was the day it was recorded.”
I guess the reason The Dukes Of Hazzard cropped up in our chat is because much of the Songbird album’s music was recorded around the same time as the show aired.
Then I just kept finding these hidden albums,” he says. “It didn’t feel like stuff that was not meant to be released and there were songs I never knew he’d attempted.
Shooter Jennings
Shooter became aware of Waylon’s buried treasure in 2008, “about six years after he died” aged 64 from complications of diabetes.
But the project only began in earnest last summer when he started sorting through hundreds of high-resolution multitrack transfers of his father’s personal studio recordings.
What Shooter discovered blew his mind.
Listening to his dad performing with his ace band became “a wild adventure”. When Shooter heard their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours track Songbird, written by Christine McVie, he realised he was on to something “really exciting”.
“Then I just kept finding these hidden albums,” he says. “It didn’t feel like stuff that was not meant to be released and there were songs I never knew he’d attempted.”
Shooter says that much of the material was “professional cuts with a lot of attention to detail, much more than sketches”.
“My mom told me that my dad always said that every song he recorded should be good enough to be a single when it was done. He had a great work ethic.”
Hellraiser, maverick and bearer of a rich baritone, he was an obvious choice to join fellow renegades Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in Eighties supergroup The HighwaymenCredit: RedfernsShooter Jennings discovered his late father Waylon’s haunting cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird while restoring hundreds of lost studio tapes — inspiring a new album that brings the legend’s voice back to lifeCredit: Getty
Shooter settled on Songbird as the opening track and album title because he realised that Waylon “was a kind of songbird”.
“I wanted to hit home how good a song interpreter he was and how he could make a song his own,” he says. “And I wanted to bring him back with an emotional song, one that’s going to make you cry.
“Every time I play it for anyone, they tear up at the bit which goes, ‘And I feel that when I’m with you, it’s all right’.
“It’s such a beautiful take that people are shocked they haven’t heard it before.”
In order to take Songbird to even greater heights, Shooter enlisted contemporary country singers Ashley Monroe and Elizabeth Cook to provide backing vocals.
‘Obsessed with Hank Williams’
“They’re the funniest people, like a duo, and they’re hillbillies like me,” he says.
“Elizabeth and I have been really good friends for 15 years plus and she brought Ashley to my studio around the time I was going through this.
“And they were so moved by Songbird. I realised their airy, birdlike voices could elevate it to some fantasy realm.
“So I asked them to come back and do some background vocals and they really killed it.”
Also adding finishing flourishes to the album’s ten tracks are some surviving Waylors including guitarist Gordon Payne, bassist Jerry Bridges, keyboardist Barny Robertson, and backing vocalist Carter Robertson.
The second song The Cowboy (Small Texas Town) is credited to Johnny Rodriguez but Shooter suspects his father had a hand in writing it.
These telling lines back up that theory: “My long shaggy hair, and the clothes that I wear/Ain’t fit for no big fancy ball.”
The song fits with Waylon’s image of staying true to his humble origins — a quality Shooter sees in today’s stars such as Charley Crockett, Tyler Childers and Benjamin Tod.
He credits his father with blazing a trail for these independent spirits thanks to his battle with RCA Records. “My dad really opened it up. And even though Nashville got their grip back on it for a little while, they’ve been blown apart now.
“They’re just scrambling to find anyone who’s like one of these guys.”
I ask Shooter what Waylon used to tell him about growing up in Littlefield, Texas.
“He would tell me how poor they were, for sure, that they had dirt floors, that his mom would put him in places the rats wouldn’t get to.”
When Waylon became famous, the town would hold a Waylon Jennings Day and their favourite son “would go back there and do a show”.
Shooter adds: “I loved my dad’s family, his brothers and his mom. I got to know all of them and his brother James is still around and runs this little gas station there.”
Unbeknown to the residents of Littlefield in 2025, Shooter decided to put up billboards around town featuring lyrics to some of the Songbird songs.
He and Johnny [Cash] came from the exact same background. They both picked cotton. They both listened to Hank Williams on the radio and both journeyed to Mecca [Nashville] to make music.
Shooter Jennings
“I didn’t even tell them. But when we put out that song, The Cowboy, I really wanted to put the focus on Littlefield.”
We’ve heard about Buddy Holly but I’m keen to find out from Shooter who else was his father’s music hero. He instantly mentions country music’s first superstar — Hank Williams, who lived fast and died young.
“My father was obsessed with Hank Williams. He was similar in a way because of the vision he had for his songs.”
As for Waylon’s reputation as a hellraiser, Shooter has this to say: “It’s funny, he didn’t drink. People always get that wrong.
“He only did the uppers but we had an empty alcohol cabinet in our house because he just didn’t get any.”
And what does Waylon’s recently remarried widow Jessi Colter, Shooter’s mother, think of the Songbird project?
“She has helped us,” he replies. “I had to borrow money from her to do it because I didn’t want to get a label involved.
“She was also a great emotional support to me, even if she wasn’t emotionally tied up in the project.”
Hearing Waylon sing “didn’t make her sad but she loved it. She’d say something like, ‘They sound like they were having a good time that day.’ ”
Before we go our separate ways, Shooter opens up about Waylon’s famous friends, notably his Highwaymen buddies Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, still touring and making records at 94.
Waylon and Cash shared an apartment in Nashville in the mid-Sixties and had a strong, if sometimes tempestuous bond.
“They loved each other,” says Shooter. “Just like anybody else, they would have little bicker fights and not talk for a couple of weeks here or there.
“But he had a great relationship with Johnny and June [Carter Cash].
“He and Johnny came from the exact same background. They both picked cotton. They both listened to Hank Williams on the radio and both journeyed to Mecca [Nashville] to make music.”
Shooter continues: “And I loved Cash. We used to go to his house when I was little. He was always very nice to me.”
Shooter in the studio with his father in 1995Credit: Beth Gwinn1995
He also remembers hanging out with Nelson’s daughters Amy and Paula. “We were all around the same age and together on the road during the Waylon and Willie tours.
“And then The Highwaymen happened and I was around Kristofferson’s kids because they lived in Tennessee.
Brad Ingelsby knew after the breakout success of HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” — a crime drama about a police detective (Kate Winslet) investigating the murder of a teenage girl in a fictional working-class town — he didn’t want his next series to be another whodunit.
“That’s Mare’s thing,” he says on a recent late afternoon. “So, you start to go, if you’re going to write another story in the crime genre, what would get the audience to keep clicking to the next episode? I just thought, ‘Well, maybe a collision course show, where [in] every episode, we get a little closer, a little closer, a little closer, until things collide.’ ”
In “Task,” which concluded Sunday on HBO, Mark Ruffalo stars as Tom Brandis, a priest-turned-FBI agent leading a task force investigating a series of robberies in Delaware County, Pa., an area commonly referred to as Delco that was also the setting for “Mare of Easttown.” (And with references to Wawa and Scrapple, along with visits to Rita’s Water Ice, it slips into its role of expanding the universe.) It leads Tom to Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey), a sanitation worker who robs drug houses at night to provide for his family. Both men are emotionally tortured by life events — Tom’s wife was murdered by their adopted son, who is incarcerated; Robbie’s brother was killed by a member of a motorcycle gang — that have set them each on different, but destructive paths.
In “Task,” Mark Ruffalo, left, Alison Oliver, Thuso Mbedu and Fabein Frankel portray law enforcement officers who are part of an FBI task force investigating a string of robberies.
(Peter Kramer / HBO)
“ ‘Mare’ was about the moms — the damage that all the guys have caused and the women are kind of having to pick up the pieces of that,” Ingelsby says. “This [show] is all about the fathers and being left behind, seeing the damage they’ve done to their kids, how they’re going to fix that in their lives — or not be able to fix it. The guys who are actually doing the damage without knowing.”
Ingelsby says his uncle, who was an Augustinian priest, helped inspire the throughline of the series.
“I’ve always been very intrigued by his idea of faith in God over the years, and how it’s changed over time, and what he believed once and what he believes now,” he says. “I was intrigued by the idea of a guy who, everything he held as truth, all the pillars of his life, have come crumbling down. And Robbie has a much different faith. And it’s through the gauntlet of the story, how their lives intersect, that they both get to navigate their own journeys of faith.”
Over dinner at a West Hollywood hotel, The Times sat down with Ingelsby, Ruffalo and Pelphrey to discuss their faith journeys, economic inequality, fatherhood — and Wawa, too. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation, which contains spoilers about the finale.
After the success of “Mare of Easttown,” creator Brad Ingelsby wanted his follow-up, “Task,” to feel connected, but not repetitive: “ ‘Mare’ was about the moms,” he says. “This [show] is all about the fathers and being left behind, seeing the damage they’ve done to their kids, how they’re going to fix that in their lives — or not be able to fix it.”
(Bexx Francois/For The Times)
The themes of the show involve forgiveness and faith. Every person has experienced something in life that has tested those ideas. How has your own relationship to faith and forgiveness evolved as you’ve lived more life or taken on roles that ask you to live different experiences?
Pelphrey: My faith, to me, is when I got sober. God willing, Oct. 1, which is three days from now, it’ll be 12 years. That’s truly by the grace of God — you hear that phrase, but I genuinely, I mean that. That’s how I’ve experienced faith, through my sobriety. I was raised Catholic, but the experience I had at 31 was like in a different dimension to what I thought of religion or ideas. It’s one thing to have an idea, it’s another thing to have your heart opened. It’s definitely an important part of my life. And I think Brad did such a beautiful job conveying that. My grandma used to have one of these things when I was a kid — not a real gem, but like a glass cut thing so if you put it in the window, the sun shines through a million different ways, and the color goes everywhere. I feel like you [Brad] did that with some themes in the show where you’re like, “Let me just hold it up, and we’ll just look at it a few different ways.”
Ruffalo: My journey with faith is probably very similar to Tom’s. When you get a job or something, it can take you on a journey that you’re ripe to take. It touches your life at a very moment where you need it. I’d say, after my brother died, the whole notion of faith just went out the window for me. But oddly enough, I have a lot of addiction, alcoholism in my family. I say, either you are one or you love one. When you love somebody who’s struggling with that, it takes a lot of faith to let them go and to trust it will be OK. My friend says to me, “They got a God and you ain’t it.”
My faith has been renewed, actually, through Tom [the character] — he is an alcoholic. It’s touched my life in so many ways, even with my brother, that it’s like where I lost my faith and where I gained my faith again has been through this journey with alcoholism and drug addiction. And I waver. You look at the world and you’re like, “Where is God in this? Please show yourself. ” But the thing about faith is it requires you to believe without any evidence of its existence. I’d rather believe in that than nothing. Although, I fought him [Brad] all the time. I was like, “He’s [Tom] not really praying here. He’s trying to pray. He’s going through the actions of praying, but he can’t quite get to the opening sentence, which is “ … God …” He does pray, eventually, but it’s a journey.
There’s the powerful moment in that car when Tom and Robbie finally meet in Episode 5. Robbie says, “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced God in my life.” This is a man that hasn’t felt hope, and he has this glimmer of it with this goal of escaping to Canada. Tom, how was it getting into the mindset of this guy just trying to get out of this life?
Pelphrey: It’s heartbreaking. We’re articulating an American dream that far too many people don’t get to experience, and maybe are starting to lose the hope of ever experiencing it. That’s a very real thing — unfortunately, way too real and increasingly way too common. It was just constantly reminding myself: What does this character want? And at the end of the day, regardless of how extreme some of the things Robbie’s doing, he just wants a decent life for his kids. And the fact that he’s having a hard time getting it is heartbreaking.
That scene and in the car, the first time I read it, I was like, “Oh, he’s [Brad] got some balls.” You have so much s— boiling over — the plot lines, the violence, the stakes are through the roof for everyone now in the show, and we are going to sit in a car for half an episode? And two dudes are gonna talk?
In Episode 5, Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey), left, and Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) finally meet.
(HBO)
Ruffalo: There’s no chase! And when they finally face each other, they’re not even [actually] facing each other! They’re both pushed to the edge and you don’t know where it could go. Tom certainly doesn’t know where it will go. Tom’s kind of at that point, like, “F— it. Go ahead.” We talked about it a lot, I was like, “I think Tom should die.”
[They break into laughter]
Ingelsby: Every single day he was pitching it.
Ruffalo: I was pitching Tom should have a heart attack at the end and he literally sees God and he says to God, “I’m ready.” He finally finds his faith. It’s finally paid off and he says [gasping], “I’m … reaaady.”
Ingelsby: Enough people die here. But that particular episode has always been very special to me. That’s when the show is operating at the peak of its powers. It just felt like, how do we subvert the expectations of the audience and do that in a way that still feels true to who these characters are? I remember talking to you [Tom] about this. You were like, “As soon as I know Cliff’s done, I’m on a one-way street. I have a plan.” But with you [Mark], once they get out of the car and you feel like you’re going to die, you’re like, “I want to call my family.” That’s when you get activated in a way. You’ve been going through the motions in life, but that’s when it gets very real.
Ruffalo: It’s like being reborn. It opens his heart. He sees how life can be taken away.
We’re in a political and cultural moment where the mood of the country is simmering — there’s anger and rage on all sides, and a lot of it stems from class and systemic issues that are in place that put people in certain positions. There’s that layer, but there’s also the grief element both these men are facing.
Ingelsby: With Robbie in particular, I was interested in a guy that felt really stuck. What I liked about Robbie was, if he didn’t take action, what would happen to Robbie? He’d be a trash man in too deep his whole life. Who cares about Robbie and his family? Nobody. He was left behind. In early versions of the script, I very explicitly said, “He wants his bite of the apple.” There are lots of people like that now. I loved writing Robbie because it felt like he was raging against being left behind and and I felt, in many cases, in the script, why wouldn’t you do something? Whether you agree with the actions or not —
Pelphrey: He had his f— life stolen from him. What he’s going after is a very specific thing. He’s not lashing out blindly against anybody to get any money at any cost. He’s like: “I’m gonna take it from these mother f—, who are bad dudes.” Even within that, he has principles. No one’s gonna die — obviously, the rules all go out the window Episode 2, but we’re not going to take the drugs, we’re not going to sell the drug. We’re going to destroy the drugs. We’re going to take the cash. Even within his brand of lashing out, he actually has a set of principles that he’s operating by.
Mark Ruffalo, left, and Tom Pelphrey star as two troubled men on a collision course in “Task.” Ruffalo portrays an FBI agent recovering from a family tragedy, while Pelphrey plays a garbage collector and criminal involved in a series of robberies. (Bexx Francois/For The Times)
Mark and Tom, as sons and fathers, how did you think about the father-child relationships of these two men and the collateral damage of their choices?
Ruffalo: It’s so hard to be a father, especially now because this generation is like, “We’re not going to do it the way our parents, our fathers did. We see that there’s another way to do it. We’re actually talking about it.” At the same time, we don’t exactly know what it is that we should do differently, plus we have the responsibility of, financially, keeping it together. It’s obviously hard to be a mom too. These guys are doing the best they can.
Pelphrey: Becoming a dad two and a half years ago now, it’s just the most f— awesome, wild, intense, crazy s— I’ve ever experienced in my life. It’s like getting struck by lightning. I’m so in love and I feel so vulnerable and I feel so happy — it’s all the feelings. Then suddenly, when you’re thinking about how you feel, you go, “How do I balance this? How do I protect her, but make sure that she’s brave and experiencing things? And you quickly realize there is so much to this that I will have no power over and the realization of that, in the deepest sense — and I’ve already had moments of that and we’re just getting started here. You imagine what it’s like, when you don’t have kids, but you have no f— clue. One of the things I could say without blinking, ever, is, “I totally understand why he’s doing what he’s doing.”
Was there a version where Robbie lived?
Ingelsby: No, I felt like structurally what needed to happen was Tom had to witness Robbie’s kindness, then his sacrifice. It felt very necessary to be like, “Oh, wait. Robbie — he went up to the woods…” Because he’s always like, “What’s the plan?” Tom realizes, “Oh, I know what the plan was. He went there to die.” Part of Tom’s journey to getting rid of the anger and to believing in something at the end, was to have witnessed the goodness in Robbie. He [Robbie] also gets in so deep eventually, he has pushed himself into such a corner and there’s no good way out of this. What’s an audience gonna think if he gets out of this unscathed? Even if he were to survive, he’s gonna be in jail for the rest of his life. The idea of sacrifice would speak to Tom as a character and get him to his ultimate decision to give the boy [Sam] up, but also forgive his own son and, quite literally, get the house ready for him.
Mark, how did you feel about the statement that Tom winds up giving at the hearing in the finale?
Ruffalo: He had to sit down and write that. I don’t think he really knew what he was going to be writing. He’s taking stock of his life and his son’s life and the story of the life. It’s connecting him to the whole story. It’s not just the loss of my wife, but also we raised that boy. We made this life together and, even in the hard part of it all, that’s where we learned what love is. Then when he gets in there, he doesn’t even know that he’s gonna say it. He doesn’t know he’s going to confront him with it and say [to his son], “Look at me.” But the whole journey, leads us there.
There’s something, too, about his composure in that moment.
Ingelsby: That’s the genius of Mark. That was the first or second take, what we used.
How many versions of it did you write? Was there an overly emotional or dramatic version?
Ingelsby: There was a longer version. But I think what was important about it was — and Mark does such a beautiful job — was that he had to be honest about how hard it was. I was always worried it would be a bit maudlin, if he just went in and said straight away, “I love you.” It was almost like he had to be really honest with everybody, like, “Hey, this was f— horrible.” And the shame of changing your name —
Ruffalo: Yes. To be that honest and to say that I pretended like I wasn’t his father. It’s so shameful. It’s so honest.
Ingelsby: I think because he’s so honest, it makes the forgiveness even more impactful. When he says, “I forgive you,” you believe because he’s earned the trust in the speech by admitting the things that were so shameful .
Ruffalo: It doesn’t just go one way — forgiveness. There’s a lot of shame on it on the other side, that’s where the anger comes from. There’s always this question: What could I have done? The backstory was I left, knowing that he was in an episode, but I had to go. I left her with him, thinking it would blow over. And it didn’t. He has to also be honest about his part in it. What dad says, “That’s not my kid. You’re in retreat already.”
Ingelsby: That’s what we want the ending to be. It’s not that everything’s going to be easy. I think the same for Mare — it wasn’t like Mare’s life was so great at the end of the show. There was a lot of going on.
Ruffalo: She’s going to an AA meeting. Tom and Mare can meet at an AA meeting.
Tom Pelphrey as Robbie Prendergrast, a garbage collector trying to avenge his brother’s death by hitting trap houses belonging to a local gang before getting caught in a deadly standoff. (HBO)
Mark Ruffalo, Silvia Dionicio and Phoebe Fox in “Task.” Ruffalo plays a priest-turned-FBI agent who hasn’t confronted his feelings about the murder of his wife at the hands of their adopted son. (HBO)
To that point, was there thought about whether to incorporate “Mare” characters in this show, if they’re in the same universe?
Ingelsby: It’s funny you say that. [In] one of the early scripts, we had a scene where Emily (Silvia Dionicio), at the end of the show, went to a concert with her boyfriend, Leo, the guy that’s a magician. And Mare’s daughter, Siobhan (Angourie Rice), was playing. And there was another connective piece I’m missing. I think Leo’s brother was in the band. And they had a moment together, because I felt like Emily and Siobhan were very, very similar. That they had the weight of the world on their shoulders in some way, Emily especially —
Ruffalo: They’re well suited for each other. They could just sink to the bottom of the lake together.
He’s got a crossover season mapped out for you.
Pelphrey: If we hold hands, we can sink faster.
Ingelsby: But we did have something connecting them. But I’m glad HBO read it and were like, “Is it a bit much?” It felt like maybe we were reaching to do something that the story didn’t require. And when we took it out, I felt like this story exists on its own, and we didn’t need that. If we had threaded it through the story in a more interesting way, maybe it would have worked, but it would have felt really tacked on and kind of just fan service for the sake of fan service, which I didn’t want.
Can we talk about the Phillies cup? It’s seems like such an obscure detail, but that cup triggered me. I know it well. A father trying to hide his vice.
Ingelsby: That’s another detail of my own life that I can repurpose, steal. That’s my dad. He drinks out of that. He watches every Phillies game. There’s 162 games. And if he can’t watch, he’s listening to it in a radio in the car. I feel like we always talk about in the specific, is the universal. And Mark did the swirly thing.
Ruffalo: That’s what made me want to do the show. That he was drinking out of that. And then he swirled his hand. I said, “This guy is writing character like nobody is doing that I’ve seen in television.” I only read the first episode and I was like, “I want to go. I trust this journey with him.” And it was from that nuance thing. I know that guy. He’s a priest who swirls his vodka and tonic with his finger. In a Phillies cup. And he thinks he’s pulling it over. That’s my family. It’s so honest.
The accent was such a feature of “Mare of Easttown.” I imagine that had its own expectations or pressure for this show.
Ingelsby: “Mare” was more a community — very, very specific community. I felt like, in that show, we had to go all in and Kate did. A lot of Mark’s character was driven by my uncle, who has no accent at all. Because he went to the seminary, then he went to Merrimack College, he was a teacher — he bounced around. And even me, there’s a couple words I’ll say that you can’t pick up a heavy accent. There’s a couple words, where maybe you could pick it up.
Ruffalo: We tried. I tried it. I kept kicking it out, it just didn’t feel right. He does hit some of those words. He does say wooder — cheery wooder ice. We kept some of it in, but we didn’t go as hard at it because he goes another way. I feel like he might have ended up in South America at some point. I was thinking he traveled the world.
Did you pay many visits to Wawa? I remember Kate telling me about her Wawa experiences.
Pelphrey: I grew up going to Wawa. I was Wawa all the time because I was living out in the suburbs.
Ingelsby: I think Kate ate hoagies or something.
Pelphrey: They make a good sandwich.
Ruffalo: Oh, bro. I started with a fat suit and then I had to take it off. I just kept getting fatter. My wife saw me and she’s like [to the kids], “huh, your father’s eating his way through Philly.” But, man, I’d be like, “How about a sandwich for the scene?” [Mimics scarfing down a sandwich.] Like a troll.
Ingelsby: He is an amazing sandwich eater. We were talking about it.
Pelphrey: We were.
Ruffalo: Oh, I knew I was going to be eating a sandwich that day [in a scene], so I starved myself so I could just plow that thing.
Are you interested in a Season 2, Brad?
Ruffalo: No one wants a Season 2. [the trio laughs] No, I’m kidding. That would be amazing.
Ingelsby: It would be amazing. If people respond and we get a chance to do it.
Could we get that “Task”-”Mare” crossover?
Ingelsby: A lot could happen.
Ruffalo: Some “Mare” people could show up. There could be a love affair.
As Pratika moved up through the age groups, she caught the attention of former India player Deepti Dhyani, who became her coach.
“I saw her play a few drives and realised she had the capabilities. Most state-level players have talent; the challenge is transforming it for professional cricket. That’s where we as coaches step in,” Deepti says.
“She stood out because whenever you asked her to work on something, she would tick every box, even if you weren’t watching.”
Deepti also emphasised fitness, something Pratika had embraced since childhood.
“We often think gym work means building bulky muscles, but it’s really about staying injury-free. Thankfully, Pratika understood that well and worked on her fitness seriously,” says Deepti.
Even as cricket became her focus, Pratika didn’t neglect her studies. She pursued a degree in psychology, which helped her understand the mental side of the game.
“She was in ninth standard when she got interested in psychology, so she decided to study it in college,” says her father.
“In cricket, psychology plays a major role. When you’re batting, trying to read what a bowler is thinking or why they’ve set a certain field, it helps you dissect situations better. It’s been really useful for her.”
It’s that out-of-the-box thinking which gives Pratika a useful skill off the field: she can solve a Rubik’s cube.
“It has an algorithm to it,” Pratika said, in a social media video. “The centre pieces don’t move, so you need to move everything around those.”
Brazil’s prosecutor general has charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup.
The younger Bolsonaro has “repeatedly sought to subordinate the interests of Brazil and the entire society to his own personal and family agenda”, the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement on Monday.
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Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the United States this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father and has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods.
The lawmaker linked Monday’s charge to new sanctions imposed by the US on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Jair Bolsonaro’s trial. His son called the staff of the prosecutor general’s office “Moraes’s lackeys”.
Eduardo Bolsonaro added that he received news of the “bogus accusation” from the media and would wait for the legal case to be communicated through official channels before making a formal statement.
1 of 6 | The Constitution of the United States of 1789 is on display along with other historical documents in the rotunda of the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C. On September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution, completed in Philadelphia, was signed by a majority of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 17 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, completed in Philadelphia, was signed by a majority of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Nine states ratified the document in June 1788, and it became the supreme law of the United States on March 4, 1789.
In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. George McClellan attacked Confederate troops led by Gen. Robert E. Lee near Antietam Creek in Maryland. McClellan blocked Lee’s advance on Washington but fell short of victory.
In 1939, Soviet troops invaded Poland, 16 days after Nazi Germany moved into the country. Warsaw capitulated to Nazi armies 20 days later.
In 1972, North Vietnam released three American pilots, the first U.S. prisoners of war released by the country since 1969.
In 1976, NASA displayed its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, an airplane-like spacecraft costing almost $10 billion that took nearly a decade to develop.
File Photo by Michael Kleinfeld/UPI
In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.
In 1983, Vanessa Williams of New York became the first Black woman to be named Miss America. She resigned 11 months later after nude photos were published but regained stardom as a singer and actress.
In 1991, North Korea, South Korea, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were admitted to the United Nations.
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
In 1993, Cambodia’s two leading political parties agreed that Prince Norodom Sihanouk would lead the nation. Sihanouk was installed as king a week later.
In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush said Osama bin Laden, the suspected ringleader in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was “wanted dead or alive.” Bin Laden was killed in a 2011 U.S. commando raid in in Pakistan.
In 2024, thousands of pagers and walkie talkies meant to be used by members of Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon and Syria over the course of two days. The attacks killed 42 people and injured thousands. The Israeli government manufactured devices, installing the explosives in a plan dubbed Operation Grim Beeper.
For most people, memories of childhood coughs and colds are synonymous with a menthol-smelling ointment in a dark blue jar with a turquoise cap.
For more than a century, Vicks VapoRub has been a household name across continents. How it became one has roots in the Spanish flu pandemic in the early 20th century.
The story begins with an act of fatherly love.
In 1894 in the state of North Carolina in the eastern United States, the nine-year-old son of a pharmacist named Lunsford Richardson was sick with croup, a respiratory infection that causes a bark-like cough.
Desperate to find a treatment, Richardson began testing out mixtures of aromatic oils and chemicals at his pharmacy and produced an ointment that helped his son.
But this was not Vicks VapoRub – at least not yet.
Seeing that his ointment had worked for his son, Richardson started to sell it for 25 cents a jar. The strong-smelling product consisted of menthol, camphor, eucalyptus and several other oils blended together in a petroleum jelly base. The ointment helped open blocked noses, and when rubbed on the chest, the vapour soothed a cough.
Richardson initially named his concoction Vick’s Croup & Pneumonia Salve. An enthusiastic gardener, he thought of the name after seeing an advertisement for seeds of the Vicks plant, whose leaves smell like menthol when crushed. He also borrowed the name from his brother-in-law, Dr Joshua Vick, a trusted doctor in their town of Greensboro. He felt “Vick” was “short, easy to remember and looked good on a label”.
An old glass bottle of Vicks VapoRub [Courtesy of Ella Moran]
‘Magic’ salve to VapoRub
In 1911, 17 years after the salve was created, Richardson’s son Henry Smith, the one who once suffered from croup, was steering the family business. He renamed the product Vick’s Vaporub Salve from Vick’s Magic Croup Salve, the name under which it had been sold since 1905. That year, the packaging was also changed from transparent glass to the distinctive cobalt blue.
By then, Richardson had also created 21 remedies for various ailments, including Vick’s Little Liver Pills for “constipation and torpid liver”; Turtle Oil Liniment for “sprains, sores and rheumatism”; Tar Heel Sarsaparilla to purify “bad blood”; and Grippe Knockers for the flu. They were sold under the Vick’s Family Remedies company, which he set up in 1905. But none sold as well as the original salve.
So in 1911, Henry discontinued all the other products, renamed the business Vick Chemical Company and began focusing solely on marketing and distributing their signature product. The company began distributing large quantities of free samples while salesmen posted advertisements on streetcars and visited pharmacists, urging them to try the product.
Influenza patients in the Oakland Municipal Auditorium, which was used as a temporary hospital in 1918 [Edward A “Doc” Rogers/Library of Congress via AP]
Marketing during the Spanish flu
Seven years later in 1918, the deadliest pandemic in modern history tore across the world. The Spanish flu claimed the lives of 50 million people – more than eight times the number of COVID-19 deaths.
This was when Vick’s VapoRub sales began to soar.
“Its closest rival was Ely’s Creme Balm … something of a copycat product but doesn’t seem to have had the same cachet,” explained Catharine Arnold, author of the book Pandemic 1918.
She added that there were other remedies for respiratory ailments, including coughs, colds and the flu, such as Hale’s Honey of Horehound and Tar. Some products did not stand the test of time, such as “vaporisers”, similar to modern nebulisers, and throat lozenges such as Formamint. It contained the chemical formaldehyde, which is toxic in large amounts.
However, a marketing campaign led by Smith took the Vicks brand onto the global stage.
When the pandemic hit, the company produced a series of six ads. Rather than solely promote Vick’s VapoRub, the series focused on raising awareness about the Spanish flu and included information about symptoms, treatment and tips to avoid getting sick. It urged people not to panic and conveyed that the brand cared about people’s wellbeing at a bleak time. The flu was just another variation of an influenza that strikes every century and is caused by germs that attack the nose, throat and bronchial tubes, the ads said. Vick’s VapoRub would “throw off the grippe germs” and make it easier to breathe, they said.
Years later, the accuracy of this content came under criticism. Still, “at the time, this advertisement must have seemed reassuring, telling readers it was just the same old flu, only, of course, it wasn’t,” Arnold said.
“Spanish flu was an atypical autoimmune virus which attacked the youngest and fittest and caused unusual reactions, such as violent haemorrhaging and the notorious heliotrope cyanosis when people’s skin turned blue.”
However, the advice in the advertisements to rest and stay in bed was “sensible”, she added, because the virus was spread through human contact.
In November 1918, a nurse takes the pulse of a patient in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, during the pandemic [Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress via AP]
Becoming a household name
Sales skyrocketed, and in October 1918 – seven months after the outbreak of the pandemic – Vick Chemical Company informed pharmacists that huge demand had wiped out its excess stocks. Supplies expected to last four months had run out in three weeks.
Newspaper notices published at that time showed the company had received orders for 1.75 million VapoRub jars in a single week, and the daily turnover of the business was about $186,492. The jars came in three sizes costing 30 cents, 60 cents and $1.20.
“Big shipments are en route to jobbers [wholesalers] by freight and express. Until these arrive, there may be a temporary shortage. All deals postponed. Buy in small lots only,” one notice read.
The company informed the public that it was working day and night to catch up with demand. The orders received were twice the company’s daily output, and by November 1918, the firm said its factory was running 23.5 hours daily to produce 1.08 million jars weekly.
The product gained worldwide popularity during the pandemic, and according to company data, VapoRub sales grew from $900,000 to $2.9m from 1918 to 1919.
Afterwards, Vick Chemical Company continued to market its product in novel ways. It sent millions of free samples to mailboxes and in 1924 published a 15-page advertisement in the form of a children’s book called The Story of Blix and Blee. The story, written in rhyming verses, was about two elves named Blix and Blee who lived in an empty Vicks VapoRub jar beneath an old jujube tree. One night, they rushed to the rescue of a sick child, little Dickie. The elves convinced the child, who was refusing to take the medicine given by his mother, to use Vicks VapoRub to soothe his cough so he could sleep.
More than 130 years later, Vicks VapoRub is sold in about 70 countries on five continents with more than 3.78 million litres (more than 1 million gallons) of it produced annually. From 2011 to 2016 alone, there were more than a billion units sold worldwide, according to its owner Procter and Gamble.
For Arnold, Vicks VapoRub is part of an American childhood.
“Generations of us grew up with that familiar waxy menthol compound, robes and pyjamas redolent of Vicks during flu season,” she said. “That familiar blue and green label is as much of an American cultural icon as Coca-Cola or Campbell’s soup.”
This article is part of Ordinary Items, Extraordinary Stories, a series about the surprising stories behind well-known items.
MARRIED At First Sight UK star Laura Vaughan has been left heartbroken following the sudden death of her stepfather after losing her biological dad to cancer.
In an emotional statement posted to social media, Laura, 35, revealed her stepdad Rich also died of cancer and said that the loss had left her family “devastated.”
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Laura rose to fame on MAFS alongside then-husband ArthurCredit: E4
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Laura spoke out about her heartbreak on InstagramCredit: Getty
“I’ve sat with this for weeks, not knowing how to find the words,” she wrote on Instagram.
“A few weeks ago, my family lost my stepdad, Rich – very suddenly to cancer. It has left my family devastated.”
Laura, who rose to fame on the reality show in 2023, also opened up about feelings of guilt over not being as close to Rich in recent years.
She said: “That’s a guilt I will carry with me for the rest of my life and right now, it feels very heavy.”
The reality star also reflected on the loss of her father to cancer years earlier, adding: “Lots of you know that I lost my dad to cancer, the same age as my half-sister is now.
“It feels as though sometimes, life plays out the most painful patterns.”
Paying tribute to Rich, she added: “He came into my life over 20 years ago and brought light and laughter into our family when we really needed it.
“I hope that where you are now, you are at peace and out of pain, and that West Ham are winning every match they play!”
Laura ended the post by announcing a temporary break from social media.
She said: “I don’t know how to show up online for you guys at the minute and therefore I am going to take a break.
Laura Vaughan’s MAFS diary: Kieran wasn’t emotionally available and it broke Kristina – and are Adam and Amy together?
“Sometimes this world feels so painful, so I’m sending an enormous amount of love to anyone struggling.”
Laura had a failed love match with tennis coach Arthur Poremba, 38, on MAFS.
She recently opened up to The Sun about her own private battle in a heartbreaking interview – after she was forced to make a terrible decision.
The TV star underwent a heartbreaking medical abortion after unexpectedly finding out she was almost eight months pregnant.
She endured the painful procedure after doctors told her she had been unknowingly putting her unborn foetus at high risk of “extreme” harm and severe birth defects by taking a powerful drug to treat her acne.
The medical abortion in 2016, when she was 26, left Laura struggling to make sense of what had happened.
“It was very difficult because I went from not thinking I was pregnant to being seven months pregnant to then having a very prolonged abortion and where I was so far gone,” she told The Sun in an exclusive interview.
“Then, when I got home from the procedure, my milk came in, which, as you can imagine, was just really hard to deal with.
“I hunkered down at home for weeks and didn’t talk to anyone.”
Multiple labour attempts
Laura initially thought it was “impossible” when a Clearblue digital pregnancy test revealed she was expecting.
And she was even more stunned when doctors told her she was in the third trimester.
Although the former finance manager had been suffering from bloating and missed periods, she says she had been told the symptoms were likely caused by a “ruptured cyst”.
She’d gone to see a GP about her symptoms – including bloating and pain in her stomach – but when they looked at her medical records they noticed she’d had a ruptured cyst the year before and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and said that was “likely the cause again”.
They referred Laura for a scan which she kept forgetting to book.
Laura was still able to “squeeze into size 6/8 dresses” while not being aware of her pregnancy, and considered her weight gain to be down to bloating the entire time.
She said: “It was literally the week I decided to test that my stomach popped, and I remember thinking ‘this isn’t right’.”
Recalling the moment the Clearblue test came up with the phrase “2-3 weeks [pregnant]”, Laura, now an influencer, said: “My first thought was ‘that’s impossible’… but then I realised that is how the tests display it, so I could’ve been pregnant for months – and I was.”
Clearblue’s ‘weeks indicator’ test is designed to be reliable in the early stages of pregnancy.
Laura’s shock at her cryptic pregnancy soon turned into an unimaginable ordeal when she learned the strong acne drug she had been taking, isotretinoin, can cause birth defects.
Due to the risk of birth defects to her foetus, Laura was offered a medical abortion – and, with a heavy heart, she accepted it.
Recalling the hospital procedure itself, she added: “I went for the abortion and I was meant to be in and out within a day and a half but I ended up being in for nearly a week.
“They could get me to contract but couldn’t get me to full labour, and so I was having contractions and then [they were] stopping.
“It was agony. It was just so awful for my state of mind, too, going into labour multiple times and then nothing.”
Laura, now in a happy and serious relationship, has been put off having children because she “doesn’t want to be reminded of what happened in 2016”.
She added: “We spoke about my abortion and he’s the first partner I’ve told about it for a long time.
“He’s been incredibly supportive, and we have discussed having children but neither of us see children in our future.”
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Laura is smitten with her new boyfriend – and she says neither of them see children in their futureCredit: Supplied / Laura Vaughan
Posting a black and white throwback of himself as a child, Freddy wrote: “You know what I don’t need rehab! I just need a holiday with a good group of boys or a retreat.”
Freddy stunned followers when he opened up about a long-standing smoking addiction and a desire to make peace with his dad after a tense family rift.
In a heartfelt post, he said: “I want to be clean so I can life happily and have healthy relationships with people and be there for all of my family rather then feeling like I’m in the middle and have to choose a side.”
Freddy also shared hopes of mending things with his famous father, saying: “I want to play football and take up boxing. I want to be happy and be in a healthy relationship and have a healthy relationship with my Nana and my father.”
Freddy Brazier reunites with dad Jeff before heading to rehab in Spain amid concern over gran’s ‘harmful’ influence
The former Strictly finalist has become a regular at the Hare Krishna temple in Soho, where he takes part in communal prayers, chants mantras and helps prepare meals.
Friends say Bobby’s interest in spirituality has grown over the past year and is helping him process the lasting impact of losing his mum to cervical cancer in 2009, when he was just five.
A volunteer at the temple told MailOnline: “He’s here every Saturday without fail. He joins our kitchen session, learns the prayers – this isn’t a gimmick.”
A family friend added: “Bobby had a difficult life. His mum dying left a mark on him, as it would.
“Hare Krishna is somewhere he seeks solace. It might seem strange, but for him, it works.”
Last year, The Sun published images of Bobby joining in cha-cha-chanting at a Hare Krishna gathering on Oxford Street, where he was even seen handing out leaflets.
Bobby said of the movement: “I’ve had the blessing of meeting some incredible devotees who have really taken me under the wing and been really merciful upon me.
“And they are just the most beautiful, happy, content, smart, intelligent people.”
Bobby Brazier has risen through the ranks to become a well known face on British TV.
As the son of Jade Goody and Jeff Brazier, he has been well-known amongst the public from a young age.
Bobby first embarked on a showbiz career when he was just 16-years old when he started modelling.
The star made his catwalk debut in 2020 at Milan Fashion Week, but it wasn’t long before he had his eyes on a TV career.
He shot to prominence in 2022 when he was cast as Freddie Slater in EastEnders.
The incredibly acting skills displayed on screen earned him the National Television Award in the ‘Rising Star’ category.
His famous dad was in tears as Bobby accepted the award on stage in front of the likes of Holly Willoughby and Alison Hammond.
It wasn’t long before BBC bosses wanted him to take part in the 21st series of Strictly Come Dancing.
He clearly impressed the viewers with his dancing skills as he made the grand final and was a runner-up.
Since then, viewers were delighted when he returned to his role in the long-running BBC One soap.
An EastEnders spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that Bobby Brazier will be leaving EastEnders, and we wish him all the best for the future.”
A telly insider revealed: “Bosses had a meeting with Bobby only recently as they had a plan in mind for a storyline, and it just so happened that Bobby was also thinking that now was the right time to look for other opportunities outside the show.
“The timing of the decision worked for both, but his final scenes are not for a while yet.
“The character has had a great run, but the time is now right for Bobby to look for other opportunities, and for EastEnders to wave goodbye to Freddie Slater.”
WITH Father’s Day just around the corner, Morrison’s deal on Terry’s Chocolate Oranges has come at the perfect time.
The major supermarket has slashed the price of the beloved chocolate favourite and shoppers can choose from two different flavours.
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Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are popular chocolate around the worldCredit: Facebook
Morrisons is selling the 90g ball in both the original and mint flavours for £1.50, for those with a member’s card.
The full price of the tasty treat is usually £2 and the reduced price is also cheaper than what Sainsbury’s and Tesco sell it for, which is £1.95 at both supermarkets.
Even with a Tesco Clubcard, Terry’s Chocolate Orange 90g costs £1.75, making the Morrisons offer cheaper.
Terry’s Chocolate Orange is a much-loved icon in the confectionery world and has been available to buy since 1932.
Earlier this year, a TikTok account @belongwealth posted a video blowing viewers away, divulging a little-known secret about the household name.
The clip revealed that the iconic brand had another delicious product predating the chocolate orange.. the chocolate apple.
The poster gave some context to the history of the product, saying: “In 1926, Terry’s Chocolate Works, a family run factory in York, released a dessert chocolate apple.
“It did pretty well, so in 1932 they released a dessert chocolate orange, which did really well.”
According to the TikToker, the chocolate apple did not have the longevity of the orange ball we know and love today because duringWorld War 2, the Terry’s chocolate factory was taken over to use as a base for building aircraft blades.
After the war, the factory was returned to the Terry’s.
But due to rationing and limitations on cocoa imports, the company phased out the less popular chocolate apple and focused on the much-loved orange.
How to save money on chocolate
We all love a bit of chocolate from now and then, but you don’t have to break the bank buying your favourite bar.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how to cut costs…
Go own brand – if you’re not too fussed about flavour and just want to supplant your chocolate cravings, you’ll save by going for the supermarket’s own brand bars.
Shop around – if you’ve spotted your favourite variety at the supermarket, make sure you check if it’s cheaper elsewhere.
Websites like Trolley.co.uk let you compare prices on products across all the major chains to see if you’re getting the best deal.
Look out for yellow stickers – supermarket staff put yellow, and sometimes orange and red, stickers on to products to show they’ve been reduced.
They usually do this if the product is coming to the end of its best-before date or the packaging is slightly damaged.
Buy bigger bars – most of the time, but not always, chocolate is cheaper per 100g the larger the bar.
So if you’ve got the appetite, and you were going to buy a hefty amount of chocolate anyway, you might as well go bigger.
Currently, theTerry’s websitelists the classic milk chocolate orange, dark chocolate orange, mint orange, plain milk chocolate, toffee crunch orange and exploding candy orange.
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Morrisons has a great deal on two flavours of Terrys Chocolate OrangeCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Ben Crook’s post mortem revealed he had suffering horrendous injuries after ‘falling from height’
15:01, 10 Jun 2025Updated 15:08, 10 Jun 2025
Ben Crook was reported missing in Turkey in an appeal circulated online(Image: Wales Online)
A dad tragically died after falling from a height whilst on holiday in Turkey, following his removal from a flight due to drunken behaviour and subsequent separation from his family. The devastating news of his death was only discovered when his father travelled to Turkey to investigate his whereabouts.
Ben Crook, 32, was reported missing after he jetted off to Antalya with his partner Jess Jenkins and their two children on September 23. After consuming alcohol and cocaine, he exhibited erratic behaviour on the flight, shouting at an air steward and smashing both his and Ms Jenkins’ mobiles, according to the inquest.
Upon landing in Turkey on September 24, Mr Crook, from Abertridwr, Caerphilly, was escorted off the plane and separated from Ms Jenkins. She was instructed to leave the airport and took a taxi to their hotel with the children.
The inquest at Gwent Coroner’s Court on Tuesday revealed that Mr Crook never made it to the hotel, reports Wales Online.
Following his son’s disappearance, Mr Crook’s father journeyed to Turkey and uncovered the tragic news that his son had died after falling from a height and sustaining fatal injuries.
A post mortem examination conducted at the Antalya Forensic Institute confirmed that Mr Crook had suffered external injuries and lacerations consistent with a fall. He passed away at Antalya Training and Research Hospital at 2.15am on September 25, the inquest heard.
Following repatriation of Mr Crook’s body to the UK, a further post-mortem examination was performed at Grange University Hospital by Dr Majid Rashid on October 22, revealing that he had suffered severe head injuries, bruising on his upper limbs, cuts, and multiple abrasions to his abdominal wall. A chest incision suggested a tube had been inserted to drain fluid.
The examination also found a fractured skull vault, brain damage, and bleeding, as well as a fractured pelvis on both sides.
Toxicology reports showed the presence of cocaine, alcohol, ketamine, and cocaethylene in Mr Crook’s blood, with ketamine likely administered during treatment.
Dr Rashid determined the cause of death to be a fractured skull and pelvis due to blunt trauma from a fall.
In a statement read aloud in court by senior coroner Caroline Saunders, Ms Jenkins stated that Mr Crook had started drinking before arriving at the airport and purchased duty-free alcohol to consume at their hotel.
Due to a flight delay, the couple began drinking duty-free alcohol, with Ms Jenkins describing her partner as a “nervous flier” but mentioning they were “chatting and joking” before takeoff. During the flight, she revealed that Mr Crook’s demeanour altered and he started yelling at a male steward, demanding booze.
He subsequently smashed both his and Ms Jenkins’ mobiles, leading to him being escorted off the plane and separated from his partner.
Discussing Mr Crook’s substance abuse, Ms Jenkins stated her partner used cocaine recreationally, only indulging when he had been drinking.
Mr Crook’s sister Amy disclosed that her brother had struggled with drugs and alcohol, with his consumption escalating in the months preceding his death.
She also mentioned her brother’s mental health struggles, exacerbated by his drug and alcohol use, but Ms Crook insisted there were no signs he would take his own life, leaving his two children fatherless.
Upon returning from Turkey, Mr Crook’s father discovered a message in his Facebook Messenger spam folder, seemingly from his son, who was trying to ascertain the name of the hotel where his partner was staying. There was an additional message again requesting contact.
Members of Mr Crook’s family received communication from several unidentified individuals in Turkey who claimed they had seen the deceased prior to his death.
One individual who got in touch with Ms Jenkins claimed: “Hello, we have just seen your post about Ben being missing. We saw him on September 24 at lunchtime. He approached me and my husband for help while walking near Kaleici Harbour. He said he smashed up his phone and had brought a new one but it was not ringing for some reason. He used my phone to send a message to his friend and we gave him our number if he needed more help. He looked shaken and hungover. After the Facebook message and ringing his friend, he crossed the harbour and walked, we presumed, to the police station for help.”
Messages later followed from others, which included photographs apparently of Mr Crook lying on the ground at the base of a building.
There were suggestions he fell while smoking on 24 September, but there was no sign of third-party involvement.
Ms Saunders delivered her conclusion: “(Alcohol and drugs) may have caused disorientation and poor judgement but this is insufficient to determine he fell as a result of the drugs he had taken.”
She decided: “I find the fall was an accident, the exact details of which are unknown..”
Her final conclusion read: “On September 24, 2024, Ben Crook fell from height whilst on holiday in Turkey and sustained severe head and pelvic injuries and died on September 25, 2024. The conclusion I reach is that of an accident.”
Ben Crook was reported missing in Turkey in an appeal widely circulated online(Image: Wales Online)
FATHER’S Day doesn’t need to cost you a fortune to be meaningful.
You can skip the overpriced socks and novelty mugs.
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Five homemade meaningful ideas for Father’s Day this SundayCredit: Getty
These heartfelt, homemade ideas will show Dad he’s appreciated without blowing the budget this Sunday . . .
SPOT ON: Create a Spotify playlist of your dad’s favourite songs or tracks that remind you of him.
You can add a custom photo design to the playlist to make it extra special.
OWE THAT’S NICE: Skip generic gifts and design personalised “IOU” vouchers for experiences he’ll truly enjoy.
READ MORE MONEY SAVING TIPS
Offer a DIY car wash, his favourite home-cooked meal, or a movie night of his choice to show him how much you care.
BOXING CLEVER: Upcycle old items into meaningful gifts.
Transform a worn-out toolbox into a stylish beer crate with £5 wood stain from Homebase, and throw in his favourite brews.
Or, layer paprika, salt and herbs in a jam jar for a custom spice rub set.
WRITE NOTES: Fill a jar with handwritten notes recalling your favourite moments with your dad.
Decorate it with string or ribbon from your craft box and a photo tag for an extra sentimental touch.
Home Bargains launches Father’s Day gifts in store & there’s a £5.99 present shoppers are already snapping up
It will be something he can revisit whenever he needs a smile.
FUTURE MEMORIES: Organise a simple but special family outing, like a Sunday walk or bike ride, followed by a picnic with homemade sandwiches and snacks.
Quality time together is often the best gift and a chance to make memories.
All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability.
Deal of the day
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Save £72 on the Nanobebe Ultimate Newborn 24-piece steriliser setCredit: Supplied
NEW parents can grab a bargain with the Nanobebe Ultimate Newborn 24-piece steriliser set, previously £89.99, now £17.99, at Home Bargains.
SAVE: £72
Cheap treat
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Save £1 on a pack of Quorn cocktail sausages with a Tesco ClubcardCredit: Supplied
SNACK on a pack of Quorn cocktail sausages.
Usually £2 per pack, get them for £1 with a Tesco Clubcard.
SAVE: £1
What’s new?
STOP pets overheating in the sunshine with Aldi’s range of cooling pet toys, arriving in store this week with prices from £3.99.
Top swap
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The Dyson AM09 Hot + Cool fan heater is £290 from ArgosCredit: Supplied
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Or head to B&M for the Blaupunkt bladeless standing fan for just £39Credit: Supplied
COOL off with the Dyson AM09 Hot + Cool fan heater, £290, from Argos, or get to B&M for the Blaupunkt bladeless standing fan, for £39.
SAVE: £251
Little helper
MUCH hyped viral K-beauty brand Dr. Althea has landed at Boots.com this week – and to celebrate there’s 15 per cent off the range until Thursday.
Shop & save
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Save £40 on this sofa bed at The RangeCredit: Supplied
THIS sofa bed is stylish and handy for when friends stay over.
It was £159.99, now it’s £119.99 at The Range.
SAVE: £40
Hot right now
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PICK up half-price lingerie in the big Tu at Sainsbury’s saleCredit: TU
PICK up half-price lingerie in the big Tu at Sainsbury’s sale, on now.
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Join thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle
JOIN thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle.
Every month we’re giving away £100 to 250 lucky readers – whether you’re saving up or just in need of some extra cash, The Sun could have you covered.
Every Sun Savers code entered equals one Raffle ticket.
The more codes you enter, the more tickets you’ll earn and the more chance you will have of winning!
At just £14.99, this is a great alternative to the Bosch version.
It’s 4V and it comes with four BBQ attachments: a BBQ blower, corkscrew, and salt and pepper mill.
For reference, the similar Bosch 3.6V 1 x 2 Li-ion Cordless Screwdriver IXO 7 costs £35 and doesn’t come with the accessories.
Lidl says the screwdriver set can be used around the house, in the kitchen and with your BBQ.
It has a USB-C charging port and a USB-C charging cable, although it doesn’t come with a mains adaptor.
It has a 15-piece bit set with standard screwhead profiles, plus a bit extension.
Parents race to Lidl for middle aisle bargains including 2 in 1 sandpit for £29
The screwdriver also comes with a three-year warranty.
Braun All-In-One Style Kit – £34.99
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This 9-in-1 kit costs £10 less in Lidl than it does on the Braun websiteCredit: Lidl
For the dad who likes to keep well-groomed, you could pick up this trimmer kit.
The 9-in-1 kit can be used to style your hair, beard, ears, nose and more.
Lidl describes the trimmer as having “ultra-sharp blades for precise and effortless grooming”.
Its RRP is £67.49 on the Braun website but it’s selling on there currently for £44.99.
That means you can make a £10 saving by heading to Lidl and also save on delivery fees.
Auriol Watch – £14.99
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The Auriol Watch comes in the colours green, black, yellow or blueCredit: Lidl
Keep your dad looking sharp with this trendy-looking watch which comes in a range of colours.
It has a silver strap but you can get the face in either green, black, yellow or blue.
The link strap is adjustable and it’s also water resistant.
Plus, it comes with a three-year warranty.
T-shirts – £4.99
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You can get T-shirts for £4.99 featuring Captain America, Spider-Man or The MandalorianCredit: Lidl
Nerdier dads might like these T-shirts featuring Captain America, Spider-Man or The Mandalorian.
Of course, they’re all dad-themed as well.
The Mandalorian T-shirt says “The Dadalorian, this is the way” with a black-and-white cartoon of The Mandalorian holding Baby Yoda.
The Spider-Man one says “Dad, you’re my super hero” while the Captain America one reads “Honorable Dad”.
All are made with cotton and come in the sizes medium to extra-large.
Socks – £3.99
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These Super Dad socks would be perfect for comic book fansCredit: Lidl
If your dad has ever told you just to buy him socks for Father’s Day, you’re in luck.
Lidl has a range of three bargain-friendly pairs of socks.
You can get a pair of comic-book-style “Super Dad” ones, a pair with taches and glasses, or a black chequered pair for the more serious man.
Father’s Day picture books
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These would be great for storytime and they all have a cute Father’s Day themeCredit: Lidl
Dads of younger children may like these picture books all themed around Father’s Day.
They include Just One Hug, My Daddy and Me, and I Love You Daddy.
Lidl’s description says each book has “a gentle, rhyming story and beautiful illustrations” and is “perfect for sharing with your little one”.
Puzzle books – £1.99
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If your dad likes to solve puzzles, this could make a good bargain presentCredit: Lidl
Get his mind working with these bargain puzzle books.
All are priced at £1.99 and they include a Wordsearch Puzzle Book, Sudoku Puzzle Book and three Crime Puzzle Books.
Why do Aldi and Lidl have such fast checkouts
IF you’ve ever shopped in Aldi or Lidl then you’ll probably have experienced its ultra-fast checkout staff.
Aldi’s speedy reputation is no mistake, in fact, the supermarket claims that its tills are 40 per cent quicker than rivals.
It’s all part of Aldi’s plan to be as efficient as possible – and this, the budget shop claims, helps keep costs low for shoppers.
Efficient barcodes on packaging means staff are able to scan items as quickly as possible, with the majority of products having multiple barcodes to speed up the process.
It also uses “shelf-ready” packaging which keeps costs low when it comes to replenishing stock.
