In recent years, several experienced members of aircrew have provided the public with tips of dos and don’ts whilst onboard an aircraft
A pilot has said people shouldn’t wear flipflops on planes (stock)(Image: Getty)
A pilot has warned travellers not to wear flipflops on aircraft in case they have to evacuate the plane during an emergency.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Captain Steeeve discussed what people shouldn’t do before they fly, including advice about the kind of clothing passengers should wear.
He said that while it can be tempting to dress for the destination, it is far better to dress for the aircraft — specifically, for the possibility of having to evacuate.
The reason for this, the experienced pilot said, is to help protect the body in the event of leaving via the emergency slides and to help someone run from the aircraft as quickly as possible.
The pilot recommended wearing long sleeved cotton clothing (stock)
He explained: “You need to think about the journey — that journey might be interrupted with some sort of emergency evacuation out of an airplane. Here’s my suggestion to you: Wear cotton clothing that covers your body completely — long sleeves, jeans are fine — and then some sort of tie-up shoe. Why? Because it’s going to stay on your foot.
“If you have to get out of that seat, you have to get down the emergency slide. You want cotton because it’s going to absorb the heat, and you also want those shoes to stay on your feet because you might have to flee from the airplane.
“I know you don’t want to think about it, but it might just save your life. So dress to evacuate from an airplane.”
Captain Steeeve isn’t the only person offering guidance on the dos and don’ts for passengers travelling by air. Last year, a flight attendant warned people not to use the toilet paper on aircraft.
A variety of aircrew have offered a range of tips for flyers (stock)
Taking to TikTok, flight attendant Cher Dallas advised passengers to use a packet of Kleenex instead, because of the potential for other people’s waste to be on the paper.
She explained: “I do not use toilet paper on the plane — and hear me out, because I do wipe. But if you examine the toilet paper, I promise you’re gonna see water droplets on it — or what you think are water droplets.
“I don’t think we can trust most men to make it in the toilet on a normal day, let alone flying at 36,000 feet with turbulence. So I just tell all my ladies: just use the Kleenex instead.”
Cher also recommended not wearing shorts on flights, both to avoid getting cold from the air conditioning and to prevent friction burns if you end up going down the emergency slide.
A sleep expert has shared his top tips for beating jet lag, and answered the age-old question regarding whether you should sleep during a flight or try to stay awake
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Beating jet lag can feel near-impossible (Image: Rex)
Kicking off a holiday with jet lag is less than ideal. After all, feeling tired and groggy and sometimes nauseous is hardly how anyone wants to start a trip, and you may try a power nap but it rarely fixes the issue entirely.
Luckily one sleep expert has offered up some of their best tips for trying to beat the tiredness, as well as revealing how you can put the odds in your favour when it comes to adjusting your body clock.
That includes offering a resolution to the age-old debate; do you try and get some kip on the flight, or do you power through and stay awake? It turns out that your strategy needs to differ depending on whether you’re flying in the morning or at night.
Martin Seeley, CEO and sleep expert at MattressNextDay, explained: “The answer depends on when you arrive. If your flight lands in the morning or early afternoon, getting some sleep on the plane will help you avoid exhaustion on arrival. Use an eye mask, earplugs, and a travel pillow to make yourself comfortable. But if you’re landing at night, try to stay awake for the last few hours of the flight to help you fall asleep once you get there. Sleeping at the right time on the plane is one of the best ways to reduce jet lag.”
Being tactical about when you sleep on flights is key (Image: Getty Images)
As for the flight that could ease your jet lag symptoms? Consider an evening arrival if you can. He added: “Landing at night can actually work in your favour. Once you arrive, keep things calm and dim the lights to help your body know it’s time to wind down. Avoid screens and bright lights, which can trick your brain into thinking it’s still daytime.
“Head straight to your accommodation and try to sleep as close to the local bedtime as possible. If you’re not sleepy, don’t stress-relax with a book or calming music in low light until you feel ready to nod off. Your body clock will start to adjust even if sleep doesn’t come immediately.”
While those power naps may be tempting, he warned not to sleep more than half an hour, or it could push your bedtime later and therefore stop your body from naturally adapting to the new time zone. “The goal is to stick as closely as possible to the local time, so your body clock adjusts faster and jet lag doesn’t drag on,” he said.
If you’re going to be flying long-haul, don’t wait until your travel day to adjust either. In fact, a few days beforehand it’s worth moving your bedtime by up to an hour every day towards the time zone you’re travelling to, so that in theory there’s less of a shock to the system once you do arrive.
According to Martin, research has shown that it can take your body clock up to a week to fully adjust, “so every bit of pre-trip prep helps”.
Once you’re on holiday, there are a few things you can do to try and ease your body into the new time zone too. “Temperature plays a key role in signalling to your body when to sleep and when to wake,” he said. “Try taking a warm shower in the morning to help wake you up and a cool shower about an hour before bed to encourage sleepiness. Keeping your bedroom cool – around 16 to 18°C – also supports deeper, more restful sleep. These simple temperature cues can help your body adjust faster to a new time zone and reduce jet lag.”
Do you have a holiday story you want to share with us? Email us at [email protected].
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” It’s Mary Tyler Moore, of course, and you should know it.
To be precise, it’s Mary Richards, a person Moore played. But the smile was her own, and it worked magic across two situation comedies that described their time in a way that some might have regarded as ahead of their time. Although Moore proved herself as an actress of depth and range and peerless comic timing again and again, on the small and big screen and onstage, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made her a star, and incidentally a cultural figurehead, and are the reason we have a splendid new documentary, “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” premiering Friday on HBO. Were it titled simply “Being Mary,” there’d be little doubt who was meant.
Moore was driven to perform from an early age, which she relates to wanting to impress her father — though that seems too simple. She trained as a dancer, and right out of high school played a pixie, Happy Hotpoint, in a series of appliance commercials. (A visible pregnancy ended that job.) She played a faceless switchboard operator on “Richard Diamond, Private Detective,” from which she was bounced when she asked for more money, and a typical assortment of starlet roles in television and movies. A failed audition to play the older daughter on “The Danny Thomas Show” led to her being called for “Van Dyke,” of which Thomas was an executive producer. Creator Carl Reiner remembers, “I read about 60 girls, and I read the whole script with them. She read three lines, three simple lines. There was such a ping in it, an excitement, a reality to it.” They soon discovered her gift for comedy.
“The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which Moore played Laura Petrie to Van Dyke’s Rob, came into the world in the first year of the Kennedy administration, and there is something of that new White House, torch-passed-to-a-new-generation spirit in the Petries’ New Rochelle, N.Y., home. (Van Dyke was 35 when the show premiered — just old enough to be president himself — to Moore’s 24, but the two never seemed generationally distinct.) They were modern, with modern tastes. This was not the old-fashioned, small-town family comedy of “Father Knows Best” or “Leave It to Beaver.” If you lived in my household, you might have felt right at home with them.
Then again, “Dick Van Dyke” was not really a family comedy; some episodes might involve their son, Richie (Larry Mathews), but many more would not, and when child-rearing was the subject, it would more likely highlight the foolishness of the parents. The Petries were suburban in the sense of being connected to, not remote from, the city — sophisticated, fun, elegant. They threw parties, went out in formal wear, tried the latest dances. They were sexual. And they held the stage with equal strength and force.
If they were well on the safe side of bohemian, they were arty in their way, Rob a comedy writer, Laura, like Moore, a dancer — a former dancer in the show, which was not so ahead of its time to imagine a working mother. Still, the series found opportunities to let her dance. (“I will go to my grave thinking of myself as a failed dancer, not a successful actor,” Moore says in the documentary.)
Famously — and at once realistically and, for TV at that time, radically — she wore pants, tight ones; Moore is nearly synonymous with Capris. I turned on a random episode the other night (Season 4, Episode 1, “My Mother Can Beat Up My Father”), one I’d somehow never seen, in which a drunk at a restaurant bar begins to harass Laura. Rob tries to get him to back off, claiming he knows karate, and gets a punch in the nose — at which Laura, to her own surprise, flips the drunk with a judo move. (She’d learned self-defense when she was entertaining at Army bases.)
It winds up in a society column. Laura finds it funny. Rob, whose ego is as bruised as his proboscis, childishly lashes out.
Rob: “How come you never dress like a girl?”
Laura, incredulous: “What?
“Well, honey, I mean, shirts and slacks, shirts and slacks, that’s all I ever see when I come home.”
“You love me in shirts and slacks.”
“Yeah, well, but whatever happened to dresses?”
“Rob, you know, this is the stupidest conversation we’ve ever had.”
Mary Tyler Moore with Dr. Robert Levine, to whom she was married from 1983 until her death in 2017. Levine is an executive producer on “Being Mary Tyler Moore.”
(From Robert Levine / HBO)
“Dick Van Dyke” stories were divided equally between home and work, with the two worlds frequently intersecting. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” took that model and put Moore in the center of the action, amid a brilliant comic cast. Her move to Minneapolis, which begins the series and lands her in the newsroom at WJM, was not born from tragedy or pressure; she moves on her own initiative, recovering from nothing but the possibility of a life that won’t suit her.
That Mary was a single woman in no rush to be married was something new for television — but it could hardly be said that she lived alone; her apartment was subject to regular incursions from Rhoda (Valerie Harper) and Phyllis (Cloris Leachman), a company of women hashing out their different lives in a sort of dialectical comedy. (There were women in the writing room; Treva Silverman, whose comments are featured prominently in “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” was the first woman to win an Emmy with a solo credit.)
Whether this was or was not a feminist series is a question that still prompts think pieces. Gloria Steinem thought not, and Moore did not identify herself as such — though in the opening scene of the documentary, in a 1966 interview with a backward David Susskind, she does say, “I agree with Betty Friedan and her point of view in her book ‘Feminine Mystique’ that women are, or should be, human beings first, women second, wives and mothers third.”
For the record:
4:36 p.m. May 26, 2023The co-creator of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is James L. Brooks. He was misidentified as James Burrows in an earlier version of this story.
Unlike the Norman Lear comedies — “All in the Family,” also on CBS, premiered a few months after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — the MTM-produced comedies, which also included the “Moore” spinoffs “Rhoda” and “Phyllis,” were contemporary and “adult” without being issue-oriented. But because they were realistic about their characters, they couldn’t help but engage with their times and the culture. If the feminism of “Mary Tyler Moore,” which is in a sense just a function of its intelligence, is not explicit, it is in the bones of the show. And Mary, like the woman who played her, “inspired as many women as Eleanor Roosevelt,” in the words of series co-creator James L. Brooks.
If Moore never repeated the massive television success of her first two series, well, that would have been practically impossible. Some failed later shows, including the sitcom “Mary,” which found her working at a Chicago tabloid, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Hour,” which blended variety with a backstage sitcom, go unmentioned in the documentary, but are not without interest and may be found floating in cyberspace. Various dramatic roles, onscreen and onstage, demonstrated the subtlety and depth of her acting, though you could find that in most any episode of “Mary Tyler Moore” as well.
Her last great triumph — though not at all the end of her career — was her Oscar-nominated turn in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People,” whose cold mother is deemed closer to her own character; she had a reputation, she says, for being “an ice princess.” Redford decided to cast her having once seen her walking on the beach, looking sad. (“He saw my dark side.”)
It is the point of nearly any show business biography that the person we know from their work is and is not the person who lived the life. Indeed, the very title “Being Mary Tyler Moore” suggests that “Mary Tyler Moore” was both a part she played and a person she was, similar in some respects and markedly different in others. Directed by James Adolphus, with Moore’s widower, Dr. Robert Levine, on board as an executive producer, the film has access to a wealth of family photos and home movies — including footage of her bridal shower, featuring a hilarious Betty White — and does a fine job of illuminating the private Moore, with testimony from (unseen) colleagues, friends and family.
It’s no secret that her life was marked by tragedy. (She was a private person, but she wrote books. And some things you can’t keep out of the papers.) She had a drinking problem. Her sister died from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Her son, Richard, accidentally shot himself. Diabetes led to numerous problems with her health. But “Being Mary Tyler Moore” is a happier story than one might expect, which in itself makes it a moving one. Moore and Levine were married from 1983 to her death in 2017, and they settled into a life filled with dogs and horses; there were good works too, on behalf of juvenile diabetes.
We can too easily measure the worth of a performer’s life by their professional success, as if there’s nothing more terrible than a canceled sitcom, a box office flop or the lack of good roles all but a few actors eventually face. “Being Mary Tyler Moore” reminds us not to make that mistake.
‘Being Mary Tyler Moore’
When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: HBO Streaming:Max Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) __________
Serial con-artist Samantha Cookes assumed multiple identities and made up wild stories. BBC’s documentary tonight sheds a light on the true crime case
06:00, 08 Jul 2025Updated 06:07, 08 Jul 2025
Fraudster Samantha Cookes has been dubbed ‘Bad Nanny’(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/ Alleycats TV)
Like an evil Mary Poppins, serial con-artist Samantha Cookes posed as a nanny and scammed families with disabled children – even taking their money for a fake trip to Lapland. Gripping two-parter Bad Nanny (Tues 8th July, BBC1, 10.45pm) rakes over all the shocking details of this true crime case, that saw Cookes assume multiple identities, including a child therapist, an arts teacher and a surrogate mother, to con families in the UK and Ireland between 2011 and 2024.
She even posed on TikTok as Carrie Jade Williams, a terminally ill woman and disability activist, winning the sympathy and support of thousands. But when one of her posts went viral, some followers became suspicious and began to dig, discovering her real name was Samantha Cookes, a fraud with multiple aliases and a troubling history.
Speaking for the first time, Katie and Luke in North Yorkshire describe how she posed as a surrogate mother, defrauding them of their savings.
Katie and Luke Taylor were scammed(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/ Alleycats TV)
Mother-of-three Layla describes how she believed she was hiring ‘Lucy Hart’, a Mary Poppins-like au pair at their home in County Offaly. When Layla became suspicious, ‘Lucy’ vanished, leaving an ominous note that left Layla fearing for her children. And Dublin mums Lorraine and Lynn reveal how they hired ‘Lucy Fitzwilliams’ as a child therapist for their disabled children, eventually handed over desposits for a fake trip to Lapland. ‘Lucy’ also told wild stories, pretending she was the 3M company heiress and was set to marry a pastor. Lorraine says: “She took advantage of people’s trust and their emotions and vulnerability.”
Bad Nanny is airing on BBC One tonight at 10.45pm
There’s plenty more on TV tonight – here’s the best of the rest…
TRAINWRECK: THE REAL PROJECT X,NETFLIX
The Trainwreck documentary series revisits headline-making events that went terribly wrong. This latest instalment recounts what happened when a teen’s birthday invite accidentally went viral on Facebook, leading to a full-blown riot. In 2012, a teenage girl in the small Netherlands town of Haren created a Facebook event for her sixteenth birthday party, but made the page public instead of private.
Inspired by a love of the Hollywood movie Project X, which saw three high school seniors throw a party that spiralled out of control, Dutch teenagers made the event go viral, and soon thousands of people had RSVP’d. Despite warnings, police and local authorities didn’t seem to think that anyone would turn up, so no provisions were made to entertain the 3,000 young people who arrived in Haren. Before long the quiet Dutch town became host to a night of drunken chaos, the birthday girl fled her home and riot police were deployed. If it wasn’t true, you’d never believe it…
SHARKS UP CLOSE WITH BERTIE GREGORY,NAT GEO WILD, 8pm
Wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory is a braver man than most as he gets extremely up close to some scary-looking sharks. Arriving on the coast of South Africa, he says: “I have dived with a lot of sharks around the world, but I have never seen the most famous and the most feared – the Great White. I’m going to try something that my mum really doesn’t want me to do. I’m going to dive with a Great White Shark without a cage.”
There is only one place where this is possible, thanks to its shallow waters, which prevent sharks from attacking from below, and clear visibility, which allows the team to see the predators coming. It still doesn’t feel completely reassuring. Bertie works alongside local shark spotters, a community-led initiative developed in response to past fatal shark attacks. Their shared mission is to explore how humans and Great White sharks might coexist in these waters. With a cage, I’d suggest…
A YORKSHIRE FARM,5, 7pm
As a new series kicks off, farmers Rob and Dave Nicholson pick sloes from their farm hedgerows before turning them into artisanal chocolate. JB Gill takes a trip to the rolling hills of Wales, visiting a farmer who is reaping the rewards from a rather unusual diversification – he’s making medicine from daffodils. And on his farm in the Cotswolds, Adam Henson works hard looking after his native pigs, which are some of the rarest breeds in the UK.
EMMERDALE,ITV1, 7.30pm
Joe is fearful as the harassment campaign against him continues with an envelope containing a blackmail demand for £100,000 being placed in the Home Farm kitchen. Unsure of who else to trust, Joe shows the blackmail demand to Sam, but he’s none-the-wiser. When Ross confronts Robert about the missing weed, Robert threatens to cancel the land deal with Moira, forcing Ross to back down. Forced to take Gabby’s car to Kammy at the garage, Vinny faces unavoidable questions about his sexuality.
A member of cabin crew has shared the one thing that you should never do when you’re flying on a plane, with many Brits admitting to using the unhygienic storage
Holidaymakers should consider where they place their valuables (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A flight attendant has revealed the part of a plane that should be avoided at all costs.
CiCi in the Sky, who describes herself as a ‘sky ally’ and ‘travel alchemist’, boasts over 300,000 TikTok followers who turn to her for expert guidance on air travel. The aviation specialist recently revealed the dirtiest parts of the plane she’d recommend avoiding.
She strongly advises against using seat pockets, labelling them as “gross” due to the variety of items people shove into them. The cabin crew member then cautioned her audience to refrain from stowing their coats or other loose belongings in the overhead bins, again highlighting hygiene concerns.
“I mean I’ve never seen them cleaned and I’ve seen people’s stuff spill out of their bags and get all over people’s jackets, clothes or whatever so just don’t do it,” Cici said.
Beware the plane seat pocket (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A Reddit user going by the name HausofDarling issued a stark warning on the ‘Flight attendants of Reddit’ forum, advising passengers to steer clear of using the seat pocket on commercial jets. They cautioned: “I always recommend you never, ever, ever, ever use or put anything in the seat pocket. They are cleared of rubbish but are never ‘cleaned’.”
The flight attendant went on to describe the unsavoury items they’ve encountered in these pockets: “I have pulled out and seen all sorts being pulled out from there. Dirty tissues, sick bags, knickers, socks, gum, half sucked sweets, apple cores, and then next flight you go and put your phone, laptop or iPad in there.”
Another crew member, choosing to remain anonymous, corroborated these claims with their own grim discoveries, including: “I once discovered vomit outside of the paper bag which spilled through the seat pocket. It was absolutely awful, but what can you do?”.
Despite such horrors, new research from AllClear Travel Insurance reveals that 7 in 10 (70%) travellers admit to unhygienic habits while flying Topping the list is storing personal items inside the seatback pocket (30%) – one of the most unhygienic parts of the plane – followed by resting your head on the tray table (19%) and using the toilet without shoes or in socks (13%)
AllClear also spoke to an ex-flight attendants about the horrors of the seat pocket. They said: “Sometimes dirty nappies and used sick bags would be left in seat pockets.”
Almost a third of travellers (29%) store their personal items and food in seatback pockets, but these areas are rarely cleaned. Where possible, travellers should try to store snacks in resealable containers and sanitise their hands if they use the pockets.
More and more details are surfacing about the movie-inspired theme park, which is due to open in 2031 and will be the first Universal park in Europe. When the plans were first confirmed in April this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer jubilantly proclaimed: “It’s going to put Bedford on the map for millions of people – film lovers, people coming here for fun, people building their careers here.”
Now, planning documents related to the project reveal that the theme park will have four zones: the Core Zone, Lake Zone, West Gateway Zone, and the East Gateway Zone.
The Core Zone is tipped to include the main theme park and a 500-room hotel. The Lake Zone will include a new wetland area and a 2,000-room business hotel, while the East Gateway Zone, is expected to adjoin the planned new Wixams Rail Station. The West Gateway Zone is due to feature an entertainment complex, restaurants, petrol station.
Hyperia ride at Thorpe Park is currently the UK’s tallest rollercoaster
The plans describe the theme park as providing guests with the opportunity to “experience blockbuster attractions, adrenaline-pumping coasters, and mind-blowing spectaculars.”
It has been rumoured that inspiration for parts of the park could come from Minions, Jaws, and Jurassic Park. However, this has not yet been officially confirmed. Back in April, a source close to the Universal UK project told the BBC that James Bond, Paddington, and The Lord of the Rings are among the brands that could appear at the park. Rides and attractions related to Harry Potter are not expected to be included.
Other Universal theme parks feature a variety of themed lands, including: Hollywood, Minion Land, New York, San Francisco, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, World Expo, Springfield, and DreamWorks Land.
Planning documents unveiled this month also show that the UK park could have some of the tallest rides in Europe. The American film production and distribution company is considering building structures reaching up to 377 ft (115 m), including rides.
“The reason for proposing structures up to this maximum height is to allow the proposed theme park to compete with other attractions in Europe,” the proposal said.
“Although the Universal Orlando Resort does not currently have attractions up to this height, taller attractions are more common in Europe, where rides need to be taller to create the experience, as space is more constrained.”
Currently, Thorpe Park’s Hyperia is the tallest and fastest theme park ride in Britain. It sends thrill-seekers up to 72 m and reaches speeds of 80 mph. Red Force, a 367-foot (112 m) rollercoaster at PortAventura World in Spain, is currently the tallest in Europe.
The majority of the park’s structures will be between 20 and 30 m tall. “Building attractions that are higher, rather than over greater areas, also makes the best use of land, which is in line with planning policy,” they added.
Sir Keir lauded the landmark Universal deal as a promise of “growth, jobs and of course joy to Britain.” By 2055, Universal envisions the 476-acre site near Bedford contributing nearly £50 billion to the economy, with plans for a 500-room hotel and a comprehensive retail and entertainment complex accompanying the theme park.
Fiona Phillips has sensationally revealed that she had secretly split from her husband Martin Frizell as tension grew in their marriage before Alzheimer’s diagnosis
10:22, 06 Jul 2025Updated 10:22, 06 Jul 2025
Fiona Phillips and husband Martin Frizell share sofa on breakfast TV(Image: Press Association)
To the outside world, Fiona Phillips’ marriage was nothing short of perfect. But now, the former breakfast TV presenter has revealed that her relationship was anything but a happy one as Alzheimer’s disease was starting to take its toll on her and her family – unknowingly.
The relationship between Fiona, 64 and her husband – former This Morning producer Martin Frizell – had broken down beyond repair as she recalled the moment he announced he was moving out of their family home.
In a first person piece for the Mail On Sunday, the TV star, who was one of the main presenters of GMTV, opened up on the fact she was not aware she had developed the disease which had taken both her parents.
Fiona Phillips and husband Martin Frizell attend the funeral of Derek Draper the husband of Kate Garraway(Image: PA)
In the run up to their secret separation, Fiona explained that she was in denial over the fact she was experiencing the initial symptoms of the disease and put it down to the menopause instead.
Their marriage became more and more fractured as Martin felt Fiona was becoming increasingly distant from him and their children and their arguments were becoming far too regular.
Fiona explained: “Was I worried that there might be something sinister lurking beneath the surface? That Alzheimer’s could one day be coming for me too? “
She added: “On one level I did think I would get the disease, but there was also another part of me that was in a strange sort of denial about it all. This illness has devastated so much of my life already, surely it’s not going to come for me too?’ I’d tell friends.”
Fiona Phillips was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2023(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Prince of Egypt)
Fiona went onto reveal that she’s sure that the disease was “at least partly responsible” for her marriage breaking down but that neither she nor Martin could see that. She became “more and more disconnected” from her family, with Martin accusing her of zoning out of their marriage.
She said: “But, if I’m honest, I think he was right. I just didn’t seem to have the energy for any of it any more. I didn’t realise quite how seriously Martin felt about it all until one evening he announced he was moving out.”
In that moment, Fiona did not believe that her marriage was completely over, in fact she said that she felt he was simply “trying to shock me into behaving differently”.
They had separated for three weeks before they started to exchange text messages between each other and then arranged to meet at a hotel in Hampshire, in a desperate bid to save their marriage.
They reconciled their differences but Fiona recalled that she was still suffering with the same symptoms. In 2023, at the age of 62, Fiona revealed that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Charlotte Lynch is a woman of many passions – from football and teaching to acting and singing. But the defender has faced hardship on her way to the spotlight.
07:00, 05 Jul 2025Updated 09:55, 05 Jul 2025
She’s one of the breakout stars of CBeebies’ Football Fantastics and nurtures a friendship with an Emmerdale legend, but Charlotte Lynch admits she’s sometimes felt “excluded” during her journey to the limelight.
Behind the big names is former Millwall and Leyton Orient player Charlotte Lynch – a talent who’s been quietly going from strength to strength.
Charlotte uses her voice to make football feel accessible to everyone, and shares joyful messages filled with hope on Instagram. “I couldn’t find a team growing up so I felt excluded,” she says. “When my brother played for a boys’ team, my mum asked the coach if I could join.
“Eventually, I played for the boys but I was the only girl. You get side-eyed and whispers. But, if it’s something you’re passionate about, you really have to push through.”
Luckily, things have changed. “I want people to know they are welcome,” she says. “You don’t have to play at an elite level but you can get involved. I’m not better than anyone. I’m a footballer and you can be one, too, if you want to!”
Her advice? “Take a risk on the things you’re passionate about – you never know where it could take you.” Now, she’s bagged her first major role on the small screen, and it feels like everything is falling into place.
Football Fantastics follows a group of children who meet every weekend to play football(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
The new children’s comedy show kicks off the BBC’s Summer of Sport and the Women’s Euros. Set in Ripon, North Yorkshire, the show follows a group of lovable children who meet every weekend for their local football group, where friendships are made and epic adventures unfold.
With cameos from household names, catchy songs and big laughs, it was a no-brainer for Charlotte. “I received the email from the casting team and instantly felt a connection,” Charlotte says. “I really wanted this job. It’s so wholesome, which I love. Everyone can watch it.”
On the pitch, she’s a versatile defender – and off it, a qualified teacher with a sharp mind for sports science and biomechanics. “I’ve been coaching since I graduated from university,” she says. Charlotte has even founded her own girls’ football teams in schools, so when the audition came around, she gave it everything.
“I wore all my football gear, I had my equipment, I had cones, and I just put everything into this audition to give me the best chance of getting the job,” she recalls. “This felt like a perfect fit.”
This fun and heart-warming series features a star-studded cast – including an Emmerdale icon(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
In Football Fantastics , Charlotte plays coach Georgie, a footie fanatic. “She’s reliable, honest. Nothing is ever too much or a problem. She has all the patience in the world and a genuine love for children,” Charlotte says. But there’s more to the character than warmth and encouragement.
She adds, “I show a few skills. There’s some comedy, a little bit of sarcasm and life lessons.” Filming in Ripon was mostly smooth sailing, although living in a hotel room for two months and facing early mornings wasn’t her cup of tea.
“I’m not a morning person,” she confesses. “But it didn’t feel like it was hard because I was so in love with what I was doing. We were all well taken care of and there were footballs on set, so I felt very comfortable.”
She also bonded with some well-known faces, including Eva Fontaine and Emmerdale star Samantha Giles. “I was able to ask them how they prepared. There was a family vibe to the show, it felt very warm and welcoming,” says Charlotte.
Charlotte Lynch, Ollie Watkins, Jill Scott and Beth Mead are some of the big football names fronting the new programme as the Women’s Euro gets underway(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
“Samantha was my next door neighbour in the trailers. We’d meet at the snack table and chat. She was so easy to speak to and I absorbed everything.”
But don’t be fooled – acting isn’t new to Charlotte. Her love for performing was nurtured by her mum, who was also her school head teacher.
“She was passionate about bringing out your talents and abilities,” Charlotte says. She took part in school plays and later appeared in Remi R.M. Moses’ short film Saving Art (2023) as a nurse.
“I did commercials and body doubling, so I was quite familiar with what a set looks like, but acting on TV is a longer-term thing, and these amazing actors helped me.”
She has other talents, too, as Charlotte is also a singer, performing in her church choir, at her brother’s wedding – and even releasing tracks on Spotify.
“I took a break after moving on to football but I’m going to go back to the studio,” she says. However, football remains top of her list. “I’m going to play until I’m 100,” she says. “You can play at any age – you just need a team that suits your needs.”
Celebs Go Dating coach Anna Williamson spoke to the Mirror about parenting amid concerns over technology and social media after hosting the Great British Phone Switch
10:00, 05 Jul 2025Updated 15:08, 05 Jul 2025
Anna Williamson spoke to the Mirror about her approach to parenting recently(Image: James Rudland)
Anna Williamson has opened up her approach to parenting, including revealing some of the rules that are in place within her home. The Celebs Go Dating coach offered advice to other parents whilst discussing her own experience.
The life coach and presenter, 43, has two children with her husband Alex Di Pasquale, 36. The couple, who have now been together for more than a decade, are parents to an eight-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter together.
Anna Williamson fronts the Great British Phone Switch, which sees parents swap digital lives with their children for a weekend(Image: Channel 4)
Anna spoke to the Mirror about her family earlier this week whilst reflecting on the Great British Phone Swap. The Channel 4 show, in partnership with Tesco Mobile, sees parents swap phone habits with their children for 48 hours.
Fronted by Anna and clinical psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado, the experiment explores topics including online safety and the use of AI. Each parent and child duo left the experience with a set of goals for their family, such as scheduled time away from devices and weekly check-ins.
Asked her main takeaway, Anna said it was “boundaries” and having “healthy, open communication”. “Boundaries being time when you are not on your phone and I think we found that was really beneficial for all families,” she added.
The show also saw parents introduced to their kids’ lives on platforms like TikTok. Anna said: “When [they] lent into the teenager’s worlds, they were actually less fearful about what was happening because they understood it better.”
Although her own kids aren’t on social media, Anna revealed that her eldest child is now starting to ask when he will be allowed a phone. She shared that even though he doesn’t have one yet, she’s already using parental control on games and apps that he’s interested in on another device.
Concerns over screen time were raised on the Great British Phone Swap and Anna teased that she can relate to the other parents. Asked what the dynamic is like in her family, she told us: “We’re always fighting against screen time in my house but very much we try and lead from example.”
Anna said it’s “very difficult” as a parent because “a lot of our work nowadays is online”. She said that can be tough to convey to kids, who may interpret their parents being on devices as them playing a game or browsing social media.
Although that may sometimes be the case, Anna encourages leading by example. She said in our interview: “The approach of ‘just do it because I said,’ it doesn’t really wash because you’re typically gonna get a child that will rebel. They won’t trust you, they won’t lean in to you, they won’t talk to you and they will just do it anyway.”
Anna said that she tries to make sure that her own devices are away as much as possible between the time that she picks her kids up from school and their bedtime. She then explained: “I might jump on later on and reply to emails and do a lot of my messaging after that.”
She said that as a result when she’s trying to get her kids off their devices they know that she’s “boundaried” with her own. Anna revealed that her kids get an hour of screen time each per day, which they can use when they want.
Anna said their allowance could be used before or after school, through “approved apps” or “things they wanna watch”. She said that her son may choose to use his hour altogether on completing a video game level, for example, rather than taking it in scattered periods over the day.
The presenter, who has two children, spoke to the Mirror recently about her own family’s approach to screen time following the experience(Image: annawilliamson/Instagram)
“It’s teaching your children that they do have a choice but they have a choice within your boundaries,” Anna said. Summarising her approach, she added: “So we try and keep reduced screen time. We do have parental controls. I do keep a very close eye on what my children are watching.”
Anna went on to discuss one participant in the show having suggested that their generation spent time outside, rather than playing on devices, as children. The podcast host however said that it’s the “reality” of the world we live in now.
She said: “I do think that we have to accept where we are. We always evolve, we have to evolve. […] I think as we portray in the Great British Phone Switch phones aren’t a bad thing. Tech isn’t a bad thing. But it’s about consuming the right things on it and that’s the important thing here.”
Anna, who said that parents are “always grappling” with issues like screen time and whether to let their children have a phone, told us that she doesn’t support banning technology at home. She said: “What I always say is that banning it completely I don’t believe is a particularly useful or helpful idea in the long run.”
She explained: “Because what you ban, you’re not teaching someone to use it sensibly. The analogy being; you wouldn’t just stick a 17 year old out in a car without giving them driving lessons to teach them how to drive it safely.”
Anna suggested that the same benefits apply to technology. She said: “It’s exactly the same with tech – you need to teach your children how to navigate it. Where the pitfalls are, where the hazards are, where the safe spaces are.”
Anna, who shares her kids with her husband Alex Di Pasquale, revealed that she doesn’t think banning technology at home is ‘particularly useful or helpful’(Image: annawilliamson/Instagram)
She added that banning it completely doesn’t give kids the “skills” and the “tools” that they need in the modern world. Anna however suggested that it doesn’t mean children should have no restrictions when it comes to using devices.
“The heavy caveat is to not be consumed by it and to make sure there are other things going on in your life that are face-to-face,” she said. “Making sure that those interpersonal skills are just as acute as their digital skills.”
Anna also shared that she isn’t letting her kids on social media at the moment and opened up about no longer showing their faces on her own Instagram. She recalled making the decision a few years ago when she “became increasingly aware around consent”. She said that although her job in the public eye is a choice that she has made, the same can’t be said for her kids.
“I didn’t want my children to be in a position where they thought I’d made the wrong decision for them,” she said. Anna went on to say: “I’m not shading anyone that does choose to share their children or their families online. I think everyone makes the right choice for them and their family.”
All five episodes of the Great British Phone Swap are available now through Channel 4.
Charlotte Lynch is a woman of many passions – from football and teaching to acting and singing. But the defender has faced hardship on her way to the spotlight.
She’s one of the breakout stars of CBeebies’ Football Fantastics and nurtures a friendship with an Emmerdale legend, but Charlotte Lynch admits she’s sometimes felt “excluded” during her journey to the limelight.
Behind the big names is former Millwall and Leyton Orient player Charlotte Lynch – a talent who’s been quietly going from strength to strength.
Charlotte uses her voice to make football feel accessible to everyone, and shares joyful messages filled with hope on Instagram. “I couldn’t find a team growing up so I felt excluded,” she says. “When my brother played for a boys’ team, my mum asked the coach if I could join.
“Eventually, I played for the boys but I was the only girl. You get side-eyed and whispers. But, if it’s something you’re passionate about, you really have to push through.”
Luckily, things have changed. “I want people to know they are welcome,” she says. “You don’t have to play at an elite level but you can get involved. I’m not better than anyone. I’m a footballer and you can be one, too, if you want to!”
Her advice? “Take a risk on the things you’re passionate about – you never know where it could take you.” Now, she’s bagged her first major role on the small screen, and it feels like everything is falling into place.
Football Fantastics follows a group of children who meet every weekend to play football(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
The new children’s comedy show kicks off the BBC’s Summer of Sport and the Women’s Euros. Set in Ripon, North Yorkshire, the show follows a group of lovable children who meet every weekend for their local football group, where friendships are made and epic adventures unfold.
With cameos from household names, catchy songs and big laughs, it was a no-brainer for Charlotte. “I received the email from the casting team and instantly felt a connection,” Charlotte says. “I really wanted this job. It’s so wholesome, which I love. Everyone can watch it.”
On the pitch, she’s a versatile defender – and off it, a qualified teacher with a sharp mind for sports science and biomechanics. “I’ve been coaching since I graduated from university,” she says. Charlotte has even founded her own girls’ football teams in schools, so when the audition came around, she gave it everything.
“I wore all my football gear, I had my equipment, I had cones, and I just put everything into this audition to give me the best chance of getting the job,” she recalls. “This felt like a perfect fit.”
This fun and heart-warming series features a star-studded cast – including an Emmerdale icon(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
In Football Fantastics , Charlotte plays coach Georgie, a footie fanatic. “She’s reliable, honest. Nothing is ever too much or a problem. She has all the patience in the world and a genuine love for children,” Charlotte says. But there’s more to the character than warmth and encouragement.
She adds, “I show a few skills. There’s some comedy, a little bit of sarcasm and life lessons.” Filming in Ripon was mostly smooth sailing, although living in a hotel room for two months and facing early mornings wasn’t her cup of tea.
“I’m not a morning person,” she confesses. “But it didn’t feel like it was hard because I was so in love with what I was doing. We were all well taken care of and there were footballs on set, so I felt very comfortable.”
She also bonded with some well-known faces, including Eva Fontaine and Emmerdale star Samantha Giles. “I was able to ask them how they prepared. There was a family vibe to the show, it felt very warm and welcoming,” says Charlotte.
Charlotte Lynch, Ollie Watkins, Jill Scott and Beth Mead are some of the big football names fronting the new programme as the Women’s Euro gets underway(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
“Samantha was my next door neighbour in the trailers. We’d meet at the snack table and chat. She was so easy to speak to and I absorbed everything.”
But don’t be fooled – acting isn’t new to Charlotte. Her love for performing was nurtured by her mum, who was also her school head teacher.
“She was passionate about bringing out your talents and abilities,” Charlotte says. She took part in school plays and later appeared in Remi R.M. Moses’ short film Saving Art (2023) as a nurse.
“I did commercials and body doubling, so I was quite familiar with what a set looks like, but acting on TV is a longer-term thing, and these amazing actors helped me.”
She has other talents, too, as Charlotte is also a singer, performing in her church choir, at her brother’s wedding – and even releasing tracks on Spotify.
“I took a break after moving on to football but I’m going to go back to the studio,” she says. However, football remains top of her list. “I’m going to play until I’m 100,” she says. “You can play at any age – you just need a team that suits your needs.”
Strictly Come Dancing star, Dan Walker, has broken his silence after leaving viewers concerned following his lengthy absence from Channel 5 News and Classic FM
Presenter, Dan Walker, has assured fans there is nothing to worry about after taking leave from his Channel 5 News and Classic FM shows. The former Football Focus host, 48, is one of the nation’s most recognisable presenters and is usually on our screens weeknights on Channel 5 and on the radio on Sunday for Classic FM.
However, Dan has recently been absent from both programmes, prompting viewers to express their concern. Revealing the real reason for his mysterious disappearance, he took to Instagram, saying the “answer is twofold”. Explaining that he’d been on a family holiday as well as filming a new show for Channel 5, he said, sitting in his car: “Hello, I’ve been asked by quite a few people if I’ve left Channel 5 and why I’ve disappeared from Classic FM. The answer is twofold.”
Dan Walker usually presents Channel 5 News on weeknights
Dan continued: “First is, I’m on holiday with the family for a couple of weeks and the second is that I’m filming a new series for Channel 5, which you should be able to see I think in September, which I can’t tell you too much about but it’s going to be great fun.
“So that’s why I’ve not been on the telly. The radio I’ll be back on Monday and I’ll be back on 5 News in a couple of weeks time once I’ve finished filming the series.
“There you go, that’s the answer, it looks like the lovely weather is over, the rain has returned, have a great day.”
BBC Breakfast viewers were stunned when Dan jumped shipped and headed over to Channel 5 in 2022. Dan had been at the helm on the red sofa at the Beeb since 2016, but decided it was time for a change – as well as a lie-in.
Speaking on This Morning, he admitted he used to “cry in the toilets” while at the BBC as he opened up about his tough schedule. Talking to hosts Dermot O’Leary and Josie Gibson, he said: “When I used to do BBC Breakfast, you know what it’s like. If that alarm goes off at three that’s far too early, that’s flight to Spain time isn’t it.
“I get up now about 5.30am/ 5.45am, which is essentially a lie in and I feel great, I feel refreshed and I really enjoy the job I do.”
He continued: “By Wednesday I was, like, full zombie mode. And also you get really emotional. By Wednesday I was like, end of the show, you are like, in the toilets just crying.
“Anything sets you off. Someone says something nice about your trousers and you are like [fake cries]. Not everyday, but I think you just get a little bit emotional when you are sleep-deprived.”
Dan went on to bag a reported £1.5million deal with Channel 5 to host it’s nightly news programme in 2022.
He made the announcement posting a short video on Twitter, now X, with the caption: “Here we go. See you next Monday at 5, on 5.
“It’s great to be joining Channel 5, but news is never about who sits in the chair. It’s the stories that matter most from a team you can trust.”
Nobody wants to experience turbulence on a plane but according to one pilot there’s a key mistake that people make which could make the experience even scarier
Turbulence can be scary but it isn’t always dangerous(Image: Getty Images/Westend61)
Turbulence during a flight can be quite scary for passengers, but one pilot has revealed that there are three key mistakes flyers make on planes that can actually make it a lot worse.
Although it can feel stomach-churning, in the majority of cases, turbulence isn’t actually dangerous and usually just means you’ll have a few spilled drinks or dropped belongings. However, according to one pilot, passengers who ignore one warning could actually be putting themselves in harm’s way.
Retired commercial airline pilot Richard Wells, 54, revealed that people often unbuckle their seatbelt just because the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign is off. He told Ski Vertigo: “Just because the light’s off doesn’t mean it’s smooth flying. I’ve seen passengers thrown upwards during sudden drops because they weren’t strapped in.”
Turbulence occurs when the aircraft hits strong wind currents that can push or pull the plane. Most of the time it can be detected by radars, but there is also ‘clear air turbulence’ that isn’t picked up, and therefore can occur without warning even when skies appear fine. So if you don’t have your seatbelt buckled, you may get thrown around more than your fellow travellers.
There are ways to keep yourself as safe as possible during a bumpy flight(Image: Getty Images)
This is why most pilots recommend keeping your seatbelt loosely fastened at all times when seated, not just during turbulence or announcements. In fact, data shows that the majority of turbulence-related injuries involve passengers or crew who weren’t secured.
Unsurprisingly, getting out of your seat during turbulence is not recommended, but some people still choose to ignore the warnings to go to the toilet, or get something out from the overheard lockers.
Richard warned: “If the seatbelt sign is on, don’t get up—no matter how quick you think it’ll be. We’ve had people lose their balance, fall into others, or get hit by objects falling from the compartments.” If you need to move, for example for a medical reasons, he recommends waiting for the crew’s guidance.
Of course when turbulence does happen it can be terrifying, but panicking won’t help. In fact, it could make the experience that little bit worse for you. “Turbulence feels dramatic, but planes are built to handle it. It’s no more than a bump in the road, structurally,” Richard explained.
“When passengers scream or panic, it creates unnecessary tension throughout the cabin.” He suggests breathing deeply, relaxing your posture, and distracting yourself with music, a book or light conversation. In more severe turbulence, brace gently against the seat in front if advised, and always follow crew instructions.
Ultimately, if you’ve got your seatbelt fastened and you listen to the crew, it can keep any stress to a minimum. If you do face a bumpy ride, it doesn’t mean you need to instantly worry. “Planes are engineered for far worse than the turbulence most passengers experience,” Richard reassured. “It’s not dangerous, it’s discomforting. The key is staying buckled and level-headed.”
Have you experienced scary turbulence on a flight? Email us at [email protected]
American Apparel’s billboards were hard to miss when traversing Los Angeles in the 2000s. The ubiquitous ads for the L.A.-based clothing company featured gritty, amateurish photos of seemingly ordinary young women, posed suggestively, in various states of undress. As for the clothing, there wasn’t much of it. A tube sock here, a thong there. American Apparel’s apparel clearly wasn’t the draw.
The underage appearance of the models was disturbing but not entirely shocking given the controversial Calvin Klein ads over previous decades, and by the year 2000, Britney Spears’ schoolgirl-meets-stripper-pole routine in her “Oops! … I Did it Again” video was popular with tweens and moms alike. Yet there was something about the voyeuristic, predatory nature of American Appeal’s ad campaign that felt different, worse, beyond exploitative.
“Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel,” a documentary now streaming on Netflix, explains why those billboards felt more like criminal evidence than sexy ads. The 54-minute film breaks down what was happening on the other side of the camera at the company, led by problematic founder and CEO Dov Charney, and there’s nothing hip or fashionable about the abuse chronicled in it, which features footage, research and firsthand accounts from former employees.
Dov Charney founded American Apparel and was its CEO until he was fired after allegations of misconduct.
(Netflix)
The doc is part of a Netflix series that touches on messy, disastrous events, brands and people such as the Balloon Boy scandal and the so-called Poop Cruise. High-end stuff it’s not, and this installment of the series isn’t nuanced or long enough to be an in-depth exploration of a troubled company and its volatile founder. It does, however, lay bare an abusive culture at American Apparel and how Charney — who shot many of the ads himself — turned his own alleged regressions into a wildly successful branding campaign.
The documentary tracks the rise and fall of American Apparel and its CEO from the company’s inception in 1989 to it becoming one of the largest garment manufacturers in the United States until its bankruptcy in 2015. Reimagining plain sweatshirts and other wardrobe basics as hip alternatives to blingy jeans and gawdy UGG boots, the L.A.-made clothing was promoted as “Ethically Made — Sweatshop Free.” It later garnered the unofficial title of indie sleaze, just in time to resonate across a new thing called social media.
Charney is seen in action through reams of footage captured by employees and others in his orbit. Former workers tell their stories, recalling how they were hired or advanced into management positions despite having no experience. One recalls how new hires at the company received a welcome gift box that included a vibrator, a book by Robert Greene titled “The 48 Laws of Power,” a Leica camera and a Blackberry so Charney could contact them 24/7. They were also asked to sign nondisclosure agreements which would later make it difficult to hold Charney accountable for alleged misconduct.
EJ and Jonny are among the former American Apparel employees interviewed in the documentary.(Netflix)
Footage shows Charney as a wiry, supercharged figure who frequently berated his staff as “losers” and worse. He housed chosen employees at his Silver Lake mansion, the Garbutt House, and they included a gaggle of young women whose roles seemed to be as surrogates and enforcers for Charney — workers referred to them as Dov’s Girls. Then in his 40s, he’s shown verbally accosting young employees, some of whom were teenagers at the time. At least one clip captures him parading around naked in front of two female employees.
After defining fashion for roughly a decade, the thriving company began to nosedive by the 2010s as news of Charney’s inappropriate behavior and oppressive conditions in the workplace surfaced. He was accused of mistreating young employees in the company’s stores and offices, as well as exploiting undocumented employees in the factory, but it was allegations of sexual misconduct and assault in the workplace that made headlines, leading to his ouster as CEO. Women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Charney are interviewed in the documentary.
Charney did not disappear after his fall from grace. He founded another clothing manufacturer, Los Angeles Apparel, and he reportedly works on Yeezy, the fashion brand created by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Rolling Stone reported that Charney printed West’s controversial “White Lives Matter” T-shirt.
As for American Apparel, it was bought by a Canadian clothing company that relaunched the brand shortly before the pandemic. The clothes are no longer made in L.A., but curiously, the indie sleaze billboard campaign has returned to the city. It’s disturbing in a throwback kind of way, pointing to a time when pedo-marketing was king, and the creepy folks behind the ads were heralded as marketing geniuses.
Emmerdale spoilers alluded to Dr Crowley being the one harassing Joe Tate on the ITV soap with the help of his accomplice Shaun, but Tuesday’s episode may have teased it’s someone else
19:55, 01 Jul 2025Updated 20:07, 01 Jul 2025
There was a big hint on Emmerdale on Tuesday about who could be targeting Joe Tate(Image: ITV)
There was a big hint on Emmerdale on Tuesday about who could be targeting Joe Tate, amid spoilers appearing to reveal all.
But amid new images and teasers revealing Shaun attacks Joe before Dr Crowley returns, wanting revenge, a scene in the latest episode hinted it was someone else out to get him. Joe’s made a number of enemies since his return, one being his uncle Caleb Miligan.
Joe had Caleb stabbed so he could steal his kidney, needing a transplant to survive after a chronic kidney disease diagnosis. Instead of asking for a donor he decided to steal Caleb’s kidney with the help of Crowley, who he paid a lot of money to keep him alive.
Things took a turn though when Joe got Shaun to stage a car theft and stab Caleb, with Joe then bringing his uncle to the place where Crowley would perform the operation. Crowley was mortified at the state of Caleb and had to battle to save his life, before giving Joe the organ.
Weeks on from this, the drama with Caleb as well as Joe’s other shenanigans came out, and Dawn Taylor shoved him from a window. With Joe still public enemy number one, he’s realised someone is targeting him.
Emmerdale spoilers alluded to Dr Crowley being the one harassing Joe Tate(Image: ITV)
From keying his car, his medication going missing and his window being left open, to someone leaving him a sinister note, Joe is convinced Billy Fletcher could be to blame. Things escalate next week when a blackmail demand is made, before a terrifying incident unfolds.
Back to this week though, and a scene on Tuesday may hint that someone else is targeting Joe asides Crowley and Shaun. perhaps they’re even working together, ahead of the revenge drama next week.
Caleb Miligan showed up randomly at Home Farm in the latest episode, and he was acting strangely. He kept insisting on speaking with Kim Tate, saying he needed to see her and only her.
After a run-in with Joe, he noticed Shaun and asked who he was. Caleb began asking Shaun questions, saying he recognised his voice. Wanting to know who he was and why he was there, Caleb kept pressing for answers.
Joe had Caleb stabbed so he could steal his kidney(Image: ITV)
Shaun feared he was about to be exposed as his attacker, but Caleb left before this happened. Shaun fumed at Joe and vowed to leave, not wanting to stick around long enough for Caleb to work out the truth.
But given Caleb’s weird behaviour and random appearance, could he be out to get Joe? Might he be working with someone like Crowley to get his own revenge?
Spoilers have not revealed what happens to Joe or what it is Crowley is after. But with him set to loom over the character in a makeshift hospital, could Joe regret ever being in cahoots with him?
Emmerdale’s Robert Sugden featured in a huge twist with new villain Ray on the ITV soap on Tuesday night, and it won’t end well for Mackenzie Boyd or Ross Barton
20:00, 01 Jul 2025Updated 20:08, 01 Jul 2025
Emmerdale’s new villain Ray made his debut leading to a twist(Image: ITV)
There was a dangerous new alliance on Emmerdale on Tuesday night, as new villain Ray made his debut – and it’s bad luck for Ross Barton.
As the character arrived claiming to be an acquaintance of Mackenzie Boyd, he suggested he was selling farm machinery and wanted to see if he was interested. But soon his real agenda became clear when he was shown the weed crops that were stashed in the barn.
Ross, his brother Lewis Barton, who owns the cannabis and has been harvesting it for a while, and Mack were secretly hiding the crops there with a plan to sell it for money. With Moira Dingle’s farm facing closure and the family in crisis, Mack blamed himself for his sister’s situation and wanted to raise the funds.
But he left Ross and Lewis furious when he secretly told Ray about the crops and took him to see them. Lewis refused to sell to him, with it soon clear Ray was a dealer.
As the end of the episode approached though, the crops vanished and one person was thought to be to blame. Ross accused Mack, believing he’d stolen them and sold them onto Ray like he’d initially suggested.
There was a dangerous new alliance on Emmerdale on Tuesday night(Image: ITV)
But Mack protested his innocence and insisted he had nothing to do with it. Ross didn’t believe him, with Mack saying he planned to take it but had cold feet.
He told Ross to call Ray from his phone knowing he’d prove he was innocent, before he then showed him messages that showed he was not in contact with the dealer all day. They both then feared Lewis had actually fled to Leeds with the crops to sell them on.
But when Lewis returned home Ross asked him about it, and he had no idea what he was talking about. Ross then had to explain the weed was gone, leaving his sibling horrified.
As Lewis questioned whether Mack was to blame wanting answers, Ross shared his determination to track down the real culprit. But soon enough the camera panned to Ray who was asking someone about selling drugs, and soon we saw the stolen crops in the back of a van.
Emmerdale’s Robert Sugden featured in a huge twist with new villain Ray(Image: ITV)
It was none other than Robert Sugden who then stepped forward and was confirmed to be the person who stole the drugs and then sold them for a huge amount to Ray without telling Lewis, Mack or Ross. He’d come across the weed while working on the farm, before selling them on for the cash.
He told Ray there would be no other dealings, most likely because Lewis now had nothing left. Then he made it clear he planned to “cause mayhem” wanting to use the money to do so, so what does he have up his sleeve?
Either way, it’s bad news for Ross as his relationship with Lewis is now at risk because of the whole drama, and him getting Mack involved – leading to Ray and Robert being able to steal everything. Ross is also set to face drama when he confronts Robert about the theft, with Robert threatening to ditch his deal with Moira as a result – so will Ross bring more trouble to Moira’s door?
Kelli Hollis, who played Ali Spencer on ITV show Emmerdale, has given up on acting for a new life in Asia and has detailed exactly how much the stars can earn
Kelli Hollis has explained how much many soap stars can expect to earn in a year(Image: Getty Images)
Former Emmerdale regular Kelli Hollis has revealed how much you can expect to earn being a soap star.
The one-time actress, 49, is now living a very different life in Thailand where she runs her own ‘weed bar’ having vowed to never return to the UK after finding happiness in Asia. But she has been answering questions from fans – and nothing was off limits.
Kelli, who played Ali Spencer on the ITV show until 2018, was grilled by a followier on social media, and didn’t shy away when the questions turned to her salary. She broke down the contracts and how much you can expect to make being on Emmerdale and other soaps.
“On Emmerdale I explained that you get an episode fee and you’re guaranteed so many episodes a year,” she said. “So if we’re saying roughly £500 and up [per episode], and you were contracted to do 90 [episodes, that’s 45k, it’s obviously a good wage.
Former Emmerdale star Kelli played Ali Spencer on the ITV soap(Image: TV Grab)
“But it’s not like the ‘rich, rich’ you’d think famous actors would be earning. Now, that’s that sort of middle of the road [salary]. I’m not going to lie when I was at Emmerdale to my knowledge, one of the highest paid actors was on a thousand pound episodes.”
The former soap star went on to say that you “never know for sure” what your co-stars earn because “everybody was paid differently”. But it’s not all good news, and she divulged: “So, yeah, it would only be 45, but then you get a buyout, which is pretty much the same as your wage, so I’ll top that up to 90.
“Then, you’ve got the agent’s commission, which is usually 12 and a half percent,” she said. “And because you’re self-employed, you have to put 40 [per cent] away for tax.” Kelli still keeps in touch with her former colleagues and cherishes her time on the show.
The former soap star admitted that while she misses her the UK, she has no plans to move home and can’t see herself back in the rat race. “I am never coming home, never going home. Obviously, I miss England and there are aspects of my life there like I have two grown-up children at home and a grandson.
“But you only live once and I have learned that a lot over the last few years, losing friends to things and my friend losing a child and it just makes you access a lot of things in your life.
“You just have to do what you have to do because you are not promised tomorrow are you? My mentality now is I am nearly 50 f*** it will just do it. There is no point having that ‘oh god I can’t do this and I can’t do that’ attitude. I have been so fortunate in my life that opportunities have come my way,” she told the Daily Star.
“I remember being at a friend’s house in Beeston and I am not going to name them because I don’t know where they are now or what they are doing so I won’t grass them up,” she said.
“It was 20 odd years ago, oh god, it would be more than 20 odd years ago, but I just remember being about 15 and being at a friend’s house and I already had started smoking with mates in the park and all that. I remember it being hash that you burn and I just remember a lot of blistered fingers and a lot of holes in my clothes.”
Kelli shared her story: “I was just smoking a little bit here and there but as a youngster, I would never have been a big heavy smoker. I actually don’t like the feeling of being stoned and I know some people do.”
June 29 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said a group of “very wealthy people” wants to buy the Chinese-owned TikTok social media app that is facing a ban in the United States.
During an interview Friday with Maria Bartiromo that appeared Sunday on Fox News, Trump said, “We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” declining to name the potential buyers.
“I’ll tell you in about two weeks,” he added.
The president said he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping “will probably” approve the deal for U.S. ownership of the video service, which was founded in September 2016.
President Joe Biden signed a law in 2024 requiring TikTok to be blocked in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold it to a non-Chinese company over concerns that sensitive user data could be acquired by the Chinese government.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously on Jan. 17 that TikTok must be banned from U.S. app stores unless the company divested from the platform and sold to an American company by Jan. 19.
Biden said he didn’t want to intervene in the final days of his presidency, the app went dark around 10:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 18 and the app ceased to appear on Apple and Google‘s app stores.
The 170 million U.S. users and around 1 million creators lost access to the app for at least one day of the 23 million new videos uploaded daily. Those using the app spend about an hour a day looking at some of the 23 million new clips uploaded daily, with teens using it for 2-3 hours a day, according to Exploding Topics.
But the next day, the company restored service after Donald Trump said he would pause the deadline for 75 days when he was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, and signed an executive order to do so on his first day in office. He has since pushed off the deadline two more times, with it now delayed until Sept. 17.
In April, the White House said it was close to a deal in which 50% of the app would be owned by an American company. Negotiations ended when Trump announced tariffs on goods coming from China to the United States. Trump proposed 134% tariffs on most goods but it has been scaled back to 30% for some items exempt.
During his first presidency, on Aug. 6, 2020, Trump signed an executive order “action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok” from China.
Trump later credited TikTok with gaining more young voters in the 2024 election and seemed to soften on his stance. ByteDance has also been reluctant to turn over rights to the app’s algorithm.
It is the fifth-most social network with 1.6 billion users in the world behind Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to Statistica.
In April, Adweek compiled a list of suitors for U.S. rights, including Applovin, Amazon, Oracle, Blackstone and Andreessen Horowitz. None confirmed negotiations to Addwek.
“It does not feel like these are serious bids for TikTok,” David Arslanian, managing director of Progress Partners, told Adweek. “It is hard to imagine any of these companies, like Amazon and Oracle, successfully operating just a piece of TikTok.”
Coronation Street’s latest episode confirmed Gary Windass was in a coma amid a brutal mystery attack, but amid Nina Lucas fearing she’d done something, is someone else to blame?
Coronation Street may have ruled out Nina and Summer as Gary’s attacker(Image: ITV)
Gary Windass’ attack on Coronation Street will be hot topic as fans try to figure out what happened to him and who did the crime.
But perhaps two people have been ruled out despite it being heavily hinted they are involved. Gary was revealed to be in a coma in hospital during Friday’s episode of the ITV soap.
Prior to now it was thought he’d been staying with his mother Anna Windass away from Weatherfield, but when he didn’t return home his wife Maria Connor was concerned. Then on Friday Maria got a text message from ‘Gary’ stating he was fine and at a mate’s house, and would be home soon.
Of course new information has come to light though that could well suggest Gary has been in a coma for days, and therefore did not send that message. Well of course he didn’t send the text, as by the end of the episode we saw him in hospital and unconscious.
So whoever attacked Gary must have his phone, and is covering their tracks. New spoilers had teased a cover-up was underway, ahead of Maria reporting Gary as a missing person with the police in upcoming episodes.
Something will make Maria’s blood run cold, sending her to the police station in a bid to find her missing husband. Amid her concern, someone, or more than one person perhaps, knows where he is, and knows what has happened.
Coronation Street’s latest episode confirmed Gary Windass was in a coma(Image: ITV)
As well as keeping the truth from Maria and Gary’s loved ones, the mystery attacker, it’s soon revealed, has told the hospital a fake name for Gary while also claiming to be his next of kin. The attacker is clearly trying to stop the truth from coming up, going to desperate lengths to cover their tracks.
These scenes will be delved into in the coming weeks as the plot continues. But Friday’s episode appeared to confirm that it was Gary who Nina Lucas and Summer Spellman had seen the night they were on drugs.
The girls were high on LSD when something sent them racing to the café, screaming and crying. They soon revealed they’d witnessed something bad, torn over whether to tell the police.
During Friday’s episode Nina broke down to her uncle Roy Cropper, and eventually she explained everything to him and detective Kit Green. We learned that what Summer and Nina had seen was a man “lunging” at them, before Nina pushed him and ran in terror.
She claimed that before they fled the man fell and hit his head. She told Roy there was blood and the man was not moving, but fearing for her safety she and Summer ran away and did not say anything.
Friday’s episode appeared to confirm that it was Gary who Nina Lucas and Summer Spellman had seen the night they were on drugs(Image: ITV)
Now Nina is convinced someone is hurt and it’s her fault, asking Kit if a body had been found or if someone was missing. As no one believed the incident happened Nina struggled, sure that something was going on.
She told Roy she’d hurt someone and that she was determined to find out who. In that moment we saw Gary in hospital, with it alluding that Gary was the man Nina and Summer saw, and that perhaps Nina was the one who attacked him.
But a couple of things clearly rule Nina and Summer out. The fact someone has been posing as Gary and messaging Maria, this cannot be Nina as she has no idea who the man is and if it even happened.
She’s also confessed to everything, struggling with that’s happened too, so for her to send messages or cover up the crime doesn’t make any sense, let alone posing as Gary’s next of kin. The same goes for Summer, and neither of them seem to be aware of the link to Gary.
Gary Windass’ attack on Coronation Street will be hot topic as Maria Connor decides to report her husband as a missing person(Image: ITV)
She also doesn’t seem to be aware the man she saw, Gary, is in hospital, yet the person who attacked him does know he’s there and will likely visit him given the spoilers about what the attacker does to cover up their crime. It just wouldn’t make sense for Nina to be desperate to work out who they are and tell the police, and then secretly know the truth – so who did attack Gary?
Whoever it is must have his phone, and must know he was away from Weatherfield amid their cover story. So far fans have wondered if Gary was robbed or attacked on his way home, or if, given it likely happened around Monday’s episode, someone at the party was involved.
A theory suggests teenager Brody might be to blame after he fled the party, after Gary’s run-in with his dad Mick. Viewers suggested Kit may be covering for Brody, as other fans wondered if Lauren Bolton attacked Gary thinking it was Joel Deering. A further theory suggested Debbie Webster may be to blame after her recent arrest.
Tucked away in Ryanair’s end-of-year results is a clear reason why the Irish carrier is so keen to keep the fee revenue rolling in, with its ancillary revenue reaching a record amount
12:21, 27 Jun 2025Updated 12:33, 27 Jun 2025
Tom Holland found himself enduring a miserable Ryanair experience (Image: Supplied)
Ryanair raked in around £24 in extra revenue from each customer who flew last year.
The budget airline has long been known for its punchy approach to extra fees, slapping on charges for hand-luggage that’s slightly too big, checking in less than two hours before departure and even for bringing a large water bottle on-board, as the Mirror’s Ruby Flanagan recently found out.
One unhappy customer found themselves unable to check-in a bag with Ryanair, despite paying to do so just a minute earlier. He ended up ditching his suitcase in the airport and sprinting to the boarding gate.
The amount Ryanair rakes in from ancillary charges has been revealed (Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Over the most recent full financial year, Ryanair raked in €4.72billion (£4billion) in ‘ancillary revenue’. That means anything extra that passengers pay for, such as excess luggage, seat selection and a cup of coffee. For every one of the 200million passengers who flew with Ryanair last year, they forked out on average £23.80 on top of their ticket.
The figure is a 10% rise on the previous year, when Ryanair scored €4.30billion (£3.67billion) or €23.40 (£20) per passenger.
That number is a big deal for the airline, as it represents around a quarter of its total revenue for the year – €13.95billion (£11.9billion). If that ancillary income is removed from the Ryanair cost sheet, then the airline would be in the red, given its €12.39bn (£10.57billion) operating costs last financial year.
As of 2023, Ryanair ranked among the top five airlines in the world in terms of the revenue it generates from ancillary streams.
These figures make it clear why Ryanair and other budget airlines are so opposed to a vote by the EU’s Transport and Tourism Committee that would boost the amount of free hand luggage passengers flying to or from member states can take.
“Passengers should have a right to carry on board one personal item, such as a handbag, backpack or laptop (maximum dimensions of 40x30x15 cm), and one small hand luggage (maximum dimensions of 100 cm and 7 kg) without an additional fee,” the committee decided. Before this decision becomes law, it must be voted through by the European Parliament in the coming weeks, and then discussed by country representatives for the European Council.
The proposals have been met with fierce opposition from budget airlines and the Spanish Association of Airlines (ALA), which has criticised it and the Ministry’s fines. The organisation argues that such measures limit consumer choice and disrupt fair competition in the EU’s single market. “It’s about offering different service models at different price points,” the association stated.
This week Ryanair was handed a massive £91million victory by a Spanish court. The budget airline has been let off paying a €107million (£91million) fine slapped on it last year by the Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs. The organisation had claimed that the airlines’ policies on charging for hand luggage violated consumer rights.
The fines were part of a wider crackdown that included three other airlines, including Norwegian, totalling €179 million (£152million) in fines. Now the Spanish High Court in Madrid has decided to let Ryanair off, allowing the ruling to sit as a precautionary one.
Emmerdale’s Natalie J Robb and Mike Parr teased some massive scenes on the way in the coming months, with cast on the ITV soap told to prepare for ‘a lot of night shoots’
20:30, 26 Jun 2025Updated 20:42, 26 Jun 2025
There’s huge scenes guaranteed on Emmerdale in the coming months(Image: ITV)
There’s huge scenes guaranteed on Emmerdale in the coming months, with one star teasing multiple night shoots have been advised.
As the ITV soap prepares to film the big crossover with Coronation Street, set to air early 2026, cast members are about to find out who is involved and what happens. With filming and planning taking place months in advance, cast members on both soaps are soon to learn which characters will feature in the epic soap twist.
Plenty of stars from both soaps are desperate to be involved, all hoping their characters will be present in the milestone episodes. While only one episode will feature the crossover, the impact will be felt for the entire week and then some.
As the plans are finalised, cast members will soon prepare to film the big scenes and the storylines surrounding them. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, Emmerdale’s Moira Dingle actress Natalie J Robb shared her hopes to take part.
Not only that, but she confirmed that huge episodes were guaranteed, as there were “a lot of night shoots” planned. With night shoots often come dramatic and blockbuster scenes.
Emmerdale’s Natalie J Robb and Mike Parr teased some massive scenes on the way(Image: Getty Images)
We do know there will be a massive stunt, so it’s likely this is why the night filming has been agreed. Cast members will have to prepare for the big scenes, with Natalie hinting at what’s ahead.
She told us: “It is really exciting. It is the first time it has ever been done I think the audience will like it. We have to trust the writers. There is gonna be a lot night shoots.”
Natalie went on: “We don’t know any of the stories or what characters are involved just yet, but I’m hoping to be part of it.” Ross Barton actor Mike Parr then pointed out that some Emmerdale and Corrie actors have done both soaps.
Referencing his co-star Oliver Farnworth who plays villain John Sugden, he joked about whether the Corrie characters would recognise him, or if John was still Oliver’s Corrie character Andy. He said: “Is he still that character in that one or did he die?
Ross Barton actor Mike Parr then pointed out that some Emmerdale and Corrie actors have done both soaps(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
“There’s so much room for what could happen and the ways it can go. I am so glad it’s happening and everyone wants to be involved, but not everyone can be. It’s exciting times but nobody knows anything yet.”
It comes as the pair also teased “danger” on the way following next week’s arrival of new villain Ray. Mike said of actor Joe’s casting: “I grew up watching that guy. One of my friends were also up for the part and I wanted to support him, but when I found out Joe had got it I knew he would be good. It’s good, it’s exciting.”
Natalie also had her say, before hinting that Moira’s brother Mackenzie could be at risk. She told us: “He is good. It’s all in the eyes. He’s very menacing and very scary. There is going to be a lot of danger, but it’s good. It’s shaken it up a bit.”
