The Adolescent star teases a role in the upcoming James Bond movie with friend and collaborator Steven Knight, calling it “shiny b*******s.”
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Stephen Graham slams awards as ‘b******s’ as he teases James Bond role(Image: Variety via Getty Images)
Stephen Graham, star of awards circuit favourite Adolescence, has called awards “shiny b******s”, as he teases a role in the next James Bond film. Stephen had a knockout year in 2025, after starring in and co-creating Netflix’s hit psychological series.
Adolescence was released in March last year and followed Jamie Miller, a 13 year-old who murdered a female classmate. Stephen, who played Jamie’s father, co-wrote the series about toxic masculinity in teenage boys with Jack Thorne. He has already won a Best Actor and Writer award at the Emmys and has been nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award.
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In an interview with The Guardian, Stephen said he didn’t care about the awards – the impact on viewers was the real prize. “Having a fella come up in Tesco and say: ‘I just want to thank you. I had a really good chat with my son the other night after we watched your programme.’ No disrespect but you can keep your awards and all that shiny b*******s. That’s the real accolade.”
The announcement comes just one day before Stephen’s announcement that he won the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Actor in a Limited Series and Best Actor in a Limited Series.
Erin Doherty, who played a psychologist, and Christine Tremarco, who played Jamie’s mother, are both nominated for Supporting Actress, while Owen Cooper, who plays Jamie, and Ashley Walters, who play the detective in charge of the case, are also nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
The show has also received an abundance of praise, including from political figures. Shortly after it was released on Netflix, MP Annaliese Midgley said it’s exploration of the impact of the manosphere meant the series should be shown in schools to combat the rise in misogyny in young men and boys. The call was backed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who made the show free for viewing in UK secondary schools.
Elsewhere in the interview, Stephen discussed his collaboration with screenwriter and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Stephen and Steven worked together on boxing period drama A Thousand Blows in 2025 and are now collaborating on a new film for the Birmingham gangster series, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
The next James Bond movie’s screenplay is also being written by the screenwriter. Daniel Craig has most recently played the iconic martini drinking spy, but he will not be reprising his role in the movie after leaving No Time To Die.
The Guardian asked Steven and Stephen if they were a “scouse 007,” and who would play the role has not yet been revealed.
Stephen claimed that being a villain would be “more enjoyable.” The screenwriter concurred that the majority of the “great” actors he’d spoken to did the same. Many well-known Bond villains have been portrayed by well-known actors, including Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, Max Zorin from A View To A Kill, Max Zorin from A View To A Kill, Janus from Goldeneye, played by Sean Bean, and Le Chiffre from Casino Royale, played by Mads Mikkelsen.
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In terms of 007, several British actors have been cast as potential replacements. Idris Elba, Callum Turner, and Harris Dickinson are just a few of them. Some people have suggested Aussie actor Jacob Elordi, despite the fact that British or Irish actors have yet to play Bond.
Although David Bowie passed away ten years ago, the world still remembers his legacy as one of the most influential and adored musical icons of all time.
Alexander Larman, Jackie Annett and Jackie Annett Features Writer
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David Bowie performs live on stage at Earls Court Arena on May 12 1973 during the Ziggy Stardust tour.(Image: Redferns)
A decade since Bowie’s death, younger artists, from Lady Gaga and the Last Dinner Party to Charli xcx and Arctic Monkeys, are open about how indebted to Bowie they are.
The musical icon has inspired everyone from politicians to filmmakers including Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese, who both cast him in their pictures alongside a steady stream of reissues, live albums and biographies which are keeping his name alive.
Bowie probably trails only the Beatles in terms of personal and cultural influence in Britain, and he has long since overtaken them.
He was against public fawning over him because he rejected the knighthood, but he continues to be one of the most well-known rock stars that the nation has ever produced.
A proud Londoner whose many years living in Switzerland and New York never diluted his love for his home country, nor the affection the British feel for him today. It was a very different story three and a half decades ago.
READ MORE: ‘David Bowie wanted to make the album of his life before he died two days later’
The music critic Jon Wilde ended one especially damning review with the words, “sit down, man, you’re a f***ing disgrace”, and as Bowie struggled to interest the world in the dire hard-rock act Tin Machine that he founded in the late 80s, it seemed as if The Man Who Fell To Earth was now the man who was washed up.
But 25 years later, Bowie could release his final album, in the form of the magnificent swansong Blackstar, two days before his death, and know that he would be remembered as a god among mere mortals as long as his music is listened to, and loved. What exactly changed and what ultimately went exactly right?
Bowie initially came to fame in 1969, after several false starts, with his hit single Space Oddity. Released on July 11 that year, it became far more prominent when the BBC used it as background music 10 days later to accompany their footage of the Apollo 11 moon landings. A top five hit, it ensured the former David Jones, regarded by many as a novelty pop singer and yet to achieve the success he thought he deserved, soon became a household name.
Following the success of Hunky Dory, which gave rise to one of his best-known and most-loved songs, Life on Mars, album after album? – and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, a lavish concept album revolving around the idea of Bowie as the eponymous Ziggy, a “rock ‘ n ‘ roll messiah” who comes to Earth when the planet is doomed.
He presented himself as a master of reinvention, a man ‘ ‘ who would switch bands, collaborators and musical styles from one year, even one month, to the next”. With Brian Eno, he co-wrote the boundary-pushing new-wave rock in Berlin, creating the dazzling Station to Station while apparently surviving on cocaine, red peppers, and milk, and storing his urine in jars for fear that witches might steal it.
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), one of his greatest-ever albums, was released in 1980, and the rock star’s 1983 album Let’s Dance successfully made a pop idol out of himself. Idea after idea flowed from him and he devil, received adulation that his to jealous peers could only dream about. Then it malfunctioned. Satan came to collect at some point in 1987, when his client released his first truly terrible album, Never Let Me Down, if Bowie had sold his soul to the devil in order to achieve earthly album success.
His previous release, Tonight, had been rocky too, but was saved by its singles. This release, which sold surprisingly poorly and was criticized by critics and music lovers alike, had no such redeeming effect. In an effort to reclaim the Ziggy era of restless creativity, Bowie made the announcement to form Tin Machine. Yet even as he kept telling the world that he was just a guy in a band now, not the all-conquering icon of music he had once been, few believed him.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I imagined Bowie as a middle-aged man who could produce the kind of tasteful but boring music that aspirational estate agents might play on their CD player in a car.
Bowie’s misses, in fact, were worse than that. Tin Machine produced two albums which nobody much liked, and then his big 1993 comeback album, Black Tie White Noise, may have been produced by Nile Rodgers but its ragtag collection of covers and songs earnestly criticising the evils of racism failed to chime with the mood of a country emerging into the Britpop era of Blur and Oasis.
Marriage to the model Iman gave him personal fulfilment and a reunion with Eno on the 1995 album Outside saw him produce his best work in over a decade, but the mainstream had moved on by then. His drum ‘n’ bass album Earthling was actively embarrassing, like seeing your father in hot pants, despite his attempts to reclaim the era. The world was still so fond of Bowie when he triumphantly performed at Glastonbury in 2000. As he played the greatest hits set that he swore he’d never play again, and gave festival-goers the experience of their lives.
After releasing Heathen and Reality, Bowie seemed content with taking up his position in the rock industry as a reticent visionary who enjoyed delight in having a new parent and capturing audiences’ attention once more in the process. Tragedies struck when he nearly died from a heart attack while on tour in 2004 and abruptly stopped playing music for the next ten years. He acted in Nolan’s The Prestige, sang on a Scarlett Johansson album and made guest appearances with the likes of Arcade Fire and David Gilmour.
And then he was prepared to return, as he did with the triumphant The Next Day in 2013. He never gave a live performance or an interview, but he occasionally made teasing appearances, like when he persuaded Kate Moss to accept a Brit award and arranged for her to deliver a union-supporting message just before the Scottish independence referendum.
He would then record and release Blackstar, one of his greatest albums, but he knew it was a last gift to his fans, as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer during its creation. In a final creative slog, he co-wrote the musical Lazarus and even planned a sequel, The Spectator, which was accompanied by thousands of other objects, including costumes, documents, and other artefacts, when the David Bowie Center opened in V&, A East in September 2025. When he passed away, grieving fans flooded London and New York to play his songs and offer their support. A sign said, appropriately enough:” The Starman has returned home. “
I’ve been wanting to write about Bowie my entire life, but I never knew what to tell. Finally, the response arrived. In my book Lazarus, I explore what it was to have once been acclaimed and hugely successful, then to struggle and, finally, to attain a level of respect and love that is unmatched. Many interviewees with him reveal some powerful words and irrational conclusions about a man who always had his desires, but I hope this is the definitive account of his later life and career.
And the best part is that I now listen to his music with renewed respect and admiration, not by distancing myself from his music. Starman, hero, poet – Dave from Brixton was all those things, but above all else, he was a legend, and that, I am sure, is how he would like to be charts later remembered a decade on.
While noticeably absent from his own family’s celebrations, Brooklyn Beckham stated that he is “grateful” to spend the New Year with his wife and Nicola Peltz’s family.
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Brooklyn and his inlaws already celebrated Christmas.
Brooklyn Beckham has shared that he is “grateful” to have spent New Year ’s Eve with his wife Nicola Peltz ’s family, a move that has once again shone a spotlight on his ongoing rift with his famous parents, David and Victoria Beckham.
The 25-year-old took to Instagram Stories to mark the start of the new year, reposting snaps that his wife Nicola had posted. The picture was captioned: “i’m so grateful to start the year with these humans” and then an array of tags which also included Brooklyn and Nicola’s brother Bradley. Noticeably absent from his posts were any references to his own family, amid growing speculation that relations remain strained.
The latest update comes as rumours of a feud between Brooklyn and the Beckhams refuse to die down. Fans have been quick to notice that Brooklyn has been missing from several recent family gatherings and social media posts, including David Beckham ’s New Year recap, which initially failed to include his eldest son.
As 50 Cent took to the stage after the bells rang out, Brooklyn, 26, and Nicola, 30, both of South Florida, seemed to be having a blast. As they introduced 2026 in style, they were spotted raising their arms and posing with joy.
It comes as Brooklyn’s parents appeared to make another attempt to heal the rift between the family that has been simmering away publicly for months. Taking to Instagram , David initially posted 20 images that saw him reflect on what he called unforgettable moments. Clear in the images were former Spice Girl Victoria and three of the couple’s children, Romeo, Cruz and Harper. There was no space for a shot of Brooklyn.
However, the former England captain later shared a throwback photo of himself and Brooklyn, who were standing ensemble in happier times. The father’s emoji reads, “I love you all so much,” and the father adds, “I love you all so much.”
He also shared a black-and-white photo of Victoria, the mother of Harper, and all of his children. You are my life, he wrote. I cherish Daddy X and love you all. On to 2026″.
And while Victoria reshared her hubby’s post on her own platform, Brooklyn appears to continue to snub his family for his life stateside in the images obtained by TMZ .
On the eve of David’s 50th birthday, the fallout first appeared in public. Brooklyn was missing from a number of family gatherings as soon as people realized it. He also snubbed both of his parents’ birthdays on Instagram, something he had never done before.
Despite avoiding significant family events like Sir David’s long-awaited knighthood earlier this year, Brooklyn and Nicola remained unmoved. Without the presence of any of Brooklyn’s immediate family, the couple also renewed their vows.
The Beckham clan may not all be willing to offer an olive branch as the conflict continues to simmer. Romeo chose not to do the same despite David and Victoria’s public position.
Brooklyn was omitted from the model’s Instagram post, which included his parents, brother Cruz, 20, sister Harper, 14, and girlfriend Kim Turnbull, 24. Romeo’s family photos were shared on social media, and the images included sweet snaps.
Thanks 2025, off to a better 2026, he captioned his upload, “Love you all @davidbeckham @victoriabeckham @cruzbeckham @kim_turnbull @harperbeckham.”
Uma Jammeh, the star of Love Island 2024, has opened up about her ongoing mental health battle as she gives her followers a direct update on her battle and “shame” over anxiety.
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Love Island star issues candid update amid ‘shame’ over ongoing mental health battle(Image: Instagram/ @umajammeh)
Love Island contestant Uma Jammeh has opened up to her followers about her ongoing battle with anxiety. The reality star hit the jackpot with her partner Wil Anderson, with the couple going from strength to strength outside the villa.
Although Uma’s life appears to be perfect, they still battle with her mental health even though they announced their engagement in July 2025. She admitted she’s “still working” on reducing her anxiety, “one step at a time,” after asking followers for suggestions for short-haul vacation ideas.
Posting on Instagram, she added: “Speaking of anxiety… I honestly didn’t expect so many responses to the video I made! Just goes to show when you feel alone in something you most definitely are not.
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“I received a lot of questions, and it was impossible for me to respond to any of them!” Please leave a question in the box below so I can quickly create a new reel. I feel very seen by everyone of you.
The model and influencer, who appeared on the 2024 season of Love Island, also shared the reel she initially posted back in November. In the Instagram clip, she announced: “Recently I’ve been struggling with anxiety and it’s sort of around being in a trapped space.
“I’ve always been claustrophobic, but it never really was anxiety until I got on a train one day and had a panic attack.” And it was incredibly terrifying because I had my first panic attack.
“I had to travel a lot to and from Manchester for modeling, which was really challenging.” Due to having a panic attack, I had to miss so many shots and sometimes even had to travel with the coach all the way to Manchester.
“For me, modeling was like a huge responsibility at that time. It resembled one of my dreams. So it was really upsetting to feel as though I was sort of squandering opportunities. By the way, this is not me giving any medical advice to anyone.
“But recently, I went to see a hypnotherapist because I had done some research and decided that would be the best course of action.” If anyone else experiences this kind of feeling, I suggest that you conduct your own research and determine your best course of action.
Uma went on to explain how much she had benefited from hypnosis, and how she had felt very good about herself since beginning the program. The 24-year-old continued, “But it was just such a relief, because I felt like I haven’t even been excited about the things I know I should be excited about.” The only reason is that I fear that my anxiety or panic attack will ruin it. And it’s really like the anxiety started to pour into my everyday life and things.
Even after two sessions, she acknowledged that she frequently struggled to get in the lift to get home. It was “like one of the best things I’ve ever done,” added Uma.
She continued, “So, if anyone is feeling like you’re not alone because I feel like I’m so alone in this, just like you’re not alone.” She also offered reassurance to her fans. You’re absolutely not alone, my hypnotherapist said. This occurs frequently.
“I would love to speak to you about it if anyone is feeling that way because I would love to speak to someone who has issues like that.” So if you’re interested, feel free to message me.
She wrote, “Posting this from the plane on a 10 hr flight and I’m SO PROUD:” It’s genuinely such a small thing, but it’s been a struggle for me for a while and has taken over my life. Such a relief to feel like myself once more.
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For some, Prince Harry is an asset that the Royal Family is still sorely missing after all this time, even though the Duke of Sussex has fallen in popularity rankings inside the UK
The Royal Family might be missing a trick by not bringing Harry back into the fold, some argue. When Prince Harry appeared on Late Night TV in the US, he was met with mixed reviews. Some royal experts weren’t too impressed, with one even dubbing it “insensitive” for the Duke to have taken part in the comedy show, whilst major events were taking place for the House of Windsor.
However, some commentators felt that Harry’s easy charm during his time on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert – and the enthusiastic way he was greeted by the audience – made it all too clear that the Royal Family has lost one of its major assets. Before stepping back as a working royal nearly six years ago, Harry regularly scored highly in the approval ratings with the British public – but these days the polls tell something of a different story.
Harry is currently lingering around 34 per cent in the latest. YouGov approval ratings, with his wife, Meghan, at 25 per cent. For context, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor scores only a measly 13 per cent approval, and Princess Kate – who tops the royal charts – has a score of 68 per cent.
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But for one commentator, it’s Harry’s ability to connect with young people that has been the biggest loss to the British monarchy. On average, the age of working royals is now in the late 60s, and polls indicate that the Firm is struggling to connect with the younger swathes of the British public.
According to the National Centre for Social Research, more than half of Brits want to keep the monarchy in place, 58 per cent, but generationally there is an ever-increasing divide on this topic, with younger people favouring the idea of having an elected head of state over a king or queen.
Of those aged between 16 and 34 years old, just under 60 per cent of Brits would prefer to scrap the monarchy altogether. Compared to the 76 per cent of those aged over 55 who strongly support continuing the monarchy, it paints a stark picture for the Firm.
For many, it raises the question of how the Windsors will broaden their appeal amongst the younger generations and shore up the institution’s future. For columnist Simon Kelner, writing for the i Paper, bringing Harry back into the fold would do a great deal to help the Royal Family out in this regard. “If those who seek to shape the Royal Family’s image and commercial appeal, and who talk about ‘Brand Windsor’ and ‘The Firm’, want to succeed in a multi-media landscape, they would do well to put their arms around Harry again.
“Like all the world’s great brands, the Windsors need to extend their relevance across all demographics, particularly a younger one. Harry can do that by speaking to an audience that is deaf to the stentorian tones of speeches at Windsor Castle. He can speak the language of TikTok as confidently as King Charles can speak German. I guarantee there will be those in power who recognise this, and will be keenly anticipating the day when Prince Harry is welcomed back into the fold.”
Not everyone agrees, however. Tom Sykes, editor of the Royalist newsletter on Substack, wrote about the appearance, which saw Harry take aim at US President Trump: “I think the Royal Family has no real choice. Harry believes he’s free to speak his mind now that he’s no longer a working royal.
“I think if he were truly living as Harry Wales, a private citizen, that argument would hold water. But he isn’t Harry Wales. He’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. And in the American imagination, he still carries the full aura of a prince — a representative of the monarchy.
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“A global audience does not grasp that Harry isn’t still a part of the Windsor family business. Charles and William may be hundreds of miles away in Balmoral or Windsor, but in the American mind, they are standing just offstage as Harry delivers his punchlines.”
Tonight’s match could feature Luke Littler’s third World Championship darts final. Here’s what we know about the incredibly successful teenager’s family and his upbringing.
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Luke Littler is already one of the highest-earning darts stars of all time(Image: Getty Images)
Luke Littler might still be a teenager – he turns 19 on January 21- but he’s the World Number One darts player who is about to head into his third World Championship final.
But how did he become so skilled at darts, where he was from, and who are his parents, Lisa Littler and Anthony Buckley,? Their sons are frequently seen cheering their son on during his games. And it turns out that they have been the driving force behind his success since he was a baby, with his mother Lisa claiming that he has been darting since he was 18 months old and still wearing diapers.
Although it might not be something most parents would do, giving your child a dart may have paid off. Luke is currently believed to be earning up to £6.5 million from his sponsorship deals and competition winnings, making him one of the highest-earning dart players of all time. What we know about his modest education is as follows.
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Luke Littler’s parents are unknown, but where are they from?
Luke Littler was delivered on January 21, 2007, in the Cheshire hospital Warrington, which is close to Manchester. Anthony, his father, works as a taxi driver. Lisa’s mother is said to work in a candle shop. Additionally, he has a sister and two brothers.
He is thought to have lived in Runcorn for the first six years of his life before returning to Warrington to begin his education at Padgate Academy.
As a child he was good at football, but his dad saw his darts potential and encouraged him to focus on that instead. He told The Times: “He was a good footballer. He loved football. All kids do. But I said to him at nine, hang your boots up.
“Hold your darts in mind. Here and there, you can still play football. However, go to darts first if there is a weekend darts competition. I thought he could succeed at darts, which he has succeeded in doing, so make that your top priority.
How did he become so skilled at darts and when did he begin?
Luke’s father, Anthony, gave him a magnetic dart board at the age of 18 months before he could start playing darts.
He has since claimed that at the age of 13 he had already completed his first 180 and that he had already completed his nine-dart score.
Discussing his remarkable success with the BBC, Littler said: “By the age of four I got on to the proper board. From 18 months on I have been non-stop. When we moved to Warrington when I was eight or nine we started going out to pubs four to five times a week.”
He was expelled from darts school.
Luke started playing in under-21 leagues when he first joined the St Helens Darts Academy at age ten. However, Littler’s co-founder Karl Holden, who coached him from the age of nine, claimed he was so talented that they asked him to leave because he consistently outperformed his peers.
Calling him the ‘Ronaldo of darts,’ he told Merseyside Live: “He was different to all the other kids. He was too good for the beginners group, so we’d promote him to the next group, and he was too good for that, so we promoted him to the under-21’s. We didn’t want to… he’d just turned 10.
“He was winning the under-21s when he was ten after a few months.” It’s amazing how talented he was. We were unable to assist him until he was 13 or 14 because he was too good for our group.
one of the greatest darters players of all time.
These days, Luke is one of the most successful darts players that has ever lived. Just 22 months after turning professional, he is ranked the Number 1 darts player in the world.
The 16-year-old star’s first World Championship came at age 16. In his third successive PDC World Championship final, he will face 23-year-old European champion Gian van Veen tonight.
Talking about his huge success, Luke told the BBC: “My first ever World Championships, as a 16-year-old boy… It’s one of the memories that will live with me forever.
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With millions of people watching, I was ready to enter the biggest stage of them all. I had no high expectations; all I had was a win at my debut game, and it turned out to be pretty good. The more games I won, the more followers I gained on social media, and the number of times I won, never stopped. It’s been crazy.
Luke stated before the match that tonight that he was pleased with the doubles, finishing, and high-scoring. It could have been a little better, but I’m happy to have won three World Championship titles in a row. We can look forward to doing something more tomorrow.
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