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All posts by 234Radio

BBC This City is Ours star reveals ‘inspirational’ Stephen Graham’s sweet gesture

By in Entertainment News, News

This City Is Ours star James Nelson-Joyce has shared how Adolescence star Stephen Graham has influenced his career

TV

James Nelson-Joyce has expressed his admiration for Stephen Graham as he discusses his latest role in the BBC drama This City Is Ours.

The actor, who hails from Orrell Park in Liverpool, plays Michael Kavanagh, a character deeply entrenched in organised crime, alongside his partner Ronnie Phelan, played by Sean Bean.

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The narrative delves into the power struggle that ensues when Ronnie’s son Jamie, portrayed by Jack McMullen, decides to take over their criminal empire, leaving Michael out in the cold.

Complications arise when Michael encounters Diana (Hannah Onslow), and together they start to dream of a life free from crime. But their plans are jeopardised when a cocaine shipment from Colombia disappears, exposing vulnerabilities and signalling that their reign is under threat.

This City Is Ours
James Nelson-Joyce as Michael Kavanagh in BBC’s new drama This City Is Ours(Image: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)

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In a chat with the BBC, James paid homage to fellow Liverpudlians who have inspired him, including footballer Jamie Carragher and actor Stephen Graham, reports the Liverpool Echo.

He declared: “It’s the best city in the world, and it is home”, reflecting on his aspirations to captain Liverpool FC like his hero Carragher.

He continued: “And there are actors like Stephen Graham, who is one of those people I look up to in life. He is all about encouragement”.

Both Stephen and James appeared in the 2017 true-crime drama Little Boy Blue, which recounted the heart-wrenching murder of 11 year old Rhys Jones in Liverpool.

James warmly recalled his experiences with his former co-star, saying: “Stephen likes to pass on advice. He is a massive inspiration and I have been fortunate to work with him. He told me once that he’s always just a phone call away”.

Stephen Graham
Stephen Graham has been praised by his former co-star(Image: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

He also expressed hope for audience support for his latest work: “I know he’ll watch and support This City is Ours, and I look forward to hearing what he thinks about it. I want viewers to join us from episode one and stay with us. It will be worth the ride”.

On the flip side, Stephen, hailing from Kirkby at 51, has expressed amazement over the success of ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix.

Stephen, an award-winning actor who also teamed up with Jack Thorne to pen the thrilling series, probes the disturbing dilemma: “What would you do if your teenage son was accused of murder”?.

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The show has skyrocketed in popularity worldwide, smashing Netflix records by racking up 24.3 million views globally within the initial four days following its release, and later soaring to an astonishing 66.3 million views after two weeks.

Eric Clapton’s tragic final promise before his little boy fell 53 floors to his death

By in Entertainment News, News

The musician’s world was upended in 1991 when his young son Conor, aged just four at the time, fell 53 floors to his death from a New York apartment. Eric would go on to write the song Tears in Heaven in tribute to his little boy

Eric pictured with his son Conor (Image: Daily Mirror)

Eric Clapton is regarded as one of the most acclaimed musicians in rock and roll – but his incredible life has been marred by great tragedy.

On March 20, 1991, his four-year-old son Conor tragically died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment. And just 24 hours before the shocking incident, Eric had made a poignant promise to his ex-girlfriend Lory del Santo – Conor’s mother.

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Italian actress Lory had custody of Conor following the couple’s split. Eric arrived at the high-rise apartment to take out his young son for the day – it would be the first time he had ever taken Conor out by himself, and he had bought tickets for the circus at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

According to biographer Philip Norman, “That sawdust-scented afternoon showed him what he’d been missing. When they returned to the apartment, with Conor chattering excitedly about the clowns and elephants, Eric told Lory that, from now on, he intended to be a proper father”.

Tragically, he didn’t get the chance. The next day, Eric and his son planned to visit the Bronx Zoo, followed by lunch at an Italian restaurant.

READ MORE: Radio legend Johnnie Walker’s tragic admission as he finishes BBC Radio 2 show

Eric Clapton with Lory de Santo and their son, Conor
Eric pictured with Lory and their son, Conor(Image: Daily Mirror)

“In the morning, as mother and son waited for Clapton to pick Conor up from the apartment, a janitor arrived to clean the windows. Lory was in the bathroom and the boy was in the care of a nanny – but careering around in a state of high excitement, impatient to see his ‘ Papa ‘ again.

Eric Clapton holding his son Conor
Conor tragically died when he was just four-years-old(Image: Daily Mirror)

” The janitor had been working on the cantilevered windows in the living room, one of which still hung open. He called out to the nanny to watch the child, but before she could react, Conor dashed past her, jumped up onto the low window-ledge where he’d normally press his nose against the glass to gaze out – and disappeared. “

Eric and Lory had briefly been engaged, but by 1991, they had ended their romance and she had struck up a romance with Italian film producer Silvio Sardi, owner of the apartment in the Galleria building in New York.

From there, Lory had to call Eric to tell him the devastating news. In a state of shock, the musician could only ask, ‘ Are you sure? ‘ He then walked the seven blocks to the Galleria, hoping there must have been some mistake.

Eric later told PEOPLE:” I remember putting the phone down and calmly walking from my hotel to that place as if nothing happened. And I walked past the street and, this is a terrible thing of shame for me, which I’ll never, ever perhaps recover from and seeing that, seeing a crowd of people and a paramedic van and knowing that he was there]trying to be resuscitated] and walking by, I’ll punish myself forever about why didn’t I run? Why didn’t I go to see him? … the truth is I couldn’t. I was so frightened. “

Eric Clapton playing the guitar
The musician later wrote Tears in Heaven in honour of his little boy(Image: Redferns)

Conor was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen in Ripley, Surrey, a few hundred yards from Eric’s own birthplace. The funeral took place on March 28, two days before Eric’s 46th birthday, with mourners including George Harrison, Phil Collins and many other faces from the world of music.

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In unthinkable pain and grief, Eric retreated from the limelight and his career in music to piece together how to move forwards. He turned his grief into the heart-wrenching ballad Tears in Heaven, which was released in January 1992. It remains Eric’s best-selling single in the United States.

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Seven-try Bath overpower Harlequins to remain top

By in News, Sports News
Getty Images
Ben Marvell
BBC Sport Online
  • 79 Comments

Gallagher Premiership

Bath (33) 47

Tries: Cokanasiga, Hill, Molony, Muir (2), Ojomoh, van Wyk Cons: Russell (6)

Harlequins (14) 28

Bath confirmed their status as Premiership title favourites with an exciting 47-28 win over play-off chasing Harlequins at the Recreation Ground.

In a frantic first half, the home team scored first through Joe Cokanasiga’s set-piece effort, before further tries from Ted Hill, Ross Molony and Will Muir put the away team to the sword.

Luke Northmore and Titi Lamositele responded for Quins before Muir went over for his second on the verge of half-time.

A rugby player in white with the ball being tackled by two opponents wearing blue, black and whiteGetty Images

Chasing their fifth victory on the bounce in all competitions, Bath’s intensity put Quins on the backfoot from the kick-off.

Following a flowing set-piece move from a lineout, Tom de Glanville fed Cokanasiga who bumped off two would-be tacklers to score in the corner.

It proved to be a double whammy for Quins, with the unfortunate Rodrigo Isgro being injured during the final tackle and receiving a yellow card for head-to-head contact with the rampaging Bath winger.

Bath took advantage of the extra man to score a second through Hill, with the flanker striding through after patient build up play.

When Quins had the ball they looked dangerous and should have had a try following Northmore’s break, only for the final pass to Tyrone Green to go astray.

Marcus Smith was then yellow carded for cynical play around the ruck, before Molony powered his way over following successive close-range drives.

Bath replacements seal win

Northmore got Quins ‘ first points of the day following Tom Lawday’s break, before Lamositele spotted a gap by the Bath posts to burrow his way over after Jamie Benson’s drive.

Muir went over for his second just before the break but Quins scored first after the teams re-emerged as Baxter forced his way over from close-range following successive attacking phases, before Bath had a Ben Spencer try chalked off for a forward pass.

With the away side attacking, Ojomoh’s length-of-the-field interception score dashed any Quins hopes of a comeback, before Will Butt’s break sent replacement van Wyk through a gap to dive over.

‘ Every game is massive ‘ – reaction

Player of the match, Bath winger Will Muir, speaking to BBC Radio Bristol:

“It was a battle. I talked to a few of the lads and we thought it must be coming to half-time and it was only 12 minutes in. It’s never easy against them and you know that they never roll over, it felt like a relief to get it over the line really.

” They’re so dangerous when they throw it about, you can never really switch off.

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Bath: De Glanville, Cokanasiga, Ojomoh, Redpath, Muir, Russell, Spencer, Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Molony, Ewels, Hill, Reid, Barbeary.

Replacements: Annett, Van Wyk, Du Toit, Pepper, Underhill, Carr-Smith, Butt, Coetzee.

Harlequins: Green, Isgro, Beard, Northmore, David, Smith, Porter, Baxter, Walker, Lamositele, Herbst, Lewies, Kenningham, Lawday, Cunningham-South.

Replacements: Riley, Els, Jones, Launchbury, Hammond, Schmid, Care, Benson.

Yellow Cards: Isgro, Smith.

Related topics

  • Rugby Union
  • Bath
  • Harlequins

How stable is Lebanon’s peace – after Israel attack on Beirut?

By in News, World News

Country on edge after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warns of more possible attacks.

Israel bombs the southern suburbs of Beirut – the first air strike on the Lebanese capital since November’s ceasefire.

Hours earlier, rockets were fired at Israel from southern Lebanon.

After numerous ceasefire breaches by Israel in four months, how serious is this one?

Presenter: Cyril Vanier

Guests:

Ali Rizk – Security affairs analyst.

Lorenzo Kamel – Associate professor of international history at the University of Turin.

Tufts University student can’t be deported to Turkiye without court order

By in News, World News
A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily barred the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, who voiced support for Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza and was detained by US immigration officials.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was forcibly taken into custody by masked federal agents in broad daylight near her Massachusetts home on Tuesday. Immigration officials also revoked her visa.

On Friday, US District Court Judge Denise Casper gave the government until Tuesday evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturk’s lawyers.

“To allow the Court’s resolution of its jurisdiction to decide the petition, Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further order of this court”, the judge wrote.

Ozturk’s arrest came a year after she co-authored an opinion piece in Tufts ‘ student newspaper criticising the university’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.

Friends have said Ozturk was not otherwise closely involved in pro-Palestine protests against Israel.

A lawyer soon after sued to secure her release, and on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union joined her legal defence team, filing a revised lawsuit saying her detention violates her rights to free speech and due process.

On Saturday, Oncu Keceli, a spokesperson for Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that efforts to secure Ozturk’s release continued, adding consular and legal support was being provided by Turkish diplomatic missions in the US.

“Our Houston Consul General visited our citizen in the center where she is being held in Louisiana on March 28. Our citizen’s requests and demands have been forwarded to local authorities and her lawyer”, Keceli said in a post on X.

US President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and has accused them, without providing evidence, of supporting Hamas, being anti-Semitic and posing foreign policy hurdles.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration conflates their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and support for Hamas.