Entertainment

On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday a new theatrical production will have its premiere. Thirteen people were killed and 15 wounded on 30 January 1972 when members of the Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on a civil rights demonstration in Londonderry. The White Handkerchief, telling the story of that day, is the work of

With songs including California Girls, Good Vibrations and God Only Knows, Brian Wilson and his band The Beach Boys took Californian surf music and made it famous around the world. Later this year he turns 80 and a new cinema documentary called Long Promised Road looks back on his life – including the hard times

Mercedes Gleitze was the first British woman to swim the English Channel in 1927. In the same year she also became the first person to swim the Strait of Gibraltar. These were just two of her accomplishments and, although famous at the time, Mercedes kept her past a secret from her children and grandchildren. Now,

The World Harmony Orchestra was created to bring musicians across the UK together, to play for humanitarian causes. But when the pandemic hit the group started performing in communities where people were isolating. Nearly two years later the musicians are still providing entertainment in residential areas and outside care homes, with the aim to provide

An apprentice tattoo artist who has drawn portraits of celebrities including Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and The Weeknd says he finds creating the art “really addictive”. Wilf Elliott, 18, from Clacon-on-Sea, Essex, started the project to stay busy during the Covid lockdowns and has carried it on while learning his trade. He has won praise on

A theatre show inspired by hit BBC television series Peaky Blinders is set to premiere in the West Midlands. Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby will open on 27 September at Birmingham Hippodrome, followed by dates in London and a UK tour. The show’s creator Steven Knight adapted it for the stage in collaboration

The BBC should be “proud of our country” and bring back playing God Save the Queen late at night, in the year of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, Andrew Rosindell has said. BBC One used to close down with the national anthem, although now it simulcasts the News Channel overnight and has a verbal handover, although

A DJ made club music by recording the machinery used to produce flour. Ben Osborne aimed to emulate techno and drum and bass music inspired by the Tide Mill in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Mr Osborne, from Woodbridge, said: “The idea was to record the internal workings of the Tide Mill, which is a 300-year-old building, and

Sidney Poitier, the star of Hollywood classics like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and To Sir, With Love, has died at the age of 94. The actor came to fame at a time of racial segregation in the United States and went on to become the first black man to win a best actor Oscar.

PinkPantheress, the 20-year-old singer from Bath, has been named as this year’s winner of the BBC Sound Of poll. Every year a panel of independent industry insiders vote on their predictions of who will make it big in the music world in the coming year. Past winners of the competition, which is now in its

A young Senegalese music producer is digitising one of the largest back catalogues of African music in the world. Binetou Sylla’s father founded the African label Syllart Records and discovered some of the continent’s biggest names. Until the project began, much of the music from the legendary label had only been available on vinyl records

Hidden away in the small village of Berriew, Powys, is one of the world’s most renowned artists. Andrew Logan, an artist specialising in sculpture, first came to Wales in the 1970s and went on to set up his own museum in the village in 1991. Three decades on, those visiting the museum will find a

A group of women have been speaking of their delight at attending a ballet class aimed at over-55s. The Silver Swan taster sessions were organised by Age UK Leicester and Leicestershire and supported by the Royal Academy of Dance. One of the participants said she had dreamed of being a ballet dancer since she was

An online choir of intensive care unit staff has met in real life for the very first time – almost a year after attempting to reach Christmas number one. The 100-strong group covered The Police’s Every Breath You Take in December 2020 to raise money to support the mental health of ICU staff, who had

Self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller made spoon-bending famous across the world and for decades rubbed shoulders with the stars. The 75-year-old insists his abilities are real and that sceptics who questioned them “built my career”. He gave the BBC’s Yolande Knell a tour of his new museum in Jaffa, Israel, which includes 2,600 shining spoons stuck

A choir has created a Christmas carol that includes elements of British Sign Language and Makaton, so that people with sensory difficulties are able to get involved. The Sign of the Season project is working with London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital to highlight the importance of music and the arts at this time of year.