Joanna Lumley let's slip filming update in major series announcement
Joanna Lumley graced the set of ITV 's This Morning on Wednesday (30 July) to discuss her recent acting endeavours with hosts Dermot O'Leary and Rochelle Humes.
The esteemed actress shared insights into her role in the upcoming second series of Wednesday as Grandmama Hester Frump, and also provided an exciting glimpse into the future of the beloved BBC series Amandaland.
Having portrayed Felicity, Amanda's mother (played by Lucy Punch), Joanna was part of Amandaland's successful premiere in February, which quickly captivated television audiences.
Following the announcement in March that Amandaland would return for a second series, Joanna teased the show's fans with potential dates for the new episodes during her appearance on the ITV1 programme.
An eager Rochelle asked, "Will we see another season of Amandaland?" To which Joanna replied, "Yes. We start shooting in October," adding, "We finish shooting two days before Christmas. With any luck, it'll be out. Spring? I don't know."
Joanna didn't hesitate to express her admiration for Amandaland and her co-star Lucy Punch, whom she described as "beautiful" and "very funny."
Reflecting on their collaboration, she said, "I just adored it. It was so wonderful to meet up with Lucy Punch again, because I'd played her mother before," alluding to their previous work together on Motherland.
She also touched upon the initial uncertainty surrounding Amandaland, given Motherland's popularity, saying, "The whole script is magic, written by the Motherland team. I think we wondered, as everybody adores Motherland so much, what's this going to be like? And it flew!"
Discussing her portrayal of Amanda's mother, Joanna said, "It's divine. Originally, in Motherland, I was her mother, but I was there for long afternoons filming, sitting in a shop or something. I was just there as a reference. But then, when this took off, of course, I was her mother. I was there; I was established."
Amandaland is a six-episode extension of the popular series Motherland, which also featured Lucy in the role of Amanda. The original show debuted on BBC One in 2017 and has since released two more series along with a Christmas special, reports the Mirror.
The acclaim garnered by Motherland led to the conception of Amandaland, which charts the life of newly divorced Amanda as she tackles raising her teenage children upon relocating to South Harlesden in London.
The stellar cast of the acclaimed BBC series includes Joanna and Lucy, alongside talents such as Philippa Dunne, Samuel Anderson, Siobhan McSweeney, Rochenda Sandall, Ekow Quartey, and Jack Veal.
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Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘I worked with Steve Wright for 30 years. The BBC has tarnished his legacy'
Later this month, BBC Radio 2 will broadcast a tribute concert for Steve Wright – the adored DJ, who died last February. It will feature the bespoke jingles that were such a crucial part of shows such as Steve Wright in the Afternoon and Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs, but the man behind those jingles, Anthony James, is not involved. Since Wright's death at the age of 69, James says he has been dismayed by the BBC's handling of his friend's legacy – and haunted by what he sees as mistreatment by the corporation in the years leading up to his death. The pair first met in 1986 when James (known professionally as AJ) was a teenager. He had already begun working in local radio, composing unique musical idents for the station's presenters. A fan of Wright's BBC shows, James sent him a 30-second piece of music, with his 'cold pitch' resulting in a phone call to his home soon afterwards. 'My mother picked it up and ran upstairs and said, 'Oh my God, it's Steve Wright on the phone.' I thought it was one of my friends doing a prank,' James reflects, but it was Wright, promising that he would play the tune on his show at 3pm that very afternoon. So began a partnership that James describes as '50-50 friendship, 50-50 like a father figure'. At the outset, Wright appeared to him 'like the Wizard of Oz: he was this great big celebrity on one of the biggest stations in Europe'. When James moved to New York in the late 1990s to continue his career as a composer (still writing around 100 jingles a year across Wright's shows), their friendship continued to develop: 'He would tell me a lot of personal stuff, which was great. But first, he would always want to know what was up with me, what was going on in my world… He was very sensitive, very conscious of how I was doing.' Wright visited James in New York often; they spoke on the phone two or three times a week. He remembers Wright's levity during their calls. 'I miss that, big time. I would always get off the phone with Steve and I'd have laughed so much, because he just found humour in everything.' In the years leading up to his death, however, Wright would suffer a series of personal and professional setbacks. The first came in 2022, when Steve Wright in the Afternoon was axed by the BBC. Wright called a tearful James once the news broke; both saw the move as 'crazy; our numbers [were] through the roof'. Wright admitted that he had been told of its cancellation and sworn to secrecy by the organisation nine months prior, but was reassured by promises made by Helen Thomas, the head of BBC Radio 2, that the show would live on via a yet-to-be-created digital channel. When that prospect began looking increasingly unlikely, Wright approached Tim Davie, the director-general. According to James, Davie told Wright: 'I can't believe she fired you… I wouldn't have fired you myself.' The BBC has, however, denied this. James believes that the axing of Steve Wright in the Afternoon was part of a push to banish broadcasters considered too ' pale, male and stale ' from the airwaves, and to create a kind of conformity at direct odds with Wright's verve. 'They just wanted it a little bit more like wallpaper,' he says of Thomas's decision to 'do something different in the afternoons'. 'They thought that this idea of personality [displayed in abundance by Wright] is old style; it's not cool anymore, we should make Radio 2 cool,' he says. 'But who gives a s--- about cool? It's about being entertained.' The effect on Wright was devastating. 'He didn't really stop to accept it. I think it ate him up,' James tells me. 'It got worse, and his health got worse.' Wright had heart surgery a year after the show was axed, and the medication he took in its aftermath led him to put on even more weight. 'He told me, 'I'm just really not well. I'm trying to lose the weight, I think I'm going to have a gastric band.'' James says that Wright also considered using Ozempic. Despite Wright's best attempts to get better, James recalls that: 'There was something about our last meeting [in November 2023]. There was just a look in his eye. I told my partner [afterwards] that something was really wrong.' Then, the following February, Wright died, leaving James overwhelmed with grief. 'I was not on this planet,' he says of that time. The groundswell of public affection went some way to easing his sadness, but that was quickly dismantled by the actions of the BBC. 'The painful truth is that the same BBC leadership celebrating Steve publicly is the one that disregarded and undermined our work privately,' says James. After Wright's death, James feels that they tried to 'delegitimise' his and Wright's relationship. 'I felt disgusted by that,' says James. 'Our relationship was so successful and it lasted for 38 years, and I feel like they're just s---ting on it.' And on Wright himself: a man who attended the studio at nine o'clock each morning to prepare for his afternoon show, and was dedicated to his listeners to the last. In response to questions about the treatment of Wright, the BBC said: 'Steve was deeply loved by the Radio 2 family and listeners, and we all miss him dearly. For almost three decades he hosted a raft of brilliant shows on the network. 'Steve's Sunday Love Songs had been on air since 1996 and he was excited to take on the legendary Pick of the Pops alongside a variety of specials on Radio 2 including Steve Wright: The Best of the Guests, Steve Wright's Summer Nights and Steve Wright's Love Songs Extra on BBC Sounds.' Thomas wrote to James in autumn last year asking for permission to play his music in the BBC tribute concert for Wright, which was recorded earlier this year (ahead of this month's transmission). He agreed, but when he rediscovered a recording of Wright railing at the poor internal handling of his show being axed, 'I just got more and more angry.' James talked through the matter with Wright's son, before telling Thomas that he no longer planned to attend. Then, in the week before the concert, she let him know that 'the great and the good will be there', which James took to mean: don't miss an opportunity to network. 'And I said, 'I'm not f---ing networking; this is not about networking. This is about a tribute to my friend.'' James thinks this last-minute push was driven by fear that his absence would 'look bad' for the BBC. 'It just started stinking towards the end of it, and I thought, 'No, I've given my music, my music will represent me, and that's it. I'm not going,' he says. When I put James's thoughts to the BBC, a spokesman replied: 'When inviting AJ to the recording of the celebration of Steve's broadcast career, where new arrangements of his work would be played live on stage, Helen's sole aim was to make sure AJ did not miss what promised to be, and indeed proved to be, a very special event, with many of Steve's friends and colleagues in attendance.' It is clear that James feels both he and Wright have been wronged by the BBC. The outpouring of affection from fans since Wright's death, compared with what he sees as shoddy treatment by the corporation now openly celebrating him, has made the past 18 months particularly challenging. Wright would have turned 71 on August 26, and his birthday will spark 'very intense' feelings for James as he remembers their friendship and their creative partnership. 'I miss all that,' he says, 'and that makes me very emotional.'
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ray French obituary
Although Ray French was a dual rugby international, winning four caps for England at rugby union and then, after signing professional terms to play rugby league, appearing four times for Great Britain, it was as the BBC's rugby league commentator that he came to national prominence. French, who has died aged 85 after living with dementia, succeeded Eddie Waring as the BBC's voice of the sport in 1981, spending 27 years in the role. Waring had established a public profile, beyond his verbally eccentric rugby commentaries, via frequent appearances in light entertainment shows and knockabout comedy routines. And, like Waring before him, French too became a somewhat divisive figure among a cohort of rugby league supporters who believed he entrenched a stereotypical perception of their sport. With his distinctive Lancashire enunciation, catchphrases and characteristic lexicon, his critics accused the national broadcaster of choosing a figurehead designed to 'keep the sport in its place': an idiosyncratic pastime of northern England. However, to focus solely on his presentational style would be to mask the depth of knowledge French had for both codes of rugby, especially league. His command of the history of the two codes and his personal experiences of the prejudices constantly marring their relationship were leitmotifs running through his spoken and written work, imbuing his delivery with authenticity. He also called some of the most celebrated matches during his BBC tenure, including the 1985 Challenge Cup final between Wigan and Hull, oft-regarded as the greatest final of all, and 12-man Great Britain's against-the-odds victory over Australia at Wembley in 1994 when fellow cross-coder Jonathan Davies scored one of the finest tries seen at the stadium. 'Davies, he's got some space. He's going for the corner, he's got his head back. And the Welshman is in for a magnificent try' are words longstanding supporters can recite verbatim. Despite such highlights, French always said his most professional achievement at the BBC was during the second half of a commentary when, stuck high on a gantry, he was so desperate to relieve himself that, while still speaking, he was forced to use a bucket held by his match summariser. Meanwhile, his books – which include My Kind of Rugby: Union and League (1979) and Ray French … and Rugby (2010) – explore the complex socioeconomic and political relationships between the two rugby codes. And despite the longstanding animosity between them, often based on class and misplaced prejudice, he did much to break down barriers he considered absurd. Indeed, French was an advocate of a single rugby code, noting that 'the strength of rugby union is along the M4 corridor from London into Wales, while the strength of rugby league is along the M62 corridor in northern England. If rugby stopped dividing its resources, we'd have a game to challenge football.' Raymond James French was born on 23 December 1939 in St Helens. His father, Richard, worked in the local glass industry and his mother, Ellen, was a homemaker. Although raised in a rugby league-supporting family, in 1955 a scholarship took him from Rivington Road school to Cowley Grammar in nearby Windle where he first encountered rugby union. There his prowess as a robust back-row forward attracted the interest of the St Helens rugby union club. He quickly won Lancashire county honours and the attention of the England selectors. He won four international caps, playing second-row in England's Five Nations matches in 1961. Despite England's disappointing campaign, French prospered amid a mediocre pack and looked set for further call-ups. However, St Helens, his hometown professional rugby league club, had been monitoring his progress and in late 1961 offered him a £5,000 contract which initially he turned down. But the opportunity to play his favoured code eventually proved irresistible. He became part of the club's formidable forward pack, playing an integral role in Saints' double-winning season of 1965-66 as they won the Championship and Challenge Cup. However, although he had become club captain, St Helens sold French to local rivals Widnes in 1967. He wasn't especially pleased, describing it as 'feeling like a piece of meat on a supermarket shelf' but it would be at Widnes where he earned his rugby league international honours, travelling to Australia and New Zealand with Great Britain's 1968 World Cup squad. Unfortunately, the team's lacklustre performances meant many squad members, including French, would not be selected again. Meanwhile, while still playing professionally at St Helens, French studied for a degree in English, Latin and Russian at Leeds university. He graduated in 1962 and applied for teacher training at Loughborough university, only to be turned down because he was a rugby league professional. He eventually qualified back at Leeds and taught English at his alma mater Cowley, where he stayed until retirement. It was during his time at Cowley that French began commentating on rugby league for local radio, eventually progressing to the BBC. He was awarded the MBE in 2011 for services to rugby league. The man-of-the-match award in the 1895 Cup Final for lower-division teams is named after him, reflecting his love of, and involvement in, grassroots rugby. He married Helen (nee Bromilow) in 1963. She survives his, as does son Gary and daughter Susan. Raymond James French, rugby league player, journalist and sports commentator, born 23 December 1939, died 26 July 2025
The Sun
28 minutes ago
- The Sun
Dad's heartbreaking last post as he geared up for Oasis gig just hours before plunging to his death ‘from top tier'
A DAD's heartbreaking final post before attending an Oasis gig where he plunged to his death has been revealed. Lee Claydon is understood to have fallen from the upper tier balcony at the London concert. 3 3 The audience was applauding and fireworks were going off at the end of the show when tragedy struck. It's now emerged Lee's brother Aaron wrote on Facebook how he was excited to go to the gig. Lee commented: "Cheers our kid". It comes after his devastated family paid tribute to the "devoted father, partner and role model". His partner Amanda said she would "never stop loving you" and called Lee her "soulmate". She added: "I don't have many words right now but it's not fair and it's not right that you're not here with us! "I am so grateful to have spent the time we had even though this cruel world has cut it way too short! "We had so much to look forward to! I will try my best to be strong for all." Aaron, Lee's brother, paid tribute to him on a GoFundMe page set up to support his grieving family. He said: "Our family has been turned upside down and are struggling to deal with this devastation and unexpected loss. "Lee leaves behind his Son, Dad, Partner, Brothers, Sisters, Nephews and Niece. "Lee was a loving family man who was a role model to his son Harry and was loved so much by all his family. "Lee would have done anything for any of us and he was taken from us far too soon and we will miss him so very much." He later added: "Still in shock and cannot believe I am writing this, but sadly over the weekend I lost by best mate the man I looked up to and the man I was lucky enough to call my brother Lee Claydon. "This is a gonna be a tough long journey and I have set up this gofundme page to help and support his loved ones. "Please read and share. Until we meet again Rkid." Also paying tribute to the dad on Facebook, his cousin Shannon Gabrielle said: "Honestly don't even know what words to write right now. "My cousin Lee tragically passed away this weekend after no doubt having the time of his life at the Oasis concert this weekend, most will have seen snippets in the news I'm sure & as you can imagine it has devastated the whole family and for his closest knit family unit it's the toughest time they are going through ever right now." Oasis said in a statement that they were "shocked and saddened" by the fan's death. They added: "Oasis would like to extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the person involved." In a statement the Metropolitan Police said: "A man - aged in his 40s - was found with injuries consistent with a fall. "He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. "The stadium was busy and we believe it is likely a number of people witnessed the incident, or may knowingly or unknowingly have caught it on mobile phone video footage. "If you have any information that could help us to confirm what happened, please call 101." A spokesperson for Wembley Stadium said: "Wembley Stadium medics, the London Ambulance Service and the police attended to a concert-goer who was found with injuries consistent with a fall. "Despite their efforts, the fan very sadly died. Our thoughts go out to his family, who have been informed and are being supported by specially trained police officers. "The police have asked anyone who witnessed the incident to contact them."
