The Times Daily Quiz: Monday May 5, 2025
1 Who ruled for longer than any other monarch in British history?
2 The Lord Speaker oversees proceedings in which parliamentary chamber?
3 Active dry, instant, natural and fresh are types of which bread-making ingredient?
4 In a battery, electrons flow from the anode to which other electrode?
5 Built as an Elizabethan gun fort, Upnor Castle is situated on the banks of which river in Kent?
6 Which hangman became a publican in 1946 and ran the Help the Poor Struggler in Oldham?
7 Neil Hannon co-wrote the song My Lovely Horse for which Channel 4 sitcom?
8 In 1980, which British retail chain became the first to sell prepackaged sandwiches?
9 The smallest living rhinoceros species is named after which Indonesian island?
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Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
Horror fans 'seriously creeped out' as unhinged gets Channel 4 premiere
It can be quite a challenging task trying to remember viral dance routines from TikTok. With every passing week, it feels like there's a new song and matching movement to learn. So, if you're struggling to remember why Universal Pictures' M3GAN sent the internet into a frenzy in 2022, then fear not—Channel 4 has you covered. Airing on Saturday night for the enjoyment of horror fans, this twisted film about a seemingly sweet AI doll became an instant success three years ago after it capitalised on viral attention. The meme in question was created after fans tried to recreate the doll's eerie dance routine. Writing on X tonight as the sci-fi flick launched on the small screen at 10pm, @WestBromEL said: 'I'm watching M3GAN on @Channel4, it's seriously creepy.' @Mixer4everx added: 'Watching m3gan on channel 4. I love this movie.' Written by Akela Cooper, the film follows an artificially intelligent doll who develops self-awareness and becomes hostile toward anyone who comes between her and her human companion. Designed by Gemma, who is played by Get Out's Allison Williams, M3GAN goes from simply being able to listen, watch, and learn to being a full-blown killing machine. In the first week it was released, the somewhat comedic horror grossed nearly £24.9million, well above its predictions of £14million. Since, M3GAN has acquired an impressive 93% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, with thousands flooding the site with glowing reviews. And for those keen for more, fear not, as last month, it was revealed that a sequel, M3GAN 2.0, is going to be released soon. The plot will follow M3GAN as she is being rebuilt to combat a humanoid military robot created using M3GAN's technology that is attempting an AI takeover. Its cast will star Williams once more, as well as Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, and Violet McGraw, hitting cinemas on June 27. Additionally, it has also previously been announced that M3GAN will be getting a further spin-off, but with a more sensual twist. Blumhouse and Atomic Monster are joining forces for the third M3GAN instalment, a film that 'expands the universe' and is described as an 'erotic thriller'. A synopsis for the upcoming film reads: 'A man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. 'The film is in the tradition of the 90s domestic thrillers but with a modern, technological twist.' Set to be released on January 2, 2026, it will be directed by Kate Dolan, famed for the chilling Irish folk tale You Are Not My Mother. This comes after M3GAN star Williams spoke to the Metro about the film and her fear of scary movies, despite garnering status as a Scream Queen herself. More Trending She said: 'The truth is I have a really low tolerance for horror, meaning when I watch a scary movie, it affects my sleep for a while. 'For real. So some of my favourites are my favourites, but they're stuck in time because I've been too scared to watch them again.' View More » M3GAN is available to watch on Channel 4. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Eerie sci-fi series dubbed 'freshest British drama in years' launched 10 years ago MORE: Skins star unrecognisable as he reunites with cast 12 years after show ended MORE: Rylan says Celebrity Gogglebox editors had to cut out 'career-ending' conversations
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Jon Richardson 'signs up to huge Channel 4 show' despite 'quitting comedy'
TV star Jon Richardson has reportedly signed up to a hit Channel 4 show despite giving up comedy for a very different career after his divorce from Lucy Beaumont Comedian Jon Richardson is said to have signed up to take part in a popular Channel 4 show after "quitting comedy". The TV star issued a surprise announcement earlier this year where he revealed he was changing careers. His unexpected move came just months after his split from wife of nine years Lucy Beaumont. Jon and fellow comedian Lucy starred in their hit series Meet the Richardsons, but were forced to quit following their divorce. In April, Jon revealed he was quitting comedy despite his huge success to become a teacher. However, he later revealed not all was as it seemed as he explained that he'd only be acting as a teacher for a role in Waterloo Road. In another surprise move Jon has reportedly landed another TV role. He is now said to have signed up to take part in Celebrity Bake Off for their next Stand Up to Cancer campaign. A source said: 'Bosses are over the moon that they signed up Jon. He is hilarious, so will bring the laughs to the tent, and he's hugely popular with viewers." "It's been a tough year for Jon following his split from Lucy, so this has given him some light relief and it's all for charity, so that's an added bonus," they added to the Sun. Posting on social media earlier this year, Jon made his bombshell revelation. He said: 'I just thought I'd give you a little update. I don't really do social media updates, and I'll tell you why - because I don't think anyone cares. "But I have a little bit of news. I've obviously been taking a little bit of a break from stand-up and it's really made me… want to carry on taking a break from stand-up.' He added: 'I've been thinking a lot about a diary entry that I found from 1997.' An excerpt of his old diary then popped on screen, as the BBC Radio 6 star explained: 'It's this one. I was 14 years old, it says although I would love to be a stand-up comedian, I'll probably end up being a teacher. And I've been thinking a lot about that.' Jon revealed: 'I've loved being a comedian, it was absolutely the right choice. But I've decided it would've been nice to try the other option, so that's exactly what I'm gonna do.' The comedian shared that he'd already accepted a teaching job, stating: 'I've been doing some training, I've taken a teaching position. I will update you as and when I can. but that's all from me for now, just to let you know where I've been. I'll keep you posted.' Jon and Lucy tied the knot in April 2015, and share eight-year-old daughter Elsie. At the time of their break-up, a joint statement read: "We have jointly and amicably made the difficult decision to divorce and go our separate ways. "As our only priority is managing this difficult transition for our daughter, we would ask that our privacy is respected at this sensitive time to protect her well-being. We will be making no further comment. Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont." In September it was revealed the pair had come to an agreement in their divorce payout as Jon handed Lucy an eye-watering amount. He gave Lucy a whopping £1.625 million. Lucy is also ready to make a return to TV, having signed up to take part in the first celebrity edition of The Traitors.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘A giant parenting group': how online comedians are making a living by laughing about the chaos of kids
Many Instagram-frequenting parents of small children will have seen George Lewis's sketch about two toddlers discussing their feelings of abandonment and relief wrapped in a game of peekaboo. 'It was a normal day, I was just playing with Dad. And then he put his hands in front of his face and he was just gone,' the British comedian and father says in the widely shared video. 'He was behaving so erratically.' Life through a two-year-old's lens – especially in relation to their sleep-deprived parents – is fertile ground for a growing group of online parent comedians whose content is clocking up millions of views. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. At the heart of the material lies age-old truths: toddlers are sometimes barmy and parenting is often mad. There is a special solidarity among the carers of young children whose days revolve around coaxing vegetables into mouths and bottoms on to potties. In Canada, Farideh Olsen's take on the absurdities of motherhood has one eye firmly on the patriarchy. A sexy husband, her songs suggest, is one who does housework, has therapy and respects women. The 42-year-old singer says it has been a surprise to see how much mothers love watching other mothers 'joking about children and partners and marriage and their love for their children'. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. 'And, I think that's because a lot of mothering is extremely lonely,' she says. 'You're at home with your kids by yourself, maybe you meet up at a park, but then you don't have the depth of a relationship to joke about your kids.' In the odd three minutes or so that mothers have to check their phones, 'they see something that kind of reflects their life – they find the levity in it,' she says. UK comedian Michael McIntyre was a forerunner when it came to mining laughs from parenting struggles. He told packed theatres well before Covid: 'You never love your children more than when they are unconscious, but still breathing.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Today's troupe of parenting commentators home in on micro moments – a request to cut a toastie exactly in half, the unhinged cackle that follows being asked how the toddler slept, that game of peekaboo – that capture the same sentiment. Farideh thought her music career had been both serious and over before she began writing songs about motherhood. She never considered herself a comedian, nor was she interested in material about parenting, until she had children. While many parenting influencers are female, comedy – including the short-and-sharp social media variety – 'is still very male-dominated', she says. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Sydney-based stay-at-home father Sean Szeps' video about the ABCs of parenting – 'A is for 'Absolutely not', B is for 'Brush your teeth'…' delivered with more than a little loopy energy – has almost 40m views on his social media platforms. Last year, all of the 37-year-old's video posts, inspired by his twin seven-year-olds, had a combined 228m views, according to Szeps. Zach Mander, 35, based in Brisbane, has 265,000 TikTok followers and his most popular post has more than 10m views. He has followers all over the world but, as with Szeps, most are in English-speaking countries. They both credit their successes to the pandemic when creative communities on social media took the edge off lockdowns with children. Like their overseas counterparts, they've earned sizeable niche audiences that wouldn't have been accessible to real-world comedians playing clubs with disparate audience members. And they're doing it with disarming honesty. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. 'Up until that point, my style was incredibly positive, and then the pandemic hit, and I couldn't hold back any more,' says Szeps, who's married to TV presenter and podcaster Josh Szeps. 'Technology,' he says, exploded 'at the same time as we evolved to realising that it would be much better if we were honest about parenthood'. The result was that a 'shit-ton of mums and dads now make an entire career and a living on just sharing what women mostly, but parents overall, have been feeling for decades, which is: it's hilariously hard. It is undeniably difficult. If we can't laugh about it, we're going to sob uncontrollably'. Mander's spoof investigative examinations of Bluey characters, and a video about his children inexplicably losing a slice of pizza in the car (it emerged weeks later 'almost mummified'), are among his biggest hits. 'I've always made content on things that I was experiencing, and it doesn't come much bigger than parenting,' he says. 'I'm amazed we don't talk about it more.' For some, it's really paying off. Szeps, who has a background in social media advertising, has been living off his Instagram account's sponsored content for four years and growth is up 50% year on year. It helps, too, that there will always be new parents. Mander, whose children are two and four, says that because the early years parenting cohort resets about every five years, so does a 'whole lot of people experiencing this for the first time – and those are my cohort'. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Viewers are mostly women, both Szeps and Mander say. Szeps, who moved to Australia from America in 2017, has a theory as to why some of the dozen or so male 'power hitters' in the parenting humour space are men talking exclusively to women – and it's down to old-fashioned gender roles. 'We don't want women necessarily to be brutally honest about how hard parenting can be, because that makes us worried for the kids. When a man does it, it's much more accepted,' he says. Parenting jokes sometimes break into the wider satirical space, of course. The Betoota Advocate recently ran a headline: 'Toddler who refuses toast cut the wrong way allegedly ate four servings of vegetable dahl at daycare.' This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. For Szeps, Instagram has become a 'massive, giant parenting group'. 'You still have to navigate the complications. You still have to navigate the perfect parents. You still have to navigate comparison. 'Parenting is so hard, but I don't feel alone in it any more, the way that I felt prior to sharing my experiences online.'
