Our family lived off-grid in the forest — then Mum died
It doesn't hurt that the Paynes are photogenic. An early scene shows the family tapping a tree for syrup as sunlight dapples through the forest canopy. There is no television in the house; instead the children are encouraged to raise animals, hug trees (literally) and commune with nature. The whole vision is idyllic. Then it all changes. In 2019 Maria died of
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Glasgow Times
38 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Lenny Henry says TV industry ‘still struggling' to do black hair and make up
The comedian, 66, picked up the outstanding achievement award at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday and reflected on his career and experience starting out in the industry in the 1970s. 'It was hard, you know? I mean, they didn't have a light for me', he told the festival. Sir Lenny Henry made his TV debut in 1975 'I called it the negro light. I said, 'Break out the negro light' and they'd bring out this big-ass spotlight and point it at me.' Sir Lenny, who made his TV debut on British talent show New Faces in 1975, said someone who worked at the BBC 'started to realise that I needed different lighting to those guys'. 'Also there's the thing on (TV series) Three Of A Kind where all the wigs were for white people,' he said. 'So we had Michael Howard and Dave Allen's wigs, and they never had any wigs for me. 'I had to get some dreadlocks for a character. So they sent me to the London wig company, and they made some dreadlocks for me. 'And then a year later, they had more stuff for me to do, and they got nearer, closer to what they should be like. 'And so I sort of began a whole thing where they had to know how to make black hair, and they had to know how to do black make up.' He added: 'They're still struggling with it. People like (make up artists) Jan Sewell and Sally Sutton really knew how to do it, because they did it on my show. 'But before then, they never had to do it. 'I went to a black make up lady on The Fosters in 1976 and I thought, 'Oh, it's going to be like this. There's going to be people that do make up for us'. 'Once The Fosters was over I never saw her again.' Sir Lenny was born in Dudley, near Birmingham, in 1958, and shot to fame in 1975 when his stand-up comic routine won TV talent show New Faces. After his TV debut, Sir Lenny appeared on landmark black working-class comedy The Fosters, and comedy sketch show Three Of A Kind, before landing his own self-titled show in the mid-1980s. In 1985 he co-founded Comic Relief, and in 2015 he was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity. A year later he was presented with a special Bafta award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television and in 2020 he helped to launch an independent body that examines representation in journalism, acting, film, television and radio in the UK called the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. In February he received the Freedom of the City of London and in May he and filmmaker Richard Curtis accepted a philanthropy award recognising Comic Relief's efforts to address inequality and poverty.
Rhyl Journal
40 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
‘They are turning him into a hero': Kneecap solidarity gig held in Dublin
Kneecap flags and logos hung from the windows in Connolly Books, which dubs itself Ireland's oldest radical bookshop, in solidarity with O hAnnaidh, Kneecap, and the people of Palestine. Pro-Palestine supporters criticised the decision by British authorities to bring a charge against the performer instead of focusing on the Israeli government's actions against the Palestinian people. O hAnnaidh, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in November last year. Hundreds of Kneecap supporters greeted O hAnnaidh as he arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday morning, alongside fellow Kneecap rappers Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh. During the hearing, his defence team argued the case should be thrown out, citing a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought. The case has been adjourned until September 26, when the judge will rule on whether he has the jurisdiction to try the case. At the protest session at Connolly Books on Wednesday afternoon, several artists played Irish traditional music in solidarity with the rappers and Palestine. Musician Ru O'Shea, who performed at the demonstration, said charging O hAnnaidh had turned him into 'a hero'. 'I think it's been a huge misstep by the powers that be to go after him in the first place,' he told the PA news agency. 'I reckon that they don't have a thing on him, and I think they are turning him into a hero, and I think we need a hero. 'What's happening in Palestine right now, it's gotten to such an extreme that it's waking a lot of people up, including the British who might not have ever seen it otherwise and stayed in that bubble forever.' O'Shea's friend John Feehan said: 'I think people are maybe starting to look up a little bit in Britain, and I think things like what's happening with Kneecap is a catalyst for people to be like 'Oh, wait a minute, what's actually happening here?'. So I hope there's momentum, but I really don't know.' Dubliner Aoife Powell, 19, said she came out to protest because she is 'angry' at the decision to charge an artist rather than focus on what is happening to the people of Gaza. 'I'm here because it just worries me that the fact that governments are focused on artists expressing themselves rather than the actual problem, which is obviously the genocide in Gaza,' she told PA. 'It's a little bit disheartening to see there's so much pressure being put on these artists to stop saying what they truly think and to stop standing on the right side of history. 'I feel like it's a distraction from what's actually happening. 'When a government tries to silence people, they should learn that they can never silence people. I feel like the public would get more angry at that.' Sean O'Grady is from Coleraine in Northern Ireland but has lived in Dublin for almost 70 years. 'I'm delighted with them (Kneecap), that they've done what they're doing, and they're getting plenty of publicity. 'The British government are crazy, I mean, what are they at? 'They're supplying a lot of the bombs, and a lot of the arms and ammunition to Israel to do what they're doing. So they should be ashamed of themselves instead of bringing in these people (to court) for stupid reasons. 'It's getting good publicity over there for the cause of the Palestinians.' Dubliner Dermot Nolan said he attended his first Palestine protest in 1967, and while he remembers horrific events such as the Vietnam War, the scale of death and injuries in Gaza is the worst he has ever lived through. 'I'm here because it's important to for two reasons – first of all, to show our intolerance of the genocide and slaughter that's being carried out by the US, Nato and Israel. 'The second reason is the question of civil rights. We're protesting about the indictment of a member of the Irish group Kneecap. 'It is a sign of creeping authoritarianism which is happening in all the western countries and most clearly in Britain.'
Rhyl Journal
44 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Lenny Henry says TV industry ‘still struggling' to do black hair and make up
The comedian, 66, picked up the outstanding achievement award at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday and reflected on his career and experience starting out in the industry in the 1970s. 'It was hard, you know? I mean, they didn't have a light for me', he told the festival. 'I called it the negro light. I said, 'Break out the negro light' and they'd bring out this big-ass spotlight and point it at me.' Sir Lenny, who made his TV debut on British talent show New Faces in 1975, said someone who worked at the BBC 'started to realise that I needed different lighting to those guys'. 'Also there's the thing on (TV series) Three Of A Kind where all the wigs were for white people,' he said. 'So we had Michael Howard and Dave Allen's wigs, and they never had any wigs for me. 'I had to get some dreadlocks for a character. So they sent me to the London wig company, and they made some dreadlocks for me. 'And then a year later, they had more stuff for me to do, and they got nearer, closer to what they should be like. 'And so I sort of began a whole thing where they had to know how to make black hair, and they had to know how to do black make up.' He added: 'They're still struggling with it. People like (make up artists) Jan Sewell and Sally Sutton really knew how to do it, because they did it on my show. 'But before then, they never had to do it. 'I went to a black make up lady on The Fosters in 1976 and I thought, 'Oh, it's going to be like this. There's going to be people that do make up for us'. 'Once The Fosters was over I never saw her again.' Sir Lenny was born in Dudley, near Birmingham, in 1958, and shot to fame in 1975 when his stand-up comic routine won TV talent show New Faces. After his TV debut, Sir Lenny appeared on landmark black working-class comedy The Fosters, and comedy sketch show Three Of A Kind, before landing his own self-titled show in the mid-1980s. In 1985 he co-founded Comic Relief, and in 2015 he was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity. A year later he was presented with a special Bafta award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television and in 2020 he helped to launch an independent body that examines representation in journalism, acting, film, television and radio in the UK called the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. In February he received the Freedom of the City of London and in May he and filmmaker Richard Curtis accepted a philanthropy award recognising Comic Relief's efforts to address inequality and poverty.
