She might be dead, but Agatha Christie is giving writing lessons. Sort of...
Such questions hover around the new BBC Maestro series, Agatha Christie on Writing, a 2.5-hour online course of 11 lessons led by the author herself, even though she died back in 1976 at the age of 85. Yet here she is, staring into the camera, grey hair neatly curled, a brooch on her lapel, taking us on a time-travel journey to the 1940s to share her tips of the trade.
'I am Agatha Christie,' she announces in the course's trailer, sitting with her hands clasped after a camera has panned across a fountain pen, a magnifying glass and a cup of tea in a floral teacup on her desk. 'And this is my BBC Maestro course on writing.' It's gobsmackingly real. But Christie, who's also shown getting out of a car, sitting on a garden bench writing and wandering through
a large house, isn't entirely AI-created. Conceived with the help of Christie's great-grandson, James Prichard, the online lessons feature a real actor, Vivien Keene, who wears a wig and costumes and uses a script drawn from Christie's letters, interviews and personal writing. Nearly 100 people, including academics, researchers, hair and make-up artists, a set designer and visual-effects experts, are behind the course and the digital magic that allows Keene's moving face to be overlaid with Christie's features.
Resurrecting famous dead people via AI isn't new. Virtually Parkinson, an AI-created podcast 'hosted' by the late Michael Parkinson, features a digitally recreated version of the chat-show host's voice (derived from recordings) interviewing living celebrities. The show's technical prowess means AI Parkinson is able to analyse guests' answers and pose follow-up questions. Take AI Parky asking UK gardening expert Monty Don about what draws him back to the garden: 'It always comes back to the same thing of getting down to the ground, back to the earth,' Don says.
AI Parky: 'I find that interesting. What is it about this connection to the earth that nurtures you so profoundly?' Don, laughing: 'I think it's to do with ... the rhythms of nature ... the way things grow.'
It feels like the tip of the iceberg. In 2024, US software company ElevenLabs partnered with the estates of Laurence Olivier, Judy Garland and James Dean to use the late actors' voices as narrators for books and other text material on its Reader app. How long, then, before Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë, quills in hand, are explaining Elizabeth Bennet or Jane Eyre? If the Queen of Mystery's 'realness' is any guide, the answer is, imminently.
'I will pass on the best advice I can from my own experiences,' Christie says, her crystalline gaze eyeing her students. 'But I should warn you, you must be serious about it if you wish to be a success.' Lenny Ann Low
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Perth Now
11-08-2025
- Perth Now
Christie Brinkley wants marriage to have a five-year boredom clause
Christie Brinkley believes marriages should be reviewed every five years so couples can split up easily if they get "bored". The 71-year-old model - who has been married four times including to music legend Billy Joel - is convinced couples should be given the option to end their unions without having to go through lawyers by reviewing their relationship every few years. During an appearance on Kristin Davis' Are You a Charlotte? podcast, Christie explained: "'You could get married, like: 'We'll see if you want to renew it in five years'. Every five years, go: 'Do you want to renew?' "If you're getting bored or whatever, you can get out of it without all the lawyers and all that stuff." Christie was previously married to Jean-Francois Allaux before tying the knot with Billy Joel in 1975. That marriage ended in divorce in 1981 and she went on to wed Richard Taubman and Peter Cook, who she split from in 2008. The veteran model has a 39-year-old daughter, Alexa, with Joel as well as son Jack, 30, with Taubman and daughter Sailor , 27, with Cook. Christie also revealed Sailor helped her set up a profile on an online dating platform so she can search for a potential partner but was shocked to find they were both being paired with the same people. On the podcast, Christie said: "[Sailor] wanted to see what kind of guys [would match] … and she put me up there … and she said: 'Mom, you're right not to go on it, because the same guys that said yes to me, are saying yes to you.' " Christie speculated on the type of guys who were matching with both her and Sailor, suggesting they were just looking for a woman who would be "impressed" by their choices. She said: 'I find that what men like to do is to find somebody that'll be impressed by every little thing that they do. Like, 'Oh really, oh, you're taking me to that restaurant'." Podcast host Kristin, 60, admitted she is fascinated by the modern dating world and wants to learn more, even though she is "kind of scared" about the process of finding a partner. She said: 'I'm kind of scared and awed by the whole situation that has kind of evolved in the dating world. And I don't understand it, but I would like to understand it better.'
ABC News
08-08-2025
- ABC News
Australian creatives still have copyright – don't hand it to Big Tech
Ever since she was barely a teen, the only quarrels I have ever had with my adored niece, Winnie, have been over the royalties payable on intellectual property. I'm aware that sentence makes weekends at Auntie Virginia's sound like a real barrel of laughs. To be honest, such weekends could often include impromptu lectures on the only acceptable cheese for making cheese on toast, and the importance of making sure one's undies are actually on before going out ("doesn't matter", was usually her airy reply) but as she got older and brought her own worldview on movies, music and TV shows into my world — that's when we'd clash. She was a fine representation of her generation and stood up with great gusto for the things that matter to them — to whit, ripping as much content as possible online and from streaming platforms without paying for it. I was aghast. "But you love those musicians! If you don't actually pay for their music, and pay them a living, how do you imagine they're going to be around to keep making the music you love?" The answers usually involved something about Sony/Apple/Netflix/Universal "being able to afford it." Why should her friends care when they were broke teenagers staring into the content-rich maw of the mega-corporations? Maybe it was their version of sticking it to the man, the man being the billionaire nerd who now controlled their every means of communication. And she wasn't copping from me what she regarded as some gen X hypocrisy: "You taped songs from the radio and copied songs onto 'mixed tapes' — what's the difference?" (You and I know that radio stations pay royalties for playing those songs, and you had to have the hard copy of the music in your hands in the first place to make the mix … but let's leave it there.) She and her generation had been trained by experts to take and share content, and to unhesitatingly share their data and privacy back: what's yours is mine, what's mine is yours. My philosophical battle with Winnie is on my mind because we stand at the brink of a generational fight over the importance of IP and its value to the creator, and I have a terrible feeling that if you are 50 or older, then we are going to be fighting this on our own. In an interim report released this week, the Productivity Commission has put forward a bold proposal: a text and data mining exception to the Australian Copyright Act. Put simply, this would legalise using Australian copyrighted material to train AI large language models — ChatGPT and the like. The proposal aims to slot AI training into the existing "fair dealing" exceptions already built into copyright law. Why is this on the table now? Because the commission sees a potential windfall for the Australian economy — an estimated $116 billion over the next decade — fuelled by developments in AI and digital tech. Harnessing data this way isn't just about innovation, the commission says, it's about a very real shot at economic growth. Ah, growth! The sole defining feature of a successful modern economy. Even at a time with the failures of late-stage capitalism collapsing around us like the special effects of a Marvel movie we cling to this as the only ideal, the only aim. And, in service to this ideal, the commission would like us to be comfortable with trading away the few financial benefits that come from original creativity. Once again, I'm aghast. Artists have already had to make the worst deal of their lives with streaming services, trading away what would have been worth a fortune, even during the "bad" old days of big, bad record labels. Please watch this interview with songwriter Julianna Zachariou, who adds up live on air what she makes from a Spotify stream, and you'll never feel the same about your music streaming services: she's talking about numbers that, as sold records as part of a decent contract, would have made her an actual millionaire in the 1970s. This new proposal means taking away, for free, the one and only thing that creatives make and from which they can make money. We should all be astonished at the suggestion. I know I'm not surprising you with this point of view: you would expect someone like me who spends their time celebrating original creativity to be appalled at the notion that the copyrighted work of creatives can be used as literal free food into the aforementioned maws of Big Tech to enable them to get even richer. As someone who struggles mightily with the existing "fair dealing" provisions in producing the ABCTV show Creative Types — we have to tie ourselves in knots justifying the use of 45 seconds of a film even when it's part of a relevant, thoughtful, highly analytical discussion about the detail of said copyrighted work, and mostly we can't get there because of the law's restrictions. It infuriates me that content-making like mine will remain hard, while self-enriching will get easier for the behemoths. The move seems so foolish that opposing seems self-evident. That's when you know it'll probably get through. On countless subjects, including even the safety of children, Big Tech has escaped unsanctioned and unregulated. Of course, they've managed to persuade institutions like the Productivity Commission that getting more for nothing is in everyone's interests. Since those childhood days, younger Australians like my Winnie have stepped back from total absorption by the online world: she is protective of her privacy. And she is also as angry as me at how little this digital world has benefited the hard work of the musicians she loves. But the machines and those who run them have the whip hand now. Decades after Isaac Asimov predicted his happy world where "machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile" we have finally made the trades that allow it. But it looks like we may have forgotten his most important qualifier. Asimov had a condition for this reality: "a properly automated and educated world." In our rush to hand off the work that we imagine to be a waste of our time, we've failed to educate ourselves on the real consequences. Asimov never wanted the consequences of his predicted world to be one without art. This weekend we have some wonderful writing for you on maps, gold, libraries and there's new music to share too — just make sure you pay for it at some stage. Have a safe and happy weekend and here's some new music, a dream-pop song, from that true original, Chappell Roan, who isn't the kind of person to hand off any of her work for free — maybe the generation worm will turn. Go well. Virginia Trioli is presenter of Creative Types and a former co-host of ABC News Breakfast and Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne.
The Advertiser
07-08-2025
- The Advertiser
My Oxford Year starring Netflix golden girl is a study in British charm
My Oxford Year (M, 112 minutes, Netflix) 3 stars It seems Sofia Carson is fast becoming a Netflix golden girl. The actress first broke out on the Disney scene, appearing in Descendants and also making a splash with her music. But in the past year she's been firmly cementing herself in the buzzy Netflix sphere, starring in excellent Christmas action film Carry-On alongside Taron Egerton, followed by dramedy The Life List opposite Kyle Allen, and now in romantic drama My Oxford Year. She's also an executive producer on the new film. My Oxford Year had an interesting start to its own life. It was originally a screenplay by Allison Burnett, who asked Julia Whelan to work on it with her, which then became a book by Whelan (published in 2018), and was readapted into a screenplay by Burnett and Melissa Osborne after the success of the novel. The story follows Carson's Anna de la Vega, a driven financial analyst-to-be who wants to tick off a big bucket list item before she starts her safe, stable career: studying Victorian poetry at Oxford University in England. An Anglophile, American Anna has always longed to spend time in the ancient establishment, and is particularly looking forward to learning under a professor she admires. But this last part of her dream is not to be, when that professor hands over teaching duties to her understudy, the young and charming Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest, best known for his role as King George in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). Anna and Jamie get off to a rocky start, with the Brit accidentally drenching the grad student after speeding his car through a monster puddle - a classic meet-cute. But they soon find themselves undeniably attracted to each other, and Jamie helps Anna start crossing items off the list of things she wants to achieve during her Oxford year. If nothing else, My Oxford Year makes the university's sprawling campus look beautiful and inviting. Its storied buildings and libraries look utterly entrancing. Much of the film seems to be playing out like any standard rom-com, but things end up taking a decidedly more serious turn. Mylchreest is excellent as Jamie. He brings back all the dreaminess he displayed in the Bridgerton spin-off, but layers it with a carefree charm that belies a greater vulnerability underneath. Carson is a capable lead, her Americanness a stark contrast to the Brits around her. Harry Trevaldwyn (recently seen in the live action How to Train Your Dragon) is a scene-stealer as Anna's judgy pal Charlie, providing a lot of the levity in the second half of the film. Much of the film boils down to Anna and Jamie's different definitions of the concept of living deliberately, per writer Henry David Thoreau. There's not a great deal of subtlety to be found here, and nothing quite original enough to make the film stand out, but My Oxford Year is still an enjoyable watch with cosy style. Mylchreest and the Oxford setting are the film's biggest successes, and if his two big Netflix projects are anything to go by, then the actor is in for a solid career as a romantic lead. My Oxford Year is directed by Iain Morris, probably best known behind the camera for directing The Inbetweeners and The Inbetweeners 2, and also stars Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II) and Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth). My Oxford Year (M, 112 minutes, Netflix) 3 stars It seems Sofia Carson is fast becoming a Netflix golden girl. The actress first broke out on the Disney scene, appearing in Descendants and also making a splash with her music. But in the past year she's been firmly cementing herself in the buzzy Netflix sphere, starring in excellent Christmas action film Carry-On alongside Taron Egerton, followed by dramedy The Life List opposite Kyle Allen, and now in romantic drama My Oxford Year. She's also an executive producer on the new film. My Oxford Year had an interesting start to its own life. It was originally a screenplay by Allison Burnett, who asked Julia Whelan to work on it with her, which then became a book by Whelan (published in 2018), and was readapted into a screenplay by Burnett and Melissa Osborne after the success of the novel. The story follows Carson's Anna de la Vega, a driven financial analyst-to-be who wants to tick off a big bucket list item before she starts her safe, stable career: studying Victorian poetry at Oxford University in England. An Anglophile, American Anna has always longed to spend time in the ancient establishment, and is particularly looking forward to learning under a professor she admires. But this last part of her dream is not to be, when that professor hands over teaching duties to her understudy, the young and charming Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest, best known for his role as King George in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). Anna and Jamie get off to a rocky start, with the Brit accidentally drenching the grad student after speeding his car through a monster puddle - a classic meet-cute. But they soon find themselves undeniably attracted to each other, and Jamie helps Anna start crossing items off the list of things she wants to achieve during her Oxford year. If nothing else, My Oxford Year makes the university's sprawling campus look beautiful and inviting. Its storied buildings and libraries look utterly entrancing. Much of the film seems to be playing out like any standard rom-com, but things end up taking a decidedly more serious turn. Mylchreest is excellent as Jamie. He brings back all the dreaminess he displayed in the Bridgerton spin-off, but layers it with a carefree charm that belies a greater vulnerability underneath. Carson is a capable lead, her Americanness a stark contrast to the Brits around her. Harry Trevaldwyn (recently seen in the live action How to Train Your Dragon) is a scene-stealer as Anna's judgy pal Charlie, providing a lot of the levity in the second half of the film. Much of the film boils down to Anna and Jamie's different definitions of the concept of living deliberately, per writer Henry David Thoreau. There's not a great deal of subtlety to be found here, and nothing quite original enough to make the film stand out, but My Oxford Year is still an enjoyable watch with cosy style. Mylchreest and the Oxford setting are the film's biggest successes, and if his two big Netflix projects are anything to go by, then the actor is in for a solid career as a romantic lead. My Oxford Year is directed by Iain Morris, probably best known behind the camera for directing The Inbetweeners and The Inbetweeners 2, and also stars Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II) and Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth). My Oxford Year (M, 112 minutes, Netflix) 3 stars It seems Sofia Carson is fast becoming a Netflix golden girl. The actress first broke out on the Disney scene, appearing in Descendants and also making a splash with her music. But in the past year she's been firmly cementing herself in the buzzy Netflix sphere, starring in excellent Christmas action film Carry-On alongside Taron Egerton, followed by dramedy The Life List opposite Kyle Allen, and now in romantic drama My Oxford Year. She's also an executive producer on the new film. My Oxford Year had an interesting start to its own life. It was originally a screenplay by Allison Burnett, who asked Julia Whelan to work on it with her, which then became a book by Whelan (published in 2018), and was readapted into a screenplay by Burnett and Melissa Osborne after the success of the novel. The story follows Carson's Anna de la Vega, a driven financial analyst-to-be who wants to tick off a big bucket list item before she starts her safe, stable career: studying Victorian poetry at Oxford University in England. An Anglophile, American Anna has always longed to spend time in the ancient establishment, and is particularly looking forward to learning under a professor she admires. But this last part of her dream is not to be, when that professor hands over teaching duties to her understudy, the young and charming Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest, best known for his role as King George in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). Anna and Jamie get off to a rocky start, with the Brit accidentally drenching the grad student after speeding his car through a monster puddle - a classic meet-cute. But they soon find themselves undeniably attracted to each other, and Jamie helps Anna start crossing items off the list of things she wants to achieve during her Oxford year. If nothing else, My Oxford Year makes the university's sprawling campus look beautiful and inviting. Its storied buildings and libraries look utterly entrancing. Much of the film seems to be playing out like any standard rom-com, but things end up taking a decidedly more serious turn. Mylchreest is excellent as Jamie. He brings back all the dreaminess he displayed in the Bridgerton spin-off, but layers it with a carefree charm that belies a greater vulnerability underneath. Carson is a capable lead, her Americanness a stark contrast to the Brits around her. Harry Trevaldwyn (recently seen in the live action How to Train Your Dragon) is a scene-stealer as Anna's judgy pal Charlie, providing a lot of the levity in the second half of the film. Much of the film boils down to Anna and Jamie's different definitions of the concept of living deliberately, per writer Henry David Thoreau. There's not a great deal of subtlety to be found here, and nothing quite original enough to make the film stand out, but My Oxford Year is still an enjoyable watch with cosy style. Mylchreest and the Oxford setting are the film's biggest successes, and if his two big Netflix projects are anything to go by, then the actor is in for a solid career as a romantic lead. My Oxford Year is directed by Iain Morris, probably best known behind the camera for directing The Inbetweeners and The Inbetweeners 2, and also stars Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II) and Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth). My Oxford Year (M, 112 minutes, Netflix) 3 stars It seems Sofia Carson is fast becoming a Netflix golden girl. The actress first broke out on the Disney scene, appearing in Descendants and also making a splash with her music. But in the past year she's been firmly cementing herself in the buzzy Netflix sphere, starring in excellent Christmas action film Carry-On alongside Taron Egerton, followed by dramedy The Life List opposite Kyle Allen, and now in romantic drama My Oxford Year. She's also an executive producer on the new film. My Oxford Year had an interesting start to its own life. It was originally a screenplay by Allison Burnett, who asked Julia Whelan to work on it with her, which then became a book by Whelan (published in 2018), and was readapted into a screenplay by Burnett and Melissa Osborne after the success of the novel. The story follows Carson's Anna de la Vega, a driven financial analyst-to-be who wants to tick off a big bucket list item before she starts her safe, stable career: studying Victorian poetry at Oxford University in England. An Anglophile, American Anna has always longed to spend time in the ancient establishment, and is particularly looking forward to learning under a professor she admires. But this last part of her dream is not to be, when that professor hands over teaching duties to her understudy, the young and charming Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest, best known for his role as King George in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). Anna and Jamie get off to a rocky start, with the Brit accidentally drenching the grad student after speeding his car through a monster puddle - a classic meet-cute. But they soon find themselves undeniably attracted to each other, and Jamie helps Anna start crossing items off the list of things she wants to achieve during her Oxford year. If nothing else, My Oxford Year makes the university's sprawling campus look beautiful and inviting. Its storied buildings and libraries look utterly entrancing. Much of the film seems to be playing out like any standard rom-com, but things end up taking a decidedly more serious turn. Mylchreest is excellent as Jamie. He brings back all the dreaminess he displayed in the Bridgerton spin-off, but layers it with a carefree charm that belies a greater vulnerability underneath. Carson is a capable lead, her Americanness a stark contrast to the Brits around her. Harry Trevaldwyn (recently seen in the live action How to Train Your Dragon) is a scene-stealer as Anna's judgy pal Charlie, providing a lot of the levity in the second half of the film. Much of the film boils down to Anna and Jamie's different definitions of the concept of living deliberately, per writer Henry David Thoreau. There's not a great deal of subtlety to be found here, and nothing quite original enough to make the film stand out, but My Oxford Year is still an enjoyable watch with cosy style. Mylchreest and the Oxford setting are the film's biggest successes, and if his two big Netflix projects are anything to go by, then the actor is in for a solid career as a romantic lead. My Oxford Year is directed by Iain Morris, probably best known behind the camera for directing The Inbetweeners and The Inbetweeners 2, and also stars Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II) and Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth).
