Popular star to make shock return to soap
Eva will become the new landlady of the Rovers Return pub, joined by her new partner Ben Driscoll and his mother Maggie.
Aaron McCusker and Pauline McLynn will portray Ben and Maggie, respectively, with Ben's two sons and Eva's daughter Suzie also joining the cast.
The new landlords will be revealed in October, more than seven years after Eva's last appearance when she moved to France.
This casting news follows the recent departure of Sally Ann Matthews, who played Jenny Connor, and other cast members from the long-running British soap.
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12 minutes ago
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Venus Williams to get new Barbie as part of Inspiring Women collection
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The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Trump is a horror story, isn't he?' Stephen King on villains, dark secrets and dreams
I once entered a short story competition in the Guardian, judged by you, but failed. Is it simply a case of trying until something sticks? Or is accepting a lack of talent a relief over chasing an impossible dream? EvolAnthWell, it's not necessarily a lack of talent. I think everybody has talent, but you have to hone it. The more you do it, the more you like it. And when you have talent, you want to do it, you know? You signed my copy of Christine with the words 'Keep on screaming for vengeance' because I was wearing a Judas Priest badge. Is music still important to you? RobFrampton Yeah, music is still important to me. I've moved on from Judas Priest because I couldn't get the rights to use the lyrics from You've Got Another Thing Comin' for my [2008] novel, Duma Key. So I've moved on to Rancid, Nazareth, Anthrax and Metallica. I don't listen to music if I'm composing directly from my head to the page. When I'm rewriting, I like to listen to club music, disco or something with a repetitive beat that flows through my head and goes in one ear and out the other. Today I was listening to some zydeco music, and LCD Soundsystem. I like North American Scum, Losing My Edge and Daft Punk Is Playing at My House very much. Do you still go to bookshops and sign copies of your books when no one is looking? PampersIf I can sneak in and sneak out, I do. I last did it at a bookstore down the road from me in western Maine and signed some copies of Never Flinch and You Like It Darker. I don't really like book signings because you can't do everybody. On my last book tour, I had to sign 400 books that were sifted at random from 1,000, so you only had a chance of getting one. But it was better than facing a line of people that never ends, where they all have two or three books. That's tough. The word 'prolific' is often overused, but not for your output. Is not stopping a choice, or is it because you can't stop? JamesZZZIt's hard to decide what to do with those two or three extra hours a day between 9am and noon. You can only watch so many gameshows on TV. I can go for a walk, but then I'm still thinking about the next thing. Basically, man, I'm entertaining myself. Do you still write all your books on Microsoft Word? otterleyAs a matter of fact, I do. Sometimes I will sit and write in the mornings in longhand and then transcribe it. But mostly I use Word because you can go back and fix things. I'm not much of a computer geek, so if I have a problem, I get my IT guy on the job. Why is something scarier the more legs it has? biscoffThere is some truth to that. I just finished reading a British fantasy novel called City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. In it, there's a monster in a hole in the ground, which is like a centipede and has all these legs. When they dump somebody into the pit, it grabs them with all its legs, punches through the flesh and chews off their head. So that was really scary. The thing is, they're not like us. They don't look like us. They are basically alien creatures, so it's a little bit scary. Who do you read for lighter moments while on holiday? I re-read PG Wodehouse. LowerColonI don't read PG Wodehouse. I have a tendency to read British mysteries. I'm reading one now called The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke that's set on a Scottish island. The people can't get out and it's pretty good. I'm studying for a master's in English and my dissertation is on Holly Gibney's transformation from walk-on character to heroine, covering all seven books. Can you help? Norahseel56 I sort of fell in love with her. She was supposed to be almost a joke character; a walk-on, so to speak. She was obviously hen-pecked by her mother. Her mother was very overbearing and her father was a dishrag kind of person. There came a point in that first book, Mr Mercedes, where one of the characters, Jerome Robinson, goes to Holly because she understands computers and they kind of click. That was the point where she started to become three-dimensional. The more I wrote about her, and got interested in her, the more she started to become confident and interesting. She's still got a lot of inferiority, and she's not married and doesn't have a boyfriend or anything. I think she might be a virgin. I'm not sure about that. I haven't explored her backstory enough, but she became very interesting to me. By the third novel she was in, she just walked in and stole the book. What is the furthest you have got into writing a book and thought: 'Nah, that's no good,' and chucked it away? stinkyThere was one called The Cannibals that was set in an apartment building and these people couldn't get out. It was sort of interesting, but I didn't know what to do with it, so I just shelved it and went on to something that seemed more doable. It was probably about 200 pages. You go until you can't think of anything else to say, and that's the end. Does Roland Deschain [the main character in King's The Dark Tower series] wear a hat? In my mind, he doesn't. My partner disagrees. Please settle this argument! jackbumbyIn some of the pictures he wears a hat. But I never really saw him in a hat, no. I'm going to an arts school and am thinking about becoming a horror writer. What part-time job would be good to get some inspiration? EagleDogCatI got some inspiration when I worked in a mill. We had to clean the place out and there were a lot of big rats in the basement. I wrote a story about that, and then I was off and running. I think any kind of a job that is manual labour – what in the US we call a blue-collar worker – is good experience for a writer. You don't want a job where you can sit down in a clean, well-lit room and not have to clean up shit. If fear was a colour, would it be monochrome or have different shades? SimotherI think it's dark blue shading to black. You've got to have some colour because you have to be able to see a little bit. You've got to sense something and get an idea of what's in the shadows, so to speak. So yeah, I'd say dark blue shading to black. If you had to invent an ending for Trumpian America, what would it be? hereroI think it would be impeachment – which, in my view, would be a good ending. I would love to see him retired, let's put it that way. The bad ending would be that he gets a third term and takes things over completely. It's a horror story either way. Trump is a horror story, isn't he? When I first saw Stranger Things, it felt much like a Stephen King novel. Do you agree? MeckastemeduckI don't see it as a Stephen King story as much as some other people do. I think the Duffer Brothers give me more credit than I deserve. Like a lot of talented people, they grew up with my material. When they were young and malleable, they read a lot of Stephen King and said: 'We wanna do something like that.' But they're very talented guys and the story they have developed has a lot more to it than Stephen King. It's got a lot of Duffer Brothers in it. It's good. I've seen all the episodes. I like it a lot. If someone was to make a film of your life, who would play you? MorganFox77I would love to have a good-looking leading man, but I don't think Brad Pitt would do it. He is a lot better-looking than me. I'm a little bit on the elderly side now, so I'd say maybe Christopher Lloyd or – who's the guy in Twin Peaks, the main tall guy? Kyle MacLachlan. I'm sure people are always asking you about your own dark secrets. Is there anything adorable about yourself that you'd like to share? UrrurrshCan't tell you. 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Does this still stand? TopTrampThere was a time, when I was a young and struggling writer, when I would imagine all the smart, witty answers I would give in interviews. Now I'm actually faced with interviewers like your good self, I'm just sort of stuck. I hear myself saying: 'Um … erm … ah … er …' a lot. It's a case of be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. The Life of Chuck is in cinemas from 20 August Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
James Trickey: Don't Count on Me review – accountant takes calculated risk in fringe debut
There's a bait-and-switch to begin newcomer James Trickey's show, which starts with our host in sunglasses raving to techno music. The music stops, the shades are removed and then, in deadpan: 'I'm a chartered accountant.' It's a fun pivot, from suave to schmuck. It's also a misdirection, because Trickey then re-ascends to high status for the rest of the show, delivering his debut set in unusually imperious style at a time when, for fringe wannabes at least, self-deprecation is the norm. You've got to admire the chutzpah; high status is harder for a rookie to pull off. It comes at the expense of warmth, though: I found Trickey's maiden fringe set reminiscent of Jack Whitehall's way back when. He's technically excellent, plenty of good jokes, sometimes a bit facile, his mannerisms occasionally feeling borrowed. His is an expertly constructed example of the genus 'debut fringe show', deploying his day job and field of expertise (accountancy and mathematics) as a lens through which to explore who he is, where he's come from – and where he's going. That's a lot to get through, and Trickey packs plenty into the hour, ranging across his parentage – old white dad, Cambodian mum – his passion for tomato puree, and the kids' trust fund he's establishing based on Subway loyalty points. The latter prompts a section on probability and expectation, consisting of a weak rap/rhyme set-piece and reflections on the gamble he's taking by quitting accountancy for standup. Earlier, we get some material making hay with our host's dual heritage ('Am I being racially excluded from the racist banter?'). One or two of those jokes are funnier in principle than in practice. The tenuous idea is apparent behind a routine justifying racism based on the GDP of the country being abused, but it raises a wan smile at best. The joke about how seedy it looks when ageing white dad takes young Asian son to school is not a pleasant one. Technique may be running ahead of judicious selection of material, then, but Trickey has certainly got it, and his gamble in taking up comedy looks odds-on to pay off. At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 24 August All our Edinburgh festival reviews
