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Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Seaside town with 'best pier in UK' and amazing views is UK's most beautiful
Cromer in Norfolk has been crowned the most beautiful seaside town in the UK, with its rugged cliffs, golden sands and charming Victorian pier making it a hit with visitors There's a certain seaside spot that is stealing hearts as the UK's most stunning coastal town. Perched precariously atop dramatic cliffs facing the North Sea, Cromer in Norfolk is a vision of natural beauty, peppered with verdant woodlands. The town is known for its Victorian pier, thriving with life and entertainment. Buzzing with activity, the Pavilion Theatre on the pier plays host to an array of shows, while further attractions include addictive arcade games and an inviting seafront strewn with quaint shops and tempting eateries. Adding to its accolades, Cromer Pier has scooped up the coveted 'Pier of the Year' award for 2024 from the National Piers Society, reflecting its enormous appeal to tourists. It's fondly referred to as the "gem of the Norfolk coast" due to its spectacular scenery. Literary giants have sought solace and inspiration in this coastal haven; Jane Austen immortalised it in 'Emma', extolling its virtues as a premier spot for sea bathing, praising both its panoramic ocean vistas and invigorating air. Resonating with mystery and intrigue, Arthur Conan Doyle conjured up 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', drawing from Cromer's rich tapestry of local myths, including tales of the Black Shuck, an eerie canine spectre reputed to roam the shores. For those craving that quintessential British beach experience, Cromer doesn't disappoint - with its resplendent golden sands complemented by brightly coloured beach huts, offering a sublime setting for leisurely promenades, sun-drenched relaxation, or a snorkelling adventure. For those wanting a change from the seaside, Cromer offers the delightful Amazona Zoo. Here, you can meet over 200 tropical animals from South America, including jaguars, parrots, monkeys, and even guinea pigs in their own village. However, the real jewel of Cromer is its parish, with a towering spire offering stunning views of the town and countryside. It's a must-see for any keen photographer or tourist. Visitors have been singing praises about Cromer on Google Reviews, applauding its untouched beauty and lack of crowds. One satisfied holidaymaker labelled it "the most beautiful yet underrated beach," while others praised its quaint shops, lively atmosphere, and delicious fish and chips. Every August, Cromer bursts into life with its spectacular Carnival, featuring a dazzling parade, fireworks, live music, and more. And music fans won't want to miss Golk on the Pier, a folk-rock festival hailed as the "best gig on the North Sea" for its fantastic lineup. For seafood lovers, Cromer is famous for its delicious crab, available fresh from March to October. Don't miss the Crab and Lobster Festival in May, where you can enjoy cooking competitions, live music, and local produce stalls. Links Restaurant is a must-visit for seafood lovers, serving up mouth-watering dishes featuring locally sourced crab and lobster. For a gourmet twist on the classic fish and chips, head to No. 1 Cromer, owned by Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston, which offers stunning seaside views. Sweet lovers should not miss Herald's Fine Chocolates, a haven of handmade treats including fudges, marzipan fruits and more. With its lively events, fantastic food, and breathtaking coastal views, Cromer guarantees an unforgettable seaside getaway.
SBS Australia
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Murder, mushrooms and Sherlock: Irish storyteller Brendan Foley on a fascinating wild mix
Amelia Rojas (Blu Hunt) and Sherlock (David Thewlis). Credit: Starlings Entertainment Arthur Conan Doyle's witheringly insistent detective Sherlock Holmes has worn many faces since he first appeared in the author's 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet . The 221B Baker Street-based sleuth was first depicted on screen by an unknown actor in Arthur Marvin's 30-second silent film Sherlock Holmes Baffled at the turn of the 20 th century. Danish actor Viggo Larsen stepped into the role a few years later for the Nordisk Film Company. Since then, we've had everyone from Peter Cushing to Michael Caine, Ian McKellen to Benedict Cumberbatch. Big, no-doubt luxurious leather, shoes to fill, then. Belfast-born journalist-turned screen storyteller was well aware of the weight on his shoulders when creating magnificently fun show, . 'Sherlock's had the most outings in television history, and that's a double-edged sword,' Foley says. How do you bring a fresh perspective to such an enduring story? By upending everything Sherlock thinks he knows. Dr Watson and their landlady, Mrs Hudson, are missing, and Holmes is no longer at the top of his game. 'I thought, 'Wouldn't it be more interesting to meet him as a lion in winter?'' Foley says. 'That's pretty hard for poor old Sherlock, who has been lauded and has a bit of a Napoleon complex.' Depicted by the inimitable David Thewlis, Sherlock's also confronted with the daughter he never knew he had in kick-ass Amelia Rojas, a revelatory turn from Blu Hunt. 'Hats off to Blu,' Foley says. 'It's not easy to act opposite a world-class character actor like David, but she more than holds her own.' 'Sherlock is a massive experimenter,' Foley says. 'He's got that encyclopaedic, scientific inquiring mind and infamously experiments with substances. So, what if he possibly, just once, experimented with what is his rather dysfunctional version of love?' Of course, Sherlock refuses to believe Amelia, denying a dalliance with her murdered mother, Lucia (Savonna Spracklin), a First Nations woman with an inventor's curiosity. Amelia's pretty pissed he won't take her word for it, particularly as she had to beg, borrow and steal to cross the Pacific, find Sherlock and gain his help uncovering her killer. 'If Amelia does turn out to be a blood relative of Sherlock, then the one thing you know is that half of her is Holmes' stuffy Anglo-Saxon, while her mother has this fascinating First Nations and Californian-Spanish background,' Foley says. Amelia may be a fish out of water, but she's sharp as a tack and handy with a gun and hand-to-hand combat. Foley pits them against a crime gang with an insidiously global reach, symbolically picking at a thread from A Study in Scarlet by leaving a strand of scarlet string at every crime scene. Sherlock also consults the imprisoned Professor Moriarty, his twisted frenemy depicted by a delightfully devious Dougray Scott. 'Sherlock and Moriarty are classic 19 th -century big beasts, but they're both at the end of that cycle,' Foley says. 'After the First World War, industrialised conflict is creeping towards them and there are these explosions of technology, like the telephone, changing the way things have been done for a very long time.' Can they keep up, with help from Amelia? And just who is the handsome Australian stranger freshly arrived in London, having been transported as a light-fingered kid? Invisible Boys star Joe Klocek depicts him with gung-ho gusto. 'The late-Victorian era wouldn't have been the classic transportation period, but it was definitely happening to anyone British society wanted rid of, right up until shamefully recently,' Foley says. With a scintillating mystery, villainous skulduggery and action aplenty, Sherlock & Daughter is stupendous fun with broad appeal. 'There are two quite different audiences,' Foley says. 'One is the classic Sherlock Holmes audience, and the other is much younger and interested in possible romance. Ultimately, what would the relationship be like between someone like Holmes and Amelia, who just crash-lands into his world?' With the source novel by Antti Tuomainen covered, how do you continue the story of mushroom entrepreneur Jaakko (Jussi Vatanen, ), who was slowly, inescapably dying after being deliberately poisoned by fatal fungi in season one? Foley and co-writer Markku Flink take a wild and wonderful swing. 'Season one was essentially 'How do you choose to spend your time when you've been sleepwalking your way through life?'' Foley says. 'Season two is about if you should find yourself unexpectedly still alive, what would you do to stay alive?' Foley relished the chance to expand the show. 'Antti has that really specific weirdness of, say, the Coen brothers, which was my guiding star on season one,' he says. 'Working together with the same characters for season two but without that brilliant superstructure was all about taking totally left-field ideas that were a joy to write.' Especially Jaakko. 'He's got a sort of slightly Dilbert corporate sensibility and takes his mushrooms very seriously,' Foley says. 'But he's also a really decent human being in a world several sizes too big for him, trying to make sense of it, and I think that's why audiences root for him.' Viewers also root for Lia (Sofia Pekkari), a Finnish woman drawn into a clandestine group, led by Pihla Viitala's Mira, battling the rise of a far-right politician (John Simm) in . Foley contributed writing to the London-set, Nordic-flavoured crime thriller. How does a Belfast boy wind up being a go-to writer on Nordic noir shows? 'I had a few friends who were Nordic producers back in the day, just at the stage that they were starting to be very outward looking,' Foley says. 'They had a reputation for being cold and unremittingly gloomy, and, in a way, that's what people liked. But they were also looking for quirky differences. So I became the guy who did Nordic noir, who was Irish for some inexplicable reason.' Much like the participants of , Foley's unusual story has deeply unexpected roots. 'I was fortunate enough to have a very deep DNA dive, and in the year 925, virtually all of my ancestors were Icelandic Viking Celts, so there you go.' Foley's background in internationally-focused business journalism helped hone his interest in other cultures. So he's stoked SBS picked up Sherlock & Daughter . 'There's so much fantastic TV on SBS that you'd never have had the chance to see before,' Foley says. 'It's that mixture of a global view, but always with interesting specifics.' Sherlock & Daughter is airing Thursdays on SBS. New episodes also arrive each Thursday at SBS On Demand. The Man Who Died season one is streaming at SBS On Demand. Season 2 arrives Thursday 22 May. Cold Courage is streaming at SBS On Demand. Share this with family and friends SBS's award winning companion podcast. Join host Yumi Stynes for Seen, a new SBS podcast about cultural creatives who have risen to excellence despite a role-model vacuum.
Spectator
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Nigels may soon go extinct
I have never been a big fan of my own name. The name 'Nigel' has romantic origins – it means 'dark champion' in Celtic lore and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle titled one of his dashing medieval historical novels Sir Nigel. But by the time of my birth the name had become indelibly associated with cerebrally challenged upper-class twits with protruding teeth, and then a silly song about 'making plans for Nigel'. The most prominent bearers of the name during my lifetime – such as Nigels Lawson, Havers, Mansell and Kennedy – have done little to enhance its prestige. By 2022, only three Nigels were registered in the national birth statistics, and the name had become so unpopular that it is threatened with actual extinction, going the same way as such despised and dead forenames as Herbert, Cyril and Algernon.
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Column: U.S.-Canada ties remain strong, despite the noise
British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle greatly raised the prestige of the lowly detective story with his fictional alter ego Sherlock Holmes. One of Holmes' most brilliant insights concerned something that was not present. In 'Silver Blaze,' a dog did not bark. In a vexing case, what was unheard and what did not happen proved to be the crucial evidence. Likewise, Canada-United States relations remain quietly strong, despite media focus on current disruptions. Historically and today, we adjust to one another. The striking election victory of Canada's Liberals on April 28 represents a remarkable reversal of party fortunes. Prime Minister Mark Carney is the former head of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, ideally suited by experience and calm temperament to deal effectively with President Donald Trump. Canada-U.S. relations today are challenged by conflict. For instance, President Trump criticized Canada's dairy industry for promoting protectionism, not coincidentally while in Wisconsin. U.S. tariff threats are disturbing. Trump exaggerates readily. Nonetheless, he voices widely felt frustrations. Also, highly germane is that farmers represent powerful political lobbies in most countries. Yet, existing cooperative structures and practices remain intact. Alliance with Canada was established during the enormous global struggle of World War II. Our partnership reflects the enduring 'Special Relationship' between Britain and the U.S. forged by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Our history was not always collaborative. The Great Lakes were a principal naval battle arena during the War of 1812. Canada provided refuge and sustenance to Confederate saboteurs and spies during our Civil War. The fact that negative history has been so fully overcome testifies to the strength of contemporary bonds. President John F. Kennedy summed up the Canada-U.S. relationship while addressing the Parliament in Ottawa early in 1961, noting, 'Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.' Canada's government professionals traditionally foster cooperation with Britain and the U.S., while heavily represented among the staff of the United Nations, NATO and numerous other global intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations. Ditchley Park near Oxford is an extremely influential conference center born from the Anglo-American-Canadian tripartite alliance of World War II. When the focus of a meeting is the UN, crisis intervention, humanitarian relief, international law or associated topics, Canada is invariably extremely well represented among participants. Roosevelt and Churchill held a summit aboard naval warships off Newfoundland, Canada in August of 1941, several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The result was the Atlantic Charter, the foundation for the United Nations. One vital byproduct was British, Canadian and U.S. scientific cooperation during and after the war. Throughout the war, the Allies planned the UN structure in detail. The former helped achieve victory; the latter promotes stability. At the end of Kennedy's 1961 visit to Canada, national security adviser McGeorge Bundy accidentally left behind a briefcase containing a memo where the president had scrawled a note about dealing with 'the SOB,' apparently referring to combative nationalist Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker, enraged, threatened embarrassing public retaliation. Kennedy pleaded poor penmanship, stating he actually wrote 'OAS,' the Organization of American States. At his next press conference, he went out of his way to praise Bundy. Diefenbaker had a loud bark, like Trump, but therefore stood out. Generally, Canadian leaders have quietly pursued cooperation with the U.S., including Diefenbaker's successors Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. Carney reflects this tradition of calmness in crisis.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
A Dartmoor village is paying Prince William £1.5m-a-year for an abandoned prison - and former inmates say it gave them cancer
The village of Princetown sits surrounded by the desolate beauty of Dartmoor national park. It should, in theory, be a hub for the more than 2 million people a year who come to explore the bogs, granite tors and windswept moorland that in part inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles. Today it more closely resembles a mining community after the pits closed. Dartmoor prison, which provided jobs for many residents, has been closed since last summer after the discovery of dangerous levels of radon gas. The prison museum, a former tourist attraction, is also closed, and the prison officers' club is derelict. Quiet streets bear testimony to the ghostly finger of financial fate. The fate of the prison has not dented the profits of the Duchy of Cornwall, however, which owns the land the village sits on. The taxpayer is still paying Prince William's estate £1.5m a year to lease the abandoned prison, and is set to do so for another 24 years. The government may soon face an even bigger bill: about 500 former inmates and staff who worked at the jail are planning to sue the Ministry of Justice, alleging they have been exposed to radon levels up to 14 times the legal limit, the Observer can reveal. Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas in soil and rocks, is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and is conservatively linked to about 5% of lung cancer cases in the UK a year, causing more than 1,100 deaths, 3.1% of the total annually. Solicitor Mladen Kesar is representing the group. Of those bringing the case, 10 people have had cancer and, of those, two have since died. Others report symptoms they believe are linked to radon poisoning, including shortness of breath, wheezing and nosebleeds. Many worry that it may take several years for potential health effects to show, including lung cancer, stomach cancer and emphysema. Kesar compared his clients' time in the jail to sitting inside the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. 'I can't prove causation yet, but that doesn't mean I won't be able to prove it,' he said. Lindon Ball, 31, from Torquay, who was already asthmatic, has suffered more severe lung and heart problems since serving time in Dartmoor in 2019 and 2020 for possessing an unlicensed firearm. During the Covid pandemic, he and other prisoners were locked up for more than 23 hours a day. 'The prison is a bad, bad place,' he said. 'They treat you like a dog. I've had breathing problems. I feel like I've got lumps in my lungs. I've got heart problems as well.' Another man, who asked to remain anonymous, described cell windows which had been smashed out to let more air in because of the radon, heating that worked only intermittently, mist rolling into the damp cells and mould everywhere that had to be regularly scrubbed off. 'My cell, I think, was 14 times over the legal limit [for radon]. I went there as a well man and came out ill,' he said. 'I'm a scaffolder but I can't work now. I'm signed off sick.' Joe Priscott, 27, from north Devon, who was in Dartmoor for dangerous driving and actual bodily harm from July 2021 to May 2023, developed nosebleeds for the only time in his life while he was there. 'My solicitor sent me a list of the cells with the highest radon readings – and four of the highest were the ones I'd been in,' he said. MPs first began discussing high radon levels on Dartmoor in 1987. Staff at the prison began monitoring levels in 2010, say former inmates, but the last of the 640 prisoners and 159 staff were not moved out until July 2024. Villagers, who have dealt with their own radon problems by installing ventilation systems, doubt that the jail will ever reopen because of the complications of fixing such an old building. However, Amy Rees, the head of the prison and probation service, told the justice parliamentary select committee last month that it would still be cheaper to install protective equipment in Dartmoor than to build a new prison. A grey granite fortress built from 1806-09 to house French prisoners of the Napoleonic wars, the empty category C jail casts a shadow over increasingly worried neighbours looking out at disused buildings. The village – which is owned by William's £1.1bn Duchy of Cornwall estate and stands as the highest settlement on the moor at 1,430ft above sea level – and its surrounding area have suffered an estimated £30m hit to the local economy after a disastrous combination of events. Many of them stem from the prison closure but there are other factors too, including financial cuts at the national park authority. The national park's visitor centre, housed in the historic former Duchy Hotel where Conan Doyle stayed and started writing The Hound of the Baskervilles, is due to close later this year because of a cash crisis at the park authority and mounting repair bills for the building. The youth centre has run into financial problems, the arts festival has been cancelled, and a long-promised new tourist attraction, a distillery, has failed to materialise and is still short of £5m in startup cash. Locals believe tens of thousands of tourist visits have been lost, despite the raw beauty of the surroundings, and local businesses are reporting a subsequent drop in trade. Rory Atton, who owns the Dewerstone organic clothing and coffee shop in the village centre, sees one common problem: nearly all the affected buildings and organisations are on leases from the duchy, requiring them, rather than the duchy, to pay for any repairs or improvements. Villagers have questions for William, who became Duke of Cornwall when his father acceded the throne and thus took over the duchy. 'I think he might have been to some surrounding farms, but he's not been to the village to talk to us,' Atton said. 'Many people around here are ex-services and tend to be supportive of the monarchy, but they are growing increasingly frustrated with Prince William. What is his plan? Is there a plan? Because right now no one can see it.' Mark Renders, a local councillor, member of the Dartmoor National Park Authority and village postmaster in Princetown, worries that the shops may have to close eventually if nothing is done. He shares some similar criticisms of the duchy but also points out that many organisations have been paying only £100 rent, heavily subsidised by the duchy, and could have chosen to pay higher sums in return for making the duchy responsible for repairs under their tenancy agreements. 'They've had 30 years paying £100 a year in rent,' he said. The duchy, for its part, appears to be putting together a plan to revitalise the village. It has given the youth club money for six months while it searches for alternative funding and is understood to be developing a wider strategy for the area. A spokesperson said it was working with the national park on a plan to turn the visitor centre into something that would support the local tourist industry. 'We take our role seriously,' she said. Neither the duchy nor the national park would give further details about the plan for the visitor centre, one of three on Dartmoor, but the Observer understands that they may turn it into a youth hostel. The prison service, meanwhile, said it was still monitoring radon levels at Dartmoor prison and would not comment on the legal action. 'We continue to take advice from specialists to explore how it can be reopened as quickly as possible,' a spokesperson said.
