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The Herald Scotland
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
My 30-year love affair with Edinburgh's summer festivals
Some of those participating over the next few weeks will almost certainly have spent months, if not the last year, working on shows, programmes or entire festivals. Read more: Other unsung folk working behind-the-scenes will be simply trying to ensure the city simply keeps on running on smoothly as possible. There will undoubtedly be many people living and working in the city centre who simply cannot wait for the circus to leave town. The Hub is the home of the Edinburgh International Festival. (Image: Andrew Perry) But I'm sure they are vastly outnumbered by those people who simply cannot get enough of the celebration of culture that explodes on their doorstep every August and will be filling hundreds of venues across the city now until the end of the month. I've been one of them for 30 years now. My first encounter was when I decided to stay in Edinburgh for the summer after my first year studying journalism. Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd regularly performed in small venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Supplied) I couldn't believe the transformation of the normally quiet closes and courtyards of the Royal Mile as I found them filled with noise, colour and, well, chaos. Every time I walked past The Mound I found myself drawn in by the huge crowds gathered around street performers. It was completely intoxicating, even if the only tickets I bought were for a couple of late-night shows towards the end of the month. Australian performer Tim Minchin made his Fringe debut at the Gilded Balloon 20 years ago. A later I was living near the bottom of the Broughton Street, which I quickly discovered was in close proximity to several Fringe venues. One of them was a school playground where a Polish theatre company, some of whom were performing on stints, staged a terrifying production inspired by the horrors of the war in Bosnia. George Square is transformed by venues for Edinburgh's festivals. (Image: Alistair Leith) Nearby churches were turned into venues which ran round-the-clock with music and theatre programmes packed full of international performers. The garden of one of these churches became a favourite place to hang out in between shows on countless balmy summer evenings. But the other local bars and restaurants buzzed with conversation from people from around the world. When September came, and the performers had packed up and left, it was something of a relief, but the streets seemed so much greyer than had been just a few days before. The summer was the start love affair with the festivals that I'm still as passionate about as ever. I have missed just one festival since then, when I inexplicably went on holiday to Bilbao only to find that its own summer festival - which was largely staged after dark - was on. It's since become an unmissable and all-consuming feast for the senses for me. A big part of the enduring appeal of the festivals is that so much about them feels familiar, welcoming and even reassuring. Much of that is down to Edinburgh's array of remarkable venues. Those that are here all year take on another life entirely in August, when Summerhall's courtyard, the Filmhouse cafe and the Traverse bar are abuzz with excitable chatter about the latest hot tickets or festival gossip. Others stalwarts like The Stand and Monkey Barrel comedy clubs take over as many nearby spaces as possible to try to satisfy demand from their fiercely loyal performers and audiences. Some festival hotspots are eerily quiet the rest of the year, such as the Pleasance Courtyard and George Square, but become entire festival villages in August. Other venues, such as St Giles' Cathedral, or the Scottish Storytelling Centre, which has a terrific garden tucked away off the Royal Mile, offer vital space to simply chill out and contemplate as the festival swirls around them. An undoubted benefit of the festivals is how they both open and encourage public access to places and spaces most people would probably never go to. I cannot imagine how else I would have ventured inside Freemasons' Hall on George Street, the Royal Scots Club on Abercromby Place, the Ukrainian Community Centre on Royal Terrace or the Hibernian Supporters Club off Easter Road. Although the cost of accommodation in Edinburgh is notoriously eye-watering, the single biggest selling point of the festivals themselves is how affordable they are. With more than 4000 events to choose from, the sheer level of competition has pegged ticket prices back. Hundreds of shows and events are either free or offer pay-what-you-want deals, with many other tickets costing less than the price of a pint. The average cost of a Fringe ticket is around £12, most book and film festival tickets are only marginally more expensive and the Edinburgh International Festival sells seats for as little as £10, including for on the day concessions. Many festivalgoers, especially those resident in the city, are fiercely loyal to their favourite shows and performers, returning year after year to see them. Others will spend almost their entire festival at the one event or venue. After all, a large chunk of Fringe audiences is made up of people performing or working on other shows, who know exactly what it takes to get onto a stage in Edinburgh. For me, the festival season is all about the thrill of the new and especially the prospect of seeing a star of the future emerge from obscurity. While the Fringe in particular is awash with hype for months in advance these days, there is something particularly thrilling about its first few days, when shows finally open and word of mouth takes over. I learned long ago to keep plenty of space clear in my diary for shows I have not previously heard about which suddenly become the talk of the town. I wasn't lucky enough to catch Steve Coogan, Kevin Bridges, Peter Kay or Phoebe Waller-Bridge on their way to the top, but I did see Frankie Boyle, Johnny Vegas, Tim Minchin, Fern Brady and Richard Gadd perform in some of the smallest rooms in the city. At the start of August, no-one in Edinburgh knows which performers and shows will be winning over audiences, making the headlines and taking home five-star reviews. It's probably the one thing which fills me real enthusiasm as the festival city takes shape and throws opens its doors. Even the most hardened of festivalgoers will be familiar with the sinking feeling of running out of time to catch a show the rest of the city seems to be talking about or, even worse, being unable to secure a ticket. But they will also know the thrill of a successful hustle outside a venue or a last-minute return at the box office.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘E! News' Alums Giuliana Rancic & Jason Kennedy On Show's Cancellation: 'End Of An Era'
Celebrity news show E! News is coming to an end on linear television, and former anchors Giuliana Rancic and Jason Kennedy are expressing their thoughts. In separate posts, the former co-hosts of E!'s news show took to social media to remember their time on the show amid the cancellation. More from Deadline 'E! News' Nightly Show Axed As Versant Eyes Digital Future For Brand Laverne Cox Gets Emotional With 'Baby Reindeer's Nava Mau On Emmys Red Carpet: "That's Who We Are As Trans People, We Are Humans First & Foremost" Bravo & 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta' Alum Nene Leakes To Join Ariana Madix For E!'s Emmys After Party Special 'For 20 incredible years, E! News was my second home and family. As the show comes to an end, I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this pop culture phenomenon that aired in over 100 countries and allowed me to travel around the globe meeting the most amazing and loyal viewers,' Rancic shared on Instagram. 'Thank you to every single one of you for letting us into your homes every night. Anchoring E! News was my dream job and the professional honor of a lifetime.' Rancic was a correspondent for E! News before becoming one of the anchors of the program. In 2006, she co-hosted the show with Ryan Seacrest. Rancic remained on the show as anchor and was joined by Jason Kennedy in 2012, before she left in 2019. Kennedy also left in 2019, but had returned as a correspondent since 2023. The former E! News host also shared his thoughts on the show's demise. 'End of an era for sure and although I was just a contributor in this second iteration of E! News, it still stings,' he wrote. 'Very talented humans lost their job in this frustrating and ever changing business we call television. It was fun coming back to my old stomping grounds and hanging with my friends.' He continued, 'I lose track of how many people ask me how to navigate this industry right now. I HAVE NO IDEA! Sometimes it feels easier to pivot and try something new but for many of us, this is all we know. I'll stick with it if you do too. I'll always love you @enews!' On Thursday, Deadline exclusively reported E! News was ending its broadcast on September 25. The brand would continue in the digital space and focus on social platforms where they have seem some growth. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery Everything We Know About Season 3 Of 'Euphoria' So Far
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Fleabag and Baby Reindeer superproducer Francesca Moody: ‘The next best play can come from anywhere'
Francesca Moody's name is a sign to pay attention. The Olivier-winning producer discovered the plays that led to two of the most successful TV shows in recent memory: Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. If a show has Moody's backing, it has a higher-than-average chance of soaring to success. But as Moody's recognition has grown, so has the pressure to create a hit. 'That is exciting,' she cautions as we slip into a small glass-walled room in her office off London's Leicester Square. She looks surprisingly calm given the restaurants' worth of plates she's spinning. 'But it's also terrifying. The stakes are higher than they used to be.' She's busy unleashing a new set of shows across the US and UK – including an entire miniature festival at the Edinburgh fringe – and has another Netflix show in development. Risk is part of the producing game, and Moody's threshold is high. She hadn't raised the money for Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer until the week it was due to go on at the Edinburgh fringe in 2019. At that point, she didn't have much of a buffer for the money not coming through. 'I don't know what I would have done,' she concedes. These days, she has greater financial stability. But there's also more hanging in the balance. 'It's our company's money,' she says, 'our investors' money, and ultimately my name.' Moody now runs her own production company, Francesca Moody Productions, which has a knack, as she puts it, for 'finding unusual, kooky, sometimes auteur-led work that doesn't always immediately feel commercial'. It currently has nearly a dozen scripts at various stages of development, plus a film in the works and a first-look deal with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's production company. 'There are a few ideas on our plate now that we're just itching to get in the room,' Moody says. The list sounds exhausting, but she seems energised. Failures do happen. 'Things go wrong every day,' she says, 'on the good stuff, too.' But some mishaps are more marked than others. 'We had a musical called Berlusconi,' a cautionary tale about the former Italian PM, 'which was universally panned by critics.' She says it casually; this job demands rolling with the punches. 'I stand by the boldness of the idea, and it was such a collegiate group of creatives, it was almost comical that it didn't hit in the way we were expecting it to.' Good or bad, the role is all-consuming. Moody admits to an 'almost unhealthy relationship' with her work. 'It's so much more than a job,' she explains, searching for the right description for what fuels her. ''Vocation' sounds horribly wanky, but it's so all-defining. It would be really hard for me to unpick who I am without this.' And how does she spot a hit? She talks about intuition. 'I always think Fleabag is a great example of trusting your gut.' She first met Waller-Bridge and Fleabag's director Vicky Jones in Soho Joe, a now-defunct pizza place next to London's Soho theatre, to discuss producing a play they had commissioned. 'I remember it as a whirlwind of ideas,' says Moody. She was nervous and Waller-Bridge made her laugh. When she later heard about a short piece Waller-Bridge had written, which eventually became Fleabag, she leapt at the chance to work with her. 'I knew that Phoebe was an incredible actor who could spin comedy and tragedy on a dime,' she says. She locked Waller-Bridge in a room until she finished Fleabag. Her nose has continued to serve her well. She first read the script for Baby Reindeer on a train and didn't get off until she'd reached the last page. And it only took one song for her to fall in love with Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones's comedy musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, which leapt from the fringe to the West End. 'You have to start with: Do I love this show? Is it like anything else I've ever seen before? You have to be 100% all in.' As with most of her hits, the Edinburgh fringe was the birthplace for Weather Girl, Brian Watkins' unsettling climate-comedy, which sees a weather reporter smiling her way through the apocalypse. This prophetic eco-monologue played in Edinburgh in 2024, sold out at Soho theatre earlier this year, and is soon transferring to St Ann's Warehouse in New York. On first reading, Moody says, 'it hooked me'. But she knew it needed work. Her team helped to guide it into what it is now: an absurd comedy that quickly tumbles into giddy climate disaster. 'I always try to think about the audience and whether they will connect with a character, so my notes on Weather Girl were largely bound up in that – but it was all there at the beginning,' she says. The show is currently in development with Netflix – and may well be another next big thing. On the other side of the world at the Edinburgh fringe, Moody is ushering in a new roster of shows. 'Edinburgh's not a place to be making money,' Moody says. 'It's a place to be investing.' This year, her investments include three shows and an entire month-long festival-within-the-festival. The first show is Ohio, an autobiographical folk drama by married couple and award-winning musicians the Bengsons, which gathered a keen following in the US and already has a transfer to south London's Young Vic planned. She's also bringing Seiriol Davies' camp historical musical How to Win Against History back to the fringe. (It started there nearly a decade ago.) Her third show is Garry Starr: Classic Penguins. 'It's the best version of clowning I've seen,' Moody says, 'and the most beautiful holding of an audience through quite exposing audience interaction.' She compares it to Julia Masli's cult hit, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. In recent years, Moody's name has become synonymous with success at the festival. 'We understand the conditions you need to facilitate a sense of something being exciting,' Moody asserts. 'That's 25% of the way there, in terms of building a bit of a hit.' A producer has to create more demand than a show can satisfy, she says. That means choosing a small enough venue that you can sell a show out and create a buzz. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Next comes the image: 'In a world that seems to be increasingly obsessed by star-led revivals or existing bits of adapted IP, you have to make a show feel like its own bit of original IP.' She points to Weather Girl. The eye-catching marketing image, of the lead actor's grinning face drowning in a pool of bright red, did a lot of work to make the new show recognisable. Perhaps most exciting is Moody's upcoming collective endeavour. As her company grows, she worries about 'not being in the weeds in the same way I used to be, creatively'. To rectify this, she wants to get back to her roots in fringe theatre and support artists in this prohibitively expensive climate. 'I came up through the fringe at a time just before it started to get really difficult to make work there,' she says. 'You couldn't make a show any more in the way we made Fleabag in 2013. Our two-bed flat was like £2,000 for the month. You'd be hard pressed to find that for less than six or seven grand now.' After many conversations about the difficulties of producing work, Moody decided to 'put our money where our mouth is'. The result is Shedinburgh. Originally conceived with writer and performer Gary McNair and producer Harriet Bolwell during the pandemic, it started as a digital festival where shows were livestreamed from two small sheds in London and Edinburgh. This year, they're turning the idea into an intimate, 100-seat live venue for the duration of the fringe. 'It was too good an idea to let go of,' she says. The programme is eclectic, with the 'shed-ule' consisting of one-off performances of old and new work from the likes of Sophie Duker, Maimuna Memon and Christopher Brett Bailey. Paying artists' travel, accommodation, plus a fee or a box office split, whichever is higher – an inversion of the typical method at the fringe – the project is made possible by investors who believe in its ethos. 'We wanted to imagine a bit of a utopia,' Moody reasons. 'It's a love letter to the fringe.' The fringe used to feel like a level playing field. 'Once you're there, the literary manager at the National Theatre can see your show. The theatre critic at the Guardian can see it. I can see it. Now, it's so much harder to just get there.' She places these struggles against wider concerns about the 'death of fringe theatre' – particularly with the recent cancellation of London's Vault festival – where so much emerging work begins. Shedinburgh is determinedly creating opportunities in spite of these difficulties. 'Theatre is my first love,' Moody says. 'We want to reinvigorate that sense that the next best play can come from anywhere, and inspire others to do the same.' Shedinburgh runs 1 to 24 August; Ohio is at Assembly Roxy, Upstairs, 30 July to 24 August; How to Win Against History is at Underbelly, George Square, 30 July to 24 August.
Scottish Sun
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Crime thriller crowned Netflix's most watched Scottish show with 25 MILLION views
Scroll down to see what else viewers are hooked on GET IN THE Q GET IN THE Q Crime thriller crowned Netflix's most watched Scottish show with 25 MILLION views Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CRIME thriller Dept. Q has been crowned Netflix's most-watched Scottish title this year. The Edinburgh-set detective drama clocked up 25.4 million views on the streaming platform during the first half of 2025. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 3 The drama has been a hit on the streaming site 3 Dept. Q beat Baby Reindeer The series features Matthew Goode as Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck, an emotionally scarred detective who becomes the head of cold case unit, and was only released on May 29. Netflix has released viewing figures for its entire catalogue in its What We Watched report. Dept. Q held off competition from comedian Richard Gadd's drama Baby Reindeer, some of which was filmed in Edinburgh, to be the top Scottish-based show or film between January and June. Baby Reindeer, which depicts the story of a stalker who harassed Gadd over a number of years, clocked up 4.2 million views over the six-month period. Meanwhile, time travel historical drama Outlander also proved popular on Netflix. The seventh series had 2.8 million views while the first series had 2.6 million. The viewers have all come from overseas because Outlander, which stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, is not available to watch on Netflix in the UK. Hit Scottish comedy Still Game was also a big hit for the streaming platform. The second series of the sitcom, starring Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill as pensioners Jack and Victor, had the most views at 600,000. The most popular Scottish-based film on Netflix was Outlaw King, which stars Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce. The 2018 movie, which tells the story of how Bruce led 500 men to defeat the larger and better equipped English army, was viewed 2.9 million times. Other Scottish titles on the list included the Trainspotting sequel T2 and a Kevin Bridges stand-up special which were both watched 100,000 times. The Stephen Graham drama Adolescence was the most-watched Netflix title overall with 145 million views. Netflix viewers brand new crime thriller 'the best since Baby Reindeer' as it achieves a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score In a statement, Netflix said: "Watchtime - or engagement - is our best indicator of member happiness. When people watch more, they stick around longer and recommend Netflix to others. "This report, which captures viewing in the first half of 2025, shows that people watched a lot of Netflix - over 95 billion hours - spanning a wide range of genres and languages. "It's why we continue to invest in a variety of quality titles for various moods and tastes and work hard to make them great."
The Irish Sun
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Love Island star Yasmin's sister is convinced exes Emma and Harry have secret game plan and hints at pre-villa pact
LOVE Island star Yasmin's sister is convinced that exes Emma and Harry have a secret game plan, and hinted at a pre-villa pact. Viewers of the show could not believe what they were watching when 5 Love Island star Yasmin's sister is convinced that exes Emma and Harry have a secret game plan, and hinted at a pre-villa pact Credit: zarasworld17/TikTok 5 The former couple dated for three years Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 5 Fans have been left baffled by their interactions while on the show Credit: Eroteme She was seen getting close to Harry and even suggesting a romantic reunion, telling him: 'I think people would love to see…' — leaving fans shocked as she clearly hinted the public wanted them back together. Later in the conversation, she added: 'We're stuck for life', while Harry confessed: 'I can't compare anyone to you,' before adding, 'Of course I love you, of course I always have love for you.' Now, Yasmin's sister has shared her thoughts on them having a master plan. Read More on Love Island In a recent clip, someone said to Zara that Emma reminded them of Fiona from Netflix hit Baby Reindeer. Zara replied: 'This comment made me laugh. Feel free to disagree with me but I don't think Emma and Harry ended up on the same season of the same show was a coincidence. 'There's something weird going on between them and I can't figure out what their plan is but something is going on. This wasn't a coincidence.' She continued: 'Didn't Harry say he sent her flowers or something in February? There's something that doesn't match up. Most read in Love Island Love Island bombshell Yasmin slammed as 'game-player' as she throws villa into chaos by snogging Harry AND Dejon before row with the girls 'I don't know them personally but the fact she said she'd get back together with him at some point… I think with most people and their exes they think 'Ok that's done now.' 'But for Emma the door was still open so I really don't think it's a coincidence that they've ended up on the same show.' And another of Emma's exes believes she's gone in there for one reason and one reason only - to get Harry back. The source told us: 'Her ex and everyone else don't think there's any other reason to go on that show apart from to get back with him. "That's been the plan the whole time, everyone is 99% sure it was planned.' The lad dating Emma called it quits after the Love Island line-up was revealed and she told him about Harry. In a string of cutting messages exchanged on Instagram, which have been seen by The Sun, Emma ripped into Harry's looks, calling him 'butters' and saying he had 'got so skinny since I haven't been feeding him.' 'She literally said he 'wouldn't stand a chance now' and told me she couldn't be bothered with the producers messaging her about going on the show,' the insider added. 'It was all very strange because she was asking for a serious relationship with this guy but at the same time she was talking about Harry and Love Island all the time.' They tell us she was initially very against the show and ruled out entering but in a dramatic u-turn that left fans shocked, she made a surprise entrance and then set her sights on him once again. 'She said she wanted to be the bigger person,' they told us, 'but now she's trying to win the whole thing with the same guy she was mocking.' 5 Yasmin's sister has shared her thoughts on them having a master plan Credit: zarasworld17/TikTok 5 Another of Emma's exes believes she's gone in there for one reason and one reason only - to get Harry back Credit: Eroteme
