Latest news with #BillyElliot
New York Post
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne biopic plans revealed after rocker's tragic death at 76
The Osbourne love story is still headed for the big screen. In the wake of Ozzy Osbourne's tragic passing, a biopic chronicling his decades-long romance with Sharon Osbourne's remains in the works at Sony Pictures. 6 Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in 2006. Getty Images 6 Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in 1985. Dave Hogan A representative for Polygram Entertainment confirmed to Variety on Wednesday that 'they're currently in negotiations with a director, which could be confirmed very soon.' In 2021, Polygram Entertainment partnered with Osbourne Media, the family's media company, to announce plans for a film about Ozzy and Sharon's legendary relationship. Sharon, 72, as well as two of her and Ozzy's children, Jack and Aimee Osbourne, were attached to produce, with Oscar nominee Lee Hall — behind 2019's 'Rocketman' and 2000's 'Billy Elliot' — set to write the screenplay. 6 Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne in 2002. Getty Images 'Our relationship, at times, was often wild, insane and dangerous, but it was our undying love that kept us together,' Sharon said in a statement at the time. 'We're thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram [Entertainment] to bring our story to the screen.' It was also reported in 2021 that the film would feature music from Black Sabbath alongside songs from the late heavy metal legend's solo career. Ozzy and Sharon were married from 1982 until his death on July 22 at the age of 76. In addition to Jack, 39, and Aimee, 41, the couple had another child, daughter Kelly, 40. 6 Ozzy Osbourne and his family at his Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. ASSOCIATED PRESS The former Black Sabbath frontman was father to three other children — Elliot, Jessica and Louis — from his first marriage to Thelma Riley. According to a statement shared with The Post at the time of his death, Ozzy passed away 'surrounded by love.' 'It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,' the statement read. 'He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.' 6 Ozzy Osbourne performing in Los Angeles, California, in 2014. Getty Images On August 5, the late rocker's cause of death was officially confirmed as cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease and Parkinson's disease. That same day, Ozzy's youngest son, Jack, publicly addressed his father's passing for the first time, saying he stayed quiet because his 'heart has hurt too much.' 'I'm going to keep this short because he certainly hated long, rambling speeches,' Jack wrote on Instagram. 'He was so many things to so many people, but I was so lucky and blessed to be apart of a very small group that got to call him 'Dad.'' 6 Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne at Ozzfest in 2002. WireImage He continued, 'My heart is full of so much sadness and sorrow, but also so much love and gratitude. I got 14,501 days with that man, and I know that is such a blessing.' Jack then shared a quote from author Hunter S. Thompson, which he said 'best describes [his] father.' It read, 'Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body… but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a ride!'' 'That was my dad,' he concluded. 'He lived, and he lived his life fully. I love you dad.' Jack paired his tribute with a throwback clip from a 1997 'Howard Stern Show' appearance with his dad, as well as a photo montage of the two over the years, set to Ozzy's 1983 ballad, 'So Tired.' A week earlier, on July 31, he was laid to rest beside the lake at his Buckinghamshire home, following a funeral procession held the day before in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
Channel 4
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Channel 4
How Billy Elliot writer is bringing theatre to the community
He's used to his plays opening on Broadway or the West End, but Lee Hall's latest production is playing in a church in a former mining village in County Durham, just up the road from where his award-winning film Billy Elliot was set. Hall's new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's anti-war classic 'Mother Courage and Her Children', is the first production by one of Britain's most unlikely theatre companies.
Daily Mirror
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Michael Sheen and the Daily Mirror give working class authors 'A Writing Chance'
Writers from Michael Sheen's 'A Writing Chance' project mentored by Mirror journalists see their work in print As an ordinary kid growing up in South Wales, I dreamed of being an actor. That might have seemed unusual, but back then I had Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins to look up to – people who'd grown up like me and gone on to be successful. There were more books, films, play and TV shows created by working class people too, from 'A Taste of Honey' to 'Boys from the Black Stuff'. All that gave me confidence to have a go myself. But in the last few decades, things changed. It's become much tougher for people from ordinary backgrounds to get their stories heard. Today, half of published authors have middle-class backgrounds – but just 10 per cent are working-class. We know that kids from all walks of life enjoy reading at school, and working-class people are some of the best story tellers out there, so somewhere, somehow, something's going wrong. That's why I worked with the Daily Mirror to launch 'A Writing Chance', a project to find and support new working-class writers from across the UK. We've already found fantastic storytellers – one, Tom Newlands, wrote one of the big hits of 2024, 'Only Here, Only Now'. Here you can read some of the work produced by our latest writers, who have been mentored by brilliant Mirror journalists. It's renewed my belief that as Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry said, "the really successful work" happening at the moment "tends to be working-class writers telling working-class stories." In the future we're going to be publishing more stories like this in The Bee, a new magazine which will be a home for working class writers. I hope you'll read it – and, if you have a tale to tell, maybe write for us as well? Justice and fairness demand that people from the less well-off sections of society have the chance to tell their stories, and to get them heard. But it's also about common sense. When we surveyed working-class people who like to read, 63 per cent said that representation was important, and that they'd like to see more people like themselves on the pages. There's an untapped market out there. Perhaps, most important of all, the most urgent, revelatory and entertaining stories – the ones we most want to hear – so often come from those who are excluded, or who struggle to be heard. I've always believed that telling stories is an important way to make change in the world – and levelling the playing field for writers has to be a change for the better. I believe that as we encourage working people to write, they will inspire others to be creative, just as working-class actors and writers inspired me. Sue Townsend was working-class, disabled, and unapologetically loyal to my community in Leicester. She tackled serious issues with wit and heart – and she gave hope to people like me. She showed me our lives — council estates, illness, hardship — were worth writing about. We often hear what's "wrong" with council estates. But what about what's right? Activism, humour, and community resilience were led by women like Sue and my nana Winnie, who didn't want credit. They just wanted change. Sue wasn't just a writer — she was a movement. Her voice gave working-class people visibility without patronising or exaggerating. She found the extraordinary in ordinary life and shared it with honesty. Sue moved to Eyres Monsell, a Leicester council estate, in the late 60s. By the early 70s, Sue was a struggling single mum of three young children. When her son asked, "Why can't we go to the zoo like other kids?" the seed of Adrian Mole was planted. During the 70s, Sue met my nana, Winnie Aldwinckle. Winnie lived on the next estate, known as The Saff, where Sue worked – and was a powerhouse, co-founding the Parents' Association in 1973. Her grassroots activism mirrored Sue's — both women used media to create change. Winnie regularly contributed to the Leicester Mercury, often collaborating with journalist Adam Wakelin. She even had her column, Winnie's World — a podcast before podcasts. She talked, Wakelin wrote. All voluntary, all for the community. When the Goldhill Adventure Playground faced closure, Sue and Winnie camped out to protest — and they won. Upon Winnie's passing in 2013, Sue co-wrote her obituary with Wakelin for the Leicester Mercury — Sue's last known publication before her own death in 2014. She wrote, "If anything went wrong on the estate, we called on Winnie. You had a good chance of winning if she was on your side." Sue won, too — not by selling out or moving away, but by staying loyal to Leicester and writing truthfully about the people who lived there. By Sunita Thind 'You smell of curry', 'Sunita, you got a tache, gorilla', 'Oi, Coconut f*ck off home,' were some of the taunts I grew up with. For people like me who have an invisible disability and are from a minority background, this is just a way of life. But raising a problem in Asian society makes you the problem. 'Chup kar' – keep quiet, keep it to yourself – our elders would say in Punjabi. In my community, we were not educated on such dirty matters as sex, periods, and other taboo subjects because we were a conservative community. And nor was I taught at school to be proud of my multiple cultures and heritage, or about the hidden histories of the British Empire, Partition, or India's contribution to fighting two world wars. But after facing infertility, surgical menopause, hair loss, loss of my ovaries and fertility my family were there to lift me up, including my husband and silver-tipped Samoyed dog, Ghost. At my beautiful Sikh wedding with my handsome white husband, I finally felt proud of the cultures and customs I used to reject but are part of my DNA. The men in my family came over from Malaysian and Singapore. My Grandad eventually had a corner shop, my dad worked very hard, long hours at the Brickyard. I loved singing the Christian hymns at school, but when the doors closed it was my family, community and Gurdwara that gave me a spiritual sense of myself as well delicious Indian food. We supported each other with the food we made, spices fragrant as our souls, bonding over special festivals like Diwali, Vasaki (Sikh Harvest festival), and Guru Nanak's birthday, Rakhi. If you are Caucasian, you are an expat, if you are a person of colour, you are an immigrant, migrant, refugee. We are still on the outside of the looking glass with our hands and faces pressed against it, desiring belonging. By Zainab Amer I write because of my community, not in spite of it. I'm working-class, with English and Egyptian roots. My childhood summers were spent in Egypt, surrounded by family, food, and laughs. It was also the first time I saw real poverty. It shook me and still does. I knew even then: these stories mattered. Being a working-class writer isn't easy. The biggest challenge is access - or the lack of it: to resources, networks, and a seat at the table. I have scrubbed bathrooms, stacked shelves, and balanced armfuls of plates while my feet throbbed. Politicians insist hard graft pays off. But here's the truth: we can barely make rent. Instead, we're rewarded with housing worries, not writing submissions. Still, what I gain from my community outweighs the setbacks. I've listened to a carer who devoted 10 years to her father with dementia. I've bantered alongside retail comrades - a vital ingredient in surviving a nine-hour shift. These aren't just stories of 'struggle.' They are full of compassion, grit, and humour. As a writer, I try to carry these through every story. Every article. Every pitch. And as for my Egyptian side? In a time when negative depictions of Arabs are ubiquitous, it feels more urgent than ever to write about what I know: which is warmth, charm, and endless storytelling.
Glasgow Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Hollywood actor films in Glasgow with Baby Reindeer star
The actor, known for his roles in Billy Elliot, Fifth, Tintin and Fantastic Four, was pictured on the set of Half Man, a new drama by Richard Gadd. The Scottish man, who was named TV's most influential person last week, is the creator, writer and executive producer of the series, an original six-episode drama. He will also star in the show, alongside the BAFTA award-winning actor. READ NEXT: Robbie Williams slashes ticket prices for only Scottish date (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) (Image: James Chapelard) Both actors were in Glasgow briefly, filming outside typical red brick tenement flats, where Bell is seen furiously crossing a road and entering a building. Half Man follows estranged 'brothers' Niall and Ruben. When Ruben shows up unexpectedly at Niall's wedding, it leads to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives. Spanning almost 40 years from the 1980s to the present day, this ambitious series will cover the highs and lows of the brothers' relationship, from them meeting as teenagers to their falling out as adults.
Glasgow Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow roads will be closed to allow TV series filming
Half Man, which is an 'original six-episode drama' from the multi-award-winning Richard Gadd, is being shot in and around the city. Due to the filming, Glasgow City Council has revealed multiple roads across the city will be shut. Several roads will also be hit with waiting, loading, and unloading bans. READ MORE: Two Doors Down star 'confirms' shows shock comeback Here are all the roads which will be restricted: Prohibition of waiting, loading, and unloading from 3pm on May 10 until 8pm on May 12: Vinicombe Street, between property number four and Cranworth Street Prohibition of waiting, loading, and unloading from 3pm on May 10 until 8pm on May 12: Cranworth Street between Vinicombe Street and Creswell Street Creswell Street between Burgh Lane and Cranworth Lane (north side of the road only). Prohibition of vehicle movements by stop and go (two mins max wait) from 9am on May 12 until 8pm on May 12: Cranworth Street between Cresswell Street and Vinicombe Street Vinicombe Street between Kersland Street and Byres Road Prohibition of waiting, loading and unloading from 3pm on May 26 until 8pm on May 30: Govan Road between Harmony Row and Burleigh Street (south side only) Harmony Row between Govan Road and Burleigh Street (east side only) Burleigh Street for its full length Prohibition of vehicle movements from 8am on May 27 until 8pm on May 30: Burleigh Street for its full length Prohibition of vehicle movements by the traffic management stop-and-go from 8am on May 27 until 8pm on May 30: Govan Road between Harmony Row and Burleigh Street Prohibition of pedestrian movements from 8am on May 27 until 8pm on May 30: Burleigh Street for its full length (north side only) Govan Road between Harmony Row and Burleigh Street (southside only) READ MORE: Huge actor to star in new series being filmed in Glasgow In February, we reported how the BBC and HBO announced further casting for Half Man. The brand-new show is currently being filmed in and around Glasgow. In the programme, Gadd will star alongside BAFTA-award-winning actor Jamie Bell as the pair will play estranged brothers Ruben and Niall respectively. The BBC and HBO have announced further casting for Half Man (Image: PA) Bell, 38, is known for featuring in several films and TV shows, including Billy Elliot, Fantastic Four, Skin, Jumper, and All of Us Strangers. The show will cover the highs and lows of the brothers' relationship, from their meeting as teenagers to their falling out as adults, with all the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry, and challenging moments along the way. It will also capture the 'wild energy' of a changing city and a changing world, and try to get to the bottom of the difficult question of: What does it mean to be a man? The cast for the show includes Neve McIntosh, Marianne McIvor, Charlie De Melo, Bilal Hasna, Julie Cullen, Amy Manson, Philippine Velge, Stuart McQuarrie, Piers Ewart, Scot Greenan, Charlotte Blackwood and Callum Manchip. It was also previously confirmed that Mitchell Robertson and Stuart Campbell will play Naill Robertson and Ruben Campbell in their younger years in the show. The exciting new show will air in 2026 on BBC iPlayer, BBC One, and BBC Scotland in the UK, and on HBO in the US.
