Latest news with #Buckinghamshire


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Man arrested after two young men die in multi-car crash
A man has been arrested after a crash involving three cars killed two young men and left others injured. A black Audi and a grey VW Polo collided on Daws Hill Lane in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, at around 7.40pm on Thursday, Thames Valley Police (TVP) said. The Audi then continued along the road before colliding with a Honda Jazz on a roundabout a few moments later. Two men in the Audi died following the crash. Their next of kin have been informed, the force said. Two other men who were in the Audi were taken to hospital, with one remaining there with serious injuries. A 20-year-old man from High Wycombe was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving on Friday and is currently in police custody, TVP said. The occupants of the other two vehicles suffered minor injuries. Anyone with information or footage of the collisions should contact the force on 101 or make a report online via its website, quoting reference 43250374867.


The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Two men killed and four injured after Audi ‘involved in two separate crashes' as man, 20, arrested
A MAN has been arrested after two men died and four were left injured following two horrific crashes involving an Audi. First, a black Audi and grey VW Polo collided on a road in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, at around 7.40pm last night, killing two occupants in the Audi. After the shocking crash, the Audi continued along the road, smashing into a Honda Jazz on a roundabout just moments later. Two other men who were travelling in the Audi were rushed to hospital, where one currently remains suffering serious injuries. The drivers and passengers in the other cars suffered minor injuries, Thames Valley Police said. Today, police arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. He currently remains in police custody. Cops are also appealing for witnesses of the collision to come forward and contact the force. 1


Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Carol Kirkwood, 63, confesses there is 'no such thing as a perfect romance' after revealing her plans to retire and travel Europe with her husband Steve Randall, 49
has confessed there is 'no such thing as a perfect romance' after revealing she plans to retire in two years and her and travel Europe with her husband Steve Randall. The BBC weather veteran, 63, married police officer Steve, 49, in December 2023 - nine years after her divorce from property developer Jimmy Kirkwood. And now she has admitted that she thinks there is no such thing as the 'perfect romance' as she opened up about her divorce to the Daily Mirror. She told the publication: 'I feel sad when relationships break down. I was married before, and we got divorced, and it's always sad when that happens. 'But, of course, there isn't such a thing, I don't think, as the perfect romance - where you're never going to fall out or have cross words. Of course you are, that's life.' Carol and Steve - who have a 13-year age gap - got hitched in an 'intimate' wedding ceremony in Buckinghamshire in December 2023. Her comment comes after she revealed she hopes to retire in as little as two years so she can drive off into the sunset with her policeman husband. The TV star has been a fixture at the BBC for 27 years but has said she is planning a change of scene for her and Steve when she turns 65. Discussing her retirement hopes, Carol, who is also a published author, said: 'We fell in love with Majorca, which is where we went so I could research my fifth novel, Meet Me at Sunset, about a woman running away from a shattered love affair. 'Steve and I plan to escape and travel for some time when we retire, perhaps in a year or two. 'We'll travel in a camper van or get in the car, cross over to France and then just drive.' Carol, from Morar, Lochaber, was married to property developer Jimmy but the pair split in 2008 after 18 years of marriage, with the divorce finalised in 2012. She recently made a cheeky comment when asked about her second marriage, telling one newspaper: 'Love is lovelier the second time around. No disrespect to my first husband, but this is better.' Carol, who was on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, began her career at the BBC as a secretary before cross training with the Met Office and joining BBC News in 1998. She appears regularly across all of BBC Weather's output on both radio and TV and is the main weather presenter on BBC Breakfast. The TV star also spoke about the age gap in her relationship, stating it makes no difference to her. She told Saga Magazine: 'Steve is 50 this year. Other people's opinions about an age gap don't matter - I don't feel he is younger than me.' She also said she believes that meeting him was fate. She said: 'We were at a function neither of us wanted to go to. It was a Sliding Doors moment - if I hadn't gone, we would never have met.' Discussing her relationship in another interview, she said: 'Love is lovelier the second time around. 'The wedding was the most perfect day. Storm Gerrit was raging outside and we didn't even notice. 'It was about us getting married rather than having a big, fancy wedding. We had no guests and wrote our own vows. 'When you are older, you know more what you want.'


The Sun
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Singer Dame Cleo Laine who performed with Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles dies aged 97 as tributes pour in
LEGENDARY jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine has died aged 97. Her career spanned decades as she became the first British singer to win a Grammy Award for jazz. 3 3 3 It led to performances with icons like Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles. Laine boasted a vocal range of four octaves, performing the music of Schoenberg and Spike Milligan. It paved the way for a distinguished jazz career, as the Sunday Times described her as "quite simply the best singer in the world". She also frequently collaborated with her husband, musician and composer John Dankworth, beginning in the 1950s. They later set up the Stables art centre in Buckinghamshire. In a statement, the centre said it was "greatly saddened today by the news that one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away". Born as Clementina Dinah Hitching, the star grew up in Southall, Middlesex on October 28, 1927. She was the daughter of Jamaican WW1 veteran, Alex Campell - a labourer who sang on the side to make enough money. He married Clementina's mother, Minnie Hitching, who had been disowned by her parents over the interracial relationship. The prodigy first fell in love with jazz after listening to her brother's records, before starting music lessons. From the age of three, she would perform at local community shows, aspiring towards an acting career.


BBC News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cleo Laine: Acclaimed jazz singer dies aged 97
Jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, famous for her huge vocal range and wide musical repertoire, has died at the age of a long career, Dame Cleo was the first British singer to win a Grammy Award in a jazz category and performed with all the greats - including Ray Charles and Frank her greatest collaborator was her husband, late musician and composer John Dankworth, with whom she established her career in the also set up the Stables arts centre in Buckinghamshire, which said in a statement it was "greatly saddened today by the news that one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away". David Meadowcroft, chairman of the Stables charity, said: "Dame Cleo was a remarkable performer who was loved by audiences around the world and her commitment to ensuring young people had access to great music and music education will continue through the work of The Stables."Chief executive and artistic director Monica Ferguson said: "Dame Cleo was admired greatly by fans, other musicians and by The Stables staff and volunteers."She will be greatly missed but her unique talent will always be remembered." With her electric green eyes, corkscrew hair and husky contralto voice, Dame Cleo became the most recognisable British jazz singer in had a four-octave vocal range and the ability to perform everything from Schoenberg to a Spike Milligan hit about a man with too many critic said that she was one of Britain's two great contributions to jazz - the other being the Sunday Times once described her as "quite simply the best singer in the world." Clementina Dinah Hitching was born in Southall, Middlesex on 28 October father was a Jamaican World War One veteran, Alex Campbell. He worked (occasionally) as a labourer and - with money always short - sang on the streets to help put food on the mother, Minnie Hitching, was a farmer's daughter from Swindon - disowned by her parents who disapproved of interracial parents didn't marry until after she was born, so her mother's maiden name was used on the birth certificate. Somehow her parents found the money to pay for music lessons, and she spent time listening to her brother Alexander's jazz began singing at local community functions from the age of three, and set her sights on an acting career."I desperately wanted to have something to do with performing," she later said. "If I wasn't going to be on stage, then I was going to sweep it for a living."She made her first film appearance at the age of 12 as an urchin in Alexander Korda's film The Thief of Baghdad in 1940. With her parents divorced and little money coming in, young Clemantine was forced to leave school at the age of took a variety of wartime jobs including working in a hairdressers, as a hat maker and - finally - in a pawnbroker's 1947, she married a roofer, George Langridge, and had a son, Stuart - but continued to audition for singing took years for her talent to be recognised. She went to dozens of auditions but recalled that "a fat soprano singing Madame Butterfly rather badly always won".She received an invitation in 1951 to try out with the Johnny Dankworth Seven, an established jazz future star turned up wearing a fur coat in the heat of summer and gave it her best shot."I think she's got something", said Dankworth. "She's got everything," replied trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. Dankworth offered her a job at £6 week, but she held out for £7. Because her name was too long to fit on posters, the band put some shorter alternatives into a hat.'Cleo' and 'Laine' got pulled out. So, Cleo Laine she christened, she became known for scat singing, a vocal style that originated with ragtime - which enabled her to improvise melodies using her voice as an 1958, she had divorced Langridge and married Dankworth."I guess he married me because he wanted a cheap singer," she quipped. "But what he got was an expensive wife."However, she also felt there was a danger she would remain a singer in the band for the rest of her life. Accordingly, she successfully auditioned for the part of Della in Flesh To A Tiger, a play set in was staged at London's Royal Court Theatre and was directed by famous actor Tony Richardson, who - at the time - was unaware of her career as a critics loved her performance and it led to a string of stage appearances including A Time to Laugh with Robert Morley and her acclaimed portrayal of Julie in the 1971 production of Show continued to sing and had a top 10 hit in 1961 with You'll Answer Me, recorded while she was performing in Kurt Weill's opera/ballet The Seven Deadly 1964, the album Shakespeare and All That Jazz, recorded with her husband on clarinet and saxophone, was released to critical acclaim. She launched her international career in 1972 with a tour of Australia, but a stopover performance in America on the way home failed to attract much of an she returned - at US jazz musician Duke Ellington's invitation - and received gushing reviews from critics. In the following year, she sold out Carnegie Hall."The British, who have been dropping one rock group after another on us for years, have meanwhile been hoarding what must be one of their national treasures," said the New York went on to tour America every year, picking up a number of Grammy nominations, becoming the first artist to be nominated in both pop and classical finally won a Grammy for the live recording of a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1983. Awarded an OBE in 1979, she became a dame in 1997 - an honour she hesitated to accept, finally deciding to do so "for jazz".Together with her husband, she set up The Stables, which aimed to introduce music to as many people as possible and break down the barriers between Stables theatre, set up in the grounds of their home in Buckinghamshire, saw performances from artists ranging from Cerys Matthews to Courtney Pine. In February 2010, just hours before the couple were due to perform a concert to celebrate 40 years of The Stables, John Dankworth Cleo and other family members went on with the concert, only announcing the death to a stunned audience at the end of the show.A month later, their final recording together, Jazz Matters, was the years that followed his death, she continued to perform either solo or with her children Jacqui and Alec, who had both become 2024, she saw her granddaughter Emily embark on her own career as a professional in her 90s, Dame Cleo gave occasional concerts - with one reviewer remarking on how she remained a "warm and witty human being, capable of transfixing her audience with those flashing eyes and spontaneous laughter"."I want to keep on going unless my voice develops a wobble, for as long as people want to hear me sing," she said in an interview months after Dankworth's death."Singing", she added, is "the one thing that keeps me going, really."