Latest news with #GetCarter
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The couple in their 70s who bought a baby from a stranger in California are selfish in the extreme... but THIS is the troubling question that everyone is ignoring
The year was 1985, at the height of the AIDS scare. A colleague returned from Yorkshire, where he'd been covering the miners strike. Over a pint, he confided that he'd spent a night of passion with the landlady of the B&B he'd stayed in, like Michael Caine in Get Carter.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Slade in Flame review – Midlands glam rockers offer A Hard Day's Night meets Get Carter
Here is Slade's movie musical satire from 1975, a film with all the pungent historical presence of a pub ashtray, about an imaginary band called Flame which looked and sounded a lot like Slade, fronted by Stoker, played by Noddy Holder. It came out a year after the film's soundtrack album was released, and now gets a rerelease for its 50-year anniversary. Slade in Flame – which is to say, Flame, starring Slade – is regarded by fans and non-fans alike with enormous affection and regard, and it certainly has a weird, goofy energy: the audio mix sometimes surreally privileging ambient sounds such as doors closing and glasses chinking, with the dialogue way in the background. It's about an innocent working-class Midlands band getting taken up by creepy adman-type smoothie Robert Seymour, played by Tom Conti, who exploits their raw talent for cash and takes them on a rollercoaster ride of fame, the action regularly suspended while the band sing their various tracks. But then their former manager, dodgy cockney mobster Mr Harding (Johnny Shannon) reappears – a man who never gave a hoot about them in their early days and contributed nothing to their career – demanding his share of the action. So it bizarrely mixes the madcap comedy of A Hard Day's Night – or a late-period Carry On – with the brutal nastiness of a crime thriller like Get Carter. The effect is striking, in its way, but finally somehow depressing in a way that isn't entirely intentional, and depressing in a way that actually listening to Slade is not. It also shows the unexpected influence of a particular kind of Brit social realism with a generic loyalty to unhappiness. Flame is the amalgam of two sparring local bands, one fronted by tricky geezer Jack Daniels, played by Alan Lake, always conning his fellow band members out of their share of the fee, and the other a comedy combo called Roy Priest And the Undertakers, the lead singer being Holder's irrepressible Stoker. They have a monumental fight which lands them all in the cells, where a grim-faced custody sergeant is shown walking down the corridor, flushing each of their lavatories in turn with a chain that dangles outside. (It's this kind of brutal touch which makes the film a vivid guide to the tough 70s.) They join forces and Daniels is dispensed with. Flame then enjoy the fruits of the Faustian bargain that they don't remember making: packed crowds, screaming girls, lots of money. There's a thoroughly bizarre interview aboard a pirate radio ship in the Thames estuary which is interrupted by gunshots which Seymour may or may not have staged for publicity purposes. But there's a creeping sense that it's all going to come crashing down. The best bits are always the band performing, with Holder's compelling rock'n'roll growl. Slade in Flame is in UK and Irish cinemas from 2 May, and on Blu-ray and DVD from 19 May.
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Michelle Keegan's prickly 50s drama returns
8pm, BBC One Brassic co-creator Danny Brocklehurst's enjoyably prickly period drama about UK families trying to make a fresh start in 1950s Oz returns for a second series. After a year in a crummy hostel camp, the expanding Roberts clan – headed by ex-soldier Terry (Warren Brown) and sharp shopgirl Annie (Faye Marsay) – are determined to move up in the world. Meanwhile, desperate nurse Kate (Michelle Keegan) has reclaimed her birth son … but how long can the pair remain on the run? Graeme Virtue 6.15pm, BBC One Tom Hanks's lovely narration and some incredible filming atone for this nature documentary's rather vague remit. This week we are in Mexico: there's mum-and-chicks drama in the desert, and dastardly orcas scheming together to hunt dolphins in the Sea of Cortez. Plus, a closeup look at orchid bees and monarch butterflies. Jack Seale 9pm, BBC One As the star-studded Agatha Christie adaptation reaches its second act, a shocking murder is discovered at Gull's Point – the Devon estate of Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston). Insp Leach (Matthew Rhys) must find his footing amid the love triangles and society scandals of 1930s England if he is to bring a killer to justice. Ellen E Jones 9pm, BBC Two Another grimly enthralling tiptoe around a horrific crime scene. A man has been fatally stabbed in his Birmingham home and it falls to forensics expert Cara Nicholls-Parkin to follow – quite literally at times – the trail of blood. It's inevitably bleak but also remarkable in its depiction of the many facets of a murder investigation. Phil Harrison 9pm, Channel 4 It's final time, and the kiln pressure is on as the final three contestants make a statement Greek amphora. Siobhán McSweeney manages any cracks, while judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller choose their winner. Before that: one last task that involves extreme throwing. HR 9pm, Sky Crime By 2020, Sarah Turner had garnered millions of podcast listens and TikTok views as she shared her belief that her father killed her sister Alissa nearly 20 years earlier. It resulted in an arrest and trial that was later dismissed. She shares her personal investigation in this feature-length documentary. Hollie Richardson Get Carter, 10pm, BBC Two There is often a cruel, amoral edge to Michael Caine's most memorable characters, and Jack Carter in Mike Hodges's hardcore crime drama is a case study in cold-hearted revenge. Back home in Newcastle upon Tyne to find out who killed his brother, London-based gangster Jack rubs everyone up the wrong way. But will he get to the truth before the local mobsters send him packing, or worse? Hodges has a great feel for the working-class environment Jack moves through, setting scenes in pubs, racecourses, ferries and the bingo, as his quest gets ever more brutal. Simon Wardell Championship Football: Portsmouth v Leeds, 11.30am, ITV1 From Fratton Park. Women's FA Cup Football: Man City v Aston Villa, 12.20pm, BBC One A quarter-final at Joie Stadium, with WSL top scorer Khadija Shaw eading the line for the home side.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Michael Caine divides opinion after sharing political petition: ‘This doesn't surprise me'
Sir Michael Caine has divided opinion after sharing a petition calling for a new general election. The 91-year-old British actor, whose film credits include Get Carter, Alfie and The Italian Job, linked to the petition set up by those disillusioned by Keir Starmer's first four months as prime minister. Despite the futile nature of the petition, Caine threw his backing behind the idea by sharing a link to the petition on X/Twitter. The synopsis for the petition reads: 'I would like there to be another General Election. I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.' Labour won a landslide victory in the general election back in July after a campaign that saw Starmer promise voters change. He said he would give Britain 'the sunlight of hope' it needed after 14 years of turmoil under the Conservatives. However, Starmer has recently faced criticism for his decision to scrap winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners – something that has seen him warned that 'elderly people are literally going to die'. In July, when the news was first announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, the government's official analysis showed that the means testing of winter fuel payments will drive 100,000 additional pensioners into poverty by 2026. It will strip the payments, worth up to £300, from around 10 million pensioners, driving 50,000 more into relative poverty next year, followed by another 50,000 in the following years. Caine's sharing of the petition has led to a divisive response from his followers. While others who are frustrated with Labour after the party's victory concurred with his belief, many noted not only the futility of sharing such a petition, but the fact that Caine has often voted Conservative in the past. 'This doesn't surprise me,' one social media responded to Caine's post. At the time of writing, the petition has amassed more than two million signatures. Caine, who was a supporter of Brexit and maintained his position despite issues surrounding the UK's supply chain, said of former PM Boris Johnson: 'Oh, I supported him. I thought he was great. But now I'm very disappointed in him. He made a big mistake there, going to Marbella. Let's see if when he comes back he can settle it all. Otherwise we might have a socialist government.' In 2019, Caine reiterated his belief that Brexit was a good decision. The actor stated that he thinks it's important for the UK to be in charge of their own future even if it means being poorer. Speaking on the Today show, he said: 'People say 'Oh, you'll be poor, you'll be this, you'll be that'. I say I'd rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I don't know making me rich by running it.' The actor claimed that fears of a no-deal Brexit were a result of scare tactics. 'What I see is I'm being ruled by people I don't know, who no one elected, and I think of that as fascist,' he said, adding: 'In the long run, though, it'll come around.' Starmer told BBC Radio Lincolnshire in response to the winter fuel payment furore: 'At the moment, until we bring in the changes, the allowance is paid to everyone, irrespective of whether they need it or not. 'A lot of pensioners will say 'I don't actually need it', and I had to answer what difficult decisions we can make to ensure we use our money most effectively.' He also urged those eligible for pension credits to ensure they take them up.
