Latest news with #JoannaLumley
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wiltshire in pics: Shindigs and a princess visit
Summer events are well and truly under way in Wiltshire now - with a return of a much-loved festival. TV presenter Steve Backshall is also staying in the county all week to delight children with his animal knowledge at Longleats. Other highlights include actress Joanna Lumley supporting a local animal centre, and another local charity enjoyed a royal visit. Wildlife wanderings: Wiltshire's wildlife has been making more of an appearance recently - one Weather Watcher, Jo C, captured this swan family in Devizes. Festival time: Shindig has launched at Charlton Park in Wiltshire - the former home of Womad - after spending 10 years in Ilminster, Somerset. The 2025 line up is a "global celebration of rhythm and culture where afrobeat meets electronic, reggae meets soul, funk meets industrial rap", organisers said. The event started on Thursday and runs until Sunday. Animal antics: Longleat has TV presenter Steve Backshall in to do daily talks at the safari park over half term week. He will not be on his own though - a range of animals and birds will be introduced to the audience and nobody knows how they will behave. Last year, the shows raised £25,000 for conservation charity Tusk. Royal approval: Wiltshire-based charity Horatio's Garden has released pictures of their patron Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie visiting their garden at Salisbury District Hospital. She spoke to patients, staff and volunteers and planted a grapevine for the charity, which creates the gardens at the UK's spinal injury centres to help people recover. Horsing around: Wiltshire Police has been represented at the Royal Windsor Horse Show for the first time. The force revealed pictures of its competitors: Laura Hughes from the Local Policing Tasking Team, Hollie Clark, Financial Investigator and Rachael Fairbain from Complex Fraud all took part in the Services Team Jumping competition. Daredevils: The White Horse Soapbox Race in Westbury got some big crowds. It includes a STEM fair and a lot of different teams competing to make the fastest vehicle. A team from the South Western Ambulance Service got involved too, making their own contraption. Prestige: Devizes Bowls Club has hosted a prestigious inter-county competition, part of the early stages of the Balcomb Trophy. It's the first time the club has hosted a competition this big. Immerse yourself: a shipping container is arriving in the middle of Salisbury this weekend, in Guildhall Square. It's for an immersive theatre experience run by producers Darkfield. It's part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival and those who go in for the experience, called FLIGHT, will find themselves in what looks exactly like the inside of a plane and two realities. Celebrity moment: The Cat Watch Rescue Centre based in Salisbury, which takes in strays and abandoned animals, revealed they had received a donation from Dame Joanna Lumley, who sent a handwritten note. Bumper crop: the strawberries are already doing well this year, so the pick your own farms are opening up, including this one at Lotmead in Swindon. Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Wiltshire in Pictures: Stunning Salisbury blooms Wiltshire in Pictures: VE Day and bank holiday sun
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Wiltshire in pics: Shindig Festival and a princess visit
Summer events are well and truly under way in Wiltshire now - with a return of a much-loved presenter Steve Backshall is also staying in the county all week to delight children with his animal knowledge at highlights include actress Joanna Lumley supporting a local animal centre, and another local charity enjoyed a royal visit. Wildlife wanderings: Wiltshire's wildlife has been making more of an appearance recently - one Weather Watcher, Jo C, captured this swan family in Devizes. Festival time: Shindig has launched at Charlton Park in Wiltshire - the former home of Womad - after spending 10 years in Ilminster, Somerset. The 2025 line up is a "global celebration of rhythm and culture where afrobeat meets electronic, reggae meets soul, funk meets industrial rap", organisers said. The event started on Thursday and runs until Sunday. Animal antics: Longleat has TV presenter Steve Backshall in to do daily talks at the safari park over half term week. He will not be on his own though - a range of animals and birds will be introduced to the audience and nobody knows how they will behave. Last year, the shows raised £25,000 for conservation charity Tusk. Royal approval: Wiltshire-based charity Horatio's Garden has released pictures of their patron Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie visiting their garden at Salisbury District Hospital. She spoke to patients, staff and volunteers and planted a grapevine for the charity, which creates the gardens at the UK's spinal injury centres to help people recover. Horsing around: Wiltshire Police has been represented at the Royal Windsor Horse Show for the first time. The force revealed pictures of its competitors: Laura Hughes from the Local Policing Tasking Team, Hollie Clark, Financial Investigator and Rachael Fairbain from Complex Fraud all took part in the Services Team Jumping competition. Daredevils: The White Horse Soapbox Race in Westbury got some big crowds. It includes a STEM fair and a lot of different teams competing to make the fastest vehicle. A team from the South Western Ambulance Service got involved too, making their own contraption. Prestige: Devizes Bowls Club has hosted a prestigious inter-county competition, part of the early stages of the Balcomb Trophy. It's the first time the club has hosted a competition this big. Immerse yourself: a shipping container is arriving in the middle of Salisbury this weekend, in Guildhall Square. It's for an immersive theatre experience run by producers Darkfield. It's part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival and those who go in for the experience, called FLIGHT, will find themselves in what looks exactly like the inside of a plane and two realities. Celebrity moment: The Cat Watch Rescue Centre based in Salisbury, which takes in strays and abandoned animals, revealed they had received a donation from Dame Joanna Lumley, who sent a handwritten note. Bumper crop: the strawberries are already doing well this year, so the pick your own farms are opening up, including this one at Lotmead in Swindon.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Joanna Lumley took part in a spell ceremony with a coven of white witches in Romania during travel series
Dame Joanna Lumley participated in a spell ceremony with a coven of white witches to "bring peace and ward off negativity". The 79-year-old actress travels 1,770 miles along the River Danube for her new ITV travel series 'Joanna Lumley's Danube', visiting Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania and taking a detour to the Ukrainian border before reaching her final destination the Black Sea. Whilst she was in Romania the former 'Absolutely Fabulous' star spent time with a group of white witches and after taking part in the ceremony Lumley was presented with an amulet which she was told would keep her safe on her trip. In an interview with the Daily Express Saturday magazine, she shared: "They work with the elements - earth, air, water, fire - to bring peace and ward off negativity. "They were so glamorous. They used masses of candles for their ceremony. The camera boys nearly died from the heat. Then they gave me an amulet to take me safely on the rest of my journey." Whilst in Austria, Lumley met with with former Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst - who won as Austria's entrant in 2014 with the song 'Rise Like a Phoenix' - and she also witnessed a performance by a troupe of homosexual lederhosen dancers which she was amazed by. She said: "The lederhosen dancers were so unbelievably touching. It was a group made completely of middle-aged gay men, it was out of this world. They were amazing. Their kindness and inclusivity touched me very much. "Thinking back to Austria and Germany's darkest times, where people were persecuted and sent to camps for being gay, suddenly here they are in the heart of Austria doing this fabulous dancing." Joanna - who is married to composer Stephen Barlow - admits the journey left her amazed by how much beauty and wonder there is in the world. She said: "It was a delight to see this magnificent river coming out of the ground at the source, a tiny little trickle, and then travelling her length. It was awesome. "I did so much thinking and reflecting on how we neglect geography at our peril. The world is so full of marvels. Everything about this trip was eye-opening. It was terribly touching, very funny and extreme."
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Joanna Lumley holidays with a beer-brewing nun
9pm, ITV1Joanna Lumley's travelogues don't tend to be heavy on sociopolitical analysis but she's good company all the same. In this new series, she is travelling down the Danube River. It begins with a beer-brewing nun and an enjoyable trip to the Wachau wine valley, before she meets up with 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst for a tour of Vienna. Phil Harrison 8.30pm, BBC OneHammond is proving to be well suited to these long-form interviews, which are deceptively lighthearted but not afraid to touch on more serious issues. Jimmy Carr is her companion this time, talking about his tax issues, his relationship with his mother and his memories of the late, great Sean Lock. PH 9pm, BBC Two For Tudor-era operator Thomas Sackville, it was knowing 'the right thing to say to the right person at the right time' that enabled him to buy the sprawling Knole House in Kent. Here's a romp around Knole today – which also houses a lifesize nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovanna Zanerini. Ali Catterall 9pm, Sky MaxThe greatest frenemy double act on TV continues to walk the line between love and hate as the fourth season reaches its penultimate episode. Deborah and Ava's talkshow hangs in the balance, but does that mean the pair will set their differences aside and work together? Don't bet on it. PH 9.30pm, BBC OneIf you can persuade Billie Piper to cameo in a low-key comedy, you make the most of your day shooting with her – so she reappears in this season finale. Autistic Australian-in-Britain Austin (Michael Theo) has run away, prompting his dad Julian (Ben Miller) to find him – and meet Austin's fave celebrity. Jack Seale 10pm, Channel 4Three is the magic number: more from the raunchy social experiment that encourages participants to dip a toe into polyamory. Jonny and Sarah from Wales have had their collective head turned by French model Marie, while Essex couple Claude and Amy join the fun. Graeme Virtue The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024), 9.10am, 6.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere Chris Sanders's delightful family animation attains Wall-E levels of poignancy in its tale of a shipwrecked robot that learns how to feel. Washed up on a remote island populated only by animals, service unit Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o) finds it has no one to serve. That is until it falls on to a goose's nest, killing all its occupants apart from runt of the litter Brightbill (Kit Connor) – who imprints on Roz as his mother. Assisted by Pedro Pascal's cynical fox Fink, the ever helpful machine reprogrammes itself to rear the gosling well enough so he can migrate with the other geese. The Disney-style anthropomorphising is a bit overdone, but it's a film full of warmth and wit. Simon Wardell
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Joanna Lumley's horror as film crew 'nearly die' during dangerous ritual
After travelling the globe, from Moscow to Cuba, Dame Joanna Lumley follows the River Danube for ITV. But her film crew were close to peril while filming scenes in Romania. Filming for Joanna Lumley's Danube was far from smooth sailing - her crew encountered harsh temperatures and a witch ritual involving fire. Ever-curious traveller Dame Joanna Lumley returns to her role as intrepid explorer and observer in her latest travel series for ITV, following the River Danube – a 1,770-mile stretch of shifting history – from its source in the Black Forest to its delta at the Black Sea. The Absolutely Fabulous actress admits she knew nothing about the river before filming the series. 'I couldn't be more interested and in love with geography, and the world as a whole,' she says. 'But I was pretty thick about the Danube.' In the three-part series, Joanna begins her journey in Germany and travels through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, taking a detour to the Ukrainian border before reaching her final destination, the Black Sea. 'It was a delight to see this magnificent river coming out of the ground at the source, a tiny little trickle, and then travelling her length,' she says. 'It was awesome.' The landscapes left a mark, but Joanna also fulfilled her lifelong dream of visiting the Vienna Boys Choir. She also made a handful of friends along her journey. In Germany, Joanna met a group of older women who've brought together their own community by opening a café. 'They decided to bring in their lovely china and hand-knitted cushions to make the café welcoming,' Joanna says. 'They serve the most delicious cakes and they're the waitresses. It was very touching. They were so happy to be out in society again and to be needed.' In Austria, she reunites with Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst (aka Tom Neuwirth), who offers her a stylish tour of his homeland. But it's an unexpected group of dancers who stole her heart. 'The lederhosen dancers were so unbelievably touching,' she says. 'It was a group made completely of middle-aged gay men, it was out of this world. They were amazing. Their kindness and inclusivity touched me very much. 'Thinking back to Austria and Germany's darkest times, where people were persecuted and sent to camps for being gay,' she says, 'suddenly here they are in the heart of Austria doing this fabulous dancing.' In Romania, things got a little mystical. Joanna found herself swept into a coven of white witches, who performed a ceremony under flickering candlelight. 'They work with the elements – earth, air, water, fire – to bring peace and ward off negativity,' she says. 'They were so glamorous.' But Joanna's film crew were pushed out of their comfort zone. 'They used masses of candles for their ceremony,' Joanna says. 'The camera boys nearly died from the heat. Then they gave me an amulet to take me safely on the rest of my journey.' The trip wasn't all serene lagoons and sparkly spells. The climate was sometimes unforgiving. Joanna faced everything from searing heat at the river's mouth to icy cold in the mountains straddling Slovakia and Poland. 'It was phenomenally cold,' Joanna says. 'We went to the Tatra Mountains but it was so cold we didn't know if we'd be able to get up. When I spoke with the weather man his moustache and eyelashes were covered in ice.' Still, the challenges were worth it. 'We spent so much time on planes, trains, roads,' she says. 'But being on the water was like wandering into paradise. There were huge lagoons and lakes with every kind of bird. It was beautiful beyond words.' In Romania, she stumbled upon another gem – an architect fighting to resurrect Roman spa baths. 'It was beyond beautiful,' she says. 'Things that are decaying and falling apart have an added beauty to them – that was very special.' Beyond the culture and candles, Joanna says this journey offered a deeper kind of reward – time to reflect. 'I did so much thinking and reflecting on how we neglect geography at our peril,' she says. 'The world is so full of marvels. Everything about this trip was eye-opening. It was terribly touching, very funny and extreme.' The actress has travelled the globe – from Cuba to India, Greece to Moscow – but she still can't choose her favourite adventure. 'I feel like an unfaithful flirt because every time I've gone somewhere I think, 'Oh that was extraordinary,'' she says. 'Then you go somewhere else and think, 'That's the best.'' Joanna, now 79, lives very much in the moment, and she's not slowing down – and she wants to bring others along for the ride. 'I'd love people to realise the world is marvellous,' she says. 'Get up before dawn and go somewhere odd. Don't just lie by the pool.' Her philosophy is simple, but urgent. 'You've only got one life,' she says. 'You must live it to the full.'
