Latest news with #Mitford
Gulf Today
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Summer small screen
Who can believe that we are almost half way through 2025? It has flown by. In terms of television, it has been a great six months. This week we are taking a look at what is due to come out over the summer season including returning shows and new series. The real-life British drama series 'Outrageous' centres around the Mitford sisters. Starring Joanna Vanderham, Bessie Carter, Isobel Jesper Jones, Orla Hill and Toby Regbo, the show tells the tale of the aristocratic daughters of an English Baron and his wife who were famous in the 1930s. The sisters were notorious for not living by the rules of society. Back for a fourth season is the comedy drama 'The Bear.' Jeremy Allen White is back playing an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the kitchen at his late brother's sandwich shop. While the first and second seasons of this show did really well, audiences were not very impressed with the third so it will be interesting to see how the fourth does. In other news this week, turn to our Health pages to read about mouth taping. Mouth taping is one of those trendy health hacks that are viral on TikTok at the moment, but does it actually have real benefits? According to experts it won't give you a snatched jaw like TikTok claims, but there may be some benefits to the practice.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC Studios to expand local offering in the Netherlands
BBC Studios has announced that it will be expanding its content offering for audiences in the Netherlands with the launch of a multi-genre VOD and streaming service, BBC NL+. The service will launch with KPN later this year. Brand new multi-genre video on-demand and streaming service, BBC NL+, will be available to subscribers of KPN TV+. This new service will complement BBC Studios' linear channel BBC NL and enable viewers to discover even more world class programming and iconic brands from the BBC and beyond with handpicked collections across drama, comedy, factual entertainment, soaps, entertainment, lifestyle and natural history, all fully localised with Dutch subtitles. Through the integrated BBC NL+ app, audiences in the Netherlands will be able to enjoy a wide range of premium content from the best of your British neighbours. Viewers will also be able to livestream the newly rebranded BBC NL channel as well as enjoy selected dramas ahead of their linear TX. The service will also offer access to FAST channels BBC Drama and Top Gear. Bram Husken, SVP & General Manager Benelux & Nordics at BBC Studios said: 'The BBC brand has a longstanding history in the Netherlands and we are extremely proud to be expanding our offering for local audiences. This new video on demand and streaming platform is highly sought-after with our viewers and broadening our content mix with the introduction of BBC NL+ on KPN TV+ later this year will mean subscribers can enjoy even more powerful, entertaining and inspiring storytelling from the BBC and beyond, all with Dutch subtitles. We are grateful to be building on our longstanding relationship, launching BBC NL+ on KPN.' "We are very pleased with the launch of BBC NL+ for all our KPN TV+ customers," says Jochem de Jong, VP Partnerships, TV and Entertainment via KPN. "This is an important step in the further expansion of our entertainment offering. The high-quality programming from BBC Studios is a perfect complement to the best TV offering in the Netherlands, available via KPN. Through this collaboration, KPN customers will soon be able to enjoy the best entertainment with the launch of BBC NL+." With up to 1000 hours in the first year of curated content from the BBC Studios catalogue and beyond available to watch on demand at launch, BBC NL+ features a tantalising selection of content across a breadth of genres. Programmes that KPN TV+ subscribers will be able to watch on BBC NL+ include the highly anticipated six-part original new drama Outrageous starring Bessie Carter and Anna Chancellor. The series tells the real-life story of the Mitford sisters, six aristocratic siblings who's often-scandalous lives made headlines around the world. Set against the gathering storm clouds of the 1930s, masked by the decadence, frivolity and lavishness of British high society, Outrageous brings the full, uncensored story of the Mitford sisters to the screen for the first time - a story of family bonds and betrayals, public scandal, political extremism, love, heartache and even imprisonment. The show explores how and why these women, unwilling to conform, were so ahead of their time - and what drove them to take their very different, complex and often dangerous paths. Outrageous will be exclusively available on BBC NL+, ahead of the linear launch on BBC NL. BBC NL+ will also feature a rich selection of fan-favourite dramas that audiences love on BBC NL. This includes boxsets of popular programmes including Vienna Blood, Call The Midwife, Death In Paradise, Father Brown and Blue Lights. Bringing the laughs will be shows like award-winning classic comedy Absolutely Fabulous, a sitcom set in the world of fashion and PR featuring the legendary duo Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders. In the factual space, BBC NL+ will offer awe-inspiring science documentary from the BBC Studios Science Unit The Planets. Hosted by multi-award-winning Professor Brian Cox, the series shares the spectacle and drama of 4.5 billion years of planetary history in stunning detail. Intriguing and thought-provoking documentaries hosted by the award-winning Louis Theroux will be available for fans including Louis Theroux: Forbidden America. Available on demand for nature and wildlife lovers, will be world-renowned natural history programmes like A Perfect Planet narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough as well as Eden: Untamed Planet narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. On BBC NL+ fans can also watch Attenborough and the Jurassic Seamonster, which will be available first time for audiences in the Netherlands. Alternatively, viewers can travel to exotic places around the globe through shows like Where the Wild Men Are with Ben Fogle and Joanna Lumley's Great Cities of the World. Viewers on BBC NL+ can also binge a wide range of light entertainment content, including boxsets of easy-viewing series' like George Clarke's Remarkable Renovations or the latest series of Amazing Hotels. There is something for everyone. Iconic lifestyle series' The Great British Bake Off series 13 also joins the line-up. Alongside this, BBC NL+ viewers can also look forward to popular entertainment gameshow series' including The Weakest Link Celebrity Specials hosted by award-winning comedian Romesh Ranganathan as well as motorhead fan-favourite episodes of classic Top Gear will also be available from launch. About BBC Studios The main commercial arm of BBC Commercial Ltd, BBC Studios generated revenues in the last year of £1.8 billion and a third consecutive year of profits of over £200 million. Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, the business is built on two operating areas: the Content Studio, which produces, invests and distributes content globally and Media & Streaming, with BBC branded channels, services including and BritBox International and joint ventures in the UK and internationally. The business made more than 2,800 hours of award-winning British programmes last year for a wide selection of public service and commercial broadcasters and platforms, both in the UK and across the globe. Its content is internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, and includes world-famous brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, the Planet series, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC Studios | Website | Press Office | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram |
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bridgerton star looks unrecognisable in first glimpse at 'scandalous' new TV show based on true story - and it's worlds away from the Netflix period drama
A Bridgerton star looks unrecognisable in a first look at a 'scandalous' new TV show based on a true story. Bessie Carter, 31, rose to fame on the Netflix period drama as the obnoxious Prudence Featherington. Now the actress, who is the daughter of The Crown and Harry Potter star Imelda Staunton and Downton Abbey icon Jim Carter, is set to star in a brand new six-part series titled Outrageous. She plays Nancy Mitford in the six-episode show, which follows the lives of the Mitford sisters and is based on Mary S Lovell's biography. New images of the show have been released offering a glimpse of Bessie in character, and she looks worlds away from her 19th Century Bridgerton role. In one photograph, she sports her hair in a short bob and wears a yellow V-neck top as she looks at co-star Jamie Blackley as Peter. Bessie stars in the new show alongside Joanna Vanderham as Diana Mitford, Casualty's Zoe Brough as Jessica Mitford, Say Nothing Shannon Watson as Unity Mitford and Orla Hil as Deborah Mitford. Other cast members include Isobel Jesper Jones as Pamela Mitford, who starred in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and Toby Regbo who plays the brother of the Mitford sisters. Set in the 1930s, Outrageous delves into the story of the six Mitford sisters 'who refuse to play by the rules, attracting scandal and notoriety at every turn,' according to a synopsis. The eldest sister, Nancy, tackles 'love and heartache' while her younger siblings go on different paths as their parents watch on. A summary by UKTV reads: 'A family saga like no other, this is a tale of bonds and betrayals, public scandal, political extremism, jealousy, romance – and coming of age in the most extraordinary circumstances. Can the fractured sisterhood survive?' The new show, created by Sarah Williams, will premiere on U and U&Drama in the UK on June 19. Another new image shows Mosley, played by Joshua Sasse, and Diana, played by Joanna Vanderham, dancing together. Bessie previously opened up to Tatler about playing real people and was full of praise for her parents and their successful careers - and says she took inspiration from her mother Imelda for her latest role. Imelda famously played The Queen in the later series of The Crown which Bessie says helped her in playing real people too - including her new part as Nancy Mitford. Bessie said: 'We're not imitating them, but we're taking the essence of them and trying to regurgitate it as truth. 'It's something my mother had to go to town with given that the Queen was so known by everyone… she smashed it! 'I think that's such a hard line, but really doing the voice and the physicality and then bringing your own proof to it, that's the fun.'
WIRED
24-02-2025
- Automotive
- WIRED
AI Assistants Join the Factory Floor
Feb 24, 2025 6:00 AM Manufacturers already have the data. LLM-powered tools could help them make use of it. A factory worker operates a CNC machine in an industrial manufacturing plant. Photograph: Getty Images The basic machine for grinding a steel ball bearing has been the same since around 1900, but manufacturers have been steadily automating everything around it. Today, the process is driven by a conveyor belt, and, for the most part, it's automatic. The most urgent task for humans is to figure out when things are going wrong—and even that could soon be handed over to AI. The Schaeffler factory in Hamburg starts with steel wire that is cut and pressed into rough balls. Those balls are hardened in a series of furnaces, and then put through three increasingly precise grinders until they are spherical to within a tenth of a micron. The result is one of the most versatile components in modern industry, enabling low-friction joints in everything from lathes to car engines. That level of precision requires constant testing—but when defects do turn up, tracking them down can present a puzzle. Testing might show a defect occurring at some point on the assembly line, but the cause may not be obvious. Perhaps the torque on a screwing tool is off, or a newly replaced grinding wheel is impacting quality. Tracking down the problem means comparing data across multiple pieces of industrial equipment, none of which were designed with this in mind. This too may soon be a job for machines. Last year, Schaeffler became one of the first users of Microsoft's Factory Operations Agent, a new product powered by large language models and designed specifically for manufacturers. The chatbot-style tool can help track down the causes of defects, downtime, or excess energy consumption. The result is something like ChatGPT for factories, with OpenAI's models being used on the backend thanks to the company's partnership with Microsoft's Azure. Kathleen Mitford, Microsoft's corporate vice president for global industry marketing, describes the project as 'a reasoning agent that operates on top of manufacturing data.' As a result, Mitford says, 'the agent is capable of understanding questions and translating them with precision and accuracy against standardized data models.' So a factory worker might ask a question like 'What is causing a higher than usual level of defects?' and the model would be able to answer with data from across the manufacturing process. The agent is deeply integrated into Microsoft's existing enterprise products, particularly Microsoft Fabric, its data analytics system. This means that Schaeffler, which runs hundreds of plants on Microsoft's system, is able to train its agent on data from all over the world. Stefan Soutschek, Schaeffler's vice president in charge of IT, says the scope of data analysis is the real power of the system. 'The major benefit is not the chatbot itself, although it helps,' he says. 'It's the combination of this OT [operational technology] data platform in the backend, and the chatbot relying on that data.' Despite the name, this isn't agentic AI: It doesn't have goals, and its powers are limited to answering whatever questions the user asks. You can set up the agent to execute basic commands through Microsoft's Copilot studio, but the goal isn't to have the agent making its own decisions. This is primarily AI as a data access tool. That's particularly valuable in manufacturing, where tracking down a set of errors might mean comparing data across quality assurance systems, HR software, and industrial control systems like kilns and precision drills. Within the industry, this is known as the IT/OT gap: the disconnect between information tech like spreadsheets and the operational tech that's used in a factory. AI companies believe large language models like the Factory Operations Agent will be able to work across that gap, allowing it to answer basic troubleshooting questions in a conversational way. The Factory Operations Agent is due to leave public preview later this year, making it broadly available to Azure AI users. But there will be plenty of competing systems hoping to play a role on the factory floor. As tech companies look for ways to make money from recent breakthroughs in LLMs, manufacturing has proven to be a tempting target. Last September, Google rolled out an update to its Manufacturing Data Engine specifically aimed at unlocking data held on industrial devices, and both Microsoft and Google maintain platforms where independent developers can test out systems with different fine-tuning strategies and different tolerances for risk. That competition is good for the field, but the increasing use of industrial AI also raises the stakes for safety—particularly on the factory floor, where malfunctions can be a matter of life or death. Crucially, the Factory Operations Agent only manipulates data rather than directly controlling machinery, but there are still concerns. Speaking in his personal capacity, Duncan Eddy, executive director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety, says the biggest concern for AI models like the Factory Operations Agent is simply that users won't recognize when the system is starting to fail, or won't know how to intervene once they do. 'These systems can fail in new and surprising and unpredictable ways,' he says.
