Latest news with #ShippingForecast
Belfast Telegraph
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Ulster Orchestra bringing sounds of sea to Belfast as Shipping Forecast celebrates its 100th birthday
The Ulster Orchestra will experience all weathers on Friday night when it helps the BBC celebrate the centenary of the Shipping Forecast. The show at Belfast's Ulster Hall is part of the annual Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, the majority of which are held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Scottish Sun
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Rangers hero Ally McCoist ‘is on EVERYTHING' says sports hero as he calls for rebate on TV licence
JOHN PARROTT used to share a primetime TV slot with Ally McCoist as an opposing team captain on Question of Sport. But now the Liverpudlian former world snooker champ turned snooker pundit gazes at McCoist's media empire and marvels. 2 John Parrott couldn't resist a light-hearted barb at his old Question of Sport pal Credit: Getty 2 Ally McCoist commentates on the Champions League final for TNT Credit: Getty The Rangers icon might be on a well-earned holiday right now, but he's one of the hardest working men in the business, regularly working at three or four matches a week across Europe - in addition to hosting a daily national breakfast show for TalkSPORT. And it was with that in mind that his old Question of Sport pal Parrott couldn't resist a light-hearted dig in the Gers hero's direction. He was making an appearance on the TalkSPORT breakfast show, usually hosted by McCoist but this time with Alan Brazil and Gabby Agbonlahor on comms. He said: "Can I get a rebate on my TV licence, because my Scottish mate is on everything. "He's going to be doing the Shipping Forecast next." One of McCoist's former managers, meanwhile, has been explaining why he DENIED the Rangers hero an emotional Ibrox swansong when manager of Kilmarnock. Bobby Williamson was Killie boss back in 2001 when he kept McCoist on the bench during a 5-1 defeat at Ibrox in his final season as a professional. In an interview with the Let Me Be Frank podcast, Williamson said: "It was a very unique occasion. "I don't think it'd happened before and I don't think it'll happen again, where an opposition are singing for a player to come on. "We were getting battered, Rangers played really well that day and we've not really performed. Ally McCoist confesses to 'horrendous' epic fail ahead of final day of Rangers legend's charity bike ride "[The Rangers fans] started to chant McCoist's name. If they hadn't done that, I might've put him on. "But because they were chanting, and I've got 200 Kilmanrock fans over there, who've paid good money to come up from Ayrshire, and I'm thinking if I put him on then I'm going to get dog's abuse for kowtowing to Rangers. He added: "I sympathised with the Rangers fans. I used to be one. "I knew how they were feeling, they wanted to see Ally. "But I said to myself, they'll have other occasions to do that. These Old Firm games, they'll see him again, and then he went back as a manager. "But I would've got slaughtered off my own fans. I've got to think about them." Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Scotsman
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Fringe Comedy reviews: Patrick Monahan: The Good, The Pat and The Ugly Jack Traynor: Before I Forget Andrew White: Young, Gay and a Third Thing
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... COMEDY Patrick Monahan: The Good, The Pat, and The Ugly Gilded Balloon (Venue 24) ★★★★☆ About 45 minutes into his first performance of the Fringe, Pat Monahan takes a glance at his set notes and says: 'I am very aware we need to get this show started.' There are just six of us in the room but, by that time, we are all just so relaxed and full of laughter and funny that we would happily go with the guy whatever he wanted to start. He has a voice so rough you could grate cheese on it and a comedic delivery that lies somewhere between boyish enthusiasm and sheer joy. If you are looking for wit and carefully crafted lines, please try further on. If you want hard line politics or sharply honed observation, this is not really what he is for, although the section on golf (unlikely, I know) is fresh, spot on and very funny. But Pat Monahan could deliver the Shipping Forecast and it would have you grinning and giggling uncontrollably. This is a great and rare gift. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Patrick Monahan in The Good, The Pat and The Ugly | Contributed From the six of us in the room, together with some chunks of the show as planned, and the kind of warmth you could fire a bap on, Monahan creates (to say 'crafts' would be ridiculous) a genuinely wonderful hour. It doesn't flag for a second – which is extraordinary, as it often seems he has no more idea of what is coming next than we do. His kind of funny is an irresistible force and he doesn't leave anyone behind. Everyone is brought into the laughter zone at this gig. More than many comics – certainly many at his level – Monahan does not do a show. He is the show. Despite himself, I suspect. But it is a truly delightful thing to be part of. Kate Copstick Until 24 August Make sure you keep up to date with Arts and Culture news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here. COMEDY Jacob Nussey: Primed Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Three) (Venue 33) ★★★☆☆ With the intriguing promise that comedy could facilitate an exposé of Amazon in a manner that more serious reportage might find legally actionable, Jacob Nussey's Fringe debut pledges to unpack his experience toiling in one of the retail giant's warehouses. Unfortunately, his delivery can't match Jeff Bezos'. And he knows it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The main problem the Mansfield native has is that his low-energy mien and generally impassive face, allied to his often grim, alternately Dickensian and dystopian history of soul-destroying, low-paid work conspires against him. That's a real shame though. He's got a full CV of crap employment and he's spent his boredom productively, filing away telling details for illustrative if unappealing visions of life scratching a living with few aspirations. A decent and versatile joke writer, still finding himself as a performer, Nussey's self-aware enough to acknowledge and draw humour from these limitations. Yet it's not a straightforward sell. Focusing on the human tedium, he's no union firebrand seeking to overthrow capitalism. He accepts his and the public's complicity in a system that prioritises convenience over morality. He gets political in a measured fashion, landing some amusing jabs at billionaire greed but there's nothing here to trouble Bezos' lawyers. Still, Nussey's recent escape into stand-up is cause for cheer. Jay Richardson Until 25 August COMEDY Jack Traynor: Before I Forget Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker One) (Venue 33) ★★★☆☆ Heralding the arrival of an exciting, fiery talent, the roistering Jack Traynor barely has a show but hugely compelling stage presence. Funded by an excellent initiative from the Blackfriars pub in Glasgow and Brass Tacks Comedy, the Cumbernauld stand-up laments being 'the only Scottish act doing an hour at the Pleasance'. Which is not strictly true but damnably close enough to depress. With all the carpe diem of a competition winner taking his chance to storm the middle-class ramparts, what Traynor lacks in structured routines he makes up for with booming, can-do charisma and rascally energy. His basic conceit, the appealing aspects of dementia, as experienced by his grandfather and his likely inheritance given his family's history with the condition, happily fits with his haphazard delivery of random anecdotes, cemented by some superb, instinctive crowd work – seeking out fellow misfits, such as those who've spent time in prison, and building sustained rapport. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad His avowed appreciation of Susan Boyle, to the apparent confusion of his once cannier grandfather is typical of the comic. Though perhaps not fully finessed enough in an early preview, it explores his vulnerability behind his front foot bluster. Hearing an authentic, working-class Scottish voice at one of the Edinburgh Fringe's biggest venues shouldn't feel so refreshing. Jay Richardson Until 24 August COMEDY Andrew White: Young, Gay and a Third Thing Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire) (CabVol 2) (Venue 338) ★★★☆☆ After five days at last year's Fringe, Andrew White's classy, composed exploration of identity returns for a longer run. Taking its title from his agent's advice after he became a full-time comic, that he required a third adjective to set him apart, he speculates as to what that could be. Keenly picking his character apart, the genial stand-up both confirms and confounds preconceptions about himself. That he's a guilt-ridden, privileged white liberal is virtually a given. Yet he's also prone to getting caught up in the most toxic aspects of sport fandom, even if he invariably finds a showy, musical theatre angle to make it his own. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Weaving queer history and social commentary about class, race, homophobia and trans rights through personal anecdotes, chiefly with reference to the experience of his non-binary, Jamaican-Irish partner, and the bigotry or doom-mongering of his West Country relatives, it's all shared with admirable lightness of touch, only evoking an inclusionary message at the end. More directly, it's also a well-aimed kick at simplistic pigeonholing and profiling. Despite recurrent recourse to the singular size of his manhood, the wry, floridly witty White contains multitudes. And to paraphrase his astute former English teacher, he's a pleasure to listen to. Jay Richardson
The Herald Scotland
17-07-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
Five-way tie at top after the first round of The Open
On trying days like this, patience is very much a virtue. Perhaps that's why Thailand's Sadom Kaewkanjana prospered? Patience, after all, is one of the highest forms of spiritual effort – well, so I'm told – and Kaewkanjana demonstrated plenty of that as his bid to become the first ordained Buddhist monk to lift the Claret Jug got off to a sprightly start. Now there's a sentence you don't read at every Open, eh? While Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and former US Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick formed a five-way logjam at the top, Kaewkanjana was flying high with a three-under 68 that was illuminated by a putt of almost 25-feet for an eagle-two on the fifth. The 27-year-old has played in just one Open before but made a decent fist of it at St Andrews in 2022 and shared 11th. A few months after that, he took a sabbatical, swapped the fairways and polo shirts for the monastery and saffron robes and committed himself to a life of meditation, prayer, discipline and introspection. This game, as we all know, can be a mind-mangling endeavour and the storm-tossed waters of a golfer's psyche could just about lead to a series of warnings on the Shipping Forecast. There are no such issues on that front for Kaewkanjana. 'Being a monk gives me a lot of focus,' said the Asian Tour winner, whose patience was tested even further this week by the late arrival of his luggage. 'Forget everything outside, just live in the present.' Perhaps we should all try that approach at the Saturday medal? After the heatwave of last week's Scottish Open, the conditions here on the Antrim coast for the final men's major of the campaign were, well, changeable. 'I'd love to be a weather man here, you'd get it wrong all the time,' chuckled Jason Day of conditions that fluctuated between fresh and muggy and featured the odd furious downpour. The joys of the links. When Rory McIlroy took to the first tee just after 3pm, the reigning Masters champion was given an ovation that shoogled the foundations of the grandstand. The vast crowds then held their collective breath. Six years ago, the last time Portrush hosted The Open, McIlroy started with an eight. There was no such calamity this time, although when he missed a short putt for his par on the opening green, a mighty groan drifted over the Dunluce links. It turned out to be a typically eventful ride. The media lads and lassies that were documenting McIlroy's every crash, bang and wallop probably didn't require an official inside the ropes armband. He seemed to spend a lot of time beyond those bloomin' ropes as he struggled to hit a fairway. As for Bryson DeChambeau? Well, at times it felt like he'd struggle to keep his ball in Northern Ireland during a turbulent 78. A fresh air shot on the fourth was a particularly low moment. McIlroy may have struggled to find the short stuff – he hit just two of 14 fairways – but he still emerged with a one-under 70. 'It was a tough enough day, especially as I was either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time,' said McIlroy, who holed an important par putt on 15 to keep his round together. 'To shoot under-par was a good effort.' Up at the head of the standings, Olesen, out in the fourth match early on, set the target of four-under and remained at the summit all day, apart from a brief spell when English hauled himself to five-under before dropping back again. Olesen played in last year's Open having won the Amateur Championship on Irish soil at Ballyliffin. The Dane gave up his invitation to this year's Masters to pursue his professional ambitions after earning his DP World Tour card. Any regrets? 'I'm at ease with the decision,' he said. 'I actually got tickets for the Monday practice at Augusta but we never got in as it got cancelled by the weather.' If he keeps going like this, he may earn another invitation as a player. There's a long way to go before he can start thinking about that, of course. Fitzpatrick's return to form continued with a 67 of his own while Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, opened with a 68. English veteran, Lee Westwood, rolled back a few years with a 69. Xander Schauffele, the reigning champion, was level-par. Another long day awaits.
Economist
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Economist
Macron's visit to Britain reflects much-improved relations
Anglo-French relations have not been so good since before the Brexit vote. Beneath the state-visit pageantry, though, there is much co-operation for President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss. Gangs have infiltrated many of Latin America's mining operations—with violent results. And an ode to Britain's Shipping Forecast, an inscrutable radio feature that is turning 100. Additional audio courtesy of Alexander Seale @alexseale.
