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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hannah Waddingham, 5ft11, was told she was 'too big' to be on camera and says Ted Lasso co-stars told her take her heels off when filming together
has revealed she was told she was 'too big' to appear on camera. The 5ft 11in actress claimed that she was turned away from roles due to her model stature, saying the general sentiment was 'you'll be too big on camera so stay in your lane'. Hannah revealed that this wasn't an issue when it came to working with Jason Sudeikis, the 6ft 1in creator and star of Ted Lasso, who was happy for her to wear heels and be taller than him on screen. However, Hannah confessed that there were several men who asked her to remove her heels when filming. She recalled in an interview with The Sunday Times: 'I even had a couple of day players [actors on set briefly] in Ted Lasso going, "Is it all right if she doesn't wear shoes in this scene?" The heels stayed on.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Hannah - who previously worked as a plus-size model - also revealed that her confidence to get into acting was knocked when a drama teacher at her college told her that she wouldn't work much because it 'looks like one side of her face has had a stroke'. The striking actress once revealed a casting director branded her a 'lanky freak' during the early stages of her career. However, today London-born Hannah is world's away from receiving negative remarks about her appearance, with fans marvelling over her beauty on social media. Born and raised in southwest London, Hannah attended private girls' school Streatham and Clapham High School before going on to study at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. Following her graduation, Hannah - who is the daughter of opera singer Melodie Kelly - concentrated on making it as a theatre actress. One of her first jobs was in the interactive dinner show Joni and Gina's Wedding - where audience members take on the role of wedding guests and are invited to engage with actors. In 2000, Hannah released the single Our Kind of Love - which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber for his musical The Beautiful Game - to commemorate the composer's 50th birthday. In 2002, she went on to appear in a production of Space Family Robinson before going on to star as Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, which earned her an Olivier Award nod. The show, which was both a West End and Broadway hit, went on to be nominated for seven Laurence Olivier awards in 2012. Alongside her West End work, Hannah began auditioning for more and more TV and film roles - having made her big screen debut in 2008's How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. In 2014, Hannah was cast as Tonya Dyke in the hit ITV series Benidorm before hitting the big-time in 2016 when she was cast as Septa Unella in the fifth season of Game of Thrones. The role put Hannah on the Hollywood map - leading her to then be cast as Jackson's mother Sofia in the hit Netflix series Sex Education in 2019. Two years later, Hannah's career reached all new heights when she bagged a starring role as warm-yet-icy football club owner Rebecca Welton in Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso. Hannah's latest roles have seen her star in Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning and Lilo & Stich.
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Irish Times
Latest power failure on London's Tube network fuels passenger paranoia
For Halloween, I might dress up as the Northern line. This most erratic, unruly, unreliable of London Underground lines frightens the life out of any city commuter forced to rely on its sprawling black tentacles. You never know what you'll get. On Monday evening as I prepared to leave the Palace of Westminster for home in southwest London, I checked the Transport for London (TfL) app to see what merry japes the Northern line had in store. Checking ahead for disruption on the line is an integral part of the experience. 'Northern line part suspended between Stockwell and Morden.' This meant, of course, that I couldn't use the Tube to travel south to my local area, which is served only by that portion of the line that had been suspended. So began the wearying task of working out a different route home. This once would have been a stressful chore but now it is just bland routine. READ MORE Somewhat masochistically, I suspect I may even secretly enjoy figuring out the logistical challenges. Monday evening's route recalculation, however, was complicated by the fact that the entire Tube network in central London had been plunged into chaos by a massive power cut. A bus or a taxi home was out of the question as London's streets would be clogged for hours. Britons, like many others, watched on agog last month at the rolling blackouts that afflicted Spain and Portugal, and thanked their lucky stars that it wasn't them. Yet the frequency of the power failures that have recently affected London's extensive but ailing transportation network have become almost as disruptive for city life here. The catastrophic nature of the rush-hour faults and the similarity of some of the fires that have caused them – not just on the Tube, but also near airports such as Heathrow – have also left many Londoners wondering if a campaign of transport sabotage may be behind it all. Authorities such as TfL, London Fire Brigade and the National Grid, however, insist they are just unfortunate accidents. I had been blissfully unaware of the full extent of Monday's major incident until I logged into the TfL app to check the availability of my route home. I had spent the day around Whitehall, moving about on foot and ignoring all news alerts about travel disruption. Beneath my feet was chaos. Piecing together explanations from TfL, National Grid and London Fire Brigade, it seems that something caused a power surge on the system on Monday afternoon. This sparked a fire at a substation in Maida Vale, an affluent district in northwest London. This was the second such fire at the same substation in two weeks, which has fed suspicions on social media of sabotage. That fire also came five weeks after a separate substation fire shut down Heathrow , grounding 1,300 flights. Monday's fire burned through critical cables in Maida Vale and power dropped across the network, but most critically in central London. Platforms went dark in many stations, which had to revert to emergency lighting. At various times, up to 20 Tube stations were evacuated and shut, including critical hubs such as Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Waterloo. Some trains were also stuck for a short period in Tube tunnels. The fault knocked out the entire Bakerloo line, which cuts through Maida Vale on its way to central London, the Jubilee line, Waterloo & City line and a huge section of the Elizabeth line that links many Tube stations to the main hub of Paddington. It also shut down tracts of the Northern line. Simultaneously, parts of the London Overground network were affected by separate trackside fires that delayed trains, fuelling the paranoia of some commuters that it was all orchestrated by some malicious power. The authorities, however, have stuck to their line that it was just bad luck. The last thing they want is more panic in London about the city's transportation network. Hackles were already up after an IT fault crippled Stansted Airport on Sunday morning. For once, the travel gods were with me on Monday evening as I tried to figure out how to get home. One of the few parts of the network that had been completely unaffected, the westbound portion of the District line, took me from Westminster to Victoria Station. From there, I squeezed on to a National Rail above-ground commuter train heading south out of London. It took barely 15 minutes to get me to a station that was not my normal one, but close enough. I strolled home in the evening sun feeling pretty pleased with myself, as I considered whether to switch to this remarkably easy above-ground route on a more regular basis. But I realised I had actually grown fond of the craziness of the Northern line, the Tube route that sometimes feels like a scene of chaos painted on a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch – all legs and arms, triumph and despair, copulation and death. The truth is: I'd probably miss it.
Sky News
12-05-2025
- General
- Sky News
London Underground stations shut and lines suspended as power cut hits Tube
A power outage caused major travel disruption on London's Tube network on Monday, stretching into rush hour. The Elizabeth, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines were among the routes either suspended or delayed, with several stations closed and passengers forced to evacuate. A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said there was an outage in southwest London for "a matter of minutes" and "everything shut down". National Grid confirmed a fault on its transmission network, which was resolved in "seconds", but led to a "voltage dip" that affected some supplies. The London Fire Brigade said the fault caused a fire at an electrical substation in Maida Vale, and it's understood firefighters destroyed three metres of high-voltage cabling. That came just weeks after a fire at the same substation, which saw elderly and vulnerable residents among those moved from their homes. But today's fire - between Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place - is understood to have involved different equipment to the parts in the 29 April incident. TfL's chief operating officer Claire Mann apologised for the disruption, adding: "Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon." Passengers told Sky News of the disruption's impact on their plans, with one claiming he would have had to spend £140 for a replacement ticket after missing his train. He said he will miss a business meeting on Tuesday morning in Plymouth as a result. Another said she walked to five different stations on Monday, only to find each was closed when she arrived. "Only on the last station did I find out it was a power outage affecting the entire Underground, after I approached ticketing staff," she said. "Again, no announcement made. So I looked for bus alternatives. In total, I spent two hours stranded in central London. Horrible experience. "I feel bad for people who possibly missed their flights."
Sky News
12-05-2025
- Sky News
London Underground stations shut and lines suspended as power cut hits the Tube
A power outage has caused major travel disruption on London's Tube network. The Transport for London (TfL) website shows the entire Bakerloo, Waterloo and City, Weaver, and Suffragette Lines are suspended. There are also severe delays and part suspensions on the Elizabeth, Jubilee, Mildmay, and Piccadilly lines. The Northern line is listed as having minor delays. All other lines are unaffected, according to TfL. Several stations were forced to close after the incident around 2.30pm, including Marble Arch, Holborn, Covent Garden, South Kensington and Tottenham Court Road. A post on X by @TFLAccess said Covent Garden was shut "while we fix faulty communications equipment". A spokesman for the travel network said there was an outage in southwest London for "a matter of minutes" and "everything shut down" due to a "National Grid issue". The spokesman added that "some people would have probably been stuck in a tunnel for a little bit of time". National Grid apologised and said a fault on its transmission network in central London and a "consequent voltage dip" may have briefly affected power supplies. However, it said the fault had been "resolved within seconds". TfL said it was in the process of "getting things back up and running again" but it "can't say when it will be fixed" and officials "don't know anything else". The shutters were down at the entrance to Waterloo Underground station at around 4pm - the station serves the Bakerloo, Northern and Waterloo & City lines. Staff at Paddington were seen directing passengers away from the Elizabeth Line and recommending they use buses instead. The Bakerloo Line entrance was completely shut. Alison Hendry, 33, and Joseph Richardson, 37, travelled on the Heathrow Express to Paddington after flying from Glasgow. Ms Hendry said: "It's a bit annoying they only told us when we got here. We walked all the way across the station, we have to go all the way back." "It doesn't even bother me. But if I was in a rush, it would," Mr Richardson added. However, TfL said Embankment, Charing Cross and Putney Bridge stations had reopened after previously being forced to close.
