Latest news with #WishYouWereDead
Glasgow Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Strictly's Ore Oduba leads Picture You Dead in Glasgow
The presenter and actor will be joining the world premiere tour of Picture You Dead, an adaptation of Peter James' novel about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. The play will be performed at Glasgow's Theatre Royal from June 10 to 14, 2025. Ore Oduba (Image: craig sugden) READ MORE: David Tennant's new ITV show divides viewers amid 'too complicated' claims Ore will play Stuart Piper, an eccentric millionaire art collector who gets tangled up in the dark underworld of stolen art. His debut in the play follows the latest series of Peter James' Sunday night hit ITV series, Grace. He said: "I'm so excited to become part of the fantastic cast of Picture You Dead. "I've watched their excellent performances in front of a packed house and seen audiences have a fabulous time watching the show. "It's great fun and full of twists and turns, comedy and shocks. "I can't wait to be in it." READ MORE: Mrs Doubtfire musical coming to Glasgow's King's Theatre Picture You Dead's story was inspired when Peter James met real-life former master art forger, and now acclaimed copyist, David Henty. Scottish stage and screen star Gemma Stroyan, recently seen in Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, also stars as Bella Moy, returning to the role having starred in the UK tour of Looking Good Dead in 2022. One of the nation's favourite TV doctors, George Rainsford, known for roles in Casualty and Call the Midwife, returns to the role of Peter James' protagonist DSI Roy Grace, which he played in the 2023 hit production of Wish You Were Dead. Picture You Dead is the seventh Peter James book to be adapted for the stage by award-winning writer Shaun McKenna. It is directed by Jonathan O'Boyle, who previously directed two Peter James stage adaptations, Wish You Were Dead (2023) and Looking Good Dead (2021-2022). READ MORE: Glasgow bingo caller makes Britain's Got Talent final Peter James said: "It is truly incredible for me to see the seventh stage adaptation of my books. "I am so grateful to the hundreds of thousands of people around the UK who have come to their local theatre and enjoyed the plays over the last 10 years. "Now that I have seen Picture You Dead performed, I am thrilled to say I think this new play is the best one so far." The books have sold over 23 million copies worldwide, been previously adapted for six hugely successful stage productions, and transformed into ITV's critically acclaimed drama, Grace. And, last year, Roy Grace was declared by Her Majesty Queen Camilla as her favourite literary detective.
Telegraph
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Lola Young: This unapologetically messy young star is bound for glory
Her name is Lola, and she's a very modern kind of showgirl. Sashaying about the stage all shaggy black hair and blonde highlights, 24-year-old pop star Lola Young commanded a loudly enthusiastic crowd at London's O2 Forum with rude energy. She belted out her witty songs like a particularly tuneful foghorn and gabbled in breaks with the Cockney exuberance of an excitable new barmaid at the Queen Vic. She actually managed to stumble over her own name in her introduction, declaring 'If you've evah bin to a Yola Lung … er, Lola Young show before you know how it goes: it's a f---ing shambles!' Young has been bubbling under for longer than might seem likely in one still so, er, young. She signed with Island records in 2019 and has been building a loyal following without actually troubling the charts. She broke through last year with her 20 th single release, the inescapable smash Messy, when it went viral on TikTok. It has just spent four weeks at No 1 and has become her trademark anthem. You might have seen her at the Brit awards last weekend, performing her hit in tartan pyjamas whilst throwing laundry and detergent around the stage. The trials of being a messy human prone to poor relationship choices and serious mental health issues is her chosen subject matter. Young is actually very exciting, her maverick charisma bringing passion to the often over-controlled presentation of modern live pop music. Her spirited performance in Kentish Town on Monday night was reinforced by a slick five-piece band of beardy men (three of whom write and produce the songs with Young) playing like they dreamed of being in a 90s alt-rock band rather than a 21 st century digital pop ensemble. Sure, there were thick synths and hints of processed drums, but at times there were also three electric guitars wigging out as Young belted out songs of bad relationships, bad behaviour and bad moods. In another era, Young might have been a particularly tuneful punk, but the Brit school graduate has tailored her considerable talents to a streaming environment that favours misfit women singing smart bangers dissecting the mores of modern dating. For all the upbeat joy of her melodies, such relentlessly miserabilist lyrics as Wish You Were Dead, Conceited and Don't Hate Me might make you wonder if she really needs fame and fortune or a good therapist. It is as if Young is rudely pushing the self-absorption implicit in Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish's forensic love songs to their limit. Morrissey might grasp the appeal of a crowd exuberantly roaring out a lyric like 'A thousand people I could be for you – and you hate the f---ing lot.' The Forum is not an arena, it is a stepping stone venue, and there remain questions about how Young can negotiate the next even bigger steps. The noisy intensity of her 2,300-strong twentysomething audience was impressive. Her songwriting craft is sharp. Her passion is not in doubt, albeit over-excitement causes her to talk so fast it can be hard to understand what she is saying. I wonder if the US (where Messy reached number 14 last year) is ready for such a sweary, sweaty, rocky, unapologetically messy and in its own way very British take on a genre of glittery angst pop currently dominated by much more glamorous and self-controlled US drama queens? There's enough of Amy Winehouse and Adele about Young to suggest that she could go down a storm. Let's hope she doesn't mess it up.
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lola Young review – soulful Londoner finds magic in the messy
The subject of Lola Young's single Messy – No 1 for four weeks this year – hates the apparent contradictions in her character, and punishes her by behaving unpredictably in kind. Judging by how furiously attentive Young's fans are, as her biggest London show vaults from rawness to raucousness, that person is pretty much in a party of one. And Young, 24, owns the chaos. After the Brit School graduate and her six-piece band open with the skeletally funky Good Books, she dissipates the energy by performing a poem apparently just written backstage, which refers to her between-song chat: 'The talking parts are a fucking shambles.' Shambles or not, it's endearing – and she has an obvious aptitude for using specificity and relatability to convey powerful emotions. There's the overwhelming, all-consuming nature of infatuation – to the point of embarrassment – on Crush, as furious drums turn to a whisper and reverberant guitars suddenly clean up, breaking the tension. You Noticed is one of her most moving pieces, recounting her surprise at a new lover's attentiveness after being primed to expect disappointment. Her perspective anchors her grimy south London soul, which incorporates hyperpop on Revolve Around You, here injected with fresh spoken-word energy; and punk on the high-energy Big Brown Eyes. Wish You Were Dead is turbulent and hard-charging. And in a set not short on surprises, Young turns the brazenly soulful What Is It About Me into a spotlit piano ballad for the encore, dialling down the instrumentation and upping the plea in her vocal delivery to a wail. Naturally she closes with Messy, propelled to No 1 after more than seven months as a mainstay on TikTok. Everyone raises their phones into the air to catch a clip. Her powerful vocals – cocksure yet nonchalant, cool yet vulnerable – are among the most versatile of her generation's, suggesting she's far more than just a viral flash in the pan, and making a virtue of her adaptability. Lola Young is on tour in the UK until 27 March
