Latest news with #WitchcraftAct
Scottish Sun
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Nicola Sturgeon to chair event on witches at brand new Scottish festival
She'll be joined by a famous friend for the event WITCH OUT Nicola Sturgeon to chair event on witches at brand new Scottish festival Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NICOLA Sturgeon will be hoping to leave her audience spellbound as she chairs an event on WITCHES next month. The former First Minister will explore Scotland's witch trials, described as one of the darkest chapters in the country's history, at the first-ever Dundee Book Festival. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Sign up 3 Her author pal Val McDermid will open the festival with her band Credit: PA 3 Witches being hanged during the witchcraft trials of 1661 Credit: Alamy She will attend the event with pal Val McDermid - who will open the festival with her band of crime authors The Fun Lovin' Crime Writers. The ex-SNP leader will chair the headline witches show on Saturday evening on June 14. Ms Sturgeon will be joined on stage by Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi who are the founders of Witches of Scotland campaign. It comes after a campaign was launched five years ago to get a legal pardon for the estimated 2,500 people - the vast majority of them women - who were executed under Scotland's Witchcraft Act between the 16th and 18th Centuries. In 2022, when she was First Minister at the time, Ms Sturgeon marked International Women's Day by apologising for the thousands of women executed or convicted of being witches in Scotland hundreds of years ago. She insisted it was important to acknowledge that "injustice on a colossal scale" had taken place which she said was driven "at least in part" by misogyny. The law was was in force from 1563 until 1736 - a period when witch hunts took place in many countries. However, academics reckon Scotland's execution rate was five times the European average. Under the brutal regime, confessions were secured under torture and "witches" were strangled and their body burnt. Opening a Holyrood debate on IWD at the time, Ms Sturgeon said: "At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a court room, they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable, or in many cases just because they were women." Inside 'Cave of the Devil' with 'blood-smeared walls where witches cast spells' The former First Minister has even been branded a witch herself in previous years. During the pandemic, a cheeky five-year-old went viral when she called Ms Sturgeon a "wee witch" after coronavirus restrictions ruined her sleepover plans. Youngster Freya was left gutted after house visits were banned in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire. It meant the schoolgirl was unable to go to her friend Ceci's house for her first ever sleepover. In the video, Freya said: "Nicola Sturgeon, how dare you. "I could go to my friend Ceci's party. I've got a sleepover at Ceci's at the weekend and I'm going to it. "I'm not cancelling. Wee witch." The Dundee Book Festival will run from Thursday, June 12 until Sunday, June 15 in a number of different venues across the city.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Bruce Parry is back – and he's taking ayahuasca in the Amazon
9pm, BBC Two It has been 20 years since Bruce Parry first lived with tribes around the world. After a decade away from the screen, now feels like a crucial time for him to continue showing the lives of Indigenous people who have a deep connection with the world. He starts in the Amazon, where the Waimaha are at first sceptical ('We have a pretty bad reputation, to be honest'); Parry must win their trust to take part in the ayahuasca ritual. Hollie Richardson 9pm, BBC One The Liverpool crime drama starring Sean Bean maintains the tension, even while the Phelan drug clan lounge poolside at their luxury villa. It's a succession struggle between Ronnie's (Bean) lieutenants, his son Jamie and gang member Michael. But don't count out Michael's fiance Diana – she can stir up more than just a frozen margarita. Ellen E Jones 9pm, ITV1 We know that DCI Liz Nyles isn't bent, not least because she's played with heroic forbearance by the ace Siobhan Finneran. But some dubious behaviour – such as tampering with evidence – is coming back to haunt her as the knotty witness protection drama enters its endgame. Concludes Monday. Graeme Virtue 9pm, BBC Three A double-bill finale for Sian Eleri's investigation into the case of Helen Duncan, the last British person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act in 1944. What does the explosion of the HMS Barham warship, which killed 861 people, have to do with her? It continues to be about more than just the supernatural. HR 10pm, Channel 4 A dynamic new drama about members of a Leeds dance school – the Chapeltown Collective – and their coming-of-age stories. It starts with best mates Puppy (Princess Nelia Mubaiwa) and Koby (Demarkus Marks), who need to battle it out for a shiny scholarship – will it come between them? HR 10.20pm, ITV1 Filmed across 2024, this documentary offers an insight into the endless battle of attrition taking place on the West Bank. The territory belongs to Palestine, where Israeli settlements are illegal under international law – but that doesn't stop them from happening. This film hears from both sides in an apparently implacable conflict. Phil Harrison I'll Be Right There, 11.35am, 7.15pm, Sky Cinema Premiere Wanda (Edie Falco) is a giver in a family of takers – from her heavily pregnant daughter and recovering addict son to a secret lover who's only in it for the sex. She could just be an annoying doormat of a character, but in the estimable Falco's hands she is an engagingly flawed woman who relies on being wanted to give meaning to her life. There aren't many rough edges in Brendan Walsh's middle America drama, but it's finely acted and completely relatable. Simon Wardell Letter to Brezhnev, 11.35pm, BBC Two Chris Bernard's Liverpool-set romance was one of a string of features funded by Channel 4 in the 1980s that revitalised the moribund British film industry. Like much of the broadcaster's early content, it's sparky, politically edged fare, following two young women – jobless Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) and chicken factory worker/force of nature Teresa (Margi Clarke, sister of the film's writer Frank) – on a night out in the city. They meet two Russian sailors, and while Teresa gets off with Alfred Molina's Sergei, Elaine falls heavily for Peter (Peter Firth). But love and cold war realities soon collide. SW FA Cup Football: Preston v Aston Villa, 1.15pm, BBC One Followed by Bournemouth v Man City at 3.45pm on ITV1. Women's Super League Football: Leicester v Tottenham, 1.15pm, Sky Sports Main Event Chelsea v West Ham is at 4pm.
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Sean Bean's gritty drug gang drama set in Liverpool
9pm, BBC One A gritty new crime drama about a Liverpool drug gang, and what happens when the patriarch Ronnie, played by Sean Bean, plans to step down at a tumultuous time. Michael (James Nelson-Joyce, also currently starring in A Thousand Blows) is the natural successor, but he is trying to start a family and keep them safe, while Ronnie's son Jamie (Jack McMullen) is causing problems with plans of his own – which don't include Michael. Hollie Richardson 7.40pm, Channel 4 New judge Caroline Waldegrave flanks bristly veteran Paul Hollywood, as another eclectic batch of famous faces put their skills making cakes and biscuits on the line. Broadcaster Roman Kemp, comedian Amelia Dimoldenberg, actor Maxine Peake and presenter Sarah Beeny face challenges beginning with next-level cupcakes. Jack Seale 8pm, BBC One Annie (Faye Marsay) tests out the new freedoms that women are apparently afforded in Australia by venturing into a pub to order a drink. But Maggie (Maya Stange) is already confidently asserting her authority over the men she encounters. These include Ron Mahoney (Rob Collins), who reveals some money-making plans for the beach hut. Ellen E Jones 9pm, BBC Two A chunky documentary taking a deep dive into the life of the scouse comedy legend. Ken Dodd was seemingly a fairly serious man who brought high intelligence to bear on the business of laughter – his success and the quality of testimonials to his brilliance (Paul McCartney, Harry Hill, Peter Kay) are testament to that. Phil Harrison 9pm, ITV1 Siobhan Finneran's propulsive witness protection-gone-wrong thriller continues. DCI Liz Nyles (Finneran) secretly digs deeper into the conspiracy behind the shooting of a family she was protecting (as well as her lover) – and she unearths some disturbing truths. HR 9pm, BBC Three A goose-pimply investigation into Helen 'Hellish Nell' Duncan who, in 1944, was the last British person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act. Sian Eleri is open-minded but scrupulous as she starts in her birthplace of Callander, Scotland, where Helen predicted the death of a local doctor. HR The Prestige, 10.30pm, BBC One In between his first two Batmans, Christopher Nolan conjured up this tantalising Victorian-era mystery, adapted from Christopher Priest's novel. It tracks the rivalry between two magicians in London – the great showman Angier (Hugh Jackman) and the more talented but less crowd-pleasing Borden (Christian Bale). There are secrets aplenty to be uncovered as Angier tries to figure out how Borden's astounding trick the Transported Man is done (including a visit to inventor Nikola Tesla – a nice cameo from David Bowie) in a wonderfully twisty tale. Simon Wardell Boxcar Bertha, 11.05pm, Sky Arts Producer Roger Corman gave a leg up to many future stars of the movie business, including Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. In 1972, he funded Martin Scorsese's atypical second feature, a caper set in the deep south during the Great Depression about the adventures of crop-dusting pilot's daughter Bertha (Barbara Hershey). While riding the trains, she joins up with a union man (David Carradine), her dad's mechanic (Bernie Casey) and Barry Primus's Yankee card sharp on a spree of bank robberies. A freewheeling yarn – violent, scrappy and sexy. SW Man City v Chelsea, 2pm, BBC One Aston Villa v Man United is at 4pm on Sky Sports Main Event. Nations League Football: Scotland v Greece, 4.55pm, BBC Two The second leg of the promotion/relegation play-off.
Euronews
26-02-2025
- Euronews
A living memorial: Witches of Scotland tartan honours the victims of witch hunts
Tartan is more than patterned cloth in Scotland. Specific tartans were linked to clans and regions, and the designs carry symbolic meaning. Modern tartans are registered for organisations, individuals, and commemorative purposes in the official Scottish Register of Tartans and the newest entry is special. The new Witches of Scotland tartan is a memorial for the people - primarily women - falsely persecuted under Scotland's Witchcraft Act which was in place between 1563 and 1736. The decree defined witchcraft as a crime and resulted in the executions and burnings of thousands. The new tartan, registered on 11 February, is part of a campaign to bring attention to these unjustified executions across Scotland and to remind people of historical injustices that stemmed from the desire to subjugate women, stigmatize folk medicine and persecute those who practiced midwifery. The Scottish Register of Tartans states: "This design was created to memorialise those who suffered as a result of The Witchcraft Act 1563 to 1736 in Scotland. This tartan will be woven to make products to help create a 'living memorial'." According to The Wild Hunt, the tartan was desined by Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill. The Witches of Scotland tartan is predominantly black, grey and red – colours which represent the dark chapter of history, as well as its bloody outcome. Grey symbolises ash, pink stands for the legal tapes binding trial documents, while red stands for bloodshed. The thread count encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and 1+7+3+6 = 17), with these numbers woven into black and grey bands surrounding a white check of three threads, symbolizing the campaign's three objectives. These are securing 1) a legal pardon; 2) a formal apology; 3) national memorials for those convicted and executed. The 173 threads in the tartan's squares symbolise the number of years the Witchcraft Act was enforced. Founded in 2020 by Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi, Witches of Scotland has campaigned for justice. In 2022, on International Women's Day, then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged the historic injustice and issued a formal apology. "Firstly, acknowledging injustice, no matter how historic is important,' said Sturgeon at the time. 'This parliament has issued, rightly so, formal apologies and pardons for the more recent historic injustices suffered by gay men and by miners.' "Second, for some, this is not yet historic. There are parts of our world where even today, women and girls face persecution and sometimes death because they have been accused of witchcraft.' She continued: 'And thirdly, fundamentally, while here in Scotland the Witchcraft Act may have been consigned to history a long time ago, the deep misogyny that motivated it has not. We live with that still. Today it expresses itself not in claims of witchcraft, but in everyday harassment, online rape threats and sexual violence.' Despite Sturgeon's acknowledgment, no official pardon has yet been granted.
