Latest news with #skydive
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Britain's Got Talent magician Harry Moulding's win a 'dream come true'
A magician who has been crowned Britain's Got Talent winner after including a skydive in his final act has said it is "a dream come true" to come out on top. Harry Moulding from Blackpool won the public vote on Saturday after showing his card trick that included jumping out of a 24-year-old admitted he was "terrified of heights" and "I couldn't think of anything crazier" than sky diving during the magic said he "can't wait" to perform in front of King Charles at the Royal Variety Performance and he hoped to involve him when he takes to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in November. He said the King was also a member of the Magic Circle, a British society for magicians, adding: "I'd absolutely love the opportunity to create some magic with him."Moulding, who is from Blackpool which he called "an entertainment capital", also won a cash prize of £250,000 which he described as "surreal" and "life-changing"He told BBC Radio Lancashire it had been a "whirlwind" since he was named the 2025 Britain's Got Talent winner in the Hammersmith Apollo in said he had had "no expectations" of winning and had just focussed on his magic tricks. 'So grateful' "I just wanted to go there and enjoy every moment and just do my best," he said. "All my focus was put into making the act as big as possible and try and make it the best performance of my life."He said he was "so grateful to everyone who got behind me and believed in me" and he was "overwhelmed with the support and positivity." "I could never imagine I would be in this position - it really is a dream come true," he his semi-final show Moulding was fast-tracked into the final after guest judge KSI pressed the golden buzzer for his show-stopping performance which ended with an audience member proposing to his well as his win, Moulding is looking forward to celebrating Harry and Jess's wedding."They have sent me an invite. That is the best result ever." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Britain's Got Talent 2025 voting percentages revealed as Harry Moulding wins by a landslide
BRITAIN'S Got Talent 2025 voting percentages have been revealed, and Harry Moulding won by a landslide. Revealing the results backwards live on stage, Ant and Dec declared magician Harry Moulding as the winning performance. 6 6 6 After beating 10 other finalists to take home the victory, Harry bagged himself £250,000 and a spot on the bill at the Royal Variety Performance. As part of his routine, he jumped out of a plane and completed a skydive while correctly guessing the cards of the judges, who were left mystified. And it would turn out that Harry won by an impressive lead, as the voting percentages were revealed. Harry won with 27.1% of the vote, which was a significant lead on the Blackouts behind him, with 15.1%. Then in third place was Binita with 13.2%, followed by Olly Pearson with 10.4%, Joseph Charm with 9.3% and Jasmine Rice with 9.1%. Hear Our Voice had 7%, Vinnie McKee 4.7%, Han & Fran 3.6%, Ping Pong Pang 3.1%, and finally Stacey Leadbeatter with 2.8%. The magician, who has been part of the illustrious Magic Circle since he was a youth, left Ranvir Singh gobsmacked today, as he wowed her with an "absolutely ridiculous" card trick live on-air. Good Morning Britain anchor Ranvir, 47, was standing in for regular host Lorraine Kelly, 65, and told how Harry was a "good old Northerner, a Lancashire lad," before she added: "You always had my vote." As his interview wrapped, he pulled out a pack of cards to challenge Ranvir. Ranvir Singh left gobsmacked as BGT winner Harry Moulding wows her with 'absolutely ridiculous' card trick on Lorraine He asked her to pull a card from the pack and show the camera, where she revealed it was the 10 of clubs. Harry didn't look at the card but asked her: "All good, are you happy? "Just say stop in it goes," before she inserted it back into the pack which he shuffled slowly, at Ranvir's request. To her shock he then pulled out the 10 of clubs and confessed: "No, most magicians wouldn't show you the moment this happens but I will. BGT FINAL 2025 VOTING PERCENTAGES Britain's Got Talent 2025 voting percentages have been revealed, and Harry Moulding won by a landslide. Harry Moulding -21.7% The Blackouts - 15.1% Binita -13.2% Olly Pearson - 10.4% Joseph Charm - 9.3% Jasmine Rice - 9.1% Hear Our Voice - 7.0% Vinnie McKee - 4.7% Han & Fran - 3.6% Ping Pong Pang - 3.1% Stacey Leadbeatter - 2.8% "If you watch that 10, we will bring it really close, I'm going to let you do this. "Can you push it in [the pack] yourself?" After a click of his fingers, Harry said "look at me," and Ranvir let out an audible gasp. The ITV favourite said: "What did you just do there?" as he replied: "It jumped all the way here." She could then be seen clapping as she said: "That is absolutely ridiculous well done." 6 6 6
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Skydive to fund domestic violence refuges in the Black Country
The boss of a Birmingham-based IT firm is jumping out of an aircraft to help a local charity build 10 safe houses for families fleeing domestic Bayliss, CEO of Hubtel IT, is doing a skydive in support of Black Country Women's Aid's The Key to a New Life comes after the charity said it was forced to turn away over two thirds of requests for refuge last year, although those people were offered other support. Mr Bayliss, 47, will take to the sky from 14,000 feet at Langar Airfield in Nottingham on 21 June, joined by 10 staff members from the charity and two colleagues from Hubtel - Julian Brettle and Mike Leach. The CEO of Hubtel, which provides cyber-security services for the charity, said: "The terror I feel when I think about doing this is brought into sharp perspective by the reason we're doing it. "Domestic abuse affects so many people, and unlike our skydive, it takes place behind closed doors when no-one else is looking."Black Country Women's Aid's work to highlight it and help victims is critical. Leaping from a plane is the least we can do to support them."Sara Ward, CEO of the charity, said: "When Black Country Women's Aid was first established nearly 40 years ago, it was with a refuge. "Since then, our services have grown to meet local people's needs, but refuge remains at the heart of what we do."These new flats will provide safe and secure spaces from where families can heal together and rebuild their lives." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- News.com.au
Experienced skydiver dumped by boyfriend night before jumping to her death
The experienced UK skydiver thought to have deliberately jumped to her death last month had been dumped by her boyfriend the night before, according to a new report. Jade Damarell — who had more than 400 successful jumps — was killed instantly during her last skydive on April 27 as she crashed into a farmer's field in County Durham in northeast England. Damarell, 32, was dumped by fellow skydiver Ben Goodfellow, 26, just a day before the fatal jump, the Daily Mail reported. 'The two of them were inseparable,' an anonymous friend told the Daily Mail of the pair, who dated for around eight months. 'They spent all their time together, they didn't really engage with anyone else. They did skydives together all the time.' 'The night before Jade died, Ben called off the relationship,' the friend added. 'He went to work the next day, and that's when Jade fell to her death,' the friend said. The couple had lived together in a double room at a property rented out to parachutists near the airfield for several months, according to the outlet. Goodfellow was also a technician at Nissan and the lead guitarist and vocalist for indie band Post Rome, which cancelled a gig shortly after Damarell's death due to 'unseen circumstances,' the outlet said. Police said Damarell's death is 'not being treated as suspicious' — and the company she jumped with said that 'all indications from the police and British Skydiving are that this was a deliberate act taken to end her own life.' A friend previously told the Daily Mail that 'everyone is devastated and deeply traumatised' by the 32-year-old's death because 'she was very much part of the skydiving community'. 'She was mad for the sport,' the unidentified friend said. 'In just the two days before she died, she did 11 jumps. She must have done 80 this year.' At least one person witnessed Damarell jump to her death, according to the outlet. The local police department, the Durham Constabulary, said: 'Her death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will now be prepared for the coroner.'
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Why I jumped out of an aeroplane with a Duchess and public school headmaster
I blame the wine. I was sharing a bottle on a beautiful summer's day last year with my old friend, Francesca (Chica), Duchess of Norfolk, when she suggested we do a charity sky dive. The rosé was chilled, the food delicious and May 2025 seemed a long way off. So I agreed. The speed at which the plan came about was amazing. Chica had walked her dog only that morning with a neighbour, Linda Woodhouse, who had suggested the whole mad scheme. Come lunchtime the three of us had committed to jump. As the months to take off ebbed away, I was mostly quite blithe about the prospect. Every so often, however, the absurd, daunting reality of it poked its nose into my thoughts. Chica confessed she was scared not of the jump but the landing and the prospect that she'd 'break both ankles'. But having just become patron to The Sussex Snowdrop Trust, which supports children with life-threatening illnesses, the potential to fundraise overcame her reticence. Neither athletes nor dare devils, we are three women of the same certain 60-ish age. And there are easier ways to raise cash, so why skydive? Two of our husbands thought we were mad, but I call it the 'if not now, then when?' spirit. As my old Fleet Street boss used to say: 'Do it darling, you're a long time dead.' We were not entirely strangers to the skies. Chica had recently been up in a Spitfire – an imaginative Christmas present from her husband. Linda had already skydived, in a cool pink flying suit for a breast cancer charity, and I had swooped around above Lake Annecy, in France, a few years before, knuckles rather white, harnessed to a flimsy Para-Pente frame and parachute. Then there is the fact that two of us, now healthy, have had cancer and appreciate the power of publicising and fundraising for charity – and this charity is truly terrific. The Snowdrop Trust sends nurses to care for very sick and terminally ill children in their own homes, and teaches parents how to treat their children too. It also offers financial assistance to parents who care for their child. The testimonies of families involved are, inevitably, very moving. So the nature of the cause, combined with the fact that we are too old to worry about making fools of ourselves but too young to give in yet to the sedate pursuits of retirement, proved irresistible. We booked a pub near the airfield in Old Sarum, Salisbury, the night before the jump, where we, including husbands, all had dinner together. Preparations were non-existent. I had a totally irrelevant pedicure, Chica decided if she could jump out of an aircraft she could add to an already exhilarating couple of days by entering her horse in an event the same weekend, and Linda had, coincidentally, just finished a three-day fast. Neither Chica nor I had quite the right gear though. In my case this was not unexpected: I'm still remembered for scaling a mountain in China in the late Eighties wearing kitten heels. My unworn tracksuit bottoms were unearthed, along with pristine white trainers, but as we wore enormous Ghostbuster -style jumpsuits over all of it our efforts were largely irrelevant. Thankfully, the day of the jump itself was glorious: sunny, clear and the wind 15 knots. During our induction we met the group of four we'd be jumping with. This turned out to be the headmaster of Charterhouse School, with two teenage pupils who had suggested a skydive for The Fountain Centre, a charity which supports cancer patients. As their fourth team member, a housemistress at the school, said: 'Once the girls had asked him, it was pretty much impossible for him to say no.' Briefing was well-organised and tightly managed. There's not much time to think about chickening out. You are weighed, given a jumpsuit and a harness, practice some of the jump positions and moved onto the airfield. You only meet your tandem jumper then. Mine was George, a cheery South African who had done 12,000 skydives. We were packed into the plane, sitting between each other's legs. Sitting on the floor at the door of the plane before pushing out at 10,000ft is, as Chica put it, 'insane'. It's an utterly counterintuitive moment as your brain says: 'This is so wrong'. But by then it's too late, and with a leaping heart you fall gasping into the freezing, rushing air for the freefall at 125mph, strapped to a man you have met only minutes before. Then the parachute opens and there is almost instant silence. I saw Salisbury Cathedral gleaming in the distant sunlight and kept wittering on about how beautiful it all was. I think it must have been worse for Chica, waiting and watching as we pushed off into oblivion. 'I saw Linda being plucked from the plane just in front of me and reality hit,' she says. Shuffling to the edge with Hink, her Dutch instructor, she shouted 'Holy moly. Let's get this done' only to be told: 'Not yet!' Finally she was bundled out. 'The first five seconds were utterly horrendous, a sensory overload, disorientation and a roar of the air,' she says. 'Then I started to enjoy the freefall. When the parachute opened, joyous peace.' Apart, she confesses now, from a great deal of swearing. Linda too contrasted the 'terrifying' freefall to the 'surreal stillness and calm' of the descent once the parachute opened. We all landed bottoms down – laughing, then staggering about. There was a huddle of husbands and dogs at the side of the airfield looking touchingly relieved at our safe return. Chica asked the headmaster how he felt: 'I'm still processing it,' he said thoughtfully, as we three capered about, giggling, high-fiving and hugging in a mixture of pride and relief. And although I'm glad it's over, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Chica, though, is of a different mind: 'Would I do it again? Absolutely not.' She is thinking about abseiling though. When I told Maureen, my 95-year-old mother-in-law, that I was jumping from a plane at 10,000 feet, she said she wished she could come with us. The power of a charity challenge is compelling, whatever a woman's age. It's amazing what can come out of a dog walk with a friend.
