All posts tagged: Tragic

Mary Berry makes emotional plea to fans after experiencing a tragic loss

Mary Berry makes emotional plea to fans after experiencing a tragic loss

Published by skeptic

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry has made an emotional plea to her fans 35 years after the death of her son in a car accident. Berry, 89, who left The Great British Bake Off in 2016, lost her son William in 1989 when he was just 19, after an ill-fated trip to buy some newspapers. His son had borrowed his father Paul’s car for the trip, with his sister Annabel in the vehicle. Although Annabel escaped without any physical injuries from the accident from the crash, William sadly died. Speaking to the Mail Online, Berry told fans that if they know anyone who is grieving from the loss of a loved one, that a simple chat can be a great healer, especially at Christmas time. “I think I learned when we lost William how important it is to communicate or to talk with …

The Tragic Story of Oscar Wilde’s Niece

The Tragic Story of Oscar Wilde’s Niece

Published by skeptic

  The short period between the two world wars was a remarkable and tragic time that gave birth to equally remarkable and tragic characters who could not possibly emerge in any other era. Dorothy Wilde, known as Dolly, was one of them. She was the niece of the legendary writer Oscar Wilde. She believed that she was his lesbian reincarnation. Dolly inherited not only his looks but his talents as well, however, her self-destructive habits stood in her way.   Dolly Wilde Never Met Her Famous Uncle Oscar Wilde Dolly Wilde. Source: Eleanor Fitzsimons   Growing up with a celebrity in a family can be challenging. It is especially challenging, however, if your family member is a figure as intensively mythologized as Oscar Wilde, and you grow up with a face strikingly similar to that of him. Dorothy Wilde, known to friends as Dolly, was born three months after her famous uncle was imprisoned for homosexuality. Dolly never met him but grew up in his shadow which she adopted as her own. She was promised …

In ‘Separated,’ a Tragic Trump Policy Meets One of America’s Toughest Filmmakers

In ‘Separated,’ a Tragic Trump Policy Meets One of America’s Toughest Filmmakers

Published by Sam

Errol Morris has made documentaries about some of the most consequential figures of American politics, from Robert S. McNamara (The Fog of War) to Donald Rumsfeld (The Unknown Known) to, more recently, Steve Bannon (American Dharma). He’s taken on global conflicts, biological warfare, and the horrific images and stories to come out of Abu Ghraib. But hearing the Oscar-winning filmmaker talk about his new movie, Separated (premiering Thursday at the Venice International Film Festival), one senses a particular emotional investment in the material. “It’s hard for me not to believe that these policies were motivated by meanness,” he says of the subject covered by the film. “There’s no pragmatic element in it at all.” Separated examines the origins, impact, and aftermath of the family separation policy instituted during Donald Trump’s presidency. To execute this extreme measure of immigration border control, as Morris explains, “parents were forced to betray their children.” The film—a coproduction between NBC News Studios, Participant, Fourth Floor, and Moxie Pictures—presents interviews with figures intimately involved with the policy, both those who regret …

Sherwood star Monica Dolan’s private life: from tragic family loss to love life

Sherwood star Monica Dolan’s private life: from tragic family loss to love life

Published by skeptic

The BBC’s critically acclaimed drama Sherwood returns to our screens on Sunday night with its highly-anticipated second season about a Nottinghamshire town divided by tensions caused by the 1980s miners’ strike.  Season two introduces a fresh batch of characters as two new families find themselves intertwined with the infamous Sparrows, a local crime clan who were at the centre of season one’s investigation into Gary Jackson’s murder.  BAFTA-winning actress Monica Dolan has joined the cast as crime family matriarch, Ann Branson. While viewers will recognise the 55-year-old for her roles in W1A, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, and Black Mirror, how much do you know about her life away from the cameras? Keep reading for all we know… WATCH: Will you be watching Sherwood season 2? Monica’s childhood and tragic family loss Monica was born in Middlesbrough to Irish parents. While her mum, from Enniscorthy, studied botany and biochemistry before becoming a research worker and then a teacher, her father was a chemical engineer from Dublin.  While Monica didn’t follow in her parents’ footsteps …

The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror | Television & radio

The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror | Television & radio

Published by skeptic

The day before it happened was the last good day of John Balson’s life. It was Sunday 17 March 2024. He took his three-year-old daughter swimming, then came home and cooked lunch with his family. He drank some wine and played video games for a while, but it was hard to concentrate. Balson was tired. The 40-year-old freelance TV producer had been working long hours on a new series of In the Footsteps of Killers, a true crime series hosted by the criminologist Prof David Wilson and the Silent Witness actor Emilia Fox, commissioned by Channel 4 from the production company Alaska TV. It was an investigation into an unsolved murder linked to an alleged paedophile ring in London in the 1990s. From the start, the project had been challenging. The family of the victim weren’t on board. Sources close to the case warned Balson off looking into it. He told his family that he had received threats. Then there was the commute when he worked from the office a few days a week: a …

‘It breaks an employer’s control’: the tragic disappearance of the American lunch hour | Life and style

‘It breaks an employer’s control’: the tragic disappearance of the American lunch hour | Life and style

Published by skeptic

“The lunch rush is dead,” an NBC News headline announced this week. Blame it on working from home, tighter budgets, inflation or all of the above: transaction data pulled by the digital-payments app Square found that midday food spending was down 3.3% nationwide last year compared with 2019. The decrease was steeper in some cities, including Boston, Atlanta and Dallas. While a full obit for the humble lunch break might be premature, a recent report from the University of Toronto backed up the hypothesis that Americans want to spend more on weekend luxuries than a lunch bill. The study found that foot traffic in major US cities remains low on workdays, but higher during the weekend. “That’s been the largest transformation in the last four or five years – the consumer habits of office workers,” Ara Kharazian, research lead at Square, told NBC News. “But that money has gone somewhere else. We’re seeing consumers instead spend money on the weekends.” A perfect storm of rising meal expenses and shrinking break times is interfering with people’s …

‘Gissa job!’ How Bernard Hill created one of TV’s most tragic and unforgettable characters | Television

‘Gissa job!’ How Bernard Hill created one of TV’s most tragic and unforgettable characters | Television

Published by skeptic

Some time in 1980, on the first sheet of a script that would eventually run to 221 pages, Alan Bleasdale typed the line: We see Yosser with his three children. He is leaning forward. When the jobcentre clerk explains he is “afraid” he can’t do anything, the pale-faced, dark-moustached man snaps: “Afraid? Y’ll be terrified in a minute. [Leans in.] Now sort me soddin’ Giro check out before I knock y’into the disability department.” Anyone who has watched Boys from the Blackstuff immediately hears the mellifluously menacing voice of Bernard Hill and sees the tall broad frame that was often angled forward. Bleasdale’s frequent specification that Yosser was “leaning in” warned that the unemployed road layer was about to head-butt a person, wall or church, as he indelibly did in scenes from the series. That Hill, who died yesterday aged 79, was able to turn this dialogue and action into one of the most memorable characters in British TV history was due to his strong face and acting brain, but also the two layers of …

Monty Don’s fascinating family history: from long-standing feud to tragic drowning

Monty Don’s fascinating family history: from long-standing feud to tragic drowning

Published by skeptic

Monty Don is a household name across the nation thanks to his role on the beloved BBC show Gardeners’ World. The green-fingered presenter has been on our screens for decades, sharing his top gardening hints and tricks with viewers since 2003.  While Monty has been very open about his personal life over the years, including his health struggles, did you know that he has a fascinating family history? From longstanding feuds to his family’s connection to the marmalade dynasty, find out all about Monty’s past here… WATCH: Look back at Monty Don’s life and career Monty Don’s links to the invention of marmalade Back in 2010, Monty took part in the popular BBC documentary series, Who Do You Think You Are?, where he discovered that his Scottish ancestors invented marmalade.  The horticulturist’s great great great great grandmother Janet Keiller created the orange preserve at the end of the 18th century.  © Derry MooreMonty Don has a fascinating family history While marmalade had already existed in a jellied form, Janet’s inclusion of the rind and the …

Is it possible to holiday in your hometown following tragic personal experiences? I decided to see if I could finally overcome the past in Cornwall

Is it possible to holiday in your hometown following tragic personal experiences? I decided to see if I could finally overcome the past in Cornwall

Published by skeptic

I am sitting cross-legged in front of the TV in my creased school uniform in our home in St.Austell, Cornwall. I know something ominous is happening as I watch the morning news and a multitude of tanks are racing across the Kuwaiti desert. My cereal is getting soggy and I can hear my mother’s shrill tones in her panicked calls to relatives. This is always how I remember 1991. My father was working in Kuwait and would shortly become one of Saddam Hussein’s ‘guestages’ at a petrochemical facility in Basra.  There is of course a great deal more to this story, suffice it to say my father was eventually safely returned to us, but was understandably changed after his ordeal. My childhood was badly tarnished due to the fallout that followed and when I received a place at university, I didn’t glance behind me as I departed Cornwall in relief. Looking out to sea by Charlestown Harbour A Cornish Childhood I was always considered fortunate by my city-dwelling friends to have spent my younger years …