The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has called in a rejected planning application for a multimillion-pound film studio development in what is being closely watched as a test of Labour’s appetite to prioritise economic growth in the creative industries.

A proposed £750m development at Marlow Film Studios that would have created 4,000 jobs was turned down by Buckinghamshire council in May, citing concerns about the impact on the road network and use of the green belt.

The project has received high-profile backing from film-makers including 1917 director, Sam Mendes, and James Cameron, the Hollywood director of Titanic and Avatar. The site would have 44,000 sq metres (470,000 sq ft) of new soundstages.

The developers lodged an appeal but now Rayner, as secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, has called in the planning decision. Ministers will now ultimately determine whether the studio development is approved. Rayner has spoken about the need to unblock and overhaul the planning system in the green belt.

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said the Labour government views the creative industries as a key part of the economy, generating £125bn a year. This week she confirmed that the independent film tax credit scheme giving tax relief to independent film productions would go ahead.

Marlow Film Studio welcomed Rayner’s decision. “This is a project of national importance. The UK’s film and TV industry leads the world,” it said.

A second film studio development planned for the green belt is also mired in the planning system.

Holyport Studios, a £100m scheme proposed by Greystoke Land, would provide 20,900 sq metres of soundstage space, divided between 15 stages, along with a 1.1-hectare (2.9-acre) backlot, a virtual reality and games facility, and would create an estimated 350 direct on-site jobs when in full operation, as well as an estimated 1,400 jobs for the local area, according to the developer.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead refused the development in March, but Greystoke has appealed, and the independent Planning Inspectorate, which deals with applications and appeals in England, is due to hold an inquiry into the plans next month.

The concil refused Greystoke’s application in March, claiming the development would be inappropriate for the green belt and would harm the character of the area.

Sources close to both schemes expressed hope that the political backdrop has improved given the Labour government’s commitment to reform the planning system and statements about the importance of the film and TV industry. In a speech earlier this year to Labour creatives, Keir Starmer said: “What we make and produce is known and loved in every corner of the globe.”

Film studio space in the UK has doubled in the past three years from 297,000 sq metres in 2019, to 492,000 sq metres in 2022-23, according to UK government figures that suggest at the current rate of expansion Britain will be second only to Hollywood globally by the end of 2025.

Under the appeals process, the Planning Inspectorate can conduct an inquiry (or hearings) and the secretary of state has the power to determine an appeal or recover an appeal at any stage until the planning inspector has issued their decision. Any further appeal would then be through a judicial review application to the high court.

In theory, the secretary of state can call in a planning application for any reason, but in practice very few applications are called in each year. Between 2010-2011 and 2022-2023, the secretary of state called in 198 planning applications.

Cases that qualify include those that may conflict with national policy or those that could have significant effects beyond their immediate locality. Each case is considered on its individual merits.

Sam Kershaw of campaign group Save Marlow’s Greenbelt is opposed to the proposed studio. “We expect the forthcoming planning inquiry to reveal that the economic benefits would be negligible and we hope that Angela Rayner will then decide that this is not a good use of green belt land as it will do nothing to generate growth or fix the housing crisis,” he said.

He said he feared that the studio’s backers had been lobbying the government to approve their appeal in the hope that proposed changes to the green belt regulations would work in their favour.

Planning consents for new film studios increased by 45% between 2018 and 2021, while applications were up by 35%, according to a 2022 report by the property consultancy Knight Frank. However, demand has been hit by last year’s Hollywood strikes by writers and actors, and there have been suggestions that there may now be too much space.

Peter Strachan, Buckinghamshire council’s cabinet member for planning, said: “We will be robustly defending the decision of the council as the local decision maker to refuse this application in evidence to the appointed inspector at the inquiry and the secretary of state, and will urge them to fully consider the significant local concerns.”

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “[the ministry] has recovered an appeal by Dido Property Ltd for film studios and associated works at Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire. We cannot comment further at this stage.”

A BBC weather forecaster can be seen being talked over while being broadcast in a clip that surfaced online today.

Meteorologist Ben Rich began to explain how the UK will be affected by an upcoming storm before a colleague’s voice could be heard cutting in.

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Gesturing at Stornoway, Ben said: “Towards the north of the UK, things here will start to feel colder.”

But before he could get any further into the weather forecast, his voice began to be drowned out by the BBC breaking news sound effect.

He continued to indicate how gusts of wind would push rainclouds across the country, but one of his colleagues in the US could be heard speaking at the same time.

Catriona Perry chimed in saying: “I’m in Washington, and this is BBC World News America.”

She had just started sharing a news bulletin about Israel when sound tech workers in the studio realised the mistake and switched her audio off.

One viewer captured the moment and posted it to social media, writing: “BBC World News America Rehearsal blooper during weather forecast.”

This comes weeks after another mishap on BBC News when a presenter was forced to sprint across the show’s set just seconds before her live broadcast.

Alice Bhandhukravi was heading up Wednesday night’s BBC News at 10 for London when the incident happened.

The seasoned presenter had opened the programme, after taking over from Sophie Raworth who hosted the national bulletin.

However, Alice could be seen running across the studio to her desk as the titles finished rolling.

The newsreader appeared to get her opening position wrong, resulting in the last-minute sprint to her desk.

Catching her breath, Alice remained professional as she brought viewers the evening’s top stories.

BBC News’ Biggest Blunders

The Beeb has suffered a number of gaffes recently, here we take a look at the biggest, and funniest, mishaps to date:

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Kaos, the cult series starring Jeff Goldblum, is the latest show to have been unfairly cancelled by Netflix.

The news was announced on Tuesday (8 October), with lead star Aurora Perrineau paying tribute to the show in a moving post praising showrunner Charlie Covell, her co-stars and the creative team behind the contemporary reimagining of Greek mythology.

Kaos’s cancellation follows a range of Netflix original series that have been prematurely axed. The streamer has often been accused of having a callous attitude towards ending shows, cutting them after one low-performing season where traditional television may have let them continue.

Here are 11 TV shows that Netflix axed far too soon:

Kaos

The future looked bright for Kaos, an expansive contemporary reimagining of Greek mythology from the mind of The End of the F***ing World’s Charlie Covell. The first season felt like a precursor to something even bigger – an ensemble piece that was laying the pieces for what was sure to be an invigorating second season. Netflix’s cancellation of the show, which was met with derision from fans, indicates a frustrating lack of vision from the streaming service.

The Get Down

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Baz Luhrmann creating a Seventies-set musical drama series should have been a surefire hit for Netflix. But while The Get Down – which followed a group of teenagers living in the Bronx during the birth of disco and hip-hop – had a cult following, it wasn’t widely watched. Factor in the reported $120m (£88m) cost to make and it’s not surprising the show was cut – even if it is gutting.

AJ and the Queen

RuPaul’s grip on the reality TV landscape may be strong, but her move into fiction in 2020 didn’t fare as well. She created and starred in this buddy-comedy series about a drag queen and her 10-year-old companion, but while the show featured cameos from Drag Race royalty, it failed to impress fans or critics and was cancelled by Netflix. “End of the road for AJ and The Queen,” Ru tweeted. “Netflix has decided to not extend our trip across America.”

Seven Seconds

Flying fully under Netflix’s radar, Seven Seconds starred Regina King as the mother of a Black teenager who is killed by a white police officer, stoking tensions in the local area. King won an Emmy for the role in 2018, but the show was still cut by Netflix just two months after it aired. The streaming service said that they hoped the show would be viewed in the future as a standalone series.

Everything Sucks!

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An underrated gem of a Netflix show, Nineties high-school comedy Everything Sucks! only got one season in 2018 before it was swiftly cancelled. Still, the show now gets major props for casting girl-of-the-mo’ Sydney Sweeney before she was a star in Euphoria and The White Lotus.

I Am Not Okay With This

There was more than a hint of The End of the F***ing World to this Netflix series, which starred Sophie Lillis as a teenager who learns she has super powers. I Am Not Okay With This was well received by critics and had a strong young fanbase when it dropped in 2020, but ended up being one of the many shock television casualties of coronavirus. Just six months after season one dropped, Netflix announced that it would not be coming back, citing “circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

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Next in Fashion

Despite having two fashion legends at the helm (Alexa Chung and Queer Eye’s Tan France), Netflix’s take on Project Runway failed to set the reality TV world alight. Next in Fashion received good reviews (the show has an 85 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes), yet Netflix never even bothered to announce that it had been cancelled. In the end, France let slip in an interview that it had ended up being “a one-season show” and wouldn’t be coming back.

Tuca and Bertie

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One of the greatest injustices on this list, even thinking about the cancellation of Tuca and Bertie is still enough to make fans’ blood boil. With links to Bojack Horseman and all-star leads in Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish, the first season was widely praised for both its comedy and its emotive exploration of difficult topics such as sexual assault. Its cancellation naturally prompted an outcry, but was thankfully short lived, as Netflix made the rare choice to let Adult Swim continue the series. Season two aired last summer on the Cartoon Network late-night channel, with a third on its way. Phew.

The Society

Much like I Am Not Okay With This, The Society was another teen-drama casualty of Covid-19. Sources said that the show – billed as a modern take on Lord of the Flies – was pulled due to “uncertainty around production dates and balancing the availability of a large cast” combined with “unexpected budget increases due to Covid”.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

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A follow-up to the 1988 film, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was billed as Netflix’s exciting first collaboration with The Jim Henson Company, but ended up being known as an “expensive disappointment”. The critically acclaimed show, which featured an amazing voice cast led by Taron Egerton and Anya Taylor-Joy, aired in 2019 and was quietly cancelled a year later. Just a week before the show was binned, it had won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programme.

The OA

OK, so The OA ran for two seasons – but judging by a marvellous final scene that threw the scope wide open, it had mileage. Well, not at Netflix, who cancelled the show in 2019. The OA has found itself at the centre of many fan . petitions ever since, calling on Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling to find another way of bringing the show back. Some fans were so dedicated to the cause that they went on hunger strike outside Netflix HQ.