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The creator of the hit Netflix drama Squid Game has admitted he lost “eight or nine” teeth because he was so stressed while making the series.

The South Korean dystopian thriller saw huge success when it debuted in 2021, with Netflix estimating that it was watched by over 142 million households within the first 28 days of release. It sees hundreds of cash-strapped contestants compete in a series of deadly children’s games in an attempt to win a life-changing sum. The second season is set to arrive on Netflix on 26 December this year.

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show’s creator, told the BBC that he had been so consumed with stress while shooting season one that he had lost nine teeth. It had previously been reported he had lost six.

Initially, the director’s experience of the workload meant that he didn’t want to shoot a second series, but the prospect of earning money changed his mind.

“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he said. “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

“And I didn’t fully finish the story,” he added.

Since almost every character was killed off in the last series, the director has to start from the beginning, and create a whole new cast from scratch, as well as a new set of games.

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The show’s fictional previous winner, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), will re-enter the game on a mission to bring it down and save the latest round of contestants.

The second series may also offer viewers some answers to their burning questions, such as what is motivating the masked Front Man who runs the game, and why the game exists.

Last November, the streamer debuted the first season of its spin-off reality game series, Squid Game: The Challenge, which similarly saw 456 money-desperate individuals compete in various children’s games, based on those featured in the show, for a chance to win $4.56m – the biggest jackpot in TV history.

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A week later, The Challenge was renewed for a second season.

Squid Game was not only a massive hit with viewers, but with the Television Academy’s voting body as well.

It became the first non-English language drama series not only to receive several nominations in major categories at the Emmy Awards, including Best Drama, but its star Lee Jung-jae became the first Korean actor to win the Best Actor award.

Hwang also became the first Asian director to win in the Outstanding Drama Series category and the first ever director to win for a non-English language series.

“It took 12 years to bring the first season of Squid Game to life last year,” Hwang wrote on X in 2022. “But it took 12 days for Squid Game to become the most popular Netflix series ever. As the writer, director, and producer of Squid Game, a huge shout out to fans around the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show.”

DANNY Dyer has raised hopes he will reprise his role in the classic club culture film that changed his life – by starring in a sequel to 1999’s controversial movie Human Traffic.

The actor said that making a ‘Human Traffic II’ would be great news for the “old ravers out there”.

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Danny made his film debut playing dealer Moff in the controversial coming-of-age drama.

It followed five friends as they dealt with their relationships and personal demons during a weekend of partying.

Fans of the original have always hoped for a follow-up.

And Justin Kerrigan, the original’s writer and director, said he spent five years in protracted legal arguments about making one before the attempts floundered a few years ago.

One of the producers, Allan Niblo, said a script was written but it was unsuccessful in securing finance.

But now Danny has said: “Who knows, ladies and gentlemen, for you old ravers out there – and I know you’re out there, you old druggies – there might be a Human Traffic II.

“Yeah, ‘99 it came out, and then it did change my life for the better.

“You know, all of a sudden, I could prove that I could be in a film, and I could prove that I could sort of be a semi-lead role.

And I had the best character in it, the most hedonistic.”

Speaking on his podcast ‘Live And Let Dyers’, Danny said even the first film was mired in problems – forcing him to work on building sites to make ends meet during delays.

He added: “It took two years to come out. The reason it took so long is because it was very controversial. It was a film about hedonism and people taking drugs.

“So while I was waiting for that to come out, I had to go back to the temping agency, and I was a lift operator, pushing buttons in a lift.

“I think I’d mentioned to someone ‘This ain’t really my job, I’ve got a film coming out’. And they laughed in my face – ‘Yeah, course you have, mate’

“How f****** wrong was they?”

The film was to launch Danny into an acting career that has lasted 30 years and seen him star in The Football Factory, EastEnders and most recently Rivals.

Talking about Human Traffic, he added: “I went to a premiere and I was like ‘Wow!’ And it did really well. It did really well.

“People really got it, it really captured that last year of the ‘90s, because the ‘90s is such a mad decade anyway, and it really captured that f****** spirit, that energy.

Danny Dyer’s career so far

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By Conor O’Brien

Danny Dyer has played several film and TV roles across a three-decade acting career.

Here’s a look back at some of his most memorable performances.

• Prime Suspect (1993): Danny made his screen debut in an episode of the long-running ITV police procedural. He appeared as a character named “Martin Fletcher”.
• Human Traffic (1999): Danny’s debut film saw him portray “Moff”, a dealer. Directed by Justin Kerrigan, the coming-of-age comedy drama also featured John Simm, Andrew Lincoln and Richard Coyle.
• Mean Machine (2001): An adaptation of The Longest Yard, this sports comedy also featured Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham. Danny played “Billy the Limpet”.
• The Football Factory (2004): Loosely based on the novel of the same name by John King. Danny led the cast of this sports drama, directed by Nick Love. He portrayed “Tommy Johnson”.
• EastEnders (2013-2022): Danny appeared in the London-set BBC soap opera for almost a decade. He played Queen Vic landlord “Mick Carter”, opposite Kellie Bright as his on-screen wife Linda.
• Rivals (2024): The actor was among an all-star ensemble cast in this Disney+ series based on Jilly Cooper’s novel. Danny played the role of “Freddie Jones”.

“I’m really proud of that film, you know?”

Prior to the film, Danny appeared in the third series of Prime Suspect in 1993, but he said he quickly blew a large chunk of that first pay cheque.

He said: “I got £1,500 for that, and I felt so rich, you know? I bought everyone a kebab.

“I remember that, up Prince Regent’s Lane. I bought myself some Nike Air Max, because I’d always had hand-me-downs.”

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Gary Barlow has just arrived in South Africa, ready to fulfil his celebrity national service by embarking on his very own TV travelogue. But first, before he can truly set out on “what promises to be one of [his] greatest tours ever”, the singer must shimmy out of his trainers and into some more comfortable footwear. “I can’t do anything until I’ve got my flip flops on,” he admits cheerily to the camera, his accent still undiluted North West after three decades in showbiz. “The flip flop has landed!” he then exclaims in a stage whisper, holding his hands up to the heavens. 

This early scene from Gary Barlow’s Wine Tour: South Africa, the new ITV daytime show from the Take That star turned royal-approved songwriter turned sometime organic winemaker, feels a bit like watching someone’s affable dad in a family holiday video, albeit one with very high production values. And just like so much of Barlow’s recent output, it also feels destined to become a meme, shared out of context on social media ad infinitum. The same goes for a clip where he pours a cup of tea into a plant pot so that he can swap said beverage for a glass of white wine. Or a moment when he proclaims that he is “having the time” – pause – “and the wine” – second pause, so the rhyme can sink in – “of [his] life”.

Barlow’s accidental reinvention as the king of memes got started in earnest (and earnest does feel like the operative word) earlier this year, when a short clip shared on his Gary Barlow Wines TikTok account ended up enjoying unlikely viral fame on the social media platform. The video in question? It showed the 53-year-old grinning into his phone camera while standing in a vineyard, staying silent for just a beat too long before saying, “This is my idea of a very nice day out,” smiling for a bit longer, then reaching to turn off the recording.

The “holiday dad” vibes were off the chart, only added to by the slight touch of sunburn that Barlow appeared to have acquired on his jaunt. Inevitably, audio of Barlow started appearing on other people’s posts, as they – often ironically – spelled out their own idea of what constitutes a very nice day out. Brands like Ikea and Aldi jumped on the bandwagon. Every other social media video seemed to feature a Barlow jump scare.

And a quick scroll back through Barlow’s TikTok account featured plenty more inadvertent gold. My personal favourite video has long been the one where Barlow raises a glass of red wine aloft and declares “Happy Galentine’s Day everyone!” Why is Barlow celebrating Galentine’s Day, a Parks and Recreation reference that has snowballed into a “live laugh love”-style celebration of female friendship? Because he surely understands that his successful career has been largely built on the support of his female fans. Or because he knows that Galentine’s is a great excuse to shift a few bottles of his latest rosé. Whoever is running the brand’s social media deserves a pay rise (and a few liberally poured glasses of the sauvignon blush).  

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But his next big meme hit, much like the wine, was completely organic. Earlier this month, one X (Twitter) user noticed that the height difference between Barlow and his 24-year-old son Daniel is somewhat pronounced: in one family photo, Daniel towers over his 5ft 7in dad, mum Dawn and younger sister Daisy. Cue endless references to “Gary Barlow’s massive son”, and old photos of Gary himself being repurposed with some very creative captions. A picture of Barlow surrounded by golden confetti became “Gary Barlow standing next to his son eating a croissant”. Another promo shot of Barlow (inexplicably) underwater was reimagined as Barlow “checking the temperature of his son’s bath”. You get the gist. Did the fact that Dan Barlow reportedly stands at 6ft 2in, and is therefore just tall rather than massive, hinder the meme? Not at all. Did social media users lean into the joke so avidly as a way of distracting themselves from the US presidential election? Quite possibly.

So what is it about Barlow that makes him such a walking, talking meme? There has always been something a little bit Alan Partridge about the star, even during his early boyband days, when he acquired a reputation for being a bit self-serious: we see it in archive footage featured in Netflix’s Robbie Williams documentary, when Barlow explains how he keeps all his song lyrics in a special notebook, then marks them with a gold star if they become a success. The voiceover for Wine Tour may only burnish that reputation. At one point, he declares that “this pairing food and wine business seems as easy as pie” over footage of him eating a pie; and in the “next time on…” montage, he promises that episode two will see him “go kayaking with Michaela Strachan” (a concept that has more than a touch of Partridge’s notorious TV pitch for “youth hostelling with Chris Eubank”). 

Barlow’s penchant for deadpan statements is weirdly well suited to the heavily ironised world of social media, where the banal gets taken out of context and repurposed into something ridiculous. And this new life as an inadvertent social media star, being celebrated for being, well, a cheerful and earnest middle-aged man, has arguably done him good. He’s been able to play up to the memes, showing he might be in on the joke: on the opening night of Take That’s most recent tour in April, he declared the event to be, yes, “a very nice day out”. The band have even launched T-shirts bearing the slogan.

In fact, accidentally becoming the straight, male version of a “hun” is arguably the best PR he has had in years. I’m sure Gary would raise a chilled glass of Savvy B to that.

‘Gary Barlow’s Wine Tour: South Africa’ airs 11 November to 15 November at 2pm on ITV1 and ITVX

HEARING her mother’s cries fade from beneath the plane wreckage, 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy knew it was now down to her to keep her younger siblings alive.

Earlier that morning, on May 1 2023, Lesly and her family had boarded a small plane from the southern Amazon town of Araracuara, Colombia.

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It was hoped the flight, heading north to the country’s Guaviare region, would lead Lesly’s family to safety. 

They were fleeing their Amazon hamlet because there were narco crime groups close by.

They had threatened Magdalena’s husband Manuel Ranoque, an indigenous leader with a dubious reputation.

Yet the turn of events that were about to unfold led them into even more danger and heartbreaking tragedy. 

Alongside Lesly on the small Cessna aircraft was her mother Magdalena Mucutuy, nine-year-old sister Soleiny, 11-month-old sister Cristin and four-year-old brother Tien.  

About half an hour into the flight, as the small blue and white plane soared over one of the wettest, densest and remotest areas of the Amazon, its engine failed.

There was a mayday alert to air traffic control. Not long after, radio contact was lost. 

When news of a crash hit the news in Colombia, everyone wanted to know whether the children and their mother had survived it.

The family’s fate would soon become a national obsession.

Lesly’s account of what happened, which formed part of Colombia’s official investigation, is retold in a new Netflix documentary, The Lost Children, via a translator.

“After the accident, I don’t know how long I was unconscious for,” Lesly says. 

“When I woke up there was a lot of blood and I had a large cut on my left side, which was very painful. 

“I could hear my siblings crying and crying. My mother was making noises and she stopped. Maybe if I had woken up earlier, I could have saved her.”

Magdalena’s grieving sister, Yeritza Mucutuy, tells documentary-makers: “I cried so much when I heard the news about my sister, Magdalena, and her children. They were like my children.

“She [Magadalena] was always so cheerful. It was like she didn’t even know what sadness was. She was more like a mother to me. We were very close.”

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Colombian Special Forces were deployed to the region the Cessna had last been traced to. 

Members of the indigenous Huitoto group, more used to the jungle than the military, started their own search.

They combed the forest alongside Magdalena’s husband Manuel Ranoque – biological father to her two youngest children.

The inhospitable jungle terrain was almost impossible to navigate. The rain pelted down 16 hours a day.

There were no roads and the meandering rivers teemed with predators, including piranhas and anacondas. 

I got all the strength I had when I dragged myself on my knees. I did that for the first 20 days. We were lost. I knew that I just had to keep going

Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy

The documentary retraces the mammoth search effort, using real-time footage from Amazon search teams and interviews with key members. 

The hunt was made even more perilous because of the risk searchers would come face-to-face with geurilla fighters, terrorists operating in the area and financed by drug trafficking operations. 

Sign of life

Sixteen days into their search, some of the Huitoto finally had a breakthrough.

They found the mangled Cessna plane, clinging vertically to the thick jungle undergrowth. Plane debris was strewn across the jungle floor. 

When Special Forces were drafted in to identify the bodies they confirmed mother Magdalena, 33, was dead, alongside the pilot and another male passenger.

Yet it soon became clear that the children had miraculously escaped.

Special Forces Captain “Legionario”, tasked with retrieving the bodies, explains: “All of a sudden my sergeant said to me, ‘Captain, I’ve found a baby’s bottle.’ 

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“A bottle in the jungle? Unbelievable. I was shocked. After that, we came across some wild fruit, passionfruit. It had human bite marks on it. As we continued on, we found a refuge [hiding place].”

Searchers also found footprints and, later, even a soiled nappy. 

The children appeared to be alive but for how long and where were they now? 

‘Could barely walk’

As Lesly explains in her account of events, she kicked into survival mode after the crash.

She says: “I pulled my sister out from underneath my mother and I know we couldn’t stay and we had to abandon the plane so we could find more food and find something to drink.”

The country was gripped by news the children had survived. 

Now the search took on a new lease of life, with everyone focused on finding them. 

I got up and decided to leave my sisters and my brother by themselves. I started to walk away to be on my own but after 20 minutes I realised I had to go back

Lesly

The rescue mission was dubbed “Operation Hope”. The Colombian armed forces flew 150 soldiers with dogs to the area to search for the siblings. 

It seemed almost inconceivable that a baby and three children could survive the elements.

Lesly soldiered on. 

She says: “My leg was hurting so much and I could hardly even stand and walk at all. 

“I got all the strength I had when I dragged myself on my knees.

“I did that for the first 20 days. We were lost. I knew that I just had to keep going.

“My biggest worry the whole time was keeping baby Cristin alive. I had to take care of her. I knew that she needed more food than we did.”

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It was skills that Lesly had learned growing up in her Indigenous community that was key to keeping them alive. 

“My mother had taught me about fruits we could eat in the jungle,” she says.

“I made a fishing rod out of what I could find. With the rod, we were able to catch some fish. We ate the fish raw. It tasted horrible.” 

Race against time

Special Forces blasted a phone recording from their grandmother out over megaphones from military helicopters.

The message was simple: “Children please, if you can hear this announcement stay where you are.”

They dispatched more than 10,000 flyers that read: “Stay close to the water. Don’t move.”

“We were trying to follow the voice that we heard but it would fade,” Lesly says. “I would try to get my sisters and brother to sleep each night.

They looked scared as if they wanted to run away from us so I raised my arms… and said ‘family’

Nicolas Ordonez, volunteer rescuer

“I didn’t really sleep. One night in the jungle we almost sat on a snake. I was able to kill it with a stick. 

“My brother became so weak that he could no longer stand on his own anymore. One day I dreamt that they would never find us.

“My heart was beating fast and I struggled so hard to breathe. 

“I got up and decided to leave my sisters and my brother by themselves. I started to walk away to be on my own but after 20 minutes I realised I had to go back. 

“I had to protect my brother and my sisters. Cristin and Tien were both very close to dying.” 

Emaciated but breathing

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Several weeks into the rescue the military called off the search. 

The search area had narrowed but so had the hopes the children had survived.

The indigenous volunteers prepared rituals and prayed for some divine intervention.

Finally, those prayers were answered – 40 days in, a small group of indigenous volunteers, finally found the children.

Traipsing through the unforgiving terrain, volunteer Nicolas Ordonez, was the first to greet them.

He says: “I lifted up my head to see where the companions were and then I saw the kids.

“They looked scared as if they wanted to run away from us so I raised my arms… and said ‘family’.”

Close to death, the children were a shell of their former selves. They were barely able to move, emaciated… but they were still breathing.

Lesly says: “When I saw the man, I collapsed. I felt very good. I no longer had to keep my brother and sisters alive. They were now safe.”

The children were air-lifted to safety. 

Yet, for some, it also brought the indigenous people and military closer – two parties who for decades had fought one another – together for the greater good.

For many, like Nicolas, the rescue had a profound effect on them. 

He says:  “The process of finding the children made me feel like I had also found myself in the process. In a way, I was rescued along with the children.”

The Lost Children is available on Netflix from November 14