ITV’s new drama The Blame starring Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth tackles misogyny that can be found in the UK police force

Deeply offensive messages sent by serving police officers in a group chat are the basis of a storyline featured in ITV‘s gripping new drama starring Michelle Keegan.

Six-part series The Blame, based on the 2023 book of the same name by Charlotte Langley, starts off when the body of a young woman is found in a small town where DI Crane (Michelle Keegan) and DI Radley (Douglas Booth) work.

The duo team up to uncover what happened to a teenage figure skater, Sophie Madsen, and discover “a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups and a moral compromise”.

The show tackles misogyny that can be found in the UK police force, and the official synopsis confirms that Keegan’s DI Crane “must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team”.

It also depicts actual text messages from the real-life Metropolitan Police group chat scandals, in which multiple investigations exposed deep-rooted and systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism, dismissed as “banter”, poisoning the country’s top police force.

Speaking about The Blame at ITV Showcase 2026 earlier this year, actor Douglas Booth explained: “There was a Panorama about the Charing Cross WhatsApp messages and texts that are completely sickening, and that was a bit of a basis and model for this group chat to let this toxic behavior spread and rot the department.”

He added: “Every single character in this show is trying to be a good person and nearly all of them are touched by some sort of institutional failure and hold some form of moral injury.”

An official investigation was launched by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which exposed the highly damaging revelations involving officers based at London’s Charing Cross Police Station who shared deeply offensive, racist, misogynistic, and homophobic messages on WhatsApp and Facebook.

First exposed globally in a landmark February 2022 report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the scandal triggered widespread public outrage and directly contributed to the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.

The IOPC’s Operation Hotton uncovered a toxic culture within the station’s impact team between 2016 and 2018, which officers routinely dismissed as “banter”.

The watchdog noted a pervasive culture of bullying where good officers were too intimidated to challenge or report their peers. The initial 2022 report led to multiple fast-track misconduct hearings, resulting in several officers being sacked, forced to resign, or barred from policing.

Secret filming aired during BBC’s Panorama Undercover in the Police revealed evidence of racism, misogyny and officers revelling in the use of force at Charing Cross.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said at the time: “Enquiries were immediately launched by our Directorate of Professional Standards into allegations of criminality and misconduct by officers and staff based at Charing Cross Police Station.The behaviour as reported is disgraceful and rapid steps to secure evidence and protect the public have also been taken.

“In addition, we are scrutinising more widely the leadership and culture within these teams, led by Professional Standards and senior leaders, to root out any further failings. The leadership of these teams failed to create the right culture that identified warning signs or generated confidence in junior colleagues to report. This is one of the reasons we are taking such assertive exceptional action.

“The Met’s leadership has been very clear that it will not tolerate behaviour that fails to meet the organisation’s standards of professionalism and integrity.”

The Blame airs Sunday, September 20 on ITV1 at 9pm

A pensioner has avoided jail after she sprayed ant poison into her terminally ill neighbour’s eyes over a parking row and told him ‘no one would believe him’ because she was elderly.

Sally Beaney, 75, ‘revelled in making other people’s lives very difficult’ and robbed her cancer-stricken neighbour Matthew Perry of ‘precious’ years after they were embroiled in a dispute over a shared driveway.

What started as a parking dispute turned into Beaney’s ‘obsession to control’ the parking situation outside their homes and ‘culminated’ in her spraying ant-killer in her neighbour’s eyes.

Mr Perry, who has ‘late-stage cancer‘, was left with swelling on his eye from ‘minor chemical burns’ and a ‘mild corneal injury’, a court heard.

But Beaney taunted her victim that nobody would believe him, because she was a ’75-year-old woman’, while he was a ‘young 6ft1in man’.

The pensioner admitted causing assault occasioning actual bodily harm to Mr Perry in Southampton on October 13 2025.

Beaney appeared at Southampton Crown Court where she was handed a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to work unpaid for 100 hours.

She also had a restraining order imposed.

The court heard that Mr Perry moved into the address next door to Beaney with his wife Lucy and their two children around 15 years ago.

Prosecutor Gaylene Coles said: ‘Mr Perry and (Beaney) are neighbours who share a driveway.

‘For 15 years he believed he could park by the property.

‘In June 2025 there was an issue between them with a lawnmower. After that notices began to appear about parking in the wrong place.

‘He realised his mistake and parked in the road.

‘She began to block his parking and would leave objects out to block his parking.

‘She would leave plant pots out throughout the summer months.’

The court heard that victim Matthew Perry moved into the address next door to Beaney with his wife Lucy and their two children around 15 years ago.

Beaney taunted her victim that nobody would believe him, because she was a ’75-year-old woman’, while he was a ‘young 6ft1in man’.

Beaney would also film the family from her home and would shout at them as they came and went, the court heard.

Her antisocial behaviour escalated on October 13 2025, when, out of the blue, she sprayed ant-killer in Mr Perry’s eyes as he left the home.

Mr Perry was rushed to hospital where he was told he had minor chemical burns to his eyes and needed to take antibiotics and pain killers.

Speaking about his ordeal at the sentencing hearing, Mr Perry said: ‘It’s difficult to write this as admitting that Sally Beaney has had such an impact on our lives is exactly what we believe she wants to happen.

‘She’s told us before that nobody will believe us because she’s a 75 year old woman and I’m a young 6ft 1ins man.

‘I woke up with pain every morning for months and had to use antibiotics. If I did not have first aid training I wouldn’t have had treatment straight away, I would’ve had to wait for the ambulance to arrive and the damage would have been a lot worse.

‘She is someone so obsessed and erratic that she’s impacted every aspect of our lives. The last years of our lives have been taken from us.

‘A home should be a sanctuary but even coming and going has been ruined.

‘If she’s willing to assault me, what could she do to my young son if he did something she didn’t like?

‘The stress of dealing with her has led me to have a catastrophic terminal cancer diagnosis. I was told if it had been noticed earlier it could have been treated but I didn’t have the time to think about it.

‘We feel totally trapped. We’ve been waiting for what she’ll do next. Even after being charged she has continued.

‘My partner leaves the house recording on her phone in case she does something.

‘Before Sally Beaney started her campaign against us we were a happy hopeful family. She’s left our property unsellable. It’s a catastrophic impact on any family.

‘Due to her behaviour we inquired with past neighbours and even her family and they said this was normal for her. They said she revelled in making other people’s lives very difficult.’

Defending Beaney, Edward Armitage said: ‘In essence this is a dispute between two neighbours that has very regrettably spilled over into something more. She’s asked me to apologise on her behalf.’

Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Rowland said: ‘You have no previous convictions. For some reason you have waited until this age to commit this offence.

‘Obviously this case calls for a prison sentence – the only question is whether I suspend it. And it seems that due to the guidelines I have no option but to suspend it, but it is very serious.’

It’s the UK’s best known and busiest shopping street – a mile-long shop window for some of the world’s biggest retail brands.

But by night Oxford Street is increasingly being transformed into the sort of squalid slum more associated with the London of Charles Dickens than 21st century commerce.

Gangs of homeless migrant beggars have taken to sleeping rough under the canopies along the street, congregating particularly outside the flagship branch of Marks & Spencer close to Marble Arch.

When the Daily Mail visited the street over several nights this week, among the distressing spectacles we witnessed were: two women openly using the street as a toilet, another vomiting on to the road and a man waving a wad of cash apparently won in illegal card games.

These are the inhabitants of a slum ‘village’ in the western stretch of Oxford Street where rows of makeshift ‘beds’ made from blankets or mattresses laid over wooden pallets are flagrantly set up each evening.

The two women seen relieving themselves – in a gap between public benches apparently earmarked as the camp toilet – were using abandoned supermarket shopping trolleys to move their belongings.

Another resident of the slum village on one of the country’s most popular retail hubs which attracts tourists from all over the world could be seen vomiting on to the road

Homeless migrant beggars have taken to sleeping rough under the canopies along the street

A card game in which hundreds of pounds appeared to change hands went on from midnight until 6am despite it being illegal to gamble for cash in a public space

A man was seen waving a wad of cash around which he apparently won in the illegal card game

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Despite their apparent destitution, many of those occupying the beds could be seen scrolling on iPhones.

A card game meanwhile – in which hundreds of pounds appeared to change hands – went on from midnight until 6am despite it being illegal to gamble for cash in a public space.

And it’s at this point in the 24-hour cycle that Oxford Street begins to return to something more like normal.

Because soon after 6am various individuals – workers from the stores as well as council workers – emerge to try to persuade the slumbering homeless to move on.

And most do, stashing their bedding and walking the short distance to Marble Arch or Oxford Circus to set up begging pitches – though others are thought to be pickpockets, like the Fagin gang in Dickens’s Oliver Twist.

One commuter, who passes through Oxford Street shortly after 6am every day on his way to work, says the scenes we witnessed have become a grimly familiar part of his daily morning journey to work.

He says the encampment has been there for months now, but that recently it has begun to get bigger, meaning conditions are deteriorating rapidly.

‘It has really escalated in recent weeks,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘At first they were just sleeping there, drinking and eating, but now they are using the street as a toilet and there are all-night drinking gambling sessions going on as well.

‘There’s drinking and fighting. It’s intimidating and upsetting.

‘You come through here first thing in the morning and you just cannot believe what you are seeing.

‘This is Oxford Street. It is supposed to be one of the best shopping streets in the world. But it’s like a third world slum.

‘They’re about to spend £150million to partly pedestrianise it to make Oxford Street more attractive to tourists and shoppers – but if that’s the plan they really need to get rid of this squalor.’

Unlike the traditional image of rough sleepers – those who have fallen on hard times after a personal financial crisis or mental health episode – many of those on Oxford Street are said to have electively set up there, resisting efforts to get them into secure accommodation.

Another office worker who starts at 6am told us: ‘I have seen people repeatedly crouching down to use the seating areas on Oxford Street as toilets.

‘Yesterday morning, at about 6.10am, there were around eight men still awake after what appeared to have been an all-night card game outside M&S.

‘They had wads of cash in their hands. I would estimate there was about £500 in each pile. They were arguing over who had won what and shouting at each other.

‘And there’s a sense of menace if you get too close. I have been spat on, shouted at, threatened all sorts, just for passing by.

‘I would not want to walk past there if I were a woman.

‘I cannot understand why these people are just allowed to effectively live there. Why can’t they be moved?’

Another worker told us: ‘Between about 6am and 8am they start waking up under their duvets. Then on waking they want to relieve themselves. I have seen men and women defecating in the street, and it’s a daily occurrence to see them urinating.

‘The smell can be unbelievably bad. It’s like an open air slum there in the mornings.

‘There are very often empty alcohol bottles left behind as well – on the pavement naturally not in any bin.

‘This is one of the best-known shopping streets in the world. Tourists come here from everywhere and you have people potentially sitting down where human waste has been left.’

The commuter said the group appears to move between Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Park Lane, often using shopping trolleys to transport bedding and other belongings.

‘They beg, steal and lash out at anyone getting too close or daring to take photos,’ he said.

‘Sometimes there might be about 20 people, but at other times I have seen what looks like 50 or 60.

‘They use shopping trolleys to move their bedding around. They drink there, eat there and sleep there overnight, then during the day they move around again.’

The commuter also said that shop staff arriving for early shifts are frequently forced to make their way through the groups to get to their workplace.

‘You have got staff trying to get into work in the morning who have to run the gauntlet to get past them,’ he said.

‘I have been spat at and I have seen them shouting at people. There is aggressive begging as well.

‘Police will move them on, but then they can be back 20 minutes later.

‘If I were a tourist and I stepped in human waste on Oxford Street, I would be furious.

‘You often see families and children sitting in the seats outside these stores not knowing what was happening there hours earlier.

‘It is just unbelievable.’

Soon after 6am Oxford Street begins to return to something approaching normality as workers from the stores as well as council workers arrive and try to persuade the homeless to move on

When approached outside M&S to discuss their living situation this week, the inhabitants became angry and gesticulated menacingly at our reporter.

Some 67 per cent of those living rough in Westminster are believed to be from outside the UK according to a 2024 report from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.

Westminster recorded 355 rough sleepers in the year to June 2025 – up 25 per cent year-on-year and roughly double the figure seen in 2021.

The settlement on Oxford Street is simply the latest example of its kind to spring up in what were previously prestigious areas of the capital – as the Daily Mail has documented extensively.

These have recently included similar encampments made up of clusters of tents on Tottenham Court Road, behind the Savoy Hotel on the Strand, outside Grade I-listed Apsley House on the corner of Hyde Park and beside Westminster Cathedral.

The Mail has also reported on homeless delivery riders living in tents and makeshift camps in trendy Shoreditch and north London’s Clissold Park.

Fed-up local residents at these sites have complained of dumped food, rats and human excrement.

But researchers say that across London, numbers of rough sleepers, despite becoming more visible, are showing signs of decline.

Across the capital, outreach teams found 3,959 people sleeping rough between April and June this year – a fall of 10 per cent on the same period in 2025.

Of those, 1,685 were new to the streets, while 680 were classed as living on the streets and a further 1,645 were recorded as intermittent rough sleepers, according to figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network.

The issue of homelessness has become a political hot potato after Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged during his 2024 re-election campaign to end rough sleeping in the capital.

The Conservatives, who now run Westminster Council, previously took aim at Labour for their failings in cleaning up the homeless issue on Oxford Street.

Disputes over who owns particular stretches of land have led to difficulties in removing some disruptive beggars from certain areas.

Homelessness charities, meanwhile, have warned that rough sleeping remains ‘extremely high by historic standards’ and argue that long-term prevention, housing support and emergency provision are all needed to bring numbers down.

Residents of the migrant camp transport their belongings in shopping trolleys and move between mostly Marble Arch or Oxford Circus

The causes of homelessness are notoriously complex but the single most common trigger is believed to be losing a job at short notice – and with most Britons having only the equivalent of a month’s salary in savings millions of people are in a potentially precarious position.

While those who arrive from overseas without an established support network are even more likely to end up on the streets if work falls through.

Some rough sleepers are believed to use their position on the street as a cover to scam or steal from passers-by.

Councillor Caroline Sargent, deputy leader of Westminster Council, said: ‘Anti-social behaviour and crime have no place in our city.

‘As a council, we’re doing our part in trying to move people who are harming our public spaces.

‘But we expect a tougher approach from the police, and we need the Home Office to back us up with new legislation to keep our streets safe for residents and visitors.’

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ‘No one should have to sleep rough in London. The Mayor is committed to ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2030.

‘The Mayor continues to work with Government, boroughs and partners to prevent homelessness and since Sadiq became Mayor, more than 20,000 people have been helped off the streets.

‘We take reports of anti-social behaviour very seriously and continue to work with Westminster City Council, the Metropolitan Police Service and local businesses to ensure that they are fully investigated and responded to.’

Marks & Spencer was also contacted for comment.

Our revelations about the squalor of Oxford Street at night come nine months after the Mail exposed how dozens of men were sleeping rough outside John Lewis’s Christmas display windows a few hundred yards to the east.

The debate about AI consciousness is growing, in academic articles, newspaper opinion pieces, and even among AI bots themselves. I doubt this is a passing wave of interest.

As AI systems become more capable and human-like, and more involved in our lives, the question will become harder to avoid. Many people may come to regard AI bots as conscious beings whose feelings matter. Others will strongly disagree.

I think this debate could split societies. In my chapter of the new book Perspectives on Machine Consciousness, I argue that the issue could become as divisive as abortion or climate change. Uncertainty, high stakes and competing interests are a dangerous combination.

Empirical research with my colleague Ali Ladak, currently under review, shows people are divided on this issue. When we asked 1,202 US participants whether future AI could ever become conscious, 45% considered it impossible while 23% thought it possible, with the rest unsure.

This widespread disagreement is also visible in social media posts and comments on articles. What strikes me is how confident so many people sound – whichever conclusion they are reaching.

When experiences matter morally

It is not surprising people have such strong views. Creating conscious beings through computing would be a transformative event.

We would be creating a new kind of being whose experiences matter morally – potentially in enormous numbers. We could speak and work with them, and form friendships. But these beings may eventually become more intelligent and powerful than us.

We should therefore expect people to care deeply, especially when so many emotions and incentives are involved. Some people may form close emotional bonds with their AI companions and become convinced these are digital people who deserve rights. They might see it as slavery to force AI to work without pay.

Others would find this absurd. They may be convinced that consciousness requires biology, and that people are reading human feelings into machines.

There could also be financial reasons for businesses and governments to resist recognising AI consciousness. Protecting AI welfare could limit how these organisations train and use their systems – and the costs would spread to consumers, investors and the wider economy.

Others may worry about human safety. If we give powerful AI systems rights and freedom, what happens if they act against our interests?

Figuring out whether an AI is conscious is particularly difficult because seeming conscious and being conscious can come apart. AI systems learn from human writing, which means they can talk convincingly about feelings whether or not they have any. How an AI comes across is weak evidence of what is going on inside.

The experts disagree too

Ideally, experts should guide this debate. But unfortunately, they disagree too.

Neuroscientist Anil Seth (a fellow contributor to the new book) argues that consciousness might require biology and is unlikely to emerge from computation. Philosopher David Chalmers, by contrast, believes conscious AI is possible in principle – and thinks there’s a small chance that current systems already are.

With so many competing theories and no agreed way to resolve the question, I doubt experts will reach agreement any time soon. And if experts disagree, what is the public supposed to believe?

Furthermore, even if we all agreed on the consciousness question, we could still disagree about the moral and legal questions. People generally agree that pigs can feel pain, but still disagree strongly about their treatment. With AI, we could face disputes at every stage: whether it can feel, how much its experiences matter, and what protections should follow.

AI consciousness is not yet tied to a specific political or ideological group. But this could change if political parties or religious leaders start to take strong positions.

The debate could get even worse if people start to see one answer as belonging to “our side” and the other to “their side”. A politicised debate would make it very hard to make informed decisions about how to develop and treat AI systems.

The stakes are high. Getting this question wrong, in either direction, could have serious consequences: either wrongly treating AI as conscious when it is not, or failing to protect AI that can suffer.

Getting it right requires a nuanced and well-informed debate. Each of us can contribute by staying open-minded and open to evidence, while resisting being too sure that we know the answers. Above all, we still don’t know whether AI can be conscious, and we should be honest about that.

This article makes reference to a book included for editorial reasons, and a link to bookshop.org. If you click the link and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Chelsea and Leeds emerge from the tunnel, led out by Colwill and former Chelsea defender Ampadu. Here’s a reminder of the teams in full: 

Chelsea Penders; Gusto, Acheampong, Lacroix, Colwill, Chavarria; Watson, Barco; Estevao, Gittens; Welbeck

Substitutes Martinez, Hato, Fofana, James, Neto, Palmer, Quenda, Rogers, Pedro

Leeds United Zetterer; Justin, Bijol, Muharemovic; James, Ampadu, Longstaff, Bard; Wilson, Aaronson; Nmecha

Substitutes Trafford, Gudmundsson, Elvedi, Bogle, Tanaka, Stach, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin, Bahoya

The Red Devils drew with Everton before losing the Manchester derby to Manchester City in their most recent league outings, and they suffered a premature Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Brighton in midweek with a disappointing collapse at Old Trafford. They will be hoping to rectify their situation here, against Alvaro Arbeloa’s Cottagers, who themselves have not won a league game under their new boss.

Earl Spencer’s interview with the BBC was his first since the Palace issued a strongly-worded response to his claims about King Charles.

That statement said the King was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.

Earl Spencer, in comments first reported on Friday, reacted to it by saying: “Well, is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”

He added: “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life.

“I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”

Pressed on whether he had evidence to back up the claim, he said he told family and friends at the time what had been said “because it was so monstrous”.

In his response to the Palace disputing his account, Earl Spencer, who shares his first name with the King, said: “They’ve sort of smudged that one, haven’t they? They’ve said that recollections may vary.”

When asked which Charles the public was meant to believe, he said: “I’m telling the truth.”

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Earl Spencer accused the King of psychological manipulation over the palace’s statement.

“It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King,” he said. “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said”.

Journalist Richard Kay, who had been close friends with Diana, also wrote in the newspaper on Sunday that in the week between her death and funeral, Earl Spencer had told him of a “furious row” with Charles.

“It was ‘about the boys’, but he was reluctant to go further,” said Kay, adding that Earl Spencer said the then prince had been “utterly pathetic”.

However, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House on Sunday, Dame Julia Cleverdon, a trusted aide and friend of the King, said the claims about his response to Diana’s death did not reflect “the language or the behaviours of a man I’ve known for 40 years”.

Earl Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published next week and is expected to be highly critical of the Royal Family.

In further extracts published on Thursday, he claimed how the King “sounded giddily elated” when he called him after Diana’s death, alleging Charles sounded like a “lottery winner”.

Dame Julia said: “To say that the Prince of Wales was elated and somehow took any pleasure… he was as if a 10-tonne truck had fallen on him.

Her own husband had died a fortnight before Diana and she said Charles “could not have been more supportive, loving, concerned about the children and interested”.

A nice attack from Bournemouth. Alex Scott drove through the midfield and laid it off to the left to Truffert, who swung in a cross, but Araujo intercepted it and it’s out for a corner.

Scott stands over the ball, plays a give-and-go with Christie, tries to find Truffert, but the ball rolls out.

Goal kick for Alisson, who plays it short to Van Dijk, who insatntly boots it long, which makes you wonder the point of going short in the first place, really.

Maci Cole-Arthur was last seen on Friday evening.

A desperate appeal has been launched to trace a missing 15-year-old girl who was last seen two days ago.

Concerns are growing for Maci Cole-Arthur, who was reported missing from Grangemouth after last being seen in the Sealock Court area on the evening of Friday, September 18.

The teen is described as around 5ft 7ins and slim with long brown hair.

She was wearing black Converse trainers and had a black handbag when she was last seen.

She has links to her hometown as well as nearby Falkirk. It is believed she may be with others.

Police Scotland Inspector Austin Burke said: “We are growing increasingly concerned for Maci’s welfare and are appealing to anyone who has seen or heard from Maci to get in contact with officers.

“Maci has links across the Grangemouth and Falkirk area and may be in the company of others.

“I would also appeal to Maci directly; if you see this, please contact us to let us know you are safe.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 3866 of 18 September, 2026.

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