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Among the many surprises of a Democratic wave in Texas, one stands out for fans of anime: the newly elected Texas attorney general, Nathan Johnson, spent years writing the music for the English-language version of Dragon Ball Z.

Johnson, a Democrat and sitting state senator, defeated Republican Mayes Middleton in the November 3 midterm election. According to IGN, he will be the state’s first Democratic attorney general since 1994. He won on a night when, as The Independent reports, Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Governor Greg Abbott and James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat. Variety adds that Democrats also took control of the U.S. House and Senate nationally.

From Law Office to Funimation’s Score Desk

Johnson represented Texas’s 16th Senate district from 2018 and, per his campaign website cited by Variety, passed 134 bills over four sessions. Before that he practiced law and ran a music-production company. That company scored 67 episodes of Funimation’s in-house English dub of Dragon Ball Z, plus five films: The World’s Strongest, The Tree of Might, Broly – Second Coming, Fusion Reborn and Wrath of the Dragon.

IGN recounts how he got the job, drawing on a 2012 interview with the fan site The Dao of Dragon Ball. Johnson was close to giving up on music when he called about renting an office near his home. The man who answered, Robert Cocanaugher, turned out to be both the landlord and a Funimation co-founder. Johnson says he had never seen an anime or scored anything commercial. He called the episode “one of the most bizarre collisions of circumstance I’ve ever experienced.” IGN notes he was the second composer on Funimation’s dub, and the last, since the company’s music branch was later cut to save money.

Why the Texas Attorney General’s Past Resonates

Polygon places the work in a pivotal moment. Funimation’s dub replaced an earlier version, produced by Ocean Group, that was criticized for heavy cuts and edits imposed by Saban Entertainment. The Funimation version, which aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block, became the one many Western viewers remember. It helped build the audience that now makes anime a mainstream global phenomenon.

Johnson has leaned into that legacy. In a June 22 Facebook post, he wrote: “If you grew up watching Dragon Ball Z, you might know me better than you think.” The post accompanied a conversation with state Sen. Taylor Rehmet. In it he recalled his then one-year-old son on his knee as the screen exploded with action, saying, “Oh, Daddy, Goku!” The work, he said, earned him “street cred with my kid’s friends” and “a cultural connection that very few people have had the opportunity to have.” He also said the experience shaped his direction and still connects with many Texans.

A Footnote to a Political Upset

The anime credit is a sideshow to the election’s main story, and no source suggests it swayed the vote. Still, it gives the incoming Texas attorney general a rare biography: a lawyer who set his career aside for music, then landed a job on one of the most recognizable animated series of its era. Polygon also points out a possible mix-up. Another Nathan Johnson, Nathan Tyler Johnson, is a well-known film composer who scores the movies of his cousin, director Rian Johnson. The two are different people.

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Maya Hawke has become the first actor attached to Legendary Entertainment’s live-action Magic: The Gathering film, a project that has already outlasted several studios and more than a decade of false starts. The news, first reported by Deadline and later confirmed by other trade outlets, gives the long-troubled adaptation its first piece of casting.

What we know about Maya Hawke’s role

The details are thin. Variety says Hawke “will star” in the film, and, citing Deadline, expects her to anchor an ensemble that has yet to be cast. IGN, relaying the same Deadline report, says sources describe her part as a “key” one and that producers wanted her to get the first offer. The Hollywood Reporter says there is no word on what character she will play, and Variety likewise says her role and the plot remain under wraps.

So while some headlines frame it as a lead role, the reporting supports a narrower reading: Hawke is the first name on a film that is meant to feel like an ensemble piece. Her exact billing and character are unconfirmed.

Hawke is best known for Stranger Things. Her film credits include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Asteroid City, Do Revenge and Maestro, and she voiced Anxiety in Pixar’s Inside Out 2. She is also set to appear in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, among other upcoming projects.

A director who actually plays the game

Matt Johnson, the Canadian filmmaker behind BlackBerry and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, is directing and co-writing with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. Variety reports that Johnson is a longtime fan of the game. He shared a story about entering a major tournament in Detroit while half-seriously planning to drop out of film school and go pro. By his telling, a brutal losing streak ended that plan within hours.

That background could matter for a franchise where fans are famously protective of the lore. IGN suggests that Johnson’s comedy credentials and the ensemble framing point toward something in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. That is the outlet’s inference, not anything the studio has said about tone.

Why this adaptation keeps stalling

The casting news lands against a rough history. According to IGN, Hasbro struck a deal with Universal in 2008 to turn several of its brands, including Magic, into films, but that effort was canceled by 2012. Fox picked up the rights in 2014, attached Simon Kinberg as a supervisor and brought in a Game of Thrones writer. It still went nowhere, and the game’s lead designer, Mark Rosewater, confirmed the project was dead in 2022. Netflix also explored a live-action film and an animated series in the early 2020s, with no result.

The current effort is structured differently. Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment announced their partnership in 2025, and Vulture reported Johnson’s involvement in July 2026. IGN also notes that crew members from the Dune films, including storyboard artists, costume designers and location scouts, are reportedly contributing. The film is intended as the start of a broader film and TV universe.

Hasbro and Legendary’s bigger bet

The game launched in 1993 and has grown into a sprawling business spanning digital games, publishing, live events and consumer products. It has also produced crossover card sets tied to Final Fantasy, Marvel, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings. The Hollywood Reporter notes that this brand recognition is part of what Hasbro hopes to turn into a screen franchise.

Legendary brings a track record with game and book adaptations, including A Minecraft Movie and the Dune series. Hasbro is also pursuing a Clue reimagining with Sony and a Monopoly film with LuckyChap and Lionsgate. A release date and the rest of the cast have not been announced.

For now, the signing of Maya Hawke is the clearest sign that this version of Magic: The Gathering is moving from announcement to production. Whether it can succeed where three earlier attempts failed will depend on who joins her and what the film turns out to be.

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File photo: Maya Hawke @ Sid The Cat Auditorium.jpg by Justin Higuchi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cynthia Erivo has been cast as Afeni Shakur, the mother of Tupac Shakur, in the Snoop Dogg biopic from Universal Pictures. The casting, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, adds one of the film’s most significant supporting roles to an already crowded ensemble.

Who Was Afeni Shakur?

Afeni Shakur was a former Black Panther and political activist, and she is more than a footnote in the story of West Coast hip-hop. Her son made her the subject of several songs, including the 1995 single “Dear Mama”. After his death in 1996, she set up the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, which supports young people interested in the arts, and oversaw his estate. She also founded the label Amaru Entertainment to release his previously unheard music. She died in 2016 at the age of 69.

The Cast Around Erivo

Erivo joins a long list of names. Jonathan Daviss, known for Outer Banks, plays Snoop Dogg, while Camron Jones takes on Tupac. Myles Bullock plays Dr. Dre, Lauren London plays Snoop’s late mother, Beverly Tate, and Laya DeLeon Hayes plays his wife, Shante Broadus. Tre Hale is Suge Knight, Algee Smith is Warren G, Olly Sholotan is Kurupt, Corey Champagne is Nate Dogg and Jonica Booth is The Lady of Rage. According to Rolling Stone, the musician SwayvoTwain will play Notorious B.I.G.

The casting is notable because Tupac’s relationship with Snoop is part of the story. Reports say the two met around the 1993 film Poetic Justice and later worked together, including on “2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted”. They drifted apart amid the East Coast/West Coast rivalry, but remained friends, and Snoop visited Tupac in hospital in his final days. Afeni sits close to that history.

Production and Release Details

Craig Brewer directs from a script by Joe Robert Cole, co-writer of both Black Panther films. Snoop Dogg is a producer alongside Brian Grazer, the producer behind Eminem’s 8 Mile, with Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker and Imagine’s Allan Mandelbaum also credited. The film will draw on music from across Snoop’s career. Filming began in September 2026 in California, and the release is set for August 6, 2027. The project was first announced in 2022 and billed by its makers as the “definitive” film about the rapper and entertainment mogul.

Snoop himself has promised the film will be rated R. Erivo had not publicly commented on the casting at the time of the reports.

What Else Is on Erivo’s Slate

Erivo is busy. She also executive-produces Prima Facie, the screen version of the acclaimed one-woman play. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and reaches UK and Irish cinemas on November 13. She stars in the action-thriller Karōshi too, due February 5. Last month she told The Hollywood Reporter she has an “internal metronome” for choosing roles and says no to a lot of projects, which suggests the Afeni part appealed for a reason.

With production under way and nine months or so until release, the Snoop Dogg biopic now has a cast that spans the main figures of West Coast rap in the 1990s, plus an Oscar-nominated actor in a key role.

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File photo: Cynthia Erivo – Wicked-FYC-1.jpg by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Scarlett Johansson has admitted that her still-unrevealed part in The Batman: Part II left her wrestling with “a lot of existential angst,” offering a rare glimpse into a production that has otherwise stayed tightly under wraps.

The actress made the remarks in an Entertainment Tonight interview, published Wednesday, while promoting her new film Paper Tiger. Asked which of her upcoming franchise roles, in The Exorcist: Martyrs or the Batman sequel, pushed her furthest out of her comfort zone, she picked Gotham.

“Hard to crack”: what Johansson actually said

“Probably the role in The Batman, because it gave me a lot of existential angst, for some reason,” she said. She added that it was “very hard to figure out,” and that she could not say whether the difficulty came from the character itself or from “where I am in my life.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, she also called it “a tough role in a lot of ways.” Beyond that, she kept her answer short: “That’s all I can say about it.”

That reticence is consistent with how the project has been handled. Director Matt Reeves confirmed in May that Johansson had joined the cast, but the character has never been officially named.

The guessing game around her character

Speculation has filled the gap. IGN notes that rumours have linked her to either Gilda Dent or Poison Ivy. The Independent reports that she is expected to play Gilda Dent, which would put her opposite Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent. Neither outlet presents the casting as confirmed, and Johansson’s comments do not settle the question.

Her description is notable in its own right. The sequel is her first DC project after years as Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A role that left her with existential angst is a long way from the familiar franchise territory she knows. Robert Pattinson, returning as Bruce Wayne, has also teased that the film shows “an understanding of Bruce Wayne and Batman’s psychology” he doesn’t think has been seen before. That suggests a psychologically heavy tone.

A production with a few bumps

The interview lands amid an unusual stretch for the film. Production briefly paused in October when Reeves stepped away to deal with a family matter, according to DC Studios. Later that month, Steven Soderbergh stepped in, with the studio’s support, to help finish the final stretch of principal photography. IGN reports that filming has resumed in the UK and that Reeves is expected to take back the director’s chair once the film reaches post-production.

Other additions to the cast include Charles Dance, Brian Tyree Henry and Sebastian Koch. Despite the disruption, The Batman: Part II is still scheduled to reach cinemas on 18 February 2028.

For now, Johansson’s comments give fans one concrete clue: whoever she plays, the part demanded more of her than she expected. Whether that existential angst translates into a standout performance will not be clear until the film arrives.

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File photo: Scarlett Johansson-8588.jpg by Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Jaime Winstone Strictly story took a painful turn this week, as the actor confirmed she will not dance in Saturday’s live show after tearing an abdominal muscle. Doctors have advised her to rest completely. Under the show’s rules, she and professional partner Carlos Gu will receive a bye into next week, so the injury costs her a performance but not her place in the competition.

What Winstone said about the injury

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Winstone said she was “absolutely devastated” and “in considerable pain”. She said her doctors had recommended complete rest “to give my body the best possible chance to heal.” She added that she had to “put my health first,” and said she was “praying for a speedy recovery” so she could continue what she called a “magical journey” with Gu.

Daily Mail reports say the injury happened during training. The BBC said it hopes the pair will be able to dance again next week, which stops short of a guarantee. Her recovery over the coming days will decide that.

A bye, not a free pass

The bye is a practical safeguard. It means Winstone cannot be eliminated on a weekend when she is not performing, and it spares viewers and judges from having to assess a routine that never happens. It also leaves the pair with a gap to make up. Gu, the reigning champion, is working with a celebrity who has already had a rocky run in the bottom of the leaderboard.

Reports differ slightly on how many times the pair have faced the dance-off. Some outlets say the past two weeks, others say three dance-offs in total. All agree they have survived them. Last weekend’s Halloween special put Winstone in the bottom three alongside Emmerdale’s Lawrence Robb and actress Bethany Antonia. According to the Mirror, the judges had to pick who to send home rather than who to save, and Robb was the one eliminated.

Support from the Strictly family

Messages of support arrived quickly. Head judge Shirley Ballas wrote that she hoped Winstone would make a speedy recovery and urged her to put her health first. Professional dancers Dianne Buswell and Aleksandra Isaeva also sent good wishes online.

The most pointed message came from fellow contestant Delta Goodrem, who knows the situation well. “Heal and rest, get better. We come back fighting!!” she wrote on Instagram, thanking Winstone for the support she had given her.

Second injury of the series

Goodrem missed a week last month with a rib injury and sat out Icons Week alongside partner Kai Widdrington. She returned the following Saturday, scored the first 10 of the series for a rumba to Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”, and finished second on the night. Her comeback shows a bye can be a short pause rather than the end of a run.

The show has recent history of injuries. Last year’s series was marked by health problems before and during the launch. Kristian Nairn withdrew before the series began and was replaced by Lewis Cope, while Dani Dyer was injured during the launch show and replaced by Amber Davies.

What to watch on Saturday

Strictly Come Dancing airs at 6.30pm on Saturday on BBC One, without Winstone and Gu on the dance floor. Winstone is best known for films including Made in Dagenham, Bullet Boy and Tomb Raider, and for roles in Dead Set, Poirot and the BBC TV film Babs, in which she played the late Dame Barbara Windsor. Whether the Jaime Winstone Strictly run continues next week depends on how quickly her torn muscle heals, and the BBC has said only that it hopes she will be back.

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File photo: Jaime Winstone cropped to neck.jpg by Jaime_Winstone.jpg: William Ainsworth
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Netflix has put Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie back together for a seventh film. The Dogfight Netflix movie is billed as a “stylish revenge actioner” set in the London criminal underworld, with cameras due to roll in the UK in early 2027.

What we know about the Dogfight Netflix movie

Details are thin. Netflix has offered the genre, the setting and the creative lineup, but no plot, supporting cast or release window. Ritchie will write, direct and produce, as he has on most of his work with Statham, and Statham will star. Trade coverage lists Black Bear, Ritchie’s Toff Guy Films and Statham’s Punch Palace Productions as the production companies. The producers are Ritchie, Statham, Ivan Atkinson of Toff Guy and John Friedberg of Black Bear.

Polygon guessed that Statham will play a former soldier or police officer avenging someone close to him, based on earlier roles in films like The Beekeeper and Wrath of Man. That is a reasonable guess, but it is speculation, and Netflix has confirmed nothing of the kind.

A partnership that began with a debut

The pairing goes back to 1998. Ritchie gave Statham his first film role in his directorial debut, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. They followed it with Snatch, Revolver, Wrath of Man and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Viva La Madness is the sixth, which makes the Dogfight Netflix movie the seventh.

It also marks a return to the territory that first made them a team. Statham was a model and dancer before Ritchie’s debut, and he has since built a filmography of nearly 60 movies.

Viva La Madness comes first

The new announcement lands while their previous project is still unfinished. Viva La Madness is based on J.J. Connolly’s novel, a follow-up to his Layer Cake, which Matthew Vaughn adapted in 2004. Connolly co-wrote the screenplay with Ritchie. The film has been described as a standalone story rather than a continuation of the earlier film.

Principal photography wrapped earlier this year, according to Variety, and Polygon reports it is in post-production with no release date. Black Bear will distribute it in North America, and Amazon MGM Studios holds most international territories. Deadline’s list of cast members includes Vinnie Jones, Jason Isaacs, Camila Mendes, Ben Foster and Jonny Lee Miller.

Why the Dogfight Netflix movie matters

The deal is notable for its mix of partners. Black Bear has backed most of Ritchie’s recent films, including In the Grey and Wife & Dog, and it is attached again here even though the film is for a streamer. One Deadline commenter questioned that arrangement, but the sources do not say how Black Bear’s role will work with Netflix’s release.

The timing is another open question. Production is not expected to finish for some time, so the film is unlikely to arrive soon. Statham’s schedule is full in the meantime. Polygon reports that The Beekeeper 2 is due in theaters on Jan. 15, 2027.

Netflix is betting that a familiar formula still has pull: Ritchie’s London crime world, Statham as the lead, and a revenge story. Until the studio releases a plot or a cast, the pairing itself is the main selling point.

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File photo: Jason Statham 2018.jpg by MTV International, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has bought a London property and given it over as a rent-free flat for early-career writers, in a bid to ease one of the most stubborn barriers to a theatre career: the cost of living in the capital. The Fleabag creator’s donation anchors a new scheme called Writers’ Block, which is aimed at playwrights from disadvantaged backgrounds.

According to the reports, the resident will pay only the bills. Waller-Bridge, 41, has also made what the organisers called a “generous financial contribution” on top of the flat itself. The project is billed as a pilot.

How the rent-free flat fits into Writers’ Block

Writers’ Block grew out of the Adopt a Playwright Award, founded in 2008 by Sofie Mason and Diana Jervis-Read, who also started the Offies, the Off West End Theatre Awards. That earlier scheme matches writers with affordable places to stay when they need to be in London for meetings, rehearsals, performances and career opportunities. The Standard reports that 55 writers have been supported to date.

Writers’ Block is run in partnership with Omnibus Theatre in Clapham. It asks Londoners with a spare room to offer it at sharply reduced rates, capped at £30 a night or £500 a month, according to the Guardian. The scheme has so far signed up 15 homes and helped 12 writers, with stays ranging from a single night to longer placements. Organisers suggest it could appeal to older people living alone who would like company and extra income but would be wary of advertising a room to strangers.

Actor Alan Turkington, known for Netflix’s Heartstopper, is one of the hosts. He offers a room in his Camberwell flat and said he was trying to “pay some of that privilege forward” given how high rents have become. Writers, he added, tend to have a strong work ethic and respect for shared space.

A class gap that numbers back up

The scheme’s backers point to research from the Sutton Trust and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre. It found that only 16% of people working in the creative industries come from working-class backgrounds, and that class imbalances are more pronounced in this sector than in any other.

Several big names are putting money behind the effort. Jack Thorne, co-creator of Adolescence, and playwright James Graham are among them, as are Happy Valley’s Sally Wainwright and The Crown’s Peter Morgan. Waller-Bridge’s partner, the film-maker Martin McDonagh, is also involved.

Thorne and Graham both framed the issue in personal terms. Thorne said he was fortunate that his brother put him up for five years when he started out. “For many writers, the need for a roof makes writing impossible,” he said. Graham recalled sleeping on friends’ floors and working in call centres and bars while he wrote. He argued that the industry’s drive for representation “is still letting down the biggest area of under-representation of all, which is class”. A spare room, he said, can save writers “from giving up completely”.

What the pilot could show

One donated property will not transform a sector in which class barriers run deep, and the sources do not say how many writers the flat can house at a time or how residents will be chosen. But the pilot tests a simple idea: that stable, affordable housing is a practical form of arts funding. If the rent-free flat and the network of hosts work, they could offer a model for opening up a profession in which, as Thorne put it, privileged writers worry about what to fill a page with while others worry about survival.

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File photo: Nicola Benedetti Humza Yousaf Phoebe Waller-Bridge – All Festivals Reception (Waller-Bridge cropped) (cropped).jpg by Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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John Frieda, the London hairstylist who turned a family trade into a global beauty brand, has died aged 75. His death was announced on Tuesday night in an Instagram post from his salon, which said he “passed away peacefully” surrounded by his family.

The salon’s statement called him “a true icon of the hair industry” and “the person who taught us everything, believed in us, and made us better.” Reports differ on the circumstances. One outlet described a battle with illness, while another noted that no cause of death has been made public.

From family barbershop to Hollywood chair

Born Alan Howard Frieda in 1951, he came from a line of hairdressers. His father ran a salon in Ealing, west London, and his grandfather had been a Fleet Street barber. After entering the family business, he joined House of Leonard, the fashionable salon behind Twiggy’s famous crop, as an assistant to Leonard Lewis. He took the name John because another stylist there was also called Alan.

Work for British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar followed, as did a client list that reads like a cultural history of the late 20th century. Twiggy, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Nicole Kidman and Scarlett Johansson all sat in his chair, according to the reports. The BBC adds Mick Jagger and Sarah Jessica Parker to the roll call.

His best-known creation came in 1976, when he gave Joanna Lumley the bowl cut known as the “Purdey” for her role in The New Avengers. That same year, aged about 25, he opened his own salon in central London. It was reportedly booked up months in advance.

How John Frieda became a household name

The salon made his reputation, but the products made him a brand. Working with the American hair care executive Gail Federici, he launched Frizz Ease in 1988, followed by the Sheer Blonde range in 1998. In the 1990s he stepped back from cutting hair to concentrate on the business, and the Guardian reports that he moved to the United States in 1990 to focus on it.

The bet paid off. In 2002, Frieda and Federici sold the company to the Japanese conglomerate Kao for $450m (about £334m). He kept ownership of five salons, two in London, two in New York and one in Los Angeles. The BBC also notes branches in Barbados and Ibiza over the years.

Family and tributes

Frieda was married to the Scottish singer Lulu from 1977 to 1990, and they had a son, Jordan Frieda, an actor turned food entrepreneur. The Guardian reports that the move to America contributed to the end of that marriage. He met Avery Agnelli, widow of Fiat heir Giovanni Agnelli, in 2002, and they married in 2019. They had two children together, and he was stepfather to her daughter, Asia Agnelli Lagrange.

Agnelli Lagrange shared photographs of the two of them on Instagram, writing: “Today we lost the best man to ever exist. I share this because I know he touched the lives of so many.”

Others in the industry and beyond also paid tribute. Cetera Lamb, creative director of his London salon, called him “a real maverick in hairdressing” who led the salon for 50 years. Colourist Nicola Clarke and the British Beauty Council also paid tribute, as did Trinny Woodall. Model Jo Wood recalled that he did her hair when she was 16 and he was an assistant at Leonard’s, adding that they would go to the pub afterwards.

Speaking to the British Beauty Council in June, Frieda gave younger hairdressers advice that sums up his approach. Rather than thinking about money, he said, they should focus on giving the client in front of them “the best haircut she’s ever had. That is your reward.”

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The World of David Walliams, the children’s-book-themed area at Alton Towers, has been permanently closed, the Staffordshire theme park announced on Tuesday 3 November 2026. The land opened in 2021, so it lasted around five years.

What Alton Towers has said about the closure

The park’s explanation is low-key. A Merlin Entertainments spokesperson said the decision followed “our regular review of rides and attractions across the resort” as the 2026 peak season ended. Reports say it was made after weighing a range of operational and guest-experience considerations, though none of the sources spell out what those were. Plans for the site will be announced once confirmed, and visitors are being told to check the resort’s website and app for current opening details.

The area was built around characters from the author’s bestselling children’s books. Its attractions included Gangsta Granny: The Ride, a 360-degree special effects experience, along with Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp, the Royal Carousel and Flavio’s Fabulous Fandango. There was also Raj’s Shop and The Burger Kitchen. The park’s creative team developed it over several years with Walliams and HarperCollins Children’s Books.

The backdrop to the decision

Several outlets note that the closure comes after a turbulent period for the author. HarperCollins dropped Walliams in December 2025 following an investigation into allegations that he had harassed young women, and his back catalogue has reportedly stopped being published. The allegations were first reported by The Daily Telegraph. Walliams strongly denies behaving inappropriately. His spokesperson said at the time that he had never been told of any allegations raised by HarperCollins, was not part of any investigation, and was taking legal advice. None of the allegations has been tested in court.

Neither Alton Towers nor Merlin has linked the closure of the World of David Walliams to those events. Their stated reason is a routine annual review, and the sources offer no evidence either way beyond the timing. Deadline also reports that talent agency YMU is no longer actively representing him, following what a source described as amicable talks in early 2026.

A big name in children’s publishing

Walliams found fame in the early 2000s with Little Britain, alongside Matt Lucas. His first children’s book, The Boy in the Dress, came out in 2008. He has since published more than 40 books and sold over 60 million copies in 55 languages. Several titles, including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, were adapted for television. In 2022 he left Britain’s Got Talent after apologising for “disrespectful comments” about contestants that had been leaked.

For now, the future of the site is an open question. Alton Towers has promised an announcement but given no timetable, so what replaces the World of David Walliams remains unknown.

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File photo: Alton Towers – geograph.org.uk – 3087121.jpg by Steven Haslington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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The 2026 John Lewis Christmas advert has arrived to a familiar mix of fanfare and fault-finding, with the soundtrack winning warm words from a Rolling Stone while the story on screen has left some viewers cold.

A glamorous grandmother and a cost of living backlash

The film stars Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as a grandmother searching for the perfect gifts for her grandchildren. According to The Standard, it also features a pull-along wooden dog voiced by comedian Paul Whitehouse. The Independent reports that the grandmother’s opulent surroundings have led some critics to call the ad tone deaf during a cost of living crisis. Its writer Katie Rosseinsky argued that the glossy portrayal fails to reflect the financial pressures facing families this festive season.

Parents have taken issue with the children. Users on Mumsnet described the grandchildren as ungrateful and rude, and headlines about “ungrateful kids” and a “glamour gran” show how quickly that line of criticism has spread.

Industry verdict: funny and well cast, but less moving

Not every assessment is negative. Analysts at Kantar praised the humour and the casting, though they noted the film lacks the emotive punch of earlier campaigns. That is a notable caveat for a series that has built its reputation on tugging at heartstrings. The sources do not include viewing figures or polling, so how far the criticism reflects the wider public remains unclear. What they do show is a split between those who enjoy the comedy and those who find the setting out of touch.

Sam Fender’s Rolling Stones cover earns Jagger’s approval

The music has had a far smoother ride. Sam Fender covers the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, and Mick Jagger has endorsed the result. “I’m a fan of Sam’s work, so I was pleased to hear he was covering one of my songs,” he said. “I think he’s done a great job with it.”

Rolling Stone noted that the cover runs only about half as long as the original, but still delivers a horn section, a full choir and a tone of disappointment tempered by acceptance. Fender recorded it in Tyneside with bandmates Joe Atkinson and Dean Thompson. The choir comes from his old school, John Spence Community High School, and the brass from the Easington Colliery Band. He called it “a privilege to rework such an iconic song by such a legendary band.”

The Standard notes that Fender, 32, arrives on a high. He won the 2025 Mercury Prize for People Watching, and his duet with Olivia Dean, “Rein Me In”, spent a record 23 weeks at number one, according to the paper.

Charity links and a physical release

The cover is being released on 7-inch vinyl and CD, backed with Fender’s 2020 version of Lindisfarne’s “Winter Song”, which gets its first physical release. NME reports that net profits from singles sold through Fender’s official store will go to Teenage Cancer Trust. John Lewis profits from records sold in its stores will go to Action for Children, which supports people who have grown up in care.

The charity element may soften some of the criticism, but it is unlikely to settle the argument over the film itself. The annual John Lewis Christmas advert has long been a headline-grabbing event, and this year’s is being judged on two fronts. Its music has been widely praised, while its portrayal of a wealthy family has sparked debate. Last year’s film used a Labrinth reworking of “Where Love Lives”, and this year’s advert is likely to be remembered as much for the argument it has started as for the song.

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