Clarks has unveiled its new school collection ahead of the start of the new academic year

Parents hoping to avoid the back-to-school rush towards the end of the summer holidays can make a start now. Many retailers have already launched their new term collections, including Clarks.

Leaning into 200 years of renowned footwear expertise, Clarks offers an unrivalled range of precision-fit school shoes for children with growing feet. Buying an entire school uniform, plus bags and stationery, can be expensive, which is why the footwear brand promises premium footwear at an affordable rate.

Prices for school shoes start from £25. Clarks is also running a deal that lets parents buy two pairs of school shoes and get the third pair for half price.

This is ideal for families with a few children to buy for, or for little ones who easily scuff or ruin shoes throughout the school year and need a few back-up pairs. One of the collection highlights is this pair of Feather Shine Kid shoes priced between £25 and £27.

Available in sizes 1 – 13.5, they come in standard and wide fits. The Feather Shine Kid shoes blend a sporty style with classroom-ready practicality.

Feather Shine Kid shoes

£25 – £27

Clarks

Buy Now on Clarks

The unisex school shoes blend a sporty style with classroom-ready practicality.

Advertisement

The Feather Shine Kid shoes feature a super-lightweight sole and a Microban odour-control lining to keep them feeling fresh. These shoes are unisex.

Clarks Feather Shine Kid shoes have a 4.5 rating based on customer reviews, with many parents and grandparents leaving comments. One buyer said: “Great shoes, my son loves them and they are comfy, plus they keep his feet dry as well in rainy conditions, would buy again.”

Someone else remarked: “Good, hard-wearing shoes, pleased with quality.” Another back-to-school shopper said: “Bought for my grandson. Nice sturdy shoe, he finds it easy to do the straps himself. Very good price. Excellent value.”

Not all the reviews are glowing, as one parent marked them down for being ‘small’ and ‘quite bulky’. An additional shopper was more pleased, saying: “My kids love the shoe.”

Another Clarks back-to-school option is the Lorcam Jane K shoes, priced between £44 and £46 (sizes 1-10, with larger options also available). They have a chunky, durable sole and a removable bow, so little ones can take them off when they want to.

Perfect for everyday wear, the Lorcam Jane K features a buckle-strap fastening, a padded collar for comfort and support, and laser-printed broguing details. They also come in standard and wide fits.

Elsewhere, Matalan has also released its back-to-school collection with uniforms and footwear on offer. These Black Scuff-Resistant Casual School Trainers are priced between £12.80 – £13.60, down from £16 – £17.

Over at Next, these Black School Leather Lace-Up Shoes cost between £28 and £45. They come in standard, wide, extra-wide, and narrow fits.

For a classic school shoe option, Clarks offers these Lorcam Lane Youth for older children. They are priced between £48 and £50 and are available in sizes 3-10, with smaller sizes available too.

The Lorcam Lane Youth are designed with a chunky, durable sole and tough leather to tackle busy school terms. Similarly, these Scala Bar shoes are priced at £32 and are for older children (sizes 13 – 2.5). They’re made from durable leather and have a slim and flexible sole.

K-pop supergroup BTS has announced that they will not be entering their music for the 2027 Grammy awards. The decision seems to be a response to the addition for 2027 of the category “best Asian pop music performance”.

The Grammy rulebook describes Asian pop as a “distinct and globally recognised form of popular music”. The new category is intended to reward recordings that make “meaningful use of one or more Asian languages”.

Announcing their withdrawal from the Grammys on their Instagram accounts, the seven members of BTS expressed a wish that “music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language”.

Looking more closely at the wording of the Grammys category, the rulebook contends that Asian pop is “characterised by integrated approach to music, performance, and presentation”, giving “K-Pop, J-Pop, and C-Pop” – all nominally east Asian genres – as examples. This “integrated approach”, is intended here to suggest the “idol” approach to production.

Originating in post-war Japan, “idols” are pop performers who commence their intensive training in singing, dancing, acting and languages in their teenage years, with some even starting work before then. All of their publishing, marketing and events are usually handled by a single agency, though the genres they perform vary by country, region and even by agency.

Idol production is especially common in Japan, China and South Korea, but not exclusively so. Filipino girl group Bini, who debuted (first performed publicly) at Coachella in 2026, are described as being an “idol group”. While K-pop as a term is fairly synonymous with idol production as something that is exported to the world, the term J-pop is less so, having originated as a phrase to distinguish Japanese-language tunes from English-language ones for Japanese radio in the 1980s.

The Japanese artists being tipped as strong contenders for the best Asian pop music performance category at the Grammy’s include singer-songwriters such as Kenshi Yonezu, who have little to do with idol production. And while Chinese contestants have featured prominently in Asia-wide talent shows to create idol bands, C-pop spans multiple regional and linguistic sub-genres with nuance that is not reflected in the wording of this new category.

Why ‘Asian pop’?

The Grammy Awards are based in the US, so the wording of “Asian pop” could also be an expression of shared diaspora identity for Asian Americans. BTS have previously expressed solidarity with Asian Americans in the wake of a series of high-profile hate crimes against these communities in the US in 2021. But the privileging of idol production implied in the category wording to the detriment of other systems of pop production, and the seeming disregard of western or South Asian popular music demonstrates what should be obvious – that the Grammys are poorly positioned to be setting out what Asian Pop is.

I was researching K-pop and J-pop artists when BTS were really beginning to gain visibility in English-speaking markets. I found that discussions of their “global” success in English-language media tended to assume that “making it” in the US was the gold standard for measuring their international achievements. Not only does this ignore the fact that Japan and China are respectively the second and third largest music markets in the world as of 2026, but it also disregards the long-standing popular musical and popular cultural exchange happening across Asia.

This phenomenon has been referred to as “inter-Asian referencing”, by cultural studies scholar Koichi Iwabuchi. Iwabuchi sees this referencing as means to question “approaches and theories that are derived from Euro-American experiences”.

One demonstration of the possibilities of letting Asian popular music performers define their own creations is demonstrated in an international project by Japanese musician Awich – a popular Japanese hip-hop artist who has also lent her voice and songwriting skills to rock and pop projects.

In 2025, she lead on a song and promotional video featuring other well-known rappers from Korea, China, India, and Cambodia titled ASIAN STATE OF MIND. Each verse features the artists exploring what motivates them to make music and how it has been shaped by the places they call home. Cambodian rapper Vannda notably utters the English lyric “I told you it’s time, I de-colonise” in his concluding verse.

The CEO of the Recording Academy (which owns, administers and presents the Grammy awards) Harvey Mason Jr. has, in recent years, been keen to defend the consultation that has gone into new award categories. For example, he has spoken of the best African music performance category as having been informed by “trips to Africa”, and an acknowledgement that African artists “weren’t being heard in our process”.

In the wake of BTS’ withdrawal of their music for consideration for the 69th Grammys, Mason Jr. announced that the Recording Academy will “continue to listen to the global music community, and work to honor and celebrate all the artists whose music moves the world”.

We are then left with a major question: who was consulted on the creation of the new Asian pop music performance category? At the very least, the discussion surrounding BTS’ non-submission to the 2027 awards has succeeded in creating a “spotlight” on Asia’s pop music – although perhaps not in the manner the Recording Academy intended.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed addressed old comments from his Twitch-streamer ally Hasan Piker as he appeared on the Sunday show circuit to take his first questions from the national media after winning his Tuesday primary.

El-Sayed narrowly won the Democratic Michigan Senate primary over Rep. Haley Stevens, beating her by a single percentage point after being massively outspent during the race. Ahead of Tuedsay, he faced criticism from Stevens and others for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer whose stunning remark about the 9/11 terrorist attacks has saddled nearly every politician who has appeared with him or accepted his endorsement.

During a 2019 Twitch broadcast, Piker derisively said that America “deserved 9/11” while arguing that American foreign policy was to blame for the attack by al-Qaeda terrorists. On Sunday, El-Sayed was asked by Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, “Do you disavow those comments?”

The progressive Democrat brushed off his ally’s comments as “dumb” and claimed that even Piker had backed away from them. “Of course. Of course it was a dumb statement. I think Hasan himself would say it was a dumb statement. He disavowed it,” claimed El-Sayed. “So yes, America didn’t deserve 9/11.”

El-sayed then accused both Welker and his remaining critics on the left, some of whom linger after the vitriolic primary, of playing “gotcha politics” and engaging in “cancel culture,” which is generally a line of argument from those on the right politically.

“I want to be held accountable for what I say and do, rather than this idea that we’ve, we’re so stuck in cancel culture that we all agreed was a bad idea back in 2020 but we seem to want to bring back,” said El-Sayed.

His response closely mirrored Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s response when she was asked about Piker on ABC’s This Week. Piker himself noted on a stream Friday that he was “tired” of apologizing for the comment, something he said he’d done repeatedly to total disinterest from his critics.

“Much hay was made about the fact that we lost young men in the last election. Many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we have to go on Joe Rogan and not be so willing to engage in cancel culture,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

Progressive Democratic candidates who find themselves aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America and the party’s left flank have refused to disavow Piker himself, under pressure from their centrist opponents. El-Sayed campaigned with Piker over the weekend immediately preceding his primary victory on Tuesday, and other Democrats have appeared on his stream or been the beneficiary of receiving the spotlight his Twitch stream provides over the course of this cycle.

Piker’s presence in the Michigan Senate race was possibly the greatest political test of the effect a firebrand lefty streamer could have on a candidate’s chances.

Both Stevens and El-Sayed’s other former rival, Mallory McMorrow, attacked his campaign over its association with Hasan Piker, only to face a wave of backlash of their own as progressives declared that the fixation on Piker and insinuations that his criticism of Israel were anti-Semitic were, in fact, rooted in Islamophobia. In the end, McMorrow’s campaign never recovered from the steep decline she began with progressive voters once those attacks began, and she dropped out in June.

El-Sayed is in a different position now, however, as he looks toward the general election.

His task remains to win over skeptical independent voters in a state that Kamala Harris narrowly lost in 2020 and Hillary Clinton similarly lost in 2016; he also bears the task of unifying his party after the particularly bitter primary’s conclusion. Fueled mostly by a massive surge of money from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, Stevens and her allies buried El-Sayed under a massive wave of negative advertising which could make his path to victory in November harder — particularly since AIPAC is likely to spend tens of millions more now in support of Mike Rogers, his Republican opponent.

Those ads accused El-Sayed of being connected to Piker, whom they described as anti-Semitic, and even disparaging Michelle Obama, whose popularity within the Democratic Party and in the majority-Black areas of Detroit and Wayne County remains sky-high. Ads even falsely insinuated that Stevens was endorsed by former President Barack Obama, though he did not weigh in on the race.

On Sunday, El-Sayed said that he’d spoken with the former president and hoped Obama would campaign with him ahead of November. The former president has not yet issued an endorsement, but El-Sayed did pick up an endorsement from another former occupant of the White House this weekend: Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Abdul knows we need bold solutions to the crises facing America’s working families, and he is ready to take on this fight. I proudly stand with him to ensure we win a Democratic Senate majority in November,” wrote Harris in a statement.

Greater Manchester Police said officers from the Bolton North Neighbourhood Team were on patrol on Faraday Drive on Wednesday (August 5) when they spotted the vehicle.

In a social media post, GMP said: “The driver failed to stop for officers and then decamped from the vehicle after a short pursuit.

“The driver tried to run away, but unfortunately for him, wasn’t quick enough and was detained after a foot pursuit.”

Enquiries established that the driver did not have insurance or a substantive driving licence.

The driver was subsequently arrested for offences of failing to stop, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving without the relevant insurance.

In June, The Bolton News joined police on the ground during a Bolton traffic operation carried out as part of Neighbourhood Policing Week.

Spotters were deployed to identify offences such as not wearing a seatbelt or misusing a mobile phone while driving.

A speed gun and breathalysers were also on hand to catch speeding and driving over the legal alcohol limit.

In just over half an hour, officers had stopped between 15 and 20 vehicles and issued 10 tickets.

Sgt Cooper stressed the importance of regular traffic operations, supported by councillors and the wider community.

Tallulah Willis and Justin Acee are now married.  

After three years together, the couple said ‘I do’ in a ceremony held in Sun Valley, Idaho on Saturday, according to Vogue.   

The youngest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore wore a custom wedding gown by Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of Balenciaga. 

A representative for Tallulah confirmed the wedding to The Daily Mail.

A week before walking down the aisle, Willis had her final dress fitting at the historic Chateau Marmont alongside her mother Demi and sisters Scout and Rumer.

‘The best part of the dress is the magnitude,’ the bride, 32, told Vogue, who was present for the fitting. ‘It’s the thing that’s getting me to my new husband. We made a decision at the very beginning of our relationship that we were going to choose each other every day. 

‘My biggest hope [for the dress] was that [it would be] something magical, but magical in a way that was unexpected, kind of like me. I’ve worked very hard to be comfortable in my own skin, to be in something that there’s a strength in is profound for me. 

‘I’ve worked so hard in my life to be able to find that beauty every day… this is definitely a very special peak celebration moment of beauty.’

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Demi, Bruce, and her stepmother Emma Heming Willis for comment but has not yet heard back. 

Tallulah has been dating Accee since January 2023 before becoming engaged the following year. 

They obtained their marriage license in Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey, Idaho last week. 

Tallulah’s older sister Scout, 35, shared a sweet photo on Instagram at the time showing the couple outside the courthouse, which Justin reposted. She captioned it: ‘My angels got their marriage license.’ 

The milestone comes as Hollywood star Bruce, 71, continues his devastating battle with dementia, which he was diagnosed with in 2023 and for which he now receives round-the-clock care. 

Tallulah had been planning her wedding as she and the family navigate her father Bruce’s ill health.

They announced in March 2022 that the Die Hard star was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, which affects communication.

In February 2023, they said his condition had progressed and doctors had diagnosed him specifically with frontotemporal dementia, an incurable brain disease that can affect language, behaviour and personality.

Tallulah and Justin announced their engagement in December 2024, after dating since January 2023 [pictured]

 They obtained their marriage license in Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey, Idaho last week

Advertisement

Bruce’s wife Emma Heming Willis, 50, revealed last year that he was living in a nearby one-storey home with round-the-clock care, while remaining closely involved with his family.

‘Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know,’ she said. ‘It’s just his brain that is failing him.’ 

The state has particular significance for Tallulah, who spent much of her early childhood on the family’s ranch there after Bruce and Demi, now 63, moved from Los Angeles partly for the sake of their daughters.

The former couple raised Tallulah and her sisters, Rumer, 37, and Scout, in Hailey for several years, away from the full glare of Hollywood.

Bruce and Demi, who were married for nearly 13 years before divorcing in 2000, also established longstanding property and business interests in the town.

Tallulah and Justin announced their engagement in December 2024, after dating since January 2023.

Tallulah is the youngest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore; pictured with her parents and sister Rumer in 2018

In an interview with Vogue, Tallulah said: ‘We made a decision at the very beginning of our relationship that we were going to choose each other every day’; pictured 2024

Advertisement

The Christmas proposal featured a pathway of red rose petals and candles leading into a room filled with decorated trees, where Justin got down on one knee beside a roaring fire.

Demi celebrated by sharing intimate video footage of the proposal on social media, while Rumer declared that witnessing the relationship had been ‘the most beautiful love to witness and watch grow’.

Tallulah unveiled her official engagement ring in March 2025 after an eternity band used at the proposal proved painful to wear.

The jewel was reported to feature a four-carat antique champagne cushion-cut diamond in a chunky yellow-gold setting.

She wrote: ‘Never knew a ring could encapsulate a love so perfectly,’ adding: ‘I choose you everyday my love @justinacee. I cannot wait to be your wife.’

The milestone comes as Bruce, 71, continues his devastating battle with dementia, which he was diagnosed with in 2023 and for which he now receives round-the-clock care [Tallulah pictured with Bruce]

Tallulah unveiled her official engagement ring in March 2025 after an eternity band used at the proposal proved painful to wear; pictured February 2026

Justin with Willis in a 2025 Instagram post 

Advertisement

Justin was raised in Buffalo, New York, and previously played drums in the rock band Made Violent before releasing solo music under the name Nighties.

Tallulah starred in the video for his song Ugly Truths, with Justin saying the pair had ‘such a blast’ making it together.

She made her screen debut as a child, appearing in The Scarlet Letter with Demi and later in Bandits and The Whole Ten Yards with Bruce, before launching the fashion brand Wyllis.

In February 2025, Tallulah said wedding planning would begin once awards season had ended following Demi’s Oscar campaign for The Substance.

She said she was ‘excited’ and ‘ready’ to start putting the arrangements in place.

Rumer revealed in April that her three-year-old daughter Louetta Isley Thomas Willis may also have an important role in the celebrations.

‘I’m sure Louetta will be a flower girl, but I don’t really know,’ she said, adding that her unconventional younger sister had not yet settled the bridal-party arrangements.

Chris Capstick and his family are trying to come to terms with his life-changing diagnosis

A dad who thought the ‘cyst’ on his back was from an insect bite at his Greek wedding has instead been given months to live.

Chris Capstick, 41, initially thought his symptoms were minor, after his marriage to Lauren, 30, in Greece in 2022.

For the next six months, Chris, from Bromborough, Merseyside, was in and out of his GP practice as it kept changing colour. Doctors initially told him it was a cyst, a round lump, often filled with fluid or pus. They’re usually harmless and often do not need treatment, but this was not the case with Chris, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Chris said: “I got married in Greece and that’s when we noticed the ‘insect bite’. Doctors told me it was a cyst. I went back several times as it changed colour and started to grow, and they kept saying it was a cyst.

“Then I was in work and it was quite uncomfortable. I got speaking to a colleague who said that her husband had a cyst removed in their GP surgery.

“So I went back and asked the GP if they could remove it, which they did in February 2023. As soon as they removed it, I think they noticed it wasn’t a cyst and sent it off for testing.”

Advertisement

Chris was then diagnosed with stage four melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Stage four means the melanoma has spread to parts of the body away from the original cancer and further than the nearby lymph nodes.

Chris said he was given just a 15% chance of survival, and was sitting with Lauren, who was pregnant at the time, when he received the news. The couple now have three young children together – Isabella, six, Mila, 10, and Nylah, two.

Chris subsequently had his lymph nodes removed. After receiving his diagnosis, he spent 13 months on immunotherapy and was briefly cancer-free at the start of 2025. But just six months later, six tumours were found on Chris’s brain with another six in his body, meaning his cancer was terminal.

Advertisement

Chris said: “I was given 10 to 12 months to live. It was a massive shock for me and the family. We try to stay positive. I’m trying everything. I’m trying red light therapy, oxygen therapy.

“I’ve just done a stint in the hospital, just due to some side effects. My liver enzymes are quite high at the moment, so I’ve not had treatment for two months. We’re trying to get them down via steroids. I’m trying to stay positive which is not always easy.”

Just over a year on from being told he had a year to live. Chris now doesn’t know how long he has left.

Advertisement

He said: “I had six tumours on my brain. Five of the tumours have disappeared, there’s just one left on my brain now, so something’s working, hopefully. At the moment I haven’t got a prognosis of how long I can live.”

Isabella, has written a children’s book, Daddy’s Little Monsters, to help other children understand a parent’s serious illness. Over £630 has been raised so far to print and distribute the book to cancer centres, hospices and Maggie’s Centres across the UK.

READ MORE: Man pulled from water as emergency services descend on Manchester Ship Canal

READ MORE: ‘Like something from a movie’: Neighbours speak of shock as police launch murder probe after woman found dead

Chris said: “We really struggled to explain it to all our children. My wife spent some time with Isabella, and she explained that daddy’s got monsters in his stomach and planned to use medicine to kill them.

“Then she did some sort of art therapy and created the book over six months and published it via Amazon. To date, we’ve sold just shy of 300 copies.

“We’ve dropped copies in Arrowe Park, Clatterbridge, Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Wirral and Lancaster Oncology. It would mean everything (to have the book across the UK). It’s my legacy in a way.”

You can find out more about the fundraiser here.

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed to her followers — and the world — that she was freezing her eggs, sharing a live video on her Instagram story during which she administered a hormone injection to herself ahead of a scheduled Sunday television appearance.

“Usually, I keep my private life quite private, but I have made the decision to start freezing my eggs,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the Saturday night live stream, “and I want to share that with anyone who is — and I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and I think that, you know, I was saving for it for a very long time, and there just isn’t a ton out there, I feel, and sometimes it can feel very daunting.”

The Democratic congresswoman discussed the preparation involved in the medical procedure and noted that taking her first injection “wasn’t so bad.” She mentioned that she would be administering additional doses in the green room before appearing on ABC’s This Week.

“As women in general, we are not taught about our bodies, we are not prepared for our own lives, whether that is in puberty, whether that is in pregnancy, whether that is in perimenopause, menopause, whether that is in so many different aspects of our lives,” she said.

Reflecting on her public profile and reproductive choices, Ocasio-Cortez explained her rationale for sharing the experience publicly despite the personal nature of the procedure.

“In the political context that we’re in, in an administration that is dedicated to politicizing women’s bodies and taking our choices away from us and punishing us around decisions to be pregnant or not be pregnant — and, frankly, this administration has made pregnancy more dangerous than probably at any point in the last 30 plus years — we’re gonna take our power back,” she said.

She noted that navigating adulthood while serving in Congress presented unique challenges, particularly regarding reproductive decisions and public scrutiny.

“I got sworn into the House of Representatives when I was 29 years old. I was the youngest woman in American history to get elected to congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There’s also this flip side where you have to then grow up in the public eye in a time that most people usually get to grow more privately, and when you get elected later in life you’ve made all of your mistakes in private.”

She also highlighted double standards faced by female politicians regarding family planning and age.

“This is just not something that men deal with. Men run for office, or frankly, they interview for jobs and people don’t think in the back of their mind, ‘OK this guy’s running for office, how old is he? Oh, well is he gonna wanna start a family?’” she said. “This is a choice I am making to feel more in control of my life.”

She acknowledged potential fallout, too.

“I am also aware that there is very strangely a political risk, or even a political tax that could come with sharing this information, and, per usual, that doesn’t influence my ultimate decision,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez has frequently advocated for reproductive healthcare. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, she told GQ in a 2022 interview that men also had a stake in reproductive freedom.

“For almost every woman that has gotten an abortion, there’s a man who has either been affected or liberated by that abortion too,” she told the publication at the time.

Her decision to document the fertility treatment drew immediate responses on social media.

Democratic strategist Xochitl Hinojosa praised the disclosure on X, writing: “THIS. We don’t talk about women freezing their eggs or what women have to go through to start a family. Thank you @AOC for your bravery.”

Other commentators reacted critically to the video and its framing.

User @thewakeninq wrote on X: “AOC just injected herself on camera, told everyone ‘don’t be weird,’ then acted shocked when the internet lost its mind. It’s not diabetes. It’s not a baby. It’s her freezing eggs so she can maybe have one later… while spending her entire career fighting to make sure other women can end theirs. The cognitive dissonance is Olympic-level. Don’t be weird? Too late.”

Ocasio-Cortez also briefly discussed the process on ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning.

By CAROLINE PEACOCK, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER

Published: 19:10 BST, 9 August 2026 | Updated: 20:09 BST, 9 August 2026

EastEnders star Matthew James Morrison has revealed he’s out of work – a year after he was axed from BBC soap.

The actor played Felix Baker for three years and made history during his time in Walford as the man behind Tara Misu, EastEnders’ first regular drag queen character.

He left the soap in 2025 after bosses decided to write his character out of the show.

While he has managed to land theatre roles since his departure, he has now confessed that he is struggling for work.

Advertisement

Appearing on the Missleighdingfortunes podcast, hosted by drag queen Miss Leigh Ding, Matthew shared his reality since leaving the show.

Reflecting on leaving EastEnders, he said: ‘I finished EastEnders and I thought you know, maybe something will come, maybe something might not come.

EastEnders star Matthew James Morrison has revealed he’s out of work – a year after he was axed from BBC soap

Advertisement

The actor played Felix Baker for three years and made history during his time in Walford as the man behind Tara Misu, EastEnders’ first regular drag queen character

‘For a lot of people who’ve left the show since I started, some of them have worked, some of them haven’t worked.’

Matthew told how he did a theatre job in Greenwich, quickly followed by another stage production.

However, after recently finishing a tour, the soap star admitted he is now without another job.

Advertisement

He said: ‘This is the first time since really leaving EastEnders – I finished the tour over a week ago – and I don’t have anything lined up. 

‘It feels like I am stood in the desert just being like what do I do next?’

Matthew then said that he could use the downtime to develop new skills, including learning to ride a horse or mastering another accent. 

Matthew was the sixth cast member to leave the soap last year. 

Advertisement

His character arrived three years ago to great acclaim with Matthew saying at the time: ‘I am blessed to have the opportunity to step into the heels of the fierce Tara Misu as part of my role on EastEnders.’

Matthew was the sixth cast member to leave the soap last year

Fans had criticised the soap for not making use of the character and not giving him a significant storyline after the character later became a barman at The Albert and took more of a backseat role.

EastEnders delivers 3.5 million viewers to BBC1 per episode, but despite spending £87million on a new outdoor set for the show, its loyal viewers fear for its future as it is ‘losing its best actors’.

Advertisement

Expressing their disappointment at the departures last year, one fan said: ‘They are losing all their best actors. It won’t be worth watching shortly.’

Another said: ‘Why are they getting rid of the good actors? I still can’t believe they got rid of Martin.’

A Facebook user wrote: ‘EastEnders is doing my head in getting rid of all the best actors and killing them off. I won’t watch it when they are gone.’ 

And another fan asked: ‘What is it with EastEnders wanting to keep killing people off?’

Advertisement

Around 93 per cent of the sun will disappear on Wednesday night — but Met Office maps show heavy cloud and rain bands sweeping across central and eastern areas right at peak viewing time.

Advertisement

Skywatchers across Northern Ireland are gearing up for Wednesday’s historic solar eclipse, but official Met Office forecast maps show rain showers and thick cloud could spoil peak viewing for much of the region.

On Wednesday, August 12, the Moon will pass directly between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring around 93% of the Sun over Belfast in the deepest eclipse visible from Northern Ireland since August 1999. The spectacle begins shortly after 6:09 PM, reaching maximum coverage at approximately 7:10 PM before concluding around 8:03 PM.

Because the eclipse takes place close to sunset, the Sun will sit low on the west-southwest horizon, meaning clear skies towards the west are essential.

Area-by-area cloud forecast for Northern Ireland at 7:00 PM

Latest Met Office satellite mapping for 7:00 PM reveals a challenging picture for central and eastern areas right as maximum coverage approaches:

• Belfast, Lisburn & Greater Belfast: A band of rain showers and thick cloud (marked in green) sits directly over Belfast, Lisburn, and Crumlin. Darker cloud bands just west of the city could obscure the Sun at the critical 7:10 PM peak.
• Lough Neagh & Mid-Ulster: The heaviest weather feature on the map sits directly over Lough Neagh, bringing dense cloud and heavy rain across Cookstown, Dungannon, and surrounding areas.
• County Down & County Antrim (Ballymena, Larne, Newry): Widespread patchy cloud and scattered showers cover much of the east, making viewing hit-or-miss.
• The West (Derry/Londonderry, Omagh, Enniskillen): Western districts show the best chance of breaks in the weather. Lighter cloud cover around Omagh, Enniskillen, and Derry/Londonderry gives spots like the OM Dark Sky Park a better shot at catching a glimpse through cloud gaps.

Bonus meteor shower later tonight

If cloud gaps clear later in the evening, stargazers are in for a double treat. The eclipse coincides with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, which could bring dozens of shooting stars to dark-sky locations once night falls.

Eye safety warning

Spectators are strictly warned never to look directly at the Sun without certified eye protection. Ordinary sunglasses will not prevent eye damage. Viewers should use ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses, solar telescope filters, or a safe indirect pinhole projector.

With Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) disappeared in mysterious circumstances, Ross Wilkes (Ian Burfield) is Coronation Street’s new King of Villains. But Fiz Dobbs (Jennie McAlpine) is about to knock him off his throne

Corrie fans said a tearful goodbye to Cassie last after she lost everything when her plan to get rid of Ross spectacularly backfired. Ross caught onto her plan to drug his smoothie to get him out of her life for good.

Her plan to make Ross fail a mandatory drug test for a new job by spiking his smoothy ended in tears when Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) drank it instead, resulting in immediate hospitalisation.

In that moment, Cassie lost everything that mattered to her on the Cobbles: her boyfriend  Steve McDonald  (Simon Gregson), her son  Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) and her grandkids.

After choking out a tear-jerking farewell, Cassie was hoofing it out of town when Ross offered her a lift. With no option, Cassie got in his car.

That’s when things got dark.

The subject of their past came up – specifically, how Ross took advantage of a fifteen year old Cassie and paid her for sex, resulting in her falling pregnant with Tyrone. Growing angry, Ross put his foot on the pedal and sped off with a terrified Cassie in the passenger seat.

That was the last we saw of Cassie leaving viewers fearing that she’d been murdered.

Ross might have Tyrone and his family fooled, but Fiz is onto his little game. She confronted Ross with her suspicions last Tuesday in the Rovers’, putting her cards firmly on the table. Fiz knows he lied to Steve about not seeing Cassie before she left, and doesn’t know why he acted all surprised to hear that she’d gone. Although she hasn’t got enough evidence to put all the pieces together just left, Fiz left Ross rattled with a firm warning.

‘If you put one foot out of line, you’re going to be back in Warrington before you know what’s hit you.’

I literally cannot think of a more scary threat.

It seems Fiz might have good reason to make good on her threat in this week’s trip to Coronation Street, where Ross starts to seem shadier than ever.

When Hope Stape (Isabella Flanagan) finds the photo that Fiz gave Cassie in his wallet, Ross is under pressure to make his excuses in front of Tyrone.

He claims that she threw it at him as he was getting out the car, declaring that she’d had a bellyful of the lot of them. While Tyrone grunts that the feeling is mutual, Ross has seemingly shut down his son’s suspicions.

By the look on Fiz’s face however, she smell a rat.

Will she discover what Ross did to Cassie?

MORE: Three dramatic Coronation Street videos as iconic couple are stunned by murder charge

MORE: Are you a true fan? Test your knowledge with Metro’s weekly Soaps quiz!

MORE: Fiz is onto evil Ross in Coronation Street as suspicions mount over ‘dead’ Cassie