Strictly Come Dancing 2026 will already look very different as presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman won’t be returning to host.

Strictly Come Dancing bosses have reportedly dropped at least three professional dancers from this year’s line-up.

This follows BBC executives also considering new presenters after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announced their decision to stand down.

Reports suggest contracts are currently under review, with three popular dancers, including Gorka Marquez, set to be removed from the new series.

Luba Mushtuk is also understood to have been cut from the roster, along with Michelle Tsiakkas.

Gorka made his Strictly debut in 2016, and despite not being paired with a celebrity contestant last year, he continued to participate in group routines and the series finale.

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Luba joined the show in 2018, whilst Michelle joined in 2022. However, the BBC is now reportedly seeking a “fresh start”.

According to The Sun, significant changes are underway as dancers discuss their contracts, with bosses said to be pursuing a “fresh start” and introducing new talent to usher in “a new era”.

A BBC spokesperson told Reach Plc: “Plans for Strictly Come Dancing 2026 will be confirmed in due course.”

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This marks the latest in a series of changes for the programme, with the professional dancers facing a new round of departures, whilst the BBC has yet to reveal who will replace former presenters Tess and Claudia.

The duo had presented the show together for more than a decade, with Tess at the helm since the programme launched in 2004.

2026 will bring significant transformation to the beloved BBC programme following the announcement of the presenting pair’s departure during the previous series.

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The duo enjoyed an emotional farewell during the Christmas Day special as they bid their final goodbyes, with Claudia saying at the programme’s conclusion: “Thank you again for watching us over the years, it has meant a world to us. There’s just one thing left to do. Come on, Tess.”

She then took her co-host’s hand, and they danced together, as Tess added: “For our very final time, Claud.”

Speaking about their departure, the pair described presenting the show together as an “absolute dream”.

Reach PLC has approached Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk and Michelle Tsiakkas’ representatives for comment.

Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Are You Being Served? icon John Inman passed away on this day back in 2007 yet is still fondly remember and fresh tributes have now been paid to the beloved actor.

A huge TV star died aged 71 following a prolonged illness, shocking fans worldwide. Are You Being Served? icon John Inman passed away on this day, March 8, back in 2007.

But even though almost 20 years have passed, Inman is still fondly remembered, and fresh tributes have now been paid to the beloved actor. Inman passed away after suffering from hepatitis A and undergoing tests due to liver complications.

His manager Phil Dale paid tribute at the time, saying: “John, through his character Mr Humphries of Are You Being Served?, was known and loved throughout the world.” He added: “He was one of the best and finest pantomime dames working to capacity audiences throughout Britain.

“John was known for his comedy plays and farces which were enjoyed from London’s West End throughout the country and as far as Australia, Canada and the USA.”

Inman’s long-term partner, Ron Lynch, was reportedly “devastated” by his passing. As reported by the Mirror, the actor famously portrayed the flamboyant salesman Mr Humphries in the comedy series Are You Being Served? from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.

Inman starred alongside Wendy Richard, who later became known for her role as Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, as well as Molly Sugden, Frank Thornton, and Trevor Bannister.

It was revealed following his death that he left a large estate, worth around £2.8mil to his partner. Although nearly two decades have passed, fans have been fondly remembering the actor on social media.

One fan simply wrote on Facebook, “Loved him, so funny,” with another adding, alongside a photo of Inman and EastEnders’ Wendy Richard: “Two of my favourites.” Another commented: “Aw….loved this show….and he was wonderful.”

High-end menswear shops played a recurring role throughout Inman’s life. Making the phrase ‘I’m free’ legendary as Mr Humphreys, the flamboyantly camp shop assistant in the menswear section of Grace Brothers’ department store in the beloved BBC sitcom, the part mirrored the actor’s own experiences.

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After finishing school, Inman worked as a trainee window dresser at Fox’s Departmental Store in Blackpool town centre, stationed in the gents’ outfitters section. At 18, he secured a position at the renowned Austin Reed flagship store on London’s Regent Street. Living in a £3-a-week bedsit, he quickly began making costumes for the numerous nearby theatres to supplement his meagre wages.

His Austin Reed manager Ron Dyer remembered: ‘It was impossible to lose my temper with John – he was so funny – but he was also very good at his job. But I knew he wouldn’t stay with us long because he told us constantly of his real ambition, which was to go on the stage. At 21, in 1956, he resigned to pursue stardom.

After befriending BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall during his time at Austin Reed, Kendall offered Inman a part at a repertory company in Crewe, allowing him to obtain his Equity card. Years of vibrant performances followed across the nation in plays, pantomimes and musical theatre.

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His breakthrough arrived when TV producer David Croft recognised his exceptional talent. In a 1996 radio chat, Inman reminisced about Croft – who had previously cast him in “silly little piddly parts” – writing to him following his first major role in a West End musical.

He shared: “He wrote me a letter afterwards which said ‘Dear John, thank you for your work in Ann Veronica, you’ve been very good and one day I am going to cast you in a role you can really get your teeth into, love David. PS – this letter does not constitute a contract!’”

Staying true to his promise, when Croft and Jeremy Lloyd penned a standalone episode for the BBC’s Comedy Playhouse set in Grace Brothers, a fictional department store, they selected Inman for the role of Mr Humphries. From that point on, he never looked back.

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The unofficial soundtrack of every basketball, squash or hard-court tennis match is the constant high-pitched squeak or shreak of the players’ shoes. But can this squeak be designed out of them while retaining the grip?

That’s the question an international team of engineers and applied physicists, including me, have been investigating. It sounds like a small design tweak. In fact, it cuts to a deep physics problem: how a soft body slides against a rigid one.

Perhaps surprisingly, the mechanism that produces sound when a soft solid slides against a stiffer one has long been the subject of scientific debate. Most theories are linked to the concept of “stick-slip”: when, instead of sliding smoothly, the sliding object rapidly alternates between sticking and slipping.

While it sticks, the soft body (such as a rubber sole) deforms and stores elastic energy. Then it suddenly slips, turning much of that energy into heat through friction – while also releasing rapid vibrations that radiate out as sound.

But this is not exactly what we observed in our experiments.

After Leonardo da Vinci

Our recently published study took inspiration from the simple-but-effective setup used by Leonardo da Vinci in his studies of friction from the late 15th century.

Leonardo used a wooden block resting on a flat surface. The block was subjected to two forces: a normal force (its own weight) and a tangential force which was applied using an additional weight attached to a cable.

By stacking and combining multiple blocks, Leonardo discovered the two fundamental laws of friction: that friction is proportional with how hard the surfaces are pressed together, and largely independent of the size of the contact area.

But Leonardo never published these findings, which were finally rediscovered and made public in the 19th century in notebooks scattered throughout Europe. In the meantime, the laws of friction had only been formally enunciated by French physicist Guillaume Amontons in 1699 – two centuries after Leonardo’s studies.

Furthermore, these laws are empirical rather than fundamental, and in extreme cases they break down. This led us to the question of what makes a shoe squeak.

À lire aussi :
Leonardo da Vinci’s early work on friction founded the modern science of tribology

A surprising result

One of the biggest difficulties in friction studies is that the interface being tested (where a shoe sole meets a hardwood floor, for example) is hard to get at, and comes under a lot of pressure while slipping at high speed. Placing sensors at the interface is almost impossible – and even if it were, this would probably alter the frictional response.

Our solution was to use an optical trick: we replaced the hardwood floor with a transparent acrylic plate and mounted an array of LED lights along its sides. When each test object – including multiple rubber blocks – made contact with the plate, light would leak into the contact region, brightening up this area alone. That allowed us to visualise exactly which parts of the soft-rigid interface were in contact.

We used a high-speed camera, capable of capturing up to 1 million frames per second, to film how the contact patches evolved while the “sole” was skidding, and recorded the sounds being emitted with a microphone.

We found that at the point of contact, tiny wrinkles in the surface of the rubber block – known as “opening slip pulses” – were created, which then raced along the interface at nearly 100 metres per second. While most of the block remained stuck in place, these rapidly moving wrinkles created the sound in each friction test.

Surprisingly, even tiny geometrical features at the frictional interface had profound effects on the sound generated. When it was perfectly flat and smooth, the pulses were messy and generated a scratch-like noise of many different frequencies – closer to the sound of peeling adhesive tape than a clean squeak.

But when ridges were present, like those on the soles of sport shoes, the pulses were confined by the width of these ridges, making them very regular (not messy any more). This turned the sound into a more musical tone akin to the squeaks heard on a basketball court.

We were also able to determine what decides the precise pitch of a shoe squeak. In each test, it was largely unaffected by either the speed of sliding or magnitude of the force applied (which relates to the weight of a player).

Rather, the clearest link was with the height of the rubber block – or the thickness of a shoe’s sole. Using this knowledge, we created a series of blocks of different heights in order to play a familiar melody, as shown in this video.

Our research lays the groundwork for controlling or suppressing squeaking in many mechanical systems involving soft-on-rigid friction. These range from brakes and tyres to hip and knee replacements, where polymer liners slide against polished metal or ceramic heads.

And yes, it could even lead to the development of squeakless sneakers. Designing intricate patterns that keep plenty of rubber in contact (so the grip stays high) but break the sliding into lots of tiny, out-of-sync microevents could kill the clean note of the squeak, and leave only a soft hush.

Table-top earthquakes

Beyond the realm of sports, this work also relates to much larger geophysical questions. Similar experimental approaches to ours have served as table-top models for studying earthquakes, during which ruptures and slip pulses spread along tectonic faults at extremely high speed.

If we can reproduce earthquake-like slip pulses in the lab, the next challenge is scaling – working out how those centimetre-scale measurements translate to what happens inside real faults in the Earth.

Achieving this could help interpret seismic signals more confidently: using waves recorded far from a fault to infer what has actually happened at the source. Better physics-based models could improve seismic hazard estimates and lead to more reliable hazard maps.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep thinking about squeakless sneakers too.

Police, paramedics and firefighters were called to the scene in Vangarde Way, next to the Vangarde Shopping Park, shortly before 2.20pm on Saturday (March 7).

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said two fire crews were called to the scene.

In a statement on Sunday, a fire service spokesperson said: “Crews from Acomb and York were requested by police to attend an incident involving a single vehicle road traffic collision.

“Crews made the scene safe and left the incident in hands of police and ambulance.”

Holidaymakers could face major delays this summer

A new border control system is being rolled out at all European airports, including those in Spain, Portugal and Greece, from April 10. The new Entry Exit System (EES) requires British travellers to provide fingerprints and photographs when entering the Schengen Area.

British holidaymakers have been cautioned about potential queues due to the new biometric system, which was first introduced in October at some EU airports. All 29 Schengen countries are now expected to have it fully operational by April.

Some airport organisations have called for an “immediate review” of the Entry Exit System (EES) rollout as it “continues to cause significant delays,” and cautioned that queues for non-EU passengers could stretch to four hours during the summer months.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) stated: “EES checks are being introduced in a phased way across external borders, with full operation expected from April 10, 2026.”

The Foreign Office suggested that EES might take each passenger a “few minutes extra” to complete and advised they “be prepared to wait longer than usual” at border control, reports the Express.

The new checks at European airports follow the recent announcement that dual British nationals could be refused entry at the UK border unless they possess a British passport. The new regulation could impact holidaymakers returning to the UK from their European trips.

Full list of countries with the new Entry Exit System

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Bulgaria
4. Croatia
5. Czech Republic
6. Denmark
7. Estonia
8. Finland
9. France
10. Germany
11. Greece
12. Hungary
13. Iceland
14. Italy
15. Latvia
16. Liechtenstein
17. Lithuania
18. Luxembourg
19. Malta
20. Netherlands
21. Norway
22. Poland
23. Portugal
24. Romania
25. Slovakia
26. Slovenia
27. Spain
28. Sweden
29. Switzerland

Betty Brown, OBE — Post Office justice campaigner, Consett

Elizabeth Brown (Betty Brown) was made an OBE in the New Year Honours list. (Image: Lucy North)

Consett great-grandmother Betty Brown, 92, was the oldest person on the King’s New Year Honours List 2026 after receiving an OBE for services to justice.

She is believed to be the oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, having run Annfield Plain Post Office with her late husband Oswall from 1985 until they were forced out in 2003.

The couple lost around £100,000 of their own money covering non‑existent shortfalls.

One of the original 555 claimants in the landmark group action led by Sir Alan Bates, Betty has become a leading campaigner, fronting national TV interviews and challenging ministers as victims finally secure compensation.

Vera Parnaby — “Mrs Poppy”, Consett

‘Mrs Poppy’ was also named in the New Year’s Honours list. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Known affectionately as “Mrs Poppy”, Consett’s Vera Parnaby has been selling poppies for the Royal British Legion for eight decades, raising well over £1m.

She began collecting aged six after her father was killed serving in the Second World War, accompanying her mother door‑to‑door.

Now in her mid‑80s, Vera is the Legion’s longest‑serving poppy seller and leads a dedicated volunteer team in Consett, even introducing contactless machines to keep donations flowing.

Her tireless fundraising has earned her a string of honours and a Pride of Britain regional fundraiser nomination, but she insists she has no plans to stop.

Rhiannon Hiles — Chief Executive, Beamish Museum

Rhiannon Hiles, Chief Executive of Beamish Museum.

Rhiannon Hiles has spent three decades at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, after joining as a volunteer in 1995 and working through curatorial, commercial and development roles.

She became chief executive in 2021 and has since led the open‑air museum to its biggest ever accolade – Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, the world’s largest museum prize.

In February, she was named a North East Business Titan for outstanding leadership and contribution to the regional economy, praised for putting people and communities at the heart of Beamish’s success.

She also holds senior roles in European and UK museum bodies.

Hannah Fox — Executive Director, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

Hannah Fox, the director of The Bowes Museum.

Appointed director of The Bowes Museum in 2022, Hannah Fox arrived in Barnard Castle with a track record of transforming heritage sites.

In Derby she helped lead the £18m redevelopment of the Silk Mill into the Museum of Making, hailed as the UK’s first museum of its kind.

At Bowes, she has championed community‑led culture and co‑creation, fronting the Durham Creative Community Fellows programme, which supports 17 grassroots arts leaders from across County Durham in partnership with US‑based National Arts Strategies.

Fox regularly cites founder Josephine Bowes’ “tenacity, creativity and ambition” as the inspiration for the museum’s future direction.

Dr Sarah Price — Head of Locomotion, Shildon

Dr Sarah Price (right) with Bishop of Durham elect Rick Simpson. (Image: North News & Pictures Ltd)

Dr Sarah Price made history in 2018 when she became the first woman to lead Locomotion in Shildon, part of the national Science Museum Group.

The museum, on the world’s first public railway route, tells the story of railways and the people who built and worked on them.

Price has spoken about challenging the perception that railways are a male interest, noting that close to half of Locomotion’s visitors are women and girls.

Under her leadership the site has expanded its collection, events and outreach, using the region’s rail heritage to engage diverse audiences in science, engineering and history.

By choosing not to attend, Michelle O’Neill allowed the focus of the story to shift away from her argument about the war and towards the optics of her absence

Stormont rarely has much direct influence over foreign policy, but that has never stopped international events spilling quickly into the politics of this place.

The escalating conflict involving Iran is the latest example. While decisions about military intervention are being taken in London, Washington and elsewhere, the consequences are already being felt much closer to home. Families across Northern Ireland are watching developments anxiously as the situation in the Middle East deteriorates, aware that friends and relatives are among the large number of British nationals currently in countries that could become increasingly dangerous in the days and weeks ahead.

UK officials believe hundreds of thousands of Britons are in countries targeted by Iran, with more than 140,000 registered for Foreign Office updates. If the situation continues to escalate, the prospect of evacuations on a scale rarely attempted by the UK is now openly being discussed.

It was against that backdrop that the UK Government convened a series of briefings for devolved administrations last week, and First Minister Michelle O’Neill chose not to attend.

The First Minister’s explanation has been clear enough. She has said she remains in contact with both the British and Irish governments, and that her priority is to ensure that anyone from Northern Ireland who needs assistance leaving the region can do so safely. Her objection, she says, is to taking part in a briefing by the British Government on military operations when she fundamentally disagrees with the decision to join the conflict.

That position sits squarely within Sinn Féin’s long-established approach to international affairs. The party has consistently opposed British military intervention overseas, and Michelle O’Neill has framed the current conflict in similar terms, warning that the situation is spiralling and questioning where the escalation will end. She has also been careful to stress that the Iranian regime itself is brutal and repressive, while arguing that war will not deliver a peaceful outcome.

Taken in isolation, none of that is especially surprising. But the politics of the situation is not only about the substance of her argument. It is also about the moment in which the decision was taken and how it has been interpreted.

The briefings offered by London were not about seeking the endorsement of devolved ministers for military action. Stormont was hardly being invited to weigh in on strategic decisions about missile strikes. Their purpose, according to those who attended, was to ensure devolved administrations were updated on developments in the region and on the potential implications for citizens from their jurisdictions. In other words, they were about information rather than endorsement.

That distinction has allowed deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly to frame the situation in a way that is politically advantageous for her. By attending both briefings and speaking afterwards about the scale of the challenge involved in any potential evacuation, the deputy First Minister has been able to emphasise a more practical focus on the immediate consequences of the conflict for people here.

Her criticism of Michelle O’Neill was measured but pointed. It was, she said, “genuinely disappointing” that the First Minister had chosen not to attend a meeting designed to update local leaders on events that could affect thousands of people connected to Northern Ireland. In Stormont terms, the exchange quickly settled into a familiar dynamic.

Emma Little-Pengelly’s argument was not really about foreign policy at all. Instead, it presented a contrast of one side attending briefings and focusing on practical contingencies, while the other is standing back on the grounds of principle.

The deputy First Minister used an opportunity to launch a broader attack on what she described as Sinn Féin’s historical relationship with Iran, while DUP leader Gavin Robinson went further, arguing the UK should have been involved earlier.

None of that necessarily changes the substance of the First Minister’s critique of the war itself. Across Europe and beyond, there are serious questions being asked about the legality of military action and the risk that the current escalation could pull more countries into a widening conflict.

But politics, particularly in Northern Ireland, rarely unfolds in a purely substantive way. At a time when families here are worried about loved ones in the region, participation in a briefing designed to provide information about their safety carries a certain symbolic weight, regardless of the technical purpose of the meeting itself.

It is worth saying that had the First Minister attended the briefings, I don’t believe anyone would have batted an eyelid. By choosing not to attend, Michelle O’Neill allowed the focus of the story to shift away from her argument about the war and towards the optics of her absence, which has given Emma Little-Pengelly an opportunity to present herself as the steadier voice in the room.

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Jail bosses vetoed 187 inmates deemed eligible, considering them to be “an immediate risk of harm” to an individual or group.

Prison governors blocked nearly half of all inmates set to be freed early under a government scheme, ruling them too high risk new figures have revealed.

The Scottish Prison Service released 286 prisoners from November 11 and December 13 to ease the overcrowding crisis.

However jail bosses vetoed 40 per cent – equivalent to 187 inmates – deemed eligible after considering them to be “an immediate risk of harm” to an individual or group.

In spite of this, 127 of the 286 freed had convictions for violent offences – or 44 per cent, the largest share of the total, data shows.

It comes as plans going through Parliament would slash the automatic release point to 30 per cent for sentences under four years.Critics fear the move could effectively scrap the prison governor’s veto.

As the veto applies only to emergency early release schemes, governors would be powerless to stop offenders being freed once they reach 30 per cent.

Scots Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: “The Justice Secretary must start paying attention to victims, to prison governors and realise this situation presents yet more risks to community safety.”

SPS data shows 75 (26 per cent) of those released in November had convictions for crimes including drug offences, weapons possession and bail violations.

Short-term offenders walked free after serving 50 per cent of their sentence, until it fell to 40 per cent in February last year.

If passed, the change to 30 per cent will come into force in May, a month after the end of the emergency early release programme.

It is limited to those serving less than four years and excludes sex offenders, domestic abusers or terrorists.

Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents said: “A declining prison population cannot be heralded as a success if it means a rise in crime and more victims.”

The Scottish Government said: “The governor’s veto remains in place – we have no intention of changing that.”