He found fame as the Californian ‘horse whisperer’ who even charmed the Queen of England.

But when trainer Monty Roberts died three weeks ago aged 91, he left a lasting legacy not only at the Royal stables – where he was a regular visitor for 35 years – but in horsemanship around the world.

The late Queen so admired Roberts’ pioneering techniques for breaking-in horses – using gentle persuasion, not brutality – that the two became unlikely friends. 

One of the last films Elizabeth made was a documentary about Roberts’ work, The Cowboy And The Queen.

However, The Mail on Sunday has been told their unique collaboration went further still, and that, together, they helped to establish a pioneering scheme for British military veterans and emergency workers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The result is Warrior Equine, a charity which today uses sessions working with horses to restore the health and sanity of soldiers and police officers, for example.

It turned out that, aside from his work as a trainer, Roberts had already used his horses to help thousands of traumatised US servicemen at his ranch in California and when, in her later years, Her Majesty got to hear of this, she was determined a similar scheme should be established in Britain, reveals historian and royal biographer Hugo Vickers.

‘The Queen wanted this to develop in the United Kingdom and across the world,’ said Vickers, who is updating his latest biography, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History.

The scheme, called Warrior Equine, was formed after Elizabeth was inspired by Roberts’s use of horses to help thousands of traumatised US servicemen (Pictured: Roberts at Windsor Castle, where he stayed with the Queen for the Windsor Horse Show)

Roberts’ first involvement with British soldiers was in 2014, when the American ran a series of brief courses with servicemen through the Help For Heroes charity. It proved such a success that similar events soon followed.

‘At this point, the Queen was taking a private interest,’ said Vickers. 

‘The organisers produced a report after each session and it went to Her Majesty. In 2017, she asked Sir Redmond Watt, Major-General of the Household Division, to become involved and he has continued to be massively supportive with access to military personnel.

‘In 2019, the Queen invited the team to the Royal Mews at Windsor Castle to give her a private demonstration. She told Terry Pendry, her groom, that they could use any of her horses, and some veterans who had already completed the course went through their paces.’

Vickers continued: ‘Afterwards there was a tea which was meant to last 15 minutes and in fact lasted over an hour. One person who was there told me that Her Majesty sat at a table of six, including two veterans and a Welsh Guards colonel.

‘There was ‘joy in her face’ when she heard the stories, including one from a man whose life had effectively been saved from the threat of suicide.’

One of those present that day was Ele Milwright, who had organised Roberts’ British clinics and, with the Queen’s backing, established Warrior Equine in 2019. 

Today, her charity works with groups including the Household Cavalry, The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, the Army, the Navy and emergency services.

Monty Roberts with one of the Queens horses at Windsor Castle. It is said the late Queen admired Roberts’ pioneering techniques for breaking-in horses, making the pair unlikely friends

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Queen Elizabeth II pictured with John Miller, her retired Crown Equerry, in 1982. The Queen initially sent Mr Miller to visit Roberts’s ranch

Monty Roberts pictured with horse Shy Boy in 2005 at his American ranch. He later found fame as the Californian ‘horse whisperer’

‘I know that the Queen very much wanted this to happen,’ Milwright said. 

‘Her Majesty wanted us to widen our work beyond what we’d done with Help For Heroes to include serving personnel and workers from the emergency services. She recognised the unique strains and enormous psychological pressures and difficulties they faced in the course of their duty.

‘Having had the privilege of sitting down with the Queen and hearing first-hand her support, I was determined to repay her faith in us. She was very much the catalyst.’

Yet the relationship between the Queen and Monty Roberts nearly got off to a bad start, explained Vickers.

‘The Queen knew her retired Crown Equerry, Sir John Miller, was to visit friends in California, and she sent him to the ranch to see what Roberts was doing. When this moustached figure arrived, Roberts took one look at him and thought he came straight from casting in Hollywood.

‘Roberts was convinced the visit was a practical joke arranged by his neighbours. Miller thought Roberts was a charlatan who was using concealed sugar lumps to tame the horses. 

‘The two men gradually became impressed by their respective equestrian knowledge and skills, however.

‘Miller gave the Queen a favourable report, so she invited Roberts to Windsor in April 1989.’

Vickers added: ‘The Queen watched him at work in the Royal Mews – as did the Queen Mother and Prince Philip. Roberts tamed 23 horses in five days, getting one rider into the saddle in 29 minutes.

As Roberts put it: ‘Her Majesty took my work to the world and, with her influence, the world is changing dramatically away from violence in training horses.’

According to Vickers, Terry Pendry, the Queen’s groom, learnt to follow Roberts’ methods and introduced them to the Household Cavalry.

Pendry later said Roberts ‘did more for the animal kingdom than anyone’.

Robertshaw’s Farm Shop, on Gargrave Road, combines a large food hall with an on-site butcher’s, deli, and café serving breakfast and lunch.

The Skipton store only opened in March 2025, taking over the former Keelham Farm Shop site, but the Robertshaw family’s farming and food business stretches back almost a century.

The family began selling fresh farm produce and vegetables from the roadside in 1929, and fourth-generation farmers and butchers now run the business.

Owner James Robertshaw acquired the Gargrave Road site as part of the company’s expansion, describing the move at the time as a significant milestone for the family-run business.

Robertshaw’s Farm Shop (Image: TRIPADVISOR)

Robertshaw’s says it is passionate about providing good-quality local produce at affordable prices, while supporting hundreds of farmers and producers.

The business works with more than 400 local farmers, with James also a regular visitor to Skipton Auction Mart.

Its Skipton shop has quickly proved popular with customers and currently has a 4.5-star Google and TripAdvisor rating from more than 4,000 reviews.

Visitors have particularly praised the quality and variety of food available.

The farm shop includes an extensive butcher’s counter and deli, while Robertshaw’s makes many of its own sausages, burgers, and pies.

The family business also operates a large bakery to produce its range of cakes and other baked goods.

Recent customers have highlighted everything from meat and vegetables to Yorkshire puddings, cakes, and breakfasts.

One regular visitor said staff were “friendly and helpful” and praised the choice of products as well as the cleanliness of the store.

They bought topside and pork loin for a Sunday dinner and described both as “great”, adding that the Yorkshire puddings, cakes, and vegetables also impressed.

After later returning for breakfast, they said the staff were once again helpful and the food was “very good”.

Another recent customer praised the “great service” and said their food arrived soon after ordering.

They added that the drinks were “piping hot too”.

Food quality is repeatedly mentioned by visitors, with one reviewer simply describing it as “excellent”.

Breakfast is one of the biggest draws.

One customer said the shop remained similar to the former Keelham Farm Shop and recommended it as somewhere to stop for breakfast or lunch before picking up groceries at the same time.

They said: “Not the cheapest of places – but you do get what you pay for.”

Cakes have also proved particularly tempting.

One customer who called in on a busy Sunday lunchtime specifically to pick up cake admitted there had been a wait to pay but concluded: “Cake was goooood!”

The farm shop itself is a major attraction, with customers praising the scale and variety of its food and drink selection.

One reviewer described it as a “lovely big farm shop selling a massive selection of food and drink”, adding that they would “definitely go again”.

Another called it an “excellent large farm shop with cafe just outside Skipton”.

Fresh produce, meat, and deli products are frequently highlighted in reviews.

One customer described everything sold at Robertshaw’s as “top class quality” and said it was “a pleasure to go here”.

As fourth-generation farmers and butchers, the Robertshaw family says that background is reflected in both the quality of its products and the awards it has received over the years.

Its butchers and deli produce sausages, burgers, and pies in-house, while the company’s bakery allows it to make baked goods on a much larger scale.

The Skipton opening marked a major expansion for a business which had already been operating for generations.

When plans for the store were announced, Robertshaw’s said its commitment to “exceptional products” and customer service would remain at the heart of the new venture.

By HARRIET KEAN

Published: 23:01 BST, 22 August 2026 | Updated: 00:19 BST, 23 August 2026

Having trademarked their own names – and even those of their four children – it’s no wonder David and Victoria are often known as Brand Beckham.

Now Sir David has taken things an unlikely step further. He has applied to trademark the distinctive rose daughter Harper devised for his 50th birthday present.

The keen gardener proudly unveiled the Sir David Beckham Rose at the Chelsea Flower Show in May and it later went on sale at garden centres nationwide.

The company which handles his commercial interests, DB Ventures, has asked the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to trademark the shrub rose to ensure no one else can copy it and that it can go on being sold.

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The application was made earlier this month and the official process to award a trademark is now under way.

The fragrant white rose was created by luxury flower breeders David Austin Roses at 15-year-old Harper’s request as ‘something enduring’ to celebrate her father’s landmark birthday in May last year.

Sir David, an ambassador for the King’s Foundation charity, licenses the rose to be sold by the grower from Albrighton in Shropshire through DB Ventures. 

£2.50 of its £38.50 price is donated to the foundation, which was set up by the then Prince Charles in 1990 and whose work includes education programmes and protecting traditional arts and crafts.

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Sir David Beckham has applied to trademark the distinctive rose his daughter Harper devised for his 50th birthday present

The Sir David Beckham Rose was unveiled at the Chelsea Flower Show in May and later went on sale at garden centres nationwide

The white rose was created by luxury flower breeders David Austin Roses to celebrate Sir David’s landmark birthday in May last year

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King Charles III was pictured smelling a Sir David Beckham Rose at the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London in May

An insider told The Mail on Sunday that trademarking the rose is part of the official process to protect it and means it can be licensed and sold without any issues, earning as much as possible for the King’s Foundation.

When he introduced the rose at Chelsea, Sir David said: ‘Gardening brings people together across generations and gives so much pleasure. To be part of something that celebrates that, and the heritage of the English rose, feels very meaningful to me.’

Trademarking the rose also crucially means his company can take action against anyone who tries to copy it.

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Last year he won a lawsuit against hundreds of Chinese counterfeiters, who were permanently banned from ripping off his designer gear. 

He took the action in the US to stamp out online vendors from selling David Beckham fake goods on Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Temu.

The David Austin website describes the Beckham rose shrub as ‘an upright, strong shrub with an open, balanced habit. The medium sized blooms are deeply cupped, the outer petals gently upturned, opening from soft white with a hint of yellow to clear, fresh white’.

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Amid the attention and pressure of racing for NASCAR Cup Series title stakes this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ryan Preece is hanging loose with his hometown crowd.

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver is on the bubble for making the field of 16 drivers who will compete in the Chase, the 10-race championship run that closes the season. With two races remaining in the regular season, Preece is ranked 50 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in the Chase.

“We need a home run,” Preece said. “That’s the plan.”

But he scoffs at the idea of walling off the outside world to focus solely on his No. 60 Ford. Preece instead has embraced the frenzy of racing around his roots as a rallying point for his last-ditch charge at the Chase.

The Berlin, Connecticut, native has spent the week in New England competing with his family-owned team at minor league races across the region (including Saturday’s Modified Series race at New Hampshire).

Ryan Preece Motorsports has a crew full of locals with nicknames like “John the Plumber” who have been helping the driver since he was a teenager.

“We have nicknames for each and every one of them,” said Preece, 35. “It’s an opportunity to race with guys that I’ve known forever. They just enjoy racing and having some fun. I live for getting behind the wheel of a race car, not sitting in a room analyzing what people are going to do. Because if you race enough, you can predict what people are going to do. So I think it’s important to race more. I don’t think it’s a distraction.”

New Hampshire’s flat 1.058-mile oval is a critical opportunity for Preece, who finished 17th at Richmond Raceway last week and fell 21 points further behind 16th in the Chase standings.

Ford drivers have been dominant recently at New Hampshire, leading 275 of 301 laps last year while taking three of the top four spots.

Preece has 40 NASCAR starts at the track known as “The Magic Mile” vs. two NASCAR races at New Hampshire for van Gisbergen, who has only a few seasons of oval experience after a career of racing on road and street courses before entering NASCAR.

“When I go to New Hampshire and the feel that I look for, that there are certain things I can do pretty well, where Shane is still trying to figure out,” Preece said. “There are things that Shane does phenomenally on road courses. We all have tendencies that we’re better at than others, but going into New Hampshire, I feel like being from New England, it’s my people. It’s a place that I’ve been racing at since I was 16 years old.”

His career highlight at New Hampshire was a Modified Series victory on a last-lap pass in 2021.

“I’ve definitely had a lot of memories, and it would be nice to add one with a win in the Cup Series here,” Preece said. “I’ve loved everything about this place.”

Lobster tales

After winning last September at New Hampshire, Ryan Blaney will receive his trophy on Sunday – a 20-pound lobster mounted on a plaque.

Teammate Joey Logano said he started the tradition for the “Loudon the Lobster” trophy in 2009 when he scored the first of his 39 Cup victories.

“They were like: ‘What do you want to do with the lobster? We’ll just ship it to you,’” Logano said. “I was like: ‘Alive? Why don’t you just put it on a plaque?’ I’ve got a couple on the wall. It’s a good icebreaker when people come to your house and see a lobster on the wall.”

Time to rest

Christopher Bell, who has won two of the past four Cup races at New Hampshire, said his team is feeling more refreshed this season, which included a second off week in midsummer. Easter weekend was the only break in the 2025 schedule.

“The grind was a lot harder last year with (27) races in a row,” Bell said. “That was brutal. The schedule being broken up a lot more this year was great.”

Odds and ends

Blaney (+425) is the favorite for Sunday’s race, followed by Logano (+475) and Bell (+475). … Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in NASCAR history, made its most recent trip to victory lane at New Hampshire with Kasey Kahne in July 2012. Since then, the team has 118 victories on 28 tracks.

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

When I was campaigning in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, it became blatantly obvious to me that dark and sinister forces were at work.

It wasn’t just the intimidating atmosphere out on the streets of Manchester where I went door-to-door canvassing as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Reform UK under the menacing gaze of groups of mainly young Muslim men.

Or even the rumours of under-hand deals being struck between other political parties and local so-called community elders.

Far more disturbing was what my colleagues and I witnessed at the polling stations.

I’m talking about husbands and fathers standing by voting booths, instructing their wives and adult children exactly where to put their mark on the ballot paper. In many cases these coercive patriarchs might as well have had the pen in their own hands.

So while new and deeply disturbing revelations of widespread and illicit ‘family voting’ in Birmingham during May’s local elections will leave many Britons appalled, they come as no shock to me.

As revealed by the Daily Mail in a damning report yesterday, at recent elections Birmingham City Council staff witnessed attempts to get round the secret ballot at no fewer than 50 of its polling stations.

Beleaguered electoral officers had to repeatedly tell voters it was against the law to enter a booth with a relative and tell them how to vote. Others witnessed one man trying to influence voting through ‘Islamic gestures, blinking eyes, hand signals’, and another clutching ‘all the poll cards’ for his family and ‘advising’ each on how to vote.

You’d think it would go without saying that voters colluding or conferring or advising each other on voting is illegal under the 2023 Ballot Secrecy Act.

But these were exactly the kind of illegal practices I warned about six months ago in Manchester, where it emerged after the polls closed that ‘family voting’ took place in 68 per cent of polling stations in Gorton and Denton.

Back then, my attempts to red-flag the insidious creep of these unlawful voting practices fell on deaf ears. I was simply accused of sour grapes after coming second to Hannah Spencer, who is now the constituency’s Green Party MP.

But, as I said at the time, what is going on is nothing less than an assault on, not just our democracy, but Britain itself. We are facing a major problem in this country, one which threatens to strike at the heart of everything we hold dear. It’s time to wake up and act.

And I’m not alone in issuing this urgent clarion call. The official – and independent – election observer group Democracy Volunteers said it witnessed 291 potential breaches of the secret ballot across the UK at the May elections.

In February, at the Gorton and Denton by-election, this impartial group said it witnessed the highest amount of ‘family voting’ in its ten-year history, at 15 out of the 22 polling stations at which they had observers across the constituency. They were so alarmed, they took the rare step of publishing their findings as soon as the polls closed.

In February, Greater Manchester Police took no action after saying it found ‘no evidence’ of the law being broken.

It has since launched an investigation into alleged offences during the May local elections in Tameside, a Manchester metropolitan borough, amid concerns about how candidates were put forward and represented in the ward. Six arrests have been made.

It is no longer plausible to deny that we have a serious problem with British democracy being hijacked by sectarianism, with voters in some areas of the country putting their allegiance to a particular religion, tribe or clan, ahead of their loyalty to this country. In ten of the 14 wards that make up the Gorton and Denton seat, more than one in five people was born overseas. In one area, Longsight, close to half the population are foreign-born.

You can bet that if this is happening in Manchester and Birmingham then it will also be going on in Bradford, in Oldham, in Blackburn and in London, entire cities where elections are being rigged along sectarian lines.

When I was campaigning in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, it became blatantly obvious to me sinister forces were at work, writes Matthew Goodwin

On some nights while canvassing local voters in Gorton and Denton, I walked along streets where not a single person could speak English and where people living in homes did not match official records. Community pressures, and the spectre of family voting, in these areas were plain to see.

My early warnings may have been ignored but the fact that Democracy Volunteers raised the alarm and Greater Manchester Police have made arrests is evidence of this national crisis.

We are never going to save Britain if we don’t first safeguard our precious democracy. To do that, I believe the Government urgently needs to take three steps.

The first is to dramatically restrict postal voting.

It was Tony Blair who opened up the system to anyone who wanted to vote by post back in 2001, in the cynical belief that it would garner more votes for Labour. In doing so, he ignored warnings at the time from a High Court judge that it was ‘wide open to fraud’ and opened up our democracy to all kinds of insidious influences.

For years, there has been disturbing evidence that this is being used to game the system, allowing particular minority communities to engage in block voting away from the watchful eye of independent observers in polling stations.

To stamp out this practice, future postal votes should be restricted, as they once were, to those who genuinely need them, such as people serving abroad in the military and those who, due to disability, are physically unable to get to a polling station.

Secondly, we need to bring about an end to Commonwealth voting rights. Around 1.7million people from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and India – who, despite the fact that they are not even British citizens, have the right to vote at British elections – have, according to the Office for National Statistics, registered to do so. It is a practice which most right-minded people would regard as absurd.

Finally, we need to take steps to ensure that what I and others witnessed in Gorton and Denton, and what has now been uncovered in Birmingham, cannot happen in the future. It saddens me to say this but if, as a democracy, that means we have to have police in every polling station standing alongside independent observers then so be it.

If we fail to act, then entire areas of the UK will fall under the influence of networks built around religious and clan identities.

We need political leaders in Westminster to stamp this out now; to defend our ancient liberties and keep a grip on one of the great pillars of our national life.

British democracy is a cherished part of who we are. It’s time to push back before it’s too late.

Josh Tarling produced an inspiring performance at the Vuelta a Espana just days following his brother’s tragic death in another cycling competition in Portugal

Josh Tarling admitted his impressive Vuelta a España opening stage meant little to him following the devastating loss of his brother and fellow professional cyclist Fin Tarling. The performance came just days after Fin’s tragic death during the Volta a Portugal last week.

Fin, 19, died in a high-speed collision with a van during the eighth stage of the competition last Friday. The vehicle had strayed onto the road ahead of the incident, believing the cyclists had already passed.

Tarling decided to compete in the Vuelta despite the tragic news, in a bid to keep his head busy while he mourns. The 22-year-old Netcompany Ineos rider placed himself on the start line for the three-week Grand Tour and produced an impressive opening day performance.

The rider forced his way into first place with an outstanding ride, before only being able to watch on as Ethan Hayter and then Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar surpassed him by the narrowest of margins. The Welshman was just four seconds short of Pogacar’s winning time.

But following last week’s devastating news, the result meant little for Tarling, who received a hug from Pogacar on the podium at the end of the first stage.

Asked what the outing meant to him, Tarling told Eurosport: “Not a lot. No, I’m happy with it. And I’m happy I could try and get my head busy with other stuff.

“So yeah, obviously I’m happy and I’m thankful for the team and everything, to let me come and let me give it a good crack.”

Legendary Welsh cyclist and Netcompany Ineos’ racing director Geraint Thomas said he couldn’t be prouder of Tarling. Thomas described Tarling’s grief as ‘unimaginable’, and said that the team would try to offer some normality to help support him over the course of the next three weeks.

“For a start, it’s just great to have him here,” Thomas told TNT Sport. “You know, he was really keen to ride, he just wanted to get back to the day job, so to speak, and find comfort in the process and being around the team and everything being as normal as possible. So we fully backed him with that and it’s great to have him here.

“Obviously, it’s been unimaginable what he’s gone through the last week or so. But to put in a performance like that at the end of the week he’s had is just fantastic, really, it just shows the class of him as an athlete and as a person. Couldn’t be prouder.

“I think the course suited him. Technically, he’s one of the best and I think yesterday was probably the first time he’s ridden a bike properly in a while, so to still put that in? It’s insane, really.

“We’ll just continue to be normal around him and support him as best we can. It’s the start of hopefully a great trip for these eight boys on the bus.”

Tarling’s presence in Ineos’ squad was backed by his family. “On Saturday Joshua will be riding the Vuelta,” posted his mother Dawn on Instagram.

“He has chosen to do so in honour of his brother Fin, with the full support of his family, surrounded by a team who have been incredibly supportive of whatever decision he made.

“I could not have wished for two boys who were closer growing up and into adulthood we have watched with pride as Joshua has been the most loving and supportive big brother to Fin. Following this devastating news he has been an incredible strength for us all.

“Finlay was so incredibly proud of his big brother, and would be watching nose to the tv and shouting as he competed. So it is right that Josh honours that love and pride by doing what Fin always loved watching him do.”

‘What a lad. I love him.’

A bride received a surprise message from the Prime Minister on her wedding day after she sent a direct tongue-in-cheek appeal for him not to ‘ruin’ the event.

The government’s new northern headquarters, Number 10 North, was opened by Andy Burnham last month in Heron House, facing Albert Square in Manchester city centre.

The registry office is based in the same building, with the entrance being around the corner on Lloyd Street.

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A number of bridal parties could be seen making their way into the building amid a heavy police presence in the area when it was officially opened last month.

In a video posted on TikTok, titled ‘Andy Burnham please don’t ruin my wedding’, after it opened, bride-to-be Sarah ‘Saz’ Burwin said: “I saw you set up your new gaff, Number 10 North, at Heron House. I saw it on the news, gorgeous, love what you’ve done with the place.

“But I’m actually getting married there on the 21st of August, and on the news today, the place was surrounded with police, bollards, all sorts. A lot of stuff that wasn’t there before.

“My trouble is, I was planning to get nice photos like after, the registry office, outside, and I’m just a bit worried that all of this is kind of ruining the vibe.”

She added: “So I would really appreciate it if you were maybe not there that day. I mean, you’re welcome, you’re invited. But maybe without the escorts, the police escorts. The guys with the rifles and s**t, because I’ve got a content creator coming.

“So I don’t really know what we’re gonna do if it’s surrounded by the military and police, you know. Just something to think on. No pressure. But if you could, you know, give them an hour off. I am just a little bit concerned about that, if you could let me know.”

At the time Mr Burnham’s TikTok replied to her saying: “Noted Saz.”

In an update posted on the social media site following her nuptials on Friday, Saz shared a special video message which Mr Burnham recorded for her inside Number 10 North, and which was played to her and her new husband after they tied the knot.

In it, the PM said: “Saz, an absolutely huge congratulations to you and Fred on your wedding day. Thank you so much for the invite, but sadly, I’m honouring your initial request for me to stay out of the way, as I’m filming this as I’m about to leave Number 10 North for the day.

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“Hopefully that’s good news for your content creator, though. But I couldn’t let the day go by without sending you both a message. I hope you have the best day celebrating and thank you for being such a good sport about Number 10 North suddenly being such a big part of your big day.

“The DJ set will have to wait for another time, sadly, but I hope you play some good tunes on my behalf, some big Manchester bangers. Anyway, huge congratulations to you both, it’s great to see Number 10 North already bringing people together.”

Saz, who had been documenting her wedding preparations on the social media site, could be seen covering her mouth in shock and giggling as the message was played.

She said afterwards: “Oh my god! What a lad. I love him.” Adding: “I’m best mates with Andy Burnham.”

In a comment on her TikTok post, Mr Burnham said: “Hope you and Fred had an amazing day Saz! Sorry I couldn’t do that DJ set…” She replied, saying he had ‘made our day.’

It was the first time Davis had appeared at a public event since announcing on 11 August that she has stage four breast cancer.

She said in that announcement that it had “metastasised” to her bones following a diagnosis a year-and-half-ago, meaning it was “too late” for chemotherapy.

Davis signed autographs and posed for photographs before appearing on Saturday’s panel.

Some fans posing questions told the actress “I love you so much”, but she was not asked directly about her health.

The Shaun of the Dead director, Edgar Wright, and Simon Pegg, who played the film’s lead role were also on the panel. Davis played Dianne, an aspiring actress who was one of the core group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse, in the cult British movie and helps Pegg’s character Shaun fight off the legions of the undead.

Her favourite memories of filming, she said, were “when we all pretended to be zombies and walked across the square; it was like being naughty schoolkids.

“It was a fun time, we went a bit mad.”

The actress, who played receptionist Dawn Tinsley in the BBC sitcom The Office and whose father is comedian Jasper Carrott, was also applauded when asked for advice about getting into the film industry.

She said: “We all grow up with a different life with a different world telling us we all have limitations.

“None of us do, our only limitations are things that we think are limiting. We can do anything, or be anybody, and don’t apologise for that.”

David had thanked fans for their “kindness and support” in another post two days after revealing she had cancer.

“OK, so the last two days have been utterly overwhelming, in that I had zero idea my cancer post would have the attention it did,” she said.

“Truly, I am in shock. That said, thank you to everyone for the tremendous amount of kindness and support you have sent me. Good grief it was emotional.”

One of those is a new coach in former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, alongside a change to the blind auditions.

The Rewind button will give each coach a chance to change their mind about a contestant who has left the stage without a chair turn.

The coach can then press the Rewind button and invite the act back to join their team.

Emma Willis is also back presenting, though it remains unclear if she will return as host for the future, as she is now one of three presenters on Strictly Come Dancing.

Who are the coaches on The Voice UK 2026?

Kelly Rowland joins Sir Tom Jones, will.i.am, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones among the coaches.

Rowland was one of the members of Destiny’s Child and has had an award-winning solo career outside of that.

Sir Tom Jones is a Welsh singer whose career began with a string of top 10 hits in the 1960s, and he has since toured regularly.

Some of his hits include ‘It’s Not Unusual’, ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ and the theme song for the James Bond film Thunderball.

Meanwhile, will.i.am is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer who is known for his work with the Black Eyed Peas.

Finally, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones are members of the band McFly, and share a double chair together.

It was announced in June that Kelly would be replacing singer LeAnn Rimes as coach on the show.

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Rowland said at the time: “I am excited to join The Voice UK as a coach, and am looking forward to working with the excellent and passionate coaches the show is known for.

“I can’t wait to hear all the new talent and go to battle for my team.

“Let’s go!”

Will you be watching The Voice UK 2026? Let us know in the comments.

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