ITV Gone fans are convinced Michael Polly is covering for someone after viewers spotted his suspicious behaviour

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ITV’s Gone viewers are suspecting that Michael Polly is hiding a “big secret”, asserting that he isn’t the murderer of Sarah Polly.

Audiences will recall that music teacher Sarah vanished, only to be later discovered dead in the woods near her home. An unidentified individual strangled her before discarding her body and fleeing the scene.

Detective Annie Cassidy has been investigating the enigmatic death, with a chilling twist revealing Sarah’s husband, Headmaster Michael, as her prime suspect.

In tonight’s (March 16) instalment of the six-part series, Annie and her team start to view things differently as new information continues to surface.

It’s undeniable that Michael’s behaviour has been peculiar since his wife’s disappearance, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s attracted suspicion, reports the Mirror.

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He wasn’t the only one under scrutiny, as Sarah’s lover Stephen Sedgwick was also interrogated about their locations when Sarah went missing.

Michael maintained his innocence, but the police remained sceptical, given that Michael had a potential motive if he was aware of his wife’s infidelity.

Regrettably, the police lacked sufficient evidence, leaving them no option but to release him. However, Annie wasn’t prepared to let the matter rest, opting to interview Michael at his residence and secretly record him.

She quickly observed that his daughter Alana was absent, but he maintained that she was with her grandparents because she wished to care for them during this difficult period.

Yet he struggled to sustain his falsehoods as he subsequently broke down and admitted that Alana had gone to her grandparents to escape him, acknowledging he was responsible for the affair.

During his conversations with Annie, it became evident that his account didn’t hold together, and viewers at home were swift to identify Michael’s peculiar conduct.

Numerous viewers suggested that he is “covering for someone” and the actual murderer might be his daughter. One fan posted on X: “Michael didn’t kill his wife he’s covering for someone @davemorrissey64.”

Another asked: “Is he protecting someone? #Gone.” A third added: “Michael didn’t do it ,so who did , the daughter #gone.”

Meanwhile, one viewer applauded: “Wow, what an episode the 2 leads are incredible. The tension. Eve Myles and David Morrisey what chemistry.”

You can stream Gone on ITVX

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Tourists and locals have been gathered on the Reunion Island to see lava flowing from a volcano that has been erupting for over a month.

On Sunday, lava from the Piton de la Fournaise volcano reached the Indian ocean for the first time in 19 years.

The volcano began erupting 13 February, for the second time this year. Two lava flows from the volcano have since caused disruption after cutting the national highway linking the south and east of the island.

The conflict in Iran has disrupted energy and commodity markets. Iran has effectively closed the narrow strait of Hormuz, a vital oil transit point, attacking more than a dozen ships over the past two weeks that have tried to sail through the waterway.

Donald Trump has been pressing US allies in Europe to help secure the strait, warning on March 15 that it will be “very bad for the future of Nato” if they do not support American efforts to reopen Hormuz. But Iran has vowed to keep the waterway closed.

The disruption to Gulf shipping has caused Brent crude oil prices to jump sharply from around US$70 (£53) a barrel before the crisis began to more than US$100. Global trade in a wide range of other goods – from consumer products to agricultural raw materials – is being affected too.

But the crisis has also highlighted a broader issue: that global trade depends on a surprisingly small number of narrow waterways, which are often called maritime “chokepoints”. Here is a guide to the chokepoints that matter most for global trade, and how vulnerable each one is to disruption.

1. Strait of Hormuz

Hormuz is the world’s most critical energy chokepoint. Connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea, it carries around 39% of the seaborne crude oil trade and 19% of natural gas. Unlike most trade chokepoints, there is no viable alternative to Hormuz for Gulf states to export their energy.

Iran has periodically threatened to close the strait of Hormuz since the 1980s. But the disruption caused to shipping since late February, when the US and Israel first launched airstrikes across Iran, is the most serious escalation in decades. It has caused the largest oil supply disruption in history and soaring global oil prices.

The consequences of the current disruption to Gulf shipping extend beyond energy. The Gulf region handles over 26 million containers annually, with major fertiliser exports passing through here too. Prolonged shipping disruption will therefore have a direct effect on global food production costs.

2. Suez canal

The Suez canal links the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, cutting at least ten days off journey times between Asia and Europe. The waterway handles 10% of global seaborne trade, including 22% of container traffic, 20% of car shipments and 10% of crude oil.

Controlled by Egypt, it is not easily threatened directly. But the waterway is not immune to accidents, as demonstrated by the grounding of the Ever Given container ship in 2021. The vessel blocked the canal for six days, disrupting nearly US$10 billion in trade.

The bigger vulnerability of this chokepoint is the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the southern tip of the Red Sea. Attacks on commercial shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen between 2023 and 2025, which it carried out in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, forced many operators to reroute around Africa.

This cut traffic through the Suez canal from over 26,000 vessels in 2023 to around 13,000 in 2024. Houthi leaders have recently threatened to resume attacks on commercial shipping in retaliation for the Israeli and US attacks on Iran, warning in official communications that their “fingers are on the trigger”.

3. Panama canal

Connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Panama canal handles around 2.5% of global seaborne trade – a modest share, but concentrated in high-value and strategic cargo such as containerised goods, cars and grain. The canal carries around 40% of all US containerised shipments, valued at US$270 billion annually.

Its vulnerability stems both from the climate and geopolitics. In 2023 and 2024, severe droughts caused water levels in the canal’s freshwater reservoirs to fall sharply, forcing restrictions on vessel numbers and size. Then, in early 2025, Trump threatened to take control of the canal. He cited concerns over the operation of some of its ports by Hutchison, a Hong Kong-based company.

4. Strait of Malacca

The Malacca strait is the busiest shipping lane on Earth. It carries 24% of all global seaborne trade, including 45% of seaborne crude oil and 26% of cars. The waterway is also home to Singapore, which hosts the second-busiest container port in the world.

Malacca is the primary gateway through which China, Japan and South Korea receive their energy imports. Nearly 80% of China’s oil imports pass through here, a dependence Beijing calls the “Malacca dilemma”.

Piracy remains a persistent concern, with over 130 incidents reported in the Malacca strait in 2025. But the greater risk is geopolitical. Any escalation in tensions between China and the US or India over maritime dominance in the region could severely disrupt passage through the strait.

Malacca is also exposed to natural disasters, including tsunamis and volcanic activity. The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, for example, caused significant damage to coastal infrastructure at the strait’s southern entrance.

5. Turkish straits

The Turkish straits – the Bosphorus and Dardanelles – are the only sea route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. They carry 3% of global seaborne trade. While this share may appear small, it includes around 20% of global wheat exports from Ukraine, Russia and Romania.

At just 700 metres wide at its narrowest point, running through the centre of Istanbul in Turkey, navigation is complex and minor collisions are common. Under the Montreux convention, Turkey controls military access to the straits, a power Ankara has used since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to restrict the movement of warships while keeping commercial traffic open.

Further escalation in the Black Sea area could disrupt this balance and shake global grain markets. The region’s high seismic activity adds another layer of risk.

The current crisis in the strait of Hormuz has thrown into sharp relief just how vulnerable global trade is to disruption due to its reliance on a handful of narrow waterways. But the five waterways mentioned above are not the only trade chokepoints.

There are as many as 24 maritime chokepoints in the world, including other major waterways like the Taiwan, Dover and Bering straits. Each of these waterways are exposed to their own combination of geopolitical tension, climate change, piracy, accidents or natural disasters.

Firefighters were called to the blaze on Saturday night (March 14)

An empty building was deliberately set on fire in a Cambridgeshire suburb. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue were called to a fire at an empty premises in Bretton Way, Peterborough at around 11.20pm on Saturday (March 14).

A fire spokesperson said: “At 11.20pm on Saturday crews from Stanground and Dogsthorpe were called to a building fire on Bretton Way in Peterborough. Wearing breathing apparatus, firefighters used hose reels to extinguish the fire and cleared the smoke using a positive pressure ventilation fan.

“The crews returned to their stations by 1am.” The fire was determined to be deliberate and Cambridgeshire Police has launched an investigation.

A police spokesperson said: “Fire informed us at about 11.50pm on March 14 of a fire at an empty premises on Bretton Way, Peterborough. A crime was raised for arson.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101 and quote 35/19152/26.

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Patricia Duncan, 51, went missing on November 15, 2002, after going to bed having watched a film at her home in Buckie, Moray.

A Scots gran has been missing for nearly 24 years after vanishing without trace.

Patricia Duncan, 51, went missing on November 15, 2002, after going to bed having watched a film at her home in Buckie, Moray. She was never seen again.

Her daughter, Johan, 47, told the Mirror: “Mum was a loving, caring mother, who did everything for her family. She loved looking after her grandchildren. My son Matthew was five when she went missing, I worked in a shop and she helped out with childcare. In the week she disappeared she’d been picking him up from school as possible. There were no signs that anything was wrong.

“On the night of the 15th November 2002, my sisters Fiona and Louise, and my mum and were at my parent’s house watching movies. My sisters went to bed and mum and dad stayed up to watch another, before heading to bed about midnight. When dad got up in the morning there was no sign of mum. She took her jacket, cigarettes and lighter – no purse. We had a lot of animals at the time – rabbits, ducks, pigs – but she wasn’t out feeding them. Dad drove around town to look for her, before going to the police.”

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Johan says it was out of character for her mum to leave without leaving a note. Extensive police searches were conducted for Patricia but sadly, she was never found.

Johan said: “To leave without a word was so out of character. She used to leave a note when she was going to the shops – let alone leaving in the middle of the night. Police performed a door to door search, and took out a cadaver dog, and the family searched along the coastline, in case she’d gone for a walk.

“Nothing. Nobody heard a word from her ever again. Over the years we’ve had sightings, with the odd person saying they’ve seen someone who fits her description, one as far as Malta, but all have come to nothing. Darren once saw a lady he was sure was mum, but on closer inspection turned out to be stranger.”

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Despite being missing for more than two decades, Patricia’s family firmly believe she is still alive.

Johan said: “When you have a family member that passes away you have closure, but we don’t have that – it hangs over us all the time. You learn to live with it, but it’s always there. Birthdays, Christmases and on Mother’s Day it’s especially hard. When I’m at the shops I still think, mum would love that. And at first I would buy it to keep for her return. But as so much time passed, I stopped.

“I feel sad for my children, who were stripped of growing up with their grandma. Although we’ve told them all about her, and they scan around to look for her. The police concluded that mum had probably gone into the sea, although her case remains open. We hardly ever hear from them now.

“We went down the route of presumption of death, so dad could get his affairs in order, but truth be told we don’t think she is dead. We’re still actively searching for her. We hope one day someone – or mum – will see something in a paper, and get in touch. But as the years go on it’s getting harder. Ultimately, we just want her to be happy, and to know that she’s alive. We all love and miss her very much.”

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Clarke visited potential sites in the United States before settling on Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale as the two main bases for his squad this summer.

Scotland will play Haiti (14 June) and Morocco (19 June) in Massachusetts and finish Group C in Miami against Brazil (24 June).

“I always wanted to go to a World Cup with my country, so I’ve now done that,” said the former Chelsea and St Mirren defender, who won six Scotland caps.

Asked whether the ball was now in the SFA’s court, Clarke was happy to agree.

“Yes, I think it is,” he said. “I’ve had a very brief conversation with Ian [Maxwell, SFA chief executive] about what they want to do moving forward.

“But I think I’m waiting on the Scottish FA now coming to me and saying, ‘look, this is what we see as the future’ and if I’m part of that then we can have that discussion.”

And Clarke admits he’s shifted slightly in his own mind, having previously said his chances of staying were only 25 per cent. He says he’s now more “50-50” and is not phased by the fact nothing’s yet resolved.

“It’s been busy for everyone so I’m not surprised,” he added.

The inspection of Seascape Primary School, in Peterlee, found that pupils “do not achieve well.” 

The report raised concerns about the progress made by disadvantaged pupils, stating that it is “consistently well below that of other pupils nationally” and shows no signs of improvement.

A spokesperson from Seascape Primary School said: “We are aware of the outcome of the Ofsted inspection.

“Our safeguarding processes are robust and well established, and we are committed to doing all that we can to ensure our pupils have the best possible learning opportunities.” 

However, there are significant learning gaps for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities according to Ofsted.

Inspectors found that the school’s curriculum “has not prepared pupils for their next steps” and does not equip them with the knowledge needed.

The progress of pupils, particularly in “reading, writing and mathematics,” has not been prioritised by school leaders, and the “experiences in lessons are often ineffective”, the report said.

It also highlighted that some of the school’s improvement strategies have failed, where “a recently introduced approach to assessment has not supported staff to accurately assess what pupils know or identify gaps in pupils’ understanding.”

The inspection expresses concern about pupils’ future, suggesting that they “do not receive an acceptable standard of education” and “very few pupils achieve the standards expected at the end of key stages 1 and 2.”

Attendance at the school is also below national averages, the report explains.

Inspectors found that “until very recently, leaders have not taken effective action to improve pupils’ attendance.”

Inspectors did acknowledge that school leaders have started to improve behaviour standards, stating: “The school feels safe, calm, orderly and respectful.”

On the rare occasions when there is “discrimination or bullying,” staff “tackle it quickly and effectively.”

The spokesperson from Seascape Primary School added: Work has already begun to make the necessary changes in order to address the recommendations in the report.”

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The school has recently introduced a new curriculum to help improve the quality of education, but inspectors noted that “the overall impact of this new curriculum is limited” due to teaching weaknesses.

The future focus recommended for Seascape is on identifying the needs of pupils accurately, improving attendance, broadening pupils’ experiences, and developing a better understanding and respect for cultural diversity in modern Britain.

The governors have also been asked to carefully monitor the use of pupil premium funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils benefit from this.

A notice was published in the London Gazette on Thursday, March 5, sharing details of the individuals who had their MBEs and OBEs taken away.

Most of the honours were stripped due to a criminal conviction or for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.

The notice regarding the list of people who have had their honours taken away can be found in The London Gazette.

Nine people have had their OBEs and MBEs stripped in 2026 (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

King Charles and government praised for “vital” action in stripping honours

The only way to lose an honour like an OBE or an MBE is through a process known as ‘forfeiture’.

This is decided by the Honours Forfeiture Committee, with the monarch approving decisions based on their advice.

The group is made up of a small number of senior civil servants and independent members who look at someone with an honour who has either been convicted of a serious crime or is judged to have brought the system into disrepute.

Discussing the decision to strip people of their honours, Tracy Lamourie of Lamourie Media, said that the process was important to protect the reputation of the government and the monarchy.

She said: It’s actually vital that they do take actions like this because institutions, everything from businesses to the royal family to governments, are under constant scrutiny these days, and people are demanding accountability.

“It’s not ok to sweep things under the rug in 2026.

“If these honour systems are going to continue to exist, they absolutely have to maintain the public’s trust and credibility, or they’re worth less than the cost to manufacture and announce them.”

Michael Ryan, Founder and CEO at Ink Digital, shared similar thoughts on it needing to protect the integrity of the honours system.

He said: “Awards like these are symbolic recognition of service and contribution, so when recipients later become associated with serious misconduct or reputational damage, leaving the honour in place can create a perception problem for the wider system.

“In situations like this, the response is often as much about reputation management as it is about the individuals involved.

“Institutions such as the monarchy operate within a very visible public narrative, and public honours are part of how that narrative is communicated.

“When honours are revoked, it sends a signal that the recognition is tied not just to past achievement but also to ongoing conduct and public trust.”

On the other hand, royal insiders quoted by Radar Online have questioned whether the honours system can retain its value.

A source familiar with the honours system shared: “When you see this many titles being cancelled in such a short time, it inevitably leads some people to ask whether the whole system begins to look a bit meaningless.”

However, not everyone agreed, as another royal source said: “The King has shown he is willing to strip titles when he believes standards have been breached.

“We saw it when Andrew Windsor lost his royal titles and patronages, and now we are seeing the same strict attitude applied to the honours system.”

Full list of people to have their MBEs and OBEs stripped in 2026

• Ian Ashbold, received MBE in 2016, stripped due to a criminal conviction
• Lloyd Hamilton, received MBE in 2011, stripped due to a criminal conviction
• Angela Middleton, received MBE in 2019, stripped due to bringing the honours system into disrepute
• Nigel O’Connor, received MBE in 2015, stripped due to professional censure
• Tony Reilly, received OBE in 2011, stripped due to professional censure
• Paul Rose, received MBE in 2002, stripped due to a criminal conviction
• Anant Shah, received OBE in 2020, stripped due to bringing the honours system into disrepute
• Graham Trewhella, received MBE in 2010, stripped due to a criminal conviction
• Stuart Hogg, received MBE in 2024, stripped due to a criminal conviction

What are OBEs and MBEs?

OBE stands for Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

This is awarded for having a major local role in any activity, including people whose work has made them known nationally in their chosen area.

MBE stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire.

This is awarded for an outstanding achievement or service to the community.

A new interactive map has revealed the areas that will benefit from a new government-funded programme to improve internet speeds

More than a million British homes are due a free internet upgrade from the government – a new interactive map have revealed which areas are eligible.

The Project Gigabit is the government’s new programme to help hard-to-reach communities access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. This initiative is meant to target properties and businesses in parts of the country that are not included in internet suppliers’ plans.

The government announced that it expects 99% of homes and businesses will have gigabit-capable internet by 2032. The Project Gigabit was introduced in 2021 but the rate of upgrades to better connections is now at its fastest rate.

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Ministers revealed more than 750 premises are being reached a day during the current phase of the nationwide project. A map below shows the towns and areas where these upgrades are being rolled out.

The Project Gigabit will benefit places across the whole of the UK, but the map below has shown the areas in England and Wales that are part of the massive upgrade project.

Openreach, through a deal worth up to £1.2billion, is working with the government to bring full fibre to over 297,000 homes and businesses across rural parts of the nation. More than 30 other contracts have been signed with other companies as part of Project Gigabit.

There is also a Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme as part of the greater project, which gives eligible homes vouchers worth up to £4,500 to help towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband to their premises.

This voucher scheme is currently only open for new projects “to cover premises which are not included within a Project Gigabit procurement or contract and which are not covered by existing or planned commercial coverage”, according to the government website.

Telecoms minister Liz Lloyd said: “Many rural communities have long struggled to do even the basics online due to slow internet speeds. Now, hundreds of households and companies are receiving government-funded upgrades every day – helping those who would otherwise miss out.”

The vehicle was left on its roof after the crash in Penny Pot Lane, Harrogate, shortly after 1.15pm on Monday (March 16).

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said the car’s occupant was left with paramedics after being freed from the vehicle.

A service spokesperson said: “Crews from Harrogate responded to a single vehicle road traffic collision, involving a car that had rolled on its roof into a ditch.

“Crews rescued one occupant using cutting gear and small tools to remove the door and boot of the vehicle.”