Matt Lucas will be making people laugh on Channel 4’s Taskmaster, but he remembers his late former partner, Kevin McGhie, as being hilarious as he pays tribute two decades on from their marriage

Matt Lucas has paid tribute to his late ex-husband Kevin McGee two decades on from their marriage. The 52-year-old comedian tied the knot with Kevin in December 2006, and they dissolved their civil partnership in October 2008. Kevin sadly committed suicide in October 2009.

Ahead of his appearance on Channel 4 ’s Taskmaster, Matt was asked what makes him laugh, and Matt said: “My late husband Kevin [McGee] was the funniest person I’ve ever met. Also, we had a chocolate Labrador called Milo who was hilarious. He was so stubborn.”

Matt will appear on Taskmaster alongside the likes of Richard Ayoade, Isy Suttie, Chloe Petty and Nina Conti.

He previously spoke about Kevin on social media in 2019 when he said: “This is Kevin John McGee, who died ten years ago today.

“I loved him more than anyone I’ve ever met, and still do. He was so funny and silly and clever and kind and handsome and his smile made my heart soar.”

In a new interview with Radio Times Lucas also spoke about how comedy has changed over the years. He famously wrote and starred in Little Britain with David Walliams.

Matt said: “Most of the comedy I enjoy now is filmed in people’s living rooms and posted online. If you’ve got a mobile phone, you can be a star. I love Limmy, he’s a complete one- off. Also there’s a Canadian comedian called Mitch Wood on Instagram who makes me howl.”

Asked what his style was on Taskmaster, Matt added: “I’m inept. If I get anything right, it’s by luck, not design – I was stumped most of the time. Greg Davies called me Grandad. Still, it was nice to get out of the house!”

In Taskmaster, Matt will attempt to conquer a variety of puzzling, creative and often pointless tasks in the hopes of impressing host Greg Davies.

As well as comedy, Matt has co-hosted The Great British Bake Off in the past on Channel 4 and regularly stars in London’s West End in shows including Les Misérables and Oliver!

* Taskmaster starts on September 3 on Channel 4.

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While Palmer and Joao Pedro have generally carried Chelsea‘s biggest attacking threat in recent times, they have now been joined by the impressive Rogers too.

His arrival reunites him with Palmer, an ex-Manchester City team-mate and someone he described after the win at Craven Cottage as his “best friend in football”.

“He had a difficult season with injuries and stuff last year – and you could see it in his eyes in pre-season and training that he’s ready this year and ready to prove people wrong,” added Rogers when asked about Palmer’s display.

“You saw that with that performance. He was the best player on the pitch by a mile and that’s what he does. It’s good to have him on our side.”

Indeed, it was also encouraging how Rogers, whose pre-season was shortened by his involvement in England’s run to third place at the World Cup, looked so fit and powerful.

Rogers is the first Chelsea player to score on his Premier League debut since Christopher Nkunku in 2023 – and the first to create five chances in his first league appearance since records began in 2003-04.

It was also the first time Chelsea supporters sang the new Rogers chant in the away end.

Like Palmer, Joao Pedro missed out on the World Cup – as a high-profile omission from Brazil’s squad – but returned in pre-season with eight goals in seven games.

It was no surprise to see him on the scoresheet so early in the Premier League campaign, having inherited the number nine shirt from Liam Delap, who was left out of the squad on Monday, following the contract extension the Brazilian signed this weekend.

“Great combination, great quality,” Alonso told BBC Match of the Day when asked about his front three.

“We know if we reach them [Joao Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer] in good positions, they have this talent to create special things and I am very happy the three forwards have scored.

“We need to put them in the best situations. I am happy for the three of them. They played for the team.”

This comes with a community policing meeting planned to take place for the Rumworth and Hulton areas in the south west of town next week.

Officers say this will give people a chance to see Sergeant Oliver Cooper for a final time before he leaves for a new role outside the borough and to meet the area’s new sergeant.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: “This will be an opportunity to say goodbye to Sergeant Cooper as he moves on to a new role outside of Bolton, and also say hello Sergeant Dixon who is taking over.

The meeting will be held next week (Image: GMP)

“Local partners and councillors have also been invited.

“We hope to see you there!”

The Rumworth/Hulton Community Meeting is set to take place at St Andrew’s Church on Crescent Avenue in Over Hulton on Thursday, September 3 at 7pm.

Emergency services are at the scene

A property had a “close call” as another huge wildfire spreads. The incident is ongoing on Monday evening around Cymmer in Porth.

Councillor Ros Davis for Porth shared at around 8pm that the fire is “under control”, but that the blaze came close to properties.

She shared: “At least this fire is beginning to die down at the Porth end. I was concerned about Cae Mawr Gardens but have spoken to the Fire Service who have reassured me that the situation at that end is under control: ‘Not out but under control.’ Appliances are on standby should the situation change.

“Looking across the valley from Cemetery Road, we can see that one property further along Cymmer Road has had a close call. Fire appliance are still protecting them.

“Cymmer Road is still closed between the recycling centre and Dina’s Flats.

“Thank you again to all our brave Fire Fighters. It is sad that the last of these summer days are being marred by these incidents.

“If you are concerned about fires and there is a risk to people or property, always dial 999.”

A spokesman for South Wales Police shared that officers are at the scene at Bronwydd Park.

The spokesman shared: “The road is currently closed in both directions between Community Recycling centre, Cymmer Rd, Porth and the Dinas Flats on Dinas Road.

“It is expected to remain closed for some time; please avoid the area and use alternative routes where possible. We’re grateful for your patience.”

Sir Chris Bryant MP, who represents Rhondda and Ogmore, said he is “deeply angry” to see ongoing fires in his constituency including the one in Porth. Another is ongoing in Maerdy as of Monday evening.

He shared: “I am deeply angry to see more mountain fires tonight. As a result, there are road closures in place causing more disruption for residents.

“After weeks of fires across our communities, our firefighters and emergency services should not have to be heading back out again, putting themselves in danger and spending yet more time tackling fires that devastate our mountains and wildlife.

“These fires are not harmless. They spread rapidly, threaten homes, damage the landscape for years to come and place enormous pressure on the emergency services.

“To every firefighter, and emergency service responder tonight, thank you. You should not have to be doing this again.

“Please, everyone, take care and think about the consequences of anything that could start a fire. We cannot keep putting our emergency services, our communities and our mountains through this.”

Emmy-award winning Harington, a lifelong fan of the books, already has some familiarity with his new role: The actor voiced Lockhart in Audible’s star-studded Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions last year.

The show could reunite him with director and producer Mark Mylod, who worked on Game of Thrones and is directing some Harry Potter episodes. Mylod is an executive producer on the new series along with author JK Rowling.

Lockhart was portrayed in the Warner Bros Harry Potter films by Kenneth Branagh, and is a key character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in Rowling’s best-selling franchise.

The vain wizard who authored several books on his purported encounters with dark creatures serves as Hogwarts’ latest professor for the defence against the dark arts and fancies himself a mentor to Harry in his second year.

Hoult, known for his roles in X-Men, Superman and Mad Max: Fury Road, was announced for the role earlier this month. But HBO reportedly had to let the Superman actor out of his deal due to his commitments to projects that conflicted with a change in the series’ production schedule, according to Deadline, which first reported Harington’s casting. HBO confirmed the reporting to the BBC.

Representatives for Harington and Hoult did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The HBO series is expected to take 10 years to complete, as producers plan multiple seasons covering each of Rowling’s seven books, which the eight blockbuster films were originally based on.

A grandfather in his 70s, Al-Marimi has been accused of carrying out the attack along with two Libyans who faced a Scottish court in May 2000.

Three judges heard the case at Camp Zeist, a former US air force base in the Netherlands.

After eight months, they ruled the atrocity was an act of state sponsored terrorism carried out by members of the Libyan intelligence service.

The judges convicted one of the Libyans, Abdulbasset Al-Megrahi, of mass murder and jailed him for life.

He died from cancer in 2012, after being freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Conviction twice referred Megrahi’s case to the appeal court but the conviction was upheld.

The second Libyan, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was acquitted and returned home to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli.

The US government says Al-Marimi admitted bombing the plane along with Megrahi and Fhimah when he was questioned in a Libyan detention facility in 2012.

The alleged confession was handed to Scottish investigators in 2017 and is now central to the prosecution case.

Al-Marimi has claimed the confession is false and was made under duress, but judge Friedrich ruled it can be admitted as evidence at the trial.

By AMELIA WYNNE, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER

Published: 22:42 BST, 24 August 2026 | Updated: 23:11 BST, 24 August 2026

She is never shy showing off her incredible figure. 

And Olivia Attwood put on a cheeky display in racy sheer lingerie as she posed for a new Instagram mirror selfie on Monday.

The TV star, 35, was displaying her assets in the see-through pink and blue number which highlighted her cleavage.

Blonde beauty Olivia penned in the caption of her post: ‘Forever an @agentprovocateur girl,’ as she tagged the fancy underwear brand. 

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Olivia wore her long blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a bronzed makeup look. 

The sizzling social media comes just after she revealed that she is considering getting another boob job. She has already undergone two previous breast augmentations.

Olivia Attwood put on a cheeky display in racy sheer lingerie as she posed for a new Instagram mirror selfie on Monday

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Speaking in a TikTok video last week, the Price of Perfection host shared: ‘Guys, I have an exclusive for you. I’m getting cosmetic surgery… No, I am so joking. Or am I? I don’t know.

‘I think with you all watching Price of Perfection, it’s got me thinking about plastic surgery again.

‘I’m like do I want something? Do I feel left out?’

Olivia – who recently went public with her relationship with Pete Wicks – insists she’s not taking the decision lightly.

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She said: ‘I know it’s not a frivolous decision, it’s a very big decision. I was kind of getting to that point where I was like do I need to redo my boobs? Like have those implants been in too long now?

‘But then I was like, am I going to have a baby? Then I was like, wait, now it looks like I really might not have a baby.

‘So I might as well do it. But I don’t want to waste my money if I do have a baby.’

Meanwhile, Olivia recently admitted that she lived in a ‘grey area’ with Bradley Dack for years.

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The TV star split from husband Bradley earlier this year, and she admitted to always feeling insecure about their romance, even though she loved him deeply.

The sizzling social media comes just after she revealed that she is considering getting another boob job 

Meanwhile, Olivia recently admitted that she lived in a ‘grey area’ with Bradley Dack for years (seen in May 2025)

Speaking to Cosmopolitan magazine, Olivia explained: ‘When you love someone, you’re happy to live in the grey area.’

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Olivia ultimately decided to walk away after being told that Bradley had been unfaithful.

She is now in a new relationship with TOWIE star Pete Wicks. 

The reality star recalled: ‘That day, everything suddenly lined up. There was nowhere left for him to hide. As soon as I knew it had happened to me, I couldn’t stay. The only person I would be cheating is myself.’

Despite this, Olivia struggled to walk away from their romance.

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She explained: ‘What happened didn’t break my heart – I broke my own heart by leaving, because the easiest thing to do would’ve been to stay.

‘Actually pulling the rug [from under our feet] and sticking to it is the hardest thing. It was f****** brutal. It’s very easy for people to sit on their high horse and go, ‘Oh my God, you stayed with someone that cheated.’ But it’s way more complex than that.’

Ukraine celebrated this year’s independence day on August 24 in the presence of key allies and amid the unfolding of another major corruption scandal.

It all started when Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s defence minister until his dismissal as part of a government reshuffle last month, posted a nine-minute video on August 19 that was widely seen as a direct challenge to the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. One part of the challenge was what amounted to a call for an election, despite the fact that the ballot would have to be held in wartime. This is something that both Zelensky and a majority of Ukrainians have repeatedly rejected.

The other part of Fedorov’s challenge was his diagnosis of a “systemic crisis of governance”. He is not wrong. Corruption in Ukraine is no longer simply about this scandal or that minister. It is a pattern of elite behaviour that has outlasted every Ukrainian government since independence. It survived revolutions in 2004 and 2014 fought explicitly in the name of ending it. And it’s now undermining a war for national survival.

The depth of this problem has become more obvious over the past year. In November 2025, a bribery scheme worth an estimated US$100 million (£73 million) in the energy sector reached into Zelensky’s inner circle, forcing out his justice and energy ministers. Both have denied any wrongdoing. As part of the fall-out from that scandal, Zelensky’s long-time chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned the same month. Yermak’s legal counsel has denied any involvement in illegal activities.

In July 2026, Fedorov’s own removal from his post as defence minister came after a rift with the armed forces’ commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi. The rift was partly about strategy and partly about procurement reforms – allegedly threatening entrenched interests – that Fedorov had been keen to push through. Like a year earlier, large-scale public protests ensued.

On August 5, Olha Stefanishyna, the former deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, former justice minister and former Ukrainian ambassador to the US, was formally charged with illicit enrichment and filing false asset declarations. She denies the allegations.

Meanwhile a separate investigation into her time overseeing Ukraine’s asset recovery and management agency — where contracts allegedly went to companies linked to her ex-husband — remains open but hasn’t yet led to formal charges.

And as if Fedorov’s point about systemic corruption needed any further proof, Iryna Mudra, the deputy head of Zelensky’s presidential office, who oversaw judicial reform and the special tribunal on Russian aggression, was dismissed by the president on August 19. His decision came after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies launched a new investigation into allegations of money-laundering.

These are not just five unrelated crises. They are symptomatic of exactly the accusation that Fedorov made: that corruption has led to a systemic crisis of governance.

What Fedorov didn’t specifically mention was that none of this is new, or peculiar to Ukraine in wartime. The new country emerged from the Soviet collapse with an economy substantially captured by a small circle of oligarchs who controlled industry, media and – at various points – the presidency itself.

The Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Euromaidan revolution a decade later were explicitly in response to widespread anger at public perceptions of official corruption. Zelensky himself was elected in 2019 on a platform built largely on fighting corruption.

What the war has changed is not the underlying motivation of corruption – human greed, pure and simple – but where the opportunities are to realise it. The privatisation auctions of the 1990s and the gas-trading schemes of the 2000s created a class of oligarchs that have come to dominate Ukrainian politics for the past three decades. The procurement contracts and reconstruction funds of the 2020s are simply the new assets up for grabs that the same oligarchic networks are fighting over now.

Arguably, though, the damage they do is compounded by the war. A 2023 sham contract for undelivered mortar munitions worth some US$40 million left a critical gap in an already stretched defence budget, straining frontline capabilities. A US$100 million scheme in 2025 which syphoned off funds intended to protect Ukraine’s energy grid damaged both the economy and made ordinary Ukrainians’ lives more miserable during the winter.

The crisis now reaches deep into the Ukrainian parliament. On the day that Mudra was charged, the Ukraine’s parliamentary law enforcement committee blocked five bills intended to strengthen the country’s fight against corruption. These bills are a non-negotiable EU requirement for releasing over €2 billion (£1.71 billion) of aid to Ukraine before the end of the year and a key item on Kyiv’s to-do list for the accession negotiations.

Corrupt system ‘protects itself’

Fedorov’s video is both the statement of a deeply felt personal grievance and a diagnosis of a system that may be beyond the point of repair. Fedorov alleged that his own reforms of defence ministry procurement, worth billions of dollars a year, were what cost him his post.

“The old system,” he said, without naming Zelensky directly, “lives by its own rules too often. It protects itself. It is scared of change.” The asymmetry he is describing is stark: reformers get sacked while insiders with the kind of connections implicated in the November 2025 scandal seem able to avoid prosecution.

When Zelensky was elected in 2019, ending corrosive corruption looked mostly like a matter of political will But if Zelensky ever had this will, many of those around him clearly did not. More than four-and-a-half years of full-scale war later and corruption is now embedded in sectors – arms procurement, air-defence contracts, energy-grid protection – where failure costs soldiers’ lives and adds yet more misery to the plight of ordinary Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s survival as an independent state has always depended on not losing the war against Russia. But it depends just as much on winning the older, quieter war against a system that, in Federov’s words, is still “scared of change”. Fedorov’s solution of holding an election is unlikely to be a solution on its own – and western pressure has clear limitations.

But without a solution, the problem will continue to fester and lead to more alienation between state and society in Ukraine. Finding and implementing a workable solution will be impossible without a change of culture among Ukraine’s elite. This will determine how good a wartime leader Zelensky ultimately proves to be and how sincere his partners are in supporting not just him but the survival of a democratic Ukraine.

A man who was found injured on a street in the early hours of Sunday morning has been named and pictured.

A man who died after being found “unresponsive” on a South Ayrshire street and later died in hospital has been named and pictured for the first time.

Graham Milliken was found injured by police on Dundonald Main Street at around 4.05am on Sunday, August 23. The 57-year-old, from the village, was rushed to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock where he died a short time later.

Graham’s family has been informed. Following a post mortem examination today, his death is being treated as murder and an investigation has been launched.

A 36-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the death. He is due to appear at Ayr Sheriff Court on Tuesday, August 25.

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Officers remain in the area carrying out enquiries, trawling through CCTV footage and speaking to locals in a bid to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

These used to be among the fundamental facts about going to college in America: College lasts four years. And though that timeline had been flexible when it comes to sports, there was never much debate over the notion that once a player moved on to the pros their days as a college athlete were over.

A recent rule passed by the NCAA has resulted in confusion, lawsuits and the once-unthinkable notion of players leaving college, signing with professional teams and now leaving those teams to head back to college.

Among this week’s headline grabbers are Dae’Quan Wright, an undrafted tight end out of Ole Miss who had tryouts with the Eagles and Browns over the summer, but now has a deal in place to play this season at Ole Miss’ rival in the Southeastern Conference, No. 11 LSU.

Wright is among a number of college athletes who have sued for the right to return to college to play as the start of both the college football and NFL seasons approach. A quick look at how we got here:

NCAA passes new rule allowing for five years eligibility

This part happened in June, and by the NCAA’s plodding standards, it happened quite fast.

The rule now allows athletes to play five seasons over the span of five years. Most college athletes now see the “clock” start on their eligibility either when they enroll full-time in college or at the start of the regular school year immediately following their 19th birthday, whichever comes first.

The rule itself isn’t all that outlandish. A lot of players were taking redshirt years (and getting extensions due to the pandemic) to prolong their eligibility to five, six, seven years and more, so putting some guardrails around it made some sense.

But the NCAA’s decision to start applying this new rule to athletes who graduated high school in 2023 is what caused the chaos. By not including those from the Class of ’22, many of whom saw their fourth and final year of eligibility end after last school year, they opened themselves up to trouble.

The members of the Class of ‘22 are arguing they’re being deprived of education and potential NIL financial benefits by being excluded from the rule.

Meanwhile, college athletes are suddenly looking at unexpected competition for roster spots and playing time coming from a class of players they thought would be gone this season. And teams, most of which have locked in their football rosters, are seeing a potential influx of talent they didn’t expect.

An appeals court last Friday temporarily halted that judge’s order, though that was hardly the end of the confusion.

State lawsuits pile up as a workaround the federal case

Despite the federal court ruling, players across the country have filed lawsuits in state courts and many judges granted orders allowing them to come back to school. This “find a local judge” approach has generally been successful for the athlete over the past couple of years.

In some cases — incluidng the case involving Wright in Louisiana — a judge not only said the players could come back, but also ordered a week-long reopening of the transfer portal, which gave the players a chance to shop around. Side note about Wright’s potential move from Ole Miss to LSU: The SEC forbids moves within the conference such as that one, unless they come when the transfer portal is open, which in football is January. There is no clarity on how the ruling impacts the SEC rule.

Sam Ehrlich, a former lawyer who follows college sports litigation at Boise State, said the state lawsuits were filed “just in case” the federal order got overturned. It did, and that federal case had no bearing on the various state lawsuits.

According to Ehrlich’s College Sports Litigation Tracker, at least 26 eligibility cases have been filed in state and county courts across the U.S. In at least 10 of those, judges have granted a restraining order or injunction favoring the players. In only one — involving basketball player Filip Borovicanin — has an appeals court overturned the initial decision, leading to a favorable outcome for the NCAA.

When will this all be decided?

Court cases move slowly, and in the Wisne case, odds are nothing will be final until long after football (and maybe basketball and baseball) season is over and there’s no relief left to give to the impacted players.

While football teams are madly scrambling, trying to make sense of it all, basketball teams are also feeling some pressure. Teams are allowed to start practice on Sept. 25. A notable instance of where confusion might set in is Gonzaga, which recruited two players from that Class of ’22 who (presumably) had their eligibility restored.

One, however, is Javon Bennett, who was part of the Borovicanin lawsuit that an Ohio court overturned. The other is Chauncey Wiggins, who comes from Florida State and was part of a case in Georgia, where the ruling favorable to the players remains in force.

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