The first series, which was a spin-off of the popular BBC show The Traitors, first aired last year, with comedian Alan Carr going on to win.

With the second series coming this autumn, speculation is continuing as to which celebrities will take part in it.

There are, however, some stars who have ruled themselves out.

Peter Capaldi turned down Celebrity Traitors series 2

The Scottish actor revealed he turned down being part of series two of Celebrity Traitors during an appearance on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.

He said: “I think there’s a level of fame that.

“I think it propels you into the public eye, at a level of exposure that I don’t really want.

“I like doing, you know, it’s like doing my music things – it’s very difficult for people in that business to understand that you want to keep it small.”

Capaldi is not the only one to speak about the show and choosing not to be part of it.

Bafta-winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin said that she would have taken part if it did not film so late into the night.

On ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show, host Ross asked his star-studded sofa whether any of them had been approached to take part in the popular reality TV show.

Referring to its first series, which premiered last autumn and featured Ross among the star-studded cast, Maxwell Martin said: “Yeah, I would have been with you, darling.

“But, I can see from the civilian one how late it gets on that show.

“That’s a Scottish summer and they’re not leaving that castle until it gets dark, that’s 11pm, 12am… if you’re a traitor it’s 1am… 2am… I want to be in bed by 8pm.”

Rumoured names for Celebrity Traitors series 2

There are many names that have been reportedly asked to take part in the new series.

Adolescence star Stephen Graham has been rumoured to join the line-up, according to the Daily Mail.

The newspaper reports that an insider said the BBC is “absolutely desperate to nail down Stephen for the show” and that he would be a “star signing”.

The Football Factory and EastEnders star Danny Dyer is also rumoured, with The Sun reporting that he is in the line-up after turning the offer down for the first series.

Danny Dyer is among the names rumoured for Celebrity Traitors series 2 (Image: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

Other celebrities rumoured to take part include Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, comedian Daisy May Cooper and comedian Bob Mortimer.

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Even Oasis singer Liam Gallagher hinted that he had been considered for the show, replying to a fan on X: “I’ve been asked.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “We aren’t commenting on speculation and details for The Celebrity Traitors series two will be announced in due course.”

Who would you love to see take part in the next series of Celebrity Traitors? Let us know in the comments below.

He remains in custody at this time.

An Antrim supermarket has thanked customers for their support after a reported arson attack.

A man aged in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of a number of offences following a reported incident on their premises in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at a Spar store on Greystone Road in the town. While no injuries were reported, extensive damage was caused to the premises and a neighbouring business, and the defibrillator outside the store was damaged.

Posting on Facebook, Spar Greystone said: “The clean-up operation has begun after the incident this morning.

“Staff are very grateful for all the calls and messages of concern and the support from the community that we are proud to serve.

“Just as a side note, our defib was damaged in the incident and not available to use, unfortunately. Thanks for the support.”

A PSNI spokesperson said: “A man has been arrested following a report of an arson attack on a property in Antrim in the early hours of this morning, Tuesday 14th April.

“At approximately 3.35 am, police received a report of a shop on fire in the Greystone Road area of the town.“Officers attended, alongside colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service who extinguished the fire.

“No injuries were reported, however extensive damage was caused to the business.

“A man in his 20s was arrested a short time later on suspicion of a number of offences, including arson, attempted criminal damage and theft. He remains in custody at this time.“This is being treated as arson, and enquiries are ongoing. Anyone who may have witnessed anyone suspicious in the area or anyone with CCTV or other footage that could assist with enquiries is asked to contact police on 101, quoting reference 123 14/04/26.

“Alternatively, you can submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/.

“You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org/“

A NIFRS spokesperson added: “Firefighters were called to reports of a fire at a premises on Greystone Road, Antrim, at 3:31 am on Tuesday, 14 April 2026. Two appliances from Antrim Fire Station attended the incident. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two hose reel jets and one jet to extinguish the fire.

“The cause of the fire is believed to be deliberate ignition, and the incident was dealt with by 5.20 am.”

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A super typhoon with ferocious winds and pounding rains was battering a group of remote U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean, forcing residents to seek shelter from flying tree limbs and collapsed buildings.

The center of the monster storm Super Typhoon Sinlaku was roaring along the Northern Mariana Islands early Wednesday local time, the National Weather Service said.

It’s the strongest tropical typhoon on Earth so far this year and was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (241 kph) that were likely to bring widespread power outages to the islands that are home to roughly 50,000 people.

Some areas already were seeing extensive flooding.

“It’s hitting us hard,” Mayor Ramon “RB” Jose Blas Camacho of Saipan, told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. “It’s so difficult for us to respond with this heavy rain, heavy wind to rescue people. Objects are just flying left and right.”

Camacho said some people have been rescued. He said trees were thrown about and wooden and tin structures had collapsed. He said he hoped the glass door to his office doesn’t break.

“It’s already bending. That’s how powerful this is,” he said.

The typhoon slowed to a crawl as it approached the islands, raising fears that the fierce winds won’t go away quickly and worsen its impact.

Flash flooding was expected to continue along the two islands into Wednesday. About 50,000 people live on three islands in the area, with the most on Saipan, known for its laid-back resorts, snorkeling and golf as well as the capital.

While it’s expected to weaken slightly over the next few days, Sinlaku was crossing the islands as a Category 4 typhoon.

Saipan was the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles in the Pacific, in which more than 50,000 Japanese and American soldiers and local civilians died.

In Guam, where Typhoon Mawar knocked out power for days in 2023, U.S. military officials warned personnel to prepare for the storm and shelter in place. The military controls about one-third of the land on the island, a critical hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific.

Before turning toward Guam and the Northern Marianas, the storm left significant damage to the outer islands and atolls of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, Aydlett said from his weather service station on Guam.

Glen Hunter, who grew up on Saipan, has weathered numerous typhoons.

“We sit in what they call ‘Typhoon Alley,’” he said early Tuesday after waking up to strong gusts and seeing downed trees.

For the most part, residents live in sturdy, fully concrete homes and those in substandard wooden houses with tin roofs tend to stay with family or in government shelters, he said.

Tourism-dependent Saipan was still recovering from 2018’s Super Typhoon Yutu when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, he recalled. The economy has yet to rebound, he said.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved emergency disaster declarations for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, allowing for additional help with emergency services.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it is coordinating support across multiple agencies, dispatching nearly 100 FEMA staff as well as personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A super typhoon is a name given to the strongest tropical cyclones that brew in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where Earth’s most intense storms usually form.

Monitored by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam, super typhoons are the equivalent of Category 4 or 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic, with winds of at least 150 mph (240 kph). There have been more than 300 super typhoons identified since the warning center started using that name nearly 80 years ago.

___

Associated Press reporters Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.

Former PM travels to frontline near Zaporizhzhia for ‘potentially life-threatening’ documentary

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has embarked upon a “potentially life-threatening” expedition for a new Channel 5 programme.

Boris Johnson: Into the ‘Kill Zone’ will show the 61-year-old undertaking “a deeply unofficial and secret assignment” as he journeys behind the frontline of the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

Revealing details about the documentary, the broadcaster stated Johnson visits shattered villages, a frontline chapel and a makeshift bomb factory and must take shelter during a missile attack, reports the Mirror.

A synopsis for the documentary from Soho Studios and Two Rivers Media states: “Quietly entering the country so as not to draw attention to himself, Boris travels beyond Kyiv in a 72-hour unprotected journey to the frontline ‘kill zone’ near Zaporizhzhia, where drones, artillery and the realities of modern warfare quickly replace diplomacy and political rhetoric.”

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“Boris witnesses the realities of modern war at close range.”

It continues: “Embedded with Ukrainian soldiers, he visits shattered villages, a frontline chapel, secret drone bases and even a makeshift bomb factory hidden inside abandoned cottages, and shelters in an under-siege eighth story flat during a missile strike.”

The former PM also accompanies mobile gun teams and Kyiv’s volunteer air defenders for a “terrifying and freezing night shift protecting the capital from Russian drone attacks”.

He said: “The Ukrainians are fighting the same war, against the same drones, that are being sent against civilians by the same alliance of tyrannies. We have spent four years psalming platitudes and telling them that their fight is our fight.

“On the basis of what I have seen, we are risibly failing to live up to our pledges, and to give them the help they need.”

Guy Davies, consultant editor for commissioning at Channel 5, described how the politician “takes us on a traumatic and revelatory journey” throughout the programme.

“It is clearly a cause that is close to his heart and we see him in a new light – no longer looking at the war from the statesman’s perspective, away from the frontline, but in the trenches and more able to speak freely,” he added.

Soho Studios’ founder Ian Lamarra commented: “Seeing a recent British Prime Minister on the frontline of a conflict, with his life in genuine danger, is extremely powerful.”

Boris Johnson: Into the ‘Kill Zone’ is set to air on Channel 5.

Huntley died as a result of a blunt head injury, an inquest has heard.

The 52-year-old died in the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on March 7 after he was attacked with a metal bar in a workshop at HMP Frankland in Durham on February 26, an inquest opening hearing was told.

The County Durham and Darlington Coroner Jeremy Chipperfield was sitting in Crook, County Durham, on Tuesday.

Listed under the name Ian Kevin Huntley, the inquest opening lasted less than five minutes.

Coroner’s officer Bradley King read a statement in which he said: “This 52-year-old male was born on January 31 in 1974 in Grimsby.

“His last employment status and occupation is recorded as being a prisoner.

“He resided at HMP Frankland.

“He died on March 7 2026 at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

“I understand the circumstances to be that Mr Huntley was struck over the head multiple times by another prisoner with an object described as a metal bar.

“The assault left Mr Huntley with significant head injuries.”

Mr King said Home Office Pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton conducted a post mortem on March 9 and gave the cause of death as “blunt head injury”.

Huntley’s body was formally identified on the day he died.

The inquest was told that a police investigation was under way and that Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with murdering Huntley at the maximum security jail.

Mr Chipperfield adjourned the hearing until May 27 when there will have been an update in the criminal proceedings.

Russell will attend Newcastle Crown Court on April 24 for a pre-trial preparation hearing.

Huntley was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The ex-school caretaker killed the best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 2002.

He dumped their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away.

They were not found for 13 days, despite a search involving hundreds of police.

At the time, Huntley lived with Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s primary school.

He denied murdering the girls but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2003. He was jailed for life with a recommended minimum term of 40 years.

Carr gave Huntley a false alibi and was jailed for 21 months for perverting the course of justice.

She is now living under a new identity.

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The cases include those of a man who punched and choked his former partner and a man who kicked, punched and struck his dog with the butt of his shotgun

Three men who were due to appeal their prison sentences have had their cases adjourned due to the fuel protests.

The appeals were about to be called at the County Court in Antrim when defence counsel Neil Moore highlighted that if the appeals failed, the prison van could get stuck at Nutts Corner on its way to HMP Maghaberry.

“I am in no way prejudging your mindset,” he told Judge Sandra Crawford but added that “the roundabout at Nutts Corner, if not already closed, could be closed” by the time the cases are dealt with.

That meant if the appeals were unsuccessful, the prison staff and the defendants “would have the unenviable situation” of being stuck for an unknown length of time, the barrister told the court.

The three appeals against sentence included the case of a man who punched and choked his former partner, a man who kicked, punched and struck his dog with the butt of his shotgun and a third defendant who assaulted his partner and damaged her property.

Mr Moore said that having spoken to court staff and the prosecution, suggested dates had been identified for each of the cases to be slotted in.

Judge Crawford said, given that the situation over the fuel protests has “now crystallised,” she agreed with Mr Moore and adjourned the three cases.

Follow live updates from the protests across Northern Ireland via our live blog here.

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More than a thousand suspected stolen mobiles have been seized by police as part of a crackdown on phone theft across London.

Metropolitan Police raided a convenience store in Kilburn High Road, north London, last Tuesday as part of a week of action in Brent focusing on tackling theft, robbery and e-bike related crime.

Around 1,161 phones were seized as part of the raid, the force confirmed today, double the amount of phones initially suspected. The force had originally reported that hundreds were found in the store last week.

Four men, aged 22, 25, 34 and 63, were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods, possession of drugs and intent to supply.

Bodycam footage of the raid showed a number of armed officers move through the shop towards the back of the store, where they used bolt cutters to unlock a door into a room where multiple shelves were stacked high with smartphones.

Police procured a warrant after intelligence led them to believe the venue was being used to supply Class B drugs.

Three of the suspects were released on bail, while one was released under investigation.

Inspector Yu Zhang, from the Met’s local policing team in Brent, said last Thursday that the force was not only targeting phone snatchers, but those who profit from the stolen devices.

“We understand mobile phone theft remains a major concern for Londoners and that’s why we have worked hard to drive down offending,” Inspector Zhang said. “Seizures such as this show that we are not only targeting individual phone snatchers, but also those who handle and profit from stolen devices.

“Londoners deserve to feel safe and we are committed to relentlessly disrupting the organised criminal networks fuelling this crime”

The arrests come as fewer than one per cent of mobile phone thefts actually result in a charge, The Independent revealed in March via freedom of information request. Nearly nine in 10 cases were closed without a suspect being identified, with the Met Police closing 95 per cent of their investigations.

The force has said mobile phone theft offences dropped from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year across the capital as part of its focused crackdown on the crime.

Earlier this year, the force arrested 248 individuals and seized 770 stolen phones as part of four weeks’ worth of intensified activity to combat mobile phone theft across London.

Officers are using intelligence, drones and high-powered Sur-Ron electric bikes, to catch offenders and disrupt the stolen mobile phone market.

Some lovers try positions that they can’t handle – I’m referring to the bones of the wrist, of course. The phrase is a classic mnemonic used to remember the eight carpal (wrist) bones – scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate and hamate – whose initials form the memorable sentence.

One of the most curious features of anatomy education is that people often remember mnemonics for decades, long after the rest of their anatomical knowledge has faded. And it’s often the filthiest ones that work best.

These short phrases, rhymes or sentences – used to remember ordered lists of nerves, bones or arteries – have been a staple of anatomy teaching for generations. Some are harmlessly quirky. Others are decidedly less polite. What they share is an unusual staying power.

That persistence is not just a quirk of medical culture. It reveals something important about how learning works.

Anatomy requires understanding and applying the structure of the body. But it begins with something far less glamorous: learning a vast and specialised technical vocabulary. The online database Terminologia Anatomica lists around 7,500 standardised anatomical terms, a figure broadly similar to estimates of the active vocabulary used by fluent speakers in everyday language (often cited at 5,000-10,000 words).

Mnemonics emerged as a practical response to this challenge, helping students organise and retrieve unfamiliar terms while a deeper understanding of anatomical relationships develops. As generations of students have discovered, the more distinctive the phrase, the harder it is to forget.

Why the brain struggles with lists

Much of anatomy involves remembering sequences. The bones of the wrist, the branches of major arteries or the 12 cranial nerves must be recalled in a precise order. The problem is that the brain is not particularly well suited to remembering long lists of unfamiliar terms.

Working memory – the system that allows us to hold information temporarily in mind – has a limited capacity. When faced with a string of technical words, especially ones derived from Latin or Greek, it quickly becomes overloaded.

Mnemonics help solve this problem by converting a list into a structured phrase. Instead of remembering eight separate bones of the wrist, the learner remembers a single sentence whose first letters act as cues for each structure.

Chunking

This strategy is referred to as chunking – grouping several pieces of information into a single meaningful unit. Once the phrase itself has been learned, the brain can use it as a scaffold to reconstruct the original list.

It’s not new either. Renaissance students faced the same challenge of remembering large amounts of anatomical information, and they often relied on mnemonic techniques inherited from the classical ars memoriae, or “art of memory”.

Anatomical knowledge was sometimes taught through didactic Latin verse, making long lists easier to recall in an era when learning was largely oral. One example is the tradition of anatomia versificata, in which anatomical structures were described poetically so they could be memorised. Medical verses attributed to the 12th-13th century French physician Gilles de Corbeil circulated in universities for centuries.

Early printed medical works, such as physician Johannes de Ketham’s Fasciculus Medicinae (1491), also reflected this culture of structured memorisation, pairing text with striking anatomical illustrations to aid recall. Behind these approaches lay classical memory techniques described by writers such as Cicero and Quintilian, who encouraged learners to organise knowledge using vivid imagery and spatial mental maps – an approach that aligns remarkably well with the inherently spatial nature of anatomy itself.

But structure alone does not explain why certain mnemonics, particularly the slightly outrageous ones, tend to stay with us for years.

Why the rudest mnemonics are the most memorable

If mnemonics simply organised lists into manageable chunks, almost any tidy sentence would do. Yet the more outrageous or slightly inappropriate the mnemonic, the more firmly it tends to lodge in memory.

This phenomenon is known as the distinctiveness effect. Information that stands out from its surroundings is more likely to be remembered than material that blends into the background. In a lecture full of unfamiliar Latin terminology, an unexpected or risque phrase becomes instantly distinctive. It interrupts the steady flow of technical language and draws attention to itself.

Attention is the gateway to memory. Information that captures attention is processed more deeply by the brain and is therefore more likely to be stored.

Humour adds another layer. When something makes us laugh, or even causes a moment of mild embarrassment, it activates emotional centres in the brain, including the amygdala, which plays a role in regulating how memories are consolidated. Emotionally marked information is often stored more strongly than neutral material.

There is also a social element. Mnemonics are often shared between students, repeated in revision sessions, and passed down through successive cohorts. The phrases become part of the informal folklore of medical education, remembered not just as words but as part of a shared experience.

Put these elements together – distinctiveness, humour, emotional reaction and social repetition – and it becomes clear why the slightly outrageous mnemonic tends to win out over its more respectable rivals.

Used well, these phrases act as scaffolding: temporary supports that help students organise unfamiliar vocabulary while a deeper three-dimensional understanding of the body gradually develops. In time, they become less necessary.

A critically acclaimed yet underappreciated crime-comedy gem from 2025 is now available to stream on Paramount+

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This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction crime-comedy has just landed on Paramount+ A critically lauded yet largely overlooked cinematic treasure from 2025 is now ready to stream.

Inspired by an extraordinary true story, the film was directed by Derek Cianfrance — the mastermind behind celebrated indie dramas such as Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines — with a major Hollywood name stepping into the lead role.

Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) plays Jeffrey Manchester, a struggling veteran and father who turns to a life of crime simply to keep his head above water.

Dubbed the ‘Roofman’ owing to his peculiar habit of breaking into fast food restaurants through the roof at night before robbing them in the morning, Jeffrey is apprehended at his daughter’s birthday party and handed a 45-year prison sentence, reports the Mirror.

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He subsequently hatches an escape plan and successfully breaks into a Toys “R” Us store, where he manages to survive for some time on stolen M&Ms. Upon discovering that his ex-wife has cut off all contact, Jeffrey embarks on a tender yet deceitful relationship with one of the toy shop’s staff members, Leigh (portrayed by Kirsten Dunst).

Celebrated as one of the finest under-the-radar films of 2025, Roofman is now streaming on Paramount+ and is essential viewing for those who enjoy offbeat crime comedies and moving tragic romance.

One 10/10 IMDb review described it as “one of the biggest surprises of 2025”, stating: “This is a movie I went in with a good amount of expectations and the movie overdelivered in every way imaginable.

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“I love how this movie takes real life events and put a comedic spin on the story and the filmmakers do it in a way that actually works. You also have a fantastic ensemble cast in the movie including Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias and Peter Dinklage who are all great.”

Another viewer hailed Roofman as an “unexpectedly pleasant experience”, confessing: “I was not interested in this movie but the reviews seemed decent so tried it out and I am glad that I made that decision. It is crazy that this movie is based on a true story. I am at a loss for words to describe all the emotional rollercoaster and ethical dilemma it caused throughout the movie.

“Crazy and suspenseful storyline aside, the acting by Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst was very well done and the chemistry between them made this movie even more credible and heart wrenching near the climax.

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“This was unexpectedly an amazing movie and I really thank all the reviewers who helped me make my choice to go watch. What an experience. I am going to remember this one for a long time.”

A glowing write-up from a Rotten Tomatoes critic read: “Absolutely loved this movie. Channing Tatum was incredible, this movie kept me engaged from the jump! Also incredible that this is based off a true story! Very good!” A final enthusiast gushed: “Shocked by how much I liked this movie. I found it not just funnier but also more emotional than I was anticipating. Great film.”

Roofman is available to stream on Paramount+.