Dietary advice provided by registered dietitian Jo Travers, also known as The London Nutritionist.

Though a dietitian previously told us that wholegrain pasta is a little healthier than the “plain” kind, she doesn’t think it’s an all-or-nothing issue. “The best choice depends on individual preferences, digestive tolerance and the overall balance of the diet,” the expert said.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, registered dietitian Jo Travers said: “There are definitely healthier (and unhealthier) types of bread.

“The healthiest ones are high fibre sourdough breads, made with a sourdough starter and slowly fermented. This gives the microbes time to alter the flour to make it healthier.”

Fibre has been linked to decreased heart disease, cancer, and even dementia risk, though 90% of us aren’t getting the required 30g a day.

And true sourdough has a lower glycemic index than those made with commercial yeast, which may be a better choice for those with diabetes.

But, Travers said, there’s a caveat: “Beware supermarket and non-artisan sourdoughs as these aren’t usually made [the traditional] way.

“They may have a small amount of starter, but they generally have yeast added to speed the process up, which means you don’t get the benefits.”

Some doctors have expressed concern about “sourfauxs,” or bread which is labelled sourdough in supermarkets but which does not rely on a traditional starter to rise. Look for terms like “added yeast” on the packet to spot them.

To complicate this, though, sourdough is often made with white flour. Travers said, “Fibre is really important, but wholegrain is best because the grain is left fairly intact, which isn’t the case with the 50/50 type breads or brown breads.

“So yes, I would say that wholegrain is probably always healthier than white (except if you are anaemic and trying to increase iron. In this case, you would want white rather than brown or wholegrain).”

But, she added, the case is “quite nuanced” as, “It’s a difficult toss-up between white sourdough and wholemeal seeded because the latter is higher in fibre, but the former might have less of an effect on blood sugar and may be beneficial to gut health, so [seeded wholemeal bread, wholemeal bread, and white sourdough] are potentially equal.”

Tavers ranked the healthiest breads in this order, from most to least healthy:

1. Wholemeal seeded sourdough with different types of grains like spelt and rye (“lots of different fibres”),
2. Wholemeal sourdough,
3. Seeded wholemeal bread, wholemeal bread, and white sourdough,
4. Supermarket seeded multigrain (“actually not usually wholegrain despite having different types [of grain]”),
5. Brown, non-sourdough bread,
6. 50/50 bread,
7. White, non-sourdough bread.

Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman on Thursday unleashed on President Donald Trump during a no-holds-barred appearance on MS NOW, but only after graciously asking “Last Word” host Lawrence O’Donnell if he could “use profanity” to do so.

Freeman last appeared on the programme in 2020 following the death of civil rights activist John Lewis and read his final essay on the show. O’Donnell on Thursday noted just how different the world is now and asked Freeman if he had any thoughts on the matter.

“Can I use any profanity?” Freeman asked.

He continued, “Well, we have somebody sitting in the White House who’s leading us down a shithole. I can’t personally understand how a convicted felon, convicted, [with] 34 felon — felonious, is that the word? — counts of wrongdoing gets to be president.”

Freeman was referring to the 2024 hush money trial in New York that saw Trump found guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business documents to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with porn actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

“How do you do that?” Freeman asked. “When say, ‘Well, he was…,’ I don’t care. That ruling went down before he stepped into the Oval Office. So it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Trump has denied wrongdoing, dismissing his conviction as a “rigged decision.”

Freeman was promoting “The Gray House,” a Prime Video series he helped produce that dramatises the true story of a woman-led network of Union Army spies during the Civil War. But he argued that the US s current problems reflect an even bleaker historical period.

“I’m constantly reminded of Germany in 1935,” he told O’Donnell. “What was happening there? The brownshirts, those people that are marching through, particularly Berlin, and rounding up people, putting them in boxcars and sending them off.”

Freeman continued: “Now this administration wants to build large detention centres.”

Trump has rapidly expanded the number of immigration detention centres over the course of his current administration. The number of detainees has increased by 50% over the past year, with innumerable reports describing inhumane conditions inside the facilities.

O’Donnell noted that “the condition this country’s now in” has demoralised large swathes of young people who can’t help but feel that the political landscape is “the worst” it’s ever been, asking Freeman what he would tell those youths.

The actor replied: “I don’t know what I would say to young people, other than if you are at all aware of where we’re headed, where we are right now and where we’re headed — and if you don’t agree with it — there is one sure way to change the direction of our country: Vote.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom made a stark prediction about what he thinks the fate of Donald Trump’s presidency will be after the 2026 midterms.

Speaking with MS NOW’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki,” Newsom laid into the president after Psaki mentioned there has recently been “a lot of outrage” among Trump’s MAGA base over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files as well as Trump “doubling down on tariffs.”

Asking Newsom if he thinks anything has “shifted” since Trump has faced criticism from his own supporters, the governor responded by declaring that Trump’s presidency will “de facto end” when the Democratic Party wins elections in November.

“Even if [Trump and his supporters] fell out, he’s the president of the United States for the next three years. Good news, he’s temporary. That’s just three years. And the presidency as we know it will de facto end this November when we get the gavel back and Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries becomes the next speaker, as long as we remain vigilant,” the Democratic governor told Psaki.

Newsom went on to accuse Trump of using “suppression tactics” to try and position the midterms in his favour by “nationals[ing] federal elections,” “vandalis[ing] free and fair elections,” “going after [the] vote by mail [process],” and “sending out those masked [federal agents] all across this country.”

The governor added: “He’s a reality, and we can’t turn our back to that reality.”

Pivoting to discuss NPR’s Tuesday report that alleged that the Justice Department withheld and removed more than 50 Epstein files related to Trump, Newsom argued, “There’s a reason he’s single-handedly worked so hard to make sure they were never released … Period.”

After Psaki questioned what the reason was, Newsom replied that it’s “to be determined.”

Calling the NPR story “pretty damn alarming,” he continued, “Here’s what’s more alarming and this is my biggest concern — is that there’s a chance that we may not [ever] know for one reason.”

Telling Psaki that he can envision Trump “pardoning half the damn administration” and “things disappearing” on “[his] way out,” he stressed, “we need to be mindful of that. We need to be vigilant of that. This is the rule of Don. It’s the rule of the jungle. There’s no rule of law.”

Newsom added: “The courts are speed bumps [to Trump], they’re not stop signs. He tries to work around them. He doesn’t believe in coequal branches of government.”

Earlier in the interview, Newsom referred to Trump as a “broken man,” adding, “that’s why I think he tried to break our country.”

Watch Newsom’s interview below. Skip to the 19:15 mark to hear his comments.

The biggest night in British music is almost upon us – and judging from this year’s guestlist, we reckon it’s going to be a pretty jam-packed one.

Between A-list nominees, incredible guest performers and the winners who’ve already been announced, it’s a fair bet that the always-chaotic Brits ceremony could deliver on one or two moments guaranteed to have us all talking the next day.

And so, with just hours to go until the fun begins, here’s your quick guide to the 2026 Brit Awards…

Since 2011, London’s O2 Arena has been the home of the Brit Awards, but this time around, organisers are doing things a little differently.

For the first time in Brits history, the ceremony is moving out of the capital to Manchester, where the newly-opened Co-Op Live arena will be the home of this year’s Brits action, as part of a new two-year deal.

The ceremony is due to take place on Saturday 28 February from around 8.15pm.

As always, the Brits will be shown on ITV1 – and the ceremony will be airing live on Saturday night, so fans can tune in to watch all the action as it happens.

The CEO of the BPI, the organisation behind the Brit Awards, announced last year: “The Brit Awards have helped to tell the story of British music in all its brilliant diversity, capturing some of its most memorable moments, and this groundbreaking move to Manchester will only add to its rich legacy.

“This exciting new chapter celebrates not only the city’s exceptional musical heritage and its status as a powerhouse of British creativity, but the great depth of artistic energy and potential that exists all across the UK.

“I feel sure it will fire the imagination of fans, artists and the wider music community alike, and we look forward to sharing the experience with them.”

Jack Whitehall is back on presenting duties once again.

This year’s Brits will mark Jack’s third consecutive year hosting, and sixth time overall.

During his tenure fronting the Brit Awards, the comic has become known for his irreverent style, although this hasn’t always sat well with the celebrities in attendance – or, for that matter, viewers watching from home.

While Jack will be hosting the main ceremony, Charley Marlowe and Tyler West will be presenting live red carpet coverage across the Brits’ social media channels before the event gets underway.

Album Of The Year nominees Olivia Dean and Wolf Alice will be performing during the ceremony, with Harry Styles and Raye also set to give fans a taste of their upcoming new albums.

As for international performers, Rosalía, Alex Warren and Sombr will all be taking to the stage, with a special pre-recorded number from KPop Demon Hunters singers Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami also forming part of the broadcast.

Meanwhile, Mark Ronson is expected to close the show after being honoured with the prestigious Outstanding Contribution To Music title.

According to The Sun, his performance is expected to feature guest appearances from artists he’s worked with over the years, including Lily Allen and Dua Lipa, though this remains unconfirmed for now.

When it comes to nominations, Olivia Dean and Lola Young are leading the way in 2026, with four each.

Interestingly, they’re also both fresh from wins at the Grammy, where Olivia picked up Best New Artist and Lola beat some huge names to pick up the Best Pop Solo Performance prize.

Besides those two, Sam Fender has four nominations to his name this year, following his victory at last year’s Mercury Prize, while Dave, Fred Again.., Lily Allen, Jim Legacy and Wolf Alice are all on three.

The top award of the night, Album Of The Year, is a five-way race between Dave, Lily Allen, Olivia Dean, Sam Fender and Wolf Alice, and this is one we could imagine going any number of ways.

Check out our round-up of all of this year’s Brit Awards nominees here.

This might seem like a strange question to be answering ahead of the ceremony, but actually, a number of winners have already been confirmed.

As well as Mark’s Outstanding Contribution title, Jacob Alon is the recipient of the Critics’ Choice Award, which recognises emerging talent, while PinkPantheress has become the first woman – and youngest person ever – to be named Producer Of The Year.

Noel Gallagher is also set to be named Songwriter Of The Year, in a somewhat controversial move given that he didn’t actually release any new music in 2025.

Emerald Fennell’s film version of Wuthering Heights is, to say the very least, not your grandma’s version of Emily Brontë’s gothic masterpiece.

Although many Brontë purists have been less than pleased with the way the movie has chopped and changed the iconic source novel, Emerald has spoken in defence of her adaptation on several occasions, insisting she was trying to make “something that was my response and interpretation to that book and to the feeling of it”.

In fact, that’s why she made the decision to show the film’s title in quotation marks and other promotional materials, including its title card.

But just how much of the original novel is left in the recent big-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights?

Here are 11 major differences between the two…

The topic that generated the most discussion long before Wuthering Heights hit cinemas was around Heathcliff’s ethnicity and background.

As soon as Jacob Elordi was cast in the role, people criticised Emerald for “whitewashing” the character, who is described in the novel as a “dark-skinned gypsy” and a “little Lascar”, a term used to refer to sailors from India, South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Mr Earnshaw says he found Heathcliff at Liverpool docks, a location historically associated with the Transatlantic slave trade. Some scholars even believe that the author was using Heathcliff to comment on the Liverpool slave trade.

Academics have long felt that the ambiguity of Heathcliff’s ethnicity and mysterious family background adds to the story, particularly with regard to how he is treated by Cathy’s family.

Elsie Michie, a professor of English at Louisiana State University, told The New York Times that “the dynamics of this novel are about otherness in various ways, and that otherness is in Heathcliff”. By making Healthcliff and Cathy the same ethnicity, Emerald’s film relies on class differences to create a rift between the lovers.

Asked about removing the character’s ethnic background and casting a white actor to play him,

Emerald previously claimed: “Everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only kind of ever make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it.”

She also explained that, when casting Jacob, she was less concerned with the text and more with her own memories of reading the book.

″[He] looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read,” she added during an earlier interview.

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights very specifically focuses on the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, but fans of the Gothic novel will know this is only one part of a bigger story.

Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is less a romance and more a supernatural warning about intergenerational trauma. Emerald has chosen not to include these elements, instead turning Cathy and Heathcliff into tragic lovers frolicking on the moors.

This latest adaptation covers only the first half of the book, ending the story just after Cathy’s death. In the latter half of the novel, a bereft Heathcliff dedicates his life to torturing those around him, including Cathy’s daughter, and the son he and Isabella later have.

“The thing for me is that you can’t adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book,” Emerald told Fandango in January regarding the charges.

Emerald’s film is far from the first adaptation of Wuthering Heights to omit the second part of the novel, which scholars believe completely reframes the story’s message.

“You lose that sense of a cycle of violence,” said the curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Murray Tremellen, to Time when explaining why failing to adapt the second part of the book waters down the story.

Eliminating the second generation of Lintons and Earnshaws and Heathcliff’s treatment of them from the story “allows you to ignore that who he is persecuting are the innocent,” lecturer Sam Hirst told Time.

“You can’t think of it as a love story if you actually honestly portray that part of the story,” because “what his love actually looks like is this horrifying toxic nightmare of a thing,” Hirst added.

Emerald Fennell’s film adaptation of Wuthering Heights fundamentally alters the novel’s structure, shifting the point of view from Lockwood and Nelly to a more linear narrative.

The book is told through second-hand accounts, after Mr Lockwood moves into Thrushcross Grange and wants to learn more about the mysterious Heathcliff who lives nearby. He speaks to Nelly, who recounts the story of Heathcliff’s romance with Cathy and the impact it has had on the two households.

Mr Lockwood does not appear in the recent film at all, removing the outsider’s perspective that the book gives readers.

Emerald even joked to BuzzFeed: “Let’s be honest, no one misses him.”

Because Emerald ends her film just after Cathy’s death, the book’s supernatural elements are also removed from the newest spin on Wuthering Heights.

In the novel’s opening chapters, before Nelly starts telling the story, a ghostly apparition of Cathy appears to Lockwood, demanding to be let in through the window.

Heathcliff claims to be haunted throughout Brontë’s novel, with villagers claiming at the end that they see him and Cathy’s ghost on the moor together.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s casting as Cathy and Heathcliff initially raised eyebrows because both are almost double the age of their characters in the book.

In the novel, Cathy is six when she meets Heathcliff, while in the film, the younger versions of the characters are played by teenagers Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper.

As the characters grow, 34-year-old Margot takes over as Cathy, with 27-year-old Jacob portraying the adult Heathcliff.

In the book, meanwhile, Cathy is 12 when she meets Edgar, 17 when she weds him and 18 when she dies.

Although Heathcliff’s backstory and age are more mysterious, it’s generally accepted that he is slightly older than Cathy.

The book suggests that he leaves Cathy and Wuthering Heights aged 16 and returns three years later, rather than the five described in the film.

It’s worth pointing out that the film does address the aging up of the characters, with Nelly referring to Cathy as a “spinster” in one scene.

In the Emerald Fennell film, it’s established early on that Cathy’s brother (also called Heathcliff) is dead, and that she has no other siblings. By contrast, in the book, Cathy has a malicious and violent older brother, Hindley Earnshaw.

Hindley is one of the main antagonists of the novel, abusing Heathcliff and exploiting him after their father’s death. It’s often considered that this abuse is what turns Heathcliff into a toxic, manipulative adult.

When Mr Earnshaw dies, Hindley becomes the master of the household, forcing Heathcliff into servitude. In the latter half of the book, Heathcliff gets revenge by abusing Hindley’s son and forcing him to become his servant.

Emerald told BuzzFeed that she saw Hindley as little more than a “narrative tool” that Brontë “doesn’t really extend any grace to”, which she found difficult to incorporate into her script.

“You can have an outright villain in a novel. You can have somebody who,

like, tries to throw a baby off a banister,” she said. “But for me, I’m always looking for the kind of tension in characters where you do have sympathy, always, no matter how reprehensible they are.”

Martin Clunes plays Cathy’s father, Mr Earnshaw, as an alcoholic brute, though his character is much kinder in Brontë’s source material.

In the novel, he has goodwill for Heathcliff, arguably favouring him above his own children. Some fans of the book have gone as far as speculating that this close bond is intended to suggest that Heathcliff is his illegitimate son.

In Emerald Fennell’s film, Mr Earnshaw and Hindley have been merged together, the result being “a sort of father character who was at once loving, charismatic, generous, and on the other side, cruel, malevolent, capricious”.

The director told BuzzFeed: “It was about kind of looking at where Cathy and Heathcliff have kind of what they’ve learned, what behaviour they’ve learned, how they’ve learned to manage things, how they’ve survived up to a point.”

Compared to the original novel, Emerald’s take on the story depicts Hong Chau’s Nelly as less of a nurse or housekeeper, and more of a companion figure for Cathy.

As one of the narrators in the book, she clearly has disdain for Heathcliff, but in the film, her role is much more opportunistic. In the absence of Hindley, Nelly becomes something of a villain in Cathy’s life – although some Brontë fans would suggest Nelly has always been a low-key “bad guy”.

In the big-screen adaptation, Nelly encourages Cathy to accept Edgar’s marriage proposal, burns Heathcliff’s letters to her (in the book, she burns the correspondence between Heathcliff’s son and Cathy’s daughter instead) and ignores Cathy’s health complications, dismissing them as a childish tantrum.

When Cathy takes to her bed in grief over Heathcliff’s wedding to Isabella, Nelly also ignores the state of her health, which ultimately leads to the sepsis that causes Cathy’s death.

During her BuzzFeed interview, Emerald explained that she was inspired to change Nelly’s character by scholars who believed Nelly was the true villain of Wuthering Heights.

“I think we all can relate to that person,” she claimed. “When you’re the sensible one and you’re the one who can see that something is a terrible idea, and you’re the one, perhaps in Nelly’s case, who doesn’t have as much power to affect the things around her.”

She added: “I get why she does the things she does. Because looking at what’s happened, what is happening and then happens afterwards.”

While Nelly might be the villain of the story, it was important to the filmmaker that Hong’s character be given her “moment of grace at the end” where she realises that her dismissal of Cathy’s feelings ultimately contributed to her death.

In Brontë’s work, Cathy’s husband Edgar Linton is the biological brother of Isabella (played by Alison Oliver), but in the film she is introduced as his “ward”, an orphaned minor who is placed under his guardianship.

The Linton parents are also nowhere to be seen in the new movie, despite appearing in the novel, with Edgar acting as the master of Thrushcross Grange.

Crucially, Emerald’s film also removes the romance from Edgar and Cathy’s relationship. While in both the book and movie, Cathy is motivated by class and money, the film removes any notion that she is in love with the man she married.

The version of Isabella we see in Emerald Fennell’s film is almost unrecognisable compared to her literary counterpart.

While she has always been portrayed as a delicate and immature character, Emerald brings out the more quirky aspects of Isabella in the latest adaptation.

Both the book and film iterations of Isabella are obsessed with Heathcliff, but in the book, she is less aware that she’s being manipulated by him. Film Isabella, on the other hand, is much more calculating, and appears aware that Heathcliff is using her to make Cathy jealous.

In the novel, she genuinely loves Heathcliff and regrets their union when he starts abusing her – even going as far as killing her dog – resulting in her trying to flee their home when pregnant with their son.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Jacob claimed that the provocative scene in the movie, in which Isabella is depicted on all fours in a dog collar taking commands from her husband was the director’s way of “taking the killing of the dog and these really dark parts of the novel and putting them into this scene”.

In the same interview, Emerald said she felt it was important to acknowledge that Isabella winked at Nelly to indicate consent.

The filmmaker pointed out that the dialogue in this sequence is almost the same as the novel.

She said: “That scene in the book, I think that’s the reason why [Wuthering Heights] was eviscerated when it came out because I think it was just so shocking to people. Because there’s so much in what happens there that is… very, very complicated. Very transgressive – even for now, it’s shocking.

“And, obviously, I visually added some things to that scene, but [the dialogue] is almost all Brontë.”

Emerald is definitely not a director who shies away from sex or nudity. While Wuthering Heights is, in many ways, tamer than Saltburn, her adaptation was still much racier than the source material.

Brontë’s book portrays Cathy and Heathcliff as having a deeply romantic – albeit tortured – relationship, but they only kiss once in the novel, and it’s never explicitly stated that they have sex.

In the movie, though, there is a whole montage dedicated to the couple’s sex life.

“Wuthering Heights is an extremely sexy book,” Emerald said during a recent appearance on the podcast Happy Sad Confused. “It’s so sexy. Lots of people argue about that, lots of people feel that it is not a sexy book at all. I believe it is a very sexy book, I felt it was a very sexy book.

“But, you know, nothing [sexy] happens [in the book]. So that’s the other side of things. But, you know, it’s interesting, the perception of something, and the thing itself, are so different.”

Jacob has also insisted the movie’s sex scenes were “entirely in the spirit of the novel.”

“Any image that comes from Emerald’s head is inspired by that depravity and love and obsession,” the Euphoria actor told USA Today. “They’re all in the language of what Brontë was driving at with this book, so it was never really a shock or a reach.”

One of the biggest artistic liberties Emerald Fennell takes with her adaptation is its ending.

In the novel, Cathy dies shortly after giving birth to her daughter (also called Cathy), Emerald’s film shows the character dying of sepsis after miscarrying.

The director told Entertainment Tonight that she made this change because she wanted to expand the circular nature of the text.

“It begins where it ends and ends where it begins. And that’s the thing about love, and it’s the thing about the book, right?” she said. “It’s that it’s forever and it’s cyclical, and so there’s no stop – even when there’s a terrible, sad, tragic stop, it’s not really a stop – because that’s what the book feels so much about. It’s about the depths of human feeling and how it exists in a profound way, not just a physical one.”

Unlike in the book, Heathcliff does not visit Cathy before her death in the film, but in a fever-induced state, she imagines his younger self speaking to her.

Emerald added that in Bronte’s novel there are “about three different meetings and three different speeches”, so her rewritten version of events was her way of “consolidating that”.

“And so what I did was I brought a lot of the love forward, and a lot of those really important conversations forward, to give them some time so that it didn’t just happen at the end,” she offered.

Wuthering Heights is in cinemas now.

The Brit Awards are widely renowned as being one of the most chaotic awards shows going – thanks to the on-stage blunders, political statements and jaw-dropping celebrity feuds that have played out during the ceremony over the last 40 years.

In the run-up to this year’s event, we’ve rounded up the good, the bad and, indeed, the ugly for you, and hand-picked 33 of the most memorable moments to ever take place at the Brit Awards.

All we can say now is, roll on Saturday’s ceremony in Manchester…

Best British Album is the category every UK artist wants to win at the Brits, so it’s understandable that Adele would want to soak up the moment when 21 was given the accolade.

Sadly for host James Corden, it looked as though her acceptance speech was going to overrun into Blur’s performance back in 2012, so he clumsily stepped in to try and wrap things up.

As James tried to hurry her along, the frustrated singer wound up flipping the bird towards the cameras before leaving the stage.

Michael Jackson performed at the Brits just once in his lifetime, and given what happened in 1996, it’s hardly a surprise he never came back.

While the singer was performing Earth Song, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker made his way onto the stage, walking around wiggling his bum and cheekily lifting his top, before being removed by security. He later claimed he’d been upset by the pop icon’s choice to make himself appear Christ-like during the performance.

After the show, Jarvis was arrested – and subsequently released without charge – after being accused of hurting three of the children on stage. Drama!

It’s now been more than 30 years since this happened, and we’re still puzzled as to exactly who thought that teaming up two completely unrelated non-presenters to front one of Britain’s biggest live TV events was a good idea.

The excruciating evening was dogged with guest mix-ups, autocue fails and jokes that went down like lead balloons. So all in all, not a great night. That being said, we’re still talking about it almost 40 years later, which has got to count for something, right?

They’d already been swapping endless insults in the press for ages, but things between Robbie Williams and Liam Gallagher came to a head at the Brits in 2000.

Our favourite part of this video is right at the end, when the late Caroline Aherne muses that her “money would be on Liam”…

Speaking of Caroline Aherne, she was on hand to present Best British Single as her Mrs Merton alter-ego back in 1997, and delivered a truly iconic one-liner.

After ribbing presenter Ben Elton, she then declared: “Charlie, wherever you are, can you make yourself known? They’re all asking for you backstage. In the toilets, it’s Charlie, Charlie, Charlie… you’d think they’d have enough to do with being pop stars.”

“So that’s lovely,” she added. Brilliant stuff.

In a move that seems more strange with every year that passes, David Bowie chose the then-leader of the opposition Tony Blair to welcome him to the stage, when he was awarded the Outstanding Contribution title in 1996.

Largely inspired by the success of The Darkness, Cat Deeley opened the Brits in 2004 with a bold declaration about the return of rock music and how Brits bosses had lifted the alcohol ban in place for the previous few years (hence the champagne bottle).

However, the night was hardly a rock-heavy occasion, with performers on the night including 50 Cent, Missy Elliott and… Dido.

After 10 years in the industry, Little Mix finally bagged their first win in the Best British Group category, becoming the first ever girl group to achieve the accolade.

Celebrating their win, the band – two of whom were pregnant at the time – gave a shout-out to the groups who paved the way for them, including the Spice Girls, All Saints and Girls Aloud. They also paid tribute to former bandmate Jesy Nelson, who had quit Little Mix six months earlier.

We all know this moment really belonged to the late, great Sarah Harding, who summed up Girls Aloud fans everywhere’s feelings when she declared: “It’s about time!”

At the 2015 Brits, Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West took the opportunity to debut a new track, All Day.

Unfortunately for viewers at home, most of it was muted completely by ITV’s censors due to Ye’s repeated use of the N-word (though the censorship didn’t stop some viewers from complaining regardless).

It’s actually become something of an unofficial Brits tradition for the sound to mysteriously cut out every year whenever Lewis Capaldi has something to say on stage.

Accepting his first ever Brit with a Red Stripe in his hand in 2020, censors had to act fast in the middle of Lewis’ acceptance speech, when he declared: “Thank you very fucking much.”

The following year, Lewis returned to the Brits, only for the exact same thing to end up happening.

The Brits ceremony in 2025 wound up sparking almost 1000 complaints to the TV watchdog Ofcom, down to appearances by two of the night’s star guests, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.

Sabrina kicked the evening off with a very racy medley of songs from her Short N’ Sweet, culminating in her getting up close and personal with a dancer dressed as a royal guard, while Charli accepted five awards over the course of the night while sporting a sheer outfit with her nipples visible underneath.

During one of her acceptance speeches, the Grammy winner claimed that the higher-ups at ITV had already been “complaining about my nipples”, commenting: “I feel like we’re in the era of free the nipple though, right?”

The legend goes that Geri Halliwell and her sister made her infamous Union Jack dress with a tea-towel, adding a peace sign on the back so as not to offend anyone.

Years later, the iconic garment went on to sell for a record-breaking £41,320 at an auction.

Let’s be honest, sometimes red carpet coverage of the Brit Awards can verge on being a little dry. More often than not, the stars are on their best behaviour, saving their more raucous antics for the infamous after-parties.

So we were glad when Lizzo made her Brits debut in 2019 (right before her mainstream breakthrough), chatting candidly backstage to Marvin Humes, which ended in the truly iconic line: “From his lips to my p***y.”

You can always rely on Lizzo to bring the party.

Neither she nor Harry Styles even took home awards in 2020, but they were still the true winners on the night thanks to this chaotic – and tequila-assisted – scene.

It’s hard to choose a favourite moment of this compilation, just watch and enjoy.

By the end of the 2018 ceremony, the night already belonged to Stormzy, who had picked up Best British Male as well as the top award of the night, Best British Album.

It was fitting, then, that he should also close the show, putting on an elaborate performance of Blinded By Your Grace, pt. 2. It was what came next that grabbed headlines, though, as he launched into a freestyle rap calling out Theresa May’s government for their reaction to the Grenfell tragedy, as well as highlighting injustice and institutional racism.

As if that wasn’t enough, off came the t-shirt and on came the rain, for an energetic run of Big For Your Boots. Incredible stuff, which even won praise from then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

After her second Best British Female win in 2021 – the first Brits to take place after the pandemic – Dua Lipa announced she’d be sharing her win with nurse Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the emeritus professor of nursing at the University of West London.

Turning her attention to the many frontline workers in attendance on the night, Dua said: “It’s all very good to clap for them but we need to pay them.

“I think what we should do is we should all give a massive, massive round of applause and give Boris [Johnson, who was then prime minister] a message that we all support a fair pay rise for our front line.”

Admittedly, Joss Stone had been off the scene for a little while by the time she hit the stage to present Best British Male at the 2007 Brits, but last time we checked, she was from Devon, not the East Coast of America?

The singer created a stir not just for her accent, but also her “tribute” to Robbie Williams, who she’d performed with years earlier, as well as her joke about Russell Brand’s past rehab stint.

She’d been (surprisingly) on her best behaviour all night, but Sharon Osbourne lost her patience when Vic Reeves struggled with the autocue while presenting the biggest award of the night.

Despite being blasted as a “pisshead” and a “drunk bastard”, Vic later insisted he hadn’t been drinking.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Arctic Monkeys went on to hit out at the Brits school in their acceptance speech immediately afterwards, though this was cut from the final broadcast.

Your dad’s favourite stand-up comedian Peter Kay might seem like an unlikely choice to host the Brits, but he actually wound up being responsible for one of the ceremony’s most rock ‘n’ roll moments of the 21st century.

When Liam Gallagher defiantly threw his Brit into the crowd – having already snubbed brother Noel in his acceptance speech – the Phoenix Nights star put him down with a simple “what a knobhead”.

Not the wittiest of lines, admittedly, but effective all the same.

Proving that politics and pop aren’t always the best companions, when then Labour Cabinet Minister attended the 1998 bash, Tubthumping rock band Chumbawamba thought they’d let him know exactly how they felt about him getting an invite by throwing a bucket of iced water over the MP.

Despite the fact the record label apologised, the band were unrepentant, saying: “If John Prescott has the nerve to turn up at events like the Brit Awards in a vain attempt to make Labour seem cool and trendy, then he deserves all we can throw at him.”

When Arctic Monkeys won Best Album in 2014, frontman Alex Turner left us all baffled with his odd “that rock and roll, eh?” acceptable speech.

This ended in him telling Brits bosses, “invoice me for the microphone,” before dropping it on the floor and walking off.

First off, underdogs Belle and Sebastian had released a total of three albums when they were announced as the winners of Best British Newcomer in 1999, beating actual newcomers Steps, who had been heavily tipped for the award.

Their confusing victory led the national press to accuse them of rigging the vote in their favour by encouraging university students to vote online (which was still a fairly radical idea in 1999), though they insisted at the time this was not the case.

That same year Robbie took on Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood was presenting Best Soundtrack when suddenly he was interrupted by confused DJ (and future Celebrity Big Brother walker) Brandon Block, who had been jokingly informed by his friends that he’d won an award.

After Ronnie called him a “c***” for interrupting, the two squared up, drinks were thrown and security were called.

It was all super awks, to be honest.

The Best British Artist category was introduced in 2022, replacing the gendered Best British Male and Best British Female categories in a move towards inclusivity.

While its inaugural outing saw Adele taking home the award, its second year raised eyebrows after not a single woman was nominated.

Brits organisers later issued a statement saying: “We acknowledge and share in the disappointment that, unlike last year, no women are represented in the [Artist Of The Year] shortlist.

“There may be a number of reasons for this, but a key factor is that, unfortunately, there were relatively few commercially successful releases by women in 2022 compared to those by men, which means that, of the 71 eligible artists on the longlist, only 12 (17%) are women.

“We recognise this points to wider issues around the representation of women in music that must also be addressed.”

Despite the model’s sudden appearance – and her eye-catching outfit – the boys barely broke a sweat. Such pros.

In 2013, the Brits faced a backlash for the introduction of the Global Success award, which some suggested was just a ploy to give One Direction a prize on the night.

A year later, they won in the same category for a second time, though most of their acceptance speech was conducted as a four-piece, as Harry Styles was preoccupied in the lavatory at the time.

After being swung around by Alexander McQueen, Best International Female winner Björk told the crowd: “I am… grate…ful… grape… fruit.”

After Erasure won Best British Group, frontman Andy Bell kissed presenter Boy George on the cheek, a subtle move by today’s standards, but one that he claimed was a deliberate action against Section 28, which had been introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government the previous year.

In the 2010s, the Brit Awards played it safe with its hosts, which ranged from James Corden to Ant and Dec, finally ending up with Dermot O’Leary and Emma Willis.

We’ll admit we didn’t exactly have high hopes when Jack Whitehall was announced, but after a decade of chumminess, it was so refreshing to have a host who would poke fun at the famous nominees, while successfully managing not to cross the line into nastiness.

Bey and Jay weren’t even at the Brits in 2019, but they still managed to steal the show completely with this video message, in which they made a subtle show of solidarity with the Duchess of Sussex.

After being accidentally pulled down some steps due to a cape-related wardrobe malfunction, the whole nation held its collective breath as Madonna dusted herself off and, in the words of her song Living For Love, “picked up my crown, put it back on my head” and “carried on”.

The 2026 Brit Awards will take place on Saturday 28 February at 8.15pm on ITV1.