The BBC has given an update on the future of Diane Morgan’s hit comedy Ann Droid.

On Thursday morning, it was confirmed at the Edinburgh TV Festival that Diane will be returning as the obsolete AI bot Linda in a second season, following the success of the first run.

She enthused: “The response to Ann Droid has been so incredible. We’re all totally blown away.”

Diane added: “I’m really looking forward to not blinking, needing physio and hearing Cotton Eyed Joe on repeat.”

Ann Droid centres on a grieving widow, played by The Royle Family’s Sue Johnston, whose hapless son haphazardly buys her an AI bot to keep her company.

While initially, Sue’s character is resistant to her new companion, the two eventually grow closer and become unlikely friends.

Reacting to the news that Ann Droid will be back for six more episodes, Sue beamed: “I am so unbelievably happy that we are to do another series! Great script, great cast, great crew.

“The reaction from the public has been wonderful. Even my doctor called me Sue, Sue, Sue this morning! Everyone has been asking if there will be more and now we can tell them! Yippee.”

Since it premiered last month, Ann Droid pulled in 7.6 million viewers in its first week, a figure which has already increased to 8.1 million.

Besides Diane and Sue, the show also features appearances from Paul Ready, Kathryn Hunter and Margot Leicester.

BBC Comedy’s Emma Lawson said of the upcoming second run: “We’re delighted to be bringing Ann Droid back for a second series. Diane and Sarah have created such a warm, relatable, and uniquely funny comedy that audiences in their millions have fallen in love with.

“Alongside the brilliant team at Boffola and Witchcraft Industries, they’ve given us something truly distinctive, and Linda and Sue Sue Sue have quickly become two of comedy’s most lovable characters. We’re thrilled that we will all get to spend more time with them!”

We’ve whittled down to our last few bank holidays of the year. In England, Northern Ireland and Wales, there are only two left after the next summer bank holiday on 31 August.

Scotland, meanwhile, has a November date that the rest of the UK doesn’t take off – St Andrew’s Day – but next Monday isn’t a bank holiday there.

For the rest of the UK, however, the upcoming three-day stretch comes after a thundery week, with yellow weather storm warnings.

This begs the question: what will the weather be like this bank holiday weekend?

Well, so far, it’s not looking very sunny.

The Met Office has predicted an “unsettled” bank holiday weekend. On Friday, we can expect “bands of rain and showers moving across many parts… with most persistent rain towards the northeast”.

Northern Ireland is expected to remain relatively dry that day, however, while the south-east of England could escape some of the worst showers too.

It will also be “windy at times, especially on Saturday,” the weather service went on to note. This breeze and rain might be felt strongest in the south of the UK, though more northerly areas are still likely to face heavy clouds.

BBC Weather continued: “Sunday will be an unsettled day with showers or longer spells of rain, particularly across the north and the west”. Some thunder is possible.

And by bank holiday Monday itself, we can expect wetter, windier conditions to make their way north.

Still, a (literal) bright spot for some: BBC Weather predicts “sunny spells and the odd shower elsewhere”.

As for the rest of September, the Met said we’re likely to see higher-than-average rainfall at the start of the month (welcome for some after periods of drought).

The wettest conditions are likely to be in the north-west, though wind and showers will probably be mainstays in this period.

Meteorologists don’t expect the weather to dry out until late September.

A new trailer for the upcoming second season of The Celebrity Traitors has been unveiled.

In the cryptic new clip, the star-studded cast is shown together for the first time, gathered in the chapel on the iconic castle’s grounds.

Host Claudia Winkleman then declares: “A moment of silence for the celebrities gathered today.”

After close-ups of their nervous expressions, she calls for “thoughts and prayers” before strutting out.

“Who doesn’t love a dramatic exit?” she then concludes.

A release date for the second season of The Celebrity Traitors has not yet been revealed, but the first iteration began airing in early October, and ended four weeks later, in November.

What we do know, though, is the cast of stars on the line-up, which boasts an eclectic mix from the world of TV, music, sport and beyond.

The contestants this time around include comedians Joe Lycett and James Acaster, actors Bella Ramsey, Richard E Grant and Michael Sheen, TV personality Maya Jama and chart-topping singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

The full cast list is as follows:

• Amol Rajan
• Bella Ramsey
• James Acaster
• James Blunt
• Jerry Hall
• Joanne McNally
• Joe Lycett
• Julie Hesmondhalgh
• Kenny Oghenovo “King Kenny” Ojuederie
• Leigh-Anne Pinnock
• Maya Jama
• Michael Sheen
• Miranda Hart
• Myha’a
• Professor Hannah Fry
• Richard E Grant
• Rob Beckett
• Romesh Ranganathan
• Ross Kemp
• Sebastian Croft
• Sharon Rooney

Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the regular Traitors and its celebrity counterpart had both been renewed by the BBC until 2030 at the earliest.

Celebrating the news, the CEO of production company Studio Lambert, Stephen Lambert enthused: “The Traitors has become a genuine television phenomenon across the world, but especially in the UK, and we’re thrilled to continue the journey with the BBC.

“It’s hugely exciting that audiences will have many more years of strategy, suspense and shocking twists still to come.”

The BBC has confirmed plans to reboot Top Gear after a prolonged absence.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, the broadcaster’s director of entertainment Ed Havard responded to recent rumours suggesting Top Gear was being revived.

He said: “There has been a lot of speculation about this and we can confirm that Top Gear is coming back.”

After 20 years on our screens, with an array of different presenters at the helm, the BBC motoring series was “rested” in 2022, following a serious on-set crash involving one of its presenters, Andrew Flintoff.

The former cricketer – who co-hosted the series with Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris – said he suffered “life-alteringly significant” injuries in the accident, and was later reported to have received £9 million in compensation from the BBC for loss of earnings in the aftermath of the crash.

Last week, The Sun reported that controversial comedian and presenter Jimmy Carr was “in talks” to host the rebooted Top Gear, with former Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler and model Jodie Kidd also among the names mentioned by The Guardian as supposedly being in consideration.

Havard refused to be drawn on this speculation, insisting he was “not going to talk about talent”, but did concede that “Jimmy would be a great host.

“I won’t be discussing that today,” he continued. “We will have more information on Top Gear shortly.”

Top Gear first premiered in the 1970s, but was brought back in the early 2000s with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May as its hosts.

After an infamous behind-the-scenes “fracas” with a producer led to Clarkson’s contract not being renewed, his co-hosts chose to leave the show with him, and they later launched a rival car show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon Prime.

Since their departure, a host of stars have fronted Top Gear, including Chris Evans, Friends star Matt LeBlanc and the late Sabine Schmitz.

It doesn’t happen often, but there’s one inescapable thing that makes me wish I had a penis. Okay Freud, butt out! I don’t have penis envy (like that).

Yup, it’s when I’m out and about and I need a wee. I’m not ashamed to say it, because it’s simply not fair that men can whip their members out anywhere and go for a wazz, meanwhile women have to be PREGNANT (ugh) to access a toilet for free. Can you tell I’m mad about it?

No matter how many pelvic floor exercises I do, I always need to find a toilet when I leave my house, whether it’s nipping into the nearest pub, or (ahem) finding a spot for a nature wee. I’m sick of it, and I know I’m not the only one.

In fact, one in three women experience bladder leaks, and bladder control can get worse as we age. It’s no secret that declining oestrogen in women and a shrinking bladder can contribute to more frequent trips to the bathroom as you age.

But beyond that, urinary tract health is not something we talk about enough as a society.

I’ve already eschewed the benefits of wearing breathable underwear in the hotter months (and, just, year-round). But there are plenty of other ways to look after your vulva and prevent UTIs.

In case you weren’t taught this in sex ed, you have to pee after sex, and sitting around in a soggy bikini on holiday isn’t exactly conducive to a healthy vulva.

And let me tell you, I found those out the hard way. As a frequent victim of UTIs, I’m always in pursuit of ways to one up my intimate health. That’s what led me to Jude.

Working with leading women’s health experts, Jude has created a supplement designed to make you feel more confident in your bladder control throughout the day.

Packed into a handy capsule format, the supplement is loaded with pumpkin seed extract, B vitamins, iron, zinc, soy germ extract, and magnesium, which support urinary tract elasticity.

You can choose from either a four week, 12 week, or one off plan, but I opted for 12 weeks to see whether it could help me stop needing to pee on holiday and at the festivals I was going to this summer.

I knew I was going to be drinking a fair bit of wine and wanted to be prepared for what that would do to my bathroom habits.

Not to mention that my morning coffee sees me peeing approximately five times before midday.

I’m pleased to say that my little experiment worked. Not only did I feel less overwhelmed by the sudden need to pee before the 12 weeks was up, but I felt less worried about getting a UTI after sex as everything felt soothed down there.

And I’m not alone: 77% of Jude testers said they felt more in control after 12 weeks, and 90% felt less held back by their bladder.

The supplement is designed for people over 40, so if you’re going through menopause it could be just what you’re looking for to stop those urination urges.

If you’re curious to try it out and see whether it can help you, we’ve got an exclusive 20% discount for our readers with the code BABY20.

In her tribute to her former Annie co-star Tim Curry, screen legend Carol Burnett remarked that “nobody could play lovable villains better than he could”.

And let’s face it, she’s certainly got a point.

The British actor – who died on Tuesday night at the age of 80 – was known for playing plenty of iconic baddies, dating right back to his film debut in the 1970s, starring as Frank-N-Further in the cult musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

From there, his villainous roles included the dastardly pirate Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, the nightmarish Pennywise in the TV adaptation of It and, as mentioned, Miss Hannigan’s no-good brother Rooster in Annie.

But there’s one evil performance of the Emmy winner’s that we think is often overlooked, as he also lent his voice to one of Disney’s most underrated villains ever.

In 1997, Tim joined the cast of Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas as its central villain, Maestro.

Now, we know what you’re thinking. Straight-to-video Disney sequels were rarely the stuff of cinematic greatness, and this Beauty And The Beast follow-up is probably no exception (not that we let that stop us from streaming it every single December, of course).

However, true to form, Tim’s voice performance as Maestro is as stellar as you’d expect, flipping from comedic sarcasm to unsettling fury with remarkable ease.

A Beauty And The Beast “midquel”, The Enchanted Christmas takes place during the events of the first film, around the festive season.

Tim’s character, Maestro, is a domineering pipe organ intent on keeping the Beast as miserable as possible, who tries to stop him falling in love with Belle so as not to break the spell that the enchanted castle is under.

While he’s overall a pretty shady and sinister fella (not helped by the nightmare fuel that is his early CGI appearance), he does get to deliver some brilliant one-liners, our favourite being: “Heavens, look, I’m bolted to the wall!”

Fittingly, the three-time Tony nominee also got the chance to perform his own villainous musical number with Don’t Fall In Love.

“I think writers have a lot more fun writing villains,” Tim once said while discussing his work in the Disney movie. “They’re just, on the whole, very much better written, and therefore a great deal more fun to play. You get to be the bad guy!”

He admitted: “My father was a minister, so I grew up in Methodist churches all over. So, I’m actually very fond of the sound of organ music. I just sort of tried to approximate that huge breathy sound [with my performance].”

“They said, ‘you could take it a bit further if you’d like to’, and I said, ‘that’s not a direction I hear very often’,” he added with a laugh.

As well as the returning voice cast from the original, Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas introduces new characters voiced by stage legend Bernadette Peters and Paul Reubens, while Haley Joel Osment took over as the voice of Chip.

So, if you’re planning on revisiting Home Alone 2 this Christmas in tribute to Tim Curry, why not revisit this, too, and make it a double feature…?

The news broadcaster CNN has issued a public apology after mistakenly including footage of a Dolly Parton tribute act in their reporting on the late singer’s death.

On Tuesday night, following the news that the Jolene singer had died at the age of 80, the current affairs show Laura Coates Live included a segment paying tribute to the late Grammy winner.

However, included in this was a photo of Las Vegas impersonator Kelly Vohnn rather than Dolly herself.

A CNN spokesperson later told Deadline: “We regret the error and apologise to the Parton family.”

Kelly later posted a statement on Instagram which read: “I did not give anyone my likeness to be used in any way to fool people into thinking I am the real Dolly Parton. This has happened a couple of times now and it’s not OK.

“I don’t own these images. These photos were taken during a red carpet event in Las Vegas for the opening of the movie Song Sung Blue where multiple impersonators attended.”

She added: “My goal is to carry on [Dolly’s] giving, loving legacy in the world. We need reporters to do better due diligence when broadcasting to prevent [fake news].”

“I want to say, in no way, shape or form, have I ever given permission to anyone to allow them to use my image and say that I am Dolly Parton,” she said in the accompanying video. “I would never fool people that way. I am an impersonator.

“People know that they’re buying tickets to see an impersonator, and I would never say that I’m Dolly Parton.”

Kelly also told the New York Post: “I started getting all these texts in from friends saying that I was on CNN, and I couldn’t believe it.”

“I was already heartbroken at losing Dolly because of how much she has given to me as a woman and an artist,” she added. “But then to see these images of me on screen was just weird.”

Dolly’s team has confirmed that the singer died in hospital on Tuesday following what they described as a “brief battle with cancer”.

The legendary musician is to be laid to rest in a “small” and “private” funeral attended by close family, with fans being encouraged to donate to one of her charity initiatives in her memory.

Mark Carney has demolished Donald Trump’s attempt to change the name of Lake Ontario as part of his ongoing feud with Canada.

The US president signed an executive order on Thursday re-naming the vast expanse of water “Lake America”.

It came after trade talks between America and Canada collapsed last week, with Trump imposing 50% tariffs on imports from its neighbour.

Canada has said it will retaliate with “dollar for dollar” tariffs of its own on American goods.

Lake Ontario is one of the five “Great Lakes” which straddle America and Canada.

Trump said the name change was “official, effective immediately”.

But responding on X, Canadian PM Carney blew Trump’s claims out of the water by pointing out it has been known as Lake Ontario for centuries and will remain so “now and always”.

He said: “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’.

“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.

“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms.

“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”

Other politicians, including Ontario premier Doug Ford and his Nova Scotia counterpart Tim Houston, also blasted Trump.

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