Now that longer nights are just around the corner, us horror fans are getting ready for our favourite holiday; Halloween. For me, it’s a month-long horror film watch-a-thon with a mix of classic horrors, Simpsons Halloween specials and family films such as Hocus Pocus.

One film that always makes it to my rewatch list is John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween. It’s the ideal slasher film. It’s a little campy, a little scary and now, almost 50 years since it first came out, Michael Myers’ mask is still quite creepy even among the dated horror tropes.

However, I have just learned that this iconic mask was not made for the film and is actually the mask of a famous actor just… painted white.

So, this mask is actually William Shatner of Star Trek fame’s face just… painted white. That’s it. You can’t unsee it now, right? It’s featureless, pale and fear-inducing but it’s also just William Shatner.

Personally, I would be pretty offended if something on my body contributed to such a horror icon and I’m not sure he was very thrilled, either.

Speaking on the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, he said: “I thought, ‘Is that a joke? Are they kidding?’

“I recognised it as the death mask they had made for me. They made a mask of my face on Star Trek out of clay so I would not have to be available for the prosthetics they would have to put on my face to look old or evil or whatever it was they were making me look like.

“So somewhere along the line, someone got that mask and made a mask of it for [the holiday] Halloween.”

Speaking on Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us, Halloween production designer and editor Tommy Lee Wallace shared that when he was tasked with finding a ‘creepy mask’, he visited a magic shop on Hollywood Boulevard which had a large display of masks.

He said: “Up on the shelves were these full face masks of Richard Nixon, and down at the end was Mr. Spock. And right next to it was this blank face [Shatner’s character] Capt. Kirk.”

He then made it creepier by enlarging the eyeholes, removing the eyebrows and sideburns, darkening the hair and of course, painting the face white.

Halloween is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Before my husband, Daniel, and I climb out of our car parked in front of our friend’s Baltimore home, I ask him how he wants to answer the question that we both know is coming.

“I’m not going to lie,” he tells me. “We don’t have to go into every detail of James’ latest episode. Let’s just say he’s struggling. He is 29 years old and struggling to find himself.”

“In the woods, at a therapeutic living community, in Brookline, Vermont,” I add from the passenger seat, just to complete the picture.

“Sure, if you want to tell them that. They’re not going to ask for more details. They’ll probably ask to pour you another drink at that point.”

Kevin and Eliza are friends of ours, but we have not known them for long.

“So, how are the kids?” Kevin asks, emphasis on the word kids. “Bring me up to date.”

Parents of children who suffer from substance use disorder, anxiety, depression or mental illness in general have two choices when faced with this question: lie and deflect the question or be blatantly honest.

Researchers call this “stigma by association” – the quiet social pressure and judgment that families absorb simply by loving someone with mental illness.

If I decide to avoid this hardball by lying, I could speak in generalities and say, relatively speaking, all three of my kids are well. They have food on their plates; they live safely with roofs over their heads. They have parents who support and care about them. They are loved.

And all that is true. But that doesn’t answer Kevin’s question.

I know what he means. He wants to know specifics: Where are they working? What city do they live in? He wants to know what their plans are for the future, whether they have partners, who those partners are. These are subtle subcategories hiding within the larger question, “How are the kids?”

Studies show that many families respond to mental illness with silence or partial truths, withdrawing to avoid judgment. I find lying about how my children are doing more exhausting than telling the truth.

I want to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume the statistics I have memorised as a soothing balm are correct. Chances are, Kevin and Eliza have a family member who suffers from mental illness or they know someone who does.

I ask my son how he wants me to answer this question. After all, it is his life I’m talking or not talking about. When I ask how he feels about the issue, he doesn’t flinch. “I don’t think promoting dishonesty is wise. That’s all I have to say. Lying by omission is still dishonest.”

Apparently, I am the one with the hang-ups. Yet I know I am not alone.

“Kids are good,” I tell Kevin, with a tilt of my head. “Nathan loves his new school, he’s so glad he made the switch. Julia is living with her boyfriend in Denver. She’s in her second year of graduate school at the University of Denver School of Social Work. Not sure how long they will live there though, she tells us it’s expensive in Denver.”

“And James.” I pause here and glance at Daniel, raise my eyebrows and give him a half-smile. “James is living in Portland, Maine, and is figuring out what he wants to do and what he wants to be. He is our struggling one, but he’ll figure it out. We have faith.”

I say this to Kevin with more confidence than I feel, but I tell myself I technically did not lie. But I didn’t give them the benefit of the doubt. They might have a child with addiction issues. We could have shared stories.

Mental health experts assure me I’m allowed to avoid the subject. I am permitted to draw boundaries. Psychologists tell me to remember I alone do not shoulder the responsibility of representing all mothers of children with mental illness.

I have become an expert at flattening the details of my son’s life. I say things like, “He’s doing well, I mean these are tough times for kids, right? How about your kids?”

But those words only perpetuate the lonely feeling of having a child with mental illness and substance use disorder. Lying shuts the door and closes all the windows.

Over 450 million people suffer from a mental illness or neurological disorder at some point in their lives. That is one in four people in the world. Research shows that stigma often affects the whole family of a person with mental illness and is one of the most persistent barriers to open conversation about the topic.

For that reason, I vow to be blatantly honest next time someone asks me, “How are the kids?” Because silence feels disrespectful to the incredibly hard work my son is enduring to become a resilient, empathetic and wise adult. But even more so, secrets keep my family lonely.

Lying about how my child is doing only preserves the stigma attached to substance use disorder and mental health issues.

Furthermore, members of families like mine have reported that interacting with other families with a mentally ill relative is one of the most helpful ways they cope with it. By telling our story honestly and connecting with others as a result, I will not only reduce my own shame connected to that stigma, I will be working to dissolve its stain.

Judy Sandler is a writer and educator living in mid-coast Maine. Her memoir, What Kind of Mother, A Reckoning (West Virginia University Press), will be out Sept. 8. See more at www.judysandler.com.

• Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
• Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
• CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
• The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
• Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.

It’s fair to say that Jack Lowden has a lot of eyes on him right now.

Not only is the Emmy nominee gearing up for the release of the much-anticipated sixth season of Slow Horses, he’s also heavily tipped to be one of the frontrunners to succeed Daniel Craig in the role of James Bond – with an announcement about the next 007 expected imminently.

And that’s without even getting into another of the year’s most-hyped shows, which will see him playing the Mr Darcy to Emma Corrin’s Elizabeth Bennet in Netflix’s new Pride And Prejudice adaptation.

Jack’s work as River Cartwright in Apple TV+’s spy drama may be what has really blown up his profile, but he first shot to fame in the 2010s thanks to his work in the likes of Wolf Hall and the BBC’s take on War & Peace – with plenty of other roles on the big and small screen along the way that might have slipped your mind completely.

With that in mind, we’re looking back at some of previous Jack Lowden performances you might have forgotten all about…

Two years after his performance in the webseries Being Victor – which also aired on STV in 2010 – he made his more widespread TV debut in the drama Mrs Biggs.

Starring Sheridan Smith as Charmian Biggs, the wife of train robber, Ronnie Biggs, Jack played a minor role as Alan Wright, a man the title character briefly has an affair with, resulting in a pregnancy.

Mrs Biggs was well-received by critics at the time, with Sheridan in particular earning praise and eventually winning a TV Bafta for her work in the series.

When it came to his early roles, Jack well and truly hit the ground running.

He followed his work in Mrs Biggs with a performance in the grisly crime drama The Tunnel, a remake of the Nordic noir series The Bridge, which centred around the joint investigation into a grisly crime that saw the remains of two dismembered bodies being left at the halfway point between the UK and France.

Jack appeared in a recurring role as Adam, the on-screen son of Stephen Dillane’s chief inspector character, Karl Roebuck, the lead of the British side of the investigation, who eventually becomes the subject of a kidnapping storyline.

More than a decade before shows like Adolescence and Tip Toe were shining a light on the dark side of young people’s use social media, Jack appeared in UWantMeToKillHim?, a British thriller about two teenage boys who are dragged into a world of violence after being introduced online.

Led by Jamie Blackley and Toby Regbo, the film also featured performances from Joanne Froggatt, Jaime Winstone and James Burrows.

Jack’s role was a minor one, playing Henry, one of the boys’ school friends, appearing in only a handful of scenes.

In 2016, Jack landed what was the biggest film role of his career at that point, when he was cast opposite Peter Mullan in the historical drama Tommy’s Honour.

The film saw Peter and Jack playing the real-life father-and-son Tom and Tommy Morris, two golfers with a complicated relationship.

Upon its release, Tommy’s Honour scooped Best Feature Film at the Scottish Baftas, with Jack’s performance also landing him a nomination at the ceremony that year (interestingly, he lost out to his co-star, Peter, for his work in a different film, Hector).

A United Kingdom was a historical romance based on the real-life relationship between Seretse Khama, the heir to the throne of a Botswanan tribe, and his wife-to-be, the British-born Ruth Willliams Khama.

Led by David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, the film explored the complexities of an interracial relationship between an African prince and a white British woman in the 1940s, and featured an ensemble cast that also included Jack Davenport, Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael and Harry Potter’s Tom Felton.

Jack, meanwhile, made a small appearance as the British politician Tony Benn.

Outside of film and TV, Jack also has a notable video game credit to his name.

In the mid-2010s, he lent his name and likeness to T. E. Lawrence (otherwise known as Lawrence Of Arabia) in a notable level in the game Battlefield 1, which was released in 2016.

The 15th instalment in the Battlefield series, Battlefield 1 was a first-person shooter set around the time of World War I, and remains a popular choice among gamers.

In England Is Mine, Jack took the lead as Steven, a shy and dissatisfied young person growing up in 1970s Manchester, who would go on to revolutionise indie music, spark no end of controversy and come to be known worldwide as the mononym Morrissey.

The unauthorised biopic focusses on Morrissey’s pre-fame years, and while the man himself has never publicly addressed the movie, it didn’t exactly go down well with the musician’s friends.

Alongside Jack as Morrissey, the film also featured Laurie Kynaston as Johnny Marr, as well as appearances from Jessica Brown Findlay and Jodie Comer.

Like pretty much every other actor of his generation, Jack had a role in Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk.

While the film was an ensemble piece, detailing the Dunkirk evacuation in the early years of World War II, Jack had a major role as Spitfire pilot Collins.

The movie famously marked the screen debut of Harry Styles, and was also a breakthrough for the likes of Barry Keoghan and Fionn Whitehead, as well as featuring performances from Nolan regulars Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Jack joined Florence Pugh, Nick Frost and Lena Headey in this comedic take on the sibling rivalry between Paige and Zak Zodiac, a real-life brother-and-sister duo born into a wrestling family who hope to follow in their parents’ footsteps and make it big in the WWE.

However, when the siblings apply for the WWE and only Paige is selected, the pair’s journeys take very different turns.

Written and directed by Stephen Merchant, who also plays a small role, the film featured Vince Vaughn, Julia Davis and cameos from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena.

Slow Horses returns to Apple TV+ on Wednesday 16 September.

It’s hard to imagine a time when “screen time” isn’t a hot-button topic, right? Perhaps especially for parents.

The problems that come with spending too much time on screens are pretty well-known. A 2023 study points to effects such as eye strain, neck pain, depression, anxiety, decreased well-being and more.

Yet, with technology advancing and taking us all by storm – and with the necessity of a Ms. Rachel video when you’re trying to finish doing the dishes, for example – the urge to give kids a phone, tablet or some TV is all too real.

If it helps, child therapists believe that screen time isn’t the absolute worst thing. There are just factors you need to consider as you establish healthy boundaries.

Below, find the one thing they wish adults would be better with when it comes to kids and screen time, along with some other advice to help you navigate it.

Perhaps it’s not about controlling your child’s screen time, but your own.

Research published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics suggests that parents use screens during mealtime more often than kids do, and that this habit can interfere with interpersonal relationships.

Another study in 2023 found that kids’ emotional intelligence can be directly affected by parents’ smartphone use. Additionally, a study published in 2025 found that caregivers’ smartphone use during conversations with children is associated with increased anger and sadness in children during those interactions, potentially negatively affecting their well-being.

A recent study published in August found that caregivers’ screen use directly affected kids’ vocabulary. According to the authors, parental smartphone use may be a “meaningful indicator” of “risk for poorer language outcomes, highlighting the importance of considering screen use at the family level when evaluating children’s language development.”

“Children learn through watching you,” said Ciara Bogdanovic, a psychotherapist and the owner and founder of Sagebrush Psychotherapy. “If you want your child to have healthy boundaries with technology, you have to model those boundaries yourself.”

Fiona Yassin, a child, adolescent and family psychotherapist, and the founder and clinic director of The Wave Clinic, echoed this. “Set a positive example for your young person by having screen-free time,” she said. “Put your phone out of sight at meal times or in the evening, and be aware of using your phone for long periods or whilst you’re around family and friends.”

Further, she encouraged setting a time limit for yourself and your family, then reflecting together on how it made you feel. Certain mobile apps (such as Screen Time, Forest and AntiSocial) can help limit phone time, according to a 2023 study.

Examining and adjusting your own phone habits can have a huge impact; experts said there are a few other habits you might want to implement in order to encourage a healthy relationship with screens. Here are a few:

“If I could get parents to shift one thing about the way they think about screen time, it would be to worry a little less about the exact number of minutes and pay more attention to what the screen is replacing,” said Farah Downs, a licensed school psychologist in Florida who provides therapy to children and works closely with parents.

She gave the example of a child playing a video game for 45 minutes after sleeping well, moving their body, spending time with people and doing what they need to do, versus the game taking the place of sleep, homework, time outside or family time.

Downs added that a screen can be helpful at times. “A tablet on a long flight or when you really need to finish something is not something I think parents need to feel guilty about,” she said. “But if we automatically hand over a device every time a child gets restless at dinner or complains that a line is taking too long, we may be solving the immediate problem while taking away a chance for them to practice waiting and managing a little discomfort.”

Wildaliz Caro, a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in child and adolescent mental health and development, agreed that screen time can be a problem, but isn’t always, for those reasons.

“Screen usage becomes a concern when it replaces essential childhood experiences needed to develop the ability to function in the world around them, such as coping with boredom, interpreting social cues, managing frustration, developing the capacity for creative thinking (using one’s imagination) and learning to find ways to engage in leisure-time activity without constant stimulation,” she said.

It’s not about whether an app or device is “good” or “bad,” she continued, but whether the child can practice being a child outside of it. She encouraged aiming for balance versus perfection. When teasing out the latter, consider letting your child be part of the conversation.

“I encourage families to sit down together and talk honestly about both the good things screens can provide, as well as what can happen when screens start taking up too much of the day,” said Kara Duraccio, a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in children and adolescents, as well as a consultant and content writer for The Good and the Beautiful. “I often come back to the same question: What do we want childhood to have room for?”

She discussed how a mix of things – such as sleep, school, time outside, reading, chores, hobbies, unstructured play, time with family and time with friends – helps kids thrive and should be prioritised.

“Once those pieces are in place, families can decide together where screens fit and what screen-based rules will best support their day,” Duraccio said. “I’ve found that kids are much more willing to buy into screen limits when they have some voice in creating them and when the expectations apply to everyone.”

Tammy Gold, a caregiving and family systems expert and licensed therapist, encouraged focusing less on whether screen time is bad and more on how it can help you understand your child.

She encouraged asking open-ended questions, such as: What do you like to do online? Who do you like to follow and why? How are you using these apps? Are you talking to people? Why do you find these accounts interesting? How do these apps make you feel?

“I have worked with many parents and teens and used it as a bridge to help advocate the teens’ wants and also implement the parents’ desires [of] safety,” Gold said. “The teens appreciate parents asking in a manner that does not shame, punish, embarrass or upset them.”

Within those conversations, she continued, you can make sure no one is bullying or harming your child, and offer some general online safety tips. Certain apps can help you monitor your child’s internet safety, too.

As a parent or caregiver, you’re allowed to set rules and expect them to be followed – and explaining your reasoning can help kids understand and listen. It can also help during nuanced situations.

“We want to show our kids that we have intentionality around our screens and our phones, and we never want our phones or our screens to come between our child and ourselves,” said Amy Vigliotti, a licensed child and adult psychologist and founder of the New York-based group therapy practice SelfWorks.

For example, if you have a rule saying no phones at the dinner table, but also have an important call that evening, be transparent with your kids.

Vigliotti suggested saying something like, “Hey, I know as a family, we don’t have screens or phones at the dinner table. Tonight, I am waiting for an important call, so I may have to step away from the table and take it.”

Situations and conversations like these also model how screen time can affect relationships. Phones and other technology can inhibit real-life conversation and make kids without a phone feel left out.

Essentially, screen time isn’t all bad, but child therapists say it definitely has a time and place for both you and your child.

A crypto billionaire who was pardoned by US president Donald Trump has given a record-breaking £36 million to Reform UK.

Party leader Nigel Farage said he was “honoured and humbled” to receive the money from Ben Delo, who recently re-located from Hong Kong to the UK in order to become a Reform donor.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police confirmed they have launched a probe into a Channel 4 investigation which appeared to show senior Reform officials discussing with a fake American donor how he could give money to the party.

Delo, a co-founder of cryptocurrency platform BitMEX, was last year given an unconditional pardon by Trump over a Bank Secrecy Act violation in the US.

He is now Reform’s largest donor, having previously been second behind another crypto billionaire, Christopher Harborne, who gave £9 million to the party last August.

Parliament’s standards watchdog is currently investigating a personal £5m gift Harborne gave Farage in 2024 which the Reform boss did not declare.

Deo’s £36m is the single biggest donation in the history of British politics.

Writing for the Telegraph newspaper, Delo said: “Unlike the people who express mock concern for the health of ‘our democracy’ while doing everything they can to keep it as a cartel, I want a fair fight and a level playing field.

“My conclusion from Reform’s recent troubles is that they should spend less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms and more time preparing for government.”

Farage said: “I am honoured and humbled that Ben Delo has shown such confidence in Reform.

“Ben knows that we are the only party that can turn the country around and reverse Britain’s decline.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage is still up to his neck in scandal over his secret £5 million ‘gift’ from his other crypto-billionaire backer and the criminal investigation into potentially illegal donations. The questions he faces aren’t going away – in fact they’re piling up.

“Reform UK can’t buy their way out of questions about sleaze, criminal mates and dodgy finances.”

Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart accused Farage of wanting “to bring Trump’s America to our shores by buying his way into power”.

“He’s trying to get into Number 10 as if it’s a stop on a monopoly board,” she said.

“It can’t go on like this. Andy Burnham needs to introduce a cap on political donations. Our democracy depends on it.”

Olly Buston of Clean Up Westminster, which campaigns to reduce the influence of money in politics, said it was “a dark day for Britain’s democracy”.

“Delo’s donation is several times bigger than any political donation in history,” he said. “It is an obscene amount. No single individual should be able to buy this much power, let alone a convicted fraudster who has barely set foot in the country in recent years

“Every day Andy Burnham delays, the billionaire arms race escalates and mega-donors tighten their fierce grip on our democracy.

“We need a low, hard cap on political donations now. The prime minister has said he wants to do this. He must act and fast.”

MPs last week backed measures including a cap on overseas donations at £100,000 and a suspension of funding through cryptocurrency, but the draft legislation still needs to be passed by the House of Lords to become law.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

While President Donald Trump spent much of the day delivering remarks during the Pentagon’s 9/11 anniversary ceremony on Friday, he still found time for a bizarre mid-afternoon Truth Social posting spree.

He posted about the crowd size at the Republican midterm convention, hype videos and a clip from the January 6 insurrection, all while America marked the 25th anniversary of terrorist attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

Trump kicked off the spree at 1:35pm New York time with a montage video from his Freedom 250 UFC fight on the White House lawn.

Just minutes later, he posted a video showing various news outlets announcing that he had won the 2024 presidential election.

Trump followed that up at 2:51 pm, when he posted an infamous video from the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, where he told the rioters to “go home in peace.”

Less than 30 minutes later, Trump maligned Democrats in a lengthy post for their criticism of his promised $5,000 dividend to every American adult if Republicans prevail in the midterms.

“The $5,000 Trump Dividend, given to all Adults in the United States due to the fact that our Country is taking in Trillions of Dollars of Economic Development, Investment, and Pure SUCCESS, is being criticized by “Dumocrats” who are hoping that it never happens,” Trump wrote.

Trump then posted a video at 3:09pm of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s speech at the Republican midterm convention.

Noticeably absent from Trump’s posts was any mention of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

While Vice President JD Vance attended the annual remembrance ceremony in New York City on Friday, Trump was the only living president not in attendance.

The New York Times reported in August that Trump was originally slated to attend the ceremony, but backed out in part because he wanted to deliver a speech, and organisers of the event have barred politicians from giving remarks since 2012 to maintain the solemnity of the ceremony.

A bid to make assisted dying legal in England and Wales has failed after MPs rejected it.

After nearly five hours of at-times emotional debate in the House of Commons, they voted 286 v 270 not to pass the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at second reading.

It means the issue is now unlikely to return to parliament until after the next general election.

Under the legislation, adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live would have been able to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

Supporters said it will allow terminally ill patients who wish to end their lives to die with dignity at a time of their choosing.

But opponents – including disabled groups – said the legislation does not contain enough safeguards to protect vulnerable people and is open to abuse.

The result is a complete reversal from June last year, when MPs voted 314-291 to allow a near-identical bill proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater to proceed to third reading in the Lords.

However, it became bogged down as peers opposed to the legislation tabled more than 1,000 amendments to it, and it eventually ran out of time.

Labour MP Lauren Edwards brought back the bill earlier this year and urged her fellow MPs to send it back to the Lords “so that they can finish what they started” in scrutinising the legislation.

Kicking off today’s debate, she said: “We must grasp that opportunity in front of us to create a holistic end of life care system that will deliver choice and dignity for every single one of our constituents.”

Former Tory minister Karen Bradley, who led opposition voices to the bill, urged her fellow MPs to consider “whether this bill, in this form, on the evidence before us now today, is safe enough for parliament to force into law”.

Quoting the National Down Syndrome Policy group, she said the bill “hopes for the best rather than prepares for the worst”.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.