Alan Cumming has thrown his support behind a new charity campaign inspired by his character in the Russell T Davies drama Tip Toe.

In the Channel 4 series, the Emmy winner plays Leo Struthers, who runs the fictitious queer venue Spit & Polish on Manchester’s iconic Canal Street.

Since the show began airing, the HIV charity The Terrence Higgins Trust has begun selling a t-shirt inspired by Spit & Polish, which Alan was seen wearing in a video posted on Instagram over the weekend.

“If you’ve watched Tip Toe, you’ll know that I play Leo Struthers, who has been living with HIV since 1994,” Alan told his followers.

“As he says in the show, back when Leo was diagnosed, it was a death sentence, but since then, thankfully, successful treatments have been found. Now, people like Leo just take one pill a day, which keeps their HIV in check and means they cannot pass HIV onto anyone else.”

He explained that, in Tip Toe, Spit & Polish is “a sanctuary where everyone feels safe, celebrated and free”.

“Now, you can buy your own Spit & Polish t-shirt to support people like Leo, living with HIV,” he continued. “Because, while treatments have improved beyond our wildest dreams, the stigma around HIV still remains, with too many people still met with judgement, ignorance and isolation. And we see that, of course, in Tip Toe.

“So please, please do something positive today, and order your Spit & Polish t-shirt from the Terrence Higgins Trust website. All the money raised is being split between HIV charities The Terrence Higgins Trust and the George House Trust.”

He added: “By wearing your t-shirt, you’re helping to build a lasting legacy for Tip Toe and making sure that no one faces HIV alone. Thank you and wear your Spit & Polish t-shirt with pride.”

Earlier this month, Russell explained that the depiction of Leo’s HIV status is a part of Tip Toe which he feels especially proud of, as it’s the “one thing” he “could never show” in his hit 2021 Channel 4 drama, It’s A Sin.

He explained: “[The story of It’s A Sin] ended in 1991, which is before the medications, before there was any treatment, before people started surviving properly.

“So [in Tip Toe], I’ve got the chance to show off a man living for 30+ years with HIV. He takes one pill a day, he’s completely fine, it’s undetectable, it’s untransmittable in him. And that’s a nice pay-off – that I never got to do [in It’s A Sin].”

He added separately that this “feels like the natural legacy of It’s A Sin”, claiming (via Scene magazine): “There wasn’t the time in that show to tell the long‑term story – that medications were found which saved so many lives – so this feels like a right and proper continuation.”

A similar t-shirt inspired by It’s A Sin previously raised £20,000 for the Terrence Higgins Trust in just 24 hours.

Sara Cox is pulling out all the stops to get her new Radio 2 show off to a flying start.

On Monday morning, Sara announced that her first Radio 2 breakfast show broadcast would be airing on Monday 6 July – as well as unveiling the A-lister of all A-listers as her inaugural guest.

For her first show, the presenter will be joined in the studio by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, where he’ll be discussing the latest addition in the Toy Story franchise.

“Roll on the 6 July!” she enthused. “For generations to come people will (probably) say ‘where were YOU when the Sara Cox Breakfast Show was launched on Radio 2 featuring the legendary Tom Hanks?’ (and hopefully they’ll reply ‘listening and laughing along with a nice brew’).”

Back in April, it was announced that Sara would be taking over at the helm of the Radio 2 breakfast show, following the abrupt firing of its previous host Scott Mills.

At the time, Sara said she was “ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed” to be taking on the role, which she said had been her “dream” since joining Radio 2.

“It feels like a bit of a full circle for me,” she admitted.

Sara previously hosted the Radio 1 breakfast show between 2000 and 2003, and had been Radio 2′s teatime host since 2019 before her latest appointment.

“I’ve had the most glorious seven years of my career on teatime so thank you to my brilliant teatime listeners who hopefully will join me at breakfast for excellent music and all my usual nonsense plus some superstar guests,” she added, noting that she “can’t wait to wake the nation up with the biggest most fun breakfast show ever”.

Since Scott Mills’ sudden exit, Gary Davies has been filling in on the Radio 2 breakfast show.

Harry Styles took a moment to share a powerful tribute to the late artist David Hockney on the first night of his 12-show Wembley residency.

Before Harry performed his single Aperture to a packed Wembley Stadium on Friday night, a quote from Hockney appeared on the screens.

“What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing,” read the quote, which was met with rapturous applause from the audience.

“You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”

The pioneering British painter and photographer David Hockney died last week, at the age of 88.

Over the course of his career, he had become known as one of the most prolific and beloved artists of his generation.

In May 2022, the former One Direction star sat for Hockney, travelling to his Normandy studio to be painted by the legendary artist.

The resulting artwork was one of more than 30 new portraits displayed for the first time in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibit David Hockney: Drawing From Life in 2023.

In the portrait, the Watermelon Sugar singer is depicted wearing an orange and red cardigan, with a pearl necklace and blue jeans.

Harry was a big fan of the Yorkshire-born artist, telling Vogue in 2023: “David Hockney has been reinventing the way we look at the world for decades. It was a complete privilege to be painted by him.”

David was less of a fan of Harry – in fact he had no idea who the Grammy winner was before he arrived for his portrait session.

“I wasn’t really aware of his celebrity then,” Hockney admitted. “He was just another person who came to the studio.”

Friday saw Harry open the first night of his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.

The chart-topper will play the London stadium for 12 nights – breaking records previously held by Coldplay and Taylor Swift.

During the show, he also paid tribute to his X Factor days, recalling how his sister took him to Wembley Arena for his first audition.

“My sister is here tonight,” he said to the adoring crowd. “I want to thank her. I love you and I appreciate you.”

The animals of Ealing’s Paradise Fields have some unexpected new neighbours.

For the last couple of years, beavers have been making an enclosed 10-hectare site their watery home – and since more or less their 2023 arrival, a London Underground ticket office that used to be plagued by flooding has remained dry.

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has praised Ealing’s beavers for putting an end to soggy conditions in parts of nearby Greenford Tube station on Instagram.

“Beavers are nature’s engineers – we just didn’t realise how efficient they could be,” Khan said in his post, adding, “These incredible creatures have already stepped up to stop flooding at a Tube station and restore local habitats”.

We spoke to Elliot Newton, the director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, which worked with the Ealing Beaver Project to reintroduce the animals, about why they were brought back to the West London site and how they might help us humans.

It’s not just London. In recent years, beavers have been released across the UK, including other parts of England like Somerset and Cornwall. Scotland has kept the wild beavers spotted as early as the 2000s, the Natural History Museum said, with planned releases in the Glen Affric Nature Reserve and River Beauty set for 2026.

Wales seems keen on bringing beavers back, too. Northern Ireland hasn’t expressed interest yet, but the animals were probably never native there, unlike the rest of the UK.

“The Eurasian beaver is a native British species that was hunted to extinction around 400 years ago (and likely disappeared from London much earlier),” Newton told us.

“Over the past two decades, there has been a growing movement to restore beavers across Great Britain.”

And while the expert argued there’s a strong case for bringing all kinds of native species back to boost our ecosystem – including those we might not love the idea of, like the rat-sized, fish-eating fen raft spider – “beavers also deliver significant practical benefits”.

He continued, “As ecosystem engineers, they create and maintain wetlands that can reduce flood risk, improve water quality, increase drought resilience, and support a huge range of wildlife”.

Newton said that flood mitigation was one of the main reasons they secured funding for this project.

That’s because beavers (famously) build dams which stop the rapid flow of water down rivers during, e.g., periods of extreme rainfall. They also form ponds and mini “canals” that can create absorbent wetlands.

“Through building dams and creating wetland habitat, the beavers have increased the site’s capacity to store water and slow flows during heavy rainfall events, helping reduce downstream flood pressure. Interestingly, since the beavers arrived, the local train station ticket hall, which had previously experienced flooding, has not flooded,” Newton said.

“While more research is needed, this is an encouraging example of the potential for nature-based solutions to support climate resilience in urban areas.”

Other benefits people involved in the Ealing Beaver Project have noted include increased biodiversity, better community engagement (leading to a reduction in antisocial behaviour), and a more climate-change-resistant environment.

When I was 41, my therapist handed me photos of every boy in my fourth grade class and instructed me to condemn each one to the paper shredder. It was my first experience of truly being in the driver’s seat, and I felt giddy with control.

From an early age, I’ve carried an acute fear of rejection and abandonment. This has made dating challenging, to say the least. My typical dating pattern used to be the following: I’d meet someone I liked, become enamoured, only to find myself spiralling into persistent anxiety, worried about when and how the relationship would end.

That sense of unease began in middle school.

The night my friend revealed she had a boyfriend, we were bundled in sleeping bags on chalet bunks, up past curfew during our eighth grade ski trip. She was the first in our group to date.

As the girls clamoured for details (“What does he look like? What school does he go to?”), I should have known something was off when the only question I thought to ask was, “Aren’t you terrified that he’s going to break up with you?”

Although it would be years before I experienced romantic heartbreak firsthand, I now realise that even then, I was already bracing for the worst.

By the time I was older, like anyone who frequents pop psychology circles, I was aware of attachment styles and how early childhood experiences can shape adult relationships. Yet, I grew up in a safe, stable home with parents who didn’t always get along but loved and supported me unconditionally, so I never really understood where this anxiety came from.

This confusion persisted until 2021, when a session with my therapist changed everything.

At that time, I’d booked an appointment because I had just started seeing someone new. It was the first person I’d liked since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I’d noticed my usual pattern taking hold again. I was overcome with anxiety over whether things would work out, and it was keeping me up at night and distracting me at work. This time, though, I felt exhausted. I was ready for a change.

“I don’t want to feel this way anymore,” I told my therapist.

Her first question was to think back to my childhood and pinpoint when this fear of rejection might have started. One incident immediately stood out.

In fourth grade, we had our first sex education class. Not long after, the boys in my class lined all the girls up against the exterior wall of our school and took turns rating each of our bodies – hot, not or disgusting. Some of the boys took it a step further and pointed out who was “flat as a board.” It was most of us; we were barely 10 years old.

It was such a humiliating and disorienting experience. I don’t remember how each of the boys rated me – not that it mattered – but I felt disgusting.

At that age, I was still very much a kid and hadn’t even started liking boys. My favourite book was Harriet the Spy, and I loved taking ballet classes, reading books and playing with Barbies with my three best friends. I also thought I was pretty cool, being the proud owner of sparkly jelly shoes and an impressive sticker collection.

Suddenly, it was like none of that mattered, and I was now hyperaware of my body and how it was perceived by boys.

Part of my childhood died that day. The message was clear: it doesn’t matter how you feel about yourself; what matters is being chosen and that boys choose you, not the other way around.

For years, I dismissed this firing squad of tween-age rejection as just another weird story from adolescence. But when my therapist prompted me to recall the memory, I finally understood how deeply it fuelled both my fear of rejection and the perfectionism I carried into my romantic relationships.

When I started dating in my late teens and early 20s, I was focused on making myself as likeable as possible, and I became really good at it. I shape-shifted myself into the ultimate “cool girl”. I never asked for too much from my partners out of fear they’d reject me. Instead, I swallowed my feelings and discomfort, shrugging off subpar treatment from the people I dated.

You don’t want to commit, but still want me to act like your girlfriend? That’s OK. I’m the cool girl! I’ll bring you homemade soup when you’re feeling sick, even though I’m not sure you even know my last name.

I felt like I was always proving myself, and being chosen was the reward. It’s only now that I can see I spent years so focused on being what my partners wanted that I rarely stopped to ask whether they were enough for me.

Even in the relationships where I felt safe to show up authentically, I struggled to express my needs. There was always a little voice warning that if I revealed too much of myself, I would be deemed “disgusting” all over again.

Sharing this with my therapist, she helped me realise that my fear of rejection was only part of it. What I struggled with was people-pleasing. In pursuit of being liked by other people, I abandoned myself.

It was time to stop the cycle. My therapist decided on an unconventional approach: reject the boys once and for all.

As homework, she had me print photos of each of the boys who’d participated in the “lineup” in middle school – an easy task since I grew up in a close-knit community, and I’m still in touch with many of the people I went to school with on Facebook.

When I arrived at her office the following week, photos in hand, we spread them on the floor.

Seeing all of the boys’ photos – now middle-aged men with grey hair and receding hairlines – and rejecting them, out loud, was unexpectedly powerful.

I was finally able to see my tormentors for who they are: a bunch of guys I wouldn’t want to date anyway. In fact, most of them are married, and I’m queer and currently much more interested in dating women.

My therapist had me face each man and reject them one by one.

“Are you ready for the fun part?” my therapist asked.

She led me over to her desk, and together we eviscerated the photos in the paper shredder.

My therapist’s exercise might seem out of the box, maybe even a little mean to some, but it did exactly what she had hoped: it set me free.

It made me realise that I no longer have to play by a middle school rulebook that never served me. I don’t have to wait to be chosen; I can practice discernment and actively choose myself instead.

Unlearning a lifetime of people-pleasing is an ongoing, tricky process. At our core, I think most of us want to be liked and loved by others. It’s why rejection stings.

While I still fear rejection sometimes – I get anxious when I see those three blinking dots after I’ve sent a text to someone I like – I’ve stopped basing my self-worth on what other people think of me.

Instead, I’ve made it a habit to boldly show up as myself in my friendships and the communities I frequent. I’m learning that by sharing and being honest about the parts of me that I used to worry were “disgusting” (for example, that I am not cool and detached, but rather sensitive and have very big feelings), the right people are actually drawn to me rather than repelled.

I’ve also gained clarity about what I actually need from a relationship, such as steadiness, consistency and emotional safety, which has made it easier for me to spot when a connection isn’t aligned. As a result, it takes me much longer to get into relationships than it did in the past – and I’m OK with that.

Rejecting people who aren’t a good fit still feels uncomfortable sometimes, but I see it as a form of self-care, like I’m sticking up for that little girl version of me who felt so disempowered.

Now, when I meet someone new, I don’t wonder if they’ll choose me. I ask a different question: Do I even like them? And I let the answer guide me.

Simone is a writer and host of the podcast “We’re Never Doing This Again.” She is a nationally syndicated relationship columnist for the Toronto Sun, and her words and photographs have appeared in Apartment Therapy, Business Insider, The New York Times, The Washington Post and more. You can follow her on X and Instagram at @simone_paget.

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A councillor who left the Conservatives to join Reform UK has called his own defection “the biggest mistake of my life”.

Robbie Lammas, elected as a Medway councillor in 2021, joined Reform in October 2025 – and is already planning to quit Nigel Farage’s party.

“I’m going to leave Reform, I’ve had enough, it’s not what I signed up to, and I feel I’ve been misled,” he told the BBC. “Yeah, I am embarrassed about it. It was a huge mistake.

“Lots of others from Reform have told me they too feel it was a mistake to defect but they’re not in a position to publicly admit it, but for me I’m happy to admit I’ve made a big mistake.”

He said the move was the “biggest mistake of his life”, adding: “I think at the time I was used for a news story.”

Reform announced 20 Conservative councillors had joined its ranks last autumn on the penultimate day of the Tory party conference.

Lammas, who now sits as an independent councillor, said: “I find with Reform they’re good at spin, but struggle with good governance.”

A Reform UK source said: “We rejected him for a job multiple times – a failed Tory is no loss to the party.”

The right-wing party only has eight MPs, but it has frequently pointed to its victories in local elections as proof of its growing popularity.

Reform won the largest number of seats in England in May 2025, securing 41% of all local authority seats (677 in total) being contested at the time.

The party also picked up more than 1,450 council seats this year.

But 21 councillors have been kicked out of Reform since winning their seats, while 33 others have defected, seven have been suspended and one disqualified.

A further 47 have resigned and five have lost their seats.

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