Twenty years on from her breakout hit Suddenly I See, KT Tunstall is refreshingly candid about her early career: “I was a totally crap pop star,” she tells Sky News.

The Scottish singer-songwriter may have a Brit and Ivor Novello to her name – won the year after she outsold every other female artist in the UK – but she’s not taking any prisoners.

“You have an idea of what you should be as an artist, I think it’s really, really important to kill that.”

She goes on: “The whole point of being an artist is that you never know what you’re going to be, and you should never assume that you know.

“I think there’s something much more divine in the kind of growth of yourself as an artist that it’s not your place to know what’s going to be.”

Sharing a private thought, she admits: “I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud, but I have always thought to myself, ‘What if the things that you have done are not the thing that you’re most known for? That there’s something coming’?”

Turning 50 next year, Tunstall’s embraced change head on, helping transform 1995 film Clueless for the stage, alongside its creator Amy Heckerling.

Working in Hollywood for four decades and counting, Heckerling, who also directed Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Look Who’s Talking, says “I always felt like the movie, while we were making it, kind of wanted to sing.”

‘It was really time to do something new’

It was a “wild ride” that Tunstall, who says she was “desperate to learn something new,” was keen to be part of.

Busking as a student before joining bands in her early 20s, Tunstall says: “I’ve been I’ve been doing gigs and touring for a long time, and it was really time to do something new and, and this is just a dream project to do it with.”

With the film’s original soundtrack featuring hits from Radiohead, Coolio, the Lightning Seeds, Supergrass and the Beastie Boys, Tunstall says it was exciting to create songs for the “explosion of genre” that was the 1990s – a time when Nirvana and NSYNC jostled alongside each other in the charts, and the Spice Girls burst onto the worldwide scene.

Tunstall’s approach? “Come up with a mega-mix feel, that it’s the cassette tape playing in Cher’s Jeep” and then merge it with the MTV music video visuals catching fire at the time.

‘Enjoy the nostalgia and relax in the theatre’

Emma Flynn, who plays Cher Horowitz in the show, says it’s the role of a lifetime having been a fan of the movie “since I was in the foetal position” and “pretty much off book” from day one.

Flynn says the show offers audiences an escape from some of the stresses of modern-day life.

“Watching people before social media and cell phones, just going to the Valley party and actually having to communicate. I think people enjoy that nostalgia. And I think it allows people to relax in the theatre too.”

And Clueless isn’t the only classic movie getting a musical makeover.

The Devil Wears Prada The Musical brings fashion to the West End, with music by Sir Elton John.

While the Mean Girls Broadway run was such a success, it got turned back into its own movie last year, taking over $100m at the global box office. The musical’s now in the West End, becoming the fastest-selling show in the Dominion Theatre’s history.

So, what’s the appeal?

The shows already have a ready-made audience of fans, created by the original film.

They’re familiar but different – building on the original narrative, taking well-loved characters and oft-repeated catchphrases – and using song and dance to expand on the movies’ best-known scenes – to the delight of the audience.

Meanwhile, the success of streaming over the last two decades means older films are easy to find and re-watch for a new generation of fans.

There’s the nostalgia factor too – looking back to a movie you loved as a child or teen means it’s already won a special place in your heart, and you’re much more likely to welcome it in for a second time.

‘The 90s are on fire in popular culture’

And the shows are not just attracting familiar audiences, but fresh ones as well says actress Charlie Burn, who plays Cady Heron in Mean Girls The Musical.

While she says there are certain “anticipatory parts of the show where people know there are iconic lines coming up,” she says there are also “parents with their kids at the stage door, that say, ‘I never knew the musical, I never knew the movie, and I loved it’.”

As for Clueless, Tunstall says it’s a piece of luck that after years of work the musical has come to fruition “when the ’90s are on fire again in popular culture”, adding “a whole new generation of kids are really appreciating the culture of the ’90s, and it just feels really perfect.”

Cher’s futuristic outfit generator may never have become a daily-dressing reality, and a Burn Book in the back of the closet would now be shared via an array of social media putdowns.

But the hefty dollop of nostalgia delivered by such shows is a song and dance welcomed by many across universally challenging times.

Gangs Of London is one of the most violent shows on television and has gripped audiences since its release in 2020.

Definitely not for the faint-hearted, it follows undercover police officer Elliott Carter, played by Sope Dirisu, working in the heart of a top-level criminal organisation after infiltrating the infamous and powerful Wallace family.

Now in its third season, familiar faces return, and new villains emerge as the battle to lead the criminal underworld rages on.

Note: Mild spoilers ahead

“Every year we’re trying to go a bit further,” Dirisu told Sky News.

The London-born actor is the cop-turned-criminal whose life was turned upside down when his family were killed in a car accident.

Season three delves into those events as Elliott takes on a new role among the gangs.

“It’s a great testament to the response that we’re getting from our audiences that they want more of it. People are still engaged. There are some shows that don’t get to make a season three, so we don’t take that for granted at all,” he said.

Set in a fictionalised version of London, akin to Gotham in the Batman universe, season three sees some new faces joining the fold.

“It does feel like Batman is going to fly in at any minute,” laughs Richard Dormer.

The Game Of Thrones actor plays Cornelius Quinn in the series, the brother of Michelle Fairley’s Marian Wallace and the uncle of Peaky Blinders actor Joe Cole’s character Sean Wallace.

Dormer said: “I watched episode two of season one, when they raid the Travellers camp, and I just really sat up with wow. I just thought it was brilliantly done, technically, it was just amazing to watch.”

For the actor, as much as he enjoys being part of the cast, the violence depicted is not his cup of tea as a viewer.

He said: “I’m not a big fan of it but I think technically, when it’s done right, it’s breathtaking. There’s this kind of a thrill in it because it’s safe and so over the top that you know it’s not real so you can kind of wallow in it and enjoy it, you know.”

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Andrew Koji takes on the mysterious assassin role, hidden by a hood and a glorious side fringe, in the upcoming episodes.

“I didn’t realise the fringe was that prominent,” he told Sky News after watching the new episodes, adding “it’s gone now, hopefully never to return”.

After working on Bullet Train, Warrior, Snake Eyes and most recently the Netflix show Black Doves, Koji said getting to use his background in mixed martial arts is always something he wants to lean towards.

“This unique mix of his raid-esque style action with gripping family drama in this kind of heightened, stylised London is interesting, nuanced and different. I jumped at the opportunity.”

All eight episodes of Gangs Of London 3 will launch as a box set on Sky Atlantic and the streaming service NOW from 20 March.

How artificial intelligence will affect our lives going forward is a question being figured out across pretty much all industries right now. 

While many in the arts have expressed concerns over how algorithms learn from their work, Black Eyes Peas star will.i.am believes it actually should “inspire you to create”.

An early artificial intelligence supporter, he says: “If you’re basing what you’re going to do tomorrow off yesterday, you’re not growing.”

The music producer spoke to Sky News after giving a demo of his new AI radio app in London.

Rather than artificial intelligence being something with negative connotations, he insists its potential should “inspire better, broader, deeper, faster…[it] shouldn’t stop you from being human”.

As one of the most prominent voices to position himself in the pro-AI camp, his enthusiasm is certainly infectious.

Those who turned out to see the demonstration of his app-based platform RAiDiO.FYI got to see the musician and tech entrepreneur challenge one of his AI personas to make a joke comparing computer chips and guacamole chips with reasonably funny results.

He hopes listeners will come to interact and talk with AI presenters in the not-too-distant future.

But is it a gimmick or a taste of the future?

Sky News put it to will that some of his musical counterparts worry AI – with its instant ability for anyone to make a song in his style – waters down the music industry.

“I don’t think anything can water down our industry any more than TikTok has,” he responded.

“We used to listen to three-minute songs, now we’re down to nine seconds….TikTok and that algorithm, you know, changes what record companies are looking for, changes the architecture of the song… it’s watered down…we an ocean (sic).”

Sean Paul on embracing AI

But Jamaican dancehall musician Sean Paul isn’t entirely won over by AI’s potential.

“It’s a pandora’s box,” the rapper said, speaking to Sky News, “when you open it, it’s going to change all the parameters. It’s down to you to get used to the game.”

“I am apprehensive about certain parts of [it] in terms of making people lazy to writing”, the 52-year-old, who has worked with countless stars over his 20-year career, said.

“It can become a toy and make music more dispensable.”

He said he recognises there are copyright and ethical considerations with using AI in the music-making process – especially where algorithms are concerned and they may mimic popular sounds.

He said: “If it does happen that AI takes my stuff and I’m never compensated because of it (…) I will fight that.

“It’s gonna happen. Already though, I feel me, the artist, the creator, I’ve got the short end of the stick for a long time. Even before the days of streaming – we get 0.0 something of the product – and it’s we that created it.”

AI as a ‘tool’

However, he also acknowledged that “times have changed” – and that adapting is key to surviving the ever-changing music industry.

Paul says none of his published music has been touched by AI – but he is open to experimenting with it.

“I’ve used it for trying to finish riddim patterns that I have….I used it as a tool… as I think everybody should.”

Some big names in music, like Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John, have openly called for a legal framework to be established to better protect artists, which will.i.am agrees is paramount “to not always lead with greed, especially with powerful systems” like AI.

“There needs to be some type of artificial intelligence constitution….I believe you should be licensed to put out AIs right now and you’re not.”

AI and copyright concerns

Over 1,000 artists, from Damon Albarn to Kate Bush, recently released a silent album to protest possible changes to UK copyright AI laws.

Dubbed ‘Is This What We Want?’, its aim was to highlight concern for how their work is potentially being used to develop and train the technology.

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While the likes of will.i.am and Sean Paul may be open to seeing where the technology takes them, Alastair Webber believes the government should be taking control rather than loosening the reins.

The co-founder of The Other Songs, an independent music company championing songwriters and artists, says: “We must protect copyright because it really is the economic bedrock of the creative industries that bring so much back.”

The son of composer Lord Lloyd Webber, he believes while it’s important that big figures within the industry like his father are vocal with their concerns, the stand they’re taking is actually for those with their careers ahead of them.

“We’re not talking about these big names like Andrew Lloyd Webber or Elton John, all these people that are getting the headlines supporting this, actually [this matters more] for the young people being born today.”