The Crown: Lord Heseltine praises John Major and Tony Blair for speaking out against latest series of show

Published

3 years ago

November 6, 2022

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Lord Heseltine has praised Sir John Major and Sir Tony Blair for publicly criticising the latest series of The Crown.

The former Conservative deputy prime minister described the ex-PMs’ interventions as “important” ahead of the show’s release on Netflix next week.

Speaking to Sky News, Lord Heseltine said: “Very good, I’m glad they have spoken out. They have public credibility and it’s important that those who do understand what goes on and what has gone on actually speak up because the Royal Family are in a very difficult position to defend themselves.”

Responding to suggestions that Sir John or Sir Tony could have revealed what was said in their private conversations with the Royal Family, he said: “I think that’s rubbish, of course John and Tony didn’t reveal their conversations because everyone knows the prime minister has conversations which are treasured and totally private.

“That’s one of the privileges of the position they occupy.”

The Crown: Why all the fuss when the facts of what happened still shock as much as the fiction?

Ahead of the release of season five, the two former PMs both hit out at their depiction while Dame Judi Dench called for a disclaimer to be added to each episode, saying it has begun to verge on “crude sensationalism”.

Sir John recently wrote a letter to The Telegraph responding to the upcoming series which is expected to show the-then Prince Charles, played by Dominic West, cutting short a holiday with Princess Diana to host a secret meeting with Sir John at Highgrove in 1991, at which they discuss potentially ousting the Queen.

The ex-Tory prime minister wrote that it “will be profoundly hurtful to a family who are still grieving for the very person on whose life the entire drama was founded”.

‘Complete and utter rubbish’

Prince Charles is reportedly shown in the programme trying to recruit Sir Tony as an ally to protect his future and pave the way for him to marry Camilla, shortly after the 1997 general election which the-then Labour leader famously won in a landslide.

Sir Tony’s spokesman told the Telegraph: “It should come as no surprise that this is complete and utter rubbish.”

Last month, veteran actress Dame Judi called for a disclaimer to be added to each episode of The Crown as she felt there was a risk that “a significant number of viewers” will take its events as historical truth.

Netflix added a disclaimer to the description of the latest trailer but stopped short of adding the message to the trailer itself.

However, Khlid Abdalla, the actor playing Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed, defended the show telling Sky News: “Everyone knows the love with which this programme has towards the Royal Family, towards the Queen, towards that legacy.

“And I believe that in order to tell those stories as beautifully as possible and as fully as possible you have to have the fullness of everything, and that’s what I’ve seen we’re trying to do.”

The actress playing Princess Diana in the series, Elizabeth Debicki, has also said she feels like audiences know The Crown is “clearly fictional” as she responded to criticism of how certain storylines are depicted.

Asked whether she felt defensive to the criticism, she said: “I don’t really. I understand what the show is and what it’s trying to do.”

The 32-year-old Australian told The Guardian: “I mean, it is clearly fictional. I feel like audiences know that, because there are actors, playing parts.”

“I never watched The Crown and thought, ‘this is a documentary’ or ‘this is obviously true’.”

Entertainment

Robin Williams’s daughter begs people to stop sending her AI videos of her father

Published

19 hours ago

October 7, 2025

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Robin Williams's daughter begs people to stop sending her AI videos of her father

The daughter of late actor Robin Williams has begged people to stop sending her AI-generated “slop” of her father.

“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” actor and director Zelda Williams wrote on Instagram on Monday.

“To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening.”

She described the videos as “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs” made from the lives of human beings.

“You’re […] shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross,” she wrote.

It’s not the first time Williams has written about the impact of people sending her content about her father on social media.

In 2020, on the anniversary of her father’s death, Williams posted on Instagram saying:

“While I am constantly touched by all of your boundless continued love for him, some days it can feel a bit like being seen as a roadside memorial – a place, not a person – where people drive past and leave their sentiments to then go about their days comforted their love for him was witnessed.”

“But sometimes, that leaves me emotionally buried under a pile of others’ memories instead of my own.”

The death of Robin Williams in 2014, an actor and comedian known for his quick wit and wisdom, triggered a global outpouring of grief and tributes to the star still frequently surface on social media to this day.

In 2023, Zelda appealed for the end of AI-generated content, saying in a widely-reported post on Instagram:

“I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real.”⁠
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“I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.”

Entertainment

Author Dame Jilly Cooper has died

Published

2 days ago

October 6, 2025

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Author Dame Jilly Cooper has died, her publisher has said.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dame Jilly Cooper, DBE who died on Sunday morning, after a fall, at the age of 88,” a statement said.

The Queen paid tribute to Dame Jilly, calling her a “legend” who was a “wonderfully witty and compassionate friend”.

The best-selling author was renowned for her raunchy, so-called “bonkbuster” novels, which portrayed the scandals and sex lives of wealthy country social circles, including Rivals, Riders and Polo.

She was praised for her blend of risqué storylines and critique of Britain’s class system, personified by showjumping lothario Rupert Campbell-Black.

Her children Felix and Emily said: “Mum was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.

“Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.

“We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.”

Dame Jilly was propelled to commercial success in the 1980s, and sold 11 million copies of her books during her more than fifty-year career.

Last year, Rivals was adapted into a successful TV series, which she worked on as an executive producer.

Tributes to author who created ‘a whole new genre’

Dame Jilly was a long-standing friend of the Queen.

In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, she said: “I was so saddened to learn of Dame Jilly’s death last night.

“Very few writers get to be a legend in their own lifetime but Jilly was one, creating a whole new genre of literature and making it her own through a career that spanned over five decades.

“In person she was a wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many – and it was a particular pleasure to see her just a few weeks ago at my Queen’s Reading Room Festival where she was, as ever, a star of the show.

“I join my husband the King in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family.

“And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs.”

The author’s many fans included former prime minister Rishi Sunak, who said the books offered “escapism”.

‘Dame Jilly defined culture’

Her agent Felicity Blunt said: “The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.”

She added: “You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time, but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things – class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.”

The executive producers of the Disney+ adaptation, Rivals, said they are “broken-hearted” and “her legacy will endure”.

Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alex Lamb added: “Jilly was and always will be one of the world’s greatest storytellers, and it has been the most incredible honour to have been able to work with her to adapt her incredible novels for television.”

As tributes rolled in on Monday, TV presenter Kirsty Allsopp wrote on X: “I know 88 is a good age, but this is very sad news.

“A British institution, funny, enthusiastic and self-deprecating, we don’t see enough of it these days.”

Her publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said: “Jilly may have worn her influence lightly, but she was a true trailblazer.

“As a journalist she went where others feared to tread, and as a novelist she did likewise.

“With a winning combination of glorious storytelling, wicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterisation, she dissected the behaviour, bad mostly, of the English upper middle classes with the sharpest of scalpels.”

The ‘unholy terror’

Born in Essex in 1937, Jilly Cooper came from a Yorkshire family known for newspaper publishing and politics.

Her writing career began in 1956 as a junior reporter on the Middlesex Independent, covering everything from parties to football.

She had said she was known as the “unholy terror” at school, and was sacked from 22 jobs before finding her way into book publishing.

Dame Jilly started writing stories for women’s magazines in 1968, and found her break in 1969 when The Sunday Times published a story on being an ”undomesticated” homemaker. It gave rise to a column that lasted over 13 years.

In 2019 she won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award, and in 2024 was made a dame for her services to literature and charity.

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Entertainment

Robbie Williams forced to cancel world tour gig in ‘interests of public safety’

Published

3 days ago

October 5, 2025

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Robbie Williams forced to cancel world tour gig in 'interests of public safety'

Robbie Williams has said he is “deeply sorry” his concert in the Turkish city of Istanbul has had to be cancelled “in the interests of public safety”.

The former Take That singer said it was his “dream” to perform at Atakoy Marina on Tuesday but the decision by city authorities to cancel the show “was beyond our control”.

Williams’ Britpop world tour began in May and has taken him to cities including London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki and Athens.

The 51-year-old Angels singer said in a post on Instagram to his 3.7m followers: “The last thing I would ever want to do is to jeopardise the safety of my fans – their safety and security come first.

“We were very excited to be playing Istanbul for the first time, and purposely chose the city as the final show of the Britpop tour.

“To end this epic run of dates in front of my Turkish fans was my dream, given the close connections my family have with this wonderful country.

“To everyone in Istanbul who wanted to join the 1.2 million people who have shared this phenomenal tour this year with us, I am deeply sorry. We were so looking forward to this show, but the decision to cancel it was beyond our control.”

Williams is still expected to perform a small ticketed gig on Thursday at Camden’s Dingwalls venue in London.

He will run through his upcoming album Britpop, which is yet to be released, in full, with his first solo LP, Life Thru A Lens.

After leaving Take That in 1995, Williams released his chart-topping debut album in 1997, and has achieved seven UK number one singles and 15 UK number one albums.