While many people have unfulfilled dreams of being a rock star, the cast of the new TV adaptation of Daisy Jones And The Six were required to pull off being a world famous band in order to make the show.
It’s based on the best-selling novel from 2019 – which is itself thought to be inspired by the band Fleetwood Mac – and is about the trajectory of a group who become mega stars, and the romantic relationships of its members.
The bulk of the story happens in the 1970s, so it’s a period piece, but we also see the bandmates looking back on their rise to fame in a documentary set in the 1990s. Riley Keough plays the titular Daisy Jones, while Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse and Nabiyah Be are also among the stars.
For Hunger Games star Claflin, who plays one of the group’s lead singers Billy Dunne, it was the opportunity to play a father that was the most enjoyable aspect of filming.
“I genuinely loved being a dad,” he told Sky News’ Backstage podcast. “As an actual real-life dad it was nice to bring my experience into filmmaking for the first time.
“It was really, for me, refreshing playing a character who went through similar struggles that I’ve been through being a dad and trying to be an artist at the same time. So it was a real joy for me to experience the drama that surrounds his life, I suppose.”
Claflin says wanting to bring his own experiences to his performances is something relatively new for him.
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“I think I spent the majority of my early years in my career desperately trying to get away from myself and trying to prove to people that I can do this and I can wear this hat and I can, you know, I can be angry and I can be sad. But I think as I’m getting older, I’m like, no, actually I really want to use my own experiences and be very authentic with my performance, and kind of tap into things that are relatable to me.”
During the series, viewers see how Daisy Jones meets The Six and their subsequent rise to stardom. As well as the intertwined relationships, it also explores fame and its trappings.
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Image: Suki Waterhouse and Nabiyah Be (below) also star. Pics: Pamela Littky/Prime Video/Amazon Studios
Claflin says being a celebrity in the 1970s was very different to being a star today.
“You’re seen everywhere – everything you say is immediately broadcast and tweeted and tik-toked and becomes a meme and a gif,” he said. “Or a jif – is it a gif or a jif?”
He continued: “I think it’s impossible to do anything without being seen now, I think there’s definitely with that positives, but there’s obviously huge negatives.
“I only speak for myself and I don’t know that I live out in the public eye enough to really warrant much interest in my private life, but I feel like I’m very fortunate that I get to live my life, my private life, very privately – I have my kids and live my life with my family and no one really knows what we look like.”
Image: L-R: Camila Morrone as Camila Dunne, Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne, and Riley Keough as Daisy Jones in Daisy Jones And The Six. Pic: Pamela Littky/Prime Video/Amazon Studios
Morrone plays Billy Dunne’s wife, also called Camila. The actress was previously in a relationship with Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, but says like Claflin she manages to avoid too much scrutiny.
“There was definitely a mystery around ’70s fame, I think today with social media and paparazzi there’s an accessibility around fame,” she said.
“I think it is kind of cool to have lived before the era of iPhones, where everything now that you do can be recorded, photographed – there was much more freedom back then to have conversations and be open and play around with ideas and thoughts and to party and, you know, kind of let loose.
“And now there’s always this tension of knowing that there’s this element that’s out of your control, so I can imagine that that would have been a really different experience to fame and beautiful in its own way – but yeah, I also, like Sam, live a very normal life, I wouldn’t say that it’s all encompassing in my life.”
Morrone’s character isn’t in the band the show is named after, but is an integral part of the story. She says the thing she loved most about making the programme was the aesthetics.
“I’ve never gotten to play a character where costume was important, and for me this costume was very important because it kind of helped the way that I moved – I was barefoot a lot, and it kind of made me feel like Laurel Canyon, Earth-Mom, hippie,” she said.
“It was also fun to create that journey, where she starts off in Pittsburgh as a young teenage conservative girl who lives with her parents, and then she becomes the wife of the biggest rock star in the world; becoming a woman and discovering her sensuality, sexuality… she goes from like 17, 18, 19 to her late twenties and becomes the young woman that she’s going to be.”
Daisy Jones And The Six is streaming on Prime Video. Hear our review in the latest episode of Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News
Thirteen unreleased Beatles tracks are set to feature on a new Anthology compilation – almost 30 years since the last.
The announcement comes following a big hint from Sir Paul McCartney and the other official Beatles social media channels, which all shared a carousel of images containing the numbers one to four on Instagram the day before the announcement.
Anthology 4 will feature 13 demos, session recordings and other rare tracks that have never been released before, similar to the first three Anthology compilations, which were released between 1995 and 1996.
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Details of a full track listing are yet to be revealed. There is no indication the release will feature any completely previously unheard songs.
A book and documentary series, The Beatles Anthology, is also being remastered and streamed on Disney+, billed as “The Beatles’ story, in their own words”.
The series will include a new ninth episode featuring previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage of Sir Paul, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, filmed as they made the collections.
Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles has remastered versions of Anthology 1, 2 and 3, and all four will be released in a new box set in November.
The 191-track set will also feature new mixes of Free As A Bird and Real Love – the singles from Anthology 1 and 2 – using the late John Lennon‘s vocals. These have been mixed by the songs’ original producer, Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne.
The box set will also include the original liner notes for the first three anthologies as well as a new set of notes on Anthology 4 by Beatles author Kevin Howlett, and an introduction compiled from 1996 interviews recorded with The Beatles’ close friend and adviser Derek Taylor.
The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time, having achieved 18 number one singles and 15 number one albums in the UK alone since they formed in 1960.
Prosecutors in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case have urged the judge to reject a request by the hip-hop mogul for acquittal or retrial on prostitution-related charges.
He was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking. The trial would have been “totally different” if these charges had not been included, his defence team argued, saying they lacked credibility.
Image: File pic: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Now, prosecutors have responded to the request for the conviction to be thrown out, or for a retrial, saying in a court document that there was “ample evidence” presented during the trial that supported the jury’s convictions.
“[Combs] masterminded every aspect of freak offs,” the document says. “He transported escorts across state lines to engage in freak offs for pay. He directed the sexual activity of escorts… for his own sexual gratification. And he personally engaged in sexual activity during freak offs.”
The two transportation for prostitution charges Combs was convicted of fall under America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce related to prostitution.
The rapper’s lawyers have argued that, to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of these charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.
Image: Combs’s reaction after hearing the verdicts following his trial. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” the defence team said in their submission to the judge for acquittal. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”
In their response, prosecutors said “evidence of the defendant’s guilt on the Mann Act counts was overwhelming”.
Combs, one of the most influential hip-hop producers of all time, is due to be sentenced in October. Each charge carries a potential jail sentence of 10 years.
He would have been facing a mandatory 15 years – and up to life – in prison had he been convicted of the charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, of which he was exonerated.
Combs fell to his knees when the verdicts were read out, and his team later hailed it a “victory”.
The rapper has already served nearly a year at a federal jail in Brooklyn, where he has been since his arrest in September 2024.
He has been in contact with Donald Trump about a pardon, a source close to the rapper’s legal team told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News earlier this month, but the president has cast doubt on this actually happening.
Judge Arun Subramanian, who heard the trial, said Combs has not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community”.
The police watchdog has closed its investigations into the circumstances leading up to the decision to charge TV presenter Caroline Flack with assaulting her boyfriend.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially recommended a caution after the alleged assault in December 2019 – but London’s Metropolitan Police appealed and the Love Island host was charged with assault by beating.
Various reviews into the way the case was handled have been carried out by the CPS, the Met, and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) since Flack’s death. In April 2024, the star’s mother told Sky News she believes her daughter’s celebrity status likely contributed towards the decision to charge her.
It has now emerged that the IOPC closed its latest investigation, relating to the actions of officers in appealing to the CPS, in January 2025 – finding the outcome was “reasonable and proportionate”.
An IOPC spokesperson said it received a complaint referral from the Met, which contained “a number of allegations about the force’s investigation” into the alleged assault, in March 2024.
Image: Flack presented The Xtra Factor and one series of The X Factor with Olly Murs. Pic: AP
The majority of the allegations had already been investigated by the force and reviewed by the IOPC, the watchdog said, so it found no further action was required. However, the Met was directed to investigate one aspect of the complaint “on the basis there may be new witness evidence available”.
This related to the actions of officers in appealing the initial CPS decision, and five allegations were returned to the force’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) to “resolve in a proportionate manner”, the IOPC spokesperson told Sky News.
In June 2024, the Met found there was “no new evidence that would alter any previous outcomes”, the spokesperson added, and the complainant asked the IOPC to review once again.
“Following that review, in January 2025 we found that outcome to be reasonable and proportionate.”
A Met Police spokesperson said DPS officers made further enquiries and examined the evidence last year. “It did not change the original outcome that the service provided by officers was acceptable,” the spokesperson said.
“The family were advised of the outcome in June [2024] and then appealed that outcome to the IOPC. The IOPC carried out a review and, in January 2025, found no new evidence that would alter any of the previous outcomes.”
Both the Met and the IOPC have closed their investigations. The IOPC said another review could be considered in light of any new evidence.
At the end of Flack’s inquest, coroner Mary Hassell said the alleged assault had “played out in the national press” following her arrest and had a serious impact on her mental health.
In April 2024, her mother Christine Flack told Sky News: “This wasn’t domestic violence. This was an accident. But she was portrayed in the court and in the newspapers as a domestic abuser, and that’s what hurts. That’s what I want got rid of – because she wasn’t.”
She said she believed her daughter was treated differently due to her celebrity status. “And that’s not on. She shouldn’t be treated better, but she shouldn’t be treated worse.”
Image: Caroline Flack at the launch of Strictly Come Dancing, which she went on to win, in 2014. Pic: Dominic Lipinski/PA
This was not the first investigation into the handling of Flack’s case, with the Met initially referring itself to the watchdog just a few days after her death.
The DPS found there was no misconduct, prompting another complaint from Flack’s family to the IOPC.
In 2023, the IOPC ordered the force to apologise for not recording its reason for appealing against the caution, but said it had not identified any misconduct.
Flack’s boyfriend, Lewis Burton, had said he did not support the prosecution, and following her death her management released a statement criticising the decision.
At the time, a CPS spokesperson said it was normal practice for prosecutors to hold a debriefing after complex or sensitive cases have ended.
“This has taken place and found that the case was handled appropriately and in line with our published legal guidance,” they said.
Flack, 40, presented shows including spin-offs I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! NOW! and The Xtra Factor, as well as one season of the main X Factor show with former contestant Olly Murs, before becoming best known as the host of Love Island. She also won Strictly Come Dancing in 2014.
Sky News has contacted Flack’s family for comment.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK