British actress Simone Ashley says she believes the industry has “come a long way” in terms of diversifying – but says the process is ongoing.

The Bridgerton and Sex Education star says that growing up she loved watching Hollywood royalty Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Anne Hathaway take on romcom leads.

But the 29-year-old South Asian – who is of Indian Tamil descent and grew up in Surrey – says she never really saw people like her in those roles.

Ashley told Sky News: “I always wanted to play a character like that.

“So, when we got the script, I just jumped on it – because I wanted to fill those shoes, and kind of bring back that 90s romcom world.”

Simone’s new film Picture This sees her in the starring role as London photographer Pia, who’s navigating a struggling business while dealing with the societal pressures of finding love.

Though the character is more than content with the life she’s built, a prediction from a spiritual guru threatens to throw that into chaos as she’s set up on five blind dates.

Hero Fiennes Tiffin – star of the After film series and nephew of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes – and British comedian Asim Chaudhry also join the Picture This cast.

Ashley goes on: “What was so important about this film is that we celebrated and enhanced the culture, and any aspects of comedy were just from the characters themselves – it wasn’t making fun of the culture.”

‘Part of the change’

And while the film is centred around a South Asian family, Ashley says that’s not what she wants viewers to take from it.

“This is a story that is a classic romcom – and I want that to be the selling point, that’s how we normalise this narrative.

“The billboards aren’t ‘Indian girl in the movie’.

“I’m just super proud, super pleased and I just hope that universally all women – not just South Asian women – can see themselves in this character.”

Read more from Sky News:
Meet former drill rapper turned conservation star
Gene Hackman’s wife died from rare infectious disease

Not only does the movie mark Ashley’s first romcom role, but also her first as executive producer.

Since being named one of Variety’s 2021 Brits to Watch, she’s made her stamp on the acting world – most notably as leading lady Kate Sharma in the second season of Netflix period drama Bridgerton.

And she recently confirmed she’ll be releasing her first music album soon.

Ashley has previously picked apart what she’s described as the “restrictive” nature of being an Indian actress – and how it took her longer to break into the industry compared to her white peers.

But she says the industry is changing.

“I think we’ve come a long way – I think we’re part of the change and I think more movies like [Picture This] – more women like you in your seat, more women in my seat – I think that’s part of the change.”

Picture This is available to watch on Prime Video now.

A drill rapper turned TikTok wildlife presenter hopes to “bridge the gap” between young people and climate change.

Growing up in Ladbroke Grove, west London, former music star TY was stabbed four times. He had fallen “into nonsense”, he says, but he always wanted something different for his life.

Wildlife and the environment are his real passions. Nowadays, you are more likely to see TY with a boa constrictor clamping on to his arm in the Amazon, or letting a tarantula crawl across his hands.

He tells Sky News he wants to help people “understand the severity of the planet right now”, but the route to his new calling hasn’t exactly been a straightforward path.

“I never had purpose,” the rapper explains. “Three or four years ago, I would not have seen myself in this light… As I fell into wildlife, I found myself again.”

Collaborations with US wildlife enthusiast Garrett Galvin – aka fishingarrett, one of the biggest wildlife content creators in the world – have certainly helped when it comes to amassing a growing following on social media as TYfromtheWyld.

But TY already had a substantial number of fans from his days as a platinum-selling drill rapper, having found fame as a member of the pioneering rap collective CGM (formerly known as 1011).

Alongside rapper Digga D, he made headlines when police caught the pair and three others in possession of machetes and baseball bats in 2017.

They ended up being given one of the UK’s very first music criminal behaviour orders, with the police arguing their songs incited violence – a move which triggered a debate about art censorship.

‘I never saw anyone that looked and thought like me’

“It’s a rough area, Ladbroke Grove, where I’m from,” says TY. “Crime started happening, I started getting into nonsense on the roads and as a young kid growing up you can get easily influenced by some stuff, so I kind of was lost for a while.

“Music was never my passion, I just fell into it. I grew up watching [TV naturalists and conservationists] Steve Backshall, Steve Irwin, but that world was so distant for me. I never saw anyone that looked and thought like me.

“Now I want to represent and be an inspiration for young people.”

Rapper AJ Tracey, who grew up in the same area of London as TY, says people need to understand that it’s all too easy to drift down the wrong path.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that people aren’t choosing to be in the situation that they are… anyone who wants to change their life and do something positive 100% deserves a second chance, honestly, probably even a third or fourth chance, because we’re all humans and we make mistakes.”

Just don’t expect Tracey to be making an appearance in any of TY’s videos anytime soon.

“He’s with some dangerous animals,” he laughs. “I don’t know about that, I’m scared!”

On a more serious note, Tracey says successive British governments could learn from TY’s skills at engaging with young people.

“I feel like when the country’s making budget cuts, it’s the youth that miss out all the time… the people in power have got to really pull some things together.”

While there might not seem an obvious crossover between drill music and learning about the ecosystem, TY’s success clearly demonstrates that an audience is there.

“We’re not doing enough to help,” he says. “This is my mission, to save animals, save the world, and get as many people on board as I can.

“Maybe a guy like me, from a certain background, will just kick a lot of people up to just say, ‘Yo. He’s doing something’.”

Gene Hackman’s wife died from a rare infectious disease around a week before the actor died, medical investigators have said.

The couple were found dead in their New Mexico home on 26 February, along with one of their pet dogs. Police have previously said there were no apparent signs of foul play.

At a press conference on Friday, chief medical investigator for New Mexico, doctor Heather Jarrell, gave an update on the results of post-mortem investigations carried out following their deaths.

Doctor Jarrell said Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare infectious disease. There were no signs of trauma and the death was a result of natural causes, she said.

The doctor said Arakawa likely died on 11 February, the date she was last known to have communicated with people via email.

She said Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s and died from heart disease, with data from his pacemaker last registering on 18 February.

Due to his Alzheimer’s, “it’s quite possible he was not aware that [his wife] was deceased,” Dr Jarrell added.

The actor tested negative for hantavirus, a rare disease spread by infected rodent droppings.

Humans can contract hantavirus by breathing in contaminated air, and symptoms can start as soon as one week, or as long as eight weeks, later. It is not transmissible from person to person.

There were just seven confirmed cases of hantavirus in New Mexico last year, and Arakawa is the only person confirmed to have contracted it in the state in 2025. Between 1975 and 2023, New Mexico recorded a total of 129 hantavirus cases, with 52 deaths.

Santa Fe County sheriff Adan Mendoza said authorities are still waiting for data from mobile phones found at the property, but it is “very unlikely they are going to show anything else”.

“There’s no indication” that Hackman used a mobile phone or any other technology to communicate and the couple lived a very private life before their deaths, he added.

The cause of the couple’s dog’s death has not been confirmed but it is now known that Arakawa had picked the animal up from the vet, where it had undergone a procedure, on 9 February.

The procedure “may explain why [the dog] was in a crate at the residence” while two surviving dogs were found roaming the property, Mr Mendoza said.

Hackman, who was widely respected as one of the greatest actors of his generation, was a five-time Oscar nominee who won the best actor in a leading role for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for Unforgiven two decades later.

More from Sky News:
The Damned founding member dies
King Charles reveals his favourite music

At last Sunday’s Academy Awards, Morgan Freeman paid tribute to Hackman. “A community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend,” he said.

He met Arakawa, a concert pianist, in the mid-1980s and the pair married in 1991.