A plumber is about to realise a decade-long dream of going on tour with his music – as his story is made into a Hollywood film.
Kev Crane, 51, from Quorn in Leicestershire, says he is fitting one more bathroom in January before preparing for a singing tour of football clubs in the spring, after his talents were discovered while he was working.
“I was singing in the bathroom, the next door neighbour heard me singing away, he said to Paul who owns News Reality Records ‘who’s that guy singing in your bathroom?’ he says ‘the plumber’.
“We get chatting and he tells me he has a record label – I say ‘actually I’ve just built a recording studio in my loft and reignited an album I started 25 years ago,'” Mr Crane explained.
Image: Kev Crane, left, with Paul Conneally
Lockdown gave Mr Crane the time to build the studio and rediscover his passion, having been in a band decades ago.
“The sound is shell suit perfect ’80s”, said record producer Paul Conneally, “and I thought, no one is making anything quite like this and he’d done it all by himself, I was amazed by it.
“That story of him in lockdown trying to build back his dream that he had 20 years ago, it just struck me that we’ve got to put this out.”
After Mr Conneally released music through his label, Hollywood screenwriters heard about his story in the Washington Post.
Image: Kev singing with his original band
Image: Billy Ray, left, with Kev Crane
Mr Crane flew to LA for meetings with director Billy Ray, who wrote the screenplay for 2012 blockbuster The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips (2013) starring Tom Hanks.
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“What I loved about this story was it was about these two men, Kevin and Paul, for whom music had been everything”, Mr Ray told Sky News, “and then they lost that thread for about, you know, 20 years of their life.
“And then they found that thread again and saved one another, even though neither of them knew they needed to be saved. I just thought that was beautiful”.
The script is in development with British screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, he said. The duo wrote comedies including The Likely Lads, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and feature film The Commitments.
Mr Ray said the movie would be called “The Music Inside” and that they would get “someone spectacular” for the starring role.
A police officer has described the moment he was shot with a crossbow – as his “extremely dangerous” attacker was sentenced to nine years in jail.
Jason King, 54, fired the weapon at PC Curtis Foster after stabbing a neighbour, a man in his 60s, following an altercation in Downley, Wycombe, on 10 May last year.
PC Foster was struck in the leg by a crossbow bolt while King chased after him and his fellow unarmed officer.
Image: Jason King armed with the crossbow chases the officer. Pic: Thames Valley Police
Image: King stabbed his neighbour in the stomach following an altercation. Pic: Thames Valley Police
“I knew something had impacted me, but my adrenaline was so high that the pain wasn’t really there,” PC Foster said.
“I first realised I was bleeding quite a lot when I could feel it running down my leg, and then I touched my leg with above my trousers, and my whole hand was red where it’d gone through my trousers already.”
PC Foster and his colleague cleared the area of civilians, while armed officers chased King to a local park.
King also fired the crossbow at a police dog but missed.
He was ordered to drop the weapon, but instead started running with it in hand towards the exit of the park to where PC Foster had escaped.
An armed officer fired one shot at King, striking him in the abdomen, to stop him.
Image: PC Curtis Foster was hit in the leg by a crossbow bolt shot by King. Pic: Thames Valley Police
Image: PC Foster. Pic: Thames Valley Police
‘Covered in my blood’
As King was apprehended, paramedics and his fellow officers treated the seriously injured PC Foster.
“There was a lot of blood. My two colleagues that turned up initially on scene were covered in my blood – that’s how much blood I’d lost,” PC Foster said.
“When we got to the hospital, the doctor had a feel of it and said that I was really lucky it didn’t strike an artery. It was a couple of centimetres away from hitting an artery in the back of my leg.”
PC Foster has since made a full recovery, as did the neighbour King stabbed.
King himself was taken to hospital under police supervision with potentially life-changing injuries and was discharged 10 days later, when he was arrested and taken into police custody.
Image: King was apprehended by armed police officers in a nearby park. Pic: Thames Valley Police
On Wednesday, King was jailed at Aylesbury Crown Court for nine years with a further three years on extended licence having previously pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, having an article with a blade or point, having an offensive weapon, wounding with intent and affray regarding the incident.
“Jason King will now serve a substantial prison sentence as a result of his violent actions on 10 May 2024. The community and residents of Downley are much safer for it,” said senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Nick Hind.
He added: “The courage of our officers in dealing with this incident was second to none.”
DI Hind explained that the impact the incident had in the local community couldn’t be underestimated as King was “an extremely dangerous man, who posed a significant threat to police, other emergency services and members of the community”.
A mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct was made after the police shooting of King.
The IOPC, which concluded its investigation in November, commended “everybody involved in this incident”, according to DI Hind.
A mother-of-two who died after being hit by a falling tree branch on the way home from a family outing would do “everything she could for anyone”, her husband has said.
Madia Kauser, 32, was walking with her family in Witton Park in Blackburn, Lancashire, on 11 August when the incident happened.
She is reported to have pushed her young daughter to safety.
A joint investigation is being carried out by Lancashire Police and the Health and Safety Executive and any witnesses are being asked to come forward.
In a tribute issued by police, her husband Wasim Khan described her as the “most beautiful woman in the world” and said he feels “completely lost without her”.
He said: “My wife, a mother-of-two, a daughter, sister and a friend we lost to a tragic event that came on the way home from a family day out in the park.
“She was the most beautiful woman in the world, she did everything for our two children, she did everything she could for anyone and would bring smiles whenever she entered the room.
“She was my comfort, my partner in life and the love of my life.
“We have so many great memories, went through pain together and started a family together.
“Honestly, I feel completely lost without her and I do not know how to put into words how much I miss her face, her character and her presence. My one and only.”
Detective Inspector Iain Czapowski said: “This is an absolutely tragic incident which has cost a young woman her life and my thoughts are with her loved ones.
“We are working closely with our colleagues from the Health and Safety Executive and with the co-operation of the council to try and establish the full circumstances of what happened, and I would like to speak to anyone with information which could assist with that.
“I am especially keen to speak to anyone who actually saw what happened on that fateful night and I would urge them to contact us.”
A member of rap trio Kneecap was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he arrived at court this morning, charged with allegedly supporting a proscribed terror organisation.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London in November last year.
Demonstrators waving flags and holding banners in support of the rapper greeted him with cheers as he made his way into Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Image: The rapper is mobbed by fans and media as he arrives at court. Pics: PA
Supported by his Kneecap bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, it took the rapper more than a minute to enter the building as security officers worked to usher him inside through a crowd of photographers.
Fans held signs which read “Free Mo Chara”, while others waved Irish and Palestinian flags.
As the hearing got under way, O hAnnaidh confirmed his name, date of birth and address, with the court hearing an Irish language interpreter would be present.
During a previous hearing, prosecutors said the 27-year-old is “well within his rights” to voice his opinions on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but said the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town was a “wholly different thing”.
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O hAnnaidh is yet to enter a plea to the charge.
Image: Bandmates Naoise O Caireallain (pictured, centre) and JJ O Dochartaigh are supporting O hAnnaidh. Pic: Reuters
Who are Kneecap?
Kneecap put out their first single in 2017 and rose to wider prominence in 2024 after the release of their debut album and an eponymously titled film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.
The film, in which the trio play themselves and co-star alongside starring Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, won the BAFTA for outstanding debut earlier this year, for director and writer Rich Peppiatt.