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It was the sequel film fans didn’t realise they needed, but when Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget came out before Christmas – 23 years after the original – it topped Netflix’s most-watched charts for weeks.

Speaking to Sky News, director Sam Fell admits: “You send it out into the world and it’s like a kid really, you hope everyone is going to treat it nicely.”

Not only has the film taken flight with viewers of all ages around the world, but the animation is also in the running for a BAFTA later this month.

It has been a vindication for Fell, who made headlines even before a frame of the film had been shot after he decided to recast the voices of Rocky and Ginger – replacing Mel Gibson and Julia Sawalha with Zachary Levi and Thandiwe Newton.

Pic: Aardman/Netflix
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Sam Fell said he wanted to be ‘brave’ when making the sequel. Pic: Aardman/Netflix

He admits he was “surprised” by the reaction. “I didn’t expect any feathers to be ruffled. But I suppose, looking back on it, you’re going to have to break a few eggs to make a new omelette,” he said.

Fell explained that the cast refresh had “more to do with the time gap – not age in particular – but just who’s around now”.

Describing his approach to the film as more a “reboot” than a sequel, he added: “You have to be brave and just move forward with the way you think it should be…

“At the time it seemed like a perfectly natural thing to try, Britain’s changed, the world’s changed, let’s shift the texture and sound of the movie for now.”

The filmmaker said it had been particularly satisfying to gauge audience reactions to new characters such as Rocky and Ginger’s daughter Molly, who is voiced by Bella Ramsey.

“Bella’s sound is just so unique… we caught Bella just at the right time,” he said.

Pic: Aardman/Netflix
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Pic: Aardman/Netflix

Rise Of The Vegan Pancake

Fell said he was “just very lucky” to cast Ramsey after they starred in Game Of Thrones – but before they had gone on to work on award-winning zombie drama The Last Of Us.

“When you work with an actor of that age a lot changes in a few years and that’s how long we took to make the movie.”

Given that it took over two decades to bring the claymation sequel to screens, Fell teased we can expect a third movie in: “2055… The Rise Of The Vegan Pancake!”

“I can’t promise anything,” he said while laughing. “It is a slow game… but, you know, it hopefully won’t be a quarter of a century to the next one.

“There are ideas of movies, maybe a spin-off thing because there were some new characters that are interesting, like Molly…There’s certainly many stories you can tell with these characters.”

Pic: Aardman/Netflix
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Pic: Aardman/Netflix

Think like a chicken

While Fell admits winning the BAFTA would be “the icing on the cake”, he said making the film was life-changing in one fundamental way.

“I’ve not eaten a nugget [since]…I stopped eating meat after I did some [background] research…. I just start to care about chickens a great deal.

“I hope it’s made some people think like a chicken and see the world a bit more from a chicken’s point of view.”

But Fell realises that might be a long shot, especially given how he wasn’t even able to persuade Aardman’s caterers to reconsider their menu during their shoot.

“The canteen served chicken every Wednesday, as much as I protested about it, and the crew enjoyed eating it!”

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is available to watch now on Netflix.

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Urdd Eisteddfod: Why Strictly star Amy Dowden is supporting Welsh festival that is ‘like Britain’s Got Talent’

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Urdd Eisteddfod: Why Strictly star Amy Dowden is supporting Welsh festival that is 'like Britain's Got Talent'

Thousands of people are expected to attend Port Talbot this weekend as the town gears up to welcome an annual Welsh festival.

The Urdd Eisteddfod is a celebration of Welsh culture when children and young people up to the age of 25 take part in a variety of competitions.

There are 400 of them in total, including singing, reciting poetry and dancing.

The Urdd organisation itself was established more than a century ago in 1922, with the aim of giving children and young people in Wales the opportunity to learn and socialise in the Welsh language.

Its six-day Eisteddfod is held during May half-term and in a different part of Wales each year.

The Urdd Eisteddfod broke its own records last year, with more than 100,000 registrations to compete.

A choir competes at the 2024 Eisteddfod yr Urdd in Meifod, Powys.  The annual youth festival is Europe's largest touring youth festival. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
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A choir competes at the 2024 Eisteddfod yr Urdd. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru

Margam Park is home to this year’s event – the first time since 2003 that it’s played host.

Among the main prizes up for grabs this year are the chair (awarded to the main poetry competition winner) and the crown (awarded to the main prose competition winner).

This year’s crown and chair have been made using some of the final pieces of steel produced at Port Talbot steelworks before the closure of the blast furnaces last year.

The chair at the 2025 Eisteddfod yr Urdd was created using some of the last pieces of steel produced at the Port Talbot steelworks. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
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The chair at the 2025 Eisteddfod yr Urdd was created using some of the last pieces of steel produced at the Port Talbot steelworks. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru

The 2024 Eisteddfod yr Urdd "Maes" in Meifod, Powys.  The annual youth festival is Europe's largest touring youth festival. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
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Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru

There are some new additions to this year’s Eisteddfod, including awards for singing, musical theatre and acting, named in honour of Sir Bryn Terfel, Callum Scott Howells and Matthew Rhys.

Another new award – the Amy Dowden award for dance – will also be awarded for the first time this week.

Speaking to Sky News, Strictly Come Dancing star Dowden said it was a “real honour” to be supporting the next generation of dancers.

“The arts and the industry is tough, and I just hope that [the young people] can see that I’ve managed to push myself through it,” she said.

“I’ve worked hard, I’ve had a few challenges along the way. Hopefully I can help inspire them as well.”

Amy Dowden. File pic: PA
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Amy Dowden. File pic: PA

‘It’s like Britain’s Got Talent’

As a former competitor herself in what is one of Europe’s largest touring youth festivals, Dowden says she “couldn’t imagine [her] childhood without it”.

“I’ve loved Eisteddfods since I can remember. Every year at school I took part in everything, from the baking to the reciting poems, to the folk dancing, to the creative dancing,” she said.

“The Urdd Eisteddfod is literally like one big talent competition, it’s like Britain’s Got Talent.”

Read more:
Prince William meets Urdd Eisteddfod winner
Wales: The land of song – but for how much longer?

The winner of the Amy Dowden award will get one-to-one sessions with her as part of the prize, as well as masterclasses at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

They will have the opportunity to perform on an international stage and also win a cash prize.

“I know from my dance training and everything, each of those is so beneficial to getting yourself to that professional level,” Dowden added.

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Former BBC executive and presenter Alan Yentob dies

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Former BBC executive and presenter Alan Yentob dies

Alan Yentob, the former BBC presenter and executive, has died aged 78.

A statement from his family, shared by the BBC, said Yentob died on Saturday.

His wife Philippa Walker said: “For Jacob, Bella and I, every day with Alan held the promise of something unexpected. Our life was exciting, he was exciting.

“He was curious, funny, annoying, late, and creative in every cell of his body. But more than that, he was the kindest of men and a profoundly moral man. He leaves in his wake a trail of love a mile wide.”

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Yentob joined the BBC as a trainee in 1968 and held a number of positions – including controller of BBC One and BBC Two, director of television, and head of music and art.

He was also the director of BBC drama, entertainment, and children’s TV.

Yentob launched CBBC and CBeebies, and his drama commissions included Pride And Prejudice and Middlemarch.

Alan Yentob with former BBC director general Tony Hall in 2012. Pic: Reuters.
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Alan Yentob (left) with former BBC director general Tony Hall in 2012. Pic: Reuters.

The TV executive was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the King in 2024 for services to the arts and media.

In a tribute, the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie said: “Alan Yentob was a towering figure in British broadcasting and the arts. A creative force and a cultural visionary, he shaped decades of programming at the BBC and beyond, with a passion for storytelling and public service that leave a lasting legacy.

“Above all, Alan was a true original. His passion wasn’t performative – it was personal. He believed in the power of culture to enrich, challenge and connect us.”

BBC Radio 4 presenter Amol Rajan described him on Instagram as “such a unique and kind man: an improbable impresario from unlikely origins who became a towering figure in the culture of post-war Britain.

“I commend his spirit to the living.”

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Gillian Anderson warns UK homelessness ‘will only get worse’

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Gillian Anderson warns UK homelessness 'will only get worse'

Gillian Anderson has warned homelessness is a growing problem in the UK – one that will only get worse if we enter a recession.

The award-winning actress, who is playing a woman facing homelessness along with her husband in her latest film, The Salt Path, told Sky News: “It’s interesting because I feel like it’s even changed in the UK in the last little while.”

Born in Chicago, and now living in London, she explained: “I’m used to seeing it so much in Vancouver and California and other areas that I spent time. You don’t often see it as much in the UK.”

Her co-star in the film, White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs, chips in: “You do now.”

“It’s now becoming more and more prevalent since COVID,” said Anderson, “and the current financial situation in the country and around the world.

“It’s a topic that I think will be more and more in the forefront of people’s minds, particularly if we end up going into a recession.”

Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in The Salt Path. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear

The film is based on Raynor Winn’s 2018 memoir, which depicts her and her husband’s 630-mile trek along the Cornish, Devon and Dorset coastline, walking from Minehead, Somerset to Land’s End.

Written from her notes on the journey, The Salt Path went on to sell over a million copies worldwide and spent nearly two years in The Sunday Times bestseller list. Winn’s since written two more memoirs.

Isaacs, who plays her husband Moth Winn in the movie, told Sky News that Winn told him she “hopes [the film] makes people look at homeless people when they walk by in a different light, give them a second look and maybe talk to them”.

With record levels of homelessness in the UK, with a recent Financial Times analysis showing one in every 200 households in the UK is experiencing homelessness, the cost of living crisis is worsening an already serious problem.

Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear

The film sees Ray and Winn let down by the system, first by the court which evicts them from their home, then by the council which tells them despite a terminal diagnosis they don’t qualify for emergency housing.

Following the loss of their family farm shortly after Moth’s shock terminal diagnosis with rare neurological condition Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), the couple find solace in nature.

They set off with just a tent and two backpacks to walk the coastal path.

Isaacs says living in a transient way comes naturally to actors, admitting like his character, he too “lives out of a suitcase” and is “away on jobs often”.

Read more:
Is this every actor’s bucket list job?

Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear

Shot in 2023 across Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Wales, Anderson says as a city-dweller, the locations had an impact on her.

Anderson reveals: “As I’ve gotten older, I have become more aware of nature than […] when I was younger, and certainly in filming this film and being outside and so much of nature being a third character, it did shift my thinking around it.”

Meanwhile, Isaacs says he discovered a “third character” leading the film just the day before our interview, when speaking to Winn on the phone.

Isaacs says the author told him: “I feel like there’s three characters in the film,” going on, “I thought she was going to say nature, but she said, ‘No, that path'”.

Isaacs elaborates: “Not just nature, but that path where the various biblical landscapes you get and the animals, they matter.

“The things that happen on that path were a huge part of their own personal story and hopefully the audience’s journey as well.”

The Salt Path comes to UK cinemas on Friday 30 May.

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