Andrew Garfield says he bakes cookies every year in memory of his late mother.

The double Oscar nominee‘s mother Lynn Garfield, from Essex, died in 2019 from pancreatic cancer.

In a conversation about his new film We Live In Time, he told Sky News about the special ways he likes to remember her.

“My mum had the most incredible chocolate chip cookie recipe that I will do every year on the anniversary of her birth and on the anniversary of her death.

“So, I will bake them, and we will all eat them, but I’ll leave a few out for her somewhere, you know, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus at Christmas or something.”

The English-American actor says he looks to keep the connection to his mother alive and notes that he has some of her keepsakes in his own home.

“I have her perfume in my house that my mum used to wear when I was a kid. I have it, like, in a very special place. I’ll just like [smell it], when I need it.

“It’s like in the missing and the longing, you actually get closer to the person. It’s a weird thing. As we reach out in grief, we actually feel much closer to the person so it’s this weird conundrum”.

‘Leaving a legacy behind’

Garfield stars alongside Florence Pugh in the romance film We Live In Time, which follows an up-and-coming chef and a Weetabix salesman through a decade of their love story.

Pugh says she loves playing “really strong-willed women” and says playing a woman dealing with ovarian cancer allowed her to look at the idea of creating a legacy.

“She’s constantly juggling whether she does something for herself, does something for her daughter, does something for her family and ultimately, she’s allowed to do all of those things.

“I do believe that she is trying to leave that kind of legacy behind so that her daughter is proud of her.

“Just because you are a parent and you’re a mum does not mean that your wills and wants also completely vanish and disappear and you can’t have or want them too”.

‘A level of detail and care’

We Live In Time is directed by Brooklyn filmmaker John Crowley.

Having previously worked with Garfield on Boy A, the Irish director says seeing Garfield and Pugh on screen together is magic.

“All that life experience is present in his performance,” he says.

“I wouldn’t say he’s vastly different. I think the level of detail and care that he puts in the work is every bit as much as it was back then, there’s just more there now”.

We Live In Time is in cinemas on Wednesday 1 January.

Elizabeth J. Birch has been a musician for a decade, has won several awards, and loves her job. However, she continues to feel like an outsider in a competitive and precarious industry.

As a wheelchair user, she commonly experiences accessibility barriers at venues, but there’s a more pressing issue – tokenism.

Birch tells Sky News: “While it’s not explicitly stated that it’s tokenistic, it feels tokenistic because [organisations] need a certain amount of disabled people on their board.

“For example, I was once called a poster girl for inclusion.”

When asked how the experience made her feel, she pauses and reflects: “Perhaps it didn’t make me feel like an individual or it made me feel less than human because I was narrowed down to one aspect of myself.

“It’s not about trying to look inclusive, it’s about trying to be inclusive.”

A recent report by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union found 94% of those who have experienced discrimination based on their disability said it impacted their ability to work or advance their career progression.

Nyrobi Beckett-Messam, one half of the sister duo ALT BLK ERA, was diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions in 2021.

Out of the fear of discrimination, she wasn’t open about her hidden disability until only a few months ago.

“I didn’t feel comfortable sharing that side of me because society doesn’t accept it,” she says.

And she doesn’t regret opening up.

“I think the biggest benefit of me disclosing my disability is seeing how it’s impacted others,” she says.

“It’s really empowering, I wake up feeling every morning like the effect I’m having on the community.”

Among other key findings, the Musicians’ Census identified the following areas of concern when it comes to financial security, fair pay, and discrimination in the workplace:

• On average there is a £4,400 pay gap between disabled and non-disabled musicians
• The gap widens a further £1,700 for musicians with mental health conditions and/or neurodivergent profiles
• 27% of disabled musicians said they had experienced racism, compared with 7% of non-disabled musicians
• 73% of disabled respondents said they aren’t in receipt of any state benefits, tax credits, or support

Grace Meadows, head of engagement at Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter, said: “What this report really starkly highlights is just how much more work the industry needs to do to support disabled musicians but also to support anybody who may have a disability to speak up without fear of discrimination or disadvantage.

“And with benefits, really what we are needing to see is a change in what those systems look like so people can get the support they need when they need it.”

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A government spokesperson told Sky News: “We are bringing forward proposals to reform health and disability benefits in spring as part of a proper plan to genuinely support disabled people.

“We will work closely with disabled people and their organisations, whose views will be at the heart of these plans.”

Both Birch and Beckett-Messam believe in the social model of disability which recognises that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.

For now, they are determined to stay in the industry, but that could change if it stays the same.

The family of Gavin & Stacey star Laura Aikman only found out she was returning to the sitcom while they watched the finale on Christmas Day.

The 39-year-old actress shared a video on her Instagram showing her family screaming in shock as her character Sonia appeared in the episode.

Sonia, the ex-girlfriend of James Corden’s character Neil “Smithy” Smith, appears in the final Christmas special in a crucial plot twist.

One member of Aikman’s family can be heard shouting “press pause” while another tells her “you never told me”.

“We never told anyone,” Aikman replies.

Sharing the video on Instagram she wrote “the moment my family realise Sonia is ruining Christmas again” and captioned it: “I take an NDA very seriously.”

She also shared a photo of a cast board of all the Gavin & Stacey characters, with a space missing where her picture would have been.

Aikman joined Gavin & Stacey as Sonia in the last Christmas Day episode in 2019, when Smithy brought his girlfriend to meet his family and friends.

But she did not get on with the group and left before Smithy could propose to her as he had planned.

Vanessa “Nessa” Jenkins, played by Ruth Jones, later got down on one knee and confessed her love for Smithy, but before he could respond to her proposal the episode ended on a cliffhanger.

Fans have waited five years to find out his answer, with the 2024 Christmas Day episode opening with the family of Stacey Shipman, played by Joanna Page, and her husband Gavin, portrayed by Mathew Horne, preparing for a wedding.

The BBC said the episode secured the highest overnight Christmas Day ratings since 2008.

The 90-minute episode drew an average audience of 12.3 million, according to overnight figures, surpassing the show’s 2019 Christmas special by more than half-a-million viewers.