Daniel Craig throws off his ‘tetchy’ persona to talk openly about Bond as his time as 007 ends
It’s midday at the Corinthia Hotel in London and I’m sitting on a bench in a corridor waiting to talk to Daniel Craig.
The main entrance doors are open for ventilation. Pre-pandemic there would have been a lot of security, this is Bond after all, but in the age of coronavirus the hotel is like a socially distanced Fort Knox.
There’s a doctor on standby and before I’m allowed in the same room as 007, I’ve had to pass a temperature check – and that isn’t all.
To get into the hotel itself I’ve had to show the results of a negative PCR test taken within the last 48 hours, prove I’d done a lateral flow test this morning AND sign paperwork promising I’m not secretly trying to give everyone at the press junket COVID.
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Daniel Craig’s ‘joyous’ return to the cinema
The mask I had with me had to be taken off, only to be replaced by an industrial-looking number that everyone around me was wearing. “It does look a bit like we’ve all got beaks!” one woman commented in the hallway to nods and muffled agreement.
This whole process is very weird and certainly not conducive in terms of making you feel nice and relaxed ahead of interviewing an actor who has a reputation for being notoriously tetchy.
If there are journalists before or after me, I haven’t come into contact with any, so pre-Daniel I settle for a hushed gossip with a woman who may have been a member of security (but really who knows when our faces are covered-up with a giant white beak?).
Sep 2019: Daniel Craig on the set of No Time To Die. Pic: AP
“Have you met Daniel before?” she said. “No” I say.
“Every time he’s come out here he’s made a point of asking us if we’re all ok, he’s REALLY nice!”
“That’s good to know,” I tell her, adding: “because he’s got a bit of a reputation for being, you know, grumpy.”
But not today.
Just one final hurrah of press interviews and that’s it, Daniel Craig is done.
There’s no way he’s repeating those “he’s so moody” headlines he got after the very first news conference he did.
Casino Royale was Craig’s first Bond outing. Pic: Nicola Dove/MGM
So it is a seemingly demob happy Craig I’m introduced to, sat alongside super-producer Barbara Broccoli.
No handshakes, of course, and they’re sat well over two metres away from me in the hotel’s well-ventilated ballroom.
But those blue eyes are twinkling, he’s laughing, relaxed even, and happy to chat now the rollercoaster is about to stop.
“I mean, I was definitely in two minds about taking it at the beginning but… I’ve never regretted it,” he says.
“It’s been tough, but it’s always, always, always, always been interesting. It’s always been creatively satisfying. I’ve had the chance to work with just some of the most incredible people and it’s made a mark on my life and, I mean, that’s a massive understatement.”
Broccoli refuses point blank to think who her next Bond will be.
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“I’m in denial. I don’t want to think about it and I’m not going to think about it. As far as I’m concerned Daniel Craig is James Bond. End of story.”
It hasn’t been easy 15 years for Craig, being the leading man in one of Britain’s biggest cultural exports.
Aside from broken legs and twisted ankles, the run-ins with the press were there from day one, with critics saying it was wrong to have a blond Bond.
He’s had paparazzi in trees outside his house, photographers willing to bury themselves under sand to get pictures of him on the beach in his trunks.
He admits, before he met his wife Rachel Weisz, the attention ruined relationships and made him never want to leave the house.
“I think I’ve changed,” he reflects, looking back on it now.
“I’ll be perfectly honest, I couldn’t deal with it but it is part of the nature of the beast, you have to sort of accept it. I think you have to find a level.
Lashana Lynch has taken on the mantel as 007. Pic: Nicola Dove/MGM
“I’ve tried my best not be hypocritical about it. I keep myself away from everything when I’m not promoting a movie. I’m not on social media. I try and keep a very private life. So that’s my sort of that’s my sort of line in the sand, I suppose.”
Has it got any better as he prepares to leave the role?
“The press don’t seem as interested in me anymore,” he laughs. “I’m probably just a bit boring for them.”
So it’s official Daniel Craig isn’t grumpy… he wants to be boring… but then he is a very good actor. And surely that’s all that matters?
Former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died.
The Leicester-born car dealer and motoring journalist joined the BBC show in 1991, appearing alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and James May, until the original format was cancelled 10 years later.
He then moved to Channel 5 to join its rival motoring show, Fifth Gear, and did not rejoin when Top Gear relaunched in 2002.
The 68-year-old died on Saturday following a short battle with lung cancer, his family said.
Pic: PA
In a statement, they described him as a “true national treasure” who “brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms”.
The broadcaster created and presented both Britain’s Worst Drivers and The Car’s The Star.
He went on to perform on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where he continues to hold the lowest score in the show’s history.
He was also an avid “consumer champion”, having advocated for a number of campaigns, including helping to freeze fuel duty with his FairFuel campaign.
He recently worked “tirelessly” to make electric vehicles affordable through his FairCharge campaign, his family said.
The statement continued: “Long before it was fashionable, he championed the GM EV1 and the promise of electric cars, proving he was always ahead of the curve.
“Much-loved husband to Michaela, devoted father to Mercedes, Max and Mini, and cherished grandfather to Saskia, Xander and Roxana.
“Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.
“The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”
Davina McCall has revealed she has had breast cancer, nearly a year after she had surgery to remove a brain tumour.
The TV presenter revealed the diagnosis in a video posted to her Instagram on Saturday, saying she was “very angry” when she found out, but now is in a “much more positive place” after undergoing surgery to remove the tumour three weeks ago.
“I found a lump a few weeks ago. It came and went but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show, and Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee, I did that,” she said.
“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’. I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”
McCall, 58, said the “lump” was “very, very small” and was discovered early.
Davina McCall said she had surgery to remove the “lump” three weeks ago. Pic: PA
“I am so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread. My lymph nodes were clear, I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy,” she explained.
The former Big Brother presenter thanked her medical team, family and fiance for their support, before adding: “It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that, and I feel in a much more positive place now.
“I think my message is: get checked if you’re worried. Check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done.
“I have dense breasts and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound; I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that. Get the ultrasound.”
Her breast cancer diagnosis came nearly a year after McCall revealed that she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
McCall revealed last November that she had a benign brain tumour. Pic: PA
She said in a video posted in November last year that chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, and currently presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
In recent years, McCall has spoken regularly on women’s health and the effects of menopause in a bid to break taboos around the subject. Her 2022 book, Menopausing, won book of the year at the British Book Awards.
McCall’s brain cancer was found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work. Pic: PA
The same year, McCall fronted the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties multi-tasking and she considered that she had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time.
In 2023, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting.
The presenter has previously raised money for Cancer Research UK by running the Race For Life in honour of her late sister, Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.
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Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She lives with her fiance, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and presents a weekly lifestyle podcast with him, called Making The Cut.
Kendrick Lamar is leading this year’s Grammy nominations, up for nine trophies, including record, song and album of the year.
The 38-year-old swept last year’s awards, taking home five gongs for his hit dis track Not Like Us.
The varied bag of Grammy nominees – featuring big names and a few surprises – also saw K-pop stars, a knighted British rocker and a Hollywood leading man make it into the Grammy competition.
Lady Gaga earlier this year. Pic: AP
Lady Gaga (who is up for record, song and album of the year too), Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer-songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.
Sabrina Carpenter got six nods, matching her nomination tally for last year.
Alongside Lamar’s GNX, other albums to make it into the best album category this year include Lady Gaga’s Mayhem and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos (only the second all-Spanish language album to be nominated in the category, following the Puerto Rican rapper’s 2023 all-Spanish album Un Verano Sin Ti).
They are all potential first-time winners in the category.
Sabrina Carpenter is up for six awards. Pic: AP
Also up for the top album prize are Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Justin Bieber’s Swag, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’s Mutt, and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.
Despite releasing a new album earlier this year, Taylor Swift, didn’t make it on to the best album nominees as The Life Of A Showgirl came out after the close of the eligibility period. The window ran from 31 August 2024 to 30 August 2025.
Rosé from Blackpink. Pic: AP
K-pop gets its moment
With K-pop typically ignored by the Grammys (BTS are the only K-pop artists to previously get a nod) this year saw two K-pop tracks in contention for best song.
Golden, the lead track from global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters and APT, the megahit by former Blackpink member Rosé alongside Bruno Mars, both made it on to the list.
Rosé got nods in four other categories, including best record, while KPop Demon Hunters got three other nominations, including in the best pop duo/group performance category.
Lola Young is up for best new arist. Pic: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
British artist Lola Young, who is the niece of acclaimed children’s writer Julia Donaldson, got a nod in the best new artist category, alongside Olivia Dean. Both topped the UK charts this year.
They will compete against KATSEYE, The Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas and Alex Warren. Last year the category was won by Good Luck, Babe! singer Chappell Roan.
Sir Elton John in Never Too Late. Pic: Walt Disney Pictures
Timothée Chalamet is up for a Grammy
In less expected Grammy news, Sir Elton John also got a nod alongside US singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile for the song Never Too Late, which features on the soundtrack of the 2024 Sir Elton documentary of the same name.
Meanwhile, actor Timothée Chalamet got his first Grammy nod in the best compilation soundtrack for visual media category for his work on Oscar-nominated movie A Complete Unknown, in which he played Bob Dylan.
Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Pic: Searchlight Pictures 2024
Nominations were announced by past Grammy winners, including Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii and last year’s best new artist winner, Chappell Roan.
Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne came together to announce the rock and metal album nominations in tribute to Ozzy, who died in July. He had previously won in both categories.
The Osbournes announced the best rock and metal album nominations. Pic: Grammys/Recording Academy
The annual ceremony – which gives out a whopping 95 gongs in total – has four big categories: album, record and song of the year, and best new artist.
Following Beyoncé’s historic win for best album and best country album for Cowboy Carter, this year the country category has been divided into two: best traditional country album and best contemporary country album.
There’s also the new addition of a standalone category for best album cover.
Last year, Beyoncé made history as the Grammy’s most nominated artist, winning album of the year for the first time.
Winners will be chosen by the roughly 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.
The 68th Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, 1 February 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Main category nominees
Album Of The Year
DeBi TiRAR MaS FOtoS, Bad Bunny
Swag, Justin Bieber
Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter
Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T and Malice
MAYHEM, Lady Gaga
GNX, Kendrick Lamar
Mutt, Leon Thomas
CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator
Record Of The Year
DtMF, Bad Bunny
Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter
Anxiety, Doechii
Wildflower, Billie Eilish
Abracadabra, Lady Gaga
luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA
The Subway, Chappell Roan
APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé
Song Of The Year
Abracadabra, Lady Gaga
Anxiety, Doechii
APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé
DtMF, Bad Bunny
Golden, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI
luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA
Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter
Wildflower, Billie Eilish
Best New Artist
Olivia Dean
KATSEYE
The Marias
Addison Rae
sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young
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