Dawn French has apologised and taken down a video she posted about the war in Gaza after facing backlash.

The popular actress and comedian said she apologised “unreservedly” after posting a video in a “mocking tone”.

In the original 40-second clip, the Vicar of Dibley star said: “Complicated, no, but nuanced. But bottom line is no.”

Then, using a different tone, she went on: “Yeah, but you know they did a bad thing to us, yeah but no.

“But we want that land… and we have history… No.

“Those people aren’t really even people, are they really? No.”

On Saturday afternoon, she issued an apology, saying that in an effort to convey “an important message” she had “clumsily used a mocking tone”.

“My intention was NEVER to mock, or dismiss, or diminish the horror of what happened on 7 October 2023,” she posted on X and Instagram.

She said her intention was to “point the finger of shame at the behaviour of the cruel leader on ALL sides of this atrocious war”.

French faced criticised after her initial post.

Actress Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was “saddened” by it.

She said: “This mocking voice ‘bad thing’ of October 7 that Dawn (who I revere by the way) appears ro [sic] be mocking involved the most horrific terrorist attack.”

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MP Rosie Duffield responded to Oberman’s post, saying: “One can, and should hate what is happening in Gaza and also condemn the hideous events of October 7th.

“It is agonising to see events unfold, and requires extremely careful, measured and well-considered comments and actions. This is not that.”

Some social media users tried to pressure M&S, who French voices adverts for, over the incident.

In October 2023, Hamas led other militant groups in a cross-border attack, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage.

Since then, Israel has launched a number of large-scale campaigns in the region, including in Gaza where over 54,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave.

Many of these are said to be women and children.

Israel claims to be targeting militants and blames collateral deaths on Hamas fighters positioning themselves in densely populated areas.

Sir Rod Stewart says he is devastated to have to cancel a series of US concerts, blaming lingering flu for the decision.

It affects four shows in Nevada, along with a further two in California, which he plans to reschedule.

They were due to take place over the next eight days.

“So sorry my friends. I’m devastated and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience to my fans. I’ll be back on stage and will see you soon,” he wrote in a message on Instagram.

Sir Rod, 80, has been struggling to recover from flu and this week had already cancelled two concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

On Wednesday, he disclosed that his doctor had “ordered” him to take “a bit more rest”.

The star is in the midst of his epic One Last Time Tour.

Sir Rod, who was recently put on vocal rest, is due to play the legends slot at Glastonbury later this month.

In May, he was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the American Music Awards (AMAs).

In a sign of how seriously the singer takes his health, last month he was also spotted in Italy attempting to avoid conversations to preserve his voice.

He wore a message attached to a lanyard which read: “Sorry. Cannot talk. Having vocal rest.”

In 2024, he promised he would not retire but confirmed his 2025 European and North American shows would bring an end to his “large-scale world tours”.

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The performer, best known for songs including Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, Every Beat Of My Heart, and Maggie May, said he plans to focus on more intimate venues instead.

Sir Rod has faced other health challenges in the past.

In May 2000, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had surgery. In 2017, he underwent successful treatment for prostate cancer.

More often than not, the inclusion of women in an action film is shaped by the male gaze, the tropes, the stereotypical backstory and/or the unnecessary physique-revealing scenes connected to it.

“That’s a pet peeve of mine,” director Len Wiseman tells Sky News in an interview for his new John Wick spin-off starring Ana de Armas.

“I think a lot of times you see it’s overly sexualized or there’s not a realism to it, and it is important to me that [this was] approached from a female [perspective] that can be labelled: ‘A woman is strong to begin with’. I think there can be some kind of pandering in certain ways that I think is too far.”

Wiseman started his career with the female-led action film franchise Underworld starring his former partner Kate Beckinsale before directing Die Hard 4.0, Total Recall and Sleepy Hollow.

From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina serves as a spin-off to the John Wick films and is set between the events of the third and fourth movies.

It follows a young trainee assassin who looks to be the next world-renowned assassin in the film universe.

“We never wanted to go as far as Eve looking like we were doing a female John Wick. Eve is Eve and is a woman… and it’s a woman in a man’s world,” says de Armas.

“That phrase ‘fight like a girl’, we wanted that to come across as something really empowering and really pull from there. That is a motivation for her. That has been said before in a derogatory way or as something diminishing.”

Wiseman and de Armas both say that while they wanted Eve to be strong, they also wanted her to feel every moment of the battle. If there are choreographed fight scenes or flashy action moves, she feels them.

“I wanted her to struggle,” explains de Armas, detailing how she consistently asked for her to look more dishevelled as the film progresses.

“It didn’t come from a place of I need to prove myself, I don’t need to prove myself to anybody, but I wanted to do that from the moment we started talking about the script, we even brought on board a female writer, because it was important for me to have that.”

De Armas, similar to her soon-to-be co-star Tom Cruise, relished in undertaking the more difficult stunts and wore the bruises and marks from them like badges of honour.

The actress would even send photos of the markings the following day to Wiseman proudly as she jokes: “I just wanted to keep him posted, you know, on how my body was at the end of the day.”

The film was shot practically, with the explosions and countless action surprises for film fans happening on set repeatedly.

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When asked about her toughest stunt to execute, without hesitation, she mentions a scene which included prop grenades.

“All the debris and everything that was flying with those grenades were real, so most of the dust and the little things flying were getting in my eyes, and I just could not open my eyes during the scene. So in between takes, the medics were like just rinsing my eyes with some water.”

With a film set around changing the meaning of ‘fight like a girl’, de Armas says she has a clear definition of it now: “Be yourself and make people gravitate around you and your rules. You make your own rules.”

From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina is in cinemas now.