Inside Alex Wheatle's inspiring journey from humble beginnings to celebrated author

The bribery and corruption case against ex-Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet and real estate developer Richard Meaney is expected to go to trial in March. Photo: City of Palm Springs.

The weeks are flying by and we're already at episode five of Dancing On Ice.

Frank Lampard has explained he wanted to sign Manchester United's Donny van de Beek on loan for three reasons.

A much-loved community cinema has been relaunched and will offer monthly screenings for just a pound.

Emmerdale's Moira Dingle has become a favourite of the soap since she came onto the scenes in 2009.

It sounds like a scene from a Gothic romance novel - winding cobblestone streets, dark stone cottages and rugged moorland.

Harry Styles has been spotted filming a new music video on a giant bed on wheels outside Buckingham Palace.The pop star is expected to release his third solo album at some point this year and it looks like the first track from it could be arriving soon.Photos show Styles in a brown-and-blue polka dot pyjama top lying under blankets on the big bed. He was joined by two musicians on the oversized piece of furniture at some points, which was positioned on The Mall with the palace in the background.“There was loads of security around him trying to move people away and the road was closed,” one person who saw the filming told the Sun.

Liam Gallagher has stated that he believes Oasis “should never have split up,” and that he would “love” the iconic band to get back together.Ever since the band’s breakup in 2009, rumours have periodically risen about a potential reunion, despite Liam and brother Noel not being on speaking terms.In a new interview with The Times, Liam has once again stated his desire for the band to get back together.“I’d love Oasis to get back together,” he said. “If it happens, it happens.

Chinese Airforce pilot in just 27 years.The TikTok user – named Matthew Smith, like the Doctor Who actor, and also goes by the username @pasttimetraveller – claims to be visiting 2022 from more than 80 years into the future.Among other self-professed time-travellers on the app, Matthew has made a number of alarming claims about the future of the human race – including his recent prediction of a New York City bombing.The video shows an image of the Statue of Liberty, surrounded by a fiery scene that looks like a post-apocalyptic world – but it's not that far ahead.In the video, he claims: "Here is proof that I am a time-traveller from the year 2104. This is a photo from a person in a fallout shelter from the year 2049."It shows New York City being bombed with two tonnes of trinitrotoluene (TNT) from a stolen Chinese plane."A member of China's Air Force disobeyed orders and stole a powerful aircraft and bombed NYC."The video which he claimed he "might be forced to take down" was bombarded by non-believers who branded him the 'kind of cap' – which is a slang word used by rappers meaning lies.One user said: "This guy is the king of cap."Another said: "He’s trying to scare kids."A third added: "If you were a real time-traveller you wouldn't post TikToks."However, others insisted it could be true as one user said: "Try or not, we don’t know….

Rebekah Vardy has accused other WAGs of leaking stories taken from Coleen Rooney's social media accounts in an explosive revelation.Both Mrs Vardy and Mrs Rooney have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2019 when Coleen published an explosive post on Instagram and Twitter, claiming Rebekah's account had been leaking stories to The Sun newspaper.WAG Coleen claims she went through several processes of elimination before discovering that it was Rebekah's account before the matter was to be presented to the courts.Now, Rebekah has appeared to suggest her innocence, suggesting that other accounts could have been responsible, not her.In text messages sent to Watt, Rebekah says: "She [Coleen Rooney] thinks it's me that's been doing the stories on her!"Of all the people on her Instagram FFS!"Last night, it emerged that Rebekah was responsible for several staged paparazzi photographs during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.The wives and girlfriends of the England football star's were snapped as they headed to a restaurant together as the tournament got underway.At the time, Vardy had insisted that the press showing up was not her doing but messages which have since been handed to the High Court could indicate otherwise.On the day in question, it is believed that Vardy and her manager Caroline Watt were involved in a number of exchanges surrounding the whereabouts of the WAGs.Messages were sent between Vardy and her agent while the entire clan were spending the day together in St Petersburg on June 26, 2018.The wives and girlfriends of football star's John Stones, Jordan Pickford, Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, Kyle Walker, Nick Pope, Gary Cahil and Jack Butland, all joined Vardy in the picture which was taken two days ahead of

Neighbours as Beth Brennan, Natalie Imbruglia boasts an extremely successful career in music and television.Away from the glaring eyes of the public, the Australian star has faced personal challenges and heartbreak.Last night (February 12), Natalie, 47, was left speechless after her character, Panda, was crowned the winner of The Masked Singer UK, going up against the likes of Charlotte Church and Westlife's Markus Feehily.The Aussie legend belted out hits including Story of My Life by One Direction, wowing judges Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross, Mo Gilligan and Rita Ora.Daily Star has trawled through the archives to bring you everything you need to know about Natalie...Aged 15, Natalie and her family left Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, in favour of a life in Sydney that set her up for stardom.Her first run-in with fame came just a year later, starring in tele adverts for the likes of Coca Cola and Aussie snack, Twisties.After leaving school aged 16, Natalie went on to secure a role in Neighbours, playing Beth Brennan in over 200 episodes of the Aussie soap, catapulting her to international fame.Just two years after bursting onto the scene, Natalie announced she would be leaving Ramsay Street in favour of a life in England.After moving to London in 1994, she was convinced by her manager, Anne Barrett to record a demo album, later signing with BMG.While she may have been known as Beth, nothing prepared Natalie for her next move.Her demo track, a cover of Ednaswap's Torn, impressed RCA Records, instantly leading to the group making the decision to release the track as a single.The record peaked at Number 2 on the Official UK charts in 1997 before going on to spend 14 weeks at Number One on the Billboard Airplay charts.Since

Celebrity MasterChef back in 2020, but the star has since shared how the show encouraged her to take her cooking one step too far.The comedienne detailed the horrific moment she “smashed her jaw” in her own kitchen at home, in a candid interview with Express.co.uk.Crissy will be taking on a whole new challenge this February when she steps into the world of musical theatre with an all-star cast for Cruising Through Menopause.Arriving as a sequel to Menopause the Musical, which has been hailed as the “ultimate girls’ night out”, the show is set to embark on a six-month tour of the UK and Ireland this Spring with Crissy leading the charge.However, last year, things took a turn for the worse for Crissy, when she was forced to undergo surgery following a terrible accident she had shortly after her stint on Celebrity MasterChef.Crissy admitted that she loved competing in the BBC programme, but also quipped that the show was at fault for her accident.Inspired by her stint on the challenging programme, Crissy started to experiment in the kitchen, which is what led to her hellish cooking injury. “I’ll blame MasterChef, I was alright with a tin opener. It made me become adventurous!” she joked.Remembering her time on the show, Crissy explained: “Oh, that was a disaster for me, MasterChef.“When I got back though, because I’m not really a cook or nothing, I really got into it.

"It is unbelievable to have to say goodbye to somebody with gloves and a pinafore on," she said."It doesn't bear thinking about."He survived COVID in a care home.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are enjoying a romantic night out!

Demi Lovato is bringing the heat to a Super Bowl pre-party!

Premier League star Mark Schwarzer has spoken out on his past as a children's author - revealing that ex-Newcastle boss Steve Bruce has also penned kids books.Schwarzer spent over two decades in the Premier League and racked up over 480 top-flight appearances for clubs such as Middlesborough and Fulham.The shot-stopper also won over a hundred caps for the Australian national side before finally hanging up his gloves at the age of 43.

Early in Steve McQueen's Alex Wheatle, the young protagonist whose name gives the film its title prompts derision from a barber shop full of Londoners of West Indian descent by revealing that he doesn't consider himself African. "I might be Black, but I'm from Surrey," says the young Brit abandoned by his Jamaican parents, who has grown up in the loveless Social Services foster-care system.

One of 2020’s few joys has been Steve McQueen’s Amazon anthology “Small Axe,” a series telling, in some instances for the first time, the stories of the Black Brits who faced oppression during the ’60s and ’70s. While “Mangrove” touted empowerment through self-representation, “Lovers Rock” through music, and “Red, White and Blue” through reform from within, “Alex Wheatle” calls for literature as a gateway to freedom.

This late fall has been a treat because we’ve received a new Steve McQueen (“12 Years A Slave,” “Widows“) week every week for the last three weeks; when does that happen? And they are all part of McQueen’s new five-film anthology series, “Small Axe,” based on the Jamaican proverb, “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.” Three films have debuted at the New York Film Festival earlier this fall, and those three have now aired on Amazon Prime Video.

With the arrival of Alex Wheatle, the fourth of five installments that make up Small Axe, Steve McQueen’s adamant and penetrating series of roughly hourlong dramas centering on the Black immigrant community experience in post-World War II Britain, the emerging core concern is the hypocrisy involved in the nation laying out the welcome mat to newcomers in the first place while denying opportunity once they’ve arrived. The theme could hardly be clearer than it is in this episode, which sees the eponymous young lad bounced around for years by social services before becoming involved in the Brixton Uprising of April 1981. The reason we’re seeing a film about him now is that, some years later, Wheatle emerged as a successful writer.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorCinematographer Shabier Kirchner shot all five films in the “Small Axe” anthology, working alongside director Steve McQueen. “Lovers Rock,” now streaming on Amazon, is the second film in the anthology and focuses on reggae music sub-genre of the same name which was frequently heard at house parties among the Black community, who were barred from going to clubs.