Keely Hodgkinson: I loved Brit Awards but nothing beats rush of winning

For Keely Hodgkinson, a night at the Brit Awards amounted to another memorable experience that has followed her Olympic title in Paris. There was also an appearance on the Jonathan Ross Show sofa, and a slightly more bewildering encounter with Romesh Ranganathan and the gang on A League Of Their Own. 'Those guys are so quick-witted,' Hodgkinson says. 'It was good fun but I honestly had no idea what was going on.'
She loved the Brits. 'I'm a big Sabrina Carpenter fan and she was playing live,' Hodgkinson says. And an evening at the O2 arena came as a welcome distraction at a time when she was nursing the torn hamstring that denied her a crack at the world indoor 800m record in Birmingham

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The Sun

32 minutes ago

• The Sun

Galal Yafai reveals beatdowns he took from his older champion brothers knocked him into the fighter he is today

GALAL YAFAI reveals the beatdowns he took from his champion older brothers knocked him into the fighter he is today. Yafai grew up as the youngest boxer in the household and admits it was constant civil war at home older siblings Gamal and Kal. 4 4 4 He told SunSport: "My mum would come in screaming and shouting, we'd always end up fighting but I knew my place when you're like ten years old or nine years old. "Two-three years is a big difference. When they were 13-14 years old and I'm only just 10, it's a big jump. So yeah, I knew my position. I used to get beaten up on a little bit!" Despite taking his fair share of brotherly blows, Yafai admits the real wars came between Kal and Gamal. He said: "They were closer in age and I think they felt sorry for me a little bit because I was a little bit smaller than them. "They had the real big fights and my mum used to come out shouting and it was kind of like hillbilly style. It kind of helped us to get where we got to. "Kal was always better than me, Gamal was always bigger and better so I don't think I ever got the better of everyone really. "I could hold my own, well I could hold my own when I got a bit older, but I think they took it easy on me. "But they always helped me anyway, it helped in my career." Yafai trained as a teenager and watched his older brothers become amateur champions - later replicating that success in the professional ranks. The youngest of the pack only began boxing again at 18 but by 2021 he was on the Olympic champion after packing in his job working in a Land Rover factory. Boxing icon Tyson Fury spotted posing topless in Scots town as he chats with locals Now he is undefeated and 9-0 as a pro - meanwhile ex-world champ Kal, 36, is retired and Gamal, 33, now coaches the younger generation. But Yafai - who returns on Saturday against Francisco Rodriguez Jr in a bid to earn a shot at WBC and WBO champ Kenshiro Teraji - doubts brother Gamal will be part of his corner team - preferring he remains just a fan for now. He said: "My coach Rob McCracken sorts all that out and I just like my brothers being there. They help me just being there and showing me support and having my back. "My brother Kal's been in my corner before as like a second in America. But as long as Rob's in my corner and my brothers are there supporting me, yeah, I'm happy." 4

Sky News

an hour ago

• Sky News

From niche to a billion pound industry: How immersive events have taken over

While cinemas are struggling and London's West End has witnessed a significant escalation in ticket prices, creatives behind immersive experiences say their sector is experiencing "a gold rush moment". From shows built around obvious fan bases - such as Mamma Mia! The Party - to those working with established intellectual property, including Squid Game: The Experience, the UK has proven to be a world leader when it comes shows that make audiences feel part of the action, rather than just observers. Little Lion Entertainment are the team behind two shows currently running in the UK: Pac-Man Live in Manchester and the Crystal Maze Live in London. Its CEO Tom Lionetti told Sky News: "There has been a real boom in the experience economy… It kind of feels like a bit of a gold rush moment in this industry. "It's not nascent anymore, it really is a big industry and it's getting bigger. "West End theatre is incredibly expensive at the moment and even cinema can be expensive for what it is, so I think it's about caring about the experience … you've got to consider value for money these days." Their Crystal Maze show challenges ticketholders to climb through tunnels and collect crystals just like contestants on the '90s programme. And it's one of the longest-running immersive shows in the world, still going strong in London 15 years after the concept was first staged. "The genesis really was this idea of breaking the fourth wall," Lionetti says. "I was an actor and I come from a theatre background, but what we were really intrigued with was giving people agency so you become the star of the show." Last year, according to the Gensler Research Institute's 2025 Immersive Entertainment & Culture Industry Report, the global market for immersive entertainment was valued at £98bn - and it's projected to reach £351bn by 2030. Despite times being financially tough post-pandemic, while cinemas have been struggling to put bums on seats, the continued popularity of experience events could indicate consumers are being a little more choosy about what they spend their hard-earned wages on. Our eagerness to show off on social media could also account for some of what's driving the boom, as well as the isolating nature of how technology-dependant we've become. As Secret Cinema's senior creative director, Matt Costain, explains: "Whether it's competitive socialising or immersive experiences, people are look for something that offers them more… and this is an example of an activity where people can come together and have a sense of community." Secret Cinema - which combines live performance and film screenings - has been staging events for 15 years now. In that time, they've partnered with major studios from Marvel to Netflix. Their latest offering will run from August see them bring Grease's Rydell High to life. Costain says: "When we first started this was niche, film fans who wanted to dress up and keep a secret… but immersive has moved mainstream and we've found ourselves one of two or three companies who've been in it since the beginning. "Part of our job as artists is to help people remember that they really love to play." He jokes that those "who find it the most difficult to get started" are invariably the ones "at 11pm with their tie tied around their head and dancing on a table". While there are many shows working with established intellectual property (IP), there are also some hugely creative original works also being produced - Storehouse being one of those. For 16 weeks, attendees at Staged in Deptford, which was once the archival store for Rupert Murdoch's News International, will be guided through a story that takes place inside a 'digital memory palace' that supposedly houses every story, message, memory, and meme since the dawn of the internet. Produced by Sage & Jester, its lead producer Rosalyn Newbery explains: "You're not moving into a theatre with infrastructure, put it this way, we literally had to bring electricity to the venue, bring power to the venue, bring water to the venue, none of that was there for us… it's a big old job and there's a lot of detail that you can't take for granted." Over 7,000 crew worked more than 57,000 hours to build the set. Getting a show of this size and scale off the ground is a feat in itself. As creative director Sophie Larsmon says: "There are a lot of people trying to get these projects off the ground and there are a lot of projects that never see the light of day…because of the hoops that have to be jumped through for licensing and financing. "It takes huge amounts of creative effort, I've seen a lot of projects where quite late in the process the green light is taken away." While some creators might struggle to access support because the work doesn't fit into traditional cultural boxes, it is certainly an industry that's worth shining a spotlight on. As Larsom says: "The UK has always led the way in developing this form… I think people are cottoning on to the fact that this is a sector [that's] going to be a big revenue earner for the UK."

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Russell Crowe reunites with Superman son Henry Cavill for reboot of another beloved action franchise

Russell Crowe is reuniting onscreen with Henry Cavill, more than a decade after they acted with each other in the Superman film Man of Steel. The 2013 superhero movie starred Henry in the lead role and Russell as his biological father Jor-El, who saves his son's life just before losing his own. Now, fans will be able to see them back onscreen in a remake of the 1986 action fantasy picture Highlander, which launched a franchise of the same name. In the original Highlander, Christopher Lambert played Connor MacLeod, a 16th century Scottish warrior who discovers he is immortal unless his head is severed. He gets initiated into the secret world of immortals by the virtuoso swordsman Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, memorably portrayed by Sean Connery. A reboot starring Henry as MacLeod was announced in 2021, and now, after years of development, Russell has been cast as Ramírez, according to Variety. The original Highlander emerged as a roaring success in 1986, leading to the 1991 sequel Highlander II: The Quickening, which flopped disastrously. However the series staggered on for the 1994 release Highlander III: The Sorcerer, a direct follow-up of the first film as if the events of the second never happened. There was also a TV series from 1992 to 1998, followed by the 2000 film Highlander: Endgame, which was a sequel to the show rather than to the previous movies. In 2021 it emerged that the original movie was being remade with Henry in the lead, back when he was still starring as Geralt of Riva on the Netflix medieval fantasy series The Witcher, before his departure and replacement by Liam Hemsworth. The new film will be directed by Chad Stahelski, who helmed all the John Wick movies, and will have a script by Michael Finch, who co- wrote the fourth John Wick picture. Russell first met Henry long before they ever worked together, back when the latter was a teenager at boarding school in the English countryside. The encounter took place when Russell was filming his 2000 drama Proof of Life, starring him and Meg Ryan, at the Stowe School - where Henry was a student along with Russell's onscreen son Merlin Hanbury-Tenison. Russell recalled that 'during a break in the shooting,' he caught sight of a rugby union game and noticed 'one kid on that field who was very fluid and in control.' The teenager 'came over to have a chat, but all his questions were about acting, and there was just this smile in his eyes but there was something dead serious behind that smile,' Russell said on The Graham Norton Show in 2013. 'So instead of not answering the questions or whatever - 'cause you get asked these questions a hundred thousand times - I told him the truth in the brief moment that I had with him, and put it in front of him that it's a challenge that's up to him. Nobody's gonna give it to you,' Russell remembered. 'A couple of days later, I was putting a package together for the kid who'd played my son, because I figured the greatest thing if you're at boarding school must be unexpected mail, and I thought: "I'll put one together for that other bloke," and I'd remembered his name because he'd been very clear when he said it,' he shared. His note to Henry was the saying: 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,' which Russell interpreted as meaning: 'If you want it, you go and get it.'