What it's like to meet Tom Cruise in real life

It was the most famous request for seconds since Oliver Twist. When Tom Cruise rocked up at Asha's, a top Birmingham curry house, in August 2021, he was so taken by the restaurant's chicken tikka masala that he ordered another portion as soon as he finished his first. The photo of a well-fed Cruise on Asha's social media accounts went viral.
Nouman Farooqui, Asha's general manager, vividly remembers serving Cruise – not least because he insisted on eating in full view of the restaurant, rather than being ensconced in the private dining room that had been laid on for him. 'On the day, his security came and said, 'Look, Tom has asked to sit with other people in the middle of the restaurant',' Farooqui, a long-time Cruise fan, tells me. 'He didn't want any privacy or anything, he didn't want any fuss. He just wanted a table like everybody else.'
Though Cruise is one of the most famous men on the planet, Farooqui recalls him being impeccably courteous to the waiting team and insisting on chatting to them. Flanked by Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie and three other friends, he wanted to know about the history of Asha's, for instance. 'When you hear about these celebrities – and I had never met anyone as big as Tom Cruise – he was very polite, talking to staff, having conversations,' says Farooqui. 'He's that type of guy: he's a people person.' The following day, having enjoyed his meals so much, Cruise sent 20 of his crew for dinner at Asha's.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Asha's Restaurant (@ashasrestaurant)
Cruise, 62, has spent so much time in Britain recently, filming the likes of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (which is released in cinemas this week), that such encounters are increasingly commonplace. And some sightings of the lesser-spotted film star have been more spectacular than merely asking for a second curry.
Take the case of Alison Webb from Baginton, Warwickshire, who was asked around the time of Cruise's Asha's trip if she would let a helicopter pilot use her garden to land while the nearby Coventry airport was closed. 'I thought it would be kind of cool for the kids to see the helicopter land in the garden,' Webb said at the time. 'He basically arrived and got out and it was like 'Wow'.'
By way of thanks, Cruise ended up taking her children for a ride in his chopper, while Webb and her partner, Neil Jones, got an invitation to the Leicester Square premiere of Top Gun: Maverick the following year. 'It turned out to be an incredible day,' she said of the episode. 'It was surreal, I still now can't believe it happened.'
'Tom Cruise is in my back garden - it's bonkers' 🤩
The actor, who is in England filming the latest Mission: Impossible film, landed by helicopter in a Warwickshire family's garden. https://t.co/GCNtDBCHPk pic.twitter.com/cobmQ90TG3
— BBC Midlands (@bbcmtd) August 24, 2021
'Surreal' is a word that gets used about a lot of encounters with Cruise. Dean Bartle, a car seller based next to Leeds East airport (formerly RAF Church Fenton), has told how Cruise spent an hour at his dealership talking about his motor collection. Then they looked at Bartle's Harrier jump jet together before the star flew off in his helicopter. 'It was surreal.'
Others have stumbled upon Cruise filming his typical death-defying stunts the length and breadth of the land. During a shoot for Mission: Impossible in Cumbria, Cruise apologised to hikers Jason and Sarah Haygarth for disrupting their walk with their dog, Edward, by landing his helicopter near them before paragliding away. 'See you later, folks,' Cruise called as he ran towards the edge of the fell. Sarah Haygarth described him as being 'cool as a cucumber'.
Adam Wheeler and Lucy Hinch had a similar experience, and waited for about an hour to get a photograph with Cruise. 'He was nice and polite and really humble,' Wheeler said later. 'It was a real pleasure meeting one of the most famous Hollywood celebrity actors out there – one of the richest as well. It was not what we expected while out walking on the fells.'
Someone spotted tom cruise in hyde park yesterday pic.twitter.com/0hkSROVWeI
— Double Dove🕊️ (@D0uble_Dove) June 18, 2024
A colleague attended a performance of Guys and Dolls at the Savoy Theatre in 2016, only to find Cruise sitting two rows in front of him. 'Before the start of the second act he came in early,' he recalls. 'Most people were off at the bar or getting ice creams or whatever but I was still in the dress circle. And I just thought I'll never get the chance to speak to Tom Cruise again. So I went up to him and said: 'So what brings Tom Cruise to London?' We had a longish chat, and he was just so friendly. Adorable really. I contemplated becoming a Scientologist for a week or two after.'
Cruise is even utterly charming to people annoyed with him. A friend of a friend tells how, not realising they lived by the star, they knocked on his door to complain about repeated late-night noise. When Cruise – to her surprise – answered the door, he was apologetic for his vigorous nocturnal workouts, sent flowers to apologise and took them on a helicopter ride to make up for the disruption.
Other encounters cast Cruise as the sort of real-life hero that would not be out of place on the big screen. While on a yachting holiday in Capri in August 1996, Cruise helped save the lives of five people whose own boat had caught fire before sinking. A few months earlier, Cruise saw a 23-year-old woman get knocked over by a hit-and-run driver in California. After following Heloisa Vinhas's ambulance to hospital, he footed the $7,000 bill for the treatment on her broken leg and bruised ribs after discovering she did not have insurance. Pat Kingsley, Cruise's former publicist, once said: 'If I ever get in trouble, I hope Tom Cruise is nearby.'
Much of what we know about Cruise these days comes from the largely banal vignettes of when the superstar comes into contact with civilians, as he has for more than a decade swerved the newspaper and magazine profiles to which even the biggest Hollywood A-listers subject themselves. Cruise's publicist politely declined a Telegraph request for an interview with him.
There is, it seems, to be no repeat of the infamous 2005 episode when he started jumping on Oprah Winfrey's sofa on TV as a result of his apparent enthusiasm for his new squeeze (and later wife), Katie Holmes. In retrospect, this was the moment when a line in the sand was drawn, and Cruise focused on being the world's most-loved action movie star, rather than a heart-on-his-sleeve eccentric or a full-time spokesman for the Church of Scientology.
While Cruise still indulges parts of the media, such as short talk-show chats or TV junkets to publicise his films, he no longer allows himself to be scrutinised publicly (perhaps to avoid awkward questions about his religion or romantic relationships). Instead, rather than let people know about his true self, he seems to have decided to let his films do the talking. Cruise is now something of a paradoxical, almost mythical, figure: at once totally approachable and yet unknowable. A pair of actors – Jeff Meacham and Joel Johnstone – launched a podcast called Meeting Tom Cruise to hear what it is like to work with him. Their quixotic quest to meet him themselves, however, did not succeed.
Tom Cruise has been talking to the employees at AMC Lincoln Square for 15 minutes now pic.twitter.com/lDxvOyUjeK
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) May 19, 2025
Despite the mystery surrounding much of his personal life, what we can say with reasonable certainty is that Thomas Cruise Mapother IV of Syracuse, New York, loves Britain and the British. Cruise first worked on these shores four decades ago, when he came to film Ridley Scott's Legend in 1985. He recently revealed that he only got cast in Rain Man after introducing himself to Dustin Hoffman at a London takeaway.
Cruise kept coming back, and he apparently fell for the UK when he and his then-wife Nicole Kidman spent more than a year living in London to shoot Eyes Wide Shut with Stanley Kubrick, another American who transplanted himself to the UK. It is said that the couple were here for so long that their children picked up English accents; their daughter, Bella, now lives in Croydon and runs a beauty brand.
Before the publicity machine for the last Mission: Impossible film cranked up in earnest, earlier this month Cruise wrapped filming in the UK on an as-yet untitled Alejandro González Iñárritu film that may herald a return to more cerebral roles. 'I just love the city. I love making movies there,' Cruise said of London in a 2016 ITV interview. 'I love spending time there and it's been my home-away-from-home.'
And Britain loves Cruise back: so much so that he has just had a British Film Institute fellowship bestowed upon him. 'I am truly honoured by this acknowledgement,' Cruise said in March. 'I've been making films in the UK for more than 40 years and have no plans to stop.'
Cameras are not just filming Cruise for the big screen: many of the UK's biggest public occasions in the past few years – from the King's coronation to David Beckham's 50th birthday parties and Glastonbury to Wimbledon's royal box – have seen high-profile Cruise cameos.
But despite his apparent happiness to be seen publicly living it up in the UK, there is still much we do not know about Cruise: most obviously, where he actually lives. The keen pilot was said to have bought a pile near Biggin Hill Airport in South London, but that has never been confirmed – with the mystery so tantalising that The New York Times spent thousands of dollars sending a reporter to the village in an attempt to verify the claims, only to come back with more questions than answers. Cruise is also said to have once lived in East Grinstead, West Sussex, near the Church of Scientology's British headquarters.
The impression one gets about Cruise's life in the UK is one of a man who wishes to live under-the-radar (his Valkyrie co-star Kenneth Branagh recently said that he has a 'handy line in Cockney rhyming slang' and likes sitting in the quiet corner of pubs), despite the obvious trappings of fame and wealth. That does mean he will, say, ask James Corden if he can land his helicopter in the garden of his London home.
What cannot be doubted is Cruise's unusual (for a Hollywood megastar) devotion to his fans – especially since the pandemic, when he seems to have been cast, Ethan Hunt-like, as the only man who can save cinemas.
Dave Pearson, a blogger who writes under the moniker of The Yorkshire Dad, recalled how Cruise patiently spent hours taking photographs with queuing fans as he filmed in the sleeping village of Levisham. When Pearson and his daughters finally met the star, 'there wasn't much talking, though I did greet him with an 'Ay up Mr Cruise, 'ows tha doin', nice to meet you,' and he seemed a little bamboozled at first by the Yorkshire dialect', he wrote. 'But he replied with a, 'Really nice to meet you too.'' Like so many others, he called the experience 'surreal'.
Cruise's passion for theatrically-released films is sincere: he shared a photograph of himself recently at a Cineworld multiplex, proudly holding a ticket to Ryan Coogler's Sinners and describing it as 'must-see'. It is rare for Hollywood stars like Cruise to use their significant clout to publicise films in which they have no financial interest.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise)
Those who have worked with and seen Cruise up-close say this is just what he does. Ben Winston – the super-producer who has worked with Cruise on Corden's The Late Late Show and cast him in the handover ceremony between Paris and Los Angeles at the last Olympics – recalls how the last Mission: Impossible premiere in Rome was delayed by more than 90 minutes because he wanted to give his fans what they wanted. 'There were so many people who had queued all day in the sun that Tom insisted he had to meet every single person outside,' Winston tells me. 'Every single person he wanted to thank for coming, shake their hand and have a photo with them.'
That friendliness is extended to his colleagues, no matter how seemingly lowly compared with the man who is always number-one on the call-sheet. 'He just wants everything to be great, but also is the most giving man. This is really important: he cares about every single person on set. When you're shooting with Tom, you need to leave extra time for him to have conversations with everybody,' Winston adds. 'I haven't really seen it before. If you're thinking, 'Oh, we can shoot this in 10 minutes,' you've actually got to allow for 20 minutes, because he's going to want to chat with the makeup artist, with the drivers, he's going to want to know what's up with the security team.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Ben Winston (@mrbenwinston)
'He realises that a film doesn't happen unless every single person is doing their job brilliantly. He will want to spend time with every single person and make sure he understands what's going on, how they are, but also what they need from him. He really wants to make sure that they are able to do their jobs and he knows that they could do their jobs better if they have a relationship with him.'
By Winston's telling, this is the secret of late-stage Cruise and is all part of a virtuous circle that leads to so many people describing their surreal experiences with one of the most famous men on the planet and – yes – ordering a second curry in the middle of a busy Birmingham restaurant.
'Even though he's the biggest star in the world, I don't see an ego at all with him: I see a man who simply cares about the audience in their seats having a great time,' Winston adds. 'He feels like it's his duty to make sure they enjoy that movie, in the same way he wants to chat to them in a restaurant or on set. It's the same thing.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Times

25 minutes ago

• Times

Notting Hill's selfie-takers are ignoring one thing: the movie's a turkey

What has been the biggest disappointment of my life? Along with losing my virginity and seeing U2 at Wembley, it was probably when the film Notting Hill came out in 1999. A romance that isn't romantic, a comedy with no good jokes, this intolerable follow-up to Richard Curtis's almost flawless Four Weddings and a Funeral sees Hugh Grant's cringing bookshop owner meeting Julia Roberts's odious actress, spending the night with her before deciding, bewilderingly, that they can't be together, then changing his mind after she gives him an original Chagall and jumping in a car for a faked-up 'rom-com run' to tell her that he loves her before she gets on a plane — which presumably, if she had, would only have meant he had to wait until she landed, when he could have given her a call. Spoiler alert, by the way. Now it turns out that this swizz, this stone-cold Turkey Twizzler of a movie, is still causing people pain a quarter of a century later. This month it was reported that residents in the candy-coloured W11 streets where it was made have had to endure fans of the film, more recently joined by Instagram influencers, thronging the pavements to get pics for their social media feeds. Some have the gall to enter the front gardens to get the right shot. They make a lot of noise. They leave rubbish behind. Locals are so irritated that a number of them have taken the desperate step of painting their homes black. What enrages me most, though, about this is the evidence it provides that there are still people out there who think Notting Hill is a good film. • Hugh Grant's best performances — ranked Let's summarise. Curtis scored a surprise hit with Four Weddings by casting Grant as a posh avoidant who panics when he sees all his posh friends getting married, until the death of a slightly older posh friend forces him to get serious. Solid. Relatable. Crammed with good jokes. The screenwriter's next move was to cast Grant as a posh avoidant with a group of posh friends, including (again) one with a disability and a working-class flatmate. Again he's in love with a glamorous American out of his league. Jokes are repeated. 'F***ety f***!' Grant exclaims in the first film. 'Shittety brickety,' he mutters, less plausibly, in the second. The laziness of all this is compounded by the film's incredibly unconvincing disavowal of privilege, which in fact it would do far better to own. In Four Weddings, Grant's friend Tom cheerfully admits to being the seventh richest man in England. In Notting Hill, even though all the characters are obviously loaded, they claim to be poor. Grant's friend's restaurant is failing. His own bookshop, located in prime real estate just off Portobello Road, is struggling to stay afloat. Yet he owns a house with a roof terrace in the heart of Notting Hill, which (a glance on Zoopla reveals) would now be worth £3 million. Need another way to relate to these guys? They're all total losers, we're assured. Grant's sister Honey works in 'London's worst record store'. His friend Max is 'the worst cook in the world'. His friend Bernie is 'the worst stockbroker in the whole world'. His friend Tony is 'the worst restaurateur'. His flatmate Spike is 'the stupidest person you've ever met'. The film is imbued with a bizarre glorification of uselessness that is epitomised in the notorious 'brownie' scene. Personally I have always struggled to care for a brownie (there's something twee about the very word), yet here it randomly becomes the prize in the sob story Olympics. One of Grant's posh friends can't have children. Roberts has no self-esteem. And so on, and so on. Supposedly a classic, the scene is actually weird and depressing. • Inside the ultimate Notting Hill bachelorette pad Vulnerability is winning. Self-contempt, less so. Given that Americans are supposedly unable to understand our tendency to talk ourselves down, it's hard to know what Roberts sees in Grant, unless it's the fact that he's the only person on the planet who is arguably better-looking than her. That said, she has some off-putting qualities herself. She's rude one moment, needy the next. And she has zero dress sense. The teenage crop top she wears in one early scene is a very odd choice. When she sports a man's tie in the Ritz, it's meant as a tribute to kooky Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. But it leaves Roberts looking like a pantomime horse. Speaking of kooky, the entire last scene — the press conference in the Lancaster Room at the Savoy Hotel — is ripped off from Roman Holiday (1953). In that much better film, Audrey Hepburn's celebrity princess reveals her love for a journalist in the crowd with a carefully nuanced answer. In Notting Hill, Roberts does something similar with a less nuanced one. We then cut to a shot of the pair relaxing together in a residents' garden, reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin, of all things. Just as Chagall (along with Munch and Dalí) is the top-dollar painter for people who don't like painting, Louis de Bernières' middle-brow blockbuster is the book for people who don't read. And Notting Hill is the film for people without eyes. (And Ronan Keating's When You Say Nothing at All, which plays over one key scene, is the song for people who lack access to any of the five senses.) It's fashionable to make a noise about how much you hate Curtis's next big rom-com, Love Actually (2003). But in fact, Love Actually is far from being the worst in his rom-com oeuvre. It contains one or two good jokes and Emma Thompson's heartbreaking turn alone makes it worth a watch. Not so Notting Hill. It's time we called time on the idea that there's any merit in this slow, insipid, neighbourhood-wrecking stinker.

The Sun

34 minutes ago

• The Sun

16 must watch TV series of the summer – from Keeley Hawes spy thriller to Danny Dyer comedy and return of Netflix hits

THE summer telly schedules are bringing the heat — with can't-miss premieres and buzzy returns. Whether you want to escape with reality TV, like ITV's Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, or get bingeing with red-hot dramas such as Netflix's Squid Game, there are plenty of shows to keep you glued to the couch. 14 There's also the live drama of the Women's Euros and excitement of Glasto. And with the return of fan favourites such as The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Wednesday, you can settle in with some old friends. Jess Lester rounds up the best of the upcoming TV . . . Attack On London: Hunting The 7/7 Bombers -Netflix, July 14 NETFLIX is no stranger to a true-crime documentary, and this time it has turned its attentions to London's worst terrorist attack. Investigating the 2005 bombings, the four-part series follows the intense effort to track down those responsible for the attack on the city's public transport system, which killed 52 people and injured more than 700. Through interviews, archive footage and expert analysis, including with then PM Tony Blair, it celebrates the resilience of those who worked around the clock to put the guilty individuals behind bars. There is a deeper dive into the broader issues of terrorism, too. Destination X - BBC, July 14 THERE'S a brand new travel adventure competition coming to the BBC, hosted by Rob Brydon. The show takes contestants on a journey on a blacked-out bus, sending them on a mystery road trip across Europe not telling them where they are, or where they are heading. Through a mix of clever challenges and red herrings, they must guess each destination or face elimination from the show, which is based on a popular Belgian format that launched last year. Think Race Across The World mixed with The Traitors, as there's set to be plenty of tension with psychological twists and turns, while Rob acts as the puppet master overseeing it all. And with prize money likely up for grabs, it's all to play for. The Summer I Turned Pretty - Prime Video, July 16 14 IT'S set to be an emotional finale as The Summer I Turned Pretty returns for its third series, finishing up Jenny Han's much-loved trilogy of books. This time, there's a two-year time jump as Belly (Lola Tung) is further into her college education. Season two saw her end things with Conrad, and instead choose other love interest Jeremiah. But as they plan their future together, possibly even a wedding, Conrad returns and reignites long-simmering feelings between him and Belly. With the love triangle at the centre of the story, there's a mammoth 11 episodes for Belly to figure out what she really wants. But will she? Squid Game - Netflix, June 27 14 SQUID Game took the world by storm in 2021, and now its highly anticipated third and final series hopes to captivate audiences once again. We see lead character Seong Gi-hun, below, regroup with Cho Sang-woo and Kang Sae-byeok after the failed armed uprising from the previous season. The survivors are determined to bring down the cruel billionaires who orchestrate the deadly games. However, to succeed, they must first continue playing the brutal competitions, all while secretly plotting their escape. But the question remains: Will they survive the games this time and finally end the nightmare? The Couple Next Door - Channel 4, July FOLLOWING the success of the first series on Channel 4 – it was the broadcaster's biggest scripted series streaming launch ever – the drama is back with a fresh storyline and new cast. In this next chapter, the plot centres around Charlotte Roberts (Annabel Scholey), a brilliant heart surgeon, and her husband Jacob (Sam Palladio), a consultant anaesthetist. Things will be turned upside down when mysterious new hospital colleague Mia (Aggy K Adams, above) rents the house next door and becomes entangled in their personal and professional lives. While Charlotte navigates the reappearance of her past flame, the hunky Leo (Sendhil Ramamurthy), only time will tell whether Mia will spell disaster for the formerly happily married pair. The Assassin - Prime Video, July 14 KEELEY HAWES and Freddie Highmore, above, star in this tense six-parter which sees the duo battling it out in a globe-spanning showdown. Keeley plays Julie, a retired assassin who is enjoying a quiet life on a remote Greek island – until her estranged son Edward arrives, that is. He has come to ask questions about his father, but it sets a whole chain of events in motion. Julie and Edward, played by The Good Doctor's Freddie, go on to uncover a dark conspiracy and are forced to head off on the run. Julie's complicated past then resurfaces and her fractured relationship with her son is put to the ultimate test. The Bear - Disney+, June 26 14 IN what is likely to be the final series of Disney+ 's much-loved drama, Jeremy Allen White is in a race against time to secure the restaurant's future. At the end of the last series, the restaurant was ripped apart by a review in The Chicago Tribune. Joined once again by Ayo Edebiri's Sydney, Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Richie and the rest of The Bear crew, Chef Carmy (White, above) will once again be chasing Michelin glory. It's all under wraps, but the cast will likely be packed with even more guest appearances, after series three featured John Cena, Thomas Keller and Will Poulter. Glastonbury - BBC, from June 27 THE BBC is showing more than 90 hours of the festival, with live streams from five main stages, and on-demand content for 30 days. The likes of Clara Amgo, Jo Whiley, Lauren Laverne and Huw Stephens will be there to guide viewers through the action on the iPlayer Glastonbury Channel. Neil Young The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Raye, Loyle Carner and Jorja Smith will all hit the screens, alongside some surprise 'secret' acts. The channel will also have special recap montages from previous festivals, including Beyonce and Coldplay. The Hostage - Netflix, August 21 14 SHE'S played some big characters and now Suranne Jones, takes on the role of Prime Minister Abigail Dalton in this hot Netflix thriller. But her life is turned upside down when her husband is kidnapped and she is forced to work together with the French President, a long-time rival. The two powerful women, who are also being blackmailed, have to navigate betrayal, danger and looming threats to their careers and personal lives in this twisting five-parter. Also featuring are Queen Charlotte hunk Corey Mylchreest, Miss Scarlet's Sophie Robertson, Before Sunrise actress Julie Delpy and actor and musician Ashley 'Bashy' Thomas. Dora And The Search For Sol Dorado - Paramount+, July 4 STARTING off as an animation series in 2000, Dora The Explorer had her first live action film in 2019's Lost City Of Gold. Now she is back for more adventuring. This time, teenage Dora, played by Samantha Lorraine, is embarking on a new journey deep in the jungle on a quest to find the mythical treasure of Sol Dorado. Along the way she will have to battle villains, with the help of her loyal cousin Diego, archaeologist Camila the Crusader and her trusty sidekick Boots the monkey. After making its premiere on kids' channel Nickelodeon UK on July 2, it will be available to stream – for kids and adults – on Paramout+. The Institute - MGM+, July 13 14 BASED on a 2019 novel by horror writer Stephen King, this eight-episode thriller follows 12-year-old genius Luke Ellis, who is kidnapped and wakes up in a mysterious facility where children with unusual abilities are being held against their will. As Luke (played by Martin Freeman's son Joe) plots his escape, a former police officer, who has moved to the town for a quiet life, uncovers disturbing facts about the place, known as The Institute. Expect Stranger Things-style superpowers and the same kind of simmering discomfort as Stephen's previous TV adaptations, Castle Rock and The Outsider. Mr Bigstuff - Sky, July 14 AFTER winning a Bafta for its first series, Sky's hit comedy returns for a second run, reuniting Ryan Sampson and Danny Dyer as brothers Glen and Lee. This time, the Essex duo navigate the Earth-shattering revelation that their dad might still be alive, sending the pair into a meltdown over how to locate him. Meanwhile, secrets threaten to tear the family apart. Expect a host of new characters, including Rula Lenska as the eccentric Rita, and Shaun Williamson playing a surprisingly angry children's entertainer. Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters - ITV, July 14 WHAT better way to mark the 50th anniversary of the film Jaws than to challenge a group of ocean-phobic celebrities to dive alongside sharks? Filmed off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas, this new reality format sees the group coming face to face with increasingly larger and more dangerous sharks. The high-stakes, five-part show will feature Sir Lenny Henry, Rachel Riley, Ross Noble, Ade Adepitan, Helen George, Dougie Poynter and Lucy Punch. From panic attacks to near-miss encounters with the apex predators, the celebrities will be pushed to their personal limits in what is sure to make fun viewing. Wednesday - Netflix, August 6 14 HIT series Wednesday became Netflix's most-watched English-language series of all time, in large part thanks to Jenna Ortega's deadpan performance of the iconic Addams Family character. And after solidifying itself in pop culture with the help of a viral dance, there's little surprise the series is back, this time with a darker mystery. Wednesday returns to boarding school Nevermore only to discover there is a serial killer on the loose. Series two brings back fan favourites Morticia, Gomez and Pugsley, while fresh faces on the cast list include Steve Buscemi and Joanna Lumley. Uefa Women's Euros - ITV & BBC, from July 2 THE BBC and ITV are sharing coverage of the Women's Euros in Switzerland as the Lionesses, captained by Leah Williamson try to retain their crown. BBC Sport will air half of the group-stage matches, including both England and Wales' games against the Netherlands, as well as three of the tense quarter-finals. Commentary and analysis will come from Gabby Logan, Jeanette Kwakye, Alex Scott, Ellen White, Jill Scott and Steph Houghton. The England v Wales clash on July 13 will be a big live draw for ITV. Both channels will simultaneously broadcast the final on July 27. Thursday Murder Club - Netflix, August 28 14 RICHARD Osman's best-selling first book is hitting the box with a star-studded cast. The series follows sharp-witted retirees – ex-spy Elizabeth, former union activist Ron, retired psychiatrist Ibrahim and nurse Joyce – in a fancy village for old folks who meet to solve cold cases. But then they find themselves caught up in a current murder that happens on their doorstep – and like the nosy old folk they are, they get to work trying to solve it. With a cast list that includes Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, above, plus Sir Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Sir Jonathan Pryce and Tom Ellis, this one is not to be missed.

Daily Mail​

35 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Jeremy Clarkson's Farm star Harriet Cowan shares rare loved-up picture with her long-term partner

's Farm star Harriet Cowan has shared a rare loved-up picture with her long-term partner, James Booth to TikTok on Thursday. The 24-year-old nurse and farmhand shocked viewers of the hugely popular Prime Video show when she appeared in the trailer for series four after Jeremy's co-star Kaleb Cooper temporarily left the show. And she has been enjoying her time in the spotlight ever since, now boasting half a million followers on Instagram and 700,000 over on TikTok. While she has not been cast permanently on the farm show, she has been keeping her fans updated on her personal life as she revealed a sweet back story about her relationship. Jumping on a recent TikTok trend, she took to the social media platform to share a cosy snapshot with her partner James alongside a throwback picture from their teen days in 2018. Harriet penned: 'From party teenagers in 2018, to mid-to-late 20s in 2025 and like to be in bed before 10. I hope I get to this life with you forever.' Harriet and her beau, who is believed to be a third-generation farmer, first met at a Young Farmer's meeting. Harriet has given her followers a sneak peek into their private life together through her social media and has an entire highlight dedicated to her 'love'. In one of her recent posts, she shared a clip of James behind the wheel of a green tractor, and suggested that that he is four years her senior. In another post, she quipped: 'The 'butterfly effect' is crazy because if I didn't join Young Farmers we'd never have met.' 'YFC gave me my whole life and for that I will be forever grateful!' Harriet also urged others to consider joining community groups, promising they will 'meet the greatest people'. Her followers were happy to see the couple together and publicly sharing insights into their life. One commented: 'Wishing you both eternal happiness,' while another added: 'You two are so cute,'. One follower, who has been in a relationship for a similar duration, shared: 'Me and my partner begun our relationship in 2018 too! 7 years, 1 dog, 2 kids and two homes later, we made it.' Some fans hinted at wedding bells, too. One joked: 'Buddy needs to put a ring on your finger.' And another cheekily asked: 'When's the wedding?.' Harriet recently broke her silence on a 'fake' Clarkson's Farm scene as she spoke candidly on a new podcast. She has been helping out Jeremy with an array of tasks on the farm and impressing viewers while also challenging stereotypes around women in farming. And last week Harriet appeared on the Should I Delete That podcast with Jeremy's daughter Emily. She spoke about one scene in the trailer that she thought seemed 'fake' when she watched it back but was in fact completely true. They discussed on the podcast how busy farmers are and how Harriet also works a full time nursing job five days a week. Emily asked her: 'Do you ever sit down with your boyfriend and chill together, or eat together? It sounds impossible.' Harriet then said: 'No! In the trailer where it's like, 'Have you watched Clarkson's Farm before?' And I'm like, 'No', and when I watched it it looked so fake. But it is so real because we don't watch telly. 'Literally, if we watch something, James will sit down, his head will hit the back of the sofa and he's asleep because the second he can rest, he'll sleep, because he's so tired all the time.' On the podcast Harriet also spoke about breaking stereotypes of women working in the world of farming On the podcast Harriet also spoke about breaking stereotypes of women working in farming. She said of appearing on the show: 'I wanted to show that women can do it too, we are there but people can't see it. Women can do it. 'Most people think of just older men wearing checked shirts when it comes to farming. 'I am challenging people's views of what people think a farmer looks like. People are so shocked when they drive past and I'm in the tractor they just stare.' The recent Clarkson's Farm trailer showed Jeremy running into several obstacles on the farm, yet TikTok star Harriet made a good impression as she was quick to help. Jeremy was left in awe at her work, turning to the camera and gushing: 'She's brilliant!' She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty as she put in fences, loaded feed for the animals and even showed her welding skills on Diddly Squat Farm. Kaleb - who was on a nationwide tour - later returned to the farm and seemed to be getting along well with his replacement. It's hardly surprising that Harriet was a natural on the farm, having grown up helping her father Eddy tend to his land. She revealed on social media that her mother wanted her to become a nurse but her father wanted her to follow in his footsteps - so she opted to do both.