Latest news with #Northumbria
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes Talk Danny Boyle's Genius at '28 Years Later' World Premiere: 'It's Horror, but I Was Struck by How Moved I Was'
London's Leicester Square was a no-go zone Wednesday night as the cast and crew of Danny Boyle's zombie sequel 28 Years Later descended on the Odeon Luxe theater. Biohazard warnings surrounded fans and guests at the central London cinema. Among the talent talking to press on the blood-stained carpet was the film's stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and young newcomer Alfie Williams, as well as director Boyle and writer Alex Garland. More from The Hollywood Reporter Danny Boyle Talks '28 Years Later' Trilogy Plan, Turning Down 'Alien' and the Time '127 Hours' Made Pixar Animators Faint '28 Years Later' Review: Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Danny Boyle's White-Knuckle Sequel to His Apocalyptic Game-Changer Jamie Oliver Says 'Chefs Table: Legends' Episode Was "A Bit Like Therapy" It's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. A small community living off the coast of Northumbria, Britain, is connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. Tough-guy Jamie (Taylor-Johnson) has raised his 12-year-old son, Spike (Williams) with the mettle to send an arrow through an infected's neck if needs be. But when Spike learns there might be someone beyond the island who can help his ailing mother (Comer), he risks everything to find them. 'Because 23 years had passed, it felt like we could be take real risks with it,' Boyle told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet about his new film. 'And our ambition was to try and make as an original a film as the first one when it came out… The upgrades on the infected are a privilege to film and to witness.' He smiled, 'I think people will enjoy the upgrades.' Comer told THR she was surprised by how moved she was by the zombie flick. 'It's horror, but I was struck by how moved I was. There was so much levity. The script felt so rich and also really at the centre of it is this family dynamic, this relationship between mother and son, which is not your usual relationship.' 'It was amazing to be led by Danny,' she continued. 'Selfishly, to work with Danny Boyle.. I'm never going to shoot a film like this. It's been the most incredible experience,' she added, before gushing over a 14-year-old Williams. Williams said of being on a Danny Boyle set: 'He's just so creative and unique, experimental. But he's a really nice person.' On getting advice from seasoned pros like Comer, Taylor-Johnson and Fiennes, the young actor responded: 'It wasn't anything specific. I could just watch them. I could adopt and mimic them and just watching them get ready before I see the different techniques they use, the energy.' The Columbia Pictures movie is a follow-up to the Cillian Murphy-starring 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). The next installment, Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is set for a 2026 release and will see Murphy reprise his role as Jim, a survivor of the original outbreak. The Irishman serves as an executive producer on both features. Boyle said the third film in the trilogy will depend on how well, financially, 28 Years Later does. 'The third one really depends on how we do with this film,' he said. 'Obviously it's very, very British film. Everybody is British and all the locations are British and it's an entirely British affirm. It's British filmmaking at its most pure. So how it does internationally will influence whether we get the money for the third one.' Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group CEO Tom Rothman beamed with pride, confirming what Boyle had just said. 'The audience will tell us. I won't even have to make that decision,' he said of the third film. 'I'm very, very optimistic. I'm knocking on wood. We've already made the next one. And that's quite unusual. We had a high level of confidence with the folks making the movie.' This is Rothman and Boyle's ninth film together. On how the Englishman, famed for 1996 hit Trainspotting, has changed as a director over the decades, Rothman interjected: 'That's a genius question. He hasn't changed one iota. I've gotten old — he is still young and enthusiastic. He's still breaking the form. He's as dynamic as he was all those years ago.' At the premiere, THR was also briefly able to catch up with Ralph Fiennes on being cast as President Snow, a role previously played by the late Donald Sutherland, in the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. 'I'm really thrilled,' Fiennes said about being cast in the film, set to be adapted from Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name. 'Look, I'm a Donald Sutherland fan. I'm not going to try and be Donald Sutherland, because no one can be him. But I think the character he created is very complex… The complexity of that psychology, I hope I can echo in some way.' 28 Years Later is in theaters June 19. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
28 Years Later: A terrifying vision of Britain turning in on itself
Few places in Britain scream zombie apocalypse less than the Northumbrian coast, which makes it the perfect setting for Danny Boyle 's new film. This transfixingly nasty, shrewdly postponed sequel to 2002's 28 Days Later finds a knot of survivors ensconced on the island of Lindisfarne where the otherwise endemic Rage virus has yet to reach. The menfolk work with their hands, the children sing hymns at school, and in the evenings, bitter is swilled by the tankard, while an accordion leads the revellers in roaring song. This little heaven built in hell's despair is separated from the ghoul-infested mainland by a gated tidal causeway which only the untainted few are permitted to cross. You might say its inhabitants have taken back control – but then so has virus-free Europe, which has the entire UK under a militarily enforced lockdown of the damned. The original 28 Days Later – written, like this one, with a beady sociological eye by Alex Garland – noted the civil unrest that had started to fester as the optimism of the early Blair years began to fade. This follow-up doesn't re-take the temperature of British society one generation on so much as vivisect its twitching remains. Call it Disemb-owell and Pressburger: an unholy hybrid of A Canterbury Tale and Cannibal Holocaust which Boyle was perhaps uniquely placed to pull off, and which stands as his finest film since 2008's Slumdog Millionaire. It isn't 'about' Brexit or Covid or anything else so crudely specific: rather, it's a phantasmagorical vision of a deeply familiar, vulnerable, beautiful nation that has become intent on simultaneously turning in on and against itself. Its plot centres on a 12-year-old lad called Spike (Alfie Williams, a real find) who illicitly leaves his island haven to search the mainland for a much-whispered-about doctor (Ralph Fiennes) who might be able to help his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) overcome an unknown disease. Spike's father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a seasoned stalker of the infected, among whom muscular 'alphas' have begun to emerge. (Presumably because fabric rips and rots, one point of difference with the first film and its now canonically sidelined original successor, 2007's 28 Weeks Later, is that the zombies here are obviously nude; sometimes pendulously so.) Early on in the film, Taylor-Johnson is hungry to induct his son into the hunting rite, and their first joint expedition proves as heart-in-throat for the audience as it does arrow-in-throat for most of their targets. The precise moments of impact are captured by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle with a sickening, time-freezing jerk, as if the camera operator from The Matrix has just had his neck snapped. Mantle shot much of the film on (augmented) iPhone cameras, which give the regularly outrageous action a terrifyingly ordinary texture like Facebook photos from a walking holiday in Alnmouth. Garland employs a strain of peculiarly British pulp humour – very 2000 AD, very Warhammer 40,000 – to undercut the ambient dread. And flashes of Arthurian fantasias and wartime newsreel footage (as well as a pointed double cameo for the now-felled Sycamore Gap tree) serve as regular nudges in the ribs as he and Boyle toy with the notion of a 21st century British national myth. Perhaps more than any of the above, though, it's Fiennes's gently patrician, RP-accented doctor – whose bedside manner is impeccable even when stripped to the waist and slathered in iodine – which gives 28 Years Later its lingering, Kiplingian ache. A brief prologue and epilogue suggest that next January's sequel, titled The Bone Temple and directed by The Marvels' Nia DaCosta, will stir Scottish Presbyterianism into the mix. What British end of the world worth its salt would be without it? 15 cert, 115 mins. In cinemas from June 20
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
How humidity affects your sleep – and what to do about it
If you have been struggling to fall asleep over the past few nights, tossing and turning in bed, you're not alone. While many of us enjoy the gorgeous sunny days, the muggy evenings are a different story… and not nearly as pleasant. Advertisement To better understand why these humid nights can severely disrupt our sleep, we spoke with Dr Greg Elder , associate director of Northumbria Sleep Research at Northumbria University. He has shed some light on how humidity can impact our sleep quality and patterns, and has also shared some useful tips to help you get a better night's rest. How does humidity impact quality of sleep? High humidity levels makes the air temperature feel hotter (Alamy/PA) 'We don't know a lot about how humidity alone can affect our sleep, but we do know that humidity affects how we perceive temperature,' says Elder. 'As humidity levels increase, the air temperature will feels hotter. 'Sleep and temperature regulation are very closely related – so the hotter it feels, the worse our sleep tends to be, and this is worse when we can't properly acclimatise to it. For example, when a heatwave happens.' Can humidity affect our circadian rhythms directly? 'Yes. How much sleep we get, and the quality of it, is affected by the interaction between our sleep need and our body clock (our circadian rhythms),' says Elder. 'Humidity affects our sleep and circadian rhythms directly by affecting how hot we feel. Advertisement 'Our body temperature has its own circadian rhythm. Normally our body begins to cool down as we head towards our bed time and this opens our 'sleep window' but hot temperatures can interfere with this. 'Hot temperatures can also directly interfere with our sleep by affecting how much slow-wave sleep we get during the night.' This is important because slow-wave sleep (deep sleep) plays a key role in growth, memory and immune function, according to the Sleep Foundation . What are the common signs that humidity levels might be disturbing your sleep without you realising it? The effects of a bad night's sleep will kick in the next morning (Alamy/PA) 'High temperatures can interfere with our brain activity during sleep, and also the way in which our brain cycles between different stages of sleep (light sleep, deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, which is the stage of sleep where we typically dream), so it is possible that high temperatures and humidity could be bad for our sleep without us realising,' explains Elder. 'However, normally when we have a bad night of sleep, the effects will kick in when we get up the next morning. Sleep deprivation makes us feel tired and irritable, and it may be harder to concentrate and make decisions as normal.' Advertisement How does high humidity contribute to issues like night sweating or restlessness during sleep? 'As the humidity increases, this makes it harder for our body to sweat normally,' says Elder. 'This means that during hot periods, especially when there is high humidity, our sweat can't evaporate as normal, and it is harder for the body to cool itself. 'This is bad for our sleep and can make us feel restless if we can't get to sleep because of that.' Here are some of his suggestions on how to combat the humidity to achieve blissful sleep this summer… Aim to keep your bedroom temperature near 19°C 'Keep your bedroom at as close to 19°C as possible,' advises Elder. 'Bedroom temperatures that are over 25°C are bad for sleep. Electric fans can help.' Advertisement Make sure your bedroom is dark Make sure that the room is dark and cool before you jump into bed (Alamy/PA) Invest in some blackout curtains and blinds if you find that the evening light is creeping in and disturbing your ability to fall asleep. 'Keep your bedroom as cool and dark as possible and avoid sleeping anywhere else other than your bed,' recommends Elder. Get up if you can't sleep If you're lying awake for hours, get out of bed and do something calming, like reading a book. 'Avoid staying awake in your bed if you can't sleep. Get up if you can and only go back to bed when you feel sleepy,' advises Elder. Advertisement Stay hydrated throughout the day Hydration is key (Alamy/PA) 'Drink plenty of water during the day because this will help your body to keep itself cool at night,' recommends Elder. Have a cool shower before bed 'Before going to bed, a cool or lukewarm shower, or foot bath, can be a good way to help your body to relax and tell it that it is time for sleep,' says Elder. Keep to a regular sleep wake schedule 'Try to keep to your usual sleep and wake schedule – regular sleep timing tends to be associated with better sleep quality,' advises Elder.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Getting in is just the start: Northumbria University's ambitious push for social mobility
From support for an outreach centre that helps children as young as seven with their schoolwork to academics researching the benefits of a universal basic income, a commitment to driving social mobility and tackling inequality is deeply ingrained in Northumbria University's DNA. Participation in higher education remains lower in the north-east of England than in other parts of the country, and while Northumbria has an impressive record on access – 40% of its students come from areas with low rates of higher education participation, the highest of any research-intensive university – it's constantly striving to ensure students from all backgrounds can excel. For vice-chancellor Prof Andy Long, what makes Northumbria stand out is its recognition that social mobility for universities is not just about students getting in – the business of 'widening participation' – but getting on: making sure they have all they need to do well both in their studies and when they graduate. Long has set an ambitious new target: making sure that by 2030, students from low-participation backgrounds are just as likely as any of their peers to be in highly skilled work or further study 15 months after they graduate. 'It's no good just chipping away at the gap in outcomes,' he says. 'We want to eliminate it.' That means making sure courses are taught flexibly in a way that fits around other demands students may be juggling, such as caring responsibilities or doing part-time work to support themselves. Students facing extra challenges, such as care leavers or caregivers, are given additional support through schemes such as NU Belong or the Higher Education Without Barriers fund. Most important for Long is a drive to include meaningful experiential learning – learning by doing – in every programme, so students who may have no links with the world of work associated with their studies have the opportunity to realise they could flourish in it. Final-year law students, for instance, work alongside a qualified solicitor from the student law office doing pro bono work in the community, while business school students act as 'consultants' for local companies. 'I've spoken to law students who will tell me they don't know anyone who works in the legal profession,' Long says. 'Our approach ensures they can make those links that then give them the experience and confidence to think they could pursue it as a career.' When it comes to raising aspirations, Northumbria's Allstars guidance programme offers outreach sessions at schools across the north-east and priority access to university taster days and scholarships. And in 2021, Northumbria worked with the charity IntoUniversity, together with Newcastle University, to open the region's first IntoUniversity centre, where seven to 18-year-olds experiencing disadvantage can get support with academic work, university applications and more, plus opportunities such as visits from employers, mentoring and work experience. This centre, in Newcastle's east end, has worked with more than 2,000 students so far – with 64% of leavers going on to higher education – and a second centre, in Gateshead, will open in September. Ryder Architecture, a long-term partner of the university, supports IntoUniversity through Northumbria's Higher Education Without Barriers fund, and offers work experience and workshops with its people. Managing director Mark Thompson says: 'IntoUniversity helps us put more structure around our work with school-age children and young people, and links it to an outcome too, where students are actively encouraged to consider university. Anything that inspires somebody to push themselves academically and want to do more has to be a good thing.' The company, which helped Northumbria University develop its architecture degree apprenticeship, has put colleagues through the course, and has provided work placement opportunities for Northumbria students across the business. 'We do well out of it as well,' says Thompson, who studied at the university back when it was Newcastle Polytechnic. 'There's a business benefit to unearthing people on our doorstep who might otherwise go into different careers.' At Bede academy, a local school in Blyth, Northumberland, and longtime Allstars partner, Northumbria University has been instrumental in the development and delivery of a new T-level course in health. The course is equivalent to three A-levels and designed as an alternative route to university and careers in the NHS and social care. As well as supporting the school with the design of the curriculum and upskilling staff to deliver the course, Northumbria helped create a brand new healthcare training facility that simulates a hospital environment, giving students hands-on experience. 'Northumbria have been absolutely phenomenal in supporting us,' says the school's principal, Andrew Thelwell, who pays tribute to the university's 'strong moral purpose' around social mobility. 'We can't speak highly enough of their dedication, commitment and passion.' But it's not just about the facilities, Thelwell says – or even the professional workplace uniforms the university provides that are worn proudly by the students every day. 'Our students are working alongside university staff at the age of 16 or 17, and building professional relationships with them,' he says. 'They start to see themselves heading towards university – it becomes something very real for them. And that really is transformative.' The first cohort of students are now finishing their first year, and the vast majority are expected to apply for university places. Northumbria will provide support with that process too, and the school is now exploring future partnerships around sports education. It's clear that the university recognises the important role it plays in transforming lives in all aspects of its work, with Northumbria's dedication to addressing inequality extending to its research too. Researchers within its Centre for Health and Social Equity are working to drive policy reform with the Healthy Living Lab, which explores the links between public health and food insecurity, playing a pivotal role in encouraging the government to invest millions in national school breakfast and holiday clubs to better support children and families. Ultimately, Long says, equality of opportunity is an issue for society as a whole. 'If you don't pay attention to this, everybody will be worse off. I want everybody to have the opportunity to succeed, whatever their background.' Find out more about how Northumbria University is shaping futures and driving change
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
From a new asthma detector to using AI responsibly – research at Northumbria University is driving change
Diagnosing lung conditions has traditionally been a difficult – and very expensive – task. Obtaining fluid samples from deep inside organs which are tucked away within our ribcage can't be done without a highly invasive, risky procedure. And most sampling devices can't tell the difference between fluids from the lung and ones from the mouth, often leading to unclear or misleading diagnoses. As a result, millions of patients with common, chronic conditions such as asthma have been left waiting years for effective treatment, while millions of others have been hospitalised with pneumonias impossible to diagnose with current tests. All that is set to change with the launch of a new handheld device later this year, developed by Dr Sterghios A Moschos, a renowned molecular biologist and visiting professor at Northumbria University, which will revolutionise the diagnosis of these diseases. The new breath-sampling technology by PulmoBioMed, a Northumbria University spin-out founded by Moschos in 2020, offers a fast, non-invasive and inexpensive way to test for lung conditions. Called the PBM-Hale, it captures the breath as the patient exhales and separates the droplets that come from the mouth from those found deep in the lung. It has been shown in clinical studies to help quantify lung infections and inflammation in 100% of symptomatic cases. 'PBM-Hale has the potential to transform respiratory care,' says Moschos. 'It is more than 40 times cheaper than endoscopy, where a tube is inserted into the lung, which carries a one-in-seven risk of injury. 'There are seven different types of asthma, and we hope this will allow doctors to quickly diagnose not just the condition but the exact type, without having to try several different kinds of treatment to see if the patient responds.' The device is one of a growing number of pioneering innovations being developed by researchers at Northumbria University to tackle some of the biggest real-world challenges facing us, regionally, nationally and globally. The first to be commercialised, the PBM-Hale is likely to be followed soon by the portable Solar2Water system developed by the university's department of mechanical and construction engineering, which uses solar energy to extract moisture from the air and turn it into water. The unit could be a gamechanger for remote regions where there is no grid connection or water availability nearby. Running on solar energy alone, it can be deployed quickly and easily to any location, such as army camps and field hospitals, or to support displaced communities in refugee camps and disaster zones. Moschos credits much of the success of his innovation to the support he received from the university at every step of the process. 'Since I arrived at Northumbria in 2016 and told them the idea I was working on, I couldn't have asked for more,' he says. 'They gave me everything I needed to create the device, supported the patent and grant applications and helped us apply for programmes to commercialise academic research.' PulmoBioMed raised an extraordinary £1.4m in an investment round last year to help grow its business, as well as a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK. It's these kinds of groundbreaking advances that have powered Northumbria's meteoric rise through the ranks for research: in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2021), Northumbria made the biggest leap of any UK university in research power, climbing from 50th in 2014 to 23rd in 2021. It was the second time Northumbria achieved this impressive feat, after previously rising from 80th place in 2008. Building on this momentum, and with a mission to create new knowledge that shapes change, Northumbria is investing in, and attracting funding for, new research innovations that will have an impact on society and the economy. One of its most ambitious projects to date is the North East Space Skills and Technology centre (NESST). A state-of-the-art facility being developed by the university, NESST is the result of a £50m investment with partners including the UK Space Agency and Lockheed Martin UK Space that will create new knowledge and skills intended to transform the UK's space economy. 'We doubled the value of our research awards in the last year,' says Prof Louise Bracken, Northumbria's pro vice-chancellor for research and knowledge exchange. 'Not only does that money fund more research, it also demonstrates the value of that research to others.' The university's social mobility ethos – approximately 40% of its undergraduates are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and 65% are from the north-east region – also underpins many of its research projects. Overcoming social inequities is central to all the research done by another of its biggest schemes, the Centre for Health and Social Equity (CHASE). 'We're working with people experiencing homelessness, vulnerable adults, children and young people and veterans, to drive policy to better serve their needs. We want to ensure our research has tangible benefits for society and the environment. That's our USP at Northumbria,' says Bracken. The principle of benefiting society is also at the heart of the work being done by professor of law Marion Oswald, who leads a flagship research project. The multimillion-pound PROBabLE Futures project, in collaboration with several other universities as well as partners from law enforcement and commercial tech, explores how AI can be adopted responsibly in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. The 'probable' in PROBabLE Futures refers to the fact that AI produces results which are probabilities, but not certainties. This means that great care needs to be taken when using AI in the criminal justice system to avoid unfairness and miscarriages of justice. 'We're looking at how these AI systems are being used in policing, potentially becoming part of criminal justice – in the US, they're even being used to help determine sentences – and then in prisons and with probation,' she says. 'We're also thinking about whether this sector should have new independent oversight.' The team's AI checklist for policing has recently been adopted by the National Police Chiefs' Council – an instance of the university's research making a significant impact in the real world. It is this type of outward facing research that has inspired the university's brand-new Northumbria Centre for Responsible AI. 'As AI becomes widespread, we're pulling together all the research, experience and expertise at the university to look at how we make sure it's being used for the public good,' says Oswald. 'It's one of the biggest issues of our time, so it's really exciting.' Many applications of AI are relatively mundane, but others will have far-reaching consequences for people's lives, 'like deciding whether somebody should get a government benefit or not, or deciding whether somebody should be put on a police watchlist', she says. 'We're concerned that the public sector thinks very carefully about how it implements this technology and that people should have the skills and knowledge to navigate this new AI-informed world.' Find out more about how Northumbria University is shaping futures and driving change
