Category: 5. Entertainment

Speculation around a possible Courage the Cowardly Dog movie in 2025 has been circulating online, but there is no such project currently in development. The rumour began with an AI-generated post on Facebook, which has since spread widely across social media.

The original animated series aired on Cartoon Network for three years and became one of its most recognisable titles.

The show followed Courage, a timid dog living in a remote farmhouse in Kansas with his owners Muriel and Eustace, blending surreal comedy with moments of horror and emotion.

The recent claim of a live-action adaptation was traced to a post by a Facebook page called Cine History. It included two AI-generated images and linked to a concept trailer uploaded by the YouTube channel Fandom Topics, which has been viewed more than 14,000 times.

The post described the supposed film as a “live-action horror-fantasy” that would turn the cartoon into a “dark, atmospheric nightmare.”

Despite attracting more than 46,000 reactions, 1,400 comments, and 8,000 shares, the story is not true. There are currently no official plans for a Courage the Cowardly Dog film in 2025.

Talk of reviving the franchise has emerged before. In 2018, series creator John R. Dilworth revealed he was in discussions with Boomerang about a prequel project, though it did not move forward.

In February 2024, he uploaded an animatic titled Goblins of Litter to YouTube, showing unused material.

Fans did, however, see Courage return in 2021 with the crossover film Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog, which is available on HBO Max. For now, no further projects have been announced.

The Great British Bake Off is upon us once more, shipping a new fleet of enthusiastic bakers into the big tent for another round of slightly too ambitious bakes. In time, these bakers will become like a second family to their audience. But for now, it’s fair to say, we have no clue who any of them are.

So, in time-honoured tradition, here’s my predicted ranking of the 2025 Great British Bake Off intake. The usual qualifications apply: I am basing this solely on the imageless press release that Channel 4 sent out, plus in all the years I have been doing this I have never once been right about anything. You’re welcome!

12. Toby, 29, Warwickshire

Toby works for a fitness startup, and uses his contestant biography to reveal that he is three years into a home renovation project that was scheduled to last just six months. This leads me to believe that he initially applied to appear on Grand Designs, and is only on Bake Off due to a catastrophic clerical error.

11. Lesley, 59, Kent

It has to be said that Lesley sounds absolutely lovely in her biography. However, she is a hairdresser who insists on giving a slice of cake to all her customers. So now I am fixated on what a terrible hairy cakey biohazard her floor must be, which is why I have ranked her so poorly.

10. Nadia, 41, Liverpool

I’ve been doing this for long enough to know a red flag when I see one, and Nadia is absolutely buried in them. Exhibit A: she is described as a “chatterbox”, which is code for “annoying”. Exhibit B: there are repeated mentions of her performing dance breaks, which is code for “attention seeking”. Exhibit C: like Lesley, she is a hairdresser, which is code for “I, Stuart, am bald and need to take out my insecurities on someone.”

9. Iain, 29, Belfast

The big concern with a show such as Bake Off is that it has been around for so long that it tends to attract people so desperate for fame that their personas have solidified into rigid caricatures. Enter Iain, a powerlifting influencer who refers to himself as the Yeastie Boy. However, let me remind you that at the time of writing, I don’t know what any of the contestants look like. If it turns out that Iain is big enough to beat me up, please ignore everything I just said and put him in the top three.

8. Aaron, 38, London

Lots to worry about here. Aaron, who moved to London from Manchester four years ago, uses his contestant bio to make two controversial statements. One is to call himself The King of Hobbies, which makes him sound like a dilettante who never sticks with anything long enough to reach a point of basic competency. The second is that he refers to hotdogs as a snack, which genuinely beggars belief.

7. Leighton, 59, Surrey

Leighton is a Welshman who lives in Surrey with his California husband and has a mathematical mind, which tends to be an advantage on a show like this. However, Leighton’s bio also reveals that he specialises in a fusion style of baking that doesn’t sound particularly delicious. One of his favourite dishes, for instance, is a victoria sponge with key lime pie filling. Honestly.

6. Tom, 31, London

Tom is a “creative entrepreneur”, which means that he founded an advertising agency then left it. The worrying part of his bio, though, is the bit where he cites Nadiya Hussain as an inspiration, because she has dealt with a level of fame that he thinks he will soon experience. I’m worried that getting eliminated from a cooking show one week before the quarter-final is going to turn the poor man into an absolute monster.

5. Jasmine, 23, London

Jasmine is a Scottish medical student. This would be the most interesting thing about her, except she is clearly so competitive that she used her bio to blow Aaron out of the water. Forget hotdogs; Jasmine thinks that “a big bowl of pasta” qualifies as a snack. Wild.

4. Jessika, 32, London

A few of the bios hint at someone’s showstopper going dramatically wrong in the upcoming season. My money is on the culprit being Jessika. A Cornish drag king, Jessika mentions that one of her showstoppers was “wildly heavy” and that she had to cover it in tempered chocolate in a panic.

3. Hassan, 30, South Yorkshire

I’ve got a very good feeling about Hassan. This is purely because he is an analytical research and development scientist by trade, so is statistically much less likely to get into a tizzy and dump a litre of milk into a bread dough or whatever. However, let me temper this enthusiasm by pointing out that, in his bio, he states that he’d like to make a book-shaped cake one day. You have to worry about a man whose flight of fancy involves baking something in the shape of a rectangle.

2. Pui Man, 51, Essex

Pui Man was born in Hong Kong and spends her free time distributing surplus supermarket food around her Essex community. As well as sounding extremely nice, she is also ambitious, stating that she wants to be the first Bake Off contestant ever to receive a hug from Paul Hollywood. Hopefully she can back up this ostentatious aspiration or, like Icarus before her, she will plummet back to Earth unhugged.

1. Nataliia, 32, East Yorkshire

Nataliia sounds like one of those fairytale Bake Off contestants who represent the very best of the country. A Ukrainian, she moved here a year before the war began, and her family followed as refugees. She has the potential to demonstrate that British people are more welcoming than headlines would have you believe. She also says that a cheese straw is an acceptable snack, which if nothing else clearly puts her head and shoulders above the pasta woman from earlier.
The Great British Bake Off is back on 2 September at 8pm on Channel 4

Pierce Brosnan might be 72, but he’d come out of secret service retirement “in a heartbeat” if new James Bond director Denis Villeneuve wanted him.

In an interview with the Radio Times, Brosnan joked that he could return to the 007 franchise as a “senior citizen” if called upon for the upcoming movie, which Villeneuve is directing and Steve Knight is writing for Amazon MGM Studios.

Brosnan played Bond for seven years between 1995 and 2002 in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day before hanging up his tuxedo and putting his golden gun into lockup. Asked about whether he might return if asked, he responded cheerfully.

“My wife Keely [Shaye Smith] and I have been listening to the drumbeat of expectation of who’s going to be the next James Bond,” he said. “There are many great candidates out there, and I’m sure they’re going to make it a spectacle of delight. I don’t think anyone wants to see a craggy, 72-year-old Bond, but if Villeneuve had something up his sleeve I would look at it in a heartbeat. Why not? It’s great entertainment. It could be lots of laughs. Bald caps, prosthetics… Who knows?”

Numerous names have been bandied about as the identity of the next Bond, who would replace Daniel Craig, who succeeded Brosnan in 2006’s Casino Royale.

Brosnan was speaking during an interview for The Thursday Murder Club, the Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman’s novels about a group of pensioners who solve crimes in their spare time.

Speaking about ageing, the star said: “The older you get, the freer you get, because mortality is circling the wagons. Within this story, there’s a lovely lyricism. These four people want to keep their minds active and they also deal with the death that will befall all of us… And it’s all wrapped up in a whodunnit.”

Brosnan’s Thursday Murder Club co-star, Helen Mirren, this week said that Bond “has to be a guy,” adding: “James Bond has to be James Bond, otherwise it becomes something else.”

Brosnan had said in the past it would be “exhilarating” for Bond to be played by a woman, but this week backtracked by telling Saga magazine “it has to be a man.”

British actor Ray Winstone, who is renowned for his tough guy performances in films such as The Departed and Sexy Beast, touched down at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week where he participated in a wide-ranging masterclass about his career, working with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Gary Oldman, dealing with rejection and why he wants to see more British films in the ecosystem. 

“I didn’t get much education as an actor,” said Winstone, speaking at the Bosnian Cultural Center on Tuesday. “But when I was in drama college – I was there for about a year – I was lucky enough to have met a director called Alan Clarke.” 

Clarke went on to direct one of Winstone’s first films, Scum, and the actor credits that director for helping him to learn his craft. “The performance of that film was nothing to do with me and what I learned was from Alan Clarke. Alan Clarke was a great teacher. I love directors for that reason because you put your trust in them and they’re the ones that are educating you, especially when you are at a young age. So, for me, that was my schooling in the profession.” 

Winstone’s role in Gary Oldman’s directing debut Nil by Mouth was, he said, a milestone in his career and he credited the Slow Horses actor as being “probably the greatest director” he’s ever worked with.  

“It’s kind of the undercurrent, the underbelly of where I’m from,” he said about the 1997 London-set drama. “I’m from a working-class family, but I don’t come from a family like that. But I’ve seen it, and I’ve heard it. It was a very brave bit of writing to actually write about these things and when I read it, I got it, and I understood it. And Gary’s probably the best director I’ve ever worked with. I say that as an actor, because he understands actors.”

Winstone, who is receiving an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award this week at the festival, also touched on working with Scorsese for The Departed. “I met him at a hotel in London on a Sunday morning – I think it was The Dorchester. And I was up for playing one of the policemen. I didn’t want to play a policeman, and it was kind of a nothing part and I sat down with Marty – I call him Marty now – and we talked about Jack Nicholson’s character. I said that he hasn’t got anyone to talk to. How do you find out about him?”

Winstone then suggested he play Nicholson’s character’s sidekick friend and Scorsese agreed but requested he wear the leather coat he was wearing in the meeting in the film. “So, he got a coat for nothing,” quipped Winstone. 

On working with Spielberg for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Winstone said: “He loves you standing behind and watching the screen. Martin Scorsese is the same.” 

He added: “It’s amazing when he makes films. How he shoots – he films differently.” 

The actor went on to add that he wants to see “more films from the British film industry” coming into the ecosystem, adding that he loves “watching British actors.”

“The French do it – they make their own cultural films. The Germans do it. Hopefully you’ll do it more here and that’s the way it should be. That’s where filmmakers come from. The trouble is that they emigrate to America to work with the studios, and they get their hearts broken.” 

The actor also touched on rejection and the role that plays in one’s career, citing his experience on Marvel’s Black Widow, where he was called in to reshoot all of his scenes, as a notable low point for him.  

“I told them they should recast,” he recalled. “But I was contracted to do it. So, I went back, they had to do my hair nice, they put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I’d done it already. I’ve just done this part.”

He continued: “But then you get over it and you just redo the scenes. That’s rejection.” 

The 31^st Sarajevo Film Festival runs August 15-22.

US rapper and singer Doechii has pulled out of All Points East festival in east London.

The 27-year-old is “no longer able to perform” at the Victoria Park festival on Saturday 23 August, with event organisers apologising for the inconvenience.

“We’re very sorry to announce that Doechii will no longer be performing at her upcoming shows,” the festival announced in a social media post on Tuesday (19 August).

“She is an incredible artist, and, like all of her fans, we were hugely excited to see her on stage. We’d like to apologise to any disappointed fans and hope to welcome Doechii to All Points East in the future.”

Fans were quick to take to X/Twitter to voice their frustrations over the cancellation. “Where do we apply for refund!? She was the main person I was attending to see!!! Absolutely livid,” one person said.

Meanwhile, another user questioned whether the festival would be providing “partial refunds” to ticket holders. “Literally only going to see her and you announced four days before the festival leaving no time to cancel flights or hotels,” they wrote.

Festival organisers replied that they are “working very hard” to find an artist of a “similar scale” to fill Doechii’s slot and would update festival-goers “as soon as we have any news”.

The Florida rapper has also pulled out of Rock en Seine festival on Thursday (21 August) and Forwards Festival in Bristol on Sunday (24 August). She is yet to release a statement regarding the reasons for the performance cancellations.

The Independent has contacted Doechii’s representatives for comment.

In a post to social media, Forwards festival similarly said they were “very sad” to announce the “Anxiety” star would no longer be performing. “She is an incredible artist and we were as excited as you were to bring her to our hometown of Bristol,” they said.

Doechii, real name Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, won Best Rap Album at the Grammys in 2024 for her album Alligator Bites Never Heal . She last performed in the UK at Glastonbury Festival in June, which The Independent’s Kate Solomon awarded five stars.

“With unbelievable lung capacity, Doechii’s rapping is relentless and thoroughly satisfying to listen to,” she wrote, dubbing the rapper “a megastar on the rise”.

The BBC has revealed it delayed an hour-long documentary about Ozzy Osbourne at the last minute at the request of his family.

The film about the musician’s final years was suddenly pulled from listings on Monday, with the corporation making no comment about the decision. Its scheduled screening was less than a month after Osbourne’s death. It was also less than three weeks after his wife, Sharon, and their children appeared before crowds in his home city of Birmingham.

In a new statement, the corporation suggested the delay had come after a request from the musician’s family. “Our sympathies are with the Osbourne family at this difficult time,” a BBC spokesperson said. “We are respecting the family’s wishes to wait a bit longer before airing this very special film. The new [broadcast] date will be confirmed shortly.”

The BBC had recently stated that the film would go ahead. Clare Sillery, head of commissioning for BBC Documentaries, said earlier this month that the film, Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, captured “family moments, humour, reflection and shows the enduring spirit that made Ozzy a global icon. We hope it brings comfort and joy to Ozzy’s fans and viewers as they remember and celebrate his extraordinary life”.

The programme is not the only documentary in the offing about the life of the late star. Paramount+ has also made a feature-length film, Ozzy Osbourne: No Escape From Now, about his struggles since a serious fall in LA in 2019. It had been slated to run later this year.

The BBC’s documentary had already been completely overhauled as Osbourne’s health deteriorated. It was originally envisaged as a much wider, 10-part series called Home to Roost, which followed Ozzy and Sharon’s attempt to restart their lives back in the UK.

It has now been re-edited into a one-off film, showing Osbourne’s battling attempts to become strong enough to perform and his struggles with ill-health. Osbourne died last month, aged 76, just weeks after performing from a throne on stage at Villa Park. The singer had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.

The BBC film includes interviews with Osbourne family members, including Sharon, Kelly and Jack. It had been due to air on BBC One on Monday night, but was removed from the schedule earlier in the day. The broadcaster initially stated it had been “moved in the schedules” and replaced it with an episode of Fake Or Fortune?

Read more news stories here 

Georgia’s LaGrange Symphony Orchestra (LSO) has announced the appointment of Venezuelan-born violinist Samuel Vargas as its new concertmaster. For the past two decades, the role has been filled by guest concertmasters since the retirement of violinist Lorna Wood.

Vargas began learning the violin through El Sistema and has since graduated from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music, where he studied with Sergiu Schwartz. His accolades include winning the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award in 2019, the senior division of the Sphinx Competition in 2021, the José Antonio Abreu International Award for the Arts in 2022, as well as the Visionary Impact Award for entrepreneurship and the Debussy International Music Competition’s Teacher Award in 2024. He currently teaches at the Schwob School of Music.

Vargas has performed with orchestras including the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, The New World Symphony, the Venezuela National Philharmonic, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle, and Claudio Abbado.

In April 2026, Vargas will perform as a soloist with the LSO for the season finale, premiering Concerto for Violin and Orchestra ’Morgante’ by Andrés Martín in tribute to conductor Michael Morgan.

‘I have found Samuel to be the quintessential artist and musician. His continued rise as a highly sought after soloist on the international stage, endless passion for teaching, and his dedication in championing new works serve as an inspiration to those around him,’ said LSO Music director and conductor Richard Prior. ‘He will bring a vast amount to not just the LSO but also our musical community in LaGrange and beyond.’

Vargas likewise expressed his excitement in taking on the position:

‘It is with deep joy and gratitude that I step into the role of concertmaster of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra. This orchestra, rooted in excellence and carried by the unwavering support of an extraordinary audience and community of patrons stands as a beacon of culture and connection in our region. I am inspired by its legacy and energised by the opportunity to contribute through music, education, and entrepreneurial vision.

‘I also look forward to nurturing meaningful relationships with the younger generation of musicians, empowering their growth and inviting them into the transformative world of orchestral music. Together, we will expand the Symphony’s reach, deepen its community ties, and continue to uplift hearts through the power of music.’