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REVIEW The Lion King is a 'roaring' success

This is Devon -- There is no doubt that The Lion King is one of the seven wonders of the theatre world. It is an epic show, deservedly loved by the millions of people who have seen it around the world. This isn't any old musical theatre show. This is a Disney production and there is no cutting corners allowed here. The Lyric auditorium in Plymouth is half the size of the venues normally visited by the show but we still get Pride Rock, the sweeping vista of the savannah and hordes of wildebeest stampeding towards us. The Lion King offers us gasp-inducing scenes to marvel at – vivid colours of the desert and the jungle, magnificent sunsets and sparkling night skies. The costumes are joyous, cleverly representing many different animals from the graceful giraffes and a cheetah to the athletic lionesses and the bewitching birds. There's magical music which marries the native sounds of Africa – the language, the clicks, the rhythms – with good old-fashioned, feelgood pop classics from Tim Rice and Elton John such as Circle of Life, I Just Can't Wait To Be King and Can You Feel The Love Tonight. The Lion King story is simple – jealous uncle plots to kill king Mustafa and heir Simba to take the throne. It's like Hamlet with hyenas. Timon, a meerkat, and Pumbaa, a warthog, befriend Simba and help him find the confidence to defeat his uncle, Scar, become the king and get the girl, or lionness. Spectacular and a "roaring" success on many levels. Except one. Call me cynical, but I didn't feel as moved by this magnificent show as I had expected to be. Reported by This is 8 hours ago.

This is Dorset -- PREPARE to be enchanted by Valise Noire's presentation of The Girl and the Shoes, which draws on children's classic tales to weave a journey from rural France to vibrant Paris. It is a contemporary piece of interactive storytelling for families that will capture the imagination of all ages as it plays village halls in four venues through half-term. Enjoy the new fairytale on Wednesday 19th February, 10.30am at Cerne Abbas (tickets and information, 01300 341332); Wednesday 19th February, 4pm at Durweston (01258 453170); Thursday 20th February, 10.30am at Sturminster Marshall (01202 650213) and Thursday 20th February, 4pm at Gillingham High School (01747 833844). Reported by This is 7 hours ago.

JK Rowling has said she regrets her decision to matchmake Ron and Hermione – we look at other fictional couples better off apart

Earlier this week, JK Rowling revealed she regrets her decision to write Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger into a relationship. The Harry Potter author told Wonderland magazine that one of the world's most famous literary pairings would have ended up in relationship counselling.

Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the film adaptations of the books, echoed her comments, telling the Sunday Times: "I think there are fans out there who know that too and who wonder whether Ron would have really been able to make her happy."

So, in light of JK Rowling outing the bookish Hermione and the prankster Ron as a mismatched union, we look at 10 other awkward pairings in literature, from hidden exes in the attic, to ill-judged office affairs.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead.

*Heathcliff and Catherine (Wuthering Heights)*

They are one of the best-loved literary couples, and one of the worst. Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship can only be described as mutually destructive and abusive – and deserving of a session or two on a Relate sofa. You know a pairing is on the rocks when they spend most of their time trying to hurt the other in the most malevolent means possible (like ruining their offspring). It's the kind of obsessive love that prioritises control over a person and loses sight of the individual's happiness. They are basically a version of Sid and Nancy on the moors.

*Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)*

Romeo and Juliet may well be one of the most irritating, self-absorbed couples to have ever graced the stage. If they were around today, they would be lovesick sixth formers writing each other bad haikus and snogging on sticky nightclub floors, while bullying their mates into covering for them. On the one hand, the whole love-at-first-sight thing is kind of cute, but on the other, you can imagine them sending naked Snapchats to each other when Romeo was banished from Verona.

*Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil (Les Liaisons dangereuses)*

The ultimate twisted and sadistic literary relationship. The scheming pair get their comeuppance (of sorts) when all of their philandering ends in heartbreak and tears, death and, er, smallpox. The two lovers seduce and manipulate their way through a whole host of vulnerable characters, and in the end nobody gets to have a happy ending. Probably would have been for the best if these two never met, to be honest.

*Frank and April Wheeler (Revolutionary Road)*

The Wheelers are one of the most nuanced and well-drawn couples in mid-20th century American literature. Richard Yates's ambitious surburbanite spouses dream of escaping dullsville Conneticut, but their optimistic visions of the future are crushed by the realisation that a white-picket fence can act as a cage, and an animal kept in captivity all its life can get cold feet about suddenly being released into the great outdoors. In the end, the Wheelers only help to hold each other back, each blaming the other for the continuity of the mundane.

*Tom and Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby)*

Apart from the fact we are all rooting for Jay Gatsby and Daisy to get together, it is quite clear that Tom and Daisy are a horrid pairing from the very beginning of Fitzgerald's masterpiece. They treat each other like dirt and have no respect for one another, not to mention both are adulterers. They are the perfect example of an awful marriage. In a way, they are well matched because they deserve each other, in all of their selfishness, greed and arrogance.

*Marius and Cosette (Les Misérables)*

It's not that there's anything wrong with Cosette, but I think we all agree Marius should have gone with Éponine. I mean, the girl literally took a bullet for him, while in the same moment handing him a letter from her love rival. She is basically the nicest person ever.

*Edward Rochester and Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre)*

Poor Bertha Antoinetta Mason, the archetypal "madwoman in the attic". While we don't get to see much of Bertha in Jane Eyre, except for the conditions of her loft-based incarceration, Jean Rhys gives us a glimpse into the young Bertha's betrothal to Rochester in her prequel novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. Bertha, then known as Antoinette Cosway, is wedded to Rochester in the Caribbean, though the couple barely know each other. Surprise surprise, these two never really hit it off and probably should have realised that en route to the aisle before the whole thing, literally, went up in flames.

*Edward Cullen and Bella Swan (Twilight) *

I think this one is pretty obvious. Edward is a vampire. He's a vampire. That is never going to be an easy ride. Nobody would put that on their Tinder profile.

*Anna Karenina and Alexei Vronsky (Anna Karenina)*

OK, so the sex was exciting and it was one of the great love affairs, but Anna and Vronsky would have had life a lot easier if they had just stuck to their marital partners – Anna especially. Of course it was the right decision to leave the dull Karenin for the passionate Vronsky, but Anna also wouldn't have been banished to a country house and ostracised from society before ending up under a train if she had remained faithful. Swings and roundabouts.

*Bridget Jones and Daniel Cleaver (Bridget Jones' Diary) *

If Bridget and Mark Darcy were the perfect couple, then Bridget and Cleaver were the opposite. He was arrogant, obnoxious and chauvinistic, and she couldn't resist the lure of the bad boy (or rather the arrogant, obnoxious, chauvinistic boy). Beginning as an archetypal flirtation between employee and smarmy boss, Cleaver ended up fathering Bridget's baby at the end of the first run of Helen Fielding's Independent column. The pantomime villain to Darcy's dashing hero, Cleaver was immortalised as an open-collared, smug, smirking Hugh Grant in the 2001 feature film. Reported by guardian.co.uk 16 hours ago.

This is Kent --

ALL eyes will be on Lizzy Yarnold next week as she hurtles down an ice track at 90mph in pursuit of Olympic gold.

The 25-year-old jetted off to Sochi on Sunday as Britain's hottest Winter Olympics prospect since Torvill and Dean back in 1984. How the girl from Sevenoaks handles the pressure and the weight of expectation on her young shoulders could make the difference in her bid for glory.

"There is a lot of expectation but all I can do is keep calm and focus on the job I can do," Yarnold said.

"I just have to go into this race and everything that comes with it, it's a really exciting experience, I've always dreamed of competing in the Olympics and I want to make the most of it.

"These two weeks are two I will never have again in my life. I will never have a first Olympics again. I want to enjoy it and have fun. I know, when I do that, I slide my best."

She thinks the Russians, with home-town advantage will be strong, while American Noelle Pikus-Pace has pushed her all the way this year.

Britain's Shelley Rudman will also be there or thereabouts, while the Canadians are always in the hunt. But she knows, if she slides to her maximum, she is the best in the world.

"It's hard to compare Sochi to other tracks. I've not had so much experience. It's a good track – left, right, left, right, it's quite a lot of fun and easy to get down.

"The lower section is high pressure, fast corners, linked together. There's not much time to think. The bottom section is different, quite uphill and corner 14 has a 16 percent rise.

"The last three corners are all about maintaining as much speed and being as aerodynamic as possible.

"There's a lot of work still to do to learn the track. I've only had 30 or so runs in Sochi and I've got to be totally on it in practice. There is a lot of work to do before the Olympics but I don't go into any race to come second."

It has been a sensational few months for Yarnold. Still a relative novice in skeleton terms, she has taken the sport by storm this season, finishing on the podium in all but one race, en-route to the overall World Cup crown. She admits it has all been a bit of a blur.

"Now I'm going to Sochi and I know I won't appreciate the experience until a long time afterwards," she said. "I haven't really appreciated the World Cup results. You usually race on a Friday, pack up and move on. You can't really savour it. I'll need a breather and I'm sure, after a few months, it will all sink in."

For now she has the British sporting world cheering her on. The likes of Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Matthew Pinsent have wished her good luck messages and she has been on the BBC Breakfast News before any mention of Premier League football. Yarnold is very much in the limelight.

"It has been mad," Yarnold said. "To know that my sporting heroes know my name is very, very surreal."

It could get a whole lot madder for Yarnold on Valentine's Day.

Show your support for Lizzy by displaying our special poster. See centre pages. Reported by This is 15 hours ago.

Reports of girl in collision with vehicle outside Olchfa School

This is South Wales -- A GIRL is understood to have been involved in a collision with a vehicle outside Olchfa School in Sketty this morning. The Welsh Ambulance Service is said to have been at the scene in Aneurin Way, Sketty Park. A witness said the girl was sat upright but very distressed. Reported by This is 14 hours ago.

Swansea pupil in collision with car on way to Olchfa School

This is South Wales -- A SWANSEA six former has been taken to hospital following a collision with a car on her way to school this morning. The incident is understood to have been involved in a collision with a vehicle outside Olchfa School in Sketty this morning. The Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed one of its emergency ambulances had been at the scene in Aneurin Way, Sketty Park. While a witness said the girl was "sat upright but very distressed" her injuries are not life-threatening. Police have been alerted and are currently investigating the incident. A spokesman for South Wales Police confirmed officers were aware of the incident and that their enquiries were ongoing. He was also able to confirm that the young woman had suffered a foot injury. A Welsh Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: "We received a call at 8.23am this morning, Thursday, February 6, to reports that a car had collided with a girl outside a school on Aneurin Way in Sketty, Swansea. "Crew in an emergency ambulance attended the scene and took an 18-year-old female patient to Morriston Hospital. Her injuries are not believed to be serious." Meanwhile a spokeswoman for Olchfa School said: "Obviously this happened outside the school premises and was before school started. "We were alerted to the incident and we just wanted to say how wonderful our pupils were in dealing with it this morning." Reported by This is 13 hours ago.

(Rinse/Columbia)

Back in July, when Kathleen Brien was adding what were supposed to be the finishing touches to her second album, she told the Guardian, revealingly: "I can't go out on the weekend and have my mum do the washing any more," adding that she had been "finding a way to stand on my own feet". If you detect an air of reluctance on her part at having to grow up, then recent comments only serve to reinforce that impression. "I still want to be the girl who goes raving with her friends," she told the Observer. "But my manager's like: 'You can't go to Brixton McDonald's at four o'clock in the morning any more!'"

It's often assumed that the thing that makes a second album "difficult"– and a three-year gap, including delays, makes it fair to assume Little Red's conception hasn't always been smooth – is that the artist has used all their best songs on its predecessor. But an equally pressing problem is that the artist no longer has interesting stories to tell. This is especially the case when your first album casts you, and your life, as its central star, as Katy B's debut On a Mission did so perfectly. What made that record stand out from the crowd wasn't just the way it deftly trod the line between underground dance credibility and mainstream pop success, opening up the door for the likes of Disclosure, Jessie Ware and Rudimental to storm the charts, but the perspective she provided: singing about dance music from the centre of the dancefloor, rather than from the DJ booth or behind some velvet VIP room rope.

So what happens when the star in question is no longer able to have a night on the tiles without worrying about being home in time to tumble-dry her jeans? Finding a relatable way to write about your life when your life has been changed immeasurably by success is a problem indie bands struggle with frequently, although perhaps the perfect example comes from the dance arena, and the transition Mike Skinner had to make between the Streets' Original Pirate Material and its follow-up, A Grand Don't Come for Free. Given that the only way Skinner felt he could return after the verisimilitude of his debut was with a concept album about love and loyalty centred around £1,000 falling down the back of a television set, it suggests Katy B has quite a task on her hands with Little Red.

The early signs indicated that Brien would continue with her dancefloor portraits, adding depth to her storytelling. The album's first single, 5am, is a rave-pop belter that captures beautifully the moment the night winds down and the emotions that come with it. "I need somebody to calm me down, a little lovin' like Valium," sings Brien, whose decision to seek out a last-ditch hook-up to deal with her comedown certainly beats the traditional method of sitting with your head in your hands all weekend, crying at cartoons. Aaliyah pairs a ping-pong synth line with Jessie Ware's goosedown tones for a frank tale of dancefloor jealousy. It must be noted, however, that 5am is already five months old, whereas Aaliyah was one of the best songs of the year – in 2012. These tracks seem to catch Brien in transition, before she alighted on how she really wanted to follow up On a Mission, which was by taking her songwriting into more personal territory: break-ups, uncertainty, the general air of someone whose favourite beats are now downbeat.

Reading on mobile? Watch the video for 5am here

The problem with Katy B "growing up", however, is that this newly cultivated adult persona is significantly less original than her youthful one. Songwriting-gun-for-hire Guy Chambers has been enlisted for the huge torch ballad such as Crying for No Reason, which talks about breaking up with someone from the perspective of, well, someone who's broken up with someone. All My Lovin', meanwhile, will remain of fascinating insight only to those who've never before considered the parallels between love and drugs ("like ecstasy, what you give to me"). I Like You sees Brien playing with both fire and desire. During Falling Down she's "tumbling, crumbling"– and were there a few extra seconds you get the impression she could have ended up fumbling and mumbling too.

It's a problem compounded by much of the music, in which a synthy polish and a bigger budget – no doubt with Radio 2 crossover potential in mind – serve to dim Katy B's personality further. Where On a Mission thrived on its shoestring, ramshackle charm, Little Red is a sleek and often mid-paced affair, relying on a sound that no longer feels fresh: Emotions has a chorus that strains for the stars and ends up feeling sledgehammer subtle.

It's not that these are identikit pop songs being pumped out to order. Brien's club credentials and collaborators (Rinse FM's Geeneus steers the album; Sampha adds his bruised vocals on Play) are above that. Listen closely and there is deftness in the details of every song on here: the warped electronic coda that plays out Crying for No Reason; Sapphire Blue's stealth rhythmic build. But for all their qualities, rarely do they have the lightness of step, vibrant energy or sheer ear-grabbing melodic pull that characterised Katy B's earlier songs.

Reading on mobile? Watch the video for Crying for No Reason here

It might be unfair to compare Little Red to its predecessor, rather than the swaths of pop-dance being churned out to which this is obviously superior. But you can't help it, because it points out Little Red's main contradiction: that in making a more personal record, Katy B has somehow ended up putting less of Katy B on it.

Rating: 3/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.

Ex-care home boss guilty of sex crimes against children bids to clear name

This is Lincolnshire -- A former care home boss who served a jail term after he was convicted of a catalogue of sex crimes against children was back in court today after launching a Court of Appeal bid to clear his name. John Dent hobbled into the London court with a walking stick to hear his appeal, which has been referred to judges by the Criminal Cases Review Commission as a potential miscarriage of justice. Dent, now 64, of Abbey Drive, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has always denied the alleged child abuse, which saw him jailed for seven years at Nottingham Crown Court in December 2001. His team of lawyers now say a failure by the prosecution to disclose evidence which could have bolstered his defence case means that the convictions are "unsafe" and should be quashed. At the crown court, witnesses described Dent as issuing orders like a sergeant major and bending the rules at two care homes, in Nottinghamshire, for his favourites, who he plied with cigarettes and sweets. Children told stories of degrading sexual abuse, allegedly carried out in the 1970s, including one girl claiming to have been abused in a medical room when Dent gave her medicine. Barrister, Mark Barlow, argued before three senior judges today that the non-disclosure of potentially vital evidence unfairly hindered Dent's ability to defend himself in a case in which the allegations were 25 years old. "In such a case, the importance of full disclosure and openness is the cornerstone of any prosecution," he told Lady Justice Rafferty, Mr Justice Collins and Sir David Calvert-Smith today. Mr Barlow said Dent had always denied that he ever gave medication to children at the care homes, but had only his own word to put forward as evidence before the crown court jury. Documents now before the appeal judges, but not disclosed in 2001, show that there was no specific evidence at all of the girl having had a medical problem, the barrister continued. "If it had been disclosed, it would have been a matter that I am very sure would have been raised by both counsel, given the importance to their respective cases of this issue about handing out medicine," he said. "It went to her reliability and truthfulness and whether or not it happened, or could have happened. "This was material that was in the hands of the prosecution, i.e. the police, and it should have been disclosed." The judges reserved their decision on Dent's appeal until a later date. Reported by This is 7 hours ago.

The girl group failed to receive a single nomination at this year's ceremony.

Reported by Digital Spy 5 hours ago.

Cutting is embedded in Kenya's culture but there are more humane rites of passage that the entire community can embraceI was circumcised when I was 13, as is the custom in my culture. I am a Maasai woman, and where I am from, in the Loita Hills of south-west Kenya, nearly all girls are circumcised when they begin menstruating.

My procedure involved the removal of my clitoris, my labia minora and the partial removal of my labia majora. I knew it was going to be painful, and I knew I would have to undergo it whether I liked it or not, but nothing prepared me for the pain. I bled so much that day, and it only lessened with the use of a traditional healing ointment. But the pain got worse and worse. The pain on the third day was unbearable, and I developed an infection.

Fifteen years have passed since then, and I have just had my third healthy child, despite the fact that delivering babies after circumcision is hard. Two of my three children are girls – I do not want my daughters to endure what I went through.

I choose to call what happened to me circumcision because I do not like to think of myself as having been mutilated. In my Maasai community, a girl who is not "cut" is unable to take up her traditional role as a mother and wife. I know my parents thought they were doing what was right for me when they arranged for my circumcision. I do not blame my parents – the cultural roots of female genital cutting are so embedded in my community that parents believe it is the best thing for their daughters. Girls often want to be circumcised so that they will be fully accepted by their culture.

The challenge of eliminating the practice in a culture that sees it as a rite of passage is huge, but the stakes couldn't be higher. Female circumcision has serious health consequences: it can cause death and increases the risk of sepsis, fistulas and vaginal prolapse. Scarring renders sex painful.

Until very recently, 98% of girls in the Loita Hills were circumcised. As project manager for a charity, Safe Kenya, dedicated to tackling female genital cutting, my job is to end the practice in my community while also respecting my culture.

There are 18 of us who perform traditional Maasai songs, updated with messages about ending female genital cutting to educate our community. After these performances, we talk to men, women and children from across the region to deliver further education and promote change. We started this work in 2008 and, since then, have learned a lot about how to end this violence.

Cutting girls is illegal in Kenya, but it is a community decision, so we engage with everyone at all levels in the community – from circumcisers, to young boys, to parents and girls. We know that if we can change everybody's mind then we will end this practice. Our message is that we are encouraging people to change one part of Maasai culture, but not give up all of what makes us proud to be Maasai. As one woman we educated told us: "You come to us in a proper way, in our own language. You are one of us and you would not trick us." Our position means we can talk to people about change and that they listen.

Circumcision in Maasai culture marks the transition from girlhood to womanhood, so in order to encourage people to move away from female genital cutting we have developed an alternative rite of passage, in which the girl experiences all the elements of the ceremony but is not cut. She has her head shaved and is given the bracelet that signifies her graduation, but instead of being cut she has milk poured on her thighs. When she reappears, she wears the traditional headdress which symbolises that a girl is now recognised as a woman.

This symbolic ceremony is popular because we developed it in partnership with members of the community. It is not perceived as a threat to our culture. Fathers are now requesting the circumcisers who we have trained in this alternative rite because they are considered "better". Because we are giving our community something to replace female genital cutting, this change can be permanent.

I am one of the first women in my community to hold a leadership position. I know that what we are doing is helping to challenge the idea of women as able only to be wives and mothers. Together with the men who support us, we are going to end this practice here, in a way that every Maasai man and woman can accept. And we are making steady progress.

I speak to lots of mothers and circumcisers and we now think that 20% of girls are receiving the alternative rite. As part of the project, some of the men who used to be warriors teach the new warriors about the dangers of female genital cutting for girls, and encourage them to say publicly that they would marry uncut girls. This is important because one of the main reasons parents have their girls circumcised is to make sure they can find a husband.

If we can carry on performing and educating, we can get our community to declare the abandonment of female genital cutting within three years. If we can end it here in my community, we will have the means to end it everywhere. Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.

GEORGETOWN, Delaware (Reuters) - A well-known Delaware doctor would punish his stepdaughter by making her stand for hours with her arms outstretched, depriving her of food and forbidding her from using the bathroom, the girl's mother told a court on Thursday. Reported by Reuters 3 hours ago.

Council told to make Southgate Avenue safer, after 4 serious accidents in 4 months

This is Sussex --

CALLS have been renewed for the county council to improve "confusing" junctions along Southgate Avenue after another nasty accident.

A 13-year-old girl suffered a serious head injury after being hit by a car at the junction with Tilgate Way last Tuesday. It was at least the fourth injury accident on the road since the middle of November. The others have included a tragic fatality and a toddler breaking his leg in two places.

The junctions causing concern are where Southgate Avenue meets Tilgate Way and Ashdown Drive.

Traffic lights turn green for drivers turning out onto Southgate Avenue, but in both instances those turning right are then immediately faced with another set of lights.

West Sussex County Council has been asked to take action before there is another serious accident.

Michael Pickett, chairman of Southgate Community Forum, said: "I have often felt confused when turning right out of both junctions.

"You think you have right of way but suddenly on Southgate Avenue you are faced with a red light.

"There is a conflict between the two sets of lights and it does make you hesitate. Seeing drivers stop and start then causes confusion for pedestrians. They don't know whether to cross or not.

"West Sussex County Council needs to take responsibility and send a traffic officer to address the problem. It has to be fixed before it is too late and someone else gets hurt.

"There is no evidence for this, but there is a perception among residents that while Crawley and Gatwick are the main driving force and powerhouses in West Sussex that Chichester neglects us."

The collision last week took place at 5.27pm and the girl was taken to hospital, where her condition is "rapidly improving". She could be discharged this week. The driver of the Audi car involved, a 42-year-old from Bedfordshire, was uninjured.

Victor Bibb, 86, died three days after being hit by an Audi while trying to cross Southgate Avenue at the same junction on November 23.

Three-year-old Ethan Mitchell was knocked down by a car turning out of Ashdown Drive just over a week earlier, on November 14, while on a pedestrian crossing with his mum Eve. Mrs Mitchell says Ethan's leg is now getting better – but she has experienced a near miss herself since.

She said: "Ethan's leg is now out of its cast but what happened still affects him. He has bad dreams.

"I work at Thomas Bennett Community School (near the Ashdown Drive junction) and I worry myself sick about the turning.

"A lot of young people use both junctions and something needs to be done. So many cars come round at speed and get totally confused.

"About a week after Ethan was hit I was using the crossing and while there was a green man a van came out of nowhere. I only avoided being clipped because I am so vigilant there now. I hope it doesn't take another really nasty accident for action to be taken."

The busy stretch of road also saw a crash between two cars at the Ashdown Drive turning on December 18, where thankfully no one was injured.

After Ethan was knocked off his bike, his dad, Tom, called for the Ashdown Drive crossing to be assessed and the county council promised to do so.

Michael Jones, the county councillor for Southgate and Crawley Central, believes it is vital action is taken now.

He said: "The latest accident on Southgate Avenue is deeply concerning and underlines that there are safety issues with crossing by these junctions.

"I intend to press the highways department to propose action to improve safety here. There is now more than enough evidence that this has become essential."

A council spokesman has promised that investigations are taking place into how to make the road safer. He said: "Both our own and the police investigations into the recent fatal accident in which an elderly male pedestrian sadly died are still ongoing. "We have to await the outcome of those investigations, but will be acting on any recommendations for improvements that may be identified. "We are currently undertaking a study to see if any further improvements can be made to the traffic signals at the junction of Ashdown Drive to further increase the safety of pedestrians crossing the road at this point. "We are also working closely with the local primary school and Crawley Borough Council to see how we can improve the route to school where pupils need to cross Southgate Avenue. "We are currently unaware of the details of the accident involving a young pedestrian and cannot comment on whether there are any changes that could be made to the road that may have prevented it occurring. "However, if Sussex Police passes us the accident report we will investigate." Reported by This is 1 day ago.

Her plays about women are the most performed in UK regional rep, and yet she's often missing from critics' lists. Could her ambitious latest, My Judy Garland Life, change all that?

Who would you nominate as the most-performed female playwright in the country? Lucy Prebble? Polly Stenham? Laura Wade? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is Amanda Whittington, a 45-year-old east Midlands-based writer whose name rarely appears on the critics' lists, as the majority of her work is commissioned by regional reps and almost exclusively produced outside London.

Yet since she made her debut with Be My Baby in 1998 Whittington has quietly and consistently built up a body of genuinely popular, accessible dramas whose raucous humour and lightness of touch belies the dark, often disturbing subject matter beneath. "I have no difficulty describing myself as a mainstream playwright," she says. "I doubt I'll ever be considered fashionable – but that's not a bad thing, because fashions change."

She currently has two plays running simultaneously in Nottingham, the city in which she was born and has always lived. At first glance, they could hardly be more different. My Judy Garland Life is a lavish musical adaptation of Susie Boyt's memoir about fan-worship and the golden days of Hollywood. Amateur Girl is a stark one-woman show in which the fantasies are somewhat darker: it is the story of an auxiliary nurse who resorts to homemade pornography in order to pay the bills.

Yet both are linked by the overriding theme that runs throughout all of Whittington's work: the experience of women trapped in restrictive or mundane circumstances, longing for escape. Most of Whittington's characters spend their time dreaming of a better deal than life has handed them, whether it be success on the club circuit in Satin'n'Steel, a longing for movie stardom in The Thrill of Love, or simply to escape the foul-smelling routine of a fish-filleting factory for a trip to the races in Ladies' Day.

"It isn't necessarily the story I always set out to tell, but it seems to have become the one I keep on telling," Whittington says. "Perhaps it's because I never made the break with Nottingham myself."

As a bright, comprehensive-schooled member of a middle-class family (her father was a quantity surveyor, her mother an estate agent), it seemed the natural course to apply for higher education. But though Whittington was offered a place to study Manchester, she turned it down. "I had this vague idea that I wanted to be a writer, but had no idea to go about it," she says. "So I signed up for the enterprise allowance scheme – £40 a week – and declared myself to be a freelance journalist."

She was successful at it, eventually securing a reporter's job on the Nottingham Evening Post. And though she had no specific theatrical ambitions at this point, she reckons it was the perfect preparation for her future career: "You're constantly on the lookout for eye-catching stories and dealing with reported speech. It also taught me the value of research. I'm not an autobiographical writer. If I were depending on my own life for subject matter it would have dried up a long time ago".

Her big break came when she entered a one-act play competition run by the Soho theatre. "It was a monologue about a woman baking a birthday cake for a child she had given up for adoption," Whittington says. "I didn't win, but it led to the commission that became Be My Baby."

For that play, Whittington took a journalistic approach, meeting women with experience of mother and baby homes: church-sponsored institutions prevalent in the 1950s and 60s where illegitimate children could be born in secret and discretely given away. "It seemed to be a subject that no one ever talked about, let alone wrote about," Whittington says. "Yet I remember my mum telling stories of girls from her school who mysteriously disappeared for a couple of months and then came back as if nothing had happened." She's particularly proud that the work has since become established on the syllabus as a GCSE set text.

Though Whittington doesn't write musicals, her plays almost always have music in them. The teenage trauma at the heart of Be My Baby was offset with songs by the Ronettes and other classic girl groups of the period. Last year's The Thrill of Love, a biographical drama about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England, was soundtracked by the music of Billie Holiday.

"I sometime find myself writing plays just so I can put my favourite records in them," Whittington says. "I find music so evocative – you only need to hear a bar of Billie Holiday to be transported to a Soho club in the 1950s."

My Judy Garland Life is the first time she's had the luxury of a live band on stage (the trio on double bass, piano and drums bear more than a passing resemblance to a tin man, a lion and a scarecrow). "Writing about Judy Garland gave me carte blanche to set my imagination free in the realm of pure fantasy," she says. "In terms of budget and staging, it's the most ambitious thing I've ever done."

At the same time, Amateur Girl is perhaps the most modest. But like the best of Whittington's work, it is based on diligent research into the lives of real people. "It started out as a radio commission for a series of short plays about the realities of life on the minimum wage," she explains. "The girl is based on a friend of a friend – a nurse who was persuaded to pose for some pictures, initially just for a bit of fun."

The monologue presents a truly bleak picture of how innocent fun swiftly leads to a spiral of exploitation and despair: which is ultimately not so far removed from the way Judy Garland was treated by Hollywood. "I do think the situations are related." Whittington says. "Hopefully, these two plays represent the full range of what I do. One is the story of one of the most famous voices of the 20th century, the other about a woman with no voice at all."

• My Judy Garland Life: four-star review

• My Judy Garland Life is at Nottingham Playhouse until 15 February. Box office: 0115 941 9419. Amateur Girl runs at the same venue until 8 February and then tours until 15 March. Reported by guardian.co.uk 17 hours ago.

In this extract from his theatre column published in the Observer on 1 June 1958, Kenneth Tynan reviews the Stratford East production of Shelagh Delaney's breakthrough play

Miss Delaney brings real people on to her stage, joking and flaring and scuffling and eventually, out of the zest for life she gives them, surviving. Suffering, she seems to say, need not be tragic; anguish need not be neurotic; we are all, especially if we come from Lancashire, indestructible. If I tell you that the heroine was born of a haystack encounter between her mother and a mental defective; that a Negro sailor gets her pregnant and deserts her; and that she sets up house, when her mother marries a drunk, with a homosexual art student – when I tell you this, you may legitimately suspect that a tearful inferno of a play awaits you at Stratford, E. Not a bit of it.

The first half is broad comedy (comedy, perhaps, is merely tragedy in which people don't give in); almost too breezily so; and Joan Littlewood's direction tilts it over into farce by making Avis Bunnage, as the girl's brassy mother, address herself directly to the audience, music-hall fashion. The second half is both comic and heroic. Rather than be lonely, the gusty young mother-to-be shares her room (though not her bed) with a skinny painter who enjoys mothering her and about whose sexual whims ("What d'you do? Go on – what d'you do?") she is uproariously curious. Together they have what amounts to an idyll, which is interrupted by mother's return with her puffy bridegroom, who likes older women and wears an eyepatch; this brings him, as he points out, at least halfway to Oedipus. By the end of the evening he has left, and so, without rancour, has the queer. A child is coming: as in many plays of this kind, life goes on. But not despondently: here it goes on bravely and self-reliantly, with a boisterous appetite for tomorrow.

Miss Delaney owes a great deal to Frances Cuka, her ribald young heroine, who embraces the part with a shock-haired careless passion that suggests an embryonic Anna Magnani. This is an actress with a lot of love to give. There are plenty of crudities in Miss Delaney's play: there is also, more importantly, the smell of living. When the theatre presents poor people as good, we call it "sentimental". When it presents them as wicked, we sniff and cry "squalid". Happily, Miss Delaney does not yet know about us and our squeamishness, which we think moral but which is really social. She is too busy recording the wonder of life as she lives it. There is plenty of time for her to worry over words like "form", which mean something, and concepts like "vulgarity" which don't. She is 19 years old: and a portent.

*Next week: Tynan on Terence Rattigan's Variation on a Theme* Reported by guardian.co.uk 16 hours ago.

Little Mix were ''disappointed'' they weren't nominated for any Brit Awards this year.The girl group - which includes Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirwall,... Reported by ContactMusic 15 hours ago.

This is Bath -- Solihull is probably not the first place that springs to mind when booking a quiet weekend getaway – but it should be. I was whisked away to Forest of Arden, a Marriott hotel and country club just outside of Solihull, with my boyfriend, Lindsey. We arrived on a damp, dark Friday evening after a couple of hours drive on more than one motorway. Reception staff were cheery and friendly. They directed us to our second floor, king-size bedroom overlooking the golf course – fantastic. The room was a good size with an armchair, desk, large television, built-in wardrobe, bedside tables and selection of lamps. And, of course, the bed. It was the comfiest bed I have ever had the privilege of sleeping in. Marriott hotels boast about their beds with Egyptian cotton bedding, down mattress topper and duvets. It's something I would certainly show off about – I wanted to never get out. We had dinner at the onsite AA Rosette-awarded restaurant, Oaks Bar and Grill. Incredibly (almost overbearingly) friendly staff showed us to our table and brought over fresh bread rolls and water before taking our orders. For a starter I went for peppered pigeon breast with baby leaf, hazelnuts and quail egg. It was presented beautifully on the plate and the pigeon breast was cooked well but under seasoned. The combination of flavours and textures worked well. Lindsey had seared scallops with pea puree, pea shoots and chorizo vinaigrette. Again, the food had been laid out delicately on the plate and he said it was delicious. For our main course we both chose pork belly with pulled pork hash, sautéed kale, shallot confit and crackling. The hash was fantastic and the shallot confit bursting with flavour. Unfortunately, again, the plate was under seasoned. Each main course had a suggested wine listed on the menu. We had Kleine Zalve, a chenin blanc, which complemented the pork dinner well. For dessert I had a portion of gloriously stodgy sticky chocolate pudding while Lindsey went for the lighter option of iced lemon parfait. The next day we went down for the breakfast buffet. Despite it being a buffet, the food is of a good standard. There is an egg station where a grumpy chef will cook you a delicious omelette with your choice of ingredients or a fried egg. After breakfast we went to the onsite Cedarwood Spa. I opted for a whole body massage while Lindsey had a back massage. We were greeted by friendly staff and filled in forms about how we would like our massages. We were then led to our separate treatment rooms. The rooms were small and intimate, and they smelled lovely. The girl who gave me my massage, Charlotte, was lovely and very good at her job. She made me feel very much at ease. After the hour-long massage I felt relaxed and happy – my shoulders had definitely dropped at least an inch. My skin felt incredibly soft from the lotion used and I felt like I was floating when I finally got up. Charlotte took me back to the waiting room and gave me a glass of cool water with a slice of lime. Lindsey had gone for a firm back massage and loved it. He agreed the spa was exceptional and said he could feel that knots had gone from his back. After a nap in the luxurious bed, Lindsey and I decided to make use of the hotel's facilities. We went to the driving range and each hit 30 balls then changed into our swimwear and spent some time in the sauna, steam room and pool. The Forest of Arden is a great place to escape to for a weekend. It's a hotspot for golfers and hosts lots of conferences. We had a relaxed, peaceful weekend at the hotel. With two restaurants and all the onsite facilities, it's easy to not leave the premise. I would highly recommend a trip – but be careful to take everything home with you. I left a t-shirt in the wardrobe in our room and following six phone calls over five days, each with the promise of a call back, I was told it "hadn't been found". Reported by This is 12 hours ago.

The singer and TV personality talks about being one of six children brought up by strict Jehovah's Witnesses steeped in Greek traditions, his brother's death, and his own role as a father

*Dad was very, very, very strict*. We had the sort of fear for Dad that you have of God. It's a respect fear. You don't fear disappointing them because they are going to punish you, you fear disappointing them because you don't want to break their heart. It was a nice way to fear. With my mum it was cuddles, cuddles, cuddles. She wrapped you up in cotton wool. So you could get away with anything with Mum but not with Dad. But throughout everything, they always gave us an abundance of love.

*Mum and Dad are from Cyprus*. They moved to England, where they married, and all six of us were born in the UK before we moved to Australia, where my parents still live. Andrew would have been 55, Chris is 50, Danny 46, Michael 43, and Debbie 42. I'm the youngest at 41 and I was a complete accident because once my parents got Debbie, they got the girl.

*I've got very happy memories of my childhood* in Harrow-on-the Hill, in London. My parents were devout Jehovah's Witnesses and very strict Christians, and we also had the strictness of the Greek traditions, so we were brought up to respect your elders and always be polite.

*The family's musical genes *come from my grandfather, my dad's dad. He was the equivalent of a gospel singer, but in the Greek churches. They used to take him from village to village, island to island to sing, and apparently he had the most angelic voice, but the real musical talent in our family is my brother Chris. He can play about 11 instruments fluently. He can't read music, but he can play anything. He'll listen to something Santana does and replicate it in seconds. He is also the one who really believed in me musically. My parents used to say, "Concentrate on your schoolwork and stop being silly and dreaming about this music business because there are a million singers out there," but Chris believed in me.

*Losing my brother Andrew *to kidney cancer in December 2012 was the hardest thing that's ever happened to me. He was an incredible public speaker and the maitre d' and manager of many restaurants and was such a great people person. When he died, I've never cried so much in my life. It's still very raw for everyone in the family. It tore us apart and we've still not really come to terms with it. We still find it hard to discuss things that have to be discussed and there is still this massive hole, that is like someone took something out of you. I don't know if that will ever heal. My brother Mikey says: "You don't get over it; you get on with it." It's affected us all so much because we now know how vulnerable we all are.

*My parents are still married after 58 years*. I said to Dad recently, "How come you guys have lasted so long?" and he said: "I've got two ears, it goes in one and out of the other." That was his way of describing it, but I was, like: "Right, Dad, you know you guys could never be without each other." I think their faith has helped them. Being Witnesses has strengthened them because they've lived their lives pretty much the same. And their bond is still as strong as ever. There's no way they could be without each other. They can't do two weeks without each other. And I love that.

*I strongly believe in the institution of marriage*. I always have, but it doesn't mean that every marriage is going to work. It doesn't mean that every marriage is going to go correctly, but I believe as long as you go in with the intention that it's going to be right, then that's a great start. But things happen in life, every situation is different and you've just got to do it how you think is right, but, like my dad says: "Don't make the same mistakes, make new ones." I've known my fiancee, Emily [MacDonagh], for three and half years, and we will probably be together for six years before we marry so I'm happy with that.

*I had a nice conversation about fatherhood* with Gary Barlow recently. We were discussing what makes a good parent. There are millions of good parents and the answer to what makes them good parents is simple: their is no right or wrong way of doing things, but if you put your kids first, you're a great parent. Whatever it is you do, if they're your first priority you're a good parent.

*No birth is more special than another*. Every birth is just as incredible. I cut the umbilical cord this time [Peter's first child, a girl, with MacDonagh was born on 7 January] as I did the first two times, but they were all different. With Harvey [Peter's stepson from his first marriage, to Katie Price] I got to learn how to be a dad. He was one year old when I met him, so until Junior [Peter's first child with Price] was born I had some practice at being a dad. Then Bister – that's Princess's nickname – was born [Peter's second child with Price] and she was the first girl, so that was a completely new experience. And that's not it. Now I want another boy, but I'm going to wait until Emily's finished her degree, we'll get married and then we'll go for a boy.

*Family is everything to me* and I'll tell you why. Good friends in life stay but friends come and go, but family are there through absolutely everything. They are your backbone. I'm so grateful how close we all are. My family will give me a good smack around the head if they think I'm not being right or respectful, and I appreciate that.

• Peter Andre's new song, Kid, is Britain's official track for the new DreamWorks animation Mr Peabody & Sherman, which is in cinemas from today Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.

This is Devon -- A rapist has been jailed after being caught by new DNA techniques 30 years after he carried out a brutal sex attack on a teenage girl. Sam Robinson thought he had escaped justice for the 1984 rape but his victim was haunted by her ordeal and pleaded with police to reopen the cold case. Modern forensic science enabled experts to find traces of the attacker's DNA in tiny pieces of cloth worn by the 17-year-old victim on the night of the attack. Robinson was on the national DNA database and was tracked down by police after scientists found a perfect match. He was just 17 when he attacked the girl as she walked home through the grounds of Oldway Mansion in Paignton at midnight after having a row with her boyfriend. In the intervening years he moved away from Devon, was invalided out of the army, and moved to Southampton where he set up a new life as a respectable lecturer teaching marine technology to apprentices on college courses. His past finally caught up with him when he was found guilty of the attack almost 30 years after and jailed for 18 years. He was caught because he ended the victim's 40 minute ordeal by forcing her to have oral sex under threat of death. The traces ended up on her shirt from her hands and mouth when she put on her clothes as she ran home in terror. Robinson, 47, who lived at Higher Polsham Road at the time but now lives in Brookside, Totton, near Southampton, denied two counts of rape and one of indecent assault. He was found guilty of all counts and jailed for 18 years by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC. He told him: "In 1984 the police were unable to identify the attacker and closed the case. Much to her credit she had the courage to go to the police again in 2012 and ask then to reopen the case and use the DNA techniques now available. "As a result you were detected and a full DNA profile matched your profile on the data base. "This was an extremely violent incidence of rape and one of the worst I have seen in many years on the bar and as a Judge. "It was a prolonged sexual attack on a young woman who was forced to submit through violence and who was bleeding from the injuries to her head throughout the assault. These were repeated rapes aggravated by violence. "I wish to commend the victim for her exceptional courage and strength of mind which she demonstrated at the time and again as a witness in this case. "She gave a remarkable account of her awful ordeal and has described in her victim impact statement the very significant effects this has had on her. "She has my sympathy and I hope that her attacker being identified and sent to prison will bring her some solace and closure. "It is very interesting how DNA has become a useful and impressive tool in detecting crime even so many years after the original offence." During a week-long trial the court heard how the victim was a petite 17-year-old and Robinson a fit six-footer when he attacked her from behind and battered her around the head with a shoe. He forced her to go to a secluded area of gardens where he calmly ordered her to strip and raped her. He then told her to pick up her clothes and dragged her in a headlock naked through the grounds of the mansion to an ornamental garden where he raped her twice. His final act was to tell her that he would kill her unless he had oral sex with her and to force her into a painful and humiliating act which lasted five minutes. The victim was inspired to write to the police after reading of another trial in Plymouth in 2011 in which a cold case was solved by new DNA techniques. Robinson accepted the DNA was his but denied the rapes. He said his DNA may have come onto her clothes accidentally after he had been in the gardens earlier in the evening. Reported by This is 9 hours ago.

Actor known for swashbuckling, wisecracking roles has muscled in on Hollywood's top table with role in Dallas Buyers Club

With the Academy Awards taking place on 2 March, a once almost unthinkable name has edged to the front of the best actor pack: Matthew McConaughey, once the bronzed clown prince of the romcom. His film Dallas Buyers Club, which hits British cinemas this weekend, has already won him top prizes at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards. The Oscar narrative, for what it's worth, has his name pencilled in.

He plays Ron Woodroof, a roguish character with Aids who starts importing drug treatments, and generated many faux-concerned tabloid headlines for his gaunt appearance. His performance is far more than mere body shock, however.

"It's such a compelling, grand performance, that it bursts out of the seams of the film," says Danny Leigh, of the BBC's Film 2014. "It's one of those roles where in 25 years' time, as soon as McConaughey's name is mentioned, people will reach for this film."

Even relatively emaciated, McConaughey is the quintessential Southern man. Traditionally handsome, he chews gum as it was meant to be chewed, and speaks with vowels that stretch and yawn like a cat.

This charm carved out his own corner of the movie business. He played swashbuckling, wisecracking action lunks – a nice turn in dragon B-movie Reign of Fire segued into the disastrous neo-western Sahara, which lost over $120m (£73m) when it could have cemented him as a true A-lister. There was a notably manic comedy role in Tropic Thunder, and this mode can currently be seen in his Wolf of Wall Street cameo, an idiot-sage calmly addicted to cocaine and masturbation.

His bread and butter, though, was the romantic comedy. Time and again you would see him gazing from the side of a bus, eyebrows wrinkled into "whaddaya expect" dopeyness, and generally leaning on his co-stars who included, lucratively and repeatedly, Kate Hudson. It was a formula, and while banal, he perfected it into delicious empty calories. As Leigh says: "He will make hay with roles – no matter how good, bad or indifferent the films are, he will always be worth watching."

But he began to use his looks differently. The beautiful aren't expected to do ugly things, and audiences wriggle with perverse delight when they do; McConaughey seems to understand this, and has excelled in roles where he subverts his own face and body.

This approach actually launched his career with Dazed and Confused, an early film from Richard Linklater whose Before Midnight is also Oscar-nominated this year. McConaughey plays David Wooderson, a sexist young buck who's still gorgeous, but knows that he doesn't have the smarts to get out of his small town. His iconic line "that's what I love about these high-school girls, man: I get older, they stay the same age", is capped with a laugh of panic and self-loathing – an unforgettable moment. He was rarely given the chance to flex this particular dramatic muscle as romcom and action cameras gazed at the rest of his physique, but in recent years he's bulked it up again.

His closeted masochist in The Paperboy might have seemed like a cheap demolition of his constructed image were his portrait not so vivid; he again played with our expectations in Magic Mike, playing a ripped male stripper who, like Wooderson, is teetering on the edge of pathetic irrelevance. The gem of this fertile period is Killer Joe, where McConaughey lurks out of the screen as a perverted cop, using his sexuality like a cudgel.

"I'm enjoying acting. I want to go act. Right now I want to be an actor for hire," he told the Guardian's Andrew Pulver as that film was released. That eagerness to flesh out a role has led him to Rust Cohle, the lead in his current TV series True Detective, and where even a decade ago this might have seemed like career stagnancy, in the Netflix age it's an opportunity to paint on a big canvas.

And so to Dallas Buyers Club, which succeeds first because of its universalism. As McConaughey said this week: "It's not about dying, it's about living. What's the greatest opposition you can have? Death. And how do you beat it, how do you stay alive and keep it at bay?" This is fundamental stuff that always plays well with the Academy. But there is nothing contrived about it; McConaughey's naturalism is its other great success, and what will save him from a bland career. On Woodroof, he told the Guardian that "if we keep him a sonofabitch, the humanity will reveal itself, the crusader will reveal itself … [we] don't try and make it a message movie."

In the romcom story arc that is his life thus far, an Oscar for a quality drama will be seen as the moment he finally turns back to the girl he truly loves – but like romcoms, this is too reductive for an indelible actor. Where McConaughey was once led by the spurious conflict and pat resolutions of Hollywood fodder, he's now writing his own story. Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.

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