Tributes paid to ‘deeply loved’ man who went missing during Christmas Day swim

One of the two men who were swept away at sea during a Christmas Day swim in Devon has been named by his family.

Local antiques shop owner Matthew Upham was reported missing on Thursday morning after a “truly tragic incident” in Budleigh Salterton.

Emergency services were called to the scene after several people were reported struggling among large waves at the beach. Several were escorted to safety, but a man in his forties and a man in his sixties remain missing as of Boxing Day and have not been located.

After an extensive search, the operation was concluded on Thursday afternoon and the families of those missing were informed.

Mr Upham’s family wrote in a statement on his company’s Instagram page on Friday: “Our family is heartbroken by the loss of our beloved family member, Matthew Upham, who was reported missing on Christmas morning.

“Matthew is deeply loved and will be forever missed.”

It continued: “We would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to the emergency services who responded, particularly the RNLI and coastguard for their dedication, professionalism, and tireless efforts during this extremely difficult time.

“We are profoundly grateful for their compassion and support. As we grieve and support one another, we kindly ask that our family’s privacy is respected. We thank everyone for their understanding, kindness, and condolences.”

A second man in his 40s, who has not been identified, is feared to have drowned while trying to save him, according to the Daily Mail.

Mr Upham ran the appointment-only Matthew Upham Antiques on Budleigh Salterton’s high street, offering “a captivating assortment of chandeliers sourced from various regions across Europe”.

His website also stated that the chandeliers offered by the business “beautifully complement our collection of 18th-century furniture, creating a harmonious blend of timeless elegance”.

The shop had originally been based in London for four decades before moving to the seaside town.

Tributes poured in for the businessman, with commenters describing him as “the kindest person” and a “shining star”.

The incident came amid a Met Office yellow weather warning for wind, which was in place for parts of southwest England and Wales on Thursday. Police urged members of the public to avoid swimming in the water on Boxing Day.

Footage from the day shows several people struggling to get out of the water as large waves crash against the shore.

Mike Brown, 60, who does the Christmas Day swim in Budleigh Salterton most years, told the BBC that the conditions on Thursday were the “worst” he had ever seen.

The local resident said that he was “unable to get out” after entering the sea and was helped by “two very brave men”.

Detective Superintendent Hayley Costar, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “Today, emergency services have been responding to a truly tragic incident in Budleigh Salterton.

“Our thoughts remain firmly with the families and friends of the two men who are currently missing and to all who may have witnessed and be impacted by the incident. The local community will have seen a significant amount of emergency services in the area throughout the day as extensive enquiries have been ongoing.

“As dark falls, a number of these searches have been stood down, with some police enquiries on land continuing this evening.”

Coastguard rescue teams from surrounding areas were assisted by search and rescue helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with police and ambulance personnel.

Meghan and Harry lose 11th publicist in five years

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s chief communications officer has stepped down after less than a year in the job.

Meredith Maines, who started working for the Sussexes in March 2025, is believed to be the eleventh publicist in five years to exit the role after the couple stepped back from their roles as working royals and relocated to California in 2020.

A statement from Ms Maines read: “After a year of inspiring work with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Archewell, I will be pursuing a new opportunity in 2026. I have the utmost gratitude and respect for the couple and the team, and the good they are doing in the world.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have also parted ways with Method Communications, a US-based PR firm, after they announced a partnership seven months ago with the organisation that brands itself as a company that “challenges the status quo”.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said: “Meredith Maines and Method Communications have concluded their work with Archewell. The Duke and Duchess are grateful for their contributions and wish them well.”

Harry and Meghan are reportedly not looking to hire a replacement for Ms Maines, as it is understood that the UK and Europe director of communications, Liam Maguire, will take the lead instead.

This departure comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Philanthropies, formerly known as the Archewell Foundation, would cut staff as it closes down.

A spokesperson told People: “The move toward a fiscal sponsor operating model does mean that some staff redundancies are inevitable, particularly with junior admin roles.

“We will not be discussing these personnel details further, other than to say that we are honored to have worked with incredibly talented and caring people who dedicate themselves to helping others.”

Ms Maines was spotted in July speaking with senior aides working for the King outside a Mayfair private members’ club, as the Royal households appeared to take steps towards repairing their relationship.

A Stanford graduate with a background in venture capitalism, Ms Maines has previously worked for Hulu, GOOP and Google. It is unclear what she will do next.

Three communications officers stopped working for the Sussexes this summer, including Charlie Gipson and Kyle Boulia. Ashley Hanson, former global press secretary, stepped down a year ago to start her own consultancy firm after two years running the couple’s PR.

Stellan Skarsgård: ‘Truthfully, you can never be a good parent’

There is a scene in Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s Oscar-tipped family drama, in which an ageing director played by Stellan Skarsgård tells his estranged daughters, “You can’t write Ulysses driving to soccer practice.” Ostensibly, it’s an off-the-cuff comment about nobody in particular. Implicitly, it’s a defence of his own glaring absence from their lives growing up. Neither of the women are buying it.

For what it’s worth, the actor playing Gustav agrees with the statement. “It’s true. You cannot,” says Skarsgård, on a layover in London before flying back to Sweden for the holidays. The 74-year-old star of Mamma Mia!, Chernobyl and Dune is not ashamed to say he wasn’t the sort of dad to stick around at his kids’ football training. “It would be so boring,” he huffs with some melodrama. “I would die.”

The tug of war between art and family is one of many conflicts in Sentimental Value. In it, Skarsgård’s Gustav attempts to reconcile with his grown-up daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Nora, a successful theatre actor, is caught off guard when he offers her the principal part in a film he has written for her. When she refuses, he casts a young American star (Elle Fanning) who becomes an unwitting participant in this family’s decades-long discord.

The film received a 19-minute standing ovation when it premiered this summer in Cannes; it scooped nine Golden Globe nominations and is considered a serious contender for next year’s Oscars. I speak with Trier and the cast across several weeks, some in person and others over Zoom from Norway. Lilleaas phones from her car in Oslo; elsewhere in the same city, Reinsve’s young son bounds over to show his mother a drawing mid-conversation.

“Sorry,” Reinsve says, admiring the artwork and scruffing his hair before sending him on his way. Reinsve is most famous for the self-searching 30-year-old she played in Trier’s prize-winning The Worst Person in the World. Released three years ago, that film awakened the world to Reinsve’s charms and skill on screen. She won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance, plus a Bafta nod.

Trier says he has since heard from some of the world’s most starry stars that they think Reinsve is phenomenal. Certainly, she is part of the reason Skarsgård signed on to the film. “She’s one of a generation, the kind of actor with translucence,” he says. “You can see all the feelings, what is going on inside; she can blush on cue.”

Working together again felt like the natural choice, Reinsve and Trier both say. He wrote Nora specifically for her, and indeed, she slips into the character so fluidly – Nora’s pain, humour, and prickliness conforming to her contours, the way water fills a vessel.

One hopes a similar breakout awaits Lilleaas, whose detailed, naturalistic performance as younger sister Agnes is among the film’s most touching. Unlike Nora, whose every facet of life feels coloured by her father’s abandonment, Agnes has found contentment working as a historian with a family of her own. Still, when Gustav comes crashing back into their lives, she finds herself bound by her identity as the family pacifist. And while Trier did not write Agnes for Lilleaas, the actor shaped the character in ways he did not foresee.

“We had been looking for someone who would be giggly and avoidant of emotion, someone who was trying to make everyone feel good, and Inga was not that,” says Trier. “She had a grounded sincerity, and I realised that’s much more interesting.” His comments chime with what Lilleaas told me a week earlier: “The role becomes a combination of you and the character – and it doesn’t have to be literal, but it is truthful.”

Lilleaas had initially been puzzled when her audition began with a 90-minute conversation about her life and backstory. Likewise, Fanning says she shared personal stories that Trier used to “rewrite my character a little”; when Rachel arrives in Oslo for rehearsals on Gustav’s film, she is out of place and out of sorts. She feels lost and is longing for something more meaningful, and hopes that this film will be it. As someone who has been acting since they were two, Fanning says she can empathise with those feelings of wanting more for yourself: “You can’t help but feel the ebbs and flows of being in this industry, and at times, feeling that defeat. I’ve certainly felt that before.” On what Trier sees in Reinsve for Nora’s character, Reinsve laughs and suggests she wouldn’t begin to pretend to understand.

As for Gustav, some men might be offended to learn that the role of an absent father and egocentric artist was written with them in mind. Skarsgård knows better. “It’s never an insult, because I don’t play myself usually,” he says. “I don’t think they can know my personality. And I never thought of Gustav as being like me in any way. Our situations are similar, but it’s totally different. Or at least, I thought so until my son saw the film and said to me, ‘You recognise yourself?’” He laughs. “I said, no! But of course, they see things that I don’t see – but you can never satisfy a kid. You can never be a good parent to a kid, because truthfully, they have things to complain about because we’re only human – and they’re not perfect either. So you’ve got to live with it.”

Unlike his character, Skarsgård has a good relationship with his eight kids, seven of whom have followed him into the business. But he admits now that he can see some parallels. “I realised more that maybe I wasn’t totally present when my kids were growing up,” he says, quickly adding, “but I have eight kids – it’s f***ing impossible.” Later, he says: “I have been very tolerant to my kids, and they have to be tolerant of me, too. I’ve let them go and do whatever they want, and they can let me go and do whatever I want.”

Family thinking no doubt impacts the way Trier runs his sets. “He is very family-oriented,” says Lilleaas. “We try to end on time so that people can go home. He’s very aware of what he’s asking people to sacrifice, because he’s making the same sacrifice.” It’s as much a result of having kids of his own – the home where they shot Sentimental Value was close enough to Trier’s apartment that he could be back for bedtime – as it is of having once also been a child, waiting for his parents to get home from set. Trier is a third-generation filmmaker, “so I know what it means”, he laughs.

These interviews all take place separately, but without fail, all four actors speak at length about trust and the unique way that Trier facilitates it through weeks of rehearsals. “The reason I do a lot of rehearsals with actors is not really to read the text or figure out the story, it’s to get into the groove of the trust thing, where they get accustomed to taking a risk doing something unexpected, and I catch them,” says Trier. “It’s like a trust fall exercise that you need to get warmed up.”

That trust fall is at the heart of his collaboration with Reinsve. “I know so deeply that I’ll be taken care of as an actor, so I can be free to mess up and f*** up a scene, or be really bad sometimes, because to be that free is very risky,” she says. “And it’s very scary. I wouldn’t dare doing that with anyone.” Likewise, Fanning says she can trust that Trier is “seeing everything you’re doing and what you’re trying to do, because he’s not off in a tent looking at a monitor; he’s right in the room with us in the scene.” It’s why Trier will never relinquish the final cut of his films. It’s not a power move with the studios, he insists, but “the actors put their trust in me, and if some third-party group would take that away, it would diminish that”.

Similarly, the point of the rehearsals is never to drill the scenes to perfection. “Joachim, he is very well prepared, but his preparations never become rigid,” notes Skarsgård. “He never says, ‘It’s like that. You should do it like this,’ but you investigate the role together. You feel relaxed and you can do anything.” In that way, Skarsgård continues, “this Trier is a lot like the other Trier”, referring to Danish director Lars von Trier, with whom he has worked several times. Skarsgård recalls walking onto the set of his first Von Trier film, 1996’s Breaking the Waves, and seeing a sign reading: “Make Mistakes.” There were no signs on the set of Sentimental Value, but the message was clear.

Trust and mistakes, and trusting someone enough to make mistakes, is how Trier hopes to capture something real. “You can allow yourself to go there, you don’t have to push to get to an emotion. You just see what comes up and that is very scary. But when you feel seen, you become very brave,” Reinsve says.

Skarsgård says pretty much the same: “As an actor, your experience gives you tools, but the tools are boring and the tools are dangerous because you can rely on them and make a film with your tools and think, ‘Oh, it looks pretty good.’ But it’s not good because it doesn’t have the irrationality of life.”

Trier will often give his actors the same note: “Go back to zero.” In his words, it means getting rid of intention. “Not using muscle memory but being brave enough to see if it can appear by itself.” Trier isn’t interested in seeing an actor’s quote-unquote skill, or – to borrow Skarsgård’s term – their tools. Going back to zero is how you get scenes like the one in which Agnes visits Nora’s apartment to convince her to read their father’s script. Talking afterwards, Nora asks her younger, more even-keeled sister how she emerged from their childhood seemingly less scathed. “I had you,” Agnes replies, weeping as she climbs onto the bed, hugs Nora and says, “I love you.” None of that was in the script.

All four actors have earned Golden Globe nominations for their performances, with Oscar nods perhaps soon to follow. It’s strange to think that for Skarsgård, whose career traverses more than a few watermarks, it could be his first. “I’ve done pretty well without them,” he laughs. “But of course it’s exciting and good for the film – and good for cinemas.” Skarsgård is speaking about Netflix, which is lightly spoofed in the film when Gustav sells his script to the streaming giant. “The biggest behemoth in the cinema industry is Netflix, who want only a one-week window for their films in cinemas,” says Skarsgård. Translation: “Kill the cinema! Netflix has an ambition to kill the cinema. It’s so f***ing scary.” He hopes the prestige and allure of the Oscars may help to keep Netflix at bay – and if he comes up against his actor son Alexander, in the running for his BDSM flick Pillion, this awards season? “The gloves are off.”

But before then, there is much campaigning to be done. In a stroke of marketing genius, at the film’s Cannes premiere, Fanning wore a T-shirt reading “Joachim Trier summer” – a play on the Charli xcx “Brat summer” memes proliferating at the time. So what does a Joachim Trier summer consist of? Trier laughs: “There was a newspaper that said it means walking into a party and feeling alone, or being melancholic in the morning, or lonely by the sea.” Maybe it is all of the above. Summer may be over, but as Fanning says: “I guess it’s a Joachim Trier autumn, winter, and spring, too.”

‘Sentimental Value’ is in cinemas

The fishermen battling to save rare corals on the Costa Brava

On a strip of calm blue water in the Costa Brava, a fisherman pulls a fluorescent orange stick from the sea.

We are in a boat in the waters off of Llança, a town near the Spanish-French border that heaves with British tourists in the summer months.

But far from the luxury hotels and restaurants, fishermen and marine biologists are battling to save corals, sponges and other creatures from the damage caused by climate change, pollution and overfishing.

Rising temperatures in the sea caused by climate change are decimating the coral, sponge and other marine creatures which live 50 metres below the surface, where the mercury can reach 25C. Pollution caused by clumps of wet wipes and other plastics has also accumulated in some areas.

Overfishing has had a dramatic effect on complex habitats, and some species, such as the precious red coral, which is commonly used for jewellery, have largely disappeared from the western Mediterranean.

In a bid to fight back, fishermen on the Costa Brava are saving any corals which come up in their nets as part of a new scheme started in 2022 with the help of marine biologists.

“If I want the sea to have any future, it makes sense to put something back, like these corals,” says Franc Ontiveros, a lifelong fisherman taking part in the project.

“Poor management of fishing stocks has been a problem but if I can do something to help then I would like to. I am not sure fishing has a future but at least if I do this, I will be trying to do something about it.”

Mr Ontiveros, 50, fishes for monkfish, mullet and hake but can haul tens of corals every day that he goes to sea. After they are plucked from the water, they are put in a bucket before being handed over to marine biologists. They are then kept in special aquariums, where they are assessed to see if they will survive.

The lucky ones are returned to the seas along the Catalan coast in special “no take” zones, where authorities track the activities of boats to make sure they do not fish.

Mr Ontiveros’s boat, which is based in Palamos, a Catalan fishing town famous for its prawns, is one of about 48 along this stretch of Spanish coastline that have joined this effort to protect threatened species.

The haul of corals depends on the type of fishing, boats and habitat. Those who go out for red shrimps catch very few, but fishermen who trawl for fish on sea shelves have a large haul.

Jordi Grinyó Andreu, a researcher at the Institute of Sea Sciences in Barcelona and an expert in seafloor ecology, has been working on the €3.6m (£3.15m) project since it started in 2022. It is partly funded by the European Union, with the rest of the funds coming from the Spanish government.

“These creatures are being decimated by climate change and the destruction of their natural habitats,” he says. “We have encouraged the fishermen to take part. As one said: ‘If I want my son to be a fisherman one day, I have to act now’.”

Mr Grinyó is passionate about the orange, pink and black corals he helps save with the fishermen.

“The coral populations in the Mediterranean have been under high threat. Some populations are stable, others are declining and some are critically endangered, like red coral and Isidella bamboo corals,” he adds.

Sadly, the fate of corals and sponges in the western Mediterranean is not an isolated one. Mr Grinyó says that seafloor ecosystems around the world face the same daunting future.

But researchers hope the knowledge gained from the scheme will help save these beautiful seafloor dwellers in other parts of the sea. New projects are expected to start in the Balearic Islands, near Cadiz and in Sicily.

Mr Grinyó says the cooperation between fishermen and marine biologists has given him hope for the future.

“This project shows that once fishermen and scientists work together, we can achieve great goals towards preserving marine ecosystems.

“In this sense, fishermen are a key component of the success of this project and they are working towards achieving a more sustainable form of fishing. Eventually the whole of society will benefit.”

Search continues for Spanish family after boat capsizes off Indonesian island

Four members of a Spanish family are missing after a boat carrying eleven people sank off the coast of Indonesia in extreme weather, Spanish and Indonesian authorities said.

The father and three of his children, who were on holiday in Indonesia, have been missing since Friday night when the boat capsized in waves of up to three metres in the Padar Island Strait near the island of Labuan Bajo, a popular tourist spot within the Komodo National Park.

Rescue teams searched the waters, still choppy with high waves and strong currents, from the early morning until 6pm local time, finding wreckage and debris of the boat.

Authorities halted the search overnight and will resume on Sunday morning local time Indonesia’s search and rescue agency SAR said in a statement.

The mother and one daughter from the Spanish family, as well as four crew members and a tour guide, were rescued and safe, the agency added.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed the operation taking place in rough seas. Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, and ferries and boats are a common form of transportation.

With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.

Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for its rugged landscapes, pristine beaches and the endangered Komodo dragon. The park attracts thousands of visitors for diving, trekking and wildlife tours.

Survivors were treated at the port office in Labuan Bajo city as strong waves up to 2.5 metres high and darkness hampered emergency responders overnight, Rahman said. As conditions improved Saturday morning, rescuers intensified the search, which involved multiple rescue units in rigid inflatable boats and a rescue ship with the assistance of local fishermen and residents.

It’s about experience: Further Education teachers share what it takes

In the modern world, many of us are working longer than ever. Research based on ONS Labour Market data found that there are almost one million more workers aged 65 and above since the millennium and the state pension is set to rise to 67 by 2028 and 68 by the late 2030s. Subsequently, having multiple careers is becoming increasingly popular. And after decades working in a specific industry, sharing the work-based knowledge you have gained via teaching in further education is one of the most rewarding career shifts you can make.

Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree) allows you to switch up your working days and harness the skills and experience you have developed, all while helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

To find out more about the role, from what it takes to the best parts of the job, we spoke to Further Education teachers who have switched from doing their day job to teaching it…

John Ryan, 51, from Weston Super Mare, worked for more than a decade on site in the construction industry, mainly in bricklaying and supervising roles, before an opportunity to become a Further Education assessor changed his path in his thirties. Travelling nationally to assess the work of new bricklayers in order to sign off their NVQs (National Vocational Qualification), the college John was associated with then started offering him some teaching work.

With no prior teaching qualifications, John completed these alongside his assessing and teaching roles with the fees picked up by the teaching college. “I liked the idea of passing on my knowledge and giving young people the skills and confidence to progress in a trade,” he says. “Teaching in Further Education felt like a natural next step because it would allow me to combine my practical background with coaching and mentoring.” There were practical draws too. “On site in the construction industry you are self-employed so you do not get holidays or sick pay. The stability of income and regular paid holidays was a big draw of Further Education teaching,” he adds.

Since his first assessing role 18 years ago, John has worked between assessing, teaching and jobs back on the construction site and now, he currently teaches bricklaying and groundwork full-time at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.

John’s extensive site and supervisory experience has proved to be hugely valuable when it comes to teaching his students there. “I can explain not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ behind industry standards,” he explains. “Learners often respond well to hearing about real jobs, site challenges, and the professional behaviours that employers expect. It makes the lessons more relatable and credible,” he shares.

“For example, I can share stories of accidents when teaching site safety, or explain how a mistake of a few millimetres on a construction site can cost you time to rectify, which in turn will cost you money,” he says. “These hands-on, real world experiences make the theory relatable and show learners the real value of getting it right.”

Coral Aspinall, 52, who became a full-time Further Education teacher 12 years ago, agrees. “My experience allows me to put my teaching into context,” she says. Coral started out her engineering career at 16 as an apprentice in a local engineering company. Following a BSc in Engineering and Business Management, she worked for many years in the engineering industry before enrolling on a part-time PGDE (Professional Graduate Diploma in Education) course for teaching. She’s now the Engineering Programme Leader at the Stockport campus of the Trafford and Stockport College Group. Here, they offer qualifications such as Level 2 Performing Engineering Operations as well as engineering-focused Level 3 T Levels and Level 3 Btec Awards. They also offer Level 3 apprenticeships across engineering including Technical Support, Engineering Fitter and Maintenance Management.

“Because I’ve been an engineering apprentice myself, I understand what the student needs to be successful in terms of skills, knowledge and behaviour,” she explains. “I also have contacts in the wider engineering community and understand what an employer is looking for in an apprentice, and can also share insights in terms of how the sector is shifting and evolving to help support their progress.”

Working for an extensive period of time in a field before passing on that knowledge gives teachers maturity and empathy which can be hugely helpful for students, especially those facing complex life situations.

Beyond the practical techniques, a big part of John’s role is helping learners build confidence, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills that employers look for. “Many of my learners have different challenges, so they value teachers who are approachable, who believe in them, and who prepare them for real opportunities in work or further study,” he says. For John, his previous work experience has allowed him to do this. “On site, I worked with people facing all sorts of pressures, from work to life issues, which taught me to be patient and supportive,” he explains.

Coral has had a similar experience. “I see my role as more than imparting knowledge; it is about preparing the young person for the next stage of their journey. The students trust me to have their best interests at heart; they come to me for advice on their next steps and how they can achieve their aspirations, and I’ll support them with both practical advice and words of encouragement.”

For Coral, teaching later in life allows her to draw from a mature perspective, and teach her students positive workplace behaviours alongside skills and knowledge. “Students thrive when they have clear unambiguous boundaries, so I’m firm around expectations in terms of timekeeping, attendance and attitude. This is particularly important to succeeding in the workplace as employers value these behaviours as much as, or even more than having specific expertise or know-how (which can generally be developed).”

If you’re looking for a fresh career option, and keen to share your skills with the next generation, Further Education teaching could be a really enriching new phase. Further Education covers a huge range of career sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, further education teachers share their years of real world industry skills with a diverse mix of people from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in further education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away.. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean you have to stop working in your chosen field. Further education offers hybrid opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have the best of both worlds, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule. Find out if it’s the right move for you here.

If, like John and Coral, you see the appeal in sharing the knowledge and skills you’ve developed with the next generation, exploring the option of becoming a Further Education teacher can be a great next step. As John shares, the reward is always worth it: “It never gets old passing on my knowledge to people starting on their journey, knowing I have made a difference and getting a smile and thanks in return!”

Looking for a new role that’s rewarding, flexible and draws on your current career? Why not consider sharing your experience where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

John Lydon claims Sex Pistols never contacted him after wife’s death

John Lydon has claimed his Sex Pistols bandmates did not contact him when his wife Nora Forster died.

The punk group’s former frontman – known as Johnny Rotten – lost his wife of nearly 50 years to Alzheimer’s in April 2023, and became her full-time carer two years after she received her diagnosis.

However, despite anticipating a message from guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook, Lydon has alleged he did not receive any form of message from the musicians, who are currently performing together with Frank Carter in Lydon’s place.

“I expected some kind of connection when Nora died, but nothing,” he said in a new interview with The Times.

The Independent has contacted The Sex Pistols for comment.

Lydon and Forster married in 1979. Speaking to The Times two months after Forster’s death, Lydon said it “has been much harder than he thought” to deal with the loss.

“I thought I would be able to handle this side of it, but it is, if anything, worse,” he said. “I like to sleep with Nora’s ashes in the cupboard next to the bed because there is no expectancy of meeting her in this life again.”

Reflecting on how he and Forster navigated their relationship despite his public profile, Lydon said: “I have seen relationships crash around me, especially when fame is involved, and I cannot help but think people were too flippant about their life partners.

“Nora and I argued a great deal, but the arguments were so stunning that they made life worthwhile, and we were always honest and open about everything.”

Elsewhere in the new interview, Lydon, who left Sex Pistols in 1979, hit out at the “terrible” 2022 biopic TV show, titled Pistol, directed by Danny Boyle.

Boyle didn’t consult Lydon about the project and previously said he didn’t want the punk musician to like it, a sentiment that left the musician feeling as if the director was “dismantling” the spirit of the raucous music genre.

“What kind of ambition is that?” he said. “It sounds like an act of spite rather than any character understanding.

Lydon continued: “Something in me wanted it to be good, but it might as well have been about the Partridge Family. I don’t like anything to do with it because I wasn’t asked to contribute.”

After leaving The Sex Pistols in 1979, Lydon formed Public Image Ltd, and sporadically reunited with the band in the 1990s and 2000s.

Injury-riddled Arsenal impressively lead Brighton in Premier League

Arsenal host Brighton this afternoon trying to stay top of the Premier League pile as 2026 rounds into view.

The Gunners have won their last two league matches but not in the same convincing manner they were earlier in the season – needing a Viktor Gyokeres penalty to beat Everton last time out, having required a 94th-minute own goal to scrape past winless Wolves in the previous fixture.

The sub-par performances will give Mikel Arteta cause for concern as Manchester City begin to breathe down their necks at the top of the table but Brighton are enduring their own struggles of late, having failed to record a victory in their last four games.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side are still ninth in the Premier League though and will pose the Gunners plenty of post-Christmas questions as they try to spring an upset.

Follow all the action with our live blog below: