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Love Island cancelled: ITV axes summer series over coronavirus risk

Producers have reportedly found it impossible to arrange filming amid the coronavirus pandemic




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Rick and Morty fans confused by coronavirus joke in latest episode

Viewers have questioned how the hit animated series seemingly 'knew about coronavirus nine months ago'




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Star Wars actor Anthony Daniels 'fell deeply, deeply asleep' watching Rise of Skywalker for the first time

Daniels played the uptight robot C-3PO in all nine core Star Wars films




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Nicolas Cage to play Tiger King star Joe Exotic in new scripted TV series

Cat trader previously said he wanted Brad Pitt to portray him




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Isolation Stories review, episode one: Sheridan Smith shines in first TV drama made under lockdown

The actors were directed over Zoom for the ambitious four-part ITV series – and judging by the inaugural episode, the results are laudable




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Black Mirror series 6 looks unlikely as creator Charlie Brooker hints he will switch back to comedies

'I don't know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I'm not working away on one of those'




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Tiger King: John Finlay stars in advert for animal print emergency prep kit

Finlay was married to Joe Exotic during filming of 'Tiger King'




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The Mandalorian: Spy Kids filmmaker Robert Rodriguez confirmed as season 2 director

Announcement followed a day of newly revealed Star Wars projects




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Normal People doubles BBC Three opening week record

21.8 million people requested the show on BBC iPlayer in its opening week




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Charlie Brooker hopes coronavirus pandemic won't make 'psychotic strongman politicians more secure'

Writer also said he has no plans for further episodes of 'Black Mirror'




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Tiger King's Joe Exotic reportedly set to ask Trump for a presidential pardon

US president had previously suggested he would 'take a look' at the scandalous case




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Craig Revel Horwood says Strictly Come Dancing could film without live audience under lockdown

The show is due to return in September




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Ricky Gervais says he negotiated with 15 lawyers and executives over how to refer to Judi Dench's genitals at the Golden Globes

Comedian made the off-colour quip after the veteran actor starred in 'Cats'




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Mick Jagger performs mundane tasks in spoof quarantine PSA on Jimmy Fallon's show

Rolling Stone can herd sheep, chop vegetables, and perform a few repairs




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Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel hit back at Trump after Twitter attacks: 'Now get back to work royally f***ing everything up'

Trump took time away from coronavirus crisis to call Kimmel 'wacko' in a social media rant




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Kirstie Allsopp defends decision to film in Devon during lockdown after accusations she put locals at risk

Presenter said she is 'proud' of craft show despite criticism




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Kevin Spacey compares his downfall to people struggling in pandemic in newly surfaced video

Actor said he had to ask himself 'who am I?' after his 'world completely changed'




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How Ryan Murphy convinced Macaulay Culkin to star in American Horror Story

Murphy pitched the role to the 'Home Alone' star over the phone




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My Secret Terrius: Netflix show predicted coronavirus outbreak with alarming accuracy in 2018

It's the most accurate one yet




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Coronavirus: The Masked Singer costume designer is making PPE for NHS staff

'I have just got to keep going, making sure other people are going to be alright,' said Tim Simpson




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'Get back in your own area': Holly Willoughby forgets about social distancing on This Morning

Presenter said she was 'genuinely sorry' for blunder




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Lenny Henry's daughter posed as comedian and sent 'manipulative' false messages in attempt to win back boyfriend

Billie Henry was given a five-year restraining order




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National Treasure series from Jerry Bruckheimer coming to Disney+

A third film is also in the works




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Frances Quinn: Great British Bake Off winner 'banned from Waitrose' after being accused of shoplifting

Show's 2013 winner was approached by store detectives after she appeared to not pay for her shopping




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Pete Davidson fan delivered drugs to comedian's mother's house during lockdown

Davidson is currently quarantining in his mother's basement




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Elon Musk says he's selling all his possessions so people can't attack him for being a billionaire

Tesla CEO is back on Joe Rogan's podcast




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Have I Got News For You: David Tennant jokes that Eamonn Holmes lives in a 'tin foil bungalow'

Holmes came under fire for giving validity to a conspiracy theory linking 5G to coronavirus




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Andrew Scott took Fleabag role to stop being typecast as a villain

Scott was best known for playing Moriarty opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in 'Sherlock'




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The Eddy review: Damien Chazelle's jazz drama sounds wonderful but the plot feels like an afterthought

Director's new series stars Andre Holland as a once-famous American jazz pianist who has been unable to play since his son died




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Tiger King's 'Texas-sized' team asks Donald Trump to pardon Joe Exotic

Joseph Maldonado-Passage was sentenced in January to 22 years in prison




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Phillip Schofield shares family photo during lockdown, appears to contradict reports he's moved out

TV presenter, wife Stephanie and their daughters played a game of Murder Mystery




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Miriam Margolyes shocks fans after admitting she 'had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die' during coronavirus battle

Actor is famous for making her opinions known during interviews




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Car Seat Headrest: Making a Door Less Open review – Will Toledo in yet another guise

(Matador)
The indie maverick is a purveyor of all styles on his studiously eclectic 12th album

There’s a strange psychological cross-pollination going on behind the mask that Will Toledo, the artist mostly known as Car Seat Headrest, sports on the cover of his 12th album. Indulging an alter ego called Trait, Making a Door Less Open seeks out deliberately eclectic hybrids of his wry, lo-fi indie rock style (heir to the likes of Beck, Lou Barlow and Eels) and the satirical EDM he and his drummer Andrew Katz make as 1 Trait Danger. The result is much better than anyone who’s heard the latter, who often veer perilously close to a Bloodhound Gang remix project, might expect: Can’t Cool Me Down has a sultry 80s electropop feel, while the roil of self-deprecation and naked emotion on There Must Be More Than Blood underlines Toledo’s debt to LCD Soundsystem.

The new styles don’t all gel. The sleazy, fuzzy synth-rocker Hollywood is pleasingly punchy, but brought down by facile lyrics (apparently Tinsel Town isn’t the dreamland it’s cracked up to be – who knew?). Two sister songs – the lumpen alt-rock Deadlines (Hostile) and the Hot Chip-with-extra-dour Deadlines (Thoughtful) – fail to charm, while What’s With You Lately is a wan, mopey strum that seems to have wandered in from an entirely different, very bad record. But on the likes of the pulsing, uplifting Famous and Life Worth Missing, Toledo finds new energy.

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Brian Howe, hard rock singer who fronted Bad Company, dies aged 66

Singer who also worked with Ted Nugent and Megadeth dies at Florida home of a heart attack

Brian Howe, the singer who fronted the British rock supergroup Bad Company for eight years, has died aged 66. He had a heart attack at his Florida home.

Howe’s manager Paul Easton said: “It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce the untimely passing of a loving father, friend and musical icon.”

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Kemistry & Storm – the tragic story of the drum'n'bass originals

As a pioneering female DJ duo, the two best friends were integral to the rise of the 90s dance scene, before a car accident changed everything. Storm talks about the soul sister she lost

Storm remembers the sound of glass shattering, but not how many seconds or minutes had passed before she realised something awful had happened. A 4.5kg metal cat’s eye had been dislodged from the road ahead by a passing van, and had smashed through their car windshield on the passenger side. It left Kemistry – her best friend and partner in one of the UK’s most pioneering drum’n’bass outfits – with devastating injuries. Minutes later, she died.

“I’ve had some really dark times and really dark thoughts,” says Storm, 20 years on from the accident. “Thoughts about me not being here, about going to join her.”

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Tony Allen: the Afrobeat maverick who blazed a trail across the globe

The Nigerian musician was a restless creator who embraced the physicality of drumming and innovated until the end

Few musicians can claim to have invented a revolutionary rhythm, but then few are quite like the late Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen. Brian Eno called him “the greatest drummer that ever lived”, citing his style alongside James Brown’s funk breakbeat and the constant pulse of German band Neu! as the “three great beats of the 1970s”. Allen’s swirl of jazz, Yoruba and highlife was unlike anything the world had ever heard: a full-body polyrhythmic workout that would give most drummers sore wrists just thinking of it.

Allen came to prominence in Lagos alongside Fela Kuti. He started drumming in the late 50s while working at a radio station, looking to jazz icons such as Art Blakey and Max Roach for inspiration as he taught himself to play. In 1964 he met Kuti and they spent the next half-decade fine-tuning their fusion of west African party music and American funk and jazz, in the bands Koola Lobitos and, by 1969, Africa ’70. While Kuti, who died in 1997, is more well-known than his musical soulmate, he said that “without Tony Allen there would be no Afrobeat”.

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Florian Schneider: the enigma whose codes broke open pop music

The Kraftwerk co-founder remained a mystery even after death, but there is no doubting the impact he made with his group’s sublime, visionary music

Florian Schneider’s death came shrouded in a degree of secrecy. Gossip among fans about his health was first provoked at the end of April, when his fellow former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür posted a sweet photo on social media of him and Schneider together in a bar, without explanation.

It had apparently been taken in 2016 – a decade and a half after Schneider and fellow founder member Ralf Hütter had served Flür with a lawsuit provoked by his autobiography I Was a Robot – and was subsequently deleted from Flür’s Facebook page. Then, a week later, another electronic musician based in Germany, the Manchester-born Mark Reeder, posted a brief eulogy; one commenter claimed that Schneider had died “several days ago”.

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JoJo: Good to Know review – mature pop from a clear-eyed star

(Clover Music)
With this long-awaited fourth album, the former teen idol has finally arrived as the kind of artist she was always meant to be

‘Look at me now” is a fitting opening line for Good to Know, the fourth studio album from R&B singer JoJo. The artist has been on a storied journey through the music industry and the public eye: first emerging as the 13-year-old singer of Leave (Get Out), she then spent years mired in legal disputes with her label that prevented her releasing music. After reigniting her passionate fanbase with a string of independent, darker-sounding mixtapes (and one viral Drake cover), she released Mad Love, her long-delayed third album, in 2016. But Good to Know, released on her own imprint Clover Music, with its themes of independence and self-knowledge, carries with it a sense that she has finally arrived as the kind of artist she was always meant to be.

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Ghostpoet: I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep review – dark but defiant

(Pias)
Since his last outing, the south London musician and producer has eased up and moved to Margate. Yet this atmospheric return still carries the weight of the world

Ghostpoet – the brooding alias of south London-born Obaro Ejimiwe – is roughly a decade old this year. This dour bard has long been an artist ahead of his time. A track such as Cash and Carry Me Home, one of the highlights of his eclectic, jazz-inflected debut album – 2011’s Peanut Butter Blue and Melancholy Jam – defied genre as it mourned the self-inflicted pain of one drink too many. It now locates Ghostpoet as roughly adjacent to the south London jazz renaissance of the past few years – a multi-hyphenate scene in which most things go. Were it to be released today, its languorous, self-aware aperçus would find an even more receptive audience.

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Car Seat Headrest: Making a Door Less Open review – cult indie star in middle of the road | Alexis Petridis' album of the week

(Matador)
Will Toledo’s alt-rockers have emerged out of lo-fi fuzz, but seem unsure of where to turn as they drift toward the mainstream

Anyone wondering how things have changed in the world of lauded US alt-rockers Car Seat Headrest might consider the four years that separate Making a Door Less Open from their last album of new material. Ordinarily there would be nothing unusual about that gap – but in the first four years of Car Seat Headrest’s existence, its mastermind, Will Toledo, released seven albums (one of them a two-hour double), four EPs (one of them as long as an album) and two compilations of outtakes. That’s more than 150 songs and 12 hours of music: a lo-fi spewing forth of ideas that won Toledo a cult following, which then grew exponentially, both in size and rabidity, when he recruited a band and signed to the august US indie label Matador.

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Drake: Dark Lane Demo Tapes review – rap’s whingeing king hits a dead end

OVO
There are flashes of skill and rawness in this odds-and-ends mixtape but it feels like a clumsy lunge at commercial success

In a world where the boundary between mixtapes and albums is becoming ever more blurred, the title of Drake’s latest album highlights its interstitial nature. That said, it’s still slightly misleading. There are tracks here that sound like demos – the mopey James Blake-isms of Chicago Freestyle are audibly unpolished – but for the most part, it ’s a way of collecting up leftovers and leaks, spare tracks he apparently has lying around the studio.

Those inclined to view Drake’s career with a cool eye might be surprised he has any spare tracks lying around the studio, given the state of his last album. Listening to Scorpion, 25 songs long, required a certain degree of mental stamina: you needed to steel yourself against the panicky sensation that you might die of old age before it ended. But it wasn’t the sheer quantity that was the problem so much as the quality of what was there. Scorpion had its moments but was so hopelessly uneven that it was easy to buy into the theory that its length was not due to its author’s teeming multiplicity of fantastic ideas, but an attempt to game the streaming services: more songs means more streams, more streams means a higher chart placing.

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Watkins Family Hour: Brother Sister review – a model of sibling harmony

(Family Hour/Thirty Tigers)
Sean and Sara Watkins are back and in reflective mood

California’s Sean and Sara Watkins are akin to royalty in American folk circles, firstly as founding members of the hugely successful Nickel Creek, and secondly as hosts of an 18-year residency at LA’s Largo club, where they perform alongside invited guests. Brother Sister draws on both strands of their history. Like its self-titled 2015 predecessor, the album sets aside the pizzazz of Nickel Creek for a down-home approach, but instead of boisterous, star-studded cover versions come five original songs and a minimal musical palette.

Alternating on lead, the pair’s vocals remain a model of sibling harmony, while the interplay between Sean’s intricate guitar picking and Sara’s elegant fiddle is similarly impressive – the breakneck bluegrass instrumental Bella and Ivan is a case in point. Mostly, however, the mood is reflective. Lafayette and Miles of Desert Sand chronicle the search for a better life, and Fake Badge, Real Gun is an artful snipe at Trump – “Throw your tantrums but the truth will be waiting”. Warren Zevon’s forlorn Accidentally Like a Martyr fits in neatly, while Charley Jordan’s ribald Keep It Clean is a gleeful example of a Largo session.

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Car Seat Headrest: from indie recluse to gas mask-wearing party starter?

US indie rock maverick Will Toledo is back with an experimental album that finds him collaborating with his own electronic side project

You cannot accuse Car Seat Headrest, AKA Will Toledo, of taking the easy route. Four years on from the release of breakthrough record Teens of Denial, Toledo is back with new album Making a Door Less Open, only now he is going under the name Trait and is wearing a gas mask in photos. Toledo’s restless and impassioned indie rock is looking a little different, too. The new album blends his classic songwriting chops with a bold exploration of electronic textures. This is the result of essentially making the album twice: once as Car Seat Headrest, and again alongside producer Andrew Katz as their jokey EDM side project 1 Trait Danger, before landing on a middle ground.

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips

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Paul Heaton: 'Love feels like someone is hitting your heart with a cricket bat'

The musician on DIY smooching, dinner parties and why he won’t do interviews between 1.45pm and 2.15pm

Raised in Sheffield, Heaton, 57, founded the Housemartins in the early eighties. They had hit singles with Happy Hour and Caravan Of Love before splitting in 1988. Heaton then formed the Beautiful South, releasing 10 albums before disbanding in 2007. With former band member Jacqui Abbott, Heaton has released three albums, the most recent being Manchester Calling. He is married with three children and lives in Manchester.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Forgetfulness.

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50 Cent on love, cash and bankruptcy: ‘When there are setbacks, there will be get-backs’

Curtis Jackson was shot nine times before becoming one of the world’s biggest rappers. He discusses growing up, getting rich and the art of the hustle

Curtis Jackson has downsized. The rapper/actor/businessman, better known as 50 Cent, used to live in a palace of a house formerly owned by Mike Tyson. Not any more. He has been in self-isolation for six weeks and is more than happy to make do with a three-bed apartment (on four floors, mind) in New York. He can’t remember when he was last in one place for so long, he says, and is learning about himself. “I’ve become a bit more comfortable with being in my own space. I don’t think being at home is a punishment.”

He bought the Tyson house after his triumphant first album; Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ shifted 12m copies in 2003, making it the bestselling album of the year. It was explosive – growling rap packed with threats, boasts and great songs such as In Da Club and Many Men.

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Kelly Lee Owens: ‘I still have to fight to not be seen as ‘just the singer’’

The Welsh nurse-turned-indie rocker is now one of electronic music’s best exponents. She talks proving herself, the NHS and climate-crisis bangers

Kelly Lee Owens is showing me her crumpled bed, pixelated on the screen. It is five weeks into quarantine and this has quickly become the norm: an interview with an artist in their close quarters; ambivalent levels of grooming. Neither of us is wearing makeup, and neither of us care. “You know what I read?” begins the electronic musician, incredulously. “This is bullshit. There’s a [Daily Mail] headline saying that women’s breasts will be sagging because they’re not going to be wearing bras during this lockdown. So what?! Leave me to my saggy breasts.”

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips

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Kim Petras's lockdown listening: 'My fans have truly kept me sane'

The cult pop star shares her self-isolation favourites, including Dua Lipa’s disco and Daft Punk’s dystopias

Isolation has definitely been a test, but I’m really lucky: I’m able to work on new music while quarantined with my best friends in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. I’ve been super active on Twitter and Instagram, and playing Animal Crossing and Mario Kart with my fans after sharing my Nintendo Switch codes online – it’s really important for me to check in on my fans as I worry about them a lot. They have truly kept me sane, so I’m keeping an eye open for anybody that needs to talk.

Related: Belle and Sebastian's lockdown listening: 'I have a dance-off with my kids every night'

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Ty: a dextrous artist who wove threads of UK rap culture together

Ty, who has died aged 47 of coronavirus, was a sharp and witty MC who ably nourished the UK hip-hop scene despite being ignored by the media

The death of British rapper Ty, aged 47, to complications from coronavirus came as a shock because it had appeared he was on his way to recovery after being moved out of intensive care. And for those of us who grew up with Ty’s voice circling our bedrooms, the shock resonates: this is an artist who touched so many with his humour and sharpness on the mic.

While all eyes were on grime in the early 2000s, Ty was charting a journey to a frontier that had yet to be fully explored. In 2001, he released his debut album, Awkward, on Big Dada, one of the few labels that would give a home to UK hip-hop acts such as Roots Manuva, Juice Aleem and Speech Debelle. It was the year of era-defining US albums such as Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and Nas’s Stillmatic, when the mainstream had gone the way of the shiny suit. But across the Atlantic, Ty ushered in the UK’s own hip-hop golden age, leaning towards the genre’s soul, jazz and funk origins.

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