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Michael Palin says he was saved by elderly neighbour after accidentally setting house on fire

Monty Python star was recovering from open-heart surgery when he says incident took place




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Ellen DeGeneres' Oscars bodyguard accuses host of being 'cold, sly and demeaning'

He claimed only approved celebrities were permitted to talk to host at awards after party




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Gangs of London viewers outside UK call for subtitles as they can't understand British accents

'Without subtitles and the British accent, its a no from me'




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The Apprentice's Lottie Lion apologises after impersonating fellow candidate in 'racist' Instagram video

Lion says she meant it as 'light entertainment for fans during these difficult times'




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James Corden and Trevor Noah praised for paying furloughed staff members out of own pockets

News comes as Ellen DeGeneres allegedly leaves 'distressed' staff members in the dark




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Gogglebox's Malone family defend themselves from viewer complaints over social distancing

Many are confused as to how show can continue despite lockdown




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VE Day: A Nation at Peace review – coronavirus lends a grim relevance to this sobering documentary

What was probably intended as a relaxing Sunday-night nostalgia-fest has become something else entirely during lockdown




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John Oliver on coronavirus testing in the US: 'What the f*** happened?'

TV host went into a detailed analysis of the low testing rate in the US amid the coronavirus pandemic




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How I Met Your Mother: Cobie Smulders defends show's controversial ending

The show ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2014




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Samuel L Jackson yells compliments at neighbours on Some Good News: 'Hey! Your shirt matches your dog!'

Actor took part in the latest episode of Krasinski's YouTube show




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The Last Dance: Obama on-screen description updated after it was dubbed 'disrespectful'

Former US president described as merely 'Former Chicago Resident' in previous episodes of series




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Susanna Reid sends best wishes to Piers Morgan after experiencing coronavirus symptoms

Morgan is awaiting test results after experiencing 'mild' symptoms




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Rick and Morty season 4: UK viewers ask when episode 6 will be shown

Adult Swim show returned in the US last night (2 May)




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Homeland season 8 showrunner reveals 'contentious' Carrie and Saul story that was scrapped after several tries

'We tried to tell that story, but it defeated us every time'




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Normal People star Paul Mescal addresses criticism of 'pornographic' sex scenes

'We worked very hard to make it feel like it was a real, accurate and truthful representation of sex amongst young people today,' said the actor




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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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This Is England creator Shane Meadows says he wants to do another series, set around the millennium

'I'd love to do a millennium one'




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Hollywood: Cast of Netflix series were fitted for prosthetic penises ahead of full frontal sex scenes

'Uber-salacious' scenes were ultimately not filmed, with star Darren Criss revealing the show chose to instead emphasise 'the heart and the hope'




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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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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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Strictly Come Dancing: Brendan Cole says show is 'hideous' when dancers and celebrity partners don't get on

Judge Craig Revel Horwood recently said 2020 series could go ahead without studio audience




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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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Sopranos creator David Chase writes coronavirus-themed scene in which Tony is alive

Character's fate was famously left ambiguous at the end of the seminal gangster drama




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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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Coronation Street will address coronavirus crisis when filming resumes

Production on the soap was suspended in March




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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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How I Met Your Mother: Cobie Smulders' finale defence reignites hatred for ending

'Is there anyone on Earth who enjoys the ending?'




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Stephen Fry lends voice to children's mindfulness app from BBC

The app aims to help young children look after their mental health




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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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Becoming, review: Michelle Obama's Netflix documentary gives emotion without intimacy

Ninety minutes in the company of the former first lady is like an inspirational infomercial, says Annie Lord




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Courteney Cox 'loved playing overweight Monica' in Friends because she 'felt free'

Actor also revealed her favourite episodes of the sitcom




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Netflix secret codes: How to access hidden films and TV shows on streaming service

There are loads of titles you didn't know were on the streaming service




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David Attenborough: 15 of the naturalist's best quotes

In celebration of his 94th birthday




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'Love in the Time of Corona': Coronavirus romance series filmed entirely remotely to air this summer

Show promises a 'funny and hopeful look at the search for love, sex and connection during this time of social distancing'




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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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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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From 'Glee' to 'The Eddy', why are TV musicals so few and far between?

In our current climate, we need the escapism of musicals more than ever, writes Isobel Lewis. So why haven't television networks jumped on the bandwagon?




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Chrissy Teigen admits she feels 'crappy' after comments by food writer Alison Roman

Food writer Alison Roman accused Teigen of having people 'run a content farm' for her




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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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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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Dave Greenfield: putting beauty at the rotten heart of the Stranglers

The keyboardist, who has died aged 71 of coronavirus, upended the rules of punk with organ arpeggios and a moustache – and pointed the way to post-punk

Music writer Pete Paphides’ recent memoir, Broken Greek, contains a vivid description of its seven-year-old author encountering the Stranglers for the first time, during a 1977 Top of the Pops appearance. “They landed in the living room while I was totally unsupervised,” he writes, “and scared the shit [out] of me. By now I would have seen images of punk rockers … but they looked like circus entertainers compared to [the Stranglers]. They looked too old to be punk. They looked like the sort of people you pass in the street and your mother puts her arm round you, stares at the pavement and doubles her walking speed … The point at which it all got too much was when the camera cut to Dave Greenfield – who has died from Covid-19 aged 71 – jabbing his keyboard while looking straight ahead with what seemed, beyond doubt, to be the eyes of a murderer, an effect somehow compounded by the army-surplus boiler suit he had decided to wear. Just like that, my list of phobias had got a little longer: worms, biting into mushrooms, insects, the fibreglass King Kong which stood next to a ring road in Birmingham city centre and, now, Dave Greenfield from the Stranglers.”

It’s funny writing, but it’s also very incisive about the Stranglers: in real life Greenfield was, by all accounts, the band’s most approachable and charming member, but otherwise Paphides has it spot-on. The Stranglers complained relentlessly about not being accepted by the punk cognoscenti, but what did they expect? They didn’t look like punks, particularly Greenfield, who defiantly sported that least punk of facial accoutrements, a moustache. They were old, at least by the standards of the day, old enough to have the kind of musical pasts it was wise to keep your mouth shut about in the scorched-earth environment created by the Sex Pistols: Hugh Cornwell had played bass in a band with Richard Thompson, later of Fairport Convention; Greenfield had been in a prog rock band called Rusty Butler.

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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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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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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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538: Daily presidential tracking polls...


538: Daily presidential tracking polls...


(Third column, 20th story, link)