Andrew Garfield has admitted that it felt like 'an honour' to be part of Doctor Who. The actor - who plays the title role in The Amazing Spider-Man - appeared in two episodes of the BBC's popular long-running family SF drama in 2007. 'The history of Doctor Who and the heritage and legacy of Doctor Who is huge,' Garfield said, in the latest edition of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews on BBC Radio 5Live. 
'It was an honour to be a part of that show, absolutely. And I'm so happy that everyone is now seeing Matt Smith for the incredible actor and Doctor that he is.' Garfield - who starred alongside Smith's predecessor David Tennant in the Daleks in Manhatten two-parter - called the current Doctor Who lead 'a friend' and 'a tremendous actor. I am so proud and happy for him,' Garfield said. 'He is being put to fantastic use, and giving so many people so much joy, God bless him. I'm honoured to be a part of that legacy.'
And, on a related theme, here's the cover of the latest Doctor Who Magazine. Which is stunning.
Lara Pulver has revealed that she seems to only be offered nude roles since her turn in Sherlock. And, the problem with this is...? I'm just asking? The actress starred as Irene Adler in the BBC drama, which included a lengthy naked scene opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. She joked that she has become the new Kate Winslet since appearing nude in the episode. 
'I take my clothes off for a minute and a half and everyone suddenly goes, "Oh great, she's an actress who will take her clothes off,"' she told Radio Times. '"We can't get Kate Winslet. Let's see if Lara Pulver will do a swinger movie."' The BBC was criticised for broadcasting the episode in question before the 9pm watershed on New Year's Day - almost exclusively by the Daily Scum Mail and some of its glake readership. However, no one of any consequence gave a stuff about nonsense like that and the episode also topped the BBC iPlayer chart for the first four months of 2012.
Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati has revealed that she was forced to quit Twitter over 'violent, vitriolic' racist abuse. The actress, who plays Sunita Alahan on the ITV soap, announced that she was leaving the social networking site on 17 June. 'Need another Twitter break,' she wrote. 'Thanks for the banter the follows the support loved being back but now time to sort other stuff.'
Explaining her decision to exit Twitter, Gulati confessed that she could no longer tolerate 'psycho[s]' calling her things like 'not British' and 'the ugliest fucker ever seen.' 'Being racially abused on Twitter really shook me up,' she told the Sun. 'It felt like going back in time to the 1970s. It put me in mind of a psycho - like a horror movie. I just decided enough was enough. I tried to ignore it but it started to affect my confidence. Violent, vitriolic hatred gives people their moment in the spotlight. It beggars belief.' Shobna previously criticised the 'misogynistic' response from Twitter users to Sunita's affair with Karl Munro (John Michie).
The first publicity photos have been released of EastEnders character Ian Beale's shocking transformation, which will feature on-screen in upcoming episodes. Ian has been absent from Walford since last month, when he suffered a breakdown and disappeared after being jilted by fiancée Mandy Salter on their wedding day. Tabloid reports recently revealed that Ian will be returning to EastEnders as a Harry Ramp - which has now been confirmed as a new picture shows him looking dishevelled with long hair and a beard. EastEnders producers worked closely with various mental health experts and charities - including Mind and Time to Change - while devising Ian's plotline, with the aim of accurately reflecting and highlighting the issue.
The director of Emmerdale's forthcoming live episode has been revealed. The special episode will mark the fortieth anniversary of the Yorkshire-based soap and will be broadcast on ITV in October. The director of the anniversary has been revealed to entertainment and media news website Digital Spy - Tony Prescott will be in charge of the edition. 
The episode will reportedly feature no stunts which may well be a novel thing for Emmerdale. For a small village in rural Yorkshire, Emmerdale – formerly Beckindale – has sure seen plenty of tragedies over the years with the most memorable being the 1993 Plane Crash (masterminded by Brookside and Hollyoaks creator Phil Redmond). Since that event, which resulted in the village being renamed to Emmerdale, several fires have taken place, numerous car crashes and road accidents, a house collapsed and a gale struck the village in 2003. Just an everyday tale of Northern folk.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is returning to British screens each weekday. Comedy Central UK has snapped up the rights from its American sister station, and will broadcast new episodes from 23 July.
Mondays will be the weekly Global Edition round-up, while Tuesday to Fridays will be the full US episodes, broadcast twenty four hours after they were shown in America. Comedy Central's managing director Jill Ofmman said: 'I'm delighted to welcome Jon Stewart to his rightful home in the UK. It's a stellar addition to our comedy line-up.' More4 ran the show from its 2005 launch until 2010, when it dropped the nightly broadcasts to run only with the Global Edition. Recently when London Mayor, and hairdo, Boris Johnson appeared on the show, he asked Stewart: 'Why can't we watch your show more on TV in England?' The show will be shown at 10.30pm on Comedy Central Extra.
News Corporation implied that the Sun newspaper's coverage of the Lib Dems 'may turn nasty' if Vince Cable did not rule in its favour on the BSkyB bid, a minister has claimed at the Leveson Inquiry. Norman Lamb, Lib Dem junior business minister, said in a meeting with News Corp's Fred Michel in 2010, Michel had referred to the coverage, saying it would be 'a pity' if things changed. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was later 'horrified' by this, Lamb said. News Corp has denies there was a threat. So, either they are lying or Norman Lamb (and, by implication, possibly Nick Clegg too) is. Whom to believe? It's a toughy, isn't it? Lamb, a former special adviser to Deputy Prime Minister, read to the inquiry from contemporaneous notes. He said: 'Fred Michel, News International, an extraordinary encounter. FM is very charming, he tells me News International papers will land on VC's desk in next two weeks. They are certain there are no grounds for referral but they realised - they realise - the political pressures. He wants things to run smoothly. They have been supportive of the coalition but if it goes the wrong way he is worried about the implications. It was brazen. VC refers case to Ofcom - they turn nasty.' Lamb told the inquiry he had not responded to Michel at the second meeting - on 27 October 2010 - but had taken his concerns to Cable and Clegg. BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins tweeted that Lamb said Clegg was 'horrified by his account of this meeting, which wasn't what Clegg said in evidence.' Asked by the inquiry counsel, Robert Jay QC, why he had taken so long coming forward with his evidence, Lamb said he had been thinking over it for some time.
A handwritten note of the second meeting was found when he 'texted his wife this morning to look through pile of notes, and she produced it. When Vince Cable gave his evidence I felt I had to tell the story of what happened. In a sense, you were left with a gap,' he said. Also giving evidence was former Conservative minister David Mellor. He told the inquiry it was 'absolutely crucial that whatever comes out of this inquiry is clear-cut so politicians can't slither into the undergrowth.' Mellor was asked about the 1992 press coverage of his affair with actress Antonia de Sancha, where he reportedly wore a Chelsea shirt whilst having sex. The former lack of heritage secretary told Lord Justice Leveson the Chelsea shirt was a 'total invention' and said it was 'cooked up' by Max Clifford and the then deputy editor of the Sun, Stuart Higgins. 'That Chelsea shirt. I'm sick and fed up of it. All you'll remember about me when I go to my grave is some bloody Chelsea shirt.' The revelations about his private life came after he announced there should be a second Calcutt report into the press. 'It was an inconvenient moment for one's private life to fall out of the cupboard,' Mellor said. He also told the inquiry the then prime minister John Major had feared that the resignation of ministers 'found with unfortunate girlfriends' would set an undesirable precedent. Mellor suggested that he was prepared to resign in July 1992 when the tabloid newspaper revelations emerged. He said he thought that he 'understood better now' why Major was against the idea. In 2002, former Conservative health minister Edwina Currie revealed that she had an affair with Major between 1984 and 1988 - and Major described the relationship as the 'event in my life of which I am most ashamed.' Well, you would be, wouldn't you? On the question of the Murdoch media empire, Mellor said: 'Sky is tremendous thing. I don't think anyone would say Sky poses a great threat to individual freedom in this country, but some of Murdoch newspapers have.' He said the problem had been that billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch never really bought into the society in which his newspapers have so much influence. 'I don't think Thatcher saw Murdoch as any kind of threat, I think she saw him as a kindred spirit,' he said.
Yer actual Peter Hook, bassists with critically-acclaimed bands Joy Division and New Order, is launching a music industry degree. The University of Central Lancashire is partnering the guitarist and other music industry figures in a degree in management and promotion. The university says this will be the first such masters degree in the UK. 'What I've learned is that life is a balance between idealism and realism,' says Hook. 'One of the great things about education is that it should stop you making mistakes - and I have made a lot of mistakes.' As a mentor to students, he wants them to benefit from his own experience of how not to manage the business - with record labels and night clubs, such as Factory and the Hacienda. 'The way that Factory worked, it was full of very creative people who never looked after business - and that's why all those businesses crashed. They were based on very idealistic ideas, very creative, very naive. They only rumbled on because Joy Division and New Order's success paid for all our mistakes. In Factory and the Hacienda - and in many ways in New Order and Joy Division - we never really looked after business.' In the spirit of 'putting something back,' Hooky says he wants the course to give youngsters an extra edge in a tough jobs market. 'This is quite a logical and important step in helping young people - because it's pretty grim out there. Everybody comes out of courses full of ideas, full of ideals, and when they get to the job - it's completely different. You come from the classroom and arrive in a place like the Factory club and you're dealing with a thousand drunken punters every Friday night - that's the business end they have to learn about.' An elder statesman of the music world - able to date his career in music to precisely thirty six years ago when The Sex Pistols played the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester - Peter Hook has reached the stage in the life-cycle of rock where he is now a subject of academic study. Both the gloomy solemnity of Joy Division and the chemical excesses of Madchester are already at the stage of being turned into movies and art projects.
He says he has been helping students who are writing university dissertations about his bands - and going into schools to give careers talks. Musicians giving such talks can be an odd combination, he says. 'They tend to be very damaged - but they've still had a great time. It's a very heady mix.' Les Gillon, who is the course leader, says he wants about ten students to launch the course - a cohort that they can 'mentor intensively.' Even though this is about the business end of management and promoting bands, he says that it's about the 'love of music, rather than the love of money. We want to make it possible for students to support the music that they love - to make it financially sustainable.' And, Hook is scornful of the talent show approach of setting up a music career - questioning how such formats would have responded to idiosyncratic and individual performers, such as Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis. 'The thing that makes me laugh is - what would Simon Cowell have said to Ian Curtis? He would have said: "Goodbye." What would he have said to Ian Brown or people who I count as important in my life? They would have dismissed them. They don't have technical ability, but they've got something called soul.' Hook says that he wants the course at the University of Central Lancashire to combine that sense of soul with an understanding of the 'dirty end' of music as a business. 'We've got to give them a rounded perspective - the two things are equally important.' The course is going to draw on people with a hands-on understanding of how the music industry operates. This will include music venue magnate, Aaron Mellor, who Hook says will deliver the 'realism' to his own 'idealism.' There will also be Tony Rigg, former operations director for the Ministry of Sound and who has a recording studio business, who says the course will give students 'real-world experience. We're bridging the gap between academia and employment and equipping them to set up their own enterprises,' Rigg notes. He describes the project as a 'phenomenal hybrid.' The university is also going to give Hook an honorary fellowship. Although for anyone with a memory of mid-70s middle-of-the-road pop, he says, his only concern is that such a move might leave him with the uneasy title of Dr Hook. And, a final word to any students thinking about taking the course. You'd better hand your assignments in on time cos Dr Hook is not to be messed with!
Holly Hagan reveals that she is 'a little bit lesbian' during the opening of tonight's episode of Geordie Shore: Chaos in Cancun. Which bit, one wonders.
A presenter on the BBC consumer affairs programme Rogue Traders has admitted illegally claiming housing and council tax benefits totalling twenty four grand like a naughty scallywag. Dan Penteado, forty, from Westbourne, Bournemouth, admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming housing and council tax benefits. Bournemouth Magistrates' Court heard he failed to declare his BBC earnings. Penteado has been the motorbike-riding on-screen sidekick of Rogue Traders star Matt Allwright since 2001. He was warned he could face jail and was granted bail while a pre-sentence report is prepared. The case was adjourned until 17 July. The prosecution said the offences went back to 2007 when Penteado filled out his first claim form and failed to declare he had another bank account.
The court heard he repeated the fraud in subsequent years up to 2011. In that time Penteado failed to tell Bournemouth Borough Council he had been paid more than fifty six thousand smackers for his work on Rogue Traders from 2008 to 2011. Kerry O'Neill, prosecuting, said: 'He received twenty four thousand and seventy seven pounds and sixty pence in housing and council tax benefit he was not entitled to. He failed to notify the borough council of the money coming in.' The court heard the council, which brought the prosecution, would be seeking to recover all the cash and Penteado had already paid back two hundred and ten pounds. No mitigation was put forward by Penteado at the hearing. The Portuguese-born presenter left court without comment.
News Corporation is considering dividing itself into two, splitting off its publishing arm from its much larger entertainment division, according to a report in the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal. If billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch brings off the move, it would mean the creation of a publishing business that would comprise News International's papers - The Times, Sunday Times and the Sun - with the WSJ, the New York Post and the book publisher, HarperCollins. The entertainment entity would include the FOX movie studio and television networks that now represent News Corp's strongest and most profitable parts. According to a source cited by the New York Times, the Murdoch family would be likely to retain control of the newly split companies.
Such a proposal has been aired in the past, and Murdoch has always rejected it. But the negative effects of the phone-hacking scandal have reopened the door to the notion. The WSJ, quoting 'a person familiar with the situation,' states that Murdoch 'has recently warmed to the idea.' News Corp's chief operating officer, Chase Carey, said earlier this year that the company's management team had considered a split. But at the time, he said, no decision had been made. The main reason for the division, even if prompted by the hacking scandal, centres on attempts to improve shareholder value at a time when shareholders have been increasingly critical of the News Corp board. Many of the company's investors have argued that the company should focus on its more lucrative entertainment assets, which together generated $23.5bn in revenue in the year ended in June 2011. The publishing business, by contrast, contributed $8.8bn. News Corporation's shares have risen twenty per cent over the past twelve months, but some of that ballast has been supplied by an expensive buyback programme.
Andrew Maxwell has made a documentary about the London 7/7 bombings – exploring claims that they were the work of the British Government rather than terrorists. The film is one of three allegedly 'provocative' episodes of Conspiracy Road Trip the Irish stand-up has recorded for BBC3. The others, on creationism and UFOs, were shot on location in the US. They follow the same format as last year’s 9/11: Conspiracy Road Trip, where Maxwell and conspiracy theorists travelled to meet experts and witnesses who challenged their suspicions about official accounts of the terrorist attack. 'The whole point of the show is not to try to change people's beliefs,' Maxwell told the Chortle website about the films, which will be broadcast in the autumn. 'It's just to smash ideas back and forwards. It's a really unusual show, six people on a bus, driving around, bantering backwards and forwards about something, non-stop for ten days. A weird mixture of reality TV, current affairs and a relentless philosophical conversation.' In the 7/7 film, the filmmakers employed a bomb-making expert to blow up a double-decker bus, recreating the peroxide-based recipe of explosive used by the bombers. 'It's taken as fact by online conspiracy theorists that there's no way a homemade bomb could have that kinetic force' Maxwell said. 'The guy made the stuff before our eyes with stuff you can buy in the shops and ripped the bus completely apart. It was terrifying.' They also met survivors of the attack, who like the comic, have grown accustomed to accusations of being part of a shadowy cover-up. An 'unlikely CIA stooge,' Maxwell was initially denied a US visa for the 2005 HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas after pledging to give President Bush 'a Chinese burn' on stage in Singapore. He adds: 'After the 9/11 film, I got an enormous amount of abuse on the Internet – and no doubt that will only be amplified by adding three more stories to the fire.' The series, shot on the road over two months earlier, is 'partly about folklore but ultimately, it's really about the Internet and how it acts as an echo chamber,' Maxwell says. 'These people will question anything from a verifiable news source, one that's willing to back what it says in the courts. But they will believe anything they read on the Internet.' Describing himself as 'a rationalist,' with 'no responsibility to be unbiased,' he nevertheless understands paranoia about the state.
'Who am I to tell you not to be suspicious of the Government? We know on record that Tony Blair, Sir John Scarlett and Alastair Campbell rigged the intel for invading Iraq. We know the political class will swindle any small amount of money for a duck pond. From Leveson, we know how many cops were on the take, and that the press can't be trusted. So you can't dispense with suspicions about the British Establishment and I don't think you should. But that still doesn't add up to the Government being behind 7/7. We met an imam from Birmingham who told us that nine out of ten Muslims believe in the conspiracy theories of 7/7 and don't believe that Muslims could have done it. And of course, we met other voices from the British Muslim community who say that's nonsense. Whether it's true or not though, it's damaging. Because if any community believes the state is behind terrorist acts against its own people, if they have any evidence or a potential tip-off about something about to go down, they're not going to tell the state are they? There's a cycle of deepening distrust.' In contrast to the 7/7 film, which features 'no laughter,' Maxwell is confident that stories from the UFO documentary will make into it his forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe show, legal advice permitting. He and the conspiracists visited the mysterious Area 51 in Nevada but he can't say whether they entered the infamous 'secret' base, which was only publicly acknowledged by the US government in 2003. 'We got in a little bit of trouble making that one, which legally I can't go into any more right now, it's still in flux. Needless to say, it's the most wacky of the films and we met a lot of eccentric characters.' One was Ufologist John Lear. 'He told me there's an underground tunnel from Area 51 that pops up underneath the kitchen of the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. Apparently, all children are abducted from Earth and taken to the moon, which has twenty billion people living on it and was invented inside Jupiter. They're abducted at the ages of three, seven and thirteen and taken overnight. I told him: "My children aren't going to the fucking moon!" And he replied: "You needn't be alarmed, it's just a routine check."'
Ofcom has launched an investigation into the use of the N-word in the song 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On', broadcast on ITV's regional news programme Calendar News. On the 22 May, Calendar News, ITV's regional news programme serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk, broadcast a video clip celebrating the unseasonably sunny weather. The report featured a montage of pictures of people enjoying the sun and was set to the 1930s song 'The Sun has got his Hat On' written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler.
In its original second verse the song features lyrics which were socially acceptable in the 1930s but are - rightly - considered offensive and racist today. The line has been rewritten in later versions of the song. The ITV evening news show broadcast the line: 'He's been tanning niggers out in Timbuktu, now he's coming back to do the same to you.' Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether ITV broke UK broadcasting rules relating to harm and offence. In March ITV News escaped an official reprimand from Ofcom over a reporter referring to footballers as 'coloured' in a lunchtime bulletin, even though the media regulator ruled that the incident was offensive to viewers.
UK experts are to begin a study to find out if stress can trigger dementia. The investigation, funded by the Alzheimer's Society, will monitor one hundred and forty people with mild cognitive impairment or 'pre-dementia' and look at how stress affects their condition. The researchers will take blood and saliva samples at six-monthly intervals over the eighteen months of the study to measure biological markers of stress. They hope their work will reveal ways to prevent dementia. The results could offer clues to new treatments or better ways of managing the condition, they say. People who have mild cognitive impairment are at an increased risk of going on to develop dementia - although some will remain stable and others may improve. And past work suggests mid-life stress may increase a person's risk of Alzheimer's disease. A Swedish study that followed nearly fifteen hundred women for a period of thirty five years found the risk of dementia was about sixty five per cent higher in women who reported repeated periods of stress in middle age than in those who did not. Scottish scientists, who have done studies in animals, believe the link may be down to hormones the body releases in response to stress which interfere with brain function. Professor Clive Holmes, from the University of Southampton, who will lead the study, said: 'All of us go through stressful events. We are looking to understand how these may become a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's. Something such as bereavement or a traumatic experience - possibly even moving home - are also potential factors. This is the first stage in developing ways in which to intervene with psychological or drug-based treatments to fight the disease. We are looking at two aspects of stress relief - physical and psychological - and the body's response to that experience.' Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: 'We welcome any research that could shed new light on Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia. Understanding the risk factors for Alzheimer's could provide one piece of the puzzle we need to take us closer to a treatment that could stop the disease in its tracks.'
Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan says the International Cricket Council must take a firm stance with India over mandatory video technology. The ICC want the Decision Review System used in all international matches but the Indian Cricket Board is opposed to this. 'The BCCI continues to believe that the system is not foolproof,' they said. But on BBC Radio 5Live's Tuffers and Vaughan Show, Vaughan said: 'The ICC has to show authority and say to India this is happening, get used to it.' The DRS was first introduced in a Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan in November 2009 but it remains at the discretion of boards hosting matches, with both teams having to comply. Sri Lanka opted to use the technology during their home series against England, but not for the current series against Pakistan, prompting criticism from Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore.
India refused to allow it for last summer's series in England, in which they failed to win a Test or one-day international, and are expected to dismiss it again when they host England for four Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 international from November-January. But Vaughan said: 'I think it works wonderfully well around all the different formats. England, in particular Andrew Strauss, have got used to it and is very clever with it. It's there to get rid of the blunder. Over time it has proven to be very, very good. India need to get with the real world and get on with it because they're ruining it. They are almost a little bit egotistical and saying "you can't tell us what to do" and I think it's about time the ICC said "you've got to listen to us because it's going to happen." Sachin [Tendulkar] doesn't like it and Sachin is a massive player in the Indian dressing room and with the Indian hierarchy. He is probably telling them it's not good for the game and I guess they're just going what with he thinks.'
England's manager Roy Hodgson insists lack of fitness was not behind Wayne Rooney's poor display in the Euro 2012 quarter-final defeat to Italy in Kiev. Hodgson insists that statistics backed up his claims that Rooney was in good shape - but admitted the weight of expectation on England's allegedly most gifted attacking talent may have been too great. Rooney returned from a two game ban to score England's winner against Ukraine, only to deliver a below par performance in the quarter-final as Italy won four-two on penalties after a goalless one hundred and twenty minutes. Hodgson said: 'We haven't noticed any problems with Wayne's fitness levels. We've monitored it in training and he's looked very fit.' He added: 'In the first game against Ukraine he didn't show any particular signs of lacking fitness. He played one hundred and twenty minutes [against Italy]. What you might be saying is that you are a bit disappointed with his performance and maybe thought he could have played better.'
Rooney was with England at their pre-Euro 2012 training camp in Krakow and travelled to the early group games in Donetsk and Kiev. Rooney looked sluggish and out of touch in the game against Italy - although, to be fair, he was far from alone on that score - but Hodgson defended him, saying: 'His running stats in the training sessions and in the game were actually very good. Of course we put a lot of expectations on him. When he missed the first two games there was a suggestion we all believed that all we need to do is get to the third game and Wayne Rooney will win us the championship. That was maybe too much to ask of him. He certainly tried very hard. He didn't have his best game - I'm sure he will admit that. That could be down to a number of factors but I don't think the fitness itself was a particular factor.' Rooney himself was in subdued mood after another England campaign ended with defeat on penalties in the last eight, as it did against Portugal in both Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup. He said: 'It was a horrible way to go out. We are all gutted. It was a tough game. We all worked hard and to lose on penalties is a horrible feeling for everyone. We can hold our heads up high. There are a lot of young players in squad. It's a sad feeling now but that will help us going into the qualifiers for the next tournament.'
Birmingham City are close to confirming the appointment of Lee Clark as their new manager, BBC West Midlands reports. The thirty nine-year-old Tynesider is believed to have agreed to take the post after talks with the Championship club and is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. Wallsend-born Clark would succeed Chris Hughton, who resigned earlier this month to take charge of Norwich City. It would mean a return to football for Clark four months on from his surprise sacking as manager of Huddersfield Town. The former Newcastle United, Sunderland and Fulham midfielder was seen as a bright young managerial talent in the game for most of his three years in charge at the Galpharm Stadium. After cutting his teeth in coaching under Glenn Roeder, first at Newcastle, then at Norwich, Clark brought in experienced duo Terry McDermott and Derek Fazackerley alongside former team-mate Steve Watson as his backroom team when he took over at Huddersfield.
He guided the Terriers to third place in League One in the 2010-11 season and, although they lost to Peterborough United in the play-off final, he was rewarded with a new rolling contract. They began last season in the same form, Clark's Terriers eventually extending their unbeaten league run to a record forty three matches between January and November 2011. With his team still fourth in League One, eyebrows were raised when he was sacked in February following a 1-0 home defeat by Sheffield United. But the change in leadership ultimately paid off as the Terriers went on to win promotion to the Championship in May via the play offs. Under new boss Simon Grayson, they won after a dramatic 8-7 penalty shoot-out win over the Blades at Wembley. But Grayson afterwards paid a generous tribute to his predecessor, saying: 'Credit goes to Lee Clark, because he put most of that team together."'
One of Europe's largest hoards of Iron Age coins has been unearthed in Jersey and could be worth up to ten million quid, according to an expert. The Roman and Celtic coins, which date from the First Century BC, were found by two metal detector enthusiasts. Dr Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University, said the haul was 'extremely exciting and very significant.' He said each individual coin was worth between one and two hundred smackers. The exact number of coins found has not been established, but archaeologists said the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain about fifty thousand coins. The exact location of the hoard has not been revealed by the authorities but Environment Minister, Rob Duhamel, said he would do everything he could to protect the site. He said: 'Sites like these do need protection because there is speculation there might even be more. It is a very exciting piece of news and perhaps harks back to our cultural heritage in terms of finance. It was found under a hedge so perhaps this is an early example of hedge fund trading.' Ho. And, indeed, ho. A tip to politicians, leave the jokes to comedians. The hoard was found by Reg Mead and Richard Miles in a field in the east of Jersey. They had been searching for more than thirty years after hearing rumours a farmer had discovered silver coins while working on his land.
Mead and Miles worked with experts from Jersey Heritage to slowly unearth the treasure. A large mound of clay containing the coins has now been taken to a safe location to be studied. It is the first hoard of coins found in the island for more than sixty years. Several hoards of Celtic coins have been found in Jersey before but the largest was in 1935 at La Marquanderie when more than eleven thousand were discovered. Dr de Jersey said it would take months for archaeologists to find out the full value of the haul. He said: 'It is extremely exciting and very significant. It will add a huge amount of new information, not just about the coins themselves but the people who were using them. Most archaeologists with an interest in coins spend their lives in libraries writing about coins and looking at pictures of coins. To actually go out and excavate one in a field, most of us never get that opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.' The ownership of the coins is unclear. Mead said that he had asked the States of Jersey for clarification. Duhamel said the owners of the site had indicated they would like to see the whole hoard on display at the Jersey Museum or the archive.
Today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day features yet another little classic from a certain Mr Jones of Bromley. In this particular case during his 'pretending to be Mr Reed of New York' phase. And sounding mighty fine doing so. From a legendary performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
'It was an honour to be a part of that show, absolutely. And I'm so happy that everyone is now seeing Matt Smith for the incredible actor and Doctor that he is.' Garfield - who starred alongside Smith's predecessor David Tennant in the Daleks in Manhatten two-parter - called the current Doctor Who lead 'a friend' and 'a tremendous actor. I am so proud and happy for him,' Garfield said. 'He is being put to fantastic use, and giving so many people so much joy, God bless him. I'm honoured to be a part of that legacy.'And, on a related theme, here's the cover of the latest Doctor Who Magazine. Which is stunning.
'I take my clothes off for a minute and a half and everyone suddenly goes, "Oh great, she's an actress who will take her clothes off,"' she told Radio Times. '"We can't get Kate Winslet. Let's see if Lara Pulver will do a swinger movie."' The BBC was criticised for broadcasting the episode in question before the 9pm watershed on New Year's Day - almost exclusively by the Daily Scum Mail and some of its glake readership. However, no one of any consequence gave a stuff about nonsense like that and the episode also topped the BBC iPlayer chart for the first four months of 2012.Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati has revealed that she was forced to quit Twitter over 'violent, vitriolic' racist abuse. The actress, who plays Sunita Alahan on the ITV soap, announced that she was leaving the social networking site on 17 June. 'Need another Twitter break,' she wrote. 'Thanks for the banter the follows the support loved being back but now time to sort other stuff.'
Explaining her decision to exit Twitter, Gulati confessed that she could no longer tolerate 'psycho[s]' calling her things like 'not British' and 'the ugliest fucker ever seen.' 'Being racially abused on Twitter really shook me up,' she told the Sun. 'It felt like going back in time to the 1970s. It put me in mind of a psycho - like a horror movie. I just decided enough was enough. I tried to ignore it but it started to affect my confidence. Violent, vitriolic hatred gives people their moment in the spotlight. It beggars belief.' Shobna previously criticised the 'misogynistic' response from Twitter users to Sunita's affair with Karl Munro (John Michie).The first publicity photos have been released of EastEnders character Ian Beale's shocking transformation, which will feature on-screen in upcoming episodes. Ian has been absent from Walford since last month, when he suffered a breakdown and disappeared after being jilted by fiancée Mandy Salter on their wedding day. Tabloid reports recently revealed that Ian will be returning to EastEnders as a Harry Ramp - which has now been confirmed as a new picture shows him looking dishevelled with long hair and a beard. EastEnders producers worked closely with various mental health experts and charities - including Mind and Time to Change - while devising Ian's plotline, with the aim of accurately reflecting and highlighting the issue.
The episode will reportedly feature no stunts which may well be a novel thing for Emmerdale. For a small village in rural Yorkshire, Emmerdale – formerly Beckindale – has sure seen plenty of tragedies over the years with the most memorable being the 1993 Plane Crash (masterminded by Brookside and Hollyoaks creator Phil Redmond). Since that event, which resulted in the village being renamed to Emmerdale, several fires have taken place, numerous car crashes and road accidents, a house collapsed and a gale struck the village in 2003. Just an everyday tale of Northern folk. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is returning to British screens each weekday. Comedy Central UK has snapped up the rights from its American sister station, and will broadcast new episodes from 23 July.
Mondays will be the weekly Global Edition round-up, while Tuesday to Fridays will be the full US episodes, broadcast twenty four hours after they were shown in America. Comedy Central's managing director Jill Ofmman said: 'I'm delighted to welcome Jon Stewart to his rightful home in the UK. It's a stellar addition to our comedy line-up.' More4 ran the show from its 2005 launch until 2010, when it dropped the nightly broadcasts to run only with the Global Edition. Recently when London Mayor, and hairdo, Boris Johnson appeared on the show, he asked Stewart: 'Why can't we watch your show more on TV in England?' The show will be shown at 10.30pm on Comedy Central Extra.News Corporation implied that the Sun newspaper's coverage of the Lib Dems 'may turn nasty' if Vince Cable did not rule in its favour on the BSkyB bid, a minister has claimed at the Leveson Inquiry. Norman Lamb, Lib Dem junior business minister, said in a meeting with News Corp's Fred Michel in 2010, Michel had referred to the coverage, saying it would be 'a pity' if things changed. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was later 'horrified' by this, Lamb said. News Corp has denies there was a threat. So, either they are lying or Norman Lamb (and, by implication, possibly Nick Clegg too) is. Whom to believe? It's a toughy, isn't it? Lamb, a former special adviser to Deputy Prime Minister, read to the inquiry from contemporaneous notes. He said: 'Fred Michel, News International, an extraordinary encounter. FM is very charming, he tells me News International papers will land on VC's desk in next two weeks. They are certain there are no grounds for referral but they realised - they realise - the political pressures. He wants things to run smoothly. They have been supportive of the coalition but if it goes the wrong way he is worried about the implications. It was brazen. VC refers case to Ofcom - they turn nasty.' Lamb told the inquiry he had not responded to Michel at the second meeting - on 27 October 2010 - but had taken his concerns to Cable and Clegg. BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins tweeted that Lamb said Clegg was 'horrified by his account of this meeting, which wasn't what Clegg said in evidence.' Asked by the inquiry counsel, Robert Jay QC, why he had taken so long coming forward with his evidence, Lamb said he had been thinking over it for some time.
A handwritten note of the second meeting was found when he 'texted his wife this morning to look through pile of notes, and she produced it. When Vince Cable gave his evidence I felt I had to tell the story of what happened. In a sense, you were left with a gap,' he said. Also giving evidence was former Conservative minister David Mellor. He told the inquiry it was 'absolutely crucial that whatever comes out of this inquiry is clear-cut so politicians can't slither into the undergrowth.' Mellor was asked about the 1992 press coverage of his affair with actress Antonia de Sancha, where he reportedly wore a Chelsea shirt whilst having sex. The former lack of heritage secretary told Lord Justice Leveson the Chelsea shirt was a 'total invention' and said it was 'cooked up' by Max Clifford and the then deputy editor of the Sun, Stuart Higgins. 'That Chelsea shirt. I'm sick and fed up of it. All you'll remember about me when I go to my grave is some bloody Chelsea shirt.' The revelations about his private life came after he announced there should be a second Calcutt report into the press. 'It was an inconvenient moment for one's private life to fall out of the cupboard,' Mellor said. He also told the inquiry the then prime minister John Major had feared that the resignation of ministers 'found with unfortunate girlfriends' would set an undesirable precedent. Mellor suggested that he was prepared to resign in July 1992 when the tabloid newspaper revelations emerged. He said he thought that he 'understood better now' why Major was against the idea. In 2002, former Conservative health minister Edwina Currie revealed that she had an affair with Major between 1984 and 1988 - and Major described the relationship as the 'event in my life of which I am most ashamed.' Well, you would be, wouldn't you? On the question of the Murdoch media empire, Mellor said: 'Sky is tremendous thing. I don't think anyone would say Sky poses a great threat to individual freedom in this country, but some of Murdoch newspapers have.' He said the problem had been that billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch never really bought into the society in which his newspapers have so much influence. 'I don't think Thatcher saw Murdoch as any kind of threat, I think she saw him as a kindred spirit,' he said.Yer actual Peter Hook, bassists with critically-acclaimed bands Joy Division and New Order, is launching a music industry degree. The University of Central Lancashire is partnering the guitarist and other music industry figures in a degree in management and promotion. The university says this will be the first such masters degree in the UK. 'What I've learned is that life is a balance between idealism and realism,' says Hook. 'One of the great things about education is that it should stop you making mistakes - and I have made a lot of mistakes.' As a mentor to students, he wants them to benefit from his own experience of how not to manage the business - with record labels and night clubs, such as Factory and the Hacienda. 'The way that Factory worked, it was full of very creative people who never looked after business - and that's why all those businesses crashed. They were based on very idealistic ideas, very creative, very naive. They only rumbled on because Joy Division and New Order's success paid for all our mistakes. In Factory and the Hacienda - and in many ways in New Order and Joy Division - we never really looked after business.' In the spirit of 'putting something back,' Hooky says he wants the course to give youngsters an extra edge in a tough jobs market. 'This is quite a logical and important step in helping young people - because it's pretty grim out there. Everybody comes out of courses full of ideas, full of ideals, and when they get to the job - it's completely different. You come from the classroom and arrive in a place like the Factory club and you're dealing with a thousand drunken punters every Friday night - that's the business end they have to learn about.' An elder statesman of the music world - able to date his career in music to precisely thirty six years ago when The Sex Pistols played the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester - Peter Hook has reached the stage in the life-cycle of rock where he is now a subject of academic study. Both the gloomy solemnity of Joy Division and the chemical excesses of Madchester are already at the stage of being turned into movies and art projects.
He says he has been helping students who are writing university dissertations about his bands - and going into schools to give careers talks. Musicians giving such talks can be an odd combination, he says. 'They tend to be very damaged - but they've still had a great time. It's a very heady mix.' Les Gillon, who is the course leader, says he wants about ten students to launch the course - a cohort that they can 'mentor intensively.' Even though this is about the business end of management and promoting bands, he says that it's about the 'love of music, rather than the love of money. We want to make it possible for students to support the music that they love - to make it financially sustainable.' And, Hook is scornful of the talent show approach of setting up a music career - questioning how such formats would have responded to idiosyncratic and individual performers, such as Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis. 'The thing that makes me laugh is - what would Simon Cowell have said to Ian Curtis? He would have said: "Goodbye." What would he have said to Ian Brown or people who I count as important in my life? They would have dismissed them. They don't have technical ability, but they've got something called soul.' Hook says that he wants the course at the University of Central Lancashire to combine that sense of soul with an understanding of the 'dirty end' of music as a business. 'We've got to give them a rounded perspective - the two things are equally important.' The course is going to draw on people with a hands-on understanding of how the music industry operates. This will include music venue magnate, Aaron Mellor, who Hook says will deliver the 'realism' to his own 'idealism.' There will also be Tony Rigg, former operations director for the Ministry of Sound and who has a recording studio business, who says the course will give students 'real-world experience. We're bridging the gap between academia and employment and equipping them to set up their own enterprises,' Rigg notes. He describes the project as a 'phenomenal hybrid.' The university is also going to give Hook an honorary fellowship. Although for anyone with a memory of mid-70s middle-of-the-road pop, he says, his only concern is that such a move might leave him with the uneasy title of Dr Hook. And, a final word to any students thinking about taking the course. You'd better hand your assignments in on time cos Dr Hook is not to be messed with!Holly Hagan reveals that she is 'a little bit lesbian' during the opening of tonight's episode of Geordie Shore: Chaos in Cancun. Which bit, one wonders.
A presenter on the BBC consumer affairs programme Rogue Traders has admitted illegally claiming housing and council tax benefits totalling twenty four grand like a naughty scallywag. Dan Penteado, forty, from Westbourne, Bournemouth, admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming housing and council tax benefits. Bournemouth Magistrates' Court heard he failed to declare his BBC earnings. Penteado has been the motorbike-riding on-screen sidekick of Rogue Traders star Matt Allwright since 2001. He was warned he could face jail and was granted bail while a pre-sentence report is prepared. The case was adjourned until 17 July. The prosecution said the offences went back to 2007 when Penteado filled out his first claim form and failed to declare he had another bank account.
The court heard he repeated the fraud in subsequent years up to 2011. In that time Penteado failed to tell Bournemouth Borough Council he had been paid more than fifty six thousand smackers for his work on Rogue Traders from 2008 to 2011. Kerry O'Neill, prosecuting, said: 'He received twenty four thousand and seventy seven pounds and sixty pence in housing and council tax benefit he was not entitled to. He failed to notify the borough council of the money coming in.' The court heard the council, which brought the prosecution, would be seeking to recover all the cash and Penteado had already paid back two hundred and ten pounds. No mitigation was put forward by Penteado at the hearing. The Portuguese-born presenter left court without comment.News Corporation is considering dividing itself into two, splitting off its publishing arm from its much larger entertainment division, according to a report in the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal. If billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch brings off the move, it would mean the creation of a publishing business that would comprise News International's papers - The Times, Sunday Times and the Sun - with the WSJ, the New York Post and the book publisher, HarperCollins. The entertainment entity would include the FOX movie studio and television networks that now represent News Corp's strongest and most profitable parts. According to a source cited by the New York Times, the Murdoch family would be likely to retain control of the newly split companies.
Such a proposal has been aired in the past, and Murdoch has always rejected it. But the negative effects of the phone-hacking scandal have reopened the door to the notion. The WSJ, quoting 'a person familiar with the situation,' states that Murdoch 'has recently warmed to the idea.' News Corp's chief operating officer, Chase Carey, said earlier this year that the company's management team had considered a split. But at the time, he said, no decision had been made. The main reason for the division, even if prompted by the hacking scandal, centres on attempts to improve shareholder value at a time when shareholders have been increasingly critical of the News Corp board. Many of the company's investors have argued that the company should focus on its more lucrative entertainment assets, which together generated $23.5bn in revenue in the year ended in June 2011. The publishing business, by contrast, contributed $8.8bn. News Corporation's shares have risen twenty per cent over the past twelve months, but some of that ballast has been supplied by an expensive buyback programme.Andrew Maxwell has made a documentary about the London 7/7 bombings – exploring claims that they were the work of the British Government rather than terrorists. The film is one of three allegedly 'provocative' episodes of Conspiracy Road Trip the Irish stand-up has recorded for BBC3. The others, on creationism and UFOs, were shot on location in the US. They follow the same format as last year’s 9/11: Conspiracy Road Trip, where Maxwell and conspiracy theorists travelled to meet experts and witnesses who challenged their suspicions about official accounts of the terrorist attack. 'The whole point of the show is not to try to change people's beliefs,' Maxwell told the Chortle website about the films, which will be broadcast in the autumn. 'It's just to smash ideas back and forwards. It's a really unusual show, six people on a bus, driving around, bantering backwards and forwards about something, non-stop for ten days. A weird mixture of reality TV, current affairs and a relentless philosophical conversation.' In the 7/7 film, the filmmakers employed a bomb-making expert to blow up a double-decker bus, recreating the peroxide-based recipe of explosive used by the bombers. 'It's taken as fact by online conspiracy theorists that there's no way a homemade bomb could have that kinetic force' Maxwell said. 'The guy made the stuff before our eyes with stuff you can buy in the shops and ripped the bus completely apart. It was terrifying.' They also met survivors of the attack, who like the comic, have grown accustomed to accusations of being part of a shadowy cover-up. An 'unlikely CIA stooge,' Maxwell was initially denied a US visa for the 2005 HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas after pledging to give President Bush 'a Chinese burn' on stage in Singapore. He adds: 'After the 9/11 film, I got an enormous amount of abuse on the Internet – and no doubt that will only be amplified by adding three more stories to the fire.' The series, shot on the road over two months earlier, is 'partly about folklore but ultimately, it's really about the Internet and how it acts as an echo chamber,' Maxwell says. 'These people will question anything from a verifiable news source, one that's willing to back what it says in the courts. But they will believe anything they read on the Internet.' Describing himself as 'a rationalist,' with 'no responsibility to be unbiased,' he nevertheless understands paranoia about the state.
'Who am I to tell you not to be suspicious of the Government? We know on record that Tony Blair, Sir John Scarlett and Alastair Campbell rigged the intel for invading Iraq. We know the political class will swindle any small amount of money for a duck pond. From Leveson, we know how many cops were on the take, and that the press can't be trusted. So you can't dispense with suspicions about the British Establishment and I don't think you should. But that still doesn't add up to the Government being behind 7/7. We met an imam from Birmingham who told us that nine out of ten Muslims believe in the conspiracy theories of 7/7 and don't believe that Muslims could have done it. And of course, we met other voices from the British Muslim community who say that's nonsense. Whether it's true or not though, it's damaging. Because if any community believes the state is behind terrorist acts against its own people, if they have any evidence or a potential tip-off about something about to go down, they're not going to tell the state are they? There's a cycle of deepening distrust.' In contrast to the 7/7 film, which features 'no laughter,' Maxwell is confident that stories from the UFO documentary will make into it his forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe show, legal advice permitting. He and the conspiracists visited the mysterious Area 51 in Nevada but he can't say whether they entered the infamous 'secret' base, which was only publicly acknowledged by the US government in 2003. 'We got in a little bit of trouble making that one, which legally I can't go into any more right now, it's still in flux. Needless to say, it's the most wacky of the films and we met a lot of eccentric characters.' One was Ufologist John Lear. 'He told me there's an underground tunnel from Area 51 that pops up underneath the kitchen of the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. Apparently, all children are abducted from Earth and taken to the moon, which has twenty billion people living on it and was invented inside Jupiter. They're abducted at the ages of three, seven and thirteen and taken overnight. I told him: "My children aren't going to the fucking moon!" And he replied: "You needn't be alarmed, it's just a routine check."'Ofcom has launched an investigation into the use of the N-word in the song 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On', broadcast on ITV's regional news programme Calendar News. On the 22 May, Calendar News, ITV's regional news programme serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk, broadcast a video clip celebrating the unseasonably sunny weather. The report featured a montage of pictures of people enjoying the sun and was set to the 1930s song 'The Sun has got his Hat On' written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler.
In its original second verse the song features lyrics which were socially acceptable in the 1930s but are - rightly - considered offensive and racist today. The line has been rewritten in later versions of the song. The ITV evening news show broadcast the line: 'He's been tanning niggers out in Timbuktu, now he's coming back to do the same to you.' Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether ITV broke UK broadcasting rules relating to harm and offence. In March ITV News escaped an official reprimand from Ofcom over a reporter referring to footballers as 'coloured' in a lunchtime bulletin, even though the media regulator ruled that the incident was offensive to viewers.UK experts are to begin a study to find out if stress can trigger dementia. The investigation, funded by the Alzheimer's Society, will monitor one hundred and forty people with mild cognitive impairment or 'pre-dementia' and look at how stress affects their condition. The researchers will take blood and saliva samples at six-monthly intervals over the eighteen months of the study to measure biological markers of stress. They hope their work will reveal ways to prevent dementia. The results could offer clues to new treatments or better ways of managing the condition, they say. People who have mild cognitive impairment are at an increased risk of going on to develop dementia - although some will remain stable and others may improve. And past work suggests mid-life stress may increase a person's risk of Alzheimer's disease. A Swedish study that followed nearly fifteen hundred women for a period of thirty five years found the risk of dementia was about sixty five per cent higher in women who reported repeated periods of stress in middle age than in those who did not. Scottish scientists, who have done studies in animals, believe the link may be down to hormones the body releases in response to stress which interfere with brain function. Professor Clive Holmes, from the University of Southampton, who will lead the study, said: 'All of us go through stressful events. We are looking to understand how these may become a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's. Something such as bereavement or a traumatic experience - possibly even moving home - are also potential factors. This is the first stage in developing ways in which to intervene with psychological or drug-based treatments to fight the disease. We are looking at two aspects of stress relief - physical and psychological - and the body's response to that experience.' Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: 'We welcome any research that could shed new light on Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia. Understanding the risk factors for Alzheimer's could provide one piece of the puzzle we need to take us closer to a treatment that could stop the disease in its tracks.'
Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan says the International Cricket Council must take a firm stance with India over mandatory video technology. The ICC want the Decision Review System used in all international matches but the Indian Cricket Board is opposed to this. 'The BCCI continues to believe that the system is not foolproof,' they said. But on BBC Radio 5Live's Tuffers and Vaughan Show, Vaughan said: 'The ICC has to show authority and say to India this is happening, get used to it.' The DRS was first introduced in a Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan in November 2009 but it remains at the discretion of boards hosting matches, with both teams having to comply. Sri Lanka opted to use the technology during their home series against England, but not for the current series against Pakistan, prompting criticism from Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore.
India refused to allow it for last summer's series in England, in which they failed to win a Test or one-day international, and are expected to dismiss it again when they host England for four Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 international from November-January. But Vaughan said: 'I think it works wonderfully well around all the different formats. England, in particular Andrew Strauss, have got used to it and is very clever with it. It's there to get rid of the blunder. Over time it has proven to be very, very good. India need to get with the real world and get on with it because they're ruining it. They are almost a little bit egotistical and saying "you can't tell us what to do" and I think it's about time the ICC said "you've got to listen to us because it's going to happen." Sachin [Tendulkar] doesn't like it and Sachin is a massive player in the Indian dressing room and with the Indian hierarchy. He is probably telling them it's not good for the game and I guess they're just going what with he thinks.'England's manager Roy Hodgson insists lack of fitness was not behind Wayne Rooney's poor display in the Euro 2012 quarter-final defeat to Italy in Kiev. Hodgson insists that statistics backed up his claims that Rooney was in good shape - but admitted the weight of expectation on England's allegedly most gifted attacking talent may have been too great. Rooney returned from a two game ban to score England's winner against Ukraine, only to deliver a below par performance in the quarter-final as Italy won four-two on penalties after a goalless one hundred and twenty minutes. Hodgson said: 'We haven't noticed any problems with Wayne's fitness levels. We've monitored it in training and he's looked very fit.' He added: 'In the first game against Ukraine he didn't show any particular signs of lacking fitness. He played one hundred and twenty minutes [against Italy]. What you might be saying is that you are a bit disappointed with his performance and maybe thought he could have played better.'
Rooney was with England at their pre-Euro 2012 training camp in Krakow and travelled to the early group games in Donetsk and Kiev. Rooney looked sluggish and out of touch in the game against Italy - although, to be fair, he was far from alone on that score - but Hodgson defended him, saying: 'His running stats in the training sessions and in the game were actually very good. Of course we put a lot of expectations on him. When he missed the first two games there was a suggestion we all believed that all we need to do is get to the third game and Wayne Rooney will win us the championship. That was maybe too much to ask of him. He certainly tried very hard. He didn't have his best game - I'm sure he will admit that. That could be down to a number of factors but I don't think the fitness itself was a particular factor.' Rooney himself was in subdued mood after another England campaign ended with defeat on penalties in the last eight, as it did against Portugal in both Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup. He said: 'It was a horrible way to go out. We are all gutted. It was a tough game. We all worked hard and to lose on penalties is a horrible feeling for everyone. We can hold our heads up high. There are a lot of young players in squad. It's a sad feeling now but that will help us going into the qualifiers for the next tournament.'Birmingham City are close to confirming the appointment of Lee Clark as their new manager, BBC West Midlands reports. The thirty nine-year-old Tynesider is believed to have agreed to take the post after talks with the Championship club and is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. Wallsend-born Clark would succeed Chris Hughton, who resigned earlier this month to take charge of Norwich City. It would mean a return to football for Clark four months on from his surprise sacking as manager of Huddersfield Town. The former Newcastle United, Sunderland and Fulham midfielder was seen as a bright young managerial talent in the game for most of his three years in charge at the Galpharm Stadium. After cutting his teeth in coaching under Glenn Roeder, first at Newcastle, then at Norwich, Clark brought in experienced duo Terry McDermott and Derek Fazackerley alongside former team-mate Steve Watson as his backroom team when he took over at Huddersfield.
He guided the Terriers to third place in League One in the 2010-11 season and, although they lost to Peterborough United in the play-off final, he was rewarded with a new rolling contract. They began last season in the same form, Clark's Terriers eventually extending their unbeaten league run to a record forty three matches between January and November 2011. With his team still fourth in League One, eyebrows were raised when he was sacked in February following a 1-0 home defeat by Sheffield United. But the change in leadership ultimately paid off as the Terriers went on to win promotion to the Championship in May via the play offs. Under new boss Simon Grayson, they won after a dramatic 8-7 penalty shoot-out win over the Blades at Wembley. But Grayson afterwards paid a generous tribute to his predecessor, saying: 'Credit goes to Lee Clark, because he put most of that team together."'One of Europe's largest hoards of Iron Age coins has been unearthed in Jersey and could be worth up to ten million quid, according to an expert. The Roman and Celtic coins, which date from the First Century BC, were found by two metal detector enthusiasts. Dr Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University, said the haul was 'extremely exciting and very significant.' He said each individual coin was worth between one and two hundred smackers. The exact number of coins found has not been established, but archaeologists said the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain about fifty thousand coins. The exact location of the hoard has not been revealed by the authorities but Environment Minister, Rob Duhamel, said he would do everything he could to protect the site. He said: 'Sites like these do need protection because there is speculation there might even be more. It is a very exciting piece of news and perhaps harks back to our cultural heritage in terms of finance. It was found under a hedge so perhaps this is an early example of hedge fund trading.' Ho. And, indeed, ho. A tip to politicians, leave the jokes to comedians. The hoard was found by Reg Mead and Richard Miles in a field in the east of Jersey. They had been searching for more than thirty years after hearing rumours a farmer had discovered silver coins while working on his land.
Mead and Miles worked with experts from Jersey Heritage to slowly unearth the treasure. A large mound of clay containing the coins has now been taken to a safe location to be studied. It is the first hoard of coins found in the island for more than sixty years. Several hoards of Celtic coins have been found in Jersey before but the largest was in 1935 at La Marquanderie when more than eleven thousand were discovered. Dr de Jersey said it would take months for archaeologists to find out the full value of the haul. He said: 'It is extremely exciting and very significant. It will add a huge amount of new information, not just about the coins themselves but the people who were using them. Most archaeologists with an interest in coins spend their lives in libraries writing about coins and looking at pictures of coins. To actually go out and excavate one in a field, most of us never get that opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.' The ownership of the coins is unclear. Mead said that he had asked the States of Jersey for clarification. Duhamel said the owners of the site had indicated they would like to see the whole hoard on display at the Jersey Museum or the archive.Today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day features yet another little classic from a certain Mr Jones of Bromley. In this particular case during his 'pretending to be Mr Reed of New York' phase. And sounding mighty fine doing so. From a legendary performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
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