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      FAB-U-LOUS! It’s Strictly Come Dancing’s all-time top 20 moments

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 05:00

    It’s two decades since Strictly quickstepped on to our screens. To mark the occasion, we’ve picked the best bits so far – from Ed Balls’s Gangnam Style to Rose and Giovanni’s silent symphony and Bruno falling off his chair. Keep dancing!

    Happy anniversary, Strictly Come Dancing. Please accept this suspiciously glitterball-shaped gift. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the BBC’s ballroom behemoth, which aired its first episode on 15 May 2004.

    We’ve celebrated this milestone by hand-picking our 20 most memorable moments from two decades of pro-celebrity hoofing. This sparkly assortment mixes up classic routines with dance disasters, and wardrobe malfunctions with rewind-worthy bloopers. Let us know your own Strictly highlights in the comments below. And, of course, keeeeep dancing!

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      Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal review – jaw-dropping tales from the adultery site fiasco

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 04:00 · 1 minute

    When a dating site for people seeking extra-marital affairs was hacked, lives were ruined. Why did Netflix choose to turn their sorry stories into a comedy whodunnit?

    People who are familiar with the Ashley Madison fiasco might initially wonder why Netflix is taking such a gentle approach to this story. For the first episode of three, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal seems more like a sales pitch for the adultery site than a serious investigative documentary, though it does eventually get to the grit of the saga. Ashley Madison, you may recall, was – and, astonishingly, remains – a dating site for married people who want to have an affair, discreetly. In 2015, a mysterious hacking group threatened to leak, then did leak, details of the site’s users, exposing many men to their unsuspecting families, colleagues and, in some cases, constituents. The hackers followed this with a second data dump, revealing serious privacy failings within the company itself, as well as embarrassing personal details about its publicity-courting, soon to be ex-CEO, Noel Biderman.

    This is an era-defining tale: an online security horror story that touches on greedy tech corporations, late-stage capitalism, religious hypocrisy and proto-AI. Ashley Madison, a name taken from two popular girls’ names in the US and chosen because it “seemed a little upper class”, quickly turned into a “cash cow”, according to its former vice-president of sales, Evan Back. Back is an entertaining interviewee and often makes this seem like much more of a lark than the leak and its fallout turned out to be. Users were charged for credits to message other users. Cannily, and outrageously, they were alsany trace of them from the site. Needless to say, this promise was nothing more than snake oil.

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      Better Off Dead? review – Liz Carr’s blistering film may well change your mind about assisted dying

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 4 days ago - 21:00

    As the UK edges towards legalising the right to die for those with terminal illness, the wickedly funny actor’s subversive documentary exposes the huge risks it poses for disabled people

    ‘I’m really clear on my views and they’ll remain the same. I know because I’m filming this bit at the end,” laughs Liz Carr at the start of this blistering documentary on assisted dying and disability.

    With a wink to the camera, Carr eschews the norms of factual programming from the off: there will be no pretence that the actor has come into this debate with an open mind, no emotional journey before announcing a change of heart in the final minutes. Carr – who became disabled as a child with a rare genetic condition – is adamant in her opposition to assisted dying and the risks she feels it poses to disabled people. Timed with parts of the UK edging towards legalising the right to die for terminally ill adults , and with the majority of Britons in favour , it’s clear the purpose of this film is not for Carr to have her mind changed but to change the mind of the viewer.

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      The Gathering review – elite gymnastics thriller is like somersaulting off a cliff

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 4 days ago - 21:00 · 1 minute

    Urban acrobatics! Teen angst! A potential murder! It’s all happening in this story about two athletes from both sides of the tracks. Sure, it’s a little confused – but it will make you feel alive

    We open in Liverpool, with a group of teenagers having vast amounts of fun and being as monumentally careless as only adolescents can at a seaside illegal rave. Half a mile away, a girl is found unresponsive at the shoreline. We cut to one month earlier, to meet the prospective ravers and see if we can spot the one who is due to come a cropper.

    Such is the fairly standard premise of new six-part drama The Gathering, written by novelist Helen Walsh in her small-screen debut. It is made slightly fresher by being set partly in the world of elite sports – in this case, gymnastics – and partly in the world of free running (think parkour mixed with acrobatics, a sport that would put the fear of God in your mother if she ever saw you at it). Bridging the two is gymnast Kelly (Eva Morgan), a working-class girl who likes to hang out with her free-running crowd – especially Adam (Sonny Walker) – even though she has been warned by her coach, who is keen that her star pupil doesn’t smash herself to bits jumping across rooftops, that doing so jeopardises her place in the team.

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      The Jennings v Alzheimer’s review – how one letter caused a medical revolution

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 21:00

    In the 80s, Carol Jennings wrote to scientists about her family history of Alzheimer’s. This extraordinary film shows how she could change the lives of millions

    Already a vicious foe, familial Alzheimer’s disease likes to deliver one last twist of the knife. Not only do the children of a carrier of the rogue gene have a 50/50 chance of inheriting it, but if they do have it, they will almost certainly develop symptoms at almost the exact age their parent did. What an exquisite extra cruelty.

    John Jennings’ mother, Carol, now virtually paralysed and non-speaking, became symptomatic at 50. He is 38. You would be forgiven for assuming that The Jennings v Alzheimer’s would be the story of whether he will decide to get the genetic test that will reveal whether he has the mutation his mother carried, or if he will escape her fate. In fact, although that is one strand of it, the story this documentary tells is much more extraordinary.

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      Blue Lights recap: series two, episode five – air punch moments, and a killer cliffhanger

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 21:00


    Annie decking Canning was the most satisfying moment of the series. But disaster quickly struck again with a gunshot fired at Grace and Stevie. This could be the end for one of them

    Has another of our police protagonists taken a fatal bullet? Here’s all the intel on the penultimate episode, Where I Want To Be …

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      Steve Buscemi victim of random street attack in New York City

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 09:50


    Boardwalk Empire star’s publicist confirms actor is OK after he was hit in the face and taken to hospital with an eye injury

    Actor Steve Buscemi is OK after he was punched in the face by a man on a New York City street, his publicist said on Sunday.

    The 66-year-old star of Fargo and Boardwalk Empire was assaulted on Wednesday morning in Manhattan and taken to a nearby hospital with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye.

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      ‘Unanimous victory seemed certain’: the biggest mistakes from the 2024 TV Baftas

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 07:20

    Some of the most blistering television ever made went home empty-handed – and a French show about a flamboyant businessman/singer beat them all

    A while ago, it might have felt like the Baftas didn’t really need to put on a big awards ceremony this year. That isn’t because shows like this are becoming less and less relevant with every passing year, but because of Happy Valley.

    Every single thing about the third series of Happy Valley was blisteringly impressive. The writing was note-perfect; able to puncture moments of colossal tension with a warm turn of phrase. The performances, too, were about as good as you can get across the board. Even the idea of the series – patiently waiting for seven years before returning, so that Rhys Connah could naturally age into the role Sally Wainwright wanted to tell – was extraordinary. Happy Valley felt so far ahead of the pack that unanimous victory seemed certain. They could have just mailed a crate of trophies to Sarah Lancashire’s house and saved money on the ceremony.

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      My hunt for a missing TV episode – and what it shows about being Black in Britain | Jason Okundaye

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 5 days ago - 06:00

    I trawled archives, located a lost VHS, and spent £100 to watch the story of a Black gay man in the 90s. The gaps in our history are stark

    In 1991, Channel 4 launched a documentary series called The Black Bag. It started with an investigation into racist policing, and featured episodes such as Racebusters , which documented everyday racial harassment in Britain. The show was groundbreaking, and stands as a magnificent record not only of recent multicultural life in Britain, but also of the emergent discourses around race that have now entered mainstream consciousness.

    But here’s the question: if you wanted to watch an episode of The Black Bag today, where would you go?

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