Steps' Faye Tozer ‘splits from husband of 16 years' and moves out of marital home
Singer Faye, 49, is said to have left the family's South Tyneside home, sparking concern after her husband Mick Smith, 43, posted a series of emotional messages on social media.
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Despite once calling him her 'rock' and 'partner in crime,' Faye and businessman Mick are understood to be 'going through some things'.
Cryptic Instagram posts have fuelled fears that the 'Strictly curse' may have struck again - albeit several years late.
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Daily Mail
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Crime writer Lynda La Plante slams fellow author Richard Osman and reveals she switches off the TV when he's on before pretending to VOMIT in scathing rant
Lynda La Plante has slammed fellow author Richard Osman in a scathing rant, revealing she switches off the TV whenever he appears. The best-selling crime author, 82, appeared on a The Ryan Tubridy on Virgin Radio on Thursday, where she didn't hold back on her thoughts of the former Pointless star, 54 - even pretending to vomit when discussing him. When asked who her biggest competition was these days, Lynda initially remained coy as she responded 'everybody', but soon singled out Richard when pushed for a name. Sharing her thoughts on the Thursday Murder Club author, Lynda hit out at the frequency of his TV appearances, even suggesting the success of his books was down to his constant presence on television. She told Ryan: 'My bete noire… Richard Osman. Now the reality is… I mean you can't watch any program on television without him looming in it and I immediately turn it off. 'I can't stand it because then people say "well how do you think his books shoot to number one?" You know and a big movie made of his last book and you go, "if you're on TV every 10 minutes , your public will buy you" and that is it. It is so important for writers like me to get on shows like yours, because it really does reach out to readers. The Prime Suspect writer then proceeded to pretend to vomit during the interview. Presenter Ryan then went on to say how refreshing it was to hear a guest being so honest, to which the screenwriter and ex actress noted that it's 'difficult' to do so as she'll be 'attacked'. She responded: 'No you're not allowed to be honest. You've got to be lovely to everybody. This is what is often very difficult. You can't actually be rude about anybody because then you'll be attacked or my publishers will tell me off. Everybody will tell me off don't swear don't do this don't do that and you get a little bit paranoid.' In response to Ryan's comments about her being a woman who speaks her mind, Lynda added: 'I'd love to but I'm not allowed to.' Lynda has produced some of British TV's most successful detective show, is renowned for creating strong female characters in TV dramas such as Prime Suspect, Widows and Trial And Retribution. Lynda's words against Richard comes after he recently admitted he pined for his wife Ingrid Oliver over a protracted 12-month period before finally meeting her for the first time on the set of a BBC quiz show. Osman exchanged vows with the actress in 2022 following a whirlwind romance that began two years earlier, when she featured as a guest on his popular House Of Games TV series. 'My bete noire… Richard Osman. Now the reality is… I mean you can't watch any program on television without him looming in it and I immediately turn it off' But the presenter and author admits he was already interested in Oliver - best known for her former role as Petronella Osgood in Doctor Who - through their previous interactions on social media. 'I was aware of Ingrid from social media and thought she was very funny, but beyond a single tweet we'd never communicated,' he told The Sunday Times. 'I asked our mutual friend, the comedian Lou Sanders, to check if Ingrid was available. She wasn't. Twelve months later, in 2021, Ingrid was a guest on my quiz show House of Games. 'This time Lou told me Ingrid was available, so I spent a long day in front of the cameras desperately trying not to flirt. I made eye contact less with her than any other guest ever.'
The Sun
3 minutes ago
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Beloved children's author who wrote over 150 books dies aged 87 – 30 years after first wife died of cancer
A BELOVED children's author who wrote over 150 books has died aged 87. Allan Ahlberg produced a host of bestselling nursery classics during a stellar career as an author. 1 Belinda Ioni Rasmussen, CEO of Walker Books Group, which published some of his books, said: "He was enormously playful in spirit and language and had the ability to make you smile in one sentence. "Allan inspired generations of children's writers, inspired all of us who worked with him, and inspired artists to make some of their very best work.' He came to writing in his late thirties, when his wife Janet grew tired of illustrating non-fiction and asked him to write a story for her to illustrate. Allan later recalled the moment was "as if she turned a key in my back and I was off". The Ahlbergs went on to produce 37 books together, and Allan also wrote more than 100 others, some in Janet's lifetime, and some since her death from breast cancer in 1994. Their collaborations included such lasting favourites for the very young as Peepo!, The Baby's Catalogue and Each Peach Pear Plum. Following Janet's death Allan worked with illustrators such as Raymond Briggs and Bruce Ingman. His career came full circle in a series of collaborations with his daughter Jessica including Half a Pig and a pop-up set of anarchic variations on the tale of Goldilocks.
The Guardian
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Sylvia Young obituary
Sylvia Young, who has died aged 85, nurtured the childhood talents of some of British show business's biggest names, from singers such as Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora and the Spice Girl Emma Bunton to the actors Keeley Hawes and Billie Piper. She opened the Sylvia Young theatre school in central London in 1981 and, during its first decade, provided the newly launched BBC soap EastEnders with stars including Adam Woodyatt, Letitia Dean, Nick Berry and Danniella Westbrook. She also trained young performers who went straight into featured roles on the West End stage, such as Denise van Outen in Les Miserables and Nicola Stapleton (later of EastEnders) in Aspects of Love. Then, in 1994, when the director Sam Mendes auditioned 3,000 children for his revival of Oliver! at the London Palladium, he found five of the six juvenile leads and almost half of the other young cast members, among Young's 'babies', as she called them. Although her classes included males such as Matt Willis, of the pop group Busted, and the actors Steven Mackintosh and John Pickard, many of those who went on to find success were female. 'We produce girls with bottle,' said Young, who survived a tough upbringing in London's East End. 'We develop confidence.' The Sylvia Young theatre school opened with 27 pupils and became one of a small band of performing arts establishments offering full-time courses to those aged between 10 and 16. It grew to accommodate more than 200 pupils, along with a staff of 20, providing both training as performers and an academic education from qualified teachers. Monday to Wednesday were spent on standard school lessons, while Thursday and Friday were reserved for the performing arts. 'My aim was to prove that coming to a stage school would not be detrimental to a child's general education,' said Young. Dean Gaffney, who joined EastEnders in 1993, recalled that the end of each week 'turned into a complete Fame school, with people singing down the hallways and tracksuits instead of school uniform'. Saturday and summer classes were also established, as well as two affiliated agencies to seek work: Young 'Uns for pupils and Rossmore Management for others over 16. Providing places for those on scholarships and bursaries was important to Young, who said: 'I've never wanted it to be purely for children of the wealthy.' She encouraged her charges to learn talents across the board – singing, dancing and acting – and to consider associated jobs such as casting agents, camera operators or writers. Other graduates of the school include Naomi Campbell, Samantha Janus, Kellie Bright, Nicholas Hoult, Dani Behr, the singer Dua Lipa, three members of the girl band All Saints and the casting director Tony de Freitas, as well as Adele Silva, Sheree Murphy and Isabel Hodgins, who all joined the ITV soap Emmerdale. Contrary to some reports, Winehouse was not expelled, said Young, who told the Guardian in 2022 that the future singing sensation was 'very clever' but 'very naughty', finding the academic work too easy and becoming bored. 'I liked her tremendously.' Young was born Sylvia Bakal in Whitechapel, east London. Her mother, Sophie (nee Wexler), was of Romanian heritage, while her father, Abraham, who served in the 17th/21st Lancers, had parents from Belgium and Romania, After the second world war he worked as a tailor's presser, then owned a betting shop. Evacuated to live with a mining family in a village outside Barnsley in 1943, Sylvia returned to London after the war to be brought up, the eldest of nine children, in a three-bedroom council flat. Finding peace at her local library, she read hundreds of plays as a child. On leaving Skinners' Company school, Stamford Hill, in north London, at 16 she took a clerical job before working for Stoke Newington Libraries (1956-57) while – despite suffering stage fright – acting with the amateur repertory company at Mountview Theatre Club (1957-65). She became a stay-at-home mother following the births of her two daughters by Norman Ruffell, whom she married in 1961. Helping to stage a fundraising show for her girls' primary school, Aldersbrook, in 1972 led her to create its Young 'Uns company, performing old-time music-hall routines for charity. When pupils started to call her Sylvia Young-un, she adopted the name. From 1973 she ran a singing and drama group in Manor Park, east London, before setting up a Saturday school six years later in the Notre Dame de France church near Leicester Square. In 1980 this moved to the premises of a boys' club in Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and became the Sylvia Young theatre school the following year. A relocation to Marylebone shortly afterwards was followed in 2010 by a move to Marble Arch. Among Young's pupils over the years was her own elder daughter, Frances Ruffelle, whom she expelled for bad behaviour. 'I was 15 years old, a wayward teenager who talked back, and my mother decided she couldn't teach me,' said Ruffelle, who went on to star in West End musicals such as Les Miserables and Chicago. Young's other daughter, Alison, also acted, ran Rossmore Management and eventually became managing director of the school in 2015. Young was made OBE in 2005 and won a special recognition Olivier award in 2022. Her husband and children survive her, along with four grandchildren, the pop singer Eliza Doolittle, Nat, Felix and Coral. Sylvia Young (Sylvia Bakal), stage school principal, born 18 September 1939; died 30 July 2025
