Latest news with #BBC-commissioned
Daily Record
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scots trial fears over filming of court cases for true-crime documentaries
The Murder Trial and Murder Case series feature in the Top 10 most requested titles of 2025 on the broadcaster's iPlayer with over three million views. Real-life- crime documentaries which allow cameras into Scots courts have been among BBC Scotland's biggest hits despite fears they could disrupt criminal trials. The Murder Trial and Murder Case series feature in the Top 10 most requested titles of 2025 on the broadcaster's iPlayer with over three million views. The latest viewing figures come after the broadcaster last week announced Murder Case is set to return later this year with a new three-part series focussing on two cases. Two 60-minute episodes will concentrate on the murder of Tony Parsons – The Vanishing Cyclist – who was killed by a drunk driver on the A82 near Bridge of Orchy and secretly buried in a shallow grave. Sandy McKellar and twin Robert hid Tony's body on a remote estate in the Highlands where it remained undiscovered for three years until Sandy confided in his new girlfriend Caroline Muirhead about the killing and took her to the burial site. She was able to pinpoint the remote location to the police by dropping a soft drink can on the ground. However, two years ago we revealed Muirhead fled court over the pressure of appearing in the documentary. She was arrested after failing to turn up to court for the twins' trial. At the time, she said the demands to take part in the BBC-commissioned programme on the case led her to have a mental breakdown. Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay wrote to the BBC to raise concerns with its production company Firecrest Films. He said: 'Ms Muirhead has said she was subjected to inappropriate pressure to nagree for her testimony to be broadcast. 'She further claims that she felt unable to testify due to this pressure and that this, in turn, may have caused the Crown Office to strike a plea deal with the two men accused of murder, instead of putting them on trial, resulting in a downgrading of the charges, which they admitted to.' The real-life crime format has attracted huge audiences. A spokeswoman said: ' Crime documentaries continue to be really popular with audiences in Scotland and across the UK, consistently performing well on BBC iPlayer. 'The Murder Trial and Murder Case series feature in the Top 10 'most requested' titles of 2025 on BBC iPlayer with a combined audience of nearly three million streaming requests. 'This year, the top three 'most viewed' BBC crime documentaries have been Murder Trial: Girl in the River, Murder Trial: Body in the Warehouse and Murder Case: The Hunt for Mary McLaughlin's Killer.'
North Wales Chronicle
29-06-2025
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
Supermarkets may be fined if they don't sell healthier food
The 'healthy food standard' will apply to retailers and manufacturers in England as part of a 10-year strategy to cut diet-related diseases, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said. Initially developed by innovation agency Nesta, the policy introduces mandatory health targets for retailers while giving them flexibility in how to meet them, such as by tweaking recipes, running price promotions on healthier items, or redesigning store layouts. Supermarkets will be required to report sales data and those that fail to hit targets could face financial penalties, Nesta suggested. 🗨️ Watch @scarletnazarian and @dr_amoss break down the three key shifts at the heart of our 10 Year Health Plan: ➡️ analogue to digital ➡️ hospital to community ➡️ sickness to prevention Nesta analysed 36 million supermarket transactions, finding an average shopping basket health score of 67 out of 100, and has set a target to raise this to 69. Its modelling shows that raising the score by just two points would cut obesity by around a fifth over three years, helping more than three million people to achieve a healthier weight. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by around 200 calories a day – the equivalent of a bottle of fizzy drink – obesity would be halved. 'This Government's ambition for kids today is for them to be part of the healthiest generation of children ever. That is within our grasp. With the smart steps we're taking today, we can give every child a healthy start to life. 'Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and are trying to make their stores healthier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field. 'Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure.' The Government aims to introduce mandatory reporting by the end of this parliament in 2029, with the standard to be achieved some way into the next. Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, welcomed the announcement, while Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury's, called it an 'important and positive step forward in helping the nation to eat well'. Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: 'This is a fair and evidence-based prescription for better health; big businesses urgently need the government to level the playing field to help them focus on selling products that help people live well.' Recommended Reading Channel 4 to show BBC-commissioned documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack Rod Stewart branded 'grotesque' and 'stupid' amid support for Reform UK Ex-Gogglebox star speaks out over 'intrusive' show years after exit Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: 'Our food strategy will bring together the health plan, food producers and retailers to make sure we can feed the nation more healthily while growing the economic success of our food sector.' Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: 'The introduction of mandatory reporting by all large food companies, including takeaway chains, on the healthiness of their food sales is a game changer.' Sonia Pombo, head of impact and research at Action on Salt, said: 'This will help shift the responsibility away from individuals and toward a food system that truly supports healthier choices.'
Spectator
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
BBC report concludes some stars ‘behave unacceptably'
Back to the Beeb, which is better at making the news rather than breaking it these days. Now a new report in the conduct of its employees has concluded that a 'minority' of stars and managers 'behave unacceptably' at work with chiefs failing to address bad behaviour. The review was ordered by the BBC's board after the disturbing Huw Edwards case last year, which saw the ex-presenter plead guilty to having 41 indecent images of children. Good heavens… The BBC-commissioned report interviewed 2,500 of the corporation's staff members. It found that overall, the institution does not have a toxic work culture, but that there was 'a minority of people who behave unacceptably and whose behaviour is not addressed'. The review blasted the Beeb for showing 'inconsistent execution when it comes to dealing with poor performance and bad behaviour' and remarked that authors had heard 'examples of well-known names not being held to account for poor behaviour'. It added: These people work in both on and off-air roles, dotted across the organisation in different functions and departments. They are often in positions where power could be abused. Even though they are small in number, their behaviour creates large ripples which negatively impact the BBC's culture and external reputation. Lovely! The review went on to note: 'We also heard of 'untouchables' who work behind the camera or microphone. The perception was that senior management would turn an eye to poor behaviours when productions were award-winning or attracting large audiences.' How very upstanding, eh? The latest report comes 12 years after a previous review after the Jimmy Savile scandal, which itself concluded there was a 'strong undercurrent of fear' at the organisation when it came to tackling bullying. In the last year, further complaints about BBC stars including Russell Brand and ex-Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood prompted the Beeb's execs to apologise to staff – while allegations involving former presenter Jermaine Jenas and Masterchef co-host Gregg Wallace made headlines. The much-scrutinised organisation says it will introduce reforms to tackle bad behaviour – including an improved disciplinary policy, code of conduct and complaint mechanisms – with chairman Samir Shah insisting he would draw 'a line in the sand'. It's about time…
