Latest news with #Forrest
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Emma Forrest's Upcoming Novel ‘Father Figure' Set for See-Saw Films Adaptation
See-Saw Films (part of the Mediawan group) has optioned Emma Forrest's upcoming novel Father Figure. The book will be adapted for television by See-Saw's label, Fanboy, run by executive producer Patrick Walters. Following Fanboy's hit series Sweetpea for Sky Atlantic, and the option of Harry Trevaldwyn's Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King, the company next turns its attention to Forrest's coming-of-age thriller. More from The Hollywood Reporter Iran Film, Dakota Johnson, Stellan Skarsgard, Peter Sarsgaard, Vicky Krieps Honors Set for Karlovy Vary KVIFF Sets Jiri Bartoska Tribute With Opening Film, Exhibition, La Roux to Perform Opening Concert APOS: 'Taxi Driver 3' Coming to Viu in 2025 as Streamer Expands Asian Originals Slate The story follows Gail, a troubled scholarship student at the exclusive girls' school Saint Saviours. 'Impulsive, bored, and yearning for connection, she's at that dangerous age when you want to be picked up by men and driven home by your mother,' a plot synopsis reads. 'Ezra is rich, powerful, and successful, haunted by the wildness of his youth — and by anxiety over his teenage daughter, Agata. When Agata joins Saint Saviours, Gail and Ezra's lives collide, setting off a chain of events more dangerous than either could ever predict.' Also executive producing the series will be Helen Gregory, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Forrest herself. Father Figure is the latest in a series of literary options for See-Saw, who also recently acquired the rights to Shifters by Benedict Lombe, and Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal, alongside a first-look deal with writer Ben Vanstone. Forrest's book will be published July 3 with Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. 'Not to be too on theme, but I am as giddy as an unbalanced teenage girl to have found at See-Saw and fanboy people so connected to my material, whose ambition and aesthetic so closely mirror my own,' said Forrest. 'I know Patrick and Natasha are without question the ones to help me translate my novel to must watch TV.' Walters added: 'Father Figure is an incredible novel and we're so excited to be adapting it for television. Emma is a singular talent I've long admired since the seminal Your Voice in My Head. In Gail she has created an extraordinary literary heroine who I've no doubt will burst on to the screen with an electric force.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Edinburgh Live
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Vernon Kay says 'don't feed the beast' as he opens up on row with wife Tess Daly
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Vernon Kay urged his colleague not to "feed the beast" after sharing details of a domestic disagreement with his wife Tess Daly over garden equipment. The 51-year-old broadcaster recently shared with BBC Radio 2 listeners that Tess won't "allow" him to purchase a sit-on lawnmower. It dashed Vernon's "dream" of recreating Tom Hanks' iconic scene in Forrest Gump In the cult-classic Forrest can be seen riding around an American football field on a mower. Vernon revealed he "couldn't wait" to get a sit-on mower after repairing his garden strimmer. However, when co-presenter Ellie Brennan hinted at a potential new project for Vernon, he jokingly warned her, fearing Tess, aged 56, might not share his enthusiasm. Discussing his vinyl collection, Vernon mentioned: "Records, they're great, all of mine are in the garage. Sometimes in the winter months it gets a bit damp." (Image:) Ellie's suggestion of a "new project coming on" prompted Vernon to respond: "Don't you dare feed the beast, behave yourself." He continued, referencing his previous gardening tool debate: "I've just got over lawnmower gate." Then playfully envisaging a conversation with Tess, he said: "'Tess, Tess, Ellie says we need some new shelves for the records'." Vernon had previously hoped Tess would agree to a new lawnmower for their Buckinghamshire residence, despite anticipating her reluctance towards a ride-on model. He told his audience: "I managed to get the strimmer working again, so all this week I will be strimming the borders of the garden. (Image: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Ima) "Not yet purchased a lawnmower. On Friday I finished the show by saying Strictly Come Dancing's Tess Daly's allowed me to get a lawnmower and I can't wait. I've been doing that thing where you literally peruse lots of websites about garden machinery. "Goodness me, there's a lot of stuff out there that I didn't realise I needed. I think with this acceptance from Strictly Come Dancing's Tess Daly's that we do need a lawnmower that I might, somehow, be able to fulfil my Forrest Gump dreams. "Sit on a lawnmower and just mow the lawn." Imitating the iconic character, Vernon added: "I enjoyed it so much, I did that job for free." Before the presenter added: "That's going to be me, I can't wait. I don't think she'll let me have a sit on one though." Tess and Vernon met when they were presenters on rival TV stations. Tess was working for ITV on SMTV while Vernon was a Channel 4 star on T4. Their relationship however blossomed and Tess says the pair felt an "immediate" connection. Vernon proposed on Christmas Day in 2002 amidst festive celebrations at Tess's family home. The celebrity couple tied the knot at St Mary's Church in Horwich, Vernon's hometown, followed by a reception at Rivington Hall Barn. They now share daughters Amber, 15, and Phoebe, 20, together. Vernon will appear on Celebrity Gogglebox tonight (June 27) alongside pal Paddy McGuinness. Celebrity Gogglebox airs from 9pm on Channel 4.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Rivalry set for latest chapter
Excelsior back Matia Qiolevu. PHOTO: ODT FILES And so they meet again. Excelsior v Valley has become arguably the biggest rivalry in Citizens Shield rugby, and another chapter will play out tomorrow. The clubs meet in the 1v2 quarterfinal, with the winners progressing straight to the final and the losers getting a life. It is a repeat of both the 2023 (Valley won 26-23) and 2024 (Excelsior won 20-19) Citizens Shield finals, and the sides split their regular-season clashes this year, Blues winning 28-16 in the first round and Valley triumphing 20-13 in the second. "Last year, down to the wire in the final, and the year before, down to the wire in the final," Excelsior coach Jason Forrest said. "Even this year, we're 1-1 again, so it's back to the drawing board. "We know each other well. And we know exactly how difficult it's going to be for us to get the result we're after this weekend." Excelsior had qualified second but been a mixed bag this season, Forrest felt. "Apart from a couple of really good performances, we probably haven't played the sort of rugby we would like to be playing at times this year. "We've been inconsistent at times, but in saying that, we've got a lot of motivation to go back to back and we're staying pretty positive around where we're heading." Blues winger Seva Druma leads the competition with 11 tries, and experienced first five Josh Phipps has the most points (136). Oli Knopp — who has made the rare move from fullback to No 8 — has been a revelation in recent weeks, veteran Tom Shields has shored up the front row, and youngster Liam Direen has impressed at fullback. Forrest said he had huge respect for a Valley team buoyant after eight straight wins. Valley have their relentless veteran core of Cameron Rowland, Jake Greenslade, Jake Matthews and Matt Vocea, and have also got some oomph from visiting Japanese players Gaku Shmizu and Kippei Taninaka. "They're just a well-drilled, disciplined, well-coached side that do everything well," Forrest said. "They're hard to break down, and they play for each other, and they're fit. "You've got to be patient against them and hopefully a couple of things go your way." Athletic Marist and Old Boys clash in the sudden-death game.
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
What I learned when I visited Scotland's only nuclear power station
Already suited up is dosimetrist and radiological compliance officer, Andrea McPherson, a 30-year-old keen tennis player brought up in Dunbar, who runs the dose reports and confirms that 'background radiation is higher than what we occupationally receive here". 'If you fly to Spain,' she says, 'you're going to get much more than any of us. Everything is kept conservative. We have a LARP principle which is keep everything as low as reasonably possible. That's what hit me hard when I came here. The conservatism is really dominant which is great.' Even those people working on the station's most radiologically risky area, the fuel route, Forrest tells me, receive just 2-3% additional radiation beyond background. 'We're highly regulated,' he says. 'We've got restrictions. Our annual restriction is 5 microsieverts annually. I'm in and out the reactor area all the time. Mine tends to be round about zero.' Andrea McPherson in Torness power station's turbine hall (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) Scotland's only remaining working nuclear reactor, set to close in 2030, is managed, like the rest of the UK's nuclear plants, by the French-government-owned EDF (Électricité de France) and follows the company's safety principles, the most highly-emphasised of which appears to be banister-holding when walking up and down stairs. 'How I describe it is a visible manifestation of your safety culture,' Forrest observes. 'We hold the handrail. That's what we do. So when you walk through the workplace you're holding the handrail. It's like a mindset. You're locking in. You find that when you go to Edinburgh Airport all the EDF people hold the handrail.' Handrail holding is stressed so many times it begins to feel like a reassurance as much as a safety principle. Everything will all be okay, even though, as has been much reported, cracks have appeared in the graphite of Torness's aging reactors. Everything will be okay because, though there have been some truly catastrophic accidents in nuclear power's global history, for the most part the biggest risk to employees is from slips, trips and falls. The power plant has recently been given a two-year life-extension from 2028 to 2030, throughout which it will continue to check and test the concerning cracks in its graphite core. 'The extension,' says Forrest, 'was very welcomed. Our demographic here average age is 43. Whole bunch of people in their twenties and thirties, for them that security and those few years more, very important there.' Torness power station director, Paul Forrest, next to a turbine (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) There is a lot, on the tour, that seems mundane or familiar. Gaskets, it turns out, are the most common bit of kit that needs to be replaced. 'The kind of kit and skills we've got here,' says Forrest, 'are not dissimilar to the water industry.' A butterfly flutters through the turbine hall, dancing this way and that. It's a reminder, as it flits past the two sky blue turbines, of the biodiversity programme being carried out on the site, which has, I am told, seen butterfly species in the area increase from 12 to 21. Peregrine falcons also breed on the roof of the building, where a camera is installed. The gas turbines, which bear a plaque dated 1985, are elegant, classic industrial machines which have been kept running over the year by regular maintenance and repairs in three-yearly outages. They are also the same as the turbines, generating by spinning magnets, that might have been found in coal or oil power stations of the era. Even the UK's planned new reactor, Sizewell C, will generate using turbines not so very different, though bigger, and with two magnets perpendicular to each other so that it can rotate at lower revolutions. The way Forrest touches the turbine as he presses a hand against its surface to show its warmth, seems almost admiring, and he observes, 'We'll take that turbine apart every three years. It's just a beautiful machine.' His admiration for the design extends to the whole power station. Some years ago, however, when he was working as station director at Hunterston B, he featured in an episode of Great British Railway Journeys, greeting Michael Portillo with the words, 'Welcome to the most beautiful power station in the world.' By the time it aired on television, slightly awkwardly, he had been taken up post in Torness. But Forrest obviously also feels a keen appreciation of the distinctive, pale block of Torness, whose light grey form, on the East Lothian coast against the sea, in a colour believed to have been chosen to match the sky, is so iconic it featured on the cover of a Teenage Fanclub single, Ain't that Enough. Inside, Torness feels like going back in time. Following a previous visit I made to the plant, in the company of family and friends, what lingered most in my mind was the aesthetics of the control room, which bore the design of another age. Looking down into it felt like traveling back in time: lowing buttons and ivory panels, green and red 1980s-style phones, and box files lining the walls. Journalist Vicky Allan and photographer Gordon Terris in the reactor hall at Torness (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) But this latest tour is taking me further into the heart of the plant, and into the radiologically controlled area, access to which is via a tight system of security. Prior to entry I'm issued with a pocket-sized dosimeter on which I can check my irradiation level and which will alarm if it goes too high. Standing on top of a nuclear reactor, casually, whilst conducting an interview, is a pinch yourself moment. We chat while staring down at the pile cap, designed as a shield, to absorb for instance, the energy from an aircraft crashing into the site. Below us is forty metres of reactor and cover. For the staff the experience is clearly everyday. At one point they say, 'Take a look at your dosimeter. It will say zero'. And it does. What about the cracks? I ask. Forrest observes: 'For both the reactors we monitor the graphite cracks, constantly, every two months.' Might the plant extend still longer than its new 2030 date? 'We're quite conservative in nature,' he says, 'That extension doesn't mean to say that 2030 will be the final end date. We'll continue to review. I do feel that if there is further life extension beyond 2030 it will be in the two three years kind of… It won't be five years. It will be two or three years.' On the day of our visit, according to the National Energy System Operator, Torness, is delivering 22% of south of Scotland electricity. That's fairly common for the power station, and its fraction of the mix mostly ranges from around 10%, when only one unit is, to a quarter, with two units working, though it has been known to be as high as a startling 90%. Every eighteen months one of the turbines is shut down for maintenance in what is called a 'scheduled outage'. 'There's two things that Torness provides,' says Forrest. 'One is straight MW. The other is inertia in the grid: stability. Our turbines spin at 3000 revs per minute and that's 50hertz. So that provides that stability and there's only so many technologies that can provide that. Coal can do it, gas can do it, nuclear can do it – but wind doesn't do that, and neither does hydro'. There has been a great deal of talk about inertia recently. At the time of the recent outage in Spain, which left the country in blackout, it was suggested by many that 'lack of inertia' was to blame, fuelling calls for more nuclear baseload in the UK. But, actually, it turned out that Spain's outage had nothing to do with inertia and renewables, but had other causes, including the fact that some of the conventional power plants required by law to regulate the grid's voltage failed to do so. Torness, however, is about more than the inertia or the electricity spun into existence by its magnet-twirling turbines. When I ask Paul Forrest what nuclear power means to him, he says, 'The traditional answer would probably be low carbon electricity in Scotland. But actually how I look at it it is as beautiful jobs for people. You must have seen people smiling a lot. People enjoy working here.' One of the things that becomes apparent to me as I tour the site is that a nuclear power station is not just its infrastructure and engineering, it is also about what people call 'the Torness family', the community both working currently at the plant and in a diaspora across the nuclear world. Torness father and son, Archie and Lewis Martin (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) What's remarkable is how many actual family relations, fathers and sons, are working on the site – from Forrest's own son, a mechanical technician, to work manager Archie Martin and his control and instrumentation engineer son Lewis. When I meet these two in the lift running up through the building to the reactor hall, Archie, who began working there in 1984, recalls standing in the lift with Margaret Thatcher when she visited the site. 'There was a big buzz about the place,' he says. 'That evening, we had a big dance in one of the construction sheds. I remember I won the big prize at the raffle, a 14 inch portable colour television from Currys. 'I remember at the time,' he recalls, it was called a job for life. It has been a job for life.' Will it be a job for life, for Lewis who started on the apprentice scheme in 2014, thirty years 'to the day' after his dad started, he began working at the plant? Certainly he believes, he will have ongoing work defueling the site and then opportunities within the wider nuclear industry after that. Standing by the reactor, he explains what his job, working in robotics around the dismantling of the fuel, entails. He is involved in controlling a machine that is essentially a radiologically shielded crane which pulls out units called 'irradiated fuel assemblies', containing the spent fuel, which are then stored for sixty days before being taken to a dismantling service, and also in controlling further machinery that is used to pull the spent fuel away from a reusable plug, before ultimately it is transported, after 90 days, by truck and train to Sellafield. Currently Torness supports an EDF staff of 520, but also the 250 workers with its main contractors, scaffolders, joiners, plumbers facilities management workers. Torness father and son, John and Callum Gibson (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) It's not common, says Forrest for people to leave the company, with only about 1% going elsewhere. 'When oil and gas was booming people would go to Grangemouth. What we're finding right now is people from Grangemouth are coming here after the petrochemical reprocessing plant shut down.' The other striking thing is how long many of the older staff have worked at the site. Forrest, for instance, was there at the start of the power station, during its construction. 'Nuclear was the future wasn't it?' he says. 'And also it was just being involved in something so big.' He is also likely to be here when the station shuts down in five years' time. If he is, it will not be the first nuclear station that Forrest has guided to its end of life. Forrest was station director on the countdown to shutdown at Hunterston B. He remembers that emotional moment, and the lead up to it, in January 2022. 'It was sad,' he recalls. 'But we had a wee saying because we were facing into it and you can't kid on that it's not going to happen, especially for the younger people there. It was, 'Respect the past but embrace the future.' I was up in the control room and we did the one, two, three and pressed the button.' Footage from the time shows the power plant, in a landscape sprinkled with snow, release a plume of steam, the visible sign of its end. 'People,' he says, 'were in tears that day. But there's another wee emotion that kicks in. It was pride. People had been working there for one decade, two decades or four decades and they're all looking up, pride.' 'In the run up, we accepted what was going to happen and then the question then is how are we going to secure employment for the young people. That was the focus. How do we retrain, how do we redeploy? Most of the skills are similar so we've got riggers and slingers and forklift truck drivers and you need all that for decommissioning as well. Those raw skills became our focus. Ultimately, we ended up getting every single person who wanted a job got a job.' When Forrest first took up his post at Torness, he talked staff t through what had happened at Hunterston. 'I was really proud that every single person at Hunterston who wanted a job got one. I was able to tell that story. I look people in the eye and say that. And they go okay it's not a theory or aspiration. I'll be honest and I'll say I'm not certain I'll get every single person but I'm very confident I'll get 98%. And people go right okay I understand. It's a reassurance.' Torness apprentices, Andrew Hall (left) and Harry Bertrand (right) (Image: GordonTerris_Herald&Times) Torness, however, doesn't feel like a place at the end of its life. It is still taking on new apprentices and host to workers in their twenties and thirties, with many decades of work ahead of them. What, I ask some of the apprentices, on the tour round the plant, do they feel about their future? They seem highly positive. Harry Bertrand, who graduates this year from a chemistry degree apprenticeship at Torness and Andrew Hall, 22 years old, and training to be a control and instrument technician, speak with enthusiasm about what the power station had already brought them and what the future might bring. 'EDF,' says Hall, 'is like a family fleetwide. There are loads projects that the government is planning in nuclear: look at Sizewell C. It sets you up well for the future. But anyway, once the station closes, we'll have a lot of work to do. And also you can tell that you've got a quality education and training that could be transferrable anywhere.' "It set you up well for the future," says Bertrand. But perhaps 2030, in any case, won't be the end of nuclear. There are other suggestions, though, for a still longer life for the Torness site, one of them being that it could be home to a small modular reactor. Forrest, however, is not getting involved in that debate. 'Right now,' he says, 'the Scottish Government policy is not supportive of new nuclear build. I love nuclear power, and the land is just outside that window there for a potential SMR, but I think we've got to be respectful of the democratically elected government.' It's a calm and conservative answer, in keeping with the style of the place.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
New York considering four-day workweek in public and private sectors? Check details
Is New York planning to test four-day workweek in both public and private sectors? A new proposal in the New York legislature aims to put the concept of a four-day workweek to test in both the sectors, reports NewsWeek. In February, Assembly member Phara Souffrant Forrest , who represents the 57th Assembly District in Brooklyn, introduced two pilot programs aimed at reducing the five-day workweek to four. While one pilot program would establish a four-day workweek for state employees, and the other will offer tax incentives to private employers to run the pilot, according to Fox News. Both the bills are currently In Committee, a stage in the legislative process where bills are under consideration. ALSO READ: 'Don't talk to me, insult me publicly': Pam Bondi grilled, left scrambling over sketchy Qatar past Will New York adopt four-day workweek? Both the bills aim to establish a "pilot program" for the four-day work week, during which employees will receive a reduction in the overall hours worked "without any reduction in overall pay." "As a working mom, a nurse, and someone who's juggled multiple jobs just to get by, I know firsthand how exhausting and unsustainable the five-day grind can be," Forrest told Newsweek. She said that the plan "came out of that lived experience and out of conversations I've had with so many New Yorkers who are overworked, underpaid, and barely have time for their families or themselves." Live Events Bill A5423 would amend New York state's civil service law, requiring the state department of civil service to identify state agencies where a four-day workweek is "feasible and beneficial for at least 60 percent of state employees." ALSO READ: 'God help us all': Trump's appointment of 22-year-old college grad to terrorism unit amid Iran crisis faces backlash The bill also ensures that employees selected for the pilot program would not experience cuts in pay and benefits or have their hours cut to less than 36 hours per week. Bill A5454 would amend the state's labor law by creating the New York Smart Work Week Pilot Program . The program would offer tax credits of up to $250,000 per employer or $5,000 per participating employee as an incentive to private employers. The assemblymember said she drew on numerous case studies and similar pilot programs in the United States and abroad in drafting the proposal. The proposals are currently being reviewed in committee, where public hearings will be held prior to any amendments or votes. Forrest told Newsweek that the response from fellow legislators "so far has been encouraging," which to her signals a "growing interest in rethinking the structure of work, especially after the pandemic shifted how we all view time, labor, and quality of life." ALSO READ: 'If you can rent Venice...': Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez's lavish wedding sparks major uproar Is it mandatory? Unlike mandates, the scheme is voluntary and this feature may protect it from early resistance. By limiting participation to willing employers, the trial seeks to gather meaningful data without disrupting wider business operations. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
