Latest news with #MollyJones
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Wigan thrash Giants to return to top of Women's Super League
Wigan Warriors cruised back to the top of the Women's Super League as they thrashed fifth-placed Huddersfield Giants unbeaten Warriors ran in 13 tries to move a point clear of St Helens, who remain the only side not to lose to Wigan this season following their 22-22 draw a fortnight scored six first-half tries to lead 32-0 at the break, including the first of what would prove to be a hat-trick by centre Molly Anna Davies scored twice in a four-minute spell midway through the second half before Jones added two in succession towards the end of the game as Wigan crossed seven more win bettered their 58-0 victory over the Giants in their first meeting a month ago. Elsewhere York Valkyrie consolidated third place with a 28-4 victory at home to sixth-placed Leigh from Evie Sexton, Georgie Dagger and Tamzin Renouf put York 16-4 ahead at the break before Eboni Partington and Agnes Wood crossed in the second Raiders won their bottom-of-the-table clash with Warrington Wolves 52-10 in Cumbria. The victory was just Barrow's second of the season - the other coming at Warrington last month - and keeps them second-from-bottom of the table, four points above their winless opponents.
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Forty years later, Molly's final farewells on A Country Practice remain a blueprint for a good death
When I talk to Australian gen Xers about my new play, I invariably get the same response: a dramatic intake of breath, a hand swiftly covering the chest and an 'Oh my god! Molly! God! I was devastated.' The play imagines two days in the writers' room of A Country Practice, dreaming up what they went through to kill off Molly Jones, arguably the show's most beloved character – played with charm, wit and truth by actor Anne Tenney. Tenney had become Australia's sweetheart and one of its biggest TV stars. It was a big deal to off her. It's a television death that really meant something to the viewers at the time, and in the four decades since it broadcast in June 1985. When I asked people about their memories of the episode, two responses stood out. The theatre director Lee Lewis, a teenager in rural Goulburn at the time, wore funeral blacks to watch the episode: 'I lived my life through the television – it was an important window into other lives, growing up in the country. Molly was dying, and I was dressing in black for her funeral.' Kate Mulvany, who's gone on to be an actor and television writer herself, remembers the night of Molly's death profoundly. Eight years old when it aired, 'I was so grief-stricken afterwards that I asked to sleep in my parents' bed. I wet the pillowcase with inconsolable tears, then changed the pillowcases before my parents came to bed so that they didn't think I'd had some kind of 'accident'. That's how much I cried.' Why is it consistently on lists of the best episodes of Australian television? Why is it such a formative memory for so many? After watching it at least 30 times, I think it's because the episode, written by the screenwriter Judith Colquhoun (who wrote more than 100 episodes of A Country Practice and pretty much every other great show of the 80s, 90s and noughties), provides a blueprint for the perfect death. Of course, there's nothing perfect about a young mother dying of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in her late 20s but the way Molly dies is how most of us would wish to go: at home surrounded by people we love. Molly died over a 14-episode arc, for a couple of reasons: the late James Davern, the creator of A Country Practice, hoped his star might change her mind and stay on the show. If she was determined to leave, he wanted his team of writers to remember that children loved Molly, and he didn't want to traumatise them. The audience lived through the progression of her illness. They were there for the first rumblings of ill health, the diagnosis, the treatment – just as they'd been there in the years before as Molly had a baby, lost a baby, ran for council and tied herself to trees. Her death ultimately became about the importance of love and community, and believing in a future of beauty even though you're not going to be there. Molly is brought home from the hospital to die on her beloved farm, which has been painted lovingly by her community while she was in hospital. In the days leading up to her death, as an audience, we're offered a glimpse into her world. There's the barbecue with her friends, each of them having time to say goodbye and letting her know how much she means to them. The uneasy discussion with her best friend, Vicky (played with an exquisite vulnerability by the late Penny Cook), about the mothering Molly's daughter might need when Molly is gone. A heartbreaking and practical conversation with her husband, Brendan (a beautifully underrated performance from Shane Withington), about the importance of him allowing himself to move on: 'We've had a perfect marriage … well, nearly. And you can't live with just a memory.' These are the conversations we dream of having with those we love, and often circumstances or a lack of emotional courage prevent us from having them. These hard conversations never become saccharine. You can feel the love these actors all have for each other and their sadness at losing their colleague but there also is humour. Somehow, while our beloved friend Molly is being taken away from us before the final ad break, we're laughing at one character marinating a steak with garlic (these are tomato sauce people!), and Molly is joking about who Brendan needs to stay away from after she's dead. Nothing is left unsaid. Even though she is so young, Molly has had a full life, she's accepted her fate and she's loved to her final moment. Maybe that's why we still love this incredible episode of television 40 years later – because who among us wouldn't want the same when our screen fades to black? Melanie Tait is a playwright and journalist living in Sydney
BBC News
01-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Huddersfield deny Leigh chance to go top of Super League
Huddersfield Giants denied Leigh Leopards the chance to go joint top of the Betfred Women's Super League with an emphatic 32-6 Brown scored four tries, including two inside 10 minutes, as the Giants gained control in the first Taylor got Leigh on the board with a converted try a minute before the half-time the second half was all about Huddersfield as Brown scored again on 56 minutes after running the length of the pitch, before Mollie Iceton, Lois Naidole - on her return from the sin-bin - and Ellie Thompson win moved Huddersfield into fourth, a place behind Leigh, with both on four Saturday's only Super League fixture, league leaders Wigan Warriors thrashed Leeds Rhinos 34-12 with Molly Jones' hat-trick part of an eight-try haul in their first win at of Jones' scores came inside the opening 25 minutes, alongside tries from Ellise Derbyshire and Anna Davies. Remi Wilton, Eva Hunter and Grace Banks crossed in the second half, before Jones wrapped up Wigan's third win of the season, maintaining their 100% Murray and Mel Howard's tries either side of half-time kept Leeds competitive, but their wait for a first win this season continues. Barrow Raiders secured their first win of the season, beating Warrington Wolves 14-6 to climb above them in the at the start of play, Barrow took an early lead through Jodie Morley's converted levelled with a converted try of their own before the break, but Beth Lindsay and Vanessa Temple restored Barrow's lead with two scores in under 20 Helens moved second in the table after they came from behind to beat reigning champions York Valkyrie McGifford's early try gave Saints the lead before Kira Fitzpatrick and Emma Kershaw both scored to put York in front 12-4 at the Saints rallied in the second half as Faye Gaskin scored and converted her own try, before Naomi Williams crossed under the posts with Gaskin adding the extras to complete the victory.
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Wigan rout reigning champions York in season opener
Betfred Women's Super LeagueWigan (28) 40Tries: Jones, Hunter, T Power, Banks 2, Veivers, S Power Goals: Rowe 6York (0) 6Tries: Andrade Goals: Williamson Wigan Warriors served further notice there could be a new name at the top of Womens' Super League this season with an emphatic statement win against back-to-back champions York days after booking a place in the Womens' Challenge Cup final with a 44-14 semi-final win over Leeds Rhinos, Denis Betts' side left the reigning champions on the canvas at the Brick Community an explosive first half, the 2023 and 2024 champions Valkyrie conceded five tries as Wigan dominated possession and made best use of was 13 minutes before Molly Jones went over after a break and assist from Ellise Derbyshire, but Wigan had another through Eva Hunter four minutes later, and a third after Tiana Power's dazzling run from the right flank to it was an opening period that left York stunned, a try from Grace Banks, with a strong finish through two tackles, and an Emily Veivers score after she reacted quickest to a loose ball a minute from the break left them flattened. Izzy Rowe's boot proved reliable with four goals for the only respite to the relentless waves of Wigan pressure came during a long injury break as medics attended to York centre Tamzin Renouf, who was stretchered off after 35 there was later positive news about Renouf the half-time break did nothing to blunt the Warriors hunger, and Mia Atherton posted an enormous hit on Izzy Brennan straight from the Power matched her sister's first-half try on 51 minutes and Banks' claimed a second, both converted, to put Wigan 40-0 to the good in the closing stages.A consolation try from Savannah Andrade three minutes before the buzzer with Ellie Williamson adding two points allowed the visitors some measure of it could not mask the fact that the tectonic plates have clearly shifted in the close season as Wigan look to add a second Women's Super League title following a first and only win in 2018. Wigan: Banks; T Power T, Wilson, M Jones, Derbyshire; Foubister, Rowe; Coleman, Wilton, Gregory-Haselden, Hunter, S Power, Marsh, C Jones, Veivers, Dagger; Partington, Renouf, Rampton, Kershaw; Rihari, Williamson; Wood, Peach, Hornby, Andrade, Parker, Marshall, Stimpson, Moxon, Freddie Lincoln.
