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Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso, and Little Britain actor Anthony Head dies

June 05, 2026 at 18:08

Anthony Head, the British actor best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72.

In a statement, his daughters said he "passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family".

The star was best known as librarian Rupert Giles in the cult US supernatural TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, which ran from 1997 to 2003.

Known for his distinctive baritone voice, Head first rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s in the Nescafe Gold Blend television adverts.

The ads, which ran from 1987 to 1993, saw Head play one half of the on-screen "Gold Blend couple," alongside Sharon Maughan, who struck up a slow-burning romance over a cup of coffee.

More recently, Head appeared in football comedy Ted Lasso, where he played former Richmond FC owner Rupert Mannion.

Other notable roles include playing the Prime Minister in Little Britain and Uther Pendragon in the TV show Merlin, the father of Prince Arthur.

Head's daughters, actresses Emily and Daisy Head, said in their statement that: "Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind but we know his legacy will live on in the shows he was a part of and in the audiences that love them."

Over the years, the star also appeared in Motherland, Manchild, Silent Witness, Spooks, Doctor Who and My Family.

In July 2018, he joined the cast of BBC Radio 4 long-running drama The Archers, playing Robin Fairbrother.

Head was also a singer, having appeared in the West End and recorded music, including the album for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode.

His long-time partner, animal welfare campaigner Sarah Fisher, died in December 2025 aged 61.

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Former Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow has been living with Alzheimer's disease

June 05, 2026 at 18:09

Former Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow has been living with Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Society has said.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia.

"Veteran news anchor Jon Snow has shared that he's living with dementia, speaking publicly for the first time to raise awareness of a condition affecting around one million people across the UK," the Alzheimer's Society said.

The charity said the 79-year-old has decided to speak out in a new documentary which will air on Channel 4 later this month.

Michelle Dyson, CEO of Alzheimer's Society, said: "Jon's decision to talk publicly about his dementia diagnosis is a real act of courage and his story will resonate with so many.

"His support for Alzheimer's Society will help spark a national conversation about dementia that we so desperately need.

"Despite being the UK's biggest killer, dementia is still not treated with the same urgency as other major health conditions like cancer.

"Alongside his wife Precious, Jon is shining a light on the need for faster, fairer access to diagnosis.

"I would encourage anyone needing help or information to call our Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456 or visit alzheimers.org.uk."

Mr Snow revealed he has had the disease since 2023 and that before his diagnosis he was reluctant to see a doctor and had insisted there was nothing wrong.

The journalist also revealed he was part of a clinical trial for the condition and has previously spoken about how his mother, Joan, struggled with Alzheimer's in the years leading up to her death.

The disease is a physical illness which damages a person's brain, eventually causing dementia, according to Alzheimer's Society.

Louisa Compton, head of news, current affairs, specialist factual and sport at Channel 4 said: "It is a profound privilege that we are able to document his last big investigation, in a sensitively made film that frames Jon's current affairs nous alongside a new life lived with Alzheimer's.

"We hope this film will go a long way to raise awareness of how to live whilst facing a life-changing diagnosis."

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Which royals rent their homes and how much do they pay?

June 05, 2026 at 13:56

The financial arrangements of several members of the Royal Family have been laid bare in a new National Audit Office (NAO) report.

The investigation found that many royals have been paying below market rents, while some have their accommodation costs paid for by the King and others sub-let the properties for an unknown amount.

The report has sparked accusations that the Royal Family has shown "total contempt for the taxpayer", especially in cases where support was provided to non-working royals.

So what are the Royal Family's residential property arrangements?

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

The former prince has received an undisclosed private income from subletting three cottages on his Royal Lodge estate for two decades, while paying a peppercorn rent.

"Three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate were also sublet with income generated from subletting payable to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor," the report said.

Andrew was entitled to sublet up to three properties on the Royal Lodge estate in Windsor Great Park under the terms of his lease.

No figures have been provided of how much income the properties generated, with the NAO saying the figure was private.

However, royal insiders suggested that Andrew's subletting did not produce a profit because the rate only covered maintenance and running costs.

Andrew left Royal Lodge earlier this year and moved to the King's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk in April, after he was charged with misconduct in public office over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The late Queen's second son, who was stripped of his prince title and dukedom by Charles over his friendship with the billionaire sex offender, was not asked to provide figures for the amount of money the sublets produced.

It has been widely reported that Andrew may not receive the compensation he is due for giving up his lease, which would be a pay out of between £301,967 and £488,342, depending on the condition of the property and the date the lease is officially surrendered.

It is also not known whether Andrew's sublet properties were consistently rented out, but his subletting of the residences ended in April 2026.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie

The King has footed the bill for the daughters of Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, who are non-working royals, to live in accommodation in royal palaces, the report said.

The rents set for their accommodation are also based on out-of-date valuations, the NAO found, in part because royal household properties require tenants with security clearance.

Princess Eugenie's rent for Ivy Cottage in Kensington Palace is based on the 2018 valuation between 2020 and 2021 and Princess Beatrice's apartment in St James's Place on a 2020 valuation.

The princesses were then only required to pay a percentage of that value, with both paying a percentage between 50% to 68% of the market rent since 2020.

However, both their rents are actually paid to the royal household by Charles out of the Privy Purse, made up of his Duchy of Lancaster income and other private funds.

Eugenie is said to have carried out refurbishments at Ivy Cottage at her own expense.

It's believed the arrangement was put in place by the late Queen Elizabeth II for her granddaughters, and Charles has continued it.

The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the Royal Family's official duties and the upkeep of royal palaces, is met from public funds in exchange for the King's surrender of the revenue from the Crown Estate.

The Prince and Princess of Wales

William and Kate pay £307,200 a year for their home, Forest Lodge in Berkshire, and have avoided peppercorn rent accusations.

The report said the couple signed a "short-term 20-year lease" with quarterly rent payments of £76,800 every three months, and no upfront deposit because they pay for all internal refurbishment costs.

But the Crown Estate paid £396,993 for repairs at the mansion, two of three cottages on the site, the barn and the grounds before the couple moved in.

The tenancy covers the Grade II listed Georgian house, gardens, paddock with 7.4 hectares, a barn, and three cottages.

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent

The late Queen's cousin and his wife, Marie-Christine, have also had their rent paid by the King from the Privy Purse.

The couple sparked a scandal and were dubbed the "Rent-a-Kents" when it emerged in 2002 they paid a peppercorn rent of just £69 a week to live in the grand Apartment 10, despite not being working royals.

When the arrangement emerged, the Kents argued that Queen Elizabeth II had given them the use of the Palace as a wedding present, after MPs on the Commons' Public Accounts Committee demanded they pay full rent.

A commercial rate rent of £120,000 a year was paid on their behalf by the late Queen, but they would need to pay their own way from 2009.

But the report shows the Kents never paid their own rent, after the Queen privately agreed to continue the private funding.

As a result of this agreement, the King has continued to pay their rent, which is now set at 63% of open market value.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh

Edward and Sophie were also found to pay a peppercorn rent after signing a long lease of 150 years in 2007 for Bagshot Park in Surrey with a payment of £5m.

The King's brother and his wife have, like Andrew, generated a private income by renting out the property, letting out the stable to a third party in 2020.

Edward's company Eclipse Nominees Limited is listed as the leaseholder.

They previously held a lease from 1998 to 2007, and committed to spend £1.38m on restoration.

Princess Alexandra and Marina Ogilvy

The late Queen's cousin Princess Alexandra pays an annual ground rent of £1,500 to live at Thatched House Lodge in Richmond Park, which is leased to THL Trust.

The amount she pays changes depending on the time that has lapsed, after a premium payment of £670,000 in 1995, following a previous lease in 1971.

Her daughter Marina Ogilvy has a shorthold lease on a cottage on the Windsor Estate and pays an annual rent of £17,436.

'Taking the public for a complete ride'

Former Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker, who has long been a critic of royal finances, branded the arrangements as "outrageous".

"The whole thing is outrageous. If you look at Andrew, this is adding insult to injury," he said.

"It shows an absolute total contempt for the taxpayer, not only that Andrew was able to have a peppercorn rent for a gigantic property, but then to make potentially millions on the side from subletting properties.

"The money should have gone to the Crown Estate, not into his pockets."

On Beatrice and Eugenie, he said: "There's no way that non-working members of the Royal Family should be subsidised by the Duchy of Lancaster.

"The Royal Family is yet again taking the public for a complete ride."

He added that any profits made from sub-letting the properties should go to the Crown Estate.

"We are, in fact as taxpayers, subsidising money to go into Andrew's pocket and indeed Edward's pocket," he told Sky News.

The report will form the basis of the Public Accounts Committee's inquiry into royal properties.

Former Labour MP Baroness Margaret Hodge, who once chaired the Public Accounts Committee, agreed it was "outrageous" that some figures concerning the income royals earned from sub-letting the properties were missing from the report.

"There's a lot of taxpayer money that goes into supporting the Royal Family, quite rightly, but that means we need transparency and we need accountability, particularly at a time when everybody is struggling very much," she said.

"I welcome the report, but there's a lot missing."

Royal commentator, Jennie Bond, said there needed to be "more transparency" around the royal's financial arrangements, especially when it involves private sub-let agreements

"The point of all this is these are part of the Crown Estate," she said.

"The Crown Estate is an independent commercial operation which must be run for profit, and that profit goes directly back to the Treasury.

"In other words, it's public money. And that is why there is public interest in exactly who pays what."

Ms Bond also criticised Beatrice and Eugenie and said she did not understand why they had to "sponge off their uncle" as "grown women".

"They have their own careers. They're both married to a successful businessman," she said.

A spokesperson for the Crown Estate, said: "The Crown Estate welcomes the National Audit Office's review which confirms its leases with members of the Royal Family were agreed in line with independent, professional advice and open market valuations.

"We look forward to discussing the report further with the Public Accounts Committee in due course."

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

Two men recruited by Iran found guilty of stabbing TV presenter on London street

June 05, 2026 at 17:02

Two men have been found guilty of stabbing a TV presenter on a suburban street in a case that has exposed the use of criminal "proxies" in the UK by the Iranian government.

Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed three times in the leg in an attack outside his home in Wimbledon, south London, on 29 March 2024.

Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.

The men were members of a team that flew in from Romania and spent a month surveilling Mr Zeraati's block of flats on Queensmere Road.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said the attack was "deliberate, planned violence" aimed at causing serious injury to Mr Zeraati as part of a campaign of "harassment and intimidation" by Iran.

Badea, a former professional footballer, approached Mr Zeraati and asked if he had any change as David Andrei, 22, grabbed the presenter from behind, pinning his arms to his side.

Badea, who was wearing a hooded top with the word "gangster" on the front, drew a knife and stabbed Mr Zeraati before both men, who had been taking drugs, ran off laughing.

They jumped into a blue Mazda 3 hatchback, driven by Stana, who was waiting on a side road, and sped from the scene with the doors still open.

The men drove to New Malden, southwest London, where they abandoned the car, dumped their clothing in a nearby bin and used the Bolt app to call a taxi, heading to Heathrow Airport.

They then took a flight to Geneva, Switzerland, from where they returned to Bucharest.

Criminal 'proxies' for Iranian government

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court the men were motivated by money but were acting as criminal "proxies" for the Iranian government.

The target of the plot, Mr Zeraati, was a high-profile presenter for Iran International, a dissident TV station based in Chiswick, west London, until February 2023, when threats made against the network, its employees and their families led to it relocating temporarily to Washington DC.

Mr Zeraati had appeared, along with other journalists, on "Wanted: dead or alive" posters that were put up in the Iranian capital Tehran. Badea said he had "no idea" Mr Zeraati was a campaigning journalist.

Badea, who had played for FC Astra Giurgiu and CS Blejoi in Romania before working in construction, said he met Andrei at a music festival in his home town of Ploiesti, a town 30 miles north of Bucharest.

Andrei could not be extradited to face trial in the UK because he was subject to domestic proceedings in Romania.

Stana claimed he was called in to be the getaway driver for a robbery on Mr Zeraati, who had a collection of expensive watches that included Rolex, Hublot, Cartier and Schaffhausen.

However, investigators believe he acted as co-ordinator for the plot, which was funded through his brother-in-law, who had been deported from the UK after serving two prison sentences.

Constantine Matache, known as "Bebe", ran a London construction company called Hemroc Ltd, and hired the men, operating with another Romanian man called Catalin Dumitru.

The plot was said to be funded by an Iranian-British businessman called Edgar Hakkopian, 41, who ran the Tehran Cafe in Finchley, North London.

Two teenagers found guilty of murdering 16-year-old boy on beach

June 05, 2026 at 17:01

Two teenagers have been found guilty of murdering a 16-year-old boy on a Scottish beach.

Kayden Moy was fatally stabbed at Irvine Beach in North Ayrshire on 17 May 2025.

Jay Stewart, 18, and a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murdering Kayden.

A jury found the pair guilty of murder on the second day of deliberations.

Co-accused Cole Turley, 18, had earlier pleaded guilty to the murder.

Following an initial confrontation at the beach, the pair and Turley pursued Kayden, causing him to fall to the ground where he was repeatedly stabbed with a knife.

The 16-year-old was so badly injured in the attack that he later died.

Judge Lord Scott told jurors ahead of their deliberations that it was not in dispute that Turley killed Kayden, or that Stewart and the 15-year-old were present on the beach that day.

However, he said the "crucial issue" they had to decide was whether the pair were acting together with Turley when he carried out the murder.

Prosecutors earlier withdrew all charges against Stewart and the 15-year-old apart from the murder charge, which they both denied.

The pair and Turley will be sentenced on 21 July.

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