Sheila Hancock, 90, on the brutal reality of ageing - from care homes to lost friends

“Australian Survivor” contestant Simon Mee today tweeted – then hastily deleted – some insight about just how tough life can be for those playing the game.Simon responded to a fan’s meme about the show with some behind-the-scenes goss, revealing that life on the beach in Samoa can get very “Lord of the Flies.”One brief scene in a recent episode of the reality series saw fellow contestant Gerry angrily chastise Simon about where he’d placed the tribe’s firewood in the camp.It was a surprising outburst from the usually mild-mannered rescue pilot, so far one of the game’s most softly spoken players.As fans shared the moment online, Simon – forever on the bottom this season, but somehow still in the game as it enters its final stages – explained that the blow-up was a symptom of bigger issues, as players jostled to keep their spot in the game’s fragile hierarchy.Simon said that “Survivor’s” rudimentary sleeping arrangements, in which players huddle together for warmth under a makeshift shelter (with – if they’re lucky – a tarp to keep the rain out), revealed “a lot about the pecking order of the tribe.”“Gerry slept in the middle of the shelter with the blanket every night. But when he collected fire wood, he stacked down the end of the shelter,” he wrote.“Which also happened to me by bed.”In a follow-up tweet, also deleted, Simon revealed that he would have to move the firewood any time he wanted to make space for himself in his less protected area of the shelter.Former player and “Survivor” megafan Matt Tarrant responded to the tweet, saying it was “legit true” that players should “never sleep on the edge of the bed at camp” if they wanted to stay in the players’ inner circle.“Aww thanks Matt,” said Simon.

Although Filmart felt quiet on its first morning, with many attendees glued to their phones watching the Oscars, it soon turned into a reasonably vibrant market, with sales companies locked in back-to-back meetings, new project announcements and a few star appearances to liven up proceedings. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kowloon Walled City — one of Hong Kong’s most famous landmarks, or infamous trouble spots, depending on your point of view — fell prey to the developers’ bulldozer 30 years ago. But it remains an icon of the territory’s gritty spirit and is being painstakingly re-created for action thriller feature “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.” The film is a beacon for how Hong Kong cinema is now evolving. Directed by hot-shot Soi Cheang, whose “Mad Fate” recently played in Berlin and is set for imminent local release, “Twilight” boasts leading stars Louis Koo, Sammo Hung and Richie Jen, plus emerging talents Philip Ng, Raymond Lau and Terrance Lau.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-France film “Salli” marks the feature debut of Taipei-based filmmaker Lien Chien-Hung after several acclaimed shorts and a TV movie. “Salli,” which won the grand prize at the Chinese-language film project matching and co-production platform Golden Horse Film Project Promotion in 2019, is a work-in-progress selection at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). The Mandarin-, Taiwanese-, English- and French-language film follows a lonely middle-aged chicken farmer Hui-Chun, who doesn’t speak English and develops a romantic relationship through an app with a French man who calls himself Martin. In the online world, Hui-Chun is Salli. Despite everyone calling it a romance scam, she wants to prove that love indeed exists.

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise) has signed on to star in the sci-fi action-thriller The Last Ticket, to be directed by Santiago Manes Moreno from his own script.

Senior BBC management has been accused of fostering a “toxic culture” from the “DG-down” in a letter criticizing the closure of its 99-year-old choir.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “The Last of Us” has become the most-viewed title ever on HBO’s subscription streaming service in Europe. Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Tuesday that the first season of the nine-episode apocalyptic-drama has smashed HBO’s SVOD European viewer ratings. This result comes after the season one finale set another ratings high in the U.S. on Sunday night, delivering 8.2 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, based on Nielsen and first party data. The series, which is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation, has been a hit from the get go. “The Last of Us” is now averaging 30.4 million viewers in the U.S. across its first six episodes, according to HBO, with the first episode approaching 40 million viewers in the U.S. Outside of the U.S.. The show is now also the most-watched show ever on HBO Max in Latin America.

Naman Ramachandran Saurav Rai’s 2019 film ”Invitation” featured a child protagonist and once again the filmmaker centers a film on a young person. Rai’s “Guras,” a Nepali and Hindi-language film, is a work-in-progress selection at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). It follows 9-year-old Guras, who lives in a mountain village in India’s Darjeeling district. Her pet dog goes missing and she embarks on a journey that soon turns mystical as she meets otherworldly beings along the way. “I always had this fascination with my grandma’s real-life incident during her childhood when she stole someone’s vegetables from their garden. She ended up having chest pain after that and when her mother figured it out, she took her to the owner of the farmland. The owner immediately knew what had happened, so she smiled and prayed to her ancestors and relieved my grandma of the pain,” Rai says.

Sammo Hung will be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the Asian Film Awards. The ceremony was back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and has shifted back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung will accept the award on Sunday at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Hung’s career as an actor, action choreographer, director and producer spans some 60 years. His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple,” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.” In 1982, Hung won the best actor prize at the second Hong Kong Film Awards for his directorial effort “Carry on Pickpocket,” as well as best action choreography for “The Prodigal Son,” which he also directed and starred in.

Charna Flam A new single, “Justice for All,” featuring former President Donald Trump, from the J6 Prison Choir, reached No. 1 on iTunes’ top songs on March 11.   The J6 Prison Choir is comprised of a group of men who were convicted after their participation in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. “Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April. In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) will open with two local films – Soi Cheang’s noir thriller Mad Fate and the world premiere of Ann Hui’s Elegies, a documentary about contemporary local poetry.

Last year, as the industry was looking to lift itself out the pandemic’s purgatory at the box office, SXSW lit the wick on A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, which wound up dynamiting the 18-34 hipster moviegoer set in what became the highest-grossing indie film of 2022, the best ever for the New York-based distributor, and now a potential Oscar Best Picture winner.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mk2 films has enlisted leading distributors around the world for “Reality,” Tina Satter’s feature debut starring Sydney Sweeney, on the heels of its buzzy world premiere at the Berlinale. The movie, which bowed in the Panorama section, stars Sweeney (“White Lotus,” “Euphoria”) as Reality Winner, a 25 year-old whistleblower who spent five years in prison during the Trump administration. A former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator, Winner was convicted for leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film is based on Satter’s 2019 stage play “Is This a Room” and contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording. “Reality” captures the tense and surreal 90 minutes of FBI’s interrogation with Winner at her home in 2017.

EastEnders actress Shona McGarty amazed fans as she revealed her second career outside of the popular BBC soap. Shona, who earlier dazzled fans with a fresh, cropped haircut, has played Whitney Dean, the adoptive daughter of Patsy Palmer’s Bianca Jackson, since 2008. Whitney has been involved in countless central storylines since her first appearance, and most recently, she discovered her baby has Edwards’ Syndrome.

The first look at tonight's Love Island has seen the couples head out on their elaborate final dates as the final approaches. Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins, who recently became official, are the first couple to be whisked out of the Villa for their epic final date which sees them treated to a magical breakfast while floating on water.They're also treated to a spine-tingling performance from a South African choir.

WINNER, has been booked for drunk driving in Seoul.According to South Korean media outlet Korea JoongAng Daily, Nam had reportedly opened the door of his parked car as a taxi was passing by, hitting the vehicle and breaking its side mirror in the process.Thereafter, Nam then allegedly drove his car for around seven metres before being pulled over by the police for a breathalyzer test. The test reportedly showed that the singer’s blood alcohol level was around 0.114 per cent, which is a high enough level for his license to be revoked – typically 0.08 per cent or higher.Nam was later returned home by the police after his identity was confirmed as he was reportedly too intoxicated for an investigation to be done at the time.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Already the highest grossing local film in its home market, courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” has broken into Hong Kong’s all-time top ten box office ranking with a cumulative of HK$107 million ($13.7 million). Data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd. shows the film achieving the feat after just 41 days in cinemas and coming within HK$1 million ($150,000) of overtaking “Top Gun: Maverick.” The data firm noted that the last time a Hong Kong film got this far was with fantasy-action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004. Since then, it has been overtaken by a fleet of Hollywood titles. Hong Hong’s current top ten is headed by “Avengers: Endgame” and includes six Marvel movies, the two “Avatar” titles and “Titanic.”

After three years of taking place entirely online, Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart), the largest content market in Asia before the pandemic, is finally returning as a fully-fledged in-person event (March 13-16, 2023). 

At previous in-person editions of Filmart, Hong Kong’s major film companies, including Edko Films, Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP), One Cool Group, Universe Films and Media Asia, always anchored the trade show floor with huge, elaborate booths promoting the latest Hong Kong films, animation and TV series.