The beloved actor Leslie Phillips has died away at the age of 98, it has been reported this afternoon.
Having enjoyed a long and varied career in entertainment stretching over 84 years, the veteran star of stage and screen passed away peacefully in his sleep.
Best known for his roles in Harry Potter as the voice of The Sorting Hat, as well as playing parts in a number of Carry On films, the comic actor starred in over 200 films during the course of his career.
His wife Zara told The Sun: "I've lost a wonderful husband and the public has lost a truly great showman.
"He was quite simply a national treasure. People loved him. He was mobbed everywhere he went."
The celebrated actor also has credits in several other TV series such as Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders, Monarch Of The Glen and Holby City, reports The Manc.
Other films he has had roles in include Empire Of The Sun, Scandal, and Out Of Africa.
Thanks to his roles in the Carry On film series, Phillips became well-known for his suggestive catchphrases such as “Ding Dong”, “Well, hello”, and “I Say!”.
Leslie Phillips has died aged 98 / Credit: Carry On
Aside from starring in Carry On films – including Carry On Teacher, Carry On Columbus, Carry On Constable, and Carry On Nurse – of the highlights in his illustrious, several decade-spanning career was when he appeared in Hanif Kureshi’s film Venus alongside the late Peter O’Toole.
He was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his critically-acclaimed performance.
Phillips was made an OBE in the 1998 Birthday Honours, and was promoted to CBE in the 2008 New Year Honours.
But, his agent Jonathan Lloyd has today confirmed that the star has passed away, and died “peacefully in his sleep” on Monday.
Tributes have since been pouring in on social media.
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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Channel 4 is looking for adult virgins with ‘intimacy issues’ for next series of hit reality show
Channel 4 is back looking for more adult virgins to take part in the potential next series of its hit reality show Virgin Island.
If you’re unfamiliar with Virgin Island, it’s unlike anything ever seen on TV before.
First hitting screens back in 2024 and having run for two successful seasons now, Virgin Island follows the journey of a group of adult virgins who are whisked off to a Mediterranean island retreat to learn life-changing skills in the art of intimacy.
Working with leading international therapists, the aim is to help the young people overcome their fears and insecurities when it comes to intimacy and sex.
Channel 4 said it chose to commission the show after a recent study into intimacy found out that one in eight British 26-year-olds is, apparently, still a virgin.
A casting call for the new series on the Channel 4 website reads: “Are you a virgin and do you need help and guidance with your fears and insecurities around intimacy and sex? Double Act Productions is casting adults for a potential second series of Virgin Island.”
You just need to be over 21 years of age to take part in the show.
Fancy it then? Or know someone who may be up for the ride? Applications for the potential next series of Virgin Island are now open, and there’s still plenty of time left to put your name down.
You can find out more and register your interest here.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Georgina Pellant -
8th November 2022 
