TRENDING TANKING
OLIVIA COLMAN
WE loved her in The Crown and now the Oscar-winning actress, right, is to play the Fairy Godmother in a BBC Cinderella for Comic Relief. Co-star Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Princess Margaret in the Netflix hit, plays the wicked stepmother in the panto to be broadcast at 8.15pm on Christmas Eve.
THE PFIZER/BIONTECH COVID VACCINE
IT was the Christmas present topping everyone’s list this year and on Wednesday the UK became the first country in the world with a clinically approved coronavirus vaccine. It could now start being administered as early as next week.
BEAVERS
A COLONY of the furry animals, reintroduced to Exmoor, has now built the first beaver dam there since the 1600s. The beavers were relocated from Scotland in January and the dam is now attracting other wildlife as well as helping control water cleanliness.
DRAKE
MUSIC streaming platform Spotify released its most popular artists, songs and albums of the year, and the Canadian megastar topped the UK list. He beat the late Juice WRLD and Eminem to be named the most streamed artist in the UK.
RITA ORA
THE singer apologised to fans for her ‘serious and inexcusable error of judgement’ after she ignored coronavirus lockdown rules to host a 30th birthday party at a restaurant in London.
DEBENHAMS
IN ONE of the biggest blows yet to the ailing British high street, the 242-year-old department store is set to close all of its UK shops, after last-ditch attempts to save the business collapsed on Tuesday. The stores will remain open for now while it clears its stocks.
ARCADIA
DEBENHAMS was not the only high-profile casualty this week. On Monday Sir Philip Green’s fashion empire plunged into administration, putting 13,000 workers at risk of redundancy. Arcadia has 444 stores around the UK including some of retail’s best-known names like Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.
DRIVING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
FEWER than one in four drivers (24%) are planning a car trip over Christmas, a survey suggests. It means there will be just 7.9 million on roads compared with 17 million last year, according to the AA.