The TV BAFTA nominations have been announced ahead of the ceremony on May 12.

The sixth series of royal drama The Crown has received eight nominations across the board, after the concluding series focused on the death of Princess Diana.

Black Mirror has received seven nominations for the episode Demon 79, the fifth episode of the sixth season of the dystopian reality series.

The episode centers on a meek saleswoman who is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent a disaster in northern England in 1979.

Meanwhile, Happy Valley, Slow Horses and The Sixth Commandment each received six nods after being warmly received by fans and critics alike.

The stars in the running for the lead actress include Anjana Vasan for Black Mirror, Anne Reid in The Sixth Commandment and Bella Ramsey for The Last Of Us.

Also nominated in the category are Helena Bonham Carter for Nolly, Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley and Sharon Horgan for her role in Best Interests.

In the Leading Actor category, Brian Cox is nominated for Succession, Dominic West for The Crown and Kane Robinson for Top Boy.

Also in the running are Paapa Essiedu for The Lazarus, Steve Coogan for The Reckoning and Timothy Spall for The Sixth Commandment.

Coogan’s nod comes after a wave of controversy over his role as pedophile Jimmy Savile, which aired on the BBC last year despite claims it was axed.

His portrayal of the depraved presenter was described as ‘scarily good’, but the series led to criticism for turning the harrowing events into entertainment.

In the daytime TV category, Loose Women, Lorraine, Make It Market and Scam Interceptors have all been nominated.

However, This Morning was axed after a turbulent year for the show which saw both regular presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby leave.

The show saw a rotation of shows holding down the fort as bosses looked for new permanent hosts, who were recently revealed as Cat Deeley and Ben Shepherd.

In terms of best drama series, The Gold, Happy Valley and Slow Horses are all nominated alongside Top Boy.

While in the Entertainment Series category, Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas and Later… With Jools Holland are among those nominations.

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and Strictly Come Dancing are also shortlisted.

17 of the 44 nominees in the performance categories have received their first BAFTA TV Awards nomination, including Amit Shah, Bella Ramsey and Bridget Christie.

This list also includes David Tennant, Éanna Harwicke, Elizabeth Debicki, Hammed Animashaun, Hannah Waddingham, Harriet Walters, Harris Dickinson and Kane Robinson.

The BAFTA Television Craft Awards will take place on Sunday April 28.

The BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises will once again be presented by comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan and air on Sunday 12 May on BBC One and iPlayer.

The awards are also broadcast in North America, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia on BritBox International, in Australia and New Zealand on BBC Studios ANZ, and in 24 countries in Africa and the Middle East on AlThaqafeya and MBC Channels, together with other territories to be confirmed.

Today’s nominations were determined by a combination of TV membership-wide voting, juries and chapter voting.

Juries are composed of voters with the relevant professional expertise and a balanced distribution of gender, background, location and age.

Chapters are made up of BAFTA members who have specialist knowledge in the relevant subject for the category in question.

Juries and chapters are made up of voters within the BAFTA membership, including more than 5,700 creative practitioners from the television industry. The latest demographic information about BAFTA membership can be found here.

Given the very large number of entries for the BAFTA Television and BAFTA Television Craft Awards, the use of juries ensures that every longlisted entry for every category is seen and considered by every voting member.

This year, more than 500 voters participated in 127 hours on 43 juries, and four chapter votes took place to decide the nominations.

Two first-time nominees in the New Talent category: Fiction Kat Sadler (Writer – Such Brave Girls) and Mawaan Rizwan (Writer – Juice) are also nominated as Writer Comedy and Scripted Comedy nominees for Such Brave Girls and Writer Comedy and Male Performance in a comedy program for Juice, with three nominations each.

Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA, said: ‘It is a real privilege to announce today’s nominations, which recognize the most gripping, entertaining, challenging, funniest, most informative, highest quality and most impactful TV programs of 2023 , as voted by BAFTA members.

More than 100 programs from 12 broadcasters and streamers represent an extraordinary range of content. We are proud to present this incredible talent at our Television Craft Awards on April 28th and our Television Awards with P&O Cruises on May 12th.

It is important that we celebrate the extraordinary craftsmanship and creativity of the broadcasting sector, especially during what has been a challenging year for many people working in the industry.”

Disrespectful tourists have repeatedly sparked anger by ridiculing the King’s Guard, and now a reel of videos has emerged showing the numerous times armed police have been forced to step in and stop them.  

In clips posted by YouTuber London City Walks, groups of visitors to Horse Guards Parade are seen mocking and laughing at guards and appearing to try to get them to engage.

One ‘idiot’ even tried to grab the reins of a horse, prompting a furious rebuke from the mounted soldier, while in another case a woman was bitten by a mount for getting too close. 

The issue has even attracted the attention of government ministers, including Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Veterans’ Affairs minster Johnny Mercer, who have backed officers for ordering the troublemakers to move away. 

Despite many considering them tourist attractions, the King’s Guard consist of elite serving soldiers who are tasked with protecting the monarch’s life and properties. 

The King’s Guard are generally not allowed to interact with the public, but may  shout if they get too close or present their bayonets if they become aggressive. 

The soldiers must not let anything distract them from their duties – with toilet breaks banned during two hour shifts – and will march through anyone in their way. 

While tourists can take photos of them, armed officers stationed near them will step in if they get too close or behave disrespectfully. 

And a series of videos show officers have their work cut out.

In the first video, a large group is giggling as they film the King’s guard on foot. Two armed officers step in to ask the tourists to stop as the man filming the clip praises the policemen, saying ‘well done officer’ and ‘that’s it, throw them all out’.

He adds: ‘This is what happens when you disrespect the soldiers here, who are at work, and treat them as though they’re a bunch of clowns here for entertainment.’

The group then shuffle away from the scene.

Another clip sees the narrator follow an armed policeman towards a couple of people who have gathered in front of a King’s Guard. 

The pair decide to argue back with the officer who appears to say: ‘Understand, I don’t know who you are.’ 

The apologetic duo move off as the policeman heads towards the guard, seemingly to talk about the incident. 

A third clip shows a huge crowd standing at a distance outside of the main entrance to witness the changing of the guards.

But one woman rushes out of the audience towards the black gates and has to be quickly stopped by an armed officer.

Another clip begins with loud voices in the distance before the narrator confirms that ‘someone is being shouted at for going into the arches’.

There’s then a tense few moments as we wait for the culprit to appear. A man then emerges from the arches and starts behaving in a confrontational way towards other visitors, pointing and shouting at them.

Officers then march the man away from the area and the man filming says: ‘Bye bye idiot. Off he goes.’

The offender can then be heard telling two police officers not to touch him and to give him a one-metre berth, despite the pair maintaining a reasonable distance. 

The man then points to a female police officer and says: ‘She kicked me from the back.’

The narrator replies: ‘No she didn’t, bye.’ 

And it’s not just the guards who the police are protecting in the videos.

In one, a horse is visibly distressed after a group of tourists crowd around the animal. In two similar scenes, crowds of visitors are asked to leave after appearing to mock a guard in the same corner of the site. 

The latest clips come after the Home Secretary today backed an armed police officer who berated tourists for ‘ridiculing’ a King’s Guard on duty.

James Cleverly’s praise for the officer’s actions came after footage initially posted on TikTok showed a group shouting and laughing at the guard in central London.

It showed the tourists, believed to be American, apparently trying to get the guard to engage with them.

But an armed police officer swooped in to discuss the matter with the guard before warning the group to stop.

‘These soldiers serve their country, they take their job seriously, they are responsible for protecting this facility, they are not an object of ridicule,’ he told them.

In response to a video of the incident shared on X, Mr Cleverly posted: ‘Well said.’

Earlier this year, a female tourist who went in search of a photo with one of the famed Guard got a lot more than she bargained for, while the horse in question left no one in any doubt that it was up to the task of protecting the monarch.

In a video clip, the young woman is seen positioned in line with the horse’s head, ready for her photo opportunity.

While a sign next to the guard warns onlookers that horses may kick or bite, the woman can’t resist raising her hand in an attempt to stroke the animal when it tilts its head to nuzzle her.

Yet as she does so, the horse bites down on the arm of her black puffer jacket and is soon tugging at it in an increasingly aggressive manner.

Even as the woman tries to move away from the horse, it remains attached to her jacket and, moving its head from side to side and up and down, pulls her this way and that with vigour.

While the woman showed signs of fright on her face, she appeared more shocked and bemused by the experience than she was shaken.

When the horse releases her jacket after about five seconds of tugging, she looks noticeably relieved before starting to giggle.

What seems to shock her the most, though, is the hole in her jacket where the horse bit down to reveal the stuffing.

A passerby asks: ‘Is your coat all torn apart now?’ to which she replies with a sheepish ‘Yes’. 

The King’s Guards are posted for public duties outside Buckingham and St James’s Palaces, and at Horse Guards on Whitehall.

Although their role is mostly ceremonial, they are part of the British Army’s Household Division and patrol the palaces, guarding the sovereign at night.

Back in September 2023, another tourist got a little too close to a King’s Guards horse and was blasted by the soldier.

In the video, a throng of tourists can be seen clamoring around a mounted guard on Horse Guard’s parade, Westminster.

Multiple nervous tourists are seen approaching the mounted pair, respecting their distance and posing for smiling photographs.

Some brave souls are seen laying tentative hands on the enormous horse’s flanks which the mounted guard graciously allows.

However, one tourist overstepped the limit, and in the process of trying to touch the horse tampered with the reins causing the King’s Guard to bellow: ‘Do not touch the reins!’

Clearly in a state of shock, the tourist backs away from the horse raising a hand in apology as he does so while the crowd chatter nervously.

In May, footage showed a woman lashing  out at a King’s Guard for ‘pushing’ her out of the way as he carried out his duties. 

The incident, which went viral on TikTok, shows the blonde woman standing in the guard’s way at the Horse Guards Parade.

The woman, who was holding a blue can of Pringles, was seen standing very close to one of the mounted guards, while other bystanders gave the guards more room by standing further away.

Despite the King’s guard on foot asking the woman to step back when he first passed her to salute his fellow guards, she stepped even closer to the agitated horse of the mounted guard.

When the guard that had previously warned her walked back towards the gates, the woman moved right into his path.

He shouted ‘make way’ and used his arm to move the woman out of his path, which left her furious.

She shoved her can of Pringles into the guard and turned around to the crowd asking if they saw what happened, only for another bystander to reply: ‘He asked you to move and you didn’t do it’. 

Still trying to look for sympathy among the gathered crowd, she pulled up her sleeve and claimed she ‘got a broken arm’.

A police officer then appeared, who politely asked her to leave, but the woman continued ranting at the mounted guard and at the policeman.

After arguing for several minutes, the woman finally left the scene. 

But despite videos often showing the Kings’ Guard upholding their duties, there have been moments when they break protocol to make someone’s day. 

An elderly military veteran was treated to the friendlier side of a member of the King’s Guard last July when the soldier moved closer to her as she posed for a photo with her husband. 

A video posted on social media showed the couple – both of whom were proudly displaying their medals – moving as close as they dare to the mounted soldier.

But, having apparently realised they had both served their country, the soldier, who was wearing his customary plumed helmet and armour, quickly urged his horse closer to them before allowing the woman to pat his steed’s nose.

Beaming, the couple then moved away and the soldier directed his horse back into position.

In another show of kindness in the same month, a member of the King’s Guard won praise after going out of his way to make a young man with Down’s syndrome feel comfortable. 

A video of Mike van Erp, 50, better known by his YouTube name CyclingMikey, and the youngster posing for a photo at Buckingham Palace caused a stir after being shared on YouTube.

Footage showed how a kind-hearted member of the King’s Guard moved closer to Mike and the boy who were trying to get a photo to remember their trip to Horse Guards Parade.

Taking to Twitter to post about their day out, Mike – who is a professional carer –  explained: ‘I’ve worked for his family and him for a decade now. 

‘We were out on a cycle ride on my tandem bicycle and stopped by the Horse Guards Parade.’

He admitted that ‘both I and the young lad’ got a bit of a scare ‘when he stepped closer to us’ because it was so unexpected, adding: ‘This left me with tears in my eyes for a few evenings.’

After Twitter users initially thought that Mike was the boy’s father, he clarified: ‘I’m also not his dad, although I’d be proud to be.’

‘I’m very grateful to the soldier,’ he continued. ‘I’m lucky I had good parents and went to a Jesuit school that cared about me and taught me well, same for the young lad I’m with. Tears in my eyes.’

The King’s Guards are posted for public duties outside Buckingham and St James’s Palaces, and at Horse Guards on Whitehall.

Although their role is mostly ceremonial, they are part of the British Army’s Household Division and patrol the palaces, guarding the sovereign at night.

A sign next to the guard warns onlookers that horses may kick or bite, telling them not to touch the reins.

They say you should never work with children or animals, but if you are a member of the Royal family you have little choice in the matter.

Senior royals carrying out their duties often have to meet, pet and photograph all kinds of creatures – and no matter how well trained the animal is, things don’t always go to plan, as Queen Camilla discovered last week.

Her Majesty The Queen invited a group of medical sniffer dogs and their trainers to her home Clarence Housewhere Labrador Maggie was instructed to present her with a gift basket.

But Maggie forgot her manners that day and instead grumpily dropped it at Camilla’s feet, much to her amusement.

Here, CLAUDIA CONNELL looks at some of the royal family’s other beastly encounters in the line of duty…

PUPPY LOVE…

Catherine, William and their children are big dog lovers and have a lively pet cocker spaniel called Orla, who often appears with the family in official portraits.

Kate was undoubtedly used to boisterous dog behavior and took it all in stride when she met therapy puppy Alfie at Clitheroe Community Hospital in 2022. The 10-week-old cockapoo squirmed in Kate’s arms and tried to lick her face, but she still found him. so sweet,” and added, “our dog will be very upset.”

ROOT AND LICK

Kate and William took nine-month-old Prince George with them when they visited Sydney’s Taronga Zoo during a tour of Australia in 2014.

However, they wisely gave him to a babysitter when it was time to feed carrots to a giant giraffe. From the look on his face, William seemed stunned to learn that not only is a giraffe’s neck super long – their tongues are also 20 inches long!

AM I BOVVERD?

Long before the late Queen Elizabeth had tea with Paddington bear, Kate and William met Leuca the koala bear during a state visit to Australia in 2014.

Kate stroked and tickled Leuca and even sniffed his fur to see if he smelled of eucalyptus.

Koalas are notoriously laid-back and lazy, as the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge discovered when Leuca showed no interest in them.

TRUNK CALLS HER MAJESTY

“Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.” It is estimated that the late queen shook hands with almost a million people during her reign, but this was probably the only time she was presented with a suitcase.

Donna the elephant wasn’t actually looking for a handshake at all, she was much more interested in the bananas the Queen and Duke were holding when they visited Whipsnade Zoo in 2017.

THE OUTLOOK IS WARM… AND WET

There aren’t many women who enjoy having their makeup licked by a giant dog.

However, as a Guardian of Guide Dogs, Sophie is used to such enthusiastic greetings when she visits training centers across the country. Here she receives a very warm and wet welcome during a visit to Forfar in 2019

PAWS FOR BREATH?

Sophie and her family have two dogs and a tortoise who, according to Prince Edward, “basically runs the house.”

It was an adorable golden retriever puppy who was in charge of Sophie when she visited the Guide Dogs National Training Center in 2021, when she wisely donned a lab coat to protect her clothes from the playful pups.

SCRATCH PERFORMANCE

Corgis were the late queen’s favorite dog, with her believed to have raised more than 30 during her reign.

When the Queen visited a residential site in Darwin in 1977, she met an Australian corgi owned by some locals.

While the people were on their best behavior, the little dog displayed very ill-mannered behavior when he sniffed the queen’s feet and promptly fell on them to scratch.

DO-EYE BURNLER

“Don’t trip me, there’s a deer.”

In 2008, Charles and Camilla (then the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall) visited Todaji Temple in Nara, Japan, where hundreds of wild deer roam the estate. They were certainly a lot smaller and cuter than the giant beasts that roamed Balmoral.

BARKEN CRAZY

Queen Camilla is so in love with her two rescue dogs Bluebell and Beth that she embroidered Jack Russell Terrier faces on her coronation dress.

Charles and Camilla adopted the dogs from the home of Battersea Cats and Dogs, of which she is a patron. As this photo of Charles taken in 2022 with Beth shows, he’s just as in love – although he failed to get them embroidered onto his coronation robes.

TERRIER-FIED – NO FEAR!

Afraid of a terrier? Not Queen Camilla!

She attended the Great Yorkshire Show in 2021 and presented a rosette to some terrier pups, who couldn’t wait to get their muddy paws on it… and also came dangerously close to soiling Camilla’s polka dot dress.

I’ll show you mine…

‘Eyes to the camera and smile’, no one could accuse this horse of not cooperating with the press call.

An enthusiastic and skilled rider herself, Camilla attended the International Horse Show at Olympia in December 2008 and met many of the competing horses… but none of them left such a lasting impression as this scene-stealing gray – despite his teeth were in need of a very good cleaning!

Regal REPTILE

You know how to handle dogs and horses, but what the heck do you do with a Tuatara lizard? The royal couple met the native creature during their tour of New Zealand in 2015.

Camilla decided not to hold the reptile, but Charles’ fear of holding the slippery creature only made her burst out laughing.

As many as 120 horses taking part in the Cheltenham Festival have been tested for drugs in Ireland as part of a major joint anti-doping operation.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) have teamed up to tackle the use of banned substances just days before the start of the festival.

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In recent days, top officials from Great Britain and Ireland have visited 14 stables unannounced and taken more than 250 samples from potential festival runners.

Among those who took part in the surprise operation were James Give, the former racehorse trainer who is now the BHA’s director of horse regulation, and a senior British vet.

They took the samples together with their Irish colleagues, with horses from the stables of Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott almost certainly among those tested.

The samples will be processed at a specialist laboratory in Newmarket and results are expected next week – with any adverse findings likely to lead to disciplinary action.

Given said: “The BHA welcomes the partnership with the IHRB to demonstrate to stakeholders and the public that horses running from both sides of the Irish Sea in each other’s races do so under the same level of supervision.

“It’s not just our Medication Control and Anti-Doping Team (MCAD) that will have access to more information about visiting horses.

“But there will be opportunities for our wider team to share ideas and best practice in other areas of our work.

“Like the IHRB, this is in line with our objectives in international cooperation, responding to racecourse accidents and generally improving the safety and welfare of horses.”

IHRB Chief Veterinarian Lynn Hillyer added: “The IHRB Strategy 2024-2027 commits us to working closely with international horse racing organizations and benchmarking ourselves against best international practice.

“This new venture shows stakeholders and the racing public that we work together as professionals on both sides of the Irish Sea.

“Sharing best practices and resources and demonstrating equally rigorous regulatory processes and standards to the extent that our anti-doping and drug monitoring programs are interoperable.

“We are delighted to be working with our BHA colleagues in this way and see it as a positive step forward.

“It reinforces the point that in both jurisdictions there is no room for anything other than the highest standards of integrity and welfare.”

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Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Sets time and money limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chases their losses
• Does not gamble when upset, angry or depressed
• Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
• Gamble consciously – www.begambleaware.org

CHELTENHAM Festival can be a little tricky on the first day as the biggest race meeting starts on soft ground.

Race director Jon Pullin confirmed that a ‘very wet’ run-in to the four-day celebration meant we could see mud flying around during the first seven races.

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Here, Sun Racing looks at five horses that could benefit from this.

And don’t forget to take a look at our five horses that beat the handicapper after the weights were announced yesterday.

Ballyburn – Obstacle for the highest beginners

Willie Mullins’ new superstar is favorite for the Supreme, the first race on day one, and the Baring Bingham, the first race on day two.

But the key to getting punters to a flyer may well be a soft surface.

He made light work of Slade Steel as he rode to victory in the Grade 1 2m race at Leopardstown earlier this month.

And he beat runner-up Cleatus Poolaw by 25 lengths the time before on terrain that was soft to tough.

He seems to be enjoying a cut underfoot – although there is one word of caution: his only defeat came to Firefox (7-1 for the Supreme) on soft.

But Ballyburn has looked unbeatable since then and that second place was his first run of the season.

Ndaawi – Boodles youth handicap obstacle

Ndaawi, former prisoner of Andrew Balding on the Flat, has improved with every run for Gordon Elliott.

Being a Flatbred, there is always the chance that good soil can yield further improvement.

But there is no doubt he has shown enough to suggest soft ground is also to his liking, and an easy win last time out at Naas suggests that too.

His high knee action in particular stood out that day and there seems to be much more to come from this four-year-old, whose mother won a listed race on heavy.

Trelawne – Ultima Handicap Chase

Trainer Kim Bailey could hold the key to the Ultima in the form of Chianti Classico – but don’t discount the admittedly ‘frustrating’ Trelawne.

Master trainer Bailey has been careful with this horse and has only ridden him on soft or worse.

Last December he came third in a scorching rookie chase at Cheltenham.

Ginny’s Destiny and Gray Dawning were one-two that day – and now both are joint market leaders for the Turners’ Novices Chase.

It is concentration rather than ground that is essential to Trelawne.

But his track record shows that soft is his favorite surface and that he can achieve good results if he keeps his mind on the job.

Lossiemouth – Mares’ obstacle

She has an entry in the Champion Hurdle, but the Mares’ is a penalty for Lossiemouth.

It is a general rule that French horses like soft surfaces.

After all, their version of soft is often our heavy.

Lossiemouth, who won the Triumph last year, were great on Trials Day and the step up to 2m4f shouldn’t be a problem.

Meetingofthewaters – National Game Hunt

If – and it’s a big if – this horse runs here, watch out.

All four of his victories have come with “soft” in the description.

Paul Byrne is an extremely smart owner and the horse is trained by Willie Mullins.

If you do take the plunge, make sure you get your money back from Meetingofthewater non-runner as he is competing in four Cheltenham races and is also the market leader for the Ultima.

And someone who won’t like it…

Marine Nationale-Arkle

Before the already infamous Constitution Hill practice, the biggest shock of the season was Marine Nationale’s complete flop at Leopardstown earlier this month.

Trainer Barry Connell said the terrain made the difference that day.

Although the former Supreme winner looked good when he rode soft to victory in his race earlier.

There are big question marks over this horse and he could be worth a shot if we get more rain leading up to day one.

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Commercial content notice: Taking one of the bookmaker offers from this article may result in a payment to The Sun. 18 years or older+. General terms and conditions apply. Begambleaware.org

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Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Sets time and money limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chases their losses
• Does not gamble when upset, angry or depressed
• Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
• Gamble consciously – www.begambleaware.org

LEGENDARY Solar astrologer Mystic Meg left a £1.3million fortune in her will. The money went to care for horses and was shared between family and friends.

The country's favorite horoscope expert died last March at the age of 80 after being hospitalized with the flu.

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Meg – real name Margaret Lake – lived in a three-bedroom flat in Notting Hill, west London, kept cats and famously had a love of horses.

She left £100,000 in her will for the care of the horses she owned at the time of her death.

Meg was known to study the Racing Post every morning, and at one time owned several racehorses with celestial names, including Astradonna, Astroangel and Astronova.

After the bill because the care for her horses has been arranged and the rest of her fortune is divided 50/50.

Half is paid to her live-in half-sister Dorothy Scotland.

Meg stated in her will – made in 2020 – that the other part of her fortune should be passed on to her friend Janine Palmer from South East London.

Mystic Meg, that one army of The Sun's loyal readers was also famous for its TV spot for the National Lottery draw, which attracted 20 million viewers when it launched in 1994.

She was born in Accrington, Lances in July 1942, and always said she inherited her psychic powers from a great-grandmother.

One of her most famous predictions came after Princess Diana gave birth to Prince William in 1982. She said: “Princess Diana was due to have a second child, a boy, in 1984 and that would cause problems.”

She also helped readers win fortunes, including Tom Naylor who made £15 million on the lottery after following a tip from Meg.

Meg started working as a sub-editor at a women's magazine before moving to the News of the World as a sub and subsequently became the paper's resident astrologer.

From there Meg moved to The Sun, and readers followed her daily horoscopes for 23 years until her death.

Her column is still running, having been taken over by Meg's friend and protégé, Maggie Innes.

Meg, a clean-living vegan, never married but fell in love with millionaire Nigel Moores, brother of the late football director David Moores. Tragically, Nigel died in a car accident in the southern United States in 1977 France.

Her long-term agent Dave Shapland said after her death: “There was never another man in her life.

“She gave the impression of being a hermit, living by herself with her crystal ball and seven cats for company. That was the reality. She was a very private person.”

After Meg died, Sun editor Victoria Newton said: “We have lost an icon. We loved her and so did our readers.

“She was a true professional whose guidance helped people every day.”

Scientists from Kentucky sent an invitation to aliens who may live in a galaxy 40 light years away.

Kentucky: In a unique move, a group of scientists sent a message to another solar system about 40 light-years away, hoping to make contact and invite aliens to Earth. Scientists in Lexington worked with a VisitLex advertising team to send a coded infrared laser message to TRAPPIST-1, a large star with seven exoplanets thought to be potentially hospitable to life. However, the message is expected to reach the star within approximately 38 years and 262 days, as the distance between Earth and the star is 235 trillion miles. The countdown to the message can also be viewed live on the VisitLex website. The duration of the message reaching the star system may seem very long to us, but scientists see this as to their advantage.

“We're focusing on the TRAPPIST-1 system because we might get an answer in someone's lifetime if someone is watching,” the New York Post quoted Dr. Robert Lodder, professor of computer engineering at the University of Kentucky with many credentials in astrochemistry. , astrobiology and SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Life) programs.
The message, described by VisitLex as “the world's first interstellar tourism campaign,” involved a collaboration between linguists, scientists and even science fiction experts from Kentucky to deliver the broadcast to the distant star.

The message

The message sent to TRAPPIST-1 is an encrypted bitmap or simple pixel-plotted image that contains crucial information about our blue planet, such as prime numbers, the periodic elements that are the building blocks of life, and representations of people and horses .
The message also includes molecular structures of the elements found in Lexington's beloved export, Bourbon, “because Lexington is fun,” VisitLex noted.

It also featured a serene scene of the rolling hills of Kentucky, the clear message “Visit Lexington” in plain English, and a recording of Lexington blues master Tee Dee Young passionately playing his electric guitar.

“Why not a positive, friendly message of all the things we've beamed into space?” The New York Post quoted University of Kentucky linguistics professor Dr. Brenna Byrd.

Federal aviation approval

Notably, according to VisitLex, the broadcast of the message was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. It is the first time that a travel brochure has been launched into space towards a star.

Similarity to Voyager mission messages

It is worth noting that the Voyager space probe, which was launched in 1977, also contained identical gold gramophone records. The purpose of sending these records into space was to give aliens who might encounter them an idea of ​​what life looks and sounds like on our blue planet.

Currently, Voyager I, which is about 15 billion miles away (about 0.006% of the way to TRAPPIST), has gone deeper into space than any other man-made object.

However, this is not the first time a message has been sent into space. In 1974, the Arecibo message was broadcast into space from the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico. Similar to the message sent from Kentucky, the Arecibo message used a pixel-based format to convey humanity's number system, symbols representing local elements, images of our DNA strands, a map of our solar system, and a illustration of what people look like. among other details.

That message was sent to the globular star cluster Messier 13, which is about 25,000 light-years away, and will take several years to reach.

For all their many accomplishments, the Windsors have rarely been thought of as sparkling musicians. 

Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth both learnt to play the pianoforte, although it was Margaret rather than her sister, the Queen, who would become associated with the performing  arts.

Charles had a go with trumpet and the cello but not, as he admits, to any great effect.

Horses have mostly come before harmony.  

Yet that doesn’t mean the royals haven’t tried and, in a few cases, succeeded in mastering musical instruments – delighting the rest of us when their hidden talents are unexpectedly revealed…

King Charles

The King, 74, has been a long supporter of the arts and has patronages at at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and the Royal College of Music.

He learned to play the cello and one took part with the orchestra of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was studying

Charles spoke about the experience to poet Simon Armitage on the BBC Radio 4 podcast, The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

‘I loved playing in the orchestra at Trinity – albeit rather badly,’ explained Charles.

‘I remember playing in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and trying to practise in my room at Cambridge to an old record conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who was the great conductor in those days, in the sixties. 

‘There was me sitting with my cello and my tuning fork, and I put this thing on, and of course he took it at an incredible lick – you’ve no idea how fast!’

He also went on to tell Armitage that he was a ‘a very bad member’ of the cello section during his time at Cambridge. 

His love of musical goes back to watching the ballet with his grandmother, the Queen Mother, in his younger years. 

But the cello is not the only instrument that Charles learnt to play, as he also knows how to play a tune on the trumpet and the piano as a child. 

But Charles has also taken up the role as a conductor before. 

On a trip in 2004, he visited the Royal College of Music and conducted the Elastic Band Orchestra.

For Queen Camilla’s 60th birthday, he also conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, which he once described as ‘possibly the most romantic music of all time.’ 

The Queen and Princess Margaret

Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose both learned to play the piano, although Elizabeth was already aged 11 when she started. Margaret Rose was just four.

According to historian Ian Lloyd, they were taught by their mother, Elizabeth, Queen Consort, and later by the organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

‘Unlike Margaret who was a competent player, Elizabeth didn’t pursue it into adulthood, preferring outdoor pursuits,’ says Lloyd.

‘She was a shyer character than Margaret and wouldn’t have liked playing before anyone other than immediate family.’

Unlike her elder sister, Margaret embraced the arts, becoming a noted patron of The Royal Ballet and associated companies.

Roddy Llewellyn, her boyfriend following the breakdown of her marriage to Tony Snowden, could also play the piano and the two would perform duets at parties.

In the course of their eight-year relationship, the princess gave Llewellyn a Bechstein upright as a gift. It was auctioned in 2022.

Catherine, Princess of Wales

Many will remember Kate’s surprise performance at last year’s Eurovision finals

Looking glamorous in a  show-stopping sapphire gown, the video showed the Princess of Wales laughing as she played the piano. 

The clip was shared on the Wales’s official Instagram with the caption: ‘#Eurovision surprise. A pleasure to join @kalush.official in a special performance of last year’s winning @eurovision entry.

‘Enjoy the show, Liverpool.’

Kate also played the piano at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve in 2021, which marked her first ever public piano performance. 

She did a duet with Tom Walker, who sung, as the pair performed ‘For Those Who Can’t Be Here,’ when the world was beginning to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic.

She was taught how to play the instrument in her early years, alongside her siblings James and Pippa and their mother, Carole. 

But piano is not the only instrument that the Princess of Wales dabbles in, as she has played the flute but also sung before.

She played the flute during her school years at St Andrew’s in Pangbourne, Berkshire.

She was a member of St Andrews inaugural Chamber Orchestra and of the senior flute group – amusingly known as the Tootie-Flooties – along with her younger sister, Pippa. 

Friends say she was also deputy head chorister in the chapel choir and was once commended in a BBC carol competition.

Shortly before she left the school, she passed her Associated Board Grade III flute examination with merit and also her Grade V singing. 

Like her father-in-law, Kate also tried her hand at conducting, when she lead the the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, during a visit to Germany in 2017.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis

It seems the Wales children are taking after their mother’s musical talent, as they are all learning instruments. 

The Princess of Wales shared that Prince George, nine, was taking electric guitar lessons.

However the young royal is also learning how to play the piano, according to Closer. 

A source told the outlet: ‘George has recently started piano lessons and is a complete natural. He’ll play for hours!’

Princess Charlotte, eight, is also learning how to play the piano, taking after her talented mother. 

The brother and sister duo previously attended Thomas’s Battersea Prep, which costs £19,000 per annum, where they encourage musical activity.

Now they attend Lambrook School in Berkshire, with their younger brother, Prince Louis, aged five. 

Music and drama lessons are part of the curriculum for all students and each year group also gets the opportunity to perform a play during the academic year. 

Music and the performing arts are ‘incredibly popular’ with pupils, according to the school’s website, as they state that 85 per cent of pupils are receiving extra lessons.  

Prince William

The Prince of Wales has a musical talent of his own – he can play the bass guitar. 

William, 41, who has admitted to liking Linkin Park, Coldplay and Kanye West before, told Brinsley Forde of Aswad about his skill for the instrument while he was presented with an MBE.

After their exchange, a delighted Mr Forde said: ‘I’ve just got a new bass player – you might know him as the Duke of Cambridge.

‘He said ‘I’m a bit good on the bass guitar’ so I’m thinking of signing him up, but he’s got such a lot of other duties I don’t know whether he’ll have time to do it.’

In 2014 when visiting a school, William also revealed that he played a plethora of instruments in his younger years.

The Prince made the remark at Goole High School, East Yorkshire, to launch a new award for primary school children as royal patron of the charity SkillForce, which draws on the values and skills of ex-forces personnel to inspire young people to achieve at school. 

As he chatted to members of the school’s samba band, which was providing the musical accompaniment, he refused an offer to play one of the drums. 

The Prince of Wales told the school band: ‘I used to play the piano, trumpet and drums when I was your age but I couldn’t read music.’

Prince Harry

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s trailer for their explosive Netflix docuseries was released, a photo of Prince Harry emerged of him holding – and seemingly playing – a guitar. 

But when you try to recreate the chord he is playing, things get complicated.

In an article at the time, Richard Eden wrote that Frank Skinner raised some awkward questions.

The comedian, 66, said: ‘The chord he’s playing is one I’ve never seen before. So Buzz, my son, who’s ten, said: ‘Hold on a minute…’

‘He got our guitar and we froze the frame and he hit the chord. It was the ugliest sound.’

Professional guitarist Nic Dacre told Metro: ‘He could be transitioning from/into a B minor 7th. But I doubt it.’ 

Duchess of Kent 

As a young girl, the Duchess of Kent was taught how to play the piano, violin and the organ, narrowly missing out on a place at the Royal Academy of Music.

At the age of 25, Katharine studied music alongside French at at Queen’s College, Oxford.  

After withdrawing from royal duties in 1996, the Duchess, now 90, took up a role as a music teacher at Wansbeck Primary School in Hull, which she held for 13 years.

Speaking to the The Telegraph, she said: ‘I was just known as Mrs Kent.

‘Only the head knew who I was. The parents didn’t know and the pupils didn’t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all – it just seemed to work.’

During this time, she saw that while many children had talent, they needed more financial support to fulfil their musical potential. 

So she founded charity Future Talent in 2004, which aims to give every child an equal opportunity to excel in music. 

The charity helps spot talent and equips children and young people with instruments and tuition to help them achieve. 

She told the Hull Daily Mail at the time: ‘I’ve studied music all my life, it’s my passion.

‘My other passion is children – being able to share and pass on your love of music to children is the greatest privilege a teacher can have.’

It has also said that she used to rent a studio apartment in near her residence in Kensington, London, to conduct piano lessons. 

The Duchess even revealed that she loves in rap music during an interview with Radio 3 in 2005.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph at the time, Katharine said that while her husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, prefers ‘very serious’ music, she will listen to ‘anything.’

The royal said that she even likes listening to beatboxing. 

Meghan Markle 

The Duchess of Sussex seems to have dabbled with a few musical instruments.

For example,  an old CV from her acting days  suggested that she has a range of musical talents, including playing the guitar, drums and ‘finger cymbals’. 

Meghan is ambidextrous, meaning that she can use both her left and right hands comfortably. Only one per cent of people in the world are able to do this. 

While the Duchess waves, holds her handbag and writes with her right hand, she eats, drinks and plays the guitar with her left hand. 

It is said she performed the lead in musicals while at school.

In 2018 footage emerged of the royal singing Santa Baby at the December 1998 Immaculate Heart High School Christmas show in Los Angeles.

Then 17 years old, teenage Markle took to the stage with her friend, Natalie Fryman.

They both sported Santa hats to get into the festive spirit and looked at ease as they strutted around the stage, hitting every note.