Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been cast in a new play as Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, the Royal Shakespeare Company has announced.

Born With Teeth will explore the relationship between a 27-year-old Marlowe and rising star William Shakespeare, as they are forced to work together on a new piece of work.

Gatwa said he was “so excited” to be appearing in the play, which he said was “like no version of Shakespeare and Marlowe that I’ve ever seen before”.

Shakespeare will be portrayed by Edward Bluemel, who has starred in Killing Eve, A Discovery of Witches, and alongside Gatwa in Sex Education.

The show will play for 11 weeks at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 13 August.

Born With Teeth, written Liz Duffy Adams, will take an “irreverent” look at the “high-octane world of two of the theatre’s greatest literary icons”, the RSC said.

Set in the backroom of a pub in 1591, the show sees Marlowe and Shakespeare forced to come together across three secret meetings to collaborate on a new play.

It’s a dangerous time for artists in England, a country rife with paranoia where spies are everywhere, and as the rivals duel with each other, they become increasingly tempted by the idea of betrayal.

The play premiered in Houston in 2022 and has since been performed around the US in Oregon, California and Florida, but this will mark its West End debut.

The UK production will be directed by Daniel Evans, whose previous stage credits include a production of American Buffalo starring Damian Lewis and John Goodman, and the James Graham play Quiz, about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire coughing scandal.

In a statement, Bluemel said he felt “incredibly proud and excited” to be working with Gatwa and Evans.

“To be stepping into the shoes of a young William Shakespeare is a huge thrill for any actor and I can’t wait to get started,” he said.

“When I read Liz Duffy Adams’ script, I was instantly drawn into the high-stakes world of these two rival playwrights and the incredible, creative chemistry they share.

“There’s a real freshness and vitality to Liz’s writing that speaks directly to our world, and I can’t wait for West End audiences to experience it for the first time.”

Gatwa said: “Liz Duffy Adams has written an exceptional play that is smart, dark, sexy, sharp and funny! There’s a lot to get one’s teeth into.

“This is like no version of Shakespeare and Marlowe that I’ve ever seen before, and I can’t wait for audiences to join us for the ride”.

In a review after the play’s Texas premiere, Broadway World’s Christian Gill said: “It’s one part fan fiction, one part examination of egos, and another part commentary of the destructive capabilities of societal expectations.

“We spend ninety minutes watching a game between the best writers of their time.”

Rohan Preston of the Minnesota Star Tribune added: “The play cuts to the bone as Kit and Will trade barbs, ambitions and, ultimately, places in a history play that rewrites our understanding of these two figures.”

Gatwa got his breakthrough role playing Eric in Netflix’s Sex Education and has also appeared in Barbie.

He was cast in Doctor Who in 2022, taking over the lead role from Jodie Whittaker. His second season as the Doctor due to begin airing this weekend.

Gatwa’s casting in Born With Teeth comes after unconfirmed reports that he is set to leave Doctor Who, and that the show may be facing the axe. Neither Gatwa, the BBC or Disney+ have commented on the reports.

The UK economy grew by more than expected in February, according to the latest official figures.

The economy expanded by 0.5%, with the services sector having a strong month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Economists had predicted growth of just 0.1%, but the ONS said several factors contributed to the surprise rise which was driven by a boost in manufacturing and production.

The better-than-expected figures come as the UK economy braces itself for the impact of tariffs imposed on goods being imported to the US, with analysts warning that growth could prove short-lived.

The UK is subject to the blanket 10% tariff on nearly all of its goods being brought into the US, which is expected to hit British exporters and also affect economic growth.

The government has made growing the UK economy its top priority in its effort to improve living standards.

Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said February’s surprise growth was due to computer programming, telecoms and car dealerships in the services sector all having “strong months”.

She added that manufacturing, electronics and pharmaceutical businesses performed well, and the car making industry also picked up after “its recent poor performance”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves called the latest growth figures an “encouraging sign”, but added the government was “not complacent”.

“We must go further and faster to kickstart economic growth, provide security for working people and put more money in their pockets,” she added.

She said the government would “remain pragmatic and cool-headed” in its efforts to secure a trade deal with the US.

Alongside the better-than-expected growth, the ONS revised up its figure for January from a contraction of 0.1% to no growth.

But February’s figure comes ahead of the impact of tax rises on businesses and household energy and water bill increases on the economy, along with US tariffs.

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist, said the UK’s “surprisingly strong growth will prove short lived, as rises in tariffs and taxes bite”.

“The big picture is that the economy has grown in only four of the last nine months and it’s hard to see the economy strengthening much from here,” she said.

Mitchell Barnes runs a 3D printing company in Warwickshire, designing and manufacturing parts for the automotive industry.

Half of the parts made here are exported to the US.

But rather than Trump tariffs, he says it’s domestic factors that are hitting his business.

Mr Barnes says this month’s changes to National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage mean he may need to rethink his plan to create new jobs at the site.

He had hoped to increase the number of staff from 27 to 100 over the next 18 months, but has now lowered that to between 30 to 40.

The business is now looking to accelerate plans to expand in the United States instead. “Ultimately, for us, it’s all about innovating in order to control our own destiny.”

Additional reporting by Adam Woods

At 01:00 on Tuesday morning Carwin Javie Molleja was dancing with his mother in Santo Domingo’s Jet Set nightclub when he noticed something fall from the ceiling.

At the time, he didn’t think much of it. “No-one thought that because a small stone fell the entire roof was going to collapse,” he says.

The percussionist, who had moved to the Dominican Republic eight years earlier, was out with his mother, Carmin, and friends to see a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez.

It was the first time Carwin, 32, and his mother had seen each other in three years and it was meant to be a night of joy and celebration.

But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, disaster struck.

“What I have in my head are the screams, the loud sound of the ceiling falling in, my mom’s screams asking me if I’m OK, me asking her if she’s OK,” Carwin recalls.

“Everything happened so fast. I guess I closed my eyes and my instinct was to hug my mum.”

Both Carwin and his mother, who had been standing near the stage, were struck on the head by pieces of falling ceiling, but were lucky to avoid serious injury. Rubby Perez was among those killed.

In the chaos that quickly unfolded, Carwin managed to find a door through which he and his mother escaped outside.

But his friend Jessica and her sister were still in the club. Desperate to find them, he decided to go back inside.

Inside the club, Carwin desperately shouted Jessica’s name but no one answered.

He says he felt powerless to help those who had become trapped under the debris.

“The stones were huge. I felt useless.”

Carwin says he then repeatedly went out of the building, where he’d try to call paramedics, then return inside to shout his friend’s name and call her phone.

“After that, the calls stopped going through.”

Carwin describes the aftermath of the collapse as “total chaos”.

“People were going crazy,” he says.

“They were pulling out injured people. I saw when they pulled out the saxophonist who died.”

Within minutes of the collapse, emergency services arrived, as ambulances and stretchers “kept coming”.

Carwin says he remained at the scene for about an hour and a half after the collapse.

In that time, he says he didn’t see any machinery arriving to remove the debris.

He says he wanted to continue trying to find his friend, but needed to take home his mother, who was in pain.

“I needed to get her home and calm her down.”

Later that day, Jessica and her sister’s lifeless bodies were found among the rubble. At least 221 people were killed in the disaster.

Carwin says he regrets not having been able to do more for his friend.

“It was horrible not being able to help her. I yelled her name, but she didn’t answer. It feels awful not being able to do anything.”

With reporting by Isabel Caro and Alicia Hernández.

Linda Kelly, 67, has advanced breast cancer which has spread to her bones and chest wall, but says a new pill has given her extra years of life and time to travel with her husband.

“It does let you have a normal kind of life and you forget you have cancer,” she says of the new drug capivastertib, which has been recommended for NHS use in England and Wales, and is funded from today in England.

Linda is one of more than 1,000 women with incurable breast cancer who could benefit from the drug, which can slow progression of the disease.

It’s another possible treatment option for those with this cancer – but a charity said breast cancer drugs should be approved more quickly.

Linda is a keen gardener who keeps active by cycling 60 miles a week and also does pilates.

She says she’s had “fantastic” results from the new drug, which is taken twice daily in tablet form.

The side-effects for her were minimal and it’s allowed her to go on holiday to New Zealand with her husband Neil last year and plan a trip to the US this year.

“You feel the drug is working and you can be a lot calmer – it’s given me nearly four years of extra time,” she says.

She says the drug has also given her hope.

“It does make you think about your life, and what you want to do with your life in the future – but at least you feel well enough to make those plans and confident enough as well to fulfil some of those plans.”

But not everyone is likely to have such positive results from the drug.

In trials, in 708 women, when combined with hormone therapy, the drug doubled the time the cancer took to grow, from 3.6 months to 7.3 months, and shrank tumours in 23% of patients.

“It presents a very effective option that can work for a long time – many months, and in some people it can be years,” said Prof Nick Turner, lead researcher and professor of medical oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden.

“It can substantially delay chemotherapy which many women fear because of the side-effects,” he added.

“Advanced breast cancer is highly treatable and we want kinder, better treatments.”

The drug, which has been approved the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), will be funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund in England but funding has not yet been confirmed in Wales.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with one in seven women affected in their lifetimes and 75% surviving for 10 years or more after diagnosis.

If the cancer returns and spreads to other parts of the body, treatments aim to control it, reduce the symptoms and improve quality of life.

Possible treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and drugs that help to stop the cancer growing – either by blocking hormones, boosting the body’s immune system or targeting what makes cancer cells grow.

This new drug capivasertib is a targeted therapy. It works in a new way, blocking the activity of a protein molecule called AKT which drives cancer growth.

Scientists started working on the drug’s development 20 years ago and say it’s the most effective cancer drug they’ve seen for advanced cancer. AstraZeneca is the manufacturer of capivasertib.

The drug is suitable for those with certain gene mutations that affect up to half of people with hormone receptor positive secondary breast cancer – the most common type, which grows in the presence of oestrogen.

Prof Peter Johnson, clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said it offered “an additional option” for some whose cancer has progressed despite previous hormone therapy – but it wouldn’t be suitable for everyone.

Claire Rowney, chief executive at charity Breast Cancer Now, said she was “delighted” that the drug would offer some people “the hope of more precious time to do what matters most to them”.

But she said patients had “faced unnecessary delays in accessing it” after the drug was initially rejected by NICE, and breast cancer drugs should be approved more quickly for those who need them.

“NHS England must now put in place prompt genetic testing to ensure those eligible receive capivasertib without further delay,” she said, adding that Scotland should also consider funding the treatment quickly so that patients across the UK would have access.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Johnson said NICE had to work through the evidence when approving new drugs for the NHS, and those discussions included how much the drug will cost.

“We have to make sure the treatments we bring in are good value for money for the NHS and come in under the cost threshold that we expect, because obviously, particularly in these hard times, money is not plentiful and we need to make sure that the price of the drug and the way it’s being used really do constitute… good value for money for the NHS,” said Prof Johnson.

NICE says it has approved 24 out of 25 breast cancer treatments it has assessed over the past seven years.

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The New York Police Department (NYPD) has said a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River and killed all six people onboard including a family of five from Spain.

It is very much an active investigation, but here is what we know so far about the fatal crash:

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has given some details about the fatal helicopter ride.

She said the helicopter was operated by New York Helicopters and took off from the Downtown Skyport on the lower side of Manhattan at 14:59 local time (19:59 BST).

According to the popular real-time flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the helicopter was in the air for about 15 minutes.

It started its route heading towards the Statue of Liberty and pivoted north towards the George Washington Bridge.

Then, the helicopter circled back down the Hudson along the New Jersey side and plunged into the River Hudson near a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, at 15:15 local time (20:15 BST).

The helicopter was upside-down when it hit the water, Tisch added.

Police boats assisted in the rescue efforts and Bruce Wall, who was nearby when the crash happened, described what he saw.

“It started falling apart in mid-air and then the tail came off and then just flipped over in mid-air and started falling to the ground,” he said.

In total there were six people onboard the helicopter when it went down – including one American pilot.

According to reports, the Spanish family of two adults and three children were taking the helicopter ride to see sights of New York.

While authorities have yet to release their identities, the family has widely been named as Agustín Escobar and his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, who were both executives at Siemens, and their children, aged four, five and 11.

Dive teams worked to recover the bodies and despite CPR efforts, all six people were pronounced dead.

Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, the other two victims were pronounced dead at an area hospital, officials have said.

The cause of the crash is currently under investigation and early details are vague.

But, NYPD Commissioner Tisch has said the “aircraft lost control” and hit the water “just a few feet off the coast of a pier”.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said the helicopter was a Bell 206.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate – with the NTSB leading the investigation.

Thursday’s incident was the deadliest helicopter crash in New York City since at least 2018, according to the New York Times.

In that incident, all five passengers drowned and only the pilot survived when a sightseeing helicopter that was flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over.

A record shop owner who suffered a cardiac arrest after being stabbed with a syringe full of a power anaesthetic says he fears he may never know why he was attacked.

Gary Lewis, 65, almost died when he was injected with rocuronium by 58-year-old nurse Darren Harris at Betterdaze in Northallerton on 2 July last year.

Harris, who is due to be sentenced later, was found guilty of attempted murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court, but offered no explanation for the attack.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Lewis said: “It leaves you with the quandary, sometimes bordering on paranoia, about why somebody would go to those lengths.”

On the day of the attack Harris travelled from his home in Middlesbrough, where he worked as a nurse at James Cook Hospital, to Northallerton, where he stabbed Mr Lewis in the backside before leaving the shop.

Mr Lewis said he had followed Harris outside to confront him, but collapsed a short time later.

CCTV footage shows him leaving the shop to remonstrate with Harris, before neighbouring shop keepers come to his assistance and police arrive to detain Harris.

“Apparently I died on the footpath, my heart stopped on the footpath,” he said.

“I regained consciousness and they tell me I had a second cardiac arrest in the ambulance.”

Mr Lewis said he had been told it was his decision to leave the shop, which he puts down to his training during 30 years in the police force, that saved his life.

“The doctors are absolutely certain,” he said.

“If I’d stayed where I was I would have had the heart attack without anyone being around me and the next person to walk in the shop would have found me.”

When Harris was arrested he repeated claimed the syringe had been full of water, but it was later found to have been filled with rocuronium.

Harris did not give evidence during his trial but in a police interview he claimed he had been pushed out of the shop by Mr Lewis following an argument.

CCTV footage showed no such altercation took place and no other motive for the attack has been put forward.

Mr Lewis said: “Nobody in the family can get their head around it. It’s baffled the police, it’s baffled the barristers, it’s baffled the court, it’s probably baffled the hospital.

“I’m not going to plead with the guy, but if he’s got any humanity he will give me an explanation.

“It wasn’t random, it couldn’t have been more deliberate and targeted. Whether I’ll ever find out, I almost have to deal with the possibility that I might not and that is psychologically impacting.”

Mr Lewis said he was back at work within days of the attack, but said he had struggled with the idea that had he not made it out of the shop his heart attack might never have been revealed as attempted murder.

“The drug clears your system, which is why I would have died if I’d stayed in the shop,” he said.

“It would have disappeared and nobody would have looked for a pin prick, it would have been put down as a cardiac arrest.

“But the psychology of it, there can’t be many victims of such a crime who have to return to the scene of the crime every single day and sit in the same seat where you were attacked.

“I do not think it will ever be over and done with unless I am given a reason and I can’t imagine what that reason would be.

“You wrack your brains but you’ve almost got to not think about it too much because I may never get an explanation.”

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said Harris’ employment was terminated in August 2024.

It said a review into the storage of medications, including controlled drugs, in cardiac theatres and general theatres was carried out in light of the incident and concluded “all theatres were fully compliant with national guidance”.

It was a typical Friday lunchtime in Beirut’s southern suburb. Then, a single warning, posted in Arabic on X by a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), triggered panic and chaos in the densely populated area known as Dahieh.

“Urgent warning to those in the southern suburb of Beirut,” it read. The post included a map of a residential area, marking a building in red and two nearby schools. The IDF identified the building as a Hezbollah facility, and ordered the immediate evacuation of the schools.

An air strike was imminent.

What followed were scenes of sheer panic. Parents rushed towards the threatened area to collect their children from the schools, while residents fled in the opposite direction, visibly shaken and fearful.

“It was total chaos,” recalls Ahmad Alama, the director of St Georges School, one of those highlighted on the map. “We tried to contain the situation as much as we could, but it was crazy.”

The area was soon cleared, and Israeli forces destroyed the marked building, which they said was a warehouse storing Hezbollah drones.

The strike, carried out two weeks ago, was the first on Dahieh – an area with a strong Hezbollah presence – since a ceasefire ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah took effect last November.

It came hours after two rockets were launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel. Israel said it intercepted one rocket, while the other fell short of the border.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant and political group, denied involvement. Israel described the rocket fire as a ceasefire “violation”, while the office of Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the Israeli strike as a “violation of the agreement”.

“We thought the war had ended with the ceasefire,” says Mr Alama, “But unfortunately, we’re still living it every day.”

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued near-daily strikes on people and targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, saying it is acting to stop Hezbollah from rearming. The strikes have mainly occurred in southern Lebanon, but the recent bombings in Dahieh have sparked particular alarm.

On 1 April, a second Israeli strike hit the area – this time without warning – killing a Hezbollah commander and three other people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Mr Alama has been running St Georges School for 30 years. It serves around 1,000 children of all ages, boys and girls. Although religion is part of the curriculum for older pupils, he describes the school as secular.

It is also well-known in the community for its association with the Lebanese pop star and talent show judge, Ragheb Alama – Ahmad Alama’s brother and the school’s owner.

The recently destroyed building lies just metres from the school. It isn’t the only nearby scene of devastation. Another building, opposite one of St Georges’ gates, remains a massive pile of rubble – brought down by Israeli air strikes before the ceasefire.

During the war, the schools were closed. They didn’t have to deal with situations such as the one they faced. Now reopened, they are braced for the possibility of more bombing.

The school has devised evacuation plans, designating emergency meeting points in the basement and routes for pupils and staff to follow in case of any danger.

There are also new communication plans with parents to prevent a repeat of the chaos of last month’s strike. Children are now routinely reminded of these procedures, with regular evacuation drills.

Students, staff, and parents alike are traumatised by what happened, Mr Alama says.

Initially, the school considered cutting back on extracurricular activities to make up for lost learning, but they changed their minds.

“We decided otherwise,” Mr Alama says. “Pupils shouldn’t pay the price for something they aren’t responsible for. We’ve actually ended up increasing these activities – these kids need to release some of the pressure on them.”

Nearly five months into the ceasefire, the return of Israeli air strikes to Beirut has intensified fears of a return to all-out war.

The ceasefire was meant to end more than 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli military positions the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The conflict escalated in September 2024, when Israel launched a devastating air campaign across Lebanon and invaded the south of the country.

Dahieh, deserted during the war, is bustling again. Shops have reopened, hookah smokers are back at crowded cafes, and the suburb seems as busy as before, with its persistently paralysing traffic.

But amid these signs of normality, scenes of destruction serve as a reminder of the pounding this area endured just months ago.

Some 346 buildings in the area were destroyed and another were 145 partly damaged by Israeli air strikes, according to a municipal official. Israel said it targeted Hezbollah facilities and weapons caches.

In many neighbourhoods, the rubble is still being cleared. The roar of bulldozers and jackhammers drilling into piles of debris is almost constant.

Some of the mounds of debris have Hezbollah flags planted on top of them, while large and small portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader killed by Israel during the war, line the roads.

However, amid the customary signs of defiance, many are now expressing a deep concern not always voiced – at least in front of cameras – by residents of Dahieh.

“The destruction is terrifying. I see the destroyed buildings and I cry,” says Sawsan Hariri, the headteacher of Burj High School, also in Dahieh.

The school, which also sits opposite a flattened building, sustained damage from nearby strikes.

“It’s depressing. Walking on the street, driving your car – it’s all just depressing.”

Ms Hariri used to live on the top floor of the school building with her husband and daughter, but their home has been destroyed. They now rent a flat nearby.

Before the war, Burj High School had around 600 pupils. Now, it has barely 100.

Many parents are reluctant to send their children back amid the scenes of destruction and the constant buzz of machinery. Others were concerned about the health risks, with thick dust still filling the air.

After the ceasefire, owners of the private school made some basic repairs at their own expense.

Hezbollah, which is banned as a terrorist organisation in many countries but in Lebanon is a political and social movement as well as a paramilitary force, has given those who lost their homes $12,000 for a year’s rent and has offered to cover the costs of repairs to apartments. However, schools and other institutions have not received any aid.

The Lebanese government has pledged to set up a reconstruction fund, which the World Bank estimates will cost $11bn nationwide. But international donors are believed to be insisting on the disarmament of Hezbollah and political reform – conditions that appear a distant prospect.

Though the clearing of rubble is expected to be over by the end of the year, few expect large-scale rebuilding to follow anytime soon.

The young cast of Alex Garland’s film Warfare had to bond pretty quickly, to play a US military unit whose lives depended on each other, during the Iraq war in 2006.

Familiarity was crucial, so before filming began, the cast were sent on a three-week military bootcamp.

They lived together, learning military jargon and gun safety and were pushed beyond their limits – all of which brought them closer together.

First off though, they agreed to shave each other’s heads to look the part, boosting trust and familiarity.

“We shaved our heads on day one, and got tattoos at the end of the process, so it bookended the experience,” Poulter tells the BBC.

The actor, who recently appeared in The Bear and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, plays Captain Eric, who was part of a group of US soldiers and Iraqi scouts on a surveillance mission.

We see how it goes wrong, with devastating consequences.

Heartstopper star Connor plays newcomer Tommy, hitting home how young the soldiers were – he’s just turned 21, the same age Tommy was at the time.

The actor says the decision to get a shared tattoo with his castmates after filming wrapped was a “no-brainer”. The casts of The Avengers and The Lord of the Rings did the same thing after their final films.

Warfare’s actors decided their tattoo would say “Call On Me”, to reflect their brotherhood, while referencing Erik Prydz’s 2004 dance hit, which kicks the film off.

The cast features some other big names, including Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis, Stranger Things and the forthcoming Beatles biopic’s Joseph Quinn, and Riverdale’s Charles Melton.

“It was really formative for me,” Connor says about his time on the film. “I’ve made friends I really do believe I will know for a long time.

“We all wanted to commemorate it – we are so proud of the work we’ve done together.”

-The movie is based entirely on a real-life mission that took place during the Iraq war, and is built on the memories of the US soldiers who were there.

The group was embedded in the home of an ordinary Iraqi family, who we briefly see in the film, in Ramadi – an area controlled by Al-Qaeda forces.

The military’s goal had been to slip into and observe the area under the cover of darkness, to ensure the safe passage of ground forces there the next day.

What they didn’t know what that they were next door to an insurgent house, making them the target of an attack.

Shot in real-time, Warfare has no music or flashbacks, so there’s no let-up for the audience. You’re dropped into the thick of the action for the whole film.

The soldiers in command have to make split-second decisions amid the pain and chaos, with the Iraqi family caught in the crossfire.

Oscar nominee Garland, whose back catalogue includes the 28 Days film franchise and Ex Machina, got the idea for Warfare when he was making last year’s film Civil War.

He was working on the battle scenes with Hollywood stunt man and gunfight co-ordinator Ray Mendoza.

“During the edit process of Civil War, I was able to really focus on some of the work Ray had done, and how sophisticated and how nuanced it was,” Garland recalls.

They got chatting about Mendoza’s previous life as a US Navy Seal, and about the Ramadi operation, where he was its communications officer.

Mendoza said he’d always wanted to make a film about that mission.

The veteran had a very big reason for wanting to recreate what happened that day – to help replace the lost memories of his colleague Elliott Miller.

Miller, a former Navy Seal, was so badly injured in Ramadi that he suffered traumatic brain injury and memory loss, and had to have a leg amputated.

During the mission, Mendoza carried the unconscious soldier to the rescue tank that ultimately saved his life.

“Elliott doesn’t remember it, and when he woke up, he had a lot of questions,” Mendoza says.

“No matter how many maps we drew, or how many times we wrote it out – without that core memory, I think he’s had a hard time.

“It just raised more questions than answers. So I wanted to recreate this one.”

So Garland and Mendoza decided to make Warfare together, sharing writing and directing credits, and dedicating the film to Miller.

The crucial question is whether seeing the film helped Miller piece things together.

“It did, yeah – he was a sponge,” Mendoza says.

“We walked him through it – he had a lot of questions, he’s got kids that have questions.

“It’s now a film memory, but it’s as close as he’s gonna have – he’s super grateful.”

Miller was played by Jarvis, who calls him “a funny guy… he’s great – a living embodiment of perseverance”.

It was a “unique situation to be in when you’re entrusted with portraying somebody that’s sitting right across from you”, Jarvis said, about having the person he was playing actually on set.

“But because he didn’t remember [what happened], a lot of my references had to come from his colleagues.”

The soldiers’ casting has caused some excitement online, with some publications breathily calling the actors “all of the internet’s boyfriends” and “red hot rising stars”.

Garland arches an eyebrow at this, and Mendoza jumps in to talk about why those actors were chosen.

“I’ve said this to them, so I’m not trying to offend them, but we weren’t looking for the best actors. They’re all great actors. We were looking for the right actors,” he says.

“So what that means is their willingness to push their bodies past a comfort level that they’re maybe not used to. ‘You’re gonna be exhausted. You’re gonna be required to rely on other people. It’s not about you, it’s about the team’.

“And the ones that jump at that opportunity, you’re like, ‘Yep, that’s the attitude that we need’.”

Collating and cross-checking the soldiers’ memories was a big job, largely undertaken by Garland.

“I think there’s an inherent value in attempting to be honest and truthful about something as serious and significant as war,” he says.

He shot the film in a studio in a suburb north of London, on a former World War Two airfield, making it in real-time to recreate “a real incident of combat… as honestly, forensically and accurately as possible”.

Not surprisingly, while sharing credits with Garland, former US Navy Seal Mendoza ran the actors’ bootcamp.

He was played by Woon-A-Tai, who calls him “a brilliant instructor who instilled a lot of confidence in us”, while also making gun safety a top priority.

The actor was also fascinated by the narrative not being “dramatised or Hollywoodised”.

“To see these guys not obey orders – and do what they needed to save their platoon was interesting to me,” he says, talking about the soldiers’ evacuation process.

Mendoza thinks the film may also help veterans who are struggling to express what warfare can be like.

“Some of these things are harder to explain in words,” he says. “So art imagery is how I’m able to communicate that.”

Connor echoes this, saying: “A lot of these men are very much less inclined to talk about themselves in these situations, whether it be to be due to humility, or a difficulty in really articulating it.

“A lot of them just don’t really enjoy talking about their involvement.”

The film has been called “the most harrowing – and honest – depiction of modern combat ever made” by the Telegraph, while the New Yorker said it offers a “hyperrealist rebuke of the American war movie”.

The Guardian said the “film-makers’ message gets lost in the deafening blizzard of battle”, while Empire added: “It may well be cinema’s most effective, purest anti-war film: there is no sentimentality, no hand-wringing, but most significantly not a second of it makes war look cool, or attractive.”

Poulter says he admires the film-makers’ determination to make Warfare purely factual.

“Hopefully this film contributes to a better understanding of just how negative, and how the consequences of war are characterised by a lot of loss…

“I think this is as much an anti-war film as you can possibly hope to hope to see.”

Warfare is out in cinemas on Friday, 18 April.

Fewer starlings are visiting UK gardens, according to the conservation charity, the RSPB.

It says its Big Garden Birdwatch, which took place over the last weekend in January, recorded the lowest number of starlings since the survey began in 1979.

Starlings are common garden visitors, but one of the UK’s fastest disappearing birds, with a sharp population decline since the 1960s.

They are known for their spectacular winter acrobatics, flying in huge flocks or murmurations.

RSPB chief executive, Beccy Speight, said though this year’s results are a reason for concern, “we can all do our bit to support these threatened birds”.

The RSPB recommends taking small actions that can benefit starlings and other garden wildlife, such as avoiding the use of pesticides and putting up nest boxes.

Beccy Speight added: “While our homes and gardens often provide the perfect place for individual people to help, we also urgently need governments and businesses to join us in the wider fight to restore our natural world.”

Almost 600,000 people across the UK took part in The Big Garden Birdwatch this year, counting more than nine million birds over the course of an hour in their garden or local park.

Prior to the year 2000, the starling was regularly the most numerous species recorded in the survey.

This year it dropped from third to fourth place behind the tree sparrow, the blue tit and the wood pigeon.

The blackbird remained in fifth place.

The survey gives a snapshot of trends in garden birds, with data on the starling mirroring findings from long-term studies.

Starlings are a red listed species in the UK, considered a high conservation concern due to their declining numbers.

The UK breeding population declined by 82% between 1970 and 2022.

There is not enough evidence to explain what is causing the declines, but one reason could be that there is less grassland and insect food than there used to be because of intensive farming.

Modern housing and development have also reduced the availability of suitable nesting sites.

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