Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Thursday, December 10, 2020

A member of staff poses with props made for the A member of staff poses with a dinosaur skeleton of a Fantastic Beasts film series. pachycephalosaur, which scientists later named it “Dracorex hogwartsia” to celebrate Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy of the Harry Potter franchise.

A member of staff poses with a prop of a Hungarian Horntail dragon made for the Fantastic Beasts film series at the A member of staff poses with projection display featuring A member of staff poses with props and costume made for press view of Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature exhibition at Natural History Exhibition in London. — AFP photos all the species appearing in the exhibition. actor Eddie Redmayne for the Fantastic Beasts film series.

ans of J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic leading authority on fantastic beasts. The real world today,” she said. “I think it will sea oarfish which fuelled myths of huge tract their bodies at will. “The real world FBeasts” will already be familiar with 2001 book was turned into a hit fantasy really give the audience an extra insight sea serpents is featured, as are giant nar- is in many ways weirder, stranger and nifflers, occamy and demiguise film franchise starring Eddie Redmayne, into the amazing world of nature.” whal tusks. more fantastical than anything in our while unicorns, dragons and mermaids whose costume also features in the exhi- They are exhibited alongside the uni- imagination can cover,” said Buckley. “I have been the stuff of legends for cen- bition, which runs from Wednesday to ‘Extraordinary abilities’ corn hair-infused wands of Harry Potter’s think there are lots of examples of that turies.Now London’s Natural History August next year. The head of conserva- The first part of the exhibition looks at friend Ron Weasley, and his arch-enemy within the show. To actually see that... Museum has scoured its vast collection tion at the Natural History Museum, the animals included in the books such Draco Malfoy. Curator Louis Buckley said and understand a bit more how amazing- for an exhibition to celebrate strange Lorraine Cornish, said curators looked at as the niffler, which resembles a platypus visitors will also be able to explore “the ly adaptable animals are is truly breath- beasts in all their forms, including those the characteristics of Rowling’s inventions and whose penchant for shiny things extraordinary abilities, behaviors and taking.” A total of 12 fantastic beasts created by the Harry Potter author. and compared them with their own col- makes it a good treasure hunter. An properties of real animals”, such as their from the world of wizardry are analyzed, “Fantastic Beasts. The Wonder of Nature” lection. occamy is described as a plumed, two- mating rituals, display and camouflage. A which the museum hopes will help trans- is a collaboration between the museum, Then from a long-list, they honed the legged winged creature with a serpentine demiguise’s impressive ability to disap- form its dusty image and pique the the BBC and Warner Bros, and comes as exhibits down to more than 100 speci- body, while a demiguise is a peaceful pear has been likened to that of butter- curiosity of newer, younger audiences. the venue reopens after months of coron- mens that appear in the show. “By taking herbivore that can make itself invisible flies who can disguise themselves as The venue has indicated the exhibition avirus-enforced closure. some of these fantastic beasts that peo- and predict the future. leaves for protection. will eventually go on tour to a number of The show promises to plunge visitors ple around the world have enjoyed Also featured are dragons, unicorns An occamy’s capacity to grow or countries. — AFP straight into a world well known to Harry watching on film or reading in the books, and mermaids, which are more well- shrink into available spaces is compared Potter fans, where they learn about the we’ve been able to highlight some of the known in public consciousness. A skele- to that of Galapagos marine iguanas or “magizoologist” Newt Scamander, the fantastic beasts that actually exist in the ton of an eight-meter-long (26-feet) deep pufferfish, which can expand and con-

he world’s longest-running TV soap ‘Dramatic flashes’ Topera, Britain’s cosy working-class ’s national treasure series “Coronation Street,” celebrat- status at home has even seen it play a ed 60 years on screen yesterday, defying role in public life. Margaret Thatcher visit- social changes and the pandemic. ed the set in 1990 while prime minister. Pealing cathedral bells, a discussion in As the daughter of a grocery store own- parliament and stamps featuring charac- er, she lambasted the corner shop for ters were among the special events selling alcohol, the minister for media and marking the anniversary. The series data, John Whittingdale, reminisced in revolving around a corner shop and pub parliament last week. In 1998, the in a fictional town in northern England boundary between fiction and fact called Weatherfield was first aired on blurred as Labor prime minister Tony December 7, 1960. Blair said he was ordering an investiga- It was expected to run for a couple of tion into the case of character Deirdre months but it proved an instant hit. Since Rachid, wrongfully jailed for fraud. In real Fans gather on the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s death at the “Imagine” mosaic at Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park on then the show, with its battleaxe matri- life, Blair’s father-in-law, Tony Booth, was December 8, 2020 in New York City. — AFP photos archs, cobbled streets and nostalgic a former actor on the show. trumpet-led theme music, has kept its Critics have accused the show of los- place as one of the top-rated shows on ing some of its character and salty commercial channel ITV. Known as humor, and resorting to sensational “Corrie” for short, a decade ago it events to win ratings. “It was always became the world’s longest-running tele- about strong women. Over the past vision soap opera, still lagging behind decade they’ve moved from character to the 69-year-old BBC radio show The dramatic flashes of action,” the Sunday Archers. It vies for ratings with the BBC’s Times critic Gillian Reynolds lamented in darker “Eastenders”, set in a fictional August. Indeed the show’s dramatic high east London borough, which is a com- points have included a tram crashing off parative newcomer at 35. a viaduct on its 50th anniversary. John Whiston, the head of ITV in the Altogether there have been 146 deaths, North, has described Coronation Street including 24 murders. Yet the show has as “a guide to humanity with a little bit of won praise for groundbreaking storylines, comfort blanket thrown in along with a lit- including the first trans character in a tle bit of sharp, northern wit.” The show’s British soap opera, Hayley Cropper, in speciality is “strong women and feckless the late 1990s. Its audience has fallen men”, he said. While characteristically from its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, English, the show has an international when top-rating episodes would gain In this file photo taken on May 17, 1971 Music legend John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono In this file photo Yoko Ono speaks during the audience too, particularly in Canada, over 20 million viewers. Reflecting a pose for photographers in Cannes 17 May 1971 where they presented their movies unveiling of her first permanent US art instal- where it has aired on CBC since the wider shift away from scheduled televi- ‘Apotheosis’ and ‘The Flu’ lation in Chicago, Illinois. 1960s. “Generations of Canadians have sion, episodes now may have seven or grown up with Corrie in their homes,” eight million viewers, including those said Sally Catto, CBC’s general manager watching online. —AFP of entertainment, factual and sports pro- gramming.

ohn Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono on ed the words: “Over 1,436,000 people Tuesday, a shrine featuring flowers, JTuesday marked the 40th anniver- have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. photos and a small holiday tree had sary of the legendary musician’s since John Lennon was shot and killed already cropped up on the “Imagine” shock murder with a call for gun control. on December 8, 1980.” At 40 years old, mosaic that anchors the memorial in “The death of a loved one is a hollowing Lennon had returned to songwriting Central Park. In her tweet commemorat- experience,” tweeted the 87-year-old shortly before his death, having taken a ing Lennon’s death, Ono included a artist, who still lives in the Dakota build- five-year hiatus to raise his young son number of hashtags including #guncon- ing in Manhattan outside of which her Sean. The couple was returning home to trol now and #end gun violence. husband was shot four decades ago. New York’s famous Dakota building She also hashtagged the National “After 40 years, Sean, Julian and I still across from Central Park, when disgrun- Rifle Association, the powerful US miss him. ‘Imagine all the people living tled Beatles fan Mark David Chapman organization that has for decades bat- life in peace,’” she wrote, quoting the shot Lennon dead. “Tell me it isn’t tled to loosen and eliminate firearms 1971 song she co-wrote with Lennon true!” Ono cried in horror. control legislation. Lennon’s eldest son that became the best-selling single of After Lennon’s murder, Ono commit- Julian, 57, paid homage to his father, his solo career. ted to preserve his memory, funding the tweeting a photo with the message “As Ono, who witnessed her husband’s construction of the Strawberry Fields Time Goes By....”— AFP In this file photo Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall comes out of the Rovers Return Pub murder at close range, also tweeted an memorial in New York that’s become a during a visit to the set of British television soap opera ‘Coronation Street’, in , image of the former Beatle’s shattered point of pilgrimage for fans and mourn- north-west England. — AFP and bloodied spectacles, which includ- ers across the globe. By mid-morning