these are live pictures fom inside israel where sirens have sounded as hamas says it's fired a rocket at tel aviv. german prosecutors name the syrian man who has confessed to carrying out friday's mass stabbing attack in the city of zohlingen in western germany. the 26—year—old is reported to be a syrian asylum seeker, who's being investigated for links to the islamic state group. and the owner of x, elon musk, has criticised the arrest of telegram founder pavel durov saying it's a sign that freedom of speech in europe is under attack. now on bbc news...newscast hello. it's another one of those episodes of newscasts where we spend the whole episode just chatting to an interesting person. and today it's the actor david harewood, who, yes, of course you remember him from homeland, which was a massive hit a few years ago, but he's been

in lots of other things. and recently he became the president of rada, the royal academy of dramatic art. basically, the actor's acting school, and all the famous names have been there, whether it's anthony hopkins or imelda staunton or tom hiddleston. and previous presidents have included john gielgud, kenneth branagh and at one point, princess diana. so there's lots to ask him about about the acting school, the world of showbiz, and also, he's written very, very honestly about lots of things, like the racism he experienced growing up in birmingham, his family's history when it comes to slavery, and also his own mental health because he had a breakdown quite soon actually, after he graduated from rada, the acting school where he's now the president of. so that is what you'll hear in this episode of newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. david, hello.

hello, how are you? welcome to newscast. well, i'm very pleased to see you. well, thank you for inviting me. so, rada, the royal academy of dramatic art, which you are now the president. el, presidente, i call myself. 0h, right. 0k, continental. what's the president's job? well, iguess, um, i'm something of a figurehead. i mean, i don't have an office or a helipad or anything like that. i don't have my own private transport or anything. don't do any hiring. ..which is real disappointment. um, but i, you know, i'm kind of there as a figurehead, you know, if there's something somebody hand needs shaking, i'm going to go and shake that hand. yeah. and, um, at all points, i'm sort of promoting the school, and i kind of personally want to do my best to shape what the young, what the students are or their ideas of the business. yeah.

um, before they leave. and did rada approach you or did you apply? how does how do you how does one get selected? i was asked to by rada to take over from kenneth branagh. so i was really pleased about it. i mean, i was shocked. you know, i didn't think it was something that i would initially be, um, would ever. yeah. uh, um, uh, be interested in or be, you know, it wasn't something that i felt would ever come my way, but i'm really proud of it and really excited about it because, you know, i had a pretty tough time when i came out of drama school. mhm. um, and i want to kind of ensure that these young actors are prepared for the outside world because the real business is a lot different to studying. i think us outsiders, when we hear rada, we instantly have a sort of cliched image that's basically like from fame, the tv show in the 80s, which is obviously not like that. but take me into a class where you're learning how to do tv acting.

how does it work? what are some of the things that you're learning? well, again, i mean, because i learned on thejob, i really wouldn't know. oh, yeah, actually, yeah, you're self—taught. i'm self—taught now, but it would be interesting to go back and observe that. but, um, you know, it's literally about, you know, about, um, you know, eyelines and volume. um, you know, the lack of projection, i think would be something that they would teach the students. but, i mean, look, you know, in my day, it was almost like there was the movement classes, there was voice classes, there was singing lessons. so you get a kind of all round sort of training in. so it was a bit like fame then. not quite, not quite as. not quite as glamourous. but it was a lot of fun. i mean, i remembersort of... and it was, i think it was probably the first time i had ever taken english literature seriously. you know, at school, itjust went over my head.

i just wasn't really that... i'm not very academic at, you know, at school. itjust didn't really interest me. but theatre and scripts really grabbed me. i had to break down a script. i had to break down a character. how to find clues in the script about your character, all those things breaking down the scripts, breaking down characters, all those things i found really, really exciting. and you know, the difference between, you know, a dostoyevsky and pushkin or, you know, the sort of depth that how shakespeare, you know, the descriptive language that shakespeare uses. i found all of that totally fascinating. and you will get that kind of an understanding when you go to a drama school. but do new, fresh newbie actors still want to be doing shakespeare and dostoyevsky, or does thatjust feel a bit old and fusty and maybe too white, or certainly not diverse? sort of like the canon. there's certainly a range of views on that. i mean, some people don't

want to do any of that. and i think rada is going through a process of sort of decolonising the curriculum where a lot of that, some of that older stuff is it's just not necessary any more. um, i visited the school a couple of weeks ago, and it was wonderful to see, you know, because 40% of the students that gain admission now are black or mixed heritage, which is fantastic. and that that wasn't in my day. um, so, and it's great to see that the school is catering for that new demographic. so there was a play that had been written by one of the teachers, which was sort of set, in london. but it was about this, you know, a black family and the father coming home. and it was wonderful to see that, and wonderful to see them not having to do rp or not having to sort of change there, being their true authentic selves. and i think that's really something that i certainly, um, tripped up on,

because i think being your authentic self before you leave rada is really, really helpful. but isn't the whole point of acting that you're not your authentic self because you're playing someone else? when i say being your authentic self, it's, you know, kind of inhabiting your own body, knowing who you are, particularly about your identity. and i think that's something that is vital for the student. but why is that so important as part of acting, if actually you're constantly portraying somebody else because doesn't yourself disappear? no, no, no, i don't i mean... this is me obviously clearly being a non—actor here. no, i know, but i think you... i mean, i would say that i pour 90% of myself into my characters. that's the joy of being an actor, i think. is that you or yourself in inside somebody else. you know, it would be impossible for me to take myself completely out of it. but the joy is finding yourself

in another character and, you know, with a few changes. i mean, i played, um, william f buckley a couple of... i saw it. at the young vic and then in the west end, and i turned that part down a couple of times because i just thought, "there's no way i can play that. "there's no way i can play a white right wing firebrand conservative. "doesn't make any sense". but yet i managed to sort of find myself in him and allow myself to believe his thoughts and to sort of see things from his perspective. and actually, it was a fascinating journey for me. not that i would ever call myself a conservative, but it was interesting to see, you know, where that sort of thinking comes, that privileged, waspish thinking comes from. and it was a joy to play it, actually. and there's a bit at the end of that play that has the audience gasping when one of the characters says something quite... quite extraordinary,

quite extraordinary. also, that play was so interesting for me to see as a journalist, because it was about... it was called best of enemies, wasn't it? written by james graham. like 55% of all plays. the genius. yeah, prolific in a good way. um, and it's about the birth of, like, tv as punditry and politics, kind of as a sort of like blood sport. a battleground. ..plays out on tv. and i watched it and sort of made my blood run a bit cold because i was like, "oh, that explains a lot of why our politics and our media is the way it is. i think it was actually reagan who sort of, um, sort of broke up the sort of tv monopolies and allowed, i think, you know, kind of birth of like conservative radio or the conservative tv networks. and you can kind of extrapolate where we are now, particularly where america is now, right back to that particular moment where you get half the countryjust listening to a completely different set of facts. well, yeah, because it was around the democratic party convention in 68 in chicago, which was quite controversial enough because there

was rioting on the street. yes. but which tv network was it again? it was abc. yeah. and they were really struggling at the time. yes. and they thought, "how can we come up with a new format? "0h, let's get two intellectuals who fundamentally disagree with each other, but who are quite theatrical in how they do it, put them on tv and just watch them fight". and people tuned in in their millions. by the end of that season, it was the most watched programme. so, it was a massive hit for them. and that's why news is the way it is now. and you talked about when you left rada as a student, and you've written about this and you made a tv documentary about just how bad your mental health was. and you've described it as a breakdown. it was a breakdown. it was a psychotic breakdown, yeah. yeah. um, do you think that that the school has to do stuff to look after their graduates once they've gone? well, i mean, that is part of the changes that rada is making and has made, which is great to see. there's a lot more talk of mental health.

um, there's counsellors there now and therapists there to help students again. back in our day, it was, you know, one day you were at rada, the next day you'd left and that was it. i think there's a lot more pastoral care, which i think is right, because particularly, its a difficult transition to make, or it can be a difficult transition to make. the real the world is not like, you know, it's not as cosy as, you know, you're not surrounded by your friends as much as you are when you're studying. and the real, and the business can be bumpy. and, um, ifound it quite bruising particularly, you know, being criticised for my race or being criticised for the way i looked. um, and some of the reviewers were brutal. drawing attention to my race, and ijust not experienced that before. so, uh, having that kind of support would have been great for me or having, you know, somebody to talk to would have been extremely helpful for me.

um, uh, i suppose the thing about the critics is they're licensed to be mean about... if they feel their criticism isjustified, they've got licence to be mean. well, that was bordering on, that was personal. it went too far. and it was racist. some of the caricatures were racist. um, and it was, i mean, you know, i came out at a time when we were that, i guess i'd say the first generation of english born, classically trained black actors. and we really did get, we had a rough time. people were were walking out... some people were walking out of theatres because they didn't want to see black actors do shakespeare. critics had a real tough time dealing with these new faces in the theatre. so it was a really difficult time for my generation because we'd never been seen before like that. and as i say, the critics didn't

take too kindly to it. when could you feel that starting to change? because hearing that now, it's quite shocking to recall that that's what it was like. ithink, you know, obviously, ithink, um, you know, we now have, uh, you know, two or three generations of, you know, classically trained, well trained british born black actors, and they're all doing. some of them are doing extremely well. so it's taken a while. i mean, i left 30 years ago, so i'd say it's taken at least 20 years, um, for that change to happen and thank god it has. i mean, and you still see it. i'm just thinking about, like, john boyega when he got cast in star wars. and people were like, "you can't have a black stormtrooper". and that was quite recently. and you get it in, you know. what was it? the lord of the rings. you know, "you can't have black characters". and so there's always going to be somebody who is upset by. i'm not saying always, but there are a certain group of people who find it, um.

who struggle with it. and i don't know why. um, i rememberwhen i played lord asriel at the national theatre. in his dark materials. and one of the ushers came up to me and said, "oh, yeah, there was an american lady who said", because the actress playing my daughter was a white actress. and this usher came up to me and she said, "oh, you know, i struggled with the fact that there was a black man, but he had a white daughter". and i said to the usher, i said, "did she mention anything about the eight foot talking polar bears"? nothing. you know, that's fine. yeah. so it's your own personal prejudices that can trip you up. yeah. people have to examine that. and is that an example of colour—blind casting? because i don't think i've ever quite understood what that is. i was saying it to somebody a few months ago when i was making another programme and they were like, "no, no, you got you got it wrong.

that's not what it is". i mean, it varies. and i don't particularly like the word colour—blind casting because that's to suggest that you're ignoring the fact that i'm black and you're white, and where i think when casting is done in a clever, like it was in best of enemies, you inhabit, you know, by bcasting against type, you draw attention to something. and i think that's much more exciting for me when you, you don't necessarily say, "i'm ignoring this person's colour, "i'm putting that person on stage to make you think about". yes. "to challenge you or to challenge the writer, or to challenge the work and to make the audience think". i think that's much more exciting. and it's interesting, even as i say the words colour—blind casting that feels like a very kind of like 2022 kind of phrase, rather than a 2024 kind of phrase. right. i feel maybe, yeah, it feels a little bit. i think it was. what was his name? um, uh, a great old director, you know, so the person brings onto the stage who they are. and so for me, as soon as i walk

on stage, people are obviously going to see six foot black guy. and there's no getting away from that. and i don't want them to get away from that. i want them to, you know, i'm not trying to ignore that fact. so colour—blind casting for me suggests that you're telling people to ignore the fact that i'm black, and i think that's not... yeah. interesting. um, have you been to see slave play? i've heard mixed things about it. yeah. so you haven't seen it? i haven't seen it. i haven't seen it yet either. um, and so it's this playwright, jeremy 0 harris, and it, i mean, i've not seen it yet, so i'm talking out of turn, but it starts off with, like, some quite graphic depictions of sex scenes with a sort of southern american slavery theme? yes. um, can you imagine? is that 0k these days? is that going too far? i mean, it's hard to say without having seen the play and knowing the context. it's challenging. you know, it's challenging. and i think, you know, audiences

are uncomfortable and i think, um, i'm sure as a writer, that's what you want. harewood house, the stately home in west yorkshire. just explain your connection with that place. well, um... connections are complicated word there. at the end of the slave trade to 1803, 1833, um, to um, prohibit the illegal sale of slaves, um, a lot of the slaves in both jamaica and across the caribbean were given the surname of... because they had no surnames. it wasjohn, richard, henry, and that was it. but to most of the slaves on the plantations were almost universally inherited the surname of the plantation owner. so in barbados, um, on my great...

it's quite strange because when they gave me my family tree, it was only four generations. so it was my great—great—great—great—grandfather. it was richard. first name was richard. he was given the name harewood. so richard gave birth to bartholomew. bartholomew gave birth to, uh, i think it was henry and henry to romeo. and then romeo gave birth to me. and it's really extraordinary. and i was doing a documentary with david 0lusoga, and i spoke to the genealogist, and she gave me this family tree. and at the end of this journey of finding out my roots. i then go to harewood house and to meet the current lord harewood, david lascelles. and it was quite an extraordinary meeting, actually, because it was right after black lives matter, during black lives matter, and i had no idea how i was going to feel about it and no idea how i was going to, you know,

what was going to happen. and it was an extraordinary meeting. and david is a really open, gentle man. and we actually had a really open chat. and i said to him, and his answer really impressed me. i said, "do you feel guilty? "you know, having inherited all this wealth and money from off the proceeds of slavery"? and he said, "well, i don't feel guilty because i'm not responsible, but i can be accountable". and that's exactly what he's made it his mission to be accountable for that history. and part of that accountability is to have much more literature in the house about where the money came from. and i think he's the first lord harewood who's genuinely been open about where the money came from, the history of the house, where the wealth, family wealth came from. and i recently went back there to unveil a portrait. so i am the first black harewood to have a portrait in harewood house. and some people will ask me, "why?

"why would you do that"? and i think it's important that when people do walk around harewood house, because they will see hundreds of wonderful paintings of very posh white people, horses and gold and fancy paintings and stuff, and then they'll come across my picture and they'll go, "hang on a minute. "why is that picture there'? and then they'll read the bumf and they'll understand that slavery does have a living, breathing legacy. and that is all the people think that, as the famous saying goes, "we are here because you were there", and people really need to understand that link. and um, so i think it's important i think it was and i think david has done a greatjob to be open about the history of the house and, as i say, where the money came from.

do you think there's a need to go further with all that stuff, though? i feel like we're kind of in phase one of that and should be a phase two, three and four. 100%. and i think people have, you know, there's and there are people i think of the trevelyan family. i think they did go back. and i think that, you know, they've actually donated quite a lot of wealth to i think it's kenya. well, they talk about restorative justice actually doing things. yes. and i mean, it used to be called reparations in the old days, a word we people, people use. people are very scared about. yeah. but i do think there is. and i think the caribbean islands themselves are starting to lead that charge about some kind of restorative justice, because a lot of their resources have been ripped out and, and people are just sort of packed up and left and it's, you know, perhaps time for some form of restorative justice. now that we've got a new government and it's a labour government, a sort of left leaning government, do you think that's an opportunity to move that conversation on quite significantly? without doubt, i think there probably is. and i'm sure, as i said, i think the caribbean islands themselves are making a, you know, quite a solid fist of,

of leading that conversation. and particularly barbados, which is my home, my, my home town. and particularly barbados, which is my home town. um, so it's good to see that the conversation has, has gone on a step further, as you say. perhaps we are just in phase one of that, but people do get nervous about it. and, um, its extraordinary, the level of vitriol as soon as you start talking about it, the level of vitriol that comes your way when you start talking about restorative justice, because a lot of people just don't want to. they just don't want to talk about it. they don't want to. they just don't want to engage with it. and does that make you kind of pause before you sign up to things like this or. no, you'rejust like, who cares? who cares? i'm not in the business of shirking away from things like that. but, you know, uh, there are a lot of people who just get uncomfortable when you talk about the legacy of slavery or, um, you know, the things that were done, you know, because, you know, i rememberagain, in david's documentary,

you know, we i read a piece on the slave codes. and, you know, in order to maintain slavery, the british had to write a whole new system of laws in the caribbean. and they were brutal. i mean, absolutely brutal. and you read about some of the some of the things that were done to these slaves. it's quite mind blowing, really, the brutality that they used to suppress black folk then. and it makes people uncomfortable when you talk about that and, you know, um, but people need to own up to it. and, you know, we kind of, you know we talk about second world war, we talk about, you know, the holocaust and, you know, we're we're far more, um, up to date and up to speed on that. but somehow when you talk about slavery, you know, because it makes people uncomfortable, the levels of brutality in order to maintain that system. people don't want to talk about it.

does it make you question your own surname? i have thought about that. and maybe, you know, if i would have been younger, i might have i might have changed that. and there's no doubt that, you know, you know, because as i write about in my book, that there is a vulnerability deep down in my psyche about this, the level of this duality. that's why the book is called maybe i don't belong here. i mean, iwas born, i although i was born here, i spent perhaps the first ten years of my life with people telling me to f off back to where i came from. but sometimes i can't get away from that. and i think it is a vulnerability for me that, um, there's this sort of conflict about belonging and identity because as you've seen

from the riots that happened here the other week, you know, if i happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, i would have got my face kicked in, you know, by a whole load of right wing, far right nobs who simply don't will never accept me as british. not that i give a damn. um, but, uh, so i kind of have to always have to work very hard on that issue of identity, i think. well, and also, then even me not tryingto make this about but even me asking you the question about how do you feel about your own name, like sort of then reveals the tension there is there because, well, it's it's it's your name. why should you be made to think about it by me? because no one's asking me about my name. i mean, you're right, but it's something that i constantly have to do. every time i write it, i have to think about it. and, um, you know, that's why some people change their names. a lot of, you know, a personalfriend of mine, ian kwame kwei—armah, changed his name. you know, when i met him, he was ian roberts, you know, and he.

oh, i didn't know that. yeah. and, you know, he's he's done a lot of work to shed that, uh, eurocentric part of himself. and, uh, i think maybe if i'd have been younger, i might have done the same. and that's all for this episode of newscast. we recorded some extra material with david harewood, which you can hear in the full conversation, which is on newscast, the podcast, which is available right now on bbc sounds. see you again soon. bye— bye. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello there. when it comes to rainfall totals so far this month, there's quite a marked contrast between the northwest and the southeast. hardly any rainfall in comparison to what we should be seeing for this month. but further north and west, we've had double the amount of rainfall over 200% in the far northwest of scotland and across the lake district as well.

and in fact, that's where we're likely to see further rain to add to these totals to close out the month of august, potentially another 80mm in the extreme northwest, whereas hardly any traceable usable rain once again across eastern england and southeast england. so for monday, we are going to see a relatively dry, quiet day this week. weatherfront, a band of cloud, a few nuisance showers close to the scottish borders, northern england and north wales to the north and south of that sunny spells breezy, but the winds not as strong as over the weekend and it will feel a little warmer, which is good news for many as it's the bank holiday weekend away from scotland, so highs likely of 23 degrees as we move into tuesday. central and southern areas under this influence of high pressure into the near continent. but a toppling around that high is another low moving in bringing wet and windy weather, but at the same time, the wind direction swings around to a south—westerly and just taps

into some pretty warm air coming from the near continent. so the rain still heavy as it moves out of the scottish borders and into north wales. but ahead of it, with that sunshine and that increasing warmth, we should see temperatures at 25 degrees. that's 77 fahrenheit. we're looking at mid to high teens across scotland. now that weather front is not moving very far at all on wednesday as it continues to bump into this area of high pressure so we could see this conveyor belt of rain just sitting across south west england, wales and northern england for a time. and that means we'll see some increasing warmth. still a level of uncertainty where that front is going to be sitting, but potentially from hull down to the isle of wight, anywhere south and east of that could see temperatures peaking at 27 or 28 degrees. that's 82 fahrenheit. we keep some sunshine and warmth, although not quite as warm, through thursday and friday across england and wales, staying unsettled further northwest.

live from london, this is bbc news. explosion. israel launches what it calls pre—emptive air strikes against hezbollah targets in lebanon. while hezbollah says it launched a wave of rockets and drones in retaliation for the recent assassination of a top commander. translation: we wanted to target i israel's military intelligence or i

their air force because these two forces were involved in the assassination. we also wanted this target to be deep inside israel, closer to tel aviv. the messaging app telegram says its founder and chief executive pavel durov has "nothing to hide" after he was arrested in france. the prime minister sir keir starmer is set to warn that "things will only get worse" in the uk before they get better. hello and welcome. i'm samantha simmonds. we start in the middle east. hamas says it's rejected new israeli conditions put forward in gaza ceasefire talks, dampening hopes of a breakthrough. the group had sent a representative to cairo where the latest us—backed negotiations are happening. the delegation has now left. we'll have more analysis on that shortly. meanwhile, world leaders are urging

restraint after a flare—up