[Laureus Website]

Information from Laureus website follows –

As the 25th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards approach, a host of the biggest names in sport – including Nominees for this year’s Awards, past winners and all-time legends – are confirmed for ‘The Athletes’ Awards’ in Madrid this month.

Last year’s Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Novak Djokovic, will be in attendance, along with Nominees for this year’s Award including four-time tennis Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz and Mondo Duplantis, the pole vaulter who was one of the stars of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The two biggest names from the world of gymnastics – 2024 Olympic champions Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade – will be there, as will the women’s tennis World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.

The most prestigious honours event on the sporting calendar is back for a second successive year at the iconic Palacio de Cibeles in the Spanish capital, with the world’s best sportsmen and women competing for The Laureus, the statuette which signifies the ultimate recognition from the world of elite sport – athletes are nominated by a panel of global media and the winners decided by the 69 sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy.

The Awards show takes place on Monday, April 21, and will be broadcast globally. The landmark show will be hosted by Hollywood actor Matthew Goode – star of Downton Abbey, The Watchmen and The Imitation Game, who follows acting royalty such as Morgan Freeman, Hugh Grant and Andy Garcia as host of the Laureus Awards.

He said: “The best athletes in the world are coming to Madrid for the 25th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards – but I’m not sure any of them will be as excited as I am to be a part of the greatest show in sports.“The sportswomen and men we will celebrate and honour do not need a script and they do not wait for direction. The stars of our show wrote their own stories in 2024.”

Among the stars who will be in Madrid are two Nominees for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award – and Djokovic, the man who won it for a record-equalling fifth time last year. Duplantis is nominated after an incredible 2024 in which he won Olympic gold in Paris and broke his own world record twice, while Carlos Alcaraz claimed the French Open and Wimbledon to take his Grand Slam total to four.

Carlos Alcaraz said: “I am delighted to be shortlisted again for these prestigious Awards. I have great memories of picking up my Statuette for Breakthrough of the Year in Paris in 2023 – and of meeting Messi on the red carpet! I was privileged to attend last year in Madrid and present Jude Bellingham with his Breakthrough trophy, so to return to the same city again this year is very exciting. 2024 was an unbelievable year for me – to win at Roland Garros and then at Wimbledon was a dream.”

Biles and Andrade are rewarded for their remarkable achievements in Paris last summer with nominations for Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year and World Comeback of the Year respectively. Sabalenka, who won the Australian and US Opens in 2024, is also nominated in the Sportswoman category.

Simone Biles said: “Receiving my first Laureus Award from Nadia Comăneci, in 2017 is still one of my most cherished memories and this event is incredibly special to me. I’m excited to be in Madrid with everyone to celebrate so many amazing achievements as well as the wonderful work that Laureus does. The Nominees in every single category are so inspiring to me and I’m extremely proud to stand alongside so many others who competed at the top of their sport in 2024.”

As the clock ticks down to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, a star of the slopes will be in Madrid to preview that event with global media. Eileen Gu won the 2023 Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award and will defend her two Olympic titles in freestyle skiing in Italy next year.Other Nominees who are already confirmed to walk the red carpet in Madrid include Letsile Tebogo, the Botswanan star who won the men’s 200m title – his country’s first-ever gold medal – in Paris and is nominated for Breakthrough. Comeback of the Year Nominees set to attend include swimmer Ariarne Titmus.

Nominees in the Team of the Year category represented in Madrid include Zak Brown from the McLaren Formula One Team and Robin Le Normand and Luis de la Fuente from Spain Men’s National Team. Also in Madrid will be a host of athletes shortlisted for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award, including Spanish para swimmer Teresa Perales, para archer Matt Stutzman, para swimmer Jiang Yuyan and para badminton star Qu Zimo.

Also attending are Swedish football ace Kosovare Asllani, Iker Casillas, Spain’s World Cup winning goalkeeper; the tennis stars Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas; and surfing’s greatest athlete, Kelly Slater. 

We are waiting for Netflix to advertise the release date for Department Q.  The only clue that we have is an article (Edinburgh Live) that mentions it will be released in ‘Q2’ – April, May, June or July.  So keep checking Netflix listings!

Pictures – Netflix UK Twitter

In the meantime we are adding an article from Good Housekeeping online to the Press Archive for 2025 that gives you a good summary of what we know so far.  Link here – https://matthew-goode.net/press-archive/press-archive-for-2025/

Matthew Goode plays Captain Gray in this BBC mini-series.

From ‘Metro’  [Extracts] :-

Abi Morgan’s period drama Birdsong first aired in 2012, starring Eddie Redmayne and Matthew Goode.

Based on Sebastian Faulks’s novel of the same name, it follows the story of young soldier Stephen Wraysford through World War I.

The two-part programme covers flashbacks from Stephen’s past forbidden love affair with a French woman … and his life fighting in the horrific trenches of northern France.

Birdsong has scored an impressive 75% Rotten Tomatoes score, with one fan writing: ‘BBC’s periodic drama would seldom let you down.’

‘Beautifully crafted epilogue surrounded by carnage,’ another viewer said.

Critic Grace Dent praised: ‘Birdsong is remarkable. Unsettling, visceral, a shell-shocked fug of love, loss, then more loss, then the brink of despair, with anything left then battered and blown up again.’

Meanwhile reviewer Serena Davies said: ‘The BBC, then, have done something important – they have made an elegiac, lyrical film (that is better than Spielberg’s War Horse) with which the next generation can associate the war. It aspires to the sentiments of the war poets.’

 

What’s On Netflix has updated their ‘What we know so far’ details:-

Who is cast in Department Q?

On February 6th, 2024, the main cast of Department Q was revealed.

Alongside the cast reveal, Netflix has also announced the names and descriptions of their roles.

Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game) plays the role of DCI Carl Mork;

“Detective, Carl Morck – brilliant but impossible – has his life turned upside down after a violent incident leaves his partner paralysed and an officer dead. Upon his return to work, he is tasked with setting up Department Q – a new cold case department, which is little more than a PR exercise. At first, being sidelined suits Carl; he’s happy to waste his days playing solitaire and skiving. Yet over the course of the series, Carl’s detective instincts are reawakened, and his new department down in the basement becomes an unlikely magnet for the misfits and mavericks of Chief Super, Moira’s police team.

Chloe Pirrie (The Queen’s Gambit) plays the role of Merritt Lingard;

“Merritt, a ruthless and ambitious prosecutor, has quickly risen the ranks in the Crown Office.  Merritt had a troubled childhood, raised by her absent father on the Isle of Mull.  But after her brother William suffered a severe brain injury, she turned her life around and dedicated her life to him, whilst striving for justice in her role as prosecutor.  However, in the wake of the biggest case of her career, Merritt decides she needs to make a change.  As a result, Merritt and Carl’s paths collide.”

Alexej Manvelov (Chernobyl) plays the role of Akram Salim;

“Akram was an officer in the Syrian police force when civil war broke out. He decided to flee to Europe with his family. Unable to work as a cop in the UK, he petitions for work at Edinburgh’s police station, becoming Carl’s assistant. Akram keeps his past life in Syria private, but as the series goes on, Carl realises he’s underestimated his new partner.”

Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men) as Dr Rachel Irving;

“Dr Rachel Irving is the therapist charged with getting officers back on the front line. She’s smart, and she soon gets the measure of Carl, his trauma and his superiority complex. Intrigued by one another, the two develop a deeper connection across the series.”

Leah Byrne (Deadwater Fell) plays the role of Rose;

“Rose was a top police cadet with a promising future in the force.  But a mental-health-related breakdown during her first year as a detective constable has left her on shaky ground.  Demoted to a desk job, the stigma has followed her ever since.  She appeals to Carl in his new department down in the basement for a chance to prove herself once again.”

The remaining cast members confirmed for Department Q are;

• Mark Bonnar (Napoleon) as Stephen
• Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter) as Clare Marsh
• James Sives (Guilt) as DS Hardy
• Samara McLaren (Merlin) as Donna Hardy
• Angus Miller (Outlander) as Colin Cunningham
• Kate Dickie (Inside Man) as Moira
• Lily Knight (The Gold) as Caroline Kerr
• Kim Allan (The Devil’s Hour) as Chloe Evans
• Alex Newman (Winnie Pooh: Blood and Honey 2) as Paul Evans
• Ellen Bannerman (The Alienist) as Kirsty Aitken
• Mark Bonnar (Unforgotten) as Stephen Burns
• Charlene Boyd (River City) as Victoria
• Kal Sabir (Slow Horses) as DCI Logan Bruce
• Douglas Russell (Peaky Blinders) as Graham Finch
• Jack Greenlees (Payback) as Sam Haig
• James McNaughton (Baldur’s Gate 3) as Dennis Piper
• Gilly Gilchrist (Outlander) as Sergeant Cunningham
• Caroline Guthrie (Annika) as Dr. Sonnerberg
• Conor Berry (Karen Pirie) as Barry
• Nolan Willis (Outlander) as Charlie Bell
• Sani Mamood (Granite Harbour) as Marcus French
• Gabrielle Monica Hughes (Two Doors Down) as Hardy’s Nurse
• Angus Yellowlees (Outlander) as PC Anderson
• Hanna Low (Doom Scrolling) as Elise
• Frances Mayli McCann (River City)
• Tom Duncan (Outlander) as David
• Nandi Hudson (Army of Thieves) as Catriona
• Aaron McVeigh (The Cleansing Hour) as Jasper Stewart
• Aron Dochard (The Witcher: Blood Origin) as DC Clark
• Clive Russell (Game of Thrones) in an unknown role
• Kai Alexander (Masters of the Air) in an unknown role
• Hugo Shack (Scud) in an unknown role
• James Paterson (Birds of a Feather) in an unknown role
• James Dawoud (Dog Squad) in an unknown role
• Coseama Cook in an unknown role

---

What’s the Netflix release date for Department Q?

At the Next on Netflix UK event, Netflix confirmed the series would debut sometime in 2025. Keep this article bookmarked for the latest.

---

 

• Patriot

• 
  

  By: Alexei Navalny, Arch Tait, Stephen Dalziel

• 
  

  Narrated by: Matthew Goode

• 
  

  Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins

• 
  

  5.0 out of 5 stars5.0 (27 ratings)

  Available on Audible/Amazon, etc.