By TOM LAWRENCE, NEWS REPORTER

Published: 20:37 EDT, 2 April 2026 | Updated: 00:07 EDT, 3 April 2026

Ryan Brown recorded a hat trick as the London Knights defeated the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4-1 to force a fifth game in the Western Conference quarterfinal series.

After back-to-back overtime victories by the Greyhounds gave them a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, London fought their way through the second game in as many days down two veteran players, as Braiden Clark and Linus Funck both missed Game 4 with upper-body injuries.

Quinn McKenzie of Sault Ste. Marie scored the first goal of the game at 6:55 of the opening period as he wrapped the puck around the London net and got it by Aleksei Medvedev.

Medvedev was making his first playoff start after making 36 appearances for the Knights in the regular season.

A big second period from London put them in front 2-1 as they killed off four Greyhound power plays and got goals from Jacob Vandeven and Ryan Brown.

Vandeven came out of the penalty box, took a pass from Will Nicholl and went in on a two-on-one with Nicholl, where Vandeven snapped in his first Ontario Hockey League goal at 6:51.

Brown scored on a Knights power play at the 13:41 mark as London got the puck to the Sault Ste. Marie net, then batted and whacked away until it popped to Brown at the right post. Brown put the puck in for his first goal of the post-season and a London lead going into the final 20 minutes.

Brown scored on a breakaway at 14:58 of the third period to make it 3-1 thanks to a high flip pass from Caleb Mitchell, then finished the scoring into an empty net with 3:03 to go in the game.

Medvedev made 25 saves for his first playoff win. Will Nicholl had two assists on the night.

Each team finished the game with 26 shots on goal.

The Knights were 1-for-4 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.

London Jr. Knights advance at 2026 OHL Cup

The London Jr. Knights ran into a hot goaltender in their first game at this year’s OHL Cup but quickly rebounded in their round robin and racked up the necessary wins to advance to the quarterfinals on April 2.

Don Mills squeaked out a 2-1 win over London on March 30 but then beat Thunder Bay 10-1, knocked off TPH Academy 6-4 and blasted Barrie 8-1.

The Jr. Knights are coached by former London Knights captain Danny Syvrey and feature top prospects for the 2026 OHL Priority Selection in Drew Bate and Ryan Beaulieu.

Beaulieu’s father, Josh, was also a part of the Team of the Century with Syvrey in 2004-05.

Next up

Game 5 will take place in London at Canada Life Place on Good Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m.

Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

 

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Joanne McNally has just purchased her first house. ‘Like, yesterday!’ The 42-year-old has been renting a flat by herself in Clapham, south-west London, but has now bought somewhere nearby.

Given that she spent a chunk of her 30s in flatshares where the bathrooms were so mouldy that mushrooms started growing, she’s excited. She might get a pet when she moves in. ‘I’d love a couple of chihuahuas, a couple of rabbits and a baby llama. Can you have a llama on Clapham Common?’

McNally is becoming one of the biggest comedians in the country. As a speedy CV, the Irish native: hosts, with her friend Vogue Williams, the podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me (3.5 million listeners a month); went on a three-year-long tour in 2021 called The Prosecco Express (she sold out Vicar Street, Dublin’s 2,500-person theatre, 78 times); appears on TV shows like Taskmaster, QI, The Weakest Link and The Wheel; was on The Claudia Winkleman Show last week; and is rumoured to be in the next series of The Celebrity Traitors (‘I cannot [confirm] that, I’d get f***ing killed’). All of which means she has now been able to buy a house.

McNally is – and these are her words – very single and very unfertilised. And a lot of her current tour, Pinotphile, is about those things. When I went to see it in Dublin, the crowd was largely female and giddy. In 2023, one of her gigs at the London Palladium sold the most alcohol in the venue’s 116-year history; in Dublin, I saw two women each holding a pint of white wine. It was a Tuesday. I asked what they liked about McNally and they replied: ‘Oh, she’s just bang on.’

McNally was on stage for 90 minutes and, really, every single line was a joke. There are gags about how, when she gets dumped, her friends always tell her she dodged a bullet (‘even though, I’m the bullet’); tweakments (‘I’ve enough fish sperm in my face to sink an aquarium’); and her hard-partying 20s (‘I didn’t see my jaw for ten years’).

And there are a lot of jokes about men. McNally wonders why they always look awful in sunglasses (‘Do they know they can try them on first?’) and how they are capable of coordinating polyamorous relationships but not, say, owning a fitted sheet. When she complains that men are unable to take decent photos of women, the girl next to me agrees – out loud.

Today, sitting in a London pub and, appropriately, drinking a glass of white wine, McNally says at one point: ‘My whole schtick is taking the p**s out of lads.’ The sort of man McNally takes aim at is, normally, hapless – rather than the angry manosphere kind that everyone is currently talking about. (Though McNally thought the recent Louis Theroux documentary on the subject was fantastic.) And the quite small number of (straight) men who come to her shows find it funny. ‘They know I don’t mean half the s**t I’m saying. I love lads!’ But she did once have to ask a man, sitting in the front row, to please stop scowling and unfold his arms.

After our interview she will fly to Dublin, perform Pinotphile again the following day, and for the four nights after that. By December, when the tour ends, she will have played a total of 151 shows (Taylor Swift’s Eras tour had 149) across Europe, America and Australia, sold out London’s Hammersmith Apollo ten times and become the first Irishwoman to headline Dublin’s 10,000-seat 3Arena – twice.

In person, she is thoughtful and funny, happy to be ‘booked and busy’. But, ‘at the moment, I am doing all of this for my present self,’ she says. ‘I’m on the hamster wheel, and I hope that at some stage I have the sense to step off it.’

McNally was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and adopted when she was three months old by a couple called Pat and Frank from Dublin. Pat was a nurse, Frank a draughtsman (McNally also has a younger adopted brother, Conor).

She always knew she was adopted. ‘I’ve met other people who are adopted, who have always struggled with it. I never have. I really never have. Now, maybe I’ve buried it. Or maybe I handle it by tap dancing and looking for validation on stage. I don’t know.’

McNally was a loud child in a happy but quiet home. ‘My mum says I came out tap dancing. She was like, “We just didn’t know what to do with you.”’ To make sense of her performing streak, she imagined her birth parents were from ‘this showbiz dynasty’. But when she met each of them in her 20s and 30s, she found they were ‘really nice, very normal people’. A young, unmarried couple who had got pregnant accidentally then separated.

She doesn’t talk much about her birth mother (who’d rather remain private) but does discuss Kevin, her biological dad. He left Ireland for Australia, where he married and had four sons. Kevin flew from Melbourne to Dublin to meet McNally for the first time at a pub in 2018, and, today, ‘we’re kind of slowly building and integrating into each other’s lives’. One of his sons, Finbar, has moved to London and he and McNally recently went out for dinner. A few years ago, when McNally was less famous, she did some gigs in Australia. She wasn’t shifting many tickets, ‘but I did a show [in Melbourne] and I couldn’t figure out why it was selling. Kevin, it transpired, was sending his friends and family the link.’

Her adopted father Frank died, after a long illness and then a heart attack, when McNally was 15. Today, she is truly close to her mother Pat. ‘I’m probably a bit too reliant on her,’ she says. ‘I live in constant fear of her impending death. I’m always trying to get her to do squats.’

Pat’s advice before McNally started Pinotphile? ‘This is going to crash and burn.’ Pat’s initial reaction to the show itself? ‘I liked your costume.’ Pat’s response when McNally complained, on the European leg, that she wasn’t selling many tickets in Bergen? ‘Well, sure, how would it sell – we don’t know anyone in Bergen!’

McNally came late to the comedy circuit. By her mid 20s, she was living in Dublin, working in PR, and developing a terrible case of bulimia. ‘I’d say I always had it. I’d say it was always going to be something I slipped into. I was kind of a larger kid. I was self-conscious. I was tall… And I was competitive. I wanted to be good at something… so I decided I was going to be really good at being skinny.’

McNally has spoken about low moments during this period: how she slept in her office to hide her vomiting from her flatmates, and how, by her early 30s, she had to quit her job, become an outpatient at a clinic and move in with her mother.

Today, she recalls when she finally realised she had to change. Her therapist asked her to ‘bring me the benefits’ of bulimia. McNally said men would find her more attractive. The therapist reminded her she’d been dumped. McNally said her work would take her more seriously. The therapist reminded her she’d had to quit her job. ‘So I was racking my brain and [I said] a woman [at a bar] told me I look great. I’m doing this for her.’ The therapist asked McNally if she even remembered this woman’s name. McNally did not.

She is ‘really concerned’ how being thin is now fashionable – ‘I honestly thought it had gone’ – and I wonder if that’s stressful for someone who’s had an eating disorder. McNally says no. ‘Because I’m so out of that now. And I think [for me] it was locked into youth as well.’ Later, she thinks more about this and says: ‘It takes a long time to shift [an eating disorder]. And, you know, it’s always kind of there in a way. I think in some ways I’m incredibly resilient. But in other ways, there’s a bit of fragility there. But that’s probably the same for all of us.’

It was in 2014, at the age of 30, that she made ‘a mad pivot’ into standup and by 2017 had written Bite Me, a show about bulimia. That got her noticed and signed by Off The Kerb, the same UK comedy agency that represents Alan Carr, Michael McIntyre, Katherine Ryan and Jonathan Ross. (Today, McNally also has agents in Ireland and America.)

She moved to London in 2018 with no money, lived in hostel dorms and took a lot of Megabuses to various British cities to perform. At a certain point in this stint, she went for a drink with Vogue Williams, the Irish presenter who’d been a friend in Dublin. Williams invited her to move into the basement of the home she shared with her husband, the podcaster Spencer Matthews, and their newborn son.

It was a ‘nice basement’, she clarifies today. McNally had her own kitchen and bathroom; ‘I honestly don’t even know if Spencer knew I was in there.’ Matthews – who was first known as being the resident ‘villain’ on Made In Chelsea – is ‘so lovely. And he was very kind to me during lockdown, when I’d no money. He was, like, “Can I help? Is there anything you need?” And, you know, obviously I took it all and never paid him back!’ She does a massive laugh. ‘No, he’s a very kind person. And he’s mad about Vogue. They have a lovely marriage.’ (McNally is now godmother to the couple’s three-year-old son Otto. ‘It’s a running gag how awful a godmother I am.’ She jokes about hoping the ‘if both parents die, the godparent takes the child’ thing is an urban myth. ‘Spencer and Vogue: please fly separately.’)

After six months she left the basement and moved into flatshares, including the aforementioned mushroom dwelling. In 2021, Williams suggested they start a podcast. The title was because one of McNally’s therapists did in fact ghost her, and the format was simple: sprawling chatter between two funny friends. Within months it had more than a million listeners – and, after years of gigging, McNally went mainstream.

She has said that most men find her stand-up funny, but her comedy style has ‘definitely made dating harder’. ‘Is it very welcoming? Probably not.’

Between 2022 and 2024, McNally had a partner (called Alan) but she’s now single. Last October, a man from Hinge asked her on a date – McNally agreed but said she didn’t have a free evening until December. On the day itself, she woke at 5am for a photoshoot and was so knackered by evening she cancelled. (She’s not on dating apps now: ‘I’d refer to myself as almost problematically independent at this stage.’)

McNally feels aware that singleness is something people now associate with her. She once went out with a man who, when she broke up with him, said: ‘Well, of course, it’s kind of bad for your brand now to be in a relationship.’

‘You don’t want to make your whole identity that you’re a single woman,’ she says. ‘But, in the same breath, it does colour a lot of your life.’

Does she want a relationship? ‘I change like the weather.’ At this specific second of our conversation, the answer is no. ‘I’ve no interest in dating.’ And, ‘I won’t get married unless I have a lobotomy.’ But there’s a longer answer, too. ‘I’m under no illusions of the work and the compromise that go into relationships. But don’t get me wrong, there are times where you’re sitting in the flat all week, you’ve nothing to do, no one to meet and see, and you’re like, god, a boyfriend would be really handy right now.’

She continues. ‘When you’re living with somebody, their energy is in the room with you. You hear their shower in the morning. Maybe they’ve got the radio on. There’s life in the house. Living on your own, you don’t have that.’ That, she’d like. ‘Passive socialising is the dream.’

McNally also thinks she might want a child. ‘I’ve lived this life now for ten years and I love it, and there’s always fresh goals to work towards – but I would like something in my life with a heartbeat.’

She froze her eggs when she was 38 and, today, ‘like it or not, the clock is ticking’. If she does have a child, it would likely be with her gay friend Ross. He’s keen to co-parent and has ‘great hair and great teeth’. It wouldn’t be with a future boyfriend because she doesn’t think that would be logistically possible. (‘The time it would take me to meet a man and make him fall in love with me – that’s at least six months.’) Nor does she think a ‘[sperm] donor would suit me, because I travel a lot for work and want someone else to be invested in the child’.

The tricky thing is, when? McNally has become so successful in the past five years, and she’s worried about stopping. ‘When I think about maybe having a child, I mean, what can I do? I can’t. I’ve got an American tour in October. I can’t do that.’ And, ‘that’s a conversation I have with myself regularly. I’m like, are you gonna wake up at 50 and think: “Well, I never had a child but thank god I sold 200 tickets in Salt Lake City”?’

When I ask what she’ll do when the Pinotphile tour ends, McNally says have a long bath. ‘But if I could box [having a] baby off, I’d be delighted with myself.’ She pauses. ‘I just pray I have the sense to do it. I just enjoy my job so much.’

I can see why she enjoys her job. At the end of the show I saw in Dublin, she did a bow, got out her phone and filmed the audience who were, by then, on their feet – clapping, cheering and dancing. She said, ‘Bye girls!’ – because the crowd really was mostly girls – and walked into the wings, and there was another huge cheer. ‘Did you like it?!’ the women next to me asked, shouting because it was so loud. I said I loved it. ‘So did we!’

McNally will move into her new house soon. I ask what she’ll do on her first night? ‘Play music, bop around, drink a bottle of white and have a fag out the window,’ she says.

‘And I might give myself a little pat on the back. Never too big a pat on the back – I’m not big into sentimentality – but, yes, I might give myself a little pat on the back.’

Joanne McNally tours throughout 2026, for tickets visit joannemcnally.com

Hair: Louis Byrne at Premier Hair and Make-up. 

Make-up: Jesse Walker using Tatcha. 

 

 

A gang member serving a life sentence for murdering two young men after mistaking them for rivals has had his sentence increased for battering a taxi driver in a separate attack.

Jason Furtado, 29, helped plan the ambush that saw Leonardo Reid, 15, and Klevi Shekaj, 23, stabbed to death at a music video shoot in Archway, north London, on the night of June 29, 2023.

He was jailed for at least 34 years at the end of a long-running trial at the Old Bailey.

But the killer was back in court on Thursday after pleading guilty to GBH with intent in relation to an attack on an Uber driver three months before the murders.

District judge Emma Deacon KC gave Furtado a consecutive three-year sentence for the attack at Wood Green Crown Court.

She told Furtado: ‘This was an explosive piece of violence from you against Mr Edwards without any proportion to the reality – which was that you were challenged by a taxi driver for banging on his windscreen.’

Furtado, who had been among a group of people inhaling nitrous oxide, had lashed out at Mr Edwards after he dropped off a passenger outside a club in Islington, north London, in March 2023 at around 3.30am.

The judge said Furtado ‘threw a gas canister at him and you hit him over the head with it’.

Mr Edwards fell to the ground but Furtado hit him multiple times, including to the head, and ‘stamped on his head at least twice’.

He then rolled from the pavement to the road.

Mr Edwards was then run over by a car driven by Furtado’s girlfriend Charlotte Sibley, the court heard.

Furtado had pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent while Sibley, 28, of Hackney, east London, had pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving.

Prosecutor Martyn Bowyer said: ‘Mr Edwards remembers nothing until he woke up in hospital.’

Sibley was fined £750 and disqualified from driving for six months by the judge who said it was nothing short of “miraculous that he did not sustain injuries as a result of your driving”.

Sibley, who was three months pregnant at the time, later told police that a fight between some men had broken out and she was in a ‘frightened and confused state’ when she fled and drove over Mr Edwards’s leg.

The judge described Sibley’s driving as ‘utterly irresponsible’, involving an ‘unsafe manoeuvre’ and that the fight had stopped by the time she decided to drive away.

The judge told Sibley: ‘You had run over him. You must have felt something. You had driven over someone’s body.

‘In driving away, you were thinking of yourself.’

Sibley was also ordered to pay a statutory surcharge.

The prosecution said no evidence was being brought regarding an attempted murder charge against Furtado while not guilty verdicts were recorded in relation to allegations of assisting an offender and dangerous driving against Sibley.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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A brand new railway station is set to open in Birmingham, designed to cater to upcoming HS2 trains.

Birmingham Curzon Street station will link the city with London, with a journey time of just 49 minutes.

Trains will continue on the existing rail network to destinations including Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. 

The station will be the first brand new intercity terminus to be built in Britain since the 19th century.

It will be located east of Birmingham city centre.

Curzon Street’s design takes inspiration from the arched roofs built by the Victorian railway pioneers, updated for the 21st century. 

The station design focuses on accessibility, open space and the landscape around it. 

The design aims to place passenger experience at the forefront, with additional cycle parking spaces, planted areas that collect rainfall, landscaping, lighting, paving, and seating, accessible entrances and durable external ceramic tiles.

There are open spaces and four public areas, including two squares and a promenade. 

The station will have cycle parking for more than 550 bicycles and accessible pedestrian routes.

It will have a connected layout in the eastern concourse so passengers can change platforms without leaving the ticketed area.

The station design also focuses on accessibility and sustainability.

It has an ‘excellent’ sustainability rating from BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).

This rating recognises its low energy usage, which was achieved by using LED lighting and solar panels, and minimising the building’s impact on the natural environment.

The station will strengthen Birmingham’s transport connections and support the regeneration of Eastside and Digbeth. 

It is set to play a vital role in the long-term economic future of the West Midlands.

The project supports more than 1,000 jobs during its main construction phase.

When it’s operational, Curzon Street will connect passengers to the local transport network, including buses and the Midland Metro. A tram line will run alongside and under the station.

However, HS2 plans have been mired in controversy – due to constant delays. 

The line was originally meant to have been completed this year, but it’s now due to open anywhere between 2029 and 2033.

Last month, villagers in the picturesque Water Orton, in Warwickshire, claimed their peaceful community has been destroyed by ongoing HS2 works.

They said heavy machinery is causing their homes to vibrate with a cloud of dirt and dust hovering over their gardens. 

Families fed up with the daily misery moved out of their homes, with the dwindling number of children in the area causing the area’s primary school to reduce its capacity. 

The project was recently dubbed a ‘£640million per mile national humiliation’.

The 120-mile-long construction site that is HS2 has become such a muddy wasteland that it shows up on satellite images far more prominently than any motorway. 

Nowhere is it more of a mess than between Steeple Claydon and Calvert, Buckinghamshire. Some roads are closed, others lead to depots filled with lorries. Great earth mounds rise skywards where green fields used to lie.

Locals living near what used to be cherished countryside complain of deafening noises on the rare occasion when any work seems to be being done, which some liken to a Chinook helicopter taking off, and constant diversions.

After finishing a regular season that saw them record 40 wins for a league-record 17th time since 2000 the London Knights celebrated the year’s accomplishments by handing out their team awards on Sunday, March 22 at Canada Life Place.

London will face the Soo Greyhounds in Round 1 of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

It will be the first time since 2007 that the clubs have met in the post season. That series was a wild one that the Knights took in seven games, led by Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner.

London and Sault Ste. Marie have met just four times in the playoffs in their history and the Knights have won every series.

The full schedule can be found below.

2025-26 London Knights award winners

Peter Guertin Longshot Award: Sebastian Gatto

Most Improved Player: Andoni Fimis

3 Star Award: Jaxon Cover

Scholastic Player of the Year: Braidy Wassylin

Abakar Kazbekov Hardest Working Player: Evan Van Gorp

Player’s Player: William Nicholl

Fan Favourite: Maksim Sokolovskii

Don Brankley Community Service Award: Rene Van Bommel

Intensity Award: Cohen Bidgood

Rookie of the Year: Jaxon Cover

Sportsmanship and Ability Award: William Nicholl

Best Defensive Forward: Braiden Clark

Best Defenceman: Henry Brzustewicz

Heart Trophy: Jesse Nurmi

Richard Hunter Memorial Award for Leading Scorer: Ryan Brown

MVP: Henry Brzustewicz

First round schedule for London Knights vs Sault Ste. Marie:

Game 1 – Friday, March 27 at London, 7 p.m.
Game 2 – Sunday, March 29 at London, 6 p.m.
Game 3 – Tuesday, March 31 at Sault Ste. Marie, 8:07 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, April 1 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, April 3 at London, 7 p.m.*
Game 6 – Sunday, April 5 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.*
Game 7 – Tuesday, April 7 at London, 7 p.m.*

*if necessary

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

It was one of the most extraordinary TV mishaps of all time – when an African job seeker waiting in BBC reception was mistaken for a global tech expert and invited into the newsroom to be interviewed live on air.

And his evident bemusement as he bluffed his way through a two minute interview about Apple and a multimillion dollar lawsuit gave rise to a legion of memes and became one of the most viewed viral clips of all time.

Now, on the 20th anniversary of the incredible BBC blooper, the Daily Mail has tracked down both that hapless interviewee, Guy Goma, and the producer who mistakenly put him on air, to find out what really happened that strange night.

Mr Goma told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s crazy – even now people recognise me in the street. They say I am a legend. I’m still being asked for my autograph.

‘I never imagined that night that this one cock-up would go around the world like it did and I would become so famous.’

The TV segment was meant to be a two-way interview discussing an ongoing court case involving Apple at the High Court in May 2006.

Mr Goma, a soft-spoken Congolese-born job seeker, had just arrived at the BBC’s then HQ in White City, west London, and was waiting to be interviewed for a data role.

Meanwhile upstairs at Television Centre, producer Elliott Gotkine was rushing around organising the live output of that night’s BBC News 24 channel.

The correct guest who had been arranged, tech expert Guy Kewney (who incidentally, unlike Mr Goma, was a white skinned man of slight build), had just arrived downstairs waiting in reception to be taken to the studio.

But when frantic Mr Gotkine burst into reception before he saw Mr Kewney sitting nearby he saw Mr Goma first, who looked up expectantly.

A legend was born.

Now both men have spoken exclusively to the Daily Mail ahead of the 20th anniversary of their bizarre first meeting, that night at the BBC.

Mr Gotkine, who has never spoken publicly about the episode before, recalled: ‘It was all a bit of a mad rush that day.

‘I had booked Guy Kewney and with a few minutes to go [before he was meant to be on air] there was still no word from him.

‘So I ran down to the reception and asked if they had someone called Guy Kewney there – and the receptionist pointed to Guy Goma.

‘I was a little taken aback and I asked if she was sure and she said yes.

‘I then went over to Guy – who I now know was the wrong Guy – and asked if he was Guy Kewney and he said yes, I thought maybe I had seen the wrong picture [of Mr Kewney], and I grabbed him and then rushed up to the studio.

‘We were due on air in less than five minutes, so I just grabbed him and we sprinted up the stairs.’

Mr Goma, then a business studies graduate from Brazzaville living in west London and seeking work as a data cleanser, picked up the story at this point, recalling: ‘I first thought something strange was happening when I was sat down in a chair and someone tried to put makeup on me.

‘I said to her, “I don’t need makeup, I’m here for a job interview,” but she didn’t seem to hear me.

‘Then we moved into the studio and the TV cameras were on me and I started to think, “Something isn’t right here – this isn’t how a job interview is supposed to go.” Because that’s what I was there for.’

Seconds later, Mr Goma found himself sitting opposite presenter Karen Bowerman, with beads of nervous sweat beginning to break out on his forehead as he shifted in his seat wondering what was going on.

The now famous footage shows Westminster College business graduate Mr Goma, dressed smartly in an open necked blue shirt and brown jacket, glancing nervously up at the lights and around at the cameras.

Breathing heavily, a terrified grimace crosses his face, before licking his lips and composing himself for the unsuspecting onslaught about to hit him.

Goma recalled: ‘I saw my image on a monitor, and I think that’s when I realised something was going horribly wrong.

‘But I didn’t want to make a scene or cause a fuss so I went along with it when the presenter started asking me questions.’

As Ms Bowerman wrongly introduced him as ‘Guy Kewney’, Mr Goma could be seen gulping.

He then opened his eyes wide in shock as she asked him for his ‘reaction to the court verdict’ and whether he was ‘surprised’.

The footage shows Mr Goma reply: ‘I’m very surprised to see this verdict come because I was not expecting that… When I came they told me something else, they said it was an interview so it was a big surprise…’

As the car crash exchange continued it began to dawn on Ms Bowerman and fellow TV executives that a huge cock-up was unfolding in front of their eyes – and they eventually managed to cut to another reporter who was standing outside the High Court.

Mr Goma’s live ordeal was over – but his fame was just beginning.

He recalls now: ‘Once it finished, I left and walked out of the building into the Underground station opposite.

‘I called the job agency and told them that something terrible had happened, I had been interviewed live on TV about something I didn’t know about.

‘I asked if I had got the job.

‘But they said, “No – go back, they are waiting for you.”

‘So I went back and had the interview, which was about Microsoft Excel which I do know about – but unfortunately I didn’t get the job.’

Mr Goma may well not have got that data job, but the clip of his interview was already going viral.

Furious BBC bosses launched an investigation into the cock-up and Mr Gotkine eventually left the BBC. He still works elsewhere within the TV industry.

Mr Goma briefly became a celebrity, invited onto TV shows around the world, even hiring.

‘There was even talk of a prominent appearance on that December’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award show – but it never materialised.

A week after the incident, Goma was interviewed by the BBC and other TV networks telling them: ‘I never really wanted to be famous. I just wanted to be an accountant – I hope I get a job at the BBC.’

Almost immediately an online petition was started by viewers demanding that the BBC give him a job. Although this never happened, Goma was touched by the reaction: ‘It was so very kind of everybody, people were so kind and thoughtful.’

Mr Goma says: ‘I later got a call from the BBC asking me what programme I would like to work on, but I was in a hurry to catch a plane to Germany for a TV interview, so I asked them to call me back.

‘They never did but like I say to everyone it is the will of God, everything happens for a reason, I never really wanted to be famous but if the clip makes people laugh and makes them happy then I’m happy.’

Mr Gotkine recalls how minutes after Goma had been erroneously interviewed, he received a call to say the real Guy Kewney was in reception – and still waiting to be interviewed.

The producer said: ‘Once I realised the mistake had been made, I apologised profusely and we recorded an interview with Guy Kewney but it was never broadcast.’

Mr Kewney died in 2010, although the two did meet up after the infamous interview with the IT specialist posting about it on his blog, adding a photograph of the pair and describing Goma as his ‘twin brother’.

Goma – who fled to the UK after civil war ravaged Congo – now works with various charities in east London and also as a car park marshal at his beloved Queens Park Rangers football club.

He reflects now: ‘It was just a mix up, I was in the wrong place, I had no idea about the subject, so I just tried to give the right answer in the interview.

‘When she started talking, I thought “Oh dear Guy, you are in the wrong place” and you can see [in the footage] my body language expressed everything I was feeling.

‘But so many people have seen the video, and I still get messages from people about it.’

Mr Goma – who was not paid for his BBC interview – did initially contemplate legal action against the BBC for a share of the royalties his blooper earned.

But he later changed his mind, explaining: ‘I am a very spiritual person and I think God helped me get through it that day – and that everything happens for a reason.

‘If the reason was to make people happy and take some stress from them, then I’m happy for what happened.’

Mr Gotkine added: ‘Guy Goma really is the loveliest man you could ever meet

‘They talk about everyone having 15 minutes of fame but Guy has had twenty years of it and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.’

What Mr Goma was particularly keen to clear up in our interview was the suggestion, widely repeated at the time, that he was a taxi driver.

Chuckling he said: ‘That was all wrong, I was never a cabbie. People said I was but I wasn’t.

‘In fact I had recently graduated from college and was a student.

‘But back in Congo I had had a taxi firm so maybe that’s where the confusion came from.’

When asked why he just didn’t come clean before he was put on air, Mr Goma says today: ‘I just didn’t want to cause a scene and I didn’t want to create a fuss.

‘If I had just got up and walked off that would have been worse, I tried to answer the question as best I could but it wasn’t necessarily the right answer.’

Mr Gotkine added: ‘I think what got to people was just how extraordinarily lovely he came across as – Guy is such a lovely, lovely man and you can see that in just the few seconds he is on TV…

‘Although granted yes, it was a complete cock-up.

‘The way he tried to bluff his way through it though was TV gold and it’s brought so many laughs to people and goodness knows we need a few laughs, especially at this time with what’s going on in the world.’

A new book called The Wrong Guy – The Inside Story Of TV’s Greatest Cock-Up – is to be published this spring for the anniversary, telling in fine detail the buildup and the aftermath of what became television history.

Written by Mr Gotkine, the hilarious account also details how the two men have kept in touch ever since and have even visited Mr Goma’s hometown of Brazzaville in the Democratic Republic of the Congo together.

The Wrong Guy: The Inside Story of TVs Greatest Cock-up by Elliott Gotkine with Guy Goma is available to buy from Amazon HERE

The London Knights will be rooting for the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday, the final day of the OHL’s regular season, after falling just short of a four-goal comeback in Flint at the Dort Financial Center on Saturday.

The Knights will need the Spitfires to beat the Soo Greyhounds  in either regulation time, overtime or a shootout. That would secure home ice advantage for London against Sault Ste. Marie in the first round of the post-season.

In Saturday’s game, London fell behind the Flint Firebirds 4-0, then fought back to make it 4-3 and 5-4 only to have Flint hang on in the end.

The Firebirds came out flying, connecting three times in the opening period on even-strength goals by Ihnat Pazii and Kevin He and a power play goal from Jimmy Lombardi. Flint took that 3-0 lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes.

The Firebirds added to their lead at 7:21 of the second period after surviving a Knights power play that had created chances for London. Lombardi skated down the ice and found Nathan Aspinall in front as the pair connected for a second time, putting Flint up 4-0.

At that point. Aleksei Medvedev entered the game in goal for the London Knights.

The Knights continued to push offensively and were rewarded on another man advantage when Henry Brzustewicz wristed in his 19th goal of the year at the 13:59 mark of the second period. With no goals in the remaining six minutes, the score stood at 4-1 heading into the third period.

Will Nicholl scored his second goal in as many games to cut the deficit to two goals when he fired home a Linus Funck rebound at 5:17.

Knights forward Braidy Wassilyn got London to within one when he roofed a backhand over Mason Vaccari with 10:02 remaining at 4-3.

The Firebirds stretched their lead to a pair once again when Kevin He got behind the London defence. He scored and gave Flint a 5-3 advantage with 5:36 to go in the game.

The Knights made it interesting once again as Andoni Fimis sent a puck through a maze of players and into the Firebirds net with 3:21 left on the clock but that’s as close as London would get.

London forward Jesse Nurmi left the game in the first period and did not return.

The Firebirds outshot the Knights 24-21.

Knights hit 40 wins again

There are 68 games in every OHL regular season. To get to 40 wins, you have to win nearly 60 per cent of the time.

The OHL is also a very cyclical league. A player will usually play three or four years. Consistency is a challenge, yet consistency has been a trademark of the Knights since Mark and Dale Hunter took ownership in 2000.

Here are the number of 40-win seasons by each OHL team and franchise since 2000:

17: London Knights

13: Barrie Colts

11: Kitchener Rangers

8: Ottawa 67’s, Windsor Spitfires

7: Erie Otters, Flint/Plymouth, Soo Greyhounds, Oshawa Gereals

6: Brantford/Hamilton/Belleville

5: Saginaw/North Bay, Guelph Storm, Niagara/Mississauga IceDogs, North Bay/Brampton

4: Sarnia Sting

3: Owen Sound Attack

2: Mississauga/St. Mike’s, Peterborough Petes

Up next

The London Knights will face the Soo Greyhounds in the first round of the OHL playoffs.

Where the series will begin is still to be decided.

The Greyhounds must beat the Windsor Spitfires in their final regular season game on March 22 in Sault Ste. Marie to clinch home ice against London.

If the Greyhounds lose in regulation or in overtime or a shootout, then the Knights will get home ice advantage in their best-of-7 series.

Here are the two scenarios:

Scenario #1
(4) London Knights vs. (5) Soo Greyhounds
Game 1 – Friday, March 27 at London, 7:00 p.m.
Game 2 – Sunday, March 29 at London, 6:00 p.m.
Game 3 – Tuesday, March 31 at Sault Ste. Marie, 8:07 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, April 1 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, April 3 at London, 7:00 p.m*
Game 6 – Sunday, April 5 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.*
Game 7 – Tuesday, April 7 at London, 7:00 p.m.*

Scenario #2
(4) Soo Greyhounds vs. (5) London Knights
Game 1 – Thursday, March 26 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, March 28 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.
Game 3 – Monday, March 30 at London, 7:00 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, April 1 at London, 7:00 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, April 3 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.*
Game 6 – Sunday, April 5 at London, 6:00 p.m.*
Game 7 – Tuesday, April 7 at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:07 p.m.*

London season ticket holders have until Monday, March 23 at 3 p.m., to purchase their playoff tickets.

Game coverage can be heard on 980 CFPL, http://www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

By TOM LAWRENCE, NEWS REPORTER

Updated: 04:25 EDT, 22 March 2026

Britain would be forced to rely on American missile defence systems stationed in Europe if Iran launched a rocket attack on the UK similar to the one attempted on Diego Garcia this weekend. 

The warning came after Tehran fired two ballistic missiles on Friday night towards the base in the Indian Ocean, which is jointly operated by the US and the UK. 

The island lies 2,360 miles from Iran, well beyond the 1,240 miles which was thought to be the outer limit of the regime’s reach. 

It potentially puts Paris, 2,609 miles away, and even London – 2,750 miles – within Iran’s range if, as some strategists fear, the country uses its Simorgh space launch technology to extend its missile range. RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is just 1,000 miles from Tehran. 

Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore, said: ‘Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast. If you’ve got a space programme, you’ve got a ballistic missile programme.’ 

In a ballistic attack, defence experts say Britain would be forced to rely on American SM-3 defence systems stationed across Eastern Europe, or the Patriot missiles used by the Germans, to intercept rockets. 

The attempted strike on Diego Garcia came as Sir Keir Starmer extended permission for the US to use British bases to launch attacks on the Strait of Hormuz to protect shipping from Iranian assaults. 

Neither of the missiles fired at Diego Garcia hit their target, with one believed to have been shot down by a US warship’s SM-3 interceptor and the other failing in flight. 

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of covering up the attempted attack on Diego Garcia, saying the Prime Minister needed to ‘come clean’ over the details of the launch. 

Government sources confirmed the attack happened before an official statement later said it had allowed the US military to launch strikes on Iran from the island base to help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This came as: 

• The US used ‘bunker buster’ bombs in a reported attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. The munition was designed to be dropped from B-2 stealth bombers to destroy targets up to 200ft underground;
• The American military claimed that Tehran’s ability to threaten ships passing through the Straits of Hormuz had been ‘degraded’;
• The UAE released a joint statement from 22 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Bahrain and Australia, demanding that Tehran reopen the Straits of Hormuz to shipping;
• Prices of vegetables in supermarkets could rise within weeks as the war in Iran makes the cost of fertiliser and energy soar;
• Holidaymakers were scrambling to book flights and switch destinations to avoid the threat of spiralling fares and disruption caused by the war;
• Motorists could face a 1970s-style 50mph speed limit in an attempt to save fuel under emergency plans;
• Sir Keir promised Cyprus that the British airbase on the island will not be used by the Americans to strike Iran.

The Prime Minister spoke to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and made a commitment that RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in his agreement with Mr Trump on the use of British bases in the war. 

This comes after Mr Christodoulides warned last week that when the war finishes, he will demand negotiations about the future of Britain’s ‘colonial’ military bases on the island.

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former Commander in Chief of British forces, said on Saturday that Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.

General Sir Richard, who headed the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said it was previously thought that ‘Iran’s missiles had a range of only 2,000 kilometres [1,240 miles] and Diego Garcia is 3,800 kilometres [2,360 miles] away from Iran’.

He was responding to questions over whether Mr Trump was right to say Britain had done ‘too little and too late’ or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

Meanwhile, vegetable prices could rise within weeks as the cost of fertiliser and energy surges, said National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw.

He said Britain no longer had the ability to make fertiliser domestically and was ‘absolutely at the mercy of world markets’.

The Middle East is a key supplier of ingredients used to make fertiliser. Most of these pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran, causing prices to spiral as farmers scramble to buy limited supplies as spring planting season looming.

Prices of imported goods are likely to rise immediately because of higher transport costs, said Mr Bradshaw, adding that increases for other foods would begin to appear in coming weeks.

He added: ‘For vegetables grown in heated greenhouses, such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, it will be over the next month to six weeks that we will see those cost increases coming through to the retailer.’

Stampede for flights before prices soar

By Calum Mairhead

Holidaymakers are scrambling to book flights and switch destinations to avoid spiralling fares and disruption caused by the war.

Travel agents report ‘strong interest’ in European and Caribbean destinations after the reputation of Dubai and other Gulf cities as safe, sun-drenched getaways was shattered by Iranian missiles and drones.

Industry experts say the ‘huge surge in demand’ is being fuelled by people who would normally wait for last-minute deals but are now rushing to lock in bookings ahead of further price rises.

Graeme Buck, of travel industry body ABTA, said: ‘The Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to many countries in the area due to the conflict.

‘So in the short term, people need to review what this means for their holiday plans.’

Consumer travel expert Martyn James added: ‘Those trips to Malaga are going to be an awful lot busier than usual.

‘With the chances of fares going up the longer the situation in the Middle East goes on, fewer people will want to take the risk of booking last-minute trips so they will be looking to lock in now to avoid a nasty shock later on.’

Signs of a bookings stampede emerged last week when some of the biggest US carriers including Delta and American Airlines upgraded their sales forecasts for March.

Easyjet boss Kenton Jarvis has advised travellers to book their flights now to avoid higher fares, saying that while the airline was currently protected from higher fuel costs this would not last beyond the summer, so price rises were more likely. 

Motorists face speed limits to save fuel 

By Calum Mairhead

Motorists could be facing a 1970s-style 50mph speed limit in a bid to save fuel, under emergency plans being drawn up as the war causes a global oil supply crunch.

Speed limits are among options reportedly being considered.

Others are thought to include:

• A cap on how much fuel drivers are allowed to buy at the pumps;
• Designating petrol stations for use only by emergency services;
• Limiting their open hours and closing them overnight;
• Restricting sales of diesel to commercial vehicles involved in key areas such as food production and medical supply chains.

While fuel stocks are not yet low enough for drastic measures, the Government could be forced to use emergency powers under the Energy Act, which allows officials to control the supply of fuel if there is a risk of shortages.

Emergency measures were last used in 2000, when a blockade of fuel depots by hauliers sparked nationwide shortages of petrol.

Speed limits to save fuel have not been in place since 1973, when traffic on all roads was restricted to 50mph after the UK and other nations were cut off from Middle Eastern oil exports during the Yom Kippur war between Israel and a coalition of Arab states.

The UK currently has less than 900,000 tons of petrol in storage –enough to meet normal levels of demand for 26 days.

The crisis has piled pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to provide support for motorists, including by scrapping a planned 5p rise in fuel duty in September.