Entertainment News: Ex-driver David Coulthard may join ‘Top Gear’

DAVID COULTHARD, the Formula One star, and German racing driver, SABINE SCHMITZ, may be joining Top Gear’s presenting line-up.

Motoring journalist CHRIS HARRIS will also be joining the show, according to The Sun newspaper.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that the show’s executive producer, LISA CLARK, was leaving after five months.

Clark, who had previously worked with Top Gear host CHRIS EVANS, on Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, said she was “moving on to new projects... I’d like to wish production all the very best with the show.”

The BBC thanked Clark for her “incredible work for the last five months, readying the new Top Gear for its busy filming schedule in 2016 and planned return in May”.

Evans has been tight-lipped about the format of the show. Appearing as a guest on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, he did reveal that the first episode would air on Sunday, May 8.

The BBC said it would not comment on any speculation regarding the line-up for the new show.

THE BEATLES’ back catalogue of music is available on nine streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Google Play Music. The band — JOHN LENNON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, GEORGE HARRISON, and RINGO STARR — split in 1970, but have remained hugely popular and influential. They had 17 UK No 1 singles.

Solo material from the Fab Four was already on Spotify. The Beatles have embraced technology later than most. Their music did not appear on iTunes until 2010, seven years after the service was launched.

Streaming services have been on the rise since 2007. Deezer, Microsoft Groove, Napster, Amazon Prime Music, and Slacker Radio have also been confirmed as host services for the band’s music.

Napster’s chief financial officer, Ethan Rudin, said: “The Beatles are the most iconic band in music history and their catalogue is the number-one request from our subscribers around the world. Today, we’re able to fulfil that request just in time for families around the world to enjoy together over the holidays.”

STEPHEN FRY has called LITTLE MIX’s top 20 hit, ‘Love Me Like You’, “a hideous, toxic compound”.

For BBC Newsbeat, the broadcaster and actor reviewed a selection of songs released in 2015. But the opera fan is not a pop music aficionado.

“There’s someone called Adelia? Adalia?” he queried.

“ADELE,” replied Newsbeat’s reporter.

“Adele. I’ve heard of her,” said the 58-year-old.

After hearing the track by the 2011 winners of The X Factor, Fry cried: “Horrible. Oh, horrible! It’s just bubblegum pop”.

As Little Mix sang the “sha-la-la-la, woo-ooo” chorus, he asked: “Oh, they’re not still singing sha-la-la-la are they?”

He went on to dismiss ‘Love Me Like You’ outright.

“It’s got bits of PHIL SPECTOR right at the background, through Seventies bubblegum pop, into a sort of modern version and it’s a hideous, toxic compound,” he said.

“It’s basically the musical equivalent of Haribo Starmix.”

Fry admitted very little of the pop music played on BBC Radio 1 grabbed his attention.

“I could lie, but I couldn’t even say what it is. I don’t know the names of anybody. I’m not interested,” he said.