All posts tagged: Horses

Only Fools and Horses episode ‘banned’ for 20 years for being too ‘cruel’

Only Fools and Horses episode ‘banned’ for 20 years for being too ‘cruel’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones has said modern sitcoms should be as heartwarming as the BBC sitcom – but the series almost tarnished its own loving reputation back when it first aired. In a new interview, the actor, who played Del Boy’s wife Racquel, said Only Fools’s enduring appeal is down to the writing having “so much heart”. She told The i Paper. “Some of the comedy today seems to be having a go at other people – it can be quite cruel in a way that I don’t find funny personally.” While Only Fools and Horses featured jokes made by entrepreneurial market trader Del Boy (Sir David Jason) at the expense of his hapless brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), one controversial episode was “banned” for featuring a scene too “cruel” to air. ‘Only Fools and Horses’ episode was too …

Researchers discover a hidden whistle inside a horse’s whinny

Researchers discover a hidden whistle inside a horse’s whinny

Published by Jenni Sidey

A horse’s whinny can sound like two calls at once. One part sits low and rough, like a familiar mammal voice. Another rides high, almost piercing, and it does not seem to fit a 500-kilogram animal. That mismatch has bothered researchers for years. Big bodies usually mean big larynges, and big larynges usually mean low pitches. Yet horses break that pattern in a very public way, every time they call across a field. Reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, a team says it has pinned down the mechanics behind that strange blend. Horses, they argue, create a two-frequency sound by using two sound sources at the same time: vibrating vocal folds for the lower tone, and a whistle formed inside the larynx for the higher tone. “We now finally know how the two fundamental frequencies that make up a whinny are produced by horses,” says author Elodie Briefer of the University of Copenhagen. “In the past, we found that these two frequencies are important for horses, as they convey different messages about the …

New contraceptive vaccine sharply reduces fertility enabling humane wildlife management

New contraceptive vaccine sharply reduces fertility enabling humane wildlife management

Published by Jenni Sidey

A shot that keeps a mare from getting pregnant sounds simple. In practice, it is one of the messier problems in wildlife management, where every extra dose means another chase, another dart, another round of stress for an animal that already lives on the move. A team at Purdue University thinks it has a cleaner approach: an immunocontraceptive vaccine built around a sperm protein called IZUMO1. In early tests in mice, their formulations cut fertility sharply, in some cases leaving vaccinated females with only a fraction of the pups seen in unvaccinated animals. The work, led by Dr. Harm HogenEsch and Dr. Raluca Ostafe, was published Feb. 6 in the journal Vaccine. HogenEsch, a distinguished professor of immunopathology in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said the goal is a humane tool for animal overpopulation in species such as feral horses, deer and swine. Ostafe directs Purdue’s Molecular Evolution Protein Engineering and Production Facility. Both are members of the Purdue Institute for Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease. Purdue University researchers Dr. Raluca Ostafe and Dr. Harm …

Slow Horses team to revive detective drama Lovejoy after 30 years

Slow Horses team to revive detective drama Lovejoy after 30 years

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The team behind Apple TV’s thriller Slow Horses is set to revive a much-loved detective series more than 30 years since its finale aired. Lovejoy, based on the novels of the same name, became a huge hit for the BBC in the late 1980s. The initial six-series run saw Ian McShane play the titular Lovejoy, a rogueish antiques dealer from East Anglia with a keen eye for spotting fakes. See-Saw Films has now won a bidding war to produce a brand new adaptation and told Deadline it wants to create a “contemporary reimagining of the Lovejoy novels that will strip away the nostalgia of the 1980s adaptation and return to the unrulier spirit of the books.” open image in gallery Ian McShane in the original ‘Lovejoy’ (BBC) The Independent has contacted See-Saw for further comment. Writing under the pen name Jonathan …

Only Fools and Horses star reveals why there was tension before filming sitcom

Only Fools and Horses star reveals why there was tension before filming sitcom

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Only Fools and Horses is one of the funniest sitcoms of all time – but you might not have known it if you saw the actors on set. Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Raquel, the wife of Sir David Jason’s Del Boy Trotter, has reflected on the filming experience ahead of the show’s 45th anniversary. While the cast members, including Nicholas Lyndhurst and Gwyneth Strong (Rodney and Cassandra), all got on together, they found themselves overcome with pressure before shooting scenes in front of a live audience. “If people had seen us backstage before the show, they’d have seen people pacing up and down the corridors with nerves, including David and Nick,” Peake-Jones said. “We cared so much, and we wanted to get it right, but one slip-up of a word could ruin that laugh.” She also admitted that the many jokes …

A horse’s whinny is unlike any other sound in nature

A horse’s whinny is unlike any other sound in nature

Published by skeptic

We now know how horses whinny Horizon International Images/Alamy When a horse whinnies, it is making two sounds simultaneously as no other animal can: a low-pitched noise made in a similar way to a cow’s moo and a high-pitched whistle made in its throat. It has long been known that a horse’s whinny contains both a low-frequency sound, around 200 hertz, and a high-frequency sound, above 1000 hertz – a phenomenon known as biphonation. The low-frequency component is easily explained by vibrations in the horse’s laryngeal vocal folds, similar to human speech or singing. But the high-frequency sound is unusual for such a large animal, and how it is produced has been a mystery. “Although humans have been co-existing and co-evolving with horses for 4000 years, we still understand their communication imperfectly,” says Tecumseh Fitch at the University of Vienna, Austria. To solve the puzzle, Fitch and his colleagues first performed a range of tests, scans and experiments on horse larynges obtained from a horse meat supplier. “We blew air through them and initially we …

Only Fools and Horses legend reveals why part of nostalgic new documentary for classic comedy was “torture”

Only Fools and Horses legend reveals why part of nostalgic new documentary for classic comedy was “torture”

Published by Daniella Wilson

Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones has admitted that parts of filming a retrospective documentary for U&GOLD felt like “torture” – but she expects viewers to enjoy it immensely. The actor, who played Raquel in the long-running and truly iconic British sitcom, is one of several original cast members to appear in Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive, which celebrates 45 years since the series premiered on our screens. The two-parer promises to show fans behind-the-scenes footage, newly-discovered images and deleted scenes, which have been digitally scanned and restored from 16mm negatives. “I think the public will really enjoy the programme, partly because it is unseen footage,” said Peake-Jones, during an appearance on The One Show. “So no one, including us, has ever seen this stuff.” Nevertheless, she also found looking back to be “really weird” and not always enjoyable. “It’s not like you’re looking at something from a couple of years ago,” continued Peake-Jones. “This is decades and decades ago. So, I mean, we were in, you know, our 30s, 40s, 50s …

Six tips to work with the Year of the Fire Horse’s energy

Six tips to work with the Year of the Fire Horse’s energy

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more The Chinese Lunar New Year kicks off February 17, ushering in the Year of the Horse — and with it, advice and traditions believed to set the tone for the year ahead. Each year honors an animal based on the Chinese zodiac. The circle of 12 animals — the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig — measures the cycles of time. Legend has it that a god beckoned all animals to bid him farewell before his departure from Earth and only 12 showed up. The year is also linked to one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. In Chinese culture, the horse stands as a revered symbol of freedom, vitality, and unbridled ambition. …

No, North Carolina’s wild horses were not wrapped in insulation

No, North Carolina’s wild horses were not wrapped in insulation

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. We recently saw a Facebook post featuring a series of images of people on a cold beach bundling up horses with what looked like duct tape and insulation material. The post, tagged at Corolla Wild Horse Beach in Corolla, North Carolina, has about 10,000 reactions and 5,800 comments, and has been shared 2,000 times on social media.   Corolla is in the Outer Banks, an island chain in North Carolina that in addition to an angsty teen adventure drama of the same name, hosts wild horses—the Colonial Spanish Mustangs. The area was also bracing for record-breaking snow and freezing temperatures.  “Today, the nonprofit organization Outer Banks People helped prepare the wild horses for low temperatures and possible snow. To keep them warm during extreme cold, we carefully wrapped them in recycled insulation materials,” reads the Facebook post. “At this time, we are accepting donations of insulation and duct tape to continue supporting our efforts. Every contribution helps keep our local …