A stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Kyle Shaw's "persistent campaign" saw him send abusive messages and a "menacing" threat to Miss Ballas as well as her friends and colleagues.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the 37-year-old thought Miss Ballas's late brother, David Rich, was his father.

Shaw, who admitted stalking the 64-year-old dancer, causing her serious harm or distress between 31 August 2017 and 29 November 2023, was sentenced to 20 months, suspended for 20 months.

Passing sentence, Judge Gary Woodhall said: "This was a menacing threat against her and her family."

Shaw, from Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, was also made the subject of a restraining order for life.

It means he will never be allowed to contact either Miss Ballas or her niece, mother or former partner.

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: "He believed, and it's evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father."

The court heard that while there was no evidence his belief was incorrect, there was only "limited evidence" it was correct.

Ms Daley said that, in his messages, Shaw had accused Miss Ballas of being responsible for the death of her 44-year-old brother, who took his own life in 2003.

The court heard Shaw also set up social media accounts in her brother's name.

The prosecution said Shaw approached Miss Ballas's mother, 86-year-old Audrey Rich, when shopping in Wirral in 2019.

Shaw told Ms Rich she was his grandmother and continued to follow her around the shop when she did not want to speak to him, the court heard.

This incident resulted in Miss Ballas moving her mother from Merseyside to London.

The court also heard Shaw posted messages on Twitter, now X, which included an image of the BBC One star's home address along with a message which said: "You ruined my life, I'll ruin yours and everyone's around you."

As a result of Shaw's actions, Ms Daley said Miss Ballas became reluctant to socialise with colleagues and stopped using public transport.

The prosecutor added: "She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family's safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life."

The court was told in October 2020 Ballas contacted police after he messaged her and said: "Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?"

The court also heard Shaw sent messages to Miss Ballas's niece Mary Assall, work colleagues from Loose Women and Strictly Come Dancing as well as her former partner Daniel Taylor.

He called him in November 2023 and in an "implied threat" told him he knew where they lived and described what he knew about the TV star's movements, the court was told.

And when the Strictly judge had book signings planned in Wirral, Shaw messaged her saying: "I can't wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph."

Sentencing Shaw, the judge said: "Since 2017 you have engaged in persistent, unwanted online contact with Shirley Ballas and her family. You did so because your mother told you Shirley Ballas's late brother was your biological father.

"I'm satisfied your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family.

"Whether in fact there's any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine."

He added: "This was not an offence driven out of delusional beliefs, physical attraction or simply an obsession with a celebrity."

John Weate, defending, said Shaw had suffered complex mental health issues since childhood and in his mid-to-late teens was told by his mother that David Rich was his father.

Mr Weate said: "He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don't wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again."

He said Shaw's use of cannabis had "not helped him".

Shaw was ordered to do 20 days of rehabilitation activity and undertake a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement.

Natassia McAdam, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Kyle Shaw's attempts to contact (her) were clearly stalking.

"They were persistent and became abusive and caused anxiety and distress over a prolonged period of time.

"His behaviour became increasingly erratic, and she feared he would become violent. He knew what he was doing would cause her alarm and distress."

Miss Ballas, originally from Wallasey, Wirral, has been head judge on the BBC show since 2017.

By the age of 21, she had won several international competitions, including the World Latin American Championships.

She retired from competitive dancing in 1996.

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan have been confirmed as part of the all-star line-up who will play members of the Beatles in four major new films about the band.

Normal People and Gladiator II actor Mescal will portray Sir Paul McCartney, while Saltburn star Keoghan will step into Ringo Starr's shoes.

The acting supergroup will also feature Harris Dickinson, who was most recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, as John Lennon.

And Joseph Quinn will go from Marvel's Fantastic Four to the Fab Four, playing George Harrison in the big-screen quadrilogy, which will be directed by Sir Sam Mendes.

The Oscar-winning director was joined by the four actors for the announcement at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Monday.

Each film will focus on a different member of the legendary group.

"Each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys," Sir Sam told the event. "They intersect in different ways - sometimes overlapping, sometimes not.

"They're four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply. But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history."

The films will be released "in proximity" to each other in April 2028.

The director explained: "I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie, and that turning it into a TV mini-series just somehow didn't feel right."

Paul Mescal, 29, shot to fame in the BBC's Normal People in 2020. He went on to star in acclaimed films Aftersun, for which he was Oscar-nominated, and All of Us Strangers, and he played the lead in the Gladiator sequel. As well as portraying Sir Paul McCartney, the Irish star is about to be seen as another British creative genius, William Shakespeare, in the film adaptation of award-winning novel Hamnet.

Harris Dickinson has become a star thanks to Maleficent, The King's Man, Triangle of Sadness and Where the Crawdads Sing, before playing Kidman's love interest in Babygirl. The 28-year-old Brit also received a Bafta TV Award nomination for A Murder at the End of the World, and is among the bookmakers' favourites to be the next James Bond.

Barry Keoghan bears perhaps the closest resemblance to his Beatle - drummer Ringo. The Irish actor is the oldest of the acting quartet at 32, and is one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, having been nominated for an Oscar for The Banshees of Inisherin before leading the cast of cult hit Saltburn.

Joseph Quinn played Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Netflix's Stranger Things, was in A Quiet Place: Day One, and appeared alongside Mescal in Gladiator II. Before appearing as guitarist Harrison, the 31-year-old Londoner will be seen as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and two Avengers films.

Although several previous movies like Backbeat, Nowhere Boy and I Wanna Hold Your Hand have depicted The Beatles, this is the first time that all four band members and their estates have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.

Sir Sam called the films the "first bingeable theatrical experience", adding: "Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house."

On stage, Dickinson, Mescal, Keoghan and Quinn recited from the band's song Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: "It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill, you're such a lovely audience, we'd like to take you home with us."

They then gave a Beatles-style synchronised bow.

Formed in 1960, the original band transformed youth culture and changed the course of musical history.

Restlessly imaginative and experimental, they had an uncanny ability to communicate sophisticated musical ideas to a mass audience, on albums including Revolver, Sgt Pepper's and The White Album.

Despite splitting in 1970, the quartet remain the biggest-selling band of all time.

Only two members survive. John Lennon was murdered in 1980, while Harrison died of cancer in 2001.

In 2023, the surviving members released what was described as the Beatles' "final" song, Now And Then.

Based on one of Lennon's old demo tapes, and featuring an archive recording of Harrison's guitar work, it went to number one and was nominated for awards at the Brits and the Grammys.

This is by no means the first film project to explore the lives of The Beatles - Iain Softley's Backbeat, released in 1994, dramatised their early career in Hamburg's clubs, where they cut their musical teeth.

Sam Taylor-Johnson's Nowhere Boy in 2009 starred her future husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lennon and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as McCartney. It delved into Lennon's early years and family relationships, and documented him meeting McCartney and Harrison and the band's origins.

Martin Scorsese made a factual film in 2011 called George Harrison: Living in the Material World, which included contributions from the surviving band members plus archive material.

In 2021, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson restored more than 50 hours of outtakes from 1970 Beatles documentary Let It Be for Get Back, a three-part film. The epic Disney+ movie, which was nearly seven hours long, shed new light on the relationship between McCartney and Lennon before the band split in 1970.

This week, another hit game becomes a feature film – A Minecraft Movie is out on Friday.

But that's not all the week has in store.

Trending TikTok star Djo (aka Steve from Stranger Things) has a new album out, SIX The Musical Live! hits cinemas, and we're finally going to find out about the Switch 2.

Read on for what's coming up this week...

It's been heavily delayed, but A Minecraft Movie is finally here.

The wildly popular video game hits the big screen on Friday and boasts a star-studded cast including Jason Momoa, Jack Black and Jennifer Coolidge.

It tells the story of four misfits who are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld – the place where all players start in Minecraft.

Minecraft is one of the world's best selling video games, so there’s a lot of pressure to deliver for fans of the blocky world (my 11-year-old nephew is legitimately more excited for this than Christmas).

"This game has been loved by millions and millions all over the world for years now, and I think this movie is a big deal for a lot of people, because now it's generational," Black said.

There's been a long history of game-to-film flops. But others, such as Sonic, were massive hits, so that's what Warner Bros will no doubt be hoping for.

By Mark Savage, music correspondent

American actor Joe Keery is best known as reformed jock Steve Harrington, one of the main (and most loveable) characters in the sci-fi series Stranger Things.

But he's also got a nifty line in throwback indie-pop, which he performs as Djo. The pseudonym was initially an attempt to avoid the accusations he was trading on his fame. He'd even perform in disguise.

That changed when he had a breakout hit with End of Beginning – a synth-heavy slice of psychedelia that went viral on TikTok last year, often the soundtrack to videos about what people would do if they won the lottery.

The attention put a rocket under his music career. While his first two albums were DIY affairs, recorded in a couple of days and self-released, his latest, The Crux, was created in New York's fabled Electric Lady studios.

Released on Friday, it's packed full of off-kilter lyrics and squiggly synth lines that burrow into your brain. The first two singles, Delete Ya and Basic Being Basic have already been radio hits, and the rest of the album pulls on influences as diverse as Electric Light Orchestra, New Order, Cake, Hall & Oates and Bruce Springsteen (coincidentally, all bands that would work perfectly on the Stranger Things soundtrack).

There are a couple of knockouts – including the crunchy garage rock of Gap Toothed Smile, and the choppy New Wave anthem Link – but the point of the album is its diversity. Keery envisioned each song as the story of a separate guest at a hotel where everyone is at a spiritual or emotional crossroads.

SIX the Musical tells the story of the many wives of Henry VIII, as they step out of the shadow of their infamous husband and reclaim the narrative.

Now, the queens are moving to the screen.

A filmed stage production of SIX The Musical Live!, featuring the original West End cast, will be released in cinemas on Sunday.

Creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss told me what to expect.

“It's not simply a live capture of what's on stage, but an immersive, pop-concert experience,” they said.

“You get to witness the incredible performances up close – noticing little details and subtleties you might miss in the theatre. But you also get exciting, inventive, explosive visuals that make you feel like part of the party.”

By Tom Gerken, tech reporter

This week has been in the diaries of gaming fans around the world for months, as we finally are about to learn what's coming with the Switch 2, the much-anticipated sequel to the Nintendo Switch, aka the third-best selling console in history.

So it's no surprise that we're going to get some news on Wednesday – but the question is, what?

Almost certainly Nintendo will unveil a price and a launch date. But quite what that will be, who knows – July 2025 feels like a safe bet, but to be fair, would anyone be surprised if it came out in December?

Fans are desperate for news on games. The rumour mill swirls with talks of a new Mario, Zelda and Pokémon, but nobody has any proof to back it up. (I'd personally bite your hand off for a new Fire Emblem, but that's just me…)

Will we see super flashy new graphics? A high quality screen? A better battery life? There are too many questions to list.

Only one thing is really certain – whatever happens, when Nintendo's announcement is over, we'll be left counting down the days to the console's actual release… whenever that may be.

• Eid Live and Celebrity Eid will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer on Monday
• Good Bad Billionaire podcast will discuss Markus Persson, the man behind Minecraft, on BBC Sounds on Monday
• London Games Festival 2025 starts on Wednesday
• South of Midnight is released for early access on Thursday
• Elton John and Brandi Carlile release their new album Who Believes In Angels? on Friday
• Black Country, New Road's new album Forever Howlong drops on Friday

South Korean star Kim Soo-hyun has made a tearful public statement denying allegations made by the family of actress Kim Sae-ron, who died in an apparent suicide in February.

"I can't admit to something I didn't do," the 37-year-old said on Monday at a press conference in Seoul.

At the centre of the controversy are two allegations: that Kim Soo-hyun dated Kim Sae-ron when she was 15 - a minor - and that his agency pressured her to repay a loan she owed him.

The scandal has shocked South Korea and its entertainment industry - and has generated a backlash against Kim Soo-Hyun, whose roles in multiple hit drama series and films has made him one of its best-known stars.

Kim wept as he said that although he dated the actress for a year when she was an adult, they never dated while she was underage.

Monday's media conference came after weeks of accusations and counter-accusations between Kim Sae-ron's family and Kim Soo-hyun's camp in the wake of her death.

The scandal broke on 10 March, less than a month after Kim Sae-ron's death. A YouTube channel, known for its controversial political content, claimed that the two had dated for six years, when she was 15. The channel has since released videos and photos it claims were taken during their relationship.

Last week, the attorney representing Kim Sae-ron's family held a press conference, revealing more chat history allegedly between the two actors from 2016, when she was 16.

Kim Soo-hyun's agency initially denied the allegations but later clarified that they dated, though only between 2019 and 2020, when she was an adult.

The actor himself had remained silent until Monday. At the press conference, he became emotional, reiterating to reporters that they only dated as two adults.

"Many people are suffering because of me," he said, apologising to his fans and staff. "I also feel sorry that the late actress [Kim Sae-ron] isn't able to rest in peace.

"I never dated her when she was a minor," he continued. "Except for the fact that both of us were actors, our relationship was just like that of any other ordinary couple."

He also explained why he denied the relationship when she uploaded a later-deleted photo of the two of them to her Instagram account in 2024 during the airing of Netflix hit show Queen of Tears, in which he played the lead role.

"I had so much to protect as its lead actor. What would have happened if I had admitted to a year-long relationship? What would happen to the actors, the staff who were working overnight and the production team who had everything staked on that project?" he said. "The more I thought of it, the more I thought that shouldn't be what I do."

Any admission of a romantic relationship or a partner is still seen as scandalous to fans in South Korea's entertainment industry, where celebrities' personal lives come under intense scrutiny.

Kim Sae-ron herself was a victim of online hate by fans after she was fined 20 million won (£11,000; $14,000) for a 2022 drink-driving incident.

Prior to that, she had been seen as one of the most promising young actresses in South Korea.

At the time, she was managed by the same agency as Kim Soo-hyun, which was co-founded by his relative. Kim Sae-ron joined GoldMedalist in January 2020 and left in December 2022.

Kim Sae-ron's family claimed that GoldMedalist covered the compensation for her drunk-driving incident. They allege that the agency later pursued legal action for repayment and that, while the actress asked Kim Soo-hyun for more time to settle the debt, her request went unanswered.

On Monday, Kim Soo-hyun denied claims that "she made the tragic choice because of me or my agency pressuring her over a debt".

He released a voice recording of a phone call from a year ago, allegedly between his agency and Kim Sae-ron's representative.

In the recording, the CEO of GoldMedalist appears to explain that the document they sent her regarding the debt was merely for "procedural reasons" and that her team could take time to respond.

He also accused Kim Sae-ron's family of manipulating chat records as evidence and stated that he had submitted his own evidence to the relevant authorities for verification. He urged her family to do the same.

Kim Soo-hyun, 37, is an A-list actor in South Korea, known for his roles in multiple hit drama series and top-grossing movies, including My Love from the Star, Netflix's Queen of Tears, and the film Secretly, Greatly.

He has also been a favourite among advertisers in the country, though many brands have now distanced themselves from him amid the controversy. On 17 March, fashion brand Prada announced that it had mutually decided to end its collaboration with him, according to Reuters. This followed similar moves from Dinto, a Korean cosmetic brand.

A Disney+ show that stars Kim Soo-hyun has also been put on pause due to the scandal, according to local news outlet Yonhap.

His lawyer stated on Monday that they had filed a criminal complaint against Kim Sae-ron's family and the YouTube channel operator, along with a civil lawsuit for damages worth 12 billion won.

Her family has not commented on the lawsuits or his latest remarks.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story you can find information and support on the BBC Actionline website here.

Inside a soundstage once used by silent film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, Hollywood executives, actors and filmmakers sipped cocktails as they marvelled at what some say is the biggest breakthrough since the talkies: AI-generated video.

But whether AI will be the future, or the end, of cinema is still up for debate.

It was only two years ago that actors and writers shut down Hollywood with strikes demanding protections from AI. Now the technology is controversially creeping into TV, movies and video games. Two films honoured at the Oscars even used the technology.

As a DJ played '90s hip hop, computer developers rubbed shoulders with actors and executives, in a sign of the changing power players in the industry.

AI in Hollywood is "inevitable", says Bryn Mooser, the party's host and the co-founder of Moonvalley, which created the AI generator tool Marey by paying for footage from filmmakers with their consent. Mooser says that while AI may still be a dirty word, their product is "clean" because it pays for its content.

"Artists should be at the table," he says, adding that it's better to build the tool for filmmakers rather than get "rolled over by big tech companies".

Artificial Intelligence has long been depicted as a villain in Hollywood. In The Terminator, AI used by the US military decides it must destroy everyone on earth.

But it's AI's creators, and not the technology itself, that has received the brunt of real-life criticism. Companies use publicly available data to build their AI models - which includes copyrighted material shared online - and creators say they're being ripped off.

OpenAI, Google and other tech companies are facing multiple lawsuits from writers, actors and news organisations, alleging their work was stolen to train AI without their consent. Studios like Paramount, Disney and Universal who own the copyright on movies and TV shows have been urged by writers to do the same, though none have taken legal action.

"We've all fought very hard for copyright laws, and nobody wants to see their work stolen to have somebody else profit from it," Mooser says.

Hollywood has begun toying with the new technology. The Oscar-nominated films Emilia Perez and The Brutalist used AI to alter voices. Adrian Brody won the Academy Award for best actor, even with the help of AI to fine tune his accent when he spoke Hungarian in his starring role in The Brutalist. AI has even been used to de-age actors like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford.

The technology is seemingly everywhere. OpenAI hosted an AI film festival in Los Angeles earlier this month. Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the Wall Street Journal they plan to invest $400 million to craft AI tools for filmmakers.

But the impacts on how it will alter the future of the entertainment industry remain unclear. Generative AI, for instance, allows computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human – albeit much faster. And many worry about the technology replacing their jobs as AI is used to generate scripts, animation, locations, voices and human actors.

If you ask OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT, which Hollywood jobs are most easily replaced by AI, background actors are top of the list as "most vulnerable" with "A-List actors & directors" considered safest because "star power and brand recognition keep top talent irreplaceable".

At the Moonvalley party, everyone was talking about new AI technology though few wanted to speak with a reporter on record about it. But dozens of powerful people made the trek east to the hip Silver Lake neighbourhood from west Los Angeles, even though it was raining. In LA, that's remarkable.

"We're here to learn," said one executive who spent an hour in traffic getting to the party. "We're not signing anything or buying anything, but we're interested."

Mooser and his co-founder Naeem Talukdar speak passionately about how AI will transform Hollywood and allow filmmakers to create blockbuster style epics on much lower budgets. It could lead to many bad films - but it could also help discover the next Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese, even if they don't have the backing of a big studio.

"This technology is utterly meaningless without the artist at the centre of it; the technology needs to ultimately be subservient to the artist," says Talukdar.

Hollywood's foray into using AI comes as the Trump administration prepares a new AI plan for the United States.

Tech companies say they can't compete with China under existing US copyright laws and that they need unfettered access to art - from Mickey Mouse to Moana to The Matrix - to train their AI models as a matter of national security.

Google and OpenAI want the US government to designate copyrighted art, movies and TV shows as "fair use" for them to train AI, arguing that without the exceptions, they will lose the race for dominance to China.

Hollywood filmmakers say tech companies are attempting to undermine the entertainment industry, which they point out supports more than 2.3 million US jobs.

"We firmly believe that America's global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries," a group of more than 400 Hollywood A-listers - led by actress/writer Natasha Lyonne who helped develop Moonvalley - wrote in an open letter to the Trump administration, which has been soliciting public comment for its AI Action Plan.

The letter's signatories included A-List stars like Ben Stiller, Sir Paul McCartney, Cate Blanchett and Lilly Wachowski, who co-created The Matrix, which depicts a dystopian simulated reality where humans are enslaved by intelligent machines.

Many in Hollywood remain terrified of what AI means for their futures.

Outside a Disney Character Voices office earlier this month, dozens of actors picketed against video game companies for refusing to come to an agreement on using AI in video games.

"Using actual actors is the key to a lot of the drama and enjoyment that people get from video games," actor DW McCann said. "People have lived experiences that AI just can't understand."

The actors want a contract that guarantees their voices and likeness will not be used without their consent to train AI models that replace them in the future.

Mooser says AI will allow filmmakers to create amazing art – if it's done right. With humans calling the shots, he says, AI could help them create sets and worlds they couldn't easily access or invent – and to do so much faster than what they could traditionally do with computer graphics and visual effects.

"We're trying to say, look, technology is going to be in everything. Let's make sure that we try to fight as hard as we can to make sure that it's done in the right way, and that artists aren't run over by big companies."

The prime minister has told the makers of hit Netflix drama Adolescence that it was "really hard to watch" with his teenage children, as he hosted a Downing Street meeting to discuss the influence of toxic material online.

Sir Keir Starmer said the show, about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder, served as "a torch that shines intensely brightly on a combination of issues that many people don't know how to respond to".

But he warned there was not a "silver bullet response" or "some policy lever that can be pulled".

Sir Keir also welcomed a move by Netflix to make the series available to screen for free in secondary schools.

The programme has sparked a national conversation about the impact of social media and "manosphere" influencers.

Jack Thorne, who wrote the show with actor Stephen Graham, recently said the prime minister should "rather urgently" consider a smartphone ban in schools and a "digital age of consent", similar to Australia, which has passed a law banning children under 16 from using social media.

Thorne and producer Jo Johnson gave their views to Sir Keir at Monday's meeting, along with charities including the NSPCC and Children's Society, and young people. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was also there.

The prime minister told them the show was "at times harrowing" but had "lit a touch paper" under the debate about the issues.

"We've been watching with our children - my boy is 16, my girl is 14 - and I have to say, I found it really hard," he told BBC political editor Chris Mason.

It was so arresting, he said, because "in a sense, what happens in the drama could really happen anywhere, and almost happen to any child".

It shone a light "on misogyny, on online content, and this sense of children, particularly boys, getting drawn in to this world", he said.

But unlike some things the government deals with, "there isn't an obvious policy response which will answer all of these questions", he added.

"It's much broader than that. It's a cultural issue, and therefore we're going to have to look more broadly, work as a society on this, and discuss it, which is why I'm really pleased that Adolescence is now going to be shown in schools free because I do think young people should be watching it."

Netflix announced that the drama would be available to all UK secondary schools through the Into Film+ schools streaming service.

Asked about banning phones in schools, which has also been proposed by the Conservative opposition, he said 97% of schools were already doing that - so it was "not, to my mind, the central issue".

"If we're going to get to grips with this, I personally would much rather we focus on what I think is the real issue, which is, whether you're at school or elsewhere, what are you actually accessing? Because that, for me, is the critical issue," he said.

"And whether it's at school or elsewhere, there's material that clearly shouldn't be accessed."

The government has pointed to measures including the Online Safety Act, which says social media companies will have to protect children from harmful material including pornography, material promoting self-harm, bullying and content encouraging dangerous stunts.

Platforms will be expected to adopt "age assurance technologies" to prevent children from seeing harmful content.

Sir Keir said it was "an important piece of legislation", but that "we should go back and revisit whether there's further work that we need to do to protect young people".

The PM also denied a suggestion that showing the programme in schools would demonise boys who spend a lot of time online but haven't ended up like Jamie in Adolescence.

"I think it's probably wrong to think that there's just a group of boys that are drawn to this [material]," he told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat.

"Certainly, there's a group that are drawn to the extreme edges of this, and we see that in the drama, of course, but I think many boys would be somewhere, possibly, on a continuum here."

The government is also updating its guidance on how schools should teach children about relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

The Times recently reported that it would include "lessons to counter misogyny and the growing appeal of influencers such as Andrew Tate", in the wake of the discussions about Adolescence.

Speaking afterwards, Thorne said it was a "brilliant" meeting.

"The brilliant thing was that it wasn't about us," he said. "It was about facilitating conversations with charities and youth groups who really understand what's going on, and I hope a solution can be found to this problem."

The success of Adolescence has helped those charities and groups get "the opportunity to have conversations that they haven't had before and that they should have had, and that might lead to a policy change and things being made better for our young people", he added.

By Pria Rai and Riyah Collins, BBC Newsbeat

For 22-year-old Harry Foster, being radicalised as a teenager was "very easy".

"When you're a child, it's very easy when there's a lack of any sort of direction or positive role models to get swept along with something," he said.

He said extremist groups exploited his vulnerability with addiction issues as a teenager, manipulating him into sharing racist and misogynistic views.

"I thought I was finding some sense of belonging," he told Newsbeat. "What I was actually being given was a very harmful and very radical set of political views, which is almost like the trade-off for belonging to these people."

He got help through The Warren youth group in Hull and now works with them to help other boys and young men in similar situations.

Harry welcomed Sir Keir's plans to work with Netflix to show Adolescence in secondary schools, but said more work must be done.

"I don't think there's ever been a time where young people as a whole feel more disconnected from politicians," he said.

"It's one thing to make young men aware of the problems around these kind of ideologies, but it's equally important we're offering an alternative to young boys and men who are so desperately looking for something to identify with.

"I don't think it's as simple as showing a TV show. There needs to be a positive alternative for young people."

"It's just weird to talk about your sexual feelings to your parents," says 15-year-old Ben*.

His parents, Sophie and Martin, two professionals in their 40s, nod understandingly. They are discussing the kinds of "big issues" Ben's social media usage throws up, and for Ben their conversations about sex and pornography are "the worst".

The family – minus Ben's little sister, who is too young to join the discussion – are gathered in their living room to dissect the smash-hit Netflix drama Adolescence, which they watched the previous evening.

The series follows the story of 13-year-old protagonist Jamie, who is accused of murdering a female peer after being exposed to misogynistic online material and subjected to cyberbullying.

Both of Ben's parents are concerned their own son's behaviour is being impacted by the material he is exposed to, and Ben, who is worried himself, is trying to set limits on his own phone use.

Given their concerns, and how they overlap with the themes of Adolescence, the family agreed to watch the programme together and allowed BBC News to sit in on their discussion, which ranged from the relevance of Andrew Tate to whether boys and girls can be friends.

Ben is sitting on the sofa in the living room scrolling on his phone before the conversation begins.

The parents take their seats looking relaxed despite the difficult subjects they are about to discuss. Photos of loved ones line the bookshelves in the family's living room, and a piano stands against the wall.

Sophie and Martin have worked hard to create a "very open" household, Sophie says, where "all topics are on the table". While watching the programme, Sophie made a list of things to talk about with Ben.

A confident and outspoken teenage boy, Ben is well-liked by fellow pupils at his single-sex state secondary school. But the qualities that make him popular with his peers often land him in trouble with his teachers, who give him detentions or send him to isolation for making what his mother describes as "inappropriate comments".

In the show, Jamie and his peers use language associated with the "manosphere" – websites and online forums promoting misogyny and opposition to feminism – and incel culture. Incels, short for involuntary celibate, are men who blame women because they are unable to find a sexual partner. It is an ideology that has been linked to terror attacks and killings in recent years.

Perhaps surprisingly, "incel" wasn't a familiar term to Ben, and his dad Martin had to explain it as they watched the programme.

"People just call each other 'virgins'. I've not heard 'incel' before," Ben tells his parents. He suggests the term might have "dropped off" social media for young people in recent years, reflecting the pace at which the conversation moves online.

Ben tells his parents there are elements of the show he recognises, including its depiction of the fights and cyberbullying at school. But he thinks it is only a "rough picture" of what it's like to be a teenager today, and that it was principally made for "an adult who isn't online".

For example, it neglects to show the good side of social media alongside its dangers, he says, and some details – including the secret emoji codes one character claims children use – ring false.

It is for this reason that Martin, who says he enjoyed the tense drama, also feels the show is playing on every parent's "worst nightmare" about their child's phone use, meaning it sometimes favours theatrics over realism in an attempt to "shock" adults into action.

Andrew Tate, an influencer and central figure of the shadowy online world of the manosphere, is mentioned by name in the drama and has been the cause of much concern among parents and teachers. But Ben says that while Andrew Tate was "popular" at his school about two years ago, he is now "old news".

Ben has noticed the way Tate combines health and wellbeing with politics. "Some of his things, like 'exercise for an hour a day' – fair enough, that's correct. But then he combines it with far-right ideas, like 'the man should go out and work and the wife should stay at home'," Ben says.

Both parents agree that Tate is not to blame for misogyny. As far as they're concerned, he is symptomatic of "a bigger social problem".

This problem is represented starkly in the bleak picture Adolescence paints of male-female friendships in the social media age. Protagonist Jamie doesn't have any female friends, and appears to view relations with the opposite sex through a lens of dominance and manipulation.

Sophie is concerned that interactions between boys and girls are distant and impersonal in Ben's peer group. She says Ben doesn't have many opportunities to mix with girls his age.

And she worries her son is getting most of his information about how to interact with girls from social media. "It's really twisted," she says. "They don't know how to behave around each other."

She asks her son a question: "If you don't know how to talk to girls when you're feeling awkward, if you're like, 'Eurgh, I don't know how to dress', where do you go for help?"

"Online," Ben says.

"So it goes full circle," says his mum. "That's where they get information."

Ben isn't embarrassed that he's "used ChatGPT for like two years" to get this sort of advice. "Or TikTok," he adds.

Sophie says Ben learned most about friendship with the opposite sex during a visit to a cousin's house, who attends a mixed school and has female friends.

She recalls Ben's cousin reprimanding him after Ben asked whether the cousin was attracted to a female friend.

"I don't remember him getting annoyed with me like that, but okay," Ben says.

They debate their varying recollections of events until they land on a version on which they can agree: "His cousin was like, 'No, that's my friend. I don't think of them in that way,'" Sophie says.

"That was really eye-opening for him," she says. Turning to Ben, she recalls: "You came back from it, and you were like, 'It's much better [at my cousin's], girls and boys are friends.'"

In the Netflix drama, it is revealed that Jamie's victim Katie had been subjected to misogynistic bullying after a male classmate shared intimate images of her without her consent.

Jamie's discussion of this incident with a child psychologist, played by Erin Doherty, is pivotal to the programme's acclaimed third episode.

Ben has seen this kind of abuse of trust among his peers too. "There's a guy near here, and [a picture of] his genitals got leaked on a massive group chat with loads of people," he says. "That was a big thing on TikTok."

The series kicks off with an episode in which police question Jamie about the sexualised images of adult women he has shared on his Instagram page, hinting at the ease with which young teenagers can access pornography.

This feels familiar to Ben, who thinks porn is the "biggest issue" among his peer group. He knows boys who are "addicted" to it: "They rely on it. There are people in my year who'll have such a bad day unless they watch it."

Ben squirms a little while talking about pornography, staring at the wall or fiddling with his phone.

He seems more comfortable talking about the other forms of concerning content young people come across online.

He estimates that "one in 10" videos he watches on his phone contain distressing material, including scenes of extreme violence. And Ben's parents are under no illusions that their son is "safe" just because he is upstairs on his computer - unlike Jamie's parents in the show.

For Martin and Sophie, the solution lies in giving children better opportunities to "participate" in society and build their self-esteem.

They say they are also keen for their son to have "wide range" of male role models to learn from. Ben, who has paused to check his phone several times in the course of their discussion, re-engages with the conversation.

He is animated in his praise for his sports coaches, whose "really strong morals" he admires.

The parents nod, evidently pleased by his enthusiasm. They say they pack their son's life with activities in an attempt to get him off his phone. But this is expensive, they say, and puts poorer students at a disadvantage.

Sophie says of the show's main character, Jamie: "He doesn't have sport. He doesn't feel good about himself. His dad looks away when he fails."

Adolescence shows that children with limited opportunities to build their self-esteem are more "vulnerable" to the predatory messages of misogynistic influencers, Sophie says.

Both parents agree tech companies, the government, schools and families all have a responsibility to offer young people a convincing alternative to the siren call of the manosphere.

They insist parents can't do it alone. As Sophie says: "It's a tsunami and someone's given me an umbrella."

Ben thinks what happens online is too often dismissed by adults as being irrelevant to the real world. He thinks this is a mistake; social media should be treated "like real life – because it is real life", he says.

*All names in this article have been changed.

Whether you like the new Snow White film or you hate it, it's hard to escape the debate around its lead actress, Rachel Zegler.

The 23-year-old star has dominated conversation about the film, as people either blame her for its poor reviews or leap to her defence, saying she's being unfairly maligned.

And this debate is not new for Zegler.

Way before Snow White came out, she has been at the centre of the storm, with many criticising her take on the original film and her political views, including those on US President Donald Trump and his voters.

Others defended her, and expressed discomfort at seeing such a young actress suffer a pile-on.

Film critic Kelechi Ehenulo calls Zegler a victim of "culture wars", and warns actors from underrepresented backgrounds (Zegler is Latina) often find themselves becoming "targets for backlash".

So how did we get to this point – and where does Zegler go from here?

Let's start with the film itself.

Disney's live-action version of the classic fairy tale Snow White was released earlier this month, and has faced a slew of underwhelming reviews (the Observer's Wendy Ide described it as "toe-curlingly terrible".) US reviewers have been somewhat more positive – but despite it topping the North America box office chart, it hasn't made as much money as expected.

On social media, some people have been quick to point their finger at Zegler, arguing she hampered the release.

They include Jonah Platt, the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt. Earlier this week, he took aim at Zegler in a fiery social media post. It has since been deleted, but was screenshotted by multiple outlets including the New York Post.

He said Zegler had "[dragged] her personal politics" into the film's promotional campaign, adding: "Her actions clearly hurt the film's box office."

Platt didn't respond to a request for comment from BBC News.

The controversies started much earlier.

Before the film was released, Zegler faced abuse online by people who disagreed with her casting in the role of a character deemed to have skin "as white as snow".

Zegler made headlines after her comments, in 2022, about the original film. "There's a big focus [in the original] on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! So we didn't do that this time."

Zegler also said the original film was "extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power", adding: "People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is - because it needed that."

Many saw those words as a rebuke against Disney's tradition.

The Daily Mail branded it a "woke tirade" and an article this week in Variety said she "trashed the beloved original Snow White".

City AM's film editor Victoria Luxford says criticism of the original film "was never going to work out well. These films are marketed on nostalgia, on making you feel like you did when you saw the original, so to speak of it negatively seemed puzzling".

Zegler declined to comment on this piece.

But Anna Smith, film critic and host of the Girls On Film podcast, told BBC News that some of the headlines may have be misleading.

"Zegler pointed out that times and attitudes have changed, and that the new Snow White has been adapted for the current age. This is the case with many remakes and reboots, many of which do not make the headlines with comments about 'woke' culture."

Zegler's political views have also sparked a backlash.

Last summer, she thanked fans for their response to the film's trailer in a post on X, adding, "and always remember, free Palestine".

According to the Variety article, Marc Platt - mentioned above - flew to New York to speak directly with Zegler after the post.

Neither Zegler nor Platt have responded to a request for a comment on that.

Zegler also stoked controversy with her views after the 2024 US presidential election. Writing on Instagram, she said she hoped "Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace".

She later apologised for what she had said.

Some commend her for speaking her mind. Ehenulo says that she is "not the first and certainly not the last actor to be speaking about politics".

And Luxford told me she was "hard-pressed" to imagine the film's core audience, children under 10, being swayed by her politics.

But film critic Conor Riley said that her comments about Trump didn't "help the stability of the movie's release".

He notes that Gal Gadot, who plays Snow White's stepmother, the Evil Queen, has also faced a backlash from some people. Gadot, who is Israeli, has been vocal in her support of the country.

The timing of the film also didn't help, he added.

"Ultimately, [Zegler] became a lightning rod for controversy, not just due to her own actions, but because Snow White landed at the intersection of Hollywood's creative stagnation, racial politics, international conflict, and America's deep ideological divide," he said.

Some, like Luxford, argue that some of the pile-on comes from "a place of prejudice".

"She's a young Latina woman with political opinions that don't align with certain groups, who are quick to voice their anger," she said.

Zegler is far from the first young female actress to find herself facing a toxic backlash. Recently, Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown criticised press articles about her appearance, saying "this isn't journalism, this is bullying".

Smith notes that women in positions of prominence are more likely to be targeted in this way.

"When women in the public eye are criticised, there is often bias at work. Regardless of the topic, the way it's dealt with, talked about and reported will often differ compared to the way men are treated," she said.

Ehenulo, for her part, calls on the industry to do more to protect their stars.

"What irks me is how easy [people of colour] actors become targets for backlash on social media and yet the culture of silence from studios, news outlets and social media platforms says it all," she said.

"That lack of public protection... means the toxicity continues to fester and rise. It's the Wild West out there and I can't see it getting better when this has been normalised to such an extent."

We put those claims to Disney, but they declined to comment.

The big roles keep coming for Zegler. She is now signed up to star in Evita in the West End this summer, and on Friday, she made a splash in a different way - reading a CBeebies Bedtime Story.

At the end of the story, Zegler tells young viewers: "To be a powerful princess you just need to be wonderful, brilliant you!" For some, this is a message that encapsulates Zegler herself.

"I don't know if she's going to be doing another Disney film anytime soon," says Luxford, "but she's 23, she's a Golden Globe winner, and she's a very talented actor."