Heston Blumenthal fears watching TV series The Bear could trigger bipolar episode
Heston Blumenthal has said he fears that watching the high pressure depictions of kitchen life in the TV series The Bear could trigger a bipolar episode.The restaurateur and TV chef announced he was diagnosed with the mental health condition earlier this year, after receiving a positive assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2017.Blumenthal, 58, runs restaurants including the three Michelin-star Fat Duck, two Michelin-star Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Michelin-starred Hind’s Head, and the Perfectionists’ Cafe.He said he has not been able to watch the award-winning series The Bear as it depicts the highly pressurised atmosphere in the kitchen.Blumenthal told BBC Newsnight: “There’s a couple of the big chefs that I know, friends of mine, who have been involved in the consulting of it, so it must be pretty accurate.
I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to watch it, just at the moment, it’s too soon.”Blumenthal’s wife, Melanie Ceysson, added that he had not watched the show “because I think it is the biggest trigger for Heston’s condition”.Bipolar disorder is a severe mental health condition where people have extreme mood changes, though their frequency and type varies.Some people experience more periods of high mood or mania, and others experience more low mood, or depression, and many, though not all, have psychotic thoughts.Stress and not getting enough sleep can trigger these episodes.
While many people are undiagnosed, the charity Bipolar UK says there are 1,3 million people with the disorder in the UK,Blumenthal was sectioned in October last year after a mental health crisis in which he experienced mania, barely slept, had suicidal thoughts and became hallucinatory,He has previously said he wants to talk about his condition to raise awareness and reduce stigma,He was diagnosed with bipolar type 1, which refers to mania potentially followed by shorter depressive periods, and now uses medication to stabilise his moods.
He has also reflected on whether there were signs earlier in his career.During the BBC interview, Blumenthal said he worked 120 hours a week for the first 10 years of his career, “because I had no choice”.“I was sleeping 20 hours in a whole week,” he said.“The restaurant was young, and I was getting up at five o’clock in the morning, going into the kitchen, and then leaving at midnight.It didn’t really expose itself, my bipolarity, when I was in the kitchen.
”Blumenthal said he did not see his diagnosis as “all doom and gloom”, but rather that it was “part of who I am”.
Trump trade drives down pound and euro; Disney earnings boosted by Inside Out 2 and Deadpool – business live
Donald Trump’s election victory last week is continuing to shift the markets.The pound has dropped to its lowest level against the US dollar since early July this morning, down half a cent to $1.2653.On election day, sterling was worth $1.30, but it has been sliding since as traders have anticipated that Trump’s tax cuts and tariffs will be inflationary, meaning US interest rates stay higher
Big UK pub chains signal price rises as result of budget hit
The pub chain Young’s has said it is preparing to take an £11m annual hit from rises in employer taxes announced in the budget, and signalled that some of this could be passed on to customers through higher prices.The chief executive, Simon Dodd, said a rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), coupled with an increase in the national minimum wage, would result in “significant increased costs for our industry in the near term”.“We will work to see how we can mitigate these headwinds without passing on all the cost to our loyal customers,” he said. He also called for “certainty and delivery of real business rate reform which will benefit all hospitality businesses”.The chair of JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, has warned of price increases across the hospitality industry, saying that the pub chain’s tax and business costs would go up by about £60m over the next year
They’ve been described as the ‘fastest-growing fire risk’ – so why do lithium batteries keep exploding?
A faulty lithium-ion battery in an e-scooter likely caused an intense garage and house fire in Sydney’s south on Tuesday, fire investigators have found, the latest in a spate of incidents involving lithium-ion batteries.In early November, a fire in an apartment in New Farm in inner-city Brisbane is also believed by authorities to have been sparked by an e-scooter battery. In March, batteries resulted in four separate fires in a single day in New South Wales.Fire and Rescue NSW has referred to lithium-ion batteries as the “fastest-growing fire risk” in the state. The agency responded to 272 battery-related fires last year – more than five each week
Apple facing near-£3bn UK lawsuit over cloud storage ‘monopoly’
Apple is facing a near-£3bn lawsuit over claims it breached competition law by effectively locking millions of UK consumers into its cloud storage service at “rip-off” prices.The legal claim is being brought by Which?. The consumer group claimed that about 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout averaging £70 each if the action is successful.However, Apple said it rejected the Which? accusations and would “vigorously defend” itself against any legal claim.A similar lawsuit relating to this issue was launched against Apple in the US in March this year but has not yet concluded
The NFL’s most box-office player today is … an offensive tackle? | Oliver Connolly
Jared Goff may be the Detroit Lions’ most important player as they take aim at a first Super Bowl appearance, but Penei Sewell is the team’s bestSaquon Barkley is leaping over defenders. Fred Warner is hitting everything in sight. Wherever you look, Lamar Jackson is slinging fire. And yet the best show going in the NFL through 10 weeks is one of the big guys up front: Lions right tackle Penei Sewell.It can be easy to miss tackles
Stuttering Socceroos have work to do for USA 2026 after Saudi stumble
That the player of the match award at Australia’s World Cup qualifier in Melbourne on Thursday was sponsored by the Saudi Tourism Authority is somehow fitting. This was indeed a never-ending night of contradictions, a match that the Socceroos managed to make a scoreless home draw feel like a victory.As the clock ticked towards 93 minutes, the brilliant strike by Sultan al-Ghannam billows the net and prompts wild celebrations among the Saudi players and travelling supporters. Just what the Socceroos needed, another home capitulation, think 27,000 fans inside AAMI Park.But their eyes are soon drawn to the players in white surrounding the linesman, his yellow and orange flag enraging them like a mosquito in a bedroom
From Chalamet to Mescal: why are celebrity lookalike competitions everywhere?
‘James Brown kept cutting our stage time’ – how the Stylistics made You Make Me Feel Brand New
Even among artists in exile, the myth of Russian cultural supremacy lives on
Albanese government must ban dynamic pricing and prosecute scalpers, local ticketing agency says
‘People feel terrible. They want to laugh’: can comedy make light of Trump 2.0?
Jon Ronson: ‘What will be the next culture war? Autism. And climate migration’