What happened
People across Britain and Europe watched the Moon slide across the Sun yesterday during one of the most spectacular solar displays in decades. Britain saw a partial eclipse, with coverage exceeding 90% in many areas and reaching 95% in Cornwall. Clear weather offered especially good views across much of southern England and Wales, while clouds obscured parts of the north. Iceland, Greenland and some regions in Spain witnessed totality, as the Moon completely concealed the Sun for just under two minutes.

Who said what
Chilean scientist Yasmin Catricheo travelled to north-west Spain specifically for the event. “At the totality, everyone was cheering and sharing the excitement of what we were seeing. No words could describe the feeling,” she said. “The universe is amazing.”

“I watched as the eclipse united strangers in wonder and then disappointment,” said Mick Brown in The Telegraph. “It looked like dusk had arrived early, or God had turned down the dimmer switch. But that was all.” Still, it was “certainly a wonderful communal moment”, said Steven Morris in The Guardian. “People came from far and wide to witness a phenomenon that has thrilled humans for thousands of years.”

What next?
The spectacle marks the beginning of an unusually busy period for celestial enthusiasts, with three total eclipses due worldwide between now and 2028. But Britain’s next major opportunity won’t come until 2081, when 99% coverage of the Sun is expected, while the next total eclipse visible from the country is not until 2090.

What happened
The future James Bond will not be chosen for their social media following, according to Nina Gold, the person given the task of finding the next actor to play 007.

Casting guru Gold dismissed the suggestion that there was “social media pressure” from film franchise owner Amazon over who should get the golden gun. “I don’t know about that stuff. I can’t even find it on my phone,” she said. “I definitely tend to find people through more traditional methods and go to a lot of drama schools and theatre.”

Who said what
In the past few years filmmakers “have shifted towards selecting actors with large numbers of online followers, such as Dwayne Johnson, adopting the view that they can help to draw in bigger cinema audiences”, said The Times. But two of the frontrunners to succeed Daniel Craig – Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner – don’t have any social media at all.

But during the latest episode of The Rest is Entertainment podcast, Richard Osman revealed that a Scottish actor could be in line for the big role. He told co-host Marina Hyde: “The name I’ve heard is Jack Lowden.” Osman said Lowden “would be an incredible Bond” as “he’s got real Daniel Craig energy”.

What next?
Amazon has yet to confirm anything about the next Bond movie and there’s no hint as to what it will be called. But insiders say the plan is to begin filming next spring, although it is unlikely to hit cinemas until 2028.

What does Enid Blyton’s Land of Spells have in common with the Bay of Pentos in “Game of Thrones”? asked The Guardian. Both were portrayed by the same “sunny archipelago in the Mediterranean”: Malta.

The EU’s smallest country, “no bigger in size than Sheffield”, has over the past decade become “one of the most popular places” for American and British filmmakers to work. It has hosted more than 30 movie and TV productions in each of the past three years, including “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II”. The “microstate” just south of Sicily has stood in for Greece, southern France and even the Caribbean – in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming “Viva la Madness”.

Malta is “really punching above its weight”, said Adrian Wootton, the chief executive of the British Film Commission. It’s been “very aggressive, in a positive way”.

One of the reasons for its success is that productions have benefitted from a “hefty 40% tax rebate”. It’s probably “the most generous cash rebate in the world”, Aidan Elliott, executive producer on “Gladiator II” and “Napoleon”, told Deadline.

As ever with “generous rebates”, there has been “some local pushback”, said Deadline. Malta’s infrastructure is “being tested to the limits as its cities, towns and villages regularly turn into film sets”, according to The Guardian. Road closures and parking restrictions “have become a bugbear” for locals.

And critics say Malta’s rise as a filming location has “come at the cost of neglecting local cinematic talent”. “It is tempting to sit back and believe the local film industry to be ‘strong’ simply because many foreign productions shoot in Malta,” said producer Malcolm Scerri Ferrante in the Times of Malta. But volume alone “does not constitute a robust film industry, and certainly not an indigenous one”.