Meet the Willy Wonka fanatic who has Got a Golden Ticket, and much, much more. Nick Franklin, 44, is believed to have the biggest private Willy Wonka collection in the world – and it comes in at a scrumdiddly­umptious £125,000. The dedicated ‘Wonka Wing’ in his house boasts hundreds of items from the 1971 film and Johnny Depp’s 2005 remake – and he already has a few bits and pieces from the upcoming movie starring Timothée Chalamet, despite it not being released for another year.

A devastated mum who lost her ‘precious’ 20-year-old daughter to suicide claims she was ‘failed’ by Newcastle University and two police forces. Hilary Grime, 57, suffered pain ‘beyond her human capacity’ when university student Phoebe took her own life and died on June 5, 2021. Northumbria Police and Kent Police took a combined six hours to contact Hilary to say her daughter was in hospital – as panicked doctors warned her life was ‘slipping away’.

People living on the streets are ‘freezing, blue, shivering and scared’ and some will freeze to death, as more sub-zero temperatures are predicted this winter, a grassroots group has warned. Streets Kitchen volunteers, who head out every day to deliver essential items, are still seeing 50 to 70 homeless people outside a day in different parts of London. Those delivering aid say they have been left with the impossible decision of ‘who gets a sleeping pod and who doesn’t’, with snow and icy conditions gripping the UK over the past week.

A Ukrainian four-year-old suffering from cancer has made it safely to the UK – but still fears Vladimir Putin’s troops from 2,000 miles away. Zlata Tkachenko, who has acute leukaemia, spent the first weeks of the war sheltering in a hospital basement as bombs fell overhead in Kharkiv. Her mum Alina, 31, has thanked ’angel’ NHS workers for ‘helping us through tragedy’ after the family was evacuated to Liverpool, where Zlata was able to celebrate her fourth birthday. But the ‘little warrior’ still faces an uphill battle, with 18 months of cancer treatment still ahead as she comes to terms with the trauma of the war.

A body language expert has claimed Rishi Sunak appeared to show ‘fear’ rather than reassuring the nation in his first speech as Tory leader. The prime minister-in-waiting’s charm was ‘drained’ and he showed he can be ‘just as robotic as Liz Truss, if not more’, Judi James has said. She added that he seemed ‘to have mixed emotions’ after beating out Penny Mordaunt, and it ultimately was ’not the high-impact start he might have needed’.

It was April 10, 1981 when a crowd in south London erupted following rumours of police mistreatment of a black man. The unrest saw around 5,000 people take to the streets, nearly 300 police officers and 60 others injured, and 150 buildings damaged or destroyed. History remembers it as the Brixton ‘riots’ – but many who were there say this label risks ignoring the decades of police brutality and racism suffered by a community that was ‘crying out for a bit of peace’. Lessons must be learned so

A community centre which offers free food to families struggling with the cost of living crisis has blamed ‘social cleansing’ after being ‘evicted’ from three sites in seven years. Parents fighting to put food on the table use volunteer-run Homegrown in Tottenham, north London for its free food hub, Saturday school and advocacy service. The project has become a safe haven and ‘second family’ for people on low incomes, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and refugees.

A Ukrainian soldier says it feels like Russian troops have little interest in seizing land, but instead want a ‘genocide’ of his people. Today marks exactly six months since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24, and coincides with Ukraine’s Independence Day – a celebration of the day it broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. Half a year after he ordered his Army to attack, Vladimir Putin now controls 20% of Ukraine.

A Ukrainian family has faced tragedy as a dad is shot by Russians on the frontline while his four-year-old son battles cancer. Dmytro Vasyliovvch Kurylyak, 31, is being treated in Odessa after putting his life on the line in the charge against Vladimir Putin’s six-month campaign of terror. Meanwhile, his little boy, Maksym has spent most of the war sheltering from bombs in a Kyiv hospital basement while bravely facing his own fight against leukaemia.

Britain’s leading Muslim organisation says the new prime minister must treat ‘systemic’ Islamophobia within the Tory party seriously after ‘an alarming radio silence’ on the issue from Boris Johnson, and little discussion on it within the leadership contest so far. The outgoing British leader should have apologised in his resignation speech last week for letting down the Muslim community, as well as many other people across the UK, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain believes.

Chris Smith remembers walking out on stage in 1984, scared stiff and hands shaking. He had written a ‘very boring’ speech on the train as he travelled to speak at a gay rights rally – but 10 minutes before he was due to speak, he made a snap decision. Rather than make comments that would be forgotten within days, he was going to make history. After walking up to the platform, he told his crowd: ‘Good afternoon. My name is Chris Smith. I’m the Labour MP for Islington, South Finsbury and I’m gay’.

A transgender woman who was strapped to a wooden chair and given electric shocks ‘to cure her’ has suggested government ministers try conversion therapy and ‘see if they still think it’s acceptable’ for trans people. Carolyn Mercer had attempted to take her own life shortly before she was put through the abhorrent practice aged just 17. More than fifty years later, the 74-year-old is thriving, living openly as her true self with a loving family and a successful career. But she still struggles to feel positive emotions and says ‘the only person I ever hated is myself’.

Ukraine’s prosecutor has announced 1,222 bodies have now been found in mass graves in the Kyiv region as Ukraine braces for a huge new offensive. Heavy bombardments hammered the country throughout the weekend, after hundreds of civilians were discovered dead with their hands bound and signs of torture last week. The UN said on Sunday 4,232 civilian casualties had been recorded to date as areas including Kharkiv, Izyum and Mariupol face relentless shelling. Of these, 1,793 civilians have been

The Government has been forced to cancel a landmark international LGBT+ conference after it was revealed transgender people will be excluded from a conversion therapy ban, it is understood. The ‘Safe To Be Me: Global Equality Conference’ promised to bring together policymakers, activists and experts to ‘protect and promote the rights of LGBT people around the world’. But ministers were left humiliated when more than 100 charities pulled out in response to changes to a promised ban on all conversion therapy.

A Ukrainian woman who tore herself away from the ‘love of her life’ to save their one-year-old from Russian bombs has found safety in Poland – but says she has ‘left her heart behind’. Angelina Matvevea, 25, spent two weeks sheltering in a damp basement with husband Andrew, 36, and daughter Olivia when Vladimir Putin launched his onslaught. She hoped the Kremlin just wanted to scare Ukrainians but knew she had to leave when Russians stormed the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, sparking fears of a second Chernobyl.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe wore yellow and blue in support of Ukraine as she spoke out for the first time since her release from Iran. The mum-of-one declined to answer questions about what her time in solitary confinement was like on Monday, saying it was ‘very difficult to talk about what I’ve gone through’. After six years trapped in jail, she said it was ‘surreal to come back and to be holding my husband and baby, who’s not a baby’.

There are fears for the 80,000 Ukrainian women expected to give birth in the next three months, with many unable to access critical health care. There is a ‘crucial need’ to protect women and girls who are suffering amid Vladimir Putin’s invasion, aid agencies have warned on International Women’s Day. Childbirth ‘could become a life-threatening experience’ as thousands crowd inside shelters and try to flee borders to escape Russian bombs, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Meanw

MPs will get a pay rise of more than £2,000 this year as many British people struggle with soaring energy and food costs. Their overall salary will jump from £81,932 to £84,144 from April 1, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has announced. The exact increase of £2,212 per year is partly due to their work ‘dramatically’ increasing in the past 12 months, Richard Lloyd, Ipsa’s chair, has said.

An Afghan family has named British people ‘angels’ for warmly welcoming them as they finally made it to the UK after fleeing the Taliban reign of terror. Eid Mohammad Sultani, 38, raced to the airport with his wife and sons Sahil, 10, and Sohai, 8, when the militant group took over in August. But they were left behind when the devastating Kabul suicide bombing that killed almost 200 people stopped them from making their flight.

Mehray Taher, 27, remembers the day her husband Mirzat, 30, was sentenced to 25 years in jail by the Chinese Government. ‘I remember just being in denial. I sat there like “No, that can’t be true”‘, she tells Metro.co.uk. ‘I was crying non-stop, I don’t even know where the tears were coming from. ‘I was thinking “25 years, my husband will be 55 when he gets out. How is that possible?’ Official papers state Mirzat was arrested for alleged separatism – but Mehray says he is an innocent man whose ‘only crime is being Uyghur’.