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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityScience & EnvironmentPoland’s ‘Heart of the Garden’ crowned Tree of the YearPublished23 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Marcin_KopijImage caption, The Heart of the Garden is thought to be 200 years oldBy Maddie MolloyBBC News Climate & ScienceA Polish tree nicknamed Heart of the Garden, pictured above, has won the 2024 European Tree of the Year contest.The monumental common beech tree grows in an old park in the University of Wroclaw’s botanical garden. It’s the third Polish tree in a row to win.The contest celebrates our relationship with nature by showcasing beautiful and unique trees from across the continent.Here are some other notable entries.Image source, Emmanuel BoitierTaking second place is the Weeping Beech of Bayeux in Normandy. Spreading over 40m wide, the city has provided structural support to keep it standing.Image source, Valerio Atzori Corpo forestale SardegnaIn third place is the 1,000-year-old Olive Tree of Luras in Sardinia, Italy. Estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,000 years old, it’s one of the oldest specimens of wild olive on the island.Image source, José Couceiro da CostaThe curiously curated common camellia from Portugal was a strong runner-up. It stands out for centuries of careful shaping.Image source, Hannah FarnellThe UK’s entry, Wrexham’s sweet chestnut in Acton Park, came in tenth place. Thought to be almost 500 years old, this giant tree has weathered many storms and survived being pillaged for firewood in 1940s post-war Britain.The full results can be seen on Europe’s t Tree of the Year website.Related TopicsTreesNatureMore on this storyTowering sweet chestnut tree reaches UK finalsPublished1 October 2023New life springs from rescued Sycamore Gap treePublished9 MarchSycamore Gap tree: The story so farPublished9 MarchMore than 100,000 sign ‘Darwin Oak’ petitionPublished14 FebruaryTop StoriesThis will be year economy bounces back, Sunak says, after inflation fallsPublished2 hours agoFresh defeats in the Lords over Rwanda billPublished4 minutes agoI am no longer best man to be Irish PM – VaradkarPublished13 minutes agoFeaturesFamine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapesThe GP who became Ireland’s youngest taoiseachEmma Barnett: ‘Why I wanted a baby loss certificate’Bafta TV Awards: The list of nominationsWatch: An emotional farewell to the Hairy Bikers. VideoWatch: An emotional farewell to the Hairy BikersPain, anger and disquiet as new Welsh first minister takes the stageLondon Tube strikes: All you need to knowI took three bullets to stop Princess Anne’s kidnap. VideoI took three bullets to stop Princess Anne’s kidnapThe Staves: ‘The pressure to feel empowered is suffocating’Elsewhere on the BBCThe ultimate bromanceWatch the masters of satire Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with a look back through the archivesAttributioniPlayerAre you a descendant of royalty?Geneticist Dr. Adam Rutherford sets out to prove that we all are…AttributionSoundsFrom the largest ship to disasters on deck…A closer look at times when cruise ships have caused commotionAttributioniPlayerA satirical look at the scheming world of PRCharles Prentiss and Martin McCabe embark on a new career as spin doctorsAttributionSoundsMost Read1Ramadan message removed from King’s Cross board2Man given ‘wife’s ashes’ before her cremation3Harry Potter steam train service suspended4Man murdered couple with drug before re-writing will5Fresh defeats in the Lords over Rwanda bill6I am no longer best man to be Irish PM – Varadkar7Kate hospital responds after alleged privacy breach8Woman found with £2bn in Bitcoin convicted9Mystery solved after divers find German U-boat10Junior doctors vote to continue strike action
[ad_1] A monumental Polish beech has been crowned European Tree of the Year 2024.
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityAsiaChinaIndiaFearless Nadia: The Australian stuntwoman who captivated IndiansPublished2 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AlamyImage caption, ‘To school kids of the mid-forties Fearless Nadia meant courage, strength and idealism’By Meryl SebastianBBC News, Kochi”The single most memorable sound of my childhood was the clarion call of ‘Hey-y-y’ as Fearless Nadia, regal upon her horse, her hand raised defiantly in the air, rode down upon the bad guys,” acclaimed Indian playwright and director Girish Karnad wrote in 1980.”To school kids of the mid-forties, Fearless Nadia meant courage, strength and idealism.”Actress and stuntwoman Mary Ann Evans, best known by her stage name Fearless Nadia, took the Indian film industry by storm in 1935 when she appeared in the Hindi film Hunterwali (The Woman with a Whip). A blonde, blue-eyed woman of Australian origin, she made a splash as she appeared in a cape, leather shorts and knee-high boots with a whip in hand. In pictures: Indian cinema turns 100Evans was born in Perth, Australia, in 1908 to a Greek mother and British father, according to Rosie Thomas, author of Bombay before Bollywood. She arrived in India in 1911 with her father’s army unit but settled with her family in Bombay (now Mumbai) after his death.According to Thomas, Evans – who’d grown up learning dance and horse-riding – toured India with a Russian ballet troupe and briefly performed for a circus. The young performer became known as a singer and dancer, performing at all kinds of venues across the country. She was working in theatre and circus in the early 1930s when she was discovered by prominent Bollywood movie director JBH Wadia.Image source, AlamyImage caption, Fearless Nadia took the Indian film industry by storm in 1935 when she appeared in Hunterwali (The Woman With a Whip)Wadia initially cast her in small roles in films produced by his studio Wadia Movietone, which he ran with his brother Homi. Evans was great at stunts and had a “can-do-anything attitude”, says Roy Wadia, JBH Wadia’s grandson.So the Wadia brothers cast her in her first lead role in Hunterwali, in which she played an avenging princess who turns into a masked vigilante as she seeks revenge for her father’s death at the hands of an evil court official. 10 things about BollywoodBut while they were thrilled with their new star, others were not quite as ready to embrace their vision. “The financiers of the film were quite horrified that these Parsi brothers would star a blonde, blue-eyed, white woman in a film where she was wearing hot pants and leather vests and carrying a whip and basically beating up all these bad guys in the film,” Roy Wadia says.So they pulled out and the Wadia brothers released the film themselves. The 1935 film was a huge hit, running houseful in theatres for weeks, and Evans went on to become the top box-office female star of the 1930s and 1940s, according to Thomas. The film’s success also transformed Wadia Movietone into a studio known for films with fantastic stunts and theatrics. Evan’s famous yell “hey-y-y” in Hunterwali became a catchphrase. Image source, Film and Television Institute of IndiaImage caption, Fearless Nadia was perhaps the first foreigner to attain cult status in Bollywood”The roles she played, and the screenplays that my grandfather created for her, were about emancipation, about the freedom struggle, about literacy, about anti-corruption – all themes that were particularly relevant at that time of huge social change and turmoil [of the Indian Independence movement],” says Roy Wadia.”Although strict British censorship forbade overt references to the freedom movement, film-makers of the 1930s and 1940s would slip casual references to Congress [party] songs and symbols into the soundtrack or screen,” Thomas writes. “Nadia saw her role – on-screen and off – as supporting the nationalist movement and stated explicitly, ‘In all the pictures there was a propaganda message, something to fight for, for example for people to educate themselves or to become a strong nation’.”Her roles often featured her as a cosmopolitan woman who took charge to physically fight off villains in her films, often flipping burly men over her shoulder.”She would be jumping off waterfalls, jumping off planes, riding horses bareback, swinging on chandeliers, jumping 30ft from the roof of a castle – all stunts she did herself,” Roy Wadia says.”In those days, there were no safety nets, no body doubles and certainly no stamped insurance.”The actor’s dynamism and skill at stunts helped sell her on-screen persona to a fascinated audience. But they were not always an easy feat.In a 1980 interview with Karnad, Evans talked about one of her most terrifying moments from a film shoot. The actor was working on Jungle Princess (1942), which had a scene with a lion.”We started shooting and suddenly a lioness called Sundari gave an enormous roar and jumped. She jumped straight across my head, Homi’s head, the photographer’s head and barged through the cage, and there she was, hanging with her head and front paws on the outside and the rest of her inside.” The lion trainer eventually got her out unharmed.In her films, Evans often switched easily from Western clothing to Indian attire. “Always with a sense of humour and glint in the eye that lets you know that she’s like a chameleon but not really changing because under all that she remains the same person,” Roy Wadia says.Evans eventually fell in love and became Homi Wadia’s partner, a relationship that was not approved by many in the Wadia family. The couple had the staunch support of his brother JBH Wadia, but they only married after Wadia’s mother passed away.Roy Wadia remembers Evans as a down-to-earth, ordinary woman with a great sense of humour. “She had this huge laugh, she would make all sorts of jokes – naughty ones as well.”Every year Evans and Homi Wadia would throw a Christmas party at their shack in Juhu, where they entertained everyone from industry colleagues, family members to friends. “Homi would dress up as Santa Claus and make his appearance in all sorts of dramatic ways. And Mary was his partner in crime there,” Roy Wadia recalls.The couple did not have children, but Homi Wadia adopted Evans’s son from a previous marriage. Evans died in 1996 soon after her 88th birthday. She was perhaps the first foreigner to attain cult status in Bollywood. 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