Welcome to our summer issue. At last the birdies are out, the sun is shining and the gloom is dissipating.
We’ve got many an exclusive in this issue. It begins with Ben Hardy, he off of EastEnders, who definitely did not murder his screen sister but instead sprouted massive great angel wings and flew off to Hollywood to be part of the stellar new cast for the latest X-Men movie, X-Men Apocalypse. We can’t help but try to take some ownership of this (a little). We spotted Ben in the great David Hare play Judas Kiss a few years back. Once in Albert Square, our cover shoot with him made him look like a silverscreen legend. I said at the time that the shoot was so great it would land him a part in a Hollywood movie and, lo and behold, someone in tinsel town saw it and the rest is history. Ben is a sweet guy and we are very excited to see him go skywards. Check out the new images of him on page 100.