This week's UK news: 29 November 2013
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29 November 2013


Comedy shows sell out in under a minute

Monty Python created some of the UK's most famous jokes. They are a group of six comedians whose 1970s TV show created a new kind of show. Monty Python's Flying Circus had short acted stories with strange cartoons in between. Some of the most famous jokes were about very silly things. One was about a man complaining to a pet shop that they had sold him a dead parrot.

The team also made films. One, called the Life of Brian, caused lots of argument because people thought it was based on the life of Jesus.

The Pythons have not done much work together since their last film came out in 1983, so there was lots of excitement when they announced they would do live shows in London next year.

Tickets for the first show sold out in under a minute. Now they have added five more dates.


Dr Who one of the world's biggest TV shows

Dr Who is the story of an alien who looks like a human and travels in time in a blue telephone box. The TV show, created by the UK's public broadcasting channel the BBC, celebrated its 50th anniversary this week.

The 50th anniversary show was shown on TV in 94 countries. At the same time, it was shown in 3D to more than half a million people in cinemas in Latin America, North America and Europe. It is now in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Doctor won't appear on UK TV again until Christmas. The Christmas Day show will be the one where the current Doctor (played by Matt Smith) will transform into a new one (played by Peter Capaldi). The two actors are very different so people are waiting to see how the show will change. 


Women slaves in London

There has been a lot of news about three women escaping from a house in London. The women, who are 30, 57, and 69, said they had been held at the house for 30 years. One of the women may have spent her whole life there.

News stories are describing the women as "slaves" but there are not many details at the moment about why they stayed in the house for so long or why they were there. The women escaped after calling a charity which advises people being threatened with marriages they don't want.

News stories now suggest that the other people in the house might have been running an extreme political cult. Police are still investigating what has happened.


Will Scotland stay in the UK?

There is going to be a vote in Scotland as to whether it stays as part of the UK. Some people in Scotland want their country to be independent, but others want it to stay part of the UK.

This week the Scottish Nationalist Party published a huge document about the benefits of voting for an independent Scotland. It promises that the UK nuclear submarines would not be in Scottish ports. Scotland would also want to keep the GB pound and join the European Union.


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