The Know Daily - Thursday 18 September 2025

_{Read in 4m 29s ∙ Listening to Olivia Dean ∙}

Gen Alpha is redefining what it means to be a hero in 2025. According to Disney On Ice’s new report, kids look up to parents (39%), emergency workers (35%) and teachers (24%) far more than celebrities (9%). For today’s children, bravery, kindness and even vulnerability are the true superpowers 🦹‍♀️

📚 Book to screen adaptations

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights has stirred chatter online from fans debating casting and costume choices to critics wondering what a classic needs to keep its spirit. Adaptations often do that: they invite comparison, expectation and conversation  – here’s why.

Why do adaptations cause a stir?
An adaptation takes a private experience (reading a book) and turns it into a public performance. This can raise a couple of points: first, readers build personal versions of characters and settings in their heads; second, filmmakers make choices about tone, era, casting and design that may differ from those private versions. When a high-profile project like Wuthering Heights drops a trailer or casting news, fans and critics rush to judge whether the new vision honours the source or reshapes it beyond recognition. 

Purists v. modernists: what’s the divide?
“Purists” are after accuracy: the period dress, the plot beats, the moods and moral textures that made the novel matter to them in the first place. They worry that changes erase the book’s original meanings. But filmmakers treat adaptations as creative works in their own right: they’ll update scenes, shift emphasis, or remix genres to speak to contemporary audiences. Neither side is right or wrong – adaptations exist on a spectrum between faithful recreation and interpretive reinvention – and a lot of the argument is about what the adapter is trying to do. Charlotte Higgins at The Guardian asks the question: “Does accuracy in a movie set in the past actually matter?”.

What do the film critics say?
When critics talk about adaptations, they often weigh up how faithful the version is to the book, what new artistic choices it makes and how those choices connect with audiences. Some writers also warn readers against treating adaptations as literal guides to real places or events – novelist David Nicholls has cautioned against trying to visit “novel locations” expecting them to match the book exactly, a useful reminder that adaptations are interpretations, not travel guides. Reviews of Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens and other classics show how responses can range from praise for inventive re-readings to disappointment when the audience finds the central drama to be flattened.

On that note, here are some of our fave adaptions:
🧡 Lynn: Normal People (2020) – Sally Rooney’s novel was turned into a BBC/Hulu series that felt both intimate and universal.
🌍 Annabel: The Joy Luck Club (1993): Based on Amy Tan’s novel, this film was groundbreaking in its portrayal of Chinese-American women’s lives and intergenerational stories.
🎩 Hannah: Pride & Prejudice (2005) – Joe Wright’s lush period drama reminded audiences why Austen keeps being reimagined.

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💷 Holding the line: UK inflation held at 3.8% in August, showing no change from July despite shifts in travel, fuel and food costs.

• The bigger story: Cheaper air fares and hotel stays helped offset higher supermarket and petrol prices. With inflation below the Bank of England’s 4% interest rate, it means borrowing is deliberately kept a little more expensive to slow price rises further. For households, prices are still going up, just not any faster than last month.

✈️ Jet lagathon: China Eastern Airlines has begun selling tickets for its new 29-hour “direct flight” connecting these two cities.

📋 Drawing democracy: A proposal to shake-up one UK county has been released, which would see its 15 existing councils abolished in favour of new governing bodies to handle all local services.

☀️ Here comes the sun: NASA has said solar activity is increasing after a decades-long lull – almost as if the sun is waking up.

🇪🇸 Guest guide: Santiago de Compostela in Spain is experiencing a social media-driven visitor boom, prompting the release of a new guide reminding tourists of courtesies.

❤️‍🩹 The hardest word: Researchers have found that longer, gushing apologies come across as more sincere. 

📖 Murder on the dancefloor: Autumn is the season of hunkering down with a murder mystery – and The Standard has pulled together a list of the best Agatha Christie novels just in time.

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Trivia answer: B) Luxembourg City has been named Europe’s priciest city for renters.

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