The best of the silly season

2018 will go down as the summer of snakes

It’s officially autumn. Pencils are sharpened, the nights are drawing in, the kids (and politicians) are back at school (in parliament).

And with news this week that this summer was officially THE UK’S (joint) HOTTEST EVER, what better time to look back on the last few heady months in news.

Now, there was real news this summer — wildfires, flash flooding, and soaring temperatures around the world that claimed lives from the US to Asia. Almost every political party in the UK seemed to be in a state of constant turmoil and of course football nearly (but not that nearly) came home.

But with less politics, less business, and more people lounging around doing not-all-that-much the summer also brought more column inches for stories about, well, snakes mainly.

So let’s recap on some of the summer’s sillier news stories

There was that time Francis Ford Coppola said Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves might actually have been legally married on the set of Dracula.

Winona Ryder might actually have married Keanu Reeves on the set of Dracula

The time Jamie Oliver tried to make jerk rice, got slammed on Twitter, prompting a backlash over a backlash, and then just blamed it all on a slow news week.

Jamie Oliver blames jerk rice backlash on a 'quiet news week'

There was a crown jewels heist straight out of an action film.

The real-life heist of the Swedish royal family's crown jewels rivals any movie

And what about when Pete Doherty — former Libertines frontman and noughties tabloid front page regular — ate a breakfast so big it made national news, and then someone painted a mural of him eating it?

Now someone's painted a mural of Pete Doherty and his big breakfast

And then there were the snakes 🐍

There was one eating a pigeon in Leyton…

Snake filmed eating pigeon in street

…one in a blind man’s bathroom in Exeter…

Terrifying moment huge PYTHON found in blind Exeter man's loo

And one curled up next to a woman in bed in the London borough of Kensington

Woman wakes to find 3ft python in Kensington bed

In fact, there were so many stories about escaped snakes that the RSPCA helpfully offered advice on what to do if you came into contact with one.

Our advice? Ssssstay well clear

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