FILM: Mike Leigh’s biopic of painter JMW Turner united critics in praise yesterday after it opened at the Cannes Film Festival.

Mr Turner, which stars Timothy Spall as the legendary artist, is one of 18 movies in the running to be awarded the Palme d’Or — the prestigious prize handed out every year to the best film in competition at the annual event in the south of France.

Five-stars reviews across the board called it “something of a masterpiece.”

WALES: A man has been found dead at the same house where the bodies of a mother and baby were found less than a year ago, police said yesterday.

Christopher Williams was found dead at 16 Church Street in Troedyrhiw, south Wales, on Thursday.

Just 10 months earlier, the bodies of Joanne Thomas and her four-month-old daughter Harper were found.

Police do not believe the deaths are linked.

WALES: Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood yesterday called on Welsh voters to back her party in next week’s European Parliament elections to save Wales from being “sidelined and marginalised” in Brussels.

Wales will elect four MEPs on May 22 by proportional representation and Plaid is fighting to retain its single seat, currently held by Jill Evans.

SCHOOLS: A former Ofsted contractor has abandoned its chain of six academies across England, proclaiming the project “too difficult.”

Education campaigners hammered the Con-Dems’ ideological push for academies and free schools after Prospects Academies Trust said it was giving up its “sponsor” status.

Sponsors do not pay towards the school’s running costs but allocate public funds, an arrangement which diverts money from state schools and is easily exploited by contractors.