G2

Britain’s Eurovision crisis is not a problem for parliament

The State of Play inquiry, which is run by the House of Commons’ digital, culture, media and sport select committee, recently announced the five areas on which it will focus in 2026-27. One is: why are our Eurovision entries so bad? The word used by...

I’m 92 and walking is a struggle. But cycling is my life

When Arthur Plummer retired at 65, he bought a secondhand bicycle. His sister was a member of a cycling club for seniors in the Canadian city of Waterloo, Ontario, where they lived, and Plummer joined, too, becoming one of the club’s youngest members....

Busby Berkeley dance routines

1 Lullaby of Broadway from Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) Of all the musical numbers he directed, Berkeley’s favourite was this 13-minute expressionist nightmare in which a young woman’s nightclubbing gets out of hand. From the most sinister phalanx of...

Get them while you can!

I felt hugely self-conscious about my skin – until I had a revelation

The microphone felt heavier than I expected. As I stood on stage at a London comedy club last December, I looked out at a room full of strangers sitting quietly, waiting for me to make them laugh. It felt nerve-racking and surreal. I had spent years...

‘I’m a wild water nut!’

I was terrified of dentists - until I found one who offered something different

If you had asked me a decade ago whether sitting in the dentist’s chair filled me with dread or made me break out in a cold sweat, I would have laughed and said no – what is there to be afraid of? It was only in 2021, after I had a filling without...

Céline Dion’s greatest songs

1 It’s All Coming Back to Me Now (1996) Writer Jim Steinman claimed It’s All Coming Back to Me Now was inspired by the scene in Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff dances with Cathy’s corpse on a beach. No such scene exists, but that’s Steinman for you....

‘Scots are the kindest people on Earth’

‘I’m seen as a Marmite figure’

Does the hard right really care about women and girls?

It was a busy weekend for the insurgent and hard right, as Reform party delegates re-doubled their commitment to women’s safety by physically attacking a female protester and Patriot Platform, a new group established by Danny Tommo, real name Daniel...

I’m an 82-year-old fashion influencer with 829,000 followers

'It took me till I was 80 to realise that I’m quite an outgoing and loud person,” says Vivienne Truran. Now 82, she has 829,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts daily videos about her outfit choices, including which of her trademark glasses work...

The best giants of the big screen

1 Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion bronze statue turning its head is one of the most awe-inspiring moments in film history, the acme of cinema giants, supplemented as it is by an epic Bernard Herrmann score. Knuckleheaded...

I’ve learned the longer it takes to cook, the less you want to eat it

If you ever meet someone from North Macedonia and find yourself short of conversation, then one word will get things going nicely. That word is ajvar. Pronounce it “Ivor”, as in The Engine – not quite right but it’ll do. Depending on who you ask, ajvar...

‘No one talks about actors’ dedication. But I had a perm for five months!’

It’s not prisons that are the problem; it’s our stupid sentencing code

Prisons in England and Wales are full because sentences have increased, and everybody knows this. Lord chief justices know this – four of them said it outright in a report for the Howard League two years ago – ministers know it, and anyone who can...

Television

The Lycett Arms Late Night Lycett proved that Joe Lycett had fully inherited Friday nights on Channel 4. Its follow-up sounds even more TFI-esque, promising “top-drawer comedy entertainment” from Joe and a real east London pub full of celebrity...

Chaka Khan’s greatest songs

1 Rufus and Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody (1983) One of the greatest singles of the 80s began life on a contract-fulfilling slate of studio tracks. Khan had left Rufus and had to be coaxed back for one last album. Yet Ain’t Nobody was a synth-funk...

My mum died. And there’s one kind of response I can’t stand

Luckily, I already knew having a comic thought at a tragic moment is a natural stress response, or I might have worried. My mum has died, making me an orphan – and what first popped into my head was how annoyed Larry David would be. In Curb Your...

‘I remember going: oh hello!’

‘It looked stunning on Joanna Lumley!’

I became a grocer - it made my body stronger and quieted my mind

When Robert Solomon’s working hours were cut during the pandemic – he did building management and tech support for a nonprofit organisation – he got an extra job at a food cooperative, helping to stock the store. It was, he says, the most ordinary job,...

‘It’s refreshing and fun to be nasty about yourself’

I live to declutter – and I won’t let my husband get in the way

Older doesn’t always mean wiser. Jo Whiley has spoken about a home hack she picked up from Dame Judi Dench, and I’m opposed to it with every fibre of my being. Whiley is in a new phase – her four children are grownup – so she recently began the most...

‘When are you going to pay me back?!’

I was abused as a child and thought I had healed. Then I began to drink

I sent myself a letter and realised what’s missing in modern life

Last January, I received a letter. Most of my post was predictably boring – a statement from the water company, my credit card bill, the occasional update about my pension contributions – but this letter was different. The envelope felt heavier than...

Frank Ocean songs

See the full list of 20 at theguardian.com/music 10 White Ferrari (2016) White Ferrari is far from the usual driving anthem; rather, it evokes someone lost in thoughts and memories as they motor along. It’s daring – there is no chorus, the...

Nice while it lasted …

My stammer made life a misery – then a song gave me back my voice

For most of my life, I had one goal: don’t get found out. I was a covert stammerer (or stutterer). Nobody realised I had a speech disability, because whenever I felt I was going to get stuck on a word, I switched it or stayed silent. You’d never catch...

Rejoice, serfs, for the King of the North is touring his domain

Andy Burnham is going on a “listening tour”, travelling the country on a bus to find out what real people are concerned about. I’ve heard commentators rationalise the idea in various ways: apparently it underscores the difference between him and his...

‘I’ve sat at the very precipice of life’

River Phoenix’s best films

1 My Own Private Ihado (1991) The boldness of Phoenix and Keanu Reeves in playing sex workers should not be underestimated. But the narcoleptic hustler Mike, who turns tricks while searching for his mother, was no ordinary job for Phoenix. The...

They know what I like, but they won’t sell it to me

We live, as I’m sure someone’s chief growth officer has recently said, in a golden age for data capture. Jeff Bezos knows what I buy, read and watch; Mark Zuckerberg will be aware that I recently sold a dog transport box. I’ve been conditioned into...

‘I’ll always be that girl who’s rough around the edges’

Does Andy Burnham hate London? Does anyone care?

I’ve seen no evidence of Andy being anti-London,” the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, told the Evening Standard last week, which is quaint and adorable: evidence is so 2009. This is all about feels. Some feel that the prime minister disfavours the capital...

I learned to love my arms – after decades of hating and hiding them

Aren’t you hot in that?” was the question that plagued my summers as a teenager. I would never bare my arms; instead, I would cover up with a trusty black cardigan. Even T-shirts felt too revealing; too tight on the arms, too clinging to the body. I...

The best songs by the Kinks

1 Waterloo Sunset (1967) Critic Robert Christgau called Waterloo Sunset “the most beautiful song in the English language”: it’s among the greatest singles of the 60s, possibly one of the greatest pop songs of all time. On top of a beautiful melody,...

Buzz off !

I’d lost my libido – but it flooded back when I saw Richard Ashcroft on stage

When the world entered lockdown in 2020, I’d just moved into a new flat where, at the age of 56, I found myself living alone for the first time in my life. I’d been separated for nearly a decade from the father of my two kids – one of whom had already...

In the strange world of short-form video, no one can take a breath

It’s not the worst thing about social media, but something dreadful is happening in short-form videos. At first I thought my phone was on the blink. Then I assumed I was just unlucky, that this aberration was practised only by the creators of the very...

The age of extreme job anxiety is upon us

The personal experience of longterm unemployment is one people rarely share, for completely understandable reasons. There’s a bit of superstition that saying it out loud will bed it in. Even if they’re clearly in the grip of superstitions of their own...

Swoon with a view!

Robyn’s greatest songs

See the full list of 20 at theguardian.com/music 1 Dancing on My Own (2010) There’s a reason why Dancing on My Own is regularly listed as not just Robyn’s greatest song, but the best single of the 2010s full stop: it has a lightning-in-a-bottle...

Who cares who wins? I’m cheering for the World Cup referees

I’ve found another way of ruining sport for myself. I thought I’d explored every means of turning the stress dial up to 11, but now I’ve chanced on a new method. I must need the anxiety to feel alive. I go back a long way with this kind of thing. I’ve...

‘I thought of her as a volcano’

John Cusack films

1 Being John Malkovich (1999) John Cusack asked his agent for the “craziest, most unproduceable script you can find”, and the result was Spike Jonze’s feature-directing debut. Cusack, with the saddest hair imaginable, has a ball exploring his dark...

Alicia Keys’ greatest songs

1 If I Ain’t Got You (2003) Ostensibly a love song, but actually inspired by the death of Aaliyah and the 9/11 attacks that happened a few weeks after the singer’s passing, If I Ain’t Got You is Alicia Keys’ most popular song – over 1.5bn streams on...

I’m an only child, and so is my son. We are not weirdos!

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me ... must be a saying thought up by somebody extremely privileged. For everyone else, words wound, and there are certain groups that are seemingly, bafflingly, forever considered fair...

A WhatsApp message about a little-known sport made me briefly famous in Japan

It was December 2023 and I was searching in the attic for Christmas decorations when my phone pinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and found a WhatsApp message from my son who was backpacking in Australia. The message read, simply: “You might want to...

This World Cup is the perfect opportunity to tackle extremism

Whenever my kids and I are stationary in the same room, within five minutes they will have started talking about football. Every now and then, a name will float out that I recognise – Jude Bellingham, say – but most of the time it lacks the dramatic...

‘My life is about beauty’

The best songs about football

1 The Fall – Kicker Conspiracy (1983) Not just the best song about football, but one of the very best Fall songs: a memorable chorus hook over a massive riff, and rackety verses that refracted English football in the early 80s through the prism of...

My year with the robots