In 2025, British actor Simon Pegg was interviewed in the Criterion Closet , a renowned series where notable people from the filmmaking industry are invited to browse and discuss their favourite movies. One of Pegg’s ‘closet picks’ was David Lynch’s seminal thriller Blue Velvet , a dark and unnerving mystery set in the heart of middle America. Pegg says that his daughter hated the movie when he showed it to her, but then spoke about how he was delighted that she didn’t like it

Britain has a literacy crisis, and it needs to end. In the 2024-2025 academic year, one in four children did not meet the required standard of reading at the end of primary school.  That is a quarter of an entire cohort ending Key Stage 2 behind where they should be. Moving down the year groups doesn’t help the picture much, with 20% of students not reaching the expected standard in their year one phonics screening, a figure which rises to 33% for disadvantaged children.   No

Over the summer, Britain’s shocking disparity in education was laid bare, as circa 40% of students failed their maths  and English GCSEs, the worst-performing region being the West Midlands. Despite being the third-largest spending area ( behind only welfare and the NHS ), the UK’s education system is another public service in crisis. Following years of austerity, the lasting effects of COVID-19, and the punishing cost of living crisis, students across all years face the burd

As hosts of the largest  political podcast in the UK, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart hold considerable sway over the British political consensus. They consistently interview  political figures of the same gravitas that one would expect on the BBC and Channel 4, and sometimes pose them challenging questions. They sometimes do live shows, but mostly provide analysis of current affairs from their cleanly-decorated studio, wearing expensive suits, and speaking with an air of

The work of Marx has endured in the minds of the scholarly and unscholarly alike since its publication; he is both the authoritative...

In 1984, Steven Patrick Morrissey crooned: ‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job – and heaven knows I’m miserable now.’ Swap...

How couples meet has fundamentally changed over the past 10 years with the advent of online dating. In 1998, roughly 2% of couples met...