Alas Vine & Hitchens
Daily Mail
What's the Big Idea?Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas… Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news. Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters. Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual? All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.Take part in our listener survey here:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#?To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Phillip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 16, 2025 • 41min
City to City and Walk A Mile In Our Shoes
Peter has a five-year plan for the five pairs of identical shoes he owns, buy in bulk, rotate diligently, but another set in five years times. Sarah, for her part, can’t walk past a shoe shop with a sale sign in the window, it’s like catnip to her. Elsewhere, Peter has had enough of cities changing their names – and not just because it keeps making his maps out of date – and Sarah muses on a song some people consider a national treasure which she could happily never hear again. And don’t get Peter started on the Beatles…On our reading and watch list this week: · The Lifelong Scruff – Peter Hitchens· A Small Town In Germany - John Le Carre· Return Via Dunkirk – Gun Buster· Great Expectations – Dir: David Lean· Dunkirk – Dir: Leslie NormanPlease do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 9, 2025 • 41min
Terrorism, Extremism and Rubbish Rock Stars
The love of cinema, Peter’s sonorous baritone, Sarah’s hatred of hot weather, the case for changing the way we adopt in the UK and does Peter ever go to watch Millwall and throw lager about? He does not. And those are just the topics and questions posed by listeners.Peter and Sarah also ask why we now embrace organisations that were once proscribed as terrorists? And in light of Coldplay being the most boring band on earth (scientific fact), why can’t we make decent rock stars anymore. On our reading and watch list this week: · The Greening of the White House – Conor O’Clery· Never Look Away – Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck· The Cruel Sea – Dir: Charles Frend· Bicycle Thieves – Dir: Vittorio De Sica· Ida – Dir: Paweł PawlikowskiPlease do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 2, 2025 • 33min
Going Off the Rails and Too Hot to Handle
From Lord of the Rings lesser liked characters to the ‘deep state’ of government according to Dominic Cummings, and drinking beer beneath the Northern Lights, Peter and Sarah take on listener questions before wrestling with the thorny subjects of the pain and pleasure of train travel – it depends very much on where you board and depart your train and helps if that’s not in the UK. While Sarah’s been hiding indoors as the continental sunshine has bene visited on the UK, and she would very much like to complain about this latest heatwave and at some length too. Shade your eyes…On our reading and watch list this week: · Corridors Of Power – C.P. Snow· Ernst Marples: The Shadow Behind Beeching – David Brandon & Martin Upham· British Rail – Christian Wolmar · Night Mail – WH AudenPlease do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Alex GrahamProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 25, 2025 • 39min
Abortion Bills and Nuclear Bombs
Sarah and Peter wrangle everything from the latest abortion legislation to how to purge the world of nuclear weapons (Sarah suggests we move them to the Moon – pity the poor astronauts who next land there), Star Trek and what the Federation really alluded to. Did Hollywood treat Napoleon fairly or meddle with history for its own ends? And, more happily, we cast Peter as Badger in Toad of Toad Hall with remarkable results. Stay tuned for that.On our reading and watch list this week: · Take A Girl Like You – Kingsley Amis· The Abolition of Britain – Peter Hitchens· Racing The Enemy - Tsuyoshi Hasegawa· Farm Hall – Katherine Moar· The New Men – C.P. Snow· Star Trek (original series)Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 18, 2025 • 43min
Marshmallow Totalitarianism and the Beauty of the Real Iran
Flared trousers, the fate of Northern Ireland, free speech, swimming with Gordon Brown and childish children’s books. All human life, as they say, is here. Sarah wants to know why we’re afraid of difficult conversations and saying what we really think, is it that we’re always being shouted down by those who don’t agree with us? What ever happened to civilised debate? Not that our debates are ever civilised.While Peter reminisces about his time in Iran some decades ago and how it’s not the country torn from recent headlines with a huge number of its people who actually want to live in a peaceful, secular society, not the regime enforced on them under mullah rule. On our reading and watch list this week: · The Apartment – Director: Billy Wilder· The Wind In the Willows – Kenneth Grahame· The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien· The Water Babies – Charles Kingsley· Black Beauty – Anna Sewell· Iran: A Nation of Nose Jobs, Not Nuclear War – Peter HitchensPlease do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Alex GrahamProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 11, 2025 • 36min
How Not To Be A Political Wife
As Sarah’s book sends shockwaves through former political grandees and the corridors of power, Sarah and Peter sit down to ponder listener questions (and some of Peter’s thoughts too) related to ‘How Not To Be A Political Wife’, a book that has been described as ‘fascinating, embarrassing and fundamentally tragic’, ‘witty, wry and incredibly touching’ and an ‘unflinching account of life at the heart of politics.’ Expect questions and answers on falling in and out of love with Michael Gove, is there such a thing as a happy political marriage and would Sarah ever bite the bullet and go into politics herself? On our reading and watch list this week: · How Not To Be A Political Wife – Sarah VinePlease do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 4, 2025 • 34min
With Friends Like These… and is Poland the new Ukraine?
To paraphrase Randy Newman, you’ve got a friend in me, but for just how long? Especially when you’re Sarah Vine and you’re supposed best friend’s husband is on the side of staying in the European Union while your then husband is all for pushing Brexit through. As Sarah discovered, loyalties are soon divided and what ultimately makes a true friend anyway? While Peter Hitchens looks askance at the continent and wonders, as Poland lurches to the right with its latest elections results, if the European Union can leave its meddlesome ways behind it and let democracy work for once. On our reading and watch list this week: True Grit – Charles Portis· The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley· Orderly and Humane – R.M. Douglas· The Confession – Director: Costa-Gavras· Berlin Rules – Paul LeverPresenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 28, 2025 • 37min
The Mental Malaise of Marijuana
As rampage killings are on the rise both here and abroad, we ask if the long-term effects of drugs are impacting on our societal norms and encouraging a violent recklessness not seen before? As charges for cannabis possession are fast becoming a thing of the past and modern culture embraces increasingly strong strands of weed, is there a case to be made for really doubling down on those who break drug laws or as cannabis legalisation creeps across the globe, we ask, is it already too late?On our reading and watch list this week: * Attacker Smoked Cannabis: Suicide and psychopathic violence in the UK and Ireland – Ross Grainger * The War We Never Fought – Peter Hitchens * Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence – Alex BerensonTo get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 21, 2025 • 34min
The Menopause Superpower and some Sibling Rivalry
Books, plays and films have been written about it, its onset feared in some quarters, pilloried in others, and it will, eventually, affect almost all women. Though that’s not why Sarah Vine wants to talk about the menopause, but why, in some circumstances, it can be a huge liberation for women; finally freed from being slave to one’s hormones, and that’s just the beginning. So, why, do so many women fear the onset of the menopause? Plus, Peter Hitchens, is told several times a week (online, never in the street or to his face), how much cleverer his older brother Christopher was, and that Peter should have died in his stead. This used to annoy Peter, understandably, but now he finds these brickbats amusing and interesting, and is left wondering, sibling rivalry, what is it all about? On our reading and watch list this week: · Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury · A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket· The Menopause Brain: The New Science Empowering Women to Navigate Midlife with Knowledge and Confidence – Dr Lisa MosconiTo get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 14, 2025 • 34min
The Death Penalty and What I Did (or didn't do) On My Holidays
To Peter Hitchens, the idea of capital punishment (at least at home here in the UK) could make for a country that is less vengeful and, he goes so far as to suggest, even more gentle. Having experienced two executions while working in the US, he knows the power of that final switch and the deterrent it might bring. But is he right, would the shadow cast by capital punishment be enough quell violent crime and those who commit it? Plus, on a much lighter though no less graphic note, we look at holidays and Sarah’s memories of her dad driving the family home from Rome to West Wales, steering with only his knees, a cigar in one hand, a beer in the other, and music blaring to the point where it made both children travel sick. Childhood holidays, it’s not all sandcastles and ice cream. On our reading and watch list this week: · Great Expectations – Charles Dickens · 12 Angry Men· The Kraken Wakes – John WyndhamTo get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
