Alas Vine & Hitchens

On this week’s episode, should we be worried about Keir Starmer’s digital IDs when, according to Sarah, we’re a slave to the digital idiom as it is. Not that Peter quite sees it like that. Nor do the pair see eye to eye on the raising of children and what staying at home means for the parents or baby. Voices were raised, thoughts were shared, it would be untrue to say compromises were met.Elsewhere, Peter doesn’t know what car he drives, its size he’s fairly sure of and that it can get him to the occasional funerals of his friends. Sarah told him to check the badge on the bonnet, which went well.On our reading, watch and listening list this week: ·      Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster – Helen Andrews·      The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life – Arthur Firstenberg·      Girl, 20 – Kingsley Amis·      Flashman at the Charge - George MacDonald Fraser·      Night Watch: A Discworld Novel – Terry Pratchett ·      Down with Skool! A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and their Parents – Geoffrey WillansPlease 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 PopularTo 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.

On this week’s episode, Sarah wonders if Kier Starmer’s perceived weakness in leadership might have kicked open the door for Nigel Farage to come through? And Peter would like to ask; the hijab, a sign of oppression, or something that as a society should make us think more?Elsewhere, did any government in living memory impress Peter? Don’t count on it. Why did Christopher Hitchens once storm out of The Great Lives recording studio and who did our hosts choose to revere when it came to their turn in The Great Lives chair? Plus, is there really a better biscuit then the classic Custard Cream? On our reading, watch and listening list this week: ·      The Roads To Freedom - Dir: James Cellan Jones·      Crooked Cross – Sally Carson·      Tales Of The City – Armistead Maupin (Radio 4)·      The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Radio 4)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 PopularTo 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.

On this week’s episode, Sarah wonders if it’s worth putting into your pension pot anymore as new government policies promise to make your golden years anything but. While Peter would like to ask why does nobody likes appeasement until it suits them? Not that Sarah can help with that, she’s one of life’s great appeasers. Elsewhere, all things considered, Peter would rather be a rich Edwardian, Sarah misses Swansea and one of our presenters gives a spirited rendition of the rallying cry of fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It’s quite something.On our reading and watch list this week: ·      A Pocket Full Of Rye - Agatha Christie·      The Lie - Agatha Christie (Drama on 4)·      The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L Sayers·      The Sign Of The Four – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle·      Tales Of The Unexpected - Now TVPlease 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 PopularTo 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.

Explore the intriguing question of why Britain entered the First World War and the profound changes it brought. Delve into the benefits of counselling as Sarah advocates for its importance while Peter remains skeptical. Peter shares amusing insights about his past, including his near-miss with a motorcycle gang. The hosts also discuss the impact of cultural shifts in 1968 and the enduring power of classic films, particularly Billy Wilder's The Apartment. Join the conversation as they navigate history, therapy, and creativity!

In light of the recent documentary, Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? Peter reiterates his call for a retrial of the convicted nurse.Elsewhere, Sarah asks if students are so worried about AI spoiling their chances of building a career, then why are they all using ChatGPT to write their exam papers?Also, Peter’s written a thriller, well, the first chapter at least. We can reveal very little of the plotline apart from the fact that someone dies by fax machine just after exiting a toilet. This is all true. On our reading and watch list this week: ·      12 Angry Men – Dir: Sidney Lumet·      Unmasking Lucy Letby: The Untold Story of the Killer Nurse - Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz·      The Rose of Tibet – Lionel Davidson·      Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household ManagementPlease 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 PopularTo 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.

Peter is up in arms – who knew? – over Sarah’s use of centimetres over inches even though she was raised on the continent and it’s all she knows. A measure of distance which, he insists, are simply made up. For her part, Sarah tells us that if you’re going to employ a nanny, make sure it’s not an English one.Elsewhere, Sarah, admits she enjoys going to church, if only because it’s the one place where no one can hear her sing and the discovery that Peter can be found online portrayed as a housemaid and a lemming. He is neither.On our reading and watch list this week: ·      Micah Clarke - Arthur Conan Doyle·      About The Size Of It: The Common Sense Approach To Measuring Things – Warwick Cairns·      The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World – Ken Alder·      Don't listen to the whingers: London needs immigrants – Andrew NeatherPlease 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 PopularTo 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.

Peter is inflamed! Why, he wants to know, searching around him in vain for an ashtray, does smoking seem to be on the rise once more in the UK? Is it vaping? Is it fashionable once more, heaven forfend? He sincerely hopes not. For her part, Sarah doesn’t smoke, well, only after three glasses of wine.Elsewhere, Sarah asks is rioting on the rise once again? And asks are we now too far gone as a country where we can’t expect anything but civil unrest? Though it’s not all doom and gloom, we have poetry, plump up your cushions and settle back as Peter and Sarah take turns to soothe the savage soul with hand selected verse. On our reading and watch list this week: ·      Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening – Robert Frost·      Under Milk Wood – Dylan Thomas·      The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe·      The Dragon Book of Verse - VariousPlease 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 PopularTo 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.

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 PopularTo 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.

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 PopularTo 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.

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 PopularTo 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.