Educating Yorkshire, season two. Photograph: Tom Martin/Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence The joyful return of this school-set, fly-on-the-wall series, just at the point that we could do with a good news story about the state of secondary education in the UK.
What our reviewer said “Is Educating Yorkshire rose-tinted? Probably. Is it filmed and edited to show everyone involved in as positive a light as possible? Almost certainly. Does it feel like a necessary blast of optimism? You bet it does.” Phil Harrison
Read the full review
Further reading ‘So aware of their emotions’: Pupils are standout stars in new series about Yorkshire academy
Pick of the rest
I Fought The Law
ITVX; available now
Daniel York Loh as Charlie Ming and Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming in I Fought The Law. Photograph: Anastasia Arsentyeva/ITV
Summed up in a sentence Moving true-crime drama about a woman who forced the government to change the law so her daughter’s killer could be jailed.
What our reviewer said “Sheridan Smith elevates a workaday script that dares not take too many liberties, lest it be seen to dishonour the story, and makes it genuinely moving.” Lucy Mangan
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BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence A compelling documentary following early Premier League footballers who lost it all following investment advice that went wrong.
What our reviewer said “A gripping, moving and human enough tale to inspire more than a little fellow feeling.” Phil Harrison
Read the full review
Stranded on Honeymoon Island
BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence A dating show where singletons are “married” then marooned at sea. It’s like Married at First Sight meets Love Island.
What our reviewer said “It’s a lot of fun, fuelled by optimism instead of despair and populated by people who genuinely seem to like each other and who are frequently funny. It’s a rare beast.” Lucy Mangan
Summed up in a sentence The science and statistics around Letby’s case are brilliantly unpacked by a considered programme that leaves you filled with questions.
What our reviewer said “In its marshalling and explanation of complicated medical and mathematical issues, it succeeds brilliantly, covering more ground more meticulously in an hour than any documentary I’ve seen in recent years, and perhaps ever.” Lucy Mangan
Read the full review
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
Reviewed byAmit Chaudhuri
Photograph: AP
Summed up in a sentence The first memoir by the Booker-winning novelist and political activist.
What our reviewer said “The world described in the first part of the book provides much of the material for The God of Small Things. But even if she had never written her novel they would be utterly absorbing. They have a wonderful, self-assured self-sufficiency.”
Read the full review
Further reading Arundhati Roy on her fugitive childhood: ‘My knees were full of scars and cuts – a sign of my wild, imperfect, fatherless life’
Pick of the rest
Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi
Reviewed by Sami Kent
The picture of Lea Ypi’s grandparents that sparked her curiosity. Photograph: PR
Summed up in a sentence Troubled by a photograph of her honeymooning in Mussolini’s Italy, the award-winning writer of Free sets out to find out the truth about her grandmother.
What our reviewer said “The narrative is suspenseful, not least because Leman’s adopted family is so close to power – close enough, for example, that she can smell ‘lavender and onions’ on the breath of a young Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist who would go on to rule Albania for 40 years.”
Read the full review
A Short History of Stupidity by Stuart Jeffries
Reviewed by Sam Leith
Summed up in a sentence From Shakespeare’s fools to Donald Trump, this exhilarating read considers stupidity in its many forms.
What our reviewer said “An amiable and rambling tour through the history of philosophy, looking at the idea of rationality and its limitations.”
Read the full review
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Reviewed by AK Blakemore
Summed up in a sentence A small-town family saga of love and war looks beneath the American dream.
What our reviewer said “It is no surprise that Ryan cut his teeth writing short fiction: Buckeye is elevated throughout by the precision with which he captures the tiny, haunting glories of everyday suburban life.”
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The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed byClare Clark
Summed up in a sentence JK Rowling’s eighth Cormoran Strike novel sees the detective determined to tell his business partner how he feels about her at last.
What our reviewer said “For all its fiendish cat’s cradle of a plot, it foregrounds the personal, reminding us yet again what thoroughly good company Strike and Ellacott are.”
Read the full review
You may have missed …
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Reviewed by Sam Byers
Photograph: AP
Summed up in a sentence An actor’s story becomes a radical deconstruction of family relationships and the social roles we play in this Booker-listed novel.
What our reviewer said “Audition thrills at the freedoms made possible through collapse. The result is a literary performance of true uncanniness.”
Read the full review
Further reading Novelist Katie Kitamura: ‘As Trump tries to take away everything I love, it’s never been clearer that writing matters’
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Christy
In cinemas now
Daniel Power and Chris Walley in Christy. Photograph: Altitude/PA
Summed up in a sentence Moving and funny Irish drama about two brothers finding their feet after time in care, in a social-realist film with heart and humour.
What our reviewer said “It’s tough, but capable of delicacy and succeeds in conveying something very difficult to achieve without sentimentality: love of your home town. You can come for the drama and stay for the cheeky hip-hop sequence over the closing credits.” Peter Bradshaw
Read the full review
Pick of the rest
Honey Don’t!
In cinemas now
Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley in Honey Don’t! Photograph: Focus Features /PA
Summed up in a sentence Ethan Coen returns with another amusing, throwaway queer comedy starring Margaret Qualley as a horny private eye in an easy-going noir.
What our reviewer said “It’s hard to stay mad at a movie for refusing to add things up, or resolve its mysteries in any traditionally satisfying ways, when getting lost with Qualley can be such a pleasure. Besides, following narrative threads through to the finish is just playing it too straight.” Radheyan Simonpillai
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On Swift Horses
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar-Jones simmer in a glossy drama of sex and identity that searches for meaning beyond the picket fence.
What our reviewer said “The intention, boosted here by longtime Todd Haynes producer Christine Vachon, is to flag that this moment in American life wasn’t entirely as staid as we’ve been led to believe, that identities were shifting beneath the placid surface of postwar reconstruction.” Mike McCahill
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Jumanji
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence rerelease of startling 1995 fantasy adventure with Robin Williams in winning form in bizarre Kiplingesque fantasy that still holds up.
What our reviewer said “Williams’s wild-man routine is only in evidence in his opening scenes; otherwise he dials it down, perhaps sensing that the way to upstage the loony creatures is to be relatively rational. There is something touchingly innocent in his performance.” Peter Bradshaw
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Now Streaming …
Highest 2 Lowest
Apple TV+; available now
Denzel Washington in Highest 2 Lowest. Photograph: PA
Summed up in a sentence Spike Lee retools Akira Kurosawa’s downbeat noir High and Low, with Denzel Washington on fine form as a record producer whose godson is kidnapped by mistake.
What our reviewer said “This is a big, muscular picture which aspires to the crowd-pleasing athleticism of Spike Lee’s sports icons; it’s very enjoyable and there’s a great turn from Washington.” Peter Bradshaw
Read the full review
Further reading Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest rages against the new but leaves him looking too old
Music
If you only listen to one, make it …
Big Thief: Double Infinity
Out now
Big Thief : Double Infinity album cover.
Summed up in a sentence Classic melodies, spring water acoustics and pared-back poeticism about living in the moment.
What our reviewer said “If anyone can restore your faith in human connection, it’s US folk-rockers Big Thief. Adrianne Lenker’s poetic but unadorned lyrics are a field guide to living well.” Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Read the full review
Pick of the rest
David Byrne: Who is the Sky?
Out now
David Byrne: Who Is The Sky? album cover. Photograph: Matador Records/PA
Summed up in a sentence The Talking Heads frontman remains sunny – almost to a fault.
What our reviewer said “More primary-coloured musical optimism, employing Mariachi-style brass, sweeping 40s-Hollywood-musical strings, rhythms that join the dots between Cuban clave and George Michael’s Faith and an off-kilter, vocoder-bedecked take on sumptuous soul.” Alexis Petridis
Read the full review
Sacred Lodge: Ambam
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Matthieu Ruben N’Dongo amps up the intensity on a second album that makes an uncanny atmosphere out of swarming electronics and polyrhythmic percussion.
What our reviewer said “Both dense and disorientating, Ambam may well be too overwhelming for some listeners. But the more you listen, the more you get sucked into the thrill of N’Dongo’s unapologetic resistance music.” Safi Bugel
Read the full review
Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto; Helios; Symphony No 5
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The teeming textures of Nielsen’s 5th symphony are controlled with care and refinement by Edward Gardner, with the Bergen Philharmonic.
What our reviewer said “Both works, as well as the early Helios Overture, receive outstanding performances from the Bergen players, and Gardner controls the teeming textures of the symphony with great refinement.” Andrew Clements
Read the full review
Live
Gorillaz
Copper Box arena, London
Gorillaz performing at the Copper Box arena . Photograph: Bethan Miller/PA
Summed up in a sentence Dressed like a vicar, Albarn leads his band – joined by a choir, a string quartet, De La Soul and more – in renewing Demon Days’ downbeat drama.
What our reviewer said “The show opens with a wartorn newsreel montage and sporadically drenches the crowd in hell-red light. For obvious reasons, the album’s haunting protest against humanity’s appetite for destruction – of people and planet alike – sounds no less apt tonight. Demon days are here again.” Dorian Lynskey
Millions of mobile phones will vibrate and make a siren sound across the UK on Sunday afternoon during a test of a nationwide emergency alert system.
Handset users will also receive a message on their screens reminding them the 10-second alert, which will happen at 3pm, is a test. There are about 87m mobile phones in the UK.
The government has said not all devices will receive the alert, including older phones and those not connected to 4G or 5G networks. The alert will not work on a phone that is switched off or in airplane mode.
The 10-second duration has been designed to “balance the need for comprehensive testing with reducing inconvenience to the public”, according to the government.
There has already been some disruption already, however, withthe Glasgow derby between Celtic FC Women and Rangers Women’s FC has been pushed back to 3.05pm on Sunday to accommodate the alert.
This week Pat McFadden, a senior cabinet minister, described the system as a “national fire alarm” that needed regular testing.
The UK’s emergency alert system is designed to warn people if there is danger to life nearby, including outbreaks of extreme weather in specific areas. It has been deployed five times since the first test in April 2023, with the largest use in January this year when 4.5 million received an alert during Storm Éowyn.
The first non-test use of the system was in Plymouth in February last year when a 500kg second world war bomb was discovered in a back garden – and safely removed by bomb disposal experts.
The government has also published advice for opting out of the alerts, acknowledging that victims of domestic abuse with a concealed phone might want to block the test. However, switching your handset to silent will not prevent the alert.
The alert will not sound if users have their phone switched off or if it is on airplane mode. However, if you turn your device back on shortly after the test, you might still receive the alert. The system works by broadcasting from mobile phone masts in a specific area, alerting every phone switched on within that radius – so tourists with non-UK numbers will also get the alert, for instance.
The first alert test on 23 April 2023 did not reach an estimated 7% of devices, according to the Cabinet Office, which nonetheless declared the trial “successful”. Some mobile phone users said at that time that their devices had not sounded, with the problem traced to specific networks including Three. The government estimated at the time that 5m phones had been affected.
A government spokesperson said problems with the last test were “all resolved within a week of the test being run”.
The National Preparedness Commission, an independent body that promotes policies helping the UK recover from significant shocks, said the test was an important part of the country’s preparations for threats ranging from extreme weather to national security challenges.
The NPC’s chair, Toby Harris, said: “Given what we have got with the strategic defence review, the increasingly volatile and worrying international situation, plus increasingly extreme weather events, the need for this sort of preparedness is becoming even more important.”
Christy Out now Following a prize-winning premiere at the Berlinale, this Irish drama starring Danny Power has been feted as an auspicious feature debut for director Brendan Canty. Telling the tale of two estranged brothers in Knocknaheeny, Cork, it’s a social-realist breakout hit.
On Swift Horses Out now Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are newlyweds who move from Kansas to California in the 1950s, with Lee’s brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi). A bond emerges between Muriel and Julius – however, this isn’t a typical love triangle, but an exploration of same-sex attraction in a time and place where that could be life-threatening.
The Conjuring: Last Rites Out now Something wicked this way comes: the ninth and (allegedly) final instalment of the Conjuring franchise, based on the (alleged) exploits of paranormal experts Lorraine and Ed Warren, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who are investigating the Smurl hauntings of Pennsylvania.
The Courageous Out now In the picturesque Swiss canton of Valais, an eccentric single mother living on the margins attempts to put a brave face on things for her children. What’s a shoplifted birthday cake between family? Swiss-American director Jasmin Gordon’s fiction debut offers lead actor Ophélia Kolb a knotty lead role to get her teeth into. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
A big cagey … Belinda Carlisle. Photograph: Albert Sanchez/PA/PA
Belinda Carlisle 9 to 13 September; tour starts Edinburgh Alongside her latest album, Once Upon a Time in California, Carlisle will use this tour to celebrate her near 40-year solo career. Expect a jukebox’s worth of 80s MOR classics including Circle in the Sand, Leave a Light On and Heaven Is a Place on Earth. Michael Cragg
Post Malone Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, 7 & 8 September As the title suggests, tattoo experimentalist Post Malone’s Big Ass Stadium Tour involves some of the planet’s largest venues. The UK stop features two nights at the north London enormodome, soundtracked by a mix of Postys’s hip-hop and, more recently, country-tinged bangers. MC
Shear Brass Peggy’s Skylight, Nottingham, 6 September The vivacious music of pianist George Shearing, one of the few UK jazz artists to become a legend in the US, is celebrated by this A-list British band, led by his great-nephew, drummer, writer and producer Carl Gorham. Shearing’s much-loved hits of the 1940s and 50s – and some rarities too – spring back to life. John Fordham
Tosca Royal Ballet and Opera, London, 11 September to 7 October The new Puccini production that opens the Royal Opera season will be Jakub Hrůša’s first as music director. But the advance publicity has been all about the casting of the Russian Anna Netrebko in the title role. Andrew Clements
Going out: Art
Pretty in pink … Suzanne Song’s Folding Dawn. Photograph: Suzanne Song
Suzanne Song White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, to 3 October This New York-based abstract artist creates extraordinarily disciplined paintings in which every detail looks calculated. She plays with illusions of spatial depth in patterns of zigzags, lozenges, triangles and cubes that fool and seduce your eyes even as you recognise their flatness. There are echoes of Bridget Riley.
Paul McCartney Gagosian Davies Street, London, to 4 October A few months in midwinter, from December 1963 to February 1964, photographed by a young man who happened to be in the world’s biggest pop group. Here, McCartney reveals what it was like to be a Beatle as Beatlemania grew, including a self-portrait in the attic where he’d write Yesterday.
John Moores Painting Prize Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 6 September today to 1 March This longrunning prize for painting has an astonishing track record of rewarding true excellence. Since it started in 1957, first prize has gone to such inspired and long-lasting artists as David Hockney, Rose Wylie, Peter Blake and Peter Doig. See this year’s artists and spot the next stars.
Schroder Gallery The Holburne Museum, Bath, from 11 September A Renaissance wunderkammer (room of wonders) is recreated by this luxurious new permanent gallery of strange, spectacular treasures. An intricate silver model of a sailing ship complete with a tiny crew, a mechanical model of the universe and suchlike curiosities co-star with paintings by the likes of Holbein and Cranach. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Things are looking up … Josie Long. Photograph: Stephanie-Gibson
Josie Long 6 September to 12 December; tour starts Mull As you might expect, Now Is the Time of Monsters – the new show from this thoughtful comedian – riffs on politics. Less predictably, it also covers actual beasts: the prehistoric predators she studies with her kids, a hobby that helps Long find hope amid turmoil both global and personal. Rachel Aroesti
Romans, a Novel Almeida theatre, London, to 11 October Alice Birch’s writing is always deeply theatrical and full of fire. Her latest is a kaleidoscopic portrait of masculinity from the 19th century to the present day, starring Kyle Soller. Miriam Gillinson
Emma Theatre Royal Bath, 11 to 20 September then touring Where better to mark Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary than Bath? Ryan Craig’s new adaptation stars India Shaw-Smith as meddling matchmaker Emma. MG
Murmuration Level 2 Peacock theatre, London, 10 to 20 September French dancer Sadeck Berrabah’s career was launched by a YouTube video and led to him choreographing the Tokyo-Paris Olympic handover ceremony. His style leans on tutting: intricate hand and arm movements that look a bit like hieroglyphics, which he uses en masse to striking visual effect. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in:Streaming
The Wright stuff … The Girlfriend. Photograph: Christopher Raphael/Prime
The Girlfriend Prime Video, 10 September Starring and co-directed by Robin Wright, this UK-set psychological thriller about a woman who grows suspicious of her son’s new partner (Olivia Cooke) cleaves to the current trend for luxury lifestyle-based drama. Can sinister twists and class commentary pierce the glossy surface?
Task Sky Atlantic & Now, 8 September, 9pm This new drama from the Mare of Easttown creator, Brad Ingelsby, has the same dark, painfully realistic energy as his previous hit police procedural. Led by Mark Ruffalo, Task follows an FBI agent investigating a series of violent home invasions in a working-class Philadelphia suburb.
Only Murders in the Building Disney+, 9 September Somehow, we have already made it to season five of this hilarious comedy-drama, which merges brainteasing mysteries with intergenerational humour. This time our podcasting odd throuple investigate the death of their doorman as starry cameos (Renée Zellweger, Dianne Wiest, Beanie Feldstein, Christoph Waltz) abound.
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams: Ultimate Test BBC One/iPlayer, 7 September, 8.10pm Initially a feelgood documentary about a cricket team for disadvantaged youngsters, this series soon became a moving portrait of Flintoff’s recovery from life-changing injuries. Now, however, the focus is back on sport as the cricketer franchises his original idea across the north-west. RA
Staying in: Games
Out on a limb … Baby Steps. Photograph: Devolver Digital
Baby Steps Out 8 September; PC, PS5 An unemployed brat who never leaves the sofa is forced to get up and explore his alien world in one of the autumn’s weirdest releases. Players control each limb independently, meaning that any progress is challenging and rife with pratfalls. Borderlands 4 Out 12 September; PS5, Xbox, PC The cartoon “looter shooter” returns, promising a frenzy of guns, guts and grappling hooks as players battle a ruthless space dictator and his army of alien monsters. With a new planet to explore and a vast array of randomised weapons (apparently there are 30bn combinations), it’s going to be carnage. Keith Stuart
Staying in: Albums
One for the Heads … David Byrne. Photograph: Shervin Lainez
David Byrne – Who Is the Sky? Out now Assisted by producer Kid Harpoon, and a guest list that includes the Ghost Train Orchestra and Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Talking Heads legend David Byrne delivers a big dollop of DayGlo art-pop on his new solo album. Single Everybody Laughs is like swallowing a huge gulp of sunshine.
Big Thief – Double Infinity Out now On their first album as a trio following the departure of bassist Max Oleartchik, the Brooklyn indie-folk band continue to craft careworn epics that feel undeniable. Songs such as All Night All Day and Los Angeles sparkle like lost classics, while Adrianne Lenker’s warm voice anchors their emotional pull.
Metronomy – Greatest Hits Out now With seven albums, including two UK Top 10s, under their belts, the British alt-pop practitioners have collected their shiniest singles on this greatest hits collection. Why not sashay to the slinky The Look, or do an awkward robot to the crunchy electronics of Heartbreaker?
Saint Etienne – International Out now Keen not to trundle on indefinitely, Saint Etienne – AKA Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs – have announced this 13th album will be their last. It’s a worthy swansong, full of intriguing collaborations, including the Orbital-assisted dance behemoth Take Me to the Pilot, and the 90s throwback Brand New Me, featuring Confidence Man. MC
Staying in:Brain food
The Secret Life of Songs Podcast Anthony T Jackson’s series about the art and context of songwriting takes on the 70s and 80s in a new run. It considers the queer dancefloor influences in Donna Summer’s I Feel Love and Kate Bush’s psychoanalytic references.
Embassy of the Free Mind Online Amsterdam’s Ritman Library has recently digitised more than 2,000 books on occultism. From Latin tracts on alchemy to the English philosophy of Henry More and beautiful illustrations of flora and fauna, there is plenty to flick through.
Music Uncovered: David Bowie – Changeling BBC Sounds, 10 September Exploring David Bowie’s evolution in the first half of the 70s, from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke, this eight-part series features fascinating archive interviews with Bowie, as well as testimony from his collaborators. Ammar Kalia
Mobile phone retailers are locking their doors during trading hours and considering using “kill switches” to disable stolen devices, as incidents of theft increase more than ninefold in some high streets due to organised crime.
VodafoneThree, which operates the largest retail network with 650 stores across the UK, has experienced a 967% increase in theft incidents in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024.
“In recent months, the telecoms sector has seen an alarming surge in aggressive robberies and attempted robberies in stores, particularly across London and the south-east of England,” said a spokesperson for the company. “VodafoneThree has seen a nine-times increase in these types of incidents.”
In response, the company has introduced measures including a locked door policy in some stores, which requires security guards to open the store’s doors to customers during trading hours, rather than them remaining open at all times. “This is a disappointing, but necessary step,” the spokesperson said.
The newly formed mobile phone company, which employs 4,300 staff at its stores, defines an incident as a robbery, or attempted robbery, by groups of two or more masked individuals who enter a store and threaten staff to gain access to stock cages to steal devices. Retailers have repeatedly raised concerns over increased levels of shoplifting in recent years.
Virgin Media O2, which has 305 stores with about 2,600 employees, has seen more than double the number of robberies and attempted robberies in the first half of this year compared with all of 2024.
The company, which is undertaking its biggest ever investment in boosting security at its stores, said the number of attempted robberies had at least doubled annually for the past three years, albeit from a low base in 2022.
Virgin Media O2 said more than 40 people had been arrested and charged since last July, and the robbery success rate had halved between 2022 and this year. Photograph: Aleksandr Papichev/Alamy
The investment in new security measures includes increasing the number of security guards, a locked door policy in crime hotspots, installing new panic alarms and enhancing security monitoring systems.
The company said it had already reduced the number of successful robberies where the measures had been introduced and, like VodafoneThree, it was collaborating more intensively with the police to catch thieves.
Virgin Media O2 said more than 40 people had been arrested and charged since last July, and the robbery success rate had halved between 2022 and this year.
Will Houldsworth, the director of retail at Virgin Media O2, said: “We have seen an unacceptable increase in attempted store robberies over recent months, driven by the activities of organised criminal gangs targeting mobile phone stores in London and the south-east.
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“Through implementing a ‘locked door’ policy at certain stores at higher risk, and investing in more security guards, panic alarms and enhanced in-house security systems, we’re fighting back and protecting our people and customers.
“We’re continuing to work with law enforcement, and with other providers experiencing similar issues, to tackle this problem and secure arrests and convictions.”
In June, a select committee of MPs accused Apple and Google of profiting from customers having to replace smartphones stolen in multimillion-pound street phone-snatching operations that police said were carried out by organised criminal gangs.
The Metropolitan police provided evidence to the House of Commons science and technology committee which said they had been trying for the last two years to get smartphone companies to prevent stolen devices from accessing their cloud services so that they were no longer “smart”, therefore dramatically reducing their resale value.
Representatives for Apple and Google pointed to other security features built into phones.
Warning signs in London informing pedestrians to be cautious against pickpockets and electronic device thieves. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
While the select committee session focused on mobile phone thefts from members of the public – 80,000 devices of all kinds were stolen in London alone last year – smartphone sellers are understood to be keen to see the introduction of some form of mechanism to make unsold phones that are stolen from stores inoperable – a so-called “kill switch”.
For example, in Apple’s own stores it has enhanced security measures that effectively make their phones unusable if they are taken out of the retail outlet.
When asked for comment Apple pointed to a post on its website last month about how it “protects user data and deters iPhone theft with advanced security protections”.
Apple said it collaborated “with law enforcement agencies across the globe” to tackle device theft and “counterfeit parts operations”.
A recent report by the device insurer SquareTrade estimated that 80% of stolen devices were Apple products.
The company said it had seen a 425% increase in “snatch-related” insurance claims in the UK between June 2021 and May this year.
1. ‘What reconciliation? What forgiveness?’: Syria’s deadly reckoning
A building in ruins in Homs, Syria. Photograph: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/The Guardian
Over a few brutal days in March, as sectarian violence and revenge killings tore through parts of Syria, two friends from different communities tried to find a way to survive. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad followed their story and looked more widely about the violence that still stalks Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Read more
The posts are part of the DHS’s push to quickly hire more than 10,000 new US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty Images
Boosted by huge investment from the Trump administration, the US Department of Homeland Security is seeking to recruit 10,000 new agents. In an attempt to convince more people to sign up, it is undertaking a concerted, albeit scattergun, social media campaign to attract new recruits. Johana Bhuiyan explored the Uncle Sam memes and patriotic videos aimed at three key demographics: former military and law enforcement; legal professionals; gen Z and early-career professionals.
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3. No moaning about the teachers and definitely no nudes! How to survive the school WhatsApp group
School WhatsApp groups can be a vortex of petty drama. Illustration: Stephen Collins/The Guardian
“Becoming a parent,” wrote Stuart Heritage, “can be one of the richest, most rewarding things you can ever experience.”
“That said,” he added, “it’s a qualified reward, because to be a parent is often to be forced into joining the school WhatsApp group. In theory, a community of like-minded peers who understand that it takes a village to raise a child. In reality, a vortex of petty drama, pointless competition and outright hostility.”
Essential reading if you’ve been back at the gates this week.
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Lamented loss … Glasgow’s Glasvegan, now closed. Photograph: Gerard Ferry/Alamy
Veganism is still on the rise, but many popular venues and chains are shutting down. Are they victims of a terrible era for hospitality or part of a growing shift in cultural values, asked Isobel Lewis.
Read more
5. Conspiracies, costume changes, and three-hour deep dives: inside the wild west of YouTube video essays
Illustration: Olga Khaletskaya/The Guardian
Mixing dense political ideas with allusions to The Sound of Music and BoJack Horseman, these films have become a thrilling DIY artform – one entirely conceived, written, filmed and performed by their stars. Kirsty Major explored this thriving corner of the internet where these thoughtful deep dives challenge the prevailing common sense in the boardrooms of streaming services and broadcasting corporations that attention – in terms of quality and quantity – is dwindling.
Read more
6. I stopped telling ‘little white lies’ for two weeks. This is what I learned
Illustration: Angelica Alzona/Guardian Design; Images via CSA Images/blackred/Getty Images
After being caught up in a few small lies a couple of times, the Guardian US lifestyle and wellness reporter Madeleine Aggeler decided to try not lying for two weeks: “there were only so many people I could alienate in that time. I also turned to professionals to find out whether honesty is always the best policy.”
German carmakers are already losing their grip on the Chinese market to local players led by BYD Co. Now, they’re mounting a fightback to prevent a similar result on their home turf.
BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Volkswagen AG are launching a fresh push in Europe at the Munich auto show next week, wheeling out new electric vehicles they hope will underline German engineering as a global benchmark and recapture attention from Chinese challengers.
Waving beatifically over the crowd of 50,000 spectators assembled in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, Xi Jinping exuded an aura of confidence that many leaders in the west could only envy. To his left stood North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of an increasingly strident hermit kingdom. To his right was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Xi’s “old friend” and China’s biggest ally in opposing the US-led world order. The last time that the leaders of these three countries were together in public was at the height of the cold war.
“Humanity once again faces the choice between peace or war, dialogue or confrontation,” the Chinese president told the gathered crowds. His insistence that China would “adhere to the path of peaceful development” was punctured somewhat by the country’s biggest ever military parade that marched through the square beneath his rostrum atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to the Forbidden City that has – on and off – been the seat of Chinese power since the 15th century.
Alongside Xi, Putin and Kim, a gaggle of global autocrats solemnly watched the display of Chinese military might.
Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which provided a forum for networking at a level normally seen only at the United Nations. Photograph: Suo Takekuma/Reuters
The same day, more than 5,000 miles away, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his allies assembled in Paris for a summit on the future of Ukraine, a country that has been racked by war since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The “coalition of the willing”, led by the UK and France, did not include the US. The optics of the new global order could not be clearer: an anti-western bloc, helmed by China, on one side, and a western alliance of democracies, lacking its traditional leader in Washington, on the other.
China’s military parade, in which more than 10,000 soldiers marched in unison alongside a sabre-rattling lineup of nuclear-capable missiles and underwater drones, was designed to celebrate 80 years since the end of the second world war. The parade had two aims: to promote the Chinese Communist party’s narrative about its role in defeating the Japanese in 1945, and to display Beijing’s political and military might on the world stage in 2025. Both serve to underline the legitimacy and power of the party, helmed by Xi, at home and abroad.
Faced with a challenging domestic economy and a bruising trade war with the US, the parade was also a chance for China’s 72-year-old leader to whip up nationalism and provide what some analysts say is a much-needed distraction from China’s problems at home.
“This kind of event is never about building bridges,” said Yu Jie, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. “It is more about building a political theatre to tell your own version of the story.”
The ‘coalition of the willing’ gather in Paris for a summit on the future of Ukraine. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock
In Washington DC, there was a growing sense of unease as Xi feted the leaders of some of the world’s most notable pariah states, including Russia, Iran and North Korea – a trio of countries that, along with China, has been described as “the axis of upheaval”. It is a consolidation of alliances that has been accelerated by Donald Trump’s use of political and economic pressure against his friends and foes around the world.
“It’s being perceived as an inflection point here in Washington, I think also in Europe too,” said Brian Hart, the deputy director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. Western governments are “seeing that Xi Jinping is doubling down on his relationships with these countries, despite concern around the world”.
Trump, who staged his own somewhat lacklustre military parade in Washington in June, quickly responded on social media.
“May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”
A Kremlin aide denied that any conspiring was taking place in Beijing. “No one has been plotting anything,” Yuri Ushakov said. “None of these three leaders had such a thought.”
Still, the show of unity among countries broadly sceptical of the US could not have been clearer.
While the concrete results of the parade and the ensuing meetings between the delegations were limited – and many analysts thought that any real agreements to collude among the US’s rivals would remain hidden – foreign policymakers such as the EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas warned in strident tones that the meeting was “an authoritarian alliance seeking a rapid process towards a new world order”.
‘This kind of event is never about building bridges,’ said Yu Jie, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. ‘It is more about building a political theatre to tell your own version of the story.’ Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
But the “axis of upheaval” is riven by significant internal fractures, analysts said, and the propaganda effect may have been greater than the real threat to the international rules-based order.
“People in the west are freaking out, as if there is something that’s really big and meaningful and there is this alternative world order and everything,” said Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “And I think that the major reason here is really the dysfunction brought into the western family by Donald Trump.”
A Chinese academic, who asked to remain anonymous, also said that there were cracks in the seemingly robust anti-west alliances, particularly between the two most powerful members: China and Russia.
China is “pretending to have a strong relationship with Russia to push back against pressure from the US and other western countries,” the academic said.
“China says there is ‘no limits’ to its relationship with Russia, but in practice, it hesitates, constantly looking over its shoulder, wary of pressure from the west, the EU and Nato.”
Although China has been criticised for providing economic and political support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the academic noted that Moscow turned to Pyongyang, not Beijing, for extra boots on the ground. North Korea is thought to have supplied about 15,000 troops to the Russian armed forces – something that Putin thanked Kim for in Beijing.
Xi, thought to be keen to assert his dominance in the Russia-North Korea relationship, also held talks with Kim this week. The Chinese leader said China and North Korea were “good neighbours, good friends and good comrades”, according to North Korean state media.
The parade came shortly after the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit took place in Tianjin, a city that neighbours Beijing. The blandly named conference was another diplomatic coup for Beijing. Dozens of leaders travelled to China for the economic and security conference, which provided a forum for networking at a level normally seen only at the United Nations.
Most notable among the guests was India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, whose own relationship with China has been frosty owing to a border dispute and trade spats. Days after being hit with US tariffs of 50% as a punishment for buying Russian oil, Modi was tweeting in Russian about his “excellent” meeting with Putin in Tianjin.
But this week was not just about diplomacy. It was also about guns.
Wednesday’s parade was closely watched by military analysts for clues about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s modernisation. China’s military uplift has in recent years made it a naval power and put it on track to be capable of a full-scale invasion of Taiwan and the potential war with the US that such an act might spark.
Several newly developed weapons and aircraft were revealed during China’s military parade, including hypersonic missiles designed to take out ships at sea, underwater drones, and electronic warfare planes that can fly with fighter jets to track moving targets while also drawing away fire. Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
Several newly developed weapons and aircraft were revealed, including hypersonic missiles designed to take out ships at sea, underwater drones and electronic warfare planes that can fly with fighter jets to track moving targets for them while also drawing away fire. An unnamed aircraft that was either a real or mocked up stealth drone fighter also turned heads. Meanwhile, the appearance of new submarine-launched and road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles confirmed that China now has a solid and diverse delivery system for nuclear strikes – from land, air and sea.
“Did we know China had a nuclear triad? Yes, we did. But, that image really brings it home,” said Jennifer Parker, an adjunct fellow in naval studies at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.
“That capability sets China apart from other nuclear states, alongside Russia and the US.”
Still, analysts noted that none of China’s shiny new weapons have been tested in combat.
And diplomatically, Beijing still faces challenges. For all its talk of being a stable alternative to Washington, it’s economy is only 60% the size of the US, and its ongoing stability is reliant on agreeing a trade deal with Trump.
“China is far from being able, or willing, to replace the US as a global public goods provider,” said Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Nevertheless, it is willing to exploit the current situation to build its image as a responsible and reliable partner, unlike the US under Donald Trump, and to capitalise on it.”
Additional research by Lillian Yang
Dressing to suit the occasion
It is a sure bet that Xi Jinping’s sartorial choice of suit was as carefully selected as the spotless uniforms of the president’s synchronised soldiers. Composite: EPA, Getty Images
In a show as tightly choreographed as China’s biggest ever military parade, it is a sure bet that Xi Jinping’s sartorial choice of suit was as carefully selected as the spotless uniforms of the president’s synchronised soldiers.
Xi presided over the 50,000 spectators in Tiananmen Square in an instantly recognisable “Mao suit”, chosen to signal the leader’s frugality and revolutionary spirit.
The simple, tunic-style jacket, with four pockets said to represent propriety, justice, honesty and humility, was first adopted by Sun Yat-sen, the nationalist revolutionary who helped to overthrow the Qing dynasty in 1911. Blending Chinese and western elements, the utilitarian jacket symbolised a rejection of imperial decadence. In Chinese, the suit is still known as a “Zhongshan suit”, after the name Sun is known by in China.
But to the outside world the outfit is better known as the Mao suit. Chairman Mao Zedong wore one to declare the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Posters of Mao Zedong in Beijing, who wore a Mao suit to declare the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
Since then, the suit has gone out of fashion among the masses, but it is still the outfit of choice for Xi when he wants to project authority as the vanguard of China’s Communist revolution.
The suit is “saturated [in] political meaning,” said Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. “It commemorates the revolutionary past of the Communist party” and “shows the separation from the west”.
For day to day diplomacy, Xi tends to favour a western-style suit and tie. But for major events, such as when he attended a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in 2015, he dons the Mao suit.
It all starts with the coil. Of course it does. This is Davina, and Davina McCall doesn’t do personal by halves. “I loved the coil, but people always used to go, ‘I’m not getting the coil, ugh.’ I always wondered why it wasn’t more popular.” So, it was June 2023 and McCall was getting her preferred method of contraception replaced – on TV, naturally, for a documentary. “I asked my children’s permission. ‘Can Mummy get her coil refitted on television?’ They all rolled their eyes, like: ‘God! Here she goes again.’”
Post-fitting, her friend Dame Lesley Regan, a gynaecologist, suggested that McCall have a health screening at the state-of-the-art women’s health clinic where she worked, in exchange for a talk she would give on menopause. To be honest, McCall says, she thought the idea ridiculous. “I was like: ‘Honestly, I don’t need that. I’m the healthiest woman you’ve ever met. I don’t go to the doctor, I have a good immune system, I eat well.’”
It’s 10 months now since McCall had her brain tumour removed. Although benign, the colloid cyst was huge. If left untreated, it could have eventually killed her. The TV presenter says she’s still trying to process everything: how fluky it was that it was spotted; what could have happened if it hadn’t been, or if she had refused the op (she almost did); and how her brain has been changed.
We meet at a studio in London where she’s having her photo taken. She arrives wearing a candy floss-coloured shirt, black skort and Ibiza tan. She looks ludicrously fit, like she could knock off a triathlon before breakfast. Today, at 57, McCall’s addiction is health and fitness. It used to be booze and heroin.
‘I looked at my life and thought: have I done everything I want to do? And I thought: yeah, I have.’ Dress: Claire Mischevani. Earrings: Giovanni Raspini
I’ve never met McCall before, but within seconds I feel I’ve known her for life. And in a way I have. McCall is one of the few celebrities whose public persona is pretty much the same as their private one. She grabs my hand, and leads me to the sofa where we’re going to talk. I feel like a contestant on Big Brother, which she presented for 10 years and 16 series (including the celebrity version). I half expect her to tell me that we’re live on Channel 4, so please don’t swear. In fact, this is probably the biggest difference between TV and real versions. The real McCall swears like a drunken nun.
She stares at my bag disbelievingly, as I pull out a second recorder. “Fucking hell, you taping me in stereo?” McCall is a great talker. You can turn your two recorders on and pop out for a couple of hours and she’s sure to have filled them with spellbinding if scatological stories. Her tales (of which there are many) invariably have tangents. And the tangents usually have their own tangents. So, somehow, she segues from the coil to The Lowdown (“It’s this amazing website, like a TripAdvisor for your vagina”), to the respect she has for her children’s privacy (“I’ve never posted any pictures of my son. He didn’t choose to be famous; I did”), her desire to shock as a teenage girl, Donny Osmond, her years at MTV, before getting back to the coil (around an hour later) to explain how it led to her diagnosis.
McCall was working as a judge on the TV series The Masked Singer when she got her diagnosis. She was told only about three people in a million get a colloid cyst, a non-cancerous fluid-filled sac that typically develops in the brain’s third ventricle. She was shocked, but the word she heard loudest was “benign”. In that case, she told herself, she didn’t have to do anything about it. She agreed to speak to a couple of brain surgeons, but her starting point was that they wouldn’t be operating on her. “I spoke to an amazing surgeon in America and said I need an honest opinion on whether I should have this operation. She said, ‘Are you sure you’re not symptomatic?’, and I said yes. And she said: ‘Well, I’m really surprised because looking at your scans it looks like you should be.’” Because it was so big? “Yeah! D’you want me to show you?” Before I’ve got time to answer, she’s got her smartphone out and I’m staring at a white, jelly-like blob on her brain. “A big colloid cyst is 10mm or more, and mine was 14mm,” she says proudly. “This is Jeffrey.”
“Eh?” I say.
McCall after her surgery in November 2024. Photograph: Courtesy of Davina McCall/Eroteme
“Jeffrey is what I call it.” Why? “Because I don’t know anyone called Jeffrey, so I could say ‘Fuck Jeffrey’ without hurting anyone’s feelings.”
How did she react when she was told she should have surgery? “I burst into tears.” She had left the studio to take the call and was pacing around the courtyard. “I was relieved and frightened. So the fear of it being a dead cert that I’m going to get it taken out, and then the relief of ‘Thank fuck, I’m going to get it taken out’ came at the same time. Nobody at The Masked Singer knew. I pull myself together, walk back in to go towards my dressing room and see this guy called Joe from ITV. And he goes: ‘Hey, hi, how are you doing?’ And I burst into tears, and he gives me a hug and asks what’s going on. I said: ‘I’ve just found out I’ve got a brain tumour and I need to get it operated on and I feel good and terrible all at the same time.’”
This was last October. A month later, she had the operation. McCall didn’t tell anybody on the show itself what was happening. “I pretended to everybody on the judging panel I was sick. And then I actually put on a costume and performed.” (She sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and This Christmas on The Masked Singer Christmas Special.) Why? “It was quite weird. I wasn’t thinking this in a dramatic way, but I did think: if I don’t make it, this will be amazing for my kids to watch. I know that sounds a bit dark …” She comes to a stop.
Just as her emotions are about to get the better of her, she cheers herself up by telling me exactly what the operating team did to her brain. “They cut like a hairband into my head, peeled the front of my head down, then went through the two halves of my brain, so it looked like that.” She shows me a photo of the hairband scar. Is the scar still there? “My partner, Michael, very sweetly said, ‘You’ve just got a little white patch’, so we sprayed some root spray, but this is all new hair growing back.” Her hair is a magnificent auburn. Is it her natural colour? She laughs. “No, I’m grey. I coloured my hair two nights ago. I’m not ready to go grey yet.”
McCall feels she has emerged from her experience transformed. “The best thing to come out of it is not being frightened of death any more.” How scared was she? “I wasn’t terrified of dying, but I didn’t want to die. I love life, love living, and definitely wanted to be around for my kids while they were young. I think if I’d got ill when my kids were little it would have been very different, but I looked at my three kids and, although I didn’t want to leave them, I did think: you’d all be OK if I did. That’s a nice feeling. Then I looked at my life and thought: have I done everything I want to do? And I thought: yeah, I have. I’ve lived a really good life. I’ve really enjoyed my life. I’ve loved, and I’ve been loved.”
After the diagnosis, she started a podcast called Begin Again. “The whole idea behind it is helping people get to a point in their lives where they feel they can die happy. It’s about doing everything in your life you want to do, and how do you begin again to do that, so that you can die happy; so you can go, I’ve lived a life I’m proud of, or that I wanted to live.”
What was she totting up when she did the inventory of her life? “My kids. Would they be OK without me? I always thought my job is to teach them to fly away and never look back, even though you want them to look back sometimes. I don’t want to have kids who are too afraid to leave me. I guess the fact that one lives in Manchester, one lives in Australia, and the other one didn’t come on holiday with us because he was in Split means I’ve done a good job. They’re independent, happy kids.”
‘I don’t look at other people. I like being monogamous.’ Dress: Lanvin. Earrings and chunky bangle: Dinosaur Designs. Other bangle: Davina’s own
They had a very different childhood from your own? “Definitely. They had a solid childhood. I was with their dad for 18 years. We were together, they were under one roof, they had food on the table.” McCall split up from her second husband and the father of her children, Matthew Robertson, in 2017. She got together with the hairdresser Michael Douglas two years later. Douglas has done McCall’s hair for more than 20 years, and the two families were friends. Often he would bring his two children around to her house when he was doing her hair.
She was as surprised as anybody when they got together. I assumed it evolved into a relationship, but she says not. “It was more of a coup de foudre. A lightning bolt. I probably don’t want to talk about this because I have to think about Matthew. Michael and I were really good friends because we were hairdresser and client. I told him all of my secrets, about how I was feeling, and he was a brilliant sounding board. He would share his experiences; I would share my experiences. We would help each other navigate things. And he was in love with his wife and I was in love with my husband, so it was us trying to help each other through our lives. That’s what’s so mad about it. And then coup de foudre. Mad. Like I’d put on a different pair of glasses.”
She says she had to make sure she was over Robertson before thinking about a new relationship. “If I’m with somebody I’m with them. I don’t look at other people. I like being monogamous.”
McCall’s childhood was famously unsolid – at least on her maternal side. Her French mother, Florence, was a chaotic alcoholic who also dabbled in drugs, a glamorous socialite who never quite grew up and who died in 2008. When McCall was 13, Florence took her clubbing in Île de Ré along with her 19-year-old sister. “I remember my mum left me and my sis to go and get some weed or something, and being a bit frightened then. I was like: ‘Oh I’m so coool.’ Then when my mum left, I’m: ‘Oh my God, I’m so young, what am I doing in this place?’”
Her parents split up when she was three. Florence returned to France, and young Davina went to live with her paternal grandparents in Surrey. At 13 she moved in with her father, Andrew, a marketing and advertising executive who died in 2022, and her stepmother, Gaby, in London. She adored them (and is still exceptionally close to Gaby) but it was the absent Florence who was the defining influence of her childhood. “I was very loved. My dad and my granny and my stepmum loved me a lot. But it was my mother’s love that I spent my childhood seeking. I had it all there, and the thing I wanted was the thing I couldn’t have. I was just trying to fill this hole.”
By her mid-teens, she had become a rock chick – cool, loud, impossible to ignore. She was having a great time of it. “When I got to 18 or 19 I was an extreme extrovert. Outrageous outfits, always with people, dancing, chat, loved it.” She was running her own club nights, frequently on the lash, and developed a serious drug problem. “I was going down a muddy route of heroin and cocaine, and I was a mess.” How muddy a mess was she? “I don’t want to underplay me taking heroin. The fact I wasn’t injecting doesn’t mean it’s safe to take heroin. It really fucked up my life. My life was falling apart. I left my boyfriend because I thought it was his fault I was taking drugs. It wasn’t. I got worse when I left him. Maybe it was my fault he was taking them.”
She says she was such a contradictory shambles – conscientious and wasted, ecstatic and miserable, life of the party and lonely as hell, permissive and puritanical. “I was half nun, half wild child. I was half really good girl: so compliant, swotty, good morals and manners, and full of love. And then half maniac.” She didn’t have a clue what she wanted to do with her life. Then, when she was 19, MTV got in touch with a bunch of notable clubbers, including her, to see if they could help with the launch of MTV Europe. Their job was to entertain celebrities attending the launch on the journey from London to Amsterdam, where the party was held, and throughout the night. “At the end of that night I was like: ‘Oh my God. I’ve found my calling. I have to work for MTV!’”
With her partner Michael Douglas and daughter Holly Robertson, after being made an MBE in January 2024. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
She’s screaming with enthusiasm, Davina-style. What was so good about it? “It was just so mad. Everyone who worked at MTV was under 25. All the biggest bands of the era were on this plane – Duran Duran, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I think Donny Osmond was on the plane, too. I love Donny.” I tell her how much I liked him when I met him. “Oh my God, isn’t he the loveliest man?! I sat next to him on The Masked Singer, and he was my poster boy.” She points to her legs. Eh? I say. “I’ve got goose bumps.” And the goose bumps really are visible.
She comes to a stop. And she’s gone from hyper to a brief unexpected low. “Nobody really understood what it meant to me sitting next to Donny. All the people in my life who would have really got what that meant to me had died – my sister, my dad, my granny.” Seconds later, she has refuelled. The energy’s back. “And when I came back from that MTV trip I thought: I want to work there.”
Was access to celebrity part of what attracted her to MTV? “No, it was the vibe, the energy. It felt like if you had an idea and you went to somebody at MTV, they’d go: let’s do it. I remember turning up there and Robbie [Williams] had just left Take That and they said they were going to do a two-hour special in an hour! It was so exciting to be around.”
But there were two problems. MTV wanted to hire presenters from the continent, and McCall was too much of a wreck to hold down a proper job. At 25, she got clean. She says she had to give up alcohol before she could contemplate giving up drugs. What had been the attraction of heroin? “You take heroin because you’re deeply insecure and part of your extrovertism is to cover up your deep insecurity. Heroin is like a hug and it tells you that you don’t need anyone or anything, and everything’s all right.”
Sobriety soon paid off. “Amazingly, six months clean, I get a call off MTV, who I had been trying to get a screen test off. If I’d have got a screen test off them when I was still using I would have messed it up.” She has never drunk alcohol or taken drugs since then. Nor has she been without work.
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McCall quickly became the queen of reality TV. She had something different. She was fun without being OTT, sincere without being cloying, funny without dominating and, most importantly, she seemed to love what she was doing and care about the people on the shows. You felt she would have just as happily been a contestant as the presenter.
‘I’m an amplifier. I take good news and spread it everywhere.’ Coat: Richard Quinn. Ring: Laura Vann
There has been a consistency to all the work she has done over the past 30 years. Today, she’s promoting Stranded on Honeymoon Island, a new dating show that’s a melange of other dating shows – contestants have to marry (though it’s not legally binding) then spend time together on a desert island. The first show she presented, Streetmate, was one of the earliest of the genre. It involved McCall rolling up to strangers in different places, asking them if they were single and were up for her finding them a date (which involved the contestant telling McCall who they fancied on the street and her then playing matchmaker). It was simple, audacious and had infinitely more energy than most of today’s shows (including the first episode of Stranded).
I tell her I watched an episode of Streetmate earlier today. “Ohmygodwhichonewhichone?” she replies in turbo-drive Davina. I tell her it was a show in which the woman calls the man a laddish loser, says he has no chance, and they end up together. “Oh my God! So good.” She’s panting with excitement. And laughing. Pant-laughing. “Oh my God, you know I nearly did Streetmate again when it came back [in 2017], then they changed their minds and went for Scarlett [Moffatt]. I loved that show. It was amazing.”
But it was on Big Brother, the groundbreaking C4 show in which a bunch of strangers were locked inside a house together under constant observation, that McCall really made her mark, and for which she remains best known. The first few series were compelling. As was McCall, particularly when collecting newly evicted contestants from the house, with the catchphrase: “Big Brother house, this is Davina. You are live on Channel 4; please do not swear. You have been evicted. I’m coming to get you.”
McCall adored Big Brother. And still does. “The first series was mega. I remember thinking: oh my God, the broadsheets are talking about us. I’d never been on a show where the broadsheets talked about it, and here was a serious TV show that people were unpicking. It was a psychological experiment. It was so good.”
She talks about some of her favourite contestants – Anna Nolan, the Irish woman who had trained as a nun and with whom she’s still friendly (“We share the same birthday!”); Pete Bennett, who has Tourette syndrome; Helen “I like blinking, I do” Adams, who fell in love with Paul Clarke on the show; Nikki Grahame (“She was fucking great – so brilliant and funny and full of life”) and Jade Goody, who both died tragically young; Chantelle Houghton, who had to pretend she was famous in the Celebrity Big Brother house. She’d still be going, if I hadn’t stopped her.
I tell her that when I interviewed Pete we were both in bed (no, I can’t remember why) and show her the photo. She howls with delight. “Awwww, that’s so fucking great. Oh my God! That is so iconic. Oh. My. God. Sweeeet!”
Big Brother had controversies by the bucket-load – rowdiness, fights, a racist row after Goody referred to the Indian contestant Shilpa Shetty as “Shilpa Poppadom” and two other contestants used racist language. In Big Brother series five, fake evictions led to a huge scrap involving most of the contestants. “Fight Night was quite frightening when we had to get security to go in,” she says. “Nobody thought it would kick off like that. We learned more as they went on. Now they don’t allow alcohol like they used to. You used to be able to get booze whenever you wanted.” Was it booze that led to the problems? “That’s what they learned in the end. That’s why they locked the alcohol away.”
How did she deal with the racist incident? “I owed it to them to give them an opportunity to know we knew what had happened, to not trip them up. So, off-camera, we said we saw the racist slurs, and this is an opportunity for you to make it OK. That was us trying to safeguard them.” She admits safeguarding was primitive back then. “They were greeted by boos on their way out. It was scary for them. Most of the time, when people came out and were booed it was panto. But that night it felt different. We’d asked those girls to go on that show. I felt the weight of that.”
I tell her that my younger daughter, Maya, who was a huge fan of reality shows such as Big Brother, feels they are unreality shows these days – full of artifice and set pieces, and contested by indistinguishable, surgically enhanced influencers. We decide to ring Maya so she can say her piece.
“I agree completely,” McCallshouts into the phone. “Completely. I think reality TV’s been going so long it’s no longer reality. People know what’s coming and they are so used to the format that they know how to prepare themselves, and it no longer feels real. I think it’s also because of safeguarding. The OG versions were where we’d get really real, with people from all walks of life who weren’t used to being on television. They wanted to be on Big Brother for an experience. But things happened that made the producers so nervous for people’s safety that they ended up going for people who maybe would be a bit more used to being on television.” Maya and McCall swap notes on favourite contestants. “Lovely to meet you! Byeeeeeeeee!”
McCall insists it’s still impossible to fake it on Big Brother because the camera will eventually find you out. “To do eight weeks in a house with no contact with the outside world is really fucking difficult. After a week, even celebrities forget they’re on camera.”
McCall mentions My Mum, Your Dad, the dating TV series she presented for older people looking for new love. She says that’s an example of a show where there’s still a high degree of reality. Yes, I say, but all the contestants were ridiculously gorgeous. “They had normal bodies, though. They weren’t people with loads of plastic surgery, and they had baggage. But we stopped after two series because nobody watched it.” Why? “I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re not young enough, if there wasn’t enough sex.”
Did it upset her that nobody watched it? “What was nice was that those people who did watch it became obsessed with it and it was critically acclaimed. I’ve been in this game for so long that you know sometimes you do things you love and people don’t come to it.”
In recent years, McCall has become something of an educator, starting with books on fitness and diet. In 2022, she published the bestselling Menopausing. “I hit menopause when I was 43 and then started talking about it when I was 45, 46. And I was so surprised that it was something all women were going to go through and yet none of us seemed to know anything about it.” Menopausing was named Book of the Year at the British Book awards in 2023.
She says she no longer sees herself primarily as a presenter. So what would she call herself? “Now I’d say I’m an amplifier.” Wow, what’s one of them, I ask. “I take good news and spread it everywhere. Or I’m an information highway.” How long has she been an information highway? “Since menopause.”
The book she had wanted to write for two decades was about childbirth. But publishers didn’t see McCall and pregnancy as marketable bedfellows. Ironically, in her late 50s, they gave her the go-ahead. “I wanted to do this book 18 years ago when my son was born, but they thought this was a weird, left-field thing. But after I’d done the menopause book, people were like: ‘What would you like to do next?’. And I was like: ‘Yes! Now I can’t give birth any more, but I can write about it!’”
I’m staring at a squiggle on her wrist as she talks. What is it? “Oh, this is a tattoo for my sister who died, Caroline. And this one is for my other sister, Milly.” Has she got any other notable tattoos? She lifts her skort to reveal an alien on her bottom. “I went to America for MTV and they wanted to film me getting a tattoo, so I was like: OK, I’m going to get HR Giger’s Alien.” Was that her first tattoo? “No.” She shows me her left wrist. “It’s supposed to be a rose, but I think it looks like a vagina with a pair of bollocks. So that’s why I got that stalk put on to make it look like a flower.”
We’ve been chatting for over two hours. As I prepare to leave, I tell her that I had encephalitis as a child and I felt I came out of it a totally different person. “Yes!” She nods vigorously. “I think I’m just learning who I am without Jeffrey.” What’s changed? “When I came out of the operation, I didn’t know what country I was in, or that I’d had the operation done. I didn’t know anything. But I do remember waking up and going, ‘Oh my God, the noise. The noise in my brain,’ and I realised later they were thoughts.”
What does she mean? She says she used to be so full of questions about how and why things worked. Often they were daft or inconsequential (What are the ideal-sized heels for women to wear comfortably? What is the perfect way to describe the colour of her shirt?), but they were still thoughts. “I said to Michael twice in the year-and-a-half of me leading up to finding out about the tumour: ‘Do you always think?’ And he said: ‘Yeah, I’m always thinking.’ And I remember saying to myself: ‘I used to be like that.’”
About five years ago, she says, she stopped asking herself questions. “I’d stopped thinking, and I’m sure that was a symptom of the tumour.” Now, McCall couldn’t be more aware of the noise in her head, of those thoughts banging around, and she couldn’t be happier with them. “I feel I’ve got myself back,” she says.
Dietitians say that repeating breakfast can be part of a healthy diet.
Eating the same breakfast can reduce decision fatigue and make mornings easier.
Mix up other meals and snacks to meet your nutrient needs.
The average person makes around 35,000 decisions each day—yes, that many. From the moment you wake until your head hits the pillow, you’re constantly making decisions on daily tasks and events, like what to wear, how to respond to emails and what to eat. All these choices can lead to decision fatigue, leaving you feeling drained. That’s why many of us find ourselves wearing and eating the same things often because it’s one less decision to make.
When it comes to choosing meals, breakfast tends to be the one we repeat the most. This makes sense, since mornings can be hectic, and having a go-to breakfast option makes busy mornings a little easier. But is it actually healthy to eat the same breakfast every day? Here’s what dietitians say about being a breakfast repeater.
Pros of Eating the Same Breakfast Every Day
It Reduces Decision Fatigue
“Sticking to the same breakfast each day can reduce decision fatigue,” says Sapna Peruvemba, M.S., RDN, a registered dietitian. With breakfast already planned, you can conserve the energy you’d normally spend on deciding what to eat for breakfast for more important stuff. Plus, some people actually look forward to having the same daily breakfast. “It offers a sense of routine, which can be comforting—especially for those who enjoy structure in their mornings,” she adds. Another win? Making the same thing for breakfast can simplify your grocery list, cutting down on even more decision-making.
You Stick to Something That Works for You
As the saying goes, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” This can apply to your favorite breakfast too. “When my clients find a breakfast that works for them, I recommend they stick to it as many days a week as possible,” says Melissa Mitri, M.S., RD. “Everyone is different, and so once you find that breakfast that is satisfying, balanced and provides long-lasting energy, it makes sense to stick to it or at least some variation of it.” For some, that might mean whipping up a daily smoothie. For others, a veggie-filled egg scramble is their top breakfast pick. “This takes the guesswork out of your first meal, which can profoundly impact your day in a positive way,” explains Mitri.
Starts Your Day Off Right
Even if you’re having the same thing every day, a well-balanced breakfast can set the tone for making healthier choices the rest of the day. “If it’s a healthy breakfast (e.g., rolled oats and fruit, or eggs with whole-grain toast), you’ve gotten your day off to a good start,” says Lisa Andrews, M.Ed., RD, LD. The key is making sure that your staple breakfast provides an optimal balance of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats for sustained energy that will power you through the whole morning. Having a balanced breakfast can also give you a head start on meeting the daily recommendations for essential nutrients like folate, vitamin C and calcium.
Cons of Eating the Same Breakfast Every Day
It Can Get Boring
“While eating the same breakfast every day may work for some people, others may get bored eating in this way,” says Mitri. She adds that this breakfast monotony could potentially derail your health goals: “Boredom may lead to dissatisfaction with your meals or cravings later on because you’re yearning for more variety.” If you find yourself in a breakfast rut, it may be time to switch things up.
You May Miss Out on Important Nutrients
Missing out on a variety of nutrients is another drawback to being a breakfast repeater. “Eating the same breakfast every day limits the number of nutrients in that meal. Because of this, you may risk missing out on other essential nutrients that you would otherwise get if you had more of a variety of breakfast options in your rotation,” says Mitri.
Your gut health depends on meal variety too. “Your gut microbiome thrives on dietary diversity, so too much repetition might not be ideal—though this can be balanced out by varying your other meals,” explains Peruvemba.
The Final Verdict
Good news—dietitians agree that sticking to a go-to breakfast isn’t inherently a bad thing. To make the most of your breakfast, consider these tips:
Choose Savory Rather Than Sweet. When deciding on your staple breakfast, Andrews suggests opting for savory options like eggs or frittata versus sweet ones like muffins or waffles. “This may help curb your sweet tooth for the rest of the day and give you more energy in the morning,” she says.
Add Some Protein. In addition to keeping you full, eating a protein-rich breakfast has other perks. “Protein at breakfast was found to keep blood sugar levels lower at lunch and dinner, according to a small study in healthy adults,” says Andrews. There’s also evidence that eating a protein-rich breakfast may support heart health, such as better blood pressure regulation and HDL (“good”) cholesterol, she adds.
Don’t Forget About Fiber. Picking a high-fiber breakfast to repeat helps you get closer to the daily fiber goal of 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men—a goal most people fall short of. “Include foods that are high in both protein and fiber to help regulate blood sugar and your appetite. A veggie omelet with whole-grain toast and fresh or frozen fruit is an ‘eggscellent’ way to start your day,” says Andrews.
Add Variety the Rest of the Day. If you like to eat the same thing in the morning, make sure that you are covering all of your nutrition bases by eating more variety at lunch, dinner and snacks. “Balance out the routine by including a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods in your other meals throughout the day,” says Peruvemba.
Switch Up Some Ingredients. ”If you like the same breakfast every day, you can still stick to the same general ‘formula,’ while rotating some of the ingredients,” says Mitri. “For example, if [you eat] overnight oats every morning, you can mix the ingredients up every few days, such as the type of fruit you add in, other toppings like nuts or seeds, or rotate different nut butters like almond, peanut or sunflower. Doing this allows you to enjoy the same overall meal while maintaining variety in nutrient content and flavor.”
Our Expert Take
Whether it’s a favorite smoothie, overnight oats or scrambled eggs and toast, many of us have at least one go-to breakfast that we make again and again. Dietitians agree that if it works for you, there’s no need to change things up—especially if it’s a breakfast that offers plenty of filling fiber and protein. The one caveat is that you’ll want to plan a bit of variety in the rest of your meals so that you aren’t missing out on any key nutrients. To prevent boredom, you can also add interest to your staple breakfast by switching out toppings or mix-ins rather than picking something entirely new. If deciding what to eat each morning feels exhausting, make one final decision: stick to the same breakfast.
