SUNDAY, MARCH 15 The coronavirus is now erupting all over the world, and I have grown increasingly strident in my pleadings on social media for people to take it more seriously. But it’s not easy when the people running the country have appeared so bafflingly relaxed about it. While some high-profile friends, such as Gary … Read more
Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick has seen a lot of people weep for the creatures they love. ‘I’ve had billionaires and megastars and people who are not famous and homeless people all lie on my floor and cry,’ says the country’s most famous animal doctor, star of his own Channel 4 show. ‘Prince or pauper, it’s a … Read more
Frank Skinner in fabulous form and more riveting Radio shows 1. Cracking castaways, from Hitchcock to Beckham Over 2,000 Desert Island Disc shows are available online, featuring conversation and the musical choices of great names from sport, science, politics and showbusiness. Take your pick from Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen Hawking to Mary Berry and David … Read more
From the BBC’s useful new Coronavirus Global Update to Mel Giedroyc Is Quilting and Blackout, this week’s top podcasts By Leaf Arbuthnot Published: 22:01 BST, 28 March 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 28 March 2020 Coronavirus Global Update Covid-19 may have come from China but its spread has been horrifyingly global. This useful new BBC … Read more
From Jo Brand on Table Manners to the eight-part drama Blackout, Castaway and The Coronavirus Podcast, this week’s top podcasts By Leaf Arbuthnot Published: 22:01 BST, 21 March 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 21 March 2020 Table Manners Every week on this big-hearted podcast, singer Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie invite a celebrity guest … Read more
THURSDAY, MARCH 12 Normally, the news that I’ve just been voted 13th on the annual London Power List would bring me irrational pleasure, particularly as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle came joint 20th, which I know will really irk them both. Yet how utterly pointless and irrelevant such an ‘accolade’ seems today, as coronavirus sweeps … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK THE RULES OF CONTAGION By Adam Kucharski (Wellcome Collection £16.99, 352 pp) Were there a Booker Prize for timeliness, this nuggety gem of a book would be a shoo-in. But don’t think this is an opportunistic (or a simply lucky) attempt to ride on the back of the coronavirus pandemic. The … Read more
Aberdeen Standard Investments, BMO, Janus Henderson, Columbia Threadneedle and Aviva Investors have today suspended trading on their respective open-ended property funds due to valuation uncertainty as markets continue to be rocked by the coronavirus panic. The groups join M&G which suspended its £2.3billion Property Portfolio at the end of last year due to liquidity concerns, … Read more
MONDAY, MARCH 2 Back to the Good Morning Britain studios after three weeks in America, to find Susanna Reid in full-blown coronavirus alert mode. She has declared herself strictly non-contact. ‘No hugging, no kissing, no touching me whatsoever!’ she exclaimed when I entered her dressing room at 5.45am for our usual pre-show briefing and asked … Read more
With the outbreak now a full-blown pandemic, many of our precious Easter holiday plans are looking precarious. But what happens if you can’t go, or don’t want to go and will travel insurance cover you? Here we talk you through everything you need to know. With the outbreak now a full-blown pandemic, many of our … Read more