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The Gallagher brothers’ comeback concerts are given the full fan-worship treatment, but it’s impossible to begrudge the euphoria they have created
“Hello … hello … It’s good to be back.” With these words – and the unfortunate possibility of a royalty payment to a certain disgraced ex-pop star – this highly enjoyable fan-worship documentary revives the memory of last year’s staggering and already mythic Oasis reunion tour. It also recollects how effortlessly funny the Gallagher brothers are, like a great comic double act. There’s a big laugh in the tense scene in the rehearsal room, when Liam finally shows up after Noel and everyone else had been there for hours – and the very first thing that comes out of his mouth is a fierce and magnificently sullen objection to the baffles on the drum kit: “They’re giving me the hump.”
Yet to the surprise of many who did not believe, and these biblical echoes are strangely appropriate, Liam and Noel did not fall out; the resulting stadium tour put a fresh coat of paint on the word “phenomenon”. Middle-aged and elderly people together with young people sporting bucket hats, some accompanied by their pets in bucket hats, sang their hearts out as if it was the 90s again and Manchester City had just won the World Cup 10-0 (although this film was evidently completed before Wonderwall’s moment at this year’s World Cup).
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:30:44 GMT
In this bizarre new gameshow, you will encounter John Bercow doing topless karaoke while tossing glitter at pensioners and Joey Essex pounding on the walls of a shipping container. Why? Who knows!
What is The Box? It is easier, perhaps, to list the things The Box is not, if only to give ourselves something to cling to when the more recognisable trappings start to wobble, the floor gives way and we find ourselves in a tent with Joey Essex, watching in silence as a topless John Bercow hurls glitter at an audience of braying pensioners.
So. Some things The Box is not: a sitcom; a medical drama; a property show presented by sockless men with teeth that follow you around the room; a thing about badgers. Beyond this, however, we are on our own. The opening titles do little to assist. “10 BOXES” booms a caption as the camera swoops over a collection of giant yellow containers strapped to the back of a flatbed lorry. “10 CONTESTANTS” it continues, as a montage of coming attractions reveals footage of Graeme Souness squinting at an egg and a member of JLS running towards some trees. And, finally, a distinctly disobliging caption that is nevertheless pivotal to the wilfully befuddling modus operandi of this six-part series: “NO HELP”. Bloody hell. Or rather, “bløødy hell”, because The Box is a Norwegian format so something may have been lost in translation. Anyway, shh, because it’s episode one and here is Gary Lineker.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 20:15:45 GMT
Social media, mental health problems, the pandemic and financial instability all contribute to the phenomenon
On Tess Lavanda’s YouTube channel there is one video with substantially more views than the rest: it is titled “I don’t have any friends” and has been watched more than half a million times since she posted it a month ago.
Over on Instagram she has posted dozens of reels with titles like “I turned 22 alone”, “Living alone in London” and “Feeling alone this summer is OK”, each garnering thousands of views and hundreds of comments, many from people feeling the same way.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:00:34 GMT
The order of discovery related to Fifa’s failed plan to sell the World Cup will worry the American president, a situation that tends to end badly for the culprit
“Tell Mike it was just business. I always liked him.”
“He understands.”
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 07:00:29 GMT
We asked you what you most wanted to put to our Guardian columnist. You responded in droves, querying her ‘beef’ with Burnham, who she thinks is this generation’s Hugh Grant, and what she really thinks about Richard Osman ...
• ‘There is light at the end of this tunnel. But the tunnel is filled with sewage’: an exclusive extract from Marina Hyde’s new book
What are your bunker plans?
James, Portugal
Masses of things to read, incredible food and an unethical doctor with an insane war chest of interesting pills. The second that bunker door closes, the doors of perception are opening.
Will Restore gain more traction by the next election and genuinely split the rightwing vote?
Natasha, London
They won’t split it in some 50‑50 way, but they could peel off a bit more from Reform’s right flank. Nigel Farage is looking vulnerable. In the Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry, Robin Williams plays an actor who literally goes out of focus. Having once been sharp and clear, his nervous system is so shot that he becomes a physically blurred and imprecise distortion of himself. Metaphorically, something similar has happened to Farage in recent months.
Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:00:29 GMT
Tapestry’s loan to UK is just another chapter in the love-hate relationship that has spanned the centuries since it was created
Five British prime ministers ago – and six French ones – when Emmanuel Macron first confirmed that France would return the Bayeux tapestry to Britain after 1,000 years, he told an audience at Sandhurst and Theresa May – the No 10 seat-warmer of the day – that when it came to France and Britain there were “two things that nothing can change, be it a vote or a political decision: our history and our geography”.
It was January 2018, 18 months after the UK had voted to leave the EU, and relations between the near neighbours were not good. The French political establishment had been shocked and angered by Brexit; personal relations were frazzled, and cross-Channel government contacts measurably dwindling. This was not a rupture that a piece of embroidered medieval linen, however perfectly it represented that tangled history, was going to solve on its own.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:00:27 GMT
Reform UK leader maintains innocence in overseas funding controversy on last day of party conference
Nigel Farage has claimed that he “wasn’t even listening” during a meeting at the centre of a controversy about whether his party considered evading the law on accepting donations from overseas.
The Reform UK leader also claimed he knew donation law “better than anybody” during interviews as he sought to salvage the final day of his party conference from the fallout that has already cost him two of his closest aides.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 16:26:13 GMT
Port authorities say access roads ‘free flowing’ again after large group forces road closures in both directions
Dozens of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blocked the road at the port of Dover in Kent, forcing closures in both directions on Saturday morning.
Kent police said they were were in attendance and engaging with the protest, which the Port of Dover described as a “public order incident”. No arrests were made during the incident. Responsibility for the demonstration appears to have been claimed by an anti-immigration group with links to the far right.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:57:21 GMT
Moscow and Kyiv vow not to strike each other’s capitals for three days during negotiations
Russian president Vladimir Putin began talks with US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin on Saturday – aimed at ending more than four years of war in Ukraine, ahead of the pair’s first visit to Kyiv expected on Sunday.
Both Russia and Ukraine vowed not to strike each other’s capitals for three days during the negotiations, as Washington tries to revive US-led talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 22:13:55 GMT
As many as 4,000 positions could go over two years after cyber-attack and US tariffs take toll
Thousands of workers at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be offered redundancies after Britain’s largest car manufacturer had its revenues slashed by falling sales, a cyber-attack and Donald Trump’s tariffs.
JLR informed workers and their union on Saturday that the company would be opening a voluntary redundancy programme for salaried and management team members, the BBC and Sunday Times reported.
Continue reading...Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:42:11 GMT