No Naughty Bits lacks the cerebral, irreverent silliness of the Pythons' own material. It deals in a different kind of humour, sometimes cleverly yet without real zest... more
Much action expected at Vedanta's AGM, taking place this afternoon. The FTSE 100 miner has long been subject to vocal protests from tribal group Survival International over its notorious mine in Orissa, India... more
Producer Cameron Mackintosh and director Richard Eyre have taken a huge risk on Betty Blue Eyes, especially, they admit, as the star of the show is an animatronic swine... more
Ah, the desperate whiff of worried PRs. London-listed mining giant Vedanta Resources had a bruising encounter with tribal rights charity Survival International last year... more
Interesting insight into Sir Alan Budd’s departure as head of the supposedly independent Office for Budget Responsibility after just three months... more
The Duchess of Cornwall’s brother Mark Shand, the driving force behind the funkily designed model elephants we will soon see on London’s streets, has had a colourful life of his own.... more
Analysis: When the latest chapter of Borders' life story ended with the 45-store retailer collapsing into administration, doomsayers claimed it was the start of the end for the traditional book-selling industry... more
Not The Messiah was oddly entertaining, from the bombastic opening theme courtesy of Sousa to the Lumberjack Song encore, courtesy of Michael Palin.
... more
Terry Gilliam was born in Minnesota, but hasn't lived in the States for more than 40 years. He renounced his US citizenship in January 2006 in protest against George W Bush... more
Thousands of residents - including actor Michael Palin and film director Ken Loach - have joined forces to fight plans to build a road across Hampstead Heath... more
One of the big questions brought on by the credit crunch is whether the private-equity industry is dead, or as Michael Palin famously argued about the Monty Python parrot, merely resting... more
Michael Palin’s Centre for Stammering Children has just won a £340,000 grant. Here he tells how his father’s speech problems led him to offer
help to today’s fellow sufferers... more
A Michael Palin documentary on Eastern Europe has been censured by the BBC Trust. It said the former Monty Python star had been inaccurate and had oversimplified the war in the former Yugoslavia.... more
As the Camerons and Browns choose British resorts for their summer holidays, Connie Allfrey seeks out the seaside towns where demand for second homes is still soaring... more
The duo in World in One City want to meet someone from all 192 UN-recognised countries. It's not so much a comedy show, more an exercise in listmaking anal retentiveness.... more
Nobody expects a full-scale Monty Python reunion. But this is the nearest you can get - four on stage at once to celebrate the opening of Spamalot.... more
Tonight:
3°c
