Patrick Kidd

Sir Sean Connery’s break; BBC boss bans ‘talent’; farewell to Baroness Gardner of Parkes; Lord Elliott on accents; and Sir Simon Schama’s involuntary prostration

New book looks at how national team, without a permanent leader until 1946, still won 61 per cent of their matches under charge of various FA committee members

Mitzi Gaynor’s tough work; Line of Duty’s real heartthrob; Tony Benn’s Lords blunder; royal approval for La Bohème and Tom Parker Bowles’ nose for trouble

In this episode of NewsWrap, Frans Cronje unpacks South Africa's shifting geopolitical allegiances; retired Colonel Chris Wyatt discusses Elon

Plus: Starmer’s steamy story; Shivani Raja’s tactful putdown; ‘King Conker’ cleared of cheating

Plus: Lord Mandelson’s Oxford head-scratcher; sad loss of an animal-loving dean; Maradona, the elusive butterfly

Mock proceedings at the Supreme Court, organised by the charity Classics for All, agreed that the princess had been smeared by the Greek playwright Euripides

Ben Ainslie’s assertion is off the mark – just ask Gareth Southgate

Plus: Dame Zandra Rhodes’ dress for Princess Anne; Susie Dent’s favourite word; the loudest word ever shouted; and how Kate Mosse’s village plugged her book

Plus: the dashing of a Womble’s classical ambitions and an It Girl’s debt shock