Barrie (left) and Tony with Saffron and Aspen. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian The family in My Weird and Wonderful Family (Channel 4) took a bit of getting my head around. They’re more of an unclear family than a nuclear one. So there are gay dads Tony and Barrie. That’s... 

AP Keith Richards and Patti Hansen The wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is a cancer survivor. Patti Hansen reveals in the August issue of Vogue magazine that she was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2007. She says she first underwent chemotherapy, which shrunk the tumor but didn’t get... 

Ingrid Oliver, one of the ladies in The Castle. Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Observer The Castle is on its third series (Radio 4); I don’t know how I managed to miss the first two, since you can tell within four or five seconds that it will, at some point, be funny (maybe not right... 

Alan Johnson . . . meets bands who “achieved the success he craved”. Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian Where do cabinet ministers go when they die? “My name is Alan Johnson, I’ve had a modicum of success as a postman, as a trades unionist, as a member of parliament, as... 

The number of part-time workers has hit record levels with people struggling to find full-time employment. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA The number of part-time workers in Britain has hit a record high as more people are forced to take shorter hours or not work at all. Official data released this...