Yvonne Fletcher, who in 1984 was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London. Photograph: PA There was something defiantly old-school about Real Crime: Yvonne Fletcher (ITV1): the unnecessary reconstruction featuring an Yvonne Fletcher lookalike who didn’t look anything like Yvonne Fletcher; the newsreel footage of the British ambassador’s wife singing the national anthem at Tripoli [...]

For the birds … Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill. Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty Dear indie professor, will Peter Bjorn & John’s Young Folks and Kings of Leon’s Sex On Fire ever disappear from radio playlists and B&Q/DFS/Asda adverts? Or is the earth doomed to endure them for millennia, like slowly decomposing nuclear waste? BarryBeatmaster When a [...]

Pam Green (left), to whom the Scala will pay tribute at Vintage Goodwood festival. Photograph: THE RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE In June 1979, I was 22 years old, and I published my first programme for the Scala cinema in London. Having served a baptism of fire at the Screen on the Green in Islington, and at [...]

Salute to Sondheim … Simon Russell Beale, Judi Dench and Bryn Terfel at Prom 19. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Ever since the mid 1990s Stephen Sondheim’s songs have been heard more or less regularly at the Proms but never before has a whole concert been devoted to his work. Sondheim’s 80th birthday earlier this year provided the necessary [...]

Iraqi soldiers enter Kuwait in 1990 Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features A Quiet Invasion (Radio 4, Friday) was a tale told without fuss. Kirsty Norman spoke as if she was explaining a vexing day at the office or problems with the builders at home. Instead, she recounted what it’s like...