On this week’s show, Peter and Sarah hand over the floor to our listeners and dedicate the entire episode to responding to emails, WhatsApp notes and Spotify comments that you’ve been kind enough to send.

And what a mailbag it is with stories of duelling in the modern age, should utilities be in public ownership or private hands? Would Peter ever throw in his lot with the Social Democratic Party (unlikely, dear listener)? And cats or dogs? And why does Sarah’s moggy gnaw on her laptop?

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

· Bladerunner – Dir: Ridley Scott

· The Divine Comedy – Dante

· Royal Flash - George MacDonald Fraser

· Why I Am Not A Christian – Bertrand Russell

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Peter will be examining the increasing disintegration of one President Donald J Trump while Sarah will be asking if Artificial Intelligence is finally coming for us all.

And the pair pore over our mailbag to chat about looking after your parents in later life, the legacy of former PM Jim Callaghan, asking what did the 1970s ever do for us? And the joys of the Northumbrian coastline.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

• Helena – Evelyn Waugh

• Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton

• 2001: A Space Odyssey – Dir: Stanley Kubrick

• Terminator: Dark Fate – Dir: Tim Miller

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Sarah’s looking back at the decade of flared jeans and glitter balls and asking why Andy Burnham wants to take us back to the 1970s. And talking of Burnham, Peter wonders if the new PM should now call a general election?

And the pair pore over our mailbag to chat about the merits of corporal punishment (or lack of) with Peter recalling school days that sometimes featured a thrashing. The interminable rise of the e-bike and politicians that either could do without ever meeting again.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

•Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

•Coming Up For Air – George Orwell

•Goodbye, Mr. Chips - James Hilton

•Coriolanus – William Shakespeare

•The Whitsun Weddings – Philip Larkin

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Sarah talks procrastination, though she has a few other things to do first, and as he’s named the sleaziest politician in the UK, Peter examines the latest Nigel Farage farrago.

And the pair pore over our mailbag to chat about the legacy of one Dennis Potter, why Peter is less than keen on the Singaporean state, on what the locals really call Wittenham Clumps and that most important of questions: is it Vine and Hitchens or Hitchens and Vine?

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

· One Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage - Michael Crick

· Solving Procrastination: The Science of Why We Put Things Off and How to (Finally!) Stop - Dr. Itamar Shatz

· Stand Up, Nigel Barton – Dir: Gareth Davies

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, as the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continues, Peter will be looking at the current situation in Iran and then Sarah and Peter will be comparing notes on their Desert Island Discs (Sarah tries unsuccessfully to convince Peter of the charms of Faithless), if the BBC ever come calling…

And the pair pore over our mailbag to chat about dogma in education, Peter’s favourite public debate, the charm of the Boston suburbs and why our politicians are all too human and why we expect too much from them.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

Sarah’s Desert Island Choices:

· Mendelssohn concerto in E minor: Yehudi Menuhin with the Berlin Phil (for my father)

· Faithless: insomnia

· Hozier: work song

· Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the devil

· Maria Callas: Vissi d’arte

· Led Zeppelin: Fool in the Rain

· David Bowie: Moonage Daydream

· Pink Floyd: The Great Gig in the Sky

· Book: Dante’s divine comedy, I would spend my time translating it into English

· Luxury: Contact lenses. Although they might be considered a necessity as I’m so blind. In which case, a hot bath.

Peter’s Desert Island Choices:

· Bob Dylan: Tomorrow is a Long Time

· Fairport Convention: Farewell, Farewell

· Purcell: Nymphs and Shepherds

· Purcell: Rondeau

· Gustav Holst: St Paul’s Suite

· George Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow

· Handel: Solomon

· Beethoven: Seventh Symphony

· Book: A collection of the Sherlock Holmes Short and Long Stories

· Luxury: A Fridge

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Peter would like to know why Labour are taxing some private schools out of business and Sarah is asking if should we even care that Prince Harry might be coming back to the UK?

And the pair pore over our mailbag to chat about studying double smoking (and drinking cider), how e-bikes have no place even in hilly Lisbon, just how Conservative was Gordon Brown, and what ties Andy Bunrnham and Philip Larkin together.

On our reading and watch list this week:

· The Secondary Mod – Dick Stroud

· The August Coup: The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991 – Robert Service

· The Conservative enemy: A programme of radical reform for the 1960s - C. Anthony R. Crosland

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Sarah speaks candidly about her father’s recent passing, both muse on the brutality of modern politics as Kier Starmer steps down and Peter wonders why some nations crave war.

And the pair pore over our mailbag prompting Peter’s remarkable impression of an announcer on the Moscow Metro. They both offer up the funniest politicians they’ve encountered and revisit Peter’s anti-Cameron documentary, Toff At The Top.

On our reading and watch list this week:

· Two Women – Dir: Vittorio De Sica

· Salvador – Dir: Oliver Stone

· Dispatches: Cameron - Toff at the Top

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Sarah’s asking is eighty too old to be a world leader or any kind of politician and Peter would like to know why the Thought Police are coming after Janet and John.

And the pair pore over our mailbag to consider why Peter is s a Swissphile, to wonder what the Victorians ever did for us, how the Mamas and Papas were a musical apex for some and why is one of our presenters practically meat and drink for the Popbitch website.

On our reading and watch list this week:

· Chocky – John Wyndham

· Janet and John – Various

· Places Where They Sing – Simon Raven

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Phillip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.