Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

libro.fm/audiobooks/9... With Stoppard's death it's worth mentioning that you can get the BBC radio versions of pretty much his entire body of work for a single audiobook credit (also available on Audible, but Libro.fm is far better)

Farewell to a modern great Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88 www.bbc.com/news/article...

Absolutely loved Wake Up Dead Man, was not prepared for quite how true this was

One European Cup and one Europa League League Stage, doo dah, doo dah

sorry I've just seen the score in the PSG-Spurs match, did they have a meeting at halftime and agree to play sillyball

So much of our politics revolves around catering to the emotions of people who become furious when someone else isn't suffering as much as they think they should

and again - literally just the hobby horse of some random anonymous Twitter accounts, enraging how quickly they managed to turn their horrid posting into actual government policy and rhetoric

If you've got a history book at home, take it out, throw it in the bin, it's worthless. The history books, now, will have to be rewritten. They'll quite simply say "The OBR released a budget analysis 25 minutes early". Everything else will be a footnote.

This Budget has already been going on for approximately 37 years, I don't think you can blame the OBR for just wanting it over

maybe this is just Vanity Fair's new house style for byline portraits

Hello! I'm hosting a new funny history podcast/radio series for children and families, and it's coming very soon on the BBC! Great writers, great performers, great producers, and me arguing with Ramesses the great... what's not to love?

Man Who Thought Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ Was Over In For Thrill Of His Fucking Life https://theonion.com/man-who-thought-fleetwood-macs-the-chain-was-over-in-for-thrill-of-his-fucking-life/

maybe i am going insane

One frustration of watching MPs ask questions for an hour is that they're not very good at it. Prescott has not been asked about the fairly glaring errors in his own report – that *it misquoted Trump in exactly the same way it says Panorama did* www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-e...

and yet he became a reactionary, despite people dying of adverse drug reactions

being fed constant information about Nuzzi and Lizza, it will not stop, it feels like being psychically attacked by a tricky wordle

Stayed up to see England collapse in Perth, now Forest are three up at Anfield, sport truly is a land of contrasts

people really will write anything on the internet

AH WELL #thecricket

Oh Zac

this is correct

cricket's going well then

not the main point here but lol at Frank Lampard being on this list

Fish have committed credit card fraud

look if Allister (autocorrect hates your wrong name) Heath is taking a bold stance against the influence of state-like foreign corporations in UK politics, I say welcome to the resistance brother

This is easily an order of magnitude larger than the number of firings in the entire years-long 'cancel culture' panic. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

you know I reckon Northern Ireland could take Italy

just a huge amount of football, the most football

stop making me know sex things about the bad writing lady

Labour in "good move" shocker

I think the one observation I'd make is that in a world becoming "more volatile", for the concept of "sanctuary" to be meaningful it should encompass a longer period rather than a shorter one?

people are reading too much into this, maybe it was simply Morgan's turn on the stopping-him-having-sex-with-his-wife rota

It is very funny that this Pope is just going to get jerseys from now on. Everyone decided that's what this Pope likes and that is it. It's like if your grandmother got you a puzzle for Christmas one year and you said you liked it so your entire extended family is like "oh that's the puzzle kid"

another huge BBC scandal, as their live text is apparently unaware that the perfect Harry Kane statue already exists

look I don't believe in the antichrist but if you do believe in the antichrist this is pretty much in the zone of broadly antichristy behaviour

i saw you across ye olde ale house and liked your vibe

In 1622, when the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa I was supposed to be returned to power after years of imprisonment, he instead barricaded himself in his room and refused to come out, telling court officials "I do not want to be the Sultan". Not sure what made me think of that.

a confusing piece of news from so many different angles

Good work here. Not unexpected, but very useful to have it clearly laid out.

jeffrey epstein types like the clickhole version of the queen

look I know this is not the most important issue but why can none of these people even write a one-line email without coming across as borderline illiterate

pretty funny in retrospect that QAnon hinged on the idea that powerful elites at the highest levels of government were smart enough to talk in code when sending emails to each other about their despicable crimes

No surprises, it’s magnificent

Judge for yourself: did the dossier accusing the BBC of doctoring a Trump quote…doctor a Trump quote?

Good god. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgp7...

potentially the biggest moment for Bluesky, the website for Robyn fans between the ages of 36 and 49