‘The German production has had a standing ovation every night for 36 years. Graf went before big tennis competitions to gee herself up. And the German football team would go before an international’Andrew Lloyd Webber said to me: “I have this story.” It was going to be an animated film based on Thomas the Tank Engine, but animation back in the early...

You’ve loved Ncuti Gatwa making the Doctor fun again, lapped up the sexiest season of Bridgerton – and discovered the new Mighty Boosh. Here are Guardian readers’ top TV shows of 2024 to date Guardian writers’ best TV of 2024 so far Prime Video Clarkson’s Farm is the funniest programme on TV. My father, who was a teacher after the war, always wanted...

Band say carbon emissions for vinyl production will be reduced by 85% thanks to new method, as they announce 10th studio albumColdplay are aiming to make the most ecologically sustainable vinyl record yet, for their newly announced album Moon Music.Each 140g vinyl copy of Moon Music, released 4 October, will be manufactured from nine plastic bottles...

The sequel to the 2015 hit opened with $155m at the US box office, the best of the year so far, and $140m internationally – the biggest overseas animated opening of all timeInside Out 2, Pixar’s belated sequel to the 2015 animation about the emotions controlling an 11-year-old girl, has far exceeded ticket sale predictions for its opening weekend. The...

Courtauld Gallery, London ‘Take our picture, mister!’ they shouted at Mayne, who not only captured children on the streets of postwar London, but helped turn photography into an art formIn its 92-year history, the Courtauld Gallery in London has never acquired or exhibited photography – until now. Its inaugural exhibition is Roger Mayne: Youth, devoted...

Two years in the making, and drawing on themes of healing, the slave trade and even Vikings, the latest show by Alberta Whittle, who represented Scotland at Venice, has taken over a grand mansion on a holiday isleOn the sweeping manicured grounds of Mount Stuart, a neo-gothic stately home on the Scottish Isle of Bute, sits a most incongruous sight:...