Comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen is reported to have quit playing the lead in an impending Freddie Mercury biopic due to a disagreement with the remaining members of Queen.

As so many people have said, Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, was a comedy giant. And his talent was evident – obvious – when I first saw him 40 years ago. I was then trying to make my way in comedy at Cambridge, and he, then president of the slightly loftier Oxford University Dramatic Society, had agreed to take part, rather to amuse himself, I suspect. He was by a mile the best thing in it. Clever, and very, very funny, as he always was subsequently.

Crime novel won universal praise from critics when it came out in April

'I'm taking a deep breath before committing to the Dostoevsky biography'

You've been around the world appearing on crazy TV shows for a new Channel 4 series. You must have seen some sights.

This is less an opera than a failed attempt at Citizen Kane

See below to watch the trailers for this week's DVD and Blu-Ray releases

When is a butcher not  a butcher? When it’s “a cult-like phenomenon” in the Ginger Pig’s case: not my words, but those of Tom Parker Bowles on the back  of this week’s book.

Godot misses another appointment

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death

Case Histories, Sun, BBC1 / Sincerely, F Scott Fitzgerald: a Culture Show Special, Sat, BBC2

More light on the man inside the wardrobe

Steve Coogan tonight admitted he visited a lot of strip clubs to research his latest role as porn baron Paul Raymond.