"Tone?  A little cheesy-pineapple one?": yes, it's that bag again.  This time, she comes in the slim-line, lime-green-gowned form of Jill Halfpenny in Lindsay Posner's vibrant, splendidly cast revival of Abigail's Party.

Independent Bath Literature Festival

Children in faith schools are more likely to suffer homophobic bullying.

Charlotte Church yesterday accepted £600,000 from News International to bring her phone-hacking case to a close. She tells James Cusick how her treatment at the hands of Rupert Murdoch's team alienated her friends, brought her career to a standstill – and drove her mother close to suicide

A local council in Somerset is taking on the mighty EDF Energy in a row over the cost of a planning application for a £10bn nuclear power station.

A basement packed with dynamite

The former wife of Sir Paul McCartney did not authorise former News of the World editor Piers Morgan, or anybody else, to listen to her voicemails, she told the inquiry into press standards today.

Another day doing God's work?

Starring: Dane DeHaan, Michael B Jordan, Alex Russell

Published in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, Shelley Harris's remarkably assured debut novel is rooted in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of June 1977. Cherry Gardens, in a small Buckinghamshire village, is throwing a street party. Union Jack bunting is festooned from house to house; trestle tables will carry the vat of unappetising coronation chicken and cakes iced in red, white and blue, as well as the scrumptious chakli contributed by the Patels, who had come to Bourne Heath fleeing Idi Amin's violent expulsion of Asians from Uganda. "Do let's remember this is a particularly British celebration," antique Miss Bissett had sniffily objected to Mrs Patel's culinary offer. Her simple, patriotic reply prompts an awkward pause for the organising committee: "I am British now. She's my Queen too."

Outlook: The time for action is now. We must be bold. Tinkering won't cut it anymore. Yes, yes. Politician gives speech. Hurray to good things. Boo to bad things. Film at 11.

Tony Blair has admitted that he could have "gone further" as prime minister to ensure that teachers were up to the job.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has accused the UK Government of "bullying" Scottish voters over plans for an independence referendum but agreed to hold talks with David Cameron on the way forward.