The former England captain has announced will retire at the end of the season

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Channel 4 is to show the other side of Shameless after announcing a new drama series which follows a group of police officers trying to enforce the law in a chaotic Manchester community.

A 38-year-old poet (John Hawkes), paralysed by childhood polio, employs a patient "sex surrogate" (Helen Hunt) to take his virginity.

Tom Hooper's quasi-operatic mega-musical is loaded with major historical events, weighty themes, tragic deaths and symbolic rebirths, so it's no wonder that the film version of Les Mis gets so exhausting, especially in the static, unspectacular second half.

Tom Hooper (158mins)

As the Tories absorb the consequences of last week's local election results, some of them have apparently arrived at the brilliant solution that the first thing they must do is be nice to Nadine Dorries.

Controversy over the proposal to open a state boarding school for inner-city teenagers in the heart of the West Sussex countryside appears to have reached fever pitch.So much so that elements of the controversy have a distinct feeling of Carry On films about them.

Stage hit Matilda: The Musical and a show adapted from a low-budget British movie were the toast of Broadway today as they headed the nominations for the Tony Awards.

Hit American sitcom Two and a Half Men has been commissioned for its 11 series. But just five months after urging viewers to turn it off and branding it "filth" the show's Half Man will no longer make regular appearances.

'There's a lot going on in Cape Town'

Tinseltown Insider

An entertaining novel whose brooding romantic hero has Asperger's Syndrome

Britain's biggest movie visual-effects (VFX) company made a significant move into quality television yesterday as a direct result of George Osborne's decision to give the sector tax breaks.