Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Right-wingers are enjoying the discomfort of the corporation, but, even damaged, it is a treasure. Plus, young voters and ageing rockers

A Tory boy elicits sympathy and a girl's gender fraud makes Shakespeare more plausible

This low-budget oddity, which is performed entirely in rhyming couplets, starts with a drenched, stark naked salesman, Victor (Iain Robertson), and a ripe Simon Callow voiceover explaining why this poor unfortunate has ended up in this predicament.

The new wave at the Fringe don't hide where their best lines came from

Edinburgh-bound for the first time in eight years, comedy's nearly woman says she's just glad she still has a role to play. Andrew McCorkell meets Helen Lederer

Music festivals aren't what they were – except when they are better

BBC1's Sherlock was a double winner at tonight's TV Bafta Awards, including the prized best drama series title.

Identifying hard truths on class and union disputes... and knowing when to die and when not to wave your wallet

It has been nearly three decades since the fictional author J R Hartley first enchanted the nation with his televised search for a copy of his own book, Fly Fishing. Now the classic TV advert is being remade for the digital age.

Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) is a failed author who scrapes by teaching a handful of uninterested kids how to write poetry.

From the Falklands and the miners' strike to Diana and Live Aid, it was a decade that changed our world. And the legacy of the Eighties lives on, argues Andy McSmith

Caroline Quentin doesn't often get recognised these days. Occasionally, a cab driver might ask, "where have I seen you before?", or she'll get talking to a woman, in the loos of a restaurant, who will recall, with great conviction, that she was at their sister's wedding .

The reclusive art collector Charles Saatchi famously never turns up to his own parties. And the launch of his new book was no exception. There were, though, plenty of signed copies of My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am An Artoholic scattered around the Saatchi Gallery in London's Chelsea for guests to peruse. These invitees included Richard E Grant, Zadie Smith, Alan Yentob, Trevor Eve, Kathy Lette, Graham Norton and Harry Enfield who mingled in the first-floor galleries among the canvasses.