As Danny Boyle asks people not to blab about his opening ceremony, Simon Usborne wonders if there's ever been a tougher time to keep schtum

Gavin and Stacey star James Corden is up against Jude Law for a prestigious theatrical award.

Imaginative productions pack a devastating punch

As a new production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle, opens at the National Theatre, Paul Taylor looks back at almost two centuries of monsters inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 masterpiece

Danny Boyle discovered her, Irvine Welsh was inspired by her and the Coen brothers love Kelly Macdonald. But even as she journeys back to Prohibition-era America for the Golden Globe winner Boardwalk Empire, the actress is determined not to forget her Glasgow council-estate roots

Think of drug addiction in movies and the titles likely to spring to mind include Christiane F and Trainspotting.

He is one of the few photographers for whom the stars will let down their guard. Lorenzo Agius tells Melanie Abrams the stories behind his best shots

The best of enemies

He made his name directing a cast of unknowns in a squalid urban setting, on a tiny budget; 13 years after 'Trainspotting', Danny Boyle has pulled it off again, and 'Slumdog Millionaire' is already a contender for film of the year. Here, the director talks about his Mumbai miracle

Bring back the poll tax. It will always be an unfair levy, especially at a time when the credit crunch is biting and gas bills can match an Indian cricketer's pay packet, but something has to be done to rid our screens of the ubiquitous Graham Poll. Who would not willingly pay to ensure he stays off air? At the very least it would give Garth Crooks those vital extra minutes to complete his chains of thought.

How did they get like that, some of literature's most drug-fuelled characters – Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and the rest of their gang in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting? We're about to find out, because 15 years after his celebrated novel, the Scottish author intends to write a prequel.

Lads and ladettes, YBAs, Eighties irony with extra computers - that was the decade, that was. By Michael Bracewell

In Trainspotting, Kelly Macdonald snared Ewan McGregor. In Cousin Bette, Jessica Lange stroked her hair. So why did The Matrix resist her charm?

FOUR NIGHTS IN KNARESBOROUGH THE TRICYCLE LONDON