The Dutch-born entertainer Johannes Heesters, who made his name performing in Germany and was dogged later by controversy over his Nazi-era past, died on 24 December at the age of 108. Born in the Netherlands on 5 December 1903, Heesters made his stage debut on the big stage at the Volksoper in Vienna in 1934. His career took off in Berlin where, he became a crowd favourite at the Komische Oper and Admiralspalast. He gained fame appearing in films such as Die Leuchter des Kaisers [The Emperor's Candlesticks] and Das Hofkonzert [The Court Concert].

What is it about the familiarity of old movies that makes them impossible to turn off

She won over viewers with her impressive voice that spanned several octaves. Now Connie Fisher, the winner of BBC 1's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, has pulled out of Andrew Lloyd Webber's touring production of The Sound of Music, saying a throat condition has changed her vocal range and she cannot cope with the part.

As the two halves of my torn betting slip lay forlornly in the wastepaper basket, I wasn't the only one scratching my head and wondering who Craig Oliver is. Even Westminster's most experienced hacks described Andy Coulson's replacement as a man without a past. Yet how swiftly such a past can be cobbled together when Fleet Street's finest are on the case. Here, for your continued enjoyment, is a picture you'll surely be seeing more of: Oliver in lederhosen at a so-called "BBC charity event".

Notebook

Agathe von Trapp was the eldest daughter of the Austrian family who inspired the Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway production and film The Sound of Music. The film was a worldwide sensation, smashing box-office records and snapping up five Oscars. With figures adjusted for inflation, in 2010 The Sound of Music was ranked 3rd in the all-time list of biggest-grossing films, only behind Gone with the Wind and Star Wars. However, the film detracted somewhat from the reality of the Von Trapps' experience and left them distressed, without the consolation of remuneration from the film's vast profits.

Who knew that, 10 storeys beneath a Worcestershire hill, the corporation is ready for Armageddon?

With or without the sound of music in the air, the Austrian Alps provide the perfect setting for families to enjoy the outdoor life

It was as close as we get to being guests on the 20th Century Fox soundstages circa.1955. As the Main Title of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! glided effortlessly into “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and the John Wilson Orchestra’s burnished trumpets poured on their sun-kissed vibrato the sound, the style, the feel of how this music in these arrangements should go was “right” – every sigh, every swoon, every refined inflection. It couldn’t have been “righter”.

For years, she was typecast as a frosty English rose. But then something remarkable happened – and Kristin Scott Thomas blossomed into one of the most interesting actresses of our age

Countless airplanes, one after the other, explode on the screen in front of you, on the runway and in the sky, terrifying in their horrifying, graceful demise. How can we understand such footage? What has it done to us? Can artists tell us? You might find some answers to these questions at Edinburgh's consistently excellent Fruitmarket Gallery, in an exhibition devoted to the works of the Belgian anthropologist-turned-film-artist Johan Grimonprez.

Reviewed by Michael Coveney

Julie Andrews is one of those public figures who, probably through no fault of her own, has become a larger-than-life representative of a range of contemporary clichés. For some, she is the wholesome, faintly sexless Englishwoman, a trilling, skipping optimist who embodies a lost age of virtue and kindness; for others, she is a ludicrous, old-fashioned goody-goody. For quite a few, she is a much-loved gay icon.

While Gordon Brown ensured events in Westminster took a fresh twist yesterday, David Cameron's domestic arrangements were also the subject of some timely title-tattle among senior Tory colleagues.