Today’s Google Doodle marks the anniversary of the birth of science fiction writer Douglas Adams.

I admired rather than enjoyed Paul Thomas Anderson's demanding drama on first viewing, but in the four months since then it's refused to leave my head.

When I first read The Transit of Venus, I was rather underwhelmed. I was in my twenties then and recently back in Australia after a period when I had thought I would make my life in France. I came to Shirley Hazzard's third novel by way of The Bay of Noon and The Evening of the Holiday. These ravishing early novels, both set in Italy, fed my nostalgia for Europe. I identified intensely with their young female protagonists whose private dramas were lifted into grandeur by the antique backgrounds against which they played out.

Chekhov is amongst that very rare breed of author who is a genius in two distinct forms – the play and the short story. Michael Frayn, not un-incidentally a fine translator of Chekhov, is another such.

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Bond is to take on Batman as Daniel Craig and Christian Bale's finely honed abs battle it out for a prize at the MTV Movie Awards.

Mayday, BBC1

They don't make 'em like they used to – that's the received wisdom when it comes to film stars, right? Where screen idols of yore thrived on ego and excess, today's pretenders suffer on egg-white omelettes and media training.

He played one of the Time Lords at Dr Who's trial, exiling him to earth and forcing him to regenerate

TV pick of the week: Broadchurch

TV hardman Sean Bean is up for a prestigious award for his portrayal of a transsexual teacher in a courtroom drama.

Dame Judi Dench has been named Britain's greatest actor, ahead of figures such as Lord Olivier and Sir John Mills.