Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Peter Kay is to star in his first BBC One comedy, which will debut on iPlayer before being broadcast on television.

David Bowie has scored his first number one album in 20 years with a record that is also the fastest-selling of the year so far.

In case you haven't noticed, it's the 25th Red Nose Day.

You see those two tiny dots in the distance? That's you, that is. Well, it was if "you" were Rob Newman and David Baddiel. Oh, how we chuckled at their "History Today" sketches in the early 1990s. How we roared as they took their shtick to Wembley Arena, becoming the first comedians to fill its 12,000 seats. How we wept when we realised we were sat so far from the stage that they might as well have been sarcastic marionettes.

Aficionados of Britain's stop-start motorways will know the M61 north of Manchester for two reasons.

One of the world's best snooker players but also a gambling addict who squandered £500,000, he put his young family through hell, sent his career into a tailspin and even contemplated suicide. Hector Nunns meets Mark King

Ruaridh Jackson has been a long time coming as the Next Big Thing in Scottish rugby. It was in December 2008 that the then fledgling fly-half first showed his potential on a major stage, producing a stellar performance in Glasgow's 35-31 Heineken Cup defeat at Bath. He was just 20 and a debutant starter not just in Europe's premier club tournament but for Glasgow in any competition.

It is not only nostalgia that brings the great British double act to our Christmas screens, but respect for their art

Mum's happy, not sure about the rest of us

The Brit Awards – those bronze, helmeted female statuettes that have served as the Oscars of the British music industry for more than three decades – are to be given a makeover by the high priestess of punk, Vivienne Westwood.

Boyband JLS are releasing this year's official Children In Need single.

Welcome to part two of our series on some of the best and most scenic A-roads. Last week's instalment certainly got some of you reacting, and in such an interesting way that we would be falling down on the job if we did not pass some of your comments on.