John Forrest was a magician before he was an actor. The painter, Stanley Spencer's black-sheep brother Horace, taught him card tricks in a boat on the Thames when he was 10. And "magic" fascinated him for the rest of his life. Or, as he put it, "illusion". "Everything I've done has been to do with illusion," he said in a 1996 Radio 4 documentary: "acting, painting, and making things appear and disappear. Perhaps I couldn't deal with reality"

The handover between "Over the Border" - a semi-spoken memoir about the powerful hold of pop over the young mind - and "I've Got Your Music" encapsulates everything that's great about Saint Etienne: one minute they're singing about great pop, the next they're actually doing some.

'I get frustrated by how good he is, but it inspires me to do better'

Would you like to whack a sculpture with a golf ball? The first bespoke fine art mini-golf course in the UK has nine holes, each being designed by well-known artists, including Jake Chapman and David Shrigley.

1. Chemistry Lab

Two magicians at crossed wands are heading to court over the rights to an illusion and the very principle of the secrecy of magic.

Fashion: Take the tough with the smooth

1. Alan Carr (PI: 92)

Was Queen Elizabeth wise to appoint a court occultist, even one who claimed to confer with the angels? The truth is, most rulers were at it

Not long after Fabio Capello had resigned in the time-honoured fashion of being thrown overboard, we were discussing the big sporting question of the moment: why has table tennis never taken off as a television sport, given that everything from darts and snooker to pro-celebrity golf has had its moment?

Pastiche is a pretty unforgiving form of comedy.

The captain of the wrecked cruise ship which hit rocks off Italy made "an unapproved, unauthorised" deviation to his route, the liner's owners said today.

Ricky Gervais reminded us recently, as if we'd forgotten, that language can still offend en masse if its use is misjudged.