Kirby had a small part in The Hour but made a big impact. Now, she's starring as the heartbreaker from Great Expectations.

One of Britain's most historic vessels, the Cutty Sark, had her masts raised yesterday for the first time since the ship was damaged by fire four years ago.

Whatever the outcome of today's public-sector strike, the leaders of one of the unions involved are delighted with the latest achievement by the man they are coming to regard as their main recruiter, namely the Education Secretary, Michael Gove. On Monday, Mr Gove denounced "hardliners itching for a fight" who are behind the action, inspiring Scottish newspapers to republish the photograph of a young Gove on a journalists' picket line outside the office of the Aberdeen Press and Journal in 1989. On that same day, 300 university staff who were not already members applied to join the University and College Union. Previously, the union had never recruited more than 143 new members on any one day.

It was a lacklustre election campaign whose result seemed a foregone conclusion: victory for the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, at the polls this Saturday. Then a freelance cameraman left a tape recorder running on a café table where Mr Key was meeting an ally, unleashing "Cuppagate" – a row about politics, privacy and media ethics.

Dunking biscuits is one of the chief pleasures many Britons afford themselves, which tells you much about the country. Even so, the practice is disapproved of by other Britons, mostly members of the middle classes who follow what they believe, usually erroneously, to be the views of the upper classes.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on... or have we all stepped through the looking glass?" said the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey.

Man About Town: Like Maria Callas, Gheorghiu has become as well-known for herself as for her roles

Rexam, Europe's largest drinks can maker, yesterday beat forecasts with a 19 per cent rise in first-half profit, helped by demand for energy and ice tea drinks and a growing trend among cash-strapped shoppers to consume at home.

The British enjoy triumphing over difficulty so much that they go to great lengths to devise promising circumstances. This is never more evident than in their summer recreations.

Andy Murray took one day off last week during his pre-Wimbledon preparations, only to be woken up by drug-testers who called at his house at 7am. The Scot revealed last night that it was the third time he had been tested in less than a fortnight since his defeat in the semi-finals of the French Open.

Think any old receptacle for your tea and coffee will do? Think again. Here are some jaunty designs and clever features that make the humble cuppa a reat treat...

To say this is the perfect toilet book is intended as the highest praise. Acknowledging that "Even I would find a book about my life pretty dull", Hoggart has produced a snippety collection of anecdotes about others.