Hundreds of mourners gathered in Stafford for the funeral of Pc David Rathband, who was shot and blinded by the gunman Raoul Moat in 2010.

Television has been widely credited with making history fashionable again, with all those enthusiastic and engaging experts taking to the small screen. They have hauled what had become too often a subject constrained by the lifeless prose of academic books into the mainstream of public debate. Now there seems to be traffic the other way, for there is something televisual about God's Jury, an enormously enjoyable and very modern history of the Inquisition by Cullen Murphy, editor-at-large of Vanity Fair.

The European Film Awards is seemingly becoming the award of rehabilitation. Two years in a row directors of the film picking up the top prize Best European Film have refused to attend the award ceremony for fear of landing themselves in trouble.

Moved by a devilishly good debut

Poor old Berlioz. The moment Terry Gilliam was announced as director of this new ENO staging, it was obvious that the composer would scarcely get a look in, at least in advance.

Terry Gilliam - the sole American member of the original Monty Python troupe - has lost none of his devilish ability to provoke.

Well done, Disney: you scared the kids

A completely different take on Berlioz's 'legend'

Overworked, under-staffed...guardian angels don't have it easy either

The ICA’s director is stepping down amid reports of resignations and staff revolt. But is this crisis just a symptom of the sickness of the avant-garde?

Two years ago, a young British actor called Andrew Garfield gave an interview to this newspaper in which he was asked about a string of plaudits that had seen him included in Variety's prestigious list of future Hollywood stars. "Well, whatever," he replied. "I'm only 24, so who knows...I resent it when someone tells me 'this is your time'." Today, even Garfield will find it hard to deny that that time is now.

Edward Gardner is no longer English National Opera's best kept secret. The former choral scholar and repetiteur goes from strength to strength helming ENO through productive and interesting times.

England rugby star Josh Lewsey is undertaking the ultimate challenge in attempting to summit Mount Everest in aid of Help for Heroes. He'll be writing an exclusive diary during the expedition which you can keep up to date with here at The Independent.

He is an ex-Python turned film director whose on-screen flights of fancy have proven his love of high-octane, large-scale productions with similarly sprawling budgets.