Madeline Grant

Make Bond great again

One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed before the film’s title credits. You Only Live Twice, From Russia with Love and Skyfall all begin with Bond in a position where his demise seems inevitable. Of course, he always turns up alive. (Quite

What is Russia’s plan to unleash chaos?

39 min listen

As the long-awaited Russia report is released this week, we discuss Russia’s plan to unleash chaos (00:45). Plus, does Boris Johnson have a management problem with his new MPs? (14:30) And last, the pains of dating during lockdown (28:30). With Russia journalists Owen Matthews and Mary Dejevsky; the Spectator’s deputy political editor Katy Balls; Conservative

How Covid has changed the dating game

Just before lockdown began, Matt Hancock and Dr Jenny Harries presented the nation’s daters with a stark dilemma. Non-cohabiting couples, they advised, should either move in together for the duration or stay physically apart. Couples who barely knew each other’s surnames were catapulted into levels of intimacy that would normally have evolved over years and

Choose ten lockdown friends and family? No thanks

The latest rumblings from Westminster suggest that ministers might be about to relax ‘stay at home’ restrictions by allowing people to socialise in narrow ‘clusters’ or ‘bubbles’. Under these proposals, households could draw up an unchangeable list of friends and family – maximum ten people per group – with whom they are permitted to congregate