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Alas Vine & Hitchens
Daily Mail
26 episodes
5 days ago
What's the Big Idea?Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas… Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news. Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters. Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual? All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.Take part in our listener survey here:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#?To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Phillip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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All content for Alas Vine & Hitchens is the property of Daily Mail and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
What's the Big Idea?Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas… Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news. Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters. Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual? All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.Take part in our listener survey here:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#?To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Phillip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes (20/26)
Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Not So Great War and Does Counselling Really Work?

Peter would like to know why Britain slept walk in to the First World War and what our country might look like if we’d never stumbled into that national tragedy.


Elsewhere, Sarah and Peter pore over our bag of electronic mail and ruminate on everything from the benefits of counselling (Sarah is for it, Peter less so), how to write a novel – not that either have – the power of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and how Peter never actually ran with a motorcycle gang and why he’ll never wear a leather jacket again. The world couldn’t bear the fall out.


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Germany's Aims in the First World War – Fritz Fischer

·      The Guns Of August - Barbara W. Tuchman

·      Covenant With Death – John Harris

·      The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age - Juliet Nicolson

·      Bodyline – TV Series

·      Army Of Shadows – Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
5 days ago
1 hour 17 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Case For and Against Lucy Letby and Rise of the Robots

In light of the recent documentary, Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? Peter reiterates his call for a retrial of the convicted nurse.


Elsewhere, Sarah asks if students are so worried about AI spoiling their chances of building a career, then why are they all using ChatGPT to write their exam papers?


Also, Peter’s written a thriller, well, the first chapter at least. We can reveal very little of the plotline apart from the fact that someone dies by fax machine just after exiting a toilet. This is all true. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      12 Angry Men – Dir: Sidney Lumet

·      Unmasking Lucy Letby: The Untold Story of the Killer Nurse - Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz

·      The Rose of Tibet – Lionel Davidson

·      Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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1 week ago
55 minutes 10 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Nanny State and Made to Measure

Peter is up in arms – who knew? – over Sarah’s use of centimetres over inches even though she was raised on the continent and it’s all she knows. A measure of distance which, he insists, are simply made up. For her part, Sarah tells us that if you’re going to employ a nanny, make sure it’s not an English one.


Elsewhere, Sarah, admits she enjoys going to church, if only because it’s the one place where no one can hear her sing and the discovery that Peter can be found online portrayed as a housemaid and a lemming. He is neither.


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Micah Clarke - Arthur Conan Doyle

·      About The Size Of It: The Common Sense Approach To Measuring Things – Warwick Cairns

·      The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World – Ken Alder

·      Don't listen to the whingers: London needs immigrants – Andrew Neather


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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2 weeks ago
38 minutes 57 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Up In Smoke and I Predict A Riot

Peter is inflamed! Why, he wants to know, searching around him in vain for an ashtray, does smoking seem to be on the rise once more in the UK? Is it vaping? Is it fashionable once more, heaven forfend? He sincerely hopes not. For her part, Sarah doesn’t smoke, well, only after three glasses of wine.


Elsewhere, Sarah asks is rioting on the rise once again? And asks are we now too far gone as a country where we can’t expect anything but civil unrest? Though it’s not all doom and gloom, we have poetry, plump up your cushions and settle back as Peter and Sarah take turns to soothe the savage soul with hand selected verse. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening – Robert Frost

·      Under Milk Wood – Dylan Thomas

·      The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe

·      The Dragon Book of Verse - Various


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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3 weeks ago
33 minutes 6 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
City to City and Walk A Mile In Our Shoes

Peter has a five-year plan for the five pairs of identical shoes he owns, buy in bulk, rotate diligently, but another set in five years times. Sarah, for her part, can’t walk past a shoe shop with a sale sign in the window, it’s like catnip to her. 


Elsewhere, Peter has had enough of cities changing their names – and not just because it keeps making his maps out of date – and Sarah muses on a song some people consider a national treasure which she could happily never hear again. And don’t get Peter started on the Beatles…


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      The Lifelong Scruff – Peter Hitchens

·      A Small Town In Germany - John Le Carre

·      Return Via Dunkirk – Gun Buster

·      Great Expectations – Dir: David Lean

·      Dunkirk – Dir: Leslie Norman


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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1 month ago
40 minutes 30 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Terrorism, Extremism and Rubbish Rock Stars

The love of cinema, Peter’s sonorous baritone, Sarah’s hatred of hot weather, the case for changing the way we adopt in the UK and does Peter ever go to watch Millwall and throw lager about? He does not. And those are just the topics and questions posed by listeners.


Peter and Sarah also ask why we now embrace organisations that were once proscribed as terrorists? And in light of Coldplay being the most boring band on earth (scientific fact), why can’t we make decent rock stars anymore. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      The Greening of the White House – Conor O’Clery

·      Never Look Away – Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

·      The Cruel Sea – Dir: Charles Frend

·      Bicycle Thieves – Dir: Vittorio De Sica

·      Ida – Dir: Paweł Pawlikowski


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
1 month ago
40 minutes 57 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Going Off the Rails and Too Hot to Handle

From Lord of the Rings lesser liked characters to the ‘deep state’ of government according to Dominic Cummings, and drinking beer beneath the Northern Lights, Peter and Sarah take on listener questions before wrestling with the thorny subjects of the pain and pleasure of train travel – it depends very much on where you board and depart your train and helps if that’s not in the UK. 

 

While Sarah’s been hiding indoors as the continental sunshine has bene visited on the UK, and she would very much like to complain about this latest heatwave and at some length too. Shade your eyes…


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Corridors Of Power – C.P. Snow

·      Ernst Marples: The Shadow Behind Beeching – David Brandon & Martin Upham

·      British Rail – Christian Wolmar 

·      Night Mail – WH Auden



Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Alex Graham

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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1 month ago
33 minutes 15 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Abortion Bills and Nuclear Bombs

Sarah and Peter wrangle everything from the latest abortion legislation to how to purge the world of nuclear weapons (Sarah suggests we move them to the Moon – pity the poor astronauts who next land there), Star Trek and what the Federation really alluded to. Did Hollywood treat Napoleon fairly or meddle with history for its own ends? And, more happily, we cast Peter as Badger in Toad of Toad Hall with remarkable results. Stay tuned for that.


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Take A Girl Like You – Kingsley Amis

·      The Abolition of Britain – Peter Hitchens

·      Racing The Enemy - Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

·      Farm Hall – Katherine Moar

·      The New Men – C.P. Snow

·      Star Trek (original series)


Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
1 month ago
39 minutes 15 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Marshmallow Totalitarianism and the Beauty of the Real Iran

Flared trousers, the fate of Northern Ireland, free speech, swimming with Gordon Brown and childish children’s books. All human life, as they say, is here. Sarah wants to know why we’re afraid of difficult conversations and saying what we really think, is it that we’re always being shouted down by those who don’t agree with us? What ever happened to civilised debate? 


Not that our debates are ever civilised.


While Peter reminisces about his time in Iran some decades ago and how it’s not the country torn from recent headlines with a huge number of its people who actually want to live in a peaceful, secular society, not the regime enforced on them under mullah rule.  


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      The Apartment – Director: Billy Wilder

·      The Wind In the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

·      The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

·      The Water Babies – Charles Kingsley

·      Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

·      Iran: A Nation of Nose Jobs, Not Nuclear War – Peter Hitchens



Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.



Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Alex Graham

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
2 months ago
42 minutes 42 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
How Not To Be A Political Wife

As Sarah’s book sends shockwaves through former political grandees and the corridors of power, Sarah and Peter sit down to ponder listener questions (and some of Peter’s thoughts too) related to ‘How Not To Be A Political Wife’, a book that has been described as ‘fascinating, embarrassing and fundamentally tragic’, ‘witty, wry and incredibly touching’ and an ‘unflinching account of life at the heart of politics.’ 


Expect questions and answers on falling in and out of love with Michael Gove, is there such a thing as a happy political marriage and would Sarah ever bite the bullet and go into politics herself? 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      How Not To Be A Political Wife – Sarah Vine



Please do get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.


Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East


A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
2 months ago
35 minutes 30 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
With Friends Like These… and is Poland the new Ukraine?

To paraphrase Randy Newman, you’ve got a friend in me, but for just how long? Especially when you’re Sarah Vine and you’re supposed best friend’s husband is on the side of staying in the European Union while your then husband is all for pushing Brexit through. As Sarah discovered, loyalties are soon divided and what ultimately makes a true friend anyway?

 

While Peter Hitchens looks askance at the continent and wonders, as Poland lurches to the right with its latest elections results, if the European Union can leave its meddlesome ways behind it and let democracy work for once.

 

On our reading and watch list this week: 

 True Grit – Charles Portis·      

The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley·      

Orderly and Humane – R.M. Douglas·      

The Confession – Director: Costa-Gavras·      

Berlin Rules – Paul Lever


Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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2 months ago
33 minutes 52 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Mental Malaise of Marijuana

As rampage killings are on the rise both here and abroad, we ask if the long-term effects of drugs are impacting on our societal norms and encouraging a violent recklessness not seen before? As charges for cannabis possession are fast becoming a thing of the past and modern culture embraces increasingly strong strands of weed, is there a case to be made for really doubling down on those who break drug laws or as cannabis legalisation creeps across the globe, we ask, is it already too late?


On our reading and watch list this week: 

* Attacker Smoked Cannabis: Suicide and psychopathic violence in the UK and Ireland – Ross Grainger     

* The War We Never Fought – Peter Hitchens  

* Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence – Alex Berenson


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
2 months ago
37 minutes 2 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Menopause Superpower and some Sibling Rivalry

Books, plays and films have been written about it, its onset feared in some quarters, pilloried in others, and it will, eventually, affect almost all women. Though that’s not why Sarah Vine wants to talk about the menopause, but why, in some circumstances, it can be a huge liberation for women; finally freed from being slave to one’s hormones, and that’s just the beginning. So, why, do so many women fear the onset of the menopause?

 

Plus, Peter Hitchens, is told several times a week (online, never in the street or to his face), how much cleverer his older brother Christopher was, and that Peter should have died in his stead. This used to annoy Peter, understandably, but now he finds these brickbats amusing and interesting, and is left wondering, sibling rivalry, what is it all about?

 

On our reading and watch list this week: 

·      Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury 

·      A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket

·      The Menopause Brain: The New Science Empowering Women to Navigate Midlife with Knowledge and Confidence – Dr Lisa Mosconi


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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2 months ago
33 minutes 49 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Death Penalty and What I Did (or didn't do) On My Holidays

To Peter Hitchens, the idea of capital punishment (at least at home here in the UK) could make for a country that is less vengeful and, he goes so far as to suggest, even more gentle. Having experienced two executions while working in the US, he knows the power of that final switch and the deterrent it might bring. But is he right, would the shadow cast by capital punishment be enough quell violent crime and those who commit it? 

 

Plus, on a much lighter though no less graphic note, we look at holidays and Sarah’s memories of her dad driving the family home from Rome to West Wales, steering with only his knees, a cigar in one hand, a beer in the other, and music blaring to the point where it made both children travel sick. Childhood holidays, it’s not all sandcastles and ice cream.

 

On our reading and watch list this week: 

·      Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 

·      12 Angry Men

·      The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

 

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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3 months ago
33 minutes 56 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The End of Education and Did We Really Win the War?

Sarah’s two children are currently at university, which is rather handy as a regular listener has asked that Peter and Sarah chime in on the current state of the education system here in the UK. And how times have changed, Peter spent his university years trying to kickstart social unrest, while Sarah pursued a job at The Body Shop.

 

And as the Union Jacks flutter in the hazy afterglow of VE Day, Peter rand Sarah reflects respectively on their father and grandfather’s service, one at sea in Scapa Flow transporting weapons to Russia, the other fighting in the jungles of Burma. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 

·      The History Man – Malcolm Bradbury

·      Quartered Safe Out Here - George MacDonald Fraser

·      The Phoney Victory – Peter Hitchens


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
3 months ago
40 minutes 8 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Applying Udder Cream and the End of Civilisation

Sarah’s brother was at home in Madrid this week when Spain underwent a blackout, alone in the dark with the only the thing in his house still working, his old radio. This week too saw the start of the great switch-off of analogue phones; and just look at the chaos caused by a cyber-attack at Marks and Spencer in the last few days. So, Sarah’s question is this, as we fall under the thrall of ever updating technology, are we going unwittingly back to the dark ages?

 

Meanwhile, Peter is as reluctant as the average vampire to be seen in the sun, so why, every summer, does he turn the colour of an expensive riding saddle? Tune in for a remarkable, death-defying story of being stranded in Mogadishu and having to flee across the desert to escape. And sunburn.

 

On our reading and watch list this week: 

·      The Stand – Stephen King

·      Black Hawk Down

·      Leave The World Behind – Rumaan Alam

 

To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
3 months ago
25 minutes 58 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Turn off your TV and Bloody Taxes

Not unlike the Rolling Stones, Peter Hitchens is ready to toss his TV through the nearest window. He’s in accord with the late, great Groucho Marx who was once moved to remark: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." Once forced to rent a TV to watch the news before being quickly lured towards shows like Minder, Peter is now wary of the television, to the point he blames it for a lot of the world’s woes. Tune in for that.


And as the customer friendly ad for the Inland revenue insisted, tax doesn’t have to be taxing. Try telling that to Sarah and her circle of friends who have tried and failed to reach the HMRC to query a bill or simply get help. The revenue sent bailiffs to the door of one friend, while another chum had to draw down part of their pension to meet a tax demand. So, here’s the question, why are the inland revenue so awful and insistent on treating people like criminals?


On our reading and watching list this week: 


·      The Wonder Years

·      Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business – Neil Postman

·      The Great Tax Robbery: How Britain Became A Tax Haven For Fat Cats And Big Business – Richard Brooks

 

To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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3 months ago
31 minutes 57 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Birmingham’s Bulging Bins and the end of the Toby Carvery Tree

Sarah Vine wants to bin it off. Though given the decline in public services nationwide, that’s getting harder and harder to do. As the Birmingham bin strike rolls on, the council declares itself bankrupt and rats invade the city’s streets, we ask what the hell is going on with our public services and is this just part of a wider societal malaise? Also, could someone please take this rubbish away?


They were once the so-called lungs of the earth, but as a centuries-old oak tree with “more ecological value than the Sycamore Gap tree” is hacked down by owners of a nearby Toby Carvery, Peter Hitchens asks why we’re chopping down our majestic, sometimes ancient trees and why is it so damn easy to destroy something so beautiful and filled with life? 


Also, how do say crikey, exactly?


On our reading list this week: 

·      The Fifth Estate: Britain's Unions in the Seventies – Robert Taylor

·      The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton

·      Tiger Tim’s Annual 1937


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
4 months ago
29 minutes 57 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Drinking Swamp Broth and why our Police Forces are Failing Us

Peter Hitchens hates to be blunt about these things, well, not really, but he’d really like to know why the police are so useless. And not in one specific instance or area, but generally. No coppers on the beat, rarely answering emergency calls and heaven forfend they actually bang someone up. What happened to policing in the UK?


While Sarah has spent her week at a wellness centre (don’t call it a fat farm), and while she has returned glowing like a rare gem, she did manage to put some weight on. But did a week of wheatgrass colonics, waddling about and living on liquids take her to some higher spiritual ground? Possibly…


On our reading list this week: 

·      The Abolition of Liberty – Peter Hitchens

·      Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety - George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson

·      The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma Paperback – M.D. Bessel van der Kolk


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Take our show survey at:

https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
4 months ago
39 minutes 58 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Keep Your Enemies Close and Cross My Palm With Silver

Peter Hitchens puts forward his defence of ‘Whataboutery and asks why does the west delight in attacking its current enemies like Putin for things it allows its friends like Tayip Erdogan to do with impunity? What is it with all this posturing hypocrisy?


While Sarah makes the case for the ancient art of astrology and wonders if we’re looking at star signs for answers as conventional faith is failing us daily. Or, as she puts it, what makes your sky fairy more important than my sky fairy? She may have a point.


On our reading list this week: 

·      The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby - Charles Kingsley

·      The Roads to Freedom – Jean-Paul Sartre

·      The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C.S. Lewis


To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.

 

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens

Producer: Philip Wilding

Editor: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

 

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular


 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...
4 months ago
39 minutes 19 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
What's the Big Idea?Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas… Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news. Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters. Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual? All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.Take part in our listener survey here:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#?To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Phillip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.