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Alas Vine & Hitchens
Daily Mail
47 episodes
2 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.


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

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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.


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

Show more...
News
Episodes (20/47)
Alas Vine & Hitchens
Why Are We Firing Up the UK’s War Machine?

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah look to the year ahead, as Peter wonders why this nation’s leaders and heads of the armed forces are rattling their sabres as they attempt to put the country on a war footing.

 

Plus, our duo on Conservatism (just what is it?) Christianity, the legacy of John Smith MP, the superiority of Japanese trains - any trains in comparison to our dilapidated ted rail network, and Custard Creams; all the colours of the rainbow.


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·               The Phoney Victory – Peter Hitchens

·               Winnie -The-Pooh – A. A. Milne

·               John Smith: Life and Soul of the Party - Gordon Brown & James Naughtie

·               Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto

 

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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

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: Phillip 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 days ago
38 minutes

Alas Vine & Hitchens
An American Powerplay and the Freedom of the Press

On this week’s episode, Peter is poring over the latest US national security strategy and being rather surprised by what he finds there. While Sarah is looking at why some people are calling for a resumption of the cancelled Lord Leveson Inquiry and therefore suggesting we blinker the free press. 

 

Plus, our duo on the Arkansas Razorbacks (again), the legacy of Roy Jenkins, what happened to independent newspapers in Kazakhstan and what it feels like to move your family across the Atlantic Ocean.


On our reading and watch list this week: 

·      Dangerous estate: The anatomy of newspapers – Francis Williams

·      Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life - John Campbell

·      The Godfather-in-law: the Real Documentation – Rakhat Aliyev

 

 

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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

 

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: Phillip 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
38 minutes 2 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Tony Blair Trotskyist and Stop Stupid Smartphones

On this week’s episode, Peter wonders if it ever matters that Kier Starmer and Tony Blair were once Trotskyists? As well as addressing some recent, stinging criticism from a fellow Mail columnist… And Sarah ruminates on the Australian government’s ban on social media for children, and asks is it enough, or should we just wrestle the smartphones from their hands completely?

 

Plus, our duo on the best custard creams money can buy, where they’d settle if they were still young and free and what exactly is left of the BBC’s monopoly. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·      French Connection II – Dir: John Frankenheimer

·      The Well-Dressed Revolutionary: The Odyssey of Michel Pablo – Hall Greenland

·      The Cameron Delusion – Peter Hitchens

 

 

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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

 

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: Phillip 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
38 minutes 13 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Loss of Hair, Life and Liberty

On this week’s episode, Sarah Vine addresses her thinning pate and loss of hair that has plagued her most of her adult life and why she’s now finally decided to cast her wig aside! Meanwhile, Peter looks at the incredible story of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, the woman held hostage by the same Iranian forces who took his friend prisoner too.

 

Plus, Peter and Sarah ruminate on dual nationalities, Sarah’s Spotify wrap thinking she’s aged 75, if identity politics has damaged progress for the working class and, remarkably, the listener who suggest that Peter puts him in mind of Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun. Well, he is a maverick in some ways.


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·      Top Gun – Dir: Tony Scott

·      Top Gun: Maverick – Dir: Joseph Kosinski 

·      Breaking the Silence on Women's Hair Loss: A Proactive Guide to Finding Help – Candace Hoffman

·      Prisoner 951 – Dir: Philippa Lowthorpe

 

Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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

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: Phillip 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
31 minutes 22 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
An Audience with Vine & Hitchens at St Peter’s College, Oxford

On this week’s episode, Sarah and Peter travel to St Peter's College, Oxford, where Peter ruminates on an increasingly unlikely peace deal in Ukraine, and Sarah begins by asking why Christmas starts earlier each year before regaling the student audience with tales of Christmas past more woeful that Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 

Plus, Peter and Sarah take on all comers, and each other, with questions from the floor including the evolution of women’s role in the workplace (which goes off like a cheap firework), what they both really think of President Donald Trump and Peter’s Moscow goose (it’s not a cocktail). 


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·      In The Wet – Nevil Shute

·      When Women Lead – Julia Boorstin

·      Moscow Christmas: A Diary. December 1966 – Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten

·      Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh


Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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

 

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: Phillip 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
52 minutes 4 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Puberty Blockers, Save Our Juries and Tea with the DG

On this week’s episode, Sarah and Peter are asking why new trials for puberty blocking drugs in children have been announced after a government decided to ban it last year? And they’d really like to know why David Lammy would like to take our juries away from certain cases after once tweeting that the jury was the one of the pillars of our judicial system. 

 

Plus, which countries did Covid well? Why did the former BBC DG go around Sarah’s house once to ask about the future of the corporation and then totally ignore her advice? And would either consider turning vegetarian? You can probably guess the answer to that one.


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·      12 Angry Men – Dir: Sidney Lumet

·      Rumpole Of The Bailey – John Mortimer

·      The Abolition Of Liberty – Peter Hitchens

·      A Man For All Seasons – Fred Zinnemann


Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.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
39 minutes 48 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Piggy, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the late Leon Trotsky

On this week’s episode, Peter, once described as ‘godless Trotskyist’ by The Guardian, will be ruminating on the legacy of one Leon Trotsky while Sarah will be asking if it’s ever okay to call someone piggy, no matter if you are the leader of the free world or a so-called alternative comedian with a national newspaper column.

 

Plus, debating Ann Coulter, Welsh authors you must read and why Peter’s literary avatar is Mr Badger while Sarah leans more towards Alice drifting through Wonderland.


On our reading and watch list this week: 

 

·      The Man Who Loved Dogs - Leonardo Padura

·      Bronshtein in the Bronx - Robert Littell

·      The Revolution Betrayed – Leon Trotsky

·      The Great God Pan – Arthur Machen

·      The Devil Rides Out – Dennis Wheatley

·      Mr Burton – Dir: Marc Evans


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
39 minutes 51 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Cancel Culture and Something Rotten at the BBC

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah ask why crazed ideologies seem to have taken root at the heart of both the BBC and the publishing world as we examine the corporation’s latest missteps and the scandalous case of author Kate Clanchy’s cancellation.  


Plus, being berated on social media over shots of your bookshelf, trying to take the train to Glasgow on a Sunday (a schoolgirl error) and why novels need more vivid descriptions of food and drink. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Kate Clanchy

·      The War Game – Dir: Peter Watkins

·      Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime 1919-1924 – Richard Pipes

·      The Death Of Faith – Donna Leon


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
49 minutes 56 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
(Prince) Andrew, Useless Architects and Awful Airport Security

On this week’s episode, Peter wants to know if the government really going to strip Andrew of his Falkland campaign medals and, in the light of this week’s attack, Sarah will be asking what kind of security do our transport systems need to make us feel safe?


Plus, don’t get them started on parking permit portals, underwired bras, and the awfulness of some architects, but do ask them what historical biographies you should read. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Elysium – Dir: Neill Blomkamp

·      The Deluge – Adam Tooze

·      All The King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

·      Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore

·      Scum Of The Earth - Arthur Koestle


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
42 minutes 49 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Hopeless Home Office and A Cosmic Car Crash

On this week’s episode, Peter will be asking why Britain’s infrastructure is so very awful and why are we concreting over so much over the countryside and then sticking ugly new buildings all over it. While Sarah is dumbfounded by the fact that the Home Office costs £23billion and spends it time blundering from one debacle to another.


Plus, Sarah reveals what ministers really fight over. And the pair really can’t find any common ground when it comes to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Pink Floyd – The Wall (Dir: Alan Parker)

·      Peter Hitchens - The Rage Against God

·      Christian Wolmar - On the Wrong Line: How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain's Railways

·      Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Micah Clarke



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
40 minutes 10 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Covid Legacy and Now Is Not The Time

On this week’s episode, Peter is rejoicing in the news that the clocks revert to true time on Sunday, whatever that might mean, and Sarah is asking why the hell we closed down schools during the Covid 19 pandemic and what long-term damage it’s done to our kids.


Plus, why does Sarah think politics in its current form is beyond saving, and why her dad had many, many accents. While Peter wonders if we’re seeing the monarchy’s endgame. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      P.G. Wodehouse – Big Money

·      Peter Hitchens – Now Is Not The Time

·      Edmund Burke – The Evils Of Revolution


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: Philip Wilding

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 44 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The End of Prince Andrew and What Did Thatcher Ever Do for Us?

On this week’s episode, on what would have been Margaret Thatcher’s hundredth birthday, Peter and Sarah tussle over the former PM’s legacy, charisma and what she did or did not do for this country. Elsewhere, Sarah asks why should King Charles solve the problem that is Prince Andrew when the King’s brother should admit he’s a liability and retire from the public eye? 


Plus, where do our hosts like to holiday (Peter is not a beach bum for those who were curious)? What was Peter doing with the paparazzi staring at Princess Di? And why we should think long and hard about the repeal of the Corn Laws.


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Donna Leon – Death at La Fenice

·      Don’t Look Now – Director: Nicolas Roeg

·      Robert Browning – A Toccata of Galuppi’s  

·      Not for Turning, and Everything She Wants - Charles Moore


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
45 minutes 52 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Singing Bob Dylan on a Steep Hill and Health & Safety Gone Mad

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah ask why parks shit down at the first sign of inclement weather? Why do under twenty-five-year-olds feel the need to rail against something, but not bother to read up on it first (we’ve all been there)? Elsewhere, Peter recalls chasing a bicycle thief while hitting him about the head with a bag of dirty laundry. Not to be outdone, Sarah admits to punching her brother in the face with her car keys, which should teach them both something about bringing up politics at a restaurant table. 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      Anshel Pfeffer - Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu

·      E.H. Gombrich - A Little History of the World

·      Roy Strong – The Story Of Britain

·      Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall - Our Island Story: A History of Britain for Boys and Girls from the Romans to Queen Victoria


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...
3 months ago
38 minutes 41 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Digital IDs, Dinosaurs and Class A Drugs

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah debate the idea of Digital ID cards, wonder at the minutiae we’re obsessed with as a nation, also, what did Sarah make of Michael Gove’s admission of his drug taking past? And sticking with history, where would our intrepid pair travel to if they could go anywhere in time and what one artifact or memento would they bring back with them? 


On our reading and watch list this week: 


·      The Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle

·      Sneakers – Director: Phil Alden Robinson

·      Time Of Hope – C.P. Snow

·      The Cameron Delusion – 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...
3 months ago
43 minutes 53 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
The Cost of Health Tourism and Why Do We Kill?

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah tussle with medical tourism and bloody murder. Peter wants to know what drives an assassin to kill and Sarah is asking why we’re allowing our already overrun NHS to become a destination for so called health tourists.


Elsewhere, modern Methodism, being heckled by Danny Kruger while he was still a staunch Tory and is it the Union Jack or Union Flag or can it be both? Tune in to find out.


On our reading, watch and listening list this week: 


·      Night Falls On The City – Sarah Gainham

·      The Rage Against God – Peter Hitchens

·      Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it – Dr Julia Grace Patterson


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...
3 months ago
36 minutes 17 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Our Submarine Fleet is Sunk and what to call Camilla

On this week’s episode, Peter, and Sarah struggle to think of Camilla as Queen but for quite different reasons, though Sarah did very much enjoy her cosy supper at Clarence House, not least the excellent wallpaper and furnishings.


While both bemoan the sinking state of Britain’s submarine fleet, and Peter recalls the time it was leaked that we once leased our missiles from the US much to the fury of then PM Margaret Thatcher.


Elsewhere, yet another listener has been dreaming of Peter, Peter and traffic lights, and we finally find out what car he drives, please do stay tuned for that.


On our reading, watch and listening list this week: 


·      The Horse and His Boy – C.S. Lewis

·      Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good – James Davies

·      No Room for Mistakes: British and Allied Submarine Warfare, 1939-1940 – Geirr Haarr


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...
3 months ago
38 minutes 43 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Fly the Flag, Sea Fences, and I Dream of Peter

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah discuss vexillology, or flags for the layman. Not least how Peter was once saved by flying a rather tattered Union Jack while attempting to flee Somalia.


While Sarah pores over our copious emails to mull over the suggestion from a listener that we take illegal migrants and put them in the army or at least to work.


Elsewhere, someone’s been dreaming lucid dreams about Peter and our hosts bemoan the state of our ever-failing education system. 


On our reading, watch and listening list this week: 


·      Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags – Tim Marshall

·      Jabberwocky – Lewis Carroll

·      Education in Britain: 1944 to the Present, 2nd Edition – Ken Jones


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...
4 months ago
44 minutes 10 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Nadine Dorries says Boris and Nigel should work together, if their egos allow

In this exclusive episode, Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens managed to grab lady of the moment Nadine Dorries, fresh from her unveiling at Reform’s conference.They tackle the state of the right, where it all went wrong for the Conservatives, whether the union to end all unions if one the cards, and yes… whether singing on stage is an acceptable face of a serious party.


It’s a hum-dinger - you won’t want to miss it.


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

Guest: Nadine Dorries

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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4 months ago
48 minutes 32 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Digital IDs, Daddy Issues and Dude, What’s My Car?

On this week’s episode, should we be worried about Keir Starmer’s digital IDs when, according to Sarah, we’re a slave to the digital idiom as it is. Not that Peter quite sees it like that. 


Nor do the pair see eye to eye on the raising of children and what staying at home means for the parents or baby. Voices were raised, thoughts were shared, it would be untrue to say compromises were met.


Elsewhere, Peter doesn’t know what car he drives, its size he’s fairly sure of and that it can get him to the occasional funerals of his friends. Sarah told him to check the badge on the bonnet, which went well.


On our reading, watch and listening list this week: 


·      Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster – Helen Andrews

·      The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life – Arthur Firstenberg

·      Girl, 20 – Kingsley Amis

·      Flashman at the Charge - George MacDonald Fraser

·      Night Watch: A Discworld Novel – Terry Pratchett 

·      Down with Skool! A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and their Parents – Geoffrey Willans



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...
4 months ago
52 minutes 33 seconds

Alas Vine & Hitchens
Headscarves, Hijabs and Underperforming Politicians

On this week’s episode, Sarah wonders if Kier Starmer’s perceived weakness in leadership might have kicked open the door for Nigel Farage to come through? And Peter would like to ask; the hijab, a sign of oppression, or something that as a society should make us think more?


Elsewhere, did any government in living memory impress Peter? Don’t count on it. Why did Christopher Hitchens once storm out of The Great Lives recording studio and who did our hosts choose to revere when it came to their turn in The Great Lives chair? Plus, is there really a better biscuit then the classic Custard Cream? 


On our reading, watch and listening list this week: 


·      The Roads To Freedom - Dir: James Cellan Jones

·      Crooked Cross – Sally Carson

·      Tales Of The City – Armistead Maupin (Radio 4)

·      The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Radio 4)


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...
4 months ago
39 minutes 45 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.


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