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.

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.

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.

On this week’s episode, Sarah wonders if it’s worth putting into your pension pot anymore as new government policies promise to make your golden years anything but. While Peter would like to ask why does nobody likes appeasement until it suits them? Not that Sarah can help with that, she’s one of life’s great appeasers.

Elsewhere, all things considered, Peter would rather be a rich Edwardian, Sarah misses Swansea and one of our presenters gives a spirited rendition of the rallying cry of fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It’s quite something.

On our reading and watch list this week:

· A Pocket Full Of Rye - Agatha Christie

· The Lie - Agatha Christie (Drama on 4)

· The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L Sayers

· The Sign Of The Four – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

· Tales Of The Unexpected - Now TV

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.