Stephen Graham and Steven Knight had an astonishing 2025. As A Thousand Blows explodes back, they talk about taking decades to become overnight sensations, the Peaky Blinders movie – and why it could be time for a scouse Bond villain

Stephen Graham had a stellar 2025. He didn’t just play Bruce Springsteen’s father in biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere but, of course, co-created and starred in Netflix mega-hit Adolescence – the game-changing drama that sparked global debate about online misogyny, incel culture and the “manosphere”.

His friend and regular collaborator Steven Knight watched admiringly from afar as the devastating four-parter became event TV. “My God, it was a cultural phenomenon,” he says, puffing out his cheeks with pride. “Adolescence got people talking who don’t normally talk, about things they don’t normally talk about. Is there any finer achievement than having a direct, immediate and positive effect worldwide on human relationships? It’s like putting something on screen which is medicine. It’s actually good for you.”

From Shetland to the Western Isles, campaigners argue ageing ferries are driving depopulation – and undersea tunnels are the only 21st-century solution

For Alec Priest, an instrument technician at Sullom Voe oil terminal on Shetland, the case for digging tunnels under the narrow stretches of ocean that separate his home from work is clear-cut.

As things stand, two ageing ferries crossing tidal sounds notorious for their powerful currents break up his commute. For a casual tourist, that adds to the mystique. For time-pressed islanders, care workers and businesses, it adds delays, stress and costs.

How did an Aussie, a Texan, an Irishman and three Cumbrians find themselves on the road on the Ukrainian frontline? For classic rock collective Hardwicke Circus, it was a no-brainer: ‘We thought they’d like to hear some rock’n’roll’

It is late October and, 10 kilometres from the frontline in Donetsk, east Ukraine, the inhabitants of a reconditioned ambulance are completely lost. While opening your phone and logging on to a maps app might appear the obvious solution, this would be extremely unwise here: Russian drones are overhead and hunting for any signals.

Inside the van are a motley crew: an 81-year-old Irish music industry veteran; a 72-year-old Texas rocker; an Australian keyboardist; a Ukrainian saxophonist; and three twenty-something musicians from Carlisle, Cumbria. Their destination is a military base where they are to perform for Ukrainian troops.

The return of hit bonkbuster Rivals, the horny hockey show taking the world by storm, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer … and Buffy is back! Here’s your complete guide to 2026’s unmissable television

As the writer of conspiracy thriller Utopia and Covid-era relationship drama Together, Dennis Kelly has form for creating darkly perceptive TV drama. This excellent series stars Josh Finan (whose performance in The Responder earned him a Bafta nomination) as Dan, a philosophy teacher with a troubled family past, working in a prison. As he explores issues around freedom, luck and destiny with the inmates, he starts to wonder if he actually belongs behind bars like his abusive father. Soon, his anxieties threaten to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• BBC One, 3 January

Max Rushden is joined by Lucy Ward, Lars Sivertsen and Mark Langdon as Chelsea and Enzo Maresca part ways, while 2026 kicks off with three 0-0 draws in the Premier League

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on email.

On the podcast today: Enzo Maresca and Chelsea part ways. It seems that it’s a decision that suits both parties? But if the senior people at the club want so much influence over their manager, who will they entice to replace him?

Once host to a poisonous gas research facility, Okunoshima is now an Instagram-friendly tourist destination

The bunny-ear designs on the window aside, there is little to indicate that the ferry has arrived on an island teeming with rabbits. Then, moments after the passengers disembark, there is activity in the undergrowth. A single rabbit scampers out, wholly untroubled by its two-legged visitors. And then another.

A short walk along the coast takes visitors deep into rabbit territory on Okunoshima, one of 3,000 islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Half a dozen of the animals chase away another as it attempts to join them in a communal meal of Chinese cabbage. The scene unfolds in front of smiling, camera-toting tourists barely able to believe their proximity to Okunoshima’s fabled – but troubled – furry residents.

The rabbits are dependent on visitors and volunteers for food.

Officials say 40 people were killed and 119 injured, with some in hospital still unidentified due to ‘horrific’ injuries

Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland Gian Lorenzo Cornado has said that all bar five of the 112 injured have been identified now, reports Reuters. Swiss officials are yet to give an update on this and have not shared the names of any victims or injured.

Six Italians are still missing and 13 hospitalised, he added. Three Italians were repatriated on Thursday and three more will follow on Friday, he said.

It’s the grief, as if we have all lost a loved one.

Death of man from Kettering comes shortly after disappearance of two men during a Christmas Day swim in Devon

A 51-year-old man has died after attempting to rescue a woman who was struggling to swim at Brighton beach on New Year’s Day, police have confirmed.

Sussex police were alerted at 10.35am on Thursday after the swimmer, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was recovered from the water to the west of Brighton Palace Pier.

US president’s posts that US will come to the rescue of protesters prompt warnings of ‘regret-inducing response’

Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added “we are locked and loaded, and ready to go”, without explaining what that might mean in practice.

Sales at Elon Musk’s company slump after Donald Trump’s withdrawal of EV subsidies

China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.

BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.