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Alas Vine & Hitchens

Alas Vine & Hitchens

By: Daily Mail
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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.

Daily Mail Politics & Government
Episodes
  • The UK’s Risible Reading Age and Bloody Books

    The UK’s Risible Reading Age and Bloody Books
    Feb 11 2026

    On this week’s episode, Sarah is asking is the English literature curriculum really being dumbed down or are we simply not reading as a country anymore or simply shifting our allegiance to audiobooks? And Peter, as if to prove otherwise, will be bandying a copy of Lord of the Flies around and poring over the latest BBC adaptation.

    Plus, why was Stephen Fry stalking Peter at a memorial for his late brother? Why we should eat even if the Queen has done with her meal, royal protocol be damned! Why neither wants a coat of arms, divorce etiquette and why the Suez Crisis reminds Peter of his father getting on his bike.


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster

    · Lord Of The Flies – William Golding

    · A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

    · The Box Of Delights - John Masefield

    · Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene

    · Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad


    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 Show Less
    43 mins
  • Ducking KGB Bullets and Inside the Epstein Files

    Ducking KGB Bullets and Inside the Epstein Files
    Feb 4 2026

    On this week’s episode Peter will be going back 35 years to a moment in time where he stood and watched the KGB murdering people in Vilnius. And I’ll be asking why did Sarah Ferguson take her children to see Jeffrey Epstein just days after he was released from prison?


    Plus, we find out the truth about magnetised train tracks (all lies!), why both 1976 and 1979 are vying for the best of all possible years for two of our listeners, the rise of the extreme right wing and the night the Queen wore rhinestone.


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

    · Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley

    · Hamlet – William Shakespeare

    · Short Breaks In Mordor – 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.
    Show More Show Less
    59 mins
  • Pitiful Policing and Ballroom Beckham

    Pitiful Policing and Ballroom Beckham
    Jan 28 2026

    On this week’s episode, Sarah is asking what can Brooklyn Beckham possibly mean when he accuses his mother of dancing ‘on him’ at his wedding? Both Sarah and Peter have a few wedding horror stories of their own to share too. Also, Peter wants to know if proposed mega police forces will just mean more constabulary cockups? His guess is yes.


    Plus, what do the pair make of the new ‘super’ Chinese Embassy in London? Was Peter really in a secret MI5 file? Annoying train announcements and remembering Tony Benn.


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · A Small Town In Germany – John Le Carre

    · Tony Benn: A Biography - Jad Adams

    · The House of Beckham: Money, Sex and Power - Tom Bower

    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: Alex Graham

    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 Show Less
    33 mins
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