Clichy-Batignolles, in the city’s north-west, is emblematic of the ‘15-minute’ city approach to urban planning

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This foodie tour is a love fest between everyone he meets – and everything he eats. It would be perfect television … if only the script weren’t so laughably repetitious

In my next life I am definitely coming back as Stanley Tucci. Or Francesco da Mosto (that Venetian count with the exuberant hair who was all over the schedules a few years ago, do you remember?), or Steve Coogan or Rob Brydon or any celebrity, really, who is sent off to foreign parts on jollies disguised as work.

I am never going to be a world traveller. But if I were, I would, like most of the above, stop at Italy. Why, honestly, would you go further? Why would you not stay in the place that breaks your heart with its beauty everywhere you look? That is suffused with the confidence and style that screams “We owned the Renaissance! We proved ourselves once and for all. No need to sweat the small stuff now! Sit down, chill, and eat penne al’arrabiata until it’s time to prostrate yourself in awe before some ancient frescoes. And btw, the spirit of Michelangelo wants you to eat your body weight in gelato before bed. That’s why he released David from his marble. So you know you can never compete.”

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‘Machines were revolutionising recording. We were told to lay down a 20-second backing track, a guide vocal – then go and play table tennis’

Lol Creme and I left 10cc at the height of the success because we felt things were starting to become repetitive. We came from an art school background and we were thinking visually. Even at that stage, there were two film-makers waiting to come out.

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Richmond theatre, London
Ted Lasso star’s return as his camp and bumptious northern know-it-all alter ego also makes room for more of the real Mohammed

The last time I saw Nick Mohammed live, I witnessed one of the all-time theatrical calamities, as the opening night of his West End Christmas Carol(ish) was abandoned after unrelenting technical difficulties. Talk about bouncing back: this new show is the opposite of that epic fail, a deliriously enjoyable hour of comedy meets magic meets more of the real Mohammed than we’ve ever before seen on stage. That’s a surprise, given he’s in character as his alter ego, the camp and bumptious northern know-it-all Mr Swallow. But the persona is more porous than before, transforming into Mohammed before our eyes – as if this were a coming out party for a comedian who has remained incognito until now.

For long-term watchers of the Ted Lasso man, that could hardly be more fascinating – the more so because Mohammed tells us it’s strategic, that he’s been compelled to get personal for careerist reasons. There’s a racial dimension to that, too, which he endlessly teases in Show Pony, replaying an encounter with a TV producer demanding Mohammed’s sitcom pitch be more ethnic, and offering up a fantastically twisty sketch about his supposedly white right foot.

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Dinosaurs are roaring back to life! With the help of palaeontologists around the globe … and a huge pile of pizza boxes. We dig deep into the return of the prehistoric epic

I’ve been under work pressure many times before, but nothing has prepared me for this. In Alberta, Canada on a palaeontology dig being filmed for the return of the BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs , I have been allowed to unearth a dinosaur bone.

It has not seen the light of day for about 73m years, and now, armed with just a hammer, awl and brush, I am chipping away at the rock around it to bring it to human eyes for the first time. One tap too hard in the wrong place and the fossilised bone could break.

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Cinema’s sprightliest senior citizen is not one to give in to obstacles easily and looks set to outpace time’s wingèd chariot for a good while yet

Much of the discourse around Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning revolves around that penultimate word. This, we’re told, is it. This is the last time that Tom Cruise will leap out of various modes of high-speed transport in pursuit of some nebulously defined MacGuffin. The last time he’ll grit his teeth and run across a major global landmark. The last time he’ll give Simon Pegg work. This is it.

Except, not to spoil anything, but it probably isn’t. After years of avoiding the press and letting his work do the talking, Tom Cruise is actively promoting Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. He’s doing junkets. He’s giving red-carpet interviews. He’s giving talks at the BFI. For those of us who enjoy Tom Cruise, this is a rare gift. But over the course of these appearances, a message has started to form. That message is: Tom Cruise is never, ever going to stop.

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Ahead of the author’s much anticipated memoir, we count down the best of her books – from climate dystopias to her world-conquering handmaids

After more than 30 years, Atwood caved to pleas to write a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Not since Harry Potter had a publication caused such a sensation : computers were hacked in search of the manuscript and advance copies were kept under lock and key. With classic Atwood timing, the novel coincided with the phenomenal success of the TV adaptation of the original – not to mention the arrival of Trump at the White House. The Testaments won Atwood her second Booker prize, shared ( controversially ) with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other .

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A new collective seeks to reinvigorate cinema in the mould of Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme 95 movement, with a 10-point manifesto opposed to the internet

A group of Danish and Swedish film-makers have relaunched the notorious avant garde Dogme 95 movement with a manifesto updated for the internet age, vowing to make five films between them in a year, from handwritten scripts and without using the internet or any emails in the creative process.

“In a world where film is based on algorithms and artificial visual expressions are gaining traction, it’s our mission to stand up for the flawed, distinct and human imprint,” said the five film-makers in a statement read at the Cannes film festival on Saturday.

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The latest in an ongoing series of writers highlighting their go-to mood-lifting movies looks back at the 2008 Eastbourne-set teen comedy

Last year, it took me a grand total of three weeks to make the olive costume, Georgia Nicolson’s papier-mache creation from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging . Night and day, I slaved away, dipping strips of newspaper into a mix of flour and water, then patting it onto a giant-sized balloon. Never have I defined myself as anything close to arty. So why did I decide to dedicate a significant portion of my life to an elaborate craft project? The answer, of course, is simple. The olive costume is iconic, as the signature feature of the greatest teen movie ever made.

Just ask any girl who grew up in Britain in the noughties, and they’ll recognise the image: Georgia Nicholson, played by Georgia Groome, frantically running through the streets of Eastbourne dressed as a mammoth green hors d’oeuvre. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, the film based on the first two books in Louise Rennison ’s series, was studied at our teenage sleepovers. We pored over it, reciting its lines as if they were from a sacred text. Even now, I can reel off the classic quotes without thinking. “Boys don’t like girls for funniness,” if you didn’t already know.

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