TelevisionObituaryDavid McCallum obituaryActor who found fame playing Illya Kuryakin in the 1960s television series The Man from UNCLEIn the 1960s, there was one actor who could justifiably claim that ladies prefer blonds. As the secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the TV series The Man from UNCLE, David McCallum, who has died aged 90, received more fan mail from young women than any other actor in MGM’s history. With his Beatles-style haircut, his liking for black turtleneck sweaters (which created a fad among viewers nationwide), and an aloof and enigmatic air, through which he sneaked a fair amount of charm and self-amusement, McCallum made Kuryakin into a sex symbol of the period.

Documentary filmsA new documentary challenges an alleged 1946 mistranslation that helped lead to a justification for Christian anti-gayness What if all the anti-gay, homophobic rhetoric that has come from the Christian right over these past few decades was rooted in a mistranslation of the Bible? In the documentary, 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture, researchers and scholars delve into the 1946 mistranslation of 1 Corinthians 6:9 and explore how it fuelled the Christian anti-gay movement that still thrives today.

TheatreReviewWyndham’s theatre, London This stage version of Yann Martel’s novel is exquisitely designed but the wonder leaks away in flat-footed storytelling Life of Pi had a first life as a Booker prize-winning novel by Yann Martel and a second as an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. Both were utterly captivating. Now comes playwright Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage spectacular (first presented in Sheffield in 2019) about Piscine “Pi” Patel, the zookeeper’s son from Pondicherry who claims to have survived a shipwreck in a life-raft with a Bengal tiger in tow.

An all-star tribute to the acid genius of the late composer offers a terrific medley of hits, Michael Frayn’s clever farce also proves timeless, and seven neurodivergent actors put on a singular drama Published: 8 Oct 2023 ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaJulocG2vsRopKKbmJayrXnFq5iypg%3D%3D

India This article is more than 9 months oldPriyanka Chopra Jonas: Bollywood’s fair skin fixation helped drive me awayThis article is more than 9 months oldActor and former Miss World announced move to US at pinnacle of her fame in India eight years ago The Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas has spoken of how Bollywood’s enduring obsession with fair skin was one of the reasons she left the industry to try her luck in Hollywood eight years ago.

1000 novels everyone must readPG WodehouseSomething Fresh (1915) Piccadilly Jim (1918) Thank You Jeeves (1934) Heavy Weather (1933) The Code of the Woosters (1938) Joy in the Morning (1947) Few 20th-century writers seem more quintessentially of their moment than PG Wodehouse, whose name guarantees an escape into a lost world of upper-class Edwardian frivolity: pig-loving earls, inscrutable butlers and, of course, the "mentally negligible" Bertie Wooster and his manservant, Jeeves.

Global developmentWomen attempting to flee the country’s economic collapse are in desperate straits, stranded at borders and forced into sex work, say NGOs The family had nothing at home, says mother of six Luisa Hernández, 30, from Zulia state, Venezuela. “To see your children grow up without food, without anything, is unbearable. “Eating from rubbish bins to survive was no life, so we left. But, now with the pandemic, we are in limbo, we are stuck in Colombia, and hungry again.

NWSL This article is more than 11 months oldPortland Thorns trainer fired for giving players controlled substanceThis article is more than 11 months oldPierre Soubrier gave substance to players without prescriptionThorns assistant coach also fired for unwanted contactThe husband of US women’s team defender Crystal Dunn illegally distributed a controlled substance to Portland Thorns players in his role as the team’s athletic trainer, the National Women’s Soccer League announced following an outside investigation.

RereadingSociety booksFifty years after John Howard Griffin darkened his skin and travelled through the segregated US south, his record of the fear and prejudice he experienced is still resonantOne day in 1964 John Howard Griffin, a 44-year-old Texan journalist and novelist, was standing by the side of the road in Mississippi with a flat tyre. He saw a group of men approaching him. Griffin assumed the men were heading over to assist him but instead they dragged him away from his car and proceeded to beat him violently with chains before leaving him for dead.

Television & radioInterviewSaffron Burrows: ‘I’m really proud of my family and who they are’Hermione HobySocialist Worker, teen model, Hollywood star … at 42, Saffron Burrows has already had many lives. Now returning to acting after the birth of her baby boy, she explains why it is time to go public about her marriage to Alison BalianThe table in the Japanese brasserie that Saffron Burrows has proposed for dinner is so wide that we decide to sit not opposite each other, but side by side.