Would you make a good "Traitor"? Have you got the mojo of a chameleon to hoodwink fellow contestants, like the comedian Alan Carr - this year’s winner of BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors?
Game show The Traitors was inspired by the sinking of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629. When the Batavia sank off Australia, 250 survivors scrambled ashore an island archipelago. Mutinous traitors fought against a small band of faithful soldiers, culminating in a live-or-die boat race towards an oncoming rescue ship. Who would get there first - the "Traitors" or the "Faithful"? A true story!
In October 2025, The Guardian newspaper cited historian Alice Loxton’s phrase “Quiet Decay” (possibly in response to the “Quiet Revival”), in relation to the demise of churches in England, and underscored the National Churches Trust’s forecast of 900 church closures over the next five years.
What is needed in Northern Ireland now?
Living in Belfast, the cultural response to a Sudanese suspect who allegedly stabbed a white person in June’s evening daylight …