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103 episodes

Proportional Representation and Apocalypse Now
12/10/2026 | 38 mins.
On this week’s show, Peter would like to talk about proportional representation (he’s not a fan), and as the government launches its ‘Prepare’ campaign, Sarah is busy preparing for the apocalypse.

And we’ll be opening our mailbag to discuss American politicians playing the fake Irish card. Why Peter did not get to fulfil his dream of being the captain of a Royal Naval destroyer. What did the sexual revolution ever do for us? And the pair discuss buildings that are built to move us. All human life is here, etc.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

Take A Girl Like You – Kingsley Amis
The Children Of the New Forest - Frederick Marryat
The Drowned World – J.G. Ballard
Old Filth – Jane Gardam
What Happened to the Corbetts – Nevil Shute
Too Big To Fail – Andrew Ross Sorkin

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.
Capital Punishment and the Hijab Handout
05/10/2026 | 44 mins.
On this week’s show, Sarah would like to know why the government is handing out hijabs to channel migrants, and Peter would like to talk about capital punishment, especially in the USA.

And we’ll be opening our mailbag to discuss what might happen should we lose the Falklands, the slow erosion that is state surveillance, and even though Peter’s shed a lot of weight, why won’t his old trousers fit him?

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

East Of Eden – John Steinbeck
Dispatches: Cameron: Toff At The Top
12 Angry Men – Dir: Sidney Lumet

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.
Russia’s Nuclear Threat and what now for Northern Ireland?
28/09/2026 | 38 mins.
On this week’s show, Sarah will be asking why Russia is reviving its doomsday nuclear strike program and how worried should we be about that? And Peter will be looking at the latest news coming out of Northern Ireland as protestors attempt to stop the Orange Order march.

And we’ll be opening our mailbag to discuss De Gaulle's infamous 1967 ‘Vive le Québec libre!’ speech, the daunting amount of work that goes into death admin, the curse of TikTok addiction and should we really be having raves in St. Paul’s Cathedral? Probably not.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

• The War Game – Dir: Peter Watkins
• On The Beach – Nevil Shute
• The Greening Of The White House – Conor O’Clery
• This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair – Hugo Young

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.
Earl Spencer’s Accusations and Letby Latest
21/09/2026 | 36 mins.
On this week’s show, Sarah will be looking at the latest revelations swirling around Earl Spencer’s book about his late sister, and Peter will be turning his attention back to Lucy Letby in light of the Thirlwall Inquiry.

And we’ll be opening our mailbag to discuss personal political responsibility, there seems to be so little of it left. The great and not so good Grammar schools, asking what did Joseph Conrad ever do for us? And what can one do with the Olympically dim?

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

· Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
· A Revolution Betrayed: How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System – Peter Hitchens
· No Love For Johnnie – Wilfred Fienburgh

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.
AI’s Evolution and Has Alastair Campbell Seen The Light?
14/09/2026 | 42 mins.
On this week’s show, Sarah will be asking if AI is really coming for all of us, and she doesn’t just mean our jobs. And Peter would like to know if Alastair Campbell has finally found God. Yes, that took us by surprise too.

And, as pupils nationwide drift back to the classroom, we’ll be opening our mailbag to discuss what is school for? How can the Ukraine war possibly end? The latest news on Peter’s compendium of some of his most notable writing, and if you’re attending a dinner party at Sarah’s or Peter’s then expect schnitzel or fish and chips and champagne. We’ll let you find out which.

On our reading, listening and watch list this week:

· A Dead Statesman – Rudyard Kipling
· Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines – Dir: Jonathan Mostow
· The Abolition of Britain – Peter Hitchens
· We Must Pace The Frontier - Dario Amodei

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.

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About Alas Vine & Hitchens

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.

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