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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
  • Team America and Ten Years After

    Team America and Ten Years After
    Jan 21 2026

    On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah are asking what were you doing ten years and why is social media suddenly transfixed by 2016? And why has America decided to turn into the world’s bully?

    Plus, why is Australia’s economy at such a low ebb? What the hell’s happened to civility? Why does Sarah’s fridge keep shouting at her? And when it comes to transporting coal, what’s better, the canal barge or railway track? You can guess which side Peter landed on…


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · North By Northwest – Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

    · Going South: Why Britain will have a Third World Economy by 2014 – L. Elliott & D. Atkinson

    · Brothel In Pimlico – Roy Brooks

    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
    39 mins
  • Kissing Cousins and an Iranian Uprising

    Kissing Cousins and an Iranian Uprising
    Jan 14 2026

    On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah Welcome are asking why is Sir Kier Starmer choosing not to condemn marriage between first cousins in some cultures? And what it might take for the Iranian people to be heard as civil unrest and revolution spread throughout the country?

    Plus, why America is ruining the English language, the idea that Russia is a military world power is complete piffle, Trump’s Golden Fleet, Heated Rivalry (no, really) and the food that neither Peter or Sarah will eat.


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · Rules For Radicals – Saul Alinsky

    · The White Cliffs - Alice Duer Miller

    · Dictionary Of Modern American Usage – Bryan A. Garner


    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
    41 mins
  • Why Are We Firing Up the UK’s War Machine?

    Why Are We Firing Up the UK’s War Machine?
    Jan 7 2026

    On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah look to the year ahead, as Peter wonders why this nation’s leaders and heads of the armed forces are rattling their sabres as they attempt to put the country on a war footing.

    Plus, our duo on Conservatism (just what is it?) Christianity, the legacy of John Smith MP, the superiority of Japanese trains - any trains in comparison to our dilapidated ted rail network, and Custard Creams; all the colours of the rainbow.


    On our reading and watch list this week:

    · The Phoney Victory – Peter Hitchens

    · Winnie -The-Pooh – A. A. Milne

    · John Smith: Life and Soul of the Party - Gordon Brown & James Naughtie

    · Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto

    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
    38 mins
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