As new actors revive the Talking Heads TV monologues, the poignant tales they tell will resonate more than ever with viewers in lockdown

The decision, announced last week by BBC Drama, to revive and recast Alan Bennett’s landmark Talking Heads series was driven as much by necessity as sentiment. Monologue, delivered to camera, is just about the only form of acting possible at the moment. But, still, there will be a special poignancy in hearing how the mini-dramas sound a generation later in their new voices – Imelda Staunton instead of Patricia Routledge, Kristen Scott Thomas in place of Eileen Atkins, Tamsin Greig for Penelope Wilton, Jodie Comer instead of Julie Walters.

Bennett wrote the first of the monologues in 1987, giving voice, in his 50s, to lives that in several cases were facing their last act. He himself turns 86 next week, about the same age as Thora Hird was when he cast her so memorably in Waiting for the Telegram in the last of the second series of monologues in 1998.

Related: Jodie Comer to star in new BBC production of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

The 50-year-old stars alongside Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming Marvel spin-off movie.

At present, Friends star Courteney Cox is staying at home in Malibu, California.

Arsenal and Manchester United have been linked with a move for Bayern Munich star Corentin Tolisso, but it is the Gunners who may have the transfer edge.

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Dimitar Berbatov says Jose Mourinho broke government guidelines to meet with Tanguy Ndombele because the manager is "impatient for football to return".

James Rodriguez has again been linked with a move to Manchester United with his future at Real Madrid far from certain.

The Tottenham and England star would have been top of Sir Alex Ferguson's shortlist

Barcelona have made Lautaro Martinez one of their top transfer targets.

Paul Pogba has revealed that his love for Thierry Henry led to him supporting Arsenal before he became a Manchester United fan.

Victor Wanyama believes defeat to Liverpool changed things for Poch

Aaron Wan-Bissaka has revealed Marcus Rashford is the toughest opponent in Manchester United training, stating the attacker's prowess has helped him develop as a defender.

Victor Osimhen has opened up about why he rejected Arsenal as a teenager... and why he will use the same reasoning when it comes to his next move.

Barcelona coach Quique Setien has said he dreams of winning the Champions League and showing the trophy to the cows in his village.

Premier League clubs including Arsenal have had their eye on Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey for some time.

Real Madrid are keeping tabs on Liverpool star Sadio Mane ahead of the transfer window.

Suggestions that the staging of Liverpool's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid may have led to a spike in coronavirus cases in the city have today been described as 'an interesting hypothesis' by a scientific advisor to the government.

Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey has been linked with a move to Arsenal and the Gunners may have the edge in a transfer battle for his signature.

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Leroy Sane could benefit from football being placed on lockdown, according to Manchester City teammate Ilkay Gundogan.

Tottenham's Champions League hopes received a blow on Thursday as Uefa confirmed their guidelines for awarding places next season.

Chelsea's Champions League hopes received a boost on Thursday as Uefa confirmed their guidelines for awarding places next season.

Glen Johnson has urged his former club Chelsea to sign Philippe Coutinho this summer.

The Eredivisie season has been cancelled, with the title, relegation out of and promotion into the league scrapped.

The chances of Angel Di Maria heading back to Manchester United are remote - according to one PSG team-mate, at least.

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Former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey has revealed he joined Italian giants Juventus in a bit to get out of his comfort zone.

Would Kourtney Kardashian have apologized to Kim Kardashian if they didn't have their Armenia trip planned? That very question was addressed in this bonus clip from season 18 of...

Once a step away from extinction, their survival was a rare success story. But groundbreaking gorilla conservation is now in peril

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As he clambers down the forested ravine, soil slipping beneath his boots, Dr Fred Nizeyimana knows they are close. “I can smell them,” he says, just before the mountain gorillas come into view high in the canopy, plucking leaves and chomping on the vegetation. An adult female slides down a tree, a flash of black fur and elongated limb. More follow, with infants and juveniles in tow. A grunting silverback descends to join its family, the branches buckling beneath approximately 180kg (400lb) of iconic primate.

The pandemic reminds me of a different invisible enemy. Once again, coordinated action is the only effective response

Deja vu. In recent days I’ve had that sense more than once. Every time I come home, remove my mask and wash my hands, I start thinking whether it is safe to keep on wearing the clothes that I had on outside. What if they are contaminated by the virus? Well, I can change clothes, but what if the particles have already jumped somewhere else, and are now in my home? Some would call it paranoia. I call it deja vu. I recognise those thoughts and remember the feelings.

That is because I first experienced them more than 30 years ago, in May 1986, on a trip to Kyiv, then the capital of Soviet Ukraine. It was a few weeks after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, and I was in the city – about 100km from the disaster area – on a business trip. We already knew that there was radiation in the air. Water trucks were spraying the streets, foreign students were leaving the city, and overseas broadcasters like the BBC were telling us to stay inside. But our own government was sending confusing and distressing messages: there is absolutely no danger, but make sure you keep children inside, and pregnant women too. Oh, and close your windows when you are at home.

Most Europeans support a universal basic income, yet young people doubt democracy’s capacity to deliver change

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The coronavirus crisis seems to be encouraging belief in radical change. An astonishing 71% of Europeans are now in favour of introducing a universal basic income, according to an opinion poll designed by my research team at Oxford university and published today. In Britain, the figure is 68%. Less encouraging, at least to anyone who believes in liberal democracy, is another startling finding in the survey: no less than 53% of young Europeans place more confidence in authoritarian states than in democracies to tackle the climate crisis. The poll was conducted by eupinions in March, as most of Europe was locking down against the virus, but the questions had been formulated earlier. It would be fascinating now to ask Europeans which political system they think has proved better at combating a pandemic, as the United States and China, the world’s leading democracy and the world’s leading dictatorship, spray viral accusations at each other.

Those two contrasting but equally striking survey results show how high the stakes will be as we emerge from the immediate medical emergency, and face the subsequent economic pandemic and its political fallout. What kind of historical moment will this turn out to be, for Europe and the world? It could lead us to the best of times. It could lead us to the worst of times.

Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey recalls being heckled at the House of Commons and explains how attitudes to climate have shifted in 10 years

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The shouted words rang out across the packed parliamentary corridor: “Fiona Harvey is the worst journalist there is. She’s the worst journalist of them all, because she should know better.”

They were the words of Lord Lawson, former UK chancellor of the exchequer, turned climate denier and now Brexiter, addressing a crowd of more than 100 people trying to cram into a House of Commons hearing on climate change. As listeners craned their necks to hear better, whispering and nudging, he elaborated at length on my insistence on reporting the work of the 97% of the world’s climate scientists whose work shows human responsibility for global heating, and failure to give equal weight to the tiny number of dissenters.

Guardian picture editor Fiona Shields explains why we are going to be using fewer polar bears and more people to illustrate our coverage of the climate emergency

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At the Guardian we want to ensure that the images we publish accurately and appropriately convey the climate crisis that we face. Following discussions among editors about how we could change the language we use in our coverage of environmental issues, our attention then turned to images. We have been working across the organisation to better understand how we aim to visually communicate the impact the climate emergency is having across the world.

Related: The Guardian's climate pledge 2019

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EVER noticed that you prefer to carry your baby like this? It’s not a coincidence.

ASUS has refreshed its line of gaming laptops with new 10th Generation Intel Core processors, NVIDIA RTX 2070/2080 Super graphics and a bunch of other features designed to make gaming and content creation slicker and smoother. First up, the new Zephyrus S17 (pictured), which comes with a 17.3-inch display with super narrow bezels in an 18.7-millimeter-thin chassis. A 300 Hz refresh rate and 3ms grey-to-grey response time means the display is lightning fast, and it comes with Pantone-validated color accuracy as well.

ASUS has been pushing laptops with second screens for a couple of years now, but it's still searching for a winning formula. Last year's ZenBook Pro Duo pushed the keyboard down to the edge of the laptop's body, with the rest of the surface housing a second screen. The problem with that configuration was an awkwardly placed trackpad. But, you know who cares less about trackpad placement? Gamers. Hence, almost a year later, the company's Republic Of Gamers (ROG) division has its own spin on the concept: the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15.

A team of scientists studied more than 1,300 patients admitted to a hospital for COVID-19

Science has a reputation for moving slowly. The very process of publishing solid scientific data—let alone developing vaccines and therapies—requires a long timeline. But outbreaks of infectious diseases spread quickly, demanding a much quicker pace. Scientific endeavors to better understand SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have progressed rapidly. Within weeks of the virus emerging…