AMANDA PLATELL: More attention is now given to Cowell's scowl, Amanda Holden's nipples and Alesha Dixon's barely clad thighs than to the real stars - the ordinary folk following their dreams

AMANDA PLATELL: Of all the pictures published in this tumultuous week for the Royal Family, one stood out for me.

AMANDA PLATELL: Ant has treated you appallingly. But every tweet you post keeps you nailed to the cross of this broken marriage. You have to break away.

AMANDA PLATELL: It was a bracing moment when I read that the Church of England, my Church, declared that loving, long-term couples in civil partnerships should not have sex.

AMANDA PLATELL: Jennifer Aniston appears on a magazine cover wearing tiny Yves Saint Laurent leather hotpants a supermodel might struggle to get away with - and we gape in awe.

AMANDA PLATELL: I was struck by one thought after Carrie's Instagram announcement: I cannot imagine how Marina, his loyal wife of 27 years, must have been feeling, nor their four adult children.

PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Students had cancelled the event because of Ms Rudd's links to the Windrush scandal, in which Britons of Caribbean heritage were wrongly deported.

AMANDA PLATELL: One week ago, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, was at home with his mum, six brothers and sisters, doing what we're all doing, watching TV, isolating at home.

AMANDA PLATELL: Can it be only a few months ago that the Monarchy was facing down Megxit, in what appeared to be one of its worst existential crises since the abdication?

PLATELL'S PEOPLE: What a shining example of selflessness we have been given this week from a woman who is among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus plague.

AMANDA PLATELL: We have always been a nation of curtain twitchers. But, who'd have thought nearly 200,000 people would report their neighbours for breaking lockdown rules?

AMANDA PLATELL: We learned that they have chosen as their LA hideaway, a Tuscan-style mansion amid 14 acres in a gated community in one of the most sought-after areas of Hollywood....

ANDREW PIERCE: As he plods painfully through his six questions, there is an embarrassed silence on the Labour benches. Some Labour MPs say there is a way out.

Despite being repeatedly tipped as a 'prime minister-in-waiting' since entering the House of Commons less than five years ago, Rishi Sunak has always been better known in India than Britain.

ANDREW PIERCE: Jack Straw - Tony Blair's first Home Secretary - revealed what Lord Baker, Home Secretary in Sir John Major's government from 1990-92, had told him when he took up the role.

ANDREW PIERCE - After her recent letter to the Times, Lady Marland has now left her husband, peer Lord Jonathan Marland with quite a conundrum to deal with regarding his personal wealth.

The Welshman came off his bike around 30 kilometres from the end of stage four and received medical attention at the side of the road. He provided a positive update on Wednesday morning.

Geraint Thomas has been named joint team leader by INEOS for the Tour de France alongside Colombian Egan Bernal. That is despite his superior Grand Tour experience over his team-mate..

Mark Cavendish has been left out of the Dimension Data team that will compete in this year's Tour de France. It is the first time in 13 years that the British rider will not compete in France.

Some 24 hours before Team INEOS announced that Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal would start the Tour de France as joint leaders, the cycling team offered their defending champion to the media.

In the same month that Milos Raonic and Felix Auger-Aliassime aim to elevate Canadian tennis to new heights, Michael Woods will ride across France in the hope of making history of his own

Earlier this week news broke that Dimension Data's team principal, Doug Ryder, ignored the recommendation by performance boss Rolf Aldag to include Cavendish in line-up.

Geraint Thomas joked he would be happy with an 'uneventful' Tour de France as long as a Team Ineos rider is stood on the top step in Paris at the end of the month.

Team Dimension Data head of performance Rolf Aldag has made clear he will stay with the team for the remainder of the Tour de France as the row over Mark Cavendish's non-selection rumbled on.

CHRIS MURPHY IN BRUSSELS: Geraint Thomas and his Ineos team-mates were beaten in a tense finish to Saturday's second stage of the Tour de France, a 27.6-kilometre time trial.

Geraint Thomas survived the first day of racing through the climbs of the 2019 Tour de France but then suggested that team-mate Egan Bernal is favourite for the first summit finish on stage six.

Geraint Thomas took back control of the Tour de France on Thursday, with a surge of power taking him clear of his main rivals on the backbreaking finish to stage six in the Vosges mountains.

Geraint Thomas breathed a sigh of relief at the finish of stage eight of the Tour de France after he survived a team pile-up at the bottom of a fast downhill section on the approach to Saint-Etienne.

South African Daryl Impey added an individual stage win to his Tour de France happy memories when he prevailed at the end of a long breakaway from St Etienne on Sunday.

Geraint Thomas and Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal profited hugely as French rival Thibaut Pinot was caught in a group who lost 100 seconds on the 217.5km stage from Saint-Flour to Albi.

Geraint Thomas and Team Ineos had every reason to be satisfied as they reached the first rest day of the Tour de France in an enviable position. He is in second place in the general classification.

Tour de France organisers are looking to launch a women's equivalent of the most prestigious race in men's cycling, they said on Friday.

MATT LAWTON IN PAU: The sight of Julian Alaphilippe rising out of his saddle and powering up the steep ramp that came at the end of this individual time trial is sure to trouble Geraint Thomas .

Thomas has blamed a 'minor fuelling issue' on his seventh-placed finish during the Pyrenean stages over the weekend, which saw him twice left behind by his rivals.

The defending champion came off on a right-hander with around 130km of the 177km stage, which started and finished in Nimes, remaining. He was though soon able to rejoin the race.

Trentin won by 36 seconds, while there was no change at the top of the general classification, with Julian Alaphilippe still leading ajnd Geraint Thomas trailing by 95 seconds.

MATT LAWTON IN VALLOIRE: To some extent it felt like normal service had been resumed here in the Alps, the sight of five Team Ineos riders leading the yellow jersey group up the final climb.

Thibaut Pinot's dream of becoming the first French winner of the Tour de France for 34 years is over after the Groupama-FDJ rider was forced to abandon early on stage 19 to Tignes.

MATT LAWTON IN PARIS: Wiggins and Thomas believe Team Ineos will continue to dominate the Tour de France with a young Colombian cyclist who could turn out to be the greatest in history.

Team INEOS has announced they are pulling out of all racing until the Volta a Catalunya on March 23.

The legendary road race is scheduled to start in Nice on June 27 but it will now either be postponed or scrapped altogether, with a decision expected later this week.

The Tour de France and French Open have come under doubt after ministers stated they would only be held if fans can attend. Events in France gathering 5,000 people have been banned until September

It's not every day an international luxury car company holds the global launch of its latest model in Britain — and brings over its top brass to do the honours.

This cat is so easy to live with, I grew into it like a much-loved jacket. Driving it quickly became second nature.

In its quest to become more Motoring upwardly mobile and cool, Vauxhall has unveiled its new small, but perfectly formed, upmarket urban runaround called . . . Adam.

I love the look of the new Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet which makes its world debut at the Los Angeles Motor Show on November 28 and will go on sale in Britain in spring.

James Bond star Daniel Craig performed a top secret mission right under the noses of the world's media at this week's royal global premier of the latest 007 movie, Skyfall, which goes on general release today.

The Aixam Coupe S (pictured) may look like a compact city car, but it is classed as a ‘light quadricycle’, which can be driven with a moped licence.

This is the fourth generation of the Honda CR-V, which has established itself as a mainstay of Middle Britain for adaptable family transport since the first generation arrived in Europe in 1997.

Production of the third generation Octavia started this month at the Mlada Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic, ahead of its March launch in Britain.