Your prescription for lockdown boredom

Top stand up comedian Suzi Ruffell speaks to a wide range of famous LGBTQ+ people in this excellent interview-based podcast which begins its third series this week. The thing I love about this show is just how well researched the interviews are, you can tell Suzi is committed to making the show not just interesting for the listener but also an enjoyable experience for her guests. Put this on your list labelled ‘must listen’.

She felt an instant connection with her boss… and his wife. Now everyone’s keeping secrets, and it’s a nightmare in the making. I have only seen the first two episodes of this tense new thriller from Netflix and it is anyone’s guess as to what is going on but highly compelling viewing all the same.

When a national nonprofit labels Big Burr, Kansas “the most homophobic town in the US” and sends a task force of queer volunteers there for two years as an experiment, no one is truly prepared for what will ensue. This stunning debut novel is one of my favourite books of last year. It is inexplicably yet to find a publisher in the UK but you can pick it up from Amazon (if you have to). The paperback edition is out in the US tomorrow.

A TV spin-off from 2018 film Love, Simon, the series follows teenager Victor; a half-Columbian, half Puerto Rican-American who moves with his family to Atlanta from Texas. This is a funny and heart-warming watch charting Victor’s journey of self-discovery, challenges with rocky family dynamics at home and trying to figure out his sexual orientation. Watch on Star via Disney+.

This is a British podcast produced and presented by the researchers of Q.I: James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber. Each presenter picks one random or shocking fact from the week to discuss with the other hosts. I am VERY late to this as it started in 2014 and has won multiple awards since but it is laugh out loud funny as well as being fascinating and educational, with added bonus that you have over 300 episodes to catch up on.

A Northern Irish police detective (James Nesbitt) connects a hostage note to the unsolved mystery of dangerous inside man ‘Goliath’ and the disappearance of his own wife over 20 years ago. Gripping stuff with twists a-plenty and with Executive Producer Jed Mercurio involved (creator of ‘Line of Duty’) you know this BBC four-parter will keep us guessing until the bitter end! Episodes 1 and 2 available on BBC iplayer, next episode this Sunday evening at 9pm.

A rooster fitted with a knife for an illegal cockfight in southern India has killed its owner, sparking a manhunt for the organisers of the event, police said.

The bird had a knife attached to its leg ready to take on an opponent when it inflicted serious injuries to the man’s groin as it tried to escape, officers said. The man died from loss of blood before he could reach a hospital in the Karimnagar district of Telangana state earlier this week, local police officer B Jeevan told AFP.