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TV reviewTelevision & radioReviewThis new Irish drama expertly manages a large cast of characters, with seeds of suspicion, red herrings – and a monstrous patriarch left for dead Smother (Alibi), a new County Clare-set thriller by novelist and television writer Kate O’Riordan, reminds me – and I have few higher compliments – of the work of Maeve Binchy, if she had ever turned her hand to whodunnits. It has a seemingly effortless mastery of a large cast of characters, warm intelligence pervading everything, and promotes the gorgeous general sense of being held for the duration in a very safe pair of hands indeed.

Taylor Swift This article is more than 3 months oldTaylor Swift: Eras tour concert film to get global release in OctoberThis article is more than 3 months oldFilm will play in more than 100 countries including the UK from 13 October, in line with its previously announced US, Canada and Mexico release Eight months before the real thing is due to hit the UK, the concert film of Taylor Swift’s behemoth Eras tour will screen in British cinemas this October.

Is there a secret law that says that in order to achieve significant international distribution, a European film must point up a central relationship involving a cutie-pie kid and a wise older man? The Czech hit Kolya had one, as did Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winner Life is Beautiful; and who could forget the godfather of them all, Cinema Paradiso?Butterfly's Tongue, from Spanish director Jose Luis Cuerda, is the latest incarnation of the breed and uses its charming double act as a way into broaching the difficult subject of the Spanish civil war.

How we madeRapInterviewHow we made Salt-N-Pepa's Push ItInterviews by Dave Simpson‘An aquarium told us that when they put the song on, the sharks started mating’ Cheryl James (‘Salt’)We weren’t the first female rappers – Angie Stone’s group, the Sequence, came before us – but we were the first to go platinum around the world. Pep and I were in college together. We were big time screw-ups. We never went to class.

FamilyJudy Golding's father, the novelist William Golding, was besotted with his wife - and vice versa. Judy and her brother David very definitely came secondMy brother David and I loved being told stories, and those my father told were spell-binding. He would just take you away somewhere else, to some different, vivid world. One story was about my parents' meeting – our own personal creation myth, a different world even though it was about our parents.

Antony SherObituarySir Antony Sher obituaryCelebrated stage actor who gave extraordinary performances in a long career with the Royal Shakespeare CompanyAs breakthrough performances go, Antony Sher’s as Richard III at Stratford-upon-Avon in June 1984 was beyond astounding. He gatecrashed this play’s performance history and threw down an audacious gauntlet to the hallowed shades of Edmund Kean, Henry Irving, Laurence Olivier and, on that same Stratford stage, Ian Holm. Just as Irving’s bells stopped ringing on “the lascivious pleasing of a lute” in the opening soliloquy, so did Sher’s background music, and he instantly produced, with an obscene flourish, a pair of black medical crutches, resuming the speech with two swinging, ape-like hops to the front of the stage, an unforgettable creepy arachnoid.

Samantha LewthwaiteHow did Samantha Lewthwaite end up on the run from Interpol after being linked to a series of terror attacks? As attention turns to Britons fighting with Isis in Syria, whatever happened to the young woman known as ‘the white widow’? What radicalises a person from the UK? What makes anyone leave the certainties of Cardiff for the privations of Syria? How could any extremist preacher guess that Buckinghamshire would be fertile ground, not just for disaffected youth, but for disaffected youth with an undiscovered sense of purpose?

OpinionArtificial intelligence (AI) This article is more than 2 years oldWhat a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a bikini tells us about the disturbing future of AIThis article is more than 2 years oldArwa MahdawiNew research on image-generating algorithms has raised alarming evidence of bias. It’s time to tackle the problem of discrimination being baked into tech, before it is too late Want to see a half-naked woman? Well, you’re in luck!

Alan Pulido is seen next to the Tamaulipas state governor, Egidio Torre Cantú, after Pulido’s rescue. Photograph: Stringer/ReutersAlan Pulido is seen next to the Tamaulipas state governor, Egidio Torre Cantú, after Pulido’s rescue. Photograph: Stringer/ReutersMexico This article is more than 7 years oldMexican football star Alan Pulido disarmed kidnapper in daring escapeThis article is more than 7 years oldOlympiakos player snatched in Ciudad Victoria on Saturday night State prosecutor says striker called authorities with captor’s phoneThe Mexican footballer Alan Pulido, who was kidnapped and held for 24 hours over the weekend, escaped his captors by disarming and taking a mobile phone away from one of them, then calling the police, according to an official summary report obtained by the Guardian.