The most hotly anticipated TV show of the year is here! And a number of the stars – ahem Grant Mitchell – are struggling already …

Warning: this article contains spoilers for episode one of The Celebrity Traitors.

So – have they managed to capture lightning in a franchised bottle again? The new series of The Celebrity Traitors, more hotly anticipated than Nigella entering the Bake Off tent, is here. Twenty-one contestants of varying levels of fame, but never dipping below C-list, have signed up to endure Claudia Winkleman’s tyranny in Ardross Castle, in the hope of winning up to £100,000 for their chosen charity and a place in the nation’s consciousness and possible heart for between one week and a lifetime, depending how things work out.

Nige is not rattled that the UK likes its new PM. Or that Reform is second in the polls. Oh no. Because Nige believes in Nige

Nearly 10 years ago, Nigel Farage told LBC he would leave the country if Brexit were not a stunning success. For reasons that no one can quite fathom, he is still here. Could it be that he is a man who can’t be trusted to keep his word? Surely not.

Nige wants you to know he’s very much still around. He might have been a bit quiet over the past few weeks, as Reform had to deal with one or two unfortunate investigations into their funding, but now he’s very much back. And he’s definitely not rattled that Labour has a prime minister the country likes. Nor is he at all rattled that Reform has tumbled into second place in the polls. Oh, no. Because Nige believes in Nige. Now more than ever. The last creepy-crawly after the apocalypse. Lying on its back, gasping for air. But still breathing. The dream still alive.

Wyndham’s theatre, London
Grant brings shock-haired vigour as a vain novelist forced to welcome his boho children’s surprise guests in comedy of clipped social embarrassment

Hay Fever, now one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-performed works, hasn’t always been a smash hit. British critics who found its West End debut in 1925 amusing enough nevertheless noted its lack of plot, and the first Broadway production was a flop. A critic for Vogue called it “funny in places”, which sounds like the kind of stinging putdown you’d expect from the playwright’s own hand.

A century of performances have proved the play’s lasting power, but its comic effect has always lain less in the words as written than their delivery – it is, after all, about a family that is “artificial to the point of lunacy”. At their centre is diva Judith Bliss, who has retired from the stage to take up the role of country hostess. When she, her husband and their self-consciously bohemian children Sorel and Simon all invite surprise guests for the weekend, the unfortunate attendees find themselves embroiled in a self-serving drama of exquisite embarrassment.

Brexit was a disastrous act of national self-harm. Britain needs EU membership to bring growth and security in an increasingly volatile world

Hope again. That was the prime minister’s message to the country this week. A national social care system, greater public control of water and energy, help for first-time buyers and a crackdown on rogue landlords and empty homes. With clarity and conviction, Andy Burnham set out a bold plan to put Britain on a new path, steeped in Labour values.

It felt like a conference speech that would be remembered for years to come, marking a decisive break with a broken political model that has let British people down for decades. And perhaps most encouraging of all was the prime minister’s promise to rethink Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Sadiq Khan is mayor of London

When she got serious, she got very serious. The TV host boosted organ donations, closed down a school for abuse, founded two revolutionary helplines – and put assisted dying on the agenda for years to come

• From Childline to changing TV for ever: Esther Rantzen’s revolutionary life
• Esther Rantzen: from That’s Life! to Childline – in pictures

By no means should That’s Life! have ever worked as a television programme. For more than 20 years it functioned as an absurd grab bag of features that at times seemed specifically designed to induce tonal whiplash in its viewers.

To demonstrate this point, That’s Life! was the show that introduced the nation to Prince, a talking dog who could say the word“sausages”, but it was also the show that put pressure on the government to introduce mandatory seatbelt use for children. This was the show that invented a new animal as an April fool’s joke, only for coachloads of tourists to arrive at London Zoo to try to spot it. It was also the show that embarked on a vigorous three-month investigation into allegations of widespread sexual abuse by teachers at a boys’ boarding school, resulting in the school’s closure less than two weeks after the feature aired.

New York film festival: No spoilers here – TV’s grand illusionist meets his match when he moves in with Theranos founder and her family

For anyone remotely near the worlds of documentary, comedy or medical fraud, there has been one thing on the mind for weeks now: a single-minute clip of Nathan Fielder, the absurdist comedian whose boundary-pushing HBO series The Rehearsal cemented his status as docu-reality’s premier auteur, staring into the deep blue eyes of Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos. Unblinking, faces inches apart, the famously dry purveyor of harebrained business schemes and the convicted fraudster appeared locked in a battle of wills. “Are you being real right now?” Fielder asked her, in a classically meta bit – could Fielder really have spent years filming a secret documentary with one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious pariahs?

The prospect of TV’s grand illusionist versus emblematic girl-boss scammer seemed potentially too good to be true; buzz for You Can See Everything, Fielder’s furtive documentary co-directed with wunderkind du jour Lance Oppenheim (whose narrative feature debut, the Robert Pattinson-starring Primetime, premiered last month) was such that access to the film’s New York film festival premiere on Wednesday became this fall’s hottest ticket.

Exclusive: Plan under discussion involves intensive support to help young people into employment

Ministers are working up sweeping plans for welfare changes including scrapping a key disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work, the Guardian has learned.

Whitehall sources said the package of changes under debate was much bigger than previously thought, as Andy Burnham’s government hopes to persuade more people on benefits back into work.

Counter-terrorism police arrest 25-year-old in Westminster and search two properties in central London

Detectives have arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of an investigation into a suspected plot near RAF Fairford.

Counter-terrorism police said the 25-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in Westminster on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

About 900 demonstrations, blockades and related incidents under way outside high schools around the country

A fast-growing protest by high-school students over long hours, teacher shortages and decaying facilities has escalated into “urban violence”, the French government has warned, as it said many schools would switch to online classes to protect teachers and pupils.

The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, called a crisis cabinet meeting on Thursday and told ministers to cancel travel plans to deal with the demonstrations, which erupted in the Paris region last week but have snowballed across the country.

• Government said to be unhappy at lack of warning

• Treasury committee chair wants HMRC involved in City case

Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister.

Government officials are ­understood to be unhappy they were not given notice that the ­independent commission’s damning judgment of £900m of financial manipulation and “sham contracts” would be published shortly after Burnham’s address at the Labour party ­conference on Tuesday, and his response has not gone down well with several ­Premier League clubs concerned by his ­relationship with City’s owners.