they never get a job on their own! i lend them my name, my reputation, i take all the risk and there's still no money! we need more output! you could get another writer. and to pay them with what? i'm not even making 1,000 this month, i've got 300 from the echo, 425 from the ladies' vamp novel, and just 250 from the music reviews, it doesn't even cover the outgoings. how can we spend much money? mortgage, matilde, restaurants! you always pick up the bill, willy, no matter how many people join us. it is expected of me. and the races? the casino? what do you want me to do? live like a monk or a peasant? no, i'm just saying we could economise. you! you could write! what? those stories you told me, last year. my school stories? yes, that could be willy's next novel. try it, anyway, try now, start immediately, aim for four hours at a time. the wolves are at the door! he howls. so, she starts to write under instruction from her husband to do so and the next thing is, she's written this claudene at school novel and it becomes a huge hit and the publishers are thrilled and it turns out it's a huge hit with young women readers. so she's told to write another one.

but the thing is, nobody knows she's writing them and everyone thinks her husband is writing it. so it then becomes a story of somebody attempting to find their own voice, attempting to find their own place in the world. i really like this. it's directed by wash westmoreland, who was the co—director of still alice, which was a film that starred julianne moore about a woman effected by early—onset alzheimer's, which was very much about somebody finding their own identity and then losing it. this is about somebody having their identity taken away from them and trying to reclaim it. what i liked about it, it's playful, it has a certain amount of grit but it's also glamorously told. it's very, very handsomely filmed. and a raft of really good performances. at the centre of it, keira knightley and dominic west as this couple, one of whom has the real talent and the other of whom is vein and full of himself and absolutely certain he understands how the world works. do you know what it reminds me of? the wife.

with glenn close. it's the same story. it's very, very similar. and there's another film which came out not so long ago about mary shelley as well which had a similar theme. but the wife is a particularly interesting comparison because glenn close is so good in that. that is the story of a relationship in which there is the talent and the public face. this is about how much somebody can grasp their own future and it's also about all those things that are important nowadays about celebrity, the idea of celebrity culture creating this kind of claudine mystique in which suddenly everyone is wearing these clothes and they have these accoutrements that are branded and about how much you can own your public image. i thought it was a really good and not least because of the performances. all right, stan and ollie, laurel and hardy embarking on a tour of britain trying to reignite their careers. so, are you a laureland hardy fan? not 100%. 0k. well, i think you can be a fan of stan and ollie without being a laurel and hardy fan. steve coogan and john c reilly. at the very beginning, we meet them originally at the height of their hollywood powers, when they are just making way out west.

and they want more money from hal roach. cut to 16 years later, they are financially strapped, they end up in the uk doing a tour which is nominally to launch a projected movie of a robin hood spoof. but, actually, the tour is really about them trying to find audiences who are still interested. and it's also about them trying to re—find each other because there's been a betrayal. one of them has made a film without the other one and this is still digging away. there a moment in the film in which it's described as two double acts for the price of one, because when they get to london, they are joined by their wives, played by nina arianda and shirley henderson as ida and lucille, who are every bit as chalk and cheese as stan and ollie. and between them they form this kind of love triangle. it's more like a square. and it works really well, the performances are terrific. i mean, really great, they get the physicalityjust right, the voices are absolutely perfect. but what i really like about this is it's tender and melancholy. and it has a sort of bittersweet heart.

so there are lots of laughs and lots of moments in which things you recognise from the movies bleed into real—life. there's a scene in which they are pulling a trunk up a set of stairs at a railway station and they drop the trunk, which obviously is a call—back to music box. and they check into a hotel and stan starts falling over the suitcases. so, the intertwining of real life and fiction works really well. but the performances are just great. you really do believe that you are watching stan and ollie. 0k. and even if you don't like laurel and hardy... sounds good. i like steve coogan, so that's enough. the front runner, the scandal of gary hart. do you remember this? i do, i am old enough to remember. i'm old enough, but it didn't seem to me to make such a big impact. it's set at the end of the ‘80s. gary hart looked, at one point, like he was going to be the next president. a very strong candidate. and he's played here by huthackman and we meet him, he is charismatic, on the way up and then a scandal starts to break. somebody rings a newspaper, the miami herald and says he's having an affair. the miami herald aren't entirely sure whether they should follow this up but then he makes a casual

comment to a journalist, who asks about his private life and he said something along the lines of, "well, if you followed me around, you would find it was very boring". so, they do. and the next thing is, they discover that actually, maybe there is something going on and they confront him about it. here's a clip. i can assure you senator, this is relevant. yeah, it's just that we saw you leave and come back with this woman and we didn't see her. tom, you can't be serious, no—one is staying in my home, there's no need for that, all right? i am serious, sir. how long have you known this woman? what kind of question... what kind of question are these? is she a friend? i don't know why i would tell you that, tom. can you produce her to corroborate what you're saying? i don't have to produce anything, this has gone on long enough. senator, we know you've made calls to this woman from kansas and new hampshire. i make calls every day, i don't see how i would remember. senator, i was at your announcement speech, you said... you said we must hold ourselves accountable... i know what i said. ..to the highest possible standards of integrity and ethics. then why are we standing here?

why are we standing in an alley on a saturday night? i mean, don't you think you owe it to us to be forthcoming? owe you?! you're denying what we've seen with our own eyes?! the only thing i deny is that somehow you have the right to ask me these things... so, it's basically it's about that tipping point, at least the film posits this as a tipping point when the press suddenly becomes more interested in private lives instead of policies. and the film seems to suggest that actually this is the moment in which the intrusion of privacy really starts and from then on there are moments in which he says, "we are going to be followed around everywhere and everything is going to be investigated", unlike in the case of previous presidents who, you know, had known indiscretions but nobody seems to care. likejfk. absolutely, who is very specifically invoked in the film. it is an interesting idea. and i am interested in the idea of private and public life. two problems. firstly, the story itself doesn't ever land a sucker punch. it sort of meanders from one sort of fairly low—key confrontation to another.

the other thing is, we live in a world now in which, apparently, the pendulum has swung back the other way, in which it is possible to attain very high office, despite scandal swirling all over the place and peoplejust going, "oh, we actually don't care anymore". it's an odd time for this story to come out. i can't think who you're talking about. obviously, discretion is the better part... the fact of the matter is, it's almost as if the movie is saying this is the point where everything changed and i'm not entirely sure that that's true. interesting, we've got vice coming up as well. yes! another american... and it's a good film. absolutely. a betterfilm, i think. best out? the favourite. have you seen it yet? i have, i loved it. i think that's really surprised me, i loved the favourite the performances are really great, i am really surprised by how well it's done. because i remember when i first saw it, i've seen it a couple of times, now, i thought it's great, but it is edgy! i mean, you know, it's very in your face, there's an awful... but i think it works really well. it's set in the court of queen anne and it's about a rivalry for her affections. it's really funny,

but it's very assertive. i wondered what it was kind of about in the end? i mean, i enjoyed it a lot, i loved it, but i kind of wondered what was the point of it? it's an interpersonal... it's a story about international politics being defined by stuff that happens as bedroom farce. 0k. and it's great. and the performances are really, really good... they are, they are. it's very, very watchable indeed. best dvd? cold war, the pawel pawlikowski film. i reviewed this when it came out in cinemas and i absolutely loved it. it is in many critic's best of the year list. it's a story about a love affair that sort of sweeps across i think 15, 17 years. goes across political and personal boundaries and it's inspired by the director's parents, although not based on their lives, it has to be said. but it reminded me, and i say this with... i know how significant this is. it reminded me of things like casablanca. it's got that really sweeping, epic quality to it, despite the fact it's actually a fairly short film, 90—something minutes long. and it's really powerful,

fabulous performances, looks absolutely beautiful, and again, a story that manages to intertwine the personal and political. because, obviously, it's all about the iron curtain and separation of state and separation of people across geographical and political boundaries. i loved it, ijust loved it, i thought it was terrific. have you seen it? i haven't. you must, you will absolutely love it. send me the dvd. i will. that's it for now, goodbye. friday has been a largely dry day with lots of light rain around and the cloud did break up through the day to allow some sunny spells, some blue skies, as you can see from this picture taken by one of our weather watchers in basingstoke in hampshire earlier on. now, through the weekend, a bit of a change in weather type. things are going to be turning milder, windier as well, particularly by sunday, with a mix of sunshine and scattered, blustery

showers around, too. now, here's the high pressure that's been in charge, really, since the start of 2019. it starts to squeeze its way towards the south—west as whether fronts topple in from the north—west. we are already seeing that rain arriving across parts of northern and western scotland, this patchy band of rain associated with that cold front moves further southward and eastward tonight. they'll be some light patchy rain through central england and wales first thing tomorrow morning. it is looking frost free. around 3—8 degrees, but you'll notice the strength of the winds tomorrow, that north—westerly wind packing in further showers, particularly across parts of scotland, northern ireland and north—west england. the further south and east you are, you're more likely to stay dry for much of the day, after the morning rain clears from the south—east. there'll be some sunny spells around, milder than it has been, with temperatures around 9—11 degrees. fairly frequent showers across northern and western scotland into the north—west of england and north wales, too. moving through saturday night, then, into sunday, we've got the next cold front that moves its way in again from the north—west. quite a lot of isobars on the map,

showing a windier spell of weather, a blustery—feeling day certainly on sunday with a mix of sunshine and showers. most of the showers across the north west and third of the uk and again further south and east, you're more likely to stay dry with some sunshine. but these are the wind gusts and some of those could reach a5, 50 mph, particularly across exposed coasts and hills in northern and western scotland. but a windy day wherever you are. in the sunny spells it will be mild with temperatures between around 8—11 degrees on sunday afternoon. but, as we head through next week, that mild air gets pushed away towards the south—west, the winds start to come in from more of a northerly direction, so some colder conditions on the cards. so, here's the outlook for our capital cities from monday to friday and you can see everywhere there is going to be a significant dip in those temperatures as we head through the week. a colder spell of weather on the way, particularly from mid week onwards and a return to overnight frosts and a chance of wintry showers, especially over the hills and in the north. bye— bye. this is bbc world news today.

i'm kasia madera. our top stories... hundreds of thousands of federal employees have mist their first pay cheque of the year. the president has just said that he won't delcare a national emergency. it's the easy way out, but congress should do this. this is too simple. it's too basic. and, congress should do this. heavy snow continues to cause widespread disruption in many parts of central europe with many mountain villages evacuated. when the united nations made a request to us and that we grant ms alqunun asylum, we accept. the prime minister of canada confirms his country has offered asylum to the saudi woman who'd fled to thailand in fear for her life. an emotional andy murray says his last tournament could be