The London Marathon is run over a mostly flat course that starts in Blackheath and finishes on the Mall. The vast majority of the more than 59,000 participants are raising money for charity or running for personal milestones

Today it is a fundraising juggernaut, but when it was born 40 years ago this month, things were very different. Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis and more explain how they got the gang together for a good cause

A near-the-knuckle Spitting Image skit involving the former prince Andrew. The Young Ones performing their chaotic single Living Doll with Cliff Richard. Kate Bush somehow being coaxed on to a stage to duet with Rowan Atkinson. It was 40 years ago this month that Comic Relief staged its inaugural event at London’s Shaftesbury theatre, and while today it is a fundraising juggernaut (the 2026 event, held last month, raised £30m for charity), its origin story remains delightfully scrappy and exploratory.

In 1984, a year before Live Aid entirely recalibrated what a showbiz charity event could look like, there was a remarkable gathering of what was fast becoming the new British comedy elite at a tiny village in Hampshire. The location, Nether Wallop, was chosen seemingly on the basis of its amusing name, and the intention was to create a comedy alternative to the Edinburgh festival.

I had presumed I would love her instantly – but a traumatic birth led to devastating numbness

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was waiting for an overwhelming rush of love, but when I looked at my newborn baby what I felt was utter despair. No matter how much I smiled at her, crooned at her, fed, patted, caressed and changed her, I was absolutely numb.

I had yearned for her. Growing up in Italy, I was surrounded by images of perfect motherhood. Every rural crossroad has its tiny shrine to the Madonna and Child. I was certain by the end of my teens that I wanted to have at least one baby.

With his stand against Trump, the pope has shown the far right doesn’t have a monopoly on Christianity. If people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined

In the same way that America’s shambolic war on Iran has turned Donald Trump into the most effective EV salesman the world has ever seen, so his attempts to defend said war have produced another unlikely outcome: the rise of a genuine and global theological debate. Led by Pope Leo but extending across Christian denominations, it’s producing the sudden recognition that a kind of progressive Christianity long given over for dead seems to be stirring. Christ is risen, as it were – and if people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined in powerful ways.

This story has developed so rapidly, with so many steps, that it’s hard to remember them all. When America launched its cruel attack, there was widespread reporting that some officers were exhorting to treat it as a prelude to the second coming. That provoked no pushback from the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, a representative of a tattooed Christianity (not that it matters, but have these people not read Leviticus?); indeed, with each press conference Hegseth edged closer to a revival meeting, invoking God’s blessing on his bombing and pillaging. “We are hitting them while they’re down, which is the way it should be,” he said.

Literally a mix of white (blanc) and red (rouge) grapes, the light, fresh tipple is popping up in bars around the world. Move over rosé and orange wine ...

Twenty years ago, a winery could do well selling one white and two reds, says Konrad Pixner, a northern Italian winemaker who set up his vineyard, Domaine de L’Accent, in Languedoc, France, in 2019. But today, importers and bars always ask: “Do you have something new?” So up in the hills, surrounded by deep gorges and limestone plateaus, Pixner is constantly experimenting.

After a good harvest in 2023, Pixner walked into the shed he shares with other winemakers at 4am to find that his biggest vat of white wine, pressed from carignan blanc grapes, had overflowed during fermentation. He had run out of space, so he quickly “pumped the white juice into the tank where whole bunches of carignan noir were,” he says, and left them to ferment for 10 days together. In contrast to rosé, made from red grapes left for a short time with their skins on before being pressed, he created “blouge” – a light, fresh wine blended from white and red grapes that’s best served chilled. It has now caught on among creative vintners around the world.

One moved to the UK 20 years ago. The other is considering a vote for Restore Britain. Could they agree on national symbols and Brexit?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

Caroline, 57, Plymouth

Occupation Professor of developmental psychology

Todd Blanche says 31-year-old suspect will be charged with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer

• Suspected gunman at White House press dinner named

Donald Trump took to Trump Social on Sunday to repeat his statement from the night before in which he said the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner was why a White House ballroom was necessary.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote.

It does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration … We don’t have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target.

Men in tuxedos and women in dresses dove under tables, like a scene from a dozen Hollywood movies, but now it was happening to me

• White House correspondents’ dinner shooting – latest updates

Shocking. Unnerving. Unpredictable. Violent. For a decade I have been following the twists and turns of Donald Trump’s America with the privilege of journalistic distance. On Saturday night I felt the darkness come viscerally close.

Bang! Bang! What was that? Where was it? At 8.36pm panic and pandemonium reigned in the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton hotel. There were men running and cries of “Get down!” and “Stay down!”

Message on private Facebook group for staff said: ‘I dumped them all in a bin. They can sack me!’

Royal Mail is investigating allegations that a postal worker claimed to have “dumped” Reform UK campaign leaflets in a bin ahead of Thursday’s local elections.

A post on a Facebook group for Royal Mail staff said: “My DO had reform party’s D2D today. I dumped them all in a bin. They can sack me! Idgaf!”

Prime minister says his job is not at risk over Mandelson vetting as allies back him against claims of wrongdoing

Keir Starmer has said he will lead Labour into the next general election, as his Downing Street allies denied claims of any wrongdoing over the appointment and vetting of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

It has been a bruising week for the prime minister after the Guardian revealed that he appointed the former Labour grandee despite vetting officials recommending that he be denied security clearance. His handling of the row was called into question, including his swift decision to sack the Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins.