Partridge Reborn: A Nation Rejoices

Sam Delaney has been on a Partridge Odyssey – a Part-yssey, if you will. He has interviewed Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, new Partridge writers the Gibbons brothers and got some things from Alan himself. You may have read other bits and pieces about the new Partridge movie this week, but none quite like this. The Coogan quotes especially bear repeating.

The Homeless World Cup is kicking off on August 11 in Poland. A fantastic event – won twice in the past by Scotland – it sees the four home nations represented for the first time, most of them by both male and female teams. Andrew Burns looks at the development of the competition and highlights the stories of hope that football can bring.

And there’s more…

The Letter To My Younger Self this week is another cracker. Stephen Graham, one of the key actors of this generation through his work in things like This Is England and Boardwalk Empire, looks back to glory days in Liverpool, celebrates Shane Meadows and opens both barrels on the state of contemporary TV…

John Bird returns. He looks further at Justin Welby’s comments and insists the power to change – and make the financial institutions change – lies with us

Speaking of which, our deputy editor Vicky Carroll was so buoyed by Welby’s credit union clarion call (and frustrated by her own bank’s failures) that she set about leaving and joining a credit union. Read what happened when one woman decided to make a change. After ringing money expert Martin Lewis for help. As you do…

Brendan O’Neill, meanwhile, challenges the BBC to stop saying sorry for every minor mis-step and stand up to be the BBC we all need and remember

Our featured vendor is Andy Withnall in Leicester. He is a trumpeter who almost got through auditions for Big Brother – when people still watched it

There is much much else, amongst it MacKenzie talks lace fetishes with Harry Treadaway, one of the stars of The Lone Ranger, while in the Scottish edition there is a terrific preview of the Edinburgh festivals just kicking off. I also encourage you to read our film critic Ed Lawrenson this week. As the big summer releases bring noise and confusion, Ed focuses on Silence, a curious, slow, ruminative film about a man attempting to record sound in the wonderful, haunting emptiness of Donegal. Slightly melancholic, internalising Irishman searching for identity through psycho-geography – now THAT is a night out!