From Pottermania to political punditry, it’s the ascent of Dan: Interview with Daniel Radcliffe

This week we splash with Daniel Radcliffe. It’s a while since he was the most famous child actor in the world, but you can’t escape the incredible shadow of Harry Potter – and as he tells us, that’s not a bad thing. He also talks conspiracy theory around Donald Trump and explains why Corbyn has got him excited. It’s a very good interview.

Our Letter To My Younger Self is with Shaun Ryder – and who doesn’t like Shaun Ryder? Big hearted, funny, he is honest about the illiteracy that dogged him until his mid-20s, about when he knew it was time to kick drugs and about the value of a Catholic education. And, above all, of the importance of good manners.

What have North Korea, Chuck Norris, dubbed Romanian films from the 1980s and the fall of communism got in common? Quite a lot, as it happens. You need to get Monday’s mag to read Steven MacKenzie’s very fine feature.

This week John Bird considers what will happen to the refugees when they arrive in Britain. We need to create social opportunity for them to become full citizens, he says, and not simply allow them to be moved from crisis to stew without any future. Getting people here will be only half the job.

In a related piece, Samira Ahmed asks where are all the women. Over 70% of the refugees are men. Why is this and what can we read into it?

Our featured vendor in My Pitch this week is Graham Farrell, who sells near Fore Street in Taunton. He lost his job selling bathrooms 14 months ago, lost his flat and ended up on the street. Seven months ago he discovered The Big Issue and he’s using it to earn money for a deposit (he’s currently living in a tent) so he can get an address and find a different job.

Adam Forrest looks at the crippling cost of credit for the poorest in Britain. It really is expensive to be poor. He focuses on Rental Exchange, a great project established between Big Issue Invest and Experian that allows good and regular rental payments by people in social housing to be added to their credit score (it previously wasn’t). It means that when they need, for example, to buy white goods the interest rates don’t batter them.

And let me draw your attention to a great piece by Derek Landy, creator of the hugely successful Skulduggery Pleasant series of kids’ books. He talks about overcoming the stutter that has plagued him his entire life.