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He is a creature every bit as rare as those he stalks in the undergrowth to observe. He may, in fact, be the last living example of a breed facing extinction. And so, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, his continued existence is one that must be celebrated.

Sir David Attenborough bestrides our culture like a colossus, possibly the only person who we all agree on. He is a titan of the ages.

Barack Obama once said that he is “a great educator as well as a great naturalist”, while Keir Starmer asserted that he has “done more than anyone to teach us about the wonders of our planet”. Today, as Attenborough passes his centenary, there will be many similar encomia from cultural and political figures, and it is truly remarkable that this polarised, quarrelsome world can still find someone to unite us. He is the last person on Earth that anyone has a bad word to say about.

Well, almost. The environmentalist journalist George Monbiot has been critical of Attenborough’s opinion that, in a broadcasting sense at least, were he to concentrate on the human destruction of the natural world, it would be a “turn off” on the grounds this would be “proselytising” and “alarmist”. Monbiot, however, posted in 2018 his controversial view that “for decades, Attenborough has created a false impression of the health of the living world”.

But maybe it’s because of, rather than despite, his unwillingness to be overtly political that makes Attenborough such a venerated figure. He brings joy and enlightenment, rather than politics and polemic. We may be tired of being told what to think.

But of all of Attenborough’s qualities, it is possibly his voice – as distinctive as the call of the red-legged seriema or the vocal range of the lyrebird – which distinguishes him. Unhurried, composed, classless, neither posh nor accented, precise but not self-aware, capable of conveying the life and death struggle of a lemur in calming, comfortable, respectful, sensitive tones, for seven decades it has been the soundtrack to several generations’ discovery of our planet. Our parents, our children, and us – we could all recognise that voice and immediately recognise what it signifies.

What he is conveying, above all, is wonder. At the natural world, at its kindnesses and cruelties, at its range and complexity, at its simple beauties. He is estimated to have travelled almost two million miles in his career, and has visited 90 countries and all seven continents in his quest to enhance our understanding of nature.

And yet he still finds himself in awe. Through a slight lift in his voice, a controlled change in cadence, Attenborough lets us know that what we are seeing is extraordinary. His is the wonder of a scientist who has retained an almost child-like capacity for astonishment, eschewing the performative “oh my gods” and “amazings” of others who have trodden a similar path.

That Attenborough has maintained his pre-eminent place in our broadcasting pantheon for so long is because he gives us a perspective that is not bound by political allegiance, cultural mores or indeed fashion, but by time and by geology. Set against the majesty of nature, our lives seem somehow trivial and ordinary. And that’s not a bad perspective to have these days, if you ask me.

Nature is a constant, imperilled though it may be by our destructive actions. And Attenborough is, at 100 years old, the very embodiment of that constancy and longevity. It may not be the moment to consider this, but who will be the secular saint (as Stephen Fry called him) of the next generation?

It is hard to think of someone. Attenborough is a specimen of a dying breed: a human who has dedicated himself to something bigger than himself, and, in so doing, helped make sense of the mysteries and marvels of the world. Let’s just hope he keeps going. Many happy returns, Sir David Attenborough.

In our weekly series, readers can email any questions about their finances to be answered by our expert, Rosie Hooper. Rosie is a chartered financial planner at Quilter Cheviot and has worked in financial services for 25 years. If you have a question for her, email us at money@inews.co.uk.

Question: I retired but have since started a part-time job – I’m drawing a small defined benefit (DB) pension that takes up my personal allowance. What happens now regarding tax – what will I have to pay?

Answer: For many people, going back to work after retirement can be a very positive step. A part-time role can provide structure, social contact and a renewed sense of purpose at a stage of life when those things can fall away. For some, the motivation is financial and the extra income is genuinely needed to make ends meet. For others, money is not the driver at all; the work helps them stay active, connected, and mentally engaged.

Ironically, it is often the second group, those who already have complex retirement incomes, where the financial planning becomes more involved rather than less. Once earnings are added on top of pensions, the tax system can behave in ways that are not always intuitive.

In the 2026-27 tax year, the standard personal allowance remains £12,570. If a defined benefit pension already uses up that allowance, any additional income is taxable from the first pound. That includes income from a part-time job.

Where the job is paid through Pay as You Earn (PAYE), HMRC will normally issue the employer with a tax code reflecting the fact that the allowance is already used elsewhere. In practice, that often means all of the part-time earnings are taxed at the basic rate of 20 per cent, with tax deducted automatically through the payroll. As long as the tax code is correct, there is usually nothing further to do.

This is where the state pension often complicates matters. Although it is taxable, it is paid without tax being deducted. HMRC instead collects any tax due on it by adjusting the tax code on another income source, such as a pension or employment. For many retirees, particularly where the state pension sits close to the personal allowance, this can come as a surprise.

Taking on even a modest salary can result in more tax being deducted through PAYE than expected, simply because HMRC is using that income stream to mop up tax due elsewhere.

State pension deferral is another area where people need to tread carefully. Once someone has started taking their state pension, they can choose to defer it in order to manage their income. However, this option can only be used once.

If the pension is restarted at a later date, it cannot be deferred again. For those temporarily unretiring or trying to manage income around tax thresholds, that lack of flexibility can catch people out if the decision is not timed carefully.

Pensions themselves are another common pitfall. Anyone who has accessed a pension flexibly will usually have triggered the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA), which significantly restricts how much can be paid into pensions tax-efficiently each year. Returning to work can also mean being automatically re-enrolled into a workplace pension.

While auto-enrolment generally applies only up to state pension age, joining or rejoining a scheme can still have unintended consequences for those who have triggered the MPAA or who hold certain forms of pension protection.

There is a wealth of guidance, modelling tools and support focused on helping people stop work, but far less aimed at those who later decide to step back in. A short period of work can be hugely rewarding, but making sure it fits cleanly with the rest of someone’s financial life can make all the difference between it being a help or a headache.

“My wife always asks: ‘When are you ever going to just stop, or think that you’ve made it?’” says The Apprentice aide and businessman Tim Campbell. “I don’t think I ever will. I think I’m always going to be the boy from east London who is waiting for someone to pull the mask away.”

Yet, he muses, perhaps that very feeling is precisely why he has achieved so much: because it has pushed him to keep striving. It is thanks to this, he believes, that the self-described “working-class lad done good” became the first in his family to go to university, then the first ever winner of The Apprentice, in 2005, before going on to launch and run multiple businesses, as well as his social enterprise, Bright Ideas Trust.

Campbell is about to release his first podcast, re:Working, which delves into what it takes to navigate the world of work today. Covering everything from job insecurity to negotiating for yourself and knowing when to quit, it is very much inspired by his own years in the workforce.

“Because I’m never quite sure why I’m in certain rooms, I’ve spent my life observing how power is utilised, how education is leveraged, how social mobility can be manipulated,” he says. “So I’ve always learned from people who know a bit more than me, or are in the places I want to get to, by politely stealing their information. And the podcast is essentially doing more of that, with the guests we have on.”

With the working world changing at breakneck speed, it feels like an apt time to launch the show. “For the first time, we have five generations in the workforce,” he says. “You’ve got very young people fresh out of university, having a big conversation about whether that education cost and time was worth it.And you’ve got older individuals who, because of the political scenarios we’re in, are having to work longer, get used to the rise in portfolio careers, and accept that there is no job for life any more.”

As a parent, he worries about it. “I’ve got a younger generation in my own house trying to make it in a world that is rapidly changing,” he says. “I definitely think they have bigger challenges than I ever had. The economic climate is rough; the cost of living is no joke; house prices are nearly 10 times salaries. It’s very, very hard for young people now.”

He dismisses the idea that this generation is lazy or entitled. “Do I think young people are work-shy? Not at all. I’ve never met such great people as some of the young people I’ve worked with. They are having to be smart and adaptable and use technology in all these different ways. So this fallacy that young people don’t want to work hard is usually coming from those who don’t understand that.”

When he looks back at his own early career, he is not sure where his path would have taken him if he hadn’t applied for a new show called The Apprentice. At the time, he was working as a senior planner for London Underground; taking part in the series meant walking into the unknown. “I had to give up my job, leave my two-year-old child and my then-girlfriend, to go into something I had no clue about what the outcome would be,” he says. “If I’m honest, it wasn’t a very calculated risk.”

But it was one that paid off. After he won, Campbell worked with Lord Sugar at his company Amstrad, as a project director in the health and beauty division of the electronics company, before eventually returning to the show in 2022 to replace Claude Littner as an aide, alongside Karren Brady.

Being on the other side of the boardroom table is, he admits, surreal. “I can definitely empathise with the candidates more, because I have been there,” he says. “But it also means I’m never going to take any nonsense.”

And plenty of that there is: big personalities, overconfidence and the more-than-occasional glaring misstep. Aside from general competence, what does he think is the secret to getting ahead on the show? “Kindness,” he says. “We talk about ‘kill or be killed’, but in the time that I have been on the show, the successful candidates have all had the unifying trait of emotional intelligence.

“They understand that if you take people with you, you’ll go further. It’s about knowing that if the team wins, they win, rather than looking at everything selfishly or individualistically. They are also very true to themselves, as opposed to being a caricature. Those are the ones who do well, and I think that’s good advice for people in the real world too.”

I wonder what he thinks makes The Apprentice – now 20 series in – endure. “It’s Lord Sugar,” he says simply. “And this isn’t me being sycophantic or saying it because I have to say it. I think people like people who are unambiguous and direct. You might not like his management style, but at least you know where you stand with him. In a world of geopolitically interesting figures, it’s very refreshing to get somebody who is honest and tells it how it is.”

There is also, he says, a side of Lord Sugar that viewers do not see. “He has been one of the best mentors I’ve ever had,” Campbell says. “You don’t see that on television, right? You see the pointing finger and the big Rolls-Royce, but this is a man who is very generous, incredibly bright and very, very giving with regard to what he has taught me.”

There are other ingredients to the show’s success, too. Part of it, he suggests, is how recognisable it feels – “We’ve all worked with people who can’t back up their chat” – but also because it remains aspirational. “It encapsulates the British dream,” he says. “We often talk about an American dream, but the UK has a very fertile environment for people who can start in one place and get to another.”

Campbell is proof of that – not that his path has been smooth. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes over my career,” he says. “There are also plenty of things I’ve had to overcome: losing money, losing businesses, losing friends.”

But all of it has shaped his view of success. “I’m much closer to success now than I ever was, because my definition of it has changed. What I see success as now is not about money, because I’ve had that. I’ve got lots of people in my life who have that. It’s not even just about family, because I know lots of people who have family, but behind closed doors, they don’t speak, they don’t get on, they sit at either end of the sofa.

“For me, happiness is the definition of success. Because whatever that means for you, that is the thing you should chase after.”

‘re:Working with Tim Campbell MBE’ launches on Monday, with a new episode every week. The podcast is available on the Rayo app or wherever you get your podcasts

The fact that Australia – a nation 10,000 miles away from its European not-so neighbours – is an honorary entrant into the Eurovision Song Contest is one of many bizarre, brilliant and frankly bonkers things about the whole extravaganza.

The Aussie audience were rewarded for their collective enthusiasm and time zone-restricted viewing dedication when, in 2015, their country was invited to take part in the annual theatrics – and, this year, they have persuaded a national treasure to represent them. So long as she makes it through the semi-final, Delta Goodrem will be taking to the stage in Vienna to perform her suitably Eurovision-esque power ballad “Eclipse” in the grand final next weekend.

As fun and OTT an experience as it all is, the possibility of nul (or few) points is mortifying for any act, let alone an established performer (just ask Olly Alexander or Bonnie Tyler). But, for Goodrem, it was a pretty easy “yes” when the Eurovision universe came calling.

“I’m a measured person – I take everything in and allow it to simmer,” she says. “In the past couple of years, Eurovision has been more and more around me. I was always on a project or a tour or something but, last year, I was here doing shows when Eurovision was on, so I got to feel the energy in the air. It’s early in the morning when it’s on in Australia, so to be here experiencing it, I thought it was so incredible.

“I’m always open-hearted and I know to do something when I’m excited by it. This is a celebration. I’m bringing Australia with me in my heart, and I love seeing everyone there excited to get even more involved this year.”

But the fear of nul points? “I can’t control what happens. What I can control is my mindset and making sure that it’s the best it can be. That’s my job, and the rest of it… I feel grateful to be a part of this Eurovision community so whatever is meant to be. But I will give it everything I’ve got.”

Should she pull it off and win, there would be the considerable logistical issue of what Australia hosting the show would look like. “It’d be so fun. I mean, I think we’d be a great host, we’d definitely want to look after everyone. Whether that’s possible or not, I have no idea – but imagine the pre-party barbecues.”

Now 41, Goodrem has had a long and fruitful career, starting out as a child star at the age of 15 with a recording deal from Sony. At 16, she landed a part in Neighbours as aspiring singer Nina Tucker, a role that went nicely in tandem with her music career.

She has since sold more than eight million albums globally, and one in four Australian homes has a Delta Goodrem album on its shelves. For eight years, she was also a judge/coach on The Voice Australia, where she sat on a revolving chair next to artists including Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden, Seal, Keith Urban and Ricky Martin.

She also formed a close friendship on the show with Boy George – who just happens to be her “healthy competition” on Eurovision this year. “I was like, ‘What do you mean George is going?’ Oh, he just can’t stay away!”

Indeed, another fabulously random Eurovision moment this year comes from Boy George accompanying the singer Senhit in representing San Marino, the tiny independent republic encased by Italy (which, unless we’re very much mistaken, isn’t where he was born and bred – but who cares, this is Eurovision after all).

“I feel like it’s extremely George. When you think about Eurovision, you think about individuality, creativity, joy, the theatrics, the trailblazers. It makes a lot of sense for George, who’s a trailblazer himself and has been a cultural phenomenon throughout his career,” says Goodrem. “I love that George and I are doing the same year. We’ve always had a playful dynamic. We’ve been really supportive of each other from day one.”

Goodrem has had a lot to be supported through in life, much of it health-related. At 18 and at the peak of her early fame in 2003, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. At the same time, her debut album Innocent Eyes was at number one in the charts in Australia, where it stayed for a record-breaking 29 weeks.

“The challenge of going through cancer at the same time as having a number-one album, the intensity and extreme nature of that was very unique and very tough. But it did set me up so that, as a survivor, I’m able to be a pillar of hope,” she says.

She says she blocked out the trauma of it all for a time. “I still can’t believe I was that young. I think that everyone thought I was a lot older. I do think there was a chapter just after it when I hit delete, I found it hard when I came out of it and the world felt so different,” she says. “But I have memories of going through it all. I feel like I’ve had to, so I can speak to people still in the fight.”

As a young star, she dealt with intense public interest in her very private battle. “People were trying to get into the hospital to take photos,” she recalls.

“But I understood that. As an artist, if your album is number one, you can feel it in the air, and you can go out and enjoy it, and I did not experience that for a long time. I always try to think: ‘What’s the reason for this, and what perspective am I meant to find now?’ It doesn’t mean I don’t go through a range of emotions, but I do try to move on from things as well.”

In a further blow to her health, in 2018, a procedure to remove a salivary gland left Goodrem with paralysis to one of the nerves in her tongue.

Devastatingly, she had to learn to speak – and sing – again. “There was a lot of surrender because, if you can’t talk, you can’t express yourself. You have to just take the temperature down because the second you start panicking, it’s so much worse. I had to just find my centre. I dove deep on writing my album, to keep moving forward.”

It would be a dreadful experience for anyone, never mind a singer. Did she worry she would never get her voice back – and, if she did, it would be changed? And what if she never sang again?

“I mean, yes, all of the above. But everything happens for a reason, and people go through a lot worse,” she says. “I couldn’t have had that journey outside of my own house, that would have been too much. It was a private reset, a time to strip it all back.”

She says it was six months before her voice returned and it took a year to get fully back to normal, with the help of her “beautiful” speech therapist.

In a Hollywood ending, she finally got those powerhouse vocals back on point – though, in not-so-movie fashion, she didn’t have a particularly emotional moment when she sang again for the first time. “It was such a gradual process, you know, sort of slowly getting that articulation.”

She tried to write so many songs about her experience, until eventually she came out with “Paralysed”, her 2020 single which led her to open up about what she’d been going through.

“I couldn’t have predicted anything in my life. Life is full of surprises, but I know that I’ve got love and wonderful people and health and happiness. You’ve gotta be grateful,” she considers.
Last summer, Goodrem married Matthew Copley, a guitarist who plays in her band and with whom she runs her independent record label, Atled.

“It’s amazing, it’s incredible. I love being married to my husband,” she smiles. “He runs everything with me, we developed it all together.” He has also been instrumental in realising the vision for Eurovision. “We’ve been working hard bringing it to life because there’s a lot of logistics, a lot of planning.”

Goodrem is approaching Eurovision much as a 100m sprinter might take on the Olympics. She adds: “You have to. You are the same as an athlete who is about to compete in a ski race or whatever.”

She is giving nothing away about her costume in Vienna. “We had a lot of fittings and the problem with that is that I’m over in Europe and the dress is in Australia, so I’ve been getting videos. There’s some big staging going on. You’re going to be surprised,” she smiles.

Having been in the public eye for 25 years, she is used to being scrutinised. “I appreciate having started young. For me, it was a positive thing. Fame was just a part of something I loved and I guess I’ve become accustomed to the different phases of the media landscape, from when there was a lot more paparazzi to now with everybody’s phones,” she says.

“I’m at that point now where I’m in my gym gear with no make-up and someone wants a photo and I’ve surrendered to all that. Whereas 10 years ago, I might have been a bit more shy. You can’t fight against a cultural shift. I accept that and think how wonderful that we can capture a moment together. When somebody comes up and starts a conversation or shares a story, when they walk away, I think ‘I hope they knew how much that meant to me too’.”

Delta Goodrem’s Eurovision single, ‘Eclipse’, is out now. She will be competing in the second semi-final of Eurovision on 14 May, live on BBC One. The Eurovision Song Contest final airs on BBC One on Saturday 16 May.

Give any happy couple enough time together and issues will arise. No-one understands this
better than Karen Doherty, a couples’ counsellor of 23 years and star of Netflix’s Blue Therapy, a reality series in which six couples take their problems to her sofa.

“Relationships deteriorate slowly,” she says. “Most couples find themselves repeating the same unresolved patterns and gradually losing connection without fully understanding how or why.

“In a world shaped by shifting social norms, evolving roles and increasing individualism, sustaining a partnership requires more awareness than ever before.”

That awareness is what can turn a stagnating relationship into one that goes the distance. Here, Doherty shares her 10 golden rules for divorce-proofing a marriage.

Treat the relationship like a project

“Couples rarely separate because of a single issue – it is the slow creep of misunderstood differences, repeated negative patterns left unexamined and the breakdown of communication that slows and painfully leaves space between the partners. This is the danger zone, as space creates opportunity for something else to infiltrate the dynamic and sadly, occasionally, destroy the relations. As such, couples need to revisit, renegotiate and update how they relate to each other regularly. What worked at
the start will not sustain you through the decades – so think of the relationship like an ever-developing project.”

Recognise the patterns

“Don’t fixate on the ‘what’ you are arguing about. Look at the ‘how’ you are arguing. Reoccurring patterns of escalation, defence, blame and withdrawal will repeat regardless of the topics. It is important to identify that pattern. Next time you can feel an argument starting, try and step back from it. Can you see, for example, that there is a trigger, then a defence, then an explanation, then a blame… this could be a series that you and your partner keep repeating. The more a couple thinks about this, the less fighting – and hopefully better communication – there will be.”

Stop assuming your partner thinks like you

“When couples first meet, part of the attraction is often a sense of finding your ‘twin flame’ or soulmate. This creates the spark, interest and curiosity that the relationship needs to gather momentum. But the belief that you are the same is incorrect, and differences in emotional processing and communication style fundamentally shape how each partner experiences the relationship. Stop with the assuming and start checking in.”

Be more explicit

“Likewise, remember that your partner is not psychic. Unspoken expectations are one of the biggest causes of resentment, so clear communication is imperative. You must make what you think is implicit explicit. One of the biggest issues that comes into my office is disappointment in many forms –
the kind that wears away at the fabric of the relationship – and it happens because the couple have not been clear with each other around their needs.”

Create a shared ‘couple deal’

“Strong relationships are built on not feeling alone. They thrive on a shared understanding of how you are going to organise your joint lives. I have been working couples through what I call my ‘Couple Deal’ for years. It is a document containing the needs of each individual, the needs of the couple and the needs of extended family if appropriate. After they have individually thought about them, the couple set aside several sessions together in which they discuss those three aspects. This forms the basis of their couple deal, which is signed by both of them. Crucially, it is something that they review regularly – such as every three months – to check progress, encouraging both transparency and accountability to each other.”

Invest in daily connection

“All couples are busy. Careers, children, school runs, school holidays, ailing parents, dog walking, cat care… the list goes on, and it rarely ever includes couple time. This is a pattern that most couples who end up in my therapy room follow, and you have to ask, is it any surprise that distance grows between each other? It isn’t enough just to have occasional intensity – a date night once in a blue moon. Instead, you need to make a conscious effort for small connections every single day. From a meme sent over text, to a lingering hug in the morning, or a cup of tea together at the end of the garden, these micro moments keep the connection flowing rather than letting it stagnate.”

Stop living parallel lives

“As life becomes more demanding and autonomy increasingly valued, couples are left without clear models for how to build a shared life. In the past, roles were more defined, offering structure, even if it was imperfect. Today, we expect more, emotionally, practically and personally, from both ourselves and each other. A strong couple is one who can support personal growth and autonomy, but who balances that with the sense of a shared life too. Even something as simple as having a podcast you always listen to together, or a joke that only you share, will remind you that you are in a relationship, not just living alongside each other with parallel lives.”

Learn how you both respond to stress

“Under pressure, partners can move in different directions. It might be that one seeks closeness, for instance, while the other needs space. Without the understanding of this, both can feel misunderstood and or rejected. Getting to know how each other processes stress physically, emotionally and psychologically needs a level of openness between the partners. It exposes vulnerabilities that neither may feel completely comfortable with, but a relationship is only meaningful if both can provide
the right kind of support for each other in moments of high stress – and not misinterpret needs with a sense of rejection or hurt, particularly when kindness and calm is required.”

Become comfortable with difference

“One of you may be social butterfly and the other an introvert, one of you a keen tennis fanatic, the other couldn’t care less about sports. All relationships require an ongoing negotiation of the differences between the two partners, both in terms of the way they operate and the interests and passions they have. This can come up as an increasing point of contention the longer a couple is together because, again, the early days of the relationship somehow convinces the partners that they are the same in many ways. The reality is that we are all unique and need to accept the uniqueness of the other.”

Take ownership of your part in the dynamic

“How many times have I worked with couples who think, ‘If only he/she changes’? The truth is that even if one partner is for instance more reactive than the other, the dynamic in a relationship is co-created. Both need to take responsibility for their parts in things. Imagine the relationship like a simmering cauldron: each of you bring your own ingredients which relate in different ways to each other. You are not outside the cauldron; you are in it. Thriving couples take ownership of that and don’t set the other up as the perpetrator of all the problems.”

VILLA PARK — Slow and steady wins this Midlands race, and now one night in Istanbul stands between Aston Villa and their biggest achievement for 44 years.

For there in Turkey lies the tangible reward for calm progress under Unai Emery. What would be the cherry on top of the Spaniard’s era.

And while the Europa League is not quite the European Cup, a generation of Villa supporters have waited patiently to witness their side lift major silverware, and they will believe now is finally the time after a raucous evening at Villa Park.

It felt fitting too that Emiliano Buendia, Ollie Watkins and John McGinn were their heroes on the night, the trio – among Villa’s old guard – uniting to turn this Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest around, from 1-0 down after the first leg to emphatic 4-1 winners on aggregate.

INCREDIBLE 💥

John McGinn scores an almost identical goal minutes after his last and Aston Villa have four 😅

📺 TNT Sports and HBO Max pic.twitter.com/yNwyv9oXO7

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2026

Watkins played like a man possessed, before and especially after he was bandaged up following a collision with Morato. He looked intent on securing that World Cup spot, and this performance must surely have solidified the England striker’s position as Harry Kane’s back-up in North America this summer.

Prince William, who roared on every goal from the stands at Villa Park, would surely give Watkins’ inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s squad the royal seal of approval.

Watkins had got the ball rolling for Villa, eradicating the early nerves when tapping in the opener on the night and leveller on aggregate.

Buendia had danced his way through Forest’s defence to assist, and the Argentine then scored Villa’s second from the spot after VAR intervened for a pull on Pau Torres’ shirt by Nikola Milenkovic.

Loaned out last year and free to leave last summer, few Villa fans could have foreseen Buendia leading the charge in a European semi-final in 2026, yet here he was providing the creative spark that Forest could not put out.

Buendia then rolled the carpet out for captain McGinn to take centre stage, the Scot rolling in two left-footed strikes to seal Villa’s place in the final.

John McGinn scored in Aston Villa’s 2019 play-off final win to earn promotion to the Premier League.

Seven years later, he’s scored a brace to send them to a European final.

What a journey 💜 pic.twitter.com/oEwQYowDVD

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2026

A better pound for pound signing you will not find in the Premier League. McGinn joined from Hibernian for £2.75m in 2018.

That equates to just north of £340k for every year of service, less than £8,500 for every game played, while every goal – now 35 – has cost Villa just £79,000.

A bargain in modern football and a legend of the club already, McGinn was there with Villa in the Championship, scoring in the 2019 play-off final to help them return to the Premier League, and since then he has grafted his way towards becoming a player they dare not start without.

And though signed before Emery took charge, like Buendia and Watkins, McGinn has come to symbolise everything positive about Villa under the Spaniard.

“He’s been amazing,” McGinn said of Emery after the victory over Forest. “But so have all the managers I’ve played under. Steve Bruce gave me the confidence to play in England, Dean Smith gave me the confidence to play in the Premier League, Steven Gerrard taught me how to be a leader.”

Together, Villa and McGinn have punched above their weight, and now the crowning moment of the Emery era is within touching distance, with Freiburg their final opponents on 20 May.

“It would mean everything,” McGinn said at the prospect of lifting silverware with Villa.

He would be the first Villa captain to do so since Andy Townsend in 1996, and no one in claret and blue would deserve it more.

My wife keeps demanding sex from me and I feel like I have to perform.

She’ll sometimes dress up or spend the evening flirting before making a suggestion that we have an “early night”. I don’t know why I find her advances a turn-off: I feel a lot of pressure, and sex under pressure isn’t fun or a celebration of how close we are.

A few times I’ve told her I’m too tired and then she turns on me, saying that she doesn’t feel close to me, or fearing that I don’t fancy her and asking for reassurance. I noticed this changed after she became peri-menopausal (I’m 51, she’s 48).

I feel so out of sync with the rest of the world: most of my friends complain about their partners’ lack of interest in sex. Once I tried to broach my problem with a friend and they told me my wife’s behaviour was a dream and that they wished their partner would do the same.

Should I be able to perform to order, or is this too much to ask? I love her and miss the true intimacy and fun that we used to have before the pressure ramped up to perform.

Mike R, Manchester

***

If I distill your note down, it seems that on one level you’re asking: is pressurising someone into having sex OK? Let’s pause with that. If a female friend was feeling pressured to have sex by a male partner, would you consider this OK? I suspect you’d have no hesitation in understanding that it’s very unhealthy in a relationship, and isn’t going to lead to the relaxed intimacy that is a prerequisite for great sex.

So, of course, demanding you to perform is too much to ask, and I’m not surprised that you miss the genuine closeness that comes from two people wanting to connect.

The fact that you’re questioning yourself over this reveals the double standards in society with which we all live – and the myth that men’s sex drives are insatiable so meeting a woman with a high sex drive is, as your friend says, “the dream”. In reality, our sex drives are as individual as we all are.

Many men experience a dropping sex drive as they head into mid-life; meanwhile, some women experience an increased sex drive through perimenopause as their hormones rise and fall unpredictably.

Underneath this black-and-white question of whether pressurised sex is healthy is a far more interesting one: why is your wife pressurising you into sex when this hasn’t happened historically in your relationship? Have you asked her? Has her sex drive increased? Is she feeling more insecure than she used to? How does she feel about ageing? Sometimes the most confident women with the most secure of relationships start to question whether their partner will accept them as they age.

This, again, is more of a societal problem than an individual one: if society as a whole didn’t place so much importance on youth and treat maturity as invisibility, we’d probably all feel more confident in becoming “elders” in society.

I think it’s important for you to consider your own reactions to your wife suggesting sex, too. If you look back at the heyday of your sex life, was it you who tended to instigate? Is there a possibility that she is trying to show you how much she wants you and be more assertive and you interpret this as pressure? Do you prefer to be the one who is in control? Have you noticed changes in your sex drive? How do you feel about your body at 51?

I recommend that you have an open chat with your wife, at a relaxed time, about sex. If you do this during a walk, or out at a cafe, rather than in the bedroom, it will hopefully remove some of the pressure that you might feel surrounding the subject. I’d suggest taking the time to first reassure her how much you love her and are attracted to her, before exploring together what a “good sex life” would look like to you both. The more honest you are about any vulnerabilities, the easier it will be for her to respond in kind.

I wonder if, at the root of this, you are in fact both missing the intimacy that you previously shared? I suggest explaining to your wife that her way of trying to achieve it is actually distancing the two of you, and how her advances might be well intended but that you feel under pressure. She might have no idea that this is how you feel and simply feel a sense of rejection.

I recommend giving her suggestions of alternatives that don’t feel pressurised for you. If you’d like more hugs or hand holding, kissing rather than full-blown sex, spending time together chatting or walking, then be honest about it. The more open you both are, the more this pressure you feel to perform will dissipate leaving room for genuine connection and more fun.

Steven Neerkin, 56, from London, left the world of work in his early fifties – content with a long retirement ahead of him. But after a few years, he realised it might be time for a new employment challenge. He tells Charlotte Lytton about coming out of retirement to teach. Interview by Charlotte Lytton

By the time I retired, four years ago, at the age of 52, I’d already had two careers: first as a derivatives broker for 25 years, then working for my family’s property business for seven years, with a period spent in academia, getting my MBA, in between. I was never one of these people who wanted to work until they were 70.

When I retired, I had no intention of ever going back to an office again. I considered myself blessed that financially I was able to walk away, so I happily spent three years playing golf and padel, and basically just enjoying myself. I absolutely loved every minute of it, and had plenty of friends in a similar position with whom to spend my newfound freedom.

That was it, I thought: my working life was over. Until my wife – who clearly felt I was enjoying my retirement too much – suggested I go into teaching. She is a teacher, like my daughter and late mother, so I’d always considered it, I’d just never had the time to see it through. I was only going to go back to work to do something that I just thought would be challenging, that I’d be good at, and that I could be proud of. Teaching ticked all three boxes.

Much as I loved retirement, I did notice that my brain had somewhat stopped working. I made a point of trying to read as much as possible, and doing silly things like Sudoku puzzles just to keep my brain active, but it wasn’t the same as being challenged each day.

So I got in touch with a few organisations with the idea of teaching business and economics to secondary school students, and ended up at NowTeach, which supports people changing careers to go into teaching. For the past 10 months, I’ve taught four days a week and trained for one. I will qualify in the summer.

People ask if teaching is stressful, particularly after having retired. But given that I’ve worked in two of the most stressful industries possible – the City, and owning my own business, where you’re responsible for everything and everybody – do I find teaching stressful? I really don’t.

One of the biggest things I’ve learnt over the past 10 months is how much children have changed since even my own (now aged 26 and 27) were at school. They don’t seem to have the same inbuilt respect for adults anymore. Before, it was a given that when it came to your teachers, there were boundaries you simply did not cross. Now, they don’t even seem to have the same inbuilt respect for their own parents, which I do find somewhat surprising.

What has really upset me is there are times when parents seem almost afraid of their children. Some of them seem to think that it’s their job to be friends with their children – and I just don’t agree. I believe our job is to love them at all costs, but you’re not there to be their friend. I’ve had meetings with parents who have said: “Have you got any advice as to how we can get our son out of bed?” And I have to explain that my job is to teach him once he gets to school: it’s their job to get him out of bed. It really has been a shift in attitudes that I wasn’t expecting.

Something else I’ve learnt during this process is that there is always room for improvement (and that sometimes, I’m not as good as I think I am). Teaching is hard; teaching is tiring. There is an awful lot of prep work required and you are never really switched off. Maybe I came in naively thinking it was going to be a walk in the park, and it’s nothing close to that.

My age means I have a lot of experience of the subject matter – but just because you know the stuff doesn’t mean you can teach the stuff. I’m still learning, and I’m by far from being the finished article. But I’m incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful support system behind me; my colleagues and bosses have been phenomenal.

I’m not at the point where I’m teaching on autopilot: I’m listening to what my experienced colleagues are telling me, and adapting. And that’s surprised me too, because sometimes, I can be a bit pig-headed and arrogant, thinking I know better. But one thing I have noted watching some of my peers is that I want to teach the way they do. They make it look effortless, and I’d love to be like that: to be able to teach with that much impact, and make it look easy.

Despite the challenges, is teaching highly rewarding? Oh my God, yes. Do I look forward to going to work every day? Absolutely. And even on the bad days, I think: I’ve had worse. There’s no comparison between the sense of achievement I feel through teaching, compared to my previous careers. Especially with regards to the City, it’s a job you do for the lifestyle it gives you; you sell your soul to the devil, he takes his pound of flesh and in return, you get a very nice life. Honoured as I was to work for my previous company, there was no real meaning to it. I certainly never thought I was changing the world.

Now, I’ve got the ability to change the world, one student at a time. We’ve all got a memory of that one teacher at school who made an impact on us. Wouldn’t it be great if I was able to have that impact on a student, even if it’s just one? It would mean I’ve made a difference. And I hope to do that for as long as I can.

Early results have signalled a bruising set of local elections for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, with Reform UK reaping much of the reward across England.

As of 6am, Labour had lost almost 200 seats and control of seven councils in a damning indictment of the unpopularity of Starmer and his Government.

The Conservatives have, meanwhile, lost more than 100 seats – despite forcing Wandsworth from Labour-controlled to no overall control in a tight vote.