Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

Reading Laura Mauro’s “Japanese Toilet Ghosts” [FT459:30-35], reminded me of a less well known fear in the Western world, which –according to the modern rabbinical Internet resource site TheTorah.com

One day in 1974, actress Prunella Scales travelled to Hyde Park Gardens to visit John Cleese in his flat to discuss a potential role in a new situation comedy called Fawlty Towers. As it happened, Cle

Who else has attempted the perfect crime?

ALAMY; RADIO TIMES ARCHIVE SCIENCE FILLING A VOID ...

How Netflix’s ’80s horror sci-fi nostalgia-fest took over the world