Dame Maureen Lipman: ‘I was afraid of being forgotten’

The actor, 78, talks about the thrill of performing, becoming a mother, and why hers is the luckiest generation of womenThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Panto was my chance to perform somewhere other than on the sideboard as a child. I’d be on the edge of my seat when they said, “Are there any little children in the audience?”The Guardian’s journalism is independent

Daisy May Cooper on a brush with death, dating after divorce and her passion for the supernatural: ‘People think you’re mad’

Daisy May Cooper is being haunted. Her first ghost sighting was two years ago – a disembodied pair of child’s legs, running around the bedroom of her new-build house. Then there was an invisible presence, tugging her duvet off her. She’s been hearing voices, too – a Spanish woman, and an ethereal voice in a hospital room offering words of comfort. “It’s like a veil has been lifted,” she says

The Guide #161: Mr Loverman breaks new ground in golden age of Black British TV

This week the BBC released Mr Loverman, an eight-part drama that features two septuagenarian Caribbean Londoners who have been engaged in a homosexual love affair since they were teens in Antigua. Perhaps you think nothing of this. But a series with scenes depicting two Black, greying men reflecting on their forbidden romance, declaring themselves “cocksuckers”, and bending themselves into sexual positions occupying a primetime Monday evening slot is worth reflection. Not purely because of discussions about the constraints of compulsory heterosexuality on a generation of Black men, but also the specificity of this drama – the freedom for Black British television to be what it wants to be.The Guardian’s journalism is independent

British escaper’s stolen Napoleonic uniform and journal go on display in London

A handwritten manuscript detailing the daring escape of a British prisoner of Napoleon’s troops – with the flamboyant French uniform in which he disguised himself as he fled – have gone on display at the National Maritime Museum in London after being carefully preserved for more than two centuries by the prisoner’s descendants.The “rare and very special” uniform, including its tall and exuberantly feathered hat, was worn in August 1809 by the 19-year-old naval midshipman Charles Hare as he escaped a military prison in what is now western Germany and travelled by coach, river boat, ship and on foot back to his home in Lincolnshire, accompanied by his pet dog.The green and silver uniform and feathered hat are thought to be the only surviving example of a French customs officer’s uniform from the Napoleonic wars, when Britain and other European powers were fighting France. But what makes them particularly special, according to the museum, is Hare’s breathless and highly entertaining first-person account of his perilous escapade.“It’s almost unique to have them both,” said Katherine Gazzard, the museum’s curator of art

Ice-T: ‘Anybody that thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You need lawyers!’

With a new Body Count album out next month, the hip-hop superstar turned actor answers your questions on Law & Order, the Cop Killer furore and working with ‘wild man’ Abel FerraraWas there ever a moment during the furore over Cop Killer when you were feeling the heat and/or questioning yourself over releasing it? Sophisticles I never really questioned myself, but the heat came when they started sending bomb threats to Warner Bros. I threw the rock, that’s my heat. But when other people could get hurt, that’s nerve-racking. But I got news for people: anybody that thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You get a lot of buzz, but now you need lawyers

National Gallery of Australia announces winner to recreate sculpture gardens in its largest investment in decades

Winning design has seven gardens weaving around the gallery on the shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, doubling its showcase spaceThe National Gallery of Australia will embark on the largest investment in its grounds in more than four decades, with the museum announcing the winning tender to recreate its sculpture gardens on Thursday.The National Sculpture Garden, designed in the early 1980s, will need to attract about $60m in philanthropy and fundraising to realise the design of the winning multi-disciplinary team CO-AP Holdings, comprising Sydney architecture company CO-AP and landscape and urban designers Studio JEF, TARN Studio and Plus Minus Design.The design includes seven interconnected gardens weaving around the National Gallery in a continuous circuit on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, which will double the ground’s total space for showcasing art, culture and nature.The sculpture garden’s existing marquee will be replaced with a permanent stainless steel and glass pavilion that will provide additional exhibition space, a new promenade and a multi-use campus square in the NGA forecourt.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailWill Fung, a Sydney-based architectect and leader of the winning team, said the four companies combined forces out of a shared love for the sculpture garden’s original design by landscape architects Harry Howard, Barbara Buchanan and Roger Vidler