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As the History of Advertising Trust turns 50, our writer revels in its vast archive, remembering the bread boy on his bike, the suggestive coffee-drinkers and the Hamlet smoker adjusting his comb-over

• Iconic British adverts – in pictures

Hanging over the toilet in the gents’ loos at the History of Advertising Trust’s archive in deepest Norfolk is a photograph of Ian Botham. It’s not just the cricketing great’s mullet that tells you this is 1986, but the fact that Beefy is smoking a cigar. The caption below answers the question that has troubled philosophers since Aristotle: “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet.”

If the past is a foreign country, then the history of advertising is a whole alternate universe, one in which excitable metallic martians induced us to buy Cadbury’s powdered potatoes with the slogan: “For mash get Smash.” It’s a place where bowler-hatted chimps dressed as removal men wooed us into buying PG Tips tea, while legions of sports stars energetically advertised carcinogenic smokes.

The beloved BBC sitcom is now a quarter of a century old. Ahead of two TV celebrations, here are 25 things you didn’t know about television’s funniest workplace mockumentary

Fetch the acoustic guitar and twiddle your TM Lewin tie because it’s the 25th anniversary of The Office. Yes, it’s a quarter of a century since we were introduced to Wernham Hogg paper company’s David Brent – a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third.

To commemorate the majestic mockumentary’s silver jubilee, actors Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook are reuniting to present a BBC documentary looking back at the show. Meanwhile, co-creator Ricky Gervais is releasing a retrospective special on his YouTube channel.

Last summer, a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker in Epping and this small community was engulfed in protest. Can it recover?

When Sherzod* moved to Epping in 2025, he was dreaming of a little garden, long dog walks in the forest and more space to breathe. At 20, he had moved from Uzbekistan to the UK to study law, then lived in north London for decades. In his mid-40s, after establishing himself in a media job, he began visiting the forest – 5,900 acres of green lung saved by the Epping Forest Act 1878. The pretty shops of the old south-west Essex town delighted him. “I just liked the high street, I liked the people,” he says. “The people were really friendly.”

Epping was created by the canons of Waltham Abbey in the 13th century as a market town on the road from London to Cambridge. Its high street is still thriving. There is a Gail’s bakery and an M&S Food shop; the four-bed semis in the estate agents’ windows are listed at just shy of £1m.

Growing number of farm outposts using violence to seize territory, a process seemingly enabled by radical elements in Netanyahu’s government

The attack in Ein Arik came in the middle of the night and was aimed at the rudiments of life: the earth, water, roots and seedlings.

Ilham Karajeh awoke on Friday last week to find her family allotment raided and ruined. The thin black irrigation pipes had been sliced, grape vines cut and 70 young olive trees, the embodiment of the family’s aspirations for the future, had been uprooted.

Government’s former extremism adviser sounds alarm as idea that diversity is harmful becomes ‘mainstream view’

Two in five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society and more than half believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, a report authored by a former government adviser on extremism has found.

Sara Khan, who stood down in 2024 as the UK’s first counter-extremism commissioner, said such views contrasted sharply with accompanying findings that showed 85% of Muslims “favour integration”.

Two people injured in Kyiv attack, while early strike on southern port of ​Odesa ​injured 10. What we know on day 1,596

Ukrainian drones have attacked a dozen tankers from Russia’s “shadow fleet” over the past two days that were delivering fuel to Crimea, Kyiv’s military said, as it intensifies efforts to isolate the Russian-occupied peninsula. Ukraine’s drone forces said they had struck eight vessels subject to sanctions in the Sea of Azov, each with a deadweight of about 7,000 metric tons. Two more tankers were hit later in the day, they added.

Ukraine’s capital ⁠Kyiv came ⁠under ​a Russian missile attack early on Wednesday, ⁠triggering fires and injuring at least two people, the city’s mayor, ⁠Vitali Klitschko, said. Klitschko ‌said strikes ‌in the capital caused ‌a fire in a storage area and a non-residential building. Two people were injured, with one ​requiring treatment in hospital. The air alert lasted for about an hour. The latest onslaught comes after Russian strikes – including multiple missile hits on Kyiv – killed 30 people in Ukraine on Monday.

A missile strike ⁠in the southern port of ​Odesa ​earlier in the ​evening injured 10 people, ​the regional ‌governor, Oleh ​Kiper, said. ​Eight were being treated in hospital.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a fresh appeal for his country to be allowed to join Nato, saying his country’s armed forces are highly experienced and would boost the alliance’s defense capabilities. He highlighted Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russia and hit oil refineries and other energy targets. He said Ukraine’s armed forces were “eliminating” on average 30,000 Russian troops every month. He is to meet with the US president, Donald Trump, on Wednesday in Ankara. “Frankly, we take no pride in this,” Zelenskyy said, noting that the war with Russia – now in its fifth year – is one “we did not seek but one we are forced to fight.”

When asked about his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said he had spoken to the Ukrainian president and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, before the ‌Nato summit about ending the war. “I think they both want to make a deal. It’s too bad it took so long … Something’s going to come out,” Trump said before the summit. “They both want to get it settled now.”

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had signed three more “drone ⁠deals” with Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands, making available its expertise gained from more than ⁠four years of ⁠war ​with Russia. Ukraine has developed a highly sophisticated drone industry after having only ​limited expertise in the ‌sector when Russia invaded ‌its smaller neighbour in February 2022. The deals are unique to each country, but typically involve Kyiv providing blueprints for drone technology in exchange for royalties, investments and other military hardware.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry denounced ⁠as “troubling” the International Olympic ⁠Committee’s decision to ⁠lift ​the Russian Olympic Committee’s suspension and urged ⁠both countries and international sports bodies to ⁠maintain restrictions on Russian participation ​and ‌use of ‌state symbols. “The IOC’s decision ‌to cancel the recommendations on limiting Russian athletes’ participation is a troubling signal for the entire international ‌community,” the ministry said in a statement. It called ​on countries hosting competitions to uphold a ban on Russian state symbols ⁠as “under this flag an ​unprovoked ​war is continuing in ​Ukraine.”

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023

US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India.

At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking – they had charged 37 people, some of whom were already in custody. Authorities are still searching for seven fugitives in the US, two in India and one in Europe.

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023

US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India.

At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking – they had charged 37 people, some of whom were already in custody. Authorities are still searching for seven fugitives in the US, two in India and one in Europe.

National Anti-Corruption Commission inspector, Gail Furness, says systemic issues behind two complaints have been addressed

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Two investigations into complaints made against the former national anti-corruption commissioner, Paul Brereton, have been dropped after its watchdog said it could not “justify such expenditure”.

In a statement released on Wednesday morning, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) inspector, Gail Furness, said she would end the ongoing investigations because of Brereton’s resignation and her belief that the “systemic issues which had been identified have been satisfactorily addressed”.

Когда может пригодиться экзотика. Я много раз обращался к использованию множественного наследования в языках программирования и платформах. Но как правило это обращение было больше теоретическим. Я не видел в его применении значительных преимуществ, способных превзойти альтернативные подходы, с учётом рисков его применения. Но в это раз случай представился. И я покажу этот пример.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors coerced Anthony, 19, into waiving his right to testify, and cite additional reasons

Karmelo Anthony’s legal team is seeking a new trial and the recusal of a state judge a month after a Texas jury convicted the 19-year-old of murder and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 17, at a track meet in 2025.

In a Tuesday motion, Anthony’s defense attorneys argued that their client’s conviction should be overturned because prosecutors coerced him into waiving his right to testify, among other reasons.