Michael, the biopic tracking the early years of Michael Jackson, opened to dire reviews and criticism over its silence on the child sex abuse allegations levelled at the music superstar.

The fans, though, don’t care; they made Michael a box office smash. Its first weekend broke records, with the film scoring the biggest opening of all time for any musical biopic.

It stars Jaafar Jackson, who does a good job channelling his late uncle Michael, and the music is wall-to-wall with brief detours into some aspects of Jackson’s odd life, including his obsession with Peter Pan, his first nose job and his acquisition of Bubbles the chimpanzee. Originally the script included the case of one of the boys who alleged sex abuse, but that was cut.

So without the truth of Jackson’s life, what is the point of this biopic? And why is Hollywood so fixated on musical biopics?

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

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Last Saturday evening, a food delivery driver was hijacked in Co Antrim, a bomb was placed in his car and he was ordered to drive to Dunmurry police station. When he got there he ran in to raise the alarm. Minutes later, a police officer’s bodycam recorded the car exploding as nearby houses were being evacuated, with two babies among those who were being brought to safety at the time.

The attack is being treated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) as attempted murder and comes just weeks after an attempted car bomb attack on Lurgan police station in Co Armagh. The New IRA has claimed responsibility for both attacks but who is this dissident republican group?

The car bombs were crude but according to Irish Times Northern correspondent Freya McClements, what counts in these attacks is the attention they receive for the organisation and the fear they instil in local communities and members of the PSNI.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For a man who has been targeted by assassins, Gerry Hutch is surprisingly easy to track down in the village in Lanzarote where he has lived for more than 10 years.

He hikes in the morning, frequents the island’s many Irish bars – Paddy’s Point is a favourite – and is happy to stop for selfies with the Irish holidaymakers attracted by the island’s winter sun.

Irish Times investigative reporter Conor Gallagher travelled to the Spanish island last week to interview the veteran criminal as part of a wider investigation into the Dubliner’s property holdings.

Hutch has long maintained that his lifestyle is funded by savvy property investments although in a wide-ranging interview he tells Gallagher they have been “exaggerated”.

From his sunny base he talks of his political ambitions for the May 22nd Dublin Central byelection, his reaction to his son’s recent arrest in Lanzarote and the ongoing criminal investigation by the Spanish authorities into his own activities.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.