As John Lewis reports a 96% rise in searches for CD players, music fans share their reasons for ditching streaming

CDs appear to be having a resurgence. John Lewis said searches for CD players are up 96% since July, while another report on trends in music and film this year found that CD sales are up 16%.

With this in mind, we asked music fans why they favour discs over other formats, and if it is a new preference or a lifetime habit.

From inspiring careers to treating people to unforgettable curries, the late presenter and campaigner had quite the impact on Guardian readers. Colleagues, admirers and TV show guests share their stories

The summer of 1976 held a particularly fond memory for my family. In one episode of her programme The Big Time, my father took part in conducting the Royal Philharmonic in Croydon and met several of his musical idols. Esther and her team visited our home, causing much teenage excitement, took us for lunch at a local Indian restaurant (the height of sophistication) and after lunch asked me to sit on her feet in our back garden while she did sit-ups. We were kids, probably in the way of filming, but were included and treated warmly and impressed by her down-to-earth manner. We fondly remember the visit and as Dad said at the end of the film: “lovely Esther”. I’m glad she went on to make so many important contributions to the lives of so many. Rosalind Cresswell, Maine, USA

It’s inspired careers, moved you deeply and helped you reevaluate your own journeys. As the series that began in 1964 comes to an end with 70 Up, Guardian readers explain the impact of the decades-spanning tale

ITV’s landmark 7 Up documentary series has launched its final outing after 63 years. The show started following the lives of 10 boys and four girls in England when they were seven years old, and has returned every seven years since.

As the final season 70 Up reaches its conclusion, seven people tell us what it has meant to them over the decades – along with pictures of themselves contrasting their appearance now with their childhood selves.

Hating The Apprentice? Bored silly of House of the Dragon? Given up on your favourite soap opera after 50 years? Guardian readers share the shows they can’t bear to watch

We loved this show for the first four or five seasons. It had a really good mix of candidates, different ages and walks of life. I think it was after season nine that we started to feel the programme was losing its authenticity. Contestants started to look like homogenous Love Islanders, all the same demographic – 20-30 age bracket, highly polished body image, eye on a post-show influencer career, etc. It lost its uniqueness and became just another reality show. Ngaire Vine, 56, Derbyshire

From hours stuck on planes awaiting takeoff, to sleeping the night on the floor at Heathrow. Here are some travellers’ experiences

More than 2,000 flights have been cancelled after an air traffic control system failure that has thrown airports across the UK into chaos. Nats, the air traffic control provider, fixed the problem within hours on Tuesday, but hundreds of thousands of passengers were hit by further delays and cancellations on Wednesday.

Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of Nats, has been given a week to report back on the reasons for the technical failure.

Guardian readers share memories of actor best known for roles in The Rocky Horror Show and Stephen King’s It

I first saw him in the 1978 series Will Shakespeare, where he played Shakespeare alongside Nicholas Clay. Two very classy actors who, whatever the value of the programme, made me want to know more about the man and his work. Tim Curry always had a glorious glint in his eye which drew you in as if you were the only person who understood. Margaret Carradus, Lancaster

From influencers gone (really, really) bad and the outrageous Joe Exotic to the greatest reveal in television history – here are Guardian readers’ favourite real-life documentaries and whodunnits

I watched the BBC’s Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared when it came out and Damien Nettles, its subject, still pops up in my mind sometimes. It’s a comprehensive, empathetic and gripping investigation into a case I had never heard of. The Serial/Making a Murderer-style approach of showing the investigation, rather than just presenting information, gives the series a much more human angle. I thought it might turn up new evidence; that level of faith in the work being shown is a testament to how thorough it was. AJ, Devon, UK

Readers describe how Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster has ignited or reawakened their interest in classical literature

“I’m having a classics summer this year,” says Tommy Maddinson, 26, from London. He’s been inspired by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to delve into the subject, which has involved cinema trips, visits to the British Museum, and reading Homer’s epic before the film’s release. “I managed to finish it the day before. Since then I’ve been reading a few other classical texts and commentaries …”

Maddinson is not alone. Thanks to the popularity of Nolan’s film, poetry sales in the UK are on course to reach a record high this year after surpassing £8m during the first 30 weeks of 2026 – an increase of 13.3% on the same period last year, according to the market researchers NielsenIQ.

The Odyssey is the summer’s biggest film: an adaptation of an almost 3,000 year old poem that everyone is talking about. So what was our readers’ verdict?

As expected from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is an immense technical achievement: vast in scale, beautifully shot and carried by an absorbing soundscape, particularly impressive on the Imax screen. I did enjoy it, but it did not resonate with me emotionally as some of Nolan’s other films have. For a film reaching for something deep and mythic, I’m not sure it felt quite as profound as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t wholly convinced by the casting. There were so many big names that at times I found myself seeing the actors more than the characters. Matt Damon, especially in the island scenes, reminded me of his early Bourne performances when the character had lost his memory. Charlize Theron felt underused, Jon Bernthal seemed to bring his familiar swagger, and Tom Holland did not fully convince me in the more conflicted moments. Samantha Morton, however, was excellent, as she always is. Samiul Kamal-Uddin, 49, London, UK

Almost half of working-age adults in the UK do not save into a pension. Four readers explain why they fear for the future

“I am 35 and have essentially nothing saved for my future, which is a huge concern.” Sarah* works in library services in Oxford – full-time at one library and part-time at another. She has saved £5,000 into her pension.

After finishing her PhD in 2020, she said she had “good intentions of contributing to pension schemes. But because I then had a succession of part-time jobs, I never started. I never thought, this is a job I’ll be doing for long enough.”

Not everyone supports the country where they were born or grew up. Sometimes fans are won over by a player, place, population or style of play

Footballers need to be born in a country or have a family tie to that place to represent them at the World Cup, but those rules do not apply to supporters. Sometimes fans are won over by a team, a star player or even a country. Here six fans tell us why they decided not to support the country of their birth and instead root for teams with whom they have no family ties.

On the back of our editors’ choices of the year’s finest, we asked you to share your magical movie moments from the first half of 2026

The film that had me gripped right from its ridiculous and bizarre first scene at a Brazilian country road petrol station was The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho. The gorgeous Armando is on the run from a corrupt private company official, who wants to steal his academic expertise for his own financial gain. It’s a deal that Armando knows will sully his academic reputation but by refusing to do so, he ends up with a target on his back from the resentful Ghirotti, who sent chills up my spine. This is a stunning movie. Liz, London

We’ve already listed our writers’ all-timers, now Guardian readers get their say on the seminal director’s best blockbusters

ET is my favourite Spielberg film. It was the first I ever saw at the cinema, when I was eight years old, at Bolton Odeon in 1982. It was also the first film that made me cry – not just cry, but sob all the way home on the bus. I remember feeling completely confused by the fact that I was so happy and yet so sad at the same time. I watched the film with my mum and some of her friends from the Gingerbread Club, a single parents’ organisation that arranged social events and outings, mainly for single mothers. At a time when there was still a stigma attached to being a single parent, it provided a sense of community and support.

With Two Weeks in August and the return of The Four Seasons, TV dramas about nightmare getaways are having a moment. Here are Guardian readers’ tales of their own

In early 1969, my parents booked a holiday in Belfast for one week and a bed and breakfast in Dublin for one week. When we arrived at our Belfast destination, The Elsinore Hotel, there wasn’t another car in the parking lot and the hotel was empty except for the aged husband and wife owners. Being 12 years old, I didn’t think too much at the time about the quiet, empty place but the owners invited the whole family down to the dining room every evening and we enjoyed some great meals. Lots of pictures of JFK and the pope adorned many of the hotel walls and being a Catholic family ourselves, the hosts made a big fuss of us.

People with careers in the UK and beyond offer practical advice for those struggling to secure work

About 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK are not in employment, education or training, and a recent report said this could rise to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action.

With the obstacles young people face in securing employment now greater than ever, we asked readers if they had any advice for those seeking work. Here are some of their responses.

Filmgoers born after 1997 are reviving cinemas’ hopes of survival. They tell us about the social experience where ‘there’s absolutely no commitment to chat’

People born between 1997 and 2012 are now more frequent cinemagoers than some older age groups, according to a US-based survey by Fandango, with 87% having seen at least one film in a cinema in the last 12 months compared with 58% of baby boomers.

With this in mind we asked young people about why they love the cinema.

Guardian readers in the US share how they get around their cities without driving in such a car-dominated country

We asked Guardian readers in the US how they get around if they don’t have a car in such a car-dominated country. Several of those who responded described the benefits and many challenges of going by foot, bike or public transit.

Some travellers spent hours in lines at airport, with kiosks not working, little seating and few staff on hand to help

Some travellers passing through the new EU entry-exit system (EES) have faced huge delays at border checks, with some waiting for up to three hours, airports say.

The new rules have gradually been introduced in Europe since October 2025, and came into effect on Friday in the Schengen countries – 25 of the EU’s 27 states plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

We know what can cause loneliness, from online habits to other cultural shifts – but what makes us feel connected and cared for?

The rise of social media, disappearing third spaces, displeasure with dating apps: in 2026, there are plenty of possible culprits when it comes to loneliness.

But what makes people feel connected and cared for? Below are six stories about the gestures that made Guardian readers feel less lonely.

Slow-burn office crushes that left you weeping, sitcoms that made you fall in love and vampire shows that changed you for ever: Guardian readers pick their ultimate television romances

A mark of a true romance is that the couple are closer than anyone else in the world. As Emily Brontë said, “whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” This is true for Miss Piggy and Kermit. They’ve had a longer relationship than most TV couples (since 1976), although it has been tumultuous. No matter what universe, from Dickensian London to Treasure Island to their various TV shows and movies over the years, they find each other – even after their official separation in 2015. Did Ross ever say to Rachel: “You don’t need the whole world to love you, you just need one person”? I don’t think so. Michelle, 19, Manchester