Album opener, War’s Not Won, shows that the band have never lost sight of the sound that made them household names – with the strongest echoes of their debut album since it was released – yet, the whole record takes this winning formula and reinvigorates and redesigns it with killer effect.

Off Duty Is my face just right, am I looking as a widow should? I pass the funeral parlour where four weeks ago the ceremony unfurled. Now I’m laughing with the children. The director of the solemn place is lolling out front, sucking on a cigarette.

After ascending to Paradise, I pay my respects to Anne Brontë, buried here in 1849, and stand amidst the daffodils in the grounds of St Mary’s Church. From here is a magnificent view over the red pantiles of the Old Town down to the harbour, and a quite stupendous vista stretching to Flamborough Head’s chalky cliffs.

Highly experienced criminal psychologist, guest lecturer, radio host, podcaster, and writer Linda Sage is teaming up with Writers Retreat UK in Beal, North Yorkshire, to host a weekend crime writing residential from 20-22 September. Linda has spent forty years working with some of the UK’s most notorious criminals, including the Kray twins, Charles Bronson and Myra Hindley.

A brand new dance company launches in Leeds, created to break down barriers and nurture a dance culture where everyone feels recognised. Unbound Dance Theatre launches with a special symposium event Shifting Perspectives at Yorkshire Dance Leeds on Friday 26 April.

CrimeFest, a European crime writing convention, has announced the shortlists for its annual awards. The awards began 16 years ago when CrimeFest launched in 2008; they honour the best crime books released in the UK in the last year, and feature the hotly-contended Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award which offers a £1,000 cash prize.

When Take That reunited in 2006 after their breakup, the group returned stronger and more popular than before. Now with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald seemingly back for good, the trio arrived at Sheffield Arena for the start of their This Life tour—a mammoth 41-date outing across the country, selling over 700,000 tickets in the process.

Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week.

The interaction between the standard sextet combination of two violins, two violas, and two cellos is irresistibly charismatic. The intricacies of both scores are produced with acumination, enabling the harmonic language to be savoured.

The multiple contributors to this CD demand supplementary listening just as the paintings demand supplementary viewing, but I will be narrowing the field down to just four: Korngold, Takemitsu, Lilli Boulanger, and Nina Simone (Jonathan King). These are selected for no more elevated reason than that they have destroyed fewer forests than the likes of Debussy or Britten.

Joseph Marcell was most recently seen in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s debut feature film, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. TV credits include Mammoth and I Hate You, both for the BBC and he is soon be seen in Candice Carty-William’s Queenie on Channel 4. His prolific stage credits include Hamlet at the Young Vic with Cush Jumbo, Kathy Burke’s Lady Windermere's Fan, extensive work with Shakespeare’s Globe including the titular role in Bill Buckhurst’s King Lear and Derek Walcott’s Omeros, as well as seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Joseph plays Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal at York Theatre Royal from 23-27 April.

Sarah Wimbush’s alignment with the miners, and their cause, is never less than partisan. In her latest collection of themed poems, as in her wider poetic oeuvre, that sense of affiliation is front and centre, indissolubly bound up with the connective tissue of her South Yorkshire roots.

Opera North has announced the appointment of Katie Stillman as the new Leader of the Orchestra of Opera North effective from August.

Harrogate International Festivals has announced Peter James as the final Special Guest for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the "world’s largest and most prestigious celebration of crime fiction" taking place 18-21 July.

It was quite a defining moment for Martin Venning. The West Yorkshire author is sitting down to discuss his third novel The Value of Luck and tells me he started writing to stop him getting bored after a serious accident that left him spending six months in hospital.

After the success of last year's sell-out tour, the UK's number 1 multi-platinum selling vocal harmony group, The Overtones, will be bringing a non-stop party featuring songs for all the family. The set will include their original songs plus covers from the likes of Stevie Wonder, The Drifters, Frankie Valli, and The Four Seasons, plus festive favourites!

There are times when classical music must wake up and realise that, despite the foibles of a particular recording, it can be an excellent means of expanding the genre for a larger audience. Surely, not a bad philosophy?