As a 600-page doorstopper celebrates their groundbreaking costumes, gigs, sleeves and videos, the duo talk about ‘side-stepping the pop-star thing’ – and the naked trampolinist EMI had to censor

In 1988, when he was 20, Wolfgang Tillmans tore an A0 poster off a building site hoarding and nailed it to a wall in his flat in Hamburg. It was advertising Pet Shop Boys’ new album, Introspective, and consisted of thick vertical bars in different colours. “It was just so cool in the context of the time,” the artist says today, admiring how the pop group had gone “one level more abstract”.

Around the same time in Doncaster, teenager Alasdair McLellan – now an A-list fashion photographer – was impressed by the clothes of Pet Shop Boys’ keyboard-player Chris Lowe; for instance the cap, stripy T-shirt and Issey Miyake glasses on the cover of their single Suburbia. “I always thought he was the best-dressed man of the 80s,” McLellan says. “Obviously, he just stood there playing the keyboard and I always noticed what he was wearing, especially all that sportswear stuff. He just seemed to do it better than everyone else.” McLellan couldn’t get style magazines in his village, so his visual education came from pop and the music press. “I got into photography through album covers, Smash Hits and NME.”

Ignorance and arrogance were his drivers. The idea that the regime plays by different rules, with its own goals, never occurred to him

Five weeks. We are now five weeks in and entering the sixth week of the war on Iran. What was supposed to be a “precise, overwhelming military campaign” to eliminate “an imminent nuclear threat” and urge the Iranian people to “take over” their government is now anything but precise or overwhelming. Gulf countries are seized up with retaliatory Iranian attacks, the strait of Hormuz is shut, and there is no sign of regime collapse either through military degradation or popular takeover. The recovery of two downed US aircrew is celebrated beyond the facts of the matter because nothing else is going to plan. The mistake, as ever, is a combination of hubris and ignorance, flaws made even more serious by the particularities of the Iranian regime.

There is a mental lag at the start of wars. A cognitive delay that means you can’t quite adjust to the fact that dangerous conflict cannot be swiftly contained. That mental lag is even longer when the United States is involved. Because it remains inconceivable to some that a superior military power would not swiftly achieve its objectives. That an inferior power would not immediately succumb. That allies would not fall into line and rally behind the US. Inconceivable that the fallout of a military campaign would not be limited to the territories and peoples targeted.

The heroine of Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s knew war and poverty, riches and fame, love and betrayal – yet claimed to have lived a ‘terribly boring’ life. Sean Hepburn Ferrer paints a very different picture in his new biography

Growing up, Sean Hepburn Ferrer says he never felt like the son of a movie star – but he very much is. His mother was Audrey Hepburn, one of the biggest names in the golden age of Hollywood, an Oscar-winner, a screen star and a fashion icon. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world recognise her from classics such as Roman Holiday, Funny Face and My Fair Lady – besotted with the way she laughs, dances, or poses tastefully in Givenchy couture.

Audrey’s image is so ubiquitous in posters, art prints, magazines, on handbags, keyrings or T-shirts, that the family has made hunting for her likeness into a game. “I must have made this crack to my kids,” Sean says. “We were probably waiting for a train or a plane that had been delayed: ‘Three minutes to find Grandma.’ And it became a thing. Now the kids are grown-up, but they do it on their own. I do it by myself and send a snapshot to my wife and we giggle privately.”

As a child, Gary Fisher was terrible at card games. How did he end up making his living from one?

Gary Fisher has always enjoyed a game of poker, but after he turned 60, his partner suggested he take it seriously. “She said, ‘You’re really good at it, but you don’t study. You just turn up and play.’” It wasn’t what Fisher expected to hear, but he set about researching the game, completed some online courses, got a coach – and now plays professionally.

So far this year, Fisher, who lives in London, has travelled to competitions in Cyprus, Marrakech, Amsterdam, Tallinn and Paris. He pays to enter, and has won $200,000 (£150,000) in prize money. “I’ve had a very good start,” he says. He is speaking on a video call from his hotel in Dublin where he is taking part in the Irish Open. Next he will travel to Melbourne.

Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?

I suffered with my mystery illness for decades before gaining a diagnosis. Could retraining my brain be the answer?

By Hermione Hoby. Read by Alby Baldwin

Kirby’s class helps stun Arsenal, Palmer shows leadership potential for Chelsea and teenager Shaw makes her mark for Liverpool

Securing their Premier League status for another year remains a priority for West Ham and Leeds this season, so the eight changes Nuno Espírito Santo and Daniel Farke made between them for this tie, which developed into a drama-drenched classic, was understandable to a degree. Still, in Ao Tanaka, Leeds have a gem of a fringe player, who looked eager to make something of his opportunity. The Japanese international has not started in the league since 14 December, but Leeds fans have consistently called for him to have more involvement and he showed why with a tremendous opener at the London Stadium, which was all of his own making. In stark contrast to Tanaka’s performance was that of Max Kilman, who has not been trusted to start for West Ham since 3 January when they were beaten 3-0 by the bottom club, Wolves. The centre-back looked rusty and gave away a clear penalty with a poor challenge on Anton Stach – he was even booed by his own fans at points in the game. Dominic Booth

Iran’s parliamentary speaker decries US president’s ‘reckless moves’ after his social media threats over the strait of Hormuz

• Trump warns Iran to reopen strait of Hormuz by Tuesday or face ‘hell’

• ‘Unhinged madman’: US politicians react to Trump Iran threat

A Japanese shipping firm said on Monday that an Indian-flagged tanker owned by its subsidiary had passed through the strait of Hormuz and was en route to India.

A spokeswoman for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told AFP that the Green Asha – a liquefied petroleum gas tanker – had crossed the waterway.

Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of the UAE and reiterates the urgent need for restraint and de-escalation in the region.

PM also criticises business figures and opponents of changes, many of which come into force on Monday

• Workers, pensioners and children: all better off. Ignore the critics – we really are standing up for working people

Keir Starmer has used a series of new workers rights that come into force on Monday to attack the Green party, saying a vote for Labour’s rivals puts such progress on sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contracts at risk.

The prime minister also took a swipe at business figures and opponents of what he described as the biggest strengthening of workers’ rights in a generation, dismissing “vested interests” who had warned against them.

Union says new entitlements, part of Employment Rights Act 2025, will help lower-income households

Up to 9.6 million UK workers are to benefit from the changes to sick pay rules, according to unions. They say the policy has widespread support from voters despite pushback from some businesses.

From Monday, about 8.4 million workers who rely on statutory sick pay – the minimum amount employers must pay – will be paid from the first day of becoming ill rather than from day four, according to an analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

People encouraged to ‘come forward as normal’ when BMA members begin industrial action over pay on Tuesday

The NHS is urging patients not to put off seeking the care they need when resident doctors press ahead with strike action from Tuesday, a stoppage that the health secretary has called “disappointing”.

Tens of thousands of resident doctors in England are to stage a six-day strike after the government took a key part of its offer off the table.