Making art with charcoal lit my imagination on fire, and it can do the same for you - Creative Bloq

We've had about roughly four decades of games as we generally know them now, and yet somehow, so often their stories feel so limited in scope. I'm not talking about a lack of big, bold ideas, in fact there might be too many of those. I more mean that there are aspects to life that often go uncovered in games. For example, when was the last time you saw a game about a workers strike? Citizen Sleeper 2 has one questline about such a thing, but it's just what the entire game is about. A Line Held Tight, a mecha visual novel about a sci-fi miner's strike, may bridge that gap. A Line Held Tight is being developed by Humble Grove, the studio behind the quiet but impactful No Longer Home. Narrative is at the forefront with this game too, albeit with an emphasis on the choices you make throughout the strike. You play as The Canary, a member of a mining colony who's been cut off by the rest of humanity, set in the 32nd century. "As a strike boils over you’ll help The Canary to decide where their heart and their loyalties lie," the game's Steam page explains.

The literary power couple is a historically seductive concept. Two writers sharing a life, their private and creative worlds entwined, each becoming witness to and critic of the other’s work. Think Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Or, less auspiciously, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Now, into this illustrious company steps a new pair: the novelist Marlon James and the biographer Nicholas Boggs, whose books have each been shortlisted for one of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards – James for the Booker prize and Boggs for the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction. Between them, they have produced two formidable books, each the culmination of years of work, and each concerned with the lives of Black queer men whose stories have often been overlooked. “I’m not sure what to do with it,” James says, when I ask how they feel about the inevitable impending “literary power couple” label. “I have all these romantic notions that we were like Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne or something – I don’t know. What do you think?” He turns to Boggs, who laughs. “It’s all very new,” he says.

A fitting tribute to the late star’s breakout album 20 years after its release, this special concert was held at the Roundhouse in north London earlier this week. It’s led by a team close to Winehouse’s music, including the album’s producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, and features the Amy Winehouse Band playing all the hits including Valerie and Rehab. Special guests include Corinne Bailey Rae, Flo, Jessie Reyez and Jorja Smith. Hollie RichardsonStrictly Come Dancing6.30pm, BBC One We’ve already had a few themed weeks in this year’s competition, but now it’s back to basics. Lacey and Vito will be doing the tango to a Blondie banger; Cach and Maddie will take on a cha cha to Måneskin; and it’s time to jive with Lawrence and Jowita. HRSecrets of the Viking Ship With Bettany Hughes8pm, Channel 4

Siobhán McSweeney is teaching me her preferred way to enjoy a packet of cheese and onion crisps. She has arranged two matching slabs of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, two piles of Tayto crisps and two cans of Guinness on the table in front of us – and is issuing strict instructions. “Don’t swallow!” she booms theatrically, and I freeze, my mouth full of Taytos. The trick, McSweeney explains, is to get the crisps, chocolate and Guinness into your mouth at the same time, and then swill it all around a bit to make a kind of boozy, oniony soup. “See?” McSweeney is watching me carefully to check I am putting all the ingredients into my mouth in the correct order. “It’s delicious! Just delicious!”McSweeney burst into the public consciousness back in 2018 with Derry Girls, a comedy series about a group of Catholic schoolgirls, set against the background of the Troubles in 1990s Northern Ireland. McSweeney won a Bafta playing the girls’ headmistress, Sister Michael – a potty-mouthed, judo-loving nun – and can count Martin Scorsese as a fan.