My cultural awakening: A Queen song helped me break free from communist Cuba

Listening to Brian May’s multi-tracked epic on a battered cassette player when I lived in repressive Havana inspired lit a spark of rebellion inside meThroughout my childhood and teenage years growing up in 80s Cuba, Fidel Castro’s presence, and the overt influence of politics, was everywhere – on posters, on walls, in speeches that could last four hours at a stretch. The sense of being hemmed in, politically and personally, was hard to escape.I had been raised to believe in communism, and for a long time I did. I even applied twice to join the Young Communist League, only to be rejected for not being “combative” enough: code for not informing on others. Friends were expelled from university or jailed for speaking too freely and my family included people in the military and police, so I had to be careful not to endanger them

From Saipan to Take That: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

SaipanOut now As the Irish national team descend on a small island in the Pacific to prepare for the 2002 World Cup, an epic falling out between manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) and top player Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) is looming, in this sports drama loosely based on the infamous real-life spat.No Other ChoiceOut nowKorean auteur Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) enlists Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun to lead this dark comedy about a man who has recently been made redundant but is so committed to reclaiming his role that he feels he has “no other choice” but to resort to murder.H Is for HawkOut nowBased on the novel by Helen Macdonald, this drama sees Claire Foy play a woman mourning the loss of her father become on the idea of training a hawk. This project isn’t necessarily a natural fit with her life as a graduate fellow at Cambridge. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and also starring Brendan Gleeson and Lindsay Duncan

Tell us your UK town of culture nomination

With the search for the UK’s first town of culture under way, we would like to hear your suggestions.Guardian writers’ own nominations include Ramsgate in Kent, Falmouth in Cornwall, Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, and Portobello in Edinburgh. Which town would you nominate, and why?You can tell us your choice for the first UK town of culture using this form.Please include as much detail as possible. Please note, the maximum file size is 5

‘The Village of the Damned was shot here – then George Harrison bought a house’: our UK town of culture nominations

With the search for the country’s first town of culture under way, Guardian writers pick their favourite spots for art, architecture, food, festivals, music and celeb spottingWhy did Caesar, Saint Augustine, Hengist and Horsa make Ramsgate their first port of call on assorted crusading trips to England? Proximity to France? Easy landing beaches beneath the cliffs? The lively arts scene?Probably – pending new archaeological finds – the first two, yet there’s little doubt that this bit of Thanet has long been hopping. Van Gogh, Turner, Pugin, Tissot and Sambourne wielded brushes on its streets. Dickens everyone already knows about, but other local scribblers include Anthony Buckeridge, Russell Hoban and Frank Muir. Sir Moses Montefiore transformed one area of town into a glorious slice of Georgian Jewish splendour; the brainchildren of other mad and sublime architects are dotted all about. The harbourside Home for Smack Boys, a charitable home for orphans and fishing apprentices, is the best church I know

R&B star Jill Scott: ‘I like mystery – I love Sade but I don’t know what she had for breakfast’

The neo-soul singer and actor answers your questions on being taken to a go-go club as a child, training as an English teacher and getting mistaken for footballer Jill ScottIn a recent interview you gave an invaluable life lesson which involved a go-go bar and your mother’s love. What are your tips for living life between adversities? Integrity411My mother’s ex-husband was a questionable man and after he picked me up from elementary school he used to take me to a go-go bar where ladies were dancing in their panties. I was a child, so I thought: how nice for them, I hate getting dressed too! They dance all day and then some nice people put money in their panties. The ladies would give me milk or Coca-Cola and give me a dollar, so I wanted to be a go-go dancer when I grew up. At that age I didn’t know there was anything wrong with me going there and I learned not to judge people so quickly

Letter: Colin Ford obituary

Colin Ford was a most supportive critic. In 2006 I was invited to speak about Virginia Woolf and Photography at the Women’s Library in London. Part of my paper was about Julia Margaret Cameron, Woolf’s great aunt, and her many influences on Woolf’s writing and photography.Already then the world expert on Cameron, Colin was in the audience, having trekked all the way to Whitechapel on a wet weekday evening. Terrified that I might misconstrue or misrepresent Cameron in front of him, I fumbled the slide projector