After a decade, the Netflix hit is bowing out. Ahead of its last episodes, the show’s creators and cast talk about big 80s hair, recruiting a Terminator killer – and the birds Kate Bush sent them

How do you finish one of the biggest and most popular TV series of the last decade? Three years after season four came out, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is about to make its way into the world. Millions of viewers are getting ready to find out what happens to the Upside Down and whether the plucky teens of Hawkins, Indiana can fight off Vecna for good, but it is early November 2025, and its creators Matt and Ross Duffer are finding it difficult to talk about. It’s not just because they’re feeling the pressure, or because the risk of spoilers and leaks is so dangerously high. It’s because the identical twin brothers from North Carolina are just not ready. “It makes me sad,” says Ross. “Because it’s easier to not think about the show actually ending.”

A decade ago, hardly anyone knew what the Upside Down was. Few had heard of Vecna, Mind Flayers or Demogorgons. In 2015, the brothers – self-professed nerds and movie obsessives – were about to begin shooting their first ever TV series. Stranger Things was to be a supernatural adventure steeped in 80s nostalgia, paying tribute to Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. Part of their pitch to Netflix was that it would be “John Carpenter mashed up with ET”. Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine were in it, so it wasn’t exactly low-key, but it was by no means a dead-cert for success, not least because it was led by a cast of young unknowns. The first season came out in the summer of 2016, smashed Netflix viewing records, and almost immediately established itself as a bona fide TV phenomenon.

The health secretary has embarked on a high-stakes reorganisation. It could be a model for rebuilding public services – or a nail in his and Labour’s coffin

Everybody has a horror story about NHS waiting lists. If it isn’t you, then it’s probably your neighbour, your friend, your elderly parent; trapped in an anxious, miserable limbo for months longer than they should have been, getting passed from pillar to post. The only thing we don’t all know about waiting lists, it turns out, is that actually they’re coming down.

Barely a quarter of the public in England knew waiting lists had fallen in Labour’s first year in power, according to recent polling for the Health Foundation thinktank in September: more than a third thought they had just kept going up, presumably because that’s what we have become gloomily resigned to. Since waiting lists are one of those emotional yardsticks by which people judge whether the country is falling apart or not, you would think the government might like to mention this, and indeed this week it planned to. But then someone close to Keir Starmer chose to accuse the health secretary of plotting a coup two days before a planned speech on NHS reform, accidentally ensuring that Wes Streeting’s pre-booked stint on breakfast telly was mostly spent debating whether the prime minister is toast or not. Streeting emerged a picture of injured innocence, while reminding everyone how much better he is at this stuff than the boss. Well done, everyone, and now back to the bit that actually affects anyone hoping to see a GP this side of Christmas.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Quizmasters are banning smart devices, using dedicated apps and finding plain old honesty can combat trivial offences

Who is older, Gary Numan or Gary Oldman? If you know the answer to this question (see below), you are probably one of hundreds of thousands of Brits who attend a pub quiz every week.

As a nation of committed trivia buffs, it was unsurprising that news of a quizmaster in Manchester outing a team for cheating was leapt on. Just where, we asked, is the special place in hell reserved for those quizzers who take a sneaky look at their phones under the table?

Max Rushden and Geoff Lemon are joined by Emma John and Ali Martin to discuss the Guardian’s top 100 Ashes cricketers and debate the merits of the top 10

• Find the full top 100 list here

What is the effervescent new boss at Pitlochry theatre planning for his first season? Huge names, undersung stars – and a King Lear played by ‘the woman who changed my life’

‘Holy shit!” This was the instant response of one venerable theatre critic when Pitlochry Festival theatre sent round embargoed copies of the plan for Alan Cumming’s inaugural season. The man himself sits back in the cavernous workshop behind the theatre building, dapper in a grey plaid suit. “I loved that,” he says gleefully.

When the Hollywood star was announced as the new artistic director of Scotland’s only major rural theatre last September, there was widespread shock – not least that Cumming answered an open recruitment call – followed by feverish speculation over which A-list pals he might charm away from London or New York to perform in Highland Perthshire.

The X-Files star is at his charismatic best as a ruthless multimillionaire who hires Jack Whitehall as a sinister nanny. It’s like The White Lotus meets The Talented Mr Ripley

I can’t say I had “Jack Whitehall stars with David ‘The X Files/ Californication’ Duchovny in glossy TV thriller” on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are, and a good time with it can be had by all. Alongside, perhaps, a smidge of national pride to see the daft lad from Fresh Meat, Bad Education and Travels With My Father all grown up and holding his own.

The glossy thriller in question is Malice, in which Whitehall plays Adam, a tutor promoted to manny (male nanny, for those not au fait with rich people’s terms), who is bent – for reasons as yet unknown – on ruining high-rolling businessman Jamie Tanner (Duchovny). Whether he has it in for the rest of the Tanner family and friends, or they are just doomed to be collateral damage, is not clear, but that doesn’t spoil the machiavellian fun.

Chancellor expected to freeze level at which people start paying income tax for two years rather than putting rates up

Rachel Reeves will put a £7.5bn tax rise at the heart of her budget after scrapping a separate plan to increase income tax rates just days before the announcement.

The chancellor has decided to freeze the level at which people start paying income tax for two years, according to government sources, rather than breaking a manifesto promise and putting rates up, as had been planned for several weeks.

Chinese national who police believe to be ‘one of the most
prolific sex offenders of all time’ imprisoned for minimum of 14 years

Chinese national Chao Xu, 33, who police believe to be “one of the most prolific sex offenders of all time”, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years for multiple offences including rape, sexual assault and upskirting.

More details soon …

Edward Brandt bombarded Mordaunt with calls and jumped a barrier at her office, leaving her feeling vulnerable, court heard

An former councillor has been convicted of stalking the former Conservative MP and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt.

Edward Brandt, 61, bombarded the former defence secretary with emails and voicemails and tried to jump the security barrier at her office.

US president dismisses questions over his links to financier as ‘hoax’ before announcing he will ask Pam Bondi to investigate leading Democratic figures

The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said that the US has “essentially reached a deal with Switzerland”, after the country was hit with a 39% tariff on Swiss exports to the US.

“We’re really excited about that deal and what it means for American manufacturing,” Greer told CNBC today in an interview.