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James Cameron-Wilson celebrates UK box office +43% WoW and +173% YoY. It's the prequel Wonka that's responsible which, while a little woke and lightening Roald Dahl's dark world, is nonetheless great fun, somewhat in the moud of Mary Poppins. While Timothy Chalamet doesn't have the requisite magic, Hugh Grant excels. The music (there should be more) and dialogue is delicious and the young audience when James saw it forgot all about toilet breaks. James also saw Leave The World Behind on Netflix. Starring Julia Roberts, against type, it's an often implausible, but hugely enjoyable, Hitchcockian thriller taking its audience on a roller-coaster ride with comic underpinning.

Steve Caplin delves into the latest AI developments. Google's Gemini AI can work with text, audio, images, video or even hand-drawn pictures. The forthcoming TV news Channel1 has AI presenters and reporters and will use "trusted news sources". Steve demonstrated how it translates on the fly. Amazon, meanwhile is to invest $4bn in a startup to generate a chatbot called "Claude". Most impressive – and potentially scary – is BrainGPT which converts thoughts into text. There's a crowdfunded e-scooter which folds down to the size of a briefcase while a Dutch shipbuilder has come up with an e-vessel to support offshore wind farms that can recharge from the turbines it is servicing.

Political commentator Mike Indian discusses Rishi Sunak and the Rwanda Bill, which led to Robert Jenrick's resignation. With the Tory party once more engaged in ferocious in-fighting, are the Prime Minister's days numbered? Discussing the clampdown on legal migration, with a net 750,000 migrants last year, Mike wondered if our politicians, on all sides, are in tune with the public, especially in the Red Wall areas. Discussing why we are so bad at forward planning in the UK, Mike felt that Keir Starmer, if he is to become PM, needs a plan to show how people's lives will be improved.

On 22nd May, following a Public Accounts Committee hearing in Westminster, our commentary was entitled 'Don’t waste the Child Trust Fund harvest!' It's now over three months since the oldest recipient of these accounts turned 21: with the percentage of unclaimed adult-owned accounts still over 40%, it's time to take action. So please register to join us on Tuesday 5th March at Church House, Westminster, for a major half-day event sponsored by NatWest and The Tracing Group calling for priority action to reach over one million young adults whose accounts, worth over £2 billion in total, are lying dormant because their young adult owners don't know anything about them. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins. Register for 5/3/24 at www.sharefound.org/CTFconference

Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Helen Crane ask: do we have a mortgage price war on our hands — the cheapest market rate is now just 4.29%? Meanwhile the gold price is at a record high, and the oil price has fallen to its lowest for the past five months.

Google’s Bard just got an upgrade, can it catch up to OpenAI’s ChatGPT? Ron Gross and Andy Cross discuss new jobs report numbers, Alphabet’s latest AI move bringing Gemini into Bard, and GameStop’s curious corporate investing plan update, and Chewy’s status as the #1 pet pharmacy in the U.S., Lululemon’s business-as-usual quarter, and Smuckers showing it has pricing power in peanut butter. Then, 19 minutes in, journalist and author Bethany McLean’s talks with Deidre Woollard about her latest book “The Big Fail” and takes a look at the past three years, how we responded to COVID, and the lasting effects on households, businesses, and the economy. Finally, 33 minutes in, Ron and Andy break down two stocks on their radar: Target and MongoDB. Stocks discussed: GOOG, GOOGL, GME, DOCU, CHWY, LULU, SJM, MDB, TGT. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Andy Cross, Ron Gross, Bethany McLean, Deidre Woollard

Matt Frankel and Jason Moser, our resident Fintech Fools, caught up to talk about the payments space, how it's changed this year, and what they’re keeping an eye on come 2024. They discuss the state of the “War on Cash”, embedded finance, and two “toll booths” that aren’t going away anytime soon. Tickers discussed: V, MC, PYPL, SQ, PINS, MQ, FOUR, MELI, UBER, DASH. Hosts - Jason Moser, Matt Frankel

We love the idea of transforming our homes so much that an entire cottage TV industry has sprung out of it, ranging from Grand Designs, to Ugly House to Lovely House and Your Home Made Perfect. For Jaemi and Roly Glancy sketching out how they could renovate their properties turned into a start-up helping others envisage what they could do with theirs. Simon Lambert of This is Money speaks to Roly about how they started the business and where it's going.

Adam Cox is in conversation with Anish Mehta of APARI to explore the prolonged journey of the tax world into the digital era. Together, they delve into the ways software can ease the burden on individuals during the tax return season. The discussion addresses the reasons behind the procrastination of many in completing their tax returns and identifies the specific individuals who must closely heed the forthcoming changes in tax rules. https://www.apari-digital.com/

Many parents are challenged by the decision on whether to have another child: it might be age or health considerations which generate doubt, or perhaps complications with an earlier pregnancy. This episode helps by test driving different futures and developing some clarity in thinking through the potential outcomes, thereby helping to resolve what can become analysis paralysis generated by anxiety and fear of the unknown.