Sunday 12th October 2025
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How much does your Ofo bike cost? Your privacy?

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How much does your Ofo bike cost? Your privacy?

Students returning to Oxford last year may have noticed an unfamiliar sight on the city streets: countless new, dock-less bikes. They came in three varieties: yellow, silver and blue, representing the three major bike sharing firms operating in the city (Ofo, Mobike and Pony Bike). By now, the presence of these bikes has become a familiar sight to most of us. Indeed, Oxford is just one of many cities engulfed in a global bike-sharing boom and reports have proliferated in recent months of bike firm wars in Sydney, Mobike trips in London and even bike graveyards in Shanghai.

The system is simple and its appeal obvious. Users download an app, enter their card details, turn on location data and then use the app’s built in map function to find, swipe and unlock bikes, which they can then use within the city limits for as long they like. Fares are low: all three firms charge just 50p for a 30-minute ride (Mobike also charges a refundable 15-pound deposit). The convenience and inexpensiveness of these apps have already made them a firm favourite amongst the student population, and recent months have seen the firms replacing and updating their bikes.

The sudden proliferation of these bikes does, however, raise a few questions. Firstly, why did three firms appear in the city almost simultaneously? Should one firm have not realised the potential in the market and cornered it? Secondly, how can charges of 50p per ride possibly fund the purchasing and maintenance of so many bicycles?

Whilst the deposit fees charged by these companies can be a useful source of initial capital, Mobike is the only firm in Oxford that charges such a fee. Thus, as with many start-ups, it is likely that dock-less bike sharing firms are not funded by self-generated revenue, but rather by external investment. The two largest firms operating in Oxford, Ofo and Mobike, are owned by Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent respectively, making the Ofo/Mobike competition but one field in the two firms’ ongoing global battle. This showdown encompasses everything from social media, video-streaming, ticket-selling, lift-sharing, bill-paying, food delivery and, now, bike-sharing apps.

Wang Yijian, a Chinese tech journalist who authored a report on the finances of the global bike-sharing boom, explains that, as the major investors in the two firms, Alibaba and Tencent are not interested in interested in profit, but rather seek to utilise user data to strengthen their payment apps, Alipay and WeChatPay. In the very earliest stages of setting up each app, users enter their phone number, email and card details as well as enabling the app to track their location. The apps gain further information, like age and personal details, from other sources, such as linked social media accounts.

It’s access to this sort of information that attracts investors to bike-sharing firms.

Whilst recent controversies and changes to data protection laws have forced these firms to be less explicit with their data sharing activities (before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, “I consent to Mobike sharing my data with other firms outside of Mobike and outside of the EU”, was one of the very first conditions users were required to agree to when setting up the Mobile app), the data policy of each firm still allows them a considerable degree of leeway when it comes to personal data usage. All three state in their data policy that they may share users’ data with parent companies, affiliate companies and any contracted “partners”, as well as with firms who eventually buy them out. What’s more, all three apps are only usable once users approve long and somewhat ambiguous lists of entities with whom they can rightfully share user data.

I contacted each of the firms asking what exactly is done with this information: whether it is ever sold, where the money to buy the bikes comes from and whether access to data was a major incentive for investors. Ofo failed to respond to me at all and Mobike declined to comment, instead sending a thirty-page whitepaper entitled “How Cycling Changes Cities”, which focused on urban planning. Only Clara Vaisse, co-founder of PonyBike, offered a full response:

“One of the Pony promises is to never sell the data to any third party…we’re extremely proud to say that every Pony ride is profitable. The money to buy new bikes comes from the profit generated by running the scheme. The business is privately owned by the founders and Angel investors.”

Ponybike is an Oxford-based start-up and operates in just one other city. This difference in scale is, perhaps, crucial: where Ponybike exists to provide bikes and make a profit, Ofo and Mobike, both operate in over 200 cities and are entwined in a global battle – one fuelled by tech-giant rivalry and investors’ pursuit of data.

There’s a greater lesson lying behind the Norrington Table

Daanial Chaudhry
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There’s a greater lesson lying behind the Norrington Table

The value of the Norrington Table is called into question almost every year it is published. However, what’s actually important is not what we see, but what we don’t. Less discussed is the cause of individual colleges’ success year upon year.

At the end of the day a degree from Oxford is a degree from Oxford, why then does it appear that some colleges consistently appear to achieve more Firsts and 2.1s?

Resource endowment is certainly a good place to start. Although hard graft of course matters, having a helping hand along the way clearly benefits some students. Indeed, there is a significant disparity in the wealth of individual colleges. The decentralisation of resources inherent in the Oxford system means that colleges have autonomy on how and where these resources are spent.

Wealthier colleges are likely to be able to assist students, attract better tutors, better able to offer permanent teaching contracts, and are more likely to have better resourced libraries.

And, indeed, looking at the wealth of colleges, guess who topped that table: St John’s College. Incidentally, the college that came bottom of the Norrington Table, Harris Manchester, also came bottom in terms of college assets.

This may simply be coincidence, I hear you shouting.

Based on Norrington Table rankings combined with the ranking of colleges based on their net assets, a Spearman’s Rank Correlation Test (my maths isn’t perfect, so I’ve had this double checked), reveals an R-value of 0.6111.

There is a undoubtedly a moderately positive correlation between a college’s wealth and its place on the Norrington Table. Indeed, Cherwell analysis last term of Norrington Table data between 2006-2017 shows that seventeen of the top twenty best academically performing colleges are also among the top twenty richest colleges.

Now, as the age-old adage goes, correlation does not imply causation. But here’s the thing. There is evidently an advantage for undergraduates that differs depending on what college you are at.

Indeed, Christ Church offers students 30 free days of vacation accommodation each year for academic purposes. Incidentally, they are also second in terms of college wealth. Now picture this: you are a History, an English, or a CAAH student, and in the vac between second and third year you have thesis research and reading to do.

The local library at home is probably going to be of little use to you given the esoteric topping you are researching. But, if you happen to be fortunate enough to go to Christ Church, you have access over the vac to the entirety of the Bodleian resources. You are also free from your parents hounding you as to why you have been in your room all day (and more importantly free from the stresses that home life can bring for so many students, and which may adversely affect performance).

Similarly, at Magdalen, grants covering 75% of book costs (up to £100) mean that students are easily able to buy books of their own, without the need to borrow them from college libraries. Again, this is likely to have a material effect on students’ degree outcomes – Magdalen took second place on the Table.

College wealth clearly dictates how well colleges do on the Norrington Table, and if we are going to take any message from the table, it shouldn’t be that St John’s is better than the rest.

It should be that St John’s is better than the rest, to a large degree because St John’s is richer than the rest. The correlation between wealth and student outcome is reason for us to demand greater centralisation of resources, and greater consistency across colleges, in order to create a level playing field for all fortunate enough to study at Oxford.

OULC Women’s* Caucus demand faster action on abortion clinic safe zones

Isabel Morris
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OULC Women’s* Caucus demand faster action on abortion clinic safe zones

Oxford University Labour Club Women’s* Caucus have called on the Home Office to “accelerate their promised announcement” on the possible wider implementation of safe zones outside abortion clinics as a “matter of urgency”.

Proponents argue already established buffer zones, like the one outside Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing, West London, limit the amount of abuse, intimidation, and attacks people visiting the clinics face. Such zones have been “beneficial for the wellbeing of clinic employees and visitors.”

The statement, authored by OULC Women’s* Officer, Lottie Sellers, was signed by both incumbent OULC Co-Chairs, Charlotte Austin and Francesca Best.

The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, has promised an announcement on the issue by September.

The Women’s* Caucus said: “The Caucus, as emphasised in earlier statements, fully supports reproductive autonomy and believes that access to safe abortions is vital, and that people should be able to seek these without feeling threatened, harassed or endangered.

“We call for the Home Office to accelerate their promised announcement on widening the implementation of these buffer zones as matter of urgency, in order to safeguard and respect the rights and wellbeing of those seeking reproductive health services, be they abortions or the wider provisions of the clinics.”

OULC Women’s* Officer, Lottie Sellers, told Cherwell: “As emphasised in the statement, OULC Women’s* Caucus believe that the availability of safe abortions and family planning services is vital.

“Furthermore, it is not enough that these services should simply exist – people should be able to access them without facing prejudice and abuse.

“As it stands, the provision of these services in countries such as the USA is marred by intimidation and violence from protestors who seek to restrict the bodily autonomy and rights of visitors to the clinics.

“This is a phenomenon which is very much on the rise in the UK too, as a small but significant and threatening group of campaigners copy the examples of their American counterparts, behaving in ways which go beyond freedom of speech and expression and instead are actively threatening.

“The Home Office are being lukewarm at best in their response, and having acknowledged the call for the protection of British clinics by safe zones, they are nonetheless taking a potentially dangerously long time on a decision which is of great importance to people’s rights of safe abortions and bodily autonomy.”

Ealing Council was the first local authority to introduce a public spaces protection order (PSPO) for the area around a Marie Stopes clinic in April this year.

Labour MP for Ealing and West Acton, Rupa Huq, is leading a cross-party effort to pass national legislation widening the model implemented in Ealing.

St John’s professor sues University over ‘forced retirement’

Cherwell News
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St John’s professor sues University over ‘forced retirement’

A fellow at St. John’s College claims that he was forced to retire two years ago in order to meet workplace diversity expectations, an employment tribunal has heard.

Prof. John Pitcher, an English professor who has taught at the college since 1982, had plans to work past the university retirement age of 67. However, he was allegedly told by the College that he would have to retire from his job, which brings an annual salary of £83,000, at the age of 67.

Although an initial retirement date had been set for 2012, Pitcher was made a Founder’s Fellow of the college, with a fixed contract until 2020. He undertook a fundraising position within the college under the assumption he would be employed up until then, and now claims he was “forcibly retired” four years prior to the agreed date.

The move by St John’s to enforce the initial retirement date apparently came under Oxford’s Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA) policy, which sets a compulsory retirement age at 68.

Pitcher has since taken his case to an employment tribunal, where he is now suing the University for £100,000 for loss of earnings after an internal appeal was rejected.

Court documents from the case indicate that the college believed the move was necessary to “safeguard the high standard” and to move towards “inter-generation fairness”, with “succession planning” and “diversity” also used to justify the move.

President of St. John’s College, Maggie Snowling, echoed these documents in a witness statement: “The EJRA helped both the college and the university take steps towards a more diverse academic body and will continue to do so.

“It is a proportionate means of ensuring increasing diversity and intergenerational fairness.”

Professor Pitcher said: “I believe that decision was discriminatory because of age and was not justified and was also unfair.

“The EJRA for both the college and university which applied to me applied a retirement age of 67 years that retained the status quo from the mid-1980s.

“This age is far too low and I can see that I would be able to carry on working, as would many of my colleagues, well into my mid-70s.

“I felt it was unfair that I had to try and ‘convince’ the university and college panels that my continued employment was appropriate.”

The English Fellow added: “None of these other institutions have reduced their standards by not forcibly retiring staff. There is no evidence to support the need to ‘refresh’ the academic workforce in terms of turnover.

“The university is effectively seeking to justify discrimination on the grounds of age in order to promote equality and diversity of other protected characteristics.

“I fully accept the importance of equality and diversity. I am myself from a working class background and the importance of these kinds of social aims weighs strongly with me.

“I did not wish to retire, as I did not see the relevance of my age to my ability to carry out the duties of my post in research or teaching for the duties of the Founder’s Fellow.”

Professor Pitcher was given the option of reapplying for his job, though appears to have decided against the move.

He noted: “Trying to satisfy an unreasonably high threshold test that I am virtually indispensable to the university when I had given decades of impeccable service is degrading and humiliating.”

There have been successful internal appeals against the University’s compulsory retirement age in the past. In 2014, Denis Galligan, a law professor at Wolfson College, challenged his set retirement age of 67. Peter Edwards, a professor of inorganic chemistry at St. Catherine’s College was also allowed to keep his job at 69.

Cambridge is the only other Russell Group university to have such a policy.

The University of Oxford declined to comment. St. John’s College were contacted for comment.

St. John’s tops 2018 Norrington Table

Oscar Baker
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St. John’s tops 2018 Norrington Table

St. John’s College have jumped to the top of this year’s Norrington Table, the college rankings for undergraduate academic performance.

60 of the 109 Finalists at the College achieved Firsts, with a Norrington score of 82.0%. All but one Finalist received at least a 2.1.

Last year’s table-toppers New have fallen to fifth place in the rankings, with a score of 77.52%. Magdalen, St. Catherine’s and Merton make up second, third and fourth places respectively.

Harris Manchester have come bottom of the college rankings, with a score of 64.35%. St. Edmund Hall, St. Hugh’s and Hertford make up the bottom four.

The results also reveal that 94% of Finalists across the University achieved at least a 2.1 classification, while just under 37% graduate with Firsts.

St. Catherine’s has dramatically jumped to third from 26th place last year, when it scored 68.68%. Only St. Catz and St. John’s achieved more Firsts than any other classification.

Cherwell analysis last term suggested there is a significant link between the wealth of an applicant’s choice of college and their likelihood of academic success.

St. John’s is Oxford’s richest college with assets totalling £592,346,000. This is over twenty times greater than Harris Manchester, the college with the least net assets according to most recent financial reports.

Cherwell analysis of Norrington Table data between 2006-2017 shows that seventeen of the top twenty best academically performing colleges are also among the top twenty richest colleges.

The Norrington Table ranks Colleges and PPHs by academic performance among undergraduate Finalists. Percentages are calculated based on the classifications of undergraduate degrees awarded.

5 points are awarded per First class, 3 for a 2.1, 2 per 2.2 and 1 point for a 3rd. 0 points are awarded for a pass, Honour Pass and Unclassified Honours.

The percentage is then calculated by dividing the total score by the total maximum score each College could possibly obtain, when total student numbers are considered.

The full results table can be viewed here.

The results so far are still to be treated as interim, as appeals by some Finalists are still pending.

SU calls for meeting with Uni over banned monk’s employment

Isabel Morris
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SU calls for meeting with Uni over banned monk’s employment

Oxford SU has called for an “urgent meeting” with the University following revelations that the University employed a monk convicted of child sex abuse for twelve years, despite a government ban on his working with younger undergraduates.

Father Bernard Green, a Benedictine monk and member of the Faculty of Theology, was banned from engaging with students under the age of 19, having been convicted of indecent assault of a child under the age of 14 in 1996. He was dismissed from all roles at St. Benet’s Hall in 2012, before his death in 2013.

The SU told Cherwell: “It is alarming to learn that Green was employed by The University whilst still on the Sex Offenders Register and was allowed to engage with students under the age of 19, which clearly goes against his ban.

“We have called for an urgent meeting with the University to discuss how to ensure this does not happen again and ensure that student safety is not jeopardised again.”

The SU further condemned the University for their “clear negligence” on this issue.

They added: “This is a clear indication that stringent investigation into potential new staff has not occurred and may not be occurring today. This negligence puts students and other staff members at risk and directly harms the University community.

“The collegiate university cannot sit back and ignore the fact some staff members may be a danger to students.

“The SU calls the collegiate university to act in a more diligent and thorough way when employing staff and we urge them to particularly examine whether incoming staff members have the potential to cause harm, given evidence and/or prior offences.

“We have called for a meeting with the University to learn about their work to stop this from happening again.”

In response to the SU’s statement, a University spokesperson told Cherwell: “We understand students’ concerns about the findings of this troubling report.

”We regularly review our safeguarding policies and pre-employment screening checks and we are always happy to discuss these with our students.”

Meet the Parents: College Families Explained

Cherwell
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Meet the Parents: College Families Explained

The college family is a huge part of Oxford life. It not only helps you get to grips with what Oxford is like before you come, but also provides you with a network for academic and welfare support throughout your time here.

Extended college families can also form great social groups. They often go for meals, drinks and activities together and act as a great way to forge friendships between academic years.

College parents

The chances are your college parents will be the first people you here from in Oxford. They weren’t randomly assigned to you, but chosen for you because it was believed they could best help you flourish here. One of them almost certainly studies the same subject as you, this means that they can provide great informal academic help. College parents are good for asking all those questions you don’t want to ask your tutors, and you may often get a far more truthful answer from them as well. Adjusting to the Oxford workload can be difficult, if you need a hand with notes, problem sheets or essay structure, they should be more than happy to help you out.

Getting married

The idea of getting “college married” maybe seem strange to some, but the institution has some great benefits. The first thing to stress is that they are usually completely platonic and act as the basis of long lasting friendships. There’s also very little need to conform to the traditional view of marriage. College marriages come in all shapes and sizes— three or four-way marriages are not unheard of.

Different colleges have different rules regarding who you can and can’t marry. Its generally advised against marrying someone who does the same subject as you, as it limits the range of children you can be assigned. It’s also advised against getting married too early on in Michaelmas, as you don’t know if you and your spouse will still be friends later in the year.

How it works

If your college parents are doing their job right, they should take you and your siblings for a meal early in Freshers’ Week. This acts as a good way for you to meet each other properly. Asides from this your relationship with them works both ways. drop them a message asking if they want to go for a coffee if you know they are having a tough week, or pidge them some chocolates and a card if they have exams coming up. You are very much there for each other. When it comes to having your own children, you’ll be expected to write letters welcoming them to college much the same way you received them.

It may all seem a bit bizarre at first, though it is honestly a fantastic network that is the basis for many friendships, stories and escapades—just remember it’s all a bit of fun.

‘Cowboy Woman’ is Thailand’s celebrity street food chef

Darius Parvizi-Wayne
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‘Cowboy Woman’ is Thailand’s celebrity street food chef

When we think of cowboy hats and pulled pork, we probably think of barbecues in Alabama not street markets in Thailand. But walking beside the northern gate of Chiang Mai, Thailand’s biggest northern city, you will find a woman wearing a cowboy hat, meat cleaver in hand.

This woman, perhaps the most famous face in Chiang Mai, is known to the locals simply as ‘Cowboy Woman’. Her respect, love and passion for the food she creates makes her the perfect symbol for this haven of street food delights.

Often our unaccustomed eyes look at street food with more trepidation than intrigue, more anxiety than excitement.

With the safety nets of the modern restaurant all but gone, it truly is just you and the food. Inevitably, doubts pop into your head: “That’s an interesting colour for a sausage to be”, or “Can it really be that cheap?” or the age-old, “That’s a hell of a lot of flies”.

It would be a mistake, however, to avoid all street food stalls because of their lack of sink, table cloth or TripAdvisor rating. In reality, true, authentic street food will put a bigger smile on your face than even the most esteemed restaurants – all without breaking the bank.

In Chiang Mai, street food rules supreme. Food is not just functional there – as it can be in the West – instead, it is a lifestyle that impacts every waking moment.

Given its elevated status, the street food in Chiang Mai is complex, joyful and, ultimately, very, very delicious. Take Suki Haeng, a beautifully balanced pork stir-fry filled with bright yellow and green cabbage mixed with glass noodles.

Take Khao Soi, the noodle soup for which the city is famed: fragrant, colourful, light yet rich. The name literally means “cut rice”, referring to the traditional method of manually cutting the rice with scissors. Following the tradition started by the Southern Chinese Yunnanese Muslims, the dough for the rice noodles is stretched out on a cloth over boiling water. After this sheet is steamed, the noodle is rolled out and cut with scissors. No fancy machines to be seen on these streets.

Take Khao Kha Moo, tender stewed pork legs handed out by the Cowboy Woman. She chops the pork and serves it over a bed of rice all for 30THB (70p). Her food has gained so much recognition by tourists and locals alike that she was visited by the celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain when he travelled to Chiang Mai in 2014.

Bourdain was a man who broke down stigma, biases and cultural boundaries so he could focus on the amorous relationship between maker, eater and the food. Always honest and frank, he gained his fame by revealing previously unearthed culinary secrets: how much butter goes into all our food, the days we should avoid fish, what happens when you order meat well done – the list goes on.

Abandoning the professional kitchen, Bourdain showed the world that food is more than an allotted number of calories. Instead, he believed that food is tied up with emotion, memory and relationships. Cowboy Woman represents this ethos, telling Bourdain: “I’m happy when people eat, and they say the food was good”.

This simple joy expressed by street vendors across Thailand is the reason for such culinary success. Indeed, the way Thais love their food manifests itself differently to that of many Western chefs.

Thai food is not about meticulous accuracy. For the most part, innovation and futuristic artistry go out the window. These dishes are passed down through generations. They are dishes that, in many ways, transcend those who make them. Thais revere their food and expect their guests to do so too. Perhaps such a respect for the food we make, eat, and enjoy is an attitude we could all adopt.

A new college is to be opened in the next five years

Eve Webster
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A new college is to be opened in the next five years

Oxford University is planing to open a new college for the first time in 30 years, in a bid to keep pace with Ivy League competitors. 

According to a provisional strategic plan, over the next five years the university will build 1,000 new rooms for graduate students and “at least one new graduate college”.

If created, this college would be the first established since 1990, when Kellogg College was opened for graduate students.

The proposals are yet to be approved by the university’s dons, but have been accepted by Oxford’s governing body. 

According to these plans, the postgraduate population would increase by 850 students over the next five years, while an additional 200 undergraduate places would be created. 

According to Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy institute, this proposed increase in post-graduate places is financially motivated.

He said: “Oxford and Cambridge say they lose money on every undergraduate whereas for post graduates you can charge the full market rate and more.

“Oxford doesn’t compare itself to other institutions in the UK, it compares itself to other institutions around the world such as Ivy League which have more graduates than undergraduates.”

While fees for undergraduates at Oxford are capped at the national limit of £9,250 per annum, the university claims that the real cost of educating the average Oxford undergraduate student is almost £16,000 thanks to the university’s tutorial model. 

In relation to these plans, New College’s bursar, David Palfreyman, commented on the fact that Ivy League competitors are generally smaller than Oxford and Cambridge at undergraduate level. 

He said that being in order for Oxford to be  “a world class university and a super research university à la Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton” it requires a larger population of postgraduate students to carry out said research.

The plans also aim to “set ambitious targets” to “reduce by 2023 gaps in attainment by gender, ethnic origin and socio-economic background”.

They intend to create a substantial increase in the number of undergraduates from groups which are poorly represented at the university.

A spokesperson for the university said the plans are being examined and discussed, adding: “The University will comment more fully when its plan has been widely reviewed and formally adopted.”

Flying saucers and the end of the world: Oxford Fringe sci-fi shows question life as we know it

Susannah Goldsbrough
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Flying saucers and the end of the world: Oxford Fringe sci-fi shows question life as we know it

Oxford theatre has wandered into science fiction. Into a place where aliens eat pickled eggs and families crawl into their basements to survive the apocalypse that’s coming. Or rather, it has wandered into the minds of the kind of people that believe in aliens and apocalypses, telling their stories, and unpicking their lives.

Wax House Theatre’s Doom’s Day, this year’s OUDS National Tour, tells the story of doomsday prepper Joseph Doom, in his own words – much of the script is lifted from one of his many free e-books about his life. The cast multi-role their way through the story, swapping checked lumberjack shirts and American accents – some good, some less good – to depict ‘a child of the 60s’ who became increasingly disenchanted with 1970s America. Director Laura Day is impressively experimental in the range of theatrical techniques they have built the production upon, packing it full of soundscapes, movement sequences and lip sync. Matilda Hadcock was particularly good at embodying the voice of a Sarah Koenig-esque reporter, all crisp gestures and curiosity. And James Walsh, for me the stand out actor, did a lovely job recreating the moon landings with nothing but tin foil and breath control. But at times, it feels like the production is rushing through a theatrical chocolate box of styles and techniques, for a purpose we never quite discover.

By the end of the show, we really do know a huge amount about Joseph Doom – what his schooldays were like, where his family comes from, his strange and faintly disturbing romance with his school-teacher-and-then-wife. Why? His was a moving story, especially in the moment he must painstakingly undress his wife after she has suffered a stroke (a moment they could even have made more of). But is it an important one? I don’t think this production quite knew.

A production that does know exactly what its point is Poltergeist Theatre’s (one of New Diorama’s Graduate Emerging Companies) Lights Over Tesco Car Park. The four principal characters, gradually established as a group of Oxford students who befriend a shadowy figure called Robert – a man “in communication” with an extra-terrestrial – strike an immediately comfortable rapport with the audience. They share our sceptical view of Robert’s sightings, inviting us to laugh at the titles of internet articles like ‘The Same Aliens That Killed JFK Just Rigged The World Cup’, but also constantly push us to pick over our assumptions about what makes something true. ‘If I told you that the brownie I gave you earlier was made from my poo, does that make it less delicious when you ate it?’ asks the slightly whacky Julia (Julia Pilkington), while the other characters cringe along with the audience.

But director Jack Bradfield has made sure that the show is never really embarrassed by its own weirdness. Confidently, deftly, the cast invite audience members onstage to join them in recreating various real life UFO sightings, with some wittily imaginative assistance from water guns, balloons and flying saucers. And by the end, you realise that the work of the play has been to gently widen its interest in UFOs into a much bigger, and more theatrically pertinent, question about belief – because, in the theatre, we choose suspend our disbelief all the time. Plunged into the dark in the final scene, the four actors lift up their phones, fingers pressed over the torch light to make four dull red pin pricks. I know it’s an iPhone, but I’m seeing an alien. It’s a choice I make, that all the audience make, and truth has very little to do with it. We share a moment, witness an illusion. That’s the power of theatre, and that’s why Lights Over Tesco Car Park is more than just a play about aliens with a delicious Bowie soundtrack.

This article was corrected 18/08/18 to reflect the fact that Laura Day was the sole director of Doom’s Day.

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