Street Cat Bob – the legend lives on

Bob is back on the big screen – and also streaming to smaller screens until cinemas reopen. We went behind the scenes on the set of A Christmas Gift From Bob to stroke its star and chat to James Bowen, Luke Treadaway and other cast and crew. The message about kindness, compassion and keeping the hope through hopeless times is as essential as ever right now.

Ambassador’s reception

We unveil the first of our Big Issue Brand Ambassadors, actor and activist Christopher Eccleston. He speaks about how important The Big Issue has been in his life and why he’s giving gift subscriptions to all his family and friends. Great idea!

Mapping out a new way to buy subscriptions

We outline how readers’ continued support will mean we can keep supporting all of our vendors through troubled times. And we have developed a new map on our website where people will be able to look up their local vendor, find out more about them then buy a subscription with a share of the money going direct to them. We aim to keep adding more and more vendors to the map so keep an eye on our website for that!

Also inside

• Comedian and actress Sara Pascoe is this week’s Letter To My Younger Self
• With another last minute change to furlough, we look at how people’s jobs will be affected
• We bust the myth that started circulating saying foodbanks would close during lockdown
• Ariyon Bakare stars in the new series of His Dark Materials and opens up about the demons from his past that still haunt him
• Vendor Martin McKenzie spoke to us just days before he’d have to stop selling the magazine and Vendor Expert Mike McCall tells us how to look after chickens

Plus much more!

The latest Big Issue magazine is available now, from vendors all over the UK. If you’re unable to reach your local vendor, you can still subscribe to receive the magazine directly to your door or purchase through the Big Issue app.