British GQ October 2017

“I’ve been to the Oscars, and this is better than the Oscars” – Michael Lewis Ever keen to keep us on our toes and perhaps more than a little irritated at having never been invited, there are some who think we created the Men Of The Year Awards simply in order to have a party. Although the Awards dinner (formerly at the Natural History Museum and the Royal Opera House before alighting on its current home at Tate Modern) has certainly managed to create its own microclimate of celebrity – a place where you might find Johnny Depp talking to Keith Richards, Amy Schumer swapping punchlines with Ricky Gervais, Sir Elton John comparing backhands with Andy Murray, or David Cameron, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson wondering if political careers really do…

Watch the winners’ speeches Can anyone’s Men Of The Year speech outdo Will Ferrell’s in 2015 or Amy Schumer’s last time? No idea what we’re referring to? Check out all the MOTY speeches past and present on the British GQ YouTube channel. Why Jared Leto’s personal style is a ‘total disaster’ The man himself raises an eyebrow at his own sartorial selections, talks near-death experiences, Blade Runner 2049 and beards in our behindthe- scenes video. Take a trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Watch the GQ interview on our YouTube channel and try to work out whether the two titans of comedy hate, love or lust after each other. It’s like an extra episode of The Trip, with added dinner jackets. #GQAwards On the night, our legendary Instagram booth will be in full swing, ready to…

John BALSOM Mob drama Peaky Blinders, set on the streets of Birmingham in the Twenties, is one of the BBC’s most popular series. Its success is in large part down to the brilliant Cillian Murphy, who plays gangster Tommy Shelby, which is why we crowned him TV Actor Of The Year. Shot in Manchester’s Victoria Baths by photographer John Balsom, Murphy looked suitably menacing in long coats and tailored trousers. Jonathan HEAF The Blade Runner sequel is finally here, with a sinister villain, Neander Wallace, played by GQ’s Actor Of The Year, Jared Leto. Features Director Jonathan Heaf interviewed Leto at his home in Los Angeles. “It was a former US military bunker: the antithesis of where you’d expect a movie star to live,” says Heaf, “almost as impressive as his majestic beard.” Charlie…

For the past two decades a storm has been brewing, creating the perfect conditions for the electric car to kill the internal combustion engine. The car that could end the gas guzzler is the Tesla Model 3, which I believe will be as important as the Ford Model T in the history of the automobile. Here’s why. 1. Better batteries In all-electric cars, range, acceleration and cost are all determined by the battery. That’s been the case since the very first electric car, invented in 1837 by Robert Davidson, a Scottish chemist. The battery on this monstrous locomotive weighed tonnes, giving it a top speed of 4mph and a range of a mile and a half. Electric car sales peaked in 1910, but by then the first Ford Model T had already…

THE RISING STAR This isn’t quite how Faris Badwan pictured his life turning out. Born in Bexley to a Palestinian father and English mother, as a child he desired nothing more than to play in goal for Blackburn Rovers. “I wanted to be like the other kids,” he says, sitting in a bar in London’s Holborn. “I wanted to be blond and have freckles and be called James.” Instead, Badwan grew up to be a 6ft 6in Marjane Satrapi illustration, his boxer’s nose emerging from a storm-cloud of black hair. He gave up on football and formed The Horrors with his friends in Southend- On-Sea, releasing their debut album, Strange House, in 2007. “We couldn’t play back then,” says the 30-year-old. “But that’s why I enjoyed it.” Three subsequent albums of increasingly professional…

THE VIDEO GAME As the reputation of football’s governing body deteriorates, that of Fifa’s namesake video game series only seems to improve. Last year’s edition sold 1.1 million copies in its opening week alone, and that popularity isn’t limited to fans. Professional footballers also race to the shops to find out how their realworld performance has been transposed to the virtual pitch by developer EA Canada’s army of data analysts. Fifa 18 promises an expansion to, and deepening of, a game that, year by year, becomes ever more beautiful. Here’s a four-frame preview... In its stride Last year’s game was built on a new technical foundation, the Frostbite Engine, which meant a seismic upgrade in graphics. Now, it’s in use alongside motioncapture technology to create an array of running styles appropriate to each…