Arts
'Cocaine addiction is time-consuming': the rise and fall of Kevin Rowland and Dexys
Michael Hann talks to Kevin Rowland about Dexys, insecurity and the cocaine years
The only things left worth watching on the BBC are foreign buy-ins like The Last Wave
Soon, very soon now — even sooner than I imagined, if A Suitable Boy turns out to be as lacklustre…
From riveting Hitchockian melodrama to bigoted drivel: BBC’s Unprecedented reviewed
Back to the West End at last. After a four- month lay-off, I grabbed the first available chance to catch…
Victorian burglars
Spare a thought for Victorian burglars. Just when they thought they could go back to ransacking South Yarra mansions while…
Different words
If you’d been in our house during the Coon cheese debacle you would have heard me shouting at the TV:…
Art tackles social distancing and, for once, actually wins: Philharmonia Sessions reviewed
First there were the home recitals: musicians playing solo Bach in front of their bookshelves, wonkily captured on iPhones. Next…
The people who were idiots at gigs in early March are still idiots
Is the world ready for the return of live rock music? On the evidence of the first gig in London…
Fine tunes and spacey, quiet grandeur: Taylor Swift’s Folklore reviewed
Grade: A- This is worrying — like listening to a speech by David Lammy and finding yourself, against your better…
Sumptuous and very promising: A Suitable Boy reviewed
Nobody could argue that Andrew Davies isn’t up for a challenge. He’d also surely be a shoo-in for Monty Python’s…
Theatres can now reopen – but they will resemble prison camps
Auditoriums can now reopen — but they will resemble prison camps, says Lloyd Evans
The real Rupert Murdoch, by Kelvin MacKenzie
The BBC documentary on Rupert Murdoch is pure one-sided bile, says Kelvin MacKenzie
An extraordinary debut: Make Up reviewed
Make Up is the first full-length film from writer–director Claire Oakley, set in an out-of-season holiday park on the Cornish…
Language notes
One of the most intriguing expressions to come out of the pandemic so far is ‘deep cleaning’. We read that…
Pierre Soulages
A French painting purchased in Melbourne in 1953 has been repatriated selling for $5.26m earlier this month in Paris. For…
Why I love French telly
There’s a scene in the French espionage series The Bureau — about the DGSE, France’s equivalent of the CIA or…
RSC’s Merchant of Venice is full of puzzling ornaments and accents
The BBC announces Merchant of Venice as if it were a Hollywood blockbuster. ‘In the melting pot of Venice, trade…
The problem with livestreaming heavy metal? No moshpits
There was only so long anyone could put up with the live musical performances of the early days of lockdown:…
Louis Theroux’s podcast reveals a master at work
I always want to know more about Louis Theroux, which is odd, since I’ve seen so much of him already.…
Worth catching the virus for: Saint Frances reviewed
Two films about young women this week, one at the cinema, if you dare, and one to stream, if you…
Model villages aren't just for kids
Model villages deliver a cheerful jolt to unexamined notions about our own place – and size – in the world, says Richard Bratby
The artistic response to the pandemic has so far been mind-numbingly banal
Travelling around Latin America three years ago, Stephen Chambers was attracted by pharmacy signs with pictograms advertising treatments to illiterate…
Mystery portrait
Shortly after moving to Manhattan in the noughties I was strolling through the West Village when I came across a…
David Hockney A closer winter tunnel, February-March 2006
The National Gallery of Victoria has closed again ‘until further notice’. The rest of the country is more fortunate, at…
James Graham's small new drama is exquisite: BBC Four's Unprecedented reviewed
Let’s face it. Theatre via the internet is barely theatre. It takes a huge amount of creativity and inventiveness to…
The best podcasts for all your corona-gardening needs
The American diet was probably at its healthiest in the second world war. Fearing interruption to supply chains, Washington launched…
