Arts
Imagine if Are You Being Served? had starred Laurence Olivier: ITV’s Vicious reviewed
Monday saw the return of possibly the weirdest TV series in living memory. Imagine a parallel universe in which Are…
Just writing about this radio programme makes me feel nauseous
If you’re in the least bit squeamish you’d better stop reading now. What follows is not for those who blanch…
Culture buff
Another announcement: more cultural infrastructure to dramatically increase the exhibition space at the Art Gallery of NSW. The architects are…
Boring Boorman
Queen & County is John Boorman’s follow-up to his 1987 semi-autobiographical film Hope & Glory, although why a sequel now,…
The long goodbye
There’s been a clutch of middle-aged danseuses taking leave of life in one way or another recently. We’ve seen the…
Simply Macnificent
‘I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get this chance in life,’ said Christine McVie, as the…
Simply Macnificent
‘I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get this chance in life,’ said Christine McVie, as the…
Evolutionary road
As Sepp Blatter has so affectingly remarked, the organisation he formerly headed needs evolution, not revolution. There is a consensus…
Evolutionary road
As Sepp Blatter has so affectingly remarked, the organisation he formerly headed needs evolution, not revolution. There is a consensus…
Are you being funny?
Monday saw the return of possibly the weirdest TV series in living memory. Imagine a parallel universe in which Are…
What are modern museums really for?
Do we really need museums in the age of Wikipedia and Google? William Cook thinks we do but his children don’t agree
Amazing. Thatcherite propaganda at the Young Vic
St James Theatre hosts a new play about Alexander McQueen (real name Lee), whose star flashed briefly across the fashion…
Man Up review: a film that treats female singledom as if it were cancer
Man Up is a British rom-com starring Simon Pegg as Jack and Lake Bell as Nancy. Nancy’s problem, at the…
Grayson Perry - heir to Lewis Caroll and William Blake
At the Turner Prize dinner of 2003, as the winner, Grayson Perry, took a photo call with his family wearing…
Was Glyndebourne right to revive Donizetti’s Poliuto? No, says Michael Tanner
It’s been a busy operatic week, with a nearly great concert performance of Parsifal in Birmingham on Sunday (reviewed by…
When Dr Johnson went to Tahrir Square
Goodness knows what the Great Cham would have made of Radio 4 airing an adapted version of his philosophical fable,…
BBC2’s Armada has something for everybody - including three yummy female historians
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
Culture Buff
Forty years ago I predicted an imminent Mendelsshon revival; I’m still waiting. This month brought a false dawn; at the…
Stolen goods
Man Up is a British rom-com starring Simon Pegg as Jack and Lake Bell as Nancy. Nancy’s problem, at the…
Living history
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
Should Euston Arch be raised from the dead?
Yes William Cook Rejoice! Rejoice! Fifty-four years after its destruction, Euston Arch has returned to Euston. Well, after a fashion.…
Welcome to Japan’s best kept cultural secret: an art island with an underground museum
In his introductory remarks to the Afro–Eurasian Eclipse, one of his later suites for jazz orchestra, Duke Ellington remarked —…
Renzo Piano’s new Whitney Museum is very good news - for the Met
About six years ago the first section of the now celebrated High Line was opened in New York and made…
How dedicated a fascist was Le Corbusier?
The ‘revelations’, 50 years after he drowned, that Le Corbusier was a ‘fascist’ and an anti-Semite are neither fresh nor…
What really happened in the Berlin Philharmonic election
The morning after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra failed to elect a music director, I took a call from Bild-Zeitung, Berlin’s…
