Arts
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself?
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself? Lloyd Evans says yes
Painted, sculpted and stuffed: a history of the bird in art
These days, as the sparrows and starlings so common in my youth are growing scarce, there’s less need for a…
Perfect dancing but boringly beautiful
Aesthetically speaking, last week’s performance by the Nederlands Dans Theater 1 was one by the slickest of the season. Fashionably…
How do you like your pop: clean, dirty or downright soap-shy?
I am still listening to the new Coldplay album, and liking it more and more, and not just because everyone…
Royal Opera's Maria Stuarda: pathos and nobility from Joyce DiDonato, lazy nonsense from the directors
London is lucky to have heard Joyce DiDonato at the height of her powers in two consecutive seasons. The American…
A miracle: a three-hour film that flies by
Richard Linklater’s observational chronicle, Boyhood, was 12 years in the making and is 166 minutes long — that’s nearly three…
The sweating, dust-glazed saints at the Hampstead Theatre tells us nothing new about the miners’ strike
Hampstead’s new play about the 1984 miners’ strike was nearly defeated by technical glitches. Centre stage in Ed Hall’s production…
Your starter for ten: why do we Brits so love University Challenge?
‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually…
The next new presenter of Woman's Hour should be a man
It seems incredible now but when the BBC’s youth station, Radio 1, was launched in 1967 there were no female…
Ryedale Festival: a beacon of survival without subsidy
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
Going Global
Listen http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_10_July_2014_v4.mp3 Two glorious playhouses grace the south bank of the Thames. Shakespeare’s Globe and the National Theatre stage the…
North star
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
Going Global
Listen http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_10_July_2014_v4.mp3 Two glorious playhouses grace the south bank of the Thames. Shakespeare’s Globe and the National Theatre stage the…
North star
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
Boringly beautiful
Aesthetically speaking, last week’s performance by the Nederlands Dans Theater 1 was one by the slickest of the season. Fashionably…
Keep it clean
I am still listening to the new Coldplay album, and liking it more and more, and not just because everyone…
Keep it clean
I am still listening to the new Coldplay album, and liking it more and more, and not just because everyone…
'I would find myself forging my own work': Quentin Blake on how he came to found the House of Illustration
Ariane Bankes talks to Quentin Blake about a new project that will bring illustration out of the shadows
Charles Hadcock – taking on the age of speculation with sculpture in the City
As the boundary between auction house and art dealer blurs yet further, with auctioneers acting increasingly by private treaty as…
Roger Wright's legacy at Radio Three – and his one big mistake
Roger Wright’s precipitate departure from both Radio Three and the Proms came as a surprise. At first the news was…
Fashion Victim – the Musical!: daft camp with a warm heart
Fashion Victim — the Musical!. There’s a title that’s been waiting to be used for ages. The Cinema Museum is…
Opera North's Götterdämerung is astounding (nearly)
It seems a very short time since I interviewed Richard Farnes about Opera North’s planned Ring cycle, the dramas to…
A Glastonbury adventure with Led Zeppelin, Lana del Rey, drug dealers – and my son
‘Charlie. E. Powder,’ said the friendly, helpful man working his way through the crowd during the mindblowing Friday-night headline set…
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Bloody Well Should Have Disappeared
If it were up to me this would be called ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window, Fell, and…
The Honourable Woman could have done with some help from an overpaid executive in a suit
BBC2’s The Honourable Woman (Thursday) began with a rather portentous voice-over bringing us the unsurprising news that ‘We all have…
