Arts
One man’s guilty pleasure is another’s palpable greatness
The film critic Anne Billson wrote a typically pugnacious piece recently about the phrase ‘guilty pleasures’, which has spread like…
More woe for Oedipus
I had high hopes for Julian Anderson’s first opera, Thebans. Premièred at the Coliseum last Saturday, it promised to mark…
‘Sometimes audiences applauded Frank; sometimes they threw stuff at him’
Frank is a music biopic, but only of sorts, as it is not at all like your average music biopic.…
Jack Bauer hits, er, West Ealing
Whatever worries Kiefer Sutherland may have had about reprising the role of Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day (Sky1,…
Nothing beats Book at Bedtime
There I was trapped in the bathroom at 10.55 p.m., unable to leave for fear of missing anything. The time…
Fifties domestic harmony
Our love affair with the 1950s has been going on for years and shows no sign of abating. Pangolin London,…
Domestic harmony
Our love affair with the 1950s has been going on for years and shows no sign of abating. Pangolin London,…
Domestic harmony
Our love affair with the 1950s has been going on for years and shows no sign of abating. Pangolin London,…
Not guilty
The film critic Anne Billson wrote a typically pugnacious piece recently about the phrase ‘guilty pleasures’, which has spread like…
Not guilty
The film critic Anne Billson wrote a typically pugnacious piece recently about the phrase ‘guilty pleasures’, which has spread like…
The very best of Broadway – a director's cut
Richard Eyre traces the history and popularity of the American musical
British choirs can’t match up to those from abroad
To curate a festival these days is to put oneself in the firing line. There is every chance that all…
The Guardian didn’t much like Noel Coward’s Relative Values – but you will
Cripes. How did I get that one wrong? A few issues back I blithely predicted that Harry Hill’s musical I…
A fresh perspective on reassuringly familiar artists
This exhibition examines a loosely knit community of artists and their interaction over a decade at the beginning of the…
Thanks to Audio Description, the blind have the best seat in the house
I did not mean to snort so loudly. There I was watching the amazing Simon Russell Beale in King Lear…
Blue Ruin is unwatchable, bloody – but, from what I saw, rather good
Blue Ruin is a low-budget yet highly accomplished revenge thriller although whether you have the stomach for it is another…
Khovanskygate is about the dreadfulness and possible glory of being Russian
Within the space of a few weeks we have had the rare chance of seeing the two great torsos of…
Generation War does something very un-German – bottles it
I was so looking forward to Generation War (BBC2, Saturday) — a three-part drama series covering the second world war…
The Archers hit a new low by letting Tom dump Kirsty at the altar
Did you hear those bloodcurdling screams from Kirsty? Those long-drawn-out wails that echoed horrifically through the ancient walls of St…
John Deakin is no genius – and he has not been forgotten
Every so often, John Deakin, jug-eared chronicler of Soho and hanger-on at the Colony Rooms, is breathlessly rediscovered as the…
Spirit of Soho
Every so often, John Deakin, jug-eared chronicler of Soho and hanger-on at the Colony Rooms, is breathlessly rediscovered as the…
Voices in my head
I did not mean to snort so loudly. There I was watching the amazing Simon Russell Beale in King Lear…
Spirit of Soho
Every so often, John Deakin, jug-eared chronicler of Soho and hanger-on at the Colony Rooms, is breathlessly rediscovered as the…
Voices in my head
I did not mean to snort so loudly. There I was watching the amazing Simon Russell Beale in King Lear…
Voices in my head
I did not mean to snort so loudly. There I was watching the amazing Simon Russell Beale in King Lear…
