Arts
If you're tired of Netflix's agendas, turn to BritBox's new Agatha Christie
Netflix’s share price has collapsed and a major factor, people are saying, is its relentless pushing of agendas. I think…
A peculiar backwards mutation
It’s not hard to sympathise with Christopher Allen’s recent column in the Review section of the Australian decrying the juxtaposition…
This Trump satire is too soft on Sleepy Joe and Cackling Kamala: The 47th at the Old Vic reviewed
Trump is said to be a gift for bad satirists and a problem for good ones. He dominates Mike Bartlett’s…
The chief characteristic so far has been nervousness: Chivalry reviewed
Chivalry – written by and starring Sarah Solemani and Steve Coogan – is a comedy drama about post-#MeToo Hollywood life.…
Disney's rococo roots
A clever, original exhibition at the Wallace Collection has Laura Freeman twirling her way through the West End
The exquisite pottery of Richard Batterham
Richard Batterham died last September at the age of 85. He had worked in his pottery in the village of…
A wonderfully unguarded podcast about the last bohemians
Ordinarily, if a podcast purports to be revelatory, you can assume it is anything but. There’s a glut of programmes…
Humour, sweetness and sincerity: Father John Misty's Chloë and the Next Twentieth Century reviewed
Grade: A– In which Josh Tillman reimagines the whole back catalogue of 20th-century American pop music (except for rock), tilting…
A hoot: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent reviewed
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stars Nicolas Cage playing a version of Nicolas Cage, in a parody of Nicolas…
A remarkable film that gleams with mastery
What a relief it was to see Parallel Mothers the new film by Pedro Almodóvar. There was the tediousness and…
Exquisite and deranged: two glass exhibitions reviewed
A ‘Ghost Shop’ has appeared between Domino’s Pizza and Shoe Zone on Sunderland High Street. Look through the laminated window…
Mostly gripping – and boasts not one but two Mr Darcys: Operation Mincemeat reviewed
Operation Mincemeat is based on the book by Ben Macintyre, which in turn is based on what Sir Hugh Trevor-Roper…
The awfulness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has always felt weirdly personal
Squaring up to the prospect of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m reminded of a vintage quote by…
How did he even fool the Duke of Edinburgh? Netflix’s Jimmy Savile – A British Horror Story reviewed
The only impersonation I can do is my Jimmy Savile impersonation. This is not uncommon among people of my generation:…
Could the Arts Council pay Americans to keep this stuff in America? Daddy and The Fever Syndrome reviewed
The Fever Syndrome is a dramatised lecture set in a New York brownstone occupied by the super-brainy Myers family. The…
The beauty of gasholders
Dan Hitchens on the beauty of gasholders
Igor Levit deserved his standing ovation; Shostakovich, even more so
Music and politics don’t mix, runs the platitude. Looks a bit tattered now, doesn’t it? For Soviet musicians, of course,…
Archangel of Italian film
Like yesterday, there’s the memory of William Weaver, the great translator from the Italian of Umberto Eco’s The Name of…
Will put you in mind of Lost in Translation: Compartment No. 6 reviewed
Compartment No. 6 is set aboard a long train journey across Russia, a country we don’t hear much of these…
A spirited attempt to fix a show that’s never really flown: Utopia, Limited reviewed
Utopia, Limited (1893) is a rare bird, and one that every Gilbert and Sullivan completist simply has to bag. The…
It’s a miracle this exhibition even exists: Audubon’s Birds of America reviewed
In 2014, an exhibition of watercolours by the renowned avian artist, John James Audubon, opened in New York. The reviews,…
A fitting swansong from Tamara Rojo: The Forsythe Evening reviewed
One wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of Tamara Rojo. The most fearsome figure on the British dance…
Shakespearean directors could learn from this: the National Theatre’s Hamlet for 8- 12-year-olds reviewed
The NT has rejigged Hamlet for 8- to 12-year-old children. It’s a decent attempt to cover the highlights at a…
He is now a family entertainer: Stormzy at the O2 Arena reviewed
Stormzy occupies a curious place in British pop culture right now. He’s the darling of liberals for all his good…
Don’t read Ulysses; listen to it
Don’t read James Joyce’s Ulysses, says John Phipps. Listen to it
