Arts
Radio 4's Moominland Midwinter restores Moomintroll's innocence
Moomins do not like winter. In one of Tove Jansson’s stories, Moomin’s Winter Follies, young Moomintroll bumps his head when…
Tells us more about today than the early 1960s: BBC1's A Very British Scandal reviewed
For people who like a good upper-class scandal (or ‘people’, as they’re also known), 1963 was definitely a vintage year.…
This radical Nativity is also one of the great whodunnits of art history
Martin Gayford on a radical Nativity that is the subject of one of the great whodunnits of art history
The art of the Christmas card
It’s the thin end of the wedge, the slippery slope, the beginning of the end of a civilised Christmas. It…
Clive Rowe is astonishing: Hackney Empire's Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed
Jack and the Beanstalk is a big, sprawling family show that opens with a baffling gesture. A booming voiceover announces…
The Nutcracker wasn’t always considered quite such a box of delights
The enduring appeal of The Nutcracker. The ballet wasn’t always considered quite such a box of delights
The genius of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score
The enduring appeal of The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score is nothing less than the sound of Christmas
Entirely gripping: The Lost Daughter reviewed
The Lost Daughter is an adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel about motherhood that says, quite ferociously: it’s complicated. And:…
In praise of seasonal chart fodder
Christmas: the most vulnerable time of the year. I heard ‘A Winter’s Tale’ by David Essex on the radio the…
Truly godawful: Ed Sheeran's = (Christmas edition)
Grade: C= My wife’s ill with Covid and demanding inexhaustible libations and difficult meals, which she will leave uneaten. The…
How crazy was Louis Wain?
Before Tom Kitten, before Felix the Cat, before Thomas ‘Tom’ Cat, Sylvester James Pussycat Sr, Top Cat and Fat Freddy’s…
Jane Campion
A new film by Jane Campion is always going to be a magnetsing prospect and the idea of it suddenly…
Reprehensible – but fun: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's Complete DG Recordings reviewed
Grade: B It must have been an interesting day in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s press office when Blair Tindall’s memoir…
Why? Spielberg's remake of West Side Story reviewed
When you first hear that a remake of West Side Story is on the cards, it’s: God, why? Why would…
Modernism's back, baby: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival reviewed
It’s not everyone’s idea of fun, a trip to Huddersfield in the depths of November. But as any veteran of…
An amazing technical achievement: Life of Pi at Wyndham's Theatre reviewed
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is a complicated organism. The action starts in southern India where we meet a…
A show of ample and eerie majesty: British Museum's Peru: A Journey in Time reviewed
Growing up on a farm outside Lima, I was aware that indigenous Peruvians did not understand time in the same…
‘I am not able to answer your question’: an irascible Paolo Sorrentino interviewed
Hermione Eyre talks to an irascible Paolo Sorrentino about therapy, Vesuvius and why he kept things simple and easy for his latest film
Even worse than the book: Amazon Prime's The Wheel of Time reviewed
A couple of years ago, in that near-forgotten era when we could travel almost freely, I canvassed social media as…
Brought me to tears: Tortoise Media's Sweet Bobby podcast reviewed
Eleven years ago, Kirat Assi received a message on Facebook from a man named Bobby. There was a family connection…
Nitram
Nitram is the Martin Bryant film which sent shivers down everyone’s spine at the mere prospect. Justin Kurzel’s film about…
Zany and sensory-rich: Scottish Dance's Amethyst/TuTuMucky at The Place reviewed
The Barcelona-born choreographer Joan Clevillé has form for off-beat storytelling with a streak of sincerity. Before becoming artistic director of…
When will the Nineties revival end?
We’ve been living through a nostalgia for the 1990s that has lasted longer than the decade itself. That was back…
Ignore the wall text and focus on the magnificent paintings: Tate Britain's Hogarth and Europe reviewed
There are, perhaps, two types of exhibition visitor. Those who read the texts on the walls and those who don’t.…
More mesmerising than it should be – Disney+'s The Beatles: Get Back reviewed
My late friend Alexander Nekrassov loathed the Beatles, which I used to think was a wantonly contrary position akin to…
