Arts
An exercise in murder
A friend said recently that the only two people he knew who had read Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers…
What happened to Gomorrah?
You’re not going to like this and it pains me to say so but Gomorrah: The Origins is not in…
An enjoyable circus show masquerading as education
Brainiac Live! is a ‘family science’ show based on a popular Sky TV programme. It’s ideal for children under 12…
In defence of Thames Water
Perhaps the greatest honour ever paid to Queen Victoria was to have a sewage-pumping engine named after her. Both she…
What cinema gets wrong about nuns
Why are filmmakers so interested in nuns? They’ve been exploring the subject for more than a century, which might seem…
The court music of the ruling class
It would be difficult to do certain shows in the courtyard of Somerset House. One can’t really host anything too…
Don’t miss this dark Hansel and Gretel
The Three Choirs Festival always feels so nourishing, so eternally English, that you sometimes forget how much history has been…
In praise of postcards
In its campaign to preserve traditional British screen-free pleasures, English Heritage is promoting a variety of wholesome pastimes this summer,…
A gurgle of merriment
Chekhov is tricky. He’s not someone we think of as uproarious but the playwright himself used sometimes to complain that…
The Trainspotting musical is made for cruise ships
Plenty of critics have mocked Trainspotting – the musical (with lyrics and music by Irvine Welsh and Stephen McGuinness, respectively)…
I suspect a lot of TV is AI-generated
AI slop is not a new phenomenon. But it is becoming more prevalent as the lazy, the modish and the…
Is this really the best Charli XCX can do?
Of the three creative pursuits that give Charli XCX’s eighth album its title, the English pop star seems least interested…
Bring back the old Tube seat designs!
Enid Marx once pondered ‘whether postage stamps are fine or industrial art. In my view the question rests on the…
The concert of the year
Ah, so that’s where the kangaroo comes in! Garsington Opera produces a souvenir mug each summer decorated with cartoons of…
The new Spider-Man is a triumph of Hollywood professionalism
Remember Peter Parker? By the end of the last instalment of the Spider-Man movies, No Way Home, we were the…
What’s the point of Unesco?
The FIM-92 Stinger missile is not a subtle weapon. An anti-aircraft rocket, capable of launching a high-explosive ‘fire and forget’…
High Antipodean
The death of that fabled cricketer Sir Garfield Sobers – one of the greatest all-rounders who ever lived – is…
A Sound of Music with brains as well as heart
If you’re interested in how words work with music, the collected lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are an investment you’ll never…
Wet Leg have become a proper rock band
Everyone uses the word ‘indie’ to describe a style of music. And Pulp and Wet Leg are two bands that…
The invincibility of menopausal women in TV drama
Ride or Die began with a typical day for a fiftysomething woman in a TV drama. Having assassinated a Russian…
The finest vacuum-cleaner romance you will see
A Useful Ghost is the best sex-with-a-vacuum-cleaner film I’ve seen in a while – or perhaps ever. It is deeply…
The finest music ever composed by a Breton naval officer
Grade: B+ There’s a special art in making something difficult appear effortless, and the string trio is a supreme test.…
This J. Edgar Hoover musical is destined for Broadway
Here Comes J. Edgar! has a brash poster featuring a cross-dressing FBI agent in fishnet tights with his thighs splayed…
The Victorian Hieronymus Bosch
No one paints fairyland like Richard Dadd (1817-86). In ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’, 1855-64, he reveals a teeming congregation of…
A Treasury on YouTube
It’s strange how much we take for granted the world we inherit, which is available to us on YouTube for…
