Arts
How to build the bomb
Graham Greene used to say that none of the great literary works he had read as an adult had the…
Too in thrall to today’s dogmas: ITV1’s A Spy Among Friends reviewed
In 2014, Ben Macintyre presented a BBC2 documentary based on his book A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the…
Intoxicating: Bruce Springsteen, at BST Hyde Park, reviewed
Seven years ago, I asked Bruce Springsteen what he meant when he talked of the covenant between himself and his…
A stunning work of art: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One reviewed
Blockbuster action movies are designed to stun the audience into submissive acceptance. Complexity, humanity, emotion and beauty are reduced to…
Kwame Kwei-Armah’s embarrassing update of Love Thy Neighbour: Beneatha’s Place, at the Young Vic, reviewed
Beneatha’s Place, set in the 1950s, follows a black couple who encounter racial prejudice when they move to a predominately…
Fascinating forgeries: Art and Artifice – Fakes from the Collection, at the Courtauld, reviewed
In 1998 curators at the Courtauld Institute received an anonymous phone call informing them that 11 drawings in their collection…
Was Vera Brittain really this insufferable? Buxton Festival’s The Land of Might-Have-Been reviewed
‘Ring out your bells for me, ivory keys! Weave out your spell for me, orchestra please!’ It’s lush stuff, the…
The problem with podcasts
Can anything serious come from podcasts, asks Sam Kriss
Keeping Ralph on his toes
It would have been interesting to hear Barrie Kosky and Kip Williams talk about the theatre on Tuesday night. In…
Ugly, mechanical, soulless: Apple TV+’s Hijack reviewed
Idris Elba would have made a perfect James Bond. Not the James Bond that we knew and loved when he…
A naked pamphleteering exercise: Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical, at Phoenix Theatre, reviewed
Nothing demonstrates the inanity of profanity like an undercooked comedy. The famous Spitting Image puppets have returned in a political…
Still one of the great vocalists: Peter Gabriel, at OVO Hydro Glasgow, reviewed
Most artists begin an arena show with a bang: emerging from the floor, the gods, on a hoist, everything short…
A comedy double act from John Cleese and Justin Welby: the Archbishop Interviews reviewed
I’m listening to John Cleese talking to Justin Welby in the new series of The Archbishop Interviews when the thought…
Gripping: Name Me Lawand reviewed
You’d have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by Name Me Lawand. It’s a documentary about…
Featherweight fun: La Cenerentola, at Nevill Holt Opera, reviewed
‘Goodness Triumphant’ is the subtitle of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and you’d better believe he delivers. It’s the sweetest thing imaginable;…
Free, noisy, fun: Young V&A reviewed
One of the annoying things about too many contemporary museums is that, having ditched old-fashioned closely typed descriptive labels and…
The joy of kabuki
Louise Levene on the Japanese art form you can now watch at home
An icy restraint
The world has seemed like a procession of deaths lately. Generally, of those in old age. Of all of them,…
Did ChatGPT write this? Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reviewed
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final film in the franchise so it’s Harrison Ford’s…
Why aren’t Spoon filling stadiums?
Here’s a mystery for you. Why were Spoon, one of the most dynamic, sharpest rock bands in the world, playing…
A play that explains why England’s football team are so lousy: Dear England, at the Olivier Theatre, reviewed
James Graham’s entertaining new play looks at the England manager’s job. Everyone knows that coaching the national side is just…
Policed conviviality: Serpentine Pavilion 2023 reviewed
As I sat down at this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, I overheard a curious exchange. ‘You mustn’t create art within art,’…
Time to take your meds, Kanye
No one does agonising quite like Mobeen Azhar. In several BBC documentaries now, he’s set his face to pensive, gone…
Joshua Reynolds’s revival
In front of the banner advertising the RA Summer Exhibition, the swagger statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) by Alfred…
