Arts
All radio drama should be as good as this Conrad adaptation
The aching hum of crickets. The susurrus of reeds. The lapping of waves. The unmistakable noise of a sound technician…
The Heckler: Tate Britain is a mess. Its director Penelope Curtis must go
Things have not been happy at Tate Britain for some time. Last year Waldemar Januszczak wrote an article culminating with…
Culture buff
So familiar, Miriam Margolyes seems like one of us. Well, she is actually, because she took out Oz citizenship and…
Whose line is it anyway?
Songwriting credits are, as we know, not always to be trusted. Since the dawn of music publishing, there has always…
Whose line is it anyway?
Songwriting credits are, as we know, not always to be trusted. Since the dawn of music publishing, there has always…
Tate Britain
Things have not been happy at Tate Britain for some time. Last year Waldemar Januszczak wrote an article culminating with…
Tate Britain
Things have not been happy at Tate Britain for some time. Last year Waldemar Januszczak wrote an article culminating with…
The Spectator declares war on bad public art
Stephen Bayley announces the launch of What’s That Thing?, The Spectator’s award for bad public art
Don’t mock Elvis’s style - he was ahead of the curve
In the giftshop at the new Elvis exhibition at the Dome, you can buy your own version of his flared…
Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain reviewed: entertainingly barmy
In the centre of the new exhibition Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain there is a huge white elephant. The beast…
The dos and don’ts of the Russian art scene
They’re doing fantastic deals on five-star hotels in St Petersburg the weekend the Francis Bacon exhibition opens at the Hermitage.…
The Boy Next Door reviewed: a terrible new J-Lo movie that's disturbingly enjoyable
Stateside critics, who panned Jennifer Lopez’s new film The Boy Next Door on its US release last month, may be…
Muswell Hill reviewed: a guide on how to sock it to London trendies
Torben Betts is much admired by his near-namesake Quentin Letts for socking it to London trendies. Letts is one of…
A legendary piece of iconoclastic dance returns. Does the piece still stand up?
Funny how things turn upside-down with time. A work of contemporary dance that made an iconoclastic splash decades ago is…
Opera North's Gianni Schicchi and La vida breve reviewed: a flawless double helping of verismo
Is there a more beautiful aria than ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi? There are more overwhelming moments…
There’s nothing wrong with getting into Thomas Tallis on the back of Fifty Shades of Grey
Great works of art may have a strange afterlife. Deracinated from the world that created them they are at the…
Critical on Sky1 reviewed: a new medical drama where everyone radiates an unusual degree of competence and concern
Sky1’s new hospital drama Critical (Tuesday) can’t be accused of making a timid start. Within seconds, an urgent request had…
The pleasures and perils of podcast listening
No phrase is better calculated to tense the neck muscles of a regular podcast listener than ‘We have something special…
Culture Buff
Adelaide is the perfect festival city and its once biennial, now annual, Festival has been the pace setter for others…
Glad to be Grey
Great works of art may have a strange afterlife. Deracinated from the world that created them they are at the…
Glad to be Grey
Great works of art may have a strange afterlife. Deracinated from the world that created them they are at the…
Eurocrash and Eurotrash
Funny how things turn upside-down with time. A work of contemporary dance that made an iconoclastic splash decades ago is…
Will the real Swan Lake please stand up
Ismene Brown unpicks the great enigma of ballet theatre
Sargent, National Portrait Gallery, review: he was so good he should have been better
The artist Malcolm Morley once fantasised about a magazine that would be devoted to the practice of painting just as…
La Donna del Lago, Metropolitan Opera, review: Colm Toibin on a night of masterful singing
La Donna del Lago, based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott, is one of the nine serious, dramatic operas…
