politics
Sorry We Missed You review – Ken Loach's unapologetic assault on the gig economyThursday, 31 October 2019
If the recent period of British history that has involved recession, austerity, the hostile environment and Brexit is to have chroniclers, who better than Ken Loach and his trusty screenwriter Paul Laverty. Their blend of carefully researched social... Read more... |
Ben Elton, Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall review - magnificent return to stand-upThursday, 31 October 2019
It has been 15 years since Ben Elton, known as Motormouth in his 1980s heyday – last toured. A decade-and-a-half ago, one of the instigators of alternative comedy tells us at the top of the show, he could have still passed muster as young or cool.... Read more... |
Black and Blue review - police thriller aims high and missesThursday, 24 October 2019
Police corruption has fuelled many a Hollywood thriller, but sadly Black and Blue is no Training Day or The Departed. Naomie Harris plays US Army veteran turned rookie cop Alicia West, just three weeks into a career with the New Orleans police... Read more... |
Official Secrets review – powerful political thrillerThursday, 17 October 2019
Early in the political drama Official Secrets, Keira Knightley’s real-life whistleblower Katharine Gun watches Tony Blair on television, giving his now infamous justification for the impending Iraq War, namely the existence of weapons of mass... Read more... |
'A laboratory for everything': Jasper Parrott on the future of his classical music agencySaturday, 05 October 2019
Fiftieth anniversary? It seems incredible but also so exhilarating not least because these times we live in now seem to me to be a golden age for music of all kinds and in particular for what we label so inadequately classical music. This flowering... Read more... |
Rigoletto, Welsh National Opera review - same old update, fine performanceSaturday, 28 September 2019
Considering the doubtfulness of its underlying idea, James Macdonald’s production of Rigoletto has shown remarkable staying power since its Cardiff début 17 years ago. It’s true that this particular opera - which, unlike one or two others of Verdi’s... Read more... |
Russell Howard, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena review - a return with biteWednesday, 25 September 2019
It’s been two years since Russell Howard last performed stand-up. That’s a long gap for such an established fixture of British comedy. As he points out, the world has changed, something reflected in his new show Respite. There are still the... Read more... |
CD: Rachid Taha - Je suis africainSaturday, 21 September 2019
Rachid Taha, sadly felled by a heart attack just over a year ago, has come back from the dead! He could not sound more lively than on this vibrant posthumous offering, definitely not something cooked up from tasty leftovers, but a well thought-... Read more... |
The Cameron Years, BBC One review - quite interesting but a bit boringFriday, 20 September 2019
David Cameron has been a recluse since the fateful days of June 2016 when the referendum on EU membership didn’t go quite the way he’d hoped. He’s probably been living through a private purgatory. “I think I will think about this forever,” he... Read more... |
Faith, Hope & Charity, National Theatre review - a grim compassionWednesday, 18 September 2019
Alexander Zeldin continues his devastating analysis of modern Britain in this culminating play of a (very loose) trilogy that started with 2014’s Beyond Caring, followed by LOVE two years after that. These are bleak dramas that show human... Read more... |
Spotlight on The Troubles: A Secret History, BBC Four review - Ulster's bitter sectarian war revisitedWednesday, 11 September 2019
“The Troubles” is a polite euphemism for the ferocious storm of sectarian violence and political chaos which convulsed Northern Ireland for 30 years, before being brought to a close by 1998’s Good Friday Agreement. Irish journalist Darragh MacIntyre... Read more... |
Margaret Atwood: The Testaments review - pertinent but lacklustreSunday, 08 September 2019
You will doubtless have seen the protestors who dress as Gilean handmaids to protest anti-abortion legislation from Texas to Missouri. They model their costumes on those of the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale: tight white bonnets... Read more... |
