Category : Culture

Arnold Schwarzenegger unhurt in four-vehicle Los Angeles crash

Film star and California governor pictured at scene of accident in which police confirm one woman taken to hospitalArnold Schwarzenegger has been involved in a multi-vehicle crash that resulted in a woman being taken to hospital.The film star and for...

Belfast review – Branagh’s chocolate box vision of his childhood

Kenneth Branagh’s monochrome film of growing up in 60s Northern Ireland offers nostalgia but avoids getting to grips with the TroublesKenneth Branagh’s unabashedly feelgood memoir of growing up in Belfast as the Troubles erupted in the late 1960s suf...

On my radar: Mark Oliver Everett’s cultural highlights

The Eels frontman on a biography of Vampira, a Pixar triumph and the glory of Bobbie GentrySinger-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, 58, is the frontman of alternative rock band Eels and is also known by the stage name E. Since...

Idles review – like being punched and hugged at the same time

O2 Brixton Academy, LondonGalvanised by newly sober-sharp Joe Talbot, the impassioned Bristol band aim wider, higher and louder in a thrilling showcase of their latest album, CrawlerTowards the end of Colossus, Idles’ hulking opening number, frontman...

Raymonda review – passion carries Tamara Rojo’s parting shot

Coliseum, LondonThe plot’s still a problem but the dancers give their all in the outgoing ENB artistic director’s bold attempt to bring an old classic in from the coldOne of Tamara Rojo’s early acts as artistic director of English National Ballet was...

Classical home listening: young composers and Handel’s power women

The National Youth Choir of Great Britain have been busy commissioning, while Sandrine Piau soars on Enchantresses• Despite the no-choral-singing strictures of lockdown, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain has inspired nine striking new pieces...

‘It’s a glorified backpack of tubes and turbines’: Dave Eggers on jetpacks and the enigma of solo flight

When inventor David Mayman took to the skies, it seemed he’d answered an age-old longing. So why did no one seem to care?We have jetpacks and we do not care. An Australian named David Mayman has invented a functioning jetpack and has flown it all ov...

Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu review – Chinese writing’s near death experience

A lively chronicle of the inventors who gave their all to make the Chinese script compatible with modern life“If the Chinese script is not abolished, China will certainly perish!” So said the literary author Lu Xun in the 1930s, and many in China agr...

‘The clap for the NHS meant nothing’: novelist turned doctor Roopa Farooki on her frontline experience of Covid

When the writer retrained in medicine, she never imagined she’d be working through a pandemic. She describes how she has coped with the everyday tragedy by putting her experience into wordsIn February 2020, when the novelist and doctor Roopa Farooki...

Samira Ahmed: ‘I gave the V sign to a rude driver – it turned out to be a police car’

The broadcaster on making a stand, meeting Paul McCartney, and a solo shopping trip at the age of twoBorn in London, Samira Ahmed, 53, began her career as a BBC trainee and rose to present news, current affairs and arts programmes on radio and televi...

Pedro Almodóvar on Spain’s tragic past: ‘You can’t ask people to forget’

With his new film Parallel Mothers, the director dials down the camp to address the shadow of fascism hanging over his homelandPedro Almodóvar is in Madrid at his production company El Deseo (The Desire). El Deseo could not be a more fitting name: de...

Trigger Point: Vicky McClure’s bomb disposal thriller will turn you into an expert copper, sarge

Banter. Grit. An ex-Line of Duty star sweating her topknot off. Forty-five minutes of this detective drama and you’ll be fairly confident you can disarm a nail bombIt’s a set-piece, sarge. Through the tunnels of London. Scottish bloke on the walkie-t...

A Human Position review – slow, lingering love story in dreamy, small-town Norway

An elegant, beautifully framed drama with playful, Murakami-esque cat cameoes care of the Norwegian writer-director Anders Emblem“What is the best thing about Norway?” asks the leading character in this intriguing film from Norwegian writer-director...

TV tonight: what better time for an evening with Dolly Parton?

BBC Two provides a night of songs from the Queen of Country. Plus: a moving portrait of a fearless ice wall climber. Here’s what to watch this evening Continue reading...

From Nightmare Alley to Let’s Eat Grandma: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

Whether it’s Guillermo del Toro’s noirish carnival, a gothic synthpop duo or the return of British art masterpiece, our critics have your plans for the week coveredNightmare AlleyOut nowIf you had to pick the best person to remake a cult 1947 noir ab...