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Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 28 January 2021
The Sutton Hoo burial site in Suffolk has proved to be one of the most valuable archaeological finds ever made in Britain, shedding priceless light on the Anglo-Saxon period...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 28 January 2021
South London all-female post punkers, Goat Girl caused a bit of a splash with their self-titled debut album and early, belligerent tunes like “Scum” back in 2018. Now, however, is...
Miranda Heggie
Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Fast making a name for themselves in contemporary chamber music, The Hermes Experiment players here give a wonderful debut recital at the Wigmore Hall, With a range of pieces as...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Anna Friel’s unstable detective Marcella Backland has been on the brink of existential burn-out ever since her first appearance on ITV in 2016, but it seems audiences have a...
Liz Thomson
Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Never have the early months of the year felt more cruel. Escape is what we all yearn for – from home, from ourselves and our shrunken lives. Never has music been more...
Jessica Duchen
Tuesday, 26 January 2021
From a distance, the pianist Christian Blackshaw bears an uncanny resemblance to Franz Liszt, silver hair swept back à la 19th century. At the piano, though, you could...
Liz Thomson
Tuesday, 26 January 2021
I suspect that the work of James Baldwin is not all that familiar to readers in Britain, perhaps not even to black readers...
Richard Bratby
Tuesday, 26 January 2021
A darkened stage; a pool of light; a solitary figure. And then, flooding the whole thing with meaning, music – even it’s...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 26 January 2021
Relic's deliberate drabness hits home first; set in Victoria, Natalie Erika James’s modern horror shows us a grey...
Laura De Lisle
Monday, 25 January 2021
Polly Walker's character in Netflix's sumptuous new Regency romance, Bridgerton, could've easily been little more than a...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 25 January 2021
“Hope”, from the debut album by 20 year old London singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, has a perfect chorus for these times....
David Nice
Sunday, 24 January 2021
Finally, it seems, the time is right for a major British TV drama about how the AIDS crisis hit the early 1980s London gay...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 24 January 2021
"Three plus versions of the same album. It’s ridiculous, but I’m glad.” The first paragraph of Richard Hell’s text in the...
Saskia Baron
Saturday, 23 January 2021
This is an odd film, made even odder by a caption near the beginning, which claims it is "inspired by true events" but doesn...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 23 January 2021
Bicep's second album fufills the promise of the first, released in 2017 to wide acclaim. Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar...
Mark Kidel
Friday, 22 January 2021
Jasmila Žbanić’s latest film, once again about the people of her native Bosnia and Herzegovina, is hardly an easy watch....
Veronica Lee
Friday, 22 January 2021
It has taken three years for the second series of Back to reach our screens (a combination of the creator being busy, a star...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 22 January 2021
Sad to report, this fourth series of Call My Agent! (Netflix) will be the final outing for this caustically addictive saga...
Guy Oddy
Friday, 22 January 2021
Norway’s Wardruna have proved to be an unlikely international musical success, both within Scandinavia and further afield,...
tv
Marcella, Series 3, ITV review - Anna Friel returns as the defective detective
Terror and trauma in a high-risk mission in Belfast
theartsdesk Q&A: actor Polly Walker on 'Bridgerton' and the new breed of period drama
Talking wigs, women, and her (brief) experience of coronavirus
It's a Sin, Channel 4 review - poignant, funny, vibrant masterpiece
Russell T Davies's deep and shapely drama about the impact of AIDS on 1980s London
film
The Dig - a haunting exploration of time and timelessness
Adaptation of John Preston's novel packs emotional wallop
new music
Album: Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams
Anticipated debut is a persuasive, sweet-natured, poetic listen
classical
The Hermes Experiment, Wigmore Hall online review - innovative and uplifting
Much exciting music being made by, and written for, this talented young quartet
Christian Blackshaw, Wigmore Hall online review - pure as the driven snow
The British pianist takes Mozart and Schubert on their own terms
'The total confusion about post-Brexit rules adds to the distress': classical musicians speak out
Ten players and administrators on the fallout in government restrictions to EU touring
opera
Romances on British Poetry / The Poet's Echo, English Touring Opera online review - Britten and Shostakovich in a double mirror
Two composers add up to one compelling drama, as ETO cuts its cloth to suit the times
Best of 2020: Opera
With no touching from mid-March onwards, this art-form was hard hit - but ingenuity ruled
Royal Opera Christmas Concert online review – pajama party around the Nutcracker tree
Vivacious opera and cheesy carols under the lively baton of Mark Wigglesworth
theatre
Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure review - the perfect bedtime story
Sharon D Clarke and Olivia Colman sparkle in delightful radio play in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital
Dick Whittington, National Theatre at Home review - colourful and amiable entertainment
Free stream of the NT's Covid-affected pantomime
Best of 2020: Theatre
Out of pandemic-driven chaos and confusion came moments of clarity - and "Blindness"
dance
The Nutcracker: an end-of-year obituary
It's been a rough ride for the seasonal cash cow. Here's how ballet companies coped
The Seven Deadly Sins, Opera North online review - viscerally thrilling
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's indictment of capitalism in a vibrant new production
comedy
Back, Channel 4 review - return of sibling-rivalry comedy with Mitchell and Webb
Simon Blackwell delves into fraternal mind games
Comedy podcasts round-up 2: from home and abroad
Lively chat, masterful spoofing and behind-the-scenes fun
Books
Eddie S Glaude Jr: Begin Again - James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today review - can America avoid the fire this time?
A historiographical study of the activist and writer, 'the figure we need to turn to in the age of Trump'
Olivia Sudjic: Asylum Road review - trauma, barely suppressed
A timely and absorbing reminder of the proximity of violence
Raven Leilani: Luster - portrait of the artist as a black millennial woman
Diamond-cut debut catches every glint of our modern malaise
visual arts
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Tate Britain review - enigmatic figures full of life
When is a painting not a portrait?
Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch, Royal Academy review - juxtapositions that confuse rather than clarify
Similar themes, different sensibilities
latest comments
This was the best streamed concert I have heard...
What an excellent review of this movie that...
Shame to have a review pan a good documentary...
Thanks very much for your comment Elizabeth - and...
Thanks Craig. When I said "Hills Phil and Graham...
Nice write up, but it’s Phil Hill, not Hills Phil.
I agree - great to see some of these key figures...
The EU probably hasn't even been approached by...