wed 22/01/2025

Arts News

Listed: 10 classic tales of the city

Now is the time of year when weary travellers find themselves in some sun-strafed piazza, gazing in...

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Listed: The 10 Best Biblical Novels

From the myths of the Old Testament to the miracles of the New, the Bible has been as much a source...

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Listed: Suffragettes portrayed

It was both astonishing and depressingly unsurprising that Suffragette, Sarah Gavron’s feature...

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Best of 2017: Film

It was the night Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, those old robbers on the run, will want to forget...

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The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold

Yesterday the record for the most expensive painting ever sold was broken. At Christie's in New...

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Listed: 20 Punk Moments that Shook the World

Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols was issued on 28 October 1977. It’s an anniversary...

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Coming soon: trailers to the next big films

Summer's here, which can only mean Hollywood blockbusters. But it's not all Spider-Man, talking...

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Are video games an art form? Unquestionably

It is 2017 and we are still having this conversation: are video games art? We have been using...

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Listed: How I Do Love Thee

Love is in the air. Today, men and women and boys and girls will be pondering how to say it with...

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28 Sequels That Took Forever

This weekend T2: Trainspotting is released in cinemas. It's taken 21 years for novelist Irvine...

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Listed: Forget the Force

Next week the seventh episode of George Lucas's famed space saga will be released on a wave of hype...

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The 11 Best Gigs on Film (after Stop Making Sense)

In the arts there is never a best of anything. There is good, great and glorious. But best? There...

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Listed: The 100 Funniest Things about Downton Abbey

It began with the sinking of Titanic and the loss of not one but two heirs to the title. James...

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They say it's John's birthday

Not just a mere rock star but spiritual guru, peace campaigner, political icon, thorn in the flesh...

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Listed: The Best Mountain Movies

It has never been easier for cinema to capture the terror and splendour of the mountains. Cameras...

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Listed: Back To School

It's Monday morning, some way between the start of school term and the recall of students to...

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Listed: 10 Multiplying Actors

This week Legend opened in cinemas starring Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy. The actor’s double turn as the...

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Listed: Essential Operas 2015-16

September is upon us and it’s nearly time for the new season. English National Opera’s Artistic...

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Listed: Songs of Summer

It’s forecast to rain for a fortnight, just as the schools tip out their restless young. The roads...

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Listed: Precocious Writers

Once upon a time... Storytelling is an integral part of all human cultures, and a central pillar of...

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Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Out There, ITV1 review - drugs and thugs disfigure the Welsh...

If nothing else, ITV’s new thriller Out There is a fabulous advertisement for the Welsh countryside. Many scenes were shot in Brecon and...

William Tell review - stirring action adventure with silly d...

Despite Rossini’s banger of an overture and a Looney Tunes cartoon starring Daffy Duck as William Tell, I’ll wager that few non-German-speakers...

Tiffin Youth Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus...

When Vladimir Jurowski planned this typically unorthodox programme, he could not have known that a disaster even greater, long-term, than 9/11 was...

Celtic Connections: Orchestral Qawwali Project, GRIT Orchest...

Once again, Glasgow’s annual winter festival of traditional...

Blu-ray: Mikey and Nicky

The blurb that accompanies this Criterion Blu-ray calls...

David Lynch: In Dreams (1946-2025)

David Lynch’s final two features mapped a haunted Hollywood of curdled innocence and back-alley eeriness. Mulholland Drive (2001) seemed...

Kyoto, Soho Place Theatre - blistering, darkly witty play ra...

It took a while for journalists to identify the chain-smoking, Machiavellian figure who was a permanent presence at early international gatherings...

A Good House, Royal Court review - provocative, but imperfec...

Most Brits don’t know much about South Africa today, but we do know about house values, so this new comedy by South African playwright and...

Ben Elton, Duke of York's Theatre review - big subjects...

Ben Elton loves a scrap. The Motormouth of yesteryear, who made his name attacking Margaret Thatcher and her policies (and being attacked by the...