England
Loving Miss Hatto, BBC One/ Homeland, Series 2 Finale, Channel 4Sunday, 23 December 2012
Joyce Hatto achieved a rare kind of immortality for being the pianist at the centre of an audacious classical music fraud, in which her husband faked "Joyce Hatto" CDs from the work of other artists and, for a time, enjoyed considerable success with... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Sam Lee - Ground of Its OwnSaturday, 22 December 2012
One would hope that a man whose CV includes “teacher of wilderness survival” and burlesque dancer might be well equipped to bring a better than average sense of depth and drama to a set of folk songs handed down through generations via the oral... Read more... |
The Town, ITV1Thursday, 20 December 2012
Plaudits to ITV for their recent campaign of new drama, even if the results have been patchy. The best ones have been well worth persevering with, and The Bletchley Circle and Tony Marchant's Leaving have wedged themselves most firmly in the mind.So... Read more... |
Vengerov, London Symphony Orchestra, Ticciati, Barbican HallThursday, 06 December 2012
Her Majesty was making a rare concert-hall appearance to present the Queen’s Medal for Music, and any little Englanders in the audience might have been tempted to link royalty to Elgar’s Enigma Variations. But conductor Robin Ticciati, with a... Read more... |
Mumford & Sons, SECC, GlasgowThursday, 06 December 2012
Over the last couple of months Mumford & Sons have quietly become the biggest band in the world. If there was a coronation it came at some point between the headline-making second album, Babel, and this sell-out first arena tour. When the... Read more... |
The Aristocrats: Goodwood, Channel 4Friday, 30 November 2012
It would be unreasonable to describe Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara and heir apparent of the 10th Duke of Richmond, as one of the idle rich. Certainly his Goodwood estate on the Sussex Downs must be one of the most idyllic in the... Read more... |
Goodnight Mister Tom, Phoenix TheatreWednesday, 28 November 2012
Love and loneliness, broken homes and broken hearts, child abuse and communities clinging on through war... This adaptation of Michelle Magorian's children's book treats the darkest and most difficult of themes with a firm but tender touch,... Read more... |
SightseersMonday, 26 November 2012
Ben Wheatley’s last film Kill List was unmistakable in its moniker, aggressively advertising its deadly subject matter. Taken on title alone Sightseers suggests something more far more innocuous. Depending on your capacity for twisted thrills, you’... Read more... |
Coote, Britten Sinfonia, Shave, Hetherington, Wigmore HallFriday, 23 November 2012
Benjamin Britten would have been 99 on the day of this concert. He died aged 62, nearly six months after the premiere of a masterpiece, the 15-minute "dramatic cantata" Phaedra, ruthlessly sifting key speeches from Robert Lowell’s translation of... Read more... |
Last Tango in Halifax, BBC OneWednesday, 21 November 2012
The title says it all: Bertolucci’s landmark (if boring) French film has its last word changed from Paris to Halifax – where butter is only used for glazing parsnips. The very idea of Derek Jacobi taking Anne Reid up the scullery is enough to put... Read more... |
Downton Abbey, Series 3 Finale, ITV1Monday, 05 November 2012
Julian Fellowes has often seemed to treat Downton Abbey as a speed-writing contest, with momentous events and the tide of history whirling past like roof tiles in a typhoon. Happily, as series three has developed, the pace has evened out a bit,... Read more... |
Blue Sky, Hampstead DownstairsSunday, 28 October 2012
Set at the start of the US and UK invasion of Iraq in 2003, Clare Bayley's Blue Sky follows an old-school journalist pursuing justice at the cost of neighbours and friends. Jane, played with careerist resolve by Sarah Malin, is convinced... Read more... |
