Reviews
Spiral, Series 8 Finale, BBC Four review - justice is done in stormy climactic episodesSunday, 31 January 2021
If this had to be the end of Spiral, the final episodes of Series 8 (BBC Four) at least ensured that justice was done. We saw evidence that on occasion lawyers may be human after all, and there was even the somewhat disorientating semblance of a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Free Design - Butterflies Are FreeSunday, 31 January 2021
“Dorian Benediction” begins with a muted organ and spectral chorale. Minimal drums, an electric piano, vibes, melancholy saxophone and a jazzy solo guitar fill out the picture. Over its four-and-a-half minutes, the atmosphere is haunted and haunting... Read more... |
David Webb's 'Winter Journey', Wigmore Hall online review - an epic sharedSaturday, 30 January 2021
The bleak isolation and lonely angst felt in Schubert’s Winterreise is only too appropriate for a lockdown January. However, one positive to shine from this gloom is tenor David Webb’s own "Winter Journey". Cycling around his home in London every... Read more... |
Assassins review - unravelling the bizarre death of Kim Jong-namSaturday, 30 January 2021
The 2017 killing of Kim Jong-nam, older half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, was a chilling expression of merciless Pyongyang realpolitik. Labyrinthine planning by a team of North Korean undercover agents went into the attack, carried... Read more... |
The Capote Tapes review - lush portrait of the louche writerSaturday, 30 January 2021
"A candied tarantula" is one of the many great descriptions of Truman Capote that light up this conventionally made but enjoyable profile of the American author most famous for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood. Written and... Read more... |
Penguin Bloom, Netflix review - stirringly acted if sentimentalFriday, 29 January 2021
Two genuinely lovely performances elevate an often-simplistic tale in Penguin Bloom, based on a 2016 memoir of the same name. Telling of the rehabilitation of an Australian athlete, Sam Bloom, who – true to her surname – learns to blossom... Read more... |
Holy Sonnets/The Heart's Assurance/A Charm of Lullabies, English Touring Opera online review - darkest hoursFriday, 29 January 2021
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” John Donne’s Holy Sonnets may summon all his art of wit and paradox to mock that might and dread; still, we sense the abject terror behind the formal... Read more... |
Album: The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm WarningsFriday, 29 January 2021
The title is in keeping with those of previous portentously handled albums from the Montréal art-rockers. There was their breakthrough 2007 set The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse and 2010’s The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night. The latter’s... Read more... |
The Dig, Netflix review - a haunting exploration of time and timelessnessThursday, 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 of the 6th and 7th Centuries. Simon Stone’s drama (adapted from John... Read more... |
The Hermes Experiment, Wigmore Hall online review - innovative and upliftingWednesday, 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 eclectic as their line up – harp, soprano, double bass and clarinet –... Read more... |
Marcella, Series 3, ITV review - Anna Friel returns as the defective detectiveWednesday, 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 perverse desire to see what psychological black holes she might plummet... Read more... |
Christian Blackshaw, Wigmore Hall online review - pure as the driven snowTuesday, 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 scarcely find two more different musicians. There seems not to be a... Read more... |
