Reviews
The Troubles: A Secret History, BBC Four, finale review - peace at last, but at what price?Wednesday, 23 October 2019
This terrifying but gripping BBC Four series about Northern Ireland’s savage sectarian war reached its conclusion with a meticulously detailed account of how hostilities were eventually brought to a close by the Good Friday Agreement, which came... Read more... |
Vassa, Almeida Theatre review - delayed opening doesn't landWednesday, 23 October 2019
Even the mighty Almeida is allowed the occasional dud and it’s sure as hell got one at the moment with Vassa. Maxim Gorky’s 1910 play (rewritten in 1935) about a matriarch in extremis some years back proved a stonking West End star vehicle... Read more... |
The British Tribe Next Door, Channel 4 review - risible culture-clash farragoWednesday, 23 October 2019
What’s the most ridiculous programme that Channel 4 has ever made? Sex Box? The Execution of Gary Glitter? Extreme Celebrity Detox? Whatever, The British Tribe Next Door is up there vying for supremacy.The Moffatt family, from Bishop Auckland, have... Read more... |
Lungs, Old Vic review - deluxe casting and slick deliveryTuesday, 22 October 2019
Playing our monarch and her husband in The Crown has made actors Claire Foy and Matt Smith into TV drama royalty, so reuniting the pair onstage guarantees a hot ticket. What’s less clear is why Lungs, Duncan Macmillan’s rather thin 2011 play, merits... Read more... |
Translations, National Theatre review - stunning revival of poignant tragicomedyTuesday, 22 October 2019
At a point in history where – yet again – a few misplaced words from English politicians could wreak havoc with Irish lives, this is a welcome revival of Ian Rickson’s stunning production which first played here to rapturous reviews last year. Brian... Read more... |
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Ono, Barbican review - feet on the ground, eyes to the skiesMonday, 21 October 2019
We have John Eliot Gardiner to thank for an unconventional diptych of Czech masterpieces in the London Symphony Orchestra's current season. He had to withdraw from last night's concert - he conducts Dvořák's Cello Concerto and Suk's "Asrael"... Read more... |
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, National Portrait Gallery review – a fascinating glimpse behind the scenesMonday, 21 October 2019
Focusing on twelve women who played a key role in the lives of Pre-Raphaelite painters like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, this timely exhibition begins with a whimper and ends with a bang. First up at the... Read more... |
Miklós Perényi, Dénes Várjon, Wigmore Hall review – Beethoven in wonderfully safe handsMonday, 21 October 2019
"Revelatory": it’s one of those words which is now completely devalued through having been carelessly dropped into a thousand press releases. And yet it perfectly describes the results Miklós Perényi achieved in a pair of superb concerts of... Read more... |
Cyrano, Bristol Old Vic review – comedy with emotional intelligenceMonday, 21 October 2019
Tom Morris’s production of Cyrano starts with a procession of nuns, some of them bearded, chanting verses from the medieval mystic Hildegarde of Bingen. In this original and lively version of Edmond Rostand’s late 19th century classic, Morris has... Read more... |
Hot Chip, Barrowland, Glasgow review - dancefloor kings keep the party goingSunday, 20 October 2019
Familiarity evidently does not breed contempt, at least in the case of Hot Chip and Glasgow. This was the band’s third appearance on Glaswegian soil since April, and what a glorious, life-affirming evening it was. They arrived with a fine new album... Read more... |
John le Carré: Agent Running in the Field review - fake news, Brexit and Cold war echoesSunday, 20 October 2019
That John le Carré! It turns out the agent isn’t so much running in the field as playing badminton. The master of the spy novel, of the foibles fantasies and sadnesses of our imperfect world – with the occasional excursion to excoriate Big Pharma... Read more... |
Spiral, Series 7, BBC Four review - hard-hitting return of our favourite French cop showSunday, 20 October 2019
And welcome back to our favourite French cop show – perhaps our favourite cop show from anywhere, in fact – which has raced into its seventh series (on BBC Four) with some typically grimy storylines about death and lowlife in a very de-romanticised... Read more... |
