BBC
Light Fantastic, BBCSO, Wilson, Royal Festival Hall/BBC Radio 3Sunday, 26 June 2011
If Eric Coates’s Knightsbridge March is good enough for Gergiev, who conducted it as a saving-grace encore of a very messy World Orchestra for Peace Prom in 2005 (17 orchestral leaders in the first violins, not a happy gambit), then it’s certainly... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Dvořák, StraussSaturday, 18 June 2011
This week we’ve a brilliant, budget-priced box of Beethoven symphonies played on authentic instruments. It’ll remind you of how much fun there is to be had with this most iconic of composers. A historical recording of a famous cellist reappears, but... Read more... |
theartsdesk's Chairman honoured by Royal AcademyWednesday, 15 June 2011Sir John Tusa, chairman of theartsdesk, former managing director of the BBC World Service and Barbican Centre, has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy today. Two non-artists a year are chosen by the Royal Academy of Arts in... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Actor Nicholas ParsonsSunday, 05 June 2011
Nicholas Parsons has been an actor – he is most adamant that he is first and foremost an actor – for almost 70 years, so it’s not surprising, given the erratic nature of his profession, that he has been obliged to assume a number of alternative... Read more... |
Bafta TV Awards 2011Sunday, 22 May 2011
Crikey, no gongs whatsoever for ITV1's Downton Abbey, but you can't grumble about Sherlock lifting the Best Drama Series award at last night's Baftas. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's ingenious update of Conan Doyle for BBC One was one of 2010's... Read more... |
John Cleese, TouringFriday, 13 May 2011
Even if you are not of an age to have watched Monty Python’s Flying Circus or Fawlty Towers when they were first broadcast by the BBC, you will have heard of John Cleese. And if you are remotely a fan of comedy, you will hold Cleese in high regard... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Writer John Sullivan, 1946-2011Sunday, 24 April 2011
Comedy writer John Sullivan has died aged 64, writes Adam Sweeting, after spending six weeks in intensive care battling viral pneumonia. The creator of several hit comedy series for the BBC, Sullivan is guaranteed immortality for his masterpiece... Read more... |
No room for Room at the Top?Friday, 08 April 2011
Anyone turning on BBC Four last night expecting to watch the first episode of Room at the Top will, at least in part, have got what they were expecting: lashings of sex. Only one problem. It wasn't in Room at the Top. Owing to a late-blooming rights... Read more... |
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CBSO Centre, BirminghamMonday, 14 March 2011
This latest BCMG concert had its pleasures; and it had its irritations. Among the pleasures was a pair of works, one of them newly commissioned, by the under-performed Japanese composer Jo Kondo. The irritations were of the BBC variety: long pauses... Read more... |
Ed Byrne, TouringThursday, 10 March 2011
Many of you will know Ed Byrne from his appearances on BBC shows such as Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You, where his sardonic take on current affairs marks him out as a sharp-tongued and quick-witted comic. Now he’s touring with a new show... Read more... |
How To Live With Women, BBC ThreeMonday, 28 February 2011
Meet Tom. He’s an Essex geezer with all the charm of a used toothpick, whose idea of romance is a cheeseburger on a bench in the Sainsbury’s car park. He can’t hold down a job, spends all girlfriend Cherelle’s money down the bookies, and expects her... Read more... |
Ruby Wax: Losing It, Menier Chocolate FactoryThursday, 24 February 2011
Ruby Wax has packed a lot into her life - writer, actor, stand-up comic, television interviewer, to name a few. But possibly her greatest professional achievement will be her work in mental health, prompted by her own experiences of depression,... Read more... |
