London
Ripper Street, BBC Two, Series 5 review – apocalypse looms in Victorian WhitechapelTuesday, 20 June 2017
There has always been an air of incipient doom hovering over Ripper Street, since the show is more of a laboratory of lost souls than a mere detective drama. Now, as it embarks on its fifth and final season, there’s every reason to suppose that the... Read more... |
Andrew O'Hagan: The Secret Life review – troubling tales from the online undergroundSunday, 18 June 2017
Imagine that you come across a story by a journalist who, writing for the Daily Mail or The Sun, steals the identity of a real young man from a poor neighbourhood of south-east London. He had died of an overdose, aged 20, in 1984. Not knowing... Read more... |
The Mummy review – please don't let them make a sequelFriday, 09 June 2017
The best bit is in the trailer. It's the scene where Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) are inside a stricken Hercules transport aircraft as it suddenly plunges vertically out of the sky, leaving its occupants in weightless... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Naked Civil ServantFriday, 09 June 2017
For those of us still mourning John Hurt, this lovely HD restoration of the actor’s favourite film is a real joy. Made in 1975 for Thames Television, it’s stood the test of time remarkably well. Funny, moving and often cited as a turning point in... Read more... |
h.Club 100 Awards: Nina-Sophia Miralles, editor of Londnr MagazineMonday, 05 June 2017
The Hospital Club's h.Club 100 Awards are so-called because they consist of 10 awards in 10 categories, each of which has 10 nominees. Nine of the awards are confined to a specifc area of the creative industries (stage, theatre, music etc). The... Read more... |
Vindauga (Wind Eye) featuring Sam Lee, Kings PlaceMonday, 05 June 2017
It’s the seventh Songlines Encounters festival, with musical meetings ranging from Portugal (Thursday’s Ricardo Ribeiro) to India (Friday’s Bollywood Brass Band with South Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth). Its closing Saturday night saw English... Read more... |
Peter Ackroyd: Queer City - London's gay life over two millenniaSunday, 04 June 2017
2017 is proving the year of celebrating queer. To mark 50 years of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, we are enjoying a host of cultural and historical reminders, from Tate Britain to the British Library, and many locations in between, all... Read more... |
Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution, BBC Two review - how the Fab Four changed pop music foreverSunday, 04 June 2017
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the triumphant vindication of the Beatles' decision to quit touring and instead exploit the possibilities of the... Read more... |
Richard Goode, Royal Festival HallThursday, 01 June 2017
How to change the way we hear Chopin and Beethoven: play Bach first. Richard Goode opened his Royal Festival Hall recital with the Partita No.6 in E minor, perhaps the most enigmatic and challenging of its siblings. Its intricate contrapuntal lines... Read more... |
Deposit, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review - capital's housing crisis lands centre-stageFriday, 26 May 2017
Matt Hartley's personal take on London's housing crisis returns to the Hampstead Theatre's studio space downstairs and is sure to hit audiences where, so to speak, they live. First seen at the same address in a production not open to the press, the... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: MelodyFriday, 12 May 2017
Nostalgia is dangerous; return to your childhood haunts and what was huge is now tiny, what once was magical at the movies is now mundane. Luckily this is not the case with Melody (also known under a distributor-enforced title as S.W.A.L.K.),... Read more... |
King Charles III, BBC Two review - royal crisis makes thrilling dramaThursday, 11 May 2017
Actor Oliver Chris, who plays William in Mike Bartlett’s ingeniously-crafted play about the monarchy, was doing some pre-transmission fire-fighting by going round telling interviewers he couldn’t see what anybody (eg the Daily Mail) could find to... Read more... |
