politics
Paxman on Trump v Clinton: Divided America, BBC OneTuesday, 18 October 2016
Could Jeremy Paxman explain the inexplicable, so that viewers could begin to understand the meaning of the astonishing theatre that is the 2016 American presidential election? We can hardly even grasp the plot, let alone the coming denouement and... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Playwright Katori HallSunday, 02 October 2016
Is Katori Hall (b. 1981) the embodiment of Martin Luther King’s dream? She was born in Memphis, the city where King died. The Mountaintop, her play about his last night alive, had its world premiere at Theatre 503, a tiny pub stage in south London.... Read more... |
Hip Hop World News, BBC FourSaturday, 01 October 2016
Oh BBC Four, we do love you, but this was an uncomfortable proposition from the start. We watch your pop music documentaries, because – let's face it – nobody else is making any, but so often they are pretty thin gruel. There are gems, of course,... Read more... |
Ed Vaizey: 'We must invest more in the arts'Monday, 26 September 2016
A couple of weeks ago, I held a debate in Parliament in which I called for the government to increase funding for the arts, museums and heritage. The Chancellor’s autumn statement, less than two months away, will be when I will know if my campaign... Read more... |
William Kentridge: Thick Time, Whitechapel GalleryFriday, 23 September 2016
Of all the mesmerising images in William Kentridge’s major Whitechapel show, the one that lingers most, perhaps, is that of the artist himself, now turned 60, hunched and thoughtful, wandering through the studio in Johannesburg where he lives and... Read more... |
Brexit: A Very British Coup?, BBC TwoFriday, 23 September 2016
This look back at the events earlier this year when the country elected to buy a car, sight unseen – and from proven liars – to drive us into an imagined and politically unstable future, was a little confusing to me at first. Now, I do remember a... Read more... |
The ClanFriday, 16 September 2016
Latin America has learnt from harsh experience just what the legacy of dictatorship involves, when the structure itself may have been dismantled but the psychology that it engendered remains. It’s a subject that has been tackled by many of the... Read more... |
Almost HolyFriday, 19 August 2016
Tough love doesn’t get much tougher. Ukrainian priest Gennadiy Mokhnenko has spent two decades trying to keep children off the streets, and away from drugs, in his hometown Mariupol, using methods that elsewhere in the world would count as... Read more... |
DVD: The Killing$ of Tony BlairFriday, 19 August 2016
Much like Margaret Thatcher’s tearful tumble from Downing Street, the haggard, hoarse Tony Blair who materialised after Chilcot must have given even his enemies pause. The glib, youthful Nineties spin-master now recalled Scrooge’s reproachful future... Read more... |
Brexit: The Battle for Britain, BBC TwoTuesday, 09 August 2016
Did we really need to go through this all over again? The referendum campaign left roughly half the nation levitating on cloud nine, and roughly the other half feeling amputated. We all know what happened, but in this hour-long post-mortem Laura... Read more... |
Bobby Sands: 66 DaysFriday, 05 August 2016
There’s much more to Brendan J Byrne’s engrossing, even-handed documentary Bobby Sands: 66 Days than its title might at first suggest. The timeline that led up to the death on 5 May 1981 of the IRA prisoner provides the immediate context – an... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Odessa: Films and post-truth in the new UkraineThursday, 04 August 2016
With Ukraine embroiled in conflict and a currency crisis the Odessa International Film Festival does not have the budget to bring in big stars. In any case, most of those pampered A-listers would have been nervous to go to what they or their... Read more... |
