State-of-the-art Soviet technology went into the design of the Komsomolets, which was unique for the depths it could reach. It was expected by Nato to be the first in a class of large attack submarines, but no further vessels of its kind were built. According to a 1994 BBC Horizon …

Prior to the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart, these rock-orientated power ballads were present but not dominant in the UK charts. Only a few had cracked the top 10 in the early ’80s, including Styx’s Babe (1980, peaked at number six), REO Speedwagon’s Keep On Loving You (1981, …

On top of Bring Me the Beauties, a recently announced biopic of Richards will star Nicholas Galitzine, with Gus Van Sant in talks to direct. How much that will focus on Eternal Values or not is unconfirmed, but when it comes to the documentary, Richards hopes his story will help …

Tellingly, in most instances in which she appears to Odysseus and his son Telemachus, Athena disguises herself as a man. She poses, for example, as Mentes, a king friendly to Ithaca, and as a male herald of the Phaeacians. Athena knows only too well that it is men who hold …

When a trailer for the new live-action remake of Disney’s Moana went online in March, one of the main talking points was the sight of Dwayne Johnson’s long, curly and weirdly unconvincing wig. The Rock’s locks prompted countless unkind comments, but the most damning insult came from the accordion-playing, pop-parodying …

The group which – in addition to Varley – comprised Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, AY Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer and JEH MacDonald remains hugely popular today, as does Tom Thomson, a major influence, who died before its official formation. Their most acclaimed paintings, which include Thomson’s Jack Pine, West …

During his five short-lived marriages, Getty had five sons, who went on to father 19 children. One of those grandchildren, John Paul Getty III, was kidnapped in Italy in 1973. Asked to pay a $16m ($120m or £90m today) ransom, his grandfather refused, saying, “I have 14 other grandchildren and …

Based on the cult web series Nirvanna the Band the Show, the film stars director Matt Johnson and his co-writer Jay McCarrol as a pair of ambitious but air-headed musicians attempting to make it with their two-man musical group, Nirvanna the Band. In the film, as in the show, they …

As Erwin points out, though, “Sylvia is not this weird, outlier episode that’s a one-off”. She describes the show as being part of the subgenre of “Frontier Gothic”, which originated in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries and maps Gothic conventions on to stories of US expansion and frontier …

On the evening of 5 March 1770, in Boston, Massachusetts, icy snow coated the ground, and a lone British sentry stood guarding the Custom House, his breath forming clouds of white mist in the freezing air. Stepping out of the darkness, a teenager began taunting him and pelting him with …

How a flash of pink knickers on court caused outrage at the All England Club BBC News

According to Jorephani, “The Turks said, ‘Hang on a second mate, we are neutral in the war, you can’t get this stuff through.'” He tried explaining to them, “Look, this is First World War film stuff, you can’t shoot with it, this is a gun for film-making.” But to no …

She grew up surrounded by animals at her home of Casa Azul, on the outskirts of Mexico City. They provided companionship and solace, when she was bedridden with childhood polio (which left her permanently disabled), and at 18, when she experienced a devastating bus crash (which shattered her spine, and …

In Elle magazine, Nyong’o gave her own pithy response to the attacks. “This is a mythological story,” she said. “Our cast is representative of the world.” But some people have pointed out that this isn’t wholly true, lamenting the lack of Greeks among the actors. Greeks had been “left out …

From Spider-Man: Brand New Day to The Odyssey BBC News

Because Sebastian’s gay icon status is so layered and deep-rooted, it has also proved malleable. At the height of the HIV/Aids epidemic in the 1980s and early ’90s, his image was referenced in works by contemporary artists including Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz, both of whom would die of the …

The hugely popular sitcom Big Bang Theory has already been spun off into two successful shows, Young Sheldon and the spinoff of that spinoff, George and Mandy’s First Marriage. In the latest adjunct to the franchise, Kevin Sussman recreates his Big Bang character, the hapless comic-book store owner Stuart, who …

David Cornwell was steeped in secrecy throughout his life – long before he took on the nom de plume John le Carré, long before his first novel, Call for the Dead, was published in June 1961, and long before he became one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed, bestselling spy …

Van Gogh has studiously swapped in these windows and drawn curtains for a pair of formidable, 1st-Century Corinthian columns, complete with intricate capitals and cornice, and a striking fragment of a pediment, salvaged from the ruins of a Roman temple that adjoined the ancient forum and inserted into the façade …

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest centres on the fictional Jane, a peasant who falls for Robin Hood’s legend. She swoons over him and becomes part of his outlaw band, but begins to wonder if his heroic image and the seductive Robin himself have led her astray. Kaufman’s Robin, neither hero …