They were directed to the isolated farmhouse of racehorse breeder Jeremy Maxwell, about 30 miles outside Belfast near Downpatrick. On the way, they were in the countryside when five masked men carrying machine-guns stopped their car. Thompson said that when he wound down his window, one of them asked him …
Read More »A moving, tragic biopic of a tortured jazz great
Bill Evans was a boundary-breaking US pianist who contended with multiple personal tragedies, and a serious drug problem. This new drama about him will draw you to his hypnotic music. While they may be a favourite of awards season, musician biopics have become an increasingly maligned genre, with their clichéd …
Read More »How America’s Next Top Model became a TV horror show
Looking back on it with a 2025 lens It will be interesting to see how the perception of the show is shifted yet again by the airing of the Netflix series. Banks takes the chance in it to express some regret for what went on: “I knew I went too …
Read More »This desert island-set drama is a ‘bold, chilling’ nightmare ★★★★☆
Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has adapted William Golding’s classic novel for his latest TV series about murderous male youth – but it’s a very different beast. Jack Thorne has long been an acclaimed and prolific playwright and screenwriter, with credits including mega stage-hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Nevertheless, …
Read More »The true story behind the mysterious and tragic US icon
She is also the subject of a new nine-part drama from Ryan Murphy, creator of American Horror Story and American Crime Story. The first season of his latest franchise Love Story is about the courtship and marriage of Carolyn and John F Kennedy Jr, the son of the former president …
Read More »The Addams Family to St Elmo’s Fire: 12 of the best alternative romantic films
Alamy Julie & Julia (2009) Nora Ephron wrote When Harry Met Sally and she wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle, so you might not think of this as her most romantic film. But Julie & Julia is a buttery, unconventional love story. On the surface, it’s a time-lapsed fantasia of …
Read More »The true story of Japan’s mysterious samurai
Their playbook for statecraft was based on Chinese philosophy, principally the ideas of Confucius. “In Neo-Confucian thought,” says Buckland, “you have to have a balance between military power and cultural skill.” The ramification was increasing investment in soft power in the incense-infused chambers of the court. The Trustees of the …
Read More »Eight iconic Nordic homes throughout history
There are a handful of Nordic design characteristics that these homes share. Key is the use of natural materials, and the way these houses connect with and frame views of the landscape. Bradbury also cites their relative modesty of scale and subtlety. “These are sophisticated designs yet they sit gently …
Read More »This bold reinvention of Emily Brontë’s novel is ‘sexy, dramatic and swoonily romantic’
Robbie turns up in the first of many bright red-and-white dresses, and her performance is magnificent, making Cathy wild and selfish but with a conscience, and an innocence beneath her sense of entitlement. And forget her age. Fennell simply makes the characters older. Mr Earnshaw even says, “She’s already well …
Read More »The dazzling discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb
Listen to the 1939 BBC recording of Tutankhamun’s trumpets found in his tomb. Tutmania was reborn in the 1970s with the international success of the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition. Its star attraction, the gold mask, drew more than 1.6 million visitors to the British Museum in 1972, still its most …
Read More »The painful scene that really makes Taxi Driver a classic
Notable for its moments of shocking violence and its avant-garde visual approach, Taxi Driver is brimming with memorable scenes beyond Bickle’s famous squaring off in the mirror. In particular, another shorter scene really stands as the film’s most important moment of visual idiosyncrasy; showcasing a distinctly European sensibility in what …
Read More »How Wuthering Heights became this year’s most divisive film
In the trailer, Robbie is seen doing some highly suggestive breadmaking, her cheeks flushed and her bodice heaving, as she remembers Elordi’s naked torso. Then there are shots of a corset being pulled tight, of Elordi stripping off his shirt, and, errm, someone putting their finger in a fish’s mouth. …
Read More »Why Vigil, a wacky, ‘climate change Christmas Carol’ is dividing readers
Yet he is painfully aware that this is “an impossible way to live”, an “idiot compassion” that eliminates personal responsibility and enables people to continue their immoral actions unimpeded. Sometimes people need to get their “asses kicked” in order to change. Such criticisms are (mostly) expressed by the French inventor, …
Read More »The shocking truth behind historic anatomical art
“People perceive that an anatomical illustration is an objective depiction of the human body to the best of the artist’s abilities,” says Gann, which is something that the exhibition seeks to “break apart”. “In truth, they are subject to culture and tastes and artistic movements as any other form of …
Read More »Why ‘masterpiece’ Wuthering Heights is so misunderstood
Heathcliff lives a life of torment and uncontainable grief, but inflicts that suffering on everyone around him and feels no remorse in doing so. By not righting his wrongs, and letting him die without further punishment, O’Callaghan says, Brontë poses more complex questions to the reader, rather than giving them …
Read More »The policeman who inspired Al Pacino’s Serpico
More than just a few bad apples Serpico, partially deafened in one ear by the shooting, testified in the inquiry himself, saying: “I hope that police officers in the future will not experience the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to for the past five years at the …
Read More »10 of the best films to watch this February
Universal Pictures 9. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert When Baz Luhrmann was researching his Elvis biopic, he unearthed dozens of boxes of unseen documentary footage. Much of it concerned Presley’s residencies in Las Vegas following his 1968 comeback special: there were interviews, rehearsals, and hours of outtakes from his two …
Read More »Ann Lee, the 1700s Christian leader who shocked America
In 1770, Lee was imprisoned for 30 days in Manchester for disrupting another church service. While incarcerated, Lee had a premonition that celibacy was the key to purity and would become the Shakers’ cornerstone. Four years later, Lee had another premonition that she was to establish the sect in America. …
Read More »‘Sweet and tender’ or ‘like abuse’? Why gay BDSM ‘romcom’ Pillion is dividing opinion
Though Bisbey praises Pillion as “one of the most authentic depictions of a leather relationship I’ve seen on screen”, she also suggests it’s missing a key scene – one which might make the central relationship seem healthier. “We never see a negotiation between Colin and Ray as to the terms …
Read More »10 of the best TV shows to watch this February
Gray House Inc(Credit: Gray House Inc) 9. The Gray House Set during the US Civil War, this historical drama is inspired by the true stories of four very different Southern women – a socialite and her mother, a courtesan and a formerly enslaved woman – who become spies for the …
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