The story took yet another twist in October 1977 when the London Evening News ran the sensational headline, “I Was Hired to Kill Scott.” Fresh out of prison, Newton recanted his blackmail defence and was now claiming he was paid £5,000 as part of what the paper described as a …

Nannie and her cohorts aren’t pleased to hear it: Tam has to flee on horseback with a crowd of screeching witches in hot pursuit, “Wi’ mony an eldritch skriech and hollo”. Luckily for him, witches can’t cross running water, and the River Doon is nearby. Tam manages to race over …

In today’s Oscar nominations, the biggest shock was that massive musical sequel Wicked: For Good, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, earned zero nods – despite its predecessor earning 10. It proved the perils of overstretching your material. The Oscar nominations had their usual share of snubs and surprises, with …

Simply the best? There are, of course, many rival claimants to the title of the greatest final shot in cinema history. Planet of the Apes’ Statue of Liberty sighting, the slow realisation in The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s freeze-frame finish, the door closing in The Godfather, and …

That it had a positive response from this fanbase might well have been predicted, but what has been more surprising to some is the show’s other core demographic: women, and specifically straight women. From Cosmopolitan to NPR many media outlets have been asking why the show’s male-on-male sex scenes have …

“Stevie Wonder could write almost any kind of song,” music critic and documentary filmmaker Nelson George tells the BBC. “And as part of his mix of songs and melodies, he was always able to create songs about social injustice, particularly happy, major chord melodies that were easy to sing to,” …

As we all now know, this alarming chain of events did not end in catastrophe. For all the heightened tension, the story ended up as a light-hearted item at the end of that evening’s late news programme, complete with Tom Lehrer’s blackly comic song We Will All Go Together When …

Hello around the world  While the English language settled on “hello” as its customary greeting, other languages forged their own. Some were influenced by English, others developed independently – yet each carries a distinct cultural flavour, hinting at the social norms and stereotypes we have of the people who use …

Why black superstar Paul Robeson was dramatically cancelled BBC News

The HBO banking drama has just kicked off its fourth series, amid serious hype and with a starrier cast than ever. It’s also taking its story – and characters – to chilling new places. Back in 2020, a new drama about a group of postgraduate bankers trying to make their …

Ser Duncan is poorly trained, lacks experience and is dressed in little better than rags, with a rope for a swordbelt, but he hopes that if he makes a name for himself at an upcoming tournament in Ashford Meadow, one of the great houses might take him into its service.  …

8. Tree Tent by Tree Tents International – Dalarna, Sweden (2016) The giant red bauble suspended from pines at Näsets Marcusgård, a former farm, is not a Christmas decoration but a “tree tent” made of an aluminium and plywood frame, wrapped up in a waterproof canvas. The customisable tree house, …

While Christie believed that a book could be polished off in three months, she said that plays were “better written quickly”. At the time of the BBC’s 1955 profile of Christie, three of her plays were running in London’s West End. The Mousetrap was already breaking box-office records, just three …

Winner of the best actor award at Cannes, he was widely considered a sure thing for an Oscar nomination until the Actor awards (previously the SAG awards) nominations were announced last week and Moura, along with every other performer in a film not in the English language, was left out. Since actors …

Although solid facts about Magellan’s life are limited, the narrative that often prevails is about his heroism. Diaz’s Magellan, on the other hand, takes an unflinching look at what we know about his treatment of his crew members aboard the Armada de Maluco, which included executing one of them for …

“Gameplay is a holistic experience involving graphics, player agency, animation, sound, ludic and spatial design – it’s the meshing together of these in compelling and well-integrated ways that I think invites interest for a player. Not just graphics alone.” Yet Tracy Fullerton, professor and director of the Game Innovation Lab at …

Social media comes under the spotlight in Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear – which is already being turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway. She’ll play Natalie, a successful tradwife influencer who one days wakes up in the past, and is forced to live the reality of the “old-fashioned” lifestyle she’s …

7. Vintage frames “From a sustainability standpoint, we already have so many objects in the world,” says artist Booth, whose 1970s bungalow in Cornwall is crammed with vintage collectibles, stone busts, eel spears, random crockery and repurposed objects. “I love the idea that everything you could possibly need already exists somewhere, …

The president even urged Americans to lower their thermostats in homes, offices and factories by at least six degrees Fahrenheit. Anticipating a chilly response, Nixon tried to thaw the tension. “Incidentally, my doctor tells me that in a temperature of 66 to 68 degrees (18C to 20C), you’re really more …

12. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping With or without Jennifer Lawrence’s heroic archer, Katniss Everdeen, audiences can’t get their fill of The Hunger Games, so 2023’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is being followed by another prequel adapted from one of Suzanne Collins’s novels. This one is set …