British passport sixth most powerful in the world while EU states dominate top ranks July 20, 2022 The British passport is the world’s sixth most powerful with visa-free or visa on-arrival access to 187 countries. The UK passport was one place ahead of the US at 186 countries, while EU states dominated much of the top rankings, data from Henley & Partners’ 2022 Henley Passport Index showed. Germany and Spain were joint third, [...]
Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre, review: Pop Shakespeare at its finest July 19, 2022 Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare for people who don’t like Shakespeare. Alongside A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s one of the Bard’s funniest and least demanding offerings, which has given rise to a degree of snobbishness about it. Kenneth Branagh’s 90s version, in which he plays a brilliant Benedict, is a landmark modern edition of [...]
McEnroe film review: Reveals fragility beneath tennis star’s bravado July 16, 2022 Wimbledon may have finished, but here’s an opportunity to get into the mind of one of its most famous champions. This documentary by Barney Douglas (2019 cricket documentary The Edge) features the American legend as well as family, friends, and rivals talking about his unique rise to stardom, his famous temperament, and what drove his [...]
Explorer film review: Honest, revealing portrait of Sir Ranulph Fiennes July 16, 2022 Sir Ranulph Fiennes has devoted his life to travelling the world’s most inhospitable climates. Among his credits are being the first person to visit the North and South Pole by surface, the first to cross Antarctica by foot, and he climbed Everest at the age of 65. Using archives, interviews, and footage following the great [...]
The Railway Children Return review: A weary reboot July 16, 2022 Like ET, The Wizard of Oz and The Great Escape, The Railway Children -the 1970 original which spawned reboot The Railway Children Return – is a movie most of us have absorbed at some point, probably during Christmas or a bank holiday. The 1970 movie is one of the beloved British movies of all time, [...]
Anything Goes at Barbican review: All aboard! This is a five-star musical thrillride July 14, 2022 Anything Goes achieves a rare kind of alchemy by succeeding at everything it turns its hand to. It’s a sterling effort in song, dance, staging, acting and storytelling, and it keeps the pace throughout. Tonally, it tightropes between farce and sentimentality deftly. The romance doesn’t veer toward schmaltzy, the comedy never towards cringe. This will [...]
Brit comedy Brian and Charles is the new Lars and the Real Girl July 9, 2022 Artificial Intelligence in cinema usually doesn’t end well. From 2001’s HAL to Aliens’ Ash, there’s usually something evil lingering underneath the circuits. In the new British comedy Brian and Charles, however, all the robot star wants is a train pass. Ricky Gervais collaborator David Earl writes and stars as Brian, a lonely man living in [...]
Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun romp but this franchise is getting old July 9, 2022 Despite eight Marvel Cinematic Universe titles planned for this year (three films, five TV shows plus specials), audiences show no sign of superhero fatigue. May’s Doctor Strange is the second highest grossing release of the year, while Moon Knight and Ms Marvel have introduced new facets to the entertainment juggernaut. Can Taika Waititi, the man [...]
Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House review July 8, 2022 Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Name a more dramatic duo… I’ll wait. Opera’s favourite double act returns to the Royal Opera House in the form of Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award winning production, with all its ‘slice of life’ tragedy intact. Cleverly intertwining the double bill, Michieletto’s ‘Cav and Pag’, revived here by [...]
Mad House at Ambassadors Theatre: A Smart, misanthropic psychodrama July 8, 2022 I can’t quite decide if Mad House is a kind-hearted play with a mean exterior, or a mean play with a token element of kindness. It centres around Michael (David Harbour, fresh from running up that hill in the new Stranger Things), a sweet but troubled man who has spent time in the titular “mad [...]