National Gallery, Tate and Royal Academy set dates to reopen June 30, 2020 Major London art galleries are set to reopen next month as England prepares to lift social distancing restrictions after months of lockdown. The National Gallery will be the first major gallery in the capital to reopen on 8 July, while the Royal Academy is set to open its doors on 9 July, and the Tate’s [...]
Government mulls financial support for UK’s ailing theatres June 24, 2020 The UK government is in talks to support the performing arts industry, Downing Street confirmed today, amid growing concerns the sector is nearing collapse as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Number 10 today said it was working with senior figures from the theatre industry on a rescue package, as the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday [...]
Why we need to leave the statues alone June 10, 2020 The statue of slave trader Edward Colston was dramatically pulled from its plinth in Bristol and hurled into the harbour amid raucous, even jubilant, scenes. That a memorial to a trader in human souls would cause offence and anguish is beyond dispute, but its destruction and the manner of its downfall has sparked a debate [...]
HBO pulls Gone With The Wind over ‘racist’ depiction of slave era June 10, 2020 HBO has removed Gone With The Wind from its streaming platform over its “racist” depiction of the American south during slavery. HBO Max, the broadcaster’s streaming service launched last month, announced that it has temporarily dropped the 1939 film. HBO said it would return the film to its platform at an unspecified date with a [...]
Culture in quarantine: Which UK venues have gone virtual during the coronavirus crisis? March 29, 2020 Since Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week ramped up social distancing measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, thousands of cultural institutions across the UK have been forced to close their doors. However, as millions of Brits hunker down at home, a range of arts and culture venues have launched new digital initiatives to ensure exhibitions [...]
Hunters series review: Al Pacino hunting Nazis makes for gripping lockdown fodder March 27, 2020 If you’re looking for a nice, cuddly box set that you can watch half-comatose under your anxiety blanket as the world unravels around you, Amazon Prime’s latest big-budget series Hunters probably isn’t for you. It’s about Nazis, for one thing, and someone gets shot in the head approximately once every three minutes. Set predominantly in [...]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: Sedate island escapism never felt so necessary March 27, 2020 Having had the enviable job of writing about video games for most of my adult life, there’s still one question I struggle to articulate a satisfying answer to: what do you actually do in Animal Crossing? Nintendo’s sedate island life simulator doesn’t have a real objective. You have a mortgage to pay down but your [...]
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants film review: Sex dungeon therapy in kinky indie flick March 27, 2020 Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is an excellent way of forgetting about the woes of self isolation, presenting you with a man whose life flies so spectacularly off the rails that a global pandemic and the meltdown of the world economy seem relatively manageable by comparison. It’s the story of a suicidal widower who falls down [...]
My Dark Vanessa book review: Lolita for the #MeToo generation is a brave debut March 27, 2020 Kate Elizabeth Russell’s much-hyped debut novel, hailed as Lolita for the #MeToo generation, is narrated entirely by the titular Vanessa and captivatingly crafted in two parallel timelines. In 2000, Vanessa is a 15-year-old student at a Maine boarding school, when she begins a relationship with her English literature teacher, Jacob Strane, thirty years her senior. [...]
Doom Eternal review: Ultra, ultra violence has never been so much fun March 20, 2020 A 2014 study by scientists at Stetson University in Florida suggested that, rather than act as a predictor of violence in real life, violent video games may actually have the opposite effect, making people less likely to carry out acts of aggression. If that’s the case then the law won’t ever have to worry about [...]