Emmanuelle: Softcore porn reboot somehow makes watching sex boring January 15, 2025 Emmanuelle (2024) | ★★☆☆☆ Emmanuelle, the 1974 film that helped drag softcore erotica into the cultural mainstream, remains among the most successful French movies of all time. Watched by some 300 million horny men and women, it was an X-rated affair, briefly banned in its home nation, perhaps best-known for an infamous scene in which [...]
The secrets behind the Kylie Minogue wine brand’s meteoric success January 15, 2025 When Kylie Minogue went to the ProWein industry fair in Düsseldorf, hospitality professionals were stunned to find her on the sales floor rather than in some backstage dressing room. Minogue was fitting in up to 18 meetings per day, sitting down with distributors to discuss deals for her Kylie Wine range. The relentlessness of her [...]
The week’s best wine: drinking a fabulous red atop a volcanic crater in Iceland January 15, 2025 City AM’s wine columnist Libby Brodie on the best wine to buy this week, and where she’s been drinking it I have written before about how dating someone “outdoorsy” has revealed that, although I love the great outdoors, I am more of an “outsidey” person. When the Significant Other suggested an Icelandic minibreak and booked [...]
Oliver! London musical review: Please, sir: give me more of this five-star hit January 15, 2025 Oliver! London musical review and star rating: ★★★★★ One of the surest ways to confirm a new musical is a hit? It has a song with more refrains than you could ever possibly imagine. In the last few years in London, productions of 42nd Street and Anything Goes have had this – and it happened [...]
A Complete Unknown review: Timothee Chalamet stars in thrilling biopic January 14, 2025 A Complete Unknown review and star rating: | ★★★★☆ Timothee Chalamet’s career is beginning to feel like a high-wire act. He’s a fabulous actor, but one whose off-screen cult of personality seems forever on the cusp of eclipsing his on-screen talent. I feared taking on Bob Dylan, a man who seems to vanish like a shadow [...]
Skoda Superb iV Estate review: A family car with no compromises January 14, 2025 Finding a family estate used to be an easy process, with almost every car manufacturer offering a ‘longroof’ version of its hatchback or saloon models. Fast-forward to the present day, however, and finding a new wagon can feel trickier than having a balanced argument on social media. We can thank the exponential rise of the [...]
The week’s best wine: sod Dry January – why I’m doing ‘Try January’ instead January 14, 2025 City AM’s wine columnist Libby Brodie on the best wine to buy this week, and where she’s been drinking it Last week I touted the Damp Lifestyle and this week I recommend exchanging Dry January for Try January. The beauty of wine is that it offers a kaleidoscope of flavours from all over the world, [...]
I did avalanche training so I could ski more January 13, 2025 What do an ex Royal Marine, a former police inspector and a Network Rail team leader have in common? They all recently passed the Ski Club of Great Britain reps course. I joined this trio and 32 others from all parts of the UK to undertake an intense 12-day programme in Tignes, France to become [...]
Polestar 2 review: Popular premium EV now tops 400 miles January 13, 2025 First launched in 2022, the Polestar 2 was the first fully electric model from the Chinese-owned Swedish brand. However, things move fast in the EV market, so Polestar has given its stylish crossover a substantial overhaul. The Polestar 2 faces a lot more competition than when it initially went on sale. The market for electric [...]
Extra bank holiday 2025: Hospitality industry slams Number 10 decision January 10, 2025 Bank holidays 2025: Number 10 has announced the additional day off has been canned It had been rumoured that an additional bank holiday would make its way onto the calendar for 2025 to earmark the end of WWII, but Number 10 has announced that the extra day off won’t be going ahead. UK hospitality bodies [...]