Betrayal at the Harold Pinter Theatre review: Tom Hiddleston is brilliant in this gut-wrenching play about infidelity March 14, 2019 It’s been a hell of a year for Harold Pinter fans. Over seven productions, director Jamie Lloyd resurrected dozens of the playwright’s one-act works, many of which hadn’t been performed in decades. That series ended last month, but Lloyd, now surely the world’s go-to Pinter guy, has lost none of his enthusiasm, following it up [...]
Alys, Always review: Bridge Theatre presents a crowd-pleasing, pulpy thriller March 14, 2019 Alys, Always is an unabashed crowd-pleaser, a gripping, pulpy thriller in the mould of Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. I imagine the novel, written by Harriet Lane, was advertised on the Underground. It follows Frances, a sub-editor on the arts desk of a magazine called The Questioner. Her job is fixing the [...]
Focus On Stratford: Around 30,000 new homes are planned for the east London Olympic hub by 2030 March 13, 2019 The 2012 Olympic Games may feel like they happened last century, but their legacy lives on in Stratford. Though it resides in Newham, one of the most deprived boroughs in the capital, the host neighbourhood of the Games has attracted a phenomenal amount of property investment in both commercial and residential sectors. There are currently [...]
These running tips will make you faster and help prevent injuries March 12, 2019 With the sun making a return and the London Marathon in just over a month, the City will soon be seeing more and more people out running. It’s a form of exercise most of us can do without needing to pay for a gym membership or forking out for fancy equipment. All you need is [...]
No more ties in the office? Suit yourself in a world beyond workplace dress codes March 12, 2019 “A man cannot dress, but his ideas get clothed at the same time,” wrote Lawrence Stern in Tristram Shandy in 1759. More recently, Caitlin Moran pointed out that when a woman says she has nothing to wear, what she means is “there’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today”. Clothes are text. From [...]
DEBATE: Even Goldman Sachs is relaxing its dress code – will City culture benefit from this trend? March 11, 2019 Even Goldman Sachs is relaxing its dress code – will City culture benefit from this trend? Beatrice Timpson, a political communications consultant, says YES. The days of the lounge suit are numbered. Its demise is not so much desirable as inevitable. Just as the French Revolution killed off foot-high wigs and knee breeches and the First [...]
Captain Marvel review: Brie Larson is a revelation in this middling Marvel romp March 7, 2019 It seems almost unbelievable that it’s taken Marvel 20 movies to feature a female lead, especially when Brie Larson makes it all look so effortless. Alongside a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson, she brings verve and charisma to what could easily have been a forgettable entry into the Marvel canon. It’s a strange film, showing [...]
Metro Exodus review: Back in the USSR, this long-running series hits an incredible high March 6, 2019 Nobody glorifies misery quite like the Russians. Across centuries of literature, poetry and music, some of humanity’s most brilliant minds have elevated the struggles of ordinary Russian men and women to incredible symphonies of suffering. Times of unparalleled political and social upheaval – the Bolshevik revolution, the rise of Leninism, the Stalinist purges, the threat [...]
Far Cry New Dawn review: An eye-searingly colourful expansion that isn’t afraid to have some fun March 6, 2019 The statute of limitations is probably up on Far Cry 5 spoilers, especially given that this stand-alone sequel, which takes place in the primary-coloured and strangely bucolic wasteland of irradiated post-apocalypse Montana, is set 17 years after the previous game’s finale. The last game ended when deranged evangelist Joseph Seed unexpectedly dropped a nuke on [...]
The Hole in the Ground film review: An intense psychological horror that plays on our fears of motherhood March 6, 2019 This suffocating psychological horror sits alongside the likes of The Babadook and Hereditary in a wave of movies that take our fears of rearing offspring and makes them terrifyingly solid, Rosemary’s Baby or The Exorcist for the 21st century. Seána Kerslake plays Sarah, a single mother who moves to a small Irish village with her young [...]