Pinter Five and Pinter Six review: Jamie Lloyd’s season of Pinter’s one act plays hits new heights January 11, 2019 The season of Harold Pinter’s short plays at his eponymous theatre continues its blistering run of form with another full day’s worth of mind-melting absurdism and savage social satire. Pinter Five kicks off with the playwright’s very first work, The Room, written in 1957. It’s a strange little piece, a working prototype for the menacing, [...]
Stan & Ollie review: A heartfelt and hilarious tribute to comedy’s biggest legends January 10, 2019 Though it’s been more than half a century since they were last on stage, Laurel and Hardy remain history’s archetypal double act, the pair somehow still regarded by most as the funniest men ever to have dropped a piano down the stairs. Stan & Ollie, a cheerful biopic focused on the pair’s last tour around [...]
Weekly Grill: Nieves Barragan, the chef at Sabor, tells us why the best feasts are to be found in Madrid in winter January 8, 2019 Sabor chef Nieves Barragan on why Madrid in the winter is the best place on earth to eat Who are you and what do you do? Nieves Barragan, executive chef director at Sabor. What’s Sabor? It’s a journey through Spain from our bar, to the counter and upstairs to the Asador. The Asador itself is [...]
Working Lunch: Ormer is a fine dining restaurant in the heart of Mayfair that both impresses and surprises January 8, 2019 Ormer Mayfair, Flemings Hotel, 7-12 Half Moon Street, W1 WHAT: A proper fine dining restaurant in a proper old Mayfair location, Flemings Hotel, which opened its doors 167 years ago. The ground floor dining room is a lesson in restrained art deco design, with wood panelling, woodland green banquettes and glazed tiles offset by gold accents. It’s [...]
Fitness advice: How to make your 2019 New Year’s resolutions stick, from note taking to measuring progress January 8, 2019 It’s January and we all know what that means – you ate too much, you drank too much and you didn’t do any exercise. Now you feel fat, lazy and permanently anxious. I know the feeling, buddy. But we have plans, right? I have plans, you have plans, the guy from accounts who’s turned a [...]
Our resident chef columnist on how to jazz up your dahl breakfast with some festive leftovers January 8, 2019 Often at weekends I have the urge for a spicy breakfast, usually in the form of a masala omelette, but between Christmas and New Year I was having a bit of an annual larder clear out and made a kind of dahl soup with chestnuts in to finish. I had a bit of mid-morning inspiration [...]
Portland Stone became the building block of London, but does it have a place in modern British architecture? January 7, 2019 There are certain things you stop noticing after a few years in London. The first thing is how busy it is; crowds become the norm. The abominable air quality only becomes apparent when you leave. Another thing is Portland Stone. Chances are, you don’t even know you’re looking at it, but there aren’t many streets [...]
The age old problem: When buying spirits you shouldn’t rely on age as a sign of quality January 7, 2019 If you’re a rum distiller, you need to watch out for those pesky angels. You see, the tropical climates in which rum tends to be made accelerates the aging process: while in Scotland the angels’ share of whisky – that which is lost through evaporation – might be one to three per cent a year, [...]
Porsche 911 GT2 RS review: Ahead of the new model’s arrival, we bid auf wiedersehen to the fastest road-legal Porsche ever January 7, 2019 As you read this, the first examples of the new Porsche 911 are en route to the UK. The eighth-generation 911 (codenamed 992) is the most hotly anticipated sports car of 2019 and, rest assured, you’ll read about it here soon. However, before the ship docks at Dover, disgorging 992s onto every side street in [...]
Bumblebee film review: After the nightmare of Michael Bay, the Transformers franchise has finally come good January 7, 2019 It’s difficult to think of a franchise with a more wretched legacy than Transformers. Despite five films filled with puerile humour, sexism and disinterested performances, the robots in disguise have been a hit with audiences, grossing over $4bn in box office, providing all the motivation needed for continuation. So, we come to Bumblebee, a prequel/soft [...]