Danny MacAskill is still alive (just) after his breathtaking day out November 18, 2016 | City Talk Risking his neck on roof tiles. Cycling precariously over straw bales. Balancing on a knife-edge on railway tracks… Scots biking daredevil, Danny MacAskill is living (just), breathing proof that Scotland's stunning scenery and fantastic open spaces are the ultimate outdoor playground. Watch. And be amazed…
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them review: a full-on Christmas blockbuster that’s bursting with imagination November 17, 2016 No more, JK Rowling vowed as the Harry Potter series – her magnum opus that took 17 years to write – finally came to an end. And she’s largely kept her word, apart from the studio tour, the theme park and the play that’s currently in the West End. Oh, and a website she runs [...]
An Inspector Calls at the Playhouse theatre: good, cosy fun, but lacking spleen November 17, 2016 An Inspector Calls returns once again to the London stage. A whodunnit in which a police officer investigates the causes of a young woman’s suicide should be an excoriating critique of the indifference of the upper-middle classes, but here it is repackaged as cosy entertainment for the descendants of the very people it originally sought [...]
King Lear at the Barbican review: Antony Sher shows a very different Lear to Glenda Jackson November 17, 2016 The benefit of seeing two top-tier productions of King Lear in the space of a week – first the Old Vic’s version with Glenda Jackson, the second at the Barbican starring Antony Sher – is that all of its myriad quirks, masterstrokes and flaws come into sharp focus. Perhaps the flaws most of all. While [...]
Gimme Danger review: This documentary charting the success of The Stooges is a tribute to true outsiders November 17, 2016 Jim Jarmusch directs this portrait of The Stooges, told through animated archive footage and interviews with the remaining members. It explores the notorious live gigs, frontman Iggy Pop’s counter-culture mystique, and their eventual acceptance as music pioneers. Rockumentaries tread a thin line between celebration and investigation; too critical, and you risk losing the fan base [...]
Indignation review: A moody but glacially slow Philip Roth adaptation November 17, 2016 The normally wide-eyed young actor Logan Lerman gets cynical for this 50s drama. He plays Marcus, a gifted but self-isolating college student from Newark dealing with life and relationships against the backdrop of the Korean War. Like last week's American Pastoral, Indignation is an adaptation of a Phillip Roth novel made by a first time [...]
Focus On Lewisham: Historically undervalued, Lewisham is undergoing a major upgrade November 17, 2016 It may surprise you to learn that Lewisham, that underloved pocket of South East London, is one of the fastest growing boroughs in the capital. Since the arrival of its DLR station and the rise of Canary Wharf – a wealthy neighbour where employment has quadrupled in the last 10 years – it’s become an increasingly [...]
Fancy some stargazing? Hop on a plane to La Palma, the most stellar of the Canary Islands November 17, 2016 The farthest of the Canary Islands from the coast of Africa has just 80,000 inhabitants, and 150,000 visitors per year. Unlike its rocky neighbours, there is enormous variety on the island, with mountains above the clouds, black sand beaches and a night sky that has made it a must see for astrology lovers the world [...]
Discover a side to Tuscany that the Italians have been keeping a secret from the Brits November 17, 2016 Enjoying an aperitif on my balcony on our last night in Punta Ala, as the sun dipped below the island of Elba, I wondered who deemed this paradise an appropriate exile for Napoleon. With clear stretches of pristine coastline overlooked by rugged volcanic natural parks, it’s a side of Tuscany not often seen by tourists. [...]
Searches for flights to the US plummeted after Donald Trump was elected president November 17, 2016 Whether or not US President-elect Donald Trump's wall will prevent people from entering America, his negative image abroad already has. Since the election results were announced last week, demand for flights to the US dropped globally, new research has suggested. The so-called "Trump Effect", calculated by travel search engine Kayak.co.uk, reported the number of searches for [...]