Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour play review: a rowdy, sweary look at adolescents escaping to the big city August 11, 2016 National Theatre of Scotland’s breathtakingly rude adaptation of Alan Warner's novel The Sopranos is all about finding the sacred in the every day, even if that consists of getting off your face on magic mushroom lager. Written by Billy Elliot playwright Lee Hall, it follows six Catholic schoolgirls from the rougher parts of Oban who're [...]
The Shallows film review: Blake Lively stars in the spiritual successor to Jaws August 11, 2016 For decades – as anyone who sat through Sharknado will tell you – the open ocean has been where horror goes to die. Jaws’ phenomenal success in 1975 sired a thousand bastard offspring consisting of countless malformed sharks, some endowed with absurd and embarrassing dimensions (Shark Attack), others with weird animatronic bodies (Deep Blue Sea), [...]
Pete’s Dragon film review: a sweet-hearted Disney film that trades on nostalgia for the films of your childhood August 11, 2016 After the wildly successful Jungle Book remake comes Pete’s Dragon, itself a reboot of a little known Disney film from 1977, a strange, dated musical featuring a dragon who was half live-action and half animation, but mostly invisible. It wasn’t well reviewed, but a reheated Turkey is often easier to stomach than a remade classic. [...]
England v Spain: Sam Allardyce to face off against fellow international newbie Julen Lopetegui in November friendly August 11, 2016 Sam Allardyce will face fellow new international manager Julen Lopetegui in his first big test as England boss when his Three Lions side play 2010 World Cup winners Spain on 15 November. England will play host Lopetegui's Spain at Wembley in their final match of 2016, four days after a World Cup qualifying match against Scotland. The last time the [...]
Government urged to lift ban and allow Premier League clubs to introduce safe standing August 11, 2016 Sport Minister Tracey Crouch has come under renewed pressure on the eve of the new Premier League season to allow England’s leading clubs to reintroduce standing areas at their stadia. A report published today by think tank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) says the use of “safe standing” sections is backed by most top-flight teams [...]
Global investors increasingly drawn to English football’s booming bargain bin August 11, 2016 Wealthy Premier League clubs and extravagant transfers such as Manchester United’s world record deal for Paul Pogba may hog the limelight, but canny investors are increasingly taken by England’s less glamorous teams. Four in 10 clubs in the three divisions below the top flight fielded approaches from potential investors in the last year, and that [...]
End the stadium standing ban: It’s an open goal for football fans and clubs August 11, 2016 Twenty eight people died at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo last year, suffocating in a crush that began when police fired tear gas at away fans entering without tickets. It was another in a long line of stadium tragedies. But like the 2006 PhilSports Arena disaster in the Philippines, and the disasters in Johannesburg [...]
Great Britain crashes Olympic Games medal party and moves ahead of tally secured at same stage of London 2012 August 10, 2016 Gold in the pool and on the water headlined Great Britain’s rampant charge during a historic and medal-fuelled fifth day of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Tearful duo Jack Laugher and Chris Mears won Team GB’s first ever Olympic diving gold medal in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard, hours after Joe Clarke’s kayak triumph [...]
No1 spot in the Test world rankings beckons for England. That’s all well and good, the real challenge is staying there August 10, 2016 It's all very well getting to No1 in the world Test rankings but the true measure of a side worthy of that tag is to stay there for a long time. That’s the challenge facing England should they hit the summit by the end of the summer. Such a feat will be achieved if Alastair [...]
Why the £10bn surfing industry deserves its introduction as an Olympic sport in 2020 August 10, 2016 Once the epitome of sporting counter culture and the natural home to the mavericks and outsiders of the sports world, surfing has finally been accepted as an Olympic sport. With Brazilian pro surfers like Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo now superstars in a sport which is rivalling football in its appeal to younger generations, the [...]