Rugby League World Cup chief Jon Dutton: We’re very optimistic that we’ll have full stadiums April 6, 2021 Organising a major international sporting event is a logistical labyrinth at the best of times. Doing so when your dining room has been your office for the past year, when you haven’t yet met most of your staff, and when it has been impossible to be certain how or even if the event will take [...]
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ crushes pandemic box office record April 6, 2021 The latest in the giant lizard vs ape saga, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’, has smashed pandemic box office records which raked in £35m just this weekend. In the biggest opening in the US in the last 12 months, the Adam Wingard-directed blockbuster has surpassed the highly anticipated ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ which took home around £12m in its [...]
Falcon and The Winter Soldier episode 3 catch-up April 2, 2021 *** WARNING: This review contains spoilers for all current episodes of Falcon and The Winter Soldier *** We come to the halfway point of Marvel’s action/espionage/buddy cop miniseries. As you might imagine, an ominous presence is looming over the investigations of Sam/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). What you might not expect [...]
EP:50 Lingfield, Haydock, Musselburgh & Hong Kong April 2, 2021 It’s a typically busy Easter weekend for racing with a mixture of flat and jump meetings spread across the UK and today trainer Warren Greatrex joins us as our special guest. City A.M. racing editor Bill Esdaile previews the best of this weekend’s action in the UK and Ireland, plus we hear from Wally Pyrah [...]
Podcasts that helped us survive lockdown April 1, 2021 Podcasts have been one of the defining mediums of recent years, evolving from an online alternative to live radio to a thing all of its own, intimate and confessional, beamed into bedrooms, gyms and underground carriages across the world. In the last year we’ve relied more than ever on our favourite hosts talking quietly into [...]
Is Mike Dean really the strictest referee in the Premier League? April 1, 2021 Mike Dean is many things – showman in a world of automatons, purveyor of the no-look booking, gift to gif makers – but is he, as some would have it, the strictest referee in the Premier League? A study of officiating in English football’s top flight over the past five seasons has attempted to answer [...]
Godzilla Vs Kong – a spectacle that belongs on the big screen April 1, 2021 The first big blockbuster of the summer has arrived (yes, even in these times Hollywood considers the summer season to start at the end of March). As the title suggests, Godzilla Vs Kong sees the two big monsters of cinema meet face-to-face in a battle for supremacy. We find Kong isolated in a domed Skull [...]
The Mauritanian – Tahar Rahim saves Kevin McDonald drama March 31, 2021 On the surface, The Mauritanian should have been a bigger contender during awards season – it’s got a stellar cast, a high-profile director in Kevin McDonald (The Last King of Scotland), and an intriguing story. However, despite some well-deserved acting nominations elsewhere, it hasn’t shown up on the radar of Oscar voters. McDonald is adapting [...]
Up in smoke: A beginner’s guide to cigar-smoking March 31, 2021 I started smoking cigars as an undergraduate. I know that sounds unbearable, but it was a small town and thanks to a regular influx of American tourists we had three decent cigar shops. I saw myself as an in utero sybarite, a trainee on the green slopes of decadence. After a dinner, a cigar can [...]
Athletic Bilbao: Two Copa del Rey finals, one unique philosophy, and the roles of identity and loyalty in sporting success March 31, 2021 Athletic Bilbao manager Marcelino Garcia Toral could be forgiven for using the old cliche about every game feeling like a cup final. That’s because, due to a quirk of pandemic rescheduling, Athletic are about to play in the final of Spain’s domestic cup competition twice in a fortnight. On Saturday, a year later than planned, [...]