Christmas is cancelled: Five festive traditions scuppered by Covid December 7, 2020 Coronavirus has a lot to answer for, and while being able to enjoy a few frivolities over Christmas isn’t at the top of the list, it’s still likely to put a downer on December. Here are some of the popular Christmas activities that have been curtailed by the pandemic, and some suggestions on how to [...]
Banning betting companies from sport sponsorship will create a huge void that may never be filled December 7, 2020 A few months ago, football club Swansea City announced its university namesake as its new shirt sponsor and thereby broke ties with a betting company. They may be just the first of many football clubs to break away from gambling and, like Swansea City, they will take a financial hit from the switch. This year’s [...]
Ollie Phillips: England may have won but France were the real stars of the Autumn Nations Cup December 7, 2020 It was brilliant to see England claim the Autumn Nations Cup in such dramatic fashion on Sunday. Rugby fans have been missing that kind of competitive tension, so it was awesome that the competition was decided by a golden penalty. But while England took the silverware, much of the plaudits will rightfully go to the [...]
Lawrence Dallaglio: Auction part of drive to give kids better prospects December 7, 2020 Watching the Autumn Nations Cup over the past few weeks has brought some much-needed entertainment to our lives but it has also provided a funding lifeline for the sport in a time where it was nervously looking into a challenging future. Whilst the sport will have to navigate some tricky decisions in relation to the [...]
Falling review – Viggo Mortensen family drama feels too familiar December 5, 2020 35 years after his big screen debut, Viggo Mortensen steps behind the camera for his feature debut, in a story he also writes and stars in. He plays John, a pilot who lives in California with his husband Eric (Terry Chen) and daughter Monica (Gabby Velis). His contented West Coast life is disrupted by the [...]
David Fincher’s Mank is a classic about a classic December 5, 2020 There is a sad irony to David Fincher’s love letter to Old Hollywood being a big new release for Netflix. Mank is the company’s big hope for Oscar glory, as films about the film business tend to go down well with the people in it (Birdman, La La Land, The Artist, Adaptation… we could go [...]
The Godfather Part III gets a new cut and a new title – The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone December 5, 2020 It’s not just superheroes that are getting a new edit. Thirty years on from its release, The Godfather Part III gets a new cut and a new title – The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo’s original vision was a coda, rather than an official third [...]
The Mandalorian season 2 episode 6: S2E6 sees a legend return December 5, 2020 *** SPOILERS AHEAD: If you haven’t watched the most recent episodes of The Mandalorian Season 2, look away now*** After a few episodic adventures, the larger picture of this season of The Mandalorian seems to be coming together. Last episode we got a huge chunk of information about The Child – or Grogu, as he [...]
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Britain review: A playful enigma December 5, 2020 In an ideal world, you could write about the excellent Lynette Yiadom-Boakye exhibition at Tate Britain without mentioning race. Her enigmatic portraits, which have a Hockney-esque knack of capturing not just an expression, but an entire personality, don’t seem particularly concerned with race, beyond the fact they feature black people – something that’s still sadly [...]
Crock Of Gold – A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan: A tribute to a life lived hard December 4, 2020 When we first see the star of Crock Of Gold – A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, the instinct is to feel sad. He looks ravaged by the excesses of his 62 years, wheelchair bound and pale. However, one of the first preconceptions this documentary smashes is the idea that the singer/songwriter is a tragic [...]