Aboard the real Orient Express train from Europe to the East April 9, 2025 It has always irked me that trains billed as the Orient Express, like the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, only go as far as Istanbul. Why evoke the romance of the Orient only to end the journey at the edge of Europe? It’s a disappointment, but more gallingly for anyone passionate about long-distance train travel, it’s also a missed [...]
Aston Martin Valhalla spec secrets: How to configure a hypercar April 9, 2025 Growing up in the 1980s, we had a choice of four television channels – or just three before Channel 4 first aired in 1982. If you didn’t like what was on, you had to read a book, kick a football around the garden or watch some paint dry. Today, there are hundreds of TV channels [...]
The City Break: holiday like a royal in the New Forest April 8, 2025 For this week’s City Break, Justine Gosling goes to the most-loved national park in the south Once a royal hunting ground for William the Conqueror, the New Forest National Park is the UK’s most visited, and among the smallest and most accessible of the UK’s national parks. Stretching over 380 km sq across Hampshire and [...]
The White Lotus Season 3 finale sucked: Here’s why April 8, 2025 The White Lotus Season 3 is over. In this spoiler-heavy take, Steve Dinneen laments an ending that went awry. The final episode of The White Lotus Season 3 pulled off the dubious trick of ending with both a bang and a whimper. It’s been a rollercoaster: the season opened to a fairly tepid reaction – [...]
Naked Wines picks: three delicious bottles for World Earth Day April 8, 2025 In Libby’s Naked Wines diary this week, it’s the top picks for World Earth Day On 22 April we celebrate Earth Day so I have sought out some wines that are going above and beyond to make this world a better place – and are tasty drops, too. Naked Wines bottles of the week Silverhand [...]
The Last Supper: Gordon Warnecke on the perfect jerk chicken April 7, 2025 Star of 1980s movie My Beautiful Laundrette, Gordon Warnecke tells us what he would eat for his last meal on earth My mum wasn’t a very good cook. My first memories of food are of her making quite traditional British stuff. She came over from Guyana in South America, where she was the youngest of five siblings – [...]
I found my private pictures on a foot fetish website… And a theatre celeb’s April 7, 2025 Playwright Naomi Westerman found her private photos on a foot fetish website. Then she found pictures of the most powerful man in theatre… I have no idea how a celebrity foot fetish website found my personal Instagram. Somehow a bunch of random snapshots in which I happen to be shoeless did it for some people. Not [...]
The Stimming Pool shines a light on the reality of autism April 7, 2025 Historically, Hollywood’s portrayal of Autism has done more harm than good. Until recent years, the idea many had of neurodivergent people would come from movies such as Rain Man and The Accountant, neither of which have been heralded for their accuracy. The Stimming Pool is an experimental mix of documentary and fiction that attempts to redress [...]
Robert De Niro sees double in gangland thriller The Alto Knights April 7, 2025 Robert De Niro stars opposite himself in The Alto Knights, a mafia drama based on a true story. It follows the power struggle between Frank Costello (De Niro), the kingpin of New York’s organised crime syndicate; and Vito Genovese (also De Niro), an embittered boss and childhood friend of Frank’s. When Vito orders a hit [...]
Novocaine is an action movie that doesn’t play by the rules April 7, 2025 It’s a trope of most action movies that the hero will take an extraordinary amount of punishment and still keep going. New comedy Novocaine has taken that one step further, imagining a lead who literally can’t feel the bad guys’ punches. The Boys star Jack Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered office worker born with [...]