Adama Traore double sinks Manchester City and presents Liverpool with brilliant opportunity October 6, 2019 “It’s a bit like a recipe,” Pep Guardiola theorises in Pep Confidential. “League titles are won in the final eight games, but they are lost in the first eight games”. When he invited friend and journalist Marti Perarnau to document his 2013-14 season with Bayern Munich, Guardiola wouldn’t have been thinking about the ramifications of [...]
The Last Supper: Musician and DJ Cerys Matthews tells us what she’d eat for her last meal on earth, including Ian Brown’s secret recipe October 4, 2019 When I was touring I used to keep a little journal about food, full of curiosities and surprises and things that make you smile. Like the fact people from Luxembourg call turkeys “schnuddelhong”, which translates as “snot hen”. Once you’ve heard that you can’t look at a turkey the same way. I collected all these [...]
Real-life Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort reveals why the UK will survive Brexit October 4, 2019 The most remarkable thing about Jordan Belfort, the self-styled Wolf of Wall Street, is not his once-prodigious drug consumption or the Bacchanalian excess of his infamous company Stratton Oakmont – it’s his sheer, bloody-minded staying power. In his 56 years he’s experienced bankruptcy, drug addiction and incarceration, losing more money than most people could earn [...]
Judy film review: A nuanced portrait of troubled Hollywood icon October 4, 2019 This biopic of screen legend Judy Garland (Renee Zellweger) picks up its star in the late 1960s, and things aren’t going well. Her ex-husband wants custody of her two youngest children, she’s doing shows in grubby venues for $150, and getting kicked out of hotel suites when she can’t pay. Desperate for cash, she agrees [...]
Ollie Phillips: Argentina are a potential banana skin, but exactly the kind of test England need October 3, 2019 England are in good form and their World Cup has been wholly positive so far, but Saturday’s game against Argentina definitely represents a banana skin. Eddie Jones’s side have enjoyed plain sailing in Pool C, comfortably beating Tonga and the USA, and on paper the No10-ranked team should be no different. However, they haven’t been [...]
Two Ladies at Bridge Theatre review: A gripping but unremarkable political drama October 3, 2019 Two Ladies begins with a powerful image: FLOTUS Sophia enters with her cream two-piece covered with deep red blood. It’s a clear nod to Jackie Kennedy, and a neat introduction to the theme of Nancy Harris’s new play – the psychology of women who exist a manicured fingernail’s breadth from the most powerful jobs in [...]
The Hundred launch: Enthusiasm and confusion defines response to the ECB’s great hope October 3, 2019 The England and Wales Cricket Board’s great hope made its much-anticipated launch in a chilly warehouse on Brick Lane this morning. After a great deal of fanfare and a glitzy, clumsy marketing campaign The Hundred, a 100-ball competition with eight new franchises which begins next summer, took its first steps, full of optimism yet tinged [...]
Joker review: Joaquin Phoenix carries this supervillain’s dark origin story through its own dopey social commentary October 3, 2019 On social media site Reddit there is a section called “Am I the asshole?”, where concerned users submit situations in which they feel they may have been in the wrong, to seek a kind of masturbatory catharsis from a jury of their peers. There are arguments with strangers, disputes with family members, feuds in the [...]
Lille 1-2 Chelsea: Willian’s bolt from the blue secures vital away win for Lampard’s side October 2, 2019 After their disappointing opening round defeat at home by Valencia it was all about winning tonight, and win Chelsea did. Frank Lampard’s Blues are clearly a work in progress, especially when faced with challenging, unfamiliar sides in the Champions League. Read more: Spurs punished by seven-goal Bayern But while there were chinks in the armour, [...]
Chris Tremlett: Exciting times ahead as England opt to blood youngsters on New Zealand tour October 2, 2019 The end of the domestic cricket season has come and as the nights draw in I must congratulate Essex on a well deserved win in the County Championship. Somerset started the campaign like a train, but Essex were simply more consistent, losing just one game all season to their competitors’ three. Rain proved to be [...]