Could living in the City of London become popular? May 20, 2023 The race is heating up for the smartest City of London living – Adam Bloodworth looks at the competition Crypts, former gladiatorial jousting grounds, dozens of gorgeous old pubs and even more shiny glass buildings: the City of London is an under-visited district rich with cultural things to do. We should frankly all spend more [...]
Johnny Depp’s comeback performance in Jeanne Du Barry ‘a disappointment’, say critics May 19, 2023 Johnny Depp has made his comeback in Jeanne Du Barry, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, but the critics aren’t keen. It’s Depp’s first film in three years, and the first since his high profile legal case against ex-wife Amber Heard in their defamation trial. Depp’s reputation was tarnished by the trial, but his team [...]
Brokeback Mountain play, review: Where’s all the gay sex?! May 19, 2023 Brokeback Mountain play review and star rating: ★★★ Where was all the spine-tingling intimacy? The kissing scenes that show what two men together can be like, the caressing of a shoulder with the tuft of hair, the chin nuzzling into the armpit, the gazes of adoration? Brokeback Mountain, originally a 1997 short story published in [...]
Bleak Expectations at the Criterion Theatre is the silliest West End show you’ve got to catch May 18, 2023 Bleak Expectations is being pegged as London’s silliest show. It riffs on some of the best bits of Charles Dickens’ novels. Some of the parts we can imagine well in our minds, such as the grimy Victorian school in Oliver. Best of all is that you needn’t know anything about Dickens to enjoy the show, [...]
Best new London rooftop bars and terraces to book for summer May 18, 2023 There’s nothing like discovering a new outdoor drinking spot. Book a table at one of these new London rooftop bars, says Adam Bloodworth It’s been a ropey old spring so far in terms of the weather but this new spell of warmth feels like a good omen, so we’re calling it: outdoor drinking season has [...]
Why Madonna, George Clooney and British royals are flocking to Portugal’s Comporta, the new St Tropez May 13, 2023 A-Listers and royalty are moving to Portugal’s secret coastline, to the villages of Comporta and Melides, so get in now, says Adam Bloodworth To steal a commonly-used phrase from Gen Z, Comporta is popping off. Foreign investors have been quietly moving here in their droves over the past decade, encouraged no doubt by the iconic [...]
How to throw the perfect Eurovision 2023 Party: your food, drinks and outfits sorted May 12, 2023 Can the UK beat last year’s runner-up placing to land the title? Probably not – but it’s time for Eurovision 2023, so let’s party anyway Nil pois? If last year’s runnerup placing is anything to go by, the UK may have finally relegated to history our abysmal showing at the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It [...]
Glory Ride, Charing Cross Theatre, review: Touching tribute to Italian war hero May 11, 2023 Glory Ride review and star rating: ★★★★ Gino Bartali won the Tour de France for Italy in the 1930s and 1940s but it was another of his conquests that became legendary: how he secretly smuggled documentation to refugees in the Second World War, helping save the lives of thousands of people being persecuted after Italy [...]
August in England, Bush Theatre, review: Lenny Henry at his formidable best May 11, 2023 August in England review and star rating: ★★★★ Lenny Henry’s beloved as a comedian, but before that he was primarily an actor, as he reminds us with such panache in August in England, a new piece of writing penned by Henry about the Windrush Generation. Henry’s story about a black man whose life is upturned [...]
Bob Bob Ricard City review: Like a hallucinogenic trip, or a warm hug, this just needs to be experienced May 10, 2023 Bob Bob Ricard founder Leonid Shutov said he wanted his recently renovated Bob Bob Ricard City restaurant to be “somewhere you’ll travel to” rather than somewhere you’d go “because you happen to be nearby.” In the capital, where half the new restaurants close within two years of opening, it’s a smart approach. ‘Make somewhere memorable’ [...]