Few Silver Linings in this average rom-com November 22, 2012 FILM SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Cert 15 *** It’s refreshing to have a mainstream movie with mental illness as its central tenet, especially when Hollywood’s usual treatment of the issue amounts to little more than: “Look! a crazy person! Aren’t they funny!” (Me, Myself and Irene springs to mind). At its best, Silver Linings Playbook is [...]
Gambit is an unforgivably dull carnival of grotesque stereotypes November 22, 2012 FILM GAMBIT Cert 12A ** Culture clash comedies risk falling into the trap of reducing their characters to dull stereotypes. Gambit does not fall into this trap – it gleefully dives into it with suicidal abandon. Colin Firth plays Harry Deane, the long-suffering art buyer for misanthropic mogul, Lord Shabandar (Alan Rickman). Financially hard up [...]
David Tennant fails to lift a family flop November 22, 2012 FILM NATIVITY 2: DANGER IN THE MANGER Cert U | * David Tennant must have something against car-producing cities in the West Midlands. Only this would explain his descent from playing Hamlet and Dr Who to starring in this 101 minute insult to the city of Coventry. Tennant plays Mr Peterson, a teacher who has [...]
Tony Hall replaces George Entwistle as new BBC director-general November 22, 2012 Chief executive of the Royal Opera House Tony Hall is to be the new director-general of the BBC, it was announced today. He replaces George Entwistle, who resigned earlier this month after just 54 days in the job after failing to get to grips with a child abuse scandal that has thrown the BBC into [...]
SABMiller lifts FTSE 100 November 22, 2012 The leading share index was trading up this morning, as brewer SABMiller led the FTSE 100 up. Headline mining shares were also among the gainers this morning, as a return to growth in Chinese manufacturing activity boosted demand for metal companies. On the FTSE All-Share, Mothercare jumped almost nine per cent, on news that first-half [...]
Mothercare turnaround plan helps to narrow losses November 22, 2012 Baby products retailer Mothercare hailed its turnaround plan this morning, as its underlying pre-tax loss narrowed. The struggling retailer, which is six months into a three-year turnaround plan, said this morning it made an underlying pre-tax loss of £0.6m in the half year to 13 October, down from a loss of £4.4m over the same [...]
Network Rail debt jumps to £28bn November 22, 2012 Investment in the UK rail network pushed up infrastructure company Network Rail’s debt to more than £28bn, it said this morning. The funding of £2.06bn of capital expenditure over the six months to September – including on the Reading station redevelopment and works on the East Coast and West Coast main lines – helped push [...]
Chinese manufacturing accelerates in November November 22, 2012 Chinese manufacturing activity expanded in November, a sign that the pace of economic growth has rebounded, a survey showed this morning. The China HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed above the critical 50 level – which separates growth from contraction – for the first time in 13 months. The index stood at 50.4 in [...]
Peroni sales boost UK arm of SABMiller November 22, 2012 Strong sales of premium lager Peroni boosted SABMiller in the six months to September, as its UK arm grew beer sales by five per cent. Miller Brands bucked the trend of a declining UK beer market – total volumes sank 4.6 per cent in the half year to September – as Peroni Nastro Azzurro volumes [...]
UK tech boss: My side of the story November 21, 2012 MIKE Lynch, the founder of British software giant Autonomy, yesterday hit out at the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HP) over claims the US company had been lied to during its $11bn (£6.9bn) acquisition of Lynch’s firm last year. The former Autonomy boss, who was forced out of HP in May, denied any wrongdoing, rejected claims [...]
