Our ultimate guide to last-minute Christmas spirits, including our whiskies of the year December 21, 2020 Christmas may be ruined, but things always look better through the bottom of a bottle. If you were planning on stocking up on last-minute gifts before the big day, you may have to rethink. But the silver lining of this new lockdown means you can claw back a few days to pick up the ideal [...]
Bushmills’ Causeway Collection is the perfect Christmas dram December 15, 2020 Bushmills has the largest collection of single malt whiskey on the island of Ireland. From its 400,000 or so barrels, Master Blender Helen Mulholland has been carefully monitoring the development of select casks to create their new Causeway Collection. Helen began working at the Bushmills distillery as an intern in the early 1990s, and during [...]
Drink up to help out: The gin raising funds for hospitality December 5, 2020 Even with the lifting of the second national lockdown enabling some bars and pubs to reopen this week, hospitality remains one of the sectors worst affected by Covid restrictions. Hospitality Gin is a not-for-profit gin brand created to support the industry during the pandemic, offering the drinking public the opportunity to order in to help [...]
Evgeney Lebedev wine collection to go under the hammer November 17, 2020 Recently ennobled Evgeney Lebedev is selling part of his wine collection in an online auction. Lebedev, the politically connected socialite and son of a former KGB spy, whose elevation by Boris Johnson to the House of Lords drew accusations of cronyism earlier this year, built up a wine collection that demonstrates his love for rich and rare reds. It consists [...]
Take the edge off the US election with a bourbon cocktail November 5, 2020 With the Presidential election still dragging on, you could be forgiven for having somewhat frayed nerves right now. Will it be resolved with decisive-enough wins in the outstanding states? Will it end up in the courts? Will it lead to the death of democracy and civil conflict? As if 2020 was already stressful enough, without [...]
Blithe Spirit at Duke of York’s Theatre review: Jennifer Saunders shines in this playful ghost story March 16, 2020 Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is a merry supernatural farce, which the old boy hurriedly knocked off as a distraction from the beastly inconvenience of the Blitz. It seems appropriate that it should manifest again now, as the country stockpiles toilet paper and prepares to baton down the hatches, not against the menace of the Luftwaffe, [...]
You Stupid Darkness! at Southwark Playhouse review: a quietly life-affirming apocalypse comedy January 24, 2020 You Stupid Darkness! is a harrowing comedy about four volunteers, crammed into a dank call centre, filling the midnight to 4am slot on Wednesday mornings at Brightline; a dial-in emotional support service helping callers come to terms with the apocalypse. Things have been getting worse for a while now. The world isn’t ending with a [...]
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie musical review: Major changes revive this popular musical January 24, 2020 Popular musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is switching it up for 2020, with some major cast changes, including a new Jamie. Based on the 2011 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is an inspirational coming of age tale about a young man taking his first high-heeled steps into the fantastical world [...]
Teenage Dick at the Donmar review: High school reimagining is a hit December 19, 2019 Teenage Dick transposes Shakespeare’s murderous monarch Richard III from Plantagenet England to the halls of a modern American high school; the perfect setting for a twisted tale of ambition and resentment. Roseland High School junior class secretary Richard’s desire for respect and attention is frustrated by his physical disability in a community that worships sporting [...]
Measure for Measure review: A play given impetus by #metoo November 29, 2019 Measure for Measure has great contemporary resonance, with the tale of a man abusing a position of authority for his own sexual gratification echoing the complaints of the #MeToo movement. The Duke of Vienna fears that his lax enforcement of public morals risks becoming a crisis, and so rather than dealing with the matter himself [...]