By: Steve Dinneen

Life&Style Editor I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, wine, going out, culture, technology and travel. I'm also the head judge of our Toast the City awards that celebrates hospitality in the Square Mile. Find me on X @steve_dinneen

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Husbands & Sons is a deeply evocative Welsh drama

October 30, 2015

Dorfman Theatre | ★★★☆☆ Throughout his novels, poems and plays – though hardly in real life – DH Lawrence would return to the murky Midland mining village of his youth: a community of dour, drink-sodden colliers and their hard-nosed, long-suffering wives. The men flaunt their masculinity, but are unable to express much else about themselves; the [...]
Under Milk Wood is a raunchy, filthy, surreal take on Dylan Thomas’ epic radio play

October 30, 2015

Cert: 15 | ★★★★☆ Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas’ masterful radio play, doesn’t easily lend itself to film. The twisting, languid structure of the poetry means the visuals inevitably feel tacked on, like a montage in a music video. In director Kevin Allen’s adaptation they bray for your attention, all saturated colours and vivid, nightmarish imagery. [...]
Pig Farm is good, dirty fun but fails to live up to Urinetown

October 30, 2015

St James's Theatre | ★★★☆☆ It’s an apt time to pen a comedy about pigs and Greg Kotis – writer of last year’s musical hit Urinetown – does so with some style, if little substance. The action takes place on the eve of a federal government visit to an intensive pig farm. A wayward young [...]
Restaurant review: There’s more to Palm Court than afternoon tea, thank god

October 29, 2015

If I could click my fingers and banish one element of our national cuisine, it would be afternoon tea. It’s a dreary throwback to a time when we felt the need to ape our social betters, in this case by eating wildly overpriced cucumber sandwiches. Its emergence is often credited to Anna Maria Russell, the [...]
Halo 5: Guardians review – multiplayer elevates franchise to new heights

October 29, 2015

Platform: XBO | ★★★★☆ If you haven’t followed the intricacies of the Halo universe over the past 14 years, you’re never going to catch up now (if you have, I’ve got news for you: you’re old and your best days are behind you). Halo’s plot is labyrinthine and esoteric and, honestly, a bit silly. You’re not [...]
Mississippi Grind, Paper Planes, Listen To Me Marlon movie review round-up – Films in brief October 2015

October 22, 2015

Mississippi Grind | ★★★★☆ This road trip starring Aussie actor Ben Mendelsohn follows Jerry, a gambler with serious debts who encounters Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), a drifter who seems to bring good luck to all around him. Jerry convinces his new friend to go on a tour of America’s gambling spots in the hope of winning enough [...]
Plaques and Tangles, Royal Court theatre review: Alzheimer’s play’s intimacy and exceptional acting hit the hardest

October 22, 2015

★★★★☆ | Royal Court Plaques and Tangles, a play about three generations of a family blighted by Alzheimer’s, wears its weighty subject remarkably lightly. It circles with the grace of a featherweight boxer, throwing occasional jabs, ducking and weaving, waiting until your guard is down before hitting home its crushing, terrifically sad finishing blow. It [...]
The 12-week total body transformation workout and exercise plan: week 2

October 19, 2015

What were your goals? I’m like a lot of people: I played sports throughout my early 20s, then I got a proper job in the City and started working late nights and going for after-work drinks. I’d just let myself go, basically. I was eating loads of take away, had got myself a beer belly. [...]
Audi A4 motoring review: From worst car in the class to a class act

October 19, 2015

Audi, in recent years, has been in the rather unfortunate position of selling the worst car in its class. It’s long been unable to topple the BMW 3 Series as the best compact premium saloon, of course, but an honourable runner-up slot used to suffice. Then Mercedes-Benz came along with the new C-Class and, one [...]
Azerbaijan’s majestic scenery is refreshingly untouched by global tourism

October 19, 2015

‘Azerbaijan border – Good luck,” read the sign at the Georgian frontier town. I gulped, hoisted my backpack and reached for my passport. Ominous cautions from its neighbours notwithstanding, Azerbaijan is trying to court people like me. It’s not, on the face of it, an easy sell. Human Rights Watch recently noted “Azerbaijan’s government has [...]

AI minister: UK sets sights on global AI leadership, not Silicon Valley emulation

Delicious Orie: The boxer who swapped sparring for spreadsheets

Jamie’s Italian is awful but don’t worry, there are some great new Mediterranean restaurants too

By: Steve Dinneen

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