Harry Potter and the Cursed Child review at the Palace Theatre: A sappy script but possibly one of the best staged plays the West End has ever seen July 28, 2016 JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series stood apart from the canon of children’s literature by allowing its characters to grow up. Peter Pan famously never aged and Just William was 11-years-old for about 50 years. Harry, Ron and Hermione, on the other hand, were in their late 30s by the end of the seventh book, sending [...]
The studio behind the James Bond franchise is reportedly in talks over a £300m takeover with a US property fund July 27, 2016 The UK's legendary Pinewood Film Studios could reportedly be sold within the week to an international property fund. The studios – where films including the Harry Potter series, the most recent Star Wars film and the James Bond franchise have been filmed – could be sold for more than £300m. According to Sky News, the [...]
Microsoft’s made an iPhone app which uses AI to improve your photos July 27, 2016 Microsoft is putting its artificial intelligence technology to good uses again – this time, helping you take better pictures. After that ill-fated chatbot experiment, and more fun japes such as HowOldRobot and CaptionBot, Microsoft has put the tech to better use with a picture app for iPhone. Great news for anyone who strugggles to capture the perfect snap. Read more: [...]
More magic from Harry Potter? Bloomsbury reports nine per cent revenue growth July 13, 2016 Bloomsbury Publishing’s shares leapt this morning as it reported a nine per cent jump in revenue. The publisher will today unveil a 2020 growth plan to investors and analysts, targeting “significant growth in digital revenues over the next five years”. The company also wants to take steps towards “being a non-consumer publisher in the B2B [...]
Contagious content: Don’t Panic’s Joe Wade on why Jon Snow, GoPro and The LAD Bible hold the secrets to making a video ad go viral May 23, 2016 A number of advertisers have won a Cannes Gold Lion. But few can claim a Bafta on top of it, and say they’ve dug up the lawn of a former frontbench MP. “We wanted to repackage social and political issues in a different way,” says Joe Wade, film-maker and co-founder of Don’t Panic London, speaking of [...]
Harry Potter’s spell is still working its magic on publisher Bloomsbury even as focus shifts May 19, 2016 Bloomsbury Publishing, which has been hanging on to Harry Potter’s soaring broomstick for nearly two decades now, isn’t letting go any time soon. The company reported an eight per cent rise in pre-tax profits last year following a 133 per cent surge in sales of Harry Potter books. The rise has been put down to [...]
Licence to Tweet: Britain’s top spy agency GCHQ has joined Twitter May 16, 2016 And you thought everything had to be hush hush when it comes to the world of spying, espionage and national security? These days, you'd be wrong – Britain's top intelligence agency GCHQ has joined Twitter. Hello, world. https://t.co/SROtSsE8KB — GCHQ (@GCHQ) May 16, 2016 And got this welcome from its US counterpart. Welcome to Twitter @GCHQ! https://t.co/EmD8hGMRBv — [...]
The five best train journeys in the world April 29, 2016 Train travel affords a vision of the world that seems so much more interesting than road journeys; somehow you hardly ever see anything interesting from a motorway. As John Betjeman said, “you need never be bored in a train”. Train travel is liberating in the time it affords for oneself – to read, write, think, [...]
No way in for the Inns: Barristers rise up against Cycle Superhighway street closure, saying it would put revenues from Hollywood film companies at risk April 20, 2016 Another day another planning battle – this time between the City of London Corporation and the Inns of Court. The Inns' top barristers and residents are on a war path after the one of the Corporation's sub-committee voted to shut down one of the main roads leading into their buildings to traffic – a move they claim will "create a [...]
Harry Potter and the curious tale of GCHQ April 10, 2016 How do you keep Harry Potter news under wraps? With the help of a spy agency – and not the fictional Ministry of Magic kind either With no real life invisibility cloaks or veritaserum potions available, the publishers of the enormously successful series had a little help from a surprising place – the UK's spy agency GCHQ. [...]