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Bernard Levin, Michael Portillo, Simon Sebag Montefiore

What do the three above have in common? You may be surprised by my answer: a Panama Hat. Sir Ttevor MacDonald recently paid an affectionate tribute to Bernard Levin. . This tribute also included his travel programmes, made late in his life following Hannibal’s march and the length of the Rhein, [...]

November 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Lancaster Bomber

Last week there was a fascinating documentary on the Lancaster bomber on Sky. The Lancaster was the elite aircraft of Bomber Command which under Air Marshal ‘Bomber’ Harris raised German cities to rubble. This is a remarkably prescient topic given the Israeli Air Force bombing of Gaza. In [...]

November 13, 2023 // 0 Comments

Venice: City of Pictures (Martin Gayford)

As one might expect from such an eminent art historian Martin Gayford’s latest work on Venetian art and architecture is a thorough, well-researched study with beautiful images. He covers the ‘Big Four’ of Venetian art – Titian, Tintoretto (the only artist born in and of Venice) [...]

November 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Voyage Round My Father: Chichester Festival Theatre (review 08.11.2023)

This piece by barrister/writer John Mortimer (1923 – 2009), perhaps best known of all for his creation Rumpole Of The Bailey starring Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, had an interesting gestation. It began in the form of three sketches he wrote for BBC Radio in 1963, then developed into a [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

The battle of the Vercors Plâteau

I have always had the greatest interest in the lesser known theatres of battle of World War Two but until I saw National Geographic’s excellent documentary on the Vercors Plâteau I had never heard of this engagement in July and August 1945. To the rallying call of Charles de Gaulle the FFI [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Having watched a bio-documentary of Elizabeth Taylor in which the critic Derek Malcolm argued that the above film, based on the Edward Albee play, proved she could act, I duly ordered the DVD. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, the daughter of the President of the Faculty, and her husband George [...]

November 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia (Channel 4)

I’m not a great one for a Channel 4/5 conspiracy documentary which tends to be more speculation to grab the headlines but not bolstered by hard evidence. However this one made a plausible case. This was that Jack Kennedy befriended Frank Sinatra, who arranged glamorous Hollywood film stars for [...]

November 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

Concert review: The Manfreds (Cadogan Hall 3rd November 2023)

I may be treading upon unsure ground here but one of the features of music generally – in its various forms ranging across the spectrum from the primitive to High Art and back again – is its appeal to most sentient members of the human race as they make their journey through life. One [...]

November 5, 2023 // 0 Comments

Frances McDormand

I read Olive Kitteridge and saw the HBO series after Melanie’s recommendation of both. The series did indeed highlight what a great actress Frances McDormand is. She rose to fame as the detective in Fargo, a typically unglamorous rôle, in which she is mainly in a bulky anorak to keep herself [...]

November 4, 2023 // 0 Comments

Olive Kitteridge (HBO)

It’s always an interesting discussion as to whether the book – or the film of it – is better. I reviewed Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud on this website in May 2017. It’s a collection of short stories set in Maine which won the writer the Pulitzer Prize. The HBO film version [...]

November 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

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