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Age and perception

I sometimes feel sorry for the Beatles. So great was their musical excellence, so all-pervading their impact upon 20th Century culture around the world, that (perhaps alongside Elvis Presley, whom of course did not write his own songs) they occupy such an exalted position in the public [...]

November 7, 2021 // 0 Comments

Police Paris 1900

Most reviewers will do their work after the first episode and might comment whether they will stay with it. This review comes after the concluding episode last Saturday. This French series about a decapitation of a woman set in post-Dreyfus Paris appears to be sufficiently successful that a second [...]

November 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

A Good Read

Few traditional radio programmes better illustrate the triumph of diversity in BBC programming than A Good Read  on Radio 4. The title and the introduction by well-read presenter Harriet Gilbert would surely indicate that  the purpose of the programme is recommendation. Yesterday a palliative [...]

November 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

Just about anything goes

We all eventually succumb to the ‘sense’ that the world isn’t fair – after which life becomes largely a matter of how we cope with the knowledge … and the effects. I came to the realisation quite early. I was five or six years old at the time and taking part in my [...]

November 1, 2021 // 0 Comments

My TV sporting weekend

Once again I found Premiership rugby produced the most enjoying sporting spectacle. My anticipation of Harlequins v Saracens was tempered by the absence on international duty of many of the stars. No Farrell v Smith, Dombrandt v Vinipola – nor the aggression of Joe Marler scrumming against [...]

November 1, 2021 // 0 Comments

What’s in a tune?

The other night I awoke at 1.00am with that uncomfortable feeling that I would not be getting back to sleep for some time. I came across an archived Desert island Discs featuring as the Castaway Andrew Lloyd Webber. He has written more memorable melodies – including Memory – than most [...]

October 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Magician/Colm Toibin

One of the interesting aspects of biography is the attitude – often better described as the relationship – between the writer and his/her subject. Gitta Sereny wrote an excellent biography of Albert von Speer but seemed to be in thrall of him. Tristram Hunt wrote a detailed account of [...]

October 29, 2021 // 0 Comments

Ridley Road, Paris 1900, Paul Verhoeven revisited & The Directors

Ridley Road  finished last Sunday and by and large I was impressed. Without in any way denigrating the Black cause that has suffered such discrimination in my lifetime it’s good that in the anti-racism platform the BBC gives expression to anti-semitism too. Ridley Road was set in 1962 when [...]

October 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

My art week

No exhibitions nor art on telly this week but two fascinating lessons in our art course. In the first – on British art and visual culture 1950 to the present – we studied David Hockney and Francis Bacon. Hockney, though it was not compulsory, studied line at Bradford Art College and [...]

October 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Forgotten Battle (2020)

I worked up a full head of steam recently with a feminist film critic I met at the San Sebastián film festival over Paul Verhoven, the Dutch director of Basic Instinct.  She had him down as a subversive, sexually exploitative, cineaste who was now out of date. I pointed out that his earlier films [...]

October 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

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