Just in

History

And God Created Woman (movie 1956)

It’s well known that this film made the careers of Brigitte Bardot, and its director Roger Vadim – as well as put Saint Tropez on the map. Less well known is that it was an early film of Jean Louis Trintignant, arguably France’s finest post war screen actor with whom Bardot had an affaire [...]

October 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Alamo (1960 movie)

There are those who dislike “THE ALAMO” – starring and directed by John Wayne – for its gung-ho patriotism but (for me) it’s a big action war movie of the ilk that is made so often these days. I watched it for the third time yesterday The story is of a make-shift fortress, [...]

October 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

Red Bull Newcastle v Harlequins & The Rugby Championship

Just like in cricket there are are too many rugby tournaments. No doubt TV is responsible : Sky sports and TNT are paymasters and ringmasters. Quins played Red Bull Newcastle – the latter  re-branded from Newcastle Falcons – in the Premiership Cup. Players are now so overloaded that [...]

September 14, 2025 // 0 Comments

New Zealand 17 South Africa 14 ( Rugby Championship)

If I had to describe this match between the two titans of Southern Hemisphere rugby in a single word it would be “intense“. Yes, the Boks were uncharacteristically sloppy, with poor handling by scrum half Grant Williams and skipper Siya Kolesi unimpressive but their renowned scrum has [...]

September 7, 2025 // 0 Comments

Assessing The British Lions Tour …

After rain of biblical proportions and lightning had so marred the game on Saturday, causing a lengthy suspension, the Lions lost 12-22 to Australia and the series ended 2-1 in the Lions’ favour. The British Lions are something of an anachronism – one of those quirky British [...]

August 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

Classic British Cinema

Over the weekend I watched the the Sky team review in their Classic Films series and acclaim Kind Hearts and Coronets and then on Film 4 The Long Good Friday: both are – in their different ways – classics of British cinema. Kind Hearts and Coronets is an Ealing Comedy though Ian Jarvis, [...]

July 20, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Barber of Seville (Glyndebourne)

This was an excellent production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia Rossini’s great opera buffa (comic opera), based upon the play by Pierre Beaumarchais. The story is of the triumph of true love: that of Count Almaviva (Jonah Hoskins) and Rosina (Cecilia Molinari), the ward of Dr. Bartolo who also [...]

May 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

Two American songbook concerts (BBC 4)

Last night I watched a recording of an Ethel Merman concert that she gave years ago and another on BBC 4 of  Kiri Te Kanawa, Jeremy Irons and Warren Mitchell singing songs from My Fair Lady. I guess this original Albert Hall concert would have taken place some thirty years ago. The problem is [...]

May 26, 2025 // 0 Comments

Sporting Saturday

The best part of the Test Match between England and Zimbabwe was for me the former Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olongo singing the (Les Miserables) song Take Me Home. Frankly, whilst Zimbabwe played with spirit they were outclassed. Henry and Andy Flower voiced publicly their criticism of the Mugabe [...]

May 25, 2025 // 0 Comments

Sporting Saturday

With the Cup Final and US PGA on ‘moving day’, I was embarrassed by riches and swerved a tight and exciting victory of Northampton Saints over Saracens. That the Cup Final has declined as “THE National Sporting Event”  is evidenced by it not even being the front page story in The [...]

May 18, 2025 // 0 Comments

1 2 3 … 88

Copyright © 2025 The National Rust | Design by Premonition