The Crown Jewels play, review: Even Al Murray’s Pub Landlord can’t save this mess July 28, 2023 The Crown Jewels review and star rating: ★★ Al Murray made a career out of playing a working class pub landlord, but it turns out he’s funnier, and certainly more natural, playing a Hooray Henry. In The Crown Jewels Murray is King Charles II, and he’s royally good at it, gesticulating about the place and [...]
Ukrainian film Mavka: The Forest Song is a surprisingly poignant movie about overcoming oppression – review July 27, 2023 Drawing on mythology, this Ukrainian animated fairytale is a surprising and poignant story for today’s audiences. Mavka: The Forest Song centres on the character of Mavka, (voiced by Laurie Hymes), a kind forest spirit who signals the coming of spring. She is told to stay away from humans due to a generational feud between man [...]
The Beanie Bubble is a seriously flawed biopic about Beanie Babies July 27, 2023 Movies about products are hot right now. Air, Tetris, and Barbie all found success analysing the myth of a popular icon; Apple TV+ now brings us the story of the Beanie Baby. The Beanie Bubble is the story of Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis), the smiling, eccentric face that struck gold in the 1990s with the [...]
Talk to Me is the creepy horror film you need to see now July 27, 2023 Australia has produced some impressive horror movies in recent years, most notably the iconic Babadook, which tapped into our deepest fears through deceptively simple techniques. Hoping to repeat that success is Talk To Me, the first feature from short film makers and popular Youtubers Danny and Michael Philippou (collectively known as RackaRacka). Like so many [...]
How Secret Garden Party outshines all other UK music festivals, including Glastonbury July 27, 2023 Die-hard festival fans pretend rain doesn’t ruin their fun – they pretend that they enjoy sliding around in mud – but when the cameras stop filming, we all know they retreat to huddle in embryonic balls in their tents like the rest of us miserable British campers. On Saturday, for a few hours, the incessant [...]
Beverly Hills, 9021: Oh! Checking into the Beverly Hills Hotel for its centenary year July 27, 2023 The Beverly Hills Hotel, aka The Pink Palace is still the place to be seen in Hollywood, says Siobhan Grogan. From celeb-spotting to relaxing, this is still a rare paradise at 100 years old Within a few short hours of arriving in Los Angeles, I’m sitting metres away from two of the most famous women [...]
Sinead O’Connor dead: Irish legend dies after long mental health battle July 26, 2023 The Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has died after a long battle with her mental health. O’Connor was 56 and will be remembered most fondly for her 1990 cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. She retired from the music industry in 2021, having released 10 studio albums, with one more to come posthumously, called No [...]
Carmen Stevens on philanthropy, wine and South Africa July 26, 2023 The first black South African to study winemaking in South Africa, Carmen Stevens owns the first black-owned winery in the country and, aided by her partnership with Naked Wines in the UK, provides meals to 25,000 hungry school children in Stellenbosch each year through ‘Carmen’s Kids’. WHAT GOT YOU INTO WINE? Wine has a lot [...]
Secret cheese and wine pairings to amaze dinner party guests July 26, 2023 You will all, I assume, have yesterday been celebrating one of the highlights of the British calendar: National Cheese and Wine Day. Other than being an amazing excuse to eat loads of cheese and drink loads of wine, the day was also the perfect opportunity to ask my cheesemonger friend about the secrets behind the [...]
Taku Mayfair review: Strict omakase restaurant is a show-stopper July 26, 2023 Some restaurants hook and cook you before you even reach your seat. At Walthamstow’s SlowBurn you walk through a working jeans factory, passing industrial washing machines and stacks of denim en route to your table. Sessions Arts Club has you enter its grand former courthouse through what looks like the stone-hewn corridor of a castle, asking [...]
