Car review: On the road with BMW’s Gran Tourer – the people carrier that’s out to prove luxurious doesn’t equal impractical May 11, 2015 Remember those BMW ads with the tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine”? The Bavarian brand built its reputation on sporty saloons with straight-six engines and rear-wheel drive. Unfortunately, the 2 Series Gran Tourer falls short of being the ultimate driving machine. BMW’s seven-seat MPV is a stretched version of the Active Tourer that shares its [...]
Not convinced? May 11, 2015 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… CITROEN GRAND C4 PICASSO 2.0 BLUE HDI EXCLUSIVE PRICE: £28,110 0-62MPH: 10.2 secs TOP SPEED: 128mph CO2 G/KM: 115g/km MPG COMBINED: 64.2mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN Five Stars PERFORMANCE Three Stars PRACTICALITY Five Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Four Stars FORD GRAND C-MAX 2.0 TDCI TITANIUM X NAV AUTO PRICE: £27,865 0-62MPH: 10.7 secs TOP SPEED: [...]
A guide to Ibiza for grown ups: What the White Isle offers the more discerning clubber with a budget May 11, 2015 What do you do when you’ve just suffered a humiliating election defeat that virtually nobody on the planet predicted? Why, you board the first flight to Ibiza, of course. Right now, at 6am on a Tuesday morning, Ed Miliband could well be gurning on the terrace of a beach club, stripped to his chinos, glow-sticks [...]
Tobago: An eco-lodge is a great way to experience this Caribbean isle May 10, 2015 “Trinidad and Tobago” suggests two islands of roughly equal size, but the former is 16 times bigger than the latter, its population 1.3 million compared to Tobago’s 60,000. As is often the case in nations divided across two separate land masses, stereotypes dominate each side’s thinking about the other. Ask a Trinidadian about Tobago: “lazy, [...]
48 hours in… Poznań May 10, 2015 WHERE TO STAY City Solei Boutique Hotel features 22 individually designed rooms based on cities from around the world, from Venice to Beijing. It’s stylish, affordable and a great spot from which to explore the city. citysolei.pl WHERE TO EAT Racja Mięsa is a bit like a Polish St John, with bare walls and a [...]
David Price: Dreamland May 8, 2015 Art First, Soho | ★★★★☆ Dreamland is the name of the abandoned amusement park in Margate where painter David Price moved his studio three years ago. It’s also the name of his latest exhibition, in which he reimagines Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s etchings of ancient Rome as a corrupted theme park. For Price, the [...]
Harry Cory Wright: Anglia – art review May 8, 2015 Eleven Gallery | ★★★★☆ East Anglia isn’t known for its magisterial landscape – endless flat, wild land is hardly the stuff of picture post-cards. What it does have is space: space for light to meld and dance. Space to explore. And as the work of Harry Cory Wright shows, there are rich pickings for [...]
Film review: Girlhood May 8, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★★☆ Girlhood’s title has been changed for the English release – perhaps to cash in on the popularity of Boyhood – but the original French name, which translates as “gang of girls”, is more appropriate. For this is a film about the adolescent need to belong, and it’s one of the [...]
Theatre review: The Audience May 8, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ The Queen must be a hard act to follow. Not the monarch: the 2006 film about the Royal Family’s identity crisis following the death of Princess Diana. That film’s success was down to two people: writer Peter Morgan and Helen Mirren, who picked up a Best Actress Oscar for [...]
The Vote is a funny, touching love letter to the British democratic system May 7, 2015 Donmar Warehouse | ★★★☆☆ ”I only just wrote some of this… I hope it works out.” These aren’t the words you expect to hear from a playwright seconds before his latest work is performed, but The Vote is no ordinary play. It was broadcast in real-time on More4 last night as the final [...]
