Take it to the bridge
A former major label executive once told me about a bizarre conversation he had with the firm’s accountant. ‘I’ve been looking at our releases, and there are an awful lot...
The laser treatment
With the exception of his amazing cameo in Tropic Thunder, and the excellent Mission: Impossible series, Tom Cruise has sailed through some stinkers in recent years. Never...
The compelling Miss World
We live in a wonderful age. Most of the editions of Desert Island Discs in the archives can now be heard online. As an avid recordist and hoarder, this level of access to...
When the going gets...
This is one of the lean weeks of television, as foretold by scripture. One of those weeks where no amount of channel flipping will yield anything that is both new and...
It gets my vote
There have been weeks, I’m sure you will recall, when I have griped in these pages about the slim pickings to be found in the TV schedules and I’ve struggled to find...
Trash – but in a good way
Many films are trash simply because they’re not very good – cheap and cheerful prequels, sequels, remakes or lazy rip-offs. But others, like The Paperboy, are trash in a...
Game for a laugh
Well, goodness knows we needed a laugh. I’ve been waiting for a new situation comedy to cheer us up and now three have come along at once. The Job Lot (ITV, Monday at...
Adventures in...
I own a lot of LPs. Not as many as John Peel had but, when it came to moving house last year, it felt like more than enough. Some of them are special and wonderful. Others...
TV’s a box of chocolates…
Cranford, Lark Rise To Candleford, Downton Abbey – we can’t quite get enough of chocolate-box period drama can we? And if it’s set in that last, long summer before the...
THE GATEKEEPERS
The State of Israel was 65 in mid-April. As a native who preceded this by 18 months, I have witnessed Israel’s existence as it proceeded from the excitement and optimism of...
Art of deception
Danny Boyle has certainly got style. He showed that in the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games and in Trance, which he somehow managed to knock off presumably before,...
Dancing on the Edge
With period dramas appearing to be a clear favourite with viewers across the country, and an abundance of them on our screen, the release of Stephen Poliakoff's latest...
Ella and me
In recent weeks, this column has become something of a whistlestop tour of my record collection. First it was Wally Stott, then it was Tom Lehrer, and now it’s Ella...
More Morse
Following a promising pilot last January, Endeavour begins its first full run this Sunday (ITV1 at 8pm). Since Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000, a few attempts to...
Feel the chant
The concept of guilty pleasures is alien to me. As Marie Lloyd sang, ‘If I likes a thing, I likes it, that’s enough.’ There are things, though, that make people raise their...
An American classic
Whenever idiots claim that Americans have no concept of irony, I offer Tom Lehrer and David Letterman as the case for the defence. Lehrer has been one of my heroes since I...
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is due to open the Cannes Film Festival (and will be released in UK cinemas on May 16), but for those of you who are just as desperate as we are to see it,...
Can I trust you?
Side effects are dreadful things. They make you sick, give you headaches, and occasionally lead to retirement. The latter is the worst suffered by this thrilling drama: it...
Daily tip from the lady archive
“HEAVEN forbid that we should go back to the days when beauty was under suspicion and plain girls were assumed to have angelic natures.”
The Lady. With Prejudice. 28th April 1938
Your vote...
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