It’s a tale as old as time – two lovers unjustly torn apart. But while the story of King Pedro I and his queen Inês De Castro has shades of Romeo and Juliet in its set up, it ends up somewhere altogether more macabre – imagine if Shakespeare’s tale swerved into horror movie territory in the final act.
Continue reading “Inês De Castro: The macabre tale of the ‘skeleton queen’”Category: Film & TV
Why Alice is the ultimate icon of children’s books
Published in BBC Culture May 12, 2021
For books that are all about surprising transformations, it should perhaps be no real surprise that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are among the most frequently adapted and reinterpreted stories ever written.
Continue reading “Why Alice is the ultimate icon of children’s books”Review: Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
Published in The Observer August 2, 2020
Antkind is the debut novel of Charlie Kaufman, the Being John Malkovich and Synecdoche, New York film-maker, and its premise is incredibly, well, Kaufmanesque.
Continue reading “Review: Antkind by Charlie Kaufman”Review: Pretty Woman: The Musical, Piccadilly Theatre
Published in The Mail on Sunday March 7, 2020
If you’ve ever wondered how the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, which made a fairytale romcom out of a rich-man-meets-prostitute premise, would fare in the age of #MeToo – well, this production won’t help.
Continue reading “Review: Pretty Woman: The Musical, Piccadilly Theatre”Rocks stars: meet the teenage cast of the hot new British film
Published in The Observer March 8, 2020
Seven teenage girls are falling over themselves with laughter. They’re meant to be posing for a picture, but it’s a bit like photographing a box of puppies – they can’t keep still, pawing and hugging and joking, and bursting into coordinated dance moves.
Continue reading “Rocks stars: meet the teenage cast of the hot new British film”How Britain is facing up to its hidden slavery history
Published in BBC Culture February 3, 2020
If we hear at all about Britain’s involvement in slavery, there’s often a slight whiff of self-congratulation – for abolishing it in 1833, 32 years ahead of the US, where the legacy of slavery is still more of an open wound. Less well known, however, is the enormous cost of this decision for the taxpayer – the British government spent £20 million, a staggering 40% of its budget in 1833, to buy freedom for slaves.
Continue reading “How Britain is facing up to its hidden slavery history”Will disabled people ever get the stories they deserve?
Published in BBC Culture December 2, 2019
Diversity has become a buzzword in the entertainment industries – and if there’s still debate about how much things are really changing, or if moves towards greater representation are too often mere lip service or box ticking, the diversity conversation is at least being had. Do badly, and it will get called out.
Continue reading “Will disabled people ever get the stories they deserve?”How vaginas are finally losing their stigma
Published in BBC Culture November 14, 2019
In 2017, Florence Schechter discovered that Iceland had a penis museum, but that nowhere in the world could its female equivalent be found. And so, the science communicator decided to do something about it. This month, in London, the Vagina Museum will be born.
Continue reading “How vaginas are finally losing their stigma”Gandalf pays!
Published in The TLS November 22, 2019
IAN MCKELLEN The biography Garry O’Connor
BEHIND THE LENS My life David Suchet
Continue reading “Gandalf pays!”Review: Fleabag, Wyndham’s Theatre: It’s still brilliant
Published in The Independent August 29, 2019
It all started here: one woman, on stage, telling a story. In 2013, Fleabag opened in a small, dank fringe space in Edinburgh, before Phoebe Waller-Bridge turned it into a beloved, era-defining TV comedy, the show that launched her career – and a thousand think pieces.
Continue reading “Review: Fleabag, Wyndham’s Theatre: It’s still brilliant”