Alex Garland’s latest film Civil War opens with an address from the US president (Nick Offerman) to the nation, reassuring his citizens that the rebel forces are close to defeat and the war will soon be over. However, the speech is intercut with images that tell a different story: explosions, fierce battles, government under siege. Rather than offering reassurance, the president looks frail and exposed.
This beginning, and the setting in the US, at a time when the country is…
In what appears to be a bit of a theme in these columns, I was again late to the party on Channel 4’s We Are Lady Parts. I did clock it in 2021, when I saw an article about a comedy about a female Muslim punk band and thought it looked good, but for some reason didn’t get round to watching.
It wasn’t until the second series came out this May and our eldest daughter Beth recommended it, that we finally watched. And, of course, we loved it immediately, because it’s great.
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Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can pinpoint pretty precisely the moment I fell in love with Ursula Le Guin’s writing.
It was 29 November 1974, between 4.30 – 4.45pm, when the final instalment of her A Wizard of Earthsea aired on Jackanory.*
The book had seized hold of me all week, but the denouement, in which Ged, the wizard of the title, confronts and becomes one with the dark shadow he has unleashed on the world, was totally mesmerising.
I’ve been a…
When Gogglebox first started back in 2013, I was not immediately wowed by the concept – a TV show about people watching TV sounded like television was finally eating itself. To my surprise, the programme took off and after a while I thought I’d take a look and see what the fuss was about.
10 years later, it’s become a regular fixture in our house, because the seeming banality of folk in front of the telly has proved to be anything but. In fact, much like the fictional show…
I’ve decided to begin this arts column by talking about the Netflix series, The Crown, which has recently ended. Though I’m an ardent republican and had to be persuaded to watch it by my husband, Chris, this is such compelling drama, I quickly overcame my loathing for the Windsors and became hooked.
It begins in 1947, with king George VI (Jared Harris) coughing up blood in the bathroom, as he prepares for the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth (Claire Foy) to Philip (Matt…
