Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Down Cemetery Road, Apple TV review - wit, grit and a twisty plot, plus Emma Thompson on top form
Saturday, 01 November 2025
Back in 2003, when Mick Herron was a humble sub-editor, his debut novel was published, the first of what became a four-volume series, the Zoë Boehm thrillers. Inevitably, after the success of his later Slow Horses series, television has snaffled this character up too. Morwenna Banks works on both series as a writer-producer. And it shows.
The Railway Children, Glyndebourne review - right...
Saturday, 01 November 2025
If the distance from Festen to The Railway Children looks like a long stretch of track, remember that Mark-Anthony Turnage’s operas have often...
Robin Holloway: Music's Odyssey review -...
Saturday, 01 November 2025
Robin Holloway is a composer and, until his retirement in 2011, don at Cambridge, where he taught many of the leading British composers of the last...
Wendy & Peter Pan, Barbican Theatre review -...
Friday, 31 October 2025
On paper, this RSC revival of Ella Hickson’s 2013 adaptation sounds just the ticket: a feminist spin on the familiar JM Barrie story, with a gorgeous...
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Bugonia review - Yorgos Lanthimos on aliens, bees and conspiracy theories
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons excel in a marvellously deranged black comedy |
Todd Rundgren, London Palladium review - bold, soul-inclined makeover charms and enthrals
The wizard confirms why he is a true star |
Photo Oxford 2025 review - photography all over the town
At last, a UK festival that takes photography seriously |
Hedda, Orange Tree Theatre review - a monument reimagined, perhaps even improved
Scandinavian masterpiece transplanted into a London reeling from the ravages of war |
Emma Doran, Leicester Square Theatre review - domestic life laid bare
Irish comic mixes sentiment and sauciness |
The Assembled Parties, Hampstead review - a rarity, a well-made play delivered straight
Witty but poignant tribute to the strength of family ties as all around disintegrates |
The Monster of Florence, Netflix review - dramatisation of notorious Italian serial killer mystery
Director Stefano Sollima's four-parter makes gruelling viewing |
Music Reissues Weekly: Joe Meek - A Curious Mind
How the maverick Sixties producer’s preoccupations influenced his creations |
Pop Will Eat Itself, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - Poppies are back on patrol
PWEI hit home turf and blow the place up |
Janine Harouni, Soho Theatre review - families and surviving them
US comic's slick show about relationships |
The Mastermind review - another slim but nourishing slice of Americana from Kelly Reichardt
Josh O'Connor is perfect casting as a cocky middle-class American adrift in the 1970s |
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ibragimova, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - rarities, novelties and drumrolls
A pity the SCO didn't pick a better showcase for a shining guest artist |
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere review - the story of the Boss who isn't boss of his own head
A brooding trip on the Bruce Springsteen highway of hard knocks |
Mary Page Marlowe, Old Vic review - a starry portrait of a splintered life
Tracy Letts's Off Broadway play makes a shimmeringly powerful London debut |
Little Brother, Soho Theatre review - light, bright but emotionally true
This Verity Bargate Award-winning dramedy is entertaining as well as thought provoking |
The Unbelievers, Royal Court Theatre - grimly compelling, powerfully performed
Nick Payne's new play is amongst his best |
Kilsby, Parkes, Sinfonia of London, Wilson, Barbican review - string things zing and sing in expert hands
British masterpieces for strings plus other-worldly tenor and horn - and a muscular rarity |
The Maids, Donmar Warehouse review - vibrant cast lost in a spectacular-looking fever dream
Kip Williams revises Genet, with little gained in the update except eye-popping visuals |
The Diplomat, Season 3, Netflix review - Ambassador Kate Wyler becomes America's Second Lady
Soapy transatlantic political drama keeps the Special Relationship alive |
Gilbert & George, 21st Century Pictures, Hayward Gallery review - brash, bright and not so beautiful
The couple's coloured photomontages shout louder than ever, causing sensory overload |
From Historical to Hip-Hop, Classically Black Music Festival, Kings Place review - a cluster of impressive stars for the future
From quasi-Mozartian elegance to the gritty humour of a kitchen inspection |
The Perfect Neighbor, Netflix review - Florida found-footage documentary is a harrowing watch
Sundance winner chronicles a death that should have been prevented |
Bryony Kimmings, Soho Theatre Walthamstow review - captivating tale of the cycle of life
Witty ode to Mother Nature |
La bohème, Opera North review - still young at 32
Love and separation, ecstasy and heartbreak, in masterfully updated Puccini |
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