sat 18/05/2013

Reviews

Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

From being “a strange facsimile of the original” to generating the “first British record made by people who are 100 per cent convinced that they doing the right thing”, Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia breezily mapped the protracted birth of a British rock scene which could take America on at its own game. As Cliff Richard put it, what was created was “different enough to become European. Or otherworldly.” It took The Beatles to crack America, but they would not have done so without being rookies in...

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Bullet Catch, Spiegeltent, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Magicians’ online forums are seething at Bullet Catch’s host and writer-director, the Scottish actor and magician Rob Drummond. This is because at one point in the show he levitates a small table then takes an audience poll as to who would like to know how the trick is done. When a majority vote they’d like to know, he shows us, simple as that. The irritation of his peers is understandable but Bullet Catch, a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, isn’t really a magic show – although it contains...

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Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, British Library

Fisun Güner

Every time you turn a corner, he’s there, on yet another monitor. Either the exhibition curators have a sense of humour, or Alastair Campbell really...

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The Victorian in the Wall, Royal Court Theatre...

Sam Marlowe

The past: it’s etched into the fabric not just of our lives, but of the architecture that surrounds us – the streets we tread, the buildings where we...

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The Stoker

Tom Birchenough

Where there’s a stoker there must be a furnace, and this being Russian director Alexei Balabanov’s latest story from St Petersburg’s gangster 1990s,...

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Carmageddon

Stuart Houghton

A car crash of a racing game

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The Great Gatsby

Matt Wolf

Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but great? No, except for Leo

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Albert Herring, Opera North

Graham Rickson

Britten in the round is a comic treat fit for a May Fair

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Knee Deep, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Australian acrobatic circus troupe are truly thrilling

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These Shining Lives, Park Theatre

Demetrios Matheou

London's new theatre makes a thrilling debut, albeit with a play a little less shiny

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The Pirates of Penzance, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

David Nice

Gilbert and Sullivan need a lighter director's touch in this musically strong new production

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Nina Conti, Soho Theatre

Veronica Lee

The ventriloquist gives a fresh take on an old art form

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Tomorrow's World, ICA

James Williams

Good things happen when one of Air collaborates with New Young Pony Clubber

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Frankie, BBC One

Jasper Rees

New primetime district nurse dispenses a spoonful of sugar

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Public Enemy, Young Vic

David Nice

The horrors of local politics still chime in Richard Jones's queasy production of an Ibsen masterpiece

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The Fall, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting

There's a serial killer on the loose. Do try to curb your enthusiasm

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An Evening for Hospices of Hope, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Ismene Brown

Nine leading men answer the call to ballerina Alina Cojocaru's gala

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Beware of Mr Baker

Graham Fuller

Documentary paints the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker as an irresponsible genius

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Daniel Kitson, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Comedian who eschews the usual routes to fame proves to be both incisive and decidedly different

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The Jim Jones Revue, The Sebright Arms

Garth Cartwright

Old school rockers mix Little Richard and The Cramps to pack a ferocious punch

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Eddie Izzard, Wembley Arena

Kate Bassett

A witty and surreal deconstruction of history from the scatty stand-up

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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane, ITV

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Could ITV be setting up a series with its returning 19th-century detective?

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British Academy Television Awards 2013, BBC One

Adam Sweeting

Annual gathering of the tellyocracy fails to set pulses racing

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Eska/Spiro, The Foundling Museum

Tim Cumming

Minimalism and systems music meets 18th-century folk and dance tunes

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Wozzeck, English National Opera

Edward Seckerson

New production of Berg's masterpiece is as upsetting as it is thrilling

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Sun Records

Kieron Tyler

A mind-blowing journey to rock ‘n’ roll’s ground zero with Sam Phillips and some of the most joyful music ever recorded

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Life of Crime/Murder on the Home Front, ITV

Jasper Rees

Fancy a bit of charnel hopping? Two new crime dramas pile on the corpses

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L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, St John's Smith Square

Alexandra Coghlan

A joyful and accomplished opening to this year's Lufthansa Baroque Festival

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Classical CDs Weekly, Grainger, Mahler, Piazzolla

Graham Rickson

Rousing Antipodean choral music, a downbeat symphony and lots of tangos

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The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but...