Days after Tinā premiered in February, lead actress Anapela Polataivao’s 80-year-old aunt stood up in church and implored her congregation to see the film. “She said, ‘I’m not here because she’s my niece, I’m here because it represents us,’” says Polataivao. “I love that for the older generation, it’s gifting that to them. It’s reflecting … Read more
Actors Brian Cox, Miriam Margolyes and Tom Conti as well as the children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce are among those calling for the home of William Wordsworth to be saved as a site of literary heritage. The Romantic poet lived at Rydal Mount in the Lake District from 1813 to his death in 1850. The property … Read more
A fixture on London’s Dean Street for 25 years, Soho theatre has hatched plays that won Oliviers, shows that earned the Edinburgh comedy award and ideas that became TV hits. On any night, across its upstairs studio theatre, its main house and basement cabaret bar, you’ll find plays from new writers, experimentations in clowning, drag … Read more
In September 1998, amid a rocketing pop career that would end up with every one of their 11 singles reaching the UK Top 10, British boyband Five went missing. They were due to visit the US, where the lascivious When the Lights Go Out had got huge, but Five – Ritchie Neville (curtains), Scott Robinson … Read more
‘Our local video shop man got into big trouble’ After a film had been in the cinema but before a film was on general sale (also called ‘Home Release’) there would be a window of perhaps a few months where the retail price of a single VHS tape would be about £100 [$133]. In a … Read more
Somewhere out there in the multiverse is a movie saga in which all great dystopian sci-fi is united under one roof: a place where Xenomorphs stalk Na’vi for sport and Predators quote Rutger Hauer like they’ve just discovered existential rain. Meanwhile, here’s the new trailer for Predator: Badlands, which at least brings two of these … Read more
There aren’t many actors who transcend the roles they play in quite the unique way as Nicolas Cage. Born Nicolas Coppola (his uncle is Francis Ford), Cage rebranded to avoid nepotism. He started acting because he wanted to be like James Dean. Cage’s early roles include 1982 coming-of-age movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and … Read more
From AlabamaRecommended if you like Luke Combs, Tony Joe White, Charles BradleyUp next Supporting Leon Bridges in the US Kashus Culpepper’s story has something of the Hollywood movie about it. A former firefighter who went on to enlist in the US Navy, he only picked up a guitar five years ago to entertain his fellow … Read more
‘What if the Chornobyl disaster happened in the UK?” is the question Atomfall asks. The answer, according to developer Rebellion, is that it would be considerably more picturesque and feature loads of pasties. Aping the nuclear catastrophe fiction of series such as Fallout and Stalker, Atomfall offers a mildly diverting scientific whodunit. But it struggles … Read more
Freddie Flintoff is numb. As the 98-minute Disney+ documentary Flintoff begins, we find its subject sitting in a hospital room. He can’t feel his lip, the one that was torn from his face in a nightmarish car accident on the Top Gear track in 2022. But more than that, he is mentally checked out. As … Read more