Every now and then a comedy concept comes along that seems so obvious, you can’t believe no one has done it before. How can Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine be the first character-comedy show to really mine the absurdities of our love of all things Jane Austen, all things frilly-bonneted and Bridgerton? OK, it’s not a completely … Read more
Many young families quickly find themselves running out of room. Perhaps that’s one more reason why Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s lively 1993 picture book A Squash and a Squeeze – their first collaboration – remains so well loved. The woes of a little old lady whose house feels too small began as a song … Read more
There comes a time in every veteran actor’s career when they ask themselves: have I spent too long playing a large, talking tree? But for Vin Diesel, that moment is clearly yet to arrive. More than a decade after he first portrayed Groot in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the action star is still giddy … Read more
Over the past two decades, Wretch 32, real name Jermaine Scott, has established himself as a pioneering figure in British rap. From his rise in the underbellies of an early-millennium rap and grime scene, to his mainstream success and songs with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé, Stormzy and Giggs, he is among … Read more
It may be one of the most devastating scenes in the history of British television. In the final series of Happy Valley, Catherine Cawood begins to understand that her sister Clare has betrayed her, and has been lying about where she is. Catherine watches Clare from outside a cafe, then walks in, sits down at … Read more
There’s a sense in which Roy Ayers was blessed from the start. Aged five, the son of two musicians – and by all accounts already showing talent as a pianist – he was famously presented with his first set of vibraphone mallets backstage at a gig by Lionel Hampton. If you wanted to take a … Read more
Is Lara Croft hot? It’s a question that’s plagued our greatest minds for almost three decades. Yes, she appeared on the cover of the Face magazine next to the tagline “bigger than Pammy” in 1997, and yes, in 2006 lad mag FHM created a whole TV special designed to find the “real” tomb raider. But … Read more
20. Pushing Tin (1999) Cate Blanchett played a pretty generic “wife” role in this interesting, somewhat forgotten US comedy about air traffic controllers from director Mike Newell, whose title is their slang for guiding planes. It was saddled with a terrible ending by its screenwriters, Glen and Les Charles (creators of TV’s Cheers), and blitzed … Read more
A lonely woman trudges the aisles of a cavernous warehouse, accompanied by the accusatory bleeps of the scanner that directs her every move. She picks objects off the shelves that serve other people’s needs – a baby doll, a vibrator, a rope washing line – as her own are slowly obliterated. Laura Carreira’s acclaimed debut … Read more
There is a marvellous passage towards the end of the first act of Willy Russell’s evergreen monologue. Shirley has told us about her irritating neighbour Gillian, a master at one-upmanship, when unexpectedly she receives a gift from her. Far from thinking herself superior to Shirley, Gillian turns out to be awestruck. Not only that, but … Read more