My Views on Fox Hunting
So it's 10 years since the hunting ban was voted in. I wasn't aware of it being a whole 10 years. Crikey, that's an entire decade and I don't look a year older. Anyone who thinks I've had a facelift...
View ArticleStill Drowning, Not Waving
A week ago, I left the institution for the bemused and bewildered. I was wrenched out of that safe and warm womb where the only appointment is with my bed. What a gift. Only in this place can I forgive...
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Top 10 (+One!) Theatre to See in 2015
One of the great excitements of theatre is the discovery of the unexpected. Every year, jewels are found in unexpected, often unheralded places. For example, the most anticipated production of 2014 was...
View ArticleThe Rise and Rise of the Hollywood Bonkbuster
With 50 Shades Of Grey finally finished after three years of casting mystique, I thought it time to look at the bonkbuster - the tried and tested Hollywood money machine. It's hard to see how 50 SoG...
View ArticleHomeland Finale: Has Show Gone Beyond Its Sell-by Date?
There's one truism about American television: As long as there's the ratings for a show it will continue on and on whether the story is valid or not. Homeland is such a series. During the first three...
View ArticleSuperbad: Could 'The Interview' Be Hollywood's Master Hype Job?
The controversy and subsequent international incident surrounding the movie The Interview could be the greatest hype job Hollywood had intentionally or unintentionally perpetrated. That's because...
View ArticleIs Eastenders' Danny Dyer the New King of Soaps?
The Christmas television schedule is one of the most important and competitive of the year and it is always a hotbed of dramatic storylines across the soaps. This is the time of year that a main...
View ArticleMary Poppins & The Attention Seeking Child
I can stream films all year long on Netflix but when they are part of a Christmas line up they take on a more magical quality. Childhood memories of circling which films I would see in the TV Magazine...
View ArticleBest-selling Ghostwriter's Lucky Seven
Life as a ghost-writer could certainly be described as feast or famine and the term regular income is something of a distant memory. December is a time to reflect and as the New Year approaches I ask...
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Impoverished Housing in Focus in Photography Exhibition at Science Museum
Make Life Worth Living is a collection of photographs at the Science Museum taken by Nick Hedges between 1968 and 1972 of the impoverished urban housing conditions that many Britons lived in. The...
View ArticleThe Dark Side of Bond
It is entirely appropriate that the fact that the next Bond may be black has been revealed as part of a fiendish plot to undermine the western film industry. Whether it is really the North Koreans who...
View ArticleSony Hypocrisy: North Korea Vs Shane Dawson
Everyone has heard about Sony's The Interview and all the shenanigans regarding hacking and North Korea taking offence to the film. After Sony said it wasn't releasing The Interview everyone saw it...
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Top Five History Books of 2014 - From Lincoln to Kim Philby to Rowing
With so much going on in the news during 2014 - from Russian malfeasance in Ukraine, to continued turmoil in Syria, to the General Election buildup - it was all too easy to become preoccupied with...
View ArticleThe Curious Case of Katie Hopkins
Your first thoughts on Katie Hopkins could be that she's a poisonous attention-seeker. On greater depth you can see that Hopkins raises some valid points and thoughts but phrases them in the most...
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Top 10 London Art Exhibitions to See in 2015
2014 saw some exciting blockbuster exhibitions including Matisse and Rembrandt, and these were included in my top 10 list for the year, alongside some thrilling unexpected finds such as Moroni, South...
View ArticleThe Hotel: Rain, Regret and More Than a Few Reservations.
Channel 4 must love Nigel Farage. They're starting to give him almost more airtime than the BBC. No sooner has he spent a day with the country's favourite inebriates from Gogglebox, than he's holed up...
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10 Things Filmmakers Can Learn from Henry Moore
Henry Moore was one of the most successful and recognised visual artists of the 20th century, and someone who I had the great pleasure of meeting and working with when I came out of art school in...
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The Mick of Time: Or How to Get More Satisfaction From Your Schedule in 2015
Ok, I don't know Mick Jagger personally though he was kind enough to pose for this recent selfie and made my two kids very happy. (Thanks, Sir M, you're a gent!) What I do know, from my own lifetime...
View ArticleMy 2014 Movie Top 10
As I sat down to go through all the cinema releases I saw in 2014 I felt a sense of trepidation. After all 2013 was such a strong year, I feared that this top 10 cannot match one with gems such as...
View Article101 Reasons to Hate Katie Hopkins
Well come on... you didn't expect me to actually go there did you? Really? Well, as the founder of The Fat Girls Guide to Running blog and the Too Fat to Run campaign I prefer to focus on love not...
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