Five Reasons Why I'm Digging the All-Female Ghostbusters Cast
Tuesday marked the beginning of an exciting era for Ghostbusters fans and feminists alike. Director, Paul Feig, revealed the all-female cast for the new Ghostbusters film. And I practically whooped...
View ArticleMy Moment Meeting Jordan
I stood next to Katie Price (AKA Jordan) once. I think it was at Heathrow about April 2004. My mother and I were flying in from South Africa, Katie and her mother were flying out en route to elsewhere....
View ArticleTheatre maketh the man
I have been having an affair...Please don't tell my partner, but the truth is: there are few things I adore more than being wedged between strangers in a packed theatre auditorium, lights dimming and...
View ArticleIs Katie Hopkins and Perez Hilton's Relationship the Showmance of 'Celebrity...
Every series of Big Brother and its Celebrity sibling has the possibility of romance hanging over the housemates. Speculation will be rife as the press pick apart the contestants profiles in the hope...
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Debussy Explosion - Hugo Dalton and Imma Setiadi
Artist Hugo Dalton took part in an unusual performance at the Royal College of Music this week. In the exquisite Britten Hall, deep in the college basement, he collaborated with Indonesian pianist Imma...
View Article"Horror For Kids" and the Poltergeist Remake
There were concerned murmurs in certain parts of the horror community a few days ago, when Sam Rockwell described the upcoming Poltergeist remake (in which he stars) as "more of a kids' movie". This...
View ArticleIs 'Fortitude' Television's Painting by Numbers?
Sky's producers have identified a trend in television for anti-heroes, Nordic locations and Hollywood stars transferring to TV and have duly crammed all of them in one big series. Take the best of...
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Film Reviews - 'Pelo Malo' (Bad Hair) and 'Trash'
Two films set in South America come from different angles but touch on corruption and brutality in marginalised societies. Director: Mariana Rondon Cast: Samuel Lange Zambrano, Samantha Castillo, Beto...
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(Review) Kingsman - Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, Matthew Vaughn
Since Dirty Harry hit the mean streets, we have become accustomed to seeing men of pensionable age save the day again and again in movie theatres. From Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger to...
View ArticleWelcome to Africa
The flight to Kilimanjaro was an eventful one. On the first flight to Nairobi, Lauren, Dan and I may have consumed a little bit too much alcohol. I won't go into details but it involved sleepwalk...
View ArticleThe Voice 2015 Blind Auditions Show Four
Week four has arrived, quicker than you can say week four has arrived and the level of singing talent this year is as exceptional as ever. Great show, likeable coaches (ahem) and healthy audience...
View ArticleNine Lessons Politicians can Learn From 'Game of Thrones'
Somewhere, right now, there is a political spin doctor trying to work out how to jump on the Game of Thrones PR bandwagon. And if there's not, there should be. This week, the first trailer for Game of...
View ArticlePeople Like Us Wouldn't Get a Chance Today
It's shocking to imagine that without the existence of student grants in the 1970s we could've been denied the immeasurable talents of Julie Walters. It's even more shocking to think that somewhere in...
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Are the Toughest People in the World Men?
This is not a question I have ever asked myself. Until today. Until I received an email from the BBC rejecting my application for a TV show entitled World's Toughest Army, because I'm female. Wow!...
View ArticleGood Advice From John Masefield
My last memory of my famous cousin John Masefield dates from the early 1960s, when I visited him at his home, Burcote Brook, on the Thames at Abingdon near Oxford. As the author of over seventy works...
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The Clash of Art Forms: Paul Simonon's 'Wot No Bike' at the ICA, London
Perhaps, like his musical contemporary Horace Panter, it's a bass guitar thing that has afforded him a chance to think about what else he can do creatively. Or maybe being a visual artist is just...
View ArticleWhy Not Just Admit It's Fiction?
When I interviewed Hilary Mantel in 2011 while she was still writing Bring Up the Bodies, she described her characters as belonging to "a chain of literary representation." Her Cromwell, she told me,...
View ArticleMr Selfridge: All Window Dressing and Very Little Else
Shopping makes you happy. Does it? I can't say I've noticed. Apparently, it releases the same feel good endorphins as exercise and sex. Forget BodyPump and Grindr then, let's all pop down to Morrisons...
View ArticleKingsman: The Secret Service - The Review
A few months ago I was on the set of a low budget British movie called Slapper and Me. Wandering around the soundstages was a young actor with the air of someone who was destined for great things. He...
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Dark, Haunting and Extraordinary: Marlene Dumas at Tate Modern
Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. This retrospective at the Tate Modern is one of the most significant exhibitions of her work ever to be held in Europe and showcases...
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