Richard Sharp has announced he is standing down as BBC chairman to “prioritise the interests” of the broadcaster after a report found he breached the governance code for public appointments.  Chris Mason: who is the BBC’s new political editor? Why the BBC is bracing for another hiring row with No.Continue Reading

“Steven Spielberg’s cinematic love letter to his parents, to the craft of making movies and, frankly, to himself, arrives on the silver screen endorsed by a raft of Academy Award nominations,” said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. And “they are well-earned”. The Fabelmans has been described as “semi-autobiographical”, butContinue Reading

Since Salman Rushdie moved to the US in 2000, his novels have fallen into two camps, said Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times. Some (Fury, Quichotte) have been “satirical takes on modern America”; the others (such as Shalimar the Clown) have been “lyrical narratives about his native India”. Rushdie’s newContinue Reading

First staged in 1990, Brian Friel’s “magnificent memory play” Dancing at Lughnasa has been revived at the National Theatre, said Sarah Crompton on What’s On Stage. And the production, directed by Josie Rourke, is a “glory”. The story is told from the point of view of a man called Michael,Continue Reading

David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological thriller about twin gynaecologists descending into mania featured surgical instruments “so misshapen and disturbing, it was difficult to watch without squirming”, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. Now the film has been made into a six-part series for Amazon Prime, with the lead roles gender reversed,Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, said James Marriott in The Times, I wrote a column about my devotion to The Rest Is History. Since then, I’ve been swamped by emails from fellow fans, many of them recommending an American podcast called Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. So now I’m recommending it, too.Continue Reading