Culture (Page 65)

A week-long manhunt that gripped the UK in July 2010 has been turned into a television drama, bringing Raoul Moat’s violent crimes back to public attention.  Neil Adamson, who was head of Northumbria Police CID when Moat went on the run after shooting three people, told ITV that it was “inevitable” the events would one day become a TV drama. “The circumstances were so unique. It was so dramatic and so awful.” The attacks Moat was serving an 18-week sentence in Durham Prison in 2010 for assaulting a relative when he found out that his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart had a new partner, Christopher Brown. Moat told an inmate that he planned to “harm” Stobbart when he was released, the DailyContinue Reading

Review at a glance Major spoilers for Succession season 4 After the third episode in Succession’s final season flawlessly executed one of the great rug-pulls of recent TV history, the question was: could it follow up? And the answer is: of course it does. In fact, the best just got better. Not only that, it drops another bombshell just minutes in – Shiv is pregnant… this season really is bringing us the circle of life.  But given the subject isn’t mentioned again, it’s likely more of a ticking timebomb as the series plays out. Episode four takes place the day after Logan Roy dies on his private jet. The various family members, friends, business associates and assorted hangers-on have gatheredContinue Reading

A Brit and Emmy-nominated composer has been commissioned by the King to write music for his coronation. Sarah Class, who has composed musical scores for Sir David Attenborough’s natural world programmes and National Geographic documentaries, was personally invited by Charles to write music for the coronation. She spoke of her pride in attending the coronation and that in Charles, the country has a monarch who is as passionate about the environment as she is. “I feel very honoured and privileged and excited to be part of it,” she said. “I think for me, it’s not just a contribution, I just feel so happy that I’m lending my support through my music and that is the ultimate for me. Read MoreContinue Reading

A comic book superfan has said he achieved his “lifelong dream” by breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of Deadpool memorabilia with a total of 2,250 items. Gareth Peter Pahliney, from Cloghan in Ireland, kicked off his collection in 2006 and has since created his “happy place” full of Deadpool-related pieces, including a themed spatula, pot plant holder and a life-sized statue of the Marvel superhero. The 41-year-old, who lives with his wife, Nikki, their seven-year-old son Liam and four-month-old daughter Sophie, said he acquires between 20 to 40 items a month – “sometimes more” – from all over the world. “It’s been a lifelong dream to be in the book ever since I was a littleContinue Reading

F or UK residents, festival season is quickly starting to creep up on us, but as we eagerly await the fun to begin on our side, across the pond, things have well and truly kicked off, with Coachella taking place this and next weekend. One of the biggest festivals in the world, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival boasts a line-up of huge global artists, headlined by Latino superstar Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK, who become the first K-pop act to headline the festival, and Frank Ocean, with Coachella marking his first live performances since 2017. Frank Ocean will be performing for the first time since 2017 / Getty Images The festival will be providing some memorable moments for music fans acrossContinue Reading

We British “love our dogs”, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. And since at least the 17th century, British artists have shown equal enthusiasm for depicting man’s best friend. Thomas Gainsborough painted his beloved mutts and put their portrait in “pride of place” above the mantelpiece in his London house (following marital rows, he would also write to his wife in the guise of his dog Fox). Queen Victoria commissioned “dozens” of canine portraits from her favoured artists; and even the notoriously unsentimental Lucian Freud made many etchings of his whippet, Pluto.  These are just three of the artists represented in the Wallace Collection’s new exhibition exploring our “obsession” with dogs. Consisting of more than 50 works – “paintings, sculptures,Continue Reading

A ll five members of One Direction are set to reunite for the first time in eight years on James Corden’s last ever episode of his Late Late Show, according to reports. The chart-topping boy band – Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – are tipped to join the late-night talk show host as he bows out on April 27. According to celebrity gossip site DeuxMoi, all members of One Direction happen to have a break in their schedules around the time of the show. Tomlinson, 31, is now free as a bird for the final show after cancelling his tour in Asia last week due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Grammy Award-winning Styles, 29, is notContinue Reading

A new Channel 4 series featuring adults taking their clothes off in front of teenagers has provoked nearly 1,000 complaints from viewers and criticism from Conservative MPs. The six-part show, Naked Education, stars a “naked brigade” of adults who strip off in the presence of teenagers aged 14 to 16. One episode educates viewers on female anatomy, while others tackle body image issues such as penis size, hair, cosmetic surgery and ageing. It airs at 8pm, an hour before the watershed. Broadcast regulator Ofcom said the first episode on 4 April received nearly 1,000 complaints, relating to nudity. A spokesperson for the regulator said it was assessing the complaints before deciding whether to investigate. The programme is a successor to Channel 4’s popular nudeContinue Reading

18th March 1968: English fashion designer Mary Quant with a group of models at Heathrow Airport, before leaving for a continental fashion tour. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images) The fashion designer Mary Quant has died at the age of 93. Below is an interview between Quant and the late journalist Deborah Orr, originally published on 19 October 1990. Thirty-six years ago, the only daughter of a pair of strait-laced Welsh schoolteachers opened the world’s first fashion boutique. In doing so, she split the style atom, invented street fashion, ushered in the sexual revolution, put Chelsea’s King’s Road on the map, and otherwise gave a firm, free-thinking push to the permissive pendulum that called itself the swinging Sixties. Or so the storyContinue Reading

Fans of Daisy May Cooper have come to love her “distinct brand of confident fecklessness” from her stellar turns in shows such as This Country and Am I Being Unreasonable?, said Ben Dowell in The Times. “Now, she has gone a step further”, with this “grimy and very British show”, which (perhaps surprisingly) comes from the US broadcaster HBO but is being shown on BBC One.   Cooper plays Costello, “a single mum and occasional sex worker” whom we meet being evicted from her London flat. She is locked in a love/hate friendship with Selby (Jack Farthing), a “louche, highly privileged homosexual, newly released from prison”, who acts as a father figure to Costello’s daughter, Iris (Fleur Tashjian). There are elementsContinue Reading