Arts and Culture

Tim Walker reviews South Pacific at Chichester Festival Theatre and Be More Chill at Shaftesbury Theatre

In his younger days, Billy Wilder was a journalist in Europe. A new book of his writings doesn’t give much of a glimpse of the continent, but does provide insights into his later career

Covid travel restrictions have dealt a serious blow to the import of holiday tunes from the continent

A new mural in Gaza City shows the face of TikTok star Khaby Lame, underlining his extraordinary global fame.

A new exhibition shows how Bristol’s love of what used to be called graffiti art fuelled a global movement

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how one place name came to have two very different word associations Bethlehem is associated with the nativity of Christ, peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Bedlam is associated with the complete opposite: mad confusion and noisy uproar. It is something of a surprise to discover that they were originally the same word. […]

New Netflix series Workin’ Moms gets close to exploring some fascinating issues, but sticks to safer, more tedious territory My best friend is, in her public life, a remarkably accomplished person who worked in an underserved charity sector for years and went on to use that knowledge to create new academic courses on the subject. She’s got […]

A 13-year-old skateboarder, a German policewoman, an Afghani woman cyclist attacked for daring to ride her bicycle... some of the most absorbing European stories at this Olympic Games.

Instead of watching England in the Euros, WILL SELF went walking around London… and noticed something interesting about his fellow football sceptics Errol over the park coaches local lads in football – most of them black British. He’s pretty successful, and has placed at least 20 over the past decade or so as juniors with […]

Four tug boats manoeuvre the Russian submarine Orel into position in the Gulf of Finland during preparations for Russia’s Navy Day parade.

The film festival defies the pandemic with plenty of touching, flesh and sex

‘Thank you’ might seem an easy phrase to learn in a foreign language. But that is not always the case says PETER TRUDGILL Sometimes, when people are going to visit a country they have never been to before, they say they plan to learn a little of the language which is spoken there, but “just […]

Nina Hamnett's artistic career shone brilliantly and briefly, until overshadowed by her lifestyle. A new show restores the focus on her work

How can pop respond to politics? With this year’s album BRUT, Polish alt-pop star Brodka has provided an object lesson, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK

Tchéky Karyo’s fame reaches a whole new level appearing as Baptiste

Jason Solomons returns to the Croisette with movie reviews of Annette, Cow,  The Worst Person In The World, Everything Went Fine, The Souvenir Part II, Jane by Charlotte and more So much for the return of glamour. My Cannes started by spitting into a plastic tube in a makeshift Covid testing centre. Due to political […]

Three weeks after plans to light up Munich’s Allianz Arena in rainbow colours caused a major international row, the stadium has finally got the multi-coloured treatment.

Some modern misunderstandings are a consequence of changes that have occurred in the English language over the last 300 years A regrettable and embarrassing incident has occurred in the West Midlands of England. An 11-year-old schoolboy was referred to the government’s so-called counter-radicalisation programme after the teacher asked his class what they would do if they […]

Long before Kraftwerk plugged in their synthesizers, the epic bike race has been an inspiration for musicians, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK

Keith Floyd’s charm turned him into a caricature. SOPHIA DEBOICK thinks that, instead, he should be remembered as the nation’s culinary pioneer “Pick young, small, un-flowering dandelion leaves. Wash and dry them carefully. Serve with olive oil, salt and sherry vinegar and cubes of hot fried bread.” This was the delicious simplicity of Floyd’s Food, […]

Herbrand Sackville, the 9th Earl of de la Warr, was ahead of his time in his belief that art could breathe new life into a town. A century on, RICHARD HOLLEDGE looks at the must-see art of the east coast

The 1946 British Lions’ rugby league tour of Australia was one of the most unusual chapters in sporting history The officer of the watch heard the splash and the shouts. A man had gone overboard into the shark-infested waters off Port Said. It’s no mean feat to stop and bring about a 23,000-ton aircraft carrier […]

The city is seriously considering proposals to seize apartments from landlords to resolve its housing crisis. Is it an extreme throwback to its communist days, or a bold move that could offer a solution to other European cities? Sunset on a summer’s day in Tempelhofer Feld, the former central Berlin airport that’s been turned into a sprawling […]

Ireland’s former ambassador to the UK BOBBY McDONAGH says political tensions mean many of his compatriots have found it much tougher to lend their support this time When the president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, made a state visit to the UK in 2014, he expressed the hope that the England football team would “go all the […]

Scotland fan ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on his texts with Gareth Southgate, meeting Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling – and why he’s found England so easy to like this summer I wouldn’t overstate my England football credentials, but I have seen Harry Kane naked but for his underpants (more later); and Raheem Sterling has given me a guided tour of […]

In a macho world, Patricia Chin has blazed a trail for Caribbean music, and for women in the music industry. And at 83 she is still doing so

A new book and exhibition focuses on the emperor’s appetite for the paintings and sculptures of the lands he conquered.

The life of Ennio Morricone, the prolific Italian composer responsible for the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and so much more

TIM WALKER reviews a cheering show breathing fresh life – and fun – back into theatre Showstopper! The Improvised Musical Garrick Theatre, London **** Playing the first Monday of each month Theatre professionals have long been aware of the need to attract younger audiences and the pandemic has given this a new impetus. Even with their two […]

Venice’s music, like the city itself, seems designed specifically to stir emotions There is the Venice of history, the city-state that was a world power for centuries and a musical powerhouse in the 17th century. Then there is the Venice of imagination, of canals, Carnival and decadent beauty – a characterisation fuelled above all by cinema. […]

The fate of a Dublin building which was the setting for a James Joyce story raises interesting questions about property closely associated with literature There are few cities that come to literary life in the manner of Dublin on Bloomsday. June 16 every year, the date in 1904 on which the events of James Joyce’s Ulysses unfold, […]