Inside the music festival where Kate Middleton partied with underground DJs August 13, 2024 Houghton Festival on the grounds of Houghton Hall returns in August 2025. Adam Bloodworth went to its 2024 edition to follow in the footsteps of unlikely dance music fan, Kate Middleton Alongside ‘Alec Baldwin shoots cinematographer’ and ‘Will Smith punches Chris Rock,’ ‘Kate Middleton goes to underground electronic music festival’ lives high on the list [...]
You can celebrate Team GB Olympics success with actual Olympians. Here’s how August 13, 2024 Clean Bandit, Jess Glynne, Pete Tong and Rag’n’Bone Man are some of the musicians playing a celebratory show this weekend to welcome Team GB Olympics winners and participants back home. The show will take place on Saturday 17 August at the AO Arena in Manchester and will be an opportunity to see the Olympians up [...]
Carmen is a poisoned chalice and Carlos Acosta drinks deeply August 12, 2024 Carmen is a heroine who embodies the mid-nineteenth century bourgeois male idea that, left to their primitive, natural state, untouched by either Church or society’s civilising conventions, women are sexually irrepressible, promiscuous, fickle and dishonourable. The only profession they’d be qualified for, her creator (the French novelist Prosper Mérimée) reckons, is rolling cigars in a [...]
Sh!t Theatre at Edinburgh Fringe review: Raw and uneven comedy about grief August 12, 2024 Sh!t Theatre are the stuff of Fringe folklore – their shows, written and performed by Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit, sell out and often get a near-perfect scorecard from the critics. Or What’s Left of Us is the duo’s latest collaboration with Soho Theatre and is one of the hottest tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe. Prompted by [...]
Can the poshest wellness retreat in Thailand cure me? August 10, 2024 Thailand has kind people and a vast history of traditional wellness. But can it cure a tired Millennial? Adam Bloodworth finds out A textbook Bangkok afternoon: the sun is doing its darnedest to incinerate anyone who dares go outside, but luckily I’m indoors, laying in a bath with a towel covering my modesty. Chernkwan, a [...]
Mercedes-Benz CLE review: Two become one in luxurious coupe August 10, 2024 Cast your mind back to the early 2000s, a time when Mercedes-Benz seemingly embarked upon a plan to cover every possible niche in the automotive market. The results included oddities such as the R-Class, along with a proliferation of coupes and ‘shooting brake’ estates. Time has moved on, however, and Mercedes is now attempting to [...]
Tuesday film review: Julia Louis-Dreyfuss puts you through the emotional wringer August 9, 2024 Tuesday film review: ★★★ Veep and Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfuss goes serious in this imaginative drama about the acceptance of grief. She plays Zora, a mother looking after her daughter Tuesday, played by Lola Pettigrew, who is in the latter stages of a terminal illness. Unable to face what’s coming, death literally confronts the pair [...]
Trap film review: M Night Shyalaman feels far from Sixth Sense heyday August 9, 2024 Trap film review and star rating: ★★★ It feels like a long time since director M. Night Shyalaman kept Hollywood enthralled with twist-laden mysteries like Unbreakable, Signs and The Sixth Sense. In new release Trap, his unique brand of spookiness finds moderate success. He taps into pop culture through lead Josh Hartnett, who plays Cooper, [...]
The Instigators film review: Matt Damon is wasted in this forgettable comedy August 9, 2024 The Instigators review and star rating: ★★ One of Apple TV+’s key summer launches, The Instigators pairs Oscar winning veterans Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in a Boston based crime comedy. Damon plays Rory, a suicidal former US Marine going through divorce and in mounds of debt. Along with ex-con Cobby, played by Affleck, he [...]
Abercrombie & Fitch silent on diversity pledge as new London store opens August 9, 2024 Abercrombie & Fitch committed to diversity pledges following years of criticism, but bosses failed to comment on the diversity of store colleagues at the new London store when The Capitalist approached them The noughties are back, baby: and that means Von Dutch caps and Abercrombie & Fitch. All of a sudden ‘Brat Summer’ sounds appealing. [...]