Beleaguered London film studios could close despite demand spike, fear execs October 11, 2023 Demand for UK film and TV production is set to spike – just as new ‘studio taxes’ cause venues to fear going out of business, industry executives have warned. Studios face a newly-implemented business tax, known within the industry as a ‘studio tax’, which has halted productions and slowed others due to rising costs. The [...]
Holly Willoughby quits This Morning following Phillip Schofield exit earlier in year October 10, 2023 Holly Willoughby has announced she will leave popular ITV morning show This Morning. In a statement she has said she made the move “for me and my family.” Willoughby has not been on This Morning for the past week, following the formal charging of a man who was found to be soliciting to commit murder [...]
Derren Brown interview: ‘Magic is childish, you’re just trying to impress people’ October 6, 2023 “There are people who can naturally command a room. I’m not one of them…” These are surprising words from the magician who once shot himself in the head live on TV in a game of Russian roulette. Backstage at the Criterion Theatre ahead of his new show, Unbelievable, the magician Derren Brown is telling me [...]
Trompe L’Oeil review: Trump is the butt of the joke again October 5, 2023 How many fringe theatre and cabaret shows have made Donald Trump the butt of their jokes? Surely it’s in the thousands. It must hard to offer fresh material, so kudos to Trompe L’Oeil for finding new life in him yet. In this musical cabaret the former president is played by Emer Dineen, who portrays a [...]
Old Friends review: Sondheim honoured in show bursting with love October 4, 2023 Old Friends review and star rating: ★★★★★ What drew Bernadette Peters, living legend of Broadway, aged 75, after a half-century-long career in New York, to finally make her West End debut? Especially given she’ll make a considerably worse salary here compared to financially flush Broadway? A knees-up to celebrate musical impresario, Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim passed [...]
Harry Potter star Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore, dies September 28, 2023 Michael Gambon, the actor who played Dumbledore in most of the Harry Potter films, has died. The 82-year-old passed away after a short bout of pneumonia in hospital, his family has said in an announcement. Gambon played the Hogwarts school headmaster Professor Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films. Sir Michael Gambon was [...]
Derren Brown Unbelievable review: Good ideas in a show that needs work September 27, 2023 Derren Brown Unbelievable review and star rating: ★★★ Derren Brown may have one of the most quietly sustaining careers in showbiz. It’s been 23 years since he first popped up on TV, during a noughties era that famously saw him shoot himself in the head in a live game of Russian roulette and correctly predict [...]
‘Alcohol free beer is healthy!’ Sober October tips from London’s first alcohol free bar September 27, 2023 I take a sip of my No Sleep till Brooklyn, a cocktail featuring two types of alcohol-free whisky, and I have to admit that it tastes pretty darn like the real thing. It even has the ‘slow burn’ feel of whisky in the mouth. “You see!” says Laura Willougby, co-founder of Club Soda, London’s first [...]
Sober October: the best alcohol free events in London September 25, 2023 If you hit it hard all summer, you’re not alone: in fact, far too many of us make a habit of drinking far too much on the regular. Statistics show over half of Londoners ‘drink to get drunk’, which means drinking to excess. Enter, Sober October… This October the month-long initiative by Macmillan Cancer Support [...]
Beautiful Thing, Stratford East, review: the Heartstopper of the 1990s September 25, 2023 Beautiful Thing review and star rating: ★★★★ It’s a dangerous game, hauling up relics from the past and refashioning them for contemporary tastes, especially when the subject matter is this sensitive and ever-changing. Beautiful Thing was a 1993 play that was adapted for the screen in 1996 about two teenage boys who fell for one [...]