Shining Vale, review: Courteney Cox stars in Sharon Horgan’s latest black comedy
Sharon Horgan specialises in creating women who could do with a lie-down in a darkened room. Anna Maxwell Martin in Motherland, Sarah Jessica Parker in Divorce, and…
Neil MacGregor interview: ‘Why don’t we have a Museum of England?’
Neil MacGregor studied many cultures of the world while director of the British Museum, but it is the English he finds the most perplexing. “Why is there…
Tuppence Middleton: ‘The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me…’
‘You never really stop looking for the secrets some houses keep,” says Tuppence Middleton. Mystery certainly swirls around the homes at the heart of both her new…
£46m invested in GB News to challenge BBC, owner’s accounts reveal
The owner of GB News has invested nearly £50m in its attempt to rival the BBC and Sky News. All Perspectives has been drawing on £46.5m worth…
The Ipcress File, episode 1, review: a sexy spy thriller with one short-sighted bit of casting
“My friend and I will settle for the best of everything,” says Tom Hollander’s menacing, smarmy, charming spook-wrangler Dalby, in ITV’s The Ipcress File. It’s a statement…
Peaky Blinders’ toe-curling obsession with real historical figures is its greatest vice
Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) may have given up the booze but Peaky Blinders (BBC One) continues to struggle with its own problematic addictions. Most glaringly, its obsession…
What’s on TV tonight: The Ipcress File, Outlander, Peaky Blinders, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and more
The WitchfinderBBC Two, 10pmThis terrific six-part comedy drama is set in 1645, in the middle of the English Civil War and at the height of fears about…
Michel Houellebecq: ‘Leftist scum monopolised intellectual debate in the 20th century’
That dream of connection also leads Houellebecq far from liberal individualism. He is a fan of Auguste Comte, who opposed individual rights in the name of scientific…
Mud, leeches, eating your own dog: the ghastly truth about travel writing
There Allen is reunited with a dear friend of his youthful initiation-rite days. Explorer, he says, is actually, “a book about friendship – the value of disconnecting…
The Golden Cockerel, ETO, review: a terribly timed, unevenly sung fairy-tale about an invading tsar
What the opera needs to animate it, as well as orchestral textures, is great singing, and this is somewhat absent from ETO’s cast, to a quite startling…
How did Justin Welby’s much-hyped grilling of Tony Blair fail to mention the word ‘morality’?
“Post-9/11, I decided we had to be with America in this moment. You know, the whole issue to do with the use of chemical, biological weapons, development…
Don’t lecture me on plight of refugees, says Dominic Raab
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has unveiled plans that will allow more than 200,000 Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK, including extended family members and sponsored…
NHS to pay for patients’ taxis and hotels if they go to hospitals away from their home
Mr Javid suggested the NHS will also pay for travel and accommodation for people who are using NHS services that are far from their homes, and that…
Tony Blair admits he ‘may have been wrong’ over Iraq War
Sir Tony Blair has admitted that he “may have been wrong” over the Iraq War. The former Prime Minister’s remarks are the furthest that Sir Tony has…
Russian banks turn to Chinese payments system after Visa and Mastercard suspend operations
Russia’s biggest banks are scrambling to switch to a Chinese card system after global payment giants Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in the country as part of…
Sex traffickers exploit Ukrainian refugees as dark side of exodus to Europe emerges
Sex traffickers are taking advantage of young women and unaccompanied children fleeing the war in Ukraine, police and volunteers in Poland have warned. As more than a…
‘Our sons were sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder’: Furious Russian mothers face down Kremlin
Angry Russian mothers have accused Vladimir Putin of deploying their sons as “cannon fodder” in his invasion of Ukraine, according to video footage of a confrontation with…
Pictured: Shocking fan violence at Mexican league match leaves 22 injured and doubts over World Cup
Queretaro said: “We roundly condemn the events that occurred at Estadio Corregidora. “We are in full communication and coordination with the authorities so that they can act…
Vladimir Putin’s rap sheet: Atrocities committed in Ukraine that could be considered ‘war crimes’
Russian forces have been accused of committing a litany of war crimes in their invasion of Ukraine. Laws of Armed Conflict are made up of various treaties…
How Vladimir Putin blundered into his biggest economic mistake
In just days, Putin has inadvertently engineered a tectonic shift in European energy policy, moving at a faster pace than expected. It risks decimating his oil and…
Economic war will test the West’s resolve
Maersk of Denmark, Singapore’s Ocean Network Express, Swiss-based MSC, Germany’s Hapag Lloyd and CMA of France, five of world’s six biggest cargo-shipping lines, all announced their refusal…
Russia may be just the start of ownership headache for compromised Premier League
The subscribers to broadcaster iQiyi expecting live Premier League action in mainland China this weekend will be mystified. Mass Covid breakout? Impromptu international break? Wildcat referee strike…
We don’t need tax hikes to fund the army – let’s make cuts elsewhere
This 2pc target seems low, but we have spent this little on defence before. After the Crimean War ended in 1856, for most of the next half…
In this dangerous new cold war, we need strength and sense to prevail
Thirty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy’s defence secretary, Robert McNamara, learnt something that made his blood run cold. Unknown to Washington, in the event…
Labour ties itself in knots on demand for Boris Johnson to quit over ‘partygate’
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to repeat his call for Boris Johnson to resign over “partygate”, saying politicians should demonstrate “unity” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine….