π Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Theatre,Terence Rattigan,National Theatre,Stage,Culture,David Suchet,Media π‘ Key idea: I I heard on the grapevine that it is planning to name the London West End theater after Terence Rattigan pauses. The best way to honor Rattigan is to revive his plays, the latest of which is the rarely seen Man and Boy, which opens at the National Dorfman Theater at the end of this month. The play ran briefly on Broadway and in London in 1963 with Charles Boyer in the lead, and in another outing in 2005 with…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Music,Pop and rock,Culture,Ukraine π Hereβs what youβll learn: IIn late October, 10 kilometers from the front line in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, residents lost a completely renovated ambulance. While unlocking your phone and logging into the Maps app may seem like the obvious solution, that would be completely unwise here: Russian drones are circling the skies, searching for any signals.Inside the truck is a motley crew: an 81-year-old Irish music industry veteran; Texas rock singer turns 72; Australian keyboardist. Ukrainian saxophonist. and three musicians in their twenties from…
π₯ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television & radio,Stephen Graham,Drama,Television π Hereβs what youβll learn: STevin Graham was a breakout star in 2025. Not only did he play Bruce Springsteen's father in the biopic Find Me From Nowhere, but he of course co-wrote and starred in the Netflix hit Adolescent - a game-changing drama that sparked a global debate about online misogyny, internal culture and the manosphere.His friend and frequent collaborator Steven Knight watched in admiration from afar as the devastating four-part television event became. βOh my God, it was a cultural…
π₯ Explore this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,2026 culture preview,TV comedy,Culture,Television & radio,Comedy,Gbemisola Ikumelo π‘ Main takeaway: IIn 2020, as long-overdue conversations about race spread around the world, Gbemisola Ekumelo, now 39, made a decision. βI had this soul-destroying experience while working,β she says, her sunny demeanor belying the bleak story. She decided to post online about the microaggressions she experienced while appearing in a play a few years ago, came to terms with the fact that it could affect her chances at future roles, and shuddered as she wrote the thread. One day…
π Read this insightful post from BBC Culture π π Category: π‘ Key idea: 12. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the HarvestWith or without Jennifer Lawrence's hero archer, Katniss Everdeen, audiences can't get enough of The Hunger Games, so 2023's The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows with another prequel adapted from a Suzanne Collins novel. This film is set 24 years before the first Hunger Games films, so it features younger versions of many of the main characters from Katniss' saga. It should be fun to see how well the new actors get along with the old ones. Ralph…
π Explore this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Culture,Marvel,Science fiction and fantasy films,Metropolis,Dawn of the Planet of the Apes π‘ Main takeaway: 2025 seems more futuristic. Maybe it's the "f" sound in "five." But 2026 is still one step ahead, which is where we are now, where every science-fiction development β ββespecially the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence β looks miserable, or perhaps worse. (Doesn't it seem as if, in a dystopia, anti-human, corporate-backed technology would actually work a little better?) Didn't anyone warn us about this?The answer, at least when it comes to the…
π Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Music,Culture,Jazz π Key idea: HeyWriting jazz reviews for 2026 with a story dating back to the mid-1980s might risk alienating the audience, but it was the decade in which a far-sighted young saxophonist on the UK jazz scene, called Ian Ballamy, first appeared on this writer's radar. The cross-generational lineup and catchy themes of Riversphere, his first solo release in years, are a testament to why he's been there for 40 years.Artwork for Riversphere Volume 1In their twenties, Palami and pianist/composer Jango Betts often teamed up as…
π Discover this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Blue,Pop and rock,Music,Culture β
Hereβs what youβll learn: 'forLouie's at home / Oh, it's party time! Consider the 40-man band on Souls of the Underground, the penultimate song on this seventh album, and their fourth since their reunion in 2011. The British four-piece are keen to take us back to the heyday of the early 2000s, a time of Met bar table service, with the ladies having βa little proseccoβ and the gents having a βnice cold beerβ. Musically, this is almost more complex than the (relatively)…
π₯ Explore this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture,Taskmaster,TV comedy β
Key idea: New Year's treat for Taskmaster9pm on Channel 4TV chef Big Zo, former lioness Jill Scott, Eurovision star Sam Ryder, Dictionary Corner's Susie Dent and Strictly winner Rose Ayling-Ellis are the brave contestants vying to win a golden bust of Greg Davies in this two-part special - from goading a dangerous animal to playing the glockenspiel. Plus, which one of them is going to sweat it out on a foot pump for 20 minutes? Holly RichardsonWould I lie to you?7.30pm on…
π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Culture,Television & radio π Main takeaway: 'WRooster hat-up! These were the words that ended the first broadcast on the smallest television station in the world. Hours earlier, four local young men had been persuaded to serve as live-in presenters at a Sunday school in a quiet village. Despite the dead air and awkward line, it was the poor quality of transmission that caused the stars - Michelle Hornby (31), Jonathan Brown (27), James Warburton (25) and Deborah Cocking (21) - to apologize and cut off the opening…
