The Show Must Go On
Freddie Mercury, a Life Larger Than the Stage Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar on 5 September 1946 into a Parsi family whose ancestral roots lay in India and, further back, ancient Persia. His family practised Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest surviving religions. The world, however, would come to Continue Reading
THE GRASS ARENA: WHEN CHESS GAVE JOHN HEALY A WAY OUT
MARK RYLANCE’S EXTRAORDINARY PORTRAIT OF ADDICTION, VIOLENCE AND RECOVERY The Grass Arena is not a film that observes alcoholism from a safe distance. It drags the audience down onto the pavement and leaves it there. Made for BBC television in 1991, directed by Gillies MacKinnon and adapted by Frank Deasy Continue Reading
Dolly Parton: From Poverty to Stardom
Dolly Parton 1946–2026: From the Smoky Mountains to World Stage. the country girl who became a global legend Dolly Parton, the singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist whose extraordinary journey carried her from severe poverty in the mountains of Tennessee to the pinnacle of international entertainment, has died aged 80. Continue Reading
CICERO’S OPENS ITS FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE TO READERS
A growing private collection brings together classic cinema, political drama, British television, documentaries, cult films and landmark productions from across the decades Cicero’s has built up an extensive private film and television archive containing hundreds of productions spanning cinema history, British broadcasting, political drama, documentary, crime, comedy, science fiction, horror Continue Reading
Ann Droid Review: Exploring Friendship in the AI Era
BBC One’s new comedy finds warmth, loneliness and an uncomfortable glimpse of the future in an unlikely friendship between Sue Johnston and Diane Morgan. A VERY BRITISH VISION OF THE AI FUTURE Science fiction has spent decades warning us that artificial intelligence will eventually turn against humanity, with machines becoming Continue Reading
Jason Watkins: The Quietly Brilliant Actor Who Became One of British Television’s Most Trusted Faces
From Shakespeare to The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, The Crown, Coma and McDonald & Dodds Some actors arrive on screen carrying the unmistakable aura of celebrity, and then there are performers like Jason Watkins, who belong to a rather different and arguably more valuable tradition. Watkins is the actor Continue Reading
