Eurofile

SOPHIA DEBOICK on a year when the pop charts were filled with vibrancy and variety.. characteristics that were about to become severely stifled There was never a dull moment to 1986. While the Sun gave us ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster’, 30 million watched Dirty Den leave Angie on Christmas Day, and globally millions more […]

The very term used to describe the prejudice is itself born of prejudice. One of the most anti-Jewish words in the English language is anti-Semitic. In terms of the history of our language it’s a rather new word – no one used it until about 140 years ago. The term, as is well known, is […]

Confession of a theatre critic. When it comes to Harold Pinter, I feel we critics are party to a conspiracy against the theatre-going public. At some point, one of our number ­– possibly inebriated – must have knocked off a review saying that there is some point to this man’s plays, that there is more […]

Before the Britpop steamroller removed it, the charts were filled with subtlety. SOPHIA DEBOICK looks back on a year of complexity Grunge seemed to be taking over the world as 1992 rolled into 1993. As Nirvana released In Utero in September and recorded their MTV Unplugged concert in November, their ascent continued unchecked, while Pearl […]

A chance to make a great escape. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, until January 5 Bonnie Langford in 42nd Street. PHOTO: Brinkhoff/Moegenburg – Credit: Archant Musicals traditionally do well in bleak times so it’s no wonder that 42nd Street is doing a roaring trade. That grand old showman Michael Grade is behind this lavish stage version […]

As recovery from the war continued, a new era of individualism and hedonism was already on the horizon. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports Al Jolson was the biggest star of 1920, a Broadway sensation who was fast emerging as a dominant recording artist. The hit song of the year, Gershwin’s Swanee, only became so after Jolson put […]

​Insecurity over the ‘correct’ use of pronouns has led language in an unusual direction, says PETER TRUDGILL In normal native English, the personal pronouns I, he, she, we, they are only used when they appear as the subject of a verb: I am leaving now; he likes coffee; she would like some; we are coming; […]

The life of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev reads like a novel. As JASON SOLOMONS reports, every amazing chapter is captured in a new documentary film. Rudolf Nureyev unlikely partnership with Dame Margot Fonteyn is legend. Picture: Kalina Jones – Credit: Archant Rudolf Nureyev wasn’t just Lord of the Dance. He was an icon and a […]

It is home to the world’s tallest people and boasts 200 recorded spellings, but Leeuwarden’s real claim to fame is its artistic outlook. CLAUDIA PRITCHARD reports on a city which has taken the Capital of Culture title, and given it a twist There are only 79 known Ru ceramic objects in the world. One, a […]

TIM WALKER reviews Foxfinder at the Ambassodors Theatre, London, which runs until January 5. It is seldom acknowledged that theatre-reviewing is actually one of the most stressful jobs in journalism. I was all set to review Sylvia at the Old Vic for you this week, but, for a second time, I got a last-minute email […]

Tim Walker on Indhu Rubasingham, the best and brightest young theatre boss we have in this country. One of the occupational hazards of being an artistic director of a theatre is that you can all too easily find yourself distracted from what’s happening on the stage by the lampshades that need to be replaced in […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the unlikely origin of the name of a stretch of water off the Scottish coast The sea between the northern Outer Hebrides and the Scottish mainland is called the Minch, while the more southerly strait between the Outer Hebrides and the Isle of Skye is known as the Little Minch. The word […]

​He lived the archetypal life of a poet – intense, eventful and tragic. Yet Friedrich Hölderlin remains an obscure figure outside Germany. A newly-translated work, outlining a momentous existence, could change all that, says CHARLIE CONNELLY What are the key ingredients that make up the classic poet’s life? Is it the wilful excess and general […]

French pop provided the pioneers, as protest music also took voice. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports Before the Beatles invented the modern teenager in Britain, the Europeans were already ahead of the game. In 1962, France was churning out an iconoclastic, Americanised pop that threatened the grand tradition of chanson française at a time when the country […]

The award winning play fails to live up to the hype, says Tim Walker. The first thing to be said about Clare Barron’s Dance Nation is that it isn’t going to get you boogying in the aisles. The title suggests an upbeat song and dance extravaganza with a jaunty, attractive, young cast, some big, bold […]

While the US produced a very raunchy scandal, British pop’s great controversy was a little more tame. Peter Andre and Katie Price coupled on I�m A Celebrity… (Photo by David Westing/Getty Images) – Credit: Getty Images Lewdness was in in 2004. As Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson’s bustier at the Super Bowl […]

Peter Trudgill on a perfectly good word which may find its days numbered The Dutch word for ‘to buy’ is kopen. The corresponding word in German is kaufen; and the West Frisian equivalent is keapje. All the Scandinavian languages also have a related form: Norwegian kjøpe, Danish købe, Swedish köpa, Icelandic kaupa, and Faroese keypa. […]

This year’s Venice Film Festival delivered hit after hit after hit Elisia Del Genio and Ludovica nasti in My Brilliant Friend. Photo: Eduardo Castaldo – Credit: Archant Often when reporting on a film festival, the temptation is to sift the movies for themes in a strained attempt to intuit what the world’s filmmakers are saying […]

Play’s not quite the thing here The two apostrophes in Love’s Labour’s Lost do not engender confidence. This rarely performed work – uncertain if it’s a morality play, a bawdy comedy or just an excuse for a lot of exhausting verbal acrobatics – shows that even Shakespeare had his off days. The director Nick Bagnall […]

With the Space Race very much on, 1959 reeked of the future. And one band were particularly influential, Sophia Deboick reports. One event on its own secures 1959’s position in musical history. February 3 was ‘the day the music died’, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed instantly when the plane […]

Logic- and despots – might favour other systems, but, as Peter Trudgill explains, traditional units of measurements still endure. Of the approximately 80 countries in the world which drive on the left-hand side of the road, only four are European: Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, and the UK (plus the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands). […]

For a few years at the height of the Sixties, the epicentre of cool was to be found between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports on an unsung cultural landmark World at her feet: Sandie Shaw at the Blue Boar services on the M1. Photo: David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images – Credit: Redferns/Getty […]

TIM WALKER reviews Little Shop of Horrors at Regent’s Park Theatre LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS by Ashman ; Directed by Maria Aberg ; Designed by Tom Scutt ; At the Regents Park Open Air Theatre, London, UK ; July 10 2018 ; Credit : Johan Persson – Credit: Archant It is right of course that […]

A timely novel which neatly skewers the still-pervasive myth of an idyllic English countryside. As the self-mutilatory repercussions of Brexit become ever clearer and we career with increasing velocity towards leaving the European Union without any kind of negotiated safety net, Leavers are being forced to draw in the boundaries of their fantasy land further […]

JASON SOLOMONS watches a new Polish romance in which the Iron Curtain plays a defining role – and hails it an instant classic. Among the great, enduring European love stories we must include Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde, Abelard and Heloise, Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere, Paolo and Francesca, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr […]

For a world still recovering from the horrors of war, pop culture offered escapism and a glimpse of a brighter future. Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg trials. Picture: National Archives, courtesy of USHMM photo archives – Credit: Archant Theodor Adorno said ‘to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric’. Looking at the hits of […]

TIM WALKER on how this seductive production of the comedy classic makes it funnier than ever. Vaudeville Theatre, London, until October 20 There is a great deal of kissing going on in Michael Fentiman’s adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Men kiss women, women kiss women and men kiss men. Fehinti Balogun’s dashing Algernon […]

PETER TRUDGILL finds much in common between European languages and the English spoken by African Americans. One of the African American comedian Reginald D. Hunter’s best jokes comes from a television appearance here in Britain. It was a linguistic gag. Hunter related a story that went something like this: He was in a bar, somewhere […]

TIM WALKER gives five stars to King Lear at London’s Duke of York’s theatre King Lear Duke of York’s, London, until Nov 3 ***** (Five stars) Two kings, neither in full possession of their faculties, are currently holding dominion in the West End, and across the Thames, at the National Theatre. One is sublime, and […]

The English Renaissance took music into new directions and saw that emergence of a tune which still echoes down the ages. Sophia Deboick reports. Elizabeth I had been on the throne for more than 20 years as the 1580s dawned, and was presiding over a peaceful England. But these years were the calm before the […]

A new exhibition seeks to reclaim Lee Miller’s legacy as an artist in her own right, rather than a muse for others. It does so rather well, says CLAUDIA PRITCHARD When Britain’s first International Exhibition of Surrealism opened in London on 1936, the photographer, model and artist Lee Miller was, in true surrealist style, both […]

TIM WALKER gives three stars to Alkaline at London’s Park Theatre Alkaline Park Theatre, London, until August 4 *** (Three stars) It is now more than half a century since Katharine Hepburn had to pluck up the courage to tell Spencer Tracy that their blonde-haired daughter was marrying Sidney Poitier in the film Guess Who’s […]