Eurofile

TIM WALKER reviews a cheering show breathing fresh life – and fun – back into theatre Showstopper! The Improvised Musical Garrick Theatre, London **** Playing the first Monday of each month Theatre professionals have long been aware of the need to attract younger audiences and the pandemic has given this a new impetus. Even with their two […]

Venice’s music, like the city itself, seems designed specifically to stir emotions There is the Venice of history, the city-state that was a world power for centuries and a musical powerhouse in the 17th century. Then there is the Venice of imagination, of canals, Carnival and decadent beauty – a characterisation fuelled above all by cinema. […]

While ministerial sins make headlines here, ‘father of the EU’ Robert Schuman is on the path to canonisation. The founding father of the European Union may soon be getting a halo. Robert Schuman was the Luxembourg-born French statesman who founded the Council of Europe and masterminded the post-war plan for a single European steel and coal authority. It […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the European language that lingered on Greenland, and another –  of sorts – that still thrives there Greenland is the largest island in the world. As is well known it also lies very far to the north. At its northernmost point, it is only about 500 miles from the North Pole. Iceland lies about 200 […]

Some surprise choices - and some usual suspects missing - as JASON SOLOMONS selects the 50 greatest European movies

Sixty years after his suicide, Ernest Hemingway continues to fascinate. Matt Kelly examines his legacy and credentials as America's great European writer.

Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Italy face a Euros date with destiny against Belgium European football is never complete without Italy. Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Azzurri will on Friday aim to make Roberto Martinez’s Golden Generation of Belgium suffer and perhaps be suffocated in Munich. The […]

The small South American nation has produced two exceptional bandleaders from two different eras, who helped transform music in the UK Georgetown is 3,500 miles across the Atlantic from Britain, but it has exercised a huge influence on the music of the imperial mother country. This little city of low-rise colonial architecture, with the unspoilt jungle […]

Mads Mikkelsen's drinking comedy Another Round is set for a Hollywood remake after winning the Oscar for Best International Film

TIM WALKER on Amélie the Musical at the Criterion Theatre in London. An admirable effort, but for what purpose? I counted 16 cast members on the stage in Amélie the Musical and I was stunned. It’s the sort of thing that, before the pandemic, I would have taken for granted. Now, I find myself fixating on the arithmetic: West […]

With over 84% of Japan still waiting for their first jab, why are the Olympic Games being held there? Is the sporting world, and compliant politicians, playing fast and loose with the pandemic? The European football tournament across 11 countries, the Copa América in Brazil, the fast-approaching Tokyo Olympics, might all be seen as brave defiance […]

PETER TRUDGILL takes on the linguistic purists once again for their attachment to words’ ‘true’ meanings There are some pedantic people around who reckon that it is wrong to use the word aggravate to mean ‘irritate, vex’ or ‘annoy’ – as in “please stop doing that, it’s very aggravating!” This is probably the most common usage of the word […]

Jason Solomons meets Ben Wheatley, the director behind films like Kill List, Sightseers and Free Fire, ahead of the release of new movie In The Earth Everyone went to the woods in lockdown. Remember all those walks, those endless trudges through mud and twigs and leaves and into forests you’d never bothered to visit, dragging […]

A new exhibition celebrates the pioneering British artist Eileen Agar and her sideways look at the life aquatic Seven months before the outbreak of the Second World War, left wing and anti-war artists exhibited together at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Henry Moore, Victor Pasmore and Vanessa Bell were among those contributing some 200 works to the exhibition […]

Marseille’s music is as self-assured as the city itself, says SOPHIA DEBOICK  Marseille is a proud and ambitious city. Founded by the Greeks around 600BC, France’s second city’s ancient origins have been no bar to striving for the modern, and it is known for its ground-breaking 20th and 21st century architecture. Le Corbusier’s revolutionary La […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how bottlers became butlers There are about 45,000 people in Britain who bear the surname Butler. In comparison, there are a quarter of million Browns and half a million Smiths. But 45,000 still seems to be rather a high number if we assume that all of our contemporary Butlers are descended from men who […]

The medical protocols that helped saved Denmark’s Christian Eriksen are partly down to the work of one man, football doctor Michel d’Hooghe It was a Swedish writer, Erik Niva, who observed last Saturday: “Denmark lost but life won”. He reported on the collapse, the apparent death, and then the resuscitation that saved the Danish playmaker […]

St. Louis has as strong a claim as anywhere to be the city where the sound was first heard Rock ‘n’ roll was born at 3137 Whittier Street, St. Louis. Chuck Berry’s debut single Maybellene had it all – teenage heartbreak, fast cars and a driving guitar break – and was written during Berry’s eight-year […]

Victory for France in the Euros would give Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante the kind of trophy cabinet that even Messi and Ronaldo would envy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on opposite sides of the world preparing to lead their countries in tournaments that represent their last chance to win major honours. No-one of sound mind […]

The story of two places, and two women, linked by fate and separated by a body of water. Calais has always had a special place in British culture. We owned it from 1347 until 1558 after all, even if now it’s mainly known for booze cruises, Channel swims and the first trip abroad for so […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the language of the Isle of Man, and its rearguard action against the linguistic homogenisation of the British Isles If you have ever been to Ellan Vannin – the Isle of Man – you will know that from the shores of that beautiful island it is possible to see Ireland, Scotland, England and, […]

Tim Walker gives three stars to Walden at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London until June 12 To say that Stella and Cassie are sisters who have grown apart is an under-statement. Cassie (Lydia Wilson) is a celebrated astronaut who’s just returned from a year on the moon. Stella (Gemma Arterton) has, in the meantime, […]

TIM WALKER on one of the few pieces of ‘serious theatre’ to get going after lockdown Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me Kiln Theatre, London ***** Don’t let anyone kid you that theatre is coming back in leaps and bounds. We’re talking at best about small, hesitant, faltering steps. There’s the occasional costly stumble, too, as […]

The country's historical and recent anguish provides a strong undercurrent to its music.

From The Ladykillers to The Elephant Man, Jason Solomons celebrates some of the best movies set in London When the pandemic stopped cinema in their tracks and the flow of new movies became an online trickle, many film fans took the time to look back and catch up on classics. In the UK, one of […]

Nothing will better define this European club football season than Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid upsetting Real and Barcelona to win La Liga When we come to analyse the European club season that ended with Chelsea’s deserved victory in the Champions League final, nothing will better define the fight against adversity – the empty stadiums, the pandemic, […]

PETER TRUDGILL picks apart another popular subject for pedants Are you alright? Or are you all right? Is alright one word or two? A number of people seem to feel rather strongly about this issue, and some of them are adamant that to write alright is totally not all right. They think that all right is the only “correct” way to write […]

Such is Liverpool’s immense musical heritage that the city is not overshadowed by its most famous sons Liverpool makes its own mythology. In February 1967, the Beatles released the double A-side Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever, not only creating a new paradigm for Britishness in pop on one side and all but single-handedly creating psychedelia on […]

Theatre reviewer TIM WALKER sees an old favourite returning to the stage after lockdown The Mousetrap St Martin’s Theatre, London ***** There was a lot of talk of a new kind of theatre emerging after the lockdowns – edgier, more relevant and representative – but maybe, after a traumatic experience, there’s something to be said […]

The spread of English as a narrative language now includes the Asian island nation. Singapore, the large island off the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, is separated from the mainland by the Johor strait which is less than a nautical mile wide at its narrowest point. A number of fascinatingly different mother tongues have […]

This all-English Champions League final between Man City and Chelsea is no guarantee of success at the Euros Beware the siren song telling us England will rule the playing fields of Europe in the coming weeks.  It is true that the Premier League is where the money is, and that two English clubs contest the […]

New exhibition 2 Tone: Lives & Legacies features incredible photos of fans of the Coventry music phenomenon In early 1980, The Specials were still basking in the glory of putting Too Much Too Young, and the sound of their 2 Tone label, at No. 1. Along with other ska-revival bands The Beat, The Bodysnatchers, The […]