The Critics
Wanted: classical music influencers
Expert, well-dressed, wisecracking reviewers once delivered first-night juice
When Shakespeare met Marlowe
Born With Teeth is not so much serious drama as high-class fan fiction
They can’t really mean this
The Long Walk is a film for a Trumpian time of delight in random public cruelty
Best behaviour can be “rock ’n’ roll”
Is it the music that makes bands great — or the “situations”?
The BBC’s fanfare for a fanatic
Radio 4 flatters the Lancasters of this world and patronises the Connollys
The summer’s best viewing
Four new series to look out for and six old favourites that are still available
The man who made us melt
Robert Redford was a charismatic actor and a masterful storyteller
Tosca without terror
Tosca, Royal Opera
Brad Pitt has the formula for success
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
Me and my gull
Seagull: True Story, Marylebone Theatre
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
Losing control of the narrative
The British establishment no longer sets the terms of public debate over migration
Strange new world
A new art history hinges on a proleptic reading of Edwardian history
Damaged brains and troubled souls
Dana White, of all people, should not be so dismissive of the salience of mental suffering
Irish anti-Israel agitation is out of control
Anti-Israel sentiments among Irish nationalists are irrational and opportunistic
Britain needs a moral core
The UK’s greatest vulnerability isn’t its weakened military but its lack of spiritual depth
A new course for Cuba
The United States should give up its futile and arrogant dreams of regime change
Contra Kemi
Is Kemi Badenoch a principled opponent of identity politics or an anti-woke opportunist?
Kemi at the crossroads
Kemi Badenoch cannot tell everybody what they want to hear
How the sausage gets made
On the illusions of evidence-based policy
Thank God for Brexit
The EU is a bureaucratic monster and Britain is better off out
Pärtly good
Arvo Pärt: 4 symphonies (Chandos)
Laughing to hide the tears
Beware: prime ministerial jokes ahead