The Critics
Not Justin time
Sarah Ditum says that the focus on Timberlake as a bad agent conveniently forgets the machine behind him
Losing the plot
Robert Thicknesse reveals how in searching for meaning, opera adaptations are becoming more obscure
Myth of Igor, the Great Composer
Norman Lebrecht says an affair with Coco Chanel did Stravinsky’s PR, and hers, no harm at all
Concern grows over Hugh Bonneville
And Piers Brosnan’s Irish accent leaves something to be desired
Radio cashes in on theatre’s loss
Radio drama is prone to over-signalling regional differences, says Anne McElvoy
Swim and tonic
The latest buzz from our back-stage gossip
A treasure trove of memories
T.V. show, The Repair Shop, is just what we need in these dark and fractured times, says Adam LeBor
Nollywood comes of age
Christopher Silvester explains how censorship has suppressed Nigerian films that have won international acclaim
The mystery of the folded dragon
Michael Prodger recounts the tale of Hergé’s drawing for the cover of the Tintin instalment: The Blue Lotus
Take a leaf out of sport’s book
Music has lost its unpredictability, its thrilling fear while sport’s passion shines, says Norman Lebrecht
The public sector must reform or die
Too big to fail? It is too big to succeed
Wanted: a plan to reform the NHS
No serious party can sit out the ideological battle over the remorseless rise in public spending, including on health
Francis Bacon’s visceral language
Pain and pleasure are never far away in these portraits
The US city on the banks of the Thames
Critics don’t care for Canary Wharf, considering it a monument of 1980s corporatism
The Tory beauty contest
The good, the bad, the ugly and the downright embarrassing
The war on women’s spaces
Roxanne Tickle’s legal triumph is nothing to giggle at
The sadness of AI boyfriends
Technology can make romance frictionless and sterile
Soporific Starmer
The Prime Minister appears to be making a virtue of his own dullness
Was Houellebecq right?
Reassessing the French novelist vilified for forecasting the Islamicisation of France
What’s the point of university during a freedom of speech crisis?
Students should be taught to do more than agree
No average Joe
“He looked like the Milkybar Kid but played like Clint Eastwood”
