Alfred Hitchcock
The men with the megaphone
A new history of movie directors is full of insight, felicitous phrases and subtle put-downs
Kirk Douglas and cancel culture
Do we believe all stories as true, or presume innocence until proven guilty?
Do hurt people hurt people?
This popular cliché attempts to be generous but ends up implying that victims are tainted
It’s not rocket science
It all goes wrong when arts departments start imitating research universities
Let there be love
Filmmakers have fallen out of love with romantic movies, but it’s time to bring back passion to the picture house
The best of The Rest Is …
Sequel podcasts are emerging with the inevitability of sprouts from an old potato
The art of Caspar David Friedrich
In our brave new world of modern art, there’s a growing appetite for celebrating the mystery of the natural world
How trans activists captured the hate crime agenda
The “hate crime” agenda is based on bad policing and worse politics
When youth becomes period drama
The stakes feel very high when our younger years become the stuff of popular entertainment
Against stakeholderism
How ideas like “citizens’ assemblies” threaten democracy and effective policy-making
The problem with puberty blockers
Ministers must step in to prevent the NHS from experimenting on children
The establishment prefers distractions to solutions
Politicians discuss irrelevances rather than confronting the obvious
The emptiness of hype
A cultural legacy depends on far more than passing enthusiasm
