Film
Reel hell of the Western Front
The director wanted to show things as they were – badly-led, no one wanting to fight or knowing what they were fighting for, says Christopher Silvester
Polanski Politics
In light of the Césars drama, Christopher Silvester considers crime and censorship in film appreciation
Untrue story of the Kelly Gang
For a folk hero this Ned has zero contact with the ordinary Irish folk who will supposedly come to love him, says Christopher Silvester
David Copperfield and the politics of diversity
Diverse casting of period adaptations is a risk worth taking
Charlie’s cardboard feminists fall flat
Bad jokes, no chemisty, lame action: the snoozathon that’s not woke enough
Actors do love gongs
Stars of the stage are more likely to feature in the Honours list than the people who write their scripts
All in the family
Most likely, we live in a comfortable nest of light fictions
Police Scotland must stop patronising the public
The Hate Crime And Public Order Act will waste the time of the police and endanger the freedoms of the public
Dumbing down the priesthood
Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away
Realism is not the same as self-pity
There is a limit to how much women can physically protect themselves from men
It’s time to transition babies
Even in the womb, many foetuses can sense their own trans identity
Leaving Kindland, entering reality
“Being kind” at the expense of truth and reason can make us nothing of the kind
Taking on the right-on with cold, hard facts
A practical manual for anyone who has no choice but to sit on committees with idealistic intellectuals
Resistance is futile
Acceptance can be an act of protest. Not a submissive, passive surrender.
Not everyone has a novel in them
Literature is the only art in which, it seems, every neophyte is convinced they can succeed
Synaesthesia
Robert Thicknesse, Lucy Lethbridge, and Yehuda Shapiro return for a mind bending and spirit expanding episode of Critical Mash
Preaching to a dwindling choir
Once the default denomination of tycoons and the WASP elite, America’s Episcopal Church is struggling
