‘He had a remorseless drive to punish others’: the man who duped Hollywood
In 2017, the New-York-based freelance photographer and film-maker Will Strathman received a thrilling email: the megaproducer Amy Pascal wanted to talk. Her initial message explained that he had been recommended by someone at a fashion brand for whom Strathman has…
The Quality of Love by Ariane Bankes review – delicious portrait of the Paget twins
Somewhere in her house – though not, I think, in an attic – Ariane Bankes keeps a battered tin trunk, the precious contents of which enabled her to write this short biography of her mother, Celia, and her aunt, Mamaine,…
Spacey Unmasked review – far more than a did-he-didn’t-he exposé
In Kevin Spacey’s written right-of-reply statement at the end of Spacey Unmasked, he reminds the world that every criminal and civil court case accusing him of sexual assault has been resolved in his favour. He has a right to reiterate…
Blue Lights recap: series two, episode four – no, Tommy, no!
Canning went off-piste and Tommy paid the price. Here’s all the intel on the Shakespearean-titled fourth episode, The Stamp of Nature … ‘That boy takes orders from no one’ As we returned to Mount Eden estate, publican Lee Thompson (Seamus…
Storms, frogs and a kiss: how a group of scientists designed a message from humanity to aliens
Space objects embody all kinds of contradictions. They’re closely tied to us as our proxies in space, and the people who make or launch them often imprint or project their own emotions and beliefs on to these objects. Yet they…
Another Crab’s Treasure: this indie hit has clawed its way into my subconscious
The Arcane Kids, a video game collective from Los Angeles, have a manifesto that I think about all the time, but particularly when I find art that surprises me, or approaches traditional formats in new and exciting ways. The second…
Doctor Who first look review – Ncuti Gatwa will make this show far more fun than it’s been for years
Christmas specials don’t count. Intermediate trilogies where David Tennant is the Fourteenth-and-a-Half Doctor or whatever don’t count. The new era of Doctor Who, with Russell T Davies back as the showrunner and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, only really begins…
‘Gissa job!’ How Bernard Hill created one of TV’s most tragic and unforgettable characters
Some time in 1980, on the first sheet of a script that would eventually run to 221 pages, Alan Bleasdale typed the line: We see Yosser with his three children. He is leaning forward. When the jobcentre clerk explains he…
The big idea: why we need human rights now more than ever
In the three decades since I became a lawyer, human rights – once understood as an uncomplicated good, a tool for securing dignity for the vulnerable against abuses by the powerful – have increasingly come under assault. Perhaps never more so…
Poem of the week: The Night Hunt by Thomas MacDonagh
The Night Hunt In the morning, in the dark,When the stars began to blunt,By the wall of Barna ParkDogs I heard and saw them hunt All the parish dogs were there,All the dogs for miles around, Teeming up behind a…