Shakespeare goes pop: the best of the Bard’s work updated on screen
A new season of films celebrates how different directors have found a way to bring Shakespeare’s work forward, from Baz Luhrmann to Derek Jarman
November 2023
OK, Kenneth Branagh isn’t great as King Lear – but have you seen his abs?
Zing Tsjeng
From Daniel Radcliffe to Paul Mescal, a star name will fill theatres. And if most of the audience aren’t there for the acting, that’s not always a bad thing
The week in theatre: King Lear; Lyonesse; Pied Piper – review
Kenneth Branagh savours Lear’s words rather too much; Kristin Scott Thomas and co are left high and dry in Cornwall; but at BAC, a beatbox Pied Piper you would follow anywhere…
TV review
Blue Eye Samurai review – the fight scenes are an absolute joy to watch
Kenneth Branagh, George Takei and Maya Erskine star in this gorgeous, gory tale of a warrior hellbent on revenge in edo-era Japan. It’s a fun, cinematic epic
October 2023
King Lear review – Kenneth Branagh’s fast and feverish tragedy
The seven best films to watch on TV this week
The Fabelmans to Minority Report: the seven best films to watch on TV this week
September 2023
Is King Lear a mountain or molehill? How to play the tragic monarch and ‘stupid old fart’
Paul Scofield, Ian McKellen and Glenda Jackson have all redefined Shakespeare’s unpredictable ruler – a role in which actors usually succeed
A Haunting in Venice review – Branagh improves on his Agatha Christie formula
With smart casting and suitably murky Venice setting, the director improves on last year’s Death on the Nile, though his moustache-fondling Poirot remains the same
A Haunting in Venice review – Branagh’s Agatha Christie whodunnit given horror makeover
No amount of spooky jump-scares can save Kenneth Branagh’s latest Christie adaptation, which wastes its atmospheric setting and stellar cast
August 2023
Autumn arts preview 2023
Napoleon, Scorsese and Wonka at the pictures: the best films to see in autumn 2023
The season’s star turns include Ridley Scott’s portrait of the great French warrior, a true-crime western from an American great and Timothée Chalamet in a chocolatier origin story
April 2023
Kenneth Branagh to direct and star in King Lear in London and New York
The play, which the actor has described as being pertinent to our ‘savage and judgmental’ political climate, will run for 50 performances in the West End before transferring to the US
October 2022
‘It’s a way to bring my mum and dad back’: Steven Spielberg on the new wave of cine-memoirs
After Branagh’s Belfast, Spielberg’s The Fabelmans – a tale of a childhood in Arizona – is winning acclaim. Is it legacy or therapy that’s motivating these autobiographies?
TV tonight
TV tonight: the ups and downs of marriage in The A Word spin-off
Ralph & Katie follows the newlyweds who both have Down’s syndrome. Plus, Steve Thompson on Rugby, Dementia and Me. Here’s what to watch this evening
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: This England; Make Me Prime Minister; Inside Man; Industry
Is Boris Johnson just way too nice in Sky’s exhaustive pandemic drama? Will Jackie Weaver be the next PM? And can Stanley Tucci save Steven Moffat’s psychopath thriller?
September 2022
I will never forget the brutal realities of the pandemic - This England brushes them aside
Rod Dacombe
TV review
This England review – so sympathetic to Boris Johnson it is absolutely bananas
TV tonight
TV tonight: Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson is television at its most triggering
Darling, you were dreadful! The best (and worst) big-screen performances of all time
Kenneth Branagh is Boris Johnson! Brace yourself to relive the pandemic with This England
Down the rabbit hole
What links This England to Angelina Jolie, via Matt Hancock?
