ONE of the less feeble excuses I have made to friends and family who have suggested that I write my reminiscences of a war and post-war childhood, is that to do so I would  show the faults of a father who fought hard all his life to take care of my mother and I, and give…

ALFRED Hitchcock’s film version of John Buchan’s 1915 novel is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, and every subsequent iteration is judged by this 90-year-old behemoth. So perhaps it is no surprise that a member of the audience, leaving Salisbury Playhouse’s terrific new production of the Patrick Barlow four-handed version…

SHAKESPEARE is back at Bedminster’s Tobacco Factory, in a stunning new production by Heidi Vaughan, the venue’s artistic director and CEO. It seems a long time since the company Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory was last performing on the cigar packing room floor of the former Wills Factory. Andrew Hilton’s company ran for 20 years…

THERE was a running joke in my family, and the younger members regularly pulled my maternal grandfather’s leg, that as a lifelong trade unionist he was still fighting the General Strike 50 years after the event. Looking at Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Blackstuff, 40 years after it first appeared on BBC 2, adapted for…

THE story of Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, with its period costumes and hairstyles, when concrete-solid -with-hairspray, tall, back-combed-within-an-inch-of-their-lives beehive hairstyles were all the rage. The story of personal prejudices that were so prevalent at the time against anyone who does not conform to the accepted norm, “chocolate box” beauty for the girls, sharp…

ANYONE who has ever had a little ‘punt’ on horse racing will be familiar with, and vouch for, the truth of the old saying ‘horses for courses”. There have been thousands of examples over the years of horses whose performances are a stone or more better on certain courses, and top class trainers who know…

THE new show at the Barn Theatre is all about the difficulty of finding a new James Bond at the same time as the legacy of the founders comes under threat from franchising corporate takeover. By the time I got to Cirencester to catch up with the production, news had just been announced in the…

FOR all its psychological trappings, this is at heart a true whodunit thriller, as five characters have reason and motive to be the killer. In true Agatha Christie style, all the clues and red herrings are laid out before us, leading us down one false trail after another. The big difference in this skilful stage…

ONE Anglican archbishop has already resigned after questions about his failure to investigate and act on reports of abuse within the church. Many other leading church figures, in both the Church of England and the Catholic Church, have been embroiled in allegations of abuses dating back decades and cover-ups that have continued. The General Synod…

ADOLESCENCE is probably the most difficult period in anyone’s life. Ideas of advice on how to handle this period may change and some psychiatrists even believe you can by-pass it and go straight from childhood to adulthood. In an era where self-examination is encouraged far more than it was in previous times, and in which…