Recently, I went to watch a friend sing Bach’s Mass in B minor in a beautiful school chapel. As voices soared towards the vaulted ceiling, I recalled the composer’s words, ‘The aim… of all music should be…the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.’ I wondered what Bach would make of music and cultural life today. ...
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You don’t have to be a royalist to have been caught up in the conspiracies surrounding the Crown across the last few weeks. First came the unusual absences from public occasions or withdrawals from speaking engagements. Then followed a tsunami of articles offering rumours and theories, culminating in arguably the biggest non-story of the year so far: the minor, if slightly clumsy, editing of a family photo. ...
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This Good Friday, there’s more than one messiah story to be reflecting on. For those who haven’t read Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune is a generational epic of politics, prophecy, and power on an interplanetary scale. The new Dune – Part Two film is thundering its way to critical and commercial success....
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Comparing newsagents and bookshops can be a strange experience. Look at the news, and there’ll be a raft of articles explaining that Britain is an unhappy country, and that our children and young people, in particular, are without hope. A recent report from The Resolution Foundation showed that, for the first time, young people are the most likely section of the population to be out of work due to mental health challenges. Socioeconomics and other environmental factors appeared to be key contributors....
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At its heart, Christopher Nolan's magnificent film – which scooped seven Oscars this week – is a courtroom drama for our moral crusading times. Its emotional power lies not only in the race to beat the Nazis to the bomb, nor in the moral dilemmas of building a gadget that threatens the annihilation of humankind. Rather, its compelling contemporary resonance lies in its recounting of the vindictive annihilation of the reputation of a complex man whose moral qualms over the use of atomic energy threatened to undermine US policy....
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Like most children, I had a fair few career aspirations: a tennis player, a teacher, and a princess, to name three examples. Some were realistic, others a bit more far-fetched... Blessed with an excellent education, the opportunity to try my hand at creative and sporting pursuits galore, good food on the table every night, and parents who encouraged me to dream big, the world felt like my oyster. Perhaps naïvely, it never crossed my mind that I’d be excluded from a field of work or deemed unable to make decisions about my finances or health ...
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The new Mean Girls film has hit streaming services. This musical remake of the iconic 2004 original follows Cady Heron, a new girl at a US high school, as she learns the complex rules that govern ‘girl world’. To win in this unruly jungle, you have to wear the right clothes, join the right clique, and, importantly, shun the right people. You must differentiate yourself from others by emphasising all the ways you are better than them. You have to be mean. In the 2004 film, Cady plays along but soon realises that the things she ha...
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‘I believe in God.’ Those words made me sit up and listen when they were uttered by Samantha Morton during her acceptance speech for the BAFTA fellowship award on Sunday night. Morton, who has starred in blockbusters such as Minority Report and Fantastic Beasts, also directed the 2009 movie Unloved, which she said was about ‘faith, hope and forgiveness’. Morton is a committed Catholic. And she’s not the only celebrity who has been willing to share their faith from a public platform. A few years ago, Hollywood act...
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A record 123 million Americans tuned in for the NFL 2024 grand finale on Sunday, to watch the Kansas City Chiefs snatch victory away from the San Francisco 49ers in an overtime thriller. To give that figure some context, it was the highest number of people tuning their televisions to the same channel since Neil Armstrong took one small step for man back in 1969....
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Perhaps you were among the 10 million viewers gripped by the David and Goliath drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Or the 7 million that enjoyed the nail-biting finale of The Traitors. Or the 6 million tuning in to Gladiators....
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