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Culture

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Entertainment

‘I put a smoke bomb in a road cone and stuck it on my head’: Delton Barrett’s best photograph

‘It occurred to me that this image looked like someone losing their mind, going ballistic. I tried many shots and was getting tired. Looking back, it’s a wonder I survived’ I grew up on New Providence in the Bahamas, and still live on the south side of the island. After leaving school, I worked with my dad in construction, and that’s where I started taking photos. For the first couple of years, I used my flip phone, playing with images of nature and flowers on the sites we were working on, but in 2010 I bought my first DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera and started teaching myself about

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Entertainment

Brahms’ First is 150 years old today. Here’s how he grappled with ‘a giant on his back’ to write a masterpiece

Brahms’ first symphony was 21 years in the making. It was well worth the wait. Also, today, why Ivan Fischer and the Berlin Phil have parted company over a seating arrangement By any reckoning, 21 years is a very long gestation period. Beethoven wrote his first eight symphonies (and was stuck into the ninth) in less time. But it’s how long it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony. He initially sketched it in the mid-1850s, in his 20s, and he was 43 by the time it was premiered, exactly 150 years ago on 4 November 1876 in Karlsruhe. Earlier that summer had seen the premiere of Wagner’s Rin

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Entertainment

‘This is redemption time’: celebrities react to Democrats’ historic midterms sweep

After the party regained control of both houses of Congress, stars including Viola Davis, Bette Midler and John Cusack have been celebrating US midterms 2026 live – latest updates Track live results from all 50 states Tell us: what do you want to know about midterm results? Celebrities have been reacting to last night’s historic midterm victory for the Democrats after the party regained control of both the House and the Senate. The night saw a string of major victories for the party as voters expressed their disapproval of Donald Trump and his failing economy. Continue reading...

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Entertainment

Can you tell a real Warhol from a fake? Four art exhibitions to see for free

A show of smart forgeries by Sturtevant will test your critical eye. Elsewhere, there’s a chance to dissect America’s cultural corpse and enter a terrifying immersive painting of Mexico Cady Noland’s US is a violent, celebrity obsessed, consumerist police state. In this small show of big, stark, awkwardly cropped and blurry black and white images and minimal sculptures, the influential American iconoclast is dissecting her country’s cultural detritus, and leaving its splayed corpse on display. Continue reading...

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Entertainment

Phoebe Waller-Bridge donates flat to help early-career writers live in London

Fleabag creator joins stars signing up to scheme aimed at tackling class barriers in theatre Phoebe Waller-Bridge has donated a London flat so that early-career writers can afford to live in the capital. The creator of the hit show Fleabag bought the property specifically for Writers’ Block, a new scheme tackling class barriers in theatre. The flat will be offered to writers from disadvantaged backgrounds, who will pay only bills. Waller-Bridge has also made what the initiative described as a “generous financial contribution”. Continue reading...

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Entertainment

All’s Fair season two review – am I delirious … or is this getting good?

From Glenn Close in pleather to naughty rumours about Bruno Mars, this legal drama is still absolutely ludicrous. But squint hard enough and it has slightly improved since its zero-star debut On the one hand, Trump and the Maga movement have been routed in the midterms. On the other, the second season of All’s Fair is out. Truly, the lord giveth and the lord taketh away. For those of you who have blanked the first season from your mind, All’s Fair is the existentially terrible offering from Ryan Murphy’s increasingly manure-filled stable, starring Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts

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Entertainment

Callum Turner emerges as James Bond favourite as Pierce Brosnan endorses actor: ‘He’s so strong’

Bookmakers’ odds have shortened to 8/13 for the British actor, seen sipping martinis with his wife Dua Lipa at the weekend Ten days after final screentests for the most coveted role in British cinema, one actor has emerged as a strong favourite to don the 007 tux for Denis Villeneuve’s forthcoming film. The bookmaker William Hill has cut the odds of Callum Turner being named as the next James Bond from 3/1 to 8/13, with previous favourite Jack Lowden now at 2/1. Josh O’Connor, who also auditioned recently, is now at 9/2, with Richard Madden, Robert Pattinson and Joe Alwyn at 16/1. Continue rea

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Entertainment

‘Frighteningly of the moment’: Steven Sater on his emperor Nero musical and turning JFK’s assassination into a Greek tragedy

It took the Tony winner 20 years to bring his ‘showman’ tyrant to London. He reflects on its Trumpian parallels, the death of Spring Awakening’s Duncan Sheik and the horrific accident that led him to ancient classics Before Spring Awakening won eight Tony awards in 2007, its dramatist and lyricist Steven Sater had “been struggling financially and professionally for quite a while,” he remembers. “Everyone said at the time: this is where it all starts!” Sater and composer Duncan Sheik thought their next success would be Nero, about the Roman emperor who murdered his mother among many others, whi

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Entertainment

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review – a dream come true

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo This ambitious remake transforms a landmark Zelda game into a modern masterpiece, clearer and easier to navigate, more beautiful to look at, with playful musical touches. Yet the melancholy remains It’s always a worry, returning to a formative piece of art from your childhood. Will your jaded adult sensibilities render you unable to locate the magic that captivated your child self? Will revisiting it reveal that it was never actually that good, and that your tastes are built on a foundation of lies? With video games, there is the added complication of technological

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Entertainment

‘Every family has silences’: Kathryn Hunter on despair, desire, dislodgeable limbs – and her acting genius

She has played King Lear, all three witches in Macbeth and an ape turned variety performer in Kafka’s Monkey. As she prepares for a new show, she discusses the soaring highs and deep lows of her extraordinary life Kathryn Hunter pulls off her black beanie and sits down. She hates having to keep still: “It’s torture.” On aeroplanes, she is always in the aisle, bobbing up and down. She has an inner restlessness, an energy looking for the right outlet – one that even eight hours of rehearsing hasn’t quieted. With the beanie, a body warmer and a cup of builders’ tea, the acclaimed actor looks as i

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Entertainment

Judi Dench says Daniel Craig ordered her death. James Bond just got a lot scarier

Not only did Craig insist his 007 die at the end of his run, but now we learn from Dench’s memoir that it was his idea to kill her off too. How will the next Bond top that? Shoot a puppy? Now that the next James Bond actor is on the brink of being unveiled, it may be a good time to take a proper look at the prior 007 with clear eyes. Because, while the reputations of all the previous Bonds have ossified over the years – in chronological order: sexy, wooden, camp, boring and silly – the Daniel Craig era is finally coming into focus. And it turns out that he was actually the angel of death. Obvi

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