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Culture

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Entertainment

‘My father loved Duncan more than he loved us’: the 30-year passion at the heart of the Bloomsbury set – and the family raised in its image

As the work of Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant features in a major exhibition, Cordelia Roche reflects on her father’s decades-long relationship with the painter – as friend, muse, but never lover After Duncan Grant died in our house, in Aldermaston in Berkshire, at the age of 93, I remember my father’s knees buckling and him falling to the ground. It was 1978, the end of their 32-year relationship, and the end of an era. My father Paul Roche, a poet, writer and translator of Greek plays, seemed to crumble before my eyes. He was 61, a father of five, and I was the youngest. Duncan, the painter,

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Entertainment

Look at Me by Dustin Hoffman review – an era-defining actor says his piece

At 89, the star of the Graduate and Rain Man demonstrates both brilliance and a startling lack of self-awareness The choice of title for an actor’s autobiography can be revealing. Sylvester Stallone went with The Steps, conflating life’s challenging progress with those steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that Rocky euphorically ran up. Michael Douglas cheerfully and unreflectively called his One Helluva Ride. Dustin Hoffman’s is one of those that harks back to the poignantly vulnerable youthful world in which the acting bug first took effect. Al Pacino called his Sonny Boy; Anthony Hopkins

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Entertainment

‘Thicky thicky dumb dumb’ satirist Cody Dahler on his viral videos: ‘my material is presented to me on a silver platter!’

The writer and podcaster on why politics is made to seem more complicated than it is and his mission to unpack world events for everyone Why did you get into comedy? My mum was a professional dancer and always encouraged me to perform. Given that I have zero rhythm, comedy was my other option. She wrote me a poem called Mrs Brown’s Moggy, about a cat that was often very soggy, for my school’s talent show. Because you can’t tell the difference between real and polite laughter at the age of six, I assumed I’d killed my first gig and convinced myself I was born to do nothing else. Where do you fi

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Entertainment

Stacey Dooley’s Australia: Off the Beaten Track review – presenting this fluffy show is beyond her

This trip to Kangaroo Island is pleasant enough, but the investigative reporter seems lost when tackling something that doesn’t feature exploitation or outrage For years on BBC Three, Stacey Dooley equalled strife. Child labour, sexual exploitation, poverty, religious extremism, homelessness: all were ably tackled by a presenter who stood out for her lack of lofty TV-star pretension and her knack for asking the direct questions that were in audience’s minds. Since winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, she has gone a bit more mainstream, so although the old Dooley is still around – she’s in th

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Entertainment

Bluey’s Daley Pearson on how losing his brother inspired his new film: ‘He was the best thing ever to me’

Allen, the first live-action film from Pearson’s Ludo Studio, follows a man who met an alien as a kid – and becomes obsessed with bringing him back Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email If, for whatever reason, you want to feel a bit sad, think too hard about what Elliott from ET would have been like as an adult. Or Coraline, or Matilda, or Chihiro, or those kids in Mary Poppins. The most amazing thing that ever happened in their lives – magic nanny, alien friend, psychic abilities, otherworldly adventures – was already over when they were kids. If that bad Harry Potter play taught us an

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Entertainment

Iphigénie en Tauride review – stylised staging of opera of bloodthirsty priestesses and divine intervention

Coliseum, London English National Opera’s production of Gluck’s opera has strong leads in Christine Rice, Nick Pritchard and Jacques Imbrailo. But why is it sung in French? Human sacrifice first; ask questions later. The story of Iphigénie among the Taurians, adapted from Euripides by Gluck and his librettist Guillard in 1779, is being told at English National Opera for the first time. It’s sung in French – more on that later – and staged by Lyndsey Turner, whose sparky Noyes Fludde won the company an Olivier award back in 2020. Within the narrow rectangular frame of Soutra Gilmour’s set, Iphi

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Entertainment

‘No tech, no texts, just childhood’: author Liz Pichon on the secrets behind her multi-million selling Tom Gates series

As her long-running children’s book series turns 15, Liz Pichon talks about overcoming dyslexia to become a bestselling author If you ever find yourself in an airport newsagent, it might be worth peering inside one of Liz Pichon’s books. “I do guerrilla signings,” she tells me conspiratorially. “They let me go in and I sign all the books, just in case. I love the idea of kids buying a book, going on holiday and seeing that I’ve signed it. Sometimes I write ‘surprise!’” It’s a wonder that she hasn’t got sore hands. Pichon is one of the UK’s foremost children’s authors, and this is a big year fo

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Entertainment

The efficiency trap: why optimising everything can backfire, badly

From roundabouts to the stock market, relentless streamlining could be making the world more dangerous We have all been there: packed shoulder to shoulder on the train while the person beside us coughs and sneezes. A protective flu jab offers some reassurance, but so does the thought that there will be a hospital bed for you, should you need it. Yet, in England, about 95% of adult hospital beds were occupied at the height of flu season last year. If hospitals were hotels, that level of occupancy would be good business, and we would commend them for their efficiency. But do we really want a hos

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Entertainment

How the story of ‘the girl of 100 portraits’ inspired two books

Luc Corlouër made ‘deal’ with Prix Goncourt winner Philippe Jaenada over his research into model Louise Cansot, murdered in Paris in 1949 For almost eight decades the artists’ model Louise Cansot, the subject of the novel winning France’s most prestigious literary prize this year, was one of Paris’s forgotten murder victims. After her body was found near the Seine in September 1949, city police wrote off the young woman, immortalised as “the girl of 100 portraits”, as loose, libertine and – worse – an unmarried mother. They closed their investigation after just four months having made little e

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Entertainment

‘I’ve seen people in my neighbourhood pulled out of their cars’: Ava DuVernay on the cruelty and brutality of Trump’s America

Ten years after her landmark political documentary 13th, the film-maker delivers a follow-up on the 14th amendment – and the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle birthright citizenship When I ask Ava DuVernay how she kept her focus while making her new film – or how anyone does, when the onslaught of news, fake news and disputed facts seems designed to overwhelm – she starts to answer, then stops. Her eyes have filled with tears. “I just got emotional, as you said that, because it was the film that saved me,” she says. “It’s been a very tough two years. I live in Los Angeles, and I’ve

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‘My dad said Great Balls of Fire was pagan music – and threw it out of the window’: Leo Sayer’s honest playlist

The singer lives by the words of John Lennon, and once did karaoke surrounded by supermodels. But which song still makes him cry? The first song I fell in love with I first heard Bob Dylan through my cousin David when I was about 16. I fell in love with his voice. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right is still one of the best songs ever written. We were young rebels then, looking for a moral compass, while everybody older seemed to be wearing bowler hats and pinstripe suits. Dylan made us think differently. The song I inexplicably know every lyric to Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. I’m going to reco

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Entertainment

Willie Nelson: ‘I drank too much, I smoked too much. I took too many pills’

The legendary country singer says he did everything wrong. Yet now, at 93, he’s music’s last man standing. What’s the secret of his longevity? • Read an exclusive extract from Willie Nelson’s memoir here Before the interview, Willie Nelson’s publicist warns me that there’s only one thing the 93-year-old country music legend doesn’t like to discuss: the past. Which rules out talking about the 150-plus albums he’s made; the Highwaymen, the supergroup he formed with Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings; writing On the Road Again on an aeroplane sick bag. It also rules out talking a

The Guardian
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