Culture Archives

Mum’s the word: Rishi Sunak’s women problem

Just how did Rishi Sunak think it would play when he thanked ‘mums everywhere’ for ‘juggling childcare and work’ in the Commons on Tuesday? Grateful thanks? A few more #dishyrishi plaudits and calls for him to be the next PM? The Chancellor’s vote of thanks for the nation’s mothers in response to a question about female entrepeneurs who have children has earned him a pummelling on Twitter as social media exploded with visceral rage — from the fathers he neglected to mention as well as women. Hitherto the subject of ‘AIBU [Am I Being Unreasonable] to find Rishi Sunak attractive’- type posts on Mumsnet, he is now - rightly or wrongly - embroiled in a sexism row.

27 January 2021

Arabella Byrne

Jared, Ivanka and the art of the social pariah

In New York society, you’re nobody until somebody hates you. By which maxim Jared and Ivanka Kushner will be extremely high-profile indeed. Expelled from the White House after four years, President Trump’s shoe-designer turned special advisor daughter and her real-estate mogul husband find themselves in need of a job and, perhaps more pressingly, somewhere to live. Will they return to New York’s playground of the filthy rich where they used to pose on the Met Gala carpet and hobnob with the likes of Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng and oil tycoon Mikey Hess? Given not only the past four years but more recent indiscretions in DC, it seems unlikely.

Robert Jackman

Serial killers on screen: from Nilsen to The Night Stalker

As the success of The Serpent and The Pembrokeshire Murders shows, many of us remain oddly fascinated by serial killers. But for all its popularity, the serial killer format can be tricky to get right - with many coming across as distasteful, clichéd or overly sensationalised. Here are eight recent shows - both dramas and documentaries - that strike the right balance: Des, ITV Player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWaTtE7rpk ITV’s gripping portrayal of the cold and calculating Dennis Nilsen (known in the red top press as the Muswell Hill Murderer) flips the format on its head by starting with the last thing you’d expect: a confession.

26 January 2021

James Innes-Smith

No more echo chambers: the internet’s best left-wing thinkers

As culture and politics become ever more polarised, it's tempting to retreat into the reassuring hum of our own echo chambers and positive feedback loops. But this reluctance to engage with 'the other side' can only corrode civil discourse. As regular readers of The Spectator will know, listening to opposing views in good faith allows us to test our convictions, or as Bertrand Russell put it, 'those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.' In these hyper-partisan times, it's not surprising perhaps that there are so few platforms where opposing intellectual heavyweights can go head to head — who wouldn’t want to see Douglas Murray and Paul Mason debate identity politics for instance?

25 January 2021

Geoff Norcott

The rise of the super pessimist

Covid isn’t the only thing to have developed a dangerous strain in the UK; pessimism has also mutated and is on the rise. BBC news recently reported in horrified tones that the economy had contracted 2.6 per cent in November, barely mentioning the fact that this was largely down to the nation being in lockdown. I don’t know what our national broadcaster has up its sleeve next but I’m expecting a dambing connection between home schooling and black market valium. That kind of contraction during lockdown is actually something to be proud of. The resilience of British consumerism during this last year has been this generation’s Dunkirk. Instead of hopping in tiny boats we’re resolutely buying tiny dresses for parties we’ll never attend.

Ellen Lister

No kissing and Covid robots: inside the socially distant film set

How do you enjoy a socially distanced kiss on screen? Come to that, how do you film a socially distanced murder? And, between takes, can robots carry out COVID testing? These are just some of the perplexing issues that actors, writers and directors on film and TV sets have been grappling with of late. Hollywood productions, and their stars, haven’t been immune to the on-set stresses, an increasingly surreal side-effect of the pandemic. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence have been pictured wearing full plastic face visors on set in Boston for the forthcoming Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up.

23 January 2021

Andy Shaw

Word of the week: Sceptic

Definition: A person who questions the beliefs of others Lord Sumption, is a sceptic. The former Supreme Court judge has questioned the government’s lockdown policies and raised uncomfortable questions: ‘are we punishing too many for the greater good?’; ‘is the life of my grandchildren worth more than my own, because they have much more of it ahead?’ These are moral questions about the value that we place on each life, as well as the price that we are prepared to pay to prevent death. There are no easy answers. But now is not the time for debate. The enlightenment spawned an array of critical thinkers, sceptics and dissenters.

Mark Mason

On this day: why is there a grasshopper on top of the Royal Exchange?

Every weekend Spectator Life brings you doses of topical trivia – facts, figures and anecdotes inspired by the current week’s dates in history. 23 January In 1571, the Royal Exchange opened in London. The building (or rather its Victorian replacement) still bears a golden grasshopper, the emblem of the Exchange’s founder Thomas Gresham. He chose this to commemorate one of his ancestors, who as an illegitimate baby was abandoned in a Norfolk field. A local family, the Greshams, were out walking, and only found the baby because their young son chased a grasshopper into the field. They adopted the infant, calling him Roger. Thomas Gresham knew that without that grasshopper he would never have existed.

Sarah Ditum

The banality of Matt Haig

It doesn't seem like a bad time to be Matt Haig. He’s written multiple bestselling books, including the reputation-making memoir Reasons to Stay Alive about his own experience of severe depression. His latest, The Midnight Library, is proving impossible for everyone but Richard Osman and JK Rowling to knock out of the bestseller charts. There’s a movie adaptation of one of his novels on the way. And we now know that his high-profile admirers run all the way to royalty (well, ex-royalty): Meghan and Harry chose him as one of the guests for their holiday edition of their podcast 'Archewell', to offer 'inspiration, perspective, and reflection' for these difficult Covid times. On the podcast, Haig talks affectingly about his own struggles with depression.

22 January 2021

Katy Balls

The Claire Williams Edition

37 min listen

Claire Williams OBE is the former Deputy Team Principal of Williams, family-run the Formula One racing team set up by her father, Frank Williams. On the podcast, she talks about what it was like to be seen as 'Frank's daughter', the struggles of trying to turn around an ailing F1 team and how none of her family actually passed their driving test, first time.

Stephen Arnell

The White House on screen: films to watch for a Washington fix

President-Elect Joe Biden is due to formally occupy The White House after his inauguration on 20 January 2021. For those who take an interest in such things, The White House was not formally called such until 1901, when President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the building its name. Previously it had been informally known by the term, but also as ‘The President's Palace’, the ‘President's House’, and the ‘Executive Mansion’. For the residence of the most powerful person in the world, The White House is surprisingly modest, considerably smaller than the likes of Buckingham Palace, The Élysée, Quirinal, Kremlin, Hofburg and The Forbidden City.

21 January 2021

John Sturgis

We have Charlie Chaplin to thank for the blockbuster

The pandemic has hit the film industry for six - but there’s a precedent to suggest that it can come back stronger. Because that’s what Hollywood did after the devastation of the Spanish Flu a century ago. As that killer virus was still ravaging post-WWI America, a great auteur was at work on a project that would change everything. This week sees the centenary of the result - the first ever movie blockbuster. 21 January 1921, was the US release date of Charlie Chaplin's first feature film, The Kid. Never mind the endless present-day stress about if and when anyone will ever get to see the 25th Bond film; it’s small beer compared to the significance of The Kid to the 1920s and their subsequent roaring.

20 January 2021

Simon Evans

James Corden and the problem with post-Trump comedy

With admirable and determined positivity, James Corden and the Late, Late Show released a Les Mis-themed video last night, bidding a fond adieu to the Trump era. It was a coup — if you’ll forgive the word — de théatre. Corden and his team are well-versed in the well-oiled machinery of the viral video. And this one was no exception. The Les Misérables number 'One Day More' was transposed from its original setting on the eve of the 1832 Paris Uprising to the eve of the departure of Trump, plucked as he was by helicopter like a thorn from the lion’s paw of American democracy after four short, limping years. It was neatly done.

Stephen Daisley

The 20th century told in 10 films

Cinema came of age in the 20th century and documented that epoch in all its trials and tribulations. Movies are for the most part escapist confections but they can also reflect our world back to us. To learn about the major events of the last century, it is sometimes as useful to turn to a film as to pick up a book. The following are ten movies that tell key chapters of the 20th century. The Great War, 1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZjQROMAh_s World War I is the harder of the two world wars to make a movie about. It was not a good war, easily rendered into a Hollywood morality play about monstrous Germans, cruel Japanese, plucky Brits and heroic Americans.

Benedict Spence

Why ban goal celebrations?

Football is an emotional sport, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune of being in Glasgow on derby day will attest. When your team wins, or even just scores a goal, that emotion can be hard to contain. Players, on occasion, have been known to celebrate such occurrences; sometimes they even make physical contact with each other. And why not? The FA has announced that it will take a dim view such behaviour from now on, after criticism from politicians that some players have reprehensibly been breaching social distancing guidelines that the wider public have to follow.

Will Gore

The best novels to read this year

There will be many great new novels published this year, but, sadly, even in lockdown, not enough time to read them all. Here are just a few that might be worth adding to the reading pile: Mother for Dinner by Shalom Auslander This is the novel I’m most looking forward to this year. Shalom Auslander’s Hope: A Tragedy is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, telling the story of a frazzled family man living in a rural US town whose life is made even more stressful when he discovers an elderly Anne Frank hiding in his attic. The premise for this long-awaited new novel, which comes just the nine years after Hope: A Tragedy, is equally as delicious - or perhaps not, as it’s about a man whose mother’s dying wish is for him to eat her.

19 January 2021

Robert Jackman

Madam Vice President: who’s who in the Harris clan

Nearly three months since the US election, Kamala Harris will soon make history as the first woman to be sworn in as Vice-President. As the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has made much of her historic background. And not always without controversy - the recent ‘fweedom’ gaffe being a case in point. So who's who in the new Vice President's family? The inspiration - PV Gopalan (1911 - 1998), Harris’s grandfather Born into a Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu, Painganadu Venkataraman Gopalan joined the Indian civil service during the final decades of British rule. After independence, he specialised in the resettlement of refugees, eventually being stationed in Zambia to help with the flow of people fleeing neighbouring Rhodesia.

Pravina Rudra

Politicians of Instagram: from #DishyRishi to Liz Truss

There is something highly amusing about the thought of a politician on Instagram. It’s like letting a University Challenge panelist loose in Victoria’s Secret. How will they know what to do amid this world of pink, sexed-up, candy floss? They might have mastered other platforms (Twitter, for example), with their fierce duels over facts. But Instagram doesn’t care for such things. Instagram wants you to be cool and curated and know your Lark from your Lo-fi. Instagram might not land you with death threats, the way Twitter does with MPs, nor get you deselected because of something you once liked - like Facebook - but some would argue Instagram is far more terrifying for MPs.

Stephen Arnell

10 films featuring Dolly Parton

After the publication of Sarah Smarsh’s She Come By It Natural, the latest biography of the beloved songstress, here's a look at Dolly Parton’s career in the movies. Admittedly, Parton’s filmography can be described as patchy (at best), but there are enough hits, curiosities, and why-on-earth-did-she-do-it? duds to merit a retrospective. And who knows – some of those movies previously deemed as clunkers may be worth a second look. Possibly. Before launching into my film rundown, it’s worth mentioning the frequent use of Dolly’s songs in movies other than hers, often used in a contrapuntal fashion.

18 January 2021

Sam Leith

Will Camilla’s book club sink or swim?

If nothing else, the nation's latest online book club will be its poshest. The Duchess of Cornwall has thrown her feathered fascinator into the ring with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Richard and Judy to found — as she announced on her Instagram feed — an online book club called The Reading Room, in which she’ll be sharing personal recommendations, author interviews and kits of suggested questions for exploring the texts. There’s every reason to welcome this as a serious project. Camilla has been closely involved with the Booker Prize for many years, is a patron of seven literacy charities, and is known to read widely and intelligently.

Stephen Arnell

From Russia with love: 12 films set in the former Soviet Union

With Russia back in the news yet again, it’s interesting to note how comparatively few English language movies are set in the country. Admittedly in TV there’s been an uptick lately, with two recent series on Catherine The Great in youth/middle age, the Andrew Davies version of War & Peace, McMafia and the multi award-winning Chernobyl. But in terms of film, depictions of Russia are often confined to WWII, Cold War and other (surprise surprise) spy-related themes. Here are a few of the most memorable: Enemy at the Gates (2001, Amazon Rental/Buy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O-sMh_DO6I File this under ‘could have been better’.

James Delingpole

Seven cult films about freedom

Since freedom is in short supply right now, there's much to be said for spending a nostalgic evening recalling the thrill of cutting loose and doing whatever you damn well please. So here are seven classic movies that take freedom to the extreme: Into the Wild (2007, Amazon Prime) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZG1FzyB8DI Every so often, I like to picture myself in the log cabin of my dreams, cut off from the world, chopping wood, shooting deer, and reading a tattered paperback by the dying embers of the fire. Then I remember there’s something on TV I’ve forgotten to record, my back aches, and that the lasagne needs making for supper.

17 January 2021

Mark Mason

On this day: how did Monica Lewinsky escape the press?

Every weekend Spectator Life brings you doses of topical trivia – facts, figures and anecdotes inspired by the current week’s dates in history. January 16 In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became President of Liberia, and Africa’s first female elected head of state. The country got its name because it was founded in the 19th century as somewhere that freed American slaves could start their new lives. This is why Liberia’s flag so closely resembles that of the US. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became president of Liberia in 2006 (Getty) January 17 In 1998, news broke of Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton.

15 January 2021

Theo Hobson

The problem with Sex and the City

So Sex and The City is returning under a new name, and there is a new Russell Davies drama about gay experience. When will television dare to address the experience of heterosexual men with even an ounce of sensitivity? My thoughts were prompted by the American drama A Teacher (currently on BBC iplayer), about an affair between a teenager and his English teacher. On paper, it is sensitive to the male experience, for the conclusion is that he is traumatised by the affair - despite lots of back-slapping from his mates, he is depicted as a victim of abuse. But this conclusion is disingenuous, and so lacks credibility. For he is, from the start, a cool stud, a sexually fluent dude, and the titillating trysts are predictably porny.

Andy Shaw

A handy guide to The National Trust

In an attempt to modernise, the National Trust has arranged for its staff and volunteers to be “reverse-mentored” by school children about the links between National Trust properties and slavery and colonialism. Pupils have been drafted in to uncover the “uncomfortable truths” of Britain’s shameful past and give lessons to the adults who preserve its buildings, gardens and countryside. At first glance, it seems odd that young people are being used to re-educate the knowledgeable guardians of our great country houses. What could an expert in 17th century portraits learn from a 12 year old? What could the “child advisory board” teach to the keepers of Cliveden House?

13 January 2021

Alice Dunn

10 forgotten classics to read during lockdown

There's nothing like the feeling of stumbling upon a book that you love. And that satisfaction is somehow multiplied tenfold if it's a writer others are yet to discover. Lockdown is the perfect time to acquaint yourself with these underrated novels, some of which were celebrated during their own time but have largely been forgotten by today's readers: The Rector’s Daughter by F. M. Mayor The Rector’s Daughter by F. M. Mayor, first published in 1924, explores the life of Mary Jocelyn, a 35-year-old unmarried woman who lives with her father and invalid sister, who sadly dies. Shy and alone, with ‘the weight of the family’ on her, Mary finds brief happiness when she falls in love, but it is not to be.

Isabel Hardman

The wonder of winter birds

One of the many reasons to love winter is that it brings so many wonderful new birds to this country. We might complain about our colder weather and the need to wrap up, but for many migratory birds, this country is a warm haven from their breeding grounds which are often within the Arctic Circle. In the past, these migrations confused people, leading to bizarre myths about geese hatching from barnacles and tiny birds travelling over the sea on the backs of larger species. Here are five to look out for this winter. Redwings: surprisingly easy to see, and even easier to overlook as they are often camouflaged by the leaf litter that they like to hang about in.

12 January 2021

Tom Morgan

Is Elon Musk right to use Signal over WhatsApp?

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1347165127036977153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Elon Musk has a habit of sparking fires on Twitter. His latest suggestion to ‘Use Signal’ might have confused a few people – what is it, and why should I 'use' it? Signal is, in short, a messaging app for people who are concerned about privacy: once-upon-a-time a concern of small group of techies, but now something that most people have good grounds to start taking seriously. Signal is one of the first messaging apps that claims to hold absolutely zero data about you Whenever you interact with anything – or anyone – online, some data is being passed round the internet; and some of that data can be personally identifiable to you.

Robert Jackman

8 films that began as plays

Back in the golden age of Hollywood, American's theatres provided a steady supply of would-be hits ripe for adaptation. These days, fewer plays make it to the silver screen but those that do usually prove their worth. Here are eight recent picks well worth watching: Una (2016), Amazon - to rent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beC3-U-sLF0 Blackbird, a jet-black thriller about a tense reunion between a twenty-something woman and the man who groomed her as a teenager, caused a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 before enjoying sell-out runs in the West End and on Broadway. Despite the name-change, Benedict Andrews’ Una is an extremely faithful adaptation of the original, perfectly capturing its darkness, ambiguity and underlying menace.