Theatre, film & music
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Denis O'Hare and Olivia Williams in Tartuffe Credit: Manuel Harlan In Focus: The wonder of the theatre directors finding new ways to fuse modern life into classic plays
Our theatre critic Michael Billington applauds the efforts made to freshen up Tartuffe and Equus in ways which bring new meaning and relevance to even the most familiar pieces.
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The Andalusian Flamenco Ballet in action Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images Curious Questions: Are flamenco's finest the fastest dancers in the world?
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The London Essentials in action at a wedding. Credit: Charlie Dailey How to choose wedding music: Band, DJ or something a little bit different?
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Bagpipe player in silhouette against dramatic sunset sky Credit: Alamy Stock Photo The bagpipe-maker: 'The older customers want me to make their pipes sharpish; they want to be sure they’re not dead before they get to play them!'
Hours of intricate work are needed to craft a set of bagpipes. Kate Lovell spoke to bagpipe-maker Dave Shaw to find out how it's done.
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Credit: Alamy Burns Night: What it is, where to go, what to do if you want to play host
Burns Night has been celebrated for well over 200 years – here's everything you need to know about celebrating Scotland's national poet.
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Credit: Alamy Sporting Life: Can you learn to ballroom dance in seven weeks?
In the wake of Strictly Come Dancing, Alexandra Fraser convinced her partner to join her on a seven-week ballroom dancing course in London to discover how hard it really is to pick up what is fast becoming a dying art.
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Katherine Parkinson as Judy in 'Home, I'm Darling' Credit: Manuel Harlan Triumph, tragedy and mangling Shakespeare: Michael Billington hands out The BIllies for 2018
Our theatre critic Michael Billington hands out his annual awards. Some recipients will be delighted; others might wish to hide behind the sofa...
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Credit: John Holder / Country Life The 12 party games of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas land you with 12 days of enforced revelry. That’s 12 sub-sets of step-relations, 12 afternoons and evenings, 12 tailbacks on the M25. Kit Hesketh-Harvey suggests 12 games to keep you sane.
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Credit: Alamy Stock Photo Our six favourite nannies, in fiction and film
Whether they invoke fond or fearful memories in real life, the nannies of fiction are kind – even magical – creatures, says Annunciata Elwes, who rounds up her favourites.
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The Greatest Snowman: Immersive theatre meets overwhelming cuisine
A railway arch in the East End is the home of a new set in a 1930s railway dining car - accompanied by a meal which transforms the experience. Emily Anderson went along.
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The truth about Christmas carols
The composer and tenor Andrew Gant reveals the curious truth about some of our most beloved carols.
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Credit: Salisbury Cathedral / AshMills.com The best places in Britain to go and hear Christmas choir services over the festive period
Katy Birchall takes a look at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, and picks out some more of the best Christmas choir services across the country.
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Credit: Alamy Curious Questions: Why is the pantomime dame always played by a man?
Every year, millions of people across Britain will chuckle their way through a pantomime featuring a man playing the main female role, and usually a girl playing the lead male role. How it came to be so is a fascinating tale.
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A soldier with a trench cello of the type used by by Harold Triggs, pictured in a French trench in 1914. (Photo by Neurdein/Roger Viollet/Getty Images) Credit: Roger Viollet/Getty Images In Focus: The trench cello which brought the joy of music to the First World War
The men who spent years in the trenches of France and Belgium found all manner of ways to bring a touch of joy and culture into their lives – not least with the portable, collapsible cello which 2nd lieutenant Harold Triggs of the Royal Sussex took into battle in 1914. The instrument works beautifully today, as Claire Jackson reports.
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The cast from A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Green Room, Drury Lane Theatre, London, 1926-1927. The cast enjoy an old actors benevolence, food and drink paid for by Robert Baddeley, to be had every twelfth night of the play's duration. From Wonderful London, volume II, edited by Arthur St John Adcock, published by Amalgamated Press (London, 1926-1927). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) Credit: Print Collector/Getty Images Curious Questions: Why is the Green Room called the Green Room?
Whether you're performing a play or about to go on television, the waiting room is called the Green Room – but why is that? Martin Fone, author of 'Fifty Curious Questions', investigates.
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OVERS Guitar Maker Tom Sands and his apprentice Daisy photographed in his workshop in Ripon, Yorkshire. Pictures by Richard Cannon on Friday 3rd August 2018 Credit: Richard Cannon/Country Life PIct The luthier: 'You don’t know if you’ve been successful until you put the strings on. That’s the moment when it comes alive'
Tom Sands brought the lessons he learnt from the California king of guitar-making back to Britain, where he makes stunning, personalised instruments for his clients. Tessa Waugh reports, photographs by Richard Cannon.
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Credit: Vladimir Zenzinov Amazing grace: St Petersburg Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake at the London Coliseum
Annunciata Elwes is captivated by this quintessential production of a classic Russian ballet.
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Credit: Alamy The Oxford of Inspector Morse: Dreaming spires, dead bodies... and lots and lots of pubs
The Oxford of Inspector Morse: Dreaming spires, dead bodies... and lots and lots of pubs.
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Credit: Getty In Focus: The hand-drawn maps from which JRR Tolkien launched Middle-earth
'I wisely started with a map and made the story fit,' JRR Tolkien once wrote. A new exhibition in Oxford – the writer's home for so many years – shows just how true that is, and offers a treasure trove for fans. Michael Murray-Fennell reports.
