Culture

A knight of the realm who turned traitor, and was hanged

Roger Casement rejected the Empire, allied with Germany and, as Roland Philipps’s superb study Broken Archangel shows, paid dearly

The 13 biggest gigs and festivals to book tickets for this Spring

Take That, Taylor Swift, and the poppiest line-up in Glastonbury festival’s history. These are the hottest tickets this Spring

Donna Ashworth: ‘I write for the masses – you can’t criticise me for that’

It’s rare for poets to make money from their work, but one – who went viral during lockdown – has bucked the trend

Grand Indian Hotel, Channel 4, review: luxury docu-soap has surprising things to say about women

The holiday tastes of India’s super-rich could make for tiresome viewing, but insight from female workers made this worthwhile

Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson and the grim truth about his tasteless comedy Grimsby

Long before its stars’ latest war of words, the 2016 box office bomb united northerners, Trump supporters and audiences in revulsion

Jodie Comer’s pixelated hell: why Hollywood stars are ruining video games

The Killing Eve actor’s star turn in Alone in the Dark shows casting celebrities is a waste of money, talent – and precious development time

Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods, review: so intimate you’ll feel like you’re on the frontline

This remarkable documentary uses bodycam footage to take us inside the day-to-day lives (and tragedies) of the Berlingo Special Battalion

Ovation: Roger Daltrey bows out of Teenage Cancer Trust with dad rock by the campfire

This was a fitting salute to a great rock star, who rang the registers one last time for a life-changing charity

How Prohibition turned everyone into a criminal

Strike Up the Band is a spirited chronicle of the Roaring Twenties in New York City, but it fails to develop an integrated narrative

The gun-toting nurse who became one of Africa’s biggest rock stars

Sahra Halgan gave up her dreams to fight against Somaliland’s vicious dictator. Now, she’s on the warpath

Air: the Moon Safari reconstruction was pure easy-listening magic – the rest a mood-killer

The synth-pop duo brought nostalgia to the Coliseum with the first live run-through of their 1998 debut on British soil

OMD, review: ‘mindless’ synth-pop has seldom sounded more creative, intelligent or daring

Forty years ago, OMD seemed to come from both space and the future – amazingly as this jubliant evening proved, they still do

Useless builders, brazen prostitutes – welcome to real life in ancient Rome

Guy de la Bédoyère’s rollicking new book, Populus, sweeps away the lofty and imperial, and revels in the mundane and absurd

Ken Follett: Our English teacher was great – he taught us Shakespeare is full of dirty jokes

The Welsh author remembers his school days – and recalls the time he rocked the moves like Jagger and discovered the Bard’s greatest secrets

The 10 biggest art exhibitions to book tickets for in Spring 2024

From the 200th anniversary of the National Gallery to plate settings resembling vulvas, these are ten shows not to miss

From Danny Dyer to the Inbetweeners: who will be the next Death in Paradise detective

With the news that Ralf Little has left Saint Marie for good, we look at the contenders for the island’s top job

A Gentleman in Moscow, review: Ewan McGregor’s charming Count Rostov is wonderful company

This stately adaptation of Amor Towles’s much-loved 2016 novel could prove a little slow for some, but McGregor is dazzling

Atlantis: The Discovery, review: Dan Snow debunks the myths and shows why he’s such a history hit

Any suggestion of Atlantis’s existence was quickly rejected, but the historian’s enthusiasm for his subject meant it didn’t matter

Passenger, review: Happy Valley meets Twin Peaks in delightfully weird crime drama

Broadchurch actor Andrew Buchan makes his screenwriting debut with this pleasingly off-kilter show that understands TV crime drama lore

The Great Escape, ‘pathetic’ collaborators and the British men who fought for Hitler

News that the Great Escape may have been foiled by Englishmen has shone a light on other traitors who joined the German army

‘I think of it as a posh caravan’: What it’s like to unexpectedly inherit a house

A new Channel 4 TV show tells the story of an architect couple’s rollercoaster inheritance

The chilling truth about Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, America’s favourite poem

150 years after his birth, Frost’s poetry has brought comfort to millions. But have we all been missing its true meaning?

The Secret Diary of Taylor Swift’s Cat, aged 10¾

Other partners have come and gone but I’ve been at the singer’s side for a decade, as her favourite furry friend – and this is our story

An Evening with the Fast Show, review: still funny after 30 years

In this nostalgic stage tribute to the 1990s TV sketch show, Swiss Toni, Ron Manager and co feel like timeless comic creations

This viral young writer can be funny – does he need to make things up?

In Four Stars, Joel Golby narrates his life via a string of reviews. It’s often sharp and affecting, but there are questions for the editors

The violent fall of a great American sports star

Our Fight, the second memoir by former MMA champion Ronda Rousey, is a tale of industry norms that range from sad to frightening

‘As you get on the boat, they say: Off you go to die!’ – true horrors of a migrant ‘Marvel movie’

How Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone swapped the mafia for migration to make the Oscar-nominated Io Capitano

How Orwell’s time at the BBC inspired Nineteen Eighty-Four

The author, who spent 27 months at the Corporation, described it as ‘halfway between a girls’ school and an asylum’

Eurovision Song Contest party in London cancelled in protest at Israel

Screening party at the Rio Cinema in London cancelled, despite around 400 celebrities and industry executives supporting Israel’s inclusion

Pianist Maurizio Pollini: ‘Italy has many beautiful things – but politics is not one of them’

The celebrated Italian musician on Chopin, Modernism – and the fate of Italian democracy, from Mussolini to Berlusconi