| | | The 10 best video games coming in 2022 | | by Keza MacDonald Dec 30, 2021 | | George RR Martin joins forces with the makers of Dark Souls, ghosts take over in Japan and a Nintendo sequel you could be playing all year • More cultural highlights of 2022 (Xbox One/Series S/Series X, PlayStation 4/5, PC) The long-awaited fantasy epic from Dark Souls’ creators FromSoftware, with narrative input from George RR Martin. It combines a huge, detailed open world, inhabited by everything from dragons and wolves to trolls and patrolling soldiers, with the developer’s signature heart-in-mouth, swords-and-sorcery combat. An intriguing world to discover alone, or with other players. Continue reading... | | | | | Julian Fellowes turns Half a Sixpence rewrite Kipps into winning fun | | by Michael Billington Dec 30, 2021 | | In a surprisingly class-conscious stage adaptation of the HG Wells-inspired musical from the Downton Abbey creator on Sky, Charlie Stemp radiates kindly innocence What’s in a name? Quite a lot in the case of the musical Kipps, which aired on Sky Arts on Wednesday night. The title comes from the 1905 HG Wells novel, but the show itself is a radical rewrite of an earlier musical version of the story, Half a Sixpence, which starred Tommy Steele on stage and film in the 1960s. Julian Fellowes wrote the fresh book, which he titled Half a Sixpence, in 2016, while George Stiles and Anthony Drewe added seven new numbers to the original David Heneker score. What we saw on screen was a filmed performance at London’s Noël Coward theatre in 2017. So what’s the difference between the original Half a Sixpence and Kipps? I would say that the former – especially in the 1967 film version where Julia Foster co-starred with Steele – was essentially a romantic tale about how Artie Kipps finally finds true love with his childhood sweetheart, Ann. Kipps is closer to Wells’s original in that it is a comic parable about the English class system. I even wonder whether the novel influenced Shaw’s Pygmalion, which dates from 1912, in that it shows how in a rigidly stratified society accent determines status. Kipps is repeated on Sky Arts at 3pm on 1 January.
Continue reading... | | | | | Sir Cliff Richard is still king of the music calendar charts | | Dec 30, 2021 | | The 81-year-old singer beat Elvis, Harry Styles and Kylie Minogue but is no longer in the top 10 for overall sales Sir Cliff Richard has emerged as king of the 2022 music calendar sales chart, proving more popular than younger stars, it has been reported. The 81-year-old Young Ones singer came first in Calendar Club’s top 10 music category, the Sun reports. Continue reading... | | | | | Francesca Chiejina: the radiant soprano who wants opera for all | | by Imogen Tilden Dec 30, 2021 | | Born in Lagos and raised in the US, she swapped medical training for arias – and has learned to embrace the pressure of being a leading voice Francesca Chiejina began her year as a ghost, ended it as an enchantress, and took in a goddess, a princess, a pauper and an acclaimed Proms appearance along the way. Covid might have meant an enforced pause for many musicians, but it certainly doesn’t seem to have derailed this radiant and versatile soprano. “Yeah,” she smiles, “I’ve had a crazy year.” The Nigerian/American singer, 30, has been based in London since 2014, studying at Guildhall and then winning a place on the Royal Opera House’s prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists programme. We talk over Zoom as she’s in Nigeria for her first visit in more than three years. “It’s lovely to be here,” she says. “Being on the same soil where I was born. I’ve been reflecting a lot, re-remembering and rediscovering who I was, who I am and who I want to be.” Continue reading... | | | | | The Jack in the Box: Awakening review – gothic toy clown horror springs few surprises | | by Phil Hoad Dec 30, 2021 | | An unsavoury oedipal pact provides the only original note in a sequel that otherwise goes through the motions By this point there is surely no way back for the clowning profession: every minor horror movie knows it can serve up a demonic pierrot as a bogeyman. With this sequel to 2019’s The Jack in the Box, Lawrence Fowler’s would-be franchise doubles down on the eponymous creepy toy by having its hellspawn harlequin manifest once the crank is turned. It’s rather beholden to The Conjuring (and uses the same title font) and, while writer-director Fowler obviously knows his horror, he doesn’t really show enough imagination here to blaze a bloody trail of his own. The knick-knack of the title is delivered to the country mansion of Olga Marsdale (Nicola Wright), a rich collector of vintage toys who is bedridden with bone cancer. Aware of its cursed past, she activates its ability to grant wishes and rearranges the revolving letters on the top from “JACK” to “LIFE”, before winding the crank. The dial on the top of the box indicates that six lives are going to be needed to achieve her wish; the box’s seller duly becomes victim no 1, and Olga browbeats snivelling son-cum-factotum Edgar (Matt McClure) to round up five more sacrifices. Luckily, wide-eyed Amy (Mollie Hindle) has just bulked up the serving staff by signing on as housemaid. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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