Richard D North welcomes you to his blog. (It links to my old site, now archived.) I am a right-winger, in love with the free market and arguing against the soft-left, liberal, green, PC consensus. Oh, and I'm a conflicted softie. A bit hippy and arty round the edges too. More »
Posted by RDN under At the movies on 15 June 2011. No comments.
I was ho-hum about The Illusionist and an absolute sucker for Waltz With Bashir. So I was bound to be curious about My Dog Tulip. My first tiny beef is that (like The Illusionist, if I recall) this period piece couldn’t be bothered to get the London taxis half-way right. And I wasn’t at all sure about the accuracy of Ackerley’s Putney flat either. Such things are not small beer, and can mar good work…. More »
Posted by RDN under RDN's media cribsheets / Rightist manifestos on 28 May 2011. No comments.
I’ve been asked to have a go at a Big Question for this show, tomorrow. Here goes…. More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 27 May 2011. One comment.
It’s bad form to write crits of shows before Press Night, and this note isn’t going to do that… More »
Posted by RDN under At the movies on 27 May 2011. No comments.
Inadequately and briefly, here’s a catch-up of recent movies… More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 20 May 2011. No comments.
A slowish beginning and only one sure-fire hit song in the whole show. But The Times and Telegraph are right to rave and I add only a couple of things about this intense piece of magic….
Posted by RDN under Mind and body on 16 May 2011. No comments.
Here’s a prejudiced and personal guide to holidaying in Cornwall’s fabulous West Penwith. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Politics and campaigns on 28 March 2011. No comments.
It’s early days, and I’ve seen no definitive accounts of the mini-riots in the West End of London on Saturday 27 March 2011. But they produce further evidence that the police are being told or are assuming that they should not maintain public order in the face of protest, even if the organisers (or non-organisers) signal that they won’t co-operate at all, or much. More »
Posted by RDN under Politics and campaigns / TV and Radio on 16 March 2011. No comments.
It is only a tiny bit cruel to say that so far (16 March 2011) Jon, Krishnan and Anna (to name just the presenting stars of C4 and Sky) have not done well. Neither have the writers of the headlines and the linking material the talent reads. Luckily, some of the specialist reporters (Fergus Walsh, for instance) seem to be doing pretty well. And the experts from all quarters seem to have been well-selected and to pitch in as best they can. The audience has only to disregard the scene-setting and they’ll be pretty well informed. But lord, the scene-setting drips prejudices at once hippie and populist: the appetite for gloom; the wilful ignorance about radiation; the refusal to discuss risk as though it wasn’t always a balance; the endless parading of Three Mile Island like it had hurt people; the assumption that Chernobyl was a huge killer (even George Monbiot has got beyond that canard). It’s sad and bad.
Posted by RDN under At the movies on 16 March 2011. No comments.
Odd to say, maybe, but this was not the festival of gloom it might seem. It’s a story of nobility and its effect is almost uplifting. More »
Posted by RDN under Politics and campaigns / RDN's media cribsheets / TV and Radio on 15 March 2011. No comments.
The Today Programme (10 March 2011) asked a man from Compass (the think tank) and me what we thought about the idea of a Public Sector Covenant. Is there, like the Military Covenant, a special understanding or settlement with civil servants of every sort. I said no…. More »
