Sunday 31 August 2014

Don't Go In The Water! review: Well produced documentary with crucial key facts





DON'T Go In The Water! began with an extract from Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws: “The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail...


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Big School review: It's a no comedy situation





AS the children go back to school, the new season starts on the telly and one comedy last week mixed all three; Big School was back for a second series.


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'It is interesting to have a blank slate': Rod Gilfry on working for new productions





UNLIKE many opera singers who stay with a tried and tested repertoire, Californian-born baritone Rod Gilfry enjoys the challenge of the unknown.


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Theatre reviews: Guys and Dolls and Dogfight





NEW York in the 1950s and San Francisco in the 1960s are the settings for two musicals this week that differ in every way except for their expertise.


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Kate Bush review: Musical theatre on a dizzyingly ambitious scale





IMAGINE being one of the most respected artistes in history, emerging from seclusion for your first performances in 35 years.


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Album reviews: The Pierces, Peggy Seeger, The Kooks, Beverley Craven and Randy Bachman





OUR album of the week is...


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Our Zoo: Daughter of Chester Zoo founder said her dad did not want animals kept in cages





JUNE WILLIAMS'S father, George Mottershead, bought the land that would become Chester Zoo in 1930.


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The lady in White: Actress Liz spills the beans on new BBC drama Our Zoo





LIZ WHITE'S career went into orbit with Life on Mars but she doesn’t do starry – until now. Simon Gage meets an actress who is learning to love her glamorous side


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Crohn's disease won't stop me singing the blues, says Laurence Jones





OUNG blues sensation Laurence Jones won't let Crohn’s disease get in the way of his career


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'You’re constantly knocked back': John Thomson talks 20 years in TV





AST Show comedian John Thomson reflects on two decades in telly as he and friend Simon Day play South American cowboys in Two Amigos: A Gaucho Adventure


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No rest for the newlyweds as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt film sex scenes





Newlyweds Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are planning a working “honeymoon”, filming the most explicit sex scenes of their careers.


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T.J. McNamara: Intrigue in the suburbs

Three galleries this week are showing works with traditionally admired artistic skills such as perspective, drawing and collage.Perspective construction is shown skilfully and accurately in the work of Graham Fletcher at Gow Langsford...


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Saturday 30 August 2014

Joan Rivers reportedly on life support

The 81-year-old comedienne is currently relying on a machine to keep her alive after she went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing whilst undergoing minor throat surgery on Thursday, but her family are still hopeful that she...


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Helen Mirren: On the road

Helen Mirren has been famous for 40 years now. In the compressed timeline of modern celebrity, that feels like an eternity: it's one thing to achieve fame, but quite another to hold on to it, especially while keeping it manageable...


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Vesuvius blows his top in Edinburgh

"Hey, it's Juan Vesuvius!" I am heading out of Edinburgh's Assembly Roxy with New Zealand comedian Barnie Duncan at midnight. There's no better indication that his one-man show, Calypso Nights , has become the talk of the town than...


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Janet McAllister: Let down by 'lazy stereotypes'

When she went to Cirque du Soleil's Totem last week, artist and curator Melissa Laing was impressed by the acts' "phenomenal" technical brilliance. But that's not her overwhelming memory of the show. Instead, she says "the performers...


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A magnificent year for grandes dames

When I was 17", as Frank Sinatra used to sing soulfully, "it was a very good year."What is it about certain years that usher in a high percentage of extraordinarily charismatic babies destined to amaze and electrify us with their...


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MKR stars steamed at cyber slurs

Online abuse, including homophobic slurs, and questions about their sexuality has left a sour taste in the mouth of My Kitchen Rules New Zealand hopefuls Sam Sutherland and Dan Freeman.The Auckland-based friends were roasted by...


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Good Lorde - what a price tag

Fancy a private performance from Kiwi Grammy winner Lorde?Then you'd best have a spare $300,000 to cover her performance fee for one-off private gigs.According to a list American media have reported was leaked from American booking...


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Brad and Angelina married once in US, again in France

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have managed to keep two wedding ceremonies secret, it was revealed yesterday.The movie stars, who have been together for a decade, tied the knot in the romantic setting of a chapel at Chateau Miraval,...


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