It's our boy Ben's 21st birthday today, and we have had an excellent party in Whitstable. This morning's links have now been added to, with - as before - apologies for not properly crediting those who highlighted for me many more
The Tate Britain exhibition Kenneth Clark: Looking for Civilisation closes tomorrow, Sunday 10 August. I remain thrilled to have contributed to this by curating the television extracts and writing a catalogue essay about the television programmes that Clark made for ATV more
Following up my post about BBC Television's 1952 experiment in abstract art, I came across a fascinating piece about the special effects system that, in its earliest form, was the inspiration of the programme. When the BBC producer more
At 10.15pm on Wednesday 10 September 1952, just after an edition of the fortnightly film review show Current Release, BBC Television broadcast a 15-minute programme titled Shapes and Sounds. In its listing pages Radio Times described the transmission as 'an experiment more
Many of the world's most prominent Shakespeare academics are meetings this week in Stratford-upon-Avon for the invite-only International Shakespeare Conference. A highlight of the first day was the screening of Shakespearian Spinach as more
Tomorrow, at the final preview before Wednesday's press night, I get to see a production that I have been looking forward to for simply ages. Maria Aberg is directing John Webster's The White Devil in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan more
An offering including several compelling pieces about copyright (honest!). Apologies as usual to all those from whom I've taken tips without credit. • What's left to discover today? Plenty: David Bordwell as richly interesting as ever. • L.A more
To Cinema 1 at the Barbican for a live stream of The Forbidden Zone from the Salzburg Festival. Written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Katie Mitchell, this new work premiered last Wednesday, plays Salzburg for another week more
Today I went, by appointment, to what they call a carrel in Rare Books and Manuscripts at The British Library. My carrel was a little room with a glass wall, rather fierce air-conditioning and some headphones. An immensely more
Discussions about adapting stage plays for the screen, whether broadcast live or recorded 'as live', have moved on apace over the past couple of months. There have also been a number of further cinema broadcasts, including a successful presentation by more