Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.
The fifth series of Stranger Things may have ended with David Bowie’s iconic song ‘Heroes’ being played – an appropriate piece of serendipity, given that Bowie departed the world ten years ago – but there has been very little heroic about the rest of the conclusion to one of the biggest shows on television. Such was the
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You’d be forgiven for thinking that the disgraced Huw Edwards would never again appear on our TV screens. But Channel 5 has announced that the ex-BBC newsreader and convicted paedophile will be the subject of a drama, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. This shameless show should never be broadcast. The ex-BBC newsreader and convicted
When the novelist Richard Yates, who was born in February 1926, was interviewed by the magazine Ploughshares in 1972, the conversation turned to the neglected writers of his generation. Yates, a man of remarkable acuity and taste, was typically incisive about the likes of Evan S. Connell, Brian Moore and Edward Lewis Wallant – and,
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British Airways used to bill itself, without irony, as ‘the nation’s favourite airline’. The days when it could legitimately use such a slogan are long gone. Now, the unfortunate passengers who endure a substandard service on the carrier are more likely to regard it as the nation’s least beloved airline, vying only with Ryanair for
The year just gone has hardly been a banner year for either the Duke or Duchess of Sussex, culminating in the humiliation of yet another publicist departing from their employment at its end. However, all of us hope that 2026 will be an improvement. Last weekend brought the potentially good news for Harry – although, perhaps, less so for the
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Like many artists lionised by their admirers beyond comprehension, David Bowie – who died nearly a decade ago on 10 January 2016 – was a flawed, capricious figure who got it wrong, especially in his latter-day career, as often as he got it right. And he knew it, too. The one-time Thin White Duke was
Lucky subscribers to ‘As Ever’, Meghan Markle’s Pravda-esque newsletter, were given an exclusive insight this festive season into how the Duchess of Sussex would be spending the Christmas period. She wrote that ‘Last night, I was nibbling the remnants of our Christmas Eve feast (dim sum this year), wrapping a few last-minute gifts, and tiptoeing
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When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose to break with convention by delivering it not from the usual surroundings of Buckingham Palace, but from the Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is unfortunate, then, that it is royal-adjacent ladies of quite another
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As the rest of the Royal Family prepare for the pageantry and pomp of their traditional Christmas, two ghosts have gatecrashed the party, in true Dickensian fashion. One phantom is that of the long-deceased Jeffrey Epstein, whose malign influence continues to stretch into the present day thanks to the release of the latest tranche of
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Harper Collins announced last week that it would no longer be publishing any children’s books by their one-time cash cow David Walliams. The Little Britain star has been accused of ‘harassing’ junior female employees at the publishing house – he has strongly denied allegations of wrongdoing against him. According to a new investigation, one member
Steven Spielberg might be the most beloved and popular American director of the 20th century, but it is also unavoidably the case that, since 2005’s Munich, he has been on something of a disappointing run. While many of his films, not least The Fabelmans and West Side Story, have been critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated, there
Amid the many disappointments and commercial flops the music industry saw this year, perhaps the most egregious was the complete failure of Arcade Fire’s album Pink Elephant. The failure represents not merely the probable end of the band, but also the death of Obama-era rock. Pink Elephant received dismal reviews and didn’t even chart on the Billboard
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Anyone who has had the misfortune to be in central London at rush hour will be familiar with an unlovely spectacle: that of a middle-aged man solemnly making a fool out of himself on an ungainly-looking bicycle that seems slightly too small for him. This mode of transportation is none other than the Brompton bicycle,
Remember him for his great works, not his horrific end
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The news that King Charles’s cancer treatment will be moving into a new phase as of next year is undeniably welcome, both for him on a personal level and for those who have been anxiously wishing him well since his diagnosis in January 2024. He offered the nation an update on his situation last night
Give him no second chances
Hollywood might be in trouble, but the director isn’t
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With the average cost of a hotel room in London costing around £250 a night – and not showing any signs of getting lower, either – most might think that a stay in the capital is a rarefied activity. However, the news that the Zedwell group of budget-conscious hotels have opened a mega-budget establishment in
The sale would create a monopoly the likes of which has never been seen before in the film industry
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For lovers of self-destructive hubris – a quality that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex surely possess in spades – the saga of Prince Harry’s security is surely the gift that keeps on giving. Not since Jeremy Thorpe ensured that his former lover Norman Scott was deprived of his National Insurance card has anyone publicly