24 h. ago There are only two things wrong with this England team. They can’t Baz. And they can’t ball | Barney Ronay

Even losing seems to involve doing so without the qualities that were supposed to make England winIt’s a cruel, cruel summer. By the close of play in Adelaide, on the kind of superheated afternoon when just going outside basically involves setting fire to your own hair, it was clear this was the day the music finally died for England’s Ashes tour; even if that music has long since faded, like the tinkle of a haunted pianola in an empty house.The start of day two had presented a familiar challenge. Here was another occasion where it was necessary to bat properly. And yes, it is always this day. The bat properly day. Do it. Do the batting. The proper batting. By now this seems to raise some very basic existential questions. Continue reading...

Politics

49 h. ago Haunted house and invisible demons: Tennessee Williams' early radio play 'The Strangers' publishes

Tennessee Williams' early radio play, “The Strangers,” is featured in The Strand this week

Politics

6 d. ago Tim Dowling: my band is set to play live on the radio. What could possibly go wrong?

Rehearsals for a live broadcast at short notice reduce us to silence then swearing. This does not bode wellOn Wednesday afternoon I receive a text that seems to suggest the band I’m in has been invited to play live on national radio. Twenty minutes later, the guitarist rings me.“Did you get my text?” he says. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago ‘A master of complications’: Felicity Kendal returns to Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink after three decades

The writer’s former partner and her co-star Ruby Ashbourne Serkis describe the bittersweet nature of remounting his 90s play so soon after his death• ‘We were swimming in the mind pool of Tom Stoppard!’ – actors salute the great playwrightI won’t, I promise, refer to Felicity Kendal as Tom Stoppard’s muse. “No,” she says firmly. “Not this week.” Speaking to Stoppard’s former partner and longtime leading lady is delicate in the immediate aftermath of the writer’s death. But she is previewing a revival of his Indian Ink, so he shimmers through the conversation. The way Kendal refers to Stoppard in the present tense tells its own poignant story.Settling into a squishy brown sofa at Hampstead theatre, Kendal describes revisiting the 1995 work, developed from a 1991 radio play. “It’s a play that I always thought I’d like to go back to.” Previously starring as Flora Crewe, a provocative British poet visiting 1930s India, she now plays Eleanor Swan, Flora’s sister. We meet Eleanor in the 1...

Politics

2 w. ago Neighbours describe 'shake and bang' as earthquake wakes up peaceful North West village

"I was quite relieved to discover my house is not haunted"

Politics

2 w. ago Chilling moment axeman ‘strolls into his own cousin’s home before murdering her believing she was part of paedo ring’

THIS is the haunting moment an axeman walked calmly towards his cousin's house before murdering her, a court heard. Donald Excell, 49, is accused of killing Rita Lambourne, 58, with "chilling brutality" after believing she was part of a family paedophile ring. Footage allegedly shows Excell approaching her home, in Bexhil-on-Sea, at around 10pm on...

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