All star tribute to Sir Noel Coward promoting theatre charities

Grand to hear that our dear friend and regular contributor to Clive Conway Productions, Patricia Routledge, now in her nineties, is among the stellar thespian line-up featured in a new online event marking the 100th...

End of a broadcasting era as Jenni Murray leaves Woman's

An old chapter closes and new one begins this week as veteran broadcaster Jenni Murray steps down after 33 years with the BBC as presenter of Radio 4’s Woman's Hour.Even though Dame Jenni and her co-presenter Jane...

Apartheid era photographer Jurgen Schadeberg dies aged 89

Jurgen Schadeberg was a crucial eye-witness to South Africa’s struggle for freedom during apartheid era and what he saw was shared with the world. Photojournalist Schadeberg, who has died aged 89, was a powerful pictorial...

Battle to re-open theatres continues as further lockdown is threatened

Rising coronavirus infection rates and the fear of a further lockdown presented the latest hurdle to be cleared by those working to re-open our theatres this week.The pandemic has seen venues closed and productions postponed or...

Novelist Joanna Trollope guests at virtual literature festivel

Grand to see that this summer’s annual Petworth Festival, which like others seemed doomed because of the pandemic, is going ahead - albeit in virtual form.Tickets have gone on sale for a 2020 Petworth Festival Special with a...

Actor Robert Powell backs technology lifeline for children's hospices

Our good friend the esteemed stage and screen actor Robert Powell’s new position as patron of the charity Lifelites couild not have come at a more important time.For Lifelites supports life-limited and disabled children in...

Archbishop Tutu and his wife escape unharmed from fire at retirement village

We are delighted and relieved to hear that Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah Tutu escaped unharmed from a fire last week at the retirement village where they live near the seaside town of Hermanus, south east of...

The Last Night of the stripped down Proms

I watched the Last Night of the Proms at the weekend and wondered at the imagination and inventiveness that had gone into producing this stripped back but impeccably planned affair.It offered some great moments and the...

The fight to get the theatre world back on track continues

Can it really be only a week since culture secretary Oliver Dowden was talking about getting our theatres open again by Christmas?Hopefully some smaller venues will indeed be regularly staging live theatre again but for many...

Remembering two giants of late 20th century culture

This week we have lost two of the people who were highly influential in shaping the face of modern Britain - Sir Terence Conran and Dame Diana Rigg.Designer, writer and retail giant Conran, who died aged 88, can...

Author and political activist Achmat Dangor dies aged 71

We are sad to hear that Achmat Dangor, the author, political activist and former CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation has died. He was 71.Dangor studied literature at Rhodes University and as an award winning writer was best...

Emma Barnett to be main presenter on BBC's Woman's Hour

When first Jenni Murray and then Jane Garvey announced they would stepping down as presenters of Woman's Hour the BBC knew it had a tough job on its hands.Finding suitable replacements for such experienced and much loved...

American TV viewers fall in love with Lucy Worsley

No surprise perhaps but American TV viewers have fallen head over heels in love with our very own Lucy Worsley.Her peaches and cream looks and ability to deliver extremely well informed but also highly entertaining facts about...

Strictly bosses taking no cha cha chances in show's Covid drama

How foolish of us to think that the annual flood of headlines in the run-up to Strictly Come Dancing might be a little challenged this year.Of course not. It clearly takes more than a global pandemic to de-rail the Strictly...

Robert Powell in classic TV from the eighties as Hannay lives again

We’re enjoying watching our friend and frequent collaborator, actor Robert Powell in the current re-0run of the 1988-89 TV series Hannay.It finds Powell reprising the role of Edwardian mining engineer turned crime-battling...

Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan: The story of civilization in 50 documents

It’s been fun reading and hearing about our friend and sometime Clive Conway Productions contributor, Peter Snow, promoting the new book he has penned with his wife Ann MacMillan. Treasures of World History: The Story Of...

Mungi Ngomane podcasts on the life-changing power of Ubuntu

Great news that the new Everyday Ubuntu podcast hosted by author and human rights campaigner Mungi Ngomane has officially launched.It follows the success of Mungi’s hugely successful book of the same name which explored the...

What's black and white and red all over? Ask Gyles

I say, I say, I say What’s Black and White and Red All Over? Well if you answered ‘an embarrassed penguin’ or ‘a newspaper’ you wouldn’t be wrong.But it’s also the title of Gyles Brandreth’s latest book - a fun-packed compendium...

Root out corruption or face the consequences warns Tutu Foundation

A stark warning has been issued by the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation that the ANC risks losing power unless alleged corruption over the current Covid-19 crisis can be rooted out.In a hard hitting statement, the...

Oxford Flute Summer School will be back for August 2021

For the first time since 1988 the highly regarded Oxford Flute Summer School was forced to postpone this August because of the Covid-19 pandemic.But never fear, plans for next year have already been lined up and OFSS is making...

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