Daily Express :: Entertainment Feed

CD reviews

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Emeli Sandé Our Version Of Events (Virgin) The Brit Critics' Choice of 2012, Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé hasn't looked back since walking away from her medical degree although, with songwriting credits for Cheryl Cole, Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis to her name, it probably didn't feel too risky. Her signature sound weds soul and string-laden beats with echoes of Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy (to brilliant effect on single Heaven) but there is also a sequence of lung-busting Adele-style ballads. CH

Kind of Cruel

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

READING a Sophie Hannah novel is a bit like setting off on a long car journey. With no SatNav or map to guide you, you know you'll reach your destination eventually but have no idea where the drive will take you, or the twists and turns you'll encounter along the way.

The Lost History of 1914

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TIME has done nothing to diminish our fascination with the First World War. Almost 100 years since the Kaiser's troops stamped into Belgium, Birdsong has been on TV and War Horse is a star of stage and screen.

Hope: A Tragedy

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

SHALOM Auslander's new novel, Hope: A Tragedy, begins with a depressed Jewish man finding the famous diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank alive and well in his attic.

Will Booker call William Boyd at last?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FANS of best-selling novelist William Boyd have come to expect surprises. At his best, Boyd conjures up memorable characters in intriguing situations, keeping his readers guessing with twisting plots in readable, accessible novels.

Camilla Nylund continues to receive acclaim in Europe

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

SINCE her operatic debut in 1995, Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund has won acclaim in Europe's great opera houses, including La Scala, Milan and the Vienna State Opera. It comes as a surprise to learn that she will make her first appearance in Britain when she sings the title role in Dvorak's Rusalka at Covent Garden this month.

Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TEN THOUSAND paying guests of all ages file in buying candy-floss and popcorn with a throbbing playback whose bass dial is turned to max, far too loud but that's how it should be. For the rest of this month Strictly Come Dancing, The Live Tour is playing at an arena near you. You cannot miss it.

Oliver! tour has oomph

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

OLIVER! Palace Theatre, Manchester (Tickets: 0844 871 3018, £18.50-£55) CRAZY FOR YOU Novello Theatre, London WC2 (Tickets: 0844 482 5171, £20-£62.50, premium £80-£85) MASTER CLASS Vaudeville Theatre, London WC2 (Tickets: 0844 811 0057, £25-£52.50, premium £65) SEX WITH A STRANGER Trafalgar Studios 2, London SW1 (Tickets: 0844 871 7632, £25) THE SEA PLAYS Old Vic Tunnels, London SE1 (Tickets: 0844 871 7628, £15-£20)

A Dangerous Method

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

KEIRA Knightley gives a bold, impressive performance as Sabina Spielrein, a disturbed young woman who receives pioneering psychotherapy treatment from Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and becomes his lover, before moving on to his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) in A Dangerous Method.

Muppet movie is a big magic trick

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Location: Mayfair Hotel, London 3.10pm - interview with director James Bobin 4.30pm - interviews with Kermit and Miss Piggy

A Latin American turn with Strictly Come Dancing stars Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

SUNDAY EXPRESS writers Jane Clinton and David Stephenson take a Latin American turn around a studio dance floor with Strictly Come Dancing stars Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone.

Casablanca in big screen revival

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE 70th anniversary of Casablanca provides the perfect excuse for a big-screen revival of one of the most beloved and enduring of Hollywood classics.

The Vow

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

LOVE is lovelier the second time around, at least that's what hopelessly devoted Channing Tatum is banking on in The Vow, a shameless dollop of schmaltzy romance that arrives just in the nick of time for that all important Valentine's Day date.

Casablanca

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE 70th anniversary of Casablanca provides the perfect excuse for a big-screen revival of one of the most beloved and enduring of Hollywood classics.

Casablanca

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE 70th anniversary of Casablanca provides the perfect excuse for a big-screen revival of one of the most beloved and enduring of Hollywood classics.

My six best books

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FILM and television actress Celia Imrie, 59, is best known for Calendar Girls and her work with Victoria Wood. She is appearing in Noises Off at the Old Vic and her autobiography The Happy Hoofer is out now. This Thursday she will be on stage at the Criterion Theatre as part of their Lunchtimes With... series, www.criterion- theatre.co.uk

Pick of the paperbacks

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Me Before you 4/5 by Jojo Moyes Penguin, £7.99 LOU CLARK is a creature of habit so when her routine is broken she has to find something else to keep her sane.

Fishing in the murky waters of slippery family secrets

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The White Lie 4/5 by Andrea Gillies Short Books £12.99 A YOUNG woman charges into the drawing room of her parents' estate in the Highlands.

Mad times that rocked a generation

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

AS MICK Jagger said: "The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness."

Mad times that rocked a generation

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

All the MadMen: BArrett, Bowie, drAke, Pink Floyd, the kinks, the who And A Journey to the dArk side of British Rock 2/5 by Clinton Heylin AS MICK Jagger said: "The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness."

Return to dark side is a howling success

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Wolf Gift 5/5 by Anne Rice Chatto & Windus, £18.99 WELCOME back Anne Rice. The author of Interview With A Vampire and the subsequent slew of luscious, humid gothic extravaganzas known as The Vampire Chronicles has been away for too long.

London in the Sixties

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

London In The Sixties by Rainer Metzger Thames & Hudson, £28 IT was the decade of innovation and inspiration powered by youth, affluence and the explosion of the mass media.

Johnny English Reborn

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

UNREMARKABLE sequel that restores Rowan Atkinson's clueless secret agent to active service. James Bond spoof that fails to make the most of Atkinson's talents.

Abduction

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

INANE chase thriller with Twilight pin-up Taylor Lautner as a teenage action man who finds himself on the run from the CIA, Serbian baddies and anyone with a fondness for black clothes and shifty looks.

Hesher

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

OODBALL, entertaining black comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on gleeful form as a tattooed, anarchic force of nature who strolls into the life of 13-year-old TJ as he struggles with the death of his mother and the grief that has gripped his father.