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Culture

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Entertainment

‘George Lucas told me off for wearing lipstick’: Celia Imrie on Traitors, Star Wars and treating the lens like a lover

The actor answers your questions about trapeze lessons, Bond villain ambitions and Michael Caine’s top tips You looked as if you had such a good time on Celebrity Traitors last year – you had them hanging on your every word. What was it like? Who have you kept in touch with? breezehillpete They absolutely didn’t hang on my every word. I’m fascinated to watch it now, because at a distance, I can see how people follow each other. That herd mentality is very evident at the round table, but I always went in a different direction and people didn’t follow me. Then, of course, I accused Alan [Carr] a

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Full of life and catching feelings: Christine and the Queens’ greatest songs – ranked!

As the French avant-popper returns with new single Rendez-vous avec toi, we celebrate the best of an artist who uses sleek songwriting to grapple with knotty emotion Originally leaked online by the artist himself, Christine and the Queens’ fifth album, Hopecore, was released under a new name of Rahim Redcar (he’s now back to releasing as Christine and the Queens, and using Chris as his own name). Hopecore eschewed the sophisticated pop of his early years in favour of lo-fi, roughly drawn sonic sketches, and this flighty opener is built around ricocheting drum beat patterns that are eventually

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘Children were wearing fake life jackets’: one Syrian family’s terrifying, 10-year journey

In 2015, two film-makers first met 11-year-old refugee Israa, forced to abandon Aleppo for a new life in Europe, along with her parents and siblings. None of them imagined what would come next In 2015, an 11-year-old Syrian girl called Israa matter-of-factly explained how her family would survive if their dinghy sank crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece. Her father would grab her disabled sister; her mother would look after the baby. “And I,” said Israa, a huge smile lighting her face, “I know how to rescue myself.” Wife-and-husband documentary-makers Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes met Israa w

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Rare Renaissance masterpiece hidden for 70 years could fetch £5m at auction

Exclusive: Experts say Albrecht Altdorfer’s 1520 landscape is ‘one of the most exciting discoveries imaginable’ An exceptionally rare painting, described as one of the earliest landscapes in western art, goes on auction in London next month. It was completed around 1520 by Albrecht Altdorfer, who is widely regarded as Europe’s first pure landscape oil artist. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘It’s so glossy and sexy!’: 10 movies (and one TV show) that inspired Grand Theft Auto

As GTA 6 looms, we look at the films that have influenced Rockstar’s creatives, from Heat to Bonnie and Clyde, via Boyz n the Hood and Speed Grand Theft Auto is arguably the most cinematic video game series ever made. Over the past three decades, the games have studied and stolen the themes, conventions and visual dynamism of great gangster and action movies, applying them to open worlds filled with low-life characters and grand set-piece possibilities. Here then are the movies (and TV show) that have shaped the GTA experience, from the 1996 original to this year’s inescapable instalment. Cont

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Was one of the great novels of the Enlightenment written by a man who thought he was a werewolf?

Surreal, mysterious and with an outlandish origin story, Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa has amassed a cult following that includes Salman Rushdie and Jerry Garcia. But it’s the book’s global humanism makes it relevant now, say the curators of a new exhibition A young Walloon officer called Alphonse van Worden travels through the Sierra Morena on his way to Madrid to join the Spanish army. Along the way he has an erotic encounter with two demonic Moorish sisters, falls foul of shape-shifting apparitions and is tested by a Jewish Kabbalist attempting to use mystical formulas to

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Black Doves review – Ben Whishaw, Keira Knightley and Sarah Lancashire are spine-tinglingly good

Series two of this rambunctiously entertaining espionage drama might be implausible. But it’s a magnetically acted tale of friendship, with moments of genuine poignance Is Helen Webb Britain’s busiest mum? Or Britain’s least busy mum? On the one hand, she’s got two kids, is the wife of the recently promoted prime minister and also a deep cover spy, who spends her days passing information about her husband’s work to a shady intelligence organisation and her nights on covert missions which often involve acts of bloody slaughter. Yet the reason she can do all this is that nobody expects her to do

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Norman conquest castle and Dickens chalet among sites added to heritage at risk register

William the Conqueror-built Hastings Castle and Swiss-style writing retreat in Kent two of nearly 200 additions to list A castle built by William the Conqueror, a Swiss-style chalet where Charles Dickens wrote and a swathe of fire-blasted moorland are among sites that have been added to Historic England’s heritage at risk register. Almost 200 historic places have been added to the already extensive list, including Hastings Castle in East Sussex, Dickens’ wooden writing retreat in Kent and Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire, which was devastated by a wildfire in the summer. Continue reading...

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Entertainment

‘I was given the big picture early’: Rory Kinnear on love, drama – and how his father’s death changed his life

When Kinnear was 10, his beloved father Roy died in an on-set accident. This affected how he now approaches his work as an actor, and also his understanding of life’s most important questions At first glance, Rory Kinnear is Mr Normal. Bald head, nice face, wholly unremarkable. As an actor, he’s not one for flashy tricks – no dramatic weight loss or gain, rarely disguising himself with prosthetics or CGI. Yet, somehow, whatever role Kinnear plays, he’s totally different. So here I am in his dressing room at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, face to face with the man I’ve just seen on stag

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘Turner prize for dance’ winner Christos Papadopoulos: failure, friction and my forgotten youthquake

Amid galloping global crises, the Greek choreographer has returned to his revolutionary ideals. He explains how asking the near-impossible of dancers brings a shared joy Christos Papadopoulos is talking about how to spend £40,000. Specifically the winnings he scooped from the first ever Rose international prize for choreography in 2025 – the dance world’s equivalent of the Turner and the Booker. The Greek choreographer came out top of four finalists, picked by a judging panel including Arlene Phillips and PJ Harvey, for his piece Larsen C, a shadowy, trance-like and glacially paced crescendo o

The Guardian
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Entertainment

What did the Romans ever give Scotland? Heated floors, flashy sandals, sun gods – and a lot of nails

From steamy bathhouses to altars to Sol the sun god and leather shoes that still survive to this day, an eye-opening new exhibition chronicles Scotland under the Romans (before they fled) Inveresk is a handsome village near Edinburgh that sits above a curve of the little river Esk, not far from the mighty Firth of Forth. It is full of elegant 18th-century houses and an attractive kirk, dated 1805. To the casual observer, there is absolutely nothing Roman about it. And yet, in 2010, when the local cricket pavilion was being rebuilt, an extraordinary find was made – two altars made of local sand

The Guardian
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