THE most popular films with Moviola audiences for October continue to be Mr Burton, the story of the young Richard Burton and his inspirational teacher (whose name he took), and The Penguin Lessons, with a third in-demand film, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. This is a spy thriller, written by David Koepp, starring Cate Blanchett and…
GLOBAL Majority artists take centre stage at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre throughout October in We Rise, a vibrant group exhibition showcasing award-winning and emerging artists across painting, printmaking, installation, textiles and sculpture. The exhibition is part of Black History Month 2025 and highlights the creativity and contribution of artists whose voices are often underrepresented in…
DORCHESTER Corn Exchange stands in for the Grand Ol’ Opry on Friday 3rd October, when Alan West and band come to town with A Country Music Songbook. The show is a celebration of country music – its history, its heroes and its enduring spirit. It is a richly woven journey through 100 years of country…
FROM a history of Afghanistan to new books inspired by Jane Austen, whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year, Wells Festival of Literature’s 2025 line up is as exciting and eclectic as ever. Running from 17th to 25th October, the festival features some hot-off-the-press books, none more so than Entitled: The Rise and Fall of…
PORTLAND, that mysterious, craggy, romantic island of rock that is barely attached to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, is a constantly inspiring place for artists, and a new exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in Easton Lane and Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve, explores the responses of a group of sculptors to its geology, history…
FOR a TV series that lasted only two series – 64 episodes between 1964 and 1966 – The Addams Family has remarkable longevity. Helped by continual showings on late night TV and four films featuring the characters, it was almost inevitable that someone (Andrew Lippa) would add music and, adapt (Marchal; Brickman and Rick Elice)…
OSCAR-winning actor Ralph Fiennes completes his season of productions at the Theatre Royal Bath, starring in Small Hotel, by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and starring Ralph Fiennes, in its world premiere from Friday 3rd to Saturday 18th October. The cast also includes the acclaimed stage and screen actress Francesca Annis, Rosalind Eleazar and Rachel Tucker. Larry is…
MORE contradictory stories and legends – including how she acquired the nickname of Calamity Jane – have probably been told about Martha Jane Canary than of any other frontierswoman of the second half of the 19th century. Thanks to Jean Arthur’s portrayal in Cecil B DeMille’s The Plainsman, and the wonderfully effervescent Doris Day, in…
JAMES May, the television presenter who owns the Royal Oak pub in Swallowcliffe, between Shaftesbury and Salisbury, will be taking audiences through time and across thousands of miles in his new stage show, with October dates at Bath, Bristol and Southampton. The Top Gear and Grand Tour star is presenting a very different – and…
FOR many years, one of the great teats a group of us enjoyed was to go on Shrove Tuesday to a friend’s house to enjoy home-made pancakes. Good cook as she was, we were never offered the first pancake made, because she said it was never up to the standard of those that followed. Anyone…