Takeaway review — promising ingredients but this restaurant drama is bland
A fundamental problem is that most of the actors are inaudible, despite the Everyman being a relatively small theatre. Key dialogue is lost, leaving the audience, for the early scenes, in a fog of confusion. Once our ears adjust to Amanda Huxtable's production, we learn that the takeaway was set up by Carol and her late husband
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Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
The tiny UK village that attracts A-list celebrities like bees to honey
The historical market town of Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds boasts only around 6,500 residents - and more of them than one might expect are A-list celebrities. Often fondly called 'Chippy' by locals, the charming, honey-colored stone village sits in an Area of Outstanding Beauty - surrounded by rolling hills and picturesque countryside, which offer a quintessential English landscape. So it's no wonder that Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia Del Rossi chose the town after fleeing the US late last year, a decision that they made in the wake of Donald Trump's re-election as President. The couple were in glamorous company as residents of Chipping Norton. Such is the influx of the celebrity elite that they have a collective moniker – 'The Chipping Norton Set'. 'Yes. We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in.' And we're like, 'We're staying here,'' Ellen said last weekend at an event at Everyman theatre in nearby Cheltenham. The couple have subsequently sold the property, citing the lack of horse stables, but Ellen has professed her love for the area, prompting speculation that they'll stay in the Cotswolds. 'We're just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming, and it's just a simpler way of life. It's clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.' Celebrities that have called the area home include Jeremy Clarkson — whose famous farm Diddly Squat is nearby — David Cameron, Jamie Oliver, Kate Moss, David and Victoria Beckham and Ellie Goulding, Princess Beatrice, Zara Tindall and Simon Cowell. Calvin Harris and his wife Vick Hope have recently won local approval by knocking down an 'ugly' local property to make way for their Cotswolds dream mansion. In fact, they hired one the Royal Family 's favourite architects to build the gaff. Local farm shop Daylesford Organic has become an iconic haunt of these A-listers and royalty, with Eddie Redmayne seen pursuing the aisles and Princess Eugenie also spotted having a browse. The town boasts a variety of independent shops, including antique stores and a regular market, alongside a diverse selection of pubs and restaurants. For anyone looking to upgrade to full members club luxury, Soho Farmhouse is just down the road, which is frequented by stars from Rita Ora to Meghan Markle (who reportedly held her hen do there) and Taylor Swift, who hired a £3.3m cottage near Chipping Norton during her Eras tour in 2024. Every year former Blur bassist and local cheesemaker Alex James throws the Big Feastival in nearby Kingham, which "brings together music from the UK's biggest artists, Michelin-starred chefs, award-winning street food and an exciting array of family activities". This August, revellers will be able to see Nelly Furtado, The Rizzle Kicks and the Wombats hit the stage. The addition of these famous-folk has had a mixed reaction locally, though. Unhappy homeowners have rejected plans for 350 new homes near to Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm. Others believe the influx of tourists is good for the area, but is pushing prices up.
Times
2 days ago
- Times
This Oscar winner is so much more than a biopic
It may be titled simply Amadeus but this hugely fun 1980s classic didn't win eight Oscars for being a straight-up biopic. What made it an enduring cultural touchstone is the framing. Lavishly shot on location in Prague using candlelit 18th-century architecture and extravagant costumes, Milos Forman's opulent epic retells the life of the musical wunderkind Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce, up until then best known for National Lampoon's Animal House) through the tormented eyes of his older, less-talented rival, Antonio Salieri (F Murray Abraham). Where the religious Salieri is ascetic and disciplined, Amadeus is hedonistic and childish, his genius seemingly a gift from God. After years spent consumed by jealousy, the embittered Salieri becomes obsessed with plotting Mozart's downfall. • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews An adaptation of Peter Shaffer's elegantly constructed play, the narrative probes the agony of unfulfilled ambition. That Abraham's on-screen career subsequently eclipsed Hulce's is a pleasing dramatic irony.★★★★★ PG, 153min Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit to find out more. Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Times
2 days ago
- Times
The Bad Guys 2 review — praise be for this breezy sequel
Praise be for this breezy animated sequel, which provides a get-out-of-jail-free card for parents during the holidays and won't be a chore for them to watch with their kids. It continues the misadventures of Mr Wolf and his gang of reformed villains, who have also got out of jail and abandoned their lives of crime in favour of — well, job interviews. Mr Wolf — voiced again by Sam Rockwell, shamelessly channelling George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven — is going for a position at a bank, until his interviewer points out that he has robbed them three times. 'Some of my best memories are in banks,' Wolf says wistfully. A flashback to the naughty days accentuates the contrast in glamour as Messrs Wolf, Snake, Shark and Piranha and Ms Tarantula insouciantly pull off a heist in Cairo involving a parachute, a crane and a breakneck escape in a sports car. Back in the present day Wolf is driving a spluttering old banger … • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews The lure of reoffending is strong, then, which is just as well because these films, like the Despicable Me franchise, hinge on the subversive thrill of rooting for the morally compromised. Adapted from the graphic novels by Aaron Blabey and directed, like the first film, by the Frenchman Pierre Perifel, this is another feast of angular animation and insouciant one-liners with a ghetto-fabulous score from Daniel Pemberton. The twist-filled story somehow finds room for Mexican wrestlers, a metal called McGuffinite (tee-hee) and a sequence in which our antiheroes board a moon rocket that makes Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible look like Compo in Last of the Summer Wine trundling down a hill in a bath. If that sounds a bit busy, it's all done with a light and knowing touch. A third film is planned and that doesn't feel like overkill.★★★★☆ PG, 104min In cinemas Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit to find out more. Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
