The World of Tim Burton review – a tour around a singular creative mind – The Guardian
The World of Tim Burton review – a tour around a singular creative mind The Guardian
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A Halloween dog and the Guardian of Darkness: photos of the weekend
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
James Graham Thinks We’re in a Crisis of Storytelling
The brutalist Royal National Theatre building, which sits aggressively on the south side of the River Thames, in London, is a “love it or loudly despise it” kind of place—all concrete edges and unwelcoming angles. King Charles III once morosely described it as “a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London.” For the playwright and screenwriter James Graham, however, it holds a certain appeal. “I think the geometry of it is fucking sexy,” he told me recently.
We were seated on a mezzanine floor in the dining room of the theatre’s upscale restaurant, Lasdun, named for the building’s architect, Denys Lasdun. Looking down through a large window, we could take in the buzzing lobby and the pre-theatre-drinks crowd. The vibe surrounding us was moody-industrial: white tablecloths and black leather seats, with spotlit concrete walls and dark flooring. The ceiling, also concrete, was coffered, like a particularly sturdy beehive.
Graham likes an Old-Fashioned at Lasdun’s bar when his plays are in tech in the theatres below, and they often are. (Once you know his name, it’s seemingly everywhere.) The restaurant was a fitting location for a playwright known for history plays that interrogate, in unsparing detail, the U.K.’s most treasured national institutions. In “This House,” his breakout work, from 2012, he explored the inner workings of Parliament and the ascent of Margaret Thatcher. “Ink,” which transferred from the West End to Broadway in 2019, followed Rupert Murdoch and the rise of tabloid journalism. Earlier this year, Graham won an Olivier Award for “Dear England,” his play about the former English soccer manager Gareth Southgate and the pressures of the game.
On the day we met, he bustled in with a backpack, apologizing profusely for being late. At forty-two, he has the bright, slightly harried air of someone who enjoys being exceptionally busy. This year, he has opened two plays in the U.K., and two more are scheduled for the spring. The second season of his BBC show, “Sherwood,” about a real-life murder in Nottinghamshire, the mining county where he grew up, premières next month. At the restaurant, Graham said he had taken the train from Liverpool, where he was speaking at the Labour Party conference. The next day, he would fly to New York, to prepare for the opening of Elton John’s splashy new Broadway musical, “Tammy Faye,” for which Graham wrote the book. (Jake Shears wrote the lyrics; previews started at the Palace Theatre on October 19th.) The show began its life at the Almeida Theatre, in London, in 2022, and has been significantly reworked. “Oh, God, it feels like a big thing,” he said, nervously. What could go wrong with a Broadway show? “They’re so cheap, and they always run for years,” he joked. He ordered a glass of Italian red.
“Tammy Faye” follows the true story of Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker), the American televangelist who, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, with her pastor husband, Jim Bakker, was adored by millions. Together, they ran a popular television show, “The PTL Club,” and a successful Christian theme park called Heritage U.S.A. That was before it emerged that Jim had been swindling money from their followers, and had covered up a sexual encounter; he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison. But Tammy Faye, with her big hair, outlandish makeup, and tendency toward bigheartedness, remained a beloved figure, embracing those whom mainstream evangelicalism shunned. Before the scandal broke, she invited a gay Christian minister with AIDS onto her show. “How sad that we as Christians—who are to be the salt of the earth, we who are supposed to be able to love everyone—are afraid so badly of an AIDS patient that we will not go up and put our arm around them and tell them that we care,” she said.
An unusually eloquent waiter—an aspiring actor—took our order and returned with the plates: pork shoulder for Graham, a hockey-puck-size fish cake with anchovy sauce for me. “I mean, their story—Jim and Tammy’s—is obviously Shakespearean,” Graham said, cutting into his food. “It’s a rise and fall from poverty, through love, success, chaos, destruction of empire, shaming, and then coming out the other side having learned a valuable lesson. Like, it’s all there.” When Graham joined the project, however, he had never heard of the Bakkers. John and Shears were both longtime Tammy fans, and had been toying with the idea of a musical for years. They had watched clip after clip of “PTL” and written a few songs, but didn’t yet have a story. “Elton really knew her to his bones, and comes from that musical tradition. The gospel South, that’s his music,” he said. And, he went on, “Jake has been obsessed with Tammy Faye since a young boy, like, seeing her as this gay icon that he knew before he knew he was gay.”
John sent a car to pick Graham up from a flat he shared with a few others. (“I was, like, Please don’t send a car! I can just take the Tube.”) They had dinner in the pop star’s house in Windsor. Once he got the job, he immersed himself in Tammy’s world, reading histories of the evangelical movement and the memoirs of the pastor Jerry Falwell, who becomes a villain-like figure in the show. Eventually, Graham told John and Shears that he wanted the musical to go beyond Tammy. (Graham told me that they said, “Make sure you keep the heart. Don’t go all cerebral.”) “I thought her story would be infinitely more powerful if it was against the backdrop of a wider exploration of that system. What is televangelism? Why did it emerge? What need did it fill?” he said. “You do say the words, quite early on, ‘I think I want to put Ronald Reagan in it.’ ”
The restaurant had filled up and grown noisier as we approached showtime. No one seemed daunted by the prospect of a nearly three-hour production of “Coriolanus” downstairs. Growing up, Graham had never heard of the National Theatre. He was a shy kid who would spend hours alone in his room making up stories, unless he was performing. He loved ice skating—not a traditional choice in his tough, post-industrial town—and appearing in school plays. (“A massive Billy Elliot cliché, I know,” he said.) He studied drama at the University of Hull, and didn’t set foot inside Lasdun’s building until he came to London, in his early twenties. The first play he saw there was David Hare’s “The Permanent Way,” a sweeping epic about the U.K.’s railway system. Sexy. “Why I love that as my first play is because it was a really big commercial, popular hit about the privatization of the railways, which has given me confidence to do, on paper, really nerdy, political plays about things that should sound unappealing.”
Ten Years After An Aborted Shutdown, San Diego Opera Announces Ambitious Five-Year Expansion Plan
“How ambitious? It will require raising an additional $10.5 million over the next five years to fund the expansion of live performances; the re-establishment of the resident artist program; the commissioning of new operas; the reimagining of its audience engagement programs, and more.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
Who’s Carving A Strictly Come Dancing Pumpkin Glitterball this Halloween ?
It’s Halloween on Strictly Come Dancing, and the couples will be dancing to these spooktacular songs:
- Chris and Diane performing a spooky Samba to “Stayin’ Alive” by Bee Gees
- Jamie and Michelle with a scary American Smooth to “The Addams Family Theme” by Vic Mizzy
- JB and Amy with a frightful Foxtrot to “Dancing in The Moonlight” by Toploader
- Montell and Johannes with a chilling Cha Cha to “Love Potion No. 9” by The Clovers
- Pete and Jowita gliding through a wicked Viennese Waltz to “That’s Life” by Frank Sinatra
- Dr Punam and Gorka with a terrifying Tango to “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics
- Sam and Nikita in a jump-scare Jive to “Time Warp” by Richard O’Brien (from The Rocky Horror
Picture Show) - Sarah and Vito attempting the first “Argh’gentine Tango” to “Ready Or Not” by The Fugees
- Shayne and Nancy showcasing a petrifying Paso Doble to “In The Hall of The Mountain King” by
Edvard Grieg - Tasha and Aljaž with a spooky Samba to “I Like To Move It” by Reel 2 Real
- Wynne and Katya in a scary Salsa to “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai
This year, in Sunday night’s results show, our professional dancers will cast a spell with a mesmerizing Beetlejuice-inspired routine that promises to be to die for! And as the witching hour approaches, don’t miss Lady Blackbird, who will be haunting the show with a chilling performance that’s sure to leave you spellbound.
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell
Do you have any phobias?
Dianne: Heights. I hate heights.
Chris: I don’t like little alive things or things that were alive, like seafood. I can’t get on with things that look like they did when they were alive and you’ve got to eat them. I imagine them worse than what they look like. Give me anything in a steak and I’ll eat it but like mussels I can’t get on with.
Chris: I can’t stand flying either actually. I’m a nightmare to sit next to. It’s just the not knowing if we’re going to crash. I think if I knew we were going to crash I’d be alright but it’s the not knowing so with every bit of turbulence, I can’t see the calmness around me, so I’m on edge all the time and I can’t relax. I’m always knackered by the time I get anywhere.
Do you believe in ghosts? And have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Dianne: I do. I believe in ghosts. I feel like I’ve felt presence.
Chris: I’m just keeping my mouth shut. I mean, do you think ghosts are just human or do you think ghosts are other things as well?
Dianne: Ghosts are a spirit.
Chris: But would you think there are ghost cats?
Dianne: No, I don’t think there are ghost cats. The thing is ghost cats haunt other cats, they’re not going to haunt humans are they.
Chris: I don’t believe in any of it. I think if there were ghosts, you wouldn’t be able to see anything else but ghosts. Imagine all the ghost bees.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
Chris: Episode one of this show. Generally, I was terrified.
Dianne: Anything to do with heights, I had to jump off a bridge for a show I was filming and I’ll never forget how scared I was. I was terrified and I would never do it again.
Did you go trick or treating either with kids now or when you were a kid?
Chris: I take my daughter trick or treating around our neighbourhood. You can always tell the people that are into it as they’ll have a little pumpkin in the window, I think that’s the sign now isn’t it.
Dianne: I bet you don’t have a pumpkin in your house do you? I bet you’ve got a graveyard in front of your house…
Chris: I’ve just got a sign that says stay away!
How do you trick and also treat each other when you’re in training?
Dianne: I trick Chris quite a bit don’t I. We have a good old laugh.
Chris: like yesterday you filmed a video with me with all different filters on and I didn’t know. We have a laugh but we don’t really play tricks.
Dianne: I’m forever buying him presents. I’m yet to get one off him but I’m forever getting you things. I’ve got you a glitter ball, a bracelet…
Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas
Do you have any phobias?
Michelle: Claustrophobia.
Jamie: Yes, emetophobia (fear of vomiting). Not Halloween related though.
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever had a paranormal encounter?
Michelle: I believe in spirits. There are too many things we don’t understand. I’ve never had an encounter, but I’m quite spiritual. Ghosts as we portray them to be, no, but I think there’s a spiritual world that we can’t see with our own eyes.
Jamie: I think I do, there’s too many things not to believe. I’ve never had an encounter though.
When have you been the most scared?
Jamie: Probably the first Strictly live show!
Michelle: The first live show for me too. Jamie was nervous, but I was more excited. It’s that mix of fear and anticipation.
What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up as?
Michelle: Catwoman. I’m one of those girls who actually tries to look good for Halloween instead of scary!
Jamie: I don’t think I’ve ever really done Halloween properly.
How do you trick each other during training?
Jamie: I’ll deliberately mess up the steps just to throw her off.
Michelle: He thinks it’s funny, but messing up steps builds bad muscle memory! I might prank him by pretending to be sick – it’ll freak him out because he’s scared of vomiting.
Jamie: That’s nasty! She treats me with bacon rolls and I treat her with lunch.
JB Gill and Amy Dowden MBE
What are you genuinely scared of?
Amy: I’m scared of a lot of things, to be honest, like anything that makes you jump – even in films. When villains would come out in kid’s films, I’d even get scared then. Maybe that’s why I’m not a fan of Halloween. Just a very scared person in general!
JB: I’m scared of snakes. Predominantly snakes. Everything else – dogs, heights, small spaces – I’m fine with. But snakes, they’re just too quick and unpredictable.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
JB: I remember being lost as a child. I was probably around six or seven and was at Woolworths with my parents. I couldn’t find them, so I freaked out, calling out for them. In my mind, I was lost forever. They found me eventually, but it was terrifying at the
time.
Do you have any phobias?
Amy: I had a phobia of dogs, but I got over it through therapy.
JB: Snakes, definitely. I love watching wildlife shows, but snakes are too unpredictable. I once had one on my shoulders, and I couldn’t relax!
Best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in?
Amy: Strictly 2021 – I was painted red and dressed as a devil alongside Tom Fletcher.
JB: I’ve never really done Halloween, but I dressed as Wonka for Movies Week which I loved. I’ve also been an American football player before.
Did you go trick-or-treating as a child?
Amy: Yes, but only to the neighbours that my parents knew – it was all pre-arranged.
JB: Maybe when I was really young, but not much since then.
Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe
What are you genuinely scared of?
Montell: I’m genuinely scared of heights, I do not like free falling at all, petrified! Also rats and mice can’t do that and the thought of being buried alive also comes to mind, not a fan of the thought process of that.
Johannes: Creepy crawlies, especially rats and mice.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
Montell: The most scared I’ve been was when I was on an adventurous holiday in Costa Rica and I was zip lining across mountains which with the heights thing just threw me. I was genuinely the most scared I’ve been I thought I was going to die – it was chaotic.
Johannes: My sister chasing me around the house with a dead mouse.
Do you have any phobias?
Johannes: Darkness and Spiders
Best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in? OR best costume in general you’ve ever dressed up in?
Montell: I dressed up as Whitney Houston a couple of years ago for a Halloween party, that was proper fancy dress, that was probably the best outfit I’ve ever done.
Johannes: My look for the Halloween special with Ellie for our couples choice to ‘I Put a Spell On You’.
Did you go trick or treating? (as a kid/with your kids?)
Montell: When I was younger I did go Trick or Treating, a group of us would go together family and friends. But I actually preferred giving the sweets to the kids when I got a bit older. Especially when you’re in an estate or residential area and around a community lots of kids come and knock. So that was really exciting, giving out the sweets rather than going Trick or Treating.
Johannes: No unfortunately only as an adult, had the best time.
How would you trick your partner and how would you treat your partner?
Montell: To trick my partner I would probably do little weird things, like move things in our studio and turn off the lights and stuff – I think that would freak him out a little. For a treat I would probably make a personalised playlist of all the songs that we love.
Johannes: I would mislead them with paper or rock filled with sweets. Treat, have a stash of really good goodies!
What are you carving into your pumpkin?
Montell: In my pumpkin I am carving a glitterball, this is going to be quite difficult, with shoes inside, just to signify my Strictly experience with these heels!
Johannes: I would crave a really happy smiley pumpkin.
Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystal
What genuinely scares you?
Pete: Nothing. Actually, gorillas. If they wanted to take over the world, they would, and they would just rip my arm off and beat me with it. Other than that, nothing really.
Jowita: Spiders. Super creepy, they’re not for me.
Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Jowita: I believe in an energy and everything, but I haven’t experienced it in my own skin.
Pete: I actually agree with that. There might be, I don’t know. I don’t necessarily believe but I also don’t definitely disbelieve. I have got a ghost tattooed on me. I used to present a podcast called Just a Little Prick about tattoos and interviewed tattoo artists whilst they tattooed me. And [the tattoo artist who did the ghost] was apparently the oldest working artist in the world. He was 93 and I expected him just to be doing like a little tattoo or something like that so I let him do whatever he wanted, but I didn’t realise it was going to be Casper the Friendly Ghost, who looks like a fat baby. It is absolutely ridiculous.
What is the best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in?
Pete: Nothing because I hate Halloween. I hate fancy dress!
Jowita: In Poland, we don’t celebrate Halloween so as a child I’ve never dressed up or anything. But at an old job I worked on a cruise ship that held a competition for Halloween. Whoever had the best outfit won, I didn’t really want to dress up because
we had a double show that day, so what I decided to do was backcomb my hair so it was absolutely massive, painted my face white, wore a black dress and simply acted creepy. I was so creepy that people voted for me and I won.
Have either of you been trick or treating ever?
Pete: I switch off all the lights in my house on Halloween. I don’t remember ever going trick or treating.
How do you trick or treat your partner during training?
Jowita: We buy each other coffee…
Pete: I bought you some banana bread!
Jowita: Yes, he bought me banana bread and I didn’t even ask.
Pete: I remember your family’s names and I tried to learn some Polish so that I could say hello to your brother in Polish.
Have you ever carved pumpkins?
Pete: To be honest with you, I’d make quite a good pumpkin because we have the same skin tone. Just whack a wig on it. It would be really easy to make me into a pumpkin. Pumpkin Pete.
Jowita: Yes I did, I was quite inventive. I also love pumpkin soup. Pumpkins usually have smiley faces so it would be quite easy to do Pete as there would just be a line instead.
Dr Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez
What are you genuinely scared of?
Punam: Spiders creep me out.
Gorka: I’m scared of cats. I cross the road if there’s a cat on the same road as me.
Do you believe in ghosts or paranormal?
Punam: I do believe in spirits but it’s more kind of feeling the presence of being I love that have passed. I don’t believe in ghosts lurking round dark corners.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
Punam: It’s very easy to spook me. Really dark rooms I cannot enter because I’ll just freak myself out.
Best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in?
Gorka: Strictly costume always. Nothing ever tops it. My Beetlejuice outfit (that you’ll see in the results show on Sunday!) was incredible, though it was very itchy.
Did you go trick or treating?
Punam: Yes, I go trick or treating as an adult. My whole household, including the dogs, dress up. It’s a big thing in my neighbourhood.
How would you trick your partner and how would you treat your partner?
Punam: Every day is a trick with Gorka. I’ve tricked Gorka with jump scares, but it went wrong, and I went flying through a table.
Gorka: Treats are croissants and coffee.
What are you carving into your pumpkin?
Punam: I love going to the pumpkin patch and choosing pumpkins. This year, we’re doing the Addams Family, and we compete as a family to see who can carve the best pumpkin.
Sam Quek MBE and Nikita Kuzmin
What are you genuinely scared of this Halloween?
Sam: I hate spiders. Anything really small that can get into places in a fast way without you knowing. I also don’t like to be scared. We had no curtains on our front room for a while and the thought of someone appearing at the window.
Nikita: Spiders also. There was a spider on my car the other day and I had to evacuate to get rid of it. I’m scared of rats. The ones in Italy are huge. I’m terrified of them. I hate small vegetables, small insects. I’m so scared of ants.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
Sam: I remember going to watch Paranormal Activity with the team GB Hockey Girls when it first came out. It seemed like a really good idea at the time but we all came up traumatised. My friend even ended up sleeping at my flat so we could share a bed together. It was really scary but also really funny.
What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in?
Nikita: I’ve been a gherkin before. This year I’m going to be Dobby. I’ve got great socks for the costume. I’m going to be driving from my house to the studio in the Dobby costume, so everyone can look at me driving and wonder where Dobby is going.
Sam: I’ve never gone sexy. I went as dead Lara Croft at university and also as a dead policewoman. I also did a dead NFL player.
Nikita: Me and Vito are dead NFL players this Halloween for the group number!
Did you go trick or treating as a kid?
Sam: yes, I went as a kid and with my kids now.
Nikita: I’m going for the first time this year as an adult. I missed that part of my life because I was away competing.
How would you trick and treat each other? Do you do tricks on each other?
Sam: Nikita is really easy to trick because I could just jump out from behind door.
Nikita: I’ll come for training dressed as Dobby.
Sam: Our treat is anything caffeine based.
Nikita: Coffee.
What are you carving into your pumpkin this year?
Sam: A glitterball.
Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola
What are you most scared of?
Sarah: People jumping out at me. I’m such jumpy person. Vito does it all the time and it always gets me. I can be in my own house knowing that there are other family members in the house but I’ll still get scared when they jump out at me.
Vito: I’m afraid of the dark. I have a little light that comes on at night time. I never sleep with the curtains pulled.
What’s made you the most scared on Halloween before?
Sarah: In my road where I live Halloween is massive. One year a friend bought this really simple rubber mask. I really didn’t like. It really freaked me out, even though I knew who it was. I also once went on The Saw Experience at Thorpe Park. I started crying halfway round and my friend had to drag me out. My friend thought it was hilarious. It was just terrifying, but my friend loved it.
Are you scared of ghosts or have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Vito: Since I was little I’ve always had things I can see and speak to. When I was a baby, I used to scare my mum because I would stand up in the night and be speaking to someone. The last experience I had was at home here in London. My speaker started to
make sounds and talking in the middle of the night. I froze and couldn’t move. My phone died as I went to try and record it even though it didn’t have a low battery. I recorded it on my watch for about five minutes but when I went back to listen to it there was no sound. I have this energy around me which I call Carmela. She’s always around and plays with lights.
What’s the best Halloween costume?
Sarah: The pumpkin I had on in the Strictly Halloween teaser. I absolutely loved it, it really is the stuff of dreams. I love dressing up for Halloween and that would definitely be my favourite. I think it was intended for a child.
Vito: In Italy we don’t have the Halloween culture but I remember when I was young watching Halloween films made in Hollywood and begging my mum to let me dress up so she took a white sheet and threw it on me, so I was a ghost. She made two little holes for my eyes. I enjoyed that day so much.
Did you go trick or treating as a kid?
Sarah: I didn’t as a child but I do now and, like I say, the street I live on is a massive Halloween street. I think it’s fantastic and I love it. It’s really safe and really good fun. I think most kids love dressing up so it’s exciting and fun. This year Percey (my cat) is going to dress up as a purple witch.
How do you trick and treat each other in the training room?
Sarah: I need to get it together because at the minute, I feel like it’s 10 tricks to none to Vito. Vito treats me by making me a cup of tea when I arrive at training in the morning. It’s something he’s just learned to do and he makes so much effort with it. I really, really, really appreciate it. He really critiques himself. We’re both similar in terms of food too and we’ll always share if we need to. I really like that.
Vito: It shows that I love you because I don’t share food with people if I don’t love them.
Are you into pumpkin carving?
Sarah: Pumpkin carving, I think is absolutely hazardous. It’s so risky. I’ve got all the equipment, like the special spoons but you’ve got to be so careful.
Vito: I’ve never done it in my life until last year on Strictly which was the first time in my life. I enjoyed it so much.
Sarah: I’m a very clumsy person. I’m a bit slap dash and I’m the sort of person who would chop my own finger off!
Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu
Have you had any spooky or paranormal encounters?
Shayne: One time I was staying in a pub B&B and on the door was Henry VIII. I thought I’d go straight to bed as I had an
early start, I switched off the light and was on my side. As soon as I rolled over I opened my eyes and saw a figure there. I
hadn’t even been asleep yet and it was just after 9pm, I literally looked at it and did that movie thing of rubbing your
eyes. Then I watched it walk off.
Did you go trick or treating as a kid?
Shayne: I loved trick or treating as a kid and I love it now as a kid. Now my son is old enough to go he’s going to be walking
up to all of the doors and asking for treats.
How do you trick and treat each other in training?
Nancy: once at the very beginning I was about to do an interview and he tried to prank me
Shayne: we were doing a VT and they were filming as I said to Nancy ‘how do I say I want to cry in Chinese’ and she taught me and I kept saying what she told me but every time she was laughing and I thought I just wasn’t saying it right. Then I found out I’d been saying ‘I love you.’
Nancy: He always buys me treats like blueberry muffins and I buy him coffee.
What will you be carving into your pumpkin this year?
Nancy: I’ve never done it.
Shayne: Oh we have to! I love it. I’ve done it with the kids over the years. We’ll do this together this year.
Nancy: the amazing thing about this show is that there is so many different cultures bringing things to celebrate. I knew about Halloween but I didn’t know how to celebrate it. In China we celebrate differently.
Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec
What are you genuinely scared for?
Tasha: Insects, snakes, darkness, and people wearing scary masks or with chainsaws.
Aljaž: We should have that in the corridors in the studios. I’m scared of everything really that’s supposed to scare you. I’ve never been good with scary things.
What’s the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?
Tasha: When going to a Halloween event at Tulley’s farm where they had themed houses, including clowns, and some actors could touch you. It was actually really funny. I’ll never forget that in every single room, Andrew would push me away and run off. Didn’t check on me once. He’d push me to the front! Good to know for a real life situation. Afterwards I was like “you literally gave my life away.”
Do you believe in the paranormal?
Tasha: I believe in the afterlife, but I don’t believe in scary ghosts or anything, I’ve never seen one thank goodness.
Do you have any phobias?
Tasha: Claustrophobia, especially in lifts or tight spaces full of people. I feel like I can’t breathe.
Aljaž: Going blank on Strictly is my phobia.
Best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in?
Aljaž: Day of the Dead costume for a Paso Doble. I don’t usually go scary for Halloween.
Tasha: Probably just the basic cat or devil. For Strictly Halloween I’m going to be Frankenstein’s girlfriend.
Did you go trick or treating?
Tasha: Yes, I loved trick or treating, it was the only time you can get unlimited chocolate and sweets. I didn’t care about the tricks.
Aljaž: Lyra will dress up as a bumblebee this year. Janette is very excited because we’re going to take her trick or treating.
How do you trick or treat your partner during training?
Tasha: Any chance I get, I make Aljaž jump.
Aljaž: In a nutshell, I bring Tasha croissants and chocolate, and in return she scares me.
What are you carving into your pumpkin?
Tasha: I love the smell of pumpkins. I love the feeling of the slime when you take the seeds out. I’d carve out the word ‘slay’ then put some cat ears above it.
Aljaž: You’re weird! My dad is very good at carving pumpkins, he’s very artsy. His pumpkins were always stories, he’d never do a face. Maybe this year I will try to make Tasha’s face.
Wynne Evans and Katya Jones
Do you have any phobias?
Wynne: I don’t like rides, rollercoasters and I really don’t like rats.
Katya: Me too. Rats.
Have you had any spooky or paranormal encounters?
Wynne: This morning! Katya put a temporary tattoo on my hand yesterday. She put the sticker on then you put water over it and then she took it off and there was nothing. We were like ‘oh well that hasn’t worked, has it?’ then this morning I was in the shower and the tattoo with the writing saying: ‘you are enough’ came up on my arm. I thought it was weird.
Have you ever seen a ghost or had any paranormal encounters?
Wynne: I’ve never seen a ghost.
Katya: The only thing I’ve had is when my dog died, he was a massive Great Dane and my bedroom was upstairs but downstairs is like wooden floor. She used to walk around and you’d hear her claws on the wooden floor. For months after she died I would still hear her claws on the wooden floor. I believe in some sort of energy.
Wynne: I do as well. I don’t know what I believe in. I’m open to everything. I kind of think what happens after we die but also what happens before we’re born? Who knows next?
What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever dressed up in ?
Katya: Myself.
Wynne: I’ve done the house up for kids parties, so I put like hand prints on the window and signs saying, keep out, but I’ve never got dressed up myself. I wouldn’t mind getting dressed up though.
Katya: Well, you will for Strictly Halloween! I was Alice in Wonderland on Strictly. I was also a ghost that came out of the piano. On Strictly we get to do some great fancy dress. This year might be my favourite.
How would you trick or treat each other in training?
Wynne: Katya is easily tricked with food so I reckon I could put food dye in to your tongue or teeth blue or something. As a treat, I am really into watches and she’s got a watch that has stopped so I’ll go and get it fixed.
Katya: I thought you were going to say buy a new one! Just change batteries?
Katya: I treat you a lot. I bring cakes and coffee. Tattoos with affirmations. I do the opposite, I’m like the judges are not going to be
nice to us this week because they can’t be every single week. Then we get a nine and that’s a nice treat.
Wynne: It would be nice if the judges treated us not tricked us for Halloween.
What are you carving into your pumpkin?
Wynne: I was the only person in school at 13 to fail art whereas Katya loves a craft. I’ll just make it into a soup.
The ‘wearable dwelling’ – a coat for refugees that turns into a tent | Design
Design students have created a coat for refugees that can be reconfigured into a tent or a sleeping bag big enough to hold an adult and a child. The garment, which resembles a three-quarter length puffa jacket with a hood when worn, gives fresh meaning to the term “wearable technology”.
The brief was first suggested to the Royal College of Art in London by the clothing company Wall, and is the work of 10 master’s students between the ages of 22 and 26, who intend to crowdfund production costs and begin distributing the finished product by June.
The “wearable dwelling” is made from Tyvek, which is durable but extremely light and soft, permeable to air and water vapour and also rain-repellent. It is insulated with Mylar, a polyester film material also known as “space blanket” that is commonly used by marathon runners for protection. The garment has plenty of pockets for personal items.
“Lack of adequate, watertight shelter and warm, waterproof clothing is a major issue in refugee camps across Europe,” said Ruben van den Bossche, one of the students, who believes designers have their part to play in finding solutions to the problems faced by refugees in Europe’s biggest humanitarian crisis since the second world war. More than a million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015 – a four-fold increase on the previous year.“When people are forced to flee their homes due to conflict or persecution, they often leave with only the clothes on their backs and undertake what can be very long journeys in very difficult conditions,” said a spokesperson for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
“[We are] always looking at how design and technology can be used to improve our emergency response. With the proper testing, the RCA’s concept could be an innovative way to address the need for shelter for people who have lost everything.”
But Nick Harvey, of the voluntary health organisation Doctors of the World, expressed some doubts. “This garment, while being better than nothing, does not appear suitable for the harsh weather conditions many refugees face. It’s certainly not an adequate shelter for an adult and child,” Harvey said.
“It’s great that they’re trying to help. But it’s not going to be particularly effective if the temperature is minus 10 and you’re trudging through the Balkans. It looks more suitable for festival-going or possibly even for the UK homeless.”
The marketing plan for the coat is expected to include an option for festival-goers of “buy-one-for-yourself, give-one-to-a-refugee”, while its armless design is intended to prevent the garment being uncomfortable to wear in summer.
“I know that this could seem naive and fluffy,” said Harriet Harriss, senior tutor at the RCA. “But it was born out of a sense of powerlessness to help the people pouring out of Syria. As designers, we are doing what we can with what we have.”
Half-Crazy Quilts
Yvonne Wells could have been a classic modern painter and a class act. Well, maybe just once, but a work from 1994 would be eye-catching even if it were not hanging right there over the front desk, at Fort Gansevoort through November 2.
Four rows of red squares run nearly nine feet across, set against black. Simplify, simplify, simplify, it says, not minimally but boldly. So what if each row broadens to include a mish-mash of colors and zebra patterns, and the black has a slim white border. These are her African American Squares.
Wells has a flair for stitching chaos together just long enough to keep it under control. An earlier work has an uncharacteristic lightness, with touches of color running here and there through a still lighter field. Never mind that it may yet unravel, for this is Untied Knots. Still, the two works introduce what may seem at first a welcome change for the gallery as well. It specializes in dense renderings of black and Caribbean culture, in fabric and paint, by such artists as Willie Birch, Shuvinai Ashoona, Myrlande Constant, and Dawn Williams Boyd. Eye-opening as they were, was it getting to be too much of the same?
Wells marks a turn to clarity and abstraction, or does she? She, too, uses “assorted fabrics.” as the gallery terms her medium. Tapestry and hangings serve as painting everywhere these days, so fine. Keep looking, though, and her patterns make a point of quilting, starting with the show’s earliest work, Round Quilt from 1987. She makes explicit her debt to African American craft with her latest as well, The Gee’s Bend Way. Her designs may run out of control even by that standard, too. She does, after all, have Crazy Quilt.
She weaves not just abstraction, but a way of life. That mad design includes a bare branch, a pumpkin smile, and a cross. A striped quilt holds, she says, a sprit face. Wells calls another fabric an apron. A woman’s work is never done, especially an artist’s. You can judge whether she is sincere about either one.
That sounds duly pious in the manner of much of art’s diversity. Maybe so, but another work has half a dozen Crown Royal labels—enough to get everyone drunk, whoever they be. The logo disturbs the regularity of jigsaw shapes in white while anchoring them in black. Once again, Wells is crazy but focused. Unnamed creatures enter here and there as well. When she calls one That’s Me, maybe it is.
The show does not run in anything like chronological order, but then Wells does not change all that much over time. While the choices become increasingly representational, she sticks to her guns. Still, she can seem to take the easy way out. Her abstraction does not sit still long enough to create a signature image, and representation does not settle firmly into a culture or a myth. Still, she bridges boundaries between both worlds, with a degree of skepticism about both. She also has those reds.
Read more, now in a feature-length article on this site.
Adapting through Curiosity and Connection with Debra Disman
“It isn’t just being able to create. It is being able to cope with that world to engage with that world to embrace that world.”
“I thought it was a reinvention, but I’m finding now that it was simply opening up into a new phase and bringing everything with me into that because it’s a very high-powered environment.”
“All people want the same thing. All people are concerned about being treated well, being treated with respect, being seen, and not being taken advantage of in any way.”
“You cannot underestimate the power of showing up for something on a daily basis in the studio, reaching out and, and just doing it step by step … break it down into manageable chunks.”
“You need to have that enthusiasm for yourself, whether it’s quiet and meditative and in the flow of things in the studio or whether it’s interacting with other people. You have to have that joy because otherwise, why, why are we doing this?”
Is this Banksy?: An Intimate BBC Interview Reveals More Than Just a Name
For decades, Banksy has captivated the world with provocative street art that is both enigmatic and insightful.
A BBC Radio 4 special titled “The Banksy Story” unveiled a rare audio interview with the artist, originally recorded in 2003. In this enlightening conversation, Banksy may have hinted at his true identity with a simple, yet intriguing answer – “Robbie.”
This interview delves deep into Banksy’s early exhibition, “Turf War” which became notable for its audacious display of graffitied police vehicles and a uniquely defaced portrait of Winston Churchill. Through his candid discussion, Banksy reflects on the philosophies that shape his art, emphasizing its transitory nature and his indifferent stance towards the commercial art market.
The blog post further explores Banksy’s perspective on graffiti as a form of art and vandalism, his critique of the ‘Brit Art’ movement, and his surprising reaction to his artworks’ high auction prices. Through these insights, Banksy continues to challenge societal norms and provoke thought, remaining an influential figure in both art and culture.
For a deeper exploration of Banksy’s rare interview and his impact on the art world, visit the full article here.
Artworks from the exhibition “Turf War”:
Bird and Grenade
Crude Oil Jerry
Drip Dinner
More: 24 artworks by Banksy: Who Is The Visionary of Street Art
Would you rather know Banksy’s identity or anonymously enjoy a lifetime of his art?
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A Look Inside of Lauren Rodriguez's Sketchbook
Lauren Rodriguez is a unique artist working out of Los Angeles, California in the United States. With her Behance portfolio, Rodriguez reveals her unique process of creating and experimenting with art through her sketchbook. Acting as both an exploration of her skills as an artist and a journal, Lauren Rodriguez fights a tendency to get bored with drawing the same things over and over by reflecting on and documenting her own real-world interactions/experiences in her sketchbook. The look inside that she provides with her scans are a compelling view into what makes Rodriguez an exciting artist to watch.
When you look at her sketchbook, it becomes immediately clear that Rodriguez is a fan of anime and master of the anime style. She uses this aesthetic to do her artistic journaling in full scenes that would look right at home in a book of manga. I love her entry from January 6th where she reflects on her time trying new recipes. We see a fully prepared chickpea cutlet (which received an A-plus from the artist as a meal) while a girl on the top of the page leans her head into a phone screen. Rodriguez provides a smaller scene projecting from the screen showing a game character fishing, a depiction of Rodriguez’s obsession with Stardew Valley at the time. Another entry, from July 31st, documents another great meal, coconut fried rice with edamame, frying up in a pan at the top of the page next to a list of ingredients in the dish. Underneath it is a hilarious looking cat figure in an orange ruffled shirt and party hat next to a caption saying that Rodriguez went back to the store just to buy it for an early Halloween decoration. It’s good cheeky fun, giving you wonderful insight into Rodriguez as a person while showing off her flair with inks and paint. I for one would love to see these books released as a whole, I can only imagine the fun one would have flipping through her sketchbook endlessly, learning the story of her year.
No more Mr Nice Guy: how Hugh Grant transformed himself into an edgy national treasure | Movies
This week sees the release of Heretic, Hugh Grant’s 45th feature film. Few critics would have predicted that length of career after his pouting 1982 debut in Privileged, a pretentiously shonky whodunnit featuring several of his fellow Oxford students. For the next decade he wasn’t so much a fringe actor as an actor with a floppy fringe, invariably cast as a posh, slightly foppish Englishman, doomed to be forever brushing his lustrous hair back from his finely chiselled features.
Then 12 years on everything changed with the release of Four Weddings and a Funeral. More accurately, the floppy fringe remained, but now it was employed as comedy cover for a strikingly diffident kind of romantic hero. Overnight Grant was catapulted into the realm of international fame, going on to co-star with his haircut in a series of not wildly dissimilar romcoms.
A horror film, Heretic is a world away from all that. Grant is now 64, the curtain mop is long gone and the boyish charm has matured into something far more dangerously charismatic.
He plays Mr Reed, who is driven by a provocative yet pitiless logic, and betrays more than a touch of evil. It’s not his first bad guy. He’s been flirting with villainy for a while in films like Paddington 2 and Dungeons & Dragons, not to mention his suavely ruthless Jeremy Thorpe in the much-lauded TV drama A Very English Scandal.
Mr Reed, though, occupies much darker territory. Grant said recently that the role is part of “the freak-show era” of his career. The change in direction has suited him, not least because a roguish character, as he’s made a point of saying, is closer to his own.
The stammering toff who seemed to have fallen out of an early Evelyn Waugh novel was his party piece, and it was used to brilliantly subversive effect in Roman Polanski’s Bitter Moon, which predated Four Weddings. But it was perfected for Richard Curtis and it became his go-to public persona.
As he told the New York Times: “I thought if that’s what people love so much, I’ll be that person in real life, too.”
That job grew much more challenging after his arrest in June 1995 following a brief encounter in a BMW on Sunset Boulevard with sex worker Divine Brown. His timid romantic act appeared to have been dealt a fatal blow, but Grant doubled down, dealing with the fallout in character, as it were.
The nervous young man who squirmed in the Tonight Show armchair while Jay Leno asked: “What the hell were you thinking?” managed to perform a delicate piece of image repair. In this endeavour he was ably supported by his then girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley.
With her photogenic looks and preference for well-ventilated clothing, Hurley had become a fixture in the UK press, making the couple a red-carpet dream team. The attention they drew would later have far-reaching repercussions when Grant discovered what press intrusion really entailed.
The sordid sex crisis deftly negotiated, Grant’s star continued to rise in a trio of Curtis-scripted films: Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually.
It was in the middle one, in which he played the caddish Daniel Cleaver, that Grant began to grow as a comedic actor, famously ad-libbing some of the film’s best lines. Next year he reprises Cleaver in the fourth Bridget Jones film, Mad About the Boy.
“I think he did feel apprehension about stepping out of that floppy, tongue-tied English character,” recalls Bridget Jones’s Diary director Sharon Maguire. “I remember him being really pleasantly surprised and relieved the first time he saw the movie at the New York premiere … and only a teensy bit jealous that Colin Firth got just as many laughs.”
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The making of that film coincided, roughly, with his breakup with Hurley. There followed a prolonged period of intermittent dating and an ever-more fractious relationship with the tabloids. The key text of this period is About A Boy, in which he plays a man in flight from romantic commitment. Grant acknowledged that he put a lot of himself into the role.
Yet suddenly, in his 50s, the confirmed bachelor contrived to father two children who are now 13 and 11 with the actor Tinglan Hong, and in between a son with Swedish TV producer Anna Eberstein, with whom he had two more children and to whom he has been married for six years.
Grant, whose father was an ex-army officer who worked in the carpet business and mother a French teacher, had originally wanted to be a writer. Although he more or less fell into acting, he’d always been a performer. Old schoolmates at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, West London, still talk of his mesmerising recital of Eliot’s The Waste Land.
But without formal drama training or a background in the theatre, Grant, even by the neurotic standards of most actors, nurtured a deep streak of professional insecurity – he has complained of being paralysed by panic attacks when filming.
“I got the strong impression,” says Maguire, “that Hugh was filled with loathing at his own acting and yet he was hugely conscientious about the process of acting, a perfectionist who often contributed gold in terms of the comedy and authenticity of a scene.” His exacting approach to work has not always won him friends on set. Robert Downey Jr called him a “jerk” after they made Restoration together in 1995. And Jerry Seinfeld, who directed him in Unfrosted, was only half-joking when, earlier this year, he described Grant as “a pain in the ass to work with”.
For all his self-criticism – he’s said that people were rightly “repelled” by his stumbling Englishman character – Grant also knows his own worth, not just financially but also in terms of industry longevity and position. The man who appears nowadays on talk shows with his well-honed anecdotes and waspish self-deprecation is a supremely confident veteran of the business of selling himself.
There’s also an added steeliness, a disinclination to suffer fools, that has been sharpened in the legal battles waged since he learned that his phone had been hacked by the now defunct News of the World. A leading figure in Hacked Off, the campaign group that seeks reform of press self-regulation, Grant settled a lawsuit with the Sun this year, having accused the paper of hiring a private investigator to break into his flat and bug him.
He said on X that he would have liked to go to court, but if he’d been awarded damages that were less than the settlement offer “I would have to pay the legal costs of both sides”, which he said could be as much as £10m, adding: “I’m afraid I am shying at the fence.”
Taking on Rupert Murdoch is one thing, but Grant is also not averse to showing his tetchier side to those lower down the media ladder. Last year his stilted interview with model Ashley Graham on the Oscars red carpet inspired almost as much condemnatory newsprint as his other Hollywood interaction three decades earlier with the unfortunate Brown.
When asked what he thought of the event, he compared it to Vanity Fair. He meant the Thackery novel, but Graham assumed it was the magazine after-party. The conversation only went downhill from there. Grant was derided as a snob and self-important, though it’s fair to say that some of his fanfare-deflating drollery was lost in cultural translation.
Then again, maybe he wasn’t just bored with banality but instead, with one eye on his career, he was establishing his new edge in the public imagination. With Grant it’s impossible to know. His real motivations and character are buried beneath geological layers of artifice, irony and a highly developed celebrity defence system.
He could probably write a wonderfully scabrous exposé of the film world and himself in the tradition of David Niven and Rupert Everett, but it’s far more likely he’ll concentrate on the job in hand: gradually occupying the position of a national treasure.
Web designers: tiny ‘peacock spiders’ depicted in all their glory – in pictures | Art and design
Australian Maratus spiders, which measure 3-5mm, are known as “peacock spiders” because of the extravagant colourings they display during courtship rituals and combat. Sydney-based artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso became fascinated with the tiny spiders, which she has depicted in the series Spiders of Paradise, in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Together with scientific imager Geoff Thompson and Queensland Museum entomologist Andy Wang, she created composite images of their distinctive patterns using more than 1,000 source photographs for each species. “They’re cute, they’re exclusively Australian,” says Cardoso of the spiders. “They’re incredibly expressive and very flirtatious. The male wants to get all the attention of the female, like birds of paradise.”