How the Christmas royal broadcast evolved – from the first reluctant monarch to an enduring queen and a new king: On Christmas Day, many in the UK will pause their festivities at 3pm to watch King Charles give his Christmas message – his second since his mother, Queen Elizabeth, died in September 2022. The century-long …
The enduring wartime spirit that powers classic Christmas songs: Eighty years ago this week, Judy Garland walked into an MGM studio and recorded Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas for the first time. It was written for the musical Meet Me in St Louis (1944), only part of which is set at Christmas – but …
An X-Files expert on the show’s enduring appeal – 30 years on: On September 10 1993 the pilot episode of The X-Files aired. Thirty years later to the day, I was at a convention centre in Minneapolis with 500 other fans and the show’s creator, Chris Carter, celebrating its legacy. Ostensibly a show about aliens, …
Basic Instinct at 30: the enduring appeal of the defiant femme fatale: Basic Instinct TriStar Pictures Sexy, glamorous and provocative, Basic Instinct was one of the most notorious films of the 1990s. It broke new ground for its shocking portrayal of on-screen nudity (galvanised by its famous leg-crossing interrogation scene) despite delivering a plot full …
Ola Rotimi: the enduring influence of a Nigerian theatre giant: Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi on one of his stage sets. Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images Twenty years after his death, the Nigerian dramatist Ola Rotimi is attracting renewed interest. San Diego State University hosted a webinar in April 2021 where the affection and reverence …
South Africa in the news: How the Queen and Prince Philip’s enduring love story captured the heart of a nation: Since he first met young Princess Elizabeth on a tennis court in 1939, the Duke has been her ‘strength and stay all these years’ …: “South Africa” – BingNews ‘Vaccine grabbing’ seen fueling risk of …
Robinson Crusoe 300 years on: Defoe’s unreliable narrative set up enduring colonial myths: Currier and Ives 1875 print of Robinson Crusoe and his companion Friday. Everett Historical via Shutterstock A major new series on 100 Novels that Shaped Our World has been launched in the UK by the BBC. The wide-ranging journey through English literary …
I love Volgograd: the enduring wartime relationship with one British city: shutterstock In 1944, Stalingrad (as Volgograd was called until 1961) and the British city of Coventry became the first Anglo-Soviet twin cities. Volgograd has a Coventry Street and Coventry has a Volgograd Place. And, as the England team get set to play their opening …
Masire: the president who left Botswana and the world an enduring legacy: Former president of Boswana Ketumile Masire Reuters In the Western press, the legacies of African leaders tend to hinge on their respect for term limits, property rights, and fiscal restraint. Since his death in June 2017, the late Quett Ketumile Masire, Botswana’s former …
Why Spike Lee’s 25th Hour is the most enduring film about 9/11: Melpomene via Shutterstock The most enduring cinematic representation of 9/11 was not originally meant to be about the World Trade Centre attacks at all. Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, released in 2002, was mostly shot during the summer of 2001 and was reworked following …
Barack Obama: an enduring legacy for advocates of democracy in Africa?: Reuters/Tiksa Neger American President Donald Trump’s February 13 calls to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma are his first signals of interest in sub-Sahara Africa. Trump reportedly raised two US priorities: terrorism and trade. We don’t know if his counterparts found …