Friday 06.10.17 12A friends Are

electric? electric? to behuman and what it means the new dystopia Blade Runner 2049, human In 10easysteps! Saving Tom Cruise Brexit stageleft Kristin Scott Thomas AKA SanandaMaitreya Terence Trent D’Arby Seagal vForeman Marina Hyde

Lost in Showbiz

George Foreman fi ghting Steven Seagal in Las Vegas would be the cultural event our troubled times sorely need

By Marina Hyde

t has become a clich e of the George Foreman because he was demoted to chef after inventor and blues guitarist . Ditto the era to say we are getting what fi ghts Steven a bungled special forces operation to headlines he drew for his stint as an I we deserve. We get the politi- Seagal in our take out General Noriega. Arizona border-control guard – as part cians we deserve, we get the fevered But at this stage, whe n Seagal of the “posse” of recently pardoned presidents we deserve, we get imaginings; has pointedly yet to respond and horror sheriff Joe Arpaio – following the world we deserve. Without getting (facing page) everything still seems possible, which Seagal was accused of killing overly L’Oreal advert about it all, surely Sylvester let’s get down to the background. a puppy during a raid on a house. we deserve a respite from these just Stallone in A few days ago, former two-time (“Animal abuser is a role I will not des erts? Can’t something hilarious Rocky Balboa heavyweight champion of the world accept,” ran a rebuttal that primarily and magical come along that we can and noted countertop grill retailer reminded completists like me of all the all welcome with open arms, realising George Foreman took to Twitter to roles he has accepted. Some of the later that we are, without question, getting issue a challenge to cinema’s Steven performances are arguably on a par the thing that we deserve – and that it Seagal . As all of us adrift on the strange with canicide.) is good? tides of early 21st-century culture And of course there is more – so Yes. Yes it can. George Foreman has should know, Seagal is something of much more. Just when you think you challenged Steven Seagal to a proper a renaissance man himself, combining know him, Seagal unfurls himself fi ght . This is the cultural event that age-inappropriate, straight-to- gif in another direction. Crimea expert. should have you telling yourself action roles with functioning both Ukrainian national security threat. “because I’m worth it”. Clearly, the as a hench-sensei/fat best friend Aikido trainer to the Serbian special best time to enjoy it is at this dare-to- to Vladimir Putin, and as an occa- forces. Like a series of lotus blossoms, dream stage because I sense that one of sional spokesmodel for the Russian his career decisions constantly rise the parties may ultimately decide the arms industry . above the shitty waters in which they bout can’t go ahead. Maybe because That is not the half of it, although germinated. And then they die and he’s too good. Maybe because he’s space constraints mean we must rot away again, and it all really stinks afraid of hurting the other guy. Maybe gloss over his stint as an energy drink somehow much, much worse than it

2 The Guardian 06.10.17 On the web Take part in these important debates theguardian.com/lostinshowbiz

did before. But I think the message is “How did this guy get into motion the eternal cycle, or something. pictures?”, you may like to know that Anyhow, on to Foreman’s challenge, he used to train legendary former Crea- which may or may not be provoked tive Artists Agency overlord Michael by Seagal’s recent outburst on Good Ovitz. Seagal’s stardom is largely down Morning Britain . Beamed in from to the fact that Ovitz couldn’t have Moscow, where he now lives, he raged a single second of the day where he about US athletes taking the knee in wasn’t packaging some kind of deal, protest , declaring: “I myself have risked including at 5am or whatever ungodly my life countless times for the American hour he was shouting “judo CHOP!” at fl ag.” Mmm. As a young Katherine Heigl Steven, probably in some Beverly Hills reveals in Under Siege 2: Dark Terri- aerobics studio where the part of “the tory: “Uncle Casey’s got medals at home Far East” was played by a silver bell and that are so secret he can never show three jossticks. A star was born – and the them to anybody.” No doubt, no doubt. rest, as they say, is history. Seagal certainly has a purple heart in Seagal has a Seagal, with both of them clocking in It’s certainly in the past, anyway, with dismissing domestic abuse lawsuits. seventh dan a little older than the age that Rocky Seagal’s activities these days confi ned to Shortly after this well-publicised got back into the ring in Rocky Balboa. touring Russian schools and arms fairs rant, and indeed after the mass black belt Which was pretend. with Putin, cheerleading for Trump and shooting in Las Vegas, Foreman in aikido Weight? Look ... I’m not sure we explaining impatiently to western media tweeted: “Steven Seagal, I challenge and a 10th dare speculate here. George’s grill obvi- that all governments dick around with you, one on one. I use boxing, you can ously indicates an interest in retaining other countries’ elections (I paraphrase use whatever. 10 rounds in Vegas.” dan in lean muscle, while in his DVD outings, slightly). Foreman’s history is a little Well. I think you’ll agree those few making it Seagal is mostly shot in shadow so dark more ... well, seriously historical. characters contain multitudes, but the sound like it makes Marlon Brando’s lair in Apoca- Still, there you have it. Think of big-fi ght trash talk has been formally lypse Now look striplit. the buildup. Think of the training opened with that “you can use what- he was In terms of other liabilities, Seagal’s montages. Think of the press confer- ever”. As students of Seagal’s work will given his widow’s peak is now being compre- ences. Think of the undercard (prefer- know, Steven has a seventh dan black powers by hensively out-acted by even John ence: Holyfi eld-Van Damme). Think of belt in aikido, and a 10th dan in making Travolta’s, and he may be terrifi ed the ponytail lumbering for the hills. it sound like he was given his powers the Buddha of experiencing something of what It’s not going to happen in Vegas, but by Buddha at a mountain rendezvous Andre Agassi went through during the perhaps some ambitious dictator might in Nepal, sometime between the 1990 French Open fi nal. As the tennis oblige and stage it, as Mobutu Sese mid-Mahajanapada era and the North star later revealed, there’d been some Seko did for the Rumble in the Jungle? American theatrical release of Above kind of toupee malfunction the night Perhaps Putin could use it as a World the Law . He has spent a lifetime talking before, resulting in him squaring up to Cup curtain-raiser next year? After up his “whatever”, while always Andrés Gómez with it held together by all, Seagal now seems a wholly owned remaining suffi ciently adaptable to paperclips, and being so worried about subsidiary of the Russian state, rather improvise a weapon from a bar towel, his rug coming off that he lost. like Ivan Drago, and could be introduced microwave or Native American some- On the plus side, Seagal is a sort as fi ghting out of his home town of thing-or-other. To hear this art form of demigod, having been formally Moscow. That might swing the scales in – the sweet pseudoscience – dismissed declared a tulku (a reincarnated lama) his favour (probably literally). Though as “whatever” by Foreman will surely by the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism. this would obviously be a contest less send him up the wall. That may come with powers of which morally shaded than even Rocky IV. As Where better to settle this than the we are as yet unaware. for the name of this epochal meeting, ring? While Seagal desperately tries He is, however, slightly less known it should be thrown open to all of us to come up with credible and face- for actual fi ghting than George prospective pay-per-viewers. I’ll start saving answers to that question – and Foreman. Seagal’s martial artistry was the ball rolling with the Oh-No in the Foreman continues to goad him – we only brought to a wider audience by his Dojo and the Twatting on the Matting, should consider the tale of the tape. At most famous client. Yes, if you’ve ever and invite further suggestions at your 68, Foreman is three years older than watched a Seagal movie and wondered earliest convenience. GETTY/GUARDIAN DESIGN; ALLSTAR DESIGN; GETTY/GUARDIAN SONY PICTURES PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS COVER COVER

06.10.17 The Guardian 3 n the face of it, dystopian movies are the hardest sell in cinema. Who O wants to see a fi lm telling you that everything goes wrong and we all live miserably ever after? But increasingly, it seems, that is what we want to see, looking at recent hit sagas such as The Hunger Games, Planet of the Apes , Divergent and now a Blade Runner sequel . The pill has to be sugared with spectacle and romance, but dystopian futures perform a function. They are the canary in humanity’s coal mine. They show us where we are going off -course and what we are afraid of – not in the future, but in the present. In the same way we are doomed to repeat history if we don’t understand it, perhaps we are doomed to end up eating each other if we don’t make Soylent Green . Few people wanted to hear what the original Blade Runner had to say in 1982. The economy was beginning to come out of recession and Ronald Reagan was preparing to announce it was morning in America, but Blade Runner gave us a world where everything that could go wrong had gone wrong: environmental degradation, pollution, urban sprawl, corporate dominance, technology run amok – it’s the sum of all dystopias. No wonder audiences preferred the upbeat embrace of Spielberg’s ET. But where most sci-fi movies quickly date, Blade Runner has improved with age. Of course, it was always a fantastic ride, superbly detailed and steeped in neo-noir atmospherics, but its deep, troubling ideas about technology, humanity and identity chimed with postmodern and cyberpunk theory, and launched a thousand PhD theses. One of the few student lectures I can remember was about the French theorist Jean Baudrillard , orders of simulacra, and how nothing is really real any more. In a down-with-the-kids gesture, the lecturer stood behind a TV monitor playing a muted video of Blade Runner. “You’ll probably get more out of watching this than you will by listen- ing to me,” she said. She was right. Deciphering Baudrillard’s arcane prose is like wading through treacle; Blade Runner is a ride you don’t want to get off . And, against all odds, its belated follow-up, Blade Runner 2049, carries the baton brilliantly, both in terms of visual spectacle and fi nishing the debates the fi rst movie began. Between the two movies and Philip K Dick’s source novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric From Metropolis to The Matrix, the best Sheep?, Blade Runner serves as a record of how our dystopian fears have evolved over the past dystopian science fi ction fi lms hold up a mirror half-century. When Dick wrote the story, in 1968, to the age in which they were made. So what can he was thinking of the dehumanising process of nazism. His “replicants” (artifi cially engineered we learn about the future of humanity from humans with a four-year lifespan) were “essen- tially less-than-human entities”, Dick stated. They Blade Runner 2049, asks Steve Rose were “deplorable because they are heartless, they are completely self-centred, they don’t care about what happens to other creatures”. Ridley Scott’s fi lm turned it around, somewhat. Visions of the future: Harrison Ford Far from being a deplorable, heartless machine, in Blade Runner(above) and ;Ryan a street Gosling scene in the sequel Rutger Hauer’s chief replicant, supposedly the from the new film baddie, develops empathy for the cop trying to

4 The Guardian 06.10.17 kill him. Replicants were the superior beings. “More human than human,” as their manufacturer, Eldon Tyrell, puts it. Apart from the four-year lifespan, what was the diff erence? This was the part Baudrillard and co were so keen to engage with: what was “real” when the copy was better than the original? “The real is not only what can be reproduced but that which is always already reproduced . The hyper-real,” wrote Baudrillard. Human status was no longer a matter of biological or genetic fact. You couldn’t trust your memories either – they could just be implants. So how do any of us know we are human? These are realms where Hollywood sci-fi does not often venture – although HBO’s Westworld did a fi ne job of it on TV last year. They are far down the road from movies about dangerous technology, or artifi cial intelligence or malevolent cyborgs, or even space travel. We are talking beyond the fi nal frontier. But Blade Runner also added some very 1980s fears into the mix. Corporate power, for example, which had taken over from democratic govern- ment entirely. The threat of foreign economic powers overtaking the US also fed into Blade Runner’s melting-pot, multi lingual Los Angeles, particularly Japan, which was then buying up chunks of the US, including Hollywood studios (a few years later, Scott would make the Japan- phobic thriller Black Rain ). Fear of nuclear annihi- lation was also high in the 1980s, but if it hasn’t happened already in Blade Runner, it might as well have done. Anyone who could leave this barren planet has already done so. If we could go with them, we would be in a wondrous, intergalactic space adventure such as Star Trek or Guardians of the Galaxy. Instead, we are stuck down here with the dregs of humanity. Thirty-fi ve years on, many of those 1980s anxieties are ships that have sailed. Corporate infl uence has crept so far into politics that we accept it as the status quo. Foreign fi nancial powers have encroached to the extent that Blade Runner 2049 is brought to you by Sony (as the product placement constantly reminds you). Nuclear annihilation? The cold war thawed out soon after, though the North Korea situation is threatening to bring it back. We have got a new set of fears to feed into the dystopian machine now, and Blade Runner 2049 seems to have processed them. For a start, there is the fear of social relations in the digital age. Build- ing on the fi rst movie’s city planning, L os Angeles has become an even vaster metropolis here: a neon-lit, high-rise favela, crammed with people but starved of social interaction. The fl ying cars and giant holograms might be futuristic, but the vision of lonely, atomised urban life is familiar. Our new hero is a replicant cop named K, played

ALLSTAR/WARNER BROS; AP; ALAMY ALLSTAR/WARNER by Ryan Gosling. He has no friends, partner or family. His only real companion is Joi (played by Ana de Armas ), a holographic girlfriend beamed into his cell-like apartment, who can switch → PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS from compliant housewife to sexy vamp in a

06.10.17 The Guardian 5 Brave new worlds Five great movie dystopias

fl icker. (This might be in the mid-21st seeks to keep out the descendants of those off ← century but gender politics haven’t much Metropolis (1927) whose backs it was built, or in a US where moved on since the 19th – the city seems entirely The perils of modern slavery and segregation are relatively recent geared towards pornifi ed male sexual desire, society were all present memories, which must be hammered down which seems odd when replicants can’t repro- in Fritz Lang’s epic, every time they resurface in the form of a made 90 years ago: duce anyway.) If K had seen Spike Jonze’s Her, Black Lives Matter protest. dehumanising he might realise his personalised dream girl is technology, corporate As K goes about his investigations, we see actually a mass-produced app who is probably control, inequality, more uncomfortable hints of a slave society simultaneously dating 50,000 other lonely cyborgs, capital v supposedly taking place 30 years hence: silos guys around the city, but he doesn’t get out labour. Hugely of child labourers dismantling discarded that much. Nor does anyone else, it seems. ambitious for its time, electronic circuitry; scavengers living on giant And yet K’s relationship with Joi is the it set the tone for all scrapyards of rusting metal; female sex workers most sincere and romantic in the movie. that followed – not on the streets; a “protein farmer” eking out a least Blade Runner. Without wishing to give too much away, they miserable existence in the mud. We even see participate in one of the most bizarre sex a cleaner at one point – possibly the fi rst one Brazil (1985) scenes ever fi lmed – somewhere between VR Three years after Blade ever to be spotted in a Hollywood sci-fi movie. pornography and the dance scene in Ghost – Runner, Terry Gilliam This is our world, happening now. that leaves you more confused than aroused. gave us a wondrously Gosling’s K is by no means reduced to a social But he tells her he loves her, and we believe bleak future, mercifully justice warrior of the future, but the theme of him. He isn’t “human”; she isn’t even non- played for laughs. This enslavement has been strong in recent dystopian human. All that’s real is the love. is Orwell’s Nineteen movies. In The Hunger Games, we identify with Eighty-Four as black It is no longer possible to gauge who is the oppressed rural peasants presided over by comedy – a world human or not any more in Blade Runner 2049, choked by crippling the wealthy Capitol, just as we side with the but it still matters. There is no four-year bureaucracy, subservient androids in HBO’s Westworld, and lifespan for replicants any more, and no totalitarian control, the persecuted primates in the recent Planet Voight-Kampff test – the memorable interview bad cosmetic surgery of the Apes saga, the slum-dwelling aliens in process we saw in the fi rst movie, which de- and crap technology. District 9 , and the “so enslaved they don’t tected replicants by monitoring their eyes in even realise it” humans of The Matrix. response to emotive questioning. In its place, The Matrix (1999) Many of these stories nostalgically cling K has to recalibrate himself after each assign- Cutting-edge special to an “original” state that its oppressed effects and postmodern ment by repeating a series of words barked at philosophy combined peoples are fi ghting to regain. In the case of him by a faceless machine. Compared to the to give us a dazzling The Matrix, that turned out to be a Burning personal touch of the Voight-Kampff test, dystopia for the digital Man-style rave that was less appealing than this is closer to scanning the alignment page age, whose suggestion the virtual reality they were already in. In on your printer. One of the few things that that we are living in the recent Ghost in the Shell remake, Scarlett still distinguishes the replicants from a computer simulation Johansson’s cyborg cop retraced her “original” humans is their inability to reproduce. has yet to be disproved. self, whereas its anime predecessor leapt Shame about the They are second-class citizens in the eyes of into a post-human unknown. But the boldest sequels. (presumed) humans such as K’s police chief, of them come to the same conclusions as played by Robin Wright. WALL-E (2008) Blade Runner: that humanity is no longer the “There is an order to things,” Wright tells K. Possibly the grimmest exclusive preserve of humans. Apes or cyborgs “The world is built on a wall that separates dystopia committed to or replicants might be better at being human kind. Tell either side there’s no wall, you’ve film: a barren Earth than us, and that’s OK. bought a war … or a slaughter.” Could she have habitable only by Beyond the Baudrillardian philosophising been watching old Trump rallies? The heavily robots, while obese about “how do we know we’re human?”, Blade humans waddle about policed boundary in Blade Runner 2049 is less Runner 2049 asks what it means to be human, on an endless space about humans and non-humans than haves cruise. Incredibly, and it boldly ventures some suggestions. It is and have-nots – again, a problem that the Pixar managed to the ability to form connections, to empathise present day is all too familiar with. make it a charming, with others, to love, to have values. It is also As before, replicants are essentially mass- heartwarming, family- the will to act, to resist, to fi ght for those values. produced slave labour for the privileged. friendly animation. “Dying for the right cause is the most human “Every great civilisation was built off the back thing you can do,” says one character. It’s a of a disposable work force,” says Jared Leto’s The Hunger Games call to revolution. Not tomorrow but now. replicant-manufacturing CEO. The statement (2012-2015) is arguably no less true in 2017 than it will be Updating the dystopian death games of Running in 2049, but we don’t talk about it much, either Ford and Gosling in a scene Man, Rollerball and from Blade Runner 2049 in our wealthy, post-colonial Europe that Battle Royale, the smash hit, based on Suzanne ColCollins’slin books, threw We’ve got new fears too JenniferJenn Lawrence into televisedtele gladiatorial feed into the dystopianan battlesbatt at the behest of ddecadent imperial machine – starting oppressors.opp Her bleak prepredicament chimed with social relations withwi young audiences anand spawned in the digital age three sequels.th

6 The Guardian 06.10.17

reluctantly, he cites Jack Nicholson In 1987, Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut album saw and Princess Diana as examples of him hailed as a rival to Michael Jackson and Prince – celebrities “whose patronage I was humbled to receive”. but then his star crashed and burned. He talks to “I moved some people in high places,” he cautiously allows, aware Paul Lester about the nervous breakdown that made that hubris was one of the things that did for him fi rst time round. him become Sananda Maitreya – and the music As a coping strategy, he imagines his industry’s ‘Olympian’ conspiracy to destroyy hihimm rapid rise, and vertiginous descent, as a matrix of conspiracy theory and quasi- mythology (his latest album – a triple – is titled Prometheus & Pandora ). ‘I didn’t After the relative failure of his second album, 1989’s Neither Fish Nor Flesh, D’Arby was eff ectively and unceremo- niously “tossed off the mountain”. change my More expansive (and less tuneful) than his debut, critics viewed it as simple artistic overreach, while the public largely concurred: it shifted a fraction name to be of the sales of its predecessor. As Maitreya understands it, there just wasn’t enough room for another black superstar operating in the realm clever. It was of poppy, soulful R&B, especially one as resistant to racial narrowcasting as he was and is (the vest he is wear- ing today pointedly bears the legend that or death’ “Rock Star”). It was, he says, a “lim- ited plinth”, and either he, Prince or Michael Jackson had to vacate. “Me and Master Michael [Jackson] had to play out the Apollo/Mercury scenario: him being the entrenched god, me being the upstart who basi- hen Sananda Maitreya (PTSD). “I guess I stayed away because cally got sacked as a service to Apollo,” references his previ- I didn’t want to face it. The PTSD can he says. Part of “a continuum of art- W ous life as Terence strike at any time and you have to deal ists who carried the baton for as long Trent D’Arby, he looks with it. I can’t blame drugs, I can’t as they could before they were killed, uncomfortable. He blame alcohol. The dude didn’t just physically or psychologically”, he was, even says “he”, not “I”, as though he is change his name to be clever. It was he says, “crucifi ed”. By whom? talking about a diff erent person. that or death.” “I happen to know there were a “You know, I had no choice,” he Thirty years ago, D’Arby, an Ameri- couple of people in very, very high explains. He is sitting in the intense can of Scots-Irish “hillbilly” and Native places in the establishment who, like afternoon heat on the upper terrace American parentage who spent time in Zeus, were kind of amused at my of an apartment in central Milan, the army in Germany before launching little routine,” he proclaims. “And it where he has lived for several years his career in London, was the toast of was working. Everybody was cashing with his Italian wife, the architect and Britain. Androgynously beautiful and in and happy as fuck. But,” he adds, former television presenter Francesca sexually magnetic, he was a singer-song- switching once more to the third Francone, and their two young sons. writer and multi-instrumentalist who person to discuss himself as D’Arby, “People ask: ‘Why did you change your modell ed himself on Muhammad Ali, a “behind his back, more and more A- name?’ When you have a psyche that’s quote machine who declared himself a list stars were complaining about the no longer functional, you petition genius without too much prompting. attention he was getting. The other another psyche. You either die – you His debut album of sweetly rasping gods on Olympus were sending their kill yourself – or you think: ‘No, I’ve got vocals and catchy rock’n’soul, Intro- managers to ask: ‘What’s going on?’ more to do.’ ducing The Hardline According To The establishment had to do some- “I was always Sananda Maitreya,” Terence Trent D’Arby, sold 1m copies in thing about it because it couldn’t have he continues, “and he [D’Arby] was three days in the UK, spent nine weeks all the gods angry.” assigned the role of this other form, at No 1 over the next eight months, Androgynously Whether Maitreya has constructed which he performed until they pulled and 45 weeks in the Top 40. There beautiful and this meta-narrative to keep himself the plug on him. They didn’t pull the were ubiquitous hit singles – Sign Your sexually sane, or to rationalise his decline plug on Sananda; they pulled the plug Name , Wishing Well , If You Let Me Stay magnetic … and fall without implicating himself on that particular script and psyche.” – enabling D’Arby to assume his posi- D’Arby in his late artistically, isn’t clear. But he certainly

He sighs wearily. tion on “Mount Olympus” (his phrase) 80s heyday stands by it. Asked whether he truly NATKIN MICHELA ZIZZARI; PAUL SHEILA ROCK/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; “I don’t do many interviews,” he next to the biggest stars of the day. He (above and top believes he was manoeuvred out of the admits, describing the eff ects of his received the approbation of everyone right) and as music business at the behest of several ordeal in the music business in terms from Miles Davis to Mick Jagger and Sananda internationally famous musicians (or,

of post-traumatic stress disorder mixed in the most rarefi ed circles: Maitreya today at least, their record company: he, PHOTOGRAPHS

8 The Guardian 06.10.17 Angeles, holed up in a mansion on Sunset Boulevard, living the life of a tormented recluse. Although his albums Symphony Or Damn (1993) and Vibrator (1995) had enjoyed a modicum of success, there was a sense of yes- terday’s man about D’Arby, while the motormouth baton had been passed to a pair of Beatles buff s with equally massive self-belief. “When they broke huge I felt like: oh, shit, they’re living my script,” he says of Noel and Liam Gallagher (the latter is alleged to have taken the name for his pre-Oasis band, The Rain, from a track on Introducing The Hardline …). “Was I jealous? It wasn’t a jealousy thing. It was more a loss – you can never have another beginning.” Which was the more perilous time: late-80s London, when he was scal- ing the heights, or mid-90s LA when he was dejected and alone? He pauses before replying. “London was emo- tionally more perilous,” he says, fi nally. “Los Angeles was more instinctively perilous. The system is very well regu- ‘I cheated death lated in LA. It’s designed to disconnect you from whatever your idea of your- half a dozen times self is. If you’re among devils and they realise you’re not a devil like they are, in LA. I had my there’s gonna be some great discom- fort. LA is defi nitely one of the out- house set on fi re posts of Mount Olympus. They weed while I was in it’ out anyone who might be a threat.” After talking in riddles, he adds JacksonJackso and, for that matter, George more explicitly: “I think I cheated MichMichaela were all on CBS), he replies: “I death half a dozen times while I was wwasas a political sacrifi ce. This isn’t my there.” Care to elucidate? “I had my ttheory.heor I’m telling you.” house set on fi re while I was in it,” he MaitreyaMa was born as Terence Trent recalls with disarming nonchalance. HowHowarda in Manhattan in March 1962. The next day, in a series of detailed He lalatert took his stepfather Reverend (and high-fl own) emails responding JJBB Darby’sDa surname, adding his own to specifi c points arising during the apapostropheost . But his creative birth came interview, Maitreya elaborates: “It 18 yearsyea later, during a dream that he felt as though I was living in someone hhadad ono the night John Lennon was else’s dream that had become a night- mmurdered.urd “I had a premonition,” he mare. My 12 years in Los Angeles were rerecalls.call “I was on a street corner in New HELL! But I was sent to study hell and York, and I saw him coming towards to learn as much from it as I could mme.e. AAs he did, he had his hand out because there is no other place like hell and seemedse to recognise me. Then he for a full and complete education.” disappeareddisapp into me.” D’Arby’s sojourn in Hades wasn’t FFromr that point on, he could feel pharmacologically enhanced: “Pot is hhimselfim galvanised by the spirit of the only thing I’ve been drawn to,” he tthehe late Beatle. Seven years later, he says. “I certainly did ecstasy back in wouldw proclaim Introducing The the day, and I liked mushrooms, but I HardlineH According To … as the was never really drawn to heavy drugs greatestg pop LP since Sgt Pepper. like heroin or cocaine.” But he did suf- Maitreya has pinpointed the fer a complete mental breakdown, one moment of his “death” as D’Arby that necessitated a full-scale regenera- as 1989, following the disastrous tion as Sananda Maitreya. rreception to Neither Fish Nor Does he ever wonder whether he FlFleshe . He would have been another might have avoided many of his trou- 227-year-old7-ye inductee to that notorious bles by simply recording Introducing “stup“stupid club” alongside Kurt Cobain, The Hardline … Volume 2? “No,” he JJimiimi HHendrix, Brian Jones and others . says. “More than likely that would have ThThat was the time he found him- accelerated my death.” self, hhaving fl ed London for Los Not that his rebirth as Maitreya →

06.10.17 The Guardian 9 has created a benign version of are no longer here. “That none of my ← D’Arby. His new surname has colleagues survived?” Buddhist connotations, but this isn’t Prometheus & Pandora is actually Cat Stevens morphing into Yusuf his eighth album as Maitreya, although Islam . “The brusque, bold, audacious there does seem to be a greater keen- fucker – that was me,” he says, but he ness to push this one. Does he want to still is, even if the old energy goes in be back in the fray? “I didn’t make this diff erent directions. album to be back in the fray,” he re- The new album, Prometheus & torts. “I still have Madonna’s number. Pandora, is a 53-track smorgasbord of ‘I was sent to study I can still call her and go: ‘What’s up, rock, funk, soul, jazz and psych, “writ- hell. There is no bitch? What’s going on?’” As his emails ten, arranged, produced, performed attest, “bitch” is a catchall for associ- & conceived by Sananda Maitreya”, as place like hell for a ates, male and female. Not that he’s the credits boast, and released on his overly preoccupied with what people own label. It might go lyrically off -piste full and complete think these days. When I ask whether to accommodate his grand allegorical he thinks his new music is, lyrically, vision, but as Maitreya insists: “These education’ too esoteric for mass consumption, myths and legends continue to resonate he answers, “Maybe it’s not meant for inside all of us.” And besides, it’s not all laughs. “It’s just a song,” she says, in- mass consumption.” Touché. godlike: there’s even a track, from the dicating her husband’s priapic prowess “I don’t have to worry about what the former sexual supremacist, about impo- and the continued functioning of his average record company person thinks tence, called Limp Dick Blues. organs. “All of it works.” because I am the record company per- “There you go,” he says. “When Witty, waspish, a former trainee ‘I moved some son,” Maitreya says. “I’m not asking for was the last time you heard a pop idol journalist who knows the value of a people in high any bitch’s permission to be what I am. admit that they were having dysfunc- self-aggrandising (or self-deprecating) places’ … God has blessed me with a good life, tional issues? ” bon mot: he has been much missed. partying with despite all the shit. I’m not begging on His hospitable wife, who has been Has he missed us? “Do I miss being on Helena the street. There’s no excuse for me not listening into most of the three-hour the mountain?” he inquires of Olym- Christensen to just fucking go for it. None!” interview, in between supplying us pus and its inhabitants, many of whom and Michael Prometheus & Pandora is released by with drinks and lunch, winks then (Jackson, Prince, George Michael) Hutchence, 1993 Treehouse on 13 October ERIC ROBERT/SYGMA VIA GETTY ERIC ROBERT/SYGMA PHOTOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPH

10 The Guardian 06.10.17 Detroit post-punks Protomartyr Motor lay bare their city’s corruption and lies, but don’t ask them to make bland protests about Trump, City they tell four Lanre Bakare

Protomartyr (from left): Scott Davidson, Alex Leonard, Greg Ahee and Joe Casey

rotomartyr have commandeered a My President. It’s like, we already know that, Moodymann’s spoken-word intro to his 1997 boat. The Detroit Princess usually say something else. Most of us are on the same track I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits . It’s P ferries boozy crowds up and down page about that. It just feels so easy to criticise a barely audible two-minute homage to people the Detroit river while hosting this monster; maybe dig a little bit deeper.” from the city, who put up with its ups and Motown revues and high-school “That stuff ages badly,” Casey adds. “You downs, and Ahee believes the band are proms, but tonight the city’s punks have taken just want to establish the mood.” That mood is, following a long tradition of Detroit techno over. Instead of booking cover bands to play the unsurprisingly, one of foreboding. Since their acts that have had to wrestle with preformed Temptations and the Supremes, Protomartyr fi rst releases in 2012, Protomartyr have attracted ideas of the city and its inhabitants. have convinced Canadian hardcore three-piece followers with the angular guitar of Ahee, the “There’s always been a lot of pride from Metz to rip chunks out of the main ballroom, ballast of Leonard and bassist Scott Davidson, people about Detroit, and now there’s a lot of while electro-clash goths Adult belt out dance- and Casey’s existential portraits, sketches of defensiveness, because no one likes someone fl oor broadsides below deck. It’s a sweaty, fun social mores and tales of urban decay. from the outside telling them who they are and incongruous mess, and Protomartyr’s lead Their last album, 2015’s The Agent Intellect, and what they’re like,” Ahee says. “I think singer, Joe Casey, is just happy no one has died. saw them installed in end-of-the-year charts, those techno guys were the fi rst people to “I thought with that many drunk people and contributed to them being declared rock’s deal with that and they’re still dealing with onboard, something was bound to go horribly “great white hope”. “Someone had a deadline,” that. They show more pride than anyone.” wrong,” he confesses the morning after. deadpans Davidson. Over the course of four We are talking at a Monocle-approved hip It turns out the only casualties are someone albums, Casey has created a psycho- hotel near the city’s waterfront. It’s who was hit by a wayward drone-cam, and geography of Detroit, from tracks ‘It feels part of Detroit’s much-touted rebirth , drummer Alex Leonard, who only made it on about corrupt local politicians (Bad so easy to which came after its much-publicised stage thanks to an emergency IV drip that Advice) and injury claims lawyers criticise this decline . Ahee recalls a conversation assuaged a badly timed bout of fl u. The cruise (I Forgive You), to others about local the band had with a music video was a cele bration of the post-punk group’s environmental pollution (Windsor monster director who visited Detroit for the fourth album, Relatives in Descent, which is an Hum) and the tourists who fl ock to Trump. fi rst time after being told to expect a attempt – in the words of a press release – to the city’s dilapidated buildings Maybe dig a war zone. “He’d heard all the stories dissect “the unknowable nature of truth, and (Come and See). The band and the and he got here and the fi rst thing he the existential dread that often accompanies city are irrevocably linked, but it is bit deeper’ saw was a subway car turned over and that unknowing”. a symbiosis they are not entirely everything looking post-apocalyptic,” “I’m writing lyrics about how the world is comfortable with. explains Ahee. “Then he found out they were kind of fucked right now, in terms of politics, “I open ourselves to it by singing about fi lming Transformers 4 and it was just all set but I don’t want to be so obvious,” says Casey, Detroit,” explains Casey. “I’m not singing design. The point is, somebody – based on who acknowledges that it is a short leap from about Detroit because I think it’s the most what they’ve heard about Detroit – can see “nature of truth” to “fake news” and the interesting city in the world, I’m singing about that and believe it. Like Joe says, we talk about unavoidable: Trump. “We wanted to make a Detroit because that’s where I’m from. I am what we know and what we’ve experienced point of not going out of our way to talk about just reporting on what’s going on around and it’s certainly not representative.” it, because that’s what everyone is doing,” here. It’s not really Detroit. It’s my limited “It’s basically me trying to fi gure out what

DANIEL TOPETE DANIEL adds guitarist Greg Ahee. experience. I’m not a spokesman.” In a city the last year meant to me,” adds Casey in “Obviously, we’re disgusted with what’s that is more than 80% African American, reference to the album. “It seems like a weird happening and Trump’s a dipshit,” he says. “But Protomartyr know that a “literary punk” time to be alive, but I suppose living through it feels so cheap to – and I’ve seen bands do band isn’t exactly representative. the hundred years war was a rough time to

PHOTOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPH this – write a song called Trump Sucks or Not Ahee starts reciting Detroit musician live in, too.”

06.10.17 The Guardian 11 Kristin Scott Thomas’s new fi lm, The Party, was made in 12 days, during which the EU For me, Brexi

‘I want t’s late afternoon inside a quiet Mostly, I think, she fears the rut. Timothy Spall, who appears to be to do London pub, and Kristin Scott Over the past three decades, she has dying on the living-room fl oor. At one I Thomas has lost all track of carved an acting career on both sides of point in the fi lm he says: “It looks like something time. She is recalling her big the Channel, switching between Eng- I’m done for – medically speaking.” different, break in the business, play- lish and French, gliding in and out of Scott Thomas says that the fi lm was ing Prince’s love interest in Under the the occasional Hollywood blockbuster. shot at speed: 12 days, fl at out, which something Cherry Moon . She says this was back She juggled Gosford Park with Mis- lent the experience the distinct whiff off-the- in 1983. I tell her it was 1986, and she sion: Impossible. She bagged an Oscar of danger. Along the way, she had to chart insists that can’t be right – she ought nomination for The English Patient contend with noises-off in the land to know because she was 24 at the and a European fi lm award for I’ve at large. “The EU referendum came bonkers’ time, and she was born in 1960. This, Loved You So Long. And yet the more right in the middle of the shoot,” she of course, only adds to our confusion. established she became, the more sti- recalls. “A Thursday, if I’m not mis- “Date discrepancies,” she concludes fl ed she felt. Directors kept asking her taken, although you’re probably going blithely. “Welcome to my world. I’m to perform the same old tricks. “Too to tell me it was a Tuesday.” She shakes afraid I do that a lot.” much sighing and staring into the mid- her head. “Bloody hell. It was awful. It Scott Thomas is a precision instru- dle distance,” she says. “And that does was like somebody had died. I get quite ment on screen, so it’s oddly reassuring get frustrating. Because you want to be emotional thinking about it.” to fi nd her so wayward in person. The asked to do something diff erent, some- For bilingual Scott Thomas – the actor arrives bang on time, apolo- thing strange, something off -the-chart ultimate EU citizen – the result of gises for her lateness and then spends bonkers. You want to feel as though the vote must have especially stung. a good half-minute struggling to get you’re going on an adventure.” “Oh, yeah. For me, it’s a disaster,” she her head through the neck of her tan Her new fi lm, The Party, provided snorts. “Talk about not knowing where woollen jumper. Liberated, she looks that opportunity. Written and directed you belong.” every inch the chic Nouvelle Vague by Sally Potter , it’s a spiky piece of She fi rst landed in Paris at the age heroine (cropped hair, round fi lmed theatre, an acid drawing-room of 19, inspired by notions of living in specs, vivid pink lipstick). But comedy, shot in expressionistic a garret, skipping around town like she carries a similarly rest- black-and-white and performed Anouk Aimée ; maybe even securing an less, mercurial air. with zeal by its ensemble cast. internship at Vogue magazine. Instead, The pub is her local, down Scott Thomas stars as Janet, the she wound up working as an au pair the road from her home, newly appointed shadow health for a French family. It was the mother except she thinks she might minister, whose celebratory soi- who encouraged her to start acting. move back to Paris. Or maybe ree becomes more akin to a wake. Later, she married François Olivennes , not. She can’t decide. “It’s Marriages fl ounder, clandes- a successful gynaecologist. They had a funny feeling,” she says. tine aff airs are exposed and three children together, who are now “Never knowing where the traditional British left all but grown up. you belong.” is embodied by hangdog She says: “The other day I bumped

12 The Guardian 06.10.17 (Clockwise from left) in The Party, Only God Forgives, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Under the Cherry Moon

and Man to Man i treferendum is took a place. Thedisaster result left her feeling rootless, she tells Xan Brooks

into someone on the street. This some of the big ones, too: The English as somehow transient and unmoored. ‘I’m called woman shouted ‘Kristin!’ and I said: Patient; Four Weddings and a Funeral. Her marriage ended 10 years ago. Since ‘Yeah,’ rather warily. And it was the lit- “It’s not that I’m proud to have done then, she has largely been bouncing on to play tle girl I’d looked after all those years them. I’m proud to have been a part between London and Paris, attempt- these rather ago. Now a middle-aged woman with of them. There’s a diff erence, I think.” ing to keep tabs on her kids who have passive teenage daughters of her own.” She laughs . “I don’t know why people become similarly mobile, scattering Scott Thomas initially envisaged bother interviewing actors. We’re just themselves across Europe. For a while, characters – a career in heavyweight theatre, or paid to stand here, look there and read she thought she might quit fi lm alto- a wistful avant-garde French pictures. Then, out the lines.” gether and concentrate on stage work sigh, the out of nowhere, she was plucked Occasionally, we risk talking at instead. But she has recently had to star in Under the Cherry Moon , cross-purposes. On screen she has another change of heart. She adores occasional a primped, silly peacock of a fi lm in always struck me as a cool, authori- the technical aspects of fi lm-making. barbed which her beautiful 80s heiress is pur- tative presence; coiled and complex, She enjoys the fl eeting camarade- comment’ sued by Prince. “So there I was saying even when the movie falls short. But rie of the movie set; the experience things like: ‘My life is a picture you’ve it seems Scott Thomas views herself of running into crew members she painted, but you’ve gilded the frame.’ less charitably – as some sad, wafty hasn’t worked with in years. “The old Something like that, just appalling. watercolour, struggling to make her- grip who’s still wearing the same pair But then there was Prince. A year older self felt. “ I think there are very few of shorts.” She smiles. “They always than me, at the peak of his fame, an opportunities for women to be active wear shorts for some reason. It’s absolute genius, always on the go. So it and powerful – the stereotypical male very strange.” was a strange, good experience, even if role, if you like. And it’s usually Emma Our time together is up. I hand over it was not a good fi lm. And I was really [Thompson] or Meryl Streep who get my bank card to pay the bill for our not very good in it.” to bite down on those. So I’m some- drinks : coff ee for me , a pot of tea for It’s not your best, I say, but it’s not times called on to play these rather her. Scott Thomas watches this proce- your fault. passive characters – a wistful sigh in dure with something close to wonder. “Ha,” she says. “I was worried the background; the occasional barbed “Isn’t that amazing?” she says. “One you were going to say, ‘But it’s not comment. And, of course, I can do it. swipe of the card and it’s all bought your worst.’” I can give the director what they want. and paid for.” I ask which fi lm roles she is espe- But hopefully I give them something Swiping, I say, still makes me feel cially proud of and she mentions more as well; some bite and weight of nervous. It makes me feel detached Catherine Corsini’s Leaving (2010), in my own.” She pulls a face. “Maybe I’m from my money.

ALLSTAR; AP ALLSTAR; which she plays a woman who torches just fooling myself.” “Feeling detached.” Scott Thomas her comfortable bourgeois exist- Professionally and personally, she laughs. “Oh, but you see, that’s just ence, and An Unforgettable Summer appears in a fascinating state of fl ux. what I like.” (1994), which she shot in Romania To some degree, I suspect that this The Party is released in the UK after the fall of Ceausescu. She loves suits her nature; her sense of herself on 13 October PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS

06.10.17 The Guardian 13

Jypsi hen I arrive to meet isn’t a musician, home-schooled the Lillie Mae she is children (Lillie Mae has said that she W smoking a post doesn’t read all that well). “It’s crazy, sound-check cigarette I look at my mum and I can’t believe outside tonight’s somebody like her – she’s real reserved venue – a subterranean place in San queen and quiet, just a very polite and Francisco called Cafe du Nord. Having ladylike woman – ended up with my started touring at the age of three, she The musician is on her fi rst solo tour – crazy dad. But she went with it, what- has loitered around the back of many but has been on stage since she was ever my dad was doing, she was sup- music venues , from the recreation halls portive of it.” Lillie Mae remains close of Texan caravan parks, to Tennessee three, and has played with the likes of to her mother – she recently moved honkytonks, and the Japanese festival back in with her. stages and European arenas where she Jack White. She tells Amy Fleming Making meaningful friendships accompanied Jack White on fi ddle, about the struggles of a childhood on was hard on the road – in fact, she mandolin and vocals. But this tour is doesn’t have any childhood friends. diff erent, her fi rst as a solo artist. “I’ve the road and her battle with alcohol “But we are a very close family,” she been super paranoid and worried sick says. “Because of the circumstances of every day that no one’s going to come, growing up, we just had each other.” but people come and it’s awesome,” They moved to Nashville in 2000, she says, fl ashing a huge smile. bankrolled by the late country legend Her fi rst solo album – Forever and Cowboy Jack Clement, with whom Then Some – was produced by White they recorded, and all except Lillie and released on his label, Third Man Mae’s father have stayed on in the city. Records, this summer. The combina- For years she performed with three tion of her bluegrass blood, buttermilk of her siblings as the band Jypsi , and voice and ability to write compelling her brother Frank and sister Grace are pop songs about everyday emotional among her band tonight. dramas has seen her heralded It doesn’t sound as though the godly (alongside label mate Margo Price) as upbringing has kept Lillie Mae, now a part of country music’s ballsy new in her 20s, out of trouble. One song’s guard. “ A star in the making ” and “a refrain laments intriguingly: “There bracing new talent”, according to the ain’t enough water to wash me clean/ critics – a notion that seems faintly From all I’ve done and all I’ve seen.” ridiculous to Lillie Mae herself. “New In another, Honkey Tonks and Taverns, to a lot of people, absolutely, but man, she sounds winningly Dollyesque as I’ve been doing the same thing for a she revels in her regrets. “I tend to long damn time.” write about a lot of the same things,” The way Lillie Mae can weave she sighs, world-wearily. “I don’t think stirring stories wordlessly with her I can sing one more song about having fi ddle , you’d think she was born play- a hard time, but it’s always been a little ing it, but guitar and piano were her rough, it’s always been a struggle; fi rst instruments. “My dad’s a bass I’m like a walking heartbreak.” She player, so there were always music hasn’t touched alcohol for six years. jams happening,” she recalls. She is “I’m one of those people who has a the youngest of fi ve siblings, and her problem with it so, can’t do it. I feel family left their home in Missouri when like such a bore sometimes. I suck – she was just three, after her father, I should be partying.” Forrest Carter Rische, packed them Her current ambition is to create a into an RV for a new life as a travelling song as innocently joyous as Happy by family band. “A 35ft motorhome with Pharrell Williams, which made her feel seven people and dogs and cats and “so pleased to hear something that’s not birds and hamsters and pigs at diff erent about getting fucked up or whatever. I times.” Pigs plural? “No,” she laughs, write the truth as it comes through me, “we picked the pig up in Texas and but I enjoy dancing, and upbeat stuff , someone at the RV park we were living too.” She thought she was on the right in called child services on our family track just yesterday, she tells me. “I was because they thought we were scream- like: I can’t get over the moon because it ing – but it was the pig.” was so incredible, huge and orange and Her father taught all of his children ‘It’s always and Patsy Cline passed the parental it was just like , this is so beautiful,” but to play music, although as Lillie Mae censors, but lots didn’t. “When my then the joy fi zzled into bitter sarcasm says: “I don’t read music at all – I’d been a brother Frank was probably 11, he got over a lost love in the song’s narrative. love to learn.” The family mostly per- struggle; a Stevie Ray Vaughan CD – they broke “I haven’t succeeded at all,” she says, formed in RV-park halls, at fl ea markets I’m like a that,” she says, matter-of-factly. “My shortly before the venue fi lls up, she and “diff erent churches every Sun- older siblings got a Beatles record – walks on stage and everyone starts day – we played a lot of gospel in the walking they broke that, and the next one. dancing and smiling. early years,” she says. “We were very heartbreak’ There were many years when a lot of us strict, super-religious Christian, so didn’t speak with our dad, but all that Lillie Mae plays the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen in we weren’t allowed to listen to almost blew over.” London on October 26. The album Forever and everything.” A little Hank Williams Between shows, her mother, who Then Some is out now on Third Man Records.

16 The Guardian 06.10.17 A few good roles: how can Cruise revive his flagging career?

om Cruise’s latest fi lm Tom Cruise was once Hollywood’s the decade-spanning, $2bn-grossing American Made is, by criti- Mission: Impossible series is one T cal consensus, his best for biggest star, but his latest movies achievement that would genuinely years. It spent two weeks at justify jumping for joy all over Oprah’s the top of the UK box offi ce have been huge fl ops. Ellen E Jones nice clean sofa in your outdoor shoes. (albeit with disappointingly low takings) suggests 10 ways to make bankrolling and is now a close third in the US. Unlike 7. No more Cruise Control the summer fl op The Mummy , Ameri- his fi lms a less risky business He has worked with Stanley Kubrick, can Made is a by-no-means-terrible Michael Mann and Steven Spielberg, movie and that’s where the problem lies. but Cruise is also said to exert an infl u- This drug-running caper includes ence over his projects that can exceed just enough fl ashy grins and amoral Mission that of his director. If he were to allow charm to makes us nostalgic for a time a great auteur to retake the reins, it when the biggest star on the planet might result in a new direction of could really open a movie. Now that travel; we’re talking Oscars-bound. franchises and superheroes are the only possible? Remember Magnolia ? bankables in the business, those glory days seem long gone – but are they? 8. Become a brand While “Make America Great Again” “Big agencies have been making was never a slogan with global appeal, adjustments for more than a dec- “Make Tom Cruise Great Again” feels nearly half of American Made’s audi- ade,” says James Andrew Miller, like the kind of mission possible we can ence were over 50 . No need for Cruise to author of Powerhouse, an authorita- all get behind. Here’s how … book a suite at the Best Exotic Marigold tive history of Cruise’s talent agency Hotel just yet, but this is a sign that the CAA . “They can’t aff ord to rely on 1. Sack off Top Gun 2 public perception of his all-action out- movies and television the way they Cruise is right to seek a return to his put needs updating. Perhaps a palate- did in the past.” In other words, no pre-action hero oeuvre, but does he cleansing comedy? Or even a mid-life actor is too Maverick for merch. Even have to be quite so literal about it? Nancy Meyers? It’s Complicated didn’t Johnny “Captain Jack Sparrow” Depp Instead of this ill-advised-to-the point- do Alec Baldwin any harm, after all. can accommodate the Dior Sauvage of-insanity sequel , let’s see somee concon- fragrance deal, in his pirate’s booty. temporary incarnations of the quintes-uintes- 4. Go easy on the fl ag-waving sential cocky hotshot. Cruise’s translatable talents are widely 9. Remember who completes you admired for an ability to make up any Cruise used to be a sex symbol. 2. Confront commercial realityity domestic box-offi ce shortfall overseas, Although that’s easy to forget when the Last weekend’s three-way box-offi ce but American Made is among his low- image of a gyrating Les Grossman from showdown was about more than money. est ever international earners. Could Tropic Thunder has replaced all other It demonstrated, under controlled that title have something to do with it? memories in your mind. What would conditions, the way things are in Holly- make women want Tom Cruise again? wood. When pitted against either strong 5. Steer clear of superpowers Allowing himself to be cast opposite a intellectual property (Stephen King’s What do the top-grossing actors of 2016 female actor of similar age and equal It) or a comic-book franchise ballasted all have in common? Robert Downey calibre would be a start. by an ensemble cast (Kingsman: The Jr , Ben Affl eck and Chris Evans all keep Golden Circle), purely star-powered Casting him a superhero suit hanging up in their 10. Leave the Scientology chat movies such as American Made cannot opposite a closets. But then a real star could never to others compete. Think you can handle the female consent to share the spotlight with The bad news is you’ve got yourself truth, Tom? There it is. And surely only a franchise in that fashion. At least mixed up with Scientology . The good a bellowing Jack Nicholson could have actor of that’s one excuse for Cruise’s failure to news is, most moviegoers don’t give made the point more forcefully. similar age launch Universal’s Dark Universe with a fl ying thetan. Elisabeth Moss’s and calibre The Mummy. polite-but-fi rm defl ection of 3. Embrace ageing Scientology-related questions while While we’re telling it like it is, there’s would be 6. But hold on to that franchise publicising The Handmaid’s Tale more; market research found that a start In retrospect, Cruise’s success with worked a treat.

06.10.17 The Guardian 17 Reviews Film

By Peter Bradshaw On the Road ★★★★★

Real-world passion … Dir: Michael Winterbottom. With: Shirley Henderson, Wolf Alice on stage Paul Popplewell, James McArdle. 121 mins. Cert: 15 Michael Winterbottom’s On the seem an uncomfortable fi t. But Road is his best fi lm in years: the invented life beds in, and romantic, erotic and musically provides an emotional and dramatic euphoric. This is a sensuously perspective on the life of the music; it laidback docu-social-realist gem that gives us a way into it. takes something very diffi cult and In the best way, Winterbottom lets makes it look easy. Winterbottom the music do the work. The songs and his camera crew went out on themselves are the meat of the fi lm the road with the indie rock band and they are given space to breathe. Wolf Alice as they toured the UK But they are never made to bear some and Ireland: a band whose name sort of dramatic signifi cance – never is taken from an Angela Carter appear to be overtly commenting on short story. They are Ellie Rowsell the fi ctional action, or to be ironically (guitar, vocals), Joff Oddie (guitar), at variance with it. The fi lm is Joel Amey (drums) and Theo Ellis unselfconscious and uncoercive in its (bass). The various tour dates attitude to Wolf Alice. provide a convenient chapter-break This is not to say that specifi c structure and are announced in big dramatic things do not happen. Joe block capitals on screen: Glasgow, meets up with his brother on tour Liverpool etc. who persuades him to pay a visit to his About 80% of this fi lm is a mum, who is not doing well. This is a straightforward – and very good cameo from Shirley Henderson, who – documentary about the tour, appears drunk and unhappy in a pub. recording the live shows, the But the scene does not develop into backstage lives and the band’s weary a hammy confrontation-catharsis. It but patient grappling with press is undramatic and inconclusive – as obligations, including going into real life tends to be. local radio stations and sportingly There’s another subtle detail, playing “live acoustic” versions of which Winterbottom presents their songs around the interview with a masterly lack of emphasis. table. But Winterbottom has also Estelle (and indeed Leah Harvey) inveigled ride-along actors on is musically very talented. On a the tour bus, embedded fi ctional couple of occasions, she gets her characters whose backstage lives guitar out on the tour bus while are meshed with the real world the other roadies and staff are captured on fi lm. Their emotions reading or snoozing, and sings appear to be projected outwards into some great songs, evidently of her the heaving mass of real-world fans own composition. And her fellow singing passionately along to the road crew, particularly the guys, songs of Wolf Alice. are not especially pleased with her They are Joe (James McArdle), a presumption: there are looks that are grizzled twentysomething Glasgow blank, or disapproving. roadie and Estelle (Leah Harvey), Rock and A taboo of some sort has been taking photos for the management broken, and the glances appear to website and shepherding the say: the band is the talent, to which band for media appearances and we are subservient, and we don’t interviews. Joe and Estelle start role playing particularly want to extend that talking … and there is a spark subservience to you. of attraction between them. In Michael Winterbottom’s erotic, On the Road (the original title Winterbottom’s more explicit movie was Love Song) does not have 9 Songs, the music became a euphoric fi lm meshes a documentary any obvious narrative arc: there soundtrack to the relationship. Here about indie rockers Wolf Alice with is actually a kind of anticlimax the proportion and emphasis are when the bassist injures his elbow diff erently weighed up and it’s more a backstage romance between two and can’t play in the fi nal gig that the relationship is a soundtrack to fi ctional characters at the Forum in north London. the music, or they work as some sort There isn’t any obvious resolution of counterpoint. or development in Joe and This could easily have been a Estelle’s relationship either – but rather fey and arch idea, and at a kind of piquancy and eroticism fi rst the obviously fi ctional feel of in its unfi nished, lingering quality. Estelle’s dialogue and line readings, This made me a fan of Wolf Alice, and the shots of her smiling and and reawakened my Winterbottom nodding along to the band’s music fanhood, too.

18 The Guardian 06.10.17 Visually staggeringbelow … , Blade Runner 2049; Idris Elba in The Mountain Between Us

Blade Runner 2049 This The Mountain Between Us shepherd at the beginning of Powell ★★★★★ followup ★★★★★ and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. There is the same elusive to the 1982 sense of humour. The Ornithologist Dir: Denis Villeneuve. With: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Dir: Hany Abu-Assad. With: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, is a secular meditation on faith and Ford, Robin Wright. 167 mins. Cert: 15 sci-fi classic Beau Bridges. 112 mins. Cert: 12A simply acceptance, very loosely derived With this visually staggering fi lm, Denis There’s a sparky and entertaining from the life of St Anthony of Padua. Villeneuve brings us to an Ozymandias couldn’t be opening act to this romance-disaster However, it retreats into a kind of moment. It has to be experienced on more of a movie, adapted by Chris Weitz and shaggy-dog whimsy by the end, and the biggest screen possible. Blade triumph J Mills Goodloe from the novel by doesn’t entirely live up to its promise. Runner 2049 is a narcotic spectacle of Charles Martin, and directed by Hany A bird-watcher called Fernando (Paul eerie and pitiless vastness; by turns Abu-Assad. But after the main event, Hamy) is looking for black storks in satirical, tragic and romantic. it becomes anticlimactic, even slightly remote northern Portugal. Transfi xed This is the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi dull, and in the fi nal 10 minutes it by the sight of them through his classic, directed by Ridley Scott. The fudges an emotional problem. Kate binoculars while kayaking, he 2017 follow-up simply couldn’t be any Winslet plays Alex, a camera-wielding incautiously pays no attention to more of a triumph. Its mind-boggling, photojournalist whose work has the currents and is swept away by cortex-wobbling, craniofacial- appeared in this very newspaper; rapids, regaining consciousness in splintering images are there to trigger she is rushing home to get married, dense forest. Here, he encounters two awe or even a kind of ecstatic despair but is stuck in an airport where storm Christian Chinese pilgrims, Fei (Han at the idea of a posthuman future, and warnings have cancelled all fl ights. So Wen) and Ling (Chan Suan), who have what it means to imagine the wreck is surgeon Dr Ben Bass ( Idris Elba ), who lost their way on a journey to Santiago of our current form of homo sapiens. needs to go to this same destination de Compostela, and then a shepherd Evolution is not fi nished yet, any to perform an urgent operation. called Jesus (Xelo Cagiao) . Does the more than it was fi nished a hundred Resourceful, gutsy Alex approaches Ben spirit of St Anthony live in Fernando? thousand years ago. And, as so often in with an idea: they can together charter a It is a question raised when a certain both literature and cinema, it reminds small plane, piloted by crusty old-timer metamorphosis brings the director, you that science fi ction is there to tackle Walter (Beau Bridges). But once they’re João Pedro Rodrigues, into the fi lm big ideas and it makes realist genres fl ying over the breathtaking mountain himself. The Ornithologist is a fi lm to look fl imsy and parochial. landscape, the storm moves in and compare with other jungle fi lms such The setting is Los Angeles, 30 years they are soon in a terrible situation. as Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent on from the fi rst fi lm’s setting. Ryan Elba and Winslet give it their frowning and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Gosling plays LAPD offi cer K, who and emoting best, getting actorishly in Tropical Malady, although those embarks on a dangerous mission each other’s eyelines. There’s a hair- have more innate seriousness. The leading to a mysterious encounter raising scene with a cougar. But I never Ornithologist has its own lightness and with Rick Deckard himself, the originalal fully believed in their danger or their almost indefi nable charm. PB outsider cop from the fi rst fi lm, playedd emotional connection. The drama has a with haggard misanthropy by Harrisonon soft, even tame landing. PB Ford. The production design by Dennisis The Reagan Show Gasner and cinematography by Rogerr ★★★★★ Deakins are both delectable, and The Ornithologist the score by Benjamin Wallfi sch and ★★★★★ Hans Zimmer provides a kind of aurall Dirs: Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez. With: Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev. 74 mins. Cert: PG neon: gaunt, harsh, angular, like the noise of machinery. It’s all leading to Dir: João Pedro Rodrigues. With: Paul Hamy, Xelo There’s something slightly eerie in Cagiao, João Pedro Rodrigues. 118 mins. Cert tbc that fi nal confrontation, an incrediblee seeing Ronald Reagan revived, like the lucid dream. This fi lm’s simple scale At certain moments in this dreamily Ghost of Republicanism Past, in this is extraordinary. It places the acid tab erotic, playfully baffl ing and entertaining if slightly pointless movie of cinema pleasure on your tongue. bbeautifully shot movie, I found about his public image, composed Peter Bradshaw myself thinking of the naked Pan entirely of White House TV

06.10.17 The Guardian 19 i Reviews Film Tiresome sentimentalitybelow, The … The Glass Castle; Night Is Short, Walk on Girl

footage. Reagan was a president cinemas: a gripping, drum-tight noir ← who stuck to the script and masterpiece to compare with A Touch became poignantly lost for words when of Evil. Apart from everything else, it the script wasn’t clear; the current has one of the most disturbing president is, sadly, not lost for words nightmare scenes I have ever lived when he leaves the script behind. Reagan through. Frances McDormand is no shimmers enigmatically across the stereotypical shady lady, but an screen, increasingly unwilling to answer entirely plausible, fl awed woman, shouted questions from reporters as he Abby, married to the brutal, gets off offi cial fl ights, relying on emotionally inadequate bar owner, deafening engines and helicopter rotor Julian, played with magnifi cent blades to allow him to do his trademark menace by Dan Hedaya. Abby has “Can’t hear ya!” gesture . He would also fallen in love with Ray (John Getz), do the smile, the point at an imaginary who serves drinks in Julian’s place. person in the crowd, and occasionally Seething with jealous rage, Julian hold up some gifted T-shirt against his hires a private investigator of chest, and maybe all these mannerisms Harrelson in this tiresome fi lm, which sentiment- revolting sleaze to spy on them: a camoufl aged the beginnings of is barely ally neutralises parental abuse into a showstopping performance from M dementia. The movie omits the supposedly fascinating angel/devil Emmet Walsh, with his stetson and assassination attempt of 1981 and the watchable split. Admittedly, this isn’t as purely perennial sheen of sweat. I’d forgotten Libyan attack of 1986; there’s a little as a insuff erable as Viggo Mortensen in the about the extraordinary closeups of on Iran-Contra, but it’s mostly about glamorised comparably wince-inducing Captain fl ies settling on his glistening, jowly the nuclear talks with Gorbachev . Fantastic . But almost. A radioactive face, to which he is indiff erent, like a Interesting, though it’s a bit lenient rebel who sentimentality oozes from the screen, lizard. The detailed sound design is and nostalgic about the Gipper – which endangers although it is saved, just a little, by the inspired. The ghostly whine of a is made easier by the current his children robustness of Brie Larson’s presence. phone receiver left off the hook incumbent. PB The fi lm is based on a bestselling seems to intuit the couple’s inner 2005 memoir by US columnist and anxiety – and so does the insistent author Jeannette Walls, about her two-tone blip-blip of Julian’s i The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl anarchic upbringing at the hands of an computer. The idea of a shot man ★★★★★ alcoholic, bipolar dad, who always kept coming back to life is what gives the his bewildered wife and kids on the fi lm its uncanny feel, something move, one step ahead of the debt almost supernatural that fl avours the Dir: Masaaki Yuasa. Voices: Gen Hoshino, Kana collectors. He is Rex, a brilliant but drama’s atmosphere. There’s nothing Hanazawa, Hiroshi Kamiya. 93 mins. Cert tbc feckless individual: free-thinker, simple about it. PB Here is a weird, very bemusing and scientist and engineer, entrancing his sometimes wonderful anime from children with plans to build them a Japan: a kind of miniaturist epic or glass castle of his own design. But his odyssey, from animator and director whisky and indiscipline keeps them Masaaki Yuasa, adapted from a hungry and confused and often in campus novel by Tomihiko Morimi . danger from stove hobs etc. It’s romantic and hallucinogenic, with Harrelson plays him as a life- an edge of softcore erotic sleaze. A affi rming wildman, glamorised as a female student with dark hair (Kana rebel that you hate for his cruelty but Hanazawa) goes down the rabbit hole of course can’t help loving for his for a dreamlike adventure of drinking passion. Naomi Watts gets to play his and partying: she is on a quest to dozy wife, and Larson plays his discover a children’s book she once daughter Jeannette in disillusioned loved. She is also being pursued by an later years, an uptight and controlling older student who is in love with her, career woman who has utterly or at any rate sexually obsessed with rejected her dad’s anti-materialism in her, and not only discovers the book ways that are intended to suggest that but discovers her own childhood copy. maybe she’s kind of got it wrong and This is Senpai (Gen Hoshino) who just needs to heal. The fi lm is then occupies strange, kaleidoscope structured in such a way that you fantasies about how he might make consent to an insidious balance: her his own. It feels like Lewis Carroll loathing and loving Rex, before fi nally or the Nighttown episode of Ulysses . A giving him the benefi t of the doubt. diverting hothouse fl ower of a fi lm. PB A treacly piece of work. PB

The Glass Castle Blood Simple: Director’s Cut ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Dir: Destin Cretton. With: Brie Larson, Woody Dir: Joel Coen. With: M Emmet Walsh, Frances Harrelson, Sarah Snook. 127 mins. Cert: 12A McDormand, Dan Hedaya. 99 mins. Cert: 15 Woody Harrelson gives a performance The Coens’ debut movie from 1984 is of borderline unwatchable hamminess now getting a rerelease in British

06.10.17 The Guardian 21 Reviews Pop & rock

By Alexis Petridis Gems and gibberish Liam now has better ballads than Noel – but his lyrics will have you banging your head against a table

Liam Gallagher As You Were WARNER BROS ★★★★★

The relative commercial failure of Liam He can’t be no later years, elsewhere the decision and occasionally hit their target – “ You Gallagher’s post-Oasis band Beady Eye one else … Liam to employ them pays dividends in would keep the secrets in yer / You’ve counts as one of the more perplexing Gallagher’s solo punchy, sharp production touches – been keeping paraphernalia” – or events in recent pop history. To an eff ort has many the sampled guitar screech that powers throw out put-downs that sometimes impartial observer, their two albums highlights great single Wall of Glass; ominous We stick: “ You made fun of everyone that seemed neither better nor worse than Love You-esque piano at the end of falls, but in the meantime they were Oasis’s multi-platinum latter-day Come Back to Me – and some dexterous saving you a place.” At their worst, they eff orts. It was surprising that a fanbase melodic twists and turns . An otherwise persist in the wearying old habit of who once seemed the most devoted nondescript two-chord trudge called cramming clunking Beatles references and undiscriminating around – people I Get By is unexpectedly rescued by a in at every turn – “ Happiness is still a who trooped out in their millions to middle eight that achieves a dizzying warm gun”, “Look for the girl” – which buy albums as mediocre as Heathen vertical take-off . For What It’s Worth rather serves to underline that there’s Chemistry , people who sent a track and Paper Crown, meanwhile, are nothing new here, nothing to suggest as slender as Songbird to the upper fantastic: conspicuously better ballads that there has been any broadening of reaches of the singles chart – suddenly than the elder Gallagher has come up Gallagher’s musical horizons in the last became so capricious, so seemingly with in 20 years, although it’s perhaps 25 years. This is an album on which a discerning in their pursuit of Beatles/ worth noting that their degree of track that sounds like the Hollies rather Slade-infl uenced bloke-rock. But they polish means they don’t recall Oasis so than the usual gallery of 60s and 70s deserted in their droves: comparing much as the stadium air-punchers Guy suspects counts as a bold step into Beady Eye’s sales fi gures to those of Chambers and Robbie Williams wrote the unknown. You listen to him on even the least successful Oasis album, under Oasis’s infl uence. Chinatown the concluding I’ve All I Need, singing 90 % of them jumped ship . Why? Was is based around a lovely acoustic “ Slow down, all things must pass, take it loyalty to Noel? Or does some kind of guitar fi gure, but is hobbled by lyrics your time, know the score, tomorrow super-sense lurk beneath their feather- so awful they can only be listened to never knows” and think: never mind cuts that enables them to discern a safely with a pillow in front of you, the rest of us mate, are you not getting diff erence between the contents of the thus avoiding injury when the urge a bit bored of this stuff by now? Beady Eye album Diff erent Gear, Still to beat your head against the table In fact, I’ve All I Need – written by Speeding and all the forgettable old becomes overwhelming. It sounds like Gallagher alone – has a certain elegiac toot Oasis peddled in the noughties? a parody of one of those portentous quality, as if its author assumes it’s Whatever the reason, it has left Noel’s-been-having-a-think ballads going to be the last his audience hear of the younger Gallagher in a strange THIS WEEK ALEXIS that stank up Oasis’s late albums, and him for the foreseeable: “ Dry your eyes position: working, at his new record ENJOYED furthermore seems to favour us with … thanks for your support.” That seems label’s behest, with pop songwriters Liam’s thoughts on Brexit: “What’s it a bit premature: if it’s not an unalloyed for hire – most notably Greg Kurstin, Miles From to be free, man? What’s a European? triumph, then nor is it the stuff of of Adele, Sia and Ellie Goulding fame Kinshasa – Limbo Me, I just believe in the sun.” career-ending disaster. Its failings are – and openly referring to his debut Appealingly off- In truth, the lyrics are a problem – the failings you could level at pretty kilter bedroom- solo album as “ my last chance ”. If although at this stage, anyone buying much every Oasis album, its sprinkling recorded synthpop: the pro songwriters occasionally just hooks impossible to an Oasis-related product in the hope of highlights an improvement on most turn out machine-tooled takes on the dislodge from your of hearing decent lyrics is optimistic of their output since the mid-90s. aforementioned old toot that became brain lurk amid its to the point of insanity. At their best, Perhaps that’s enough to win back the Oasis’s main commodity in their disjointed structure they aim for Shaun Ryder-y gibberish fans who jumped ship.

22 The Guardian 06.10.17 Poise and naivety … Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (below); Kelela (bottom)

Wolf Parade consistently exquisite as it dances Kaitlyn Aurelia Cry Cry Cry between lovesick confusion and Smith SUB POP shrewd sensuality. Rachel Aroesti The Kid ★★★★★ WESTERN VINYL ★★★★★ Carla Bruni Montreal outfi t Wolf Parade’s howling French Touch take on new wave and powerpop DECCA With modular synths growing densely always seemed a little too wild to ★★★★★ around her multitracked voice, this match the mainstream appeal of album from Pacifi c-coastal artist peers such as Arcade Fire or New Smith becomes as lush, heady – and Pornographers. Just as a blue-collar Although Bruni is possibly best known occasionally trying – as a rainforest. rock maturity seemed to be creeping in the UK as the wife of former French It’s an ambitious record in four parts, into their sound by the release of third president Nicolas Sarkozy, the ex- with each quarter representing a album Expo 86 , the band promptly supermodel has been a pop star in diff erent emotional phase of a human decided to split up. Now, though, after France for 20 years. Here, singing in lifespan. Her melodies share the seven years away working on various English, she brings trademark smoky, courtly poise of English folksong and side projects (Divine Fits, Handsome breathy vocals to a range of covers, the psychedelic naivety of Animal Furs, Moonface ), Wolf Parade’s two from standards (Moon River, Stand By Collective – they accurately evoke singer-songwriters Spencer Krug and Your Man) to less predictable favourites the blitheness of youth in the album’s Dan Boeckner have returned to provide (Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence ). All fi rst half, but also, less fortunately, an answer to the lingering question are given the same treatment: strangely its directionlessness. The textural of what might have been. Cry Cry detached French ennui and tasteful pleasures of tracks such as I Am Cry is their most cohesive work yet, jazzy backings. She almost surgically Learning and A Kid – full of wonky a blend of Springsteenian bar-room removes the emotion from The Winner tiki kitsch – are muted by the vocal rock and Sparks-style operatics that Takes It All and Love Letters, songs lines which, given starker backing, holds together surprisingly well. The that demand real passion. Meanwhile, would be embarrassingly optimistic chug of You’re Dreaming David Foster’s arrangements veer from underwritten. Things improve in would slot neatly on to the recent sophisticated to inappropriate: Lou the later, more refl ective tracks, as War on Drugs album, while the twisty Reed’s Perfect Day as a jaunty, zippy the rhythms and melodies simplify chord progressions of Who Are Ya and waltz? Thankfully, Bruni brings a and stretch out, particularly on Artifi cial Life nod to the band’s chaotic hint of mischief to Mick Jagger’s Miss the beautiful closing track To Feel fi rst album Apologies to the Queen You and her sultry take on AC/DC’s Your Best, underpinned by a faint, Mary. A compelling exception to the Highway to Hell is so incongruous it watery dancehall beat. “diminishing returns” rule that usually works wonderfully. Dave Simpson Ben Beaumont-Thomas governs most band reunions. Gwilym Mumford

Kelela Take Me Apart WARP ★★★★★

When Kelela released her fi rst mixtape, Cut 4 Me, in 2013, her fusion of sumptuous R&B vocals and harsh, avant garde electronica made a splash. But in the four years since, alternative PLUS GUESTS R&B has gone from bleeding edge to SOLO ACOUSTIC TOUR genre du jour: in a class now crowded FEBRUARY 2018 with divas, has anyone been saving MONSOLD OUT 19 GLASGOW OLD FRUITMARKET Kelela a seat? As her debut album tue 20 GLASGOW OLD FRUITMARKET opens, the idea that the singernger may WED 21 CARLISLE THE SANDS CENTRE SAT 24 BRISTOL COLSTON HALL have been left behind doesn’tn’t sseemeem MON 26 LONDON PALLADIUM outlandish: Frontline is funkynky MARCH 2018 but plodding and retro . FRI 02 NOTTINGHAM Thankfully, Take Me Apart ROYAL CONCERT HALL soon proff ers tracks that SUN 04 LEEDS GRAND THEATRE are both pop-minded and MON 05 MANCHESTER ALBERT HALL gratifyingly future-facing. WED 07 MARGATE WINTER GARDENS THU 08 WARWICK ARTS CENTRE Producer Arca may be her FRI 09 OXFORD NEW THEATRE not-so-secret weapon in thehe SUN 11 SOUTHAMPTON latter regard, creating sublimeime O2 GUILDHALL but techy sonic hellscapes MON 12 EXETER GREAT HALL TUE 13 BRIGHTON DOME among the ambient synths GIGSANDTOURS.COM / TICKETMASTER.CO.UK and skittering beats. SJM CONCERTS AND FRIENDS PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH CODA Meanwhile, Kelela’s vocal i iss

06.10.17 The Guardian 23 new release CDs out today

Jason Manford Liam Gallagher A Different Stage As You Were also on vinyl

JP. Cooper a-ha Raised Under Grey Skies also on vinyl Acoustic Hits: MTV Unplugged

Marilyn Manson The Darkness Heaven Upside Down Pinewood Smile also on exclusive white vinyl also on vinyl

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Subject to availability, while stocks last. Reviews Jazz & folk

Anthony Robustelli second solo album about a post- Below … a class and Thomas Morgan’s pizzicato bass. The Steely Dan apocalyptic world, after 2009’s Songs act – singer Breezy dance rhythms then guide left- Songbook from the Floodplain . The sturm-und- Zara McFarlane hand piano vamps driving right-hand SHADY BEAR PRODUCTIONS drang lyrics fi nd an odd partner in free improv . Dark, street-throbbing ★★★★★ the music, however, which largely grooves are challenged by imperious wallows in a glossy, Waterboys-style Diaz vocals, while fl ute and clarinet soundworld. This dilutes the urgency ; meditations release storming freebop Throughout the 1970s, Donald Fagen only the ragged guitars in Burning piano breaks. John Fordham and Walter Becker wrote songs that Streets, and the excellent Yellow were sketched out as crude piano-and- Lights, driven by dark, low strings, vocal demos but never completed with off er that. Throughout, Boden uses Zara McFarlane a band. Singer, multi-instrumentalist similar phrases, so the narrative Arise and Steely Dan biographer Anthony circles, rather than racing on. You can’t BROWNSWOOD RECORDS Robustelli has painstakingly arranged deny Afterglow’s big dreams, but it ★★★★★ 10 of them. Alongside a four-piece horn often feels somnolent, not superlative. section and two guitarists, Robustelli Jude Rogers multitasks impressively on drums, M obo-winning London singer Zara bass and piano, singing in a soulful, McFarlane has sounded like a class nasal whine pitched somewhere David Virelles act for longer than a star-fi xated between Fagen and early Dan vocalist Gnosis world might realise. Arise may be David Palmer. His arrangements ECM too longgg on genre music and short are fi lled with knowing references, ★★★★★ oonnim improv prov shocks fofor jazz hardliners, throwing in the odd horn line from bbutut fforor many it will be a fascinating Deacon Blues, a Black Friday Wurlitzer pperspectiveerspective on an AAfr ican Caribbean riff , or a Do It Again guitar solo. Amid Cuban pianist David Virelles can soundund llineageineage shared by MMcFarlane and gifted the cryptic lyrics is the poignant A like an heir to Herbie Hancock in otherher pproducerroducer Moses BoBoydy . McFarlane has Little Less Sugar. John Lewis people’s bands ( Tomasz Stanko’s , Chrishris rarelyrarely sounded moremor comfortable with Potter’s ) – but his own preferences aarere herselfherself and witwithh jazz – in the sliding for avant-grooving, as on the broadlyly variations on Pride’sPr title word, Jon Boden sourced contemporary classical musicsic around Binker GGolding’s earthy Afterglow that informs a good deal of Gnosis. tenor-saxtenor-sax lineslines, in her imploring HUDSON RECORDS This session, with strings, fl ute, vocal on Peace Begins Within, ★★★★★ vocals and four percussionists led byy oror soaring throthroughu the Congos’ drums guru Roman Diaz, sees Virellesles pre-reggaepre-reggae clasclassic Fisherman.s deepening his exploration of the But SilhouetteSilhouette,, a brass-bandish A frock-coated, Matrix-style star fi ssion between ancient Afr ican Cubanban dirgedirge featuringfeaturing SShabaka Hutchings’ beholding a burning city , Jon Boden traditions and the music of his own gentlegentle bass clarinetclarin and McFarlane’s presents himself on the cover of era. The opening is an impressionistictic quiet coda, is the highlight. Explicit Afterglow as the genre-busting folk drift across percussion tappings, thee jazz isn’t dominant,domina but its thinking artist he’s always been. This is his glowing resonances of the marimbula, ula, alwaysalways is. JF

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06.10.17 The Guardian 25 Theatres London

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QUEEN’S 0844 482 5160 The Musical Phenomenon LES MISÉRABLES Eves 7.30, Mats Wed & Sat 2.30 www.LesMis.com Entertainment More reviews online Reviews Classical Erica Jeal listens to Antonio Pappano and Martha Argerich having fun with Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals theguardian.com/classical

Karayev: The to the expressiveness of those two Seven Beauties; singers and, one assumes, the experi- Don Quixote, etc ence of working on the characters with Bournemouth SO/ the meticulous Sellars. Gerald Finley ’s Karabits composed yet menacing Golaud is CHANDOS superb, and to have Bernarda Fink and ★★★★★ Franz-Josef Selig as Geneviève and Arkel is real luxury casting. Under Conductor Kirill Karabits describes the Rattle’s leadership the orchestra is a true music of Kara Karayev as creating protagonist in the drama; the colours of “unique mixtures of the traditions of this great score are constantly evolving, Mahler and Shostakovich, drawing as intensifying and receding, and the inter- well on a colourful palette of ludes are wonderfully well played. EJ Azerbaijani folk tunes”. Born in Baku in 1918, Karayev studied in Moscow with Shostakovich from 1942 to 1948. Schubert: He established himself in 1945 as one Der Einsame of the two composers of the patriotic Arcayürek/Lepper opera Fatherland, and over the CHAMPS HILL following decades he played a major ★★★★★ role in the musical life of Azerbaijan, becoming rector of the state initial batch of fi ve releases ranges from Tremendous … It’s been a while since we’ve had a conservatory. He died in 1982. choral music of the Portuguese baroque conductor Kirill debut disc as engaging as this. Born in All the works here are program- to 20th-century string quartets. The Karabits; below, Istanbul, raised in Vienna, Ilker matic, not to say vividly pictorial. The Quartet Gerhard are a group of Catalan Christian Arcayürek has the kind of airy, easily Seven Beauties is a fi ve-movement musicians who named themselves Gerhaher and ringing tenor that puts across words suite from 1949 based on a narrative after Roberto Gerhard, one of the most Magdalena beautifully, with power in reserve yet a poem by the 12th-century Sunni writer inexplicably neglected of all mid 20th- Kožená in Pelléas hint of vulnerability too. Comparisons Nizami Ganjavi, which subsequently century composers. Not unexpectedly, et Mélisande at to Ian Bostridge are entirely became the score for the fi rst full- 20th-century music features prominen- the Barbican, appropriate, except that his poise will length Azerbaijani ballet. Don Quixote tly on their debut disc. The opening London appeal to those who fi nd Bostridge too is a set of eight brief movements account of Schumann’s best known fussy. The theme of his all-Schubert extracted from a fi lm score, while quartet, Op 41 No 3 in A minor, gives a programme is solitude, but not only Leyla and Mejnun is a 15-minute good sense of the warmth and immed- the undesired kind: the recluse of the symphonic poem based on another of iacy of their playing, but it’s Berg’s Lyric title song is all good-humoured Ganjavi’s poems, and was awarded the Suite that shows the group at their best, contentment; in Der Musensohn, Stalin prize in 1947. emphasising the music’s histrionic Arcayürek’s swinging mini-crescendos Such offi cial Soviet approval is a fair extremes and its rapid changes of mood and Simon Lepper ’s skipping piano indicator of what Karayev’s music is in an irresistible way. After that, the 15 make solitary wandering sound like like. In these pieces at least, there are tiny pieces that make up György fun. But as the selection goes on, no hints of any radical tendencies. Kurtág’s Offi cium Breve, are presented loneliness begins to bite, until Despite Karabits’ observation, Mahler unfussily, with just the right amount of resignation takes over. With Lepper and Shostakovich represent the detachment. At times the sound is too off ering consistently vivid support, extreme stylistic boundaries of what warm, a bit too resonant, but all the Arcayurek spins long lines that are Karayev composed, most of which same it’s a hugely impressive debut. AC achingly sweet. There’s room for these seems much closer to the worlds of interpretations to mature and deepen, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, but as a young man’s take they are with occasional nods towards Debussy: wonderfully fi nished. Erica Jeal Rachmaninov . But as these tremendous Pelléas et Mélisande Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Kozena/Fink/Gerhaher/ performances show, it is music of great Selig/LSO/LSC/Rattle fi nesse and colour – even if it has no LSO LIVE discernible character of its own. ★★★★★ There are three Karayev symphonies, and if Karabits puts together another The LSO’s January 2016 performances disc of his music, one or more of those of Debussy’s opera at the Barbicanbican in might give a better sense of what he London, conducted by Simon RRattleattle really could do. Andrew Clements and semi-staged by Peter Sellars,ars, have been beautifully transferredrred to CD, and the result is a creditt to Schumann: String the LSO’s own record label. It’ss Quartet No 3; not a defi nitive performance – Berg: Lyric Suite, etc Christian Gerhaher ’s Pelléas is Quartet Gerhard too pointed, Magdalena plus special guest HARMONIA MUNDI Kozena ’s Mélisande too worldlyly ★★★★★ sounding to off er quite the lastt Friday 10 November London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire word on these endlessly elusiveve gigsandtours.com | ticketmaster.co.uk The Nova series is Harmonia Mundi’s characters – but it is an except-- NEW ALBUM ‘EMILIANA TORRINI & THE COLORIST ORCHESTRA’ OUT NOW new showcase for young talent. The ionally vivid one, not least thanksanks An S.J.M. Concerts presentation by arrangement with ITB

06.10.17 The Guardian 27 Reviews Television Reality gets real … modelling contestants in Amazon Prime’s The Fashion Hero HEAR HERE!

For more of the best weekly podcast recommendations, go to theguardian.com/ tv-and-radio

Pod complex The Thread With OZY Hannah Verdier

“What makes someone kill their hero in cold blood?” That’s the question posed by The Thread With OZY (iTunes), an addictive podcast that takes a short and snappy journey through history. “We turn back the clock one story at ants’ voices before seeing the outer a time to reveal how various strands Stream on packaging. But they still have to look are woven together to create a historic The Fashion Hero good in clothes and makeup and outer fi gure, big idea or an unthinkable trag- packaging is their stock in trade. Even edy,” says narrator Sean Braswell. Amazon Prime so, my cynicism about this dissolved You can’t dip in and out of The slowly over the series. Thread: start at the beginning, with If you stick with The Fashion Hero the murder of John Lennon . Braswell until episode eight (the fi nal) you have keeps each episode tight, so within 20 to plough through a lot of silly tests minutes he gives enough information of the contestants’ resolve, all very to hook listeners in. What is it? A model-search loosely tied with the kind of person- “ Mark David Chapman was a no- audition show with a ality they’ll need to be a model. Of body until he was on every channel,” diff erence. course you need to be able to sleep in a he says, before embarking on a rapid Why you’ll love it: It’s a strange im- teepee on a raft . Stands to reason. yet evocative description of the day pulse, the burning desire to “be a Producers haven’t quite done the John Lennon was shot, interspersed model”. The participants of these work to make me believe any of this is with news footage from the time. mannequin audition programmes are necessary when a quick audition and Hearing how Lennon had just made united in their desire for the spotlight, some test shots would achieve the a comeback after years as a stay-at- but the contestants here are also look- same result. The justifi cations for the home dad and was recording again fol- ing for acceptance. None fi t the fashion stunts and trials are paper-thin, but we lowing the success of Double Fantasy mould that would allow them past the do get to know more about the contest- makes his death seem all the more un- door of any traditional agency. They ants’ dreams, the real hook of any real- timely. He could fi nally go about his life come from all over the world, their ity format. largely undisturbed as people in New pictures uploaded to a website, then A modelling competition that seeks York were “too cool” to bother him. whittled down to 40. And they are all faces and bodies belonging to realisti- Death, he believed, was like “getting very much not model material in the cally proportioned humans is a won- out of one car and into another”. standard sense . derful thing and should be applauded. The Thread also explores Chap- Brooke Hogan (Hulk’s daughter), Not only for attempting to change an man’s obsession with The Catcher in is the statuesque host who gees them industry so entrenched in a single aes- Obsessed with The the Rye –“ darker than people realise” up, dishes out the tough love and often thetic ideal, but for reaching through Catcher in the Rye … before examining JD Salinger’s time gets wobbly lipped when they cry. The the TV/laptop screen to teenagers Lennon’s killer, Mark as a soldier, during which he watched judges are four fashion designers will- doubting their worth because of what David Chapman comrades freeze to death. Writing ing to use the winners as brand ambas- they see in the mirror. was his escap e, and The Thread draws sadors for their campaigns. Before series two, the format needs parallels between protagonist Holden This show’s heart is in the right to lift weights, tighten up all over and Caulfi eld’s angst and Salinger’s misery place, but the overall production is not cut away the loose fat, perhaps fi nding in those years. The writer mixed with quite there yet. Producers force-fed a better way to get to know the contest- the kind of “phonies” both he and reality tropes cannot resist rolling out ants than forcing them through an ob- his character hated, and was crushed every single one here, misdirecting stacle course in ill-fi tting stiletto s. when his lover Oona O’Neill married contestants, making them wait, trick- Length: One eight-episode series avail- Charlie Chaplin . ing them in a way that feels at odds able to stream now. The Thread’s six episodes with the show’s inclusive spirit. Standout episode: Episode eight reveal “a series of interlock- The opening episode attempts to stands out for the wrong reasons ing histories” that eventually introduce at least some of the 40 fi nal- when producers OD on reality connect back to Lenin and ists, but that really is too many for an tension and mangle the format the Russian Revolution, and audience to invest in. completely. it sounds as if there will be no Platitudes about not judging a book If you liked The Fashion Hero, shortage of revelations along by its cover are bandied about and the watch: Miss Representation (Netfl ix), the way. initially blindfolded judges talk about Happy Man (BBC 3 on iPlayer). If you like this, try … the importance of hearing the contest- Julia Raeside You Must Remember This

28 The Guardian 06.10.17 n the wake of the Grenfell Swooping on hazards … Matt Allwright, Tower disaster, the daytime se- presenter of Housing Enforcers I ries Housing Enforcers (BBC1), presented by Matt Allwright, door’s top bolts to let them in. Later, was bumped up to an evening Nina holds the hand of a man too ill slot last night for a fi re-safety special. with prostate cancer and dementia to The programme focused on people speak while she and Sham assess him working in local housing authorities for sepsis. “Squeeze my hand if you and environmental health depart- feel fed up … That was a big squeeze.” ments who try to ensure such tragedies Another crew, Mike and Dave, patch up remain rare, and ran the gamut of po- a photographer who has split his head tential causes. “Most council tenants open on a railway track (“Sorry for all keep everything in good order,” said the palaver”) and then are called to a housing offi cer Ian Watson. “Others … Last night's TV young man who has been sectioned for have diff erent lifestyles, shall we say?” threatening to kill himself and whose One of these was 87-year-old Ally, who In the death traps of aggression barely covers his fear and though (periodically) charming, lives desperation. “I can never sleep!” he in the kind of squalor that presents a Britain’s run-down housing, says. “What I need is impossible … I fi re risk to himself and everyone else in want my dad. Why isn’t he here?” It is his block. Ian arranges another massive clear he literally does not know what clean-up of Ally’s fl at, but soon after fi re is a constantt threat to do with himself. They suspect he there is, indeed, a fi re. Ally is found has overdosed on some tablets, so they on the fl oor, cuddling his dog, but sur- take him to A&E. Whether the doctors vives. And denies any of it happened. will know what to do with him there- His granddaughter promises additional after is a question left unanswered. support and he avoids eviction. Elsewhere, Daniel almost breaks We see fi re safety offi cers in other your heart. Nina has been to this areas talk to more receptive owners chronic alcoholic’s house before. This and tenants about what they can do to By Lucy Mangan time he has also taken paracetamol and make their fl ats safer, and we see hous- refuses to go to hospital. “It’s a horrible ing inspectors gaze in disbelief at vari- system that make all this possible. death, Daniel,” says Nina. ous electrical setups in overcrowded “That’s why they’re accepting it … it’s “I don’t mind,” he says. Only when homes owned by landlords happy to a home. To kids that don’t know any Daniel’s brother Simon turns up does trade the risk of death for marginally diff erent.” Similarly, Watson wonders he become distressed. “I respect him,” greater profi ts. In St Helen’s, Mersey- out loud where he is going to fi nd help he cries softly. “I don’t want him to side, we enter one of the 33% of private for Ally, and as Allwright and another see me how I am … to see I’m hurt. rental homes that fail the misleadingly inspector wander in disbelief around And I am hurt.” Both brothers started genteelly named “decency standards”. a rotting estate, the presenter speaks drinking in their teens, in response There are inaudible fi re alarms, no – unexpectedly lyrically – for viewers to life with a father who “would beat working smoke detectors, and an un- when he exclaims about the landlord’s you for anything”. Simon is 57 and checked gas cooker stands between the lack of responsibility “for all these AND ANOTHER has been sober for fi ve years. Nina tenant and his only exit. souls”. THING sits with Daniel in the ambulance and In Sandwell in the West Midlands, The penultimate episode of the fl y- sighs. “I wish I could wave a magic housing offi cial Ray Nichols enters a on-the-wall documentary Ambulance My whole being is wand.” “You can’t, sweetheart,” says home designed for one family in which (BBC1) continued to follow another of strung to one desire: Daniel. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I really four are packed. It is full of portable the services battling against almighty for the new series am.” In between, they wait for beds to of Will & Grace to be heaters, loose sockets, exposed wiring odds to keep us safe. Paramedics come free and search for a patch of the delivered unto UK and children. “The alternative is home- Sham and Nina climbed in through screens. Only Jack threadbare web of alternative services lessness,” says Allwright who, within the window of the home of a 97-year- and Karen can get that will bear the weight of a patient’s the limits of the format, is always keen old man who had fallen and whose me through these non-medical problems. Who will take to point out the failures in the wider 94-year-old wife couldn’t reach the dark days. responsibility for all these souls? ANGEL GALINDO/BOOM DIALOGUE BBC PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPH

06.10.17 The Guardian 29 Film of the day TV and radio Have I Got News for You T2: Trainspotting (10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere) 9pm, BBC1 Twenty-one years on, Edinburgh’s favourite heroinn addicts are grappling with middle age. Robert Carlyle’s Begbie is still, terrifyingly, Begbie

BBC1 BBC2

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.15 Rip Off Britain 6.0 Flog It! Trade Secrets (T) (R) (T) 10.0 Homes Under the Hammer 6.30 Rip Off Britain (T) (R) 7.15 (T) (R) 11.0 Neighbourhood Blues Neighbourhood Blues (T) (R) (T) 11.45 Caught Red Handed 8.0 Gardeners’ World (T) (R) (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) 1.0 9.0 Victoria Derbyshire (T) 11.0 News (T) 1.30 Regional News (T) Newsroom Live (T) 12.0 Daily 1.45 Doctors (T) 2.15 The Boss Politics (T) 1.0 For What It’s (T) 3.0 Escape to the Country Worth (T) (R) 1.45 Gymnastics: (T) (R) 3.45 Garden Rescue (T) World Championships Highlights (R) 4.30 Antiques Road Trip (T) 3.15 Coast (T) (R) 3.45 Great (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) 6.0 News American Railroad Journeys (T) (T) 6.30 Regional News (T) 7.0 (R) 4.15 This Farming Life (T) (R) The One Show (T) 7.30 A Question 5.15 Flog It! (T) 6.0 Strictly Come Watch this of Sport (T) (R) Dancing: It Takes Two (T) 7.0 Coast: The Great Guide (T) (R) 8.0 EastEnders (T) Carmel 8.0 Mastermind (T) John Humphrys makes a huge decision. hosts. Have I Got News for You Nile Rodgers: How to Make It 8.30 Would I Lie to You? (T) (R) With 8.30 Only Connect (T) A team of 9pm, BBC1 in the Music Business Sara Cox, Jason Manford, Nick darts players takes on three As HIGNFY returns for its 54th 9pm, BBC4 Robinson and Harry Shearer. AFC Wimbledon supporters. series, it’s hard to know how to Strictly speaking, this series 9.0 Have I Got News for You (T) New 9.0 Gardeners’ World (T) Monty Don series. Alexander Armstrong gives advice on making leaf mould feel about this telly institution. should be called How Nile Rodg- guest hosts. from fallen leaves and how to It has undoubtedly lost some- ers Made It in the Music Business 9.30 Porridge (T) New series. The use it, and Frances Tophill helps thing of its bite with Ian Hislop as the Chic guitarist’s unique visit of Barry’s girlfriend poses a gardener whose plants are not and Paul Merton having long talent and rise to fame, as cel- problems for Fletch. thriving. Includes weather. since adopted roles they could ebrated here, are unlikely to be 10.0 News (T) 10.0 Mock the Week (T) With Ed play in their sleep. Plus, the show replicated. Still, we learn about 10.25 Regional News and Weather (T) Gamble, Milton Jones, Miles Jupp, is probably marginally to blame how he got together with the late Includes national lottery update. Nish Kumar and Felicity Ward. for the ascent of Boris Johnson . Bernard Edwards and the inspi- 10.35 The Graham Norton Show (T) With 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 Dragons’ Den But, still, in these absurd times, ration behind songs such as Le Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Chris Rock (T) (R) and Liam Gallagher. 12.05 Gymnastics: World Championships someone’s got to take the mickey. Freak and Lost in Music, while 11.25 Josh (T) New series. Josh’s new Matt Baker presents live coverage The urbane Alexander Armstrong producer Mark Ronson and Duran girlfriend takes him to a high- of day fi ve at Montreal Olympic hosts. Phil Harrison Duran’s Nick Rhodes dissect his ropes course. Comedy with Josh Stadium. 3.0 Sign Zone: Panorama style and complex chord patterns. Widdicombe, Beattie Edmondson. (R) 3.30 MND and 22-Year-Old Me 11.55 The Apprentice (T) (R) (R) 4.30 This Is BBC2 Unreported World David Stubbs 12.55 Weather for the Week Ahead 7.30pm, Channel 4 (T) 1.0 BBC News (T) The Irish Republic voted in favour Porridge of same-sex marriage. Now its 9.30pm, BBC1 liberalism is to be tested again After last year’s special, the with a referendum on abortion, reboot from Dick Clement and Ian Down with Love (2003) Place in the Sun: Home Other channels 9.0  Identity Thief or Away 3.45 Sun, Sea presently illegal and carry- La Frenais gets a full series. Kevin (2013) 11.10  Alien and Selling Houses 4.50 (1979) 1.30  The Homes by the Sea 5.50 ing a potential 14-year prison Bishop, eerily channelling Ron- CBBC E4 Straight Story (1999) The Secret Life of the Zoo sentence. Shaunagh Connaire nie Barker’s mannerisms, stars 6.55 Car SOS 7.55 Grand 7.0am Arthur 7.10 6.0am Hollyoaks 6.30 ITV2 Designs 9.0 Professor T meets representatives from both as hacker Nigel Fletcher, Norman Zig and Zag 7.25 Hollyoaks 7.0 Charmed 6.0am You’ve Been 10.10 24 Hours in A&E Danger Mouse 7.35 8.0 Melissa & Joey 8.30 Framed! 6.25 Totally 11.15 24 Hours in A&E camps, along the way highlight- Stanley’s grandson. In an episode MOTD Kickabout 7.40 Melissa & Joey 9.0 2 Bonkers Guinness World 12.15 Ramsay’s Kitchen ing the anomalies of the present that makes you cautiously opti- Newsround 7.45 How to Broke Girls 9.30 2 Broke Records 6.50 Totally Nightmares USA 1.15 Be Epic @ Everything 8.0 Girls 10.0 Baby Daddy Bonkers Guinness World 24 Hours in A&E 2.15 arrangement. For example, at mistic this may just work, we fi nd CineMinis: A Cinemaniacs 10.30 Baby Daddy Records 7.15 Below 24 Hours in A&E 3.20 Short 8.15 Newsround 11.0 How I Met Your Deck 8.0 Emmerdale 8 Out of 10 Cats the moment, expectant mothers Fletch, for a price, dispensing 8.25 Odd Squad 8.35 Mother 11.30 How I Met 8.30 Totally You’ve must wait for medically unviable legal advice and writing letters Horrible Histories: Your Mother 12.0 The Been Framed! Gold 9.30 Sky1 Monstrous Musicians 9.05 Goldbergs 12.30 The The Ellen DeGeneres 6.0am Hawaii Five-0 7.0 foetuses to die inside the womb. on behalf of fellow inmates – All Over the Workplace Goldbergs 1.0 The Big Show 10.20 Below Deck Road Wars 8.0 Monkey John Robinson which gets complicated when 9.35 4 O’Clock Club 10.05 Bang Theory 1.30 The Big 11.15 Dress to Impress Life 8.30 Monkey Life Young Dracula 10.30 Bang Theory 2.0 Melissa 12.20 Emmerdale 12.50 9.0 The Dog Whisperer Fletch agrees to mediate in per- Secret Life of Boys 10.55 & Joey 2.30 Melissa & Funniest Ever You’ve 10.0 Modern Family Taking the Next Step Joey 3.0 Baby Daddy 3.30 Been Framed! Gold 1.50 10.30 Modern Family Cold Feet son with naive Barry’s girlfriend. 11.25 Absolute Genius Baby Daddy 4.0 2 Broke The Ellen DeGeneres 11.0 NCIS: Los Angeles 9pm, ITV Jonathan Wright 11.50 Show Me What Girls 4.30 2 Broke Girls Show 2.45 The Jeremy 12.0 House 1.0 Hawaii You’re Made Of 12.20 5.0 The Goldbergs 5.30 Kyle Show 3.50 The Five-0 2.0 Hawaii Five-0 This 90s throwback is ageing Shaun the Sheep 12.30 Stage School 6.0 The Jeremy Kyle Show 4.55 3.0 NCIS: Los Angeles 4.0 gracefully, with midlife crises, Porridge Shaun the Sheep 12.35 Big Bang Theory 6.30 The Jeremy Kyle Show Stargate SG-1 5.0 The Arthur 12.50 Nine Minute The Big Bang Theory 6.0 Dress to Impress 7.0 Flash 6.0 Modern Family perfect kitchens andd teenage 9.30pm, BBC1 Ninja 1.0 4 O’Clock Club 7.0 Hollyoaks 7.30 All Funniest Ever You’ve 6.30 The Simpsons 7.0 1.25 Taking the Next Star Driving School 8.0 Been Framed! Gold 8.0 The Simpsons 7.30 pregnancies thrownn into the mix. Step 1.55 CineMinis:  The Twilight Saga: Two and a Half Men The Simpsons 8.0 The Adam (James Nesbitt)itt) is ooffff on A Cinemaniacs Short Eclipse (2010) 10.30 The 8.30 Two and a Half Simpsons 8.30 Modern 2.10 Horrible Histories: Big Bang Theory 11.0 Men 9.0  Fast & Family 9.0 Sing: Ultimate a team-building exerciseercise and his Monstrous Musicians 2.40 The Big Bang Theory Furious (2009) 11.10 A Cappella 10.05 Carpool All Over the Workplace 11.30 Rude Tube 12.35 Family Guy 11.35 Family Karaoke Special 11.0 eyebrows have beenn fl irting with 3.10 Zig and Zag 3.20 Tattoo Fixers 1.40 First Guy 12.05 Family Guy The Russell Howard Hour a cheeky colleague forfor weeks. The Joke Machine 3.25 Dates 2.40 Rude Tube 12.35 American Dad! 12.0 A League of Their Odd Squad 3.40 Odd 3.35 Body Fixers 4.25 1.05 American Dad! Own 1.0 The Force: Essex What will happen wwhenhen he Squad 3.50 Copycats Rude(ish) Tube 4.50 How 1.30 Bromans 2.30 2.0 NCIS: Los Angeles spends the night awayway ffromrom Tina? 4.20 Newsround 4.30 I Met Your Mother 5.10 Teleshopping 3.0 The Blacklist 4.0 The Dumping Ground 5.0 How I Met Your Mother Stop, Search, Seize 5.0 Elsewhere, Karen (HermioneHermione Jamie Johnson 5.30 Ice More4 The Dog Whisperer Stars 6.0 Danger Mouse Film4 8.55am A Place in the Norris) is buckling uundernder the 6.10 The Deep 6.35 Zig 11.0am  The Sun: Home or Away 10.0 Sky Arts pressure of her complicatedmplicated and Zag 6.50 Scream Bravados (1958) 1.0  The Great Sioux 6.0am Simon Rattle Street 7.0 Horrible  Hell and High Water Uprising (1953) 11.45 A Conducts An Imaginary work and home life,, despitedespite Histories: Savage Songs (1954) 3.05  The Place in the Sun: Winter Orchestral Journey 8.0 hapless ex David’s off er ooff Special 7.30 Ice Stars Bedford Incident (1965) Sun 12.35 Grand Designs Watercolour Challenge 8.0 The Dumping Ground 5.10  Thunderbirds 1.35 A Place in the Sun: 8.30 Tales of the help. Hannah Verdierer 8.30 Jamie Johnson Are Go! (1966) 7.0  Home or Away 2.40 A Unexpected 9.0 Tales of

30 The Guardian 06.10.17 Much more on TV For news, reviews, series, liveblogs and recaps go to: theguardian.com/tv-and-radio

ITV Channel 4 Channel 5 BBC 4

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 8.30 6.0 Countdown (T) (R) 6.45 The King 6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 The Wright Stuff Lorraine (T) 9.25 The Jeremy of Queens (T) (R) Everybody 11.15 Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Kyle Show (T) 10.30 This Morning Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.05 Away (T) (R) 12.10 News (T) 12.15 (T) 12.30 Loose Women (T) 1.30 Frasier (T) (R) 10.05 Ramsay’s The Hotel Inspector (T) (R) 1.10 News (T) 1.55 Local News (T) 2.0 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) Access (T) 1.15 Home and Away Judge Rinder (T) 3.0 Alphabetical 11.0 Undercover Boss USA (T) (T) 1.45 Neighbours (T) 2.20 The (T) 3.59 Local News and Weather 12.0 News Summary (T) 12.05 Mentalist (T) (R) 3.20  Jesse (T) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) 5.0 The Come Dine With Me (T) (R) 1.05 Stone: Lost in Paradise (Robert 7.0 World News Today (T) 7.30 Top Chase (T) 6.0 Local News (T) 6.30 A New Life in the Sun (T) (R) Harmon, 2015) (T) Crime thriller of the Pops: 1984 (T) (R) John News (T) 7.0 Emmerdale (T) Sad 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 Find It, sequel starring Tom Selleck. 5.0 Peel and Janice Long introduce news reaches the village – and Fix It, Flog It (T) 4.0 My Kitchen News (T) 5.30 Neighbours (T) (R) performances by Bucks Fizz, it will change the lives of some Rules (T) 5.0 Come Dine With 6.0 Home and Away (T) (R) 6.30 Spandau Ballet, Sister Sledge, residents for ever. 7.30 Coronation Me (T) (R) 6.0 The Simpsons (T) News (T) 7.0 The Gadget Show (T) Level 42, Alphaville and Stevie Street (T) Andy hits rock bottom. (R) 6.30 Hollyoaks (T) 7.0 News Wonder. First shown on 6 (T) 7.30 Unreported World (T) September 1984. 8.0 Teach My Pet to Do That (T) The 8.0 The Crystal Maze (T) Richard 8.0 Britain by Bike With Larry & 8.0 The Live Lounge Show (T) star pupil is Charlie the performing Ayoade guides a female football George Lamb (T) The father-son Jay-Z pays tribute to Chester parrot. Last in the series. team through the Maze. duo’s adventure continues with Bennington. Plus, music by Craig 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Daniel 9.0 Gogglebox (T) Fly-on-the-wall a speedboat tour of Loch Lomond. David, Royal Blood, Rudimental earns a reward from his boss. series capturing householders’ Includes news update. and Lorde. Last in the series. 9.0 Cold Feet (T) An away day sees reactions to this week’s TV. 9.0 A Celebrity Taste of Italy (T) 9.0 Nile Rodgers: How to Make It in Adam get more than he bargained Judith Chalmers, Ian Lavender, the Music Business (T) New series. for and Karen fails to gain the Rula Lenska, Johnny Ball and The Grammy-winning guitarist- control she wants at work. Diana Moran explore two of producer explains how he made Tuscany’s settlements. his name in the music business.

10.0 News (T) 10.0 The Last Leg (T) Adam Hills, 10.0 Bobby Davro: In Therapy (T) 10.0 The Genius of Funk (T) (R) 10.30 Local News (T) Josh Widdicombe and Alex Therapist Mandy Saligari counsels Featuring Earth, Wind & Fire 10.45 Bad Move (T) (R) Business Brooker are joined by guest the former king of Saturday night and Kool & the Gang. problems conspire with late-night Victoria Coren Mitchell for a comic television. 11.0 Top of the Pops: 1982 Big Hits (T) rehearsals by Grizzo and his band review of the past seven days. 11.05 Alaska: A Year in the Wild (T) (R) (R) Featuring Adam Ant, Yazoo, to rob Steve of sleep. 11.05 First Dates (T) (R) A fashion 12.0 SuperCasino (T) 3.10  Throw Wham!, ABC and the Associates. 11.15 Tonight at the London Palladium assistant dates a wrestler. Momma from the Train (Danny 12.0 Top of the Pops: 1984 (R) As (T) (R) Featuring James Arthur and 12.10  American Hustle (2013) DeVito, 1987) (T) Black comedy 7.30pm. 12.30 Even More Guitar Irish dance troupe Prodijig. 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06.10.17 The Guardian 31 On the web Puzzles For tips and all manner of crossword debates go to theguardian.com/crosswords

Quick crossword no 14,794 Sudoku no 3,872

12 34567 Hard. Fill the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box 8 contains the numbers 1-9. Printable version at 910theguardian.com/sudoku

Stuck? For help call 0906 200 83 83. Calls cost £1.10, plus your phone company’s access charge. Service supplied by ATS. Call 0330 333 6946 for customer service 11 12 (charged at standard rate). Free tough puzzles at www.puzzler.com/guardian 13

14 15 16

Solution to no 3,871

17 18 19 20

21 .

22 23 0330 333 6846

24 25 or call

Across 16 Sacred beetle of ancient Egypt (6) Kakuro no 1,572 1 Enquires (4) 18 Baby-like advance (5) 3 Walks with an arrogant 20 Bring to a premature end manner (8) Hard. Fill in the grid so that guardianbooks.co.uk (5) 9 Drag in — bole rim (anag) (7) each run of squares adds up to 21 Pig fat used in cooking (4) the total in the box above or 10 Talkative (5) to the left. Use only numbers 11 Dr Who’s alien robot (5) Stuck? For help call 0906 200 83 83 or text 1-9, and never use a number 12 Type of car (6) GUARDIANQ followed by a space, the day and date more than once per run (a the crossword appeared another space and the CLUE 14 Shame (13) reference (e.g GUARDIANQ Wednesday24 Down20) number may recur in the same 17 Hackneyed expression (6) to 88010. Calls cost £1.10 per minute, plus your phone row, in a separate run). company’s access charge. Texts cost £1 per clue plus Printable version at 19 Once more (5) standard network charges. Service supplied by ATS. theguardian.com/kakuro Call 0330 333 6946 for customer service (charged at Are friends 22 Scent (5) standard rate). 23 Nonplussed (2,1,4) A great range of puzzle books is available from Guardian Books. To order, visit 24 Lay bare (8) guardianbooks.co.uk or call 0330 333 6846. 25 Thin strip used to stiff en a garment (4) Solution to no 14,793 Down FORMALLY BALD Solution to no 1,571 electric? 1 Scotland’s Granite City (8) AELAQWE 2 Afghan capital (5) MOD E L RHUB A R B 4 Wartime warning against EUA I EKU loose talk (5,4,4) SCANDALSHEET 5 Judge’s hammer (5) CEDTT A 6 Put inside (7) OBSESS WI LTON RUAORT 7 Unaccompanied (4) ORGANGR I NDER 8 Stove (6) NUDDALT 13 Holds oneself in readiness

ATLARGE B I LBO £7.96). Visit . Buy all four Guardian quick crosswords books for only £20 inc UK p&p (save (6,2) RAYNL I L 15 Device supplying an organ YOG I STRESSED with air (7) theguardian.com/crossword Access over 4,000 archive puzzles at 4,000 archive Access over Doonesbury classic Doonesbury Garry Trudeau more? Want

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