The Independent

David Benedict on theatre

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Are all American theatrefolk Catholic? Confession is big news across the pond. Give 'em a stage, and they'll tell all. Dim the lights and express your pain (preferably from the perspective of an oppressed minority), and hey presto! you've got a show. Call me a racist, sexist git if you will, but I thought there was more to theatre than spilling your guts.

Liese Spencer on film

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Orson Welles (below) ballooning around with swollen malevolence, Marlene Dietrich in gypsy trinkets and Chuck Heston playing Latino. Touch of Evil is Hollywood class dressed-down as fly-blown melodrama. Based on Whit Masterson's paperback thriller, the film landed in Welles's lap at the dog end of his career. After 10 years in Europe, the great director had returned to Hollywood, only to wind up doing magic tricks on TV. Welles rewrote the script, slapped on a new title and set about directing what has become a cult classic.

SOMETHING FOR THE MILLENNIUM, SIR?

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

A new contraceptive device went on sale this week. The Persona measures female hormone levels in the urine and gives `traffic light' signals as to whether it's safe to proceed or not

Richard Ingleby on exhibitions

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

It is 200 years since the birth of David Roberts, an anniversary that is being celebrated in a small, mainly biographical, exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. At the centre of the show is a portrait of Roberts painted by his friend Robert Scott Lauder in 1840 (detail shown right), the year of Robert's return from his only trip to the Near and Middle East. He strikes the swaggering pose of a romantic hero: an Oriental traveller in the mould of Lord Byron or Burton; beturbanned and swathed in silks; his hand rests on his hip, his fingers on the hilt of his sword.

SOMETHING FOR THE MILLENNIUM, SIR?

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

A new contraceptive device went on sale this week. The Persona measures female hormone levels in the urine and gives `traffic light' signals as to whether it's safe to proceed or not

4-10 October day planner

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Today

Site Unseen: `Diver Bill', Winchester Cathedral

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

The great Anglican cathedrals seem so permanent and enduring a part of our landscape that it is hard to imagine a Britain without them. Durham, Canterbury, Wells, Salisbury and many others will surely be here for eternity and a day.

Angela Lewis on pop

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

How bizarre a concept The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (below) looked at their birth back in 1990. What had made Spencer, formerly leader of New York's notorious punk wastrels, Pussy Galore, want to don a silver shirt and form a blues band? Quite a shift that, but one that has provided four albums of flamboyantly uncivilised, raw and funky albums to date. Pussy Galore's high sleaze factor lives on, but in place of trashy white noise there's punky black blues-manship. All fun and good stuff for Spencer's studenty alternative fan base who wouldn't know the blues if they sat on a Howlin' Wolf vinyl LP and broke it. For blues virgins, Spencer is pretty freaky and clever to boot.

Gut Barging: Britain's bargers extend a friendly paunch to Japan

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

The gut-barging year reached a thrilling climax at its world championships in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, last weekend when Mad Maurice, "the Belgian from Melksham" retained the title he has held for the past four years.

Television & Radio: On the Box

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Telly has gone awards crazy. Next Wednesday sees the second National Television Awards on ITV. Hosted by Trevor McDonald and broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, this would-be rival to the Baftas features such intriguing nominations as Ross Kemp, right, (that's Grant Mitchell from EastEnders to you and me) for Best Actor, Des O'Connor Tonight for Best Talk Show and The Big Breakfast for Best Factual Entertainment. Then next month the BBC is transmitting its TV60 Awards to mark its 60th year of existence, and in December it's time for the British Comedy Awards again. But perhaps the most unusual awards ceremony of all is on the Disney Channel tomorrow week. On that day, the ubiquitous awards host Jonathan Ross will be presenting the 1996 Teacher of the Year Awards. An overall winner will be selected from 12 Regional Teachers of the Year. What next? The Award Ceremony of the Year Award?

The 24 Seven Guide: Let's hear it for Reg Varney's barmy army

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

The truth is out there, in Walsall and Stanford-Le-Hope, for followers of Noggin the Nog and David Duchovny. Be it Gerry, Gillian or Pamela, somewhere there's an Anderson Appreciation Society for you. Anthony Clavane enters the obsessive domain of cult TV land

Television & Radio: The fame game

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Fame is a drug, an agent of destruction. A Channel 4 season on this 20th-century addiction takes an anti-Hello! approach to celebrity. James Rampton gets a fix

Television & Radio: The fame game

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Fame is a drug, an agent of destruction. A Channel 4 season on this 20th-century addiction takes an anti-Hello! approach to celebrity. James Rampton gets a fix

The 24 Seven Guide: Let's hear it for Reg Varney's barmy army

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

The truth is out there, in Walsall and Stanford-Le-Hope, for followers of Noggin the Nog and David Duchovny. Be it Gerry, Gillian or Pamela, somewhere there's an Anderson Appreciation Society for you. Anthony Clavane enters the obsessive domain of cult TV land

Television & Radio: On the Box

04 October 1996 12:02 AM

Telly has gone awards crazy. Next Wednesday sees the second National Television Awards on ITV. Hosted by Trevor McDonald and broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, this would-be rival to the Baftas features such intriguing nominations as Ross Kemp, right, (that's Grant Mitchell from EastEnders to you and me) for Best Actor, Des O'Connor Tonight for Best Talk Show and The Big Breakfast for Best Factual Entertainment. Then next month the BBC is transmitting its TV60 Awards to mark its 60th year of existence, and in December it's time for the British Comedy Awards again. But perhaps the most unusual awards ceremony of all is on the Disney Channel tomorrow week. On that day, the ubiquitous awards host Jonathan Ross will be presenting the 1996 Teacher of the Year Awards. An overall winner will be selected from 12 Regional Teachers of the Year. What next? The Award Ceremony of the Year Award?