“It's death to be understood,” declares Galactia, the 16th century artist-heroine of Scenes from an Execution. But the fact remains that this 1986 play is one of Howard Barker's most accessible and stringently witty works - a searching study of the fraught relationship between artist, patron, critic and political culture. 

As an actor I have toured the world, but always with the hard shell of a play around me. Five years ago I was invited to travel to the Galapagos with my childhood acquaintance, the artist Dorothy Cross. We share zoologist brothers; they are friends and we were treading in their dream world, our strange symmetry!

The overhaul of UK planning laws has one big opponent – and her four million members, writes Michael McCarthy

Mark Rylance, one of Britain's most respected actors and the founding artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, has defended his role in a film that pours doubt on the identity of the Bard.

An understated examination of monogamy, Last Night sees Keira Knightly put in a strong (and relatively un-pouting) performance as Joanna, a British writer living in New York.

Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into phone hacking and media standards and ethics will begin hearing evidence from witnesses next month, it was announced yesterday.

Much is made, by the Gunpowder Theatre Company, of the fact that Days of the Commune is one of Bertolt Brecht's least-performed plays. Cynics might reply that there is a reason for this. This is a hefty, agenda-ridden account of the Paris Commune and as such it represents a challenge in any milieu – all the more so when that happens to be behind a South London pub during a grudge football match.

ITV1 show This Morning breached the broadcasting code when guest Amanda Holden plugged a group of law firms, media regulator Ofcom has ruled.

A middle-age crisis makes for a lame sitcom, but a 24-hour play cycle rewards our up-all-night critic

Sex and Sixties glamour served with a cocktail

Starring: Jordana Beatty, Heather Graham

"I can't fly, I pick my beak, and once in a while I pee in the birdbath!" confesses Blu, a neurotic blue macaw, to Jewel, a rather more feisty one, in this sweet-natured, occasionally droll animation.

Michelle Monaghan secretly battled skin cancer

Starring: Jessica Brown Findlay, Felicity Jones