horses
P'tit QuinquinThursday, 09 July 2015When least expected, comedy has come stumbling into the work of French auteur Bruno Dumont. In his seven films to date, from the Cannes-winning Humanité of 1999 through to the stark Camille Claudel 1915 from two years ago, the director, frequently... Read more... |
The Trainer and the Racehorse: The Legend of Frankel, Channel 4Sunday, 14 June 2015This was the story of a remarkable man, Henry Cecil, a genius with horses and 10 times Champion Trainer. He was felled by tabloid scandal but rose again to train one of the greatest racehorses in history, Frankel. This wholly absorbing programme was... Read more... |
Beware of Mr BakerTuesday, 14 May 2013For those familiar with Ginger Baker’s virtuosic musicianship, but not with his life, the biggest revelation of the warts-and-all documentary Beware of Mr Baker may be that next to drumming, playing polo was the great time-keeper’s obsession. One... Read more... |
War Horse: The Real Story, Channel FourMonday, 05 March 2012If you had felt so inclined, you could have watched three straight hours of War Horsiness last night. Now, I’ve seen the play of Michael Morpurgo’s novel and figured I got the mechanics of its impressive stage-craft (Sky Arts 1, 7pm). And, having... Read more... |
Dustin Hoffman rides his Luck on Sky AtlanticThursday, 16 February 2012Further advancing the theory that television is the place for pedigree actors to be seen nowadays, Dustin Hoffman makes his TV debut in HBO's Luck, which kicks off on Saturday 18 February on Sky Atlantic. A complex, multi-stranded saga about horse... Read more... |
Final curtain for Sadler's WellsThursday, 28 April 2011Sad news for arts lovers with an eye on the horses - Sadler’s Wells, dubbed the greatest-ever sire of racehorses, died this week aged 30. His parents were the champion sire Northern Dancer and Fairy Bridge, and the arts supplied the names for racing... Read more... |
The Centaur and the Animal, Sadler's WellsTuesday, 01 March 2011To achieve a black stage that emits or reflects no light is a hell of an achievement. To place a huge black horse with black rider onto that stage, without the slightest noise, and to contrive a black shadow on the black, is to create an image found... Read more... |
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Channel 4Tuesday, 15 February 2011News reaches us of discontent within the so-called "travelling community", where not everyone appreciates the portrait of Romany life which has been emerging from Channel 4's hit series. Perhaps they didn't like all that stuff about hairy-... Read more... |
SecretariatFriday, 03 December 2010Americans apparently revere their great racehorses, especially if they carry their weight in socio-political resonance - or its absence. Thus, the $58 million-grossing Secretariat, about the powerful red chestnut with the inordinately huge heart... Read more... |
At Sadler's Wells bad times mean nudity and horses on stageTuesday, 26 October 2010Sadler’s Wells launched their 2011 season this morning with a warning that the front-loading of arts cuts to the next two years will cut a swathe through the British arts landscape.Alastair Spalding said that while this year’s cut of 7 per cent was... Read more... |
Eadweard Muybridge, Tate BritainSaturday, 11 September 2010Multiple images of silhouetted horses cantering against blank backgrounds in grids of movement are what most people associate with Eadward Muybridge. Made in the late 1880s, they have contributed to his lasting reputation as a pioneer of photography... Read more... |
Mountain Gorillas, BBC Two/ Horsepower with Martin Clunes, ITV1Sunday, 22 August 2010People are lured to behave like animals for TV now - Big Brother, Celebrity Jungle, The X Factor - so it merely completes the idiotic equation to have animals insistently transfigured into little humans in wildlife TV. Or big, hairy humans in the... Read more... |