Latest news with #LifeonMars
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Pride and Prejudice fans urged to watch 'captivating' Jane Austen period drama
The period drama series is a hidden gem worth watching Are you a die-hard fan of Jane Austen adaptations but think you've seen them all? Think again, because there's one gem that might have escaped your notice. Airing back in 2008 on ITV, this four-part limited series offers a unique twist on the classic Pride and Prejudice tale, reports the Express. Armchair critics and fans on IMDb have been heaping praise on the miniseries. One user left a glowing 10/10 rating, saying: "I am utterly captivated by this refreshing take on Austen. I used to love romantic periodical novels when much younger, but they have since fallen out of favour with me, as they are all so alike. Here I am quite unaware, as of yet, what may happen and I absolutely adore the suspense. "The actors are well chosen for their task and I am quickly falling in love with them one by one. I never thought I would see Mr Bingley as adorable, but in this it is quite so." Another enthusiast gave a perfect score too, commenting: "Three episodes in and I feel now is the time to say a big well done to all concerned. As a long time Austen lover and a fan of period/costume drama I was unsure what to expect from this reworking of a favourite story." "As others have commented this bears similarities with 'Life on Mars', a person taken out of modern day life and deposited into the past, albeit Jane Austen's fictitious one." Meanwhile, another viewer remarked: "The mini series was absolutely sweet and funny and it will be appreciated by real Jane Austen fanatics. "It does resemble the weirdest dream that only authors of fan fiction have had. At times the plot lines turn into silly situations but for most of the time they are quite enjoyable. "The young actors make the most of it. I wish response has been better so that the series can be longer." A fourth viewer rated the programme a perfect 10/10, dubbing their review "Brilliant!". They penned: "I just watched the whole thing. I hadn't even realized it was a mini-series, I simply got the DVD from netflix and popped it in. It didn't offer me the option to select episodes, it just played the whole thing as one big movie. "One big, wonderful, delightful film! I haven't enjoyed a film this much in years. It was a complete treat. I love Pride & Prejudice; I've read the book, and seen most (maybe all? ) of the screen adaptations, some multiple times. "And I'm usually a bit of a purist, but I thought this might be fun, so I gave it a try. It well exceeded my expectations. I'm still aglow with enjoyment [sic]." Lost in Austen is a cheeky homage to the celebrated author and her best-known novel Pride and Prejudice. The show trails self-confessed Jane Austen enthusiast Amanda Price (portrayed by Jemima Rooper) residing in modern London during the Noughties. After a less than impressive proposal from her boyfriend, involving a makeshift wedding ring made from a can ring pull, Amanda finds herself mysteriously swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) and landing in the world of Pride and Prejudice through a door in her bathroom. Amanda's sudden arrival quickly throws the novel's events into chaos, as she frantically tries to steer the plot back on track. During Amanda's escapades, she encounters Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan), with the pair initially butting heads before sparks begin to fly. Lost In Austen boasts a star-studded cast, including Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville as Mr Bennet, Doctor Who's Alex Kingston as Mrs Bennet, Grantchester's Morven Christie as Jane Bennet, Suits actress Christina Cole as Caroline Bingley, and Tom Mison from Apple TV+'s See as Mr Bingley, among others. Additional casting includes Lindsay Duncan as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Guy Henry as Mr. William Collins, Michelle Duncan as Charlotte Lucas, Ruby Bentall as Mary Bennet, Pippa Haywood as Frankie, Amanda's mother, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Pirhana, Amanda's friend, Daniel Percival as Michael Dolan, Amanda's boyfriend, and Genevieve Gaunt as Georgiana Darcy.
Hindustan Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Review: Life on Mars by Namita Gokhale
In Namita Gokhale's Life on Mars, the women speak as if they have nothing left to lose. Or perhaps they've simply grown bored of politeness. Across 16 stories divided into two parts, Gokhale writes women who stagger through marriage proposals, viral fevers, God, bureaucracy, and desire. It is not just that they are ordinary, it is that Gokhale trusts their ordinariness to hold meaning. She trusts their stories to bend and reflect the tragicomedy of living in a society that never quite knows what to do with women who think. Pahari painting of Gandhari with maid-servants, by Purkhu, c. 1820 CE. 'The pleasure of reading Life on Mars is that the stories aren't driven by moral arcs, as much as I ached to pass a judgement. They are driven by discomfort. Qandhari blindfolded herself and became a queen, a mother of a hundred sons. She is a woman raging at the absurdity of her fate'. (Wikimedia Commons) 200pp, ₹322; Speaking Tiger Take Savithri, the protagonist of Savithri and the Squirrels, who introduces herself with a nonchalant bombshell: 'I am one of the five Panchkanyas.' The invocation is as layered as it is ludicrous, absurdly sacred. The Panchkanyas — Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, and Mandodari are figures from Hindu mythology, revered despite (or because of) their sexual complexity. But Savithri? She works at a matrimonial agency, possibly faked her resume, and feeds squirrels as a form of religious praxis. The juxtaposition is not meant to amuse (though it does) but to shake loose the reader's assumptions about what it means for a woman to be mythic in India. Savithri's 'gajra of fresh mogra flowers' and her thin braid channel some inner theatre. 'You North Indians don't even know the difference between Italy and idli,' she spits at the narrator, furious that her name — Savithri Subramaniam is mispronounced. 'Subramanian is not a Subramaniam,' she insists, as though identity itself might rupture over a vowel. Gokhale has long been alert to how language betrays social stratification, and this story practically throbs with it. Gokhale is being slyly mythological and sarcastic, but in service of something deeper. She draws from the Indian short story tradition that has given us Krishna Sobti, Mahasweta Devi, and Ismat Chughtai, all writers who understood that a woman's inner world is a battleground no less sacred than Kurukshetra. But unlike some of her predecessors, she rarely positions her characters as victims. Even in their most pitiful states, they are full of unpredictable movement. The titular Life on Mars is less interested in extraterrestrial questions than it is in the loneliness of a woman who has outlived her husband by a decade, is ignored by her grown sons, and falls into an accidental friendship with a man far younger than her, one Udit Narain, whom she instantly recognises as 'a crank.' But the real story isn't him, it's her wry self-awareness. 'Even seeing my name in print doesn't give me a lift anymore,' she says, in a moment of bone-dry deflation. Unlike the melancholic, inward turn of much Western short fiction, where women are often drowning in epiphanies and bathtub wine, Gokhale's characters have a larger Indian sounds, that of landladies, astrologers, nosy aunties, fevers, lockdowns, and WhatsApp forwards. These are not metaphors. She doesn't need to point neon arrows at her symbols. And the stories linger back. There are glimpses of COVID-19 lockdowns, of urban estrangement, of domestic routines so precise they become existential. The author does not rush through these. She doesn't write like she's afraid to bore. If you expect catharsis, you may not find it. What you get instead is clarity. The book's two-part structure is almost invisible, themes do spill into each other. Titles are deceptively simple: The Rock, The Weather in Darjeeling, The Girl Who Could Not Weep. But Gokhale's women are not symbols. They don't stand in for 'India' or 'trauma' or 'feminism.' They stand in for themselves a bold, almost defiant literary move in a culture that loves to reduce. In a short story tradition that has often hovered too neatly between the sacred and the cynical, Gokhale's stories zigzag. They can be mournful, yes, but never inert. In Life on Mars, she's clearly writing toward something. Surely not salvation, not resolution, but perhaps recognition. Namita Gokhale has always been a shapeshifter. From Paro to Things to Leave Behind, she has chronicled women. But Life on Mars feels different. This is her at her most distilled. There's a lightness to the prose. You feel she's laughing, not just at the world, but at herself. In the world according to Gokhale, exile is not a geographical condition. It is a posture, a mutiny, a rejection of the gaze. In Life on Mars women refuse the obvious choices. Some, like Qandhari in Chronicles of Self-Exile, become a myth of their own making. Gokhale is not interested in exalting women through their suffering. Her project, if one can be that reductive, is something colder and more subversive: to inhabit the consciousness of women so intimately that their decisions no longer appear moral or immoral, just inevitable. The pleasure of reading Life on Mars is that the stories aren't driven by moral arcs, as much as I ached to pass a judgement. They are driven by discomfort. Qandhari blindfolded herself and became a queen, a mother of a hundred sons. She is a woman raging at the absurdity of her fate. 'There is no mirror in his eyes,' Zara tells her, perhaps the saddest line in the book. And Qandhari's reply is chilling: 'You think this is a whim, Zara. No, it is a vow.' What Gokhale has written is interior archaeology. She scrapes away at the myths, the grand narratives, until all that's left is the raw, stubborn ruin of one woman's will. And through Zara, the servant and witness, we learn not just of Qandhari's choices but of the fragile ecosystem that makes such choices possible. Servants who comb her hair, astrologers who cannot explain her illness, a brother who may have poisoned his own kin. If Gokhale's Qandhari is a kind of oracle in self-imposed darkness, she is not alone in this landscape of estranged women. Across the collection, Gokhale constructs women on the brink of madness, of myth, of history's blind spot. The stories are not linked, but have a shared frequency. There is a kind of psychic correspondence between them. They are all about women who speak through refusal. There's something almost defiant in Gokhale's unwillingness to redeem her characters. She has always been interested in what lies beneath ordinary lives, how routine relationships carry the weight of years, silence, and accidents. In GIGALIBB, Bindu is remembered as a striking woman who doesn't seem to know the effect she has on people. She eventually walks into a lake after a period of decline. The narrator doesn't treat this as a moment of revelation, or a tragedy to be decoded. It just happens. A woman walks into a lake, her sari floating around her like a sail. She's pulled out, survives, ends up in a hospital bed, and later vanishes again. We're told simply that she wasn't found for a month. The image is direct with no flourish. Author Namita Gokhale (Bandeep Singh) What's more interesting is how people behave around her, how they remember her, interpret her, or ignore her. Her husband, now a religious recluse, disappears from the narrative. Her son is in boarding school. Kaka Kohli remains obsessed but ineffectual. The narrator is left piecing together fragments of gossip, memories, objects like a photograph in a wallet. 'For so many years,' Kaka Kohli tells her, 'I have carried this photo. For so many years, I have loved you.' But we're not meant to take him entirely seriously. His romanticism is as much about himself as anyone else. Indian women short story writers have long been invested in the iconography of female rebellion. But what sets Gokhale apart is her studied refusal of political neatness. Her women do not rise. They don't heal. They linger, rot, obsess, sometimes disappear. There's something deeply unsettling about this and it is exactly what gives Life on Mars its charge. What makes her fiction stand apart from the more anodyne stories of Indian English writing is her unembarrassed theatricality. Namita Gokhale's language too, though occasionally ornamental, never distracts from the emotional grime of her characters. You don't so much read her prose as eavesdrop on it. Pranavi Sharma writes on books and culture. She lives in New Delhi.
Glasgow Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow organist's tribute to city's 850th anniversary
'I'm his strongest critic,' she says, with a smile. 'And his biggest supporter. I'm very proud of him today - but I'm proud of him every day.' On Wednesday (May 14) Bill marked more than 55 years of performing at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum with a special recital arranged for Glasgow 850, the city's year-long celebration of its 850th anniversary. (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) 'I did the organ recital for Glasgow 800 on May 14, 1975, and exactly 50 years to the day, I am doing it for Glasgow 850,' he says, proudly. 'It really is lovely, a real honour - and very good publicity for the organ and the city. Glasgow has the world's longest-running free daily organ recital and I'm very proud to be part of that.' (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) Bill, who is now 76, started 'picking out tunes with his right thumb' on his mother's piano at the age of five. The family lived in Netherlee, and his mother was a gifted pianist who encouraged her son's love of playing. 'I got lessons at eight and that's when I realised what my other fingers were for,' he says, smiling. 'I liked the piano, but I was fascinated by the organ in my local church. I used to watch the organist in full flow, marvelling at the pedalling. I wanted a go at that….' (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) He had his first organ lesson at the age of 12 and played his first church service six months later. As a teenager, he studied at Glasgow Cathedral with John Turner, who was the Cathedral's youngest-ever organist and is, Bill says, 'still going strong in his mid-80s.' Bill's first recital in Kelvingrove was in 1969. He loves the museum's beautiful, complex Lewis pipe organ, which was built for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition and moved in to the museum's central hall the following year. (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) 'This organ is like an old friend,' he says, softly, demonstrating the vast array of pedals and stops in a quiet moment before the recital begins. 'It is capable of everything from a whisper to a roar. The acoustics in the building are wonderful, and wherever you are, in the side galleries, on the balconies, on the stairs, you can hear the music.' (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) Music has always been 'a hobby and a passion' for Bill, whose day job was in financial services. He and Moira, who is also an accomplished organist, live in Paisley, and the couple have two sons and two grandchildren. Over the years, a vast range of music has been played by the organists at Kelvingrove. In January 2016, Christopher Nickol's rendition of Life on Mars in tribute to David Bowie, following the singer's death earlier that day, was a hit on social media with millions of views in the space of a few hours. 'Some organists play classical music, others do contemporary, most do both,' says Bill. 'It's important to have a mix of the lighter pieces and the more stirring ones. The trick is to get the audience's attention early with something fast and exciting.' He adds, smiling: 'You never know who is in the audience, either – multi-millionaire film producer Michael Mendelsohn popped in recently, because he was in the city filming with James McAvoy.' (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) Lord Provost of Glasgow Jacqueline McLaren, who presented Bill with a commemorative plaque in recognition of his outstanding service, said: 'Bill's dedication to the world-famous organ recitals in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has enriched our city's cultural heritage and brought joy to countless visitors. 'His performances have become a favourite tradition and for some a happy introduction to the world of organ music, usually more associated with places of worship. 'This milestone is even more momentous as Bill took part in the Glasgow 800 celebrations. Today, fifty years on, we honour his commitment, exceptional service and his place as an integral part of Glasgow's vibrant cultural life." READ NEXT: Glasgow unveils city's first ever memorial to Merchant Navy 'It was the end of blackouts and air raids and fear' as Glasgow marked VE Day The Glasgow schools for 'homeless waifs' which helped feed city's poor At the Glasgow 850 recital, busy with tourists and schoolchildren, the programme included A Glasgow Flourish, arranged by Bill and woven with familiar melodies linked to the city; Kelvingrove, a piece specially commissioned for Bill by his family and composed by John Barber, in honour of Bill's 50th anniversary of recitals at Kelvingrove in 2019; and the Finale from Sonata No. 4 by Alexandre Guilmant. Bill has played organ recitals all over the country, but Kelvingrove will always have a special place in his heart. 'The audiences at Kelvingrove are what make it so wonderful,' says Bill. 'They're open to everything, from Bach to swing to the unexpected.' He pauses. 'Although French avant-garde music does tend to be a little less well-received.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Skipton Town Hall to play host to classical music festival
SKIPTON Town Hall will be a venue for the Ryedale Festival for the first time this year with a concert by trailblazing saxophonist Jess Gillam and her Ensemble III. Described as 'dynamic, bold and unique' the ensemble brings 'vibrant energy and boundless enthusiasm to the stage'. The concert includes a wide variety of music from CPE Bach and Debussy to Michael Nyman and David Bowie (Life on Mars). Jess Gillam has been described by The Times newspaper as 'not just one of Britain's most virtuosic instrumentalists, but also an unstuffy, inspiring personality'. The Ryedale Festival takes place from Friday, July 11 to Sunday, July 27; its programme of live classical music, offering audiences a festival experience shaped by vision, innovation and artistic excellence. This year's event features 57 performances in 33 locations right across the county, from Scarborough to Skipton. The classical music festival, which also embraces jazz, folk, poetry and participation opportunities, enjoys a large, loyal and enthusiastic audience, the warm support of the local community and a reputation as one of Europe's leading festivals of its kind. BBC Radio 3 broadcasts five concerts from the festival, including a recital by BBC New Generation Artists including German pianist Julius Asal, American violinist Hana Chang, Estonian flautist Elizaveta Ivanova and Uruguayan-Spanish tenor Santiago Sanchez. The Jess Gillam Ensemble III will be at Skipton Town Hall at 3pm on July 19. Tickets at:
Daily Mirror
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BBC's forgotten 'masterpiece' series with Hollywood A-lister and Walking Dead star now free to watch
The political thriller was a binge-worthy hit Viewers are urged to rediscover a neglected BBC series that's now completely free to stream online. This six-part, addictive show debuted prior to the era of streaming services, premiering on the BBC back in 2003. The political thriller begins with the death of an MP's assistant and the theft of a briefcase, which prompts the bereaved politician to enlist the help of his former campaign strategist and a reporter pal to unravel the murky deaths, reports Surrey Live. From the get-go, audiences were strapped in for a wild ride as the programme has maintained an impressive 8.3/10 rating on IMDb. The drama features an impressive lineup including big screen star James McAvoy, David Morrissey from The Walking Dead, Bill Nighy known for Love Actually, Kelly MacDonald of Trainspotting and Boardwalk Empire fame, John Simm who starred in Life on Mars and Doctor Who, and Philip Glenister, also of Life on Mars renown. Additionally, there were cameos from a pre-Game of Thrones Rory McCann (known better as The Hound), Polly Walker from Bridgerton, Benedict Wong of Marvel cinematic fame, and Tom Burke, who would later headline the detective series Strike. State of Play made such a splash that it sparked a Hollywood adaptation in 2009 featuring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Dame Helen Mirren, and Rachel McAdams, though many argue that the film doesn't hold a candle to the original series. On IMDb, fans have lauded the series, with one user commenting: "This BBC political thriller mini-series is far superior to the American remake. "If you like newsroom dramas, and films involving investigative journalism then you'll love this." One ecstatic reviewer gave a 10/10 score, sharing: "What makes a good political thriller? Some things are obvious. Firstly, strong believable characters. Secondly, a fast-paced, complex, dazzling plot. "But the plot must resolve into something comprehensible - there may appear to be one hundred mysteries, but beneath the smoke and mirrors, there must be one story. "Anyone can write an infinite collection of coincidences and conspiracies - but a strong story makes simple sense in the end." Another thrilled viewer exclaimed: "What a trip watching this masterpiece. "It's a fast moving intelligent thriller that had me glued to the couch... more addictive than Crack!". "The acting is convincing, the plot is thick, the script is delicious and the characters are vivid." You can now catch State of Play streaming at no cost whatsoever on the spanking new platform U, which also boasts a reboot of Bergerac, Louis Theroux's L.A. Stories, the stylish Mad Men, crime drama Annika, as well as vintage episodes of EastEnders, The Shield, and Holby City. This service provides your gateway to UKTV's no-cost channels like UandDave, UandDrama, UandW, and UandYesterday. Boot up U online by heading over to sign up without spending a penny, and you're set to bask in thousands of hours of gratis telly. While U doesn't charge a fee, it does feature ads throughout its content.
