Monday 9th June 2025
Blog Page 1484

Review: Othello

Jack Graham
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Review: Othello
★★★★★
Five Stars
 
Nicholas Hytner’s latest production at the National Theatre deserves all the plaudits it has received. The acting is never short of breathtaking, setting and scene changes are cunning, and not a single word of the brilliant script is wasted.

Most strikingly, the play feels like a contemporary drama. Shakespeare manages to iterate ageless emotions in beautifully subtle ways, but so often actors seem to be reciting pretty poetry rather than genuinely engaging with the script. However, this cast makes the words sound effortless, dropping off the tongue like modern speech.

No one achieves this nore convincingly than Rory Kinnear, whose Iago feels more like a cockney wheeler-dealer than a traditional Shakespearean foe. Iago is intensely jealous of Othello and hatches a shrewd plan to destroy him, ultimately leading to tragedy. Kinnear spits out the character’s envious views with a cold resentment and the audience is hit by every foul look. However, Iago’s cruelty and aggression are tempered by a charming wit. Especially in his manipulation of the feckless sidekick, Roderigo (Tom Robertson), Kinnear draws the audience in, making his later crimes all the more appalling.

Many other phenomenal performances stand out. Adrian Lester (Othello) is particularly impressive, his charismatic aura at the beginning of the play giving way to confusion and grief as Iago destroys his life (through false accusations of his newlywed’s fidelity). Lester is extremely believable as Othello, in command of the tremendous emotions which the character pours out as the play progresses. The tragedy hits even harder thanks to Lyndsey Marshal’s heartfelt performance as Emilia, Iago’s wife who unknowingly contributes to his evil plan. 

 
The production is set in a modern war zone much like one would imagine a military base in Afghanistan. Though not an original idea, this complements the contemporary feel and makes the Shakespearean tongue even less noticeable. The walls of the barracks are shifted by troops in between scenes, keeping up the pace with very slick transitions – important for a production lasting over three hours. Each room in the barracks is very simple, providing no distraction from the audience’s focus on the characters.
 
This Othello is one of the finest peaces of theatre I have ever seen, if not the best. Lester and Kinnear are two of the greatest actors of their generation, and the whole cast is fully deserving of the numerous standing ovations they have received. I could not recommend a play more.
 
Othello will be at the National Theatre, London, until the 5th of October. Tickets range from £12 to £48 and are available here.

Oxford Professor reveals JK Rowling’s pseudonym

Anna Leszkiewicz
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Oxford Professor reveals JK Rowling’s pseudonym

An Oxford Univeristy Professor has helped expose JK Rowling’s secret identity as debut crime writer Robert Galbraith.

Hertford Professor Peter Millican, an expert in computer linguistics, uncovered the truth behind the pseudonym of crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling by developing software to analyse and compare texts.

Prof Millican was approached by the Sunday Times last Friday, after they recieved information suggesting that Galbraith was actually Rowling in disguise.

The tip off came as a member of legal firm Russell’s, Chris Gossage, divulged Rowling’s secret to her best friend, Judith Callegari. Callegari then allegedly revealed Galbraith’s true identity to a Sunday Times journalist via Twitter.

Prof Millican told the BBC, “I was given some text by The Sunday Times – I had two known texts by JK Rowling, two by Ruth Rendell, two by PD James and two by Val McDermid.

“What I did was clean up the texts, put them into my software and do a battery of tests to see what similarities there were. I was testing things like word length, sentence length, paragraph length, frequency of particular words and the pattern of punctuation.

“What was striking about the tests was how often The Cuckoo’s Calling came closest to the texts by JK Rowling and it was closer to those than to any other crime novels.”

Prof Millican similarly received public interest in 2008 when he was asked by a Republican to prove that President Barack Obama was not the actua author of his autobiography Dreams From My Father, concluding “I found it was most unlikely he did write it because there were significant differences in his use of language.”

5 Ashes’ stories to follow

Samuele Volpe
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5 Ashes’ stories to follow

So far, so good. One test down, and the England cricket team have an 100 per cent record. A 1-0 scoreline only tells half of the story though, and going into the second episode of this summer’s grand narrative, at the hallowed Lord’s ground, all remains to play for. Needless to say, Michael Clarke’s Aussies will be desperate to make up for coming so very close last week. Given the evolutionary nature of the series, here is a quick breakdown of five storylines which will be well worth following as they develop over the currently-sweltering Summer:

1. James Anderson. During the five days at Trent Bridge many players looked good, as if they were playing themselves into form. The pace bowler from Burnley however, looked on a different plane altogether. Undoubtedly, if Australia figure out Jimmy, they’ll figure out England. Meanwhile, how will the other English bowlers fare if, as the great Adam Gilchrist suggests, the Aussies try to use a perceived English dependency on Anderson as a psychological weapon?

2. David Warner. It was hard to ignore the controversy in the build-up to the series – Warner’s ‘altercation’ with Joe Root in a ‘Walkabout’ bar lead to Warner himself going ‘Walkabout’ all the way to Southern Africa to play in an Australia A international – but who’d bet against the left-handed batsman making a statement whilst augmenting a disconcertingly fragile batting line-up, Ashton Agar aside.

3. Spin. Talking of the 19 year-old debutant Agar: the latest in a long line of spinners who have been teed up to replace the legendary Shane Warne was notable, remarkably, for his batting in the first test. Both he, and opposite number Graeme Swann, struggled to make much of a mark in Nottingham, and with Swann no doubt itching to prove his bowling can still live up to his off-field character, it will be fascinating to see how Agar fares – will his record-breaking last stand count for much in the eyes of the newly reorganised Antipodean selectors?

4. Umpires and DRS. According to some respected analysts the finale to the Trent Bridge test was marred by the ‘Decision Review System’. Others felt that the agonising wait to see whether ‘Hotspot’ technology would rule Brad Haddin out added to the tension in a positive manner. What is factual though, is that the reliance on technology is threatening to fuel discussion throughout the series. Equally, the scrutiny over borderline decisions has extended to some mild criticism of the umpires present, and due to the fact that the majority of the ‘Elite’ panel of umpires are either English or Australian, the two who featured last week will be reappearing frequently. Without wishing to mirror football’s occasionally morbid fascination with officiating, the reaction to key calls – whether human or technological – will make for polemical discussion.

5. ‘The Spirit of Cricket’. Related to the DRS debate is the moral standard which cricket holds itself to. In particular, the concept of ‘walking’ when a player knows that they have been got out is ingrained in the fabric of the game. Therefore Stuart Broad’s pokerfaced refusal to leave the field in Nottingham struck many as beyond the pale. That he then went on to make an important half-century, helping England’s eventual victory, has only served to heighten the anger he has faced. Coming hot on the heels of a similar controversy featuring Denesh Ramdin at the recent ICC Champions’ Trophy, the ethical debate shows no signs of abating. As such, when any close decisions occur at Lord’s it might be worth taking a good look into the eyes of the batsman or fielder at the centre of the scenario – it would certainly add another facet to the game. (Not that it needs it.)

Planes, Trains and er.. does that guy have a sword?

Sybil Devlin
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Planes, Trains and er.. does that guy have a sword?

The classic American Roadtrip: roof down in the car, hair streaming as we take a right into a roadside diner. We get the meal for free because “y’all’s accents are so cute” and the owner yells “y’all come back now ya hear” when we pull out onto the freeway. Oh, this is the life. Or rather it would be had any of my three travelling companions or I managed to pass a driving test. It is certainly awkward when not one of four British travellers have a license – especially when we’ve had eight years between us to get one and I’ve heard you can do a crash course in 2 weeks. Shameful.

So, instead of the classic road trip we’ve been using America’s public transport system which has provided insight to why the average American asks “why the heck were you on a greyhound?”. The first Greyhound I took was a five-hour ride from New York to Washington D.C. It set the bar high – not only was it incredibly cheap but the AirCon, WiFi and mains plugs actually worked to a sufficient standard. Plus, there were no ex-convicts. I say this because there’s an urban myth that they hand you a free Greyhound ticket to anywhere once you get out of jail – a get out of jail card if you will. Despite their thorough and well-researched knowledge on the American prison/greyhound systems I was not completely confident in the mothers of suburban England’s advice on this one. I was tempted to ask which of their many middle-class convict friends had confirmed the “get out of jail” card myth but decided that Tilly and Apple probably had severed connections with their American pen-pals years ago.

Albeit there were no ex-convicts, there was, however, a “smoke and stretch” stop in Delaware. Before this, I’d had no idea where Delaware was and despite thinking it was first a made-up place presumed it was in the deep south and preceded to say the State’s name over and over again with a southern twang – “Daylawaare” I’d shout happily in the service station… It was my fourth day in America and I decided to go for the whole “Supersize Me” thing and get fast food for every meal (more for personal indulgence than any kind of social experiment) and got a chicken burger from Burger King. I was served by a girl called, wait for it, Brynisha. It was possibly the best moment of my life but i think she thought I was staring at her massive breasts because I was trying to work out how to pronounce her name from her nametag. So apart from Brynisha and another fast food restaurant crossed off the list, my first Greyhound was an innocent affair.

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All aboard the Greyhound

Source: Wikipedia Commons

However, things turned significantly towards the “Get out of Jail” myth on my next journey. I boarded the bus at Washington D.C. for a 16-hour, two bus, overnight journey to Nashville. I was met with the stench of dried urine and the sight of a guy about my age casually wearing a 3 foot sword from a hilt on his belt. A sword. He had a sword! I perhaps would have expected a knife, or maybe even a gun but I certainly was not expecting a sword! It took us five hours to work up the courage to ask him why he had a sword – I say that as if we approached him confidently in conversation but really he asked us to switch seats (I practically shat myself running to give him my seat) and we pounced on the chance to ask. He told us he had won the sword at a weight-lifting contest after having lifted his own weight – a casual 195lbs (that’s nearly 14 stone).

The sword issue all cleared up, we took another “smoke and stretch” stop in some sleepy town in Virginia at which point another less ostensibly scary passenger started explaining to us the varying levels of danger in New York as opposed to Washington D.C.. The latter has the second highest rate of homicide in the U.S. after Philadelphia. This was all quite normal until he took off his shirt and explained how he had been stabbed twice and shot at whilst staying in NYC. “He didn’t get me that bad”, he boasted as he pointed to a two inch scar which had healed on his lower abdomen. Needless to say I slept with one eye pretending to be closed but actually quivering with fear and one hand firmly clenching my bag for the remaining eight hours on the bus.

So, the Greyhounds were a mixed bag – I would recommend them on shorter trips and perhaps not overnight, although day buses can get too hot and crowded. They are, however, a cheaper alternative to Amtrak (the American train service) and sometimes to flights. We took the former on one trip – it was incredibly comfortable, if a bit too expensive. The seats are designed to accommodate the largest American possible so you can pretty much sprawl out as much as necessary.

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Would you like to supersize that train?  

Source: Wikipedia Commons

The coverage of Amtrak is not amazing but they are extending their routes on the East Coast in Virginia. The California rail pass costs $169 for 7 days of travel within 21 days all around the state – it even has some routes into Nevada which are covered in the cost. The only slightly bizarre moment I’ve experienced on an Amtrak train was when a woman who reminded me of Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids decided to accompany us on a trip to the local supermarket whilst we were waiting. She seemed to want to come and stay with us and kept on talking about beer as if to ingratiate herself in “youth culture” but she was nice enough if a bit weird.

Internal flights in America are sometimes cheaper than Amtrak and not much more expensive (on some routes) than the Greyhound, but they do detract from the whole “living on a shoe-string” student experience if you are that way inclined. The only difficulty with them is the ridiculous security checks. On arriving in the country your fingerprints are taken – but this is expected from America. However, after we had gone through security for an internal flight at Nashville we entered into the combined departures and arrivals lounge and instantly made for Tootsie’s which promised food and seats. We practically ran towards it in hunger only to find out that we’d left the secure part of departures. We were one metre beyond the line that separates being “in” the departures/arrivals lounge and suddenly became unchecked and dangerous civilians. We tried to walk back into the lounge but the man guarding the line had seen us innocently mistake the line for a normal panel on the floor so he started shouting “don’t take another step” practically reaching for his gun. That one metre meant we had to pass through the long security checks yet again before we could be back in that secure space. We did notice when we were back in the area that there were “No Exit” signs but that’s besides the point.

Review: And the Mountains Echoed

James Tozer
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Review: And the Mountains Echoed

★★★★☆
Four Stars

“Creating means vandalizing the lives of other people, turning them into unwilling and unwitting participants. You steal their desires, their dreams, pocket their flaws, their suffering. You take what does not belong to you. You do this knowingly.”

Afghanistan has been brutally scarred by the violence of its recent past; the pain of decades of conflict lies at the heart of Khaled Hosseini‘s novels. It is an indelible feature of a country’s history, the country of Hosseini’s birth; and yet one wonders how cynically the author recognises the currency of suffering in writing. The quotation is from the mouth of Nila Wahdati, poetess and protagonist in the latest work, but is also one of Hosseini’s many reflections on his own creation.

Abuse, domestic and martial, dominates his first two books (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns). And the Mountains Echoed, returning to the Kabul of the last sixty years, is another study in human cruelty – this time accompanied by a catalogue of horrific accidents. Yet Hosseini also hunts for suffering beyond his usual domain: this is not just fear in a handful of dust, but arthritis in Paris, dog attacks in Athens, Alzheimer’s in New York.

Hosseini has been compared to Dickens; and like his literary forefather, he understands only too well the “attraction of repulsion”, our macabre fascination with woe that draws our noses only closer to the page. The Dickens comparison is not wholly damning: for adversity is also used to show the enduring benevolence of the human condition, and to deepen our empathy.

Guilt is an equally important theme. Amir’s shame drove The Kite Runner: reluctant to drop a winning formula, And the Mountains Echoed has nine protagonists, nine parts, nine betrayals. Each is connected to the misfortunes of a family living in rural 1940s Afghanistan; each must remorsefully come to terms with the wrongs of the past. Hosseini deftly condenses sin, reducing it to a simple impulse: The Kite Runner memorably describes all evil as theft, where And the Mountains Echoed explores the ways that humans turn their backs on family, friends, and countries.

Just as we feel Hosseini in each of his characters – many share biographical similarities, most a startling honesty that endears them to us – we also detect his own guilt. Certain protagonists are troubled by their dislocation from Afghanistan (notably a doctor who, like Hosseini, emigrated to California as a child), and we find this problem even in the mechanics of his prose: ethnic words are quietly translated (“the qarias, the small villages”), and Hosseini’s American idiom sits uncomfortably in the mouth of a 1960s Afghan butler (“she had promised to write me”).

Though there are minor flaws in technique (obvious symbols, like the Forrest Gump feather, are clumsy), Hosseini often writes beautifully. The landscape is wonderfully alive – “fat rain fell from the sky, and the village rose thirstily to meet it” could be straight out of D. H. Lawrence. The scope of his book, around the globe in sixty years in all manner of narrative voices, is enjoyably ambitious if at times striving too hard to impress. His characters all have bits that are the same – but maybe that is his point, anyway.

And the Mountains Echoed is published by Bloomsbury. It is available to purchase for £16.99 here.

Baroque Churches to Berlin

Tim Ellis
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Baroque Churches to Berlin

This time last year I’d just finished first year and so decided I needed a break. Amidst numerous other summer plans I decided to go interrailing around central Europe for two weeks with a college friend. My companion craftily attempted to fund this venture by going to college and asking for a travel grant. The college agreed to fund the trip, on the proviso that he made a full report on the history of the baroque churches of the capitals of Europe.

‘Interrailing’ refers to the practice of getting a European rail pass, allowing you travel on most trains in most European countries ( apart from your own), and thus with this in hand you can travel across Europe staying in a different city every other night for nearly a month. A pass can be sorted for just one country, or more commonly you can opt for the global pass ranging from just £161 for 5 days travel or £387 for a month. Carrying a pass also offers a number of discounts at selected tourist destinations.

Our trip began in Hamburg; where we watched the much feted fountain and lights show in the city’s park at dusk. Hamburg, as Germany’s second city, is incredibly vibrant and bustling. We spent the day before we left on a river cruise and examining the Reeperbahn by day- and in the process laughing at the creative use of innuendo on the signage of countless establishments in the Red Light district, as well the length of some questionable ‘devices’ sighted in a shop window .

Then onto Berlin. German trains are incredibly fast, efficient and reliable, and not as a ridiculously overcrowded as their British counterparts. Berlin as a city is very modern- and you get a feeling on arrival that much of it is still under construction with cranes dominating the skyline – not surprising given the devastation enacted during WW2, and the ensuing partition of nearly 50 years into West and East Berlin. The main railway station- hauptbahhof, is a huge temple of glass, with two levels of trains whizzing over and under each other. It’s a sight worth going to see in its own right.  Our day in Berlin consisted of the obligatory sightseeing of the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie, before rounding the day off with a plate of sausages, sauerkraut and apple strudel and watching the sun go down over a glass of beer by the riverside ( which during the summer months is converted into a beach complete with deckchairs, palm trees and sand).

We then pressed east to Prague. The train passed through the mountainous border area of ‘Bohemian Switzerland’- famed for numerous spa towns, such as Bad Schandau. On the train we became acquainted of a raucous stag party, who by mid afternoon were nicely inebriated. The groom-to-be (clad in a pair of fake breasts) requested we cut squares from his already tattered trousers, and asked the girl in a party to cut off a label from her underwear. Being good-natured people we acquiesced. We then witnessed the sight of one of the stag party having his backside waxed by a blonde woman he’d just met, just as the train entered the Czech Republic.

Prague was the most beautiful city of all that we visited. The big attraction in Prague is the castle- site of the once capital of the Holy Roman Empire and of two ‘defenestrations’ (my favourite word in the English language- it refers to the act of throwing someone out of a window). We polished off the evening with a plate of Czech food- heavy on pork, sausage, and dumplings, in the old town square. Due to cash issues, we were unable to visit the museum of ‘sex machines’ – which despite the subject matter of its exhibits did look reasonably classy.

Into Austria we went. Our hostel in Vienna, was part of the ‘Wombats’ chain (based in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and Budapest), and easily the best one we stayed in during our trip, and fairly cheap at that. We spent a pleasant first evening playing cards in the bar, drinking and conversing with a young Australian woman. During the day we visited the magnificent cathedral, followed by kafe und kuchen in a cafe. Vienna is renowned for its cafés, so naturally we opted for an establishment opposite the Spanish riding school. With an espresso we bought slices of sachertote (chocolate cake with apricot jam), and whiled the afternoon away. That evening we decided to head off to the Schonbrunn palace, first for a stroll around the spectacular gardens, and then for a Mozart/Strauss concert in the palace’s orangerie, topped off with a glass of champagne.

We then preceded westward through Austria. You have to like Austria. The countryside is beautiful, the towns and cities pretty, people are friendly  and it’s exceptionally clean. We spent a night in Melk- famed for its spectacular abbey. This sleepy small town in the Danube valley is a bit off the beaten track, but it made a nice change from big capital cities. Here we stayed in a national YHA hostel- basic but adequate for our needs.

Onwards to Linz. We experienced the amazing novelty of riding trams here, before visiting a hip art gallery- where one of the main exhibits was a film depicting a three-way love affair , which you watched sitting on a bed. It was later revealed that the bed in question was the bed which had seen much action in the film. Sausage-heavy cuisine starting to be a bit too much, we opted for an Italian in the town square with a cheeky prosecco on the side. We had private rooms in our hotel, so we wound up watching the Olympics and a bit of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. Turns out the Austrians are big fans of Hyacinth Bucket.

Salzburg is famed for two things- ‘The sound of music’ and Mozart. The castle which overlooks the city is well worth a visit. We wound up that evening feeling rather tired, watching Julie Andrews sing and dance amidst the Austrian alps (screened daily apparently at the hostel).

After a train journey which alarmingly left Austria, went into Germany and then went back to Austria again, we got off at Innsbruck. This differed from anywhere else we’d visited with the conspicuous presence of mountains surrounding the city. Having tired of baroque churches, we headed for the zoo. Innsbruck is home to the Alpinezoo- which showcases a vast range of mountain fauna. Admittedly there was nothing exciting as a rare panda, but we did get to see some bears and wolves. The next morning we went to go see the famous ‘golden roof’ of Innsbruck- which was literally a building with a golden roof and not much else. We then left the EU for Switzerland, passing en route through Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a micro state of only 61 sq. miles, known for being a tax haven and being the world’s largest producer of false teeth. Not much else can be said about it, but hey, somewhere to tick off. The final stop for me was Zurich. Switzerland is very beautiful. Lake Zurich is incredibly clean and the water crystal clear. I even decided to go for a swim- which after a 3 hour train journey was intensely refreshing. That morning I got the train to the airport, flew back to Olympic-stuffed London, travelled thePiccadillyy line and then took a 3 hour train to Durham- all in a day. A fitting end.

Practical tips and advice:

  • Invest in a bumbag/ money belt. YES you will look like a massive shlad/shlass, but when you have to juggle a wallet, phone, keys, money, passport and tickets it does offer much security and ease of access.

  • Meininger hostels are generally well facilitated, though the rooms are small and it feels a bit souless.

  • National Youth hostels- ( as i stayed in Melk and Innsbruck) are basic, a bit spartan ( and also don’t take well to heavy boozing in the early hours) but are cheap.

  • The best in terms of traveller/studenty experience- were Vienna ( http://www.wombats-hostels.com) and Salzburg ( http://www.famoushostels.com/salzburg-hostel). Both are part of a chain so if you plan to go interrailling elsewhere in Europe- see if they have any hostels where you plan to go.

  • Buy seat reservations on busier (international) trains. You can do this a few days in advance at station ticket offices, but don’t bother with all trains- ask if unsure.

  • Make sure your phone and bank card are set up to be used abroad

  • Bring cards. Many an hour was whiled away on international trains playing blackjack. Swimming costumes are worth a shout also.

  • Get cash out in local currency before arrival just so you have money before you can reach a cash machine.

  • Have fun. Do weird and wonderful things. Go see “trabant world” in Berlin. Go to the sex machines museum in Prague ( I failed to do so). See a concert in Vienna. Go to a zoo. Go swimming. Talk to everyone you meet-whether fellow guests in the hostel, fellow passengers or just randomers in a bar. I myself learnt much about Korea over the fortnight as we met many Koreans on our travels.

Review: Comedy Feeds

Ollie Forrest
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Review: Comedy Feeds

Released on the BBC3 and iPlayer websites as a series of pilot shows, the BBC Comedy Feeds are, most would agree, a worthy enterprise. The Office, the last truly great British comedy, is long gone. The Inbetweeners has finished, Peep Show is on its last legs and The Thick of It is all but dead. It’s about time there was another British comedy show worthy of the name. The shows are certainly a mixed bag, but there are four very good reasons to be hopeful for the future.

 The Failures:

Kerry – One Star

The sketch shows are only 15 minutes each, and in Kerry this proves to be very problematic. Star Kerry Howard plays four characters, and each appears three or four times, meaning not only that the set-ups are tediously predictable, but that each character manages to outstay its welcome. As they rely on the same punchlines, the sketches – for example, a perfectionist who goes on a destructive rampage at the slightest criticism – have an easily foreseeable shelf life. A series of such characters would be nigh-on tortuous.

The Committee Meeting – Two Stars

It’s filmed with a live audience, who are ostensibly members of the committee, chaired by Mr Chairman (Elis James), helped by his number two, health-and-safety conscious Rex (Chris Corcoran). The two chat, and after a while another local character or two arrives, and later a celebrity guest who they interview in character (a rather bemused Colin Baker). The atmosphere is very genial, and you could be quite content watching it for half an hour before realising that it hasn’t once inspired in you any greater reaction than a wry smile or two.

Nick Helm’s Heavy Entertainment – Two Stars

Nick Helm’s show is glorified stand-up: half an hour of mildly amusing jokes, one mildly amusing sketch, and three terrible songs. He has a winning dedication, and would doubtless win over a small comedy club, but I’m unsure why anyone thought his act would make for a good TV show.

Going Native – Two Stars

A hidden-camera show featuring Mona Yousefi, who plays three separate immigrants to the UK. Though the format works very well when it shows up British assumptions about other cultures (an elderly couple happily watch Yousefi rattle off an impressive number of euphemisms for ‘vagina’ without comment) it is spoiled by the scenes of childishly annoying people, such as playing up on community service with a clearly exasperated cleaner. Also, some of it borders on racism, particularly the “Japanese Youtube sensation”, who introduces herself to everyone with a shrill cry of “Herro prease!”.

The Successes:

The Cariad Show – Three Stars

Though far from perfect, this show from Cariad Lloyd demonstrates that sketch comedy need not be a series of trudges to the same destination. The best sketches are characterised by touches of lovely originality; rival French parkour teams picnic together in playgrounds, and the impossibly sweet fantasy girl who plagues lonely men has cupcakes inexplicably falling from her hair. There is a creative silliness to the show, which suggests that a series would have many such moments.

 Fuzzbox – Three Stars

The script is disappointingly light on jokes, but Fuzzbox should be celebrated for its originality; it is set in a high school and uses puppets, with real teenagers providing the voices. This may seem unnecessarily gimmicky, but in fact adds a surprising realism to the conversations and the relationships, which feel immediately real. The only problem is the teenagers’ constant mumbling which often makes it quite difficult to follow.

Bamboo – Four Stars

Comedy duo Totally Tom (Tom Stourton and Tom Palmer) play two friends who open a nightclub, and they’re a send up of the oblivious, “Gap Yah-style” rich young man. Though the trailer describes them as “two douchebags united by a common dream”, the show works because their naïve idiocy makes them pretty lovable; they get a Buddha statue for luck because they think he’s the Prime Minister of Thailand. Their relationship drives the show, and the actors’ devotion to silly, over-the-top performances makes for a very watchable half hour.

C-Box – Four Stars

Rob Madin stars as Charlie, or “C-Bomb”, the “dubstep Da Vinci” unrecognised outside of his Sheffield suburb. Charlie is a great character; he lives with his mum, but he calls her by her first name and quickly corrects himself when he slips up in company. He’s brilliantly played, Madin giving him the perfect mix of impotence, bravado and honesty to make him instantly likeable. The stand-out moment is when, losing an argument, he fantasises about performing a dubstep hit that says exactly what he wants to say, but can’t. Charlie is a classic sitcom sap, and C-Bomb could be a sitcom with real legs.

This year’s BBC Comedy Feeds are available to watch here.

Review: The Internship

Ollie Forrest
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Review: The Internship

One Star

Screen reunions can be tricky things. Vince Vaughn should know. Last year saw the release of The Watch, a film which was, perhaps unfairly, hyped as the second coming of Vaughn’s partnership with Ben Stiller. Unfortunately, the film, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 16% was, to put it mildly, certainly no Dodgeball. Despite this, I held out some hope for The Internship. It sees Vaughn starring alongside the third of that erstwhile trio, Owen Wilson, for the first time since Wedding Crashers.

Unfortunately, The Internship fails to live up to even these low expectations. For starters, it appears to be not so much a film as an extended advert for Google. There are less than ten minutes devoted to introducing the main characters before they are whisked to Google’s San Francisco headquarters, the premise being that Vaughn (Billy McMahon) and Wilson (Nick Campbell), sacked from their jobs as travelling salesmen, are accepted onto the summer internship programme.

Most of the screen time is then aken up by their wide-eyed gazing at the wonders of working for the internet giant (slides! relaxation pods! free bagels!), while the backdrops seem to consist entirely of hotel-standard accommodation, and idyllic, forever-sunny grounds. There is repeated, un-mocking use of the term “Googly-ness” to describe the sought-after attribute of successful candidates, and the tasks the interns perform are the sort of thing that people at summer camps pay good money for. The praise is relentless and the effect is quite bizarre; a bit like watching a version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willy Wonka has been replaced by Mr Cadbury.

Even judged on its merits, the film is still a disappointment. Over-long, predictable, and low on laughs, it bores and frustrates in equal measure. The plot adheres to a well-worn formula. The interns are put into teams, and compete over a series of tasks with the winning team getting jobs; a premise at once too convenient to be realistic, and too dull to successfully hold interest. Nick and Billy are mocked by the other, vastly younger, candidates, and not without reason; they quickly prove to be almost entirely unfamiliar with computers (a skill which would seem to be the only necessary qualification for pursuing a career at Google).

In a shocking twist, however, they start to show these technologically-competent brats how it’s done, through pure old-fashioned hard work and chutzpah. They even show them a thing or two about partying, because the only thing that’s changed since the 80s is the clothes, daddio. There is, of course, a love story thrown in for good measure, which sees Nick attempting to woo a character so woefully under-developed I had to look up her name (Dana, played by Rose Byrne).

What grates most of all isn’t the fact that the film is so predictable, but that it goes through the motions of the story so lazily. The scenes whip by at a fair rate of knots, with very little energy expended on establishing either character or motive. For example, a section in which Billy drops out, gets another job, is hunted down by Nick and talked round to coming back plays out over less than five minutes of screen time. The film does this constantly, rushing you from one significant moment to the next without bothering to set the scene or provide more than a hint of motivation. The result is a rushed, unengaging end product, and it only adds to the sense that the entire thing is just a vehicle allowing Google to advertise on the silver screen.

This is a great shame in a way, because Wilson and Vaughn clearly have something still to offer as a partnership. Their presence is welcome in every scene, their interplay warm and easy, even producing some moments of surprising emotional import. They can’t, however, triumph over a script which stifles any jokes with its relentless pace, refuses to develop characters beyond a brief introduction, and, unforgivably, shows a quite astonishing deference to Google.

The Internship feels like the result of Sergey Brin threatening to kill Ben Stiller unless someone makes him a 90-minute recruitment video in two weeks. Which would probably make for a far better film; or at least one that didn’t feel quite so much like selling out.

The Internship is showing at Vue Cinema Oxford on 17th July and in Odeon Cinema Oxford until 18th July.

Malala Yousafzai: 16-year-old takes on the Taliban

Alexandra Sutton
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Malala Yousafzai: 16-year-old takes on the Taliban

Roughly nine months ago, I wrote a piece about the attempted murder of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai. She was shot at on her way to school by Taliban militants because of her campaign for girls’ education and was subsequently flown to Britain for emergency surgery and rehabilitation. Despite her undisputed bravery and dedicated fight for social justice, Malala’s future was uncertain. Unable to return to Pakistan for fear of a repeated attack but unlikely to give up her battle, the question remained – could Malala change a nation?

Yesterday, on her 16th birthday, Malala gave a speech at the United Nations that firmly answered that question. “The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambitions,” she said, “but nothing changed in my life, except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.” Less than a year after undergoing brain surgery, relocating to the United Kingdom and dealing with the repercussions of an assassination attempt, Malala stood amongst world leaders and her peers to let them know that her campaign was not over, and that just as before, education is her chief concern. “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.”

Schools in Pakistan continue to exist in peril; establishments all over the country are under constant pressure from the Taliban – the threat of violence then discourages parents from sending their children to school, which perpetuates the association of education with fear. Just under a month ago in Quetta, 14 girls were killed by a bus explosion on their way to university, with militants then laying siege to the hospital that the wounded were being treated in. Though Malala has become the face of Pakistani female education rights, it is clear now that her story is one of many incidents of terror and murder throughout the country. The culture of fear is so strong that it has even forced some members of Malala’s own community to distance themselves from the girl, out of concern that their children will suffer from similar attacks. However, Malala herself aspires to be the voice for those who do not have one, and it appears that no amount of adversity or threat will change that.

In her address at the UN, Malala focused not only on education in Pakistan, but the provision and implementation of educational policy worldwide. A Unesco and Save the Children study released to coincide with the speech shows that 57 million children are currently out of school, and that attempts to rectify this incredible number have come to a “virtual standstill.” Unsurprisingly, half of the primary school aged children out of school live in conflict affected countries. This correlation was noted by Malala in her speech, as she stated, “We are really tired of these wars.” The simple collective pronoun spoke for every child forced to grow up in a war zone, every girl denied rights because of her gender, and every child facing hundreds of different wars on a daily basis. This wasn’t just a speech about free education for all, but rather a message to all world leaders – strategic policies must change if we are ever to protect children against violence and conflict, let alone offer them the education they are entitled to.

The battle for a basic right to education is a simple wish made daunting by the prospect of cultural, financial and political opposition. Despite this, Malala’s petition to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon asks that “the United Nations General Assembly fund new teachers, schools, books and recommit to getting every girl and boy in school by December 2015.” It’s an ambitious goal – 44% of the uneducated children in conflict zones are from sub-Saharan Africa, and 14% are from the Arab states. If the recent incidents in Egypt, Libya and Syria, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East are anything to go by, Malala and her supporters will be facing an uphill struggle. In addition to the political issues, there is also the cultural opposition which is arguably far more difficult to remedy. Practices such as early-marriage and frequent gender violence are some of the key preventatives to women receiving an education – it is estimated that women represent two thirds of the 775 million illiterates in the world.

These numbers are intimidating, the task seemingly impossible, but at the helm of the campaign we have a 16 year old girl whose experiences speak of both intimidation and impossibility. This is just the beginning of one of the most important worldwide campaigns at present. In my first article on Malala, I questioned whether the attack would “spur her on”, or whether it would convince her of the danger in her task. The following words taken from her speech are perhaps the only way to answer that question: “The Taliban thought the bullet would silence us, but they failed.”

Gift Cannon: “Closed For Business — Sorry!”

Patrick Beardmore
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Gift Cannon: “Closed For Business — Sorry!”

Plenty of people have ideas for businesses, but few have the guts to start one from scratch. Jordan Schlipf launched Gift Cannon in October last year, firing thousands of free pints around Oxford to promote a novel way to send physical gifts over the web.

However in just seven months the company ceased trading, having exhausted its £50,000 of start-up funding. It became one of thousands of now forgotten start-ups that might have made it to the mainstream, but did not.

Gift Cannon was an instant voucher service for mobiles that let you send and redeem treats at local shops. A doting parent for example could buy an ice cream, and make it instantly available to their offspring at G&Ds. Over 900 people tried the system, heavily promoted on launch, to prove the technology worked well, and over two dozen shops signed up in Oxford, the guinea pig town.

Every step in the chain was profitable to some extent, and many cafés put up free treats like cakes, in the knowledge that customers usually bought other things too. Gift Cannon negotiated discounts meaning that a gift sometimes ended up cheaper online than if bought in-store.

Rage against the machine (code)

According to its co-founder, the project was scuppered mainly due to a dispute with two developers in Germany, who drifted away from the project just when funding had been secured. It left the other directors facing a tough decision in April this year: either to access a guaranteed £200,000 further investment, and commit the company to rapid expansion, or to kill their own creation. They chose the latter.

On a personal recommendation, Gift Cannon’s core technology was developed in Berlin by two techies. They promised to come to London to join Gift Cannon’s team full time, but in the event after funding was delayed “a highly personal fight” ensued. Jordan and co-founder Henry were left with a half-finished system, unable to track if customers were spending enough to make the business sustainable in the long-term.

“If this number isn’t actually what we think it is, then the business model isn’t working,” were Jordan’s thoughts. He admits that the lack of hard evidence on their profitability shook even his own confidence.

Struggling for cash was a perennial issue. “(We were) structurally stupid,” says Jordan, with too many shareholders to keep happy. Having to “tranche” 80% of the money, and make do with only 20% of what was required initially, was also deeply unhelpful, but grimly unavoidable for Gift Cannon.

“(It got to the point where) if we didn’t manage to close the (funding) round before we ran out of money, we’d have to have got a real job.”

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Henry (left) and Jordan (right) give away an iPad  Source: Gift Cannon

Free, as in ‘free beer’

Despite the impression left on many Oxford students that Gift Cannon was profligate with its freebies, the firm was more thoughful than at first glance. The cost of an iPad giveaway and £3000 of promotional spending was dwarfed by the costs of paying developers for work that didn’t meet expectations. Practically half the budget went to Berlin, to little effect in later stages.

Gift Cannon’s intentions were enormously ambitious from the start. Along with several direct clones to compete with, the app was involved in a land-grab to become the accepted platform for gift sending. As PayPal and VISA can attest, handling money on a large scale can be very profitable indeed for those that become established.

Particularly worrying for Jordan and Henry was an announcement only weeks after their funding that Facebook were launching a service of their own.

“Suddenly you’re in a space going head-to-head with Facebook, a $100bn company… I think they’re going to win.”

At a fancy press launch in New York, while Jordan and Henry were still funding Gift Cannon from their personal savings, Mark Zuckerburg announced that online gifting would become a key revenue stream for Facebook, and that with its scale it could potentially leapfrog the early innovators.

Meanwhile back in Oxford, chain stores refused to participate, while the firms controlling cash registers were not interested in integrating gifting onto their payment terminals. Intermittent Internet access complicated the clearing system for vouchers, and a bad taste from Groupon, who “kicked (independent retailers) in the nuts,” made it difficult to find the ear of some small businesses. That Gift Cannon made the progress it did seems more impressive with all these considered.

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Jordan Schlipf, ex-Oxford student and entrepreneur (30)

Onwards and upwards

Far from being downbeat after seeing his company dissolve so quickly, Jordan Schlipf says he has learnt much from the collapse. He is now entrepreneur in residence at #1seed in London, helping other businesses find their funding. The £50,000 loss from Gift Cannon is peanuts in the risky world of start-ups, and will soon be forgiven.

Despite a clear failure this time he believes the experience puts him in a good position to try again, with a new idea, older and wiser.

Jordan Schlipf (30) studied Engineering Science at St Peter’s College. He conceived of Gift Cannon with a business partner in late-2011 and launched it first in London, then in Oxford, before it closed in April this year. He is now entrepreneur in residence at investment house #1seed in London.

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