Disability
Cheerful meanderings
Now established in Cambridge, John Cromer embarks on a whirlwind of small adventures, testing our patience, if not our sympathy, with his extensive digressions
Split decision
In the opening minutes of Best Interests (Monday and Tuesday), an estranged middle-aged couple made their separate ways to court,…
Bring up the bodies
BBC2’s one-off drama Then Barbara Met Alan(Monday) told the true story of how two disabled performers on the cabaret circuit…
No respite
What lockdown means for families with disabled children
Walnut whips and Stafford Cripps
The National Theatre’s programme of livestreamed shows continues with the Donmar’s 2014 production of Coriolanus starring Tom Hiddleston. The play…
Christmas with my brother
Ever since I was a child, I’ve associated Christmas with my mentally disabled brother Chris. Technically, he’s my half-brother —…
Circus routine rather than theatre: Noises Off reviewed
Michael Frayn’s backstage comedy, Noises Off, is the theatre’s answer to Trooping the Colour. Everyone agrees that it’s an amazing…
I like Brassic but the reason it’s getting such glowing notices is depressing
Brassic (Sky One) feels like the sort of TV comedy drama they last made about 15 years ago but would…
I’ve never seen Coogan better or Partridge funnier: This Time with Alan Partridge reviewed
Steve Coogan is back as Alan Partridge but frankly who cares? Like Ali G, I’ve long thought, he’s one of…
Cost of Living at Hampstead Theatre isn’t a bad show – and it contains a star in the making
Hampstead has become quite a hit-factory since Ed Hall took over. His foreign policy is admirably simple. He scours New…
The dangers of taking a blind friend to see Fifty Shades of Grey
Audio description, or AD, as it is fondly called, is coming of age. Once consigned to the utility room of…
Time to update our notions of disability and quit with the pity – and Tiny Tim
Here we go again. Partridges in pear trees. Lovely big Christmas turkey. The Queen’s speech. And then, at some point…
Showman, con man, family man: P.T. Barnum’s many faces
‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ That was the P.T. Barnum battle cry. It has come to have a ring…
Does disability make a difference to art – or does art transcend disability?
The moment you invite friends to some new ‘cutting-edge’ disability theatre or film, most swallow paroxysms of social anxiety. What…
Born again
Six years ago, on Good Friday, the journalist Melanie Reid was thrown off her horse while on a cross-country ride…
In praise of PC
Here’s another stock joke for your collection: Pembroke College, Cambridge, has cancelled a fancy dress party themed on Around the…
The write stuff
The deadline for Radio 2’s 500 Words competition falls next Thursday. Children between the ages of five and 13 are…
Fighting talk
If there’s one thing scarcer than hen’s teeth in serious choreography nowadays, it’s a light heart. When was the last…
All white on the night
Trevor Nunn is staging Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses without a single black actor. So what, says Robert Gore-Langton
The Spectator’s Notes
Who benefits from Prince Charles’s handshake with Gerry Adams? Not the victims of IRA violence, including the 18 soldiers who…
Hell on wheels
The mobility scooter plague
Feeling the benefit
Being found ‘fit for work’ changed my life for the better
Object lessons
What Radio 3 needs is a musical version of Neil MacGregor. The director of the British Museum and now a…
A life worth living
I know that people with Down’s syndrome are not better off dead, because I know my son
