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The Grand Tour 2008: National Gallery paintings hit the streets of York

5 June 2008

Life-size reproductions of paintings from the National Gallery have been unveiled in York today for the latest stage of the Grand Tour. For the next 17 weeks, 45 reproductions of some of the Gallery’s most major works are hanging in unexpected and unusual places around the city.

These images are stunning – and they take you completely by surprise. This skull is in the painting of The Ambassadors hanging on High Petergate in the shadow of Bootham Bar.

You have to come to York to see them, they are amazing.

Wright quits as BBC pundit over ‘jester’ role

Ian Wright has quit as a BBC football pundit, attacking the corporation for the stuffy style of its coverage and claiming he was forced into the role of a “comedy jester”.
The former England and Arsenal striker told Broadcast that the BBC’s coverage of England games was too formal. “Times are changing. I don’t know how long young people are going to want to sit down and watch that same old ‘jacket, shirt and tie’ format,” he said.

In my experience of dealing with football professionals – the backroom, not the pitch – the whole game is old fashioned. There’s a collar and tie, hierarchical, stuffy attitude throughout the game. I remember, as a senior BBC manager, being told to “Wait there son until we say you can come in” when I turned up at the office of a  football league club for a meeting about match coverage. There are lots of jobsworths in there.

So if Wrighty wants to change things he may have to challenge some of his old bosses first. 

Three Men in a Boat | guardian.co.uk Arts

Theatre
Three Men in a Boat

Theatre Royal, York

Alfred Hickling
Saturday April 12, 2008

The Guardian
The humour shows a fairly coarse edge: Jonathan Race’s Harris bellows a predictable imprecation when struggling to insert his oars in their rollocks, while John Sackville’s Jerome and Drew Mulligan’s George possess voices even louder than their blazers. But the production nails the slapstick set-pieces rather more successfully than the attempts of Jerome’s uncle to nail a picture to the wall.

Nice, if brief, review of Riding Lights Theatre’s production currently running at York’s Theatre Royal.

And this from BBC North Yorkshire

I have not enjoyed an evening at the theatre so much for a long time, this is an evening of real pleasure and I certainly was not alone in feeling this, as the applause from the audience proved, resulting in numerous curtain calls.

I would urge you to pay this excellent show a visit.

Janet Cass