Arts Council England must change or face ‘disaster’, culture department is told

Arts Council England requires a “radical” overhaul so it can to respond to the challenges of the culture sector, according to Margaret Hodge, who said it would be a “disaster” if ACE leaders did not heed her warnings.The Labour peer, who led a wide-ranging and critical report into ACE, made the comments at a Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee, where she reiterated her calls for the organisation to embrace change.Lady Hodge said: “I think there has to be a radical review in the way that the Arts Council works; how they use the money, their role in relation to the organisations that they support, and also their role in the wider arts landscape.”She said a significant shift in approach was needed because of the “loss of confidence in how ACE serves its own communities”, caused in part by the perception of political interference in decision-making.The decision to force the English National Opera to move from London to Manchester was a “raw experience” for some of the 700 people she spoke to as part of her review, she said

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘He uses his bones to feel things instead of his brain’

Late-night hosts on Monday discussed the Academy Awards, Maga’s incoherent statements on the Iran war and raised an eyebrow to Donald Trump’s claims of support from an anonymous former president.On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host focused on Trump’s comments to the press in week three of the Iran war, or as Kimmel called it “Operation Epsteino Distracto”.On Truth Social, Trump wrote that it was a “great honour” to kill “scumbags” in Iran.“He’s been talking very tough for a guy who seems to almost be in a coma right now,” Kimmel said.“Even with all the killing he has been enjoying so much, he is very low energy lately,” the host continued

Carnivàle revisited: is this HBO’s strangest show?

Carnivàle premiered on HBO in 2003 and was cancelled after only two seasons. In the immediate aftermath, this decision was protested by the small but dedicated cult following the show had amassed (to the tune of 50,000 emails).But in the years since, as the television canon has expanded and the taste for mystery-box TV has waned, Carnivàle now seems little more than a minor curio in HBO’s ever-expanding back catalogue. So what is this curio about?Carnivàle follows the exploits of its titular carnival as they travel across the American dust bowl in the 1930s. At the beginning of the series, these nomadic showpeople pick up Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), an ex-con with a mysterious past (and inexplicable powers)

‘We kicked Bono’s arse’: how we made Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again (with a little help from Kraftwerk)

‘Kerry’s spoken verse needed 39 takes spread over several months because she’d had her tonsils out’People never believe me that Kraftwerk created Atomic Kitten. In 1996, my band OMD released Walking on the Milky Way, which I thought was one of the best songs I’d ever written. But in the age of Britpop, we were perceived as an 80s synthpop band, past our sell-by date. Radio 2 wouldn’t play the song and Woolworths wouldn’t stock it. I thought: “I’m functioning with one arm tied behind my back

Gatz review – the Great Gatsby performed in eight and a half hours of attentive, immersive joy

A man enters his office in the morning, finds his computer on the fritz and, after a few attempts to turn it on and off again, comes across a copy of F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. So he starts to read and when his colleagues enter they find themselves taking on the characters, and soon the novel unfolds around us, word by word. The New York theatre company Elevator Repair Service has produced a work that is not quite adaptation – given it doesn’t really adapt the novel at all – but that is utterly transfixing nonetheless.Following a keen interest in non-dramatic texts, the company wanted to see what would happen when a powerful literary work was read and performed in its entirety. The result is both strange and strangely familiar

How to Make a Killing to Wu-Tang Clan: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Glen Powell indulges in some murder most profitable, and the influential rap collective arrive in the UK complete with a clutch of peerless classicsHow to Make a KillingOut nowLoosely inspired by the much-loved Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, here is a dark comedy that sees Glen Powell play an upwardly mobile schemer who isn’t afraid to murder his way to his inheritance. Directed by John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal).Reminders of HimOut nowMaika Monroe (It Follows) stars as a woman who goes to prison following a car accident in which her boyfriend (Rudy Pankow) is killed. On release, she finds herself drawn to a handsome local bar owner (Tyriq Withers). Romance based on the bestselling Colleen Hoover novel