On his birthday we pay tribute to a great actor - and one of life's scrappers. Dustin Hoffman celebrates three-quarters of a century this month. Obviously a great actor, but just as obviously quite funny looking. He had to wait until he was 29 for his break - in The Graduate ... Read More...

Luke Honey writes about food, drink and the finer things in life over at his blog The Greasy Spoon. Today he veers away from victuals and reacquaints himself with a national institution... We've just had a most entertaining half hour or so watching "The Sky at Night", apparently the longest running ... Read More...

Nige pays tribute to the greatest dancer... Fred Astaire - especially when dancing with Ginger Rogers - is (and I admit to a sizeable blind spot in the area marked Dance) almost the only dancer I can watch with that rush of aesthetic pleasure, the tingle at the nape of the ... Read More...

Nige pays tribute to a nearly-forgotten comic whose work seems remarkably contemporary... Under Mahlerman's Sunday post on Unserious Music, Worm mentions the once very famous and popular Gerard Hoffnung. That name took me right back to my boyhood. One of my uncles had a recording of Hoffnung's legendary stand-up (and sway ... Read More...

Earlier this month the world’s greatest living Welshman turned 70. Fellow (albeit northern) Celt Daniel Kalder pays tribute. John Cale is 70. But this does not make him a joke. He never seemed young, nor was his art inspired by adolescent desire or angst, unlike most rockers. Even in the Velvet ... Read More...

Gaw recalls a Welshman who was a self-made hero to some, a self-romanticising show-off to others. Brit's clip of Richard Burton reading Under Milk Wood from Lazy Sunday Afternoon the other week sent me looking for more opportunities to hear that voice. Here's a spell-binding excerpt from an interview where he talks about mining. ... Read More...

Next year (yes, we thought we’d get in first) will be the centenary of the birth of food writer Elizabeth David who, Toby Ash believes, still has more to offer the modern domestic kitchen than all of today’s celebrity chefs put together. I just can’t imagine Elizabeth David stealing from Tesco. ... Read More...

  We take a look at the predictions of cartoonist Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986), who thought that any attempt to rebuild Shakepeare's Globe Theatre would be laughed out of town... With his tweedy outfits and otter-like head, cartoonist Osbert Lancaster was well known to households of the middle twentieth century. Magnificently named, Osbert rose to ... Read More...

  For years hence there will be gnarled Geordies huddled over schooners of broon and Red Bull, claiming they were there in the auditorium when Sid Waddell uttered the immortal phrase: His eyes are bulging like the belly of a hungry chaffinch.* And their wide-eyed children’s children will be perched on their ... Read More...

This year marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Adrian Carton de Wiart, one of the most remarkable - if fairly disturbing - soldiers this country has produced. His soldiering career extended from Boer to Second World Wars, taking in many events of large historical importance. He was usually to be ... Read More...