Culture

Universal PicturesThere are decent performances from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande – but this flat opening instalment of The Wizard of Oz prequel may not convert those who aren't already super-fans.One of the key things to know about Wicked, the...

Getty ImagesMalala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence tell the BBC about their new documentary Bread & Roses, which highlights the stories and voices of Afghan women resisting the Taliban.It's being called "gender apartheid" by the UN. In August 2021, the Taliban retook...

Getty Images(Credit: Getty Images)When John Stonehouse's clothes were found in a pile on Miami Beach on 20 November 1974, many people presumed that the UK Member of Parliament had drowned while swimming – until he turned up alive and well...

Getty Images(Credit: Getty Images)The dopamine-spiking effects of ultra-fast fashion are far outweighed by the wellbeing rewards of a capsule wardrobe, according to these less-is-more experts.In his 1994 book Weniger, Aber Besser, the German industrial designer Dieter Rams famously wrote that...

AlamyFirst released in November 1969, Ken Loach's social-realist tale of a boy who adopts a kestrel still resonates and has become a timeless classic of British cinema.When director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett first screened Kes for British film...

Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images/ Uniqlo(Credit: Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images/ Uniqlo)Influential designer and creative director Clare Waight Keller on her move from Givenchy to Uniqlo, "re-defining what luxury is today" – and how Seoul street style is predicting what...

AlamyIshirō Honda's momentous 1954 monster film was born out of a national tragedy in Japan. It has a bleak message for humanity that goes beyond cinematic spectacle.For some, Godzilla is the pink-finned superhero who teams up with an axe-wielding King...

Courtesy of SFMoMA, San Francisco(Credit: Courtesy of SFMoMA, San Francisco)Dismissed or trivialised by some as unserious and silly, Surrealist art was in fact largely born out of the brutal trauma of living under fascism, as these five striking works reveal.It's...

Aidan Monaghan(Credit: Aidan Monaghan)Paul Mescal is the "mesmerising centre" of Ridley Scott's long-awaited Gladiator sequel, which balances emotional drama and social themes with all-out action spectacle.How can you not love a film that has swords, sandals, sharks in the flooded...

Getty ImagesIsabel Belarsky was one of the millions of people who were processed on Ellis Island before its immigration facility closed in 1954. In 2016, she told the BBC about reaching the gateway to the US from the Soviet Union...