Igor Stravinsky, not a great one for dishing out prizes to his colleagues, declared that Poulenc had the greatest melodic gift of any 20th-century composer.

Georges Bizet was 17, and a student working on a piano reduction of Charles Gounod's symphonies, when he wrote his own solitary Symphony.

Sometimes hype is just that; hype. But occasionally it's true.

We don't see much of Berlin-based Daniel Hope these days, but an album like this shows us what we are missing.

Shostakovich's 11th Symphony here receives a performance of exceptional eloquence from the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic under their chief guest conductor, the Finn John Storgårds.

It may have marked Glenda Jackson's return to television after 27 years, but the fact is, you'd never know it

Sticks And Stones is the latest drama from Mike Doctor Foster Bartlett, who also, less successfully, wrote Trauma and Press. Ultimately this was a standard melodrama that stretched credulity

The Christmas special of Gavin & Stacey, which marked the return of the sitcom after a ten-year absence, carried the weight of all our seasonal TV expectations

The Trial Of Christine Keeler not only failed to live up to the billing that, admittedly, may only have been in my head, but was also frequently incoherent due to all the jumping about in time

Deadwater Fell is set in a small community nursing big secrets. (I blame Broadchurch for this.) It stars David Tennant at his most sinisterly bearded and relies heavily on our old friend: flashbacks

Let us talk our way though the first episode of COBRA , Sky's new political drama about Britain during a time of national emergency.

This show's USP appeared promising as it was a Willy Wonka-ish 'completely edible set', from which the three competitors must 'forage' their ingredient

My maternal grandmother lost siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles - more than 220 relatives, we have worked out - to the camps and also the shootings in the woods. They must be remembered

This week, a new thriller and a competitive reality show seeking a hot new fashion designer that, in its first moments, comes over as a cross between The Great British Sewing Bee and The Apprentice

The screenwriter Sarah Phelps has been taking liberties with Agatha Christie murder mysteries for quite some time. Plots are revised. Characters are redrawn or may be ejected

As a rule, I don't like to beg, but in this instance I am desperate, so: if you understood The Pale Horse could you please, please offer an explanation and tell me what the hell went on?

The latest domestic thriller is Flesh And Blood , and already it's getting mixed up in my head with Liar, Cheat, Trust Me, Trauma, Gold Digger , etc. Their formats are so similar

Noughts + Crosses is an adaptation of Malorie Blackman's novel for young adults, so why it's being shown on a Thursday at 9pm rather than in the Doctor Who slot, I cannot say

As Miriam Margolyes said at the outset of Miriam's Big Fat Adventure : 'I'm happy with who I am. I'm happy with my face. I'm happy with my life. I'm disgusted with my body. I loathe it

This week not one but two new series from Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, and you do wonder if he can be stopped

The one show we all really need right now, at this most difficult time, has to be one of my personal favourites, The Repair Shop

Jamie Oliver's Keep Cooking And Carry On is a concept that was turned around in record time, specifically for the Covid-19 era, but even so, we're all watching in a new way. Aren't we?

Quiz, which told the story of Charles Ingram, who was convicted of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001, was a joy and a hoot. And also deeply fascinating

I've given this (a generous) three stars because I know those who like this sort of thing will like this, so it works in that sense, but there's nothing new here

Normal People is terrific, absolutely gorgeous, up there with the best TV dramas of recent years, like Patrick Melrose and My Brilliant Friend, but possibly not Belgravia

Laurie Lee died in 1997. A couple of years ago, David Parker, who made a documentary, found his recordings of Lee in a mis-labelled box and presented them to Penguin

In all, Kenneth Rose wrote six million words of diaries, of which his appointed editor has selected roughly half a million for publication. If these are the gems, I dread to think what the duds were like

There was bad behaviour to be found in all sorts of books published this year, from the highest to the lowest

Our book critic tests your knowledge of the best boosk released in 2019, with this fun, challenging literary quiz

Did you know that in 2019 a Belgian man broke the record for sitting on the toilet for the longest time - 116 hours?

The most frequently quoted observation about Hollywood is the simplest, and possibly also the truest. 'In Hollywood,' said screenwriter William Goldman, 'no one knows anything.'

Ah, the Golden Age of Travel! This is not a book to be read while you are standing cooped-up on a crowded staircase for ten minutes as part of Ryanair's 'Priority Boarding'

Over the past few years, an increasing number of novels have included real-life members of the Royal Family as characters. Now B W Black has written a novel involving the Royal princesses

The shortest sentence in this autobiography is also the truest. 'Brevity,' writes John Bercow, 'is not my strong suit.' You can say that again!

There have been books, articles, films and plays galore about Philby, Maclean, Burgess and Blunt, but nobody seems to know or care about the 'Fifth Man', John Cairncross

House Of Glass flows with the amazing clarity and delicacy of a fine novel. By the end, I was completely wrapped up in the sharply contrasting characters of the Glass family

Moving into the White House, which had just been built in the middle of a rutted field, America's second president, John Adams, prayed: 'May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.'

Here We Are opens in a theatre in Brighton, 1959. A snazzy tap-dancing showbiz personality called Jack Robinson is waiting in the wings. The world of entertainment is on the cusp of change

For the most part, Kate Fall regards her role as a memoirist as an extension of her job as gatekeeper: to present the polished face of the Cameron administration to the world

John Carey is a welcoming host, full of enthusiasm, and the opposite of crusty. He can throw sparkling light on a poet's method in a handful of words

Now aged 93 ('well past my sell-by date'), Jan Morris has taken to keeping a diary, or something like a diary, but more public, as it is clearly written for publication

Anne Tyler's prose style is clear and unshowy. Her sentences have no flourishes. You could almost say that their only identifying feature is their lack of an identifying feature

With this, her first novel, Naoise Dolan proves she is a wonderfully sharp, comic writer, adept at making wisecracks in the caustic, knock-'em-off, knock-'em-down tradition of Dorothy Parker

What a bizarre book this is: three parts funny to one part stark, staring horror

Doyle follows an ever-increasing line of academics who attempt to sanctify pop music with stuffiness. In so doing, they extinguish its fire in a great whoosh of homogenous jargon

Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris are set to star in a new reboot of BBC's Top Gear. The Trio told how their series compares to previous shows.

Top Gear has given fans their first look at the all-new presenting lineup, as Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff join forces ahead of the new series' launch on Sunday.

Jeremy Clarkson has been slammed after he complained about a road in Hammersmith, London being closed following a horrific three-car 'street race' crash which killed a man in his 70s. 

A group of cars said to have been racing through west London crashed into the pensioners' car in the early hours of Saturday morning, killing a man in his 70s and seriously injuring his wife.

Avril Child, whose daughter daughter Sarah was killed in a car crash in Birmingham in 2012 criticised the former Top Gear presenter for his 'arrogant' and 'ignorant' remarks.