Paolo Sorrentino’s autobiographical new film reviewed by Gustav Temple. Diego Maradona appears in Paolo Sorrentino’s earlier film Youth, in which the bloated, ageing footballer is still viewed with awe by those who glimpse him at the gates of the Swiss sanatorium where he’s staying. His presence in Sorrentino’s latest, The Hand of God, is less… … Keep Reading
Present a chum or relative with a subscription to The Chap for half the usual price and choose one of two free gifts. This year, The Chap is providing the ideal Christmas gift for someone in your life who dreams of sartorial exactitude, or perhaps already has it, and yearns to read about the chaps… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple reviews Edgar Wright’s new psychological thriller set in the swinging sixties Fans of Edgar Wright’s trilogy of comedies Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and World’s End expecting this film to feature amusing fast-edit shots of Simon Pegg getting drunk and losing his girlfriend will find something rather different. The British director, whose… … Keep Reading
Chris Sullivan on how the end of WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic brought about the birth of nightclub culture in 1920s London. The nightclub ethos as we now perceive it, with bars and dance floors on which men and women actually dance together, began in the 1920s. Before the era, aptly named the Jazz… … Keep Reading
A thrilling opportunity to acquire, along with a Chap Hip Flask, a bottle of The Sexton Irish Whiskey. Viewers of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will recall that five golden tickets were inserted into five random Wonka Bars, each one guaranteeing the finder a visit to the Chocolate Factory and a lifetime’s supply of chocolate.… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple takes a liquid journey around the world to see whether single malt whisky can be trusted from anywhere except Scotland. To some readers (and they may be right) is is already blasphemous even to suggest that whisky can come from anywhere except Scotland. But when one discovers that whisky is also made in… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple and Alexander Larman set foot in a changed world since lockdown for a splendid Indian repast. Where does one choose to go for one’s first meal in a restaurant since last December? Is the pressure too great to find the perfect establishment, with the ideal food, wine and ambience? Is the sense of… … Keep Reading
Some suggested cadeaux for the papa in your life, ranging from the mildly generous to the worshipful This year, Father’s Day falls on Sunday 20th June. Dads across the land, while they quietly fix lawnmowers, construct bird boxes and oil all the hinges on the bathroom cupboards, are blissfully unaware that their scions are rampaging… … Keep Reading
As a tribute to the late actress, who died aged 52 on 16th April, Gustav Temple recalls an inspiring encounter with Helen McCrory in 2019, on the eve of Series 5 of Peaky Blinders. I interviewed Helen McCrory when the fifth season of Peaky Blinders was about to air in 2019. From such a huge… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple spoke to Australian hat maker Blake “Blakesby” Canham-Bennett, who has expanded the colour and shape of men’s headwear, while holding on to classic styles and manufacturing methods. You seem to have broken the mould when it comes to men’s hat styles, while adhering to traditional blocks and techniques. Was this what you set out to… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple assesses a new Irish Whiskey with rather ghoulish credentials. The word ‘sexton’ derives from the Mediaeval Latin word sacristanus – ‘custodian of sacred objects’. A sexton is ‘a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger’. The gravedigger in Hamlet calls himself a sexton, for example. The typical… … Keep Reading
On the bicentenary of Sir Richard Francis Burton’s birth, Chris Sullivan gallops through the extraordinary life of the notorious explorer, soldier, translator, writer, cartographer, orientalist, ethnologist, spy, diplomat, poet, geographer, expert fencer and sex obsessive. Can you imagine that, in the not too distant past, a thoroughgoing rogue might stand up in his club in the Haymarket… … Keep Reading