Film review: Ender's Game (12A)

FILM
Ender's Game
(12A) 114mins
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
More intelligent than your average glossy shoot-em-up, Ender's Game has an earnest undercurrent.

Exhibition: Nelson, Navy, Nation at National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

From this distance, Britain's unrivalled national hero Horatio Nelson appears to embody the entire span of glittering age of naval dominance such is his pre-eminence in our cultural consciousness.

And yet, definitive though his actions were, they spanned only a few years at the tail-end of the 1700s through to his victory - and celebrated death - at Trafalgar in 1805.

Stage review: The Commitments, Palace Theatre

STAGE
The Commitments
Palace Theatre
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Roddy Doyle has re-created his tale of Dublin soul band as a full-on gig with banter.

Spiral Notebook: Breaking bad news for schedulers

I took to humming last week.

Not the usual dirges that are necessary to keep the skull-headed gorilla safely ensconced in my bedroom cupboard but, instead, a chirpy tune, lacking in melody but delivered with considerable oomph.

Exhibitions: Royal Museums, Greenwich

EXHIBITIONS
Yinka Shonibare / 
Astronomy Photographer of the Year
Royal Museums, Greenwich
★★★✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Two contemporary exhibitions of very different visuals ask the visitor to think again about what they see.

Film review: Sunshine On Leith (PG)

FILM
Sunshine On Leith
(PG) 100mins
★★★✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Director Dexter Fletcher does it again - courtesty of The Proclaimers - with a life-affirming celebration of love, family and Scotland.