Olivia Ovenden

20 years after it first aired, the soap opera storylines and empty, theatrical drama is the perfect balm to an era of too much clever TV

“This is a ridiculous place to be standing,” says Andrew Scott, in front of a poster of Andrew Scott, bearing the words ‘ANDREW SCOTT.’ It is October, and we are outside the Duke of York’s theatre in London, where Scott is in the middle of an acclaimed run of the Anton Chekhov adaptation Vanya. Scott himself is a little delirious. You could put it down to the eight times a week that he stands alone on stage here for 100 minutes. He wakes up every morning with these giant puffy eyes, his body fra…

What do the most obsessively watched TV series of the last five years and 2023’s buzziest play have in common? The dark and daring mind of Lucy Prebble

The series creator and writer on the madness of grief, technology manipulating our emotions, and the uncanny valley where those two ideas meet

In the 'Euphoria' star’s harrowing new film, 'Immaculate', everybody wants a piece of her body. As in real life, Sweeney has other ideas

Desperate couples are turning to the party drug famous for increasing empathy and lowering inhibitions to see if it can fix their relationships. Can therapy without a therapist really work?

London’s best restaurants are embracing fatty, aged beef, imported to the UK for a big hit of indulgence on the plate. With the first of Northern Spain’s Rubia Gallega breed born on British soil this summer, a decades-long project for sustainable, delicious, local beef has begun

The Irish band has an acclaimed new album, a hyped tour, and a growing cadre of celebrity fans

Novels this year, from Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo to Miranda July’s All Fours, are reconfiguring the love triangle for the age of polyamory

The riotous Irish band – fans include Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy, and Harry Styles – owned this summer by doing something nobody expected: softening up