Wednesday 22nd April 2026

Culture

Bridging Communities: Vocatio:Responsio’s Liverpool Tour

Vocatio:Responsio, meaning Call:Response in Latin, is an early music ensemble founded and directed by the Merseyside-based violinist Samuel Oliver-Sherry, a current third year music student at St Anne’s College....

‘Comedy is very deceptive’: Seán Carey on ‘Operation Mincemeat’

As a history student, you occasionally come across stories so strange they feel almost fictional. Operation Mincemeat is one of them.

‘People are so hungry to create together’: Lisa Ko on going analogue, crafting, and writing the future

It’s 11:02am in New York when Lisa Ko appears on the video call. In Oxford, the sun is almost down.

How 2025’s biggest films made their mark through music

The recent Oscar nominations have allowed us to reflect on how fundamental musical scores are to film, and the highlights of last year’s film soundtracks.

Voices from the Past: Virginia Woolf

Cherwell analyses Woolf's views on the power and potential of words in the only recording of her voice

Review: Ex Machina

Anthony Maskell finds novelist Alex Garland's debut to be full of pertinent questions about humans and technology

Picks of the Week HT15 Week 3

Cherwell brings you the best of this week's gigs, plays and events

Milestones: Restoration Comedy

Bethan Roberts reflects on the rise of raunchy theatre following Charles II's return to the throne

From funny to f*cked: is the British sitcom dead?

Jamie Tahsin examines the failing health of this formerly great genre

Freakshow Television

Eve Beere argues that our fascination with voyeuristic TV about others' bodies stems from our sense of superiority to them

Review: American Sniper

Clint Eastwood's latest film is little more than an exercise in wartime propaganda, and it grates

Forget Magna Carta: discover the oldest English law codes

Elliot Langley explores the recently digitised manuscript of the Textus Roffensis

Loading the Canon: Darkness at Noon

Ben Cooke calls for the addition of Arthur Koestler's chilling novel to the literary establishment

“Who are you?” Grayson Perry wants to find out

Alex Peplow reviews Perry’s latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Preview: The Effect

Mark Barclay previews an upcoming production of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect

Review: The Woman in Black

Fergus Morgan relishes the theatrical subtelty of this classic ghost story

Review: Björk – Vulnicura

Sara Semic is drawn in by the Scandinavian singer-songwriter's avant-garde breakup album

Review: Viet Cong – Viet Cong

Freddy Rendall is pleasantly surprised by the self-titled debut album from the Canadian band

Wot Do u Call It: talking grime with the Originators

Sara Semic chats grime with P Money, Logan Sama and Darq E Freaker at Deep Cover's 'Originators Tour'

Review: Mark Ronson – Uptown Special

Lauren Rofe sings the praises of Ronson's genre-spanning new album

Review: Richard Parker

Emily Holman reviews Poor Players Productions' dark and hilarious new show

Review: What We Did On Our Holiday

Inspired by the BBC's Outnumbered, What We Did On Our Holiday manages to keep to just the right side of soppy, writes Anthony Maskell

Voices from the Past: J. R. R. Tolkien

Hear the 'Lord of the Rings' author speak the lines from his famous poem 'One Ring to Rule Them All'

Walking the Old Ways with Robert MacFarlane

Max Long discusses landscape, people and place with Robert MacFarlane, author of The Old Ways

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