The Electric Pitchfork

The Magazine Interview: Rupert Everett tells Lynn Barber about his epic new Oscar Wilde biopic “Nowadays, one wrong hand on the knee and you’re out”. Interview by Lynn Barber As long as I’ve know  Rupert Everett , he’s been saying he wants to make a film about Oscar Wilde. But it became sort of conversational wallpaper: he never seemed to get any nearer to making it. Now, finally, he has. It is called The Happy Prince (after a children’s story Wilde wrote for his sons) and is about the three years Wilde spent in exile between his release from Reading Gaol and his death. Of course, Oscar Wilde is the part Everett was born to play, but the whole film is rich and moving, beautifully shot, beautifully acted, a real labour of love. It is also a great team effort, because Everett, as a novice director, called in lots of old friends as supporting cast —   Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Julian Wadham, Joshua McGuire, Béatrice Dalle (his last heterosexual love), John Standing, To...

Fair Isle can keep the lights on at last Two centuries after Michael Faraday invented the electric motor and almost 100 years since Stanley Baldwin established the national grid, Britain’s most remote community will finally plug in to a 24-hour electricity supply this autumn. On Fair Isle, 25 miles south of Shetland, all 55 inhabitants will discover the simple pleasures of instant hot water at any time, thanks to clever use of renewable technology. For a low-lying windswept island, adrift between the North Sea and the Atlantic, such comforts are not to be sniffed at. The prospect of keeping the heating on overnight arrives courtesy of a £2.65 million electricity supply scheme comprising three wind turbines, a solar array and battery storage, combined in a new high-voltage network across the island. The technology could  even herald a new era of growth for a community that has lived on the brink for centuries, according to Robert Mitchell, director of the Fair Isle...

Ex-policeman is held after 40‑year hunt for the Golden State Killer An FBI sketch of the Golden State Killer as a young man, whose first murder victims were Brian and Katie Maggiore Detectives hunting one of the most notorious serial killers in American history have arrested a 72-year-old former police officer in Sacramento. Joseph James DeAngelo had not been a suspect in the investigation until a DNA match last week but his arrest may finally resolve a cold case that has haunted Californians for decades. The sadistic and meticulous crimes of the man known variously as the Golden State Killer, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker and the Diamond Knot Killer are thought to have included at least 12 murders, 51 rapes and more than 120 burglaries committed between 1976 and 1986 and linked either by DNA or method. Police released Joseph DeAngelo’s picture last night. Despite thousands of leads his identity had always eluded detectives. “We knew we were looking...

Why do young men worship Professor Jordan Peterson? A movement calling themselves 'lobsters' are following the superstar Canadian professor Jordan Peterson For Pewdiepie, aka the world’s biggest YouTuber, book reviews were a bit of a departure from his usual diet of snark and video games. “I didn’t think I ever would have read a self-help book,” the 28-year-old told his 61m subscribers in a video posted in February. “It gave me a lot of new perspectives.” The book was Dr Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. It’s a Sunday Times and international bestseller that has been devoured with particular enthusiasm by young men. It has been both praised and criticised for its core message of the value of individual responsibility and accountability, as well as for Peterson’s controversial views on things like popular protest movements, which he dismisses as ‘cult-like’. Pewdiepie has courted controversy himself. The YouTuber faced out...

Wine review:  Easy to love, easy to find and easy to understand. Is it any wonder that when it comes to breezy, laid-back grape varieties, malbec is a gateway wine? I guess many of us came to wine through it, good examples of which have the moreish, sweet scent of violets, blueberries, mulberries and redcurrant. It wasn’t always the case. In the 1950s it was largely forgotten, reduced to a poor-quality blending partner in Bordeaux. You can still find some malbec in Cahors, southwest France, where it takes on a more rustic, deep black character. It’s glorious with a torn-off piece of baguette and some pâté. Argentina, though, is its new home and, from a pretty low base in the early 1990s, it is now the country’s  most planted grape variety. Like chardonnay, or other ubiquitous wine styles, wine snobs can often decry it for a lack of complexity or being too fruity. This is to miss the point. In Argentina, estates such as Achaval Ferrer, Catena and Cheval des And...

As the race kicks off, Matt Rudd embarks on a marathon of his own, into the curious history of the trainer — and the ingenious marketing gimmicks that help us run faster and stronger for longer. Or do they? The Sunday Times,  April 22 2018, 12:01am I am 42½ years old and my knees have gone. They shouldn’t have gone. I’m relatively fit. I’m relatively healthy. I’ve been a relatively enthusiastic Sunday jogger for most of my adult life. But they’ve definitely gone. Pop, one of them went, last year, two days after a probably ill-advised triathlon. It got better, I started running again. I started thinking that I should do a marathon. Everyone else is doing a marathon. I should, too. And then, pop. The other one. And ever since then I’ve been trapped in a cycle of injury and recovery and exercise and repeat. A few weeks ago, I went to see the physio. She said I might have a cartilage tear. She asked what type of shoes I  ran in. The very latest, the mo...