CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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Comic cuts in Caledonia
ALAN FRANK enjoys a comic chiller about an oddball Glasgow barber and the hunt for a serial slasher
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
The Legend of Barney Thomson (15)
Directed by Robert Carlyle
4/5
THE MOST entertaining Thomson in this deeply dark black comedy is not the eponymous Barney but rather Emma Thompson. Memorably funny, she’s unrecognisable in a barmy red wig and ageing make-up as his mother.
Barney Thomson is played by Robert Carlyle who doubles — and rather well too — as director in this, his debut behind the camera.
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