WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Online watch: Money Heist
Printing money takes on a whole new meaning in Nextflix's surprise smash-hit
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
IN ITS run on Spanish TV, Netflix’s Money Heist was more appropriately titled La Casa de Papel — “House of Paper” — which brings to mind Marx’s characterisation of capitalism as a house of cards.
The first season, to the surprise even of Netflix, was the top ratings hit on the service for a show whose language is not English. The series was the most popular last year in Western Europe and one of the most popular globally.
Why the phenomenal success? The answer lies in the major change Money Heist makes to a long and honourable genre, in which thieves often operate in enclaves of marginalised or working-class bands formed to steal money from an impregnable fortress — think The Asphalt Jungle, Rififi, or The Lavender Hill Mob.
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