They foiled plots and cracked Nazi codes, but Britain's spies were unable to solve the mystery of Charlie Chaplin's birth.
Although the entertainer is celebrated as one of London's most famous sons, newly declassified files reveal that Britain's (...)
It's spry versus spy as frothy silent movie "The Artist" and moody thriller "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" lead the race for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.
"The Artist" received 12 nominations and "Tinker (...)
Director Ken Russell got Oliver Reed and Alan Bates to wrestle naked, turned Vanessa Redgrave into a demonic nun and cast Ringo Starr as the pope. Critics and mainstream audiences often hated his films. Actors and admirers loved him.
The (...)
The magical world of Harry Potter is being meticulously reassembled at a former aerodrome near London.
The collection of sheds and sound stages is where the eight films were shot over the course of a decade, and soon they will be home to the (...)
EDINBURGH, Scotland— Scottish officials said Saturday they were right to release a Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he was dying of cancer, even though he is still alive two years later.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted (...)
Punk rockers once wanted to smash the state. Now they're helping preserve stately homes.
The National Trust charity, which oversees Britain's castles and historic houses, has released a fundraising album of punk classics.
"Never Mind the (...)
Amy Winehouse left a trove of unreleased music, but no decision has been made about whether it will be released, people close to the singer say.
The soul diva, who had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, was found dead of unknown causes at (...)
LONDON (AP) — Few artists summed up their own career in a single song — a single line — as well as Amy Winehouse.
"They tried to make me go to rehab," she sang on her world-conquering 2006 single, "Rehab." ''I said 'No, no no.'"
Occasionally, (...)
Few artists summed up their own career in a single song — a single line — as well as Amy Winehouse.
"They tried to make me go to rehab," she sang on her world-conquering 2006 single, "Rehab." ''I said 'No, no no.'"
Occasionally, she said yes, (...)
A community opera involving hundreds of children and written by the author of "Billy Elliot" has been canceled after the writer refused to remove lines spoken by a gay character in which he calls himself "queer."
Education officials said the school (...)
Writer Terry Pratchett said Tuesday that watching a man being helped to die had reaffirmed his support for assisted suicide, while anti-euthanasia groups criticized the televised death as propaganda that could encourage copycat suicides.
The (...)
It's a good year for women at the Cannes Film Festival. But not everyone is cheering just yet.
Four of the 20 films in the festival's main competition are by female directors, a record number — and better than last year's total of zero.
It's (...)
The latest Cannes Film Festival entry from Belgium's Dardenne brothers is the story of an abandoned boy, his unlikely savior and his beloved bicycle.
"The Kid With a Bike" tells the alternately brutal and tender tale of 11-year-old Cyril, left in (...)
Everybody at Cannes is talking about "We Need to Talk about Kevin," and director Lynne Ramsay is not surprised at the strong reaction.
It is, after all, about a teenager who commits a school massacre, and his mother's bottomless grief.
Some (...)
According to a provocative new documentary at the Cannes Film Festival, Britain's royals are racist "gangsters in tiaras" and Prince Philip is a womanizing psychopath.
The movie "Unlawful Killing" revives claims that Princess Diana — adored by (...)
Frothy, film-inspired funfest "Legally Blonde: The Musical" won three big prizes at London's Laurence Olivier theater awards Sunday, while Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies" went home empty-handed despite seven nominations.
"Legally Blonde" (...)
Made-in-England favorite "The King's Speech" leads the race for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars, with 14 nominations announced Tuesday, including best picture.
Colin Firth is the best-actor front-runner for his (...)
British filmmaker Peter Yates, who sent Steve McQueen screeching through the streets of San Francisco in a Ford Mustang in "Bullitt," has died at the age of 81.
Yates was nominated for four Academy Awards — two as director and two as producer — (...)
As self-help manuals go, the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead has certainly stood the test of time.
For centuries, the 3,500-year-old guidebook offered Egyptians a step-by-step guide to the journey from this life to the next. It remains famous, (...)
She's renowned for her precise, exquisite prose, but new research shows Jane Austen was a poor speller and erratic grammarian who got a big helping hand from her editor.
Oxford University English professor Kathryn Sutherland studied 1,100 (...)
Tony Blair's long-awaited memoir says the former British prime minister doesn't regret the Iraq war — although he wept for its victims — and carries revelations about the politician's alcohol use, his interactions with the queen and his testy (...)
Never mind who wins on the field. There's another, more melodic, World Cup battle afoot — on the music charts, in the stands and blaring from radios and mobile phones around the world.
As 32 teams compete in South Africa for football's highest (...)
Tom Rachman went into journalism to become a novelist.
Neither is among the world's most secure professions, and Rachman is mildly astonished that his plan succeeded beyond all expectations.
After a decade as an editor and foreign (...)
A warming planet, deadlocked politicians, feuding scientists. The headlines about climate change are a source of worry and satisfaction to Ian McEwan.
The British writer's new novel, "Solar, brings the problem of global warming up against the (...)
Intense war drama The Hurt Locker and blockbuster sci-fi spectacle Avatar are squaring off at the British Academy Film Awards - a curtain raiser for their Academy Awards battle in Los Angeles next month.
British coming-of-age drama An Education (...)