High-yielding Greene King shrugs off weather warning July 4, 2019 | City Talk Bad weather is bad news, but the dividend is attractive and Greene King typically excels in winter. On balance, Greene King (LSE:GNK) full-year numbers edge into the “glass half-full” category, as the pub owner and brewer continues to extract value from its brand and estate. Apart from a healthy return on capital of 8.5 per cent, Greene King [...]
Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism? July 3, 2019 Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism Matt Kilcoyne, head of communications at the Adam Smith Institute, says YES. Loyalty is not won by being first. Nor should it be won by locking out competitors by law. It is won by being best. Brand matters. This is not the case [...]
Bonmarche surrenders, while Creightons makes dramatic charge July 2, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. The UK consumer is the driving force behind very different outcomes for this pair of tiddlers. Over 50s fashion chain Bonmarche (LSE:BON) raised the white flag last week after seeing the British weather scupper its defence against a £5.7 million takeover by billionaire Philip Day. The retailer, which was valued at £100 million when [...]
Drive a Lambo around the UK thanks to Dream Collection and the Morning Wire Club June 28, 2019 My stable of cars is filled with the latest models, allowing me to choose the perfect ride to suit my lifestyle. “For a weekend away with the kids – their bags, bikes and trikes – I chose the Range Rover Autograph or Audi Q7; both are perfect companions for a family adventure. “For a stress [...]
Arctic film review: A grim but powerful slog through the frozen wilds June 28, 2019 A minimalist tale of man-versus-nature, Joe Penna’s debut feature immerses us in the daily routine of Overgard (Mads Mikkelsen), the survivor of a cargo-plane crash in the Arctic (actually, Iceland). How long he has been stranded in the frozen wastes is uncertain, as we join his story in media res, but his missing toes suggest [...]
The Damned at Barbican review: More of the same good stuff from Ivo Van Hove June 28, 2019 The Damned continues Dutch theatre director Ivo van Hove’s obsession with adaptations, with his oeuvre now including four Bergman screenplays, versions of Oscar-winning films Network and All About Eve, and now four works from Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti. And while this French-language play occasionally veers close to a van Hove ‘greatest hits’ compilation, it’s excellently performed by [...]
Yesterday review: A chilling account of the harrowing symptoms of one man’s brain injury June 28, 2019 The phrase “feel-good comedy of the summer” should cause no small amount of bile to rise in your throat, but Yesterday is inescapably just that. A movie that seems algorithmically laser-targeted for success, it arrives just as ravenous audiences are lifting their faces from the dessicated carcass of last summer’s Mamma Mia 2, and are [...]
Toy Story 4 review: A visually stunning nostalgia fest that lives up to the franchise legacy June 28, 2019 The question on my lips when Toy Story 4 was announced was: why? Toy Story 3 seemed like the perfect finish to a trilogy that never made a misstep. As the film ended, the sight of Woody, Buzz Lightyear et al with their new owner, Bonnie, as their original one, Andy, drove off to college, [...]
The Hunt at the Almeida review: A powerful but uncomfortable film adaptation June 28, 2019 The Hunt, a tale of a man’s world crumbling around him in the wake of false accusations of paedophilia, is so utterly harrowing it barely qualifies as entertainment. It’s two hours of nauseating tension, each escalation arriving like a physical blow. It’s a nightmare given solid form, and its transition from screen to stage only amplifies the [...]
Focus On Canary Wharf: there’s more than just money in E14 June 28, 2019 Most parts of London have had their ups and downs, but few areas have experienced shifts as seismic or profound as Canary Wharf. With the advent of the London Docklands, it went from being uncultivated marshland to the site of the world’s largest port. Following the docks’ closure in 1960, Canary Wharf became an economic [...]