A Life on the Farm review - a fabulous eccentric gets neatly packaged

★★★★ A LIFE ON THE FARM A fabulous eccentric gets neatly packaged

Put in context, the Spike Milligan of farming footage

“There’s nowt so queer as folk”, they say, and Life on the Farm amply proves the point. A cassette slides into the slot; “play” is pressed and a middle-aged man appears on screen at the gate of Combe End Farm. “Follow me down”, he says to camera,”I’ve got something to show you.”

And Then Come the Nightjars review - two farm friends

A pair of blokes bond amid a foot-and-mouth cattle cull down in deepest Devon

This modest British dramedy is billed as a “heart-warming story of friendship and survival set against the backdrop of the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak”. That’s perhaps not the first catastrophe we associate with that fateful year, but it was a grim event in its own way: a livestock epidemic that led to the culling of countless farm animals across Britain.

Medicine Festival review - the new New Age gathers in leafy Berkshire

MEDICINE FESTIVAL No alcohol, no meat and naked swimming - tribal gathering of the new counter culture

No alcohol, no meat and naked swimming - tribal gathering of the new counter culture

Fia is a Swedish singer with a crystalline voice and a ear for a great melody - her singalong choruses are not typical for a festival Friday night headliner, like getting the audience to join in with “Sit with your pain/ cradle it close/ and when you’re ready/ Let it go.” This had a hypnotic effect on the audience, more mass therapy than a having a good time.

Album: Public Image Limited - End of World

PiL powers on: invective undimmed, sound cauterising, but with sparks of wit and love

The world might end with a whimper or an inferno, but it’s hard to imagine a day will dawn that extinguishes John Lydon’s scorn for other people’s fecklessness and idiocy. That hand-made polemic typically drives the cauterising post-punk hosannahs and disarming post-pop ditties on Public Image Limited’s 11th studio album.

theartsdesk at the Voces8 Summer School - musical oasis offers opportunities for all

VOCES8 SUMMER SCHOOLThis musical oasis offers opportunities for all

Welcoming environment aids celebration of vocal music in all its forms

It is a complicated business running a summer school for 170 people in the British countryside. Not only laying on a stimulating programme of musical events, providing pastoral care for the under-18s and interval drinks for the over-18s, but more basic needs. As I arrived and was greeted by Voces8 Foundation CEO Paul Smith he was grappling with the news that a tree had come down on a nearby power line and there was likely to be no power to the site for 5 hours.

The Pilgrim's Progress, Three Choirs Festival review - revelatory performance by young musicians

★★★★ THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, THREE CHOIRS Revelatory performance by young musicians

Vaughan Williams opera that continues to echo in the mind

Whatever your opinion of Vaughan Williams, it’s unlikely that you think of him as an essentially theatrical composer. Yet he did write at least three important (as well as several less important) works for the stage: a ballet (not so-called), Job, a one-act opera (also not so-called), Riders to the Sea, and a full-length music drama, The Pilgrim’s Progress, based of course on Bunyan’s famous but probably no longer much read allegory of that name.

A Kind of Kidnapping review - claustrophobic class-division satire

★★★ A KIND OF KIDNAPPING Wannabe crooks pick wrong hostage in topical comedy of errors

Wannabe crooks pick the wrong hostage in topical comedy of errors

A Kind of Kidnapping is a low-budget British comedy with a neat premise and satirical view of class and politics in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

Jean Cooke: Ungardening, Garden Museum review - a cramped show of airy and spacious paintings

★★★ JEAN COOKE: UNGARDENING, GARDEN MUSEUM  Adapting to difficult circumstances and painting against the odds

Adapting to difficult circumstances and painting against the odds

It’s impossible to think about Jean Cooke’s work without taking into account her relationship with her husband, the painter John Bratby, because his controlling personality profoundly affected every aspect of her life.

Album: PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying

★★★★★ PJ HARVEY - I INSIDE THE OLD YEAR DYING Strange and wonderful songs

Strange and wonderful songs from Britain's most original musical artist

As an authentic artist, PJ Harvey manages to remain true to her essence as well as constantly shifting her creative stance. Each of her albums has been a leap forward, and yet anchored in a sound and style that are immediately recognisable as hers.

This new album, the first in seven years, is in character – sensual, mysterious, a mixture of introverted softness and extrovert violence. It's very good, full of surprises, slow to reveal itself, like a really well-accomplished piece of poetry.