Donald Clarke

• Television
• December 29, 2012, 20:33

For my generation, there were two undisputed giants of children’s television. Oliver Postgate, the creator of Pogle’s Wood, Bagpuss and the Clangers, died on 2008. Anybody even vaguely interested in his life should seek out his excellent autobiography, Seeing Things, …

• Box Office Figures
• December 24, 2012, 21:56

Oh why not? It’s Christmas Eve. What else are we going to do other than considering the 10 biggest films of next year? Well, we could talk to our family or go wassailing. I’ve never wassailed in my life. I …

• Best-of lists
• December 18, 2012, 20:13

The votes from the Dublin Film Critics Circle — presided over by our own Tara Brady — are in and that lovely film The Artist has triumphed yet again. Yes, it’s true. The Artist does technically count as a 2012 …

• Oscars Uncategorized
• December 16, 2012, 00:06

In a column on Friday, I made the case that, for the first time in quite a while, the race for the best picture Oscar is — as Christmas looms — still in a state of vigorous flux. For a …

• Golden Globes Oscars
• December 13, 2012, 14:43

Once again, it’s the time of year when we point out that — contrary to what you may read elsewhere — the Golden Globes have a pretty awful record of predicting the Oscars. Over the last eight years, despite having …

• Rock 'n' pop.
• December 13, 2012, 01:07

Hold on to your hats. It’s the moment absolutely nobody has been waiting for. Yes, it’s time for this column’s choice of the LPs of the year. There are astonishing developments in 2012. As Alva Noto failed to release a …

• Television
• December 12, 2012, 00:35

It’s sort of a rhetorical question. But I suspect the answer “yes” will be forthcoming from every direction. It’s a strange beast, this sketch show. The firmly talented Harry Enfield and the genuinely brilliant Paul Whitehouse have been given  their …

• Box Office Figures
• December 10, 2012, 18:38

Well, firstly, it’s not. As any bore will tell you, the biggest film ever in the UK — in terms of tickets sold — is still Gone with the Wind. As a BFI chart showed recently, the likes of Avatar and …

• Deaths
• December 7, 2012, 18:25

We have just heard the news that our good friend, Pete Walsh, programmer of the Irish Film Institute for the last 18 years, has died after a short illness. Pete was a film fanatic down to the soles of his …

• Best-of lists Cannes Trailerspotting
• December 2, 2012, 22:48

Cahiers du Cinéma‘s  ever-eccentric best-of-the-year list has just been unveiled. In previous years, the durable organ of French cinema has expressed admiration for such odd films as Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny, Clint Eastwood’s Space Cowboys and Brian de Palma’s …