Tom Baker’s scarf! Jodie Whittaker’s cupboard! David Tennant’s gifs! As Ncuti Gatwa picks up his sonic screwdriver for the new series of Doctor Who, we rate every two-hearted Time Lord so far
May 2023
The reader interview
Dexter Fletcher: ‘I sat on Diana Dors’s knee and she said: “Aren’t you lovely!”’
The actor and director on getting shouted at by Ken Russell, keeping it real for Elton John and when Jodie Foster made a moustache out of his hair
February 2021
Hear me out
Hear me out: why Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn't a bad movie
The latest in our series of writers defending maligned films is a reappraisal for the fun fourth Indiana Jones adventure
March 2020
Conclusions by John Boorman review – film gossip and nostalgia
The Elephant Man review – David Lynch's tragic tale of compassion
March 2019
Dr Alien, PhD: the horror classic that academia loves
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the sci-film inspires an industry of papers, talks and research
10 of the strangest star cameos in video games
Rami Malek’s slasher horror, Bowie as a cyberpunk hacker, streetfighting Carmen Electra, and John Hurt down and dirty … improbable roles for A-listers
From the Guardian archive
The view from Quentin Crisp's New York – archive, 1998
6 March 1998 Crisp writes about writes about his adoptive city, movies and the films of John Hurt
August 2018
Damascus Cover review – stolid but muddled spy thriller
John Hurt’s final screen role is a saving grace in this film, which otherwise lacks action or mystery
May 2018
That Good Night review – a workmanlike swansong for John Hurt
Eric Styles’s film fails to match its star’s performance as a spiteful dying writer
That Good Night review – John Hurt shines in final lead role
Sadly, he’s the best thing in this over-sentimental drama about a gruff writer’s final days in picture-perfect Portugal
Film blog
John Hurt, by his final director: 'Impish, unsentimental – and as generous as Julie Andrews'
In Hurt’s last film, That Good Night, he played a screenwriter with a terminal illness. Here, director Eric Styles recalls the actor’s good humour despite his own diagnosis
December 2017
The Observer's obituaries of 2017
John Hurt remembered by John Boorman
The film director remembers his friend, the actor with ‘a single malt of a voice’, who despite his ups and downs, remained a great professional
August 2017
Play it again, Sam: why Krapp's Last Tape still leaves us reeling
Albert Finney sobbed like an animal, Harold Pinter ramped up the terror and John Hurt even resembled Beckett himself. Now, at the Edinburgh festival, Barry McGovern takes on the role that never ceases to astonish
April 2017
One for the money: the great actors who slummed it in dumb movies
Helen Mirren’s appearance in the Fast and Furious franchise is a bit of a surprise. But virtually every notable actor – from Welles to Brando to Blanchett – has cashed in an easy paycheque for a mindless franchise or a duffer
February 2017
John Hurt remembered at Oscars ceremony
The late actor, star of Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Elephant Man, was honoured by the Academy in their annual In Memoriam montage
US cinemas to show Nineteen Eighty-Four in anti-Trump protest
Coordinated screenings across North America set for 4 April to highlight Orwell’s portrait of a government ‘that manufactures facts’
TV tonight
Saturday's best TV: Talking Pictures – John Hurt; Taboo
The late character actor is remembered, while the net is closing in on James Delaney in Tom Hardy’s period drama
January 2017
Theatre blog
John Hurt: an absolute master at portraying misfits
Michael Billington
John Hurt, widely admired stage and screen actor, dies aged 77