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Alec Guinness

August 2026

  • A head and shoulders shot of John Irvin on the set of his Vietnam war film Hamburger Hill in the Philippine jungle south of Manila.

    John Irvin obituary

  • British film director John Irvin with American actor Dylan McDermott on the set of Hamburger Hill in 1986

    John Irvin, British film-maker who directed Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, dies aged 86

May 2026

  • John Kearns in round glasses and a cream shirt leans against a pole with an exaggerated grin

    John Kearns: Tilting at Windmills review – a handful of dust (and prawn cocktail crisps) in riff on TS Eliot

    The comedian addresses a relationship breakup via The Waste Land, Aldi and a dimwit estate agent
  • Sir Ian McKellen wearing a navy blue and turquoise patterned shirt with a black cardigan leans on his hand

    Film & Music reader interview
    Ian McKellen: ‘Of course Gandalf would beat Dumbledore in a fight’

    The actor on dealing with disruptive drinkers in his pub, what he’d ask Shakespeare, and being urged by Alec Guinness to withdraw from Stonewall
  • Archive of passport photos from London's Passport Photo Service studio, 1953-2019

    Ready for their close-ups: celebrity passport photos

    In 1953, Dave Sharkey, a former professional boxer, and his wife, Ann, founded a photographic studio in Oxford Street, London. The studio promised prints ‘ready in 10 minutes’ long before anyone else in the city could provide such a quick turnaround. Conveniently located near the US embassy and Selfridges, the studio, which was eventually taken over by the couple’s son Philip, became a bustling crossroads for artists, actors, musicians and athletes alike, all looking to get their passport photos taken. Muhammad Ali, Bianca and Mick Jagger, David Hockney, Tilda Swinton and many more sat for their passport photo.
    Gallery13

March 2026

  • Excerpt of a portrait of Henry VIII , c.1540, by Hans Holbein the Younger.

    Brief letters
    A royal rule of thumb for measurements

    Brief letters: Sizing up | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Accounting for taste | Deranged scumbags

January 2026

  • Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in 24.

    From 24 to Danger Mouse: it’s TV’s all-time top spies!

    A spy with a superhumanly good bladder, a crime-fighting rodent who lives in a postbox, and piles of dodgy 80s wigs … we rate the best small-screen spooks. Who comes out on top?

December 2025

  • Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago.

    Doctor Zhivago at 60: David Lean’s sweeping romantic relic endures

    Julie Christie remains as magnetic as ever in the mammoth big-screen adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel

June 2025

  • Jason Merrells (Bob Phillips) and Jenny Seagrove (Fiona Foster) in How The Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn @ Theatre Royal Haymarket. Directed by Alan Strachan. (Opening 31-03-16) ©Tristram Kenton 03/16 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    Alan Strachan obituary

    Director in the West End and regional theatre for five decades who often worked with the playwright Alan Ayckbourn

February 2025

  • Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, publisher, 14 August 1990. Scanned from gnm archive negative, reference: GUA/6/9/2/1.

    Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson obituary

    Debonair publisher known for his generous book advances whose stable of writers included Peter Ackroyd and Rose Tremain

September 2024

  • ‘The damnedest thing’ … Gary Oldman as George Smiley in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

    Pass notes
    The star who was left out in the cold: will Gary Oldman ever play Smiley again?

  • Real-life couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall (right) in Colin from Accounts.

    TV tonight
    TV tonight: Colin from Accounts is back – but where is Colin?

March 2024

  • Alec Guinness in The Ladykillers

    Ranked
    Kind hearts, ladykillers and whisky galore: Ealing comedies – ranked!

    Classic heist caper The Lavender Hill Mob is getting a cinema rerelease. But which of these 40s and 50s film fancies are slyly subversive, and which have dated less well?

June 2022

  • Arthur Hughes as Richard III.

    To prove a villain: the many faces of Richard III – in pictures

    Arthur Hughes has become the first disabled actor to play Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Look back at other incarnations of Shakespeare’s villain
    Gallery26

December 2020

  • Alex Guinness as George Smiley in the BBC’s landmark 1979 series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

    How John Le Carré changed television and paved the way for box-set culture

    The drawn out style and meticulous character studies of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy initially confused some viewers, but today the 1979 adaptation couldn’t feel more relevant

October 2020

  • Superbly constructed ... The Ladykillers.

    The Ladykillers review – a comic crime caper that still kills

  • Herbert Lom and the on-set medical team

    On the set of classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers - in pictures

    Gallery15

May 2020

  • Omar Sharif and Julie  Christie in Doctor Zhivago.

    The classic film I've never seen
    I've never seen ... Doctor Zhivago

    Would David Lean’s epic Russian-revolution romance stir my heart or leave me stone-cold? Well, all the balalaikas set my teeth on edge from the start

September 2019

  • Sir Alec Guinness in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).

    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: 40 years on, the labyrinthine thriller is still TV caviar

    The BBC adaptation of John Le Carré’s novel mystified a nation – but also featured one of the greatest performances ever delivered on the small screen

June 2019

  • 1949, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS<br>DENNIS PRICE Character(s): Louis Film ‘KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS’ (1949) Directed By ROBERT HAMER 23 June 1949 CTT76263 Allstar/EALING STUDIOS/STUDIOCANAL (UK 1949) / Literaturverfilmung (based on the book by Roy Horniman) **WARNING** This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of EALING STUDIOS/STUDIOCANAL and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company &amp; can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film. A Mandatory Credit To EALING STUDIOS/STUDIOCANAL is required. The Photographer should also be credited when known. No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets review – the most elegant serial killer in history

    The Ealing genre reached utter perfection with this superb black comedy of manners starring Dennis Price and a miraculous Alec Guinness
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