David Lister

A founder member of The Independent David Lister joined the paper in 1986 as Assistant Home Editor. He became the paper's arts correspondent in 1988 and is now Arts Editor and writes a column each Saturday. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

David Lister: Politics and pop culture rarely mix

Why is it that when MPs say anything about culture, they tend to make fools of themselves? It can even apply to arts ministers. I witnessed one of the worst (or best, depending on how in need of a laugh one is) examples of this when the then Conservative arts minister Stephen Dorrell spoke at the Cannes Film Festival.

Recently by David Lister

David Lister: A theatre where new writing has flourished

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Individual theatres fall in and out of vogue and usually not too much can be read into a flurry of award nominations for any one playhouse. But the 15 Olivier nominations for the Royal Court are significant. It is the key centre for new writing in Britain, and if the Royal Court is doing well then it says something about the health of contemporary playwriting.

David Lister: It's the way he tells it

Saturday, 6 February 2010

Last Tuesday I think I saw the future. At least, I hope I did. In a sensational evening at the Royal Festival Hall, I watched Daniel Barenboim play Beethoven's third piano concerto and conduct Schoenberg's notoriously difficult Variations for Orchestra Op 31. That in itself was stunningly good, but it was the third element of the evening that turned it into a sensation.

David Lister: Who will fight for the arts on ITV?

Saturday, 30 January 2010

ITV chiefs must be bracing themselves. At the South Bank Show Awards this week. Melvyn Bragg promised guests that the televised highlights of the ceremony to be broadcast tomorrow would be uncensored.

David Lister: Tough questions, but still no answers

Saturday, 23 January 2010

In the midst of world-shattering events and important political debates, a little-noticed but fascinating question was asked in the House of Commons the other day. The Labour MP Tom Watson asked the arts minister which private members' clubs used by Arts Council staff and board members are funded by the council.

David Lister: Why is the Tate risking our cash?

Saturday, 16 January 2010

I try to imagine the Tate's esteemed director Sir Nicholas Serota taking some of his gallery's cash reserves, £6m worth, and walking into Ladbrokes with them. Nope, it couldn't happen. Sir Nicholas is not only too brilliant a gallery director, but he is also too cautious, sensible and law-abiding a man to take the risk. And the only horses he's interested in are by Stubbs.

David Lister: Prince Charming turns panto villain

Saturday, 9 January 2010

There was a story reported this week which must surely make a footnote in theatrical history.

David Lister: Dear Hugh, you are invited to the theatre...

Saturday, 2 January 2010

If there is a good time to say something really stupid, it is probably over the Christmas/New Year period. People are busy, not all the usual media outlets are working, and your eccentricities and downright idiocies can be quietly buried. But in the case of Hugh Grant, I'm here to tell him that he isn't going to be that lucky.

David Lister: Beckham's off-guard moment

Thursday, 31 December 2009

David Beckham flew into Italy on Monday to rejoin his club AC Milan, and was met at the training ground by an armed security guard. Such is the routine of a midfielder if you are David Beckham. What slightly perturbed me was the picture of the fulsome greeting that Beckham gave to the said armed security guard. The pair exchanged a friendly, almost passionate, hug.

David Lister: Shakespeare makes great television

Saturday, 26 December 2009

It's Boxing Day and so you might think it's not a day when you are going to see something wildly innovative and mould-breaking in the arts world. Wrong. Today there is an event so unusual, so radical, so gobsmacking that I'm prepared to call it the biggest arts event of the year. The BBC is putting on a Shakespeare play. And it's doing so on one of its mainstream channels.