Carolyn James

Live performance from Cologne Opera. Conlon conducts a skittishly dynamic performance of Don Giovanni. He relies on Thomas Allen’s tough Don to give the work much of its dark menace and on Holle’s terrifying Commendatore to provide the moral outrage – his job is to keep things moving, and he does. The exteriors – blank city spaces reminiscent of the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico – and moodily claustrophobic interiors mirror effectively the anguish of the orphaned Anna and the abandoned Elvira; this is a performance in which the two women victims of the Don function effectively as correctives to his libertine charm. Andrea Rost as Zerlina brings real delicacy to her role, reminding us that “La ci darem la mano” is a duet about her flirtation with Don Giovanni and not just a famous stand-alone moment. This is an admirable presentation of a fine performance.

Magic Grandad was an educational programme which originally aired on BBC Two under the title 'Switch On, Switch Off' during Schools section of 1993. The show saw 'Magic' Grandad take his young grandchildren back in time, many of the adventures are about comparing the past and the present and seeing how evidence of what happened in the olden days still survives. The show was said to make learning about history "fun for youngsters" and was aimed at children aged 5-7 years. The series was introduced to support the History National Curriculum at Key Stage 1. New seasons have been made periodically to support new areas of the infant history curriculum such as seaside holidays and toys. The early season have a companion booklet of teacher's notes with descriptions of the episodes, various suggestions for follow-up work and photocopiable worksheets.