WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Orchard blossoms with novel take
Chekhov classic is rejuvenated by being played nearer to comedy than tragedy, writes PETER MASON
Francesca Annis as Ranyevskaya and Ian McKellen as Firs in the Cherry Orchard
[Jack Merriman] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
The Cherry Orchard
Theatre Royal Windsor
USING much the same cast that put across a rather confused Hamlet at this venue during the summer, director Sean Mathias has come up with a considerably more satisfactory Cherry Orchard, thanks in part to the addition of two stage heavyweights, Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw.
Annis is enthralling as the fragile, flighty aristocrat Ranyevskaya — exasperatingly unwilling to do anything about her fate as the family estate is sold from underneath her, yet so sweet and loveable that it becomes impossible to condemn her for too long.
Partly this is because Annis also imparts Ranyevskaya with such subtle strength that we come to see the old lady as a great survivor, better adjusted to the oncoming rush of change than many of the self-deceiving procrastinators who surround her.
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