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Mark Lawson

Mark Lawson is a Guardian writer and broadcaster

May 2025

  • Tom Rosenthal as Khlestakov and Christopher Middleton as the Head of Schools in The Government Inspector at Chichester Festival theatre

    The Government Inspector review – Tom Rosenthal stirs up Gogol’s political satire

    The standup brings his easy stage command to the role of a penniless nincompoop who tricks his way into authority in Gregory Doran’s production

April 2025

  • ‘Poirot seems like this fussy, pompous fellow who’s not going to cause you much trouble and then suddenly he’s got ya’ … Ken Ludwig.

    ‘You have to be taken inside Poirot’s brain’: Ken Ludwig on the secret to adapting Agatha Christie

    The US playwright and anglophile behind much-revived comedies has a flair for crime and is following a crowd-pleasing Murder on the Orient Express with Death on the Nile
  • Olivier Hubard as Don Pedro and Daniel Adeosun as Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing.

    Much Ado About Nothing review – RSC boots the action to elite Italian football in a play of two halves

    Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
    Benedick is a midfielder for Serie A team FC Messina in a show with top-form performances and a clever visual metaphor, albeit some pacing problems in the final third
  • Either hiding or have hidden … Victoria Smurfit as Helena and Rhashan Stone as Anderson in Ghosts

    Ghosts review – gasps and laughter greet this modern revamp of Ibsen’s shocker

    Gary Owen’s retelling changes the names and themes from the original, but retains the toxic power as a stellar cast negotiate the myriad secrets and suspicions

March 2025

  • Richard Chamberlain in The Thorn Birds.

    The original hot priest! Farewell Richard Chamberlain, TV eye-candy extraordinaire

  • Nowhere to be seen … Gavin and Stacey: The Finale.

    Nothing for Gavin & Stacey? The sheer number of omissions in the TV Baftas is ridiculous

  • Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham in Adolescence.

    Adolescence, the backlash: the nightmare of making hit TV in terrifying times

  • The healing touch … Tane Siah (Bukayo Saka) and Gwilym Lee (Gareth Southgate) in Dear England.

    Dear England review – footballing reboot adds extra time for Gareth Southgate’s exit

  • The Mosinee Project review – cold war hoax drama has fun with communist cosplay

  • Athol Fugard, South African political dissident playwright, dies aged 92

February 2025

  • ‘It’s extraordinary how Hi-de-Hi! lives on’ … from left, Ruth Madoc, Simon Cadell, Paul Shane and Holland.

    ‘They now put trigger warnings on Hi-de-Hi!’ Jeffrey Holland on starring in British comedy classics

    He was Spike the gormless comic in the holiday camp hit and also bagged roles in You Rang M’Lord? and Dad’s Army. As he publishes a memoir, Holland talks about frisky stallions, today’s ‘over-sensitive’ era – and being huge in Hungary
  • Hamlet, RSC, February 2025

    Hamlet review – RSC’s bold seaborne concept really pushes the boat out

    The court of Elsinore becomes a ship of state – or a ship of fools – in Rupert Goold’s production

    • The Autobiography of a Cad review – Ian Hislop and Nick Newman retell a rotter’s political progress

    • Churchill in Moscow review – the British bulldog’s gripping meeting with Stalin

    • Vanya Is Alive review – dark Russian satire turns language upside down

January 2025

  • Caroline Gruber and Zoe Goriely in As Long As We Are Breathing.

    As Long As We Are Breathing review – unblocking the horrors of the Holocaust

  • Johnnie Walker in a BBC Radio studio in 1976.

    ‘I hated playing by the rules’: Johnnie Walker, the empathetic radio DJ with a rebel spirit

December 2024

  • Gary Lineker in a dark suit and white shirt holding a mic.

    From constant scandals to its best shows ending – how 2024 turned into the BBC’s annus horribilis

    With star names such as Gary Lineker, Kirsty Wark and Mishal Husain leaving, a slew of others embroiled in legal troubles and a sharp drop in income, this has been a dreadful 12 months for the broadcaster. But could it get worse?
  • Samuel West as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare theatre.

    Twelfth Night review – Samuel West achieves greatness as Malvolio

    As the petty tyrant cruelly duped by his household West leads a superb, tinsel-inflected take on Shakespeare’s melancholy comedy
  • Dressed in 1930s clothes, they stand by the manor house

    The Housetrap review – Agatha Christie meets Lady Fanny Button in immersive mystery

    Staged in Ghosts’ Button House, this interactive whodunnit has a lot of fun with detective-story tropes, quick-change characters and a clever solution
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