Mary Beard News

Today at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, PBS announced CIVILIZATIONS, a new nine-part series presented in partnership with the BBC that tells the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day - for the first time on a global scale.

BWW Interview: SINGER AND SONGWRITER NICK RANDALL

Dame Maggie Smith visited the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries yesterday to open SHAKESPEARE'S DEAD, the Libraries' summer exhibition. The celebrated actress joined donors and special guests, including renowned playwright Alan Bennett and Lord Patten of Barnes, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, at the Bodleian's newly-refurbished Weston Library for the official opening of the exhibition, which runs until 18 September. Scroll down for photos from the opening!

Among the many spectacular crimes of the twentieth century-the assassination of President Kennedy, the serial murders of John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy, the trial of O. J. Simpson-none was more mysterious and riveting than the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the infant son of Charles A. Lindbergh. Its cast of characters would delight any author of detective novels: the father, an American aviator hero, the first to fly solo over the Atlantic; his lovely wife, the daughter of an ambassador and mother of the first-born son Charlie; an illegal immigrant from Germany charged with the kidnapping; a Bronx schoolteacher designated to carry on ransom negotiations; various underworld characters enlisted to try to find the kidnapped child; a gruff Irish detective dissatisfied with the investigation of the case; a young and aggressive FBI director interested in self-publicity; a prosecutor who may not have believed that one man alone could have done the kidnapping; and a variety of household staff who had peculiar stories to tell.

Directed by Oscar® winner Martin Scorsese and longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi, THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT profiles the provocative and influential publication The New York Review of Books

One of the most hotly-anticipated arts events of 2014, Terry Gilliam's production of Benvenuto Cellini for English National Opera opened at the London Coliseum last night.

The Ware Center joins hundreds of other theatres around the country screening the U.S. premiere of 'Pompeii- from the British Museum' today, November 17th at 4 PM. The film was shot in June, 2013 in London at the Museum and is just being released now after the closing of the extremely popular exhibition, the first of its kind in more than forty years.

BAFTA has announced the winners of the British Academy Television Craft Awards, hosted by Stephen Mangan at The Brewery, in the City of London. Presenters included Russell Tovey, Dawn O'Porter, Anne Reid, James Martin, Meera Syal and Mary Beard.