Daily Post

Young, Gifted and Welsh

CINEMA has seen the emergence of the so-called "Taff Pack" as Rhys Ifans,Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys hit the silver screen with a bang,and now three young Welsh artists are set to have a similar effect on the art world. This trio who make up Welsh art's brat pack are Darren Hughes RCA,Eleri Jones RCA and Luned Rhys Parri, whose work is currently on show in a combined exhibition at the Royal Cambrian Academy.

By the Book ; Bergdorf Blondes,by Plum Sykes,Viking, Pounds 10

IF you think a Brazilian is just a Latin American person, that PJs are simply pyjamas and an ATM is only a hole in the wall, then you haven't met the Bergdorf Blondes. Plum Sykes's debut novel - which earned her a reported pounds 400,000 advance - takes you straight into the world of the pampered Park Avenue Princess where the designer-clad (size zero)heiress heroines devote their time and effort to capturing an ATM (richboyfriend), preferably with a PJ (privatejet).

Curtain Call: Masterpiece of Monotony

VAUDEVILLE style slapstick humour meets the darker questions about the meaning of the universe in Samuel Beckett's cult play,Waiting For Godot. Premiered in Paris in 1953, this sometimes funny and often despairing look at the inertia of life quickly became Beckett's signature production, establishing him as an important playwright across Europe.

Curtain Call: Giving Voice to Songsters

Curtain Call: Cool Revival of Gypsy Jazz

Curtain Call: Good Old Scare Story

Genius Thrives Amid Chaos ; Alun Prichard Meets Legendary Film Director Ken Russell and Finds Him Just As Eccentric As His Reputation Suggests

OSCAR Wilde famously replied when asked by a US customs official if he had anything to declare: "Nothing, except my genius." And in shades of Wilde, film director Ken Russell said loudly and proudly in response to a query about to what he attributes his success:"genius". But Russell differs from Wilde when he adds that genius and insanity "are one and the same".

Centrepiece: Eisteddfota - Day Presidents Are Announced ; the List of Day Presidents for This Year's Urdd Makes Interesting Reading

ITH just a month to go, the people of Anglesey are busy putting the finishing touches to the arrangements for this year's Urdd National Eisteddfod. Held on the Anglesey Showground at Mona from May 31, this will be the fourth occasion for the Urdd Eisteddfod to visit the island since the event began at Corwen in 1929; the three previous venues being Llangefni (1948),Holyhead (1966)and Menai Bridge (1976). The practice in recent years has been to honour people with strong associations with the ...

All Things Bright and Beautiful ; When It Comes to Filming All Creatures Great and Small, Mike Potts Is the Expert. Alun Prichard Chats to Him

THE African savannah, American rainforests, Arctic tundra and the wildlife they nurture have long been exposed in natural history programmes which have become our only window on the globe's more remote flora and fauna. Thanks to TV, the world is a shrinking place, yet there are still ecosystems on Earth that have yet to be fully explored by crew and camera. One man involved in exploring the previously undiscovered and showing the world the rare and beautiful is Rhos on Sea's Mike Potts.

Ear Buzz: Hornier Than Thou Attitude

SO,at last we get round to him,David Wrench. I've been trying to write about David in this column for a few weeks now,but verbal diarrhoea and news of a new acoustic music initiative on Holyhead got in the way. This week,nothing -not even the appearance on my doorstep of Angelina Jolie in a dress fashioned entirely out of jam doughnuts - is going to get in the way.Oh, my! What an image! It must be the sheer exuberant sexual energy writhing off David Wrench's baby oil- splattered new single,Su...

Well Worth Remembering ; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

MEEK,mild-mannered Joel Barish (JimCarrey)has never recovered from the end of his romance with eccentric Clementine (KateWinslet). He has almost lost the will to go on and in desperation,Joel turns to a revered medic who has pioneered a non-invasive,memory erasure operation.

Cruise Almost Wins the War ; Dvd:The Last Samurai

AMERICAN Civil War veteran Nathan Algren (TomCruise)is captured by enigmatic samurai Katsumoto (KenWatanabe) while training the Emperor's troops in Japan. This is an impressive tale of clashing cultures and the re- education of a spiritually dead man, who rediscovers the glory of fighting for something he believes in.

Valerie Hill Column: Forget the Jet Set, We've Joined the Chemistry Set

THE centenary of the greatest British Hollywood star Cary Grant is being celebrated in a somewhat unusual way by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The society has compiled a list of the most enduring film double acts that have conveyed that notoriously elusive element, screen chemistry.

Valerie Hill Column: Ross's Ego No Match for the King of Chat

THE BBC's response to losing the grand old man of chat show, Michael Parkinson, toITV is that there are other, younger presenters coming along "who will take the form forward".At the forefront of these young Turks must be Jonathan Ross, who enjoys a son-of-Parky slot late on Friday evening. Last week Ross had the world's highest-paidactress, Jane Leeves,as a guest. Ms Leeves,from Essex, started her career as under- dressed eye-candy on the Benny Hill Show to be leered at by the chubby comic. ...

Valerie Hill Column: Report Into Princess Diana's Death

WILL Sir John Stevens's report into Princess Diana's death add one iota to the public knowledge about her death? Will he unearth any support for the raging conspiracy theories? The answer to all these questions is no. The hush-up that the public sensed was the whiff of the establishment losing face. Namely, why was Princess Diana's security left in the hands of a singular Egyptian store owner and his immature playboy son? If we'dhad an inquest at the time of her death there would be no reason...

Valerie Hill Column: Leslie Ash

Valerie Hill Column: David Dimbleby's Cringing Demands

Valerie Hill Column: Josephine's Wardrobe

Looking Back ...

Put Your Shirt On Tv ; at Home with the Waltons

RIDDLE me this, reader... some parents prefer to ignore it and pretend that it will go away; others are evangelical in their hatred of it and their desire to keep their children away from its insidious influence; others still occupy a hinterland of hypocrisy where its negative,brainwashing power over their children is only discussed in its flickery glow after the children have gone to bed; but the vast majority -those who haven't the time or the inclination to demonize it,or over intellectual...