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Television westerns often skewed toward a younger demographic with the likes of kid-friendly cowboy figures like "Roy Rogers" and "Hopalong Cassidy." Audiences were conditioned to see more adult westerns on the big screen. But everything changed on September 10, 1955 when famed movie star John Wayne introduced viewers to a television western series with a more mature bent: "Gunsmoke." The CBS period drama became a smash hit sensation, which not only garnered a then-record breaking 20 seasons, but paved the path for shows like "Bonanza," "Rawhide," and "The Wild Wild West"

Plenty of things changed on "Gunsmoke" over its two-decade span on the air, but the one constant throughout its entire run was the viability of its lead star. James Arness would appear in just about every episode as Marshal Matt Dillon, the lawman of Dodge City, Kansas who often found himself in all sorts of confrontations that he would be tasked with resolving.

A star-studded gathering of musicians honored the late guitar legend Jeff Beck with two tribute shows on Monday (May 22nd) and Tuesday (May 23rd) at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Eric Clapton, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Rod Stewart, Johnny Depp, Zz Top’s Billy Gibbons, and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry were among the major names who took the stage to perform material and covers that Beck himself played during his lifetime.

Highlights included a rousing cover of Beck and Depp’s take on “Isolation” by John Lennon — performed by Hammett, Gibbons, and Depp (who released the song as a collaborative single with Beck in 2022); Stewart tearing through a four-song medley with Clapton; and Gibbons and Depp taking on Zz Top’s “Rough Boy,” a song Beck and Gibbons used to play together.

Elsewhere, Clapton performed lengthy sets on both nights, dipping into Beck’s songbook for originals like “Beck’s Bolero,...

A pair of tribute concerts for the late guitar legend Jeff Beck are set for May 22nd and 23rd at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The shows will feature a plethora of Beck’s friends and musical colleagues, including fellow former Yardbirds member Eric Clapton. The other confirmed performers are Johnny Depp (who released a collaborative album with Beck in 2022), Rod Stewart (a onetime member of The Jeff Beck Group), Zz Top’s Billy Gibbons, Doyle Bramhall, Gary Clark Jr., Imelda May, John McLaughlin, Robert Randolph, Olivia Safe, Joss Stone, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks. The complete list of performers will be finalized closer to the show dates.

Ticket pre-sales begin Tuesday (March 14th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster for May 22nd here and May 23rd here. General sales begin Wednesday (March 15th) at 10 a.m. local time.

If the concerts sell out, you can also buy tickets via Viagogo,...

Radio 4 airs the classic of demonic possession – and promises a 'creeping, toxic' horror tale

A new version of The Exorcist, a film often considered one of the most frightening ever made, is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this month.

The audio drama will go out late in the evening on two consecutive nights and, according to producer and director Gaynor Macfarlane, will be just as scary as the film that caused widespread controversy in America and Britain when it was first released in 1973.

The adaptation will be based, like director William Friedkin's film, on the book of the same name by William Peter Blatty and will deal with the possession of a young girl, Regan, by a demon.

In a key scene in the film the victim's head appears to swivel on her neck as family and clerics attempt to rid her of satanic influences. MacFarlane said this...

Originally published in the Observer on 18 December 1938

I am writing this letter now, so that the readers of the Observer can light their fires with it on Monday morning, and you will have six days after it has gone up the chimney to study my wants and decide what you are going to do about them. I know you will be very busy this Christmas, but in case you have time to think about the cinema, here are one or two suggestions for useful gifts.

Give back a film industry to England, just a little one. We have been very stupid, shortsighted and wasteful here, but most of us are sorry now. There are thousands of people out of work in the studios this Christmas, many of them with little prospect of getting back again. Be kind to them, please.

Whisper in the ear of politicians and City men, and...