On culture cuts

Although the long leisure break that is Christmas and the New Year gives us plenty of time to reflect on the year that has just passed, it seems tedious to give a top ten of shows seen, although other bloggers have done a good job of summarising the past 12 months. But I cannot let the occasion go by without mentioning, like another blogger, a couple of my abiding memories of 2010. One must be the emergence of a hugely talented clown, who goes by the name of Jeremy Hunt, although Radio 4’s Today programme inadvertently revealed his real appellation. Although this fool has already made our sides split with his moronic pontifications about the looming cuts, he has just been given responsibility for assessing Rupert Murdoch’s fitness to possess a controlling interest in BSB — should be an amusing episode in 2011’s culture. Otherwise, it was great to see Nicholas Hytner topping the lists of the most important theatre people in the land. His recipe for responding to cuts — by turning his flagship venue into a a palace of popular varieties — will be widely copied. It’s a sound strategy — pity it involves ditching real directorial talent, such as Katie Mitchell. Oh well, perhaps the cuts have already started?

© Aleks Sierz

BBC Radio 4 blogs cuts Jeremy Hunt Katie Mitchell National Theatre Nicholas Hytner Rupert Murdoch