The Latest Breaking News from Cleopatra

On reflection, David Owen was probably too “leading man handsome” to help the SDP break the mould of British politics. That’s right, I’ve been re-watching old BBC election night broadcasts again. This time, it’s back to the Seventies and Eighties for Ted Heath’s miscalculation, Jim Callaghan’s sunny (albeit misplaced) optimism…

Newspapers and politicians discuss general’s skin tone, saying actor’s casting in the role created ‘a historical error’

Celebrity drama was just as intense!

From Cleopatra to the Cold War, here's what to stream before Joaquin Phoenix's turn as the French general

Islam Issa’s Alexandria: The City that Changed the World is a history of Egypt’s second city.

In his ambitious and richly orchestrated 2022 opera, the American composer makes Shakespeare his own, with a star cast to match

Ita O’Brien says producers initially questioned need for her role in staging of Antony and Cleopatra

Drink-fuelled fights, tantrums, fratricide… Roger Lewis’s exhaustive but exhausting study of the Burton-Taylor partnership is as extravagant and uncompromising as its badly behaved stars

Stage and screen actor who played Cleopatra opposite Charlton Heston in the 1972 film Antony and Cleopatra

From tragic cucumber jokes to whipping up some ancient Egyptian spermicide, this Amanda Holden and Dan Jones vehicle is an embarrassment from start to finish. You’ll cringe yourself inside out

The Observer’s critics saw the ‘ordeal in Rome’ and now a new book reveals why it flopped