Three and Out
	9:22am Thu 24 Apr 08
	Screenwriters Steve Lewis and Tony Owen evidently disagree, contriving a comedy of errors about a beleaguered London Tube driver who can earn a sizeable compensation package if he can persuade someone to leap in front of his train. Even the most skilled scribes would struggle to navigate the thorny and sensitive moral dilemmas at heart of Three And Out and, regrettably, Lewis and Owen aren't up to thetask, clumsily melding a farcical opening 30 minutes with the heart-rending emotions of the downbeat finale. It's no wonder that rail union Aslef protested the premiere.

	The Six Bells, Warborough
	2:27pm Fri 18 Apr 08
	"WHAT do you fancy for lunch?" asked my colleague as he eased the car on to the A4074 and headed towards Warborough. That was an easy question to answer - I was dreaming of a fillet of white fish, which was so fresh and well cooked that succulent chunky flakes separated as I dug the fork in. I knew nothing else would satisfy quite as much.

Asparagus

2:09pm Friday 18th April 2008

I MAKE no apology for highlighting the joys of freshly harvested British asparagus once more. How can one ignore such a vegetable? Impossible. Particularly as its season is only six weeks long. Asparagus is one of those vegetables that grows particularly well in Oxfordshire, which may account for the many pick-your-owns and local farm shops which will be selling it any day now. Although imported asparagus is available virtually all the year round now, nothing beats the taste of freshly harvested local asparagus eaten the day it is picked. True asparagus aficionados may like to know that there is now a British Asparagus Festival. It takes place in at the Fleece Inn, found in the tiny village of Bretforton, near Evesham, from Saturday, May 24, to Monday, May 26 (Bank Holiday Monday), when there will be cookery demonstrations by Rachel Green, a craft fair, a farmers' market and a tutored asparagus tasting. For more details of the event, go to: www.british-asparagus.co.uk/asparagus_festival.php Asparagus is high in vitamins B6 and C, plus fibre, folate and glutathione which is an anti-carcinogen and antioxidant, which makes asparagus an excellent nutritional choice.

	Street Kings and In Bruges
	3:34pm Tue 15 Apr 08
	Writer-director David Ayer has certainly found his groove - gritty crime thrillers about morally tainted cops who bend the law to compensate for an imperfect legal system - but he's in danger of getting stuck in it. Having previously penned screenplays for Training Day, Dark Blue and Harsh Times, making his debut behind the camera with the last film, Ayer returns to the crime-infected streets of Los Angeles with Street Kings, a brutal journey into the city's underbelly.

Private Property, Hope, Protégé, Botched and Captain Eager and the Mark of Voth

3:29pm Tuesday 15th April 2008

Joachim Lafosse's Private Property is a masterly study of a Belgian family that is simultaneously held together and rent asunder by its dyfunctionality. Having used her twins against husband Patrick Descamps during their messy divorce, the haughty Isabelle Huppert now finds them obstructing her fresh start with chef Kris Cuppens. But, for all the twentysomething siblings' infantilisation, Huppert is no more mature herself and her inability to sell their rambling country home and move on with her life becomes as infuriating as younger son Jérémie Renier's indolent insolence. Quibbling slightly, Renier's resentful brat a touch too boorish. But, otherwise, the performances are laudably naturalistic and there isn't a wasted word in the compact screenplay. However, the real power comes from Lafosse's studied use of static, Ozu-like camerawork, which gives each scene a tangible intensity that makes the climactic tracking shot all the more disconcerting.

	Pork fillet with rhubarb
	2:49pm Fri 11 Apr 08
	LOOK up rhubarb in any gardening book and you will usually find it classified as a vegetable, yet it's normally cooked as a fruit and served as a pudding. Because it's so tart, it goes particularly well with meats, such as pork or duck, which call for a sharp sauce to bring out the flavour. With this recipe, I've decided to use it as a vegetable and serve it with a pan-fried pork fillet. This long thin cylindrical cut which is usually about 6-8 cm in diameter is considered the most prized cut of pork and, as a consequence, it isn't cheap. However, it's both tender and delicious.

	The Greyhound at Besselsleigh
	2:48pm Fri 11 Apr 08
	I WALKED in purposefully, it had been a long morning, lunch was just what I needed. "On your own?" asked the seater and greeter. When I confessed I was, this young woman looked around the restaurant with concern, then allowed her eyes to fall on the tables and comfortable leather chairs tucked away, but close to the bar. "Perhaps, as you are on your own, you would be happier here," she whispered, pointing to a corner table. "But I'm a real person, you don't have to hide me. Can't I sit in the restaurant like everyone else," I said.

	THE LAST MISTRESS, THE BANQUET, THE 39 STEPS
	10:13am Thu 10 Apr 08
	Catherine Breillat is one of France's most consistently controversial film-makers. However, she reins in her genius for provocation in The Last Mistress, a handsome adaptation of a novel by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly that ventured into the Dangerous Liaison territory of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. In the vein of Jacques Rivette's recent Don't Touch the Axe, this meticulous picture combines a period aesthetic with a contemporary acuity to provide fascinating insights into both human nature and French society now and in the 1830s.

SHINE A LIGHT

10:12am Thursday 10th April 2008

While many rock bands have snatched their 15 minutes of fame then wilted into obscurity - or, worse still, attempted to recapture past glories by leaping on the reunion bandwagon - The Rolling Stones have defiantly refused to gather moss for more than 45 years.

	The Plough Inn, Garsington
	8:37am Thu 10 Apr 08
	The chef was ill when my colleague Chris and I called into The Plough Inn, Garsington, last summer, so although the blackboard menu listed all manner of interesting dishes, we ended up eating freshly cut ham sandwiches on the patio over looking the garden. On the recommendation of a reader, however, we called again. Our only mistake was to choose a cold day, for although there are fireplaces in both bars they were not lit and there appeared to be no other form of heating. Despite enjoying a jolly good lunch, I admit to feeling colder when we left than when I'd gone in.

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