When people think of comic cons it usually involves visions of nerds, costumes and comic book heroes, but MCM London is so much more. Hailed as the best of the UK comic con’s, it features gaming, movies, comics and their creators, Pop Asia, Cosplay along with photograph and autograph opportunities, MCM London is a celebration of pop culture. Hosted at the ExCel Centre based in the Docklands, London. The ExCel Centre is a huge venue and the map is essential,…

Marvelous Games kindly offered Cardiff Times a demo of their upcoming releases, so Melissa Compton went along to find out what they had planned for the near future. This special feature is arranged in order of level of difficulty i.e. if you’re an experienced gamer, the games further down the feature maybe more suited to you.   HEROLAND. We are loving Heroland, this game is perfect for children or anyone new to gaming. It is narrative driven so lots of…

  There can scarcely be anyone who has failed to see some iteration of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, Frankenstein, written when she was a mere 18 years old after dreaming the story in her sleep. However, seeing it performed on the stage was certainly new to me and many others in the audience I suspect. Rona Munro, who has written episodes of Dr Who amongst many other writing triumphs, has adapted the story into a play with a unique…

Horatio’s Garden is a national charity that creates and nurtures beautiful gardens in the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. As part of the redevelopment project being undertaken by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board at University Hospital Llandough, the charity is building one of its award-winning gardens in the Welsh Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Centre to support everyone affected by spinal injury in Wales.   The garden is currently being designed by two-time Chelsea gold medal winner Sarah Price and is due to…

A Cardiff-based sports radio show has been shortlisted for a prestigious UK radio award for the third year in a row. The Terrace Radio Show, presented and produced by Chris O’Brien on Radio Cardiff 98.7FM, is in contention for the Sports Show of the Year accolade at the UK Community Radio Awards – to be presented on Saturday evening (October 26). O’Brien’s show hit the airwaves in July 2016 – then known as OB’s Saturday Sport Show. It has since…

REVIEW OF ‘ON YOUR FEET’ – BY ALAN COULTHARD I must confess that ‘juke box musicals’ are a guilty pleasure of mine, although I know they are not to everyone’s taste. Broadly they fall into two types, firstly where the original artist uses the opportunity of a film or stage musical to perform songs from its catalogue. These date back to the 1940s and include films such as the Beatles ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Spice World – The Movie’….

  Sara Pickard, a prominent campaigner who has Down’s syndrome, was nominated to attend the prestigious 2019 ‘Women of the Year’ Awards. Sara, who lives near Cardiff, has been recognised for her campaign work for people with a learning disability. She has worked for Mencap Cymru, a charity which supports people with a learning disability in Wales, for 13 years. Currently, Sara is project officer at Mencap Cymru where she works on the ‘Play Our Way’ project, which brings children…

How did you set about preparing to portray such an iconic figure that is Gloria Estefan? Yeah, yeah, well, we had the absolute luxury and blessing to have Gloria with us during rehearsals back in April. So I was able to, and as she was so open, to sit down with her and talk. We also talked about the role, spoke about the story and talked about how the songs come in and out of the journey. So that was,…

Award winning writer and producer Russell T Davies gave an exclusive interview during his recent visit to the Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival confirming the importance of the film festival to Cardiff. He also gave a stark warning of the need to come together in a world which demands we fight for our rights. YOU CAN VIEW THE INTERVIEW HERE: HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/XVVTH1KOGVI Commenting on the significance of the festival to Cardiff he said: CARDIFF AND WHAT IRIS MEANS TO THE CITY “Film…

Shannon (L) Winner of the Transport for Wales Rising Star Award, pictured with Marie Daly, HR, People and Engagement Director at Transport for Wales   Shannon’s Story It was when Shannon’s coach at the Job Centre mentioned The Prince’s Trust that everything started to change for the better. After many months of fruitless job hunting, the 21-year old from Rumney, Cardiff, secured a job she loves with The Trust’s support. More importantly, she went from being someone who wanted to…