Could arts funding cuts and cost of living crisis affect your favourite TV shows and films?
Could your favourite Netflix series be impacted by funding cuts to the theatre industry? Could a reduction in investment into opera really affect franchises such as Star Wars?
It’s something most people don’t think about when they read about funding cuts to the arts, warns top British playwright James Graham – but they should.
Graham, whose plays include the Tony-nominated Ink, Privacy, and Quiz – about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? coughing scandal, which he turned into a TV series in 2020 – says recent cuts in London by Arts Council England, combined with the cost of living crisis, will have a huge impact on the entertainment industry’s “pipeline”.
Pic. Star Wars/Walt Disney
He told Sky News: “Even if you don’t go to the opera, you don’t necessarily appreciate the training that happens to artists, writers, technicians, scenic designers – they all go on to Netflix, they all go on to work on the Star Wars movies.
“Very quickly, I think in the next 18 months, two years, the depletion and the diminishment of arts across television, theatre, music, is going to be really impactful. And it’s frustrating.”
Earlier in November, Arts Council England announced a £43.5m “levelling up” investment outside London to back “art, culture, and creativity for more people in more places, across the country”.
However, grants in the capital have been cut – including to organisations such as English National Opera.
Supporters say the rebalancing is long overdue, but critics argue the move impacts some of the UK’s most important cultural institutions.
Graham, who grew up as “a working class kid” in Nottingham, said he understands “these are hard arguments to make in a difficult climate”, as people struggle to heat their homes and feed their families due to soaring prices.
“But the arts is one of the main drivers for the British economy,” he said. “I reject this argument that giving money to the arts is taking away from hospitals – investing in arts pays for hospital beds, having a really thriving culture sector pays for teachers wages.
James Graham: ‘The arts basically prints money and gives it back to the government’ – Pic: Johan Persson
“They keep talking about growth… we’re a huge growth sector. As well as remembering of course that stories, television dramas, plays, musicals, have an emotional, social impact on our society. They make us better, empathetic human beings for a very, very small cost.”
The arts “eventually return more than they cost, in all the ways – financial, emotional, social cohesion,” he added. “It basically prints money and gives it back to the government.”
Graham’s latest play, political drama Best Of Enemies, stars Zachary Quinto as Gore Vidal opposite David Harewood’s William F Buckley Jr, exploring their bitter political rivalry and historic clashes which transformed political debates and revolutionised current affairs broadcasting.
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“The play centres on these debates, [the] very first live televised debates that were screened on ABC between two intellectuals, one on the left, one on the right,” Harewood, best known for Homeland, told Sky News. “And it ended up being the most watched programme of that entire election cycle. It’s about politics. It’s about ideas. It’s about personal animosity.
“It’s very, very funny. Hugely entertaining, and I think… says a lot about where we are in modern politics.”
Quinto, who starred in the American Horror Story series and also played Spock in the rebooted Star Trek films, said: “You can really chart the journey from where this began to where we are today in a way that is, I think, both exciting and also troubling in a sense.
“Troubling in the sense that we now live in a world that is almost entirely created by echo chambers. We listen to what we want to hear and not really anything else.”
Best Of Enemies opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 28 November
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Cara Delevingne reveals how Topshop inspired her fashion sense – as brand relaunches in London
Fashion brand Topshop celebrated its relaunch with its first catwalk in seven years.
The company’s website promised everyone was invited as models strutted down a runway on Trafalgar Square in front of noughties fashion icons Cara Delevingne and Adwoa Aboah and the London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.
The label has been operating on the online fashion platform ASOS after ceasing to operate as a standalone business in 2020.
Topshop held a catwalk in Trafalgar Square. Pic: PA
A model on the catwalk
Its previous owner, Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group, collapsed into administration and all of Topshop’s physical stores – including the Oxford Circus flagship in London’s West End – closed soon after.
Delevingne told Sky News she was “totally blown away” by the relaunch event.
“It was like nostalgia mixed with something eclectic but also something brand new,” she said.
“For me, it really brings back a time of exploration of my own fashion sense because I think for me at Topshop I got to discover so much.”
The model, who is working on a capsule collection for next year, has already unveiled a choice edit in this year’s show and said her relationship with Topshop precedes her fame.
She said: “I would go in and my friends would be like ‘you would look good in that’ and I would go ‘no, that’s not really me’, and then you’d try it on and be like ‘oh maybe I can explore more’.
“They really have everything for everyone, and I feel like they brought that back.”
The runway showcased highlights from its Autumn-Winter 2025 collection, as well as an early preview of pieces set to drop later this season, including showstopper gowns, the classic white tee, and an aloe vera-coloured faux fur coat that surely should not have been on display – to prevent just about everyone rushing to buy it.
Topshop’s relaunch was staged at Trafalgar Square
Models in front of the National Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square. Pic: PA
Reclaiming the high street
But sharp tailoring and statement outerwear suggest the brand is ready to reclaim the high street.
Must-have denim pieces completed the womenswear line-up while the Topman collection screamed modern utility by blending refined formal wear with sharp new silhouettes.
Casual pieces are grounded by authentic denim in deep indigos, which stood out on Trafalgar Square’s magnificent stone steps.
Topshop’s relaunch comes as the high street continues to struggle and as the UK operation of Chinese fashion giant Shein announced pre-tax profits of £38.3m for the year, up some £14m from 2023.
‘Top end of the market’
Moses Rashid, global marketing director at Topshop/Topman said they are competing in a different space.
Topshop has been operating on the online fashion platform ASOS after ceasing to operate as a standalone business in 2020
“We’re at the top end of the market. We’re about elevation. We pride ourselves on the quality of the product,” he said.
Those products are being designed in north London, and managing director Michelle Wilson said the aim is to stay that way.
“We are a British brand, we want to be a positive force for fashion. We want to bring London to the world. It’s fundamental to who we are as a brand, our style is very much London-driven.”
The majority Danish-owned company has suggested it will slow fashion down by opening physical stores where customers can touch the products, browse collections and try things on, though the flagship on Oxford Circus is unlikely to return because a Swedish fast furniture brand has since occupied the space.
Designer Wayne Hemingway has previously collaborated with Topshop and said the relaunch must be more than nostalgia.
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“They can’t rely on their old customers because their old customers have now got kids of their own to spend their money on, and they’ve got mortgages and all of those things of what being an adult means.
“They’ve got to have designers, marketeers, people who understand – who are on the pulse – who understood, number one, what was a success back then, and also a young generation of people who are there saying, ‘this is what our generation needs’, and who are bright and can help deliver that. They can’t rely on the past.”
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