The theatre world was agogVery eager or curious to hear or see something. yesterday. The new director of the National TheatreA theatre group based in London. had just been announced: Indhu Rubasingham, the first woman to hold the post.

Her productions had been much admired - but she had infuriatedMaking someone extremely angry and impatient. people in KilburnKilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs. with a weird rebranding of their beloved local theatre, the Tricycle, as "The Kiln." What on earth would she do to the National?

This year has seen many cultural venues and events back on their feet after the pandemic. But some of the offerings were more impressive than others.

January saw the launch of Prince Harry's memoir, Spare. It sold more than 1.4 million copies on its first day, making it the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever. The Times called it "a 400-page therapy session for mystic Harry."

In February the largest ever exhibition of VermeerA Dutch Baroque Period painter recognised as one of the greatest painters of the 17th Century.'s paintings opened in Amsterdam. It attracted 650,000 visitors and was described by The Guardian as "a near-perfect show."

Taylor Swift embarked on her Eras tour in March, breaking the US record for the most tickets sold in a day: 2.4 million. She has since been named as Time magazine's Person of the Year, while the word "Swiftie" has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.  

In April, Fox News agreed to pay £634 million to the company whose voting machines it had falsely claimed to be riggedThe act of arranging dishonestly for the result of something, for example an election, to be changed. during the 2020 US presidential election. The BBC was another broadcaster to suffer huge embarrassment when its newsreader Huw Edwards was suspended after allegations that he had paid a teenager for sexually explicitContaining sexual content. photos.  

A huge TV event in May was the final episode of Succession, a phenomenally successful comedy-drama HBO series compared by some critics to Shakespeare's King LearAs William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was penning his great tragedy, the plague spread across London and reached his own house, killing his landlady, Marie Mountjoy.. But Hollywood writers began a five-month strike, demanding better terms and protection against studios' use of AI.

June saw Liverpool host the Eurovision Song Contest, watched by 177 million people; Sweden's Loreen won with Tattoo. At GlastonburyAn English town known worldwide today for its yearly music festival., Elton John was the Sunday night headliner, giving what he said was his last UK performance.

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was released in July. It was the most commercially successful movie of the year, with Greta Gerwig becoming the first female director to make a film grossingProducing or earning an amount of money as gross profit or income. over $1bn.

Oppenheimer, about the inventor of the atomic bombA bomb that rapidly releases nuclear energy. , was released on the same day, and the two were promoted together as "Barbenheimer." This caused great offence to supporters of nuclear disarmamentThe reduction or withdrawal of military forces and weapons., particularly in Japan, and the producers were forced to apologise.

The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, who has been compared to Henrik IbsenA Norwegian playwright and theatre director, and one of the founders of modernism in theatre. and Samuel BeckettAn Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet who was a key literary figure of the 20th Century.. The judges praised him for "giving voice to the unsayable."

For many, the most anticipated event of the year was the 60^th anniversary celebration of Dr Who, with three TV specials featuring the return of David Tennant.

But 2023 might be remembered mainly for the growing influence of South Korean culture, with TV series such as Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and podcasts such as The Rest Is Politics.

Yes: The massive success of Barbie proves it. The year's most popular film was primarily a piece of commercial exploitation by a toy company rather than something aimed at thoughtful people.

No: There is still a huge demand for it, as the Vermeer exhibition showed. Succession was an example of television at its best, and Barbie is actually a very thought-provoking film with interesting ideas about the patriarchy.

Or... People have always wanted a mixture of the thought-provoking and the entertaining. Shakespeare wrote both tragedies and comedies, after all.