Refigure

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in arts, diversity and culture. This week we binge-watched two drama series, doing each complete series in one late night, so we treated them more like a long film. First we watched Alex Garland's sci-fi drama Devs , made by FX but we saw it on BBC iPlayer. Then we did Netflix drama Unorthodox , a German production written primarily in Yiddish, directed by M...

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in the arts, tech, diversity and culture. This week we watched Kenya Barris' new sitcom BlackAF co-starring Rashida Jones. Rifa also watched Ryan Murphy's Hollywood TV series, which Chris couldn't stand. We also talk a bit about watching ballet on the screen. Rifa is reading Jen Sincero's self-help book You Are A Badass At Making Money , while Chris is reading Co...

Chris and Rifa's weekly home-made adventures in the arts, tech and diversity. This week we're entranced by Midnight Gospel , Pendleton Ward's philosophical, psychedelic animation series on Netflix. We also dive into the work of Mindy Kaling, we were meant to be chatting about her new Indian-American teen coming-of-age comedy series Never Have I Ever , also on Netflix, though it got a bit hijacked...

Rifa and Chris continue their bitesize adventures in culture, the arts, diversity and tech. We watch two seasons of brilliant Korean Netflix historical drama Kingdom , which turns a costume drama of 15th century feudal taboos into a horrifying march of the undead. We also watch the much discussed ITV three-parter Quiz , based on the real-life events around Charles Ingram's infamous attempt to chea...

Chris and Rifa's Refigure Check-in continues our locked down adventures in culture, tech and diversity. This week we chat about the plethora of livestream performances during the quarantine period. Then we binge-watch the whole of season four of Korean-Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience . In What You Reading For? Rifa is enjoying Ben Okri's latest short story collection Prayer For The Living and Ch...

Refigure returns for series #4, the Check-in Season, several weeks early, as Rifa and Chris find ways to resume our tinkering in the arts, tech, culture and diversity, from the safety of our own house. This week we binge-watch  The Great British Bake Off (the early years) and swap tips for fun apps and games to download and play, while you're quarantining. In What You Reading For? Rifa recomm...

Happy new year! Chris and Rifa take one last Prosecco-fuelled look back at 2019 in the arts and culture, chatting over takeout about our favourite books, TV, art and music. This is the final episode of Refigure Series 3. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. We'll be back in Spring 2020 (if the world is still turning) with a new podcast series for the new decade. Look out for us, wherever you...

Chris and Rifa's latest adventures in culture, the arts, tech and diversity – or in this case, watching a load of festive telly with faces full of mince pies. This week we watch the BBC's intense, new adult three part re-imagining of Dickens' A Christmas Carol , starring Guy Pierce, Andy Serkis and Tom Hardy. We also binge-watch HBO's extraordinary new TV series version of Watchmen . starring Regi...

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize joyride around the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we go to the cinema to watch Rian Johnson's acclaimed new whodunnit style movie Knives Out starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig and Chris Pine. We also watch the latest David Attenborough series on the BBC iPlayer, Seven Worlds One Planet as it increasingly desperately highlights the impact of the c...

Chris and Rifa continue their fun weekly dive into arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week Refigure is a lo-fi episode, entirely taped onto iPhone. Back to normal next week. We watch the second series of Netflix documentary show Abstract , which profiles visionary creatives working in different disciplines of design. Then we introduce a special guest: our new Star Wars Correspondent, our frie...

Chris and Rifa's continuing bitesize adventures in the world of arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week our intrepid duo check out the iconic new installation at Tate Modern's enormous Turbine Hall, Kara Walker's powerful reflection on slavery and empire Fons Americanus . We also watch Eddie Murphy's sweet new Netflix film Dolomite Is My Name – a biopic of blaxploitation / comedy / hip hop pi...

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize review show about the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week Chris and Rifa argue about the first episode of the BBC/HBO's epic new TV series His Dark Materials , adapted from Philip Pullman's wildly acclaimed kids' fantasy novels. We also go to the beautiful East Brighton venue The Spire – a spooky deconsecrated church – to check out Truestory Thea...

Rifa and Chris chat about their recent adventures in the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we catch up with our own recent projects, including Rifa's latest She Says Brighton event for Brighton Digital Festival, plus Chris going back on tour with his old band lineup, as backing band for Jim Bob from Carter USM. We also go to Tate Modern to check out the new retrospective exhibition of w...

Chris and Rifa's week in arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we played indie video game cult hit Untitled Goose Game . We also went to see DIY alt-rock veterans Sebadoh play live. Rifa is reading Audrey Lorde's iconic essays The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House , while Chris is enjoying rock writer Oliver Gray's music travel memoir Banjo On My Knee .   Visit us...

Chris and Rifa return with more bitesize chat about the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week our heroes discuss everything Jerry Seinfeld has ever done, which they've watched in full over the past two months. They also get lost in a misty corridor, in Olafur Eliasson's major exhibition at Tate Modern. Chris is reading TV critic Emily Nussbaum's essay collection I Like To Watch , while...

Chris and Rifa return with their bitesize weekly review show, covering culture, tech and diversity.  We check out the major retrospective of William Blake's work at Tate Britain and Rifa is down the front row of the cinema for J-Lo's new movie Hustlers. Chris is reading Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror and also enjoyed John Higgs' William Blake Now . Rifa is reading Poetry Review magazine. ...

It's the season two finale of Chris and Rifa's weekly review of culture, tech and diversity. For this packed episode, we binge-watch the entire run of HBO's hugely acclaimed multi award-winning political satire Veep , starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to mark the occasion of that show finishing. We also mooch up to Tate Modern for a preview of Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's major new solo e...

Nearing the end of season two, Rifa and Chris take their weekly bitesize chunk out of the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we cleared our schedules, bought a pile of unhealthy snacks and settled in to spend the whole weekend binge-watching BBC live streams from Glastonbury Festival, enjoying full live sets by more than 25 bands, without the distractions of presenters, acoustic sets or...

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize look back at their week in culture, tech and diversity. This week, we chat about three recent TV drama series that we binge-watched, all of which try to make us think about the state of reality, right now. We watched season five of Charlie Brooker's Netflix show Black Mirror , Russell T Davies' new BBC series Years & Years and NBC's Chicago legal drama The Good...

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize show digging through their favourite arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week is a Barcelona special, mostly recorded at Kino Café outside the Contemporary Art Gallery, over a big pile of patatas bravas. We chat about our weekend at Primavera Sound 2019 music festival, which had a wildly diverse lineup and booked more than 50% women artists. We also talk about...

After a mid-season hiatus and a bit of overseas travel, Chris and Rifa return for another bitesize munch on culture, tech and diversity. This week the show is taped in our Barcelona hotel room. We would've recorded it on the roof terrace but there were noisy Brits. We chat about new Netflix drama series Dead To Me starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini. We also talk about visiting Brigh...

Chris and Rifa dig into another week of arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we're both blown away by Icelandic indie film Woman At War starring Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir. Chris is also watching Sky Atlantic's sobering true-life 1980s drama Chernobyl about the Soviet Union's great nuclear disaster – and we aren't convinced by buddy comedy Wine Country , directed by Amy Poehler, which is up...

Chris and Rifa take a marmalade-fuelled amble through some arts, culture, tech and diversity. This episode, we go to the cinema with everyone else in the world to watch Avengers: End Game . We also take part in the opening ceremony of Nwando Ebizie's glorious Distorted Constellations installation / exhibition at Lighthouse, as part of Brighton Festival. And we eat some Divine ginger thin chocolate...

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in culture, the arts, tech and diversity. This week Chris and Rifa head to Tate Britain to check out hot new exhibition Van Gogh And Britain . They also watch Beyoncé's new concert film Homecoming on Netflix, based on her headline shows at last year's Coachella festival. Chris is reading Suzannah Evans' first book-length poetry collection Near Future published by...

Chris and Rifa swim in the balmy waters of the arts, culture and diversity. This week's episode comes from the Eastern Mediterranean sea shore. We revisit the three British sitcoms that we reviewed at the start of the season, now they've each finished their six episode run, namely Derry Girls , Home and Fleabag . We also went to the career retrospective exhibition of iconic Greek realist painter V...