The Observer The New Review – 22 December 2024
Summary
Rose Matafeo kicks off The Observer New Review's 8th annual puzzles special on 22 December 2024, with an exclusive Christmas Cluedle by Hartigan Browne (The Case of Rudolph's Revenge), a TV quiz of the year and a jumbo crossword designed for the long Boxing Day table. The 56-page issue doubles as a Christmas-week activity book and a critics' yearbook, with the Observer's film, theatre, music and art critics picking their best of 2024 across pages 25-31.
The Agenda section opens with Rob Brydon on the last-ever Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, Stewart Lee's column, and a Q&A with Royal Ballet principal Reece Clarke on his cultural picks. Kevin Barry contributes an exclusive short story for Christmas on pages 42-45. The puzzles spread includes Whose Lunch Is This, Festive Spot the Ball and Spot the Difference, and Quotes of the Year.
The Critics section covers Susannah Clapp on Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest in London's West End, Wendy Ide on Mufasa: The Lion King, Laura Cumming on Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, and Kitty Empire seeing Paul McCartney live at the O2. The back half carries the week's television and radio listings for Monday to Saturday.
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Content Guide
▸ Puzzles Special
p.2 · Welcome to our puzzles special issue
Rose Matafeo introduces the 8th annual puzzles edition with a 10-question TV and comedy quiz drawn from her role as Junior Taskmaster host. One question asks which Christmas special had a character played by two different actors. The answer format matches the show's scoring system.
p.8 · Exclusive Christmas Cluedle: The Case of Rudolph's Revenge
Hartigan Browne's Cluedle crossover sets a murder-mystery in Santa's workshop, with 8 suspects including a disgruntled elf and a malfunctioning toy robot. Each clue eliminates one suspect until only the culprit remains. Solve it in under 20 minutes for the Christmas Day table.
p.16 · TV Quiz of the Year
30 questions spanning the biggest TV moments of 2024, from the finale of The Traitors to the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The tie-breaker asks for the exact number of hours of live BBC coverage during the Olympics opening weekend.
p.20 · Festive Spot the Ball and Spot the Difference
Two classic Observer puzzles updated with Christmas themes. The Spot the Difference features a Santa-on-a-sled scene with 12 differences. One difference involves a reindeer's missing antler — look at the background sleigh tracks for another.
▸ Critics' Review of 2024
p.25 · The year's best films, albums, theatre and more
Observer critics pick their standout films, albums, theatre productions and art exhibitions of 2024. The film pick went to a low-budget British drama shot in 18 days. The album entry includes a QR code linking to a streaming playlist curated by the critic.
p.32 · Susannah Clapp on Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest
Clapp reviews Weaver's Prospero in a West End production directed by Jamie Lloyd. Weaver performs the role without a magic staff, relying solely on vocal control. The production runs 1 hour 50 minutes without an interval.
▸ Features
p.42 · Kevin Barry: An exclusive Christmas short story
The award-winning Irish writer contributes a 2,000-word story set in a rural pub on Christmas Eve. The twist involves a character who has been telling the same story for 30 years. Read it aloud after dinner — the dialogue is written for performance.
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Editor's Take
The Observer New Review's annual puzzles special is a genuine Christmas-week utility: it solves the "what do we do after lunch" problem with material that spans ages 10 to 80. The exclusive Kevin Barry story is the literary highlight, and the Cluedle crossover is clever enough to hold a full-table audience. The weakness is the recycled format — this is the 8th edition and several puzzles (Spot the Ball, the TV quiz format) are line-for-line the same structure as 2023. The Critics' Review of 2024 section is solid but compressed into 6 pages when it deserved 12. The McCartney live review by Kitty Empire is the best single piece in the issue — she captures the O2 crowd's demographic diversity in one paragraph. This issue is for the household hosting Christmas and needing a tabletop activity, not for someone seeking deep arts criticism.
Strengths
• Exclusive Cluedle puzzle with Santa's-workshop premise
• Kevin Barry short story written for post-dinner reading
• Kitty Empire's McCartney O2 review with vivid crowd-portrait
Weaknesses
• Puzzle formats largely unchanged from 2023 edition
• Critics Review section squeezed into 6 pages
Verdict: Recommended — A functional Christmas-week tradition with enough new material to justify the purchase, barely.
