We invest in the arts to create happier lives for people
Arts council of England chief Darren Henley believes inclusion is an important measure to reflect Britain’s ‘rich and diverse cultures’.
By AMIT ROYFeb 16, 2023
DARREN HENLEY has been doing his bit to promote diversity since he became chief executive of the Arts Council of England in 2015. Some people would say more than his bit.
He is driven by a number of principles. One is that engagement with the arts makes people happier. Another is that “talent is everywhere, opportunity is not”, and something has to be done to level up cultural resources. And, finally, he believes culture is for everyone, not just for a privileged section of society.
In an interview with Eastern Eye to coincide with the Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards (ACTA) event earlier this month, Henley analysed the Art Council’s allocation of £446 million a year from 2023 to 2026 to 990 museums, libraries and arts organisations, announced in November 2022.
In all, there were 1,700 applications for Arts Council support. Of those that were successful, 276 were new to the National Portfolio of Organisations supported by the Arts Council. This is where diversity comes in. “One of the measures we use is to ask about the leadership of those organisations, their ethnicity. Of those, 148 plus are led by people who are black, Asian or ethnically diverse,” revealed Henley.
Sampad Asian Spring 2022
The Arts Council has published the precise sums that various organisations were getting in 2023. Beneficiaries include Akademi, the dance group in London (£218,956); Art Asia Trust in the southwest (£97,590); Milap Festival Trust in the north (£369,586); Sampad in the Midlands (£248,394); Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company in London (£263,493); South Asian Arts, UK, in the north (£184,330); Rifco Arts in the southeast (£331,391); and the Tamasha Theatre Company in London (£320,251).
Henley said: “We have talked about talent being everywhere, but not opportunity. With this latest round of national portfolio announcements, we are identifying talent and giving that talent opportunity to reach wider audiences."
He said black and Asian arts organisations are considered “absolutely part of the mainstream. We should regard them as being within the national portfolio. They have equal status with every other organisation. We have 990 organisations we work with, all very high quality. They are nationally significant; in many cases, internationally. There’s no hierarchy because everyone is there on merit because of the work they’re doing.”
The Arts Council budget is reviewed every three years.
“We tried to create a balanced portfolio. By that we mean we will have a balance across art forms, across geographies, we will make sure of that even within art forms. You have touring theatres and theatres which present work. You might get different genres of music. We’re looking all the time to see how we have the very best spread of work right across the country.
“People wanted to see high-quality work on their doorsteps… to be close to them. They didn’t want to have to travel too far away, so that’s something we’ve done. We spent a lot of time looking and seeing which parts of the country we haven’t previously invested in so as to balance things in a geographical way.”
Not only does the Arts Council receive applications, but it is also proactive in seeking out new organisations to support.
“It’s a bit of both, to be honest, because we see ourselves very much as being the national development agency for arts and culture in the country. We have nine offices around the country. Getting on for 80 per cent of our colleagues are based outside London, so it’s a very big spread,” he said.
“Anybody can make an application. We’re always very keen to talk to people. When anybody makes a funding application for the first time, we do recognise that can be quite a daunting task. We’re investing taxpayers’ and National Lottery money. So there are some things that we have to ask people to do. Sometimes that’s quite confusing.
“We’re there to help people. We’re keen to talk to new people, and to say, ‘how can we have that relationship with you on that funding journey?” All organisations have to demonstrate that they are doing something for diversity as a condition of getting Arts Council funding, he explained.
“Inclusion is an important measure that we look at right at the start,” Henley asserted. “We are very keen to ensure – because we take taxpayers’ money, a lot of National Lottery players’ money – that the leadership in organisations, the workforce, more generally, and also the audiences are reflective of the country as a whole.
“I believe very strongly that we should reflect everybody’s culture. We should be investing money in institutions that are welcoming for everybody. It is criteria that we look at as part of the funding decisionmaking process.”
Rifco
Henley’s view is that “we have a rich and diverse and exciting country. And we want to make sure that everybody gets to benefit from everyone else’s creativity. Different people will have different backgrounds and different experiences and bring different knowledge, understanding and practice to the table. When you bring people of different backgrounds together, they have a chance to spark and to have that moment where something new is created. That’s exciting.”
At a time of perceived culture wars, Henley seeks to reassure those people who fear “traditional English culture” is being eroded in a changing country.
“People think because you invest in funding X, you can’t fund Y. Well, I don’t think it’s a simple ‘either/or’. So, yes, different people will have different tastes, different people will have different things that they enjoy. The Arts Council is there to invest right across the spread.
“We’ve done that with this portfolio. You can see a huge range of different art forms, all of which are valid. The question for me is, is the work high quality? Is it relevant to audiences? Is it making connections? And I believe that in the 990 organisations we are investing in this portfolio, the answer to that is yes.
“Building audiences is important. I talk to artists, I talk to creative people. They’re interested in all age ranges, all backgrounds, all parts of society. The very best artists and arts organisations throw open their doors and welcome everybody in. As human beings, people from radically different backgrounds can have very similar experiences. That can bring people together.
“I think we can be one country with many voices, all as important as each other. Life would be much shallower, have less depth to it, if there was just one voice heard, and that was the way everything was all the time.
“Artists build on the past, on what’s been developed before and then take it forward for the next generation. I don’t think it’s about absolutely rejecting everything that’s gone before or getting into an argument about one art form’s value over another. They all have their place.
“And at different times, probably, taste will say certain things are more popular or more interesting to people. There will be times when there will be generations of creators coming through who capture the imagination. That’s exciting – that ebb and flow of our national creativity.
“But we’re not the creators at the Arts Council. We’re the enablers, we are the facilitators. What we’re trying to do all the time is to get to a position where the very best people and organisations can create their very best work.” Henley has high hopes that the arts will have passionate backers, both in King Charles as well as the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
Between 1989 and 1994, Henley worked as a freelance radio journalist for stations including Invicta FM, LBC and Classic FM (UK). He first worked for Classic FM in 1992 as a weekend and overnight newsreader before becoming programme editor of the station’s Classic Newsnight programme in 1995. He was made managing director in 2006.
He recalled: “The King – I remember from my time working in Classic FM – was incredibly supportive of classical music. I know he’s incredibly supportive of theatre. He is a national figurehead who embraces our cultural life, and his expertise on our heritage is very forward looking. Many of the things he has championed over the years have become perceived wisdom – he’s often been at the cutting edge of some of that thinking.”
Henley gave due credit to Sunak who, as chancellor, announced the “culture recovery fund” in order to help arts organisations survive the pandemic when museums, theatres and cinemas had to close their doors.
“When he was chancellor, he signed up to what is the largest investment in history in this country’s cultural life. When the pandemic happened, he signed off on that cultural recovery fund. It meant that basically there was a huge injection into funding, and £1.57 billion came into our arts organisations, our cultural organisations, to keep them alive, to keep them going.
“He was the architect of that policy, along with Oliver Dowden, who was then the culture secretary. The artistic world, the cultural world, have to say thank you for that. That was a very strong thing and we didn’t lose significant organisations. So as an intervention, that was fantastic. And Rishi Sunak absolutely championed that.”
Henley does often talk to wealthy Asians about sponsoring the arts. He would like to encourage those on Eastern Eye’s Asian Rich List to consider following the example of wealthy donors in the United States.
“I believe very strongly that happiness should be a public policy goal,” he said.During the pandemic, people “travelled in the mind”, and found comfort in books, music and sometimes the guitar stored in the attic.
“One of the big reasons why we invest public money is that I believe we create happier lives. We have taxpayers’ money, National Lottery prize money and we invest that because we can make people’s lives perceivably and measurably better. They can feel better about themselves, they can be happier.
“Some people regard happiness as a weak word. I actually think it’s a very strong thing. Having a happy society, having people with happy and fulfilled lives, where they can flourish and grow, is really, really important.” Henley, who is “very interested in positive psychology”, has completed a Master’s degree from Buckinghamshire New University.
“The dissertation for my thesis was on happiness as a public policy goal.”
He has a message for rich Asians: “I would say to people with high disposable incomes, who might be thinking how to make a difference in society, that artistic and cultural organisations can absolutely change communities.
“They can help people who may not have had opportunity before to see different things in their lives. Having cultural activities and creativity as part of a young person’s life is important
“For people in retirement, it can counter loneliness. Artistic and cultural activities can bring together people who might otherwise sit at home all day on their own. There’s a lot of scientific data now that it can genuinely improve people’s health.
“For example, one of the big challenges for people in their 70s is falling over and breaking bones. But regular dancing can increase your lower body strength and you don’t tend to fall over as much. Having older people coming together every so often and dancing and doing some activity is great fun.”
At the Arts Council, Henley has set out a ‘Let’s Create’ strategy for the period 2020-2030. Its aim: “By 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each one of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.”
”In Leicester, the Arts Council is collaborating with De Montfort University on an ambitious programme called ‘Talent 25’. It involves recruiting an ethnically diverse group of infants aged between three and 12 months, and seeing how their lives are affected by exposing them to the arts over a 25-year period.
“We have recruited babies – their mums and dads, basically,” laughed Henley.
As for the group being ethnically diverse, he emphasised “this was very important for us, so we really made sure that it was”.
“We’re working with young people who are tiny at the moment. But they will have a series of artistic and cultural interventions throughout their life.”
Darren Henley's book cover
Henley’s The Arts Dividend Revisited: Why investment in culture pays, which came out in 2020, is an updated version of the book he first brought out in 2016.
It sets out very clearly the importance he attaches to diversity and how the Arts Council under his leadership has been trying to achieve that goal.
“To make sure that we are liberating the creativity of every part of society, we need to have a more inclusive and diverse art and culture sector – and to achieve that we’ve got to make some fundamental changes,” Henley said.
“The arts need to reflect the world we live in – and shed light on the world we want to see.
“We need to understand – as many international businesses now do – that diversity is a major opportunity that we must embrace if we are to thrive. “
He added: “That’s what the Arts Council is doing through promoting its ‘Creative Case for Diversity’. Rather than treating diversity as a kind of supplementary add-on, or an activity that is supported to run parallel to the mainstream arts and culture world, the ‘Creative Case’ presents it as being central to the creative process. It is an opportunity to find fresh ideas and new art.
“The promotion of diversity is about removing barriers that are faced by too many in our society.
“At the same time as tackling disadvantage, it’s important that we also celebrate everyone’s diversity and the insight, experience and knowledge that people’s diverse backgrounds bring to our national creativity. The more diverse we are as a community, the more creative we become.
“Having leadership role models who more accurately reflect our society is one of the key changes that we need to continue to make. After all, it’s the people who lead arts organisations who are the ones making the creative decisions. They are deciding what to create and they are choosing who is going to create it.
“It’s clear that we need a more diverse leadership across the arts and culture world, in our arts organisations, museums and libraries. The current leadership simply doesn’t reflect the diversity of our nation and this, in turn, is impacting negatively on who is being commissioned. The onus is on all of us who are currently in positions of influence to ensure that the next generation of leadership talent is more reflective of our nation.”
If the pandemic demonstrated one thing, “it is the importance of art in the life of a nation. It is what makes people human. It takes them out of their normal everyday experiences. It has that ability for people to travel in their minds.”
He elaborated on his theme of travelling in the mind. “Quite often, works of art, whether it be literature or music or visual art or theatre or a great film, can take you beyond the confines of the four walls of your home.”
Henley said the onus should be on organisations reaching out to audiences and not the other way around. “We need to make sure that they go out to people and meet people on their terms.
“So one of the phrases that I use quite a lot is that I don’t believe there are any hard to reach audiences, there are only hard to reach organisations.”
He has reversed conventional wisdom. If Asians are intimidated from going into white theatre spaces, for example, then it is not the fault of the Asians. He put it in a radically different way: “People in the past talked a lot about hard to reach audiences. But, actually, the audiences are really easy to reach. They’re in the right place. They know what they like. It’s up to us to go and talk to them on their terms and understand how we can do more to invest in artistic activities and culture and creativity that reflect how they live their lives today.”
UK foreign secretary David Lammy met his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Friday, days after a major military escalation between India and Pakistan.
The meeting came a week after the most serious confrontation between the two countries in decades. The latest conflict had raised concerns globally before a ceasefire was announced by United States president Donald Trump.
State television showed Lammy being received by foreign minister Dar at the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
Following last week’s clashes, the United Kingdom was among several countries that called for de-escalation. Prime minister Keir Starmer said Britain was "urgently engaging" with both India and Pakistan.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, had also visited both countries last week with offers to mediate.
The fighting began on 7 May when India launched strikes against what it described as “terrorist camps” in Pakistan. The strikes followed an April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
India blamed Pakistan for supporting the group it said carried out the attack, which was the deadliest on civilians in Kashmir in decades. Pakistan has denied the allegations.
AFP reported that four days of drone, missile and artillery exchanges followed, resulting in the deaths of around 70 people, including many civilians, on both sides.
India and Pakistan, both members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have accused each other of failing to manage their nuclear weapons.
It began as a 1,200-words essay, sort of a frequently asked questions (FAQ) explainer of being in an open marriage, before culminating in a bidding war involving multiple major publishing houses.
Her new book 'Ask Me How It Works'Instagram/ storiesbydeepa
Deepa Paul’s Ask Me How It Works does what it says on the tin. It’s her story of being in a committed marriage with her husband of 17 years, while the couple also date other people, with each other’s knowledge.
However, seven or eight years ago, no one was interested in publishing it, said Paul. When a writing coach suggested it was more than an essay, she wrote the draft and that led to a publishing deal.
“It’s basically almost unchanged from where I began. There was no grand vision. It was – what have I experienced, what have I learned from it, and what can I share?” Paul said.
She recalled a writing habit “to process my own experiences and to understand what’s going on in my life”.
Paul added, “Initially I started writing mainly for myself. There was a point at which I was receiving so many questions from men who I was open with on dating apps, and I remember thinking as a joke, almost like, ‘What if I could just send them something that would make my life easier.’”
“In the beginning it was called Ask Me How It Works:frequently asked questions about my open marriage. And this essay just got longer and longer.”
Paul, a half-Indian, half-Filipina writer, lives with her husband, Marcus, in Amsterdam, having moved there from Manila, where they both grew up. The couple have a young daughter, and Paul also has a boyfriend of five years in the city.
She was polyamorous at the time of writing the book, but said she is currently not dating anyone else.
Each chapter in her book dwells on the many questions raised by Paul’s curious dates – from how it started to the rules the couple follow, feelings, love and therapy.
“It’s always been about self discovery,” Paul said. “My preferred method of growth is to put myself in new situations and see how I adapt.
“It sounds very chaotic and maybe stressful for a lot of people, but I value adaptability and flexibility and being able to find out about myself through the mirror of relationships.
“I believe that an encounter with somebody – whether it’s for one night or for months or years or a lifetime – can mirror back to you things about yourself that you’ve never saw before.”
Paul was raised in the Philippines (the country is predominantly Catholic and divorce is banned), but when she moved to the Netherlands, realised there were opportunities to explore relationships outside her marriage. Over the course of more than a dozen chapters, she charts her journey as she and her husband seek encounters outside their marriage. Both are certain, however, that they want to be in the marriage and are committed to raising a family together.
Paul explained how her idea of marriage has transformed over time.
“What I learned from my parents, seeing their picture of love and commitment, was that we would build a life together, that we had shared goals and we would achieve them together,” she said.
“A family was definitely part of it. It felt like a big adventure we could go on together. Me moving to Singapore to be with him, (it) felt like I was giving a lot, but it also felt adventurous. Then moving to Amsterdam was another adventure. I saw marriage as a series of adventures for which I had found a partner.
“Now, I would say that’s changed in the sense that there’s much less ‘adventuring’. It’s more realistic that we are building a life together. We have shared goals, and those evolve over time.
“But now I believe our commitment is much more fluid and flexible, because it accommodates the versions of ourselves we can become as life changes. Motherhood was a big change, migration was a massive change, cancer was a huge change (Paul was diagnosed last year, underwent treatment and is now cancer-free).
“So, now we get to check in with each other and say, ‘okay, what does commitment look like for us, for the people we are now? It’s a lot more familiar, but it’s also flexible.”
Life in Amsterdam could not be more in contrast to Manila. In fact, in one of the final chapters, Paul explains what the book is about to her pre-teen daughter and waits tentatively for her response.
Her reaction? Paul and Marcus are not the only ones in their daughter’s class to have an open marriage.
“Welcome to Amsterdam!” she writes. “If I stayed in Manila, I don’t think I would have ever realised that non-monogamy is an option. I came to Amsterdam and I was almost shocked at how accepted it is – that it is an option available for us as a relationship style.”
Paul explores the many facets of relationships – established, committed or casual – as she and Marcus ‘open up’ their marriage. Having dating rules, establishing boundaries, testing them, adapting, building trust, maintaining faith in each other, therapy, co-parenting, pursuing careers and Covid lockdowns – Ask Me How It Works answers all the questions readers could possibly be curious about.
She said the effort was worth it. “I find working on relationships fulfilling. I think I’m a relationship nerd. I love talking about attachment styles and I believe the greatest fulfilment I derive from life is from relationships. It’s not from possessions or experiences. I love figuring out relationships – how somebody wants to be loved, what makes them feel special, feel safe.
“And then, when I realised I can also give that to them, I found myself expanding. I thought, ‘Oh, I didn’t think I could love this way, I didn’t think I could care for someone in this specific manner.’ And, somehow, I managed to keep track of all of them.”
Paul added, “I’m also very into the idea of experiencing pleasure in different ways, and I learned so much about my desires, but also my body. I have a really good relationship with my body – through the mirror of other people, and I do love that I have an identity.
“I’m encouraged and allowed to build an identity for myself that doesn’t revolve around being a wife and a mother. I can be 100 per cent a good wife and mother, but also be 100 per cent myself.
“And it’s not a trade-off. So, for me, that’s worth the extra effort, of what people think is so tiring.”
Although Paul is not dating anyone else apart from her boyfriend, she has seen a shift in the approach to monogamous and non-monogamous relationships, saying that while the latter are more accepted now, it’s not yet mainstream.
She has also observed how women in some conservative societies feel about desire. “In terms of attraction and desire, we’re taught that it’s a very destructive force, but it is also a force of great power – it can make people look and feel and come alive and be really present in their senses,” Paul said.
“I take a lot of inspiration, for example, from Audre Lorde’s essay The uses of erotic where she says, ‘once you’ve tapped into something that really gives you joy and aliveness, it’s like you can’t turn it off.’ It feeds so much into our lives and women are sort of stopped from doing that.”
She added, “But then, when we are at our most fully expressed and alive and just enjoying the deliciousness of life, who immediately benefits? Family and society, as well.”
Paul revealed she considered writing the book under a pseudonym.
However, she said, “If I cannot stand by my choices, my ups and my downs and my mistakes, and I can’t put my name and my face on it, then shame still has power over me.
“For me, it’s a powerful exercise to say, ‘Yeah, I did all of this and I made these mistakes, I cleaned them up, and I somehow turned them into a life that I love, with all the people I love along with me for the ride.
“If I had kept hiding that, I would not really have been freed,” she said.
“Regardless of whether you are monogamous or non-monogamous, people are messy.
“Life is unpredictable, emotions are messy. So we just do the best we can with the tools we have.”
Ask Me How It Works: Love in an Open Marriage by Deepa Paul, published by Viking, is out now
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Users across the UK report Sky TV not working during prime time
Sky TV customers across the UK faced widespread disruption on Thursday night, with issues continuing into Friday morning despite the company saying things were back to normal.
The problems, which began around 9pm, saw more than 30,000 users unable to access TV content. Most complaints were linked to Sky Q boxes crashing or freezing. Some viewers were stuck with error messages saying they couldn’t watch TV due to “connectivity issues” even though their internet seemed fine.
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By Friday morning, over 2,500 users were still reporting trouble, according to tracking site DownDetector. Most problems (87%) were TV-related, while a smaller number mentioned full blackouts or broadband issues.
DownDetector chart shows view of problems reported in the last 24 hours Downdetector
Sky said the issue stemmed from a technical glitch that pushed some Sky Q boxes into standby mode. “We’re sorry some customers had trouble accessing Sky Q,” the company said. “The issue was quickly resolved, and service has been restored.”
However, many users said otherwise. On social media and DownDetector, complaints kept coming in. Some said rebooting the Sky box worked temporarily, only for it to crash again. Others were irritated by the lack of updates from Sky, especially as the blackout clashed with the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, a big night for live TV.
“I’ve restarted my box six times already. It just keeps going off again,” one user in Southport wrote. Another from Sheffield posted: “Still down this morning.”
Sky recommends a basic fix: unplug your Sky Q box from the power socket for 30 seconds, then turn it back on. For some, that’s worked. For others, the issue returns after a while.
Downdetector shows the most affected locations and problems Downdetector
Posting on X this morning, the official Sky account shared : "We are aware of some technical issues overnight that led to Sky Q boxes to go into standby mode. Our technical team worked quickly to investigate and restore service.
"If your Sky Q box is still stuck in standby please switch off your Sky Q box at the power socket for 30 seconds and back on again which will restore service. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused."
Sky’s own help page offers a few steps to try: reboot the box, check Wi-Fi, update the software, and make sure your remote and connections are working. But when none of that helps, users are left in the dark.
DownDetector, a platform that tracks service interruptions, showed how the problem spread and continued, even after Sky’s official fix.
This article was updated following Sky’s public statement issued on Friday morning.
Fans of devotional South Asian music are in for a rare and extraordinary experience this May. The internationally acclaimed Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Group, direct descendants of the legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, will be performing live in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre on Sunday, 18 May 2025. This concert promises to be one of the most anticipated cultural events in the capital, celebrating the deep-rooted tradition of Sufi qawwali music and its power to inspire, heal, and connect audiences across generations and geographies.
Rizwan and Muazzam, nephews of the iconic qawwali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, have spent decades mastering the rich, spiritual art form passed down through their family. Trained under the guidance of their late uncle, the duo now stands among the most respected contemporary qawwals in the world. Their performances stay true to the soul of traditional qawwali while bringing a unique energy and youthful passion that resonates with modern audiences.
Their ensemble features powerful vocals, rhythmic handclaps, harmonium, tabla, and dholak, all coming together to create a mesmerising and uplifting musical journey. For those familiar with classics like Allah Hoo, Tumhein Dillagi, or Ali Maula, Rizwan-Muazzam’s renditions breathe new life into these spiritual compositions with emotion and intensity.
The concert at the Royal Festival Hall is more than a musical performance – it’s a spiritual and cultural immersion. Attendees can expect a carefully curated selection of both traditional and popular qawwalis that explore themes of divine love, devotion, unity, and inner reflection. Delivered in Urdu and Punjabi, these poetic verses transcend language barriers, making them accessible to anyone open to feeling music with the heart.
Whether you're a devout follower of Sufi music, a fan of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, or simply someone curious to explore rich musical traditions from South Asia, this performance is a must-attend.
In a world filled with fast-paced digital content and fleeting entertainment, qawwali music offers a moment of stillness, connection, and elevation. Rooted in the Sufi Islamic tradition, it goes beyond entertainment — it is a form of spiritual expression that invites the audience to participate in a collective emotional journey. With rising interest in world music and cultural fusion, qawwali is gaining new followers across the globe.
The presence of artists like Rizwan and Muazzam ensures that this centuries-old genre continues to evolve while maintaining its authenticity. Their concerts are often described as transformative experiences that bring goosebumps, tears, and joy — sometimes all at once.
As part of the Southbank Centre’s rich and diverse cultural programme, this event offers the perfect opportunity to witness world-class live music in one of London’s most prestigious venues. The Royal Festival Hall is renowned for its excellent acoustics and intimate atmosphere, making it an ideal setting for a performance of such emotional depth.
If you’re looking to explore something profoundly moving and culturally enriching this spring, make sure to book your tickets early. This is more than a concert — it’s an evening of soulful celebration, spiritual resonance, and musical excellence.
Before Quentin Tarantino became a household name with Reservoir Dogs, he was just another movie buff absorbing everything he could from his favourite directors. One name that stood out to him early on was Stanley Kubrick, especially for his lesser-known 1956 film The Killing, a movie that left a deeper mark on Tarantino’s debut than most fans realise.
Kubrick’s The Killing wasn’t a major blockbuster in its time, but it marked a shift in how crime stories were told. Adapted from Lionel White’s novel Clean Break, the film follows a racetrack heist through a fractured timeline, showing the same event from multiple angles. It wasn’t just about what happened, but how it was told. That structure, jumping back and forth in time, switching viewpoints, was rare in Hollywood then and made the story feel more intense and unpredictable.
When Reservoir Dogs came out in 1992, it felt like something fresh: strong dialogue, tension-filled scenes, and a plot that never actually shows the heist it’s centred around. But behind the style was a familiar structure. Like The Killing, Reservoir Dogs plays with time, shows events from different perspectives, and leans on the characters' personal motives to drive tension.
Tarantino has openly admitted the influence. “I didn’t try to copy The Killing, but I saw Reservoir Dogs as my version of that kind of film,” he told The Seattle Times. At the Cannes premiere of Reservoir Dogs, he even called The Killing his favourite heist film.
Both films avoid slick action in favour of character-driven suspense. Kubrick’s crew in The Killing are flawed and desperate, and their downfall feels inevitable. Tarantino’s gang is no different; paranoia, betrayal, and ego tear them apart.
Kubrick’s use of non-linear storytelling didn’t just shape one movie; it laid a foundation. Tarantino used that structure not only in Reservoir Dogs but continued it in Pulp Fiction and beyond. And in doing so, he helped bring that old-school Kubrick trick into modern indie cinema.
Tarantino may have built his own path, but The Killing was the map he started with. It certainly inspired him, but more than that, it helped him find his rhythm as a filmmaker.