Rates single DM280-DM330; double DM365-DM415; suite DM530-DM820; extra bed DM85; breakfast DM29.Spectacular views over the Danube are the trade-off for a location away from central Pest. It's designed around a 17th-century facade and the remains of a 13th-century Gothic church, with a small, open-air concert hall between the two main wings. The Hilton is among the few Budapest hotels to create a sense of luxury and service is among the best in town.Hostel Marco PoloVII Nyr utca 6 (342 9586/342 9587/342 9588/fax 342 9589) M2 Blaha Lujza ter. Rates dormitory Ft2,900; double Ft9,200; quad Ft14,800; breakfast Ft300.Opened in July 1997, and equipped with both a cyber cafe and in-house Guinness pub, the Marco Polo is the youth hostel of the 21st century.Hotel GellertXI Szt Gellert ter 1 (166 6867/fax 166 6631) Tram 18, 19, 47, 49 Gellert ter. I'm curious to see what sort of reaction the series would get now."AT LEAST Jeremy Irons - who made his name in Brideshead - is a happy man.

But the one that recently ran through BBC Radio seems to have been unwarranted. It won't be happening, at least not for the forseeable future. Why not?The version of events doing the rounds at Broadcasting House would have us believe that the BBC under John Birt is as bureaucratised as its critics have been claiming: a producer of long acquaintance agrees with Stoppard that he will write a new play for Radio 4. Delighted, the producer reports this to a meeting of his superiors - a tier of commissioning editors recently introduced as part of changes to the network's internal structure The editors aren't impressed Has Stoppard made a formal proposal? Of course he hasn't This is Tom Stoppard we're talking about That doesn't make any difference Still needs to fill in the forms.

As a result - no play.Stoppard says that after a conversation with a script editor in which he said he "would do one if I can", the BBC sent him a form But they were jumping the gun Stoppard didn't have a play to offer them He would do so "only when I've got one". And since he averages new plays once every five years, and his latest, The Invention of Love, has been running at the National Theatre for less than six months, we may have to wait a while.Brideshead postponedWHILE on the subject of cultural highlights that might have been, how many people, I wonder, tuned into Channel 4 last night expecting to see the start of a re-run of Brideshead Revisited? Channel 4 had included it in its original listings, and many of last weekend's papers went to press accordingly. Since then, though, the re-run has been put on hold, because of "difficulties over the rights". I'm assured by Channel 4 that it will be shown "at some point in the future" Director Charles Sturridge remains sanguine "I don't know very much about it, I'm afraid," he tells me "But I wouldn't have thought it can be that complicated. Nevertheless, it was surprising to read Sheridan Morley begin his column in this week's Spectator with the words, "Along with no other theatre-goer I have ever met above the age of 10, I have all my life believed that JM Barrie's Peter Pan is the greatest British play of the century." Surprising because only four months ago Michael Billington caused quite a stir in the Guardian when he listed his Top 10 Plays of the Century - with Peter Pan at No.1.THE PROSPECT of a new play by Tom Stoppard always causes a frisson.

And Tarantino's image softens further when he reveals in his conversation with the NFT's Adrian Wootton that one of the few occasions on which he has been star- struck was when he went backstage at a London theatre a few years ago and was introduced to Peter O'Toole.At the reception that followed I asked Tarantino to elaborate What was the play? He looked a little sheepish No, really he did "I can't actually remember," he said. "But I do remember that Tara Fitzgerald was in it." That narrowed the field down to one: Our Song, a love story based on a book by Keith Waterhouse.What about O'Toole? Did the meeting make as big an impression on him? He needed little prompting from me to remember it, loyally claiming Tarantino as an artistic brother-in-arms. "Pulp Fiction is the present-day Titus Andronicus," the acting legend pronounces.Do you believe in deja-vu?I SUPPOSE one should admire a theatre critic who keeps himself in blissful ignorance of his rivals' opinions. Noel Gallagher and Maxim Reality, member of rock controversialists Prodigy, give each other big hugs; Sharleen Spiteri, lead singer of Texas, is there; so too film director Terry Gilliam.A bigger surprise, perhaps, is that Jackie Brown departs from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction in its restrained depiction of violence. It should feel positively tropical there.TO THE National Film Theatre for a special screening of Quentin Tarantino's new film, Jackie Brown, and the Guardian-sponsored interview that follows Radical chic is in the air. "He was a very dignified old man with a hearing aid that kept whistling during the performance," Sir Peter remembered.Not that Sir Peter has much time to dwell on the past. This weekend he was flying back to London and then on to Linz in Austria where he conducts a concert of his music on Thursday.