Podcasts by Saturday Review

The Nest, The Truth, The Bass Rock, Cranach at Compton Verney and Home Entertainment Recommendations from 2020-03-21T20:00

The Nest is the new Sunday night drama on BBC1 that raises questions around the ethics of surrogacy as a wealthy couple invite a young woman whose past is not known to them into their lives. The...

Misbehaviour, On Blueberry Hill, Abi Dare, Warhol, Breeders and Kate+Koji from 2020-03-14T19:14

Misbehaviour is a new film about the 1970 Miss World pageant which saw the first black Miss World and was also disrupted by the nascent Women's Liberation movement who threw flour bombs at host ...

Hilary Mantel, The Mikvah Project, Sulphur and White, Among The Trees from 2020-03-07T19:14

Hilary Mantel's new novel - The Mirror and The Light - is the final part of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. The previous two parts have sold millions of copies worldwide and garned prizes from all ...

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Women Beware Women, Christos Tsiolkas, Leon Spilliaert, Noughts and Crosses from 2020-02-29T19:14

The newest film by French director Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, Girlhood) is Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. An 18th century painter is commissioned to paint a bride-to-be's wedding portrait and falls in...

Midnight Family, Masculinities exhibition, Actress by Anne Enright, Far Away by Caryl Churchill, I Am Not Okay With This from 2020-02-22T19:15

Mexican documentary Midnight Family follows a family-run private ambulance in Mexico City racing to the scenes of accidents in order to earn a living Masculinities:Liberation Through Photography...

Stoppard -Leopoldstadt, Emma, Philip Hensher, Steve McQueen - Tate Modern, The End from 2020-02-15T19:14

Tom Stoppard has a new play - Leopoldstadt - a slightly autobiographical telling of the story of several generations of a wealthy Jewish family in Europe over 6 decades, from 1899

How man...

Mr Jones, Death of England, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, British Baroque, This Life from 2020-02-08T20:00

Director Agnieszka Holland assembles a cast including James Norton and Vanessa Kirby to tell the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who in 1933 travelled to Soviet Russia and told the truth ...

Ingmar Bergman, The Lighthouse, William Gibson, The Art, Design and future of Fungi, Art on the BBC from 2020-02-01T19:14

Ingmar Bergman's 1966 film Persona has been adapted into a stage play and it is the opening production at the newly revamped Riverside Studios in London The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and...

David Copperfield, Welkin, Motherwell, Pregnancy exhibition, Windermere Children from 2020-01-28T15:47

Armando Iannucci has taken on Dickens' David Copperfield with Dev Patel in the lead role A new play by Lucy Kirkwood, Welkin, has opened at London's National Theatre. The Welkin is set in Norfol...

Beckett triple bill, Bombshell, Avenue 5, American Dirt, Tullio Crali from 2020-01-18T19:15

A triple bill of Samuel Beckett plays has just started at London's Jermyn Street Theatre. Directed by Trevor Nunn, it's a chance to see Krapp's Last Tape as well as two lesser-known works - Eh ...

1917, London International Mime Festival, King Gary, Ismail Kadare, Saad Qureshi, from 2020-01-11T19:15

Sam Mendes' film 1917 is set during the First World War and based on his Grandfather's experiences during the conflict. It's already won a Golden Globe and is touted for more awards glory. What ...

Little Women, War Of The Worlds Immersive Experience, Untitled Goose Game, Graphic novels, podcasts from 2020-01-04T19:15

There's a new all-star Little Women on the big screen. The cast includes Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emily Watson, Laura Dern, Timothee Chalamet and Meryl Streep. Louisa May Alcott's novel has...

Listeners' cultural highlights of 2019 from 2019-12-28T19:16

Find out what Saturday Review listeners chose as their cultural highlights of 2019. We asked what you'd enjoyed this year and you told us about things we'd missed, disagreed about some cultural...

Cats, Susan Hill's Ghost Story, Martin's Close, Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck, Gypsy from 2019-12-21T20:00

The much-anticipated film of Cats with its stellar and fur-enhanced cast including Judi Dench and Taylor Swift finally reaches the big screen. Catnip or catastrophe?

Spooky offerings in t...

Aquarela, Swive, Robert Musil, Theaster Gates, Sticks and Stones from 2019-12-13T19:15

Aquarela is a movie about water...filmed at 96 frames per second- four times faster than normal and there are fewer than a handful of cinemas in then world with equipment to show it properly. W...

Fairview at Young Vic, So Long My Son, Annette Hess, John Walker, A Very Scandi Scandal from 2019-12-07T19:15

Fairview is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play just opened at the Young Vic in London. It starts out like a conventional US African American dramedy and then begins to mess with the audience's expect...

The Nightingale, My Brilliant Friend, Lee Child, Troy: myth and reality, Upright from 2019-11-30T19:15

The Nightingale is a film set in Tasmania in the brutal days of convict settlers and soldiers. A young wife faces violence as she tries to track down a man who has violated her family The Nat...

Dear Evan Hansen, Feast&Fast, Greener Grass, Irenosen Okojie, Ken Burns' Country series from 2019-11-23T19:15

Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen has been an enormous success and has now transferred to London's West End. It's the story of a socially awkward young man who accidentally becomes a hero Feast ...

The Gangster The Cop The Devil, Touching the Void, Romesh Gunesekera, Gold Digger, George IV : Art and Spectacle from 2019-11-16T19:15

The Gangster The Cop The Devil is an award-winning Korean action thriller about an unlikely alliance between a maverick police detective and a ruthless mobster who have to work together to catch...

The Report, Shook, The Topeka School, 24/7 exhibition, The Morning Show from 2019-11-09T19:15

The Report is a docu-drama starring Adam Driver telling the story of Senate staffer Daniel Jones and the Senate Intelligence Committee as they investigate the CIA's use of torture following the ...

Making Waves, The Antipodes, Hanne Orstavik, His Dark Materials, Joy Labinjo from 2019-11-02T19:15

Making Waves: The Art Of Cinematic Sound is a documentary looking at (and listening to) the work of sound designers in film. What do they do and how do they affect the viewer? The Antipodes the ...

Play Well, Monos, Vassa, Elizabeth Strout, The Accident from 2019-10-26T18:16

Play Well is a new exhibition opening at the Wellcome Collection in London, aiming to explore how play transforms both childhood and society.

On a mountaintop in Colombia, eight children w...

Non Fiction, Stillicide and The Diver's Game, There Are No Beginnings, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, Living With Yourself from 2019-10-19T19:00

Non Fiction is a very French film about writers and publishers debating the future of the book vs e-book. But the characters also all appear to be having affairs with each other: Tres Francais! ...

The Day Shall Come, Man In The White Suit, Zadie Smith, Hogarth - Place and Progress from 2019-10-12T18:16

Chris Morris's film The Day Shall Come, is a very dark comedy about a genuine FBI operation to deal with potential domestic terrorists in the USA. Man In The White Suit was one of the highly-suc...

Joker, Mary Costello, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Dublin Murders, Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art from 2019-10-05T18:16

Joker: What was it about the new DC comic-based film which helped it to win the highest prize at this year's Venice Film Festival? Starring Joaquin Phoenix, it's a dark affair but is it deservin...

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The Last Tree, The Dutch House, Mark Leckey, World on Fire from 2019-09-28T19:00

Caryl Churchill celebrated her 80th birthday last year. She's written four new short plays for the Royal Court, the theatre with which she's most closely associated: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Im...

The Farewell, Quichotte, Antony Gormley, Reasons to Stay Alive, Nomad: In The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin from 2019-09-21T19:00

Lulu Wang's personal film The Farewell stars rapper Awkwafina in its lead role as a granddaughter not sure whether she should collude with a lie about her grandmother's health. Shot mostly in M...

Hustlers, A Very Expensive Poison, Tove Ditlevsen, William Blake, State of the Union from 2019-09-14T18:00

Hustlers is a new crime drama film based on a 2015 article in New York magazine about a group of strippers in the USA who decided to embezzle money from the men who came to their club. A Very Ex...

Rojo, Hansard, James Meek, Rothschilds at Waddesdon Manor, Defending the Guilty from 2019-09-07T18:16

Argentinian film Rojo is set just before the 1975 military coup, looking at the simmering tensions and the complicity that made it happen and the way so many people turned a blind eye Hansard at...

The Souvenir, Bait, Appropriate, Mary Beth Keane, A Confession from 2019-08-31T18:16

Two Brit indie film productions arrive at once: Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir is a slightly autobiographical work about a struggling young film-maker's relationship with a charismatic drug addict. ...

Almodovar's Pain and Glory, Robert Icke's The Doctor, Brassic, Peter Pomerantsev from 2019-08-24T18:16

Pedro Almodovar's new film Pain and Glory has been hailed as his most personal to date The Doctor at London's Almeida Theatre is Robert Icke's latest production. Freely adapted from Arthur Schni...

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Actually, Dora Maurer, Tea Obreht from 2019-08-17T19:00

Quentin Tarantino's 9th offering to the world (he's said he'll only do 10, then retire from directing) is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, part fable, part historical love letter to LA in the 60s...

At the Edinburgh Festivals, including The Secret River and the Pet Shop Boys Musical, Musik from 2019-08-12T08:58

We're at the Edinburgh Festivals, including the Pet Shop Boys/Jonathan Harvey musical starring Frances Barber: Musik. Also the stage adaptation of Kate Grenville's best-selling novel about the c...

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, Animals, Colson Whitehead, Olafur Eliasson, This Way Up from 2019-08-03T18:16

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Scenes From The Luddite Rebellion has just opened at Manchester Royal Exchange. Combining verbatim recreations and imagined encounters, it looks at Manchest...

Bridges of Madison County, Die Tomorrow, Fosse/Verdon, Last Supper In Pompeii, David Constantine from 2019-07-27T18:16

Bridges of Madison County began life as a novel, then became a film and is now a musical. Opening at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, it stars Jenna Russell in the lead role. How does it work...

Making Noise Quietly, Night of the Iguana, The Moon, Laura Cummings, I Am Nicola from 2019-07-20T18:16

Theatre director Dominic Dromgoole has made his feature film debut with Making Noise Quietly; a triptych of stories about the effects of war. Tennessee Williams' play Night Of The Iguana is base...

The Manchester International Festival: Tree, David Lynch at Home, Parliament of Ghosts, David Nicholls. Only You and much more from 2019-07-13T18:15

The Manchester International Festival is a biannual event, enveloping the city in a wide range of arts events across the genres. We'll be casting our critical net as wide as possible Film direct...

Never Look Away, The End of History at London's Royal Court, 8 Days to the Moon, Fleischman Is in Trouble, Felix Vallotton from 2019-07-06T19:00

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's first film The Lives Of Others won the best Foreign Language Oscar, his follow-up The Tourist was a critical disaster. How will his latest - Never Look Away -...

Support The Girls, The Hunt at The Almeida, Cut and Paste in Edinburgh, Grossman's Stalingrad from 2019-06-29T19:00

American indie film Support The Girls is set in a sports bar in America where the manager's day just keeps getting worse The Hunt stared life as a multi award winning Danish film. Its been adapt...

Bitter Wheat, Toy Story 4, Keith Haring, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Beecham House from 2019-06-22T19:00

Toy Story 4 hits the cinema screens. Featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Keanu Reeves, and Annie Potts - as the kick-ass heroine Bo Peep - what does the Toy Story franchise have to off...

Diego Maradona, Sweat, Catch 22, Elif Shafak, Manolo Blahnik from 2019-06-15T19:00

Sweat, starring Martha Plimpton was a sel-out success when it premiered at London's Donmar Warehouse last year. Now it's got a West End transfer to the Gielgud Theatre Asif Kapadia won an Oscar ...

Gloria Bell, Wife at The Kiln Theatre, Frank Bowling, Brian Bilston, Wild Bill from 2019-06-08T19:00

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio's 2013 film Gloria has been remade for an English-speaking audience as Gloria Bell. Starring Julianne Moore it's extremely faithful to the original; what's new a...

Starry Messenger, Thunder Road, This Brutal House, Hauser and Wirth Somerset, Good Omens from 2019-06-01T19:00

Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern in the London premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's play The Starry Messenger Thunder Road was made for $200,000 and went on to win awards at international film...

Memoir of War, King Hedley II, Gerald Murnane, Leonardo Da Vinci, When They See Us from 2019-05-25T19:00

Memoir Of War,based on Marguerite Duras's book “La Douleur” is set in Occupied France. Critical opinion has varied widely from 'dreadful' and 'empty' to 'masterpiece'. What will our reviewers ma...

Birds of Passage, White Pearl, Thomas Harris/Denise Mina, Tale of Two Empires from 2019-05-18T19:00

Colombian film Birds of Passage explores the emergence of illegal drug trading in the 60s and 70s and it's ghastly effects and lasting legacy on family. Corporate black comedy White Pearl has o...

Death of a Salesman, The Hustle, The Virtues, Mark Haddon, David Nash from 2019-05-11T19:00

The latest production at London's Young Vic Theatre is Death of a Salesman. It recasts the Lomans as an African-American family with Wendell Pierce as WIlly Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway play f...

The Long Shot, Jude, Making Your Mark at British Library, The Heavens from 2019-05-04T19:00

Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen star in Long Shot playing an American presidential hopeful and a lovable doofus. Take a wild guess who plays which part? Howard Brenton's new play Jude -at The Ha...

Eighth Grade, All My Sons, Lux by Elizabeth Cook, Stanley Kubrick, Curry House Kid from 2019-04-27T19:00

Youtube star/standup comedian Bo Burnham has now turned his hand to film directing and his debut work is a coming-of-age tale: Eighth Grade. It's about a 15 year old girl dealing with the trials...

Sweet Charity, Machines Like Me, Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic, Loro from 2019-04-20T19:00

Josie Rourke returns to the work of Cy Coleman, who wrote the music for City of Angels; with the Broadway classic Sweet Charity. With choreography from the world-renowned Wayne McGregor, Rourke ...

Wild Rose, Mary Quant, Intra Muros, The Parisian - Isabella Hammad, Life After Lock-Up and Back To Life from 2019-04-13T19:00

In her new film Wild Rose, rising star Jessie Buckley plays a Glaswegian country singer with dreams of making it big in Nashville. The trouble is that she has two small kids and is just out of ...

Happy as Lazzaro, Top Girls, Damian Barr, The Victim, Ruskin and Turner from 2019-04-06T19:00

Award-winning Italian film Happy as Lazzaro is a tale of human unkindness in a remote Italian Village where time stands still, but not in the same way for everyone Caryl Churchill's play Top Gi...

Dumbo, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Van Gogh and Britain, Ewan Morrison, Sean Scully from 2019-03-30T20:00

Disney's latest live action remake of one of their classic cartoons is Dumbo, reimagined by Tim Burton. Grief Is The Thing With Feathers was a novel by Max Porter and has now been adapted for t...

Pose on BBC Two; Us; Jews, Money, Myth; Pepperland; The Parade from 2019-03-23T20:00

Jordan Peele’s debut feature film, Get Out, won him an Oscar for best original screenplay. His new film Us is also a horror film, features a score by Michael Abels and stars Lupita Nyong'o as A...

MK Gallery, Benjamin, Northern Ballet's Victoria, Sadie Jones, Memes and Selfies on BBC4 from 2019-03-16T20:00

Simon Amstell directs his first cinema release - Benjamin. The title character is a thinly-disguised version of himself with nervous lack of self esteem who is directing a film about himself. It...

Alys Always, Ray and Liz, Max Porter: Martin Parr, ITV's The Bay from 2019-03-09T20:00

Nicholas Hytner's new production at London's Bridge Theatre is Lucinda Coxon's play Alys Always, based on Harriet Lane's novel. A journalist decides to set her sights on a joining the exalted ci...

What They Had, Dressed, Renaissance Nudes, Maggie Gee, Mother Father Son from 2019-03-02T20:00

Hilary Swank stars in What They Had; a film which deals with the effects Alzheimer's Disease can have on the family of a loved one Dressed was a big hit in Edinburgh last year, winning a Fringe ...

Capernaum, Shipwreck, Nico Walker, Elizabethan miniatures, Pappano's Greatest Arias on BBC4 from 2019-02-23T20:00

Capernaum was filmed on the streets of Lebanon, using non-professional actors including the child lead. It has gone on to win the Palme d'Or winner and is hotly tipped for the Foreign Language O...

Rembrandt, A Private War, American Clock, Robert Menasse, Traitors from 2019-02-16T20:00

To mark 350 years since Rembrandt's death The Rijksmuseum's in Amsterdam is staging a major exhibition of all his works in their collection.22 paintings, 60 drawings and more than 300 best examp...

If Beale Street Could Talk, Home I'm Darling, Tessa Hadley, George Shaw exhibition, David Bowie from 2019-02-09T20:00

Oscar-tipped If Beale Street Could Talk is directed by Barry Jenkins who won Best Picture in 2016 for Moonlight... A woman in Harlem embraces her pregnancy while she and her family struggle to p...

Can You Ever Forgive Me? You Know You Want This, Cost of Living, A Place That Exists Only in Moonlight, Eating With My Ex from 2019-02-02T20:00

In Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling biographer of celebrities such as Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy K...

When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, Kafka's Last Trial, Bonnard, Destroyer from 2019-01-26T20:00

Cate Blanchett's appearance on London's theatre scene has caused so much excitement that ticket allocation is by ballot; When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other: Twelve Variations on Sam...

Mary Queen of Scots, Approaching Empty, Leila Slimani, Fausto Melotti, Ride Upon The Storm from 2019-01-19T20:00

A new film telling the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her relationship with Elizabeth I, stars Saiorse Ronan and Margot Robbie as the 2 queens Approaching Empty is a new play by Ishy Din just ...

Pinter at The Pinter, Stan and Ollie, Eric Vuillard, Whistler and Nature, Guitar Drum and Bass from 2019-01-12T20:00

The staging of all Harold Pinter's one act plays at The Pinter Theatre in London continues - We've been to see Party Time and Celebration Stan and Ollie is a film that examines the relationship ...

The Return of the Obra Dinn, Fashioned from Nature, The Horror of Dolores Roach and escape rooms from 2019-01-05T20:00

Is 2019 the year to try something new? In this alternative edition of Saturday Review presented by Jordan Erica Webber, the panel review a fashion exhibition, a horror podcast, a murder mystery ...

Listeners' suggestions for the best of 2018 from 2018-12-29T20:00

Find out what Saturday Review listeners chose as their cultural highlights of 2018. We'll discuss all the regular genres: films, theatre, exhibitions, books and television. And lots of items whi...

Mary Poppins, The Convert, John Lanchester, Dead Poets Live, The Long Song from 2018-12-22T20:00

Mary Poppins returns to the silver screen with Emily Blunt in the title role and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack the lamplighter. It's a sequel not a remake with all new songs very much in the style ...

Snowflake, Mowgli, Emiliano Monge, Rachel Maclean, Springsteen on Broadway from 2018-12-15T20:00

Mike Bartlett's play Snowflake is at The Old Fire Station in Oxford. It centres around a father who is awaiting the return of his daughter who walked out of his life 2 years before. Will she ret...

Doctor Faustus, The Image Book, Care, Hazards of Time Travel, Darren Almond from 2018-12-08T20:00

Christopher Marlow's Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare's Globe in London stars Jocelyn Jee Esian as Faustus and Pauline McLynn as Mephistopheles and is directed by Paulette Randall. Jean Luc Godard'...

The Maids, Roma, David Szalay, Mantegna and Bellini, Gun No 6 from 2018-12-01T20:00

Jean Genet's play The Maids has been adapted for an all-male cast at HOME in Manchester Alfonso Cuaron's latest film Roma won the top prize at this year's Venice Film Festival. Made with funding...

Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Hadestown, Chris Kraus, Leger at Tate Liverpool, Death and Nightingales from 2018-11-24T20:00

The Coen Brothers take on the Western movie in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Made with money from Netflix, is it REALLY a cinema release? Hadestown is a musical that's stopping off at London's N...

Macbeth at The Globe, The Workshop, My Brilliant Friend, Uwe Johnson, Penny Woolcock from 2018-11-17T20:00

The latest production of Macbeth at London's Globe Theatre sees real-life husband and wife, Paul Ready and Michelle Terry play the murderous couple French film The Workshop is about a young peop...

Jonathan Coe, Wildlife, Design Museum, The Watsons - Chichester, Grand Designs House of the Year from 2018-11-10T20:00

Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan in Paul Dano's directorial debut Wildlife; a story of familial unravelling in 1960s America Middle England is Jonathan Coe's latest novel; the third part of hi...

Peterloo, George Saunders, Posy Simmonds, Klimt/Schiele, debbie tucker green, Doing Money from 2018-11-03T20:00

Mike Leigh's film Peterloo is his biggest budget film. 200 years ago mounted yeomanry massacred unarmed protesters in Manchester who had gathered to demand their rights. The story is not often t...

Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot, Burne-Jones, Little Drummer Girl, A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Barbara Kingsolver from 2018-10-27T19:00

Gus Van Sant's new film Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot is about John Callahan; the quadriplegic, alcoholic cartoonist whose work skewered the lives of disabled people and those who patron...

They Shall Not Grow Old, Oceania, Sally Rooney, Nina Raine - Stories, Sally4Ever from 2018-10-20T19:00

They Shall Not Grow Old is a film directed and created by Peter Jackson about The First World War. Compiled using colourised and painstakingly-restored footage from 100 years ago accompanied by ...

First Man, Modern Couples, The Height of the Storm, Penguin Short Stories, Informer from 2018-10-13T19:00

First Man is a film about astronaut Neil Armstrong's life in the lead-up to the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission. The Modern Couples exhibition at The Barbican Gallery shines a spotlight upon the...

A Star Is Born, Harold Pinter, Javier Marias, Survey at The Jerwood, The Bisexual from 2018-10-06T19:00

The latest reworking of the classic film story of a performer-on-the-wain-being-eclipsed-by-his-protege, A Star Is Born features Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper as the two leads. It has received 5...

Two For Joy, Poet In Da Corner, Sarah Perry, Space Shifters, Maniac/Counterpart from 2018-09-29T19:00

Two For Joy is a British film starring Samantha Morton, Billie Piper and Daniel Mays. a study of family tensions, depression and hope Poet In Da Corner is a play that explores how grime music (a...

The Little Stranger, Tosca, Lake Success, Making a New World season, The Cry from 2018-09-22T19:00

Lenny Abrahamson's The Little Stranger, based on the novel by Sarah Waters, is set in the austerity-era Britain of 1948. Domhnall Gleeson is Dr Faraday who is called out to a patient at Hundreds...

Lucky, The Clock, Letters of Sylvia Plath, Trust, An Adventure from 2018-09-15T19:00

Christian Marclay's acclaimed 24 hour video installation The Clock at Tate Modern is a montage of thousands of film and television clips that depict clocks or reference time and operates as a jo...

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Humans, Killing Eve, Miriam Toews, I Object from 2018-09-08T19:00

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a new film set in the US in the 90s; Cameron (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) is a teenage lesbian sent to a gay conversion centre but not really motivated to t...

Love's Labour's Lost, Cold War, Black Earth Rising, Pat Barker, Surreal Science from 2018-09-01T19:00

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London is an intimate candle-lit theatre space ideally suited for Shakespeare productions. Their latest is Love's Labour's Lost, played largely as broad comedy... ...

Copenhagen, The Children Act, All Among The Barley, Extraordinary Rituals, Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage from 2018-08-25T19:00

A revival of Michael Frayn's multi award-winning 1998 play Copenhagen at The Chichester Minerva Theatre. 20 years on from the original production how does it stand up and what does it say to the...

At the Edinburgh Festivals: Beggar's Opera, Maladie de la mort, Midsummer, The Eyes of Orson Welles, Raqib Shaw, Andrew Miller from 2018-08-18T19:00

We're in Edinburgh for the festivals. In venues throughout the city there's a barrage of theatre, cabaret, music, books, kids' shows; something for everyone, . We're reviewing Théâtre des Bouffe...

Under The Tree, Aristocrats, Michael Hughes, Big British Asian Summer, Sabrina from 2018-08-11T19:00

Iceland's film industry is not a big player around the globe, but it does create character-driven small-scale works. Under The Tree is a very dark Icelandic comedy film about what happens when n...

Sicilian Ghost Story, Othello, Succession, Art in Weimar Germany, Andrew McMillan from 2018-08-04T19:00

Italian film Sicilian Ghost Story is based on a real life kidnapping of the son of a Mafia supergrass The new production of Othello at London's Globe Theatre includes Mark Rylance as Iago HBO's ...

Apostasy, Exit The King, Olivia Laing, Memory Palace, Pride and Prejudice box set from 2018-07-28T19:00

Apostasy is a British film about disfellowship in Jehovah's Witness congregations. How do families cope when their religious beliefs come into conflict with contemporary social mores. London's N...

Allelujah!, Clock Dance, Liverpool Biennial 2018, The Receptionist, Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema from 2018-07-21T19:00

Alan Bennett's new play Allelujah! opens at the Bridge Theatre in London directed by Nicholas Hytner, with music by George Fenton and choreography by Arlene Phillips. It stars Deborah Findlay, R...

Incredibles 2, The Lehman Trilogy, Sacred Games, The Head and the Load, Out of My Head from 2018-07-14T19:00

Incredibles 2 is writer / director Brad Bird's long awaited sequel to the Oscar winning Incredibles (2005). Produced by Pixar Animation Studios the film follows the Parr family as they balance r...

Whitney documentary, AM Homes, The Jungle, The Horniman Museum, Picnic at Hanging Rock from 2018-07-07T19:00

There's a new Whitney Houston documentary by Kevin MacDonald. It explores her life her stratospheric successes and her demons which led to her premature death AM Homes has a collection of 13 sho...

Leave No Trace, Rip It Up, One For Sorrow, Tim Winton, Bedtime Stories For The End Of The World from 2018-06-30T19:00

Leave No Trace is a film about love and survival. A father and daughter living in idyllic remote Oregon woodlands come up against authorities who decide their life can't continue as it has done ...

The London Mastaba, Joseph O'Neill's Good Trouble, Shebeen, Arcadia, Japan's Secret Shame from 2018-06-23T19:00

Award winning writer Irish writer Joseph O'Neill's 2008 novel Netherland was endorsed by American President, Barack Obama. Good Trouble is his first collection of short stories.

Arcadia, t...

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Hereditary, Thomas Cole, Daisy Johnson, Snatches on BBC4 from 2018-06-16T19:00

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has been adapted for the stage at London's Donmar Warehouse to mark the centenary of Muriel Sparks' birth There's a new horror film which some critics have been com...

My Name is Lucy Barton, Alexander McQueen, Rachel Kushner, Aftermath at Tate Britain, City of Ghosts from 2018-06-09T19:00

My Name is Lucy Barton is a one woman play starring Laura Linney in her London stage debut. At London's Bridge Theatre, it's based on the novel by Elizabeth Strout and directed by Richard Eyre T...

Tartuffe, L'Amant Double, William Trevor, Animals and Us, Get Shorty on TV from 2018-06-02T19:00

A bilingual production of Moliere's Tartuffe at Theatre Royal Haymarket, written by Christopher Hampton and updated to a setting in contemporary Los Angeles sounds like a winning formula. It has...

The Breadwinner, Brighton Festival, Sister Corita Kent, Susannah Walker, King Lear from 2018-05-26T19:00

Animated film The Breadwinner (co=produced by Angelina Jolie) is the story of a young Afghani girl in Kabul who has to disguise her gender in order to be able to support her family David Shrigle...

Red, On Chesil Beach, A Very English Scandal, The Aviator, Teeth at The Wellcome from 2018-05-19T19:00

Alfred Molina plays artist Mark Rothko in Red at London's Wyndham's Theatre Ian McEwan has adapted his own novel On Chesil Beach for the big screen, starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle as ne...

Anon, Life and Fate, Patrick Melrose, Jesmyn Ward: Sing Unburied Sing, Asterix at London's Jewish Museum from 2018-05-12T19:00

Is a world without crime a utopia or a dystopia if the price is total constant surveillance by the state? British thriller Anon is set in a world where wanting to be anonymous makes you the subj...

Jason Reitman's Tully, Mood Music, Rachel Cusk, Perspective at RIBA, BBC4 Dance Season from 2018-05-05T19:00

Jason Reitman's new film Tully stars Charlize Theron as a mom coping with pressures of modern motherhood and at the edge of her sanity until a night nanny appears and everything seems to be look...

Beast, The Writer, Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodin and the art of ancient Greece, The Rain from 2018-04-28T19:00

British film Beast, set on Jersey observes a dark and complicated relationship between a troubled young woman and a local man suspected of committing ghastly crimes The Writer is Ella Hickson's...

Tina Turner, Let The Sunshine In, Aminatta Forna, Colourising historical photographs, The Woman In White from 2018-04-21T19:00

Let The Sunshine In, directed by Claire Denis is a French film starring Juliette Binoche as a divorced Parisienne dealing with love and looking for a relationship that will work for her The late...

Quiz, Custody, Lost in Space, Nikesh Shukla, Surface Work from 2018-04-14T19:00

Quiz is the latest play from James Graham. Its subject matter is the edition of Who Wants To be A Millionaire in which a lot of coughing went on. We the audience are asked to vote on whether we ...

Thoroughbreds, The Way of the World, Richard Powers, City in the City, Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 2018-04-07T19:00

Black comedy thriller film Thoroughbreds is about 2 American teenage girls who hatch a plot to kill one of their step-fathers. Is it easier to hire an assassin or do it themselves? And will emot...

Isle of Dogs, The Inheritance, To Throw Away Unopened, Hope to Nope from 2018-03-31T19:00

The American auteur Wes Anderson's new stop motion animation feature film "Isle of Dogs" is set in a dystopian future Japan and features the voices of Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Greta Gerwig, ...

A Wrinkle In Time, The Great Wave, Philip Hensher, Come Home (BBC1), America's Cool Modernism from 2018-03-24T20:00

Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kayling star as deities who are millions of years old in the £108m mega-budget film: A Wrinkle In Time. It's a story which mixes physics, time travel, ...

Frankenstein in Manchester, Palme d'Or winner The Square, The Immortalists, Tacita Dean, Annihilation from 2018-03-17T20:00

A new theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at The Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre aims to be one of the most faithful versions to the original novel. What does this add to our ...

Sweet Country, High Society at Rijksmuseum, Macbeth at National, Wendy Cope, David Byrne from 2018-03-10T20:00

Australian film Sweet Country is an Australian Western set in the 1920s - can there be justice when an aboriginal man kills a white farmer in self defence. High Society is a new exhibition at T...

Fanny and Alexander, The Nile Hilton Incident, Toby Litt, Minimalism, Cross Dressing from 2018-03-05T17:13

Fanny and Alexander opens at London's Old Vic Theatre. Adapted from Ingmar Bergman's award-winning 1982 film, how well does such a sumptuous film transfer to the stage? Also coming from Sweden i...

Dark River, The B*easts, BBC TV's Civilisations, Fire Sermon, Pop! Art in Chichester from 2018-02-24T20:00

Ruth Wilson stars in British film Dark River; a tragedy about a family coping with death on a rundown farm in Yorkshire, The B*easts at London's Bush Theatre is an exploration of the pornificati...

Lady Bird, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Kettle's Yard, Howard Brenton: The Shadow Factory, Troy from 2018-02-17T20:00

Greta Gerwig's latest film stars Saoirse Ronan. Lady Bird has been Oscar-nominated but will it impress our panel of reviewers? Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz is considered one ...

Collateral, Loveless, Gundog, Catapult, T-Shirt: Cult-Culture-Subversion from 2018-02-10T20:00

David Hare's first episodic television drama Collateral is a BBC and Netflix co production starring Carey Mulligan, John Simm, and Billie Piper. Set in contemporary London it explores the challe...

Journey's End, Julius Caesar, Julian Barnes, Charles I at the Royal Academy, Trauma on ITV from 2018-02-03T20:00

Journey's End opened as a play in 1928. Set in the trenches of the First World War, there's a new film version which will hold a different resonance for modern viewers as for those theatre-goers...

Peter Carey, Gursky, Last Flag Flying, John, Altered Carbon from 2018-01-27T20:00

Peter Carey's novel A Long Way From Home tells the story of a husband and wife taking part in a round-Australia endurance race in the 1950s.

The Hayward Gallery in London reopens after a m...

Coco, Tim Pears, All's Well That Ends Well, Hauser and Wirth Somerset, The Bastard of Istanbul from 2018-01-20T20:00

Disney Pixar's latest release is their first with an all-Latin cast. Coco explores the Mexican tradition of The Day of The Dead and a young boy's coming to terms with his heritage The new novel ...

Rita, Sue and Bob Too; 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri; Lily Tuck; History In The Making; Britannia from 2018-01-13T20:00

The controversy surrounding London's Royal Court Theatre's staging of Andrea Dunbar's semi-autobiographical play Rita Sue and Bob Too led to it being postponed and then rapidly reinstated. Writt...

Digital arts: Crown Heights, The Boat, Google Cultural Institute, The Miniaturists from 2018-01-07T10:56

A digital edition of Saturday Review presented by Antonia Quirke.

Crown Heights is a new on-demand film based on an episode of NPR's This American Life, telling the true story of Trinidadi...

Listeners and reviewers choose the best of the arts from 2017 from across the genres from 2017-12-30T20:00

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kerry Shale, Tiffany Jenkins and Shahidha Bari as well as listeners around the country who choose the best of the arts from 2017 from across the genres.

FILM Dun...

Hamilton musical, Irish film Sanctuary, Louise Erdrich novel, BBC TV Christmas specials from 2017-12-23T20:00

The much-anticipated musical Hamilton has opened in London. It tells the story of Alexander Hamilton; one of the Founding Fathers of The United States with intentionally colour-conscious casting...

Crooked House, League of Gentlemen, Twilight Zone, From Life, The Odyssey from 2017-12-16T20:00

Crooked House: there's an all-star film adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's own favourite novels. Its being shown on Channel 5 before being released in the cinema; does that bode well or ill?...

Menashe, Parliament Square, Carmen Maria Machado, Winnie The Pooh, Marvelous Mrs Maisel from 2017-12-09T20:00

Menashe is a new film set in the Hasidic Jewish community in New York with almost the dialogue in Yiddish. It's a story about a hapless father trying to bond with his son and also conform to rel...

A Christmas Carol, The Disaster Artist, An Unremarkable Body, Rose Wylie, Crown Court from 2017-12-02T20:00

A Christmas Carol is London's Old Vic Theatre's Christmas offering this year. It's a new version by Jack Thorne (who wrote Harry Potter and The Cursed Child) directed by Matthew Warchus and star...

The Secret Theatre, Paul Theroux, Erte, Beach Rats, Joe Orton Laid Bare from 2017-11-25T20:00

A new play by Anders Lustgarten, The Secret Theatre opens at London's Sam Wannamker Playhouse and is about Sir Frances Walsingham- Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster Paul Theroux's latest novel Moth...

Mudbound, Network, Javier Cercas, She's Got To Have It, North exhibition from 2017-11-18T20:00

Mudbound, is a searing look at prejudice set in the Jim Crow deep south of the United States shortly after WW2 Network is a new production at The National Theatre in London. It's an adaptation o...

Glengarry Glen Ross, Marjorie Prime, Howards End, Richard Flanagan, Red Star Over Russia from 2017-11-10T20:00

Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross is revived at London's Playhouse Theatre, starring Christian Slater John Hamm and Geena Davis in Marjorie Prime - a film about love loss and avatars There's a new BBC...

Heather at the Bush Theatre; 78/52 film; Ali Smith's novel, Winter; Monochrome at the National Gallery; Babylon Berlin from 2017-11-04T20:00

Heather is a play at London's Bush Theatre about a reclusive children's author who becomes famous 78/52 is a star-studded 90 minute film analysing the infamous shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho...

Young Marx, Call Me by Your Name, Art since 9/11, Susie Boyt - Love&Fame, Alias Grace on Netflix from 2017-10-28T19:00

Young Marx is the opening production at Nicholas Hytner's newest venture; the brand new Bridge Theatre in London. It stars Rory Kinnear as a youthful version of the writer of Das Kapital Armie H...

The Death of Stalin, Philip Pullman, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Albion, Gunpowder from 2017-10-21T19:00

Armando Iannucci's film The Death of Stalin is described as "A comedy of terrors" and "A comedy of hysteria". How funny can a film about the death of the man whose regime saw the murder of hundr...

The Party, Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle, The Sparsholt Affair, Degas at the Fitzwilliam, The Gamble from 2017-10-13T19:00

Sally Potter's new film The Party is her funniest to date with an all-star cast telling a neat little tale of a disastrous dinner party Heisenberg:The Uncertainty Principle is a new play by Simo...

Blade Runner 2049, Labour of Love, Eight Ghosts, Ghosts: A Cultural History, Timewasters, 140 Years of Recorded Sound from 2017-10-07T19:00

Blade Runner 2049; 35 years after the original cult film, Denis Villeneuve directs the sequel starring Ryan Gosling. How can anyone follow up such a classic? James Graham's comic play Labour of ...

30/09/2017 from 2017-09-30T19:00

British film Daphne portrays the hectic life of a young woman in an overwhelming, contemporary London The National Theatre's touring production of Jane Eyre started in London, has been around th...

On Body And Soul, Our Town, Jennifer Egan, Basquiat, The Deuce from 2017-09-23T19:00

This year's Golden Bear winning film On Body And Soul is a peculiar love story between two social misfits who work at a Hungarian abattoir A revival of Thornton Wilder's most-performed play Our ...

Mother, Smile, Kathe Kollwitz, Prism, Title sequences from 2017-09-16T19:00

Writer / director Darren Aronofsky's Mother! is a horror film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. A young woman is single handedly restoring her husband's country home which has been d...

Follies, The Golden House, Wind River, Tin Star, Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? from 2017-09-09T19:00

Stephen Sondheim's Follies starring Imelda Staunton and directed by Dominic Cooke is staged at the National's Olivier Theatre for the first time. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broa...

Kate Grenville, God's Own Country, Folkestone Triennial, Yerma NT Live, Mitchell and Webb from 2017-09-02T19:00

How do you write about scent and smells? We're looking at Kate Grenville's new book The Case Against Fragrance which looks at the potentially poisonous fumes with which we voluntarily surround o...

A selection of highlights from the Edinburgh Festivals. Also Ned Beauman's new novel and Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit from 2017-08-26T19:00

Recorded at The Edinburgh Festivals, there's a selection of some of the highlights from this year's typically varied assortment of delights. Also: Ned Beauman's new novel; Madness Is Better Tha...

Final Portrait, Against, The State, Nicole Krauss, Vermeer from 2017-08-19T19:01

Final Portrait; Stanley Tucci's film about Giacometti tries to show the tortured creative process of a genius Ben Wishaw plays an aerospace billionaire who sets out to change the world in Agains...

Atomic Blonde, A Ghost Story, Jonathan Dee, This Is Human, Quacks from 2017-08-12T19:00

Charlize Theron stars as an MI6 spy in Berlin just before the fall of the wall. In Atomic Blonde she shows that she's quite capable of doing anything a male spy could do; with lots of seducing, ...

Land of Mine, Mosquitoes, Bernard MacLaverty, Matisse In The Studio, Trust Me from 2017-08-05T19:00

Danish/German co-production Land of Mine is a film about a group of German POWs who - once the Nazi occupation of Denmark ended - were made to clear mines on the coastal beaches Mosquitoes, star...

Saturday Review from 2017-07-29T19:00

Tom Sutcliffe and guests review a gorgeous selection of this week's art

Dunkirk, Much Ado at London's Globe, Sarah Winman, Rose Finn-Kelcey at Modern Art Oxford, Against The Law from 2017-07-22T19:00

Christopher Nolan's film Dunkirk dramatises the many acts of heroism and horror of the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers during World War 2 from French beaches. Many critics are ta...

The Beguiled, Joshua Cohen, Soul of a Nation, A Tale of Two Cities, Ozark from 2017-07-15T19:00

Sophia Coppola's film The Beguiled is set during the American Civil War when a wounded Yankee soldier is rescued by the last few staff and pupils at a largely abandoned school for young women in...

Committee, Terrence Malick, Neel Mukherjee, Frieze Sculpture, Gay Britannia radio drama from 2017-07-08T19:00

Committee is a new musical that's opened at London's Donmar Warehouse. Based on the parliamentary investigation into Kids Company. It might seem like an unorthodox source of inspiration , but so...

Alone In Berlin, Ink, Christopher Wilson, White Cube, Earl Slick and Lied from 2017-07-01T19:00

Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson in a film adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel Alone In Berlin - based on a true story of small scale wartime heroism. Ink - a play about Rupert Murdoch's acquisi...

Baby Driver, Gloria, Crimes of the Father, Germany at Tate Liverpool, Gypsy from 2017-06-24T19:00

Edgar Wright's film Baby Driver is a high-octane thriller about a getaway driver who has to do "one last job" before he can get out of a life of crime. It has a fantastic soundtrack, but is that...

Barbershop Chronicles, Slack Bay, Amanda Craig, Sidney Nolan, GLOW from 2017-06-17T19:00

Inua Ellam's play Barbershop Chronicles has opened at London's National Theatre. It's about the intimate and almost-sacred masculine world of black barber shops around the world. French film Sl...

Raphael, My Cousin Rachel, Common, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Riviera from 2017-06-10T19:00

My Cousin Rachel is an atmospheric adaptation for the big screen of Daphne Du Maurier's novel starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin and directed by Notting Hill director Roger Michell. Like her ...

Wonder Woman, Persuasion, Lucienne Day/Barbara Brown, Adam Thorpe, Ackley Bridge from 2017-06-03T19:00

The long- awaited Wonder Woman blockbuster movie has arrived amongst us mere mortals - prepare to be overwhelmed, puny mortals. A stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion has opened at The M...

Woyzeck, The Other Side of Hope, Handmaid's Tale, Elif Batuman, California exhibition from 2017-05-27T19:00

John Boyega plays the title role in Woyzeck; an updating of a 19th century German play about a man driven mad by circumstances. How well has the Star Wars actor adapted to the stage? And has Jac...

Life of Galileo, Colossal, Jimmy McGovern, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Thresholds at Somerset House from 2017-05-20T19:00

Joe Wright directs Brecht's Life of Galileo at The Young Vic, reimagining it with a Chemical Brothers rave soundtrack... In science fiction black comedy Colossal, Anne Hathaway plays a woman co...

Salome, Frantz, Anything's Possible, Giacometti, 3 Girls from 2017-05-15T12:17

Yaël Farber's Salome at NT tries to retell a biblical story many of us half-know. Has she been misrepresented and misunderstood and is she more than the scheming woman who arranged the decapitat...

Angels In America, The Ferryman, Harmonium, Laurent Binet, Eric Gill from 2017-05-06T19:00

A revival of Tony Kushner's epic play about the US AIDS epidemic Angels In America is being staged at London's National Theatre. It's nearly 8 hours long (in two parts); is it still pertinent an...

Lady Macbeth, Obsession, See What I Have Done, Whitechapel Gallery, Griefcast from 2017-04-29T19:00

British film Lady Macbeth has been much praised for the central perfomance by Florence Pugh as the intelligent complicated 19th century woman sold into marriage and realising that her soul is be...

22/04/2017 from 2017-04-22T19:00

Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy star in in Their Finest; a new film about the vital role of movies in Britain during The War. A revival of Christopher Hampton's 1970 play The Philanthropist has op...

The Handmaiden, White Tears, Guards at the Taj, Born to Kill, Game Changers from 2017-04-15T19:00

South Korean film director Park Chan-Wook's latest film "The Handmaiden" is based on Welsh writer Sarah Waters' hit 2002 novel Fingersmith about a lesbian love affair in Victorian England transp...

Consent, A Quiet Passion, Jon McGregor, Tate St Ives, Car Share and Bucket from 2017-04-08T19:00

Nina Raine's new play Consent at London's National Theatre explores the tricky intertwining of modern relationships and legal niceties The life of American poet Emily Dickinson is dramatised in ...

Ghost In The Shell, Don Juan in Soho, Les Murray, Comics at Kelvingrove Museum, Harlots on ITV from 2017-04-01T19:00

Scarlett Johansson plays Major in the manga-based action film Ghost In The Shell. David Tennant leads the cast of Don Juan in Soho. Patrick Marber's play, based on Moliere's original - which de...

RSC's Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, The Eyes of my Mother, David Vann, BBC's Decline and Fall from 2017-03-25T19:59

The RSC is staging Shakepeare's Roman plays, beginning with Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra - how have they made them chime for today's audiences? The debut film from American director...

Griff Rhys Jones in The Miser, Personal Shopper, George Saunders, Michelangelo and Sebastiano, Carnage from 2017-03-18T20:00

Griff Rhys Jones plays the title rol in a freely adapted production of Moliere's The Miser Personal Shopper stars Kristen Stewart as a young woman trying to communicate with her dead twin brothe...

Viceroy's House, Hamlet, Jake Arnott, Photography on BBC TV, Serpentine Gallery from 2017-03-04T20:00

Gurinder Chadha's film Viceroy's House mixes a love story with the history of Indian Partition Andrew Scott plays The Dane in The Almeida Theatre's latest production of Hamlet The Fatal Tree is ...

Twelfth Night, It's Only the End of the World, America after the Fall at RA, Big Little Lies, Ross Raisin from 2017-02-25T20:00

Tamsin Greig has been gender-blind cast as Malvolia in The National Theatre's production of Twelfth Night. Does it work or is it an interesting novelty Quebecois film director Xavier Dolan's lat...

Revolution at the RA, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Moonlight, Idaho by Emily Ruskovich, SS-GB from 2017-02-18T20:00

Revolution: Russian Art 1917-32 is an exhibition at the Royal Academy where the title tells you what to expect but what surprises and delights lie in wait for visitors? Dan Gillespie Sells - lea...

Bruegel, Ang Lee, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Beware of Pity from 2017-02-11T20:00

Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is the first film to utilise a shooting and projection frame rate of 120 frames per second in 3D at 4K HD resolution. In a drama which tells the story o...

Sex With Strangers, Toni Erdmann, John Burnside, Keith Tyson, The Moorside from 2017-02-04T20:00

Sex With Strangers is Laura Eason's 2009 play about a brash blogger (whose blog shares the title of the play) meeting a shy novelist the Hampstead Theatre

Toni Erdmann is a German comedy f...

Christine,The Nix, Estorick Collection, Death Takes a Holiday, Zelda Fitzgerald from 2017-01-28T20:00

The Estorick Collection in London has reopened after a refit with an exhibition 'War In The Sunshine: The British in Italy 1917-1918'; paintings and photographs from that conflict The Nix is the...

Lion, Raising Martha, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, material/rearranged/to/be - Siobhan Davies, Apple Tree Yard from 2017-01-21T20:00

Lion is the film about a young Indian orphan adopted by Australian parents who finds his way back to the village where he was born by using the internet. starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman. Co...

La La Land, Manchester By The Sea, Michael Chabon, Wish List at The Royal Court, Charles Avery from 2017-01-14T20:00

We can help you to decide between two films touted for Oscars glory: La La Land revives The Hollywood musical and Manchester By The Sea starring Casey Affleck- If you have to choose, which one d...

Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, Endless Poetry, Taboo, History of Wolves, On Kosovo Field. from 2017-01-07T20:00

Tony Harrison's play The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus is revived at London's Finborough Theatre 87 year old Chilean film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's latest film Endless Poetry is the second insta...

Highlights of 2016 from 2016-12-31T20:00

A look at the highlights of 2016 according to our panel and our listeners. And there are some delightful surprises. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kerry Shale, Sarah Crompton, Sarfraz Mansoor and li...

Art at London's Old Vic, Scorsese's Silence, VR gaming, Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, Alan Bennett from 2016-12-24T20:00

A revival of Yasmina Reza's Art at London's Old Vic revives the art of the review - is it art? Martin Scorsese's latest film Silence has taken nearly 3 decades to reach the screen. It's the stor...

Hedda Gabler, Son of Joseph, Nadeem Aslam, Roger Hiorns, Maigret, Agatha Christie from 2016-12-17T19:59

Ruth Wilson plays the lead in Ivo van Hove's production of Hedda Gabler at London's National Theatre, Son of Joseph (a French film with religious overtones) takes on the overwhelming might of th...

Once in a Lifetime, Birth of a Nation, Alice in Space, Mathematics at Science Museum, Walt Disney on BBC2 from 2016-12-10T20:00

A revival of Once in a Lifetime, the 1930s comedy about the movie industry at the beginning of the talkies. A new film with the title "Birth of a Nation" cannot escape the obvious associations w...

RSC's Seven Acts of Mercy, Spike Lee's Chi-raq, Robert Rauschenberg, Poets Ben Lerner and Rachael Boast, This Is Us from 2016-12-05T15:12

The Royal Shakespeare Company presents Anders Lustgarten's new play Seven Acts of Mercy; drawing connections between Caravaggio and modern Liverpool Spike Lee's latest film Chi-raq retells the c...

The Children, The Wailing, Rillington Place, Penelope Lively, Victor Pasmore from 2016-11-26T20:00

Young British playwright Lucy Kirkwood's latest play The Children opens at London's Royal Court Theatre: three old friends discussing the future after an unnamed disaster Korean horror drama fi...

RSC's Tempest, Indignation, Divines, Zadie Smith, Design Museum from 2016-11-19T20:00

The RSC's production latest Tempest features Simon Russell Beale as Prospero and has a holographic Ariel. Does cutting edge technology sit comfortably inside Shakespeare's play which is so full ...

Glenda Jackson as King Lear, The Innocents, Linda Grant, Elton John's photographs in Radical Eye, Close to the Enemy from 2016-11-12T19:59

Glenda Jackson returns to the stage after 25 years as an MP to play the title role in King Lear at London's Old Vic Theatre. Is she a frail 80 year old or a commanding presence? French/Polish fi...

Nocturnal Animals, Dead Funny, BBC's Black and British, Naomi Alderman, Emma Hamilton: seduction and celebrity from 2016-11-05T20:00

Tom Ford's new thriller film Nocturnal Animals stars Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal A revival of terry Johnson's play Dead Funny opens at London's Vaudeville Theatre; does it live up to its name?...

Amadeus, Lo and Behold, A Horse Walks Into A Bar, Paul Nash, The Moonstone from 2016-10-29T19:00

There's a revival of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus at London's National Theatre. It's the story of Mozart's supposed rivalry with fellow composer Salieri and it has a live orchestra on stage acco...

David Hare, Ken Loach, The Young Pope, Sebastian Barry, Yves Klein from 2016-10-22T19:00

David Hare's latest play The Red Barn is an adaptation of a Georges Simenon thriller now at London's National Theatre

Ken Loach's new film I Daniel Blake is a typically hard-hitting reflec...

One Night in Miami, The Mountaintop, Black Mirror, Ali Smith, Beyond Caravaggio from 2016-10-15T19:00

We're looking at two plays about black America this week: Kemp Powers' One Night In Miami imagines a meeting in 1964 between boxer Cassius Clay, activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke & Americ...

The Girl on The Train, Travesties, Picasso Portraits, Nicotine, Divorce from 2016-10-08T19:00

The Girl on The Train starring British actress Emily Blunt is based on Paula Hawkins's best selling thriller which has sold more than 10 million copies world wide. The film is set in New York, r...

Free State of Jones, Abstract Expressionism, Transit, Crisis in Six Scenes, Villette from 2016-10-01T19:00

Free State of Jones is an American war film inspired by the life of Newton Knight and his armed rebellion against the Confederacy in Jones County, Mississippi, during the American Civil War. Wri...

Robert Harris: Conclave, When Father Comes Home From The Wars, Little Men, Damned, The Infinite Mix from 2016-09-24T19:00

Robert Harris's latest novel, Conclave is about the appointment of a new pope and all the rivalry and ambition that goes on behind the scenes When Father Comes Home From The Wars at London's Roy...

Hunt for The Wilderpeople, Eimear McBride, Bedlam, National Treasure, Dr Faustus from 2016-09-17T19:00

New Zealand's most successful home grown film ever reaches the UK: Hunt for The Wilderpeople is a story about identity, intergenerational friendship and loss in the bush Eimear McBride's first p...

V+A Revolution, Hell or High Water, Jonathan Safran Foer, Inn At Lydda, BBC TV comedy pilots from 2016-09-10T19:00

Jeff Bridges stars as a Texas Ranger on the hunt for a couple of bank robber brothers in a modern day western Hell or High Water Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am combines a domestic breakdown wi...

Ian McEwan, Sausage Party, Reading gaol, The Entertainer, The Collection from 2016-09-03T19:01

Ian McEwan's latest novel Nutshell tells the story from the point of view of a foetus. Sausage Party is the sweariest, most vulgar cartoon film you will ever have seen. From the imagination of S...

Groundhog Day, Almodovar, The Night Of..., Peter Ho Davies, Oxford Modern Art from 2016-08-30T15:37

Tim Minchin's latest musical Groundhog Day is his follow-up to the best-selling triumph of Matilda. Based on the hit film, will this also be a hit? Pedro Almodovar's 20th film, Julieta, is based...

From the Edinburgh Festivals: The best of theatre, literature, comedy, surrealist artists, Tickled film and Herman Koch from 2016-08-22T08:21

From the Edinburgh Festivals: Tom Sutcliffe and his guests discuss their selection of what's on offer this year. The National Theatre of Scotland's Anything That Gives off Light and Cheek by Jow...

Wiener-Dog, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, The Summer That Melted Everything, The Hunterian Collection, Ingrid Bergman from 2016-08-13T19:00

Todd Solondz's latest film Wiener Dog has been described as uniquely misanthropic; will our panellists agree? The National Theatre of Scotland's production: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour , wr...

Harry Potter, The Carer, Baz Luhrmann's The Get Down, Clive James, The Knives from 2016-08-06T19:00

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is London's biggest theatre event of 2016 and probably the decade. J K Rowling revisits her famed creations 19 years after the books ended. Brian Cox plays a re...

The Commune, The Plough and the Stars, The Tidal Zone, Britain's Pompeii, Illuminated manuscripts from 2016-07-30T19:00

Thomas Vinterberg's film The Commune draws on his own communal upbringing in Denmark. How does such intimate living affect close relationships Sean O'Casey's play The Plough and The Stars is rev...

Spielberg's The BFG, Adam Haslett's Imagine Me Gone, Eggleston portraits, LaBute's Some Girls from 2016-07-23T19:00

The biggest film maker in contemporary Hollywood takes on a much-loved story by a master story teller. Stephen Spielberg directs Roald Dahl's The BFG. Adam Haslett's novel Imagine Me Gone deals...

Ghostbusters, Unreachable, Kei Miller, Liverpool Biennial, Secret Agent from 2016-07-16T19:00

The remaking of Ghostbusters in 2016 has 4 women taking the leading roles and it has caused consternation among devotees of the original film. What on earth is all the fuss about? Is it just a b...

Georgia O'Keeffe, Maggie's Plan, Robert lePage, The Association of Small Bombs, Brexit metaphors from 2016-07-09T19:00

A major retrospective exhibition of the work of Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern brings together a wide range of her work from the floral paintings to her landscapes and urban paintings A complic...

Hisham Matar, Faith Healer, The Colony, David Hockney, Brief Encounters from 2016-07-02T19:00

Emma Watson plays an air stewardess who gets caught up in the Chilean politics of early era Pinochet. The Colony explores a little-known side of the regime Faith Healer is Brian Friel's play abo...

Henry V, Elvis and Nixon, The Girls, Sculpture in the City, The Border from 2016-06-25T19:00

Liza Johnson directs Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey in the title roles of Elvis and Nixon a film which dramatises the unlikely 1970 meeting between the two men . The title role in a production...

Tale of Tales, Richard III, Barkskins, Tate Modern Switch House, The Living and The Dead from 2016-06-18T19:00

Matteo Garrone's fantasy film Tale of Tales is a modern interpretation of a 17th century fairytale collection filled with dark gothic strangeness. Ralph Fiennes plays Richard III in a new produc...

Deep Blue Sea, Fire At Sea, Edmund White, Winifred Knights, Outcast/Preacher from 2016-06-11T19:00

Terrence Rattigan's post-war classic Deep Blue Sea opens in a new production at London's NationalTheatre; dealing with need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. Directed by Carrie Cracknell w...

Minefield at Royal Court, The Nice Guys, Versailles, Francis Spufford, Dora Maurer from 2016-06-04T18:57

Minefield at London's Royal Court Theatre examines the personal effects of The Falklands War on veterans from both sides using testimonies of the actors who are all former combatants. The Nice ...

Love and Friendship, Cornelia Parker - Found, Midsummer Night's Dream, Simon Armitage, The Threepenny Opera from 2016-05-28T19:00

Whit Stillman takes on an early Jane Austen epistolary novella, Love and Friendship; a film full of wicked women and gullible men Cornelia Parker's asked 60 artists to submit items to an exhibit...

Heart of a Dog, Don DeLillo, Blue/Orange, Going Forward, Seeing Round Corners from 2016-05-21T19:01

Laurie Anderson's film Heart of a Dog explores death and longing through the story of her terrier Don DeLillo's novel new Zero K explores death and longing and cryogenic suspension The revival a...

Lionel Shriver, Everybody Wants Some!!, Green Room, The Complete Deaths, Gillian Wearing from 2016-05-14T19:00

Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles imagines a dystopian America of the future Richard Linklater's follow-up to his Oscar-nominated tour de force Boyhood is meant to be the spiritual sequel to 1993's...

Upstart Crow, Midsummer Night's Dream, Knight of Cups, Louise Erdrich, Mona Hatoum from 2016-05-07T18:56

Ben Elton has a new sitcom on BBC2; Upstart Crow starring David Mitchell as The Bard of Avon. Could it be a return to his golden form of Blackadder? A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first produc...

Son of Saul, Mark Haddon, Kings of War, Love Nina, Pablo Bronstein at Tate from 2016-04-30T18:59

Son of Saul is an award-laden Hungarian film dealing with the sonderkommandos at Auschwitz, Jewish inmates who were forced to prepare and mislead new arrivals. Mark Haddon's latest book is a co...

Arabian Nights, The Flick, Garth Greenwell, Sicily at the British Museum, All the World's a Screen from 2016-04-23T18:57

Portuguese film director Miguel Gomes has created a trilogy based on The Arabian Nights. We've watched the first volume of the 6 hour epic

The Flick is a transfer from Broadway to London's...

Eye in the Sky, Hotels of North America, The Suicide, Flowers, Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979 from 2016-04-16T19:00

Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul star in Eye in the Sky, a contemporary thriller set in the world of counter intelligence and drone warfare - is the life of a 9 year old girl acceptable...

Dheepan, X at the Royal Court, All That Man Is, Shakespeare at Compton Verney, The Five from 2016-04-09T18:58

French film Dheepan won the 2015 Palme d'Or, with a tale of Tamil refugees fleeing Sri Lanka and arriving in France, finding a whole new set of opportunities and problems Alistair McDowall's new...

Ran, Long Day's Journey into Night, Camping, 6 Facets of Light, Museum of Brands from 2016-04-02T18:59

Akira Kurosawa's Ran,originally released in 1985, was - at the time - the most expensive Japanese film ever made. It won awards galore and is considered a classic. Is it still as breathtaking as...

Hamlet, Paul Strand, Hot Milk, Court, Undercover from 2016-03-26T20:00

Paapa Essiedu is the first black actor to play Hamlet for the RSC in a new production opening in Stratford directed by Simon Godwin. Booker short listed writer Deborah Levy explores the complex ...

Better Living through Criticism, High-Rise, Jane Horrocks, Charlotte Bronte, Russia and the arts from 2016-03-19T20:00

A O Scott's book Better Living through Criticism looks at the very stuff of Saturday Review - who needs critics nowadays? Ben Wheatley's film High-Rise is an adaptation ofthe 1972 novel by JG Ba...

Motown the Musical, Anomalisa, Giorgione, Eileen, Art of Scandinavia from 2016-03-12T20:00

Motown, The Musical - with one of the best pop songbooks to draw on; how could this stage show fail? Charlie Kaufman's latest film is a stop-motion tale of loneliness, isolation and the possibi...

Hail Caesar, Don Quixote, Ta Nehisi Coates, Botticelli, Thirteen from 2016-03-05T19:59

Hail Caesar is the Coen Brothers' newest film - recalling the Golden Age of Hollywood: the scandal, the vice and the Studios' men who handled the catastrophes. The RSC has adapted Cervantes' mas...

Grimsby, Javier Marias, Mark Wallinger, Sarah Kane, Murder and Broken Biscuits from 2016-02-27T19:59

Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy Grimsby tells the story of two brothers separated in childhood reunited as adults; one is a spy, the other a lazy git Thus Bad Begins is the latest novel from Javi...

Uncle Vanya, Triple 9, The Night Manager, Mend the Living, Delacroix from 2016-02-20T19:59

a bunch of corrupt cops stage a bank heist in Triple 9; but can there honour among thieves in such a high-stakes job? Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at London's Almeida Theatre has been adapted and direc...

Hieronymus Bosch, OJ Simpson, North Water, A Bigger Splash, Battlefield from 2016-02-13T20:00

The biggest Hieronymus Bosch exhibition ever has just opened in Holland. 500 years after his death, Noordbrabants Museum has gathered together the largest collection of his bizarre, extraordinar...

Trumbo, Ma Rainey's Black Botton, Vinyl, Martin Parr at Hepworth Wakefield, When Breath Becomes Air from 2016-02-06T20:00

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's acclaimed career came to a crushing halt in the late 1940s when he and other Hollywood figures were blacklisted for their political beliefs. Starring Bryan Cranston ...

Spotlight, Youth, My Name is Shylock, Wit and Electronic Superhighway from 2016-01-30T20:00

Spotlight starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams and directed by Tom McCarthy tells the true story of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize winning "Spotlight" team of investigativ...

AS Byatt and Russell Kane review The Big Short, Julian Barnes, Champagne Life, 4000 Days, HG Wells on TV from 2016-01-23T20:00

Oscar-nominated film The Big Short - a comedy about the financial crisis Julian Barnes' new novel The Noise of Time tells the story of Russian composer Shostakovich, coping as a creative artisti...

The Revenant, Annie Leibovitz, Nicholas Searle, The Rack Pack, Give Me Your Love from 2016-01-16T20:00

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as American pioneers-man Hugh Glass, in Oscar-contender The Revenant. It's graphic, visceral, epic in scope and could sweep the boards at the awards Photographer Annie Le...

Hateful Eight, Guys and Dolls, Maigret, Crime Museum, Jericho from 2016-01-09T20:00

Quentin Tarantino's film Hateful Eight - the work of a genius at the top of his game or more of the same? The Chichester Festival Theatre's revival of Guys and Dolls has transferred to London's ...

The Danish Girl, War and Peace, Deutschland 83, Angela Clarke Follow Me, Fallout 4 and Her Story from 2016-01-02T20:00

The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, portrayed in the film respectively by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everyt...

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Star Wars, Serial Podcast, Dickensian, Penguin Monarchs from 2015-12-19T20:00

Dominic West and Janet McTeer star in the first major London production for 30 years of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Star Wars is back. Unless you've been living in cave, it'...

Wonder.land, Grandma, Nureyev, Adam Roberts, V&A Europe Galleries from 2015-12-12T20:00

www.Wonder.land is Damon Albarn's re-imagining of Lewis Carol's tales of Alice, the White rabbit et al, transferred from The Manchester International Festival to London's National Theatre. Lily ...

Sunset Song, Funny Girl, Edna O'Brien, Big Bang Data, What a Performance from 2015-12-05T19:59

Sunset Song is Terence Davies' first film for a decade - telling Lewis Grassic Gibbon's tale of northern Scottish farming and family before and after the First World War. Sheridan Smith takes th...

Bridge of Spies, Carol, Little Eyolf, Michael Craig-Martin, Kenzaburo Oe from 2015-11-28T19:59

Spielberg's latest film, Bridge of Spies, features Tom Hanks as a lawyer in 1950s America, hired to defend a Soviet spy. Does that combination of actor and director guarantee a great film? Todd ...

Love, Reacher Said Nothing, Waste, Capital, Imagined Museum from 2015-11-21T20:00

Gaspar Noe's film Love is so sexually explicit that it has been labelled as pornography by many reviewers. It is eye-poppingly graphic, but is there substance beneath the lengthy sex scenes? Th...

Steve Jobs, Branagh's The Winter's Tale, Vermeer, Verdi's Force of Destiny, The Great Swindle from 2015-11-14T20:00

Danny Boyle directs Michael Fassbender in the title role of Steve Jobs - a biopic of the technology genius. Kenneth Branagh's Theatre Company launches with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. An ex...

Brooklyn, Bob Dylan bootlegs, Mr Foote's Other Leg, Jonathan Coe, Blood at the Jewish Museum from 2015-11-07T20:00

Saoirse Ronan in the film adaptation of Colm Toibin's novel Brooklyn has been touted by some critics as Oscar material; do our reviewers agree? Bob Dylan Bootlegs Vol 12 date from his most fecun...

Taxi Tehran, The Dresser, Cumberland Gallery, Slade House, Moderate Soprano from 2015-10-31T20:00

Even though he's banned from making films in his home country, Iranian director Jafar Panahi's film Taxi Tehran won this year's Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Was this a largely politi...

Magna Carta plays, Mississippi Grind, Mr Robot, Charles and Ray Eames, Beatlebone from 2015-10-24T19:00

Salisbury Playhouse has commissioned 4 new plays to mark the octocentenary of Magna Carta. How do contemporary playwrights deal with the ideas behind an 800 year old document? Mississippi Grind...

Suffragette, City on Fire - Garth Risk Hallberg, Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Periodic Tales at Compton Verney from 2015-10-17T19:01

The film Suffragette looks at the campaign 100 years ago to gain women the right to vote. It was made with an all-star largely-female cast and crew. How broad is the appeal of this historical re...

Sicario, Teddy Ferrara, Jonathan Lee, Frank Auerbach, Black Roses from 2015-10-10T18:59

The American government's war on drugs is a familiar subject for a film. How does the latest - Sicario - advance the genre? The Donmar Warehouse's production of a play about LGBTQ politics on an...

Medea, Jeanette Winterson, The Martian, Edmund deWaal's White at the RA, TV crime series from 2015-10-03T19:01

Medea is the latest production in London's Almeida Theatre's Greek season. Written by Rachel Cusk it portrays Medea as a realist and a moralist not a maniac. The writer Edmund deWaal's interest ...

Ai Wei Wei, Margaret Atwood, 99 Homes, Fake It 'til You Make It, Music for Misfits from 2015-09-26T18:59

Ai Wei Wei's new exhibition at The Royal Academy shows how his work continues to be a thorn in the side of The Chinese government. But does it make for a satisfying exhibition? Margaret Atwood's...

Submission; Hangmen; The World Goes Pop; You, Me and the Apocalypse; Tangerines from 2015-09-19T19:00

Michel Houellebecq's controversial sixth novel Submission is set in 2022 and depicts France ruled by sharia law under an Islamic president who has the stated aim of converting the whole of Europ...

Legend, Patrick deWitt, This Is England, Future Conditional, Drawing in Silver and Gold from 2015-09-12T18:59

Tom Hardy plays both Reggie and Ronnie Kray in Legend, the latest film to deal with the east end gangster twins Patrick deWitt's new novel Undermajordomo Minor is the follow-up to the Booker sho...

Jonathan Franzen, People, Places and Things, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Lady Chatterley, Dulwich Picture Gallery from 2015-09-05T19:00

Jonathan Franzen's latest novel Purity deals with the intrusiveness of the internet and social media though a mysterious family history and hacking and whistleblowing. People Places and Things a...

Hamlet, Sensorium, 45 Years, Les Murray, Ascent of Woman from 2015-08-29T19:00

Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet has been much-anticipated and every ticket was sold out a year in advance; will our critics be dazzled or disappointed?

Sensorium at Tate Britain in London is...

Saturday Review: Best of The Fest from 2015-08-22T19:31

In Edinburgh for The Festivals: Ian Rankin, Louise Welsh and James Runcie review Theatre de Complicite's The Encounter, Robert LePage's 887 Ex Machina, Adam Mars Jones' book about his father and...

A Little Life, Trainwreck, John Hurt, Scandalous Lady W, Bedwyr Williams from 2015-08-15T19:00

Hanya Yanagihara's novel A Little Life is an expansive novel about a group of male friends in New York. It has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015. American comic actor Amy Schumer st...

Diary of a Teenage Girl, Splendour, Death by Video Game, York Art Gallery, Last Man on Earth from 2015-08-08T19:00

Controversial film Diary of a Teenage Girl deals with a 15 year old girl who looks for love and ends up sleeping with her mother's boyfriend. Abi Morgan's play 2002 play Splendour is revived at ...

Three Days in the Country, Richard Long, Iris, Last Sparks of Sundown, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me from 2015-08-01T19:00

Patrick Marber has re-imagined Turgenev's A Month In The Country as Three Days In The Country for The National Theatre - does his version do justice to a classic of Russian theatre? There is a r...

Mack and Mabel, Inside Out, Life in Squares, An Account of the Great Auk, Alice Anderson from 2015-07-25T19:00

There's a revival of Mack + Mabel, starring Michael Ball at the Festival Theatre in Chichester. By the team behind Hello Dolly, it's a tale of the silent movie era as it began to fall apart. A f...

Volpone, The Wonders, Go Set a Watchman, Marc Quinn, Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners from 2015-07-18T19:00

The RSC's latest production is a contemporary setting of Ben Johnson's 17th century comedy play Volpone. Italian film The Wonders, is a film which won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Festi...

Dear White People, Citizen, Invisible, The Outcast, Soundscapes from 2015-07-11T19:00

American comedy film Dear White People takes a look at race relations on a US campus - between the black and white students and within each group Claudia Rankine's book Citizen deals with her ow...

Amy, Apple Music, The Book of Aron, As Is, Cornell at the Royal Academy from 2015-07-04T19:00

Amy is Asif Kapadia's documentary telling the story of the short life of the talented singer Amy Winehouse. We look at the launch of Apple Music - is it an exciting brand new way to explore wha...

Educating Rita, Barbara Hepworth, Everyone's Going to Die, Book of Numbers, Not Safe for Work from 2015-07-01T11:22

Lenny Henry's career as an actor continues with Willy Russell's Educating Rita at Chichester's Minerva Theatre The first Barbara Hepworth retrospective exhibition in London for half a century ha...

Mr Holmes, The Household Spirit, Fighting History, The Brink, The Mother... With the Hat from 2015-06-20T19:00

Ian McKellan takes on the legendary role of Detective Sherlock Holmes in Mr Holmes, alongside a stellar cast including Laura Linney, Frances de La Tour and Roger Allam. A cantankerous 93 year ol...

London Road, Louis de Bernieres, The Tribe, The Red Lion Carsten Holler from 2015-06-13T19:00

London Road is a film of the groundbreaking musical play. Directed by Rufus Norris, it tells the story of a community in Ipswich recovering from a series of gruesome murders. Louis de Bernieres...

Oresteia, Listen Up Philip, Milan Kundera, Stonemouth, Duane Hanson from 2015-06-06T19:00

A brand new interpretation of the classical story The Oresteia begins a Greek Season at London's Almeida Theatre. How well does it bring an ancient story up-to-date?

Czech writer Milan Ku...

Temple, Man Up, Humans, Sense8, Ryan Gattis, Grayson Perry from 2015-05-30T19:00

Temple is a new play at London's Donmar Warehouse. It imagines what happened behind the scenes when the Occupy Movement took over the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in 2011. Simon Pegg stars in Ma...

Owen Sheers, Ninagawa's Hamlet, Home in Manchester, The New Girlfriend, Armada on BBC One from 2015-05-23T19:00

Owen Sheers' novel I Saw A Man deals with loss, grief, guilt and attempted redemption Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa has directed Hamlet 8 times. His latest production is playing at The Barbic...

Mad Max, Cornelia Parker, Pirates of Penzance, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, TC Boyle from 2015-05-16T19:00

Artist Cornelia Parker's contribution to The British Library's Magna Carta octocentennial exhibition is an embroidery interpretation of the Wikipedia page for this cornerstone of the British con...

The Vote, The Crow Eaters, Girlhood, Brighton Festival, Grace and Frankie from 2015-05-09T18:15

The Vote is a comedy set in a polling station on election night, performed live at the Donmar Warehouse and simultaneously broadcast on More4. Starring Mark Gatiss, Judi Dench, Catherine Tate an...

Everyman, Far from the Madding Crowd, Empire, Anne Enright, Christopher Williams from 2015-05-02T19:00

Carol Ann Duffy has adapted the 16th century morality play Everyman for London's National Theatre, with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role There's a new film version of Far From The Madding Crow...

Toni Morrison, Ah Wilderness!, Indigenous Australians, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch, Storyville: Himmler from 2015-04-25T19:00

Toni Morrison's new novel, God Help The Child explores issues including skin colour prejudice, child abuse and justice. Eugene O'Neill's 1933 play Ah Wilderness! is one of his less-performed wor...

Carmen Disruption, Home From Home, Caryl Phillips, Sonia Delaunay from 2015-04-18T19:00

Carmen Disruption is Simon Stephens' radical reworking of Bizet's opera, exploring the place where the actor becomes the character they're playing Home From Home, a 4 hour long cinematic prequel...

Eric Ravilious, Force Majeure, Ice Rink on the Estate, After Electra, Jesse Armstrong from 2015-04-11T19:00

Eric Ravilious was one of the finest watercolourists that the UK has ever produced. Born in 1903, he died in 1942 while on duty as an official war artist. Does a new exhibition of his work revea...

Death of a Salesman, While We're Young, Alfred Hitchcock, Frames in Focus, Sex and the Church from 2015-04-04T19:00

Arthur Miller's Pullitzer prize winning 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, set in Brooklyn in New York, is one of the greatest American tragedies ever written. In a production to celebrate the cent...

Rules for Living, Blind, Richard III, Acts of the Assassins, Body in Ancient Greek Art from 2015-03-28T20:00

Sam Holcroft's new play, Rules For Living, at The National's Dorfman Theatre shows a family full of traits and ticks that define their relationships. How do we react when we're under pressure wi...

Richard Diebenkorn, Mommy, Frozen, The Shore, Coalition from 2015-03-21T20:00

The first major retrospective of Richard Diebenkorn's work for 25 years opens at London's Royal Academy. Derided by some for making abstract art popular, does this new show, which includes his f...

Alexander McQueen, Suite Francaise, X+Y, Antigone, Tom McCarthy from 2015-03-14T20:00

When an exhibition of the fashion creations of Alexander McQueen opened in New York, visitors queued for up to 5 hours to get in. It's now at London's Victoria and Albert Museum; will it be such...

Still Alice, Game, Nurse, David Vann, Forensics from 2015-03-07T20:00

Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her performance as Alice, who has Early Onset Alzheimer's disease in Still Alice. Does a great performance make a great movie? Mike Bartlett's new play Game at Lo...

Ishiguro, Man and Superman, It Follows, Matt Lucas - Pompidou, Sculpture Victorious from 2015-02-28T20:00

The Buried Giant is Kazuo Ishiguro's first new novel for 10 years, set in Arthurian England George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman at The National's Lyttleton Theatre starring Ralph Fiennes New ...

The Duke of Burgundy, The Kind Worth Killing, Suffragettes Forever, Art from Elsewhere, Eugene Onegin from 2015-02-21T20:00

The production of Eugene Onegin by Moscow's Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre being staged at London's Barbican sold out for a year in Russia and the international tour sells to packed-out house...

Anne Tyler, Indian Summers, Love Is Strange, How to Hold Your Breath, History Is Now from 2015-02-14T20:00

Anne Tyler's latest novel 'A Spool of Blue Thread' (her 20th) follows the dynamics of an American family through several generations Indian Summers is a sumptuous drama on Channel 4 looking at l...

Selma, Human Right Human Wrongs, The Illuminations, You're Not Alone, Better Call Saul from 2015-02-07T20:00

Tom Sutcliffe and this weeks panel discuss the film Selma, which tells the story of Martin Luther King and struggle for black voting rights in 1960s America. It charts the freedom march between ...

Tom Stoppard, Inherent Vice, Adam Curtis, Joyce Carol Oates, Christian Marclay from 2015-01-31T20:00

Tom Stoppard's play The Hard Problem is his first new work for the National Theatre in 13 years; is it worth the wait? Paul Thomas Anderson has adapted a Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice - the...

Oppenheimer, A Most Violent Year, Fortitude, Rubens, Sandip Roy from 2015-01-24T20:00

The RSC's latest production is Oppenheimer, a play about the man behind the invention of the nuclear bomb - a flawed hero, is it a flawless production? A Most Violent Year is set in New York in ...

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Wild, Wolf Hall, Adam Thirlwell and Bull from 2015-01-17T20:00

Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown; Pedro Almodovar's film has been turned into a stage musical with Tamsin Greig as Pepa Marcos. It flopped on Broadway, now thoroughly rejigged, can it s...

Whiplash, Foxcatcher, Daniel Kitson's Tree, Cucumber Banana Tofu, Weathering from 2015-01-10T20:00

A review of the week's cultural highlights.

Birdman; 10:04 by Ben Lerner; Golem at Young Vic; Crisis TV drama; Kentucky Route Zero computer game from 2015-01-03T20:00

Birdman starring Michael Keaton is director Alejandro G Inarritu's first comedy and is hotly tipped for Academy Awards - does it live up to the hype? 10 04 by Ben Lerner is the poet, essayist an...

V&A Cast Court, City of Angels, Big Eyes, Kureishi/Murakami/AN Wilson, Mapp and Lucia from 2014-12-20T20:00

London's V+A Museum has just reopened the Weston Cast Court, which houses life-size plaster casts of statuary and artefacts from around Europe. It includes the museum's largest items, can it dra...

13/12/2014 from 2014-12-13T20:00

Treasure Island is The National Theatre's seasonal offering at The Olivier, full of pirates, parrots and seaspray. How does it play to the various audiences who come to the theatre at Christmas ...

Men Women and Children, Hope, William Blake, Olive Kitteridge, End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck from 2014-12-06T20:00

Jason Reitman's latest film Men Women and Children is a lighthearted look at the way the internet has become woven into everyone's existence for good or bad; the pitfalls, the temptations and th...

William Gibson; Marco Polo; Chimera; Conflict Time Photography; Concerning Violence from 2014-11-29T20:00

William Gibson's novel The Peripheral is set in 2 dystopian futures filled with drugs, 3D printers, high-tech surveillance and various legally dubious practices. When readers are immersed in a c...

Institute of Sexology, What We Do in the Shadows, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Robert Edric, Legacy from 2014-11-22T20:00

London's Wellcome Institute has a new exhibition entitled The Institute of Sexology which it describes as "a candid exploration of the most publicly discussed of private acts". How will our revi...

Rose Tremain; The Imitation Game; Wildefire; Allen Jones; Remember Me from 2014-11-15T20:00

Rose Tremain's latest book is a collection of short stories called The American Lover; how does her shorter fiction compare to her full length work? Benedict Cumberbatch plays the WWII cryptogra...

DV8: John, Interstellar, Peter Carey, Gold at Buckingham Palace, Puppy Love from 2014-11-07T20:00

Peter Carey's latest novel, Amnesia follows a disgraced Australian journalist hired to write the life story of a hacker activist who has raised the hackles of international governments because s...

Nightcrawler, Tis Pity She's a Whore, Richard Ford, Science Museum, Passing Bells from 2014-11-01T20:00

Nightcrawler is a movie about the ambulance-chasing camera crews who film at the site of traffic accidents, shootings etc and sell the footage to TV stations for their news bulletins. Starring J...

Grayson Perry, Brad Pitt in Fury, Dance Umbrella: Harlem Dream, Per Petterson I Refuse, The Missing from 2014-10-25T19:00

Grayson Perry's new exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery is called "Who Are You". Through pots and paintings, a hijab and tapestry it explores the nature of identity. Brad Pitt's la...

Here Lies Love, Palo Alto, Life Story, Being Mortal, Germany at the British Museum. from 2014-10-18T19:00

Here Lies Love is David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's disco musical that tells the life story of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, from poverty to the Presidential Palace. Is she...

Henry IV, '71 film, Gotham on TV, Lila by Marilynne Robinson, Tracy Emin from 2014-10-11T19:00

Phyllida Lloyd's all-female production of Henry IV at The Donmar Warehouse. '71, a film about a young British army soldier who becomes separated from his unit while on patrol during The Troubles...

Electra, Gone Girl, The Code, Howard Jacobson, Gothic Imagination from 2014-10-04T19:00

Kristin Scott Thomas plays the title role in Electra at The Old Vic. It's a millennia old play in a modern translation by Frank McGuinness and directed by Ian Rickson.

David Fincher's fil...

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Anselm Kiefer, An Enemy of the People, Ida from 2014-09-27T19:00

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Lisa Appignanesi, Ryan Gilbey and Denise Mina discuss the cultural highlights of the week including two times Booker winner Hilary Mantel's new book of short stories "Th...

20/09/2014 from 2014-09-20T19:30

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Rosie Boycott, Simon Jenkins and Maria Delgado discuss the cultural highlights of the week, including The Riot Club based on Laura Wade's controversial stage play Posh a...

Destiny, Pride, The Leftovers, Ali Smith, Horst from 2014-09-13T19:00

Destiny: the most expensive video game ever produced has just been released - a perfect excuse for us to explore the rich and diverse world of gaming.

Pride is a lighthearted film about le...

The Children Act, Little Revolution, Watermark, Secrets, Bernd and Hilla Becher from 2014-09-06T19:00

Ian McEwan's new novel The Children Act deals with a young man who is suffering from leukaemia and the conflict between his parent's wishes and the authority of the State in the form of a high c...

Martin Amis, Pitcairn, The Moth, Obvious Child, Secret Life of Books from 2014-08-30T19:00

Martin Amis' latest novel The Zone of Interest deals with the Holocaust, but has riled some critics because of its light tone. Pitcairn is Richard "One Man, Two Guv'nors" Bean's new play dealing...

Saturday Review with Tom Sutcliffe Comes From Edinburgh, Offering a Selection of the Best of the Festivals from 2014-08-23T19:00

Saturday Review comes from the 2014 Edinburgh Festivals: National Theatre of Scotland's production of a new history play looking at the Scottish Stuart kings - we've been to see James II. Front ...

Joseph O'Neill, Robin Wright, Jezebel, Match of the Day at 50 and Andrew Marr's Great Scots from 2014-08-16T19:00

Joseph O'Neill's previous novel Netherland received rapturous attention. His new book The Dog is a story of a New York Lawyer who accepts a job working for a rich college friend in Dubai, but he...

My Night With Reg, Wakolda, Home Front, Kevin Eldon, The Art and Science of Exploration from 2014-08-09T19:00

Kevin Elyot's 'My Night With Reg' was originally staged in 1994 and was the first British gay play to win a wide West End audience as well as several theatre awards. it's now being revived at Lo...

Gillian Anderson Streetcar, Mood Indigo film, Secret Cinema, Philip Hensher, Gomorrah on TV from 2014-08-02T19:00

Gillian Anderson returns to London's West End theatre, playing Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams' 1948 play A Streetcar Named Desire. Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo is one of his typically fanta...

Medea, Joe, Our World War, DBC Pierre, Imperial War Museum from 2014-07-26T19:00

Helen McCrory is playing Medea in a new production at London's National Theatre - it's a new take on the Greek tragedy; how can one make a play written 1700 years ago resonate today? Nicolas Cag...

Malevich at Tate Modern, Importance of Being Earnest, Norte, Silicon Valley, Flusfeder: John the Pupil from 2014-07-19T19:00

A new exhibition of work by Russian painter Kasimir Malevich at London's Tate Modern follows his career from early representational work through his cubo-futurist phase, to his creation of the c...

Intimate Apparel, Boyhood, Upstairs at the Party, People Just Do Nothing, Sikhs in WW1 from 2014-07-12T19:00

Richard Linklater's latest film, Boyhood, was filmed over 39 days over a period of 12 years, so the actors and characters on the screen age in real time. When production began, the lead actor wa...

05/07/2014 from 2014-07-05T19:00

Great Britain at London's Lyttleton Theatre is written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner (the team that was behind the wildly successful 'One Man Two Guvnors'). Starring Billie Pip...

Cold in July film, Richard Flanagan novel, Dennis Hopper exhibition, Honourable Woman on TV from 2014-06-28T19:00

Cold in July is a film starring Michael C Hall set in 1980s America, telling the story of a man who kills an intruder in his home and then begins to think the local police might not be telling t...

The Fault in Our Stars, The Silkworm, Making Stalin Laugh, Making Colour, The Human Factor from 2014-06-21T19:00

The Fault In Our Stars, starring Shailene Woodley, is the screen adaptation of John Green's best selling young adult novel of the same name about a pair of love struck teenagers both of whom are...

The Simpsons as American folklore; Belle; British folk art at Tate Britain; In the Light of What We Know from 2014-06-14T19:00

Mr Burns at London's Almeida Theatre is a play about an America without electrical power, the end of everything in contemporary USA - when the TV programme The Simpsons has passed into folklore....

Van Gogh, Mondrian, Nicholson Baker, Hotel, The Dirties from 2014-06-07T19:00

The Dirties is a Canadian indie film about a couple of friends planning to make a film about a Columbine-style school massacre, where the bullies will be made to pay for what they've done. It be...