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4 days ago
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TV
If you only watch one, make it …
The Celebrity Traitors
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence The show that reinvigorated reality TV gets a gripping, star-packed spinoff.
What our reviewer said “All the essential elements are present and correct. The Winkleman. The castle. The round table around which the Winkleman stomps in her boots to mark out Traitor from Faithful. The eight kabillion first-round contestants.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Secret rooms, Stephen Fry, Winkleman’s horse impression: the truth about the Traitors castle
Pick of the rest
Dreaming Whilst Black
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence The triumphant return of Adjani Salmon’s hilariously observed comedy about the reality of Black British life and the hell of the TV industry – with action centring on the making of a Bridgerton-esque period drama.
What our reviewer said “Please, good BBC sirs, deliver unto us series three with haste! And don’t spare the horses!” Ellen E Jones
Further reading Adjani Salmon on twisted satire Dreaming Whilst Black
Frauds
ITVX
Summed up in a sentence Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker star in a wild, thrilling heist drama about two conwomen reunited for one last job after one of them is released from prison due to terminal cancer.
What our reviewer said “Jones gives perhaps her finest and most complex performance yet, as the damaged, resentful Bert with her lifetime pursuit of excitement to distract from the gnawing pain within that has nothing to do with metastasising cells. ” Lucy Mangan
Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill
Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence The keep-fit star uses his fame for good: trying to shame the government into tackling the appalling ingredients it’s legal to include in protein bars – by making the most harmful one possible within regulations.
What our reviewer said “Licensed to Kill, with its unabashed anger at rampant commercialism and its belief that the problem has gone far enough to demand radical, even reckless political action, feels like it might be part of something wider than an argument about snack food.” Jack Seale
You may have missed …
The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money
ITVX
Summed up in a sentence A rigorous documentary that paints a devastating picture of the Tories’ ‘VIP lane’ for PPE suppliers during Covid.
What our reviewer said “Watching this programme forces us to at least consider something that is almost too disgusting to contemplate: that when our country faced one of its darkest hours, certain people in charge saw not a crisis, but an opportunity.” Jack Seale
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
I Swear
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Kirk Jones’s moving biopic of John Davidson, the man who taught Britain about Tourette syndrome.
What our reviewer said “John eventually meets other people with Tourette, leading to an amazing scene in the back of a car with a young woman in which they yelp at each other surreally before calming down; the film shows the experience to have been cathartic and therapeutic.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Actor Robert Aramayo: ‘I thought Tourette’s was all about swearing’
Pick of the rest
The Perfect Neighbor
In cinemas now; Netflix, 17 October
Summed up in a sentence Geeta Gandbhir’s study of the Ajike Owens shooting turns police footage into a devastating lens on fear, race and a nation fatally addicted to firearms.
What our reviewer said “The true crime genre has a new medium, or maybe even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Inside devastating new police bodycam film The Perfect Neighbour
A Want in Her
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Film-maker Myrid Carten’s searing portrait of her mother – who has both bipolar disorder and alcoholism – in a painful but powerful documentary.
What our reviewer said “We see footage of teenage Myrid and another girl (her sister?) acting out a psychodrama cribbed from the antics of her mother Nuala and other family members. It all escalates until we get an extraordinary spell where Nuala effectively plays herself for the camera, lying like a corpse in a road at night, resplendent and ridiculous in her rabbit-fur jacket.” Leslie Felperin
Beast of War
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Kiah Roache-Turner’s splatterific effort follows a squadron of Australian troops who must try to survive a “pissed-off 20-foot fish” in the Timor Sea.
What our reviewer said “Roache-Turner borrows from various genre playbooks but conjures a distinctive, gung-ho, atmosphere-oozing work that’s all his own.” Luke Buckmaster
Now streaming
John Candy: I Like Me
Amazon Prime
Summed up in a sentence Starry tribute to comedy legend, with Bill Murray, Tom Hanks and Steve Martin among those offering their memories.
What our reviewer said “Candy had a natural face for the movies – open, ingenuous, boyish and trusting – although I left this documentary suspecting that nothing he did for the big screen was as funny as the appalling character he did on SCTV: Yellowbelly, the cowardly cowboy who actually shoots a small child in the back.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Colin Hanks on his John Candy documentary: ‘Inspiring for me as an actor’
Books
If you only read one, make it …
The Poems of Seamus Heaney
Reviewed by Philip Terry
Summed up in a sentence The great Irish poet’s complete works, with expert notes and previously unpublished poems.
What our reviewer said “This landmark volume lets us see Heaney’s work, whose ripples we are still learning to navigate, for the colossal achievement it is.”
Further reading Seamus Heaney’s unpublished poems to be released — read one exclusively here
Pick of the rest
The Future of Truth by Werner Herzog
Reviewed by Farrah Jarral
Summed up in a sentence An eccentric genius reflects on truth, AI and misinformation.
What our reviewer said “If anyone else had written The Future of Truth, I suspect they would come under critical fire for odd choices in structure, rambling, contradictory statements, and, to put it bluntly, taking the piss out of the reader.”
Further reading Werner Herzog tells aspiring directors to work in a ‘sex club or lunatic asylum’
The Devil Book by Asta Olivia Nordenhof, translated by Caroline Waight
Reviewed by Nina Allan
Summed up in a sentence The second in an unmissable Danish series about capitalism, the devil and the deadly fire on the Scandinavian Star ferry.
What our reviewer said “There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a political act. I will continue to follow this series, wherever it goes.”
Motherland by Julia Ioffe
Reviewed by Viv Groskrop
Summed up in a sentence A Russian-American journalist considers Russian history through the eyes of women - some historical, some from her own family.
What our reviewer said “Ioffe writes with warmth, charisma and exuberance and is adept at zooming in and out, mixing precise personal detail with broad historical insights.”
You may have missed …
Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai
Reviewed by Tanjil Rashid
Summed up in a sentence A physics student calls on Angela Merkel to help him save the world in this one-sentence novel from the Hungarian modernist and winner of this year’s Nobel prize in literature.
What our reviewer said “He began writing in the 80s as communism collapsed. The decomposition of the body politic may be his central preoccupation, and all his novels are imbued with a premonition of the end of things.”
Further reading László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Blawan: SickElixir
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Jamie Roberts’ unsettling take on bass music is as disorienting as it is immersive, crammed with glitchy rhythms and jolting sounds.
What our reviewer said “It’s an album on which the atmosphere is so intense and all-pervading that even the most innocuous sounds take on an ominous air.” Alexis Petridis
Further reading Add to playlist: the coffee-shop charms of Jordan Patterson and the week’s best new tracks
Pick of the rest
The Hermes Experiment: Tree
Out now
Summed up in a sentence An exhilarating album of new and reimagined works reaffirms this group’s reputation for fearless musical curiosity.
What our reviewer said “The third album from the Hermes Experiment again shows what a liberating force in contemporary music this ensemble have become.” Erica Jeal
Hannah Frances: Nested in Tangles
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Wayward tempos and snapping drums break fresh ground in this unruly release from the Vermont musician.
What our reviewer said “It’s a restless record that commands attentive listening, the absolute clarity of Frances’s songwriting voice standing tall as the leaves bluster around her.” Laura Snapes
Širom: In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Slovenian trio conjure strange beauty from a vast arsenal of global instruments in an album that hums, drones and dances with intense power.
What our reviewer said “They create a palette that’s kaleidoscopic in its textural, dynamic and melodic explorations of sound.” Jude Rogers
On tour this week …
The Kooks
Utilita arena, Birmingham 10 Oct; The O2, London 11 Oct
Summed up in a sentence Playing to the biggest crowds of their careers, the 00s indie stalwarts perform like they’re loving every minute.
What our reviewer said “Voices and guitars swell loudest for Ooh La and a triumphant Naive. A song that they once came close to scrapping has become the bedrock of the band’s unlikely Indian summer, and is sung to the rafters”. Dave Simpson
