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 Truth is a French/Japanese production directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018 for his film Shoplifters. It stars Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche in the story of an ageing actress who publishes her memoirs and is confronted by her daughter. Evie Wyld was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. Her new novel, The Bass Rock, tells the story of three generations of women whose fates are linked. Two exhibitions at Compton Verney that have sadly had to close because of coronavirus are kept alive by our critics: Cranach: Artist and Innovator and Fabric: Touch and Identity. And we suggest some culture that might already be on your shelves or on a screen near you to enjoy if you're stuck indoors. Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Charlotte Mullins, Bob and Roberta Smith and Laurence Scott. Podcast Extra recommendations Bob: Paul Klee, On Modern Art Certain Blacks, album by The Art Ensemble of Chicago The Letters of Van Gogh Charlotte: The Gallery of Lost Art - as she explains, what's left of it can be found at galleryoflostart.com and via Tate website The West Wing Laurence: Star Trek: the Next Generation, all 7 seasons Tom: Contagion and, as always, Call My Agent Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah Johnson Image: Emily (SOPHIE RUNDLE) in The Nest Credit: Mark Mainz / Studio Lambert / BBC

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 Bob Hope Sebastian Barry's play On Blueberry Hill is set in a prison cell where two men's stories of how they got there become intertwined. Abi Daré's novel The Girl With The Louding Voice is the tale of Adunni, a fourteen year old Nigerian girl who has to go into domestic service in Lagos but is determined to better herself A new retrospective of the work and life of Andy Warhol has just opened at Tate Modern in London, including many works never previoulsy exhibtited in the UK before Two new TV comedies with impeccable pedigrees - ITV's Kate and Koji (written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin - who wrote Outnumbered) and Breeders (co-produced by Chris Addison and Simon Blackwell) on Sky TV - have just started. Theyre very different.. are they very funny? Tom Sutcliffe guests are Sara Colllins, Alex Preston and Tiffany Jenkins. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Sara: Toni Mossion: The Pieces I Am + Fons Americanus by Kara Walker at Tate Modern Alex: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins Tiffany: Music Clubs - Spin in OXford and House Concerts @42 in Edinburgh Tom: James Shapiro: Shakespeare In a Divided America Main image: Abi Daré © Alero Marcel

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 quarters. Can this one compare? The Mikvah Project is a new play at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. Two Jewish men meet every Friday for ritual cleansing and a close friendship develops. Sulphur and White is a new British film which tells the true story of a highly successful banker who suffered repeated sexual abuse as a child and how this drove him to seek justice for all abused children A new exhibition at The Hayward Gallery in London - Among The Trees - looks at the crucuial role that trees play in our lives and imaginations Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Abigail Morris and Catherine O'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Catherine - The National Telephone Kiosk Collection in Bromsgrove and the 1972 film La Cabina Christopher - Who's Afaid of Virginia Woolf at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol and Prints by Norman Ackroyd at Watts Gallery near Guildford Abigail - Carravagio in Rome and Bonus Family on Netflix Tom - English Monsters by James Scudamore Main image: Terraza Alta II, 2018 by Abel Rodríguez Acrylic and ink on paper © the artist and Instituto de Visión 2020

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 love with her subject Women Beware Women is a play by Middleton just opened at The Globe Theatre in London. How do you navigate a society in which women are consciously and unconsciously commodified, coerced and controlled? Australian author Christos Tsiolkas came to international attention with his best-selling novel The Slap. His latest - Damascus - retells the story of St Paul's conversion. Leon Spilliaert was a Belgian painter in the early 20th century whose work often reflected his insomnia and seaside settings. A new exhibition at London's Royal Academy brings this lesser-known artist into the spotlight Malorie Blackman's successful Noughts and Crosses novels have been adapted for TV and they're coming to BBC1 at the beginning of March Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sathnam Sanghera, Muriel Zhaga and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Sathnam - Jay-Z on Spotify Susan - Choirs and singing by candlelight Muriel - making Delia Smith's marmalade and rewatching Friends Tom - A.N. Wilson's The Mind of the Apostl e Main image © 2020 Curzon Artificial Eye

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, is a new exhibition at The Barbican in London, about how masculinity is experienced, perfomed, coded and socially constructed. Actress is the latest novel from Irish author by Anne Enright. A daughter looks back at her sometimes fractious relationship with her famous mother A revival of Caryl Churchill's 2000 play Far Away has just opened at London's Donmar Warehouse Teenage existence is never easy and having superpowers can only make it even more so. I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix is a new series with an adolescent female lead... Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Amber Butchart and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Stephanie: The Laramie Project Amber: We Will Walk at Turner Contemporary in Margate. And the sauna on Margate Beach Blake: When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann Tom: Midsommer Main image: Taliban portrait. Kandahar, Afghanistan. 2002 © Collection T.Dworzak/Magnum Photos

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 many different cinematic versions of Jane Austen novels does the world need? What does The latest Emma - directed by a former photographer/ pop video director - bring that's new? A Small Revolution in Germany is the latest novel from Philip hensher. It follows the diverging paths of a group of young politically charged leftists The End is a very darkly comic TV series set in a retirement village on Australia's Gold coast where Edie - played by Harriet Walter - ends up after trying to kill herself A retrospective of the video work of British artist Steve McQueen has just opened at Tate Modern in London. 14 video installations cover his work from 1992 to today Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ayesha Hazarika, David Benedict and Julia Raeside. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Juiia: Julia Jacklin - Crushing David: Tony Kushner's The Visit at The National Theatre and Tana Frech - In The Woods Ayesha: BBC This Life box set and female comedians live Tom: In Wordsworth's Footseps on Radio 4 and American Factory documentary Main image credit: Marc Brenner

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 about the famine in Ukraine. At the National Theatre, Clint Dyer directs the play he has co-written with Roy Williams, Death of England, starring Rafe Spall as a white working-class man whose father has died and who has to face up to his conflicted feelings about his country and the people who live in it. Ta-Nehisi Coates has earned a great reputation as a writer and thinker on race in America. His first novel, The Water Dancer, is the story of Hiram Walker who becomes involved in a struggle to leave slavery and save those close to him. British Baroque at Tate Britain takes a look at art from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 until the death of Queen Anne in 1714, highlighting the jostling for power at court and beyond and illustrating the creation of the great buildings of the age. And This Life returns to BBC4, a drama of young people entering the world of work in the law, perhaps best remembered for the simmering sexual tension between Miles and Anna. Will its fans from 1996 stick with it - and can it draw a new audience? Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Jen Harvie, Carl Anka and Terence Blacker. Podcast Extra recommendations Carl: YouTube Channel SB Nation and Brian Phillips' obit of Kobe Bryant available here: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/1/30/21114600/kobe-bryant-legacy Jen: film, Parasite on general release; Tate Britain's exhibition Terence: the music of Paolo Conte Tom: Edmund de Waal's book The White Road, and Zadie Smith's essay on Kara Walker in the NY Review of Books Photo: James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, (c) Signature Entertainment

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 Robert Pattinson is a black and white film set in a claustrophobic remote isolated lighthouse where the two keepers begin to rub each other up the wrong way William Gibson is a sci-fi writer whose latest novel Agency imagines a dystopian future world where time travel is possible but only virtually The Art, Design and Future of Fungi is an exhibition at Somerset House in London which brings together work by artists and designers, exploring mycophilia, magic mushrooms and fungi futures Art On The BBC is a new documentary series which delves into 60 years of arts coverage on BBC TV, exploring how TV portrayal has changed. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, Katie Puckrik and Colin Grant. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Meg: Jo Jo Rabbit film and Beryl at The Arcola Theatre Katie: Paris In The Spring CD on Ace Records Colin: The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste Tom: Cheer documentary on Netflix Photo: Beatrix Potter, Hygrophorus puniceus, pencil and watercolour, 7.10.1894, collected at Smailholm Tower, Kelso, courtesy of the Armitt Trust

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 Norfolk in 1759, when a jury of matrons is called to try a female murder suspect who is 'pleading the belly' in order to avoid execution Motherwell is the memoir of journalist, the late Deborah Orr recounting her childhood and growing up in Scotland and trying to break from her family Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media is a new exhibition at London's Foundling Museum which looks at how artists have shown pregnant women over the centuries. Admission fee charged. The Windermere Children on BBC2 is the story of 300 Polish child survivors of concentration camps who were brought to the UK after the war and billetted in The Lake District Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Catherine Yass and Mark Billingham The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Catherine: Steve McQueen Year 3 at Tate Britain & A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride & Yinka Shonibare's Farm in Nigeria Mark: Elvis Presley 68 Comeback Special & Long Bright River by Liz Moore Helen: House Of Glass by Hadley Freeman & In The Darkroom by Susan Faludi Tom: Daniel Finkelstein's tweet thread about his mother's escape from Germany & Miss Austen by Gill Hornby & Shook opening at the Trafalgar Studios in April.

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 Joe and The Old Tune.https://bit.ly/2Rm8AtG https://bit.ly/2uWA95b Bombshell has been Oscar nominated. It's the story of Roger Ailes' reign at Fox News and the sexual harrasment cases that were brought against him. It stars Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie Armando Iannucci has a new comedy TV series on HBO. Avenue 5 is set onboard a luxurious interplanetary cruiseship when things start to malfunction. American Dirt is a new novel from Jeanine Cummins which follows a Mexican woman and her young son who have to flee to El Norte to escape drug cartel violence. They have become migrants Tullio Crali was an Italian futurist painter who has an exhibition at London's Estorick Collection. He was a fervent futurist and you can see his paintings and sassintessi - compositions of stones and natural found objects Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Ekow Eshun and Amanda Craig. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Amanda: Kara Walker at Tate Modern and The Gulbenkian in Lisbon Rosie: Garden Museum at Newt Hotel in Somerset Ekow: Atlantiques on Netflix Tom: The Kinks' Days on Radio 4's Soul Music and Lucy Hughes-Hallett's The Pike Main image: Detail taken from Tricolour Wings, 1932 by Tullio Crali

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 do our reviewers make of it? This Time is a show by the group Ockham's Razor and part of The London International Mime Festival 2020. It tells an inter-generational story through circus skills with a 4 person troupe whose member range from 13 to 60 Albanian author Ismail Kadare was the inaugural winner of the Man Booker International Prize and his latest novel to be translated into English is The Doll, It's the story of his mother and her difficulties when she married his father British artist Saad Qureshi has an exhibition at The Chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Something About Paradise considers the widely differing ideas of what paradise might look like BBC1 has a new sitcom,King Gary, co-written by and starring Tom Davis as Gary King a builder and building entrepreneur. It was launched with a pilot episode last year and is now a six part series. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Rajan Datar and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Sarah: Bombshell, Little Women and Top Hat Lynn: Musicals at the BFI and her son's vegan Christmas cake Rajan: Death Of A Salesman with Wendell Pearce, and In The Viper's Shadow by Prince Fatty and Play Well at the Wellcome Collection Tom: Guys and Dolls Photo by Nik Mackey

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 been a popular text for film makers since the first silent version in 1912 - is there anything new which director Greta Gerwig can bring to this version? HG Wells' novel The War Of The Worlds is probably best known to many people as the Jeff Wayne musical version, it's the UK's 32nd best-selling studio album of all time. It's been a touring show, made into a video game and now it's become an immersive theatrical experience,complete with AI headsets. Untitled Goose Game is an award-winning game in which the player is a goose who wanders around irritating characters by honking and flapping at them. We look at a couple of graphic novels: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me and November. Four hundred years ago, in August 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in America. A podcast series “1619,” from The New York Times, hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, examines the long shadow of that fateful moment. You're Dead To Me is a BBC podcast series which describes itself as "a history podcast for people who don't like history". Presented by Greg Jenner, it looks at a variety of subjects from a lighthearted perspective Jordan Erica Webber's guests are Arifa Akbar, Naima Khan and Carl Anka. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast Extra Recommendations: Naima - Christina Craig; Mint Tea and Other Stories Carl - Super Eyepatch Wolf Arifa - Death Of England at The National Theatre Jordan Spinning by Tilley Walden

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 events we'd reviewed, and let us know about which ones had delighted you too. We'll discuss all the regular genres: films, theatre, exhibitions, books and television. And lots of items which we didn't get a chance to review from the past 12 months. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Tiffany Jenkins and Shahidha Bari as well as lots of listeners on the phone from around the country, telling us what particularly impressed them last year. Producer Oliver Jones

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 the Christmas TV schedule this year include Martin's Close by Mark Gatiss on BBC 4 and Susan Hill's Ghost Story on Channel 5. How shiver-inducing are they? Nora Ephron's collection of essays on ageing and much else - I Feel Bad About My Neck - is being reissued with a new introduction by Dolly Alderton. It's a book that Alderton recommends giving as a present so Saturday Review suggests some other enduring literary choices that work as gifts. And Gypsy starring Ria Jones is on at the Royal Exchange, Manchester in a new production directed by Jo Davies. Do its songs keep our critics smiling in an age of different sexual politics? Rowan Pelling, Linda Grant and Kerry Shale join Tom Sutcliffe. The books recommended as gifts are: The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden Karoo by Steve Tesich The Prince of West End Avenue by Alan Isler Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote Love Lessons by Joan Wyndham The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle This week's podcast choices are: Linda: podcast and Radio 4 programme Fake Heiress Kerry: album If You're Going to the City, a tribute to Mose Allison Rowan: TV series The Young Offenders, BBC3 Tom: TV series Watchmen, HBO

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. What's them point? Swive (Elizabeth) at The Sam Wannamaker Playhouse imagines Elizabeth I from teenager to monarch and the wiles and strength ways she needed to keep on top Robert Musil's most famous book The Man Without Qualities was published in 1943 and a follow-up Agathe has just been published. Compiled by scholars it pulls together notes and drafts to make a sequel. Will the reviewers consider it worth the effort? Theaster Gates is an African American social practice installation artist who has a major new exhibition opening at Tate Liverpool Mike Bartlett wrote the wildly popular Dr Foster but hasn't quite matched its success since. Will his new ITV series Sticks and Stones (about workplace bullying) reestablish his success? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Abigail Morris and Bidisha. The producer is Oliver Jones Image: Nina Cassells (c) Johan Persson Podcast Extra recommendations Bidisha - Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen Abigail - Essays of E B White and Chernobyl podcast Natalie - Peaky Blinders and Lizzo Tom - Jo Jo Rabbit

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 expectations. How will our reviewers feel about it? Chinese film So Long My Son has won awards at international film festivals. It tells the story of a family over 30 years of turbulent Chinese history Annette Hess' prize-winning novel The German House is the story of a Polish translator at the 1963 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Caught between societal and familial expectations and her unique ability to speak truth to power—as she fights to expose the dark truths of her nation’s past. If everything your family told you was a lie, how far would you go to uncover the truth? A new exhibition of work by British abstract painter John Walker at Ikon in Birmingham includes new paintings A Very Scandi Scandal has just started in the Walter Presents slot on Channel 4. It's a Swedish comedy heist with two extremely unlikely bank robbers Shahidha Bari's guests are Dea Birkett, Kit Davis and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones Main image: Rhashan Stone & Nicola Hughes in Fairview (c) Marc Brenner

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 National Theatre's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend condenses the four wildly-successful novels into 2 three-hour plays at The Olivier. The creator of Jack Reacher - Lee Child- has written a short book about The Hero. It's the first of two publications in the new Times Literary Supplement imprint - the other reproduces Virginia Woolf's reviews from the TLS. Troy: myth and reality is the latest big exhibition at London's British Museum. trying to work out where legends end history begins in these classical tales Tim Minchin co-wrote and stars in a new roadtrip-based TV comedy series Upright which has just begun on Sky TV. In it he has to transport an old piano across Australia, accompanied by a sassy grumpy young female companion. Is it funny? Is it worth watching? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Moggach, Tom Shakespeare and Briony Hanson. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast extra recommendations: Tom Sh: Independence Square by AD Miller Deborah: Netherlandish Proverbs explained video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tboRw6CPXjI Briony: Hanna Gadsby's Douglas (and Nanette) Tom S: The End of the F***ing World on All 4 and Les Indes Galantes https://youtu.be/Q4jy2wrjESQ and Jo Jo Rabbit film

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 & Fast: The art of food in Europe, 1500 – 1800 is the latest exhibition at The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge Greener Grass is a peculiar take on the American suburban comedy British Nigerian author Irenosen Okojie's collection of short stories; Nudibranch American documentary series maker Ken Burns has turned his attention to Country music for his latest series now airing on BBC4 Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Bull, Susie Boyt and Louisa Uchum Egbunike. The producer is Oliver Jones Photo by Matthew Murphy Susie: Wednesday Afternoon matinees at Regent Street Cinema and the Joan Crawford film Queen Bee Deborah: Ballet Black on tour and Inspire The Mind blog Louisa: Chinua Achebe- There was a Country and Chinelo Okparanta - Under the Udala Trees Tom: The Pallisers on Channel 4 and Lil Nas X - Old Town Road

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 a serial killer Touching the Void began life as a book by Joe Simpson, about a climbing accident which nearly killed him. It has since been turned into a film and now a stage play. How can you show vertiginous dangers and a lot of internal thought processes in the theatre? Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunesekera was born in Ceylon - as it was known then - and his coming of age novel "Suncatcher" is set in his native country in 1964, as the struggle for independence began. Gold Digger is a Sunday night series just started on BBC1. When their 60 year old mum meets and moves in with a much younger man, Julia's children decide they don't like it and start to try and drive them apart George IV : Art and Spectacle has just opened at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace. He was arguably the most magnificent of British monarchs and formed an unrivalled collection of art, much of which remains in the Royal Collection Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Charlotte Mullins, Lynn Shepherd and Jim White. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Lynn - Leonardo Da Vinci at London's National Gallery Charlotte - Kathe Kollwitz at British Museum and Elizabeth Peyton at London's National Portrait Gallery Jim - Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars Tom - Giri Haji on BBC2 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Shipbuilder and his Wife: Jan Rijcksen and his Wife, Griet Jans, 1633 Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

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 September 11 attacks. Shook is a debut play at The Southwark Playhouse which won the Papatango New Writing Prize. How will our reviewers receive this brand new work at a fringe theatre by an unknown writer? The Topeka School by Ben Lerner is the third part of his trilogy featuring a central character who bears a decided resemblance to Lerner himself. Is this a State of America novel or self-indulgent , if brilliant, writing? A new exhibition at Somerset House: 24/7 looks at artistic responses to the always-on culture that envelopes us all nowadays Self portrait as time, 2016: https://vimeo.com/170398999 Order of Magnitude: https://vimeo.com/333795857 The Morning Show is Apple TV+'s big marquee show designed to attract voewers and subscribers to the new streaming service. Starring Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon it deals with the #metoo movement set in a TV newsroom Tom's guests are Maria Delgado, Kevin Jackson and Louise Doughty. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra Recommendations: Maria - The Chambermaid film Kevin - Susan Sontag At The Same Time Louise - Wasafiri magazine Tom - Julian Barnes' The Man In The Red Coat

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 latest play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Annie Baker. Set in a brainstorming meeting for some undisclosed creative company, the tensions of office relationships and the need to be imaginative lead to tensions Hanne Orstavik's novel Love unfolds in a village in far northern Norway. Jon is a young boy, looking forward to his birthday tomorrow, always thinking of his mother even though the attention isn't reciprocal The BBC has a brand new version of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. It's been a book, a BBC Radio play, a film and now a TV adaptation. How does the small screen incarnation fare? Joy Labinjo is a young Nigerian/British painter who has an exhibition of her work at The Baltic in Gateshead. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Christopher Frayling and Kathryn Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Ellah: Media Democracy podcast Christopher: The Dublin Murders and Paolozzi exhibition at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert in London Kathryn: The Reinvention of Humanity by Charles King Tom: Guilt on BBC2 and The CryptoQueen podcast Main image: Dafne Keen Photo credit: Bad Wolf/BBC One/HBO

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 with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow, communicated with over the radio by a threatening commander. That's the basic plot of a new film Monos, which has won awards at international festivals. Vassa is the new production at London's Almeida Theatre, adapted from Maxim Gorky's play by Mike Bartlett and starring Siobhan Redmond. Elizabeth Strout's new novel Olive Again reintroduces readers to Olive Kitteridge, from her best-selling 2008 novel. Older and (maybe) wiser, she's as blunt and delightful as ever as she copes with a second marriage. The Accident is a new series beginning on Channel 4 written by Jack Thorne and starring Sarah Lancashire. Presented by Emma Woolf, the reviewers are Pat Kane, Alex Clark and Sally Gardner. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast Extra recommendations: Sally: Mystify Pat: The Emotional Mind by Stephen T Asma and Rami Gabriel Alex: The Reluctant Landlord on TV and the Kilkenny One Act Play festival Emma: George Gissing

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! But will our reviewers be seduced? Stillicide by Cynan Jones and The Diver's Game by Jesse Ball are two new dystopian novels which both authors insist are NOT dystopian. Who's right; The reader or the author? There Are No Beginnings is the play chosen to open the newly renovated Leeds Playhouse. The playwright Charley Miles has insisted it is "NOT a play about The Yorkshire Ripper" but his presence is a dark force at the centre of the play. Pre-Raphaelite Sisters is a new exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery which aims to look at the women behind the movement most commonly associated with the Brotherhood - as models, artists, makers, partners and poets. Living With Yourself is a Netflix series starring Paul Rudd as a man who accidentally finds himself cloned and having to deal with the new version of himself Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Maev Kennedy and Laurence Scott. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra selections Helen: Mephisto at The Gate Theatre... and public loos at theatres more generally Maev: Georgette Heyer Laurence: Patricia Lockwood on John Updike in the LRB

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-successful Ealing Comedy films. Released in 1951, it told the story of a man who invents a revolutionary fabric. Now adapted for the stage starring Stephen Mangan in the role originally played by Alec Guinness. Zadie Smith has published a collection of short stories called Grand Union. Hogarth exhibition - Place and Progress. All of the paintings and engravings in Hogarth's series are united for the first time at the Sir John Soanes Museum in London Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Bob and Roberta Smith, Naima Khan and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast Extra recommendations: Bob and Roberta Smith - Kara Walker at Tate Modern Stephanie: Rachel Cusk - Coventry, Zadie Smith - In Defence Of Fiction, Rebecca Solnit - Whose story is this , Sinead Gleeson -Constellation, Emilie Pine - Notes to Self. Also Brooklyn 99 Naima: The Guilty on Netflix Tom: The Politician on Netflix and Jonathan Coe - Sinking Giggling Into The Sea in the LRB Main image: Marchánt Davis, The Day Shall Come Courtesy eOne / IFC Films

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 deserving of the plaudits and prizes? Mary Costello's new novel "The River Capture" is set in rural Ireland where a young woman arrives and changes the life of those she meets A revival of A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg at London's Trafalgar Studios comes shortly after the death of its author Peter Nichols. Dublin Murders is an adaptation by Sarah Phelps of the Tana French novels for BBC TV A new exhibition at London's Barbican Centre - Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art - spans the 1880s to the 1960s, celebrating the creativity of the spaces in which artists, performers, designers, musicians and writers congregated to push the boundaries of artistic expression. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Alex Preston, Katy Puckrik and Amanda Vickery. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extras: Katie: Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast Alex: The poetry of Mary Oliver Amanda: Unbelievable on Netflix Tom: Kara Walker at Tate Modern Main image: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg L-R Lucy Eaton, Claire Skinner, Storme Toolis, Patricia Hodge, Toby Stephens, Clarence Smith Photographer: Marc Brenner

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. Imp. Horror and abuse flash through often very funny scenes played by a cast including Toby Jones and Deborah Findley. Shola Amoo's praised second feature The Last Tree is an account of a boy of Nigerian heritage who grows up in foster care in rural Lincolnshire and then goes to live with his mother in South London. It draws on some of his personal experience. Ann Patchett's new novel The Dutch House is a study of what money can do to a family, what motherhood means and the nature of loss - and it includes a character she claims is her first real villain. Mark Leckey's exhibition O'Magic Power of Bleakness at Tate Britain re-creates a space under a motorway bridge on the M53 where he used to hang out as a child for an audio-visual journey into memory and the world of spirits. And World on Fire is a new BBC1 drama for Sunday nights telling the story of the Second World War from both international and personal perspectives, by award-winning writer Peter Bowker. This week's reviewers are cultural commentator Gaylene Gould, author Catherine O'Flynn and Toby Lichtig, fiction editor of the TLS. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah Johnson This week's podcast extra choices are: Gaylene: Cleveland Watkiss at the EFG London Jazz Festival https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/cleveland-watkiss-60th Catherine: Pushing Paper at the British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pushing_paper.aspx and Hikaru Davis' videos finding out about his dad, David Bowie drummer Dennis Davis: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2aDqSy2_g6hysuYU7uOPw/featured Toby: Brett Anderson of Suede's new memoir Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn Tom: Daniel Rachel's book Don't Look Back in Anger Main Image: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. L-R Toby Jones, Deborah Findlay, Sule Rimi Photo credit: Johan Persson

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 Mandarin Chinese, it's been a huge success at the US box office. Quichotte is Salman Rushdie's latest, Booker-shortlisted novel, a satire on contemporary life and politics. Does its Don Quixote-style plot take the reader with it on its wild ride? Antony Gormley's solo exhibition at the Royal Academy has involved flooding a room in the gallery and filling another with his trademark cast iron figures hanging in different directions from the ceiling, walls and floors. Reasons to Stay Alive at the Sheffield Crucible Studio is based on Matt Haig's enormously successful book of the same name and explores the nature and impact of depression on those who have it and those around them, using choreography and creative staging. Nomad: In The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin is a new film by Werner Herzog. His friend, the traveller and writer Bruce Chatwin, died in 1989 but left him his backpack. Taking it with him he travels the world and considers his relationship with Chatwin. This week's reviewers are Meg Rosoff, Bidisha and Patrick Gale. Presented by Tom Sutcliffe. Podcast extra recommendations: Meg suggests wandering elsewhere at the Royal Academy to see the Félix Vallotton and Helene Schjerfbeck exhibitions: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions-and-events and Wilding by Isabella Tree Bidisha: Awkwafina on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDpVfc2_sYFrdGZ8yhRk4Q Patrick: Better Than Us on Netflix Tom: Undone on Amazon Prime

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 Expensive Poison at The Old Vic in London tells the story of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB man who was poisoned in 2006 in London by agents of the Russian state. A trio of autobiographical works by the late Danish novelist Tove Ditlevsen have just been published: Childhood, Youth and Dependency. There's an extensive exhibition of art by William Blake just opened at Tate Britain State Of The Union is a BBC TV series written by Nicjk Hornby and starring Chris O'Dowd and Rosamund Pike as a married couple undergoing marital therapy Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Liz Jensen, Amber Butchart and John Mullan. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra recommendations: Liz: Guerrilla gardening John: Gloucester Crescent by William Miller Amber: Margate Caves and Leiden Textile Research Centre in Holland https://www.trc-leiden.nl/ Tom: The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver + Evan Davis' Sharpiegate on Thursday's PM on Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008bb7 (listen from 41.22)

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 London's National Theatre is a debut play. A junior Tory minister under Margaret Thatcher comes into deeply personal conflict with his politically-opposed wife over Clause 28 James Meek's novel 'To Calais In Ordinary Time' tells a story about 14th century Europe, written in a distinctive argot scattered with arcane language, following the lives of several characters dealing with - among other things - the approaching Black Death. A new display of items owned by The Rothschilds has opened at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. Items of immense value from ruby and emerald jewellery to Roman glassware and amber caskets, many of these items haven't been on public display before Defending The Guilty is a comedy series on BBC2 exploring the world of barristers Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Billingham, Barb Jungr and Julia Raeside. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Julia: The Dublin Murders by Sarah Phelps + The Portland Brothers + Box Of Delights podcast Barb: Edna O'Brien -The Little Red Chairs + Jazzmeia Horn + Bob, Brel and Me Mark: Peaky Blinders + Nick Lowe Tom: Robert Harris - The Second Sleep + Mortimer and Whitehouse go Fishing

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. Also Bait; set in a fishing village in Cornwall and with an intentionally handmade aesthetic, it explores the tense relationship between locals and incomers. Appropriate at The Donmar Warehouse is a new play from Brandon Jacobs Jenkins. A family in the American south are dealing with the estate of their recently deceased father and unearth some unpleasant truths Mary Beth Keane's new novel - Ask Again, Yes - is set in modern upstate New York following two families whose lives intertwine A Confession on ITV is based on a realm life crime story and stars Martin Freeman as a policeman who has to push the law to achieve justice Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lisa Appignanesi, Emma Jane Unsworth and Andrew Miller The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Emma Jane: Succession series 2 and The New Me by Halle Butler Lisa: Benjamin Markovits - Christmas in Austin and Address Unknown by Kressman Taylor and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Proust Andrew: Chihuly at Kew Gardens and Chernobyl TV series and Eurythmics Tom: Wainwright bagging in The Lake District

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 Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi, it's a play about ethics, morals and the repercussions of decisions both personal and professional. And how does what we say we are affect other people's perceptions of us? Peter Pomerantsev's "This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality" is a book exploring the wreckage of liberal democracy and a search for the signs of its revival. Brassic is a new TV series on Sky, co-created by This Is England’s Joe Gilgun and Bafta-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst. It's about a group of working-class friends in Lancashire finding ways to win at life Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Adam Mars Jones, Dorian Lynskey and Kit Davis. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Adam: Winter Journey by Roderick Williams and Fosse Verdon on BBCTV Kit: Stay Free podcast and There There by Tommy Orange Dorian: Succession Series 2 and This Had Oscar Buzz podcast Tom: Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

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. It deals with the point when The Manson Family drove a stake through the heart of the 1960s peace and love movement. Actually is a play by Annie Ziegler at London's Trafalgar Studios, dealing with the aftermath of an accusation of rape on a college campus Dora Maurer was born in Hungary in 1936 and has a retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern, looking at more than 70 years of diverse creativity Tea Obreht won a slew of the most prestigious literary prizes for her previous (debut) novel. Her latest, just published, is Inland, a story about pioneers in America and the camel corps Andrew Davies is well known for his highly-acclaimed TV adaptations of classic literary works. He has just made Sanditon for ITV, based on the barely-begun work Jane Austen was writing when she died. He has said that he said all her material in the first half of the first episode, but the series runs to 8 episodes; how Austen-esque can it be? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stephanie Merritt, Ryan Gilbey ad Karen Krizanovich. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Karen: Dearly Departed podcast Ryan: The work of Horace Ove Stephanie: Pericles at London's Globe Theatre Tom: Tom Holland's Dominion and Peter Sedgley's Colour Cycle 3

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 collision between settlers and Indigenous Australians, The Secret River. As well as the Bridget Riley retrospective at The National Gallery of Scotland and Blinded By The Light - the film of Safraz Mansoor's story about growing up in Luton and his love for the music of Bruce Springsteen. Also we find out what wonders members of our audience have come across. Tom Sutcliffe's guests Denise Mina, Louise Welsh and Don Paterson. The producer is Oliver Jones Audience recommendations: Samson Young at talbot Rice Gallery, Twice Over at Greenside, Bystanders at Summerhall, Something About Simon at Assembly George Square, The Edinburgh Night Walk at The Fruitmarket Gallery , Scottish Ballet's The Crucuble PodcastExtra recommendations: Denise -My Favourite Murder podcast Don - Succession Louise - Robert McFarlane's Underland Tom -Documentary Now. And Crocodile Fever at The Traverse. And Peter Gynt at The Festival Theatre also Cora Bissett - What Girls Are Made Of at The Assembly Hall

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 Manchester and England at the beginning of industrialisation Animals is a new film based on the novel by Emma Jane Unsworth. Two friends messily drift along and apart and back together in Dublin Colson Whitehead's new novel The Nickel Boys fictionalises the true story of a reform institution in Florida where cruelty, abuse and violence were the norm Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life is at Tate Modern in London - showing 27 years of the output of the Norwegian Icelandic artist This Way Up is a new sitcom on Channel 4 starring Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Henry Hitchings, Patrice Lawrence and Jen Harvie. The producer is Oliver Jones PodcastExtra recommendations: Jen: Burgerz by Travis Alabanza Shit Theatre's Drink Rum with Expats, and Fair Fringe /Cost Of The Fringe/ Fringe of Colour Henry: Jonathan Gibbs - The Large Door Patrice: Anthony Joseph - Kitch and Sam Selvon- The Lonely Londoners

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 on the stage? Thai film Die Tomorrow sounds like it might be a Bond movie but is a thoughtful look at death and mortality; mixing different formats: documentary, drama, interview, but never showing any death Fosse/Verdon begins soon on BBC2. It's an American drama which tells the story of the astonishingly talented choreographer and film director Bob Fosse (played by Sam Rockwell) and his personal and creative relationship with his wife; the dancer Gwen Verdon Last Supper In Pompeii is a new exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It looks at the Roman city which was buried under lava in 79AD, through the prism of food and drink David Constantine's new collection of short stories is The Dressing-Up Box, full of darkness and unsettling worlds Ayesha Hazarika's guests are Deborah Moggach, Bridget Minamore and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Deborah - Crossbones Graveyard in Southwark Michael - Tim Parks' Destiny Bridget - The Mercury Prize nominees and Barbershop Chronicles Ayesha - Love Island

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 based on his 1948 novel and has just opened in a new production at London's Noel Coward Theatre, featuring Clive Own and Lia WIlliams An exhibition looking at mankind's relationship with The Moon begins at The Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich Laura Cummings' biography of her mother's peculiar upbringing; On Chapel Sands A new ITV drama starring Vicki McClure; I Am Nicola Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Oliver Morton and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra recommendations: Oliver: Herman Wouk – The Winds of War AND the Duncan Rand One Act Play Festival Lynn: The Wonder of Wimbledon on TV Abigail: a sonnet a day by Simon de Deney AND Call My Agent Tom: Black Monday on Amazon Prime

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 director David Lynch has curated a series of events at the venue Home, including an exhibition of his artwork and a series of concerts There's been controversy around the Idris ELba/ Kwame Kei Armah play Tree, but will our panel think it's any good? An exhibition by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama; Parliament of Ghosts at The Whitworth Gallery reclaims and repurposes everyday artefacts David Nicholls' new novel Sweet Sorrow is a tale of adolescent/early adult yearnings framed by a Shakespeare production British indie film Only You follows a largely-carefree couple who get together and decide to have a baby but it's not as easy as they'd hoped And (of course) much much more from MIF Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Katie Popperwell and Chris Thorpe. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Sarah: Marius Petipa, The Emperor's Ballet Master by Nadine Meisner Katie: Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast Chris: Abomination by Divide and Dissolve Tom: Spiderman -Into the Spider-verse

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 - fare critically and at the box office? Jack Thorne's latest play The End Of History has just opened at London's Royal Court Theatre. It's the story - over three decades - of a left-leaning family who love each other and love to bicker. 8 Days To The Moon on BBC TV follows the progress of the three astronauts who went to the Moon half a century ago in Apollo 11. It uses previously unreleased audio recordings from within the lunar pod mixed with recreations of the journey. Fleischman Is In Trouble is the debut novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, previously a features writer at The New York Times and GQ. It has had glowing reviews; what will our panle make of it? An exhibition of work by Swiss-born artist Felix Vallotton at London's Royal Academy includes paintings and woodcuts in the many styles he adopted during his career. The show's subtitle is "Painter of Disquiet" Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rebecca Stott, Robert Hanks and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra recommendations: Rebecca - Shame On me by Tessa McWatt Robert - Ngaio Marsh (and you can see Susan as a model on a Ngaio Marsh cover here https://tinyurl.com/y2jmths4 ) Susan - Jodrell Bank Blue Dot Festival and The Night Sky 2019 Tom - Jack Reacher books and BBC World Service's 13 Minutes To The Moon

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 adapted for the stage at The Almeida Theatre in London Cut and Paste; 400 Years of Collage in Edinburgh explores the sticky multi-shaped world of collage Vasily Grossman's novel Stalingrad was his successor to Life and Fate. The first translation into English is eagerly awaited. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Viv Groskop, Briony Hanson and Cahal Dallat. The producers are Oliver Jones and Hilary Dunn podcast extra recommendations: Cahal: the poet Chen Chen Viv: Mud and Stars by Sarah Wheeler and Game of Thrones Briony: pose and Paris Is Burning Tom: What/If on Netflix

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 offer the new generation of toy loving kids? John Malkovich returns to the stage after a 33 year absence to star in David Mamet's Bitter Wheat about a depraved Hollywood mogul . The play's protagonist Barney Fein is described "as a bloated monster – a studio head, who like his predecessor, the minotaur, devours the young he has lured into his cave." Keith Haring at Tate Liverpool is the first major exhibition in the UK of American artist Keith Haring (1958-1990). Keith Haring brings together more than 85 works exploring a broad range of the artist's practice including large-scale drawings and paintings, most of which have never been seen in the UK. TS Eliot prize winning author Ocean Vuong is the American-Vietnamese writer of Night Sky with Exit Wounds. His debut novel "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" continues to explore his family's experience as immigrants and shows how his life story - as much as theirs - is shaped by the devastating legacy of the Vietnam war. ITV’s new period drama Beecham House, set in India at the cusp of the 19th century tells the story of John Beecham, played by Tom Bateman, who arrives in India in 1795 as a former employee of the East India Company. Co-created, written and directed by Gurinder Chadha whose past credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, and Viceroy’s House. Ayesha Hazarika's guests are Stella Duffy, Alex Clark and Kevin Jackson Podcast recommendations: Kevin: Jack Reacher stories Stella: Wild Rumpus art company Alex: Novels set in one day Ayesha: The Handmaid's Tale on TV

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 for his biopic about Amy Winehouse. Now he's looking at Diego Maradona's extraordinary career as the finest footballer in the world and also his unravelling life off the pitch George Clooney appears in and is a producer and director for a new TV adaptation of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 on Channel 4 In Elif Shafak's new novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World we look backwards from the death of a prostitute. In flashback, she remembers her life and reflects on the changing nature of Turkish society The shoe designer Manolo Blahnik has staged an exhibition of his footwear at The Wallace Collection in London, drawing inspiration form the paintings and objects on display there Rajan Datar's guests are Linda Grant, Deborah Orr and David Hepworth. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast suggestions: Linda: the British Music Experience in Liverpool David: High Maintenance TV series Deborah: Killing Eve Rajan: Jumpa Lahiri -The Namesake, soul music and Tahnee Lonsdale at Dellasposa

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 about it? Wife is the latest play by Samuel Adamson which has just opened at The Kiln in London. Drawing on many influences including Ibsen's A Doll's House, it explores many decades of gay history Guyana-born artist Frank Bowling OBE has lived in then UK since he was a teenager and been a painter almost as long. Now at the age of 85, Tate Britain is staging a retrospective exhibition of his abstract expressionist work. Comparisons are being drawn to Rothko, Pollock and Turner Brian Bilston has been described as the Poet Laureate of Twitter. His new comic novel Diary of a Somebody follows his attempt to write a new poem everyday for a year Wild Bill is ITV's comedy starring Rob Lowe as an American police chief constable who is transferred from Boston Massachusetts to Boston in Lincolnshire with hilarious consequences! Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Jenny McCartney, Dea Birkett and Ekow Eshun. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Dea: Delighted by the return of big top circuses Ekow: Faith Ringold at Serpentine Gallery. Also Get Up Stand Up and Kaleidoscope at Somerset House Jenny: Lowborn by Kerry Hudson Tom: MIke Nelson at Tate Britain

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 festivals. What was it about the film which beguiled jurists and audiences? Niven Govinden's novel This Brutal House looks at the New York drag scene of the 1980s and 90s Hauser and Wirth Somerset's latest exhibition ‘Unconscious Landscape: Works from the Ursula Hauser Collection’ is focused entirely on work by female artists There's a TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen - how well can it translate the peculiar magic of the books to the small screen? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kamila Shamsie, Natalie Haynes and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Kamila: The Cricket World Cup David: Crossroads Motel board game and Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning and Mum on BBC2 Natalie: Hay Festival and Chris Ridell and Po’ Girl Tom: Oliver Morton – The Moon and the OED

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 make of it? King Hedley II starring Lenny Henry, has opened at the Theatre Royal Stratford East Gerald Murnane's novel A Season On Earth tells the tale of a lustful teenager in Melbourne in the 1950s. It was originally published in 1976 and is now reissued as was originally intended; with two previously unseen new chapters Marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham palace brings together more than 200 of his drawings from the Royal Collection, forming the largest exhibition of Leonardo's work in over 65 years. When They See Us is a new series beginning on Netflix. Directed by Ava DuVernay which tells the true story of the 1989 Central Park Jogger case in which five juvenile males – four African-American and one Hispanic – were convicted of the crimes. They spent time in jail and were eventually cleared 25 years later Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Laura Freeman, Jim White and Lynn Shepherd. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Jim: Free Solo and Dawn Wall Laura: Barbara Hepworth/Ben Nicholson at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Gallery Lynn: Don Giovanni at Garsington Opera Tom: BBC podcast Shreds

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 opened at London's Royal Court. About 6 Asian women in an office in Singapore who try to fix a problem when their advertisement goes viral by mistake. And then things spiral out of control. New novels from Thomas Harris - Cari Mora: set in Miami, monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival. And also from Denise Mina - Conviction: about a woman whose complicated secret past begins to catch up with - and then threatens to overtake - her. A Tale of Two Empires at Birmingham's Barber Institute looks at the coins from the same period of Rome and Persia. Also we take a look at their permanent art collection. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Holland, Arifa Akbar and Danielle Thom. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast Extra recommendations: Tom H: Linda Grant - A Stranger City and Game of Thrones. Arifa: Rejoicing at her Wondrous Vulva, the Young Woman Applauded Herself at The Oval House and Whatever Happened to Interracial Love by Kathleen Collins. Danielle waxed lyrical about the joy of mending and making things by hand and of psychogeography. Also the imminent Secret Rivers Of London exhibition at The Museum of London. Tom S: The Longdrop by Denise Mina and Years and Years on BBC1.

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 female con artists in Chris Addison's directorial debut, The Hustle. It's a gender-swap reworking of 1988 comedy film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; but is it funny? Shane Meadows has created a new 4 part drama for Channel 4: The Virtues, starring Stephen Graham as a traumatised young man who grows up and becomes a loving dad but can't quite let go of his past Mark Haddon's new novel The Porpoise reworks Shakespeare's Pericles, weaving a contemporary story with the classic tale An exhibition of David Nash sculptures in Cardiff is a look at a long career collaborating with nature to make predominantly wooden works. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stephen Hough, Sarah Churchwell and Louise Doughty. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra choices Stephen: Chocolaterie Luc Van Hoorebeke in Ghent Louise: The Author's Club Best First Novel Award Sarah: Orson Welles' The Stranger

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 Hampstead Theatre - is a re-imagining of Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure with a Syrian cleaner who possesses a prodigious skill set in the classics and ancient languages - as the title character Writing: Making Your Mark is the newest exhibition at The British Library. It charts 5,000 years of human innovation from hieroglyphs to emojis Sandra Newman's novel The Heavens can be seen as five works in one - a time travel story, historical fiction, political allegory, social realism and a love story. How satisfyingly do the component parts combine into a coherent whole? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Shakespeare, Helen Lewis and Katie Puckrik. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Tom Shakespeare - Phyllida Barlow at the Royal Academy and The Porpoise by Mark Haddon and The Bodmer Library in Geneva Helen Lewis - Ritblatt Treasures at The British Library and Patrick Melrose on NowTV Katie Puckrik -Clique on BBC3 and Tom Sutcliffe -Barry on NowTV

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 and tribulations of high school life, discovering how the world works and why. Arthur Miller's All My Sons was his breakthrough work when it debuted on Broadway in 1947. A new production at London's Old Vic theatre stars Sally Field and Bill Pullman Lux is the latest historical novel by Elizabeth Cook, it continues her fascination with exploring classical themes; this time the story of David and Bathsheba interwoven with the life of 16th century poet Thomas Wyatt There's a new exhibition celebrating the work of film director Stanley Kubrick which has just opened at The Design Museum in London. On display are items from his personal archive directly related to his long career on groundbreaking films including 2001 A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket and Spartacus Curry House Kid on Channel 4 is a documentary about Akram Khan's upbringing above a curry house and his desire to dance. it includes a new work about the world of the migrant Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Amber Butchart, Bob and Roberta Smith and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Bob: Sister Corita Kent at The House of Illustration Amber:Canterbury Archaeological trust the margate Caves Kerry: David Hepworth - a Fabulous Creation and Space Odyssey... by Michael Benson and After Life on Netflix Tom: documentary "Room 237"

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 reunites with Anne-Marie Duff as Charity, and Arthur Darvill makes his Donmar debut as Oscar, for her farewell production as Donmar Artistic Director. During Sweet Charity, multiple guest actors will play the role of Daddy Brubeck including Shaq Taylor, Adrian Lester, Le Gateau Chocolat, Beverley Knight and Clive Rowe. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel Machines Like Me poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London, where Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. The novel's narrator Charlie drifts through life making his money by playing the stock market when he becomes involved in a menage a trois with a difference - one of the three is one of the first synthetic humans. It is not long before this strange love triangle inhabiting an even stranger alternate reality have to confront some profound moral dilemmas. Smoke and Mirrors The Psychology of Magic at the Wellcome Collection in London explores how magicians have achieved astonishing feats of trickery by exploiting the gap between what we think we perceive and what we actually perceive. Recently scientists have begun to appreciate this ability as a powerful tool for the study of human psychology. This research has emerged from an extraordinary history that stretches back to the 19th century, where a fascination with the paranormal coincided with the birth of science as a profession and the flourishing of the entertainment industry. Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s new film Loro - which means "them" - focuses on the controversial life of the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi around the time of the “bunga-bunga” parties and the earthquake in L’Aquila. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Geoffrey Durham, Naima Khan and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Hilary Dunn. Podcast Extra Selections: Naima recommends Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations Geoffrey recommends the Swedish fantasy film Border and movie Leave No Trace Stephanie recommends the following Kate Atkinson 'Jackson Brodie' novels: One Good Turn, Case Histories, Started Early Took My Dog, When Will There Be Good News, Big Sky Tom recommends the Jon Ronson podcast 'The Last Days of August'

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 jail. The Mary Quant exhibition at London's V&A shows a wide selection of her vibrant daring designs, made to be worn by real women and girls in the 60s and 70s A new play by one of France's brightest new names has just opened at London's Park Theatre; Intra Muros by Alexis Michalik is set in a drama workshop in a prison The Parisian is a novel by Isabella Hammad, set in pre-Balfour Middle East. It has received a lot of extremely warm praise from other authors, what will our panel make of it? We look at a couple of TV programmes coming at the same subject from different angles Life After Lock-Up, a documentary on Channel 4 about prisoners returning to society and Back To Life, a dramedy on BBC1 with Daisy Haggard Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Patrick Gale, Ayesha Hazerika and Catherine o'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra selections Ayesha: Fleabag and The Breakup Monologues podcast Catherine: 1970s Public Service information films, and especially "Apaches" Patrick: BP Portrait of the Year exhibition in Winchester and Kate Clanchy- Some Kids I Taught Tom: David Sedaris on Radio 4. Barry on Sky Atlantic

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 Girls is revived by The National Theatre; is it hard not to view it nowadays as a period piece? Damian Barr's debut novel: You Will Be Safe Here is set in two separate parts of South Africa's troubled history The Victim is a new 4-part drama on BBC1., following the plaintiff and the accused in a Scottish court case. Can it provide a new twist on the much-worked-over TV formula of crime and courtroom drama and police procedural? A new exhibition at York Art Gallery looks at the work of John Ruskin and the influence of JMW Turner. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, Emma Woolf and John Mullan. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast Extra Recommendations Meg: The Alarming Palsy of James Orr by Tom Lee and Don McCullin's Tate Britain exhibition John: Call My Agent on Netflix Emma: 5 Live's podcast Paradise Tom: English Baroque Choir

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 the stage by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy. It has just opened at the Barbican in London. Vincent Van Gogh lived in London for a few years and Tate Britain is staging an Exhibition Van Gogh and and Britain looking at the artists who influenced him, his own work and the artists he has influenced. Ewan Morrison's novel Nina X is a kidnap story about a young girl who was brainwashed by a Maoist cult before eventually being rescued and rehabilitated. British artist Sean Scully is one of Britain's richest artists and BBC2's Arena has followed him for a year, painting and creating and opening exhibitions of his work around the world. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Tusa, Deborah Moggach and Alex Preston. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Deborah: Judges Lodgings in Presteigne John: The Way We Live Now by Trollope Alex: Standing At The Sky's Edge at The Crucible in Sheffield Tom: Wild Swans by Jung Chang

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 Adelaide Wilson whose childhood obsession with the Hands Across America commercial reverberates through the film. American tv drama Pose on BBC 2 features the largest transgender cast of any commercial, scripted TV show and trans writers Janet Mock and Our Lady J worked on the script alongside the show’s creators, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals. Ryan Murphy’s previous TV credits include Glee, Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story. Pose is set in 1987–88 and looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the African-American and Latino ball culture world, the downtown social and literary scene, and the rise of the yuppie Trump milieu. Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He has written 14 books, including A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What, The Circle and Heroes of the Frontier. His new novel The Parade tell the story of two foreign contracters who are sent to finish a highway in an unnamed country which is emerging from decades of war into a fragile peace. Jews, Money, Myth at the Jewish Museum in London is a major exhibition exploring the role of money in Jewish life. Art work included Rembrandt's first masterpiece Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver and new commissions by Jeremy Deller and Doug Fishbone. American choreographer Mark Morris's Pepperland premiered at Liverpool’s Sgt Pepper at 50 festival in 2017 and is a collaboration between Morris and composer Ethan Iverson inspired by the Beatles iconic album. It is described as an "exuberant new dance work, visually on the cusp of Carnaby Street and Woodstock, it teases out the album’s colourfully avant-garde heart and eccentric charm, and resounds with all the ingenuity, musicality and wit for which the Mark Morris Dance Group is known.” Ethan Iverson composes a score featuring six idiosyncratic, jazzy reinventions of the original Beatle songs, including A Day in the Life, When I’m Sixty-Four, Penny Lane (originally meant to be on album, With a Little Help From My Friends and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club, and is performed live by a seven-piece band. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kate Bassett, Kit Davis and Don Guttenplan . The producer is Hilary Dunn

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's all very meta but is it marvellous? Milton Keynes has just reopened its art gallery. Much enlarged and architecturally improved, the first exhibition there is The Lie Of The Land, charting how the British landscape was transformed by changes in free time and leisure The bicentenary of Queen Victoria's birth has seen lots of artistic projects to mark the moment. Norther Ballet has commissioned a work by choreographer Cathy Marston which looks at the Queen's life through her relationship with her youngest daughter. Sadie Jones won the Costa First Novel award for her book The Outcast and her latest The Snakes is set in contemporary London and Burgundy. BBC4 marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web with programmes including Me My Selfie and I presented by Ryan Gander and How To Go Viral: The Art of the Meme With Richard Clay Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ellen E Jones, Jen Harvie and Toby Lichtig . The producer is Oliver Jones PodcastExtra recommendations Jen: Carolee Schneemann and Katherine Araniello Ellen: The Dropout podcast Toby: Max Cooper and Country by Michael Hughes Tom: James Mays' BBC documentary on Hornby Trains

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 circle of a grieving best-selling author. Ray and Liz is the debut film from photographer Richard Billingham; weaving a story from his 1996 collection of autobiographical portraits of his hard-drinking and hard smoking parents living on the margins of society in a Black Country council home. Max Porter's new novel Lanny is a follow-up to his much-lauded debut Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. A magical child communicates with the present and a mysterious past Photographer Martin Parr has an exhibition. Only Human at London's National Portrait Gallery combining old and previously unseen works. ITV's police drama The Bay is set in the picturesque surroundings of Morecambe, Lancashire. Might it become the new Broadchurch? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Charlotte Mullins and Emma Jane Unsworth. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Christopher: If Beale Street Could Talk and Moonlight. Also The Salt Path by Raynor Winn Emma-Jane: The Good Immigrant USA by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman Charlotte: Studio Voices by Michael Bird and The National Sound Archive Tom: the disputed Caravaggio at the Colnaghi Gallery

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 First Award. It investigates the healing power of clothes. Following a traumatic experience, a young woman decides to create her entire wardrobe of clothes herself as her own way of coping The latest exhibition at London's Royal Academy looks at Renaissance Nudes. Transferring from The Getty Centre in LA, it has many extraordianry works which have never come to the UK before. Blood is Maggie Gee's new novel. About a deputy head-teacher on the run after her father has been found badly beaten and bloodied. He had plenty of people who loathed him but his daughter Monica falls under suspicion It's more than 3 decades since Richard Gere made a TV series. In Mother Father Son on BBC2, he plays the patriarch of a super-powerful media mogul with personal family problems Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Tom Dyckhoff and Muriel Zagha. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcastextra recommendations: Rosie: the joy of making pots, The novels of T C Boyle and The Uninhabitable Earth Tom D: The music of Talk Talk Muriel: The Christian Dior Exhibition at The V+A, films about birth, The Geneva Ceramics Museum Tom S: The York Museum Ceramics collection, The Dropout podcast

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 Oscar Shipwreck is American plawright Ann Washburn's latest play to premiere at London's Almeida Theatre. It's vehemently anti-Trump, but does the polemic get in the way for our reviewers? Nico Walker's novel Cherry tells his own - thinly disguised - life story. Born in Cleveland served in the US military in Iraq and returned home suffering from PTSD. developed heroin addiction, robbed banks to support his habit and ended up in jail. And that's where Walker is right now, serving out the last 2 years of his 11 year sentence for armed robbery. Is it grim, gripping or ghastly? The National Portrait Gallery in London is staging an exhibition of Elizabethan miniatures. Exquisite small portaits of figures of the day; bring a magnifying glass! Papanno's Greatest Arias: the director of London's Royal Opera House explores the attraction and technique involved in these vocal set pieces Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kathryn Hughes, Barb Jungr and Boyd Tonkin. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast choices: Barb recommends And Breath Normally on Netflix and Antti Tuomainen Boyd recommends Harald Sohlberg at The Dulwich Picture Gallery Tom recommends Great News on Netflix Kathryn recommends tidying up

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 examples of Rembrandt’s prints A Private War is a film about the war correspondent Marie Colvin, who reported on conflicts around the world and was killed in Homs in Syria in 2012 Arthur Miller's play The American Clock, set in New York City in 1929, has just opened at The Old Vic Theatre in London. It's not revived very often: is that for a good reason? Austrian author Robert Menasse's latest novel The Capital won The 2017 German Book Prize. Set around The European Commission it's a story full of tragic heroes, manipulative losers and involuntary accomplices. Traitors on Channel 4 - a spy thriller set in London at the end of the Second World War and the beginning of The Cold War Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tracy Chevalier, Miranda Carter and Terence Blacker. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast recommendations Miranda recommends Mercury Rev's album The Delta Sweete and Game of Thrones Tom recommends: Storyville - Conroy Under The Wire on iPlayer Tracy recommends: Clemency Burton Hill's book- Year of Wonder and especially Unsent Love Songs by Elena Kats Chernin Terence recommends: walking in the Waveny Valley

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 prove her fiancé is innocent of a crime Katherine Parkinson stars in Home I'm Darling, recently opened at London's Duke of York Theatre, as an ideal 1950s housewife living in the present day Tessa Hadley's newest novel Late In The Day. The death of a close friend in a tight circle of long-term friends throws all the remaining relationships into sharp relief The painter George Shaw - famed for his realist suburban subject matter has a new exhibition opening at the Holburne Museum in Bath A new BBC2 documentary David Bowie: Finding Fame investigates how David Robert Jones became David Bowie using previously unseen footage, interviews with friends and lovers and correspondence that is less than flattering. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Susie Boyt, Irenosen Okojie and Pat Kane. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra recommendations: Irenosen: Russian Doll on Netflix Tom: Ruskin Exhibition at 2 Temple Place

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 Kilgallen. In the early 1990s - when she was in her early 50s - Lee found herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace. Unable to pay the rent (or the vet bills for her beloved cat) she turned her art form to deception, aided by her loyal friend Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant). You Know You Want This is the debut collection of short stories from Kristen Roupenian whose short story, Cat Person, became a viral sensation after being published by the New Yorker in December 2017. It became their most read story ever, with more than 2.6 million hits and counting. Included in this collection alongside 11 new stories which are described as examining "the pull and push of revulsion and attraction between people." Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living receives its highly anticipated UK Premiere at Hampstead Theatre starring Adrian Lester and directed by Ed Hall. John, a wealthy, brilliant, and successful PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a recent graduate who has fallen on hard times, as his new carer. Across town, truck driver Eddie attempts to support and re-engage with his estranged wife, Ani, following a terrible accident that has left her quadriplegic. As four very different lives collide and entwine, roles are unapologetically flipped, reversed and exposed - who is actually caring for whom? A Place That Exists Only in the Moonlight: Katie Paterson and JM Turner at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate is the largest UK exhibition of Scottish artist Katie Paterson to date - paired by the artist with a group of works by JMW Turner. Works by Paterson included in the exhibition are Vatnajökull (the sound of), Earth-Moon-Earth and a new work, Cosmic Spectrum, the result of working with scientists Paterson creates a spinning wheel which charts the colour of the universe through each era of its existence. And a look at two recent reality television releases; the BAFTA nominated BBC 3 series Eating With My Ex - in which former couples are reunited over dinner to pick over the bones of their failed relationships - and Channel 4's Flirty Dancing which aims to match singletons based on their love of dance. Each hopeful will learn half a routine, taught by Dancing on Ice judge and Diversity star Ashley Banjo, which they will perform as a couple when they meet for the first time. Podcast extra recommendations Simon: Paul Weller - True Meanings, Fiddler On the Roof at The Menier Chocolate Factory, David Bramwell- The Cult of Water Kate: Pamela by Samuel Richardson and Fleabag on BBC3 Alex: Tessa Hadley -Late In The Day Tom: Peep Show on All 4 and Karl Marlantes -Matterhorn

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 Samuel Richardson's Pamela at the National Theatre is described as "six characters who act out a dangerous game of sexual domination and resistance." When Franz Kafka died in 1924, he left instructions that any remaining manuscripts should be burnt. These instructions were not followed and a legal battle ensued to decide to whom they should belong: to the country of his language - Germany, of his birth - Czechoslovakia or his cultural affinities -Israel?. Benjamin Balint's book follows the machinations of alleged ownership An exhibition of paintings by Pierre Bonnard at Tate Modern; "The Colour Of Memory" includes several canvases with their frames removed to reveal how he worked. Nicole Kidman plays a cop setting out to establish justice and to right wrongs in Destroyer. And a sneak preview of Saturday Review's Podcast Extra Cultural picks this week: Lynn Shepherd – True Detective – series 1 and 3 https://www.hbo.com/true-detective Katie Puchrik – https://www.sceneonradio.org/ Inua Elems – American sonnets for My Past and Future Assassins by Terrance Hayes Toms Sutcliffe's guests are Inua Ellams, Katie Puckrik and Lynn Shepherd. The producers are Oliver Jones and Hilary Dunn

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 opened at The Kiln Theatre in London. Set in a run-down minicab office in the north of England, it deals with how far you can trust your oldest friends Prix Goncourt-winning Leila Slimani's latest novel Adele is about a woman who - bored with her apparently idyllic married life - decides to plunge into a world of illegal drugs, anonymous rampant sex, excessive alcohol and she has to lie to her disabled husband. Fausto Melotti was an Italian Futurist sculptor. Revered in Italy, he is less known beyond its borders but an exhibition at The Estorick Collection hopes to increase awareness of his harmonious and delicately-poised work Ride Upon The Storm is part of Channel 4's Walter Presents strand of international dramas. A Danish series by BAFTA award winning writer Adam Price, who previously created Borgen. Starring Lars Mikkelsen, it's about a family of priests with an ungodly father and all-too-human sons Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Luke Jennings, Deborah Bull and Patrice Lawrence. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations Luke: Mr Robot TV series Patrice: audiobook of The Rivers of London, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Deborah: Until The Lions by Akram Khan Tom: the book A Long Way To Shilo by Lionel Davidson and the film Free Solo

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 between the two film comedy pioneers Laurel and Hardy as they toured the UK in their twilight years. Starring Steve Coogan and John C Reilly it deals with their occasional disputes and deep love and respect for each other Eric Vuillard's novel The Order Of The Day won 2017's Prix Goncourt. It's about Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland, imagining the processes and machinations that made it possible and not quite the triumph it was portrayed The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has an exhibition of "Whistler and Nature". exploring how J.M. Whistler's relationship towards the natural world evolved throughout his life Guitar Drum and Bass is a new series on BBC4, exploring the role that these instruments have played in the development of popular music - what makes a great drummer/bassist/guitarist? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Billingham, Alice Jones and Susannah Clapp. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra Alice recommends Daniel Kitson at Battersea Arts Centre Mark recommends the Twitter poetry exchange between Richard Osman and Piers Morgan. Also the reissue of The Beatles' White Album, Willie Vlautin Susannah recommends Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies Tom recommends the podcast Broken Hearts

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 video game, two coming of age graphic novels and try to get out of a World War Two themed escape room. The Return of the Obra Dinn, a video game set in the 1807 in which you take on the role of an insurance adjuster, tasked with investigating a ship that has drifted into harbour after five years lost at sea, and determining the fates of the 60 people aboard. Fashioned from Nature, an exhibition in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the natural origins to the clothes we wear as well as the fashion industry’s toll on nature. The Horror of Dolores Roach, is a gory podcast drama which updates Sweeney Todd into a contemporary gentrified New York neighbourhood, starring Daphne Rubin-Vega and Bobby Cannavale. Two coming of age graphic novels, Grafity’s Wall by Ram V and My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies from Ed Brubaker. The former is about four young people living in Mumbai, the latter is a pulp-fiction tale about a American teenage girl in a rehabilitation centre. Plus the panel visit an escape room, a physical game which asks players to solves puzzle in order to win their escape from a room within a set time. The Adventure Begins in London, is themed around a World War Two prisoner of war camp, will our panelist make it out in time? Jordan’s guests are Shahidha Bari, Amber Butchart, and Rajan Data. Produced by Kate Bullivant.

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 which we didn't get a chance to review from the past 12 months. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Tiffany Jenkins and Ekow Eshun and lots of listeners on the phone from around the country, who tell us what particularly impressed them last year. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra recommendations: Ekow: Strange days exhibition Tiffany: pre-sale auction houses Tom; Bill Viola

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 of The Sherman Brothers' originals. Is it unfair to compare it with the much-loved Disney original? or is it impossible not to? The screenwriter of Black Panther, Danai Gurira's play The Convert at London's Young Vic stars Letitia Wright and Paapa Essiedu. Set in late 19th century Africa, a young woman is working for a devout Catholic priest who wants to spiritually mould her. John Lanchester's novel The Wall is about why the young are correct to distrust the old Dead Poets Live is about putting poetry on the stage, drawing together the most exciting performers to bring our greatest poets to new audiences, creating theatre out of poems and poets BBC1 has some BIG Christmas drama offerings. And it includes a 3 part adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel The Long Song, set in Jamaica during the final years of slavery and the transition to freedom. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Andrew O'Hagan, Rowan Pelling and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones. Main image: Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns. Credit: Disney Pictures. Podcast Extra Andrew recommends The Life of Saul Bellow, Vol II - Love and Strife, 1965-2005 by Zachary Leader. Rowan recommends Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Stephanie recommends The Affair, ITV. Tom recommends James Joyce's Letters to Nora.

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 return? Why did she leave? Who is the young woman who arrives while he's waiting? It's a play for Christmas with warmth at its heart Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle is the latest version of The Jungle Book just released on Netflix. Directed by Andy Serkis and starring motion-capture animals with famous voice actors, what USP makes it different from the previous versions. Prize winning Mexican author Emiliano Monge's novel Among The Lost is a grim tale of 24 hours in the lives of 2 human traffickers in Latin America. How can an author breathe life into and make us care for two merciless criminals Rachel Maclean's show at London's National Gallery is The Lion and The Unicorn a video work based around the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014. If you are a fan of Bruce Springsteen, you will LOVE Springsteen on Broadway, a recording of his solo Broadway solo concert series which ran for 236 shows. If you're not, is it possible that you might be won over? Our reviewers were; find out why. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Linda Grant and Nikesh Shukla. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra Natalie recommends Company at The Gielgud Theatre in London, Hadestown at London's National Theatre, Good Grief Charlie Brown at Somerset House and the TV series Community Nikesh recommends The Good Place and Go Ahead In The Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib Linda recommends Mansfield Park by Jane Austen Tom recommends going to see Monarch OF The Glen at London's National Gallery

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's The Image Book is described as an avant-garde horror movie, a vast mosaic of image and sound exploring the modern Arabic world. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Although it did not win the official prize, the jury awarded it the first "Special Palme d'Or" in the festival's history Sheridan Smith, Alison Steadman and Sinead Keenan star in Care, a new 90-minute drama on BBC One, by Jimmy McGovern, co-written with Gillian Juckes whose real life experiences of how the NHS responds to patients with dementia formed the inspiration for the story. Joyce Carol Oates’s Hazards of Time Travel is her 46th novel and its published alongside a reissue of her bestselling novel Blonde, a fictionalised account of Marilyn Munro’s life. At 80 Oates is a five times Pullitzer prize finalist. Hazards of Time Travel is a dystopian narrative sets 20 years from now in a totalitarian North American States, or NAS where the punishment for speaking out is "deletion." Darren Almond's new work includes Time Will Tell and 9 x 9 x 9 at White Cube Bermondsey and focuses on the idea of time and how it is articulated through the language of numbers. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Benedict, Helen Lewis and Meg Rosoff. The producer is Hilary Dunn Podcast Extra: Helen Lewis's choice - Normal People by Sally Rooney Meg Rosoff's choice - Fiddler On The Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory David Benedict's choice - Radio 3's Remembering World War 1: Vaughan WIlliams and Beyond including Cheryl Frances-Hoad's new work Last Man Standing

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 from Netflix it is getting a limited cinema release before it is available online in order to be eligible for Oscar consideration. Turbulence is the newest book from David Szalay; a collection of 12 interconnected short stories all of which revolve around international flights London's National Gallery has an exhibition of work by two astounding artists who happened to be and brothers-in-law: Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. It tells a story of art, family, rivalry, and personality. Gun No.6 is a documentary which tells the story of each crime carried out over a decade, using Britain's most deadly, illegal gun. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Moggach, Catherine O'Flynn and Cahal Dallat. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra: Deborah recommends the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy in London Catherine recommends Stan's Cafe and The Commentators Cahal recommends Conrad Shawcross: Psychogeometries Tom recommends People Just Do Nothing on BBC3

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 National Theatre on its way from Off-Broadway to Broadway. It sets the Greek myth of story of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern New Orleans (and the underworld of course!) and reimagines the sweeping ancient tale as a timeless allegory for today's world. Chris Kraus wrote the bestseller I Love Dick and now follows it with Social Practices, a particular mix of biography, autobiography, fiction, criticism, and conversations among friends. How does it hold together as a single book? There's an exhibition of work by French artist Fernand Leger just opened at Tate Liverpool charting his development throughout his life. BBC2's Death and Nightingales is an adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s novel set in Fermanagh in 1885, written by Alan (The Fall) Cubitt Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kate Bassett, Kit Davis and Kevin Jackson. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra Kate recommends Gainsborough's Family Album at The National Portrait Gallery in London Kit recommends the podcasts Reply All and 99% Invisible Kevin is beguiled by The Other Side Of The Wind on Netflix Tom is entranced by repair videos on YouTube

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 people's writer's group where tensions over the plot development spill into the film's own story-line Italian author Elena Ferrante's multi-million selling, globally-successful novels are coming to the TV. My Brilliant Friend has been adapted and directed by Saverio Costanzo: a man! Some avid fans have wondered aloud whether such a female-centric story might be beyond his capabilities. Uwe Johnson's 1800 page meisterwerk Anniversaries was published in 4 parts from 1970 to 1983. It has just been translated into English for the first time - will they delight in its scope? An exhibition at Modern Art Oxford of video work by Penny Woolcock reveals her fascination with the underdog Podcastextra recommendations: Kathryn is a fan of Channel 4's The Secret Life of The Zoo Don was overawed by the majesty of the redwoods in Muir Woods in California Jenny has been reading Kafka's The Unhappiness of Being A Single Man Tom is looking forward to watching The House of Assad on BBC TV Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Don Guttenplan, Kathryn Hughes and Jenny McCartney. The producer is Oliver Jones

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 his trilogy which began in 2001 with The Rotters Club. It follows the same characters and their offspring dealing with life from 2010 to today Jane Austen began - but never finished - a book which became known as The Watsons. In Laura Wade's new play opening at Chichester's Festival Theatre she picks up the story to interrogate what happens to characters when the author abandons them....? Home Futures is a new exhibition at London's Design Museum comparing 20th century prototypes with the latest domestic innovations, and it asks "Are we living in yesterday's tomorrow?" Grand Designs is a long established Channel 4 TV show whose format allows viewers to follow the trials tribulations and triumphs of daring innovative home building projects. There's also a 'spinoff' Home of the Year edition Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Rebecca Stott, Maev Kennedy and Sarah Crompton. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra: Maev is delighted by the Twickenham Cinema Club Rebecca recommends Emma Rice's production of Wise Children at The Old Vic Sarah recommends Robert Icke's production of The Wild Duck at The Almeida Theatre

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 taught in schools and this film aims to increase public awareness of the barbarity and indifference of the authorities. We're reviewing 2 illustrated story books; Booker Prize winner George Saunders follows up Lincoln In The Bardo with a story apparently written by a fox. Also Posy Simmonds "Cassandra Darke" about love and dark machinations in world of fine art trading. Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele were near-contemporaries on the Viennese art scene if the late 1800s. A new exhibition at London's Royal Academy shows a selection of their drawings; erotic, tender, explicit, ethereal, beautiful and intimate Olivier and BAFTA award-winning playwright debbie tucker green's new play at The Royal Court Theatre in London is ear for eye, described as "a play about protest and the black body in the UK and US today” containing “snapshots of some experiences of protest; violence versus non-violence, direct action versus demonstrations”. Doing Money is a one-off drama for BBC TV about sex trafficking of Eastern European women. The writer Gwyneth Hughes also recently adapted Vanity Fair; the contrast could hardly be greater. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ayesha Hazarika, Liz Jensen and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra selections: Liz recommends The British Library's selection of Mervyn Peake's manuscripts Ayesha recommends Tunng Robert recommends Day Of The Outlaw Tom recommends Room 237

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 patronise them. An exhibition of the work of pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones has opened at Tate Britain in London. Its their first major retrospective of his work for 75 years and includes works that have never been on public display before. Following BBC TV's enormous success with The Night Manager there's a new leCarre drama - Little Drummer Girl Martin McDonagh's play A Very Very Very Dark Matter has just opened at London's Bridge Theatre. It begins with the idea that Hans Christian Andersen kept a Congolese pygmy in a 3ft x 3ft box in his home and SHE wrote all his stories, living on a diet of sausages. And, oh yes! Charles Dickens also had one too... Barbara Kingsolver's novel Unsheltered follows 2 parallel stories about families - nearly 150 years apart - sharing the same house Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Elizabeth Day and Tom Shakespeare. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast extra choices: Blake recommends Philip Larkin: Letters Home Elizabeth recommends Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister Tom Shakespeare recommends Melmoth by Sarah Perry Tom Sutcliffe recommends In The Dark podcast

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 the testimonies of the soldiers who fought. Is it tampering with history or an exciting new way to bring it back to life? Oceania at The Royal Academy is the first major survey of Oceanic art to be held in the UK, featuring art from Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. From New Guinea to Easter Island , Hawaii to New Zealand it marks the 250th anniversary of Captain Cooke setting sail on the Endeavour Sally Rooney's novel Normal People was longlisted for this year's Man Booker prize. The highly-praised story follows the complicated and passionate relationship of 2 young lovers in modern Ireland Nina Raine's new play Stories at The National's Dorfman Theatre is about a 39 year old woman who wants to have a baby 'before it's too late' and her efforts to find the best father for her much-longed-for child Sally4Ever is Julia Davis' painfully-uncomfortable new comedy series on Sky Atlantic, about a bored woman who decides to ditch her dull fiance to pursue a lesbian affair Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Geoffrey Durham and Viv Groskop. The producer is Oliver Jones Podextra recommendations Rosie recommends Stacey Dooley investigates Fashion's Dirty Secrets on BBC iPlayer Geoffrey recommends Whistle In The Dark by Emma Healey Viv recommends Angus Roxburgh's Moscow Calling Tom recommends The Long Take by Robin Robertson

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 often under-appreciated partners of artistic geniuses whose contribution to their work and achievements has been hitherto unacknowledged or unknown. Jonathan Price and Eileen Atkins star in The Height Of The Storm, a new play by Florian Zeller translated by Christopher Hampton which has just opened in London The Penguin Book Of The Contemporary British Short Story includes 30 works from writers including Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Martin Amis, Rose Tremain and many more Informer is a new BBC TV series about a young British Muslim who is coerced into becoming a police informer to infiltrate his own community. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Mullan, Tiffany Jenkins and Arifa Akbar. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra: Arifa recommends: Memoirs of An Asian Football Casual and Ben Okri's short film The Insider Tiffany recommends the Slow Burn Podcast from Slate John recommends The Wife Tom recommends Sondheim's Company

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 star reviews all over the place; what will our reviewers make of it? There's a double-bill of Harold Pinter plays; The Lover and The Collection opening in London as part of Pinter At The Pinter. A series of one-act plays at the theatre named after the playwright. Berta Isla is the latest novel from award-winning Spanish writer Javier Marias. It's a story of love, espionage, betrayal and coming to terms with who you and what you can't change. Survey at The Jerwood Space in London is a chance to catch the work of 15 early-career artists from across a range of disciplines The Bisexual is a new drama series coming to Channel 4, created by and starring Desiree Akhavan (director of The Miseducation of Cameron Post) which explores - yes, you guessed it - the potentially thorny subject of bisexuality. Podcast Extra: Miranda Carter recommends the trailer for the new Holmes and Watson film and Also A Perfect Spy by John le Carre Esther recommends The BBC's RatLine podcasts Charlotte recommends Sylvia by Zoo Nation Tom doesn't really recommend Doris Salcedo at White Cube Bermondsey Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Esther Freud, Charlotte Mullins and Miranda Carter. The producer is Oliver Jones

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 (and Dizzee rascal's award-winning album Boy In Da Corner in particular) changed the life of a young Mormon girl in Essex who transformed from Deborah Stevenson into Grime MC Debris. It's about how an album can turn your life around. Sarah Perry's 2016 novel The Essex Serpent was a runaway prize-winning success. Her latest - Melmoth - is a supernatural tale full of dilemmas and questions Space Shifters is an exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery which intends to re-orientate visitor's perceptions of the world around them Two Sci-fi TV series Maniac and Counterpart have begun on Netflix and Amazon Prime respectively Podcast Extra: Kamila Shamsie recommends the Canadian literary journal Brick. Barb Jungr recommends the band 10cc. Tom Dyckhoff recommends the book Inner City Pressure by Dan Hancox and two exhibitions at London's Photographers' Gallery. Tom Sutcliffe recommends the radio programme Ratlines on Radio 4 and the Doris Salcedo exhibition at White Cube. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kamila Shamsie, Tom Dyckhoff and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones

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 Hall, a country manor where his mother once worked as a housemaid. The Little Stranger also stars Ruth Wilson, Charlotte Rampling and Will Poulter. Giacomo Puccini's Tosca in a new production by Opera North opens at the Grand Theatre in Leeds, directed by Edward Dick, conducted by Antony Hermus and starring Giselle Allen, Rafael Rojas and Robert Hayward. Dick‘s new production relocates Puccini’s political thriller from Rome during the Napoleonic wars to an unnamed present-day country in which church and state collude as forces of reaction. Lake Success is American writer Gary Shteyngart's fourth novel and tells the story of hedge fund manager Barry Cohen, who oversees 2.4 billion dollars in assets. Stressed by a fraud investigation and by his son's diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler life with his old college sweetheart. Making a New World season continues at the Imperial War Museum in London with four new exhibitions. John Akomfrah's Mimesis: African Soldier, Renewal: Life after the First World War in Photographs, Moments of Silence - two immersive installations from 59 Productions - and I Was There: Room of Voices, bringing together personal voices reflecting on the Armistice from the IWM's own sound archive. The Cry is a new 4-part psychological drama set in Scotland and Australia on BBC1. The drama chronicles the collapse of a marriage in the aftermath of the abduction of a baby from a small coastal town in Australia. Written by Jacquelin Perske, adapted from the novel by Helen Fitzgerald and starring Jenna Coleman as Joanna and Ewen Leslie as her husband Alistair.

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 journey both through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece. The installation is synchronised to local time wherever it is on display, transforming artificial cinematic time into a sensation of real time inside the gallery. John Carroll Lynch's debut feature Lucky stars Harry Dean Stanton in his last major screen role in a career which included films such as Repo Man, Wild at Heart, Paris, Texas and Wise Blood. Lucky co-stars David Lynch, Stanton's long time friend and collaborator. The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume II: 1956 - 1963 edited by Peter K Steinberg and Karen V Kukil document - unabridged and without revision - Plath's literary development and private life. It includes 14 letters Plath wrote to her psychiatrist, Dr Ruth Beuscher, between 1960 and 1963. Trust is a ten part series starring Donald Sutherland as J Paul Getty and Hilary Swank as Gail Getty, the mother of John Paul Getty III, heir to the Getty oil fortune who was kidnapped in 1973 by the Italian mafia in Rome. It was written by Simon Beaufoy and directed (first three episodes) by Danny Boyle who previously worked together on Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. An Adventure by Vinay Patel at the Bush Theatre in London follows young couple Jyoti and Rasik as they leave India for Kenya in hope of a better life, only to find themselves entangled in the Mau Mau rebellion, from which they leave for England. It is based on the life story of Vinay Patel's grandparents and is directed by Madani Younis, the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre.

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 try and change Humans has transferred from an award-winning run on Broadway to The Hampstead Theatre in London. An American family gather together for Thanksgiving supper and all the worries and fears bubble to the surface. But it's not all grim soul-searching Phoebe Waller Bridge is the name behind Killing Eve on BBC3; a new slick female assassin TV series starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as the detective tracking down the killer and the ruthless killer herself respectively Miriam Toews' novel Women Talking is set in a Mennonite settlement in rural Canada where a series of rapes has torn their world apart when it is discovered that the rapists come from within their own community I Object, Ian Hislop's Search for Dissent is at The British Museum, tracing the history of dissent subversion and satire hidden within the Museum's vast collections Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, Francis Wheen and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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... how does it handle the pathos? Polish film Cold War won the Best Director Palme d'Or this year. It's a love story set in Soviet era Poland and the obstacles which make reaching for hope and resolution sometimes seem impossible A new TV drama series co-production from BBCTV and Netflix looks at the international legal ramifications of war crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. Black Earth Rising stars Harriet Walter and Michaela Coel as a mother and daughter with a personal involvement that leads to family conflict Pat Barker's latest novel The Silence Of The Girls is a retelling of the Trojan Wars from the point of view of the women. Surreal Science is a new exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery combining collected 19th century scientific teaching models and illustrations, with new works selected by Salvatore Arancio to explore and understand the mysteries of nature and existence through scientific enquiry. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Susan Jeffreys and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 new audiences? Ian McEwan's novel The Children Act has been adapted for the big screen by Richard Eyre, starring Emma Thompson, Fion Whitehead and Stanley Tucci All Among The Barley is Melissa Harrison's new novel. The Costa and Bailey's nominee explores the rhythms of rural life between The Wars and how it affects the locals in a village in Suffolk Two new series are starting on TV exploring similar territory: Extraordinary Rituals on the BBC and Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage on Channel 4. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Shahidha Bari, Kate Maltby and Rajan Datar. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Bouffes du Nord's productions of The Beggar's Opera and La Maladie de la Mort as well as National Theatre Of Scotland's Midsummer. Also Raqib Shaw exhibition; Reinventing The Old Masters. We're discussing Andrew Miller's novel Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and the film The Eyes of Orson Welles. AND mentioning as many other recommended events as we can cram into the programme! Onstage at the BBC's Big Blue Tent, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Denise Mina, Don Paterson and Peggy Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 neighbours fall out and civility begins to evaporate. There's a revival of Brian Friel's Aristocrats, a play about a Catholic family on its uppers in Donegal just opened at London's Donmar Warehouse. Michael Hughes new novel, Country, is a re-imagining of The Iliad, set in the sticky lethal politics of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The BBC's new season Big British Asian Summer includes shows across the radio and TV networks looking at the British Asian experience. We're reviewing Big Asian Stand-up and A Passage to Britain. Nick Drnaso's graphic novel Sabrina has been Booker-shortlisted - the first of its kind to enter the ring traditionally associated with novels of the non-graphic kind. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Patrick Gale, Antony Johnston and Sharmaine Lovegrove. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Succession is a new series telling the story of a media empire led by an ageing patriarch which is thrown into confusion when he suffers a brain haemorrhage: which of his children is capable of taking over the responsibilities and pressures of running the company? Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-1933 at Tate Modern is an exhibition of many of the artists whose work was cast as degenerate by the Nazis. The term 'magic realism' was coined in 1925 to describe an artistic movement away from expressionism to a harsh, cold, unsettling veracity Andrew McMillan's collection of poems: playtime explores the different ways boys grow into their sexual selves and adult identities through rites of passage. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Linda Grant, Terence Blacker and Deborah Bull. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 National Theatre is staging its first production of a play by Eugene Ionesco. Adapted and directed by Patrick Marber, Exit The King stars Rhys Ifans as a monarch who knows he will die before the end of the play. Olivia Laing's first novel Crudo was written in real time in 7 weeks during 2017, recording her thoughts on the news of the day, "to get an imprint of the moment while it is still wet". White Cube Gallery's newest exhibition marks its 25th anniversary. Memory Palace is on at their two London sites (as well as at their Hong Kong gallery, but we didn't go there!) looking at memory and how it shapes our identities. BBCTV has put the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (you know, the one where Colin Firth comes out of the lake clad in a clinging shirt) on iPlayer as a box set, we consider whether the fond memories of it match up to a re-watching 22 years on... Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Alex Preston, Kate Williams and Abigail Morris. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, Rosie Ede, Sacha Dhawan, Manish Gandhi and Simon Williams. The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town on the edge of the Pennines, is threatened with closure as part of an NHS efficiency drive. Meanwhile, a documentary crew eager to capture its fight for survival follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward, and the triumphs of the old people's choir. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Anne Tyler's new novel Clock Dance tells the life story of Willa Drake and her decision late in life to take on the care of a 9 year old child. Anne Tyler is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published over 20 novels, the best known of which are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons(1988). All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Breathing Lessons winning the prize in 1989. The tenth edition of the Liverpool Biennial includes more than 40 artists from over 22 countries. In the words of the lead curators, "The Biennial asks Beautiful world, where are you?" - a question derived from a 1788 poem by the German poet Frederich Schiller. Artists include Agnes Varda, Inci Eviner, Holly Hendry, Duane Linklater, Taus Makhacheva, Annie Pootoogook, Joyce Wieland and Rehana Zaman and their works ares spread across the city including public spaces, civic buildings and the city's leading art venues. Taiwanese writer/director Jenny Lu's film debut feature film The Receptionist is a drama based on an illegal massage parlour in London and follows the lives of the employees and clients as seen through the eyes of a Taiwanese graduate employed as a receptionist. In a new five part documentary series on BBC Four, Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, film critic Mark Kermode presents a fresh and very personal look at the art of cinema by examining the techniques and conventions behind some classic genres: romcoms, heist movies,coming-of-age stories, science fiction and horror.

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 regaining the public's trust of superheroes with their civilian family life, only to face a new foe who seeks to turn the populace against them. The voice cast includes Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell and Samuel L. Jackson. Sam Mendes (Skyfall, King Lear, The Ferryman) returns to the National's Lyttelton Theatre to direct Ben Power's English version of Italian writer Stefano Massini's The Lehman Trilogy, inspired by the events following the economic crisis of 2008. The Lehman Trilogy stars Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles as the Lehman brothers and is an epic story of making it and breaking it, charting one family's fortunes over 163 years and tracing the financial sector from boom to bust. Tim Parks is the author of fourteen novels including Europa (shortlisted for the Booker prize), Destiny, Cleaver, Sex is Forbidden and, most recently, In Extremis. He has also written several books of non fiction, the latest of which "Out of My Head" tells the highly personal and often surprisingly funny story of Parks's quest to discover more about consciousness. It seems not a day goes by without a discussion on whether computers can be conscious, whether our universe is some kind of simulation, whether the mind is unique to humans or spread out across the universe. Out of My Head aims to explore these ideas via metaphysical considerations and laboratory experiments in terms we can all understand and invites us to see space, time, colour and smell, sounds and sensations in a new way. Tate Modern joins forces with 14-18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary, to commemorate the significant contribution of African men and women in this conflict. William Kentridge's "The Head and the Load" is performed against the dramatic backdrop of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall and tells the untold story of the hundreds of thousands of African porters and carriers who served in British, French and German forces during the First World War. It combines music, dance, film projections, mechanised sculptures and shadow play to create an imaginative landscape on an epic scale. Netflix's new 8 part drama series Sacred Games was announced as one of seven Netflix Indian Originals. Based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 thriller novel of the same name it stars Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Radhika Apte, and tells the story of a righteous police officer who attempts to thwart a terrorist attack in Mumbai after being warned by a notorious criminal and burrows deep into India's dark underworld. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Michael Arditti, Shahidha Bari and Sarah Crompton.

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 short stories. Days of Awe explores the heart of contemporary America The Jungle is a play about an Afghan refugee attempting to reach the UK from The Jungle - the unofficial shantytown which emerged in Calais. It's a transfer to London's Playhouse Theatre from a sold-out run at The Young Vic The Horniman Museum in London has reopened its South Hall Gallery as World Gallery; exploring the fundamental questions of what it means to be human; that's a big task The BBC is showing a new adaptation of the novel Picnic at Hanging Rock (made into a successful film in 1975). It stars Natalie Dormer and has a decidedly modern approach to a period piece Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Billingham, Kathryn Hughes and Alice Jones. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 . Directed by Debra Granik (Winter's Bone) The story of the evolution of Scotland's pop music scene is told in a new exhibition; Rip It Up at The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. One For Sorrow is a new play at London's Royal Court Theatre by Cordelia Lynn, about a family who invite a stranger into their home following a terrorist attack Australian novelist Tim Winton's new novel The Shepherd's Hut is about a dysfunctional 15 year old boy on the run when he believes he'll be convicted for his father's death A new podcast - Bedtime Stories For The End Of The World - invites some of the UK's top poets to re-tell some of their favourite myths, fairytales and legends. Panellists are Patrice Lawrence, Emma Jane Unsworth and Peter Ross. Presented by Anne Mcelvoy of The Economist. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, the new film from the BAFTA award-winning Scottish director Paul Wright (whose debut feature For Those in Peril premiered at Cannes in 2013), explores our complex connection to the land we live in. Combining over 100 film clips from the last 100 years and a grand, expressive new score by musicians Adrian Utley from Portishead and Will Gregory from Goldfrapp it is described as a "a folk horror wrapped in an archive film." Mufaro Makubika won the Alfred Fagon Award 2017 for Shebeen for best new work by a black British playwright. Set in 1958 in the writer's hometown of Nottingham, where many of those who had arrived on the Windrush had settled, Shebeen shines a light on a community under siege on the eve of the St Ann's race riots. Shebeen is directed by Matthew Xia and is currently on at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are celebrated for their ambitious sculptural works that intervene in urban and natural landscapes around the world and temporarily alter both the physical form and visual appearances of sites. This summer the Serpentine Galleries presents a major exhibition of the artists' work, which draws upon their use of barrels to create artworks. Simultaneously, Christo presents The London Mastaba, his first outdoor, public work in the UK. The sculpture takes inspiration from mastabas - benches with two vertical sides, two slanted sides and a flat top - which originated with the first ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia. It will float on The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park from 18 June to 23 September. Measuring 20m in height by 30m and 40m, the sculpture consists of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels, specifically fabricated and painted in shades of red, white, blue and mauve. BBC 2's Japan's Secret Shame tells the moving story of 29 year-old Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who in May 2017 shocked Japan when she went public with allegations that she was raped by a well-known TV journalist. Following Shiori over a year, the film portrays the consequences Shiori faced by speaking out in Japanese society.

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 comparing to The Exorcist and other touchstones of the genre; is Hereditary as scary as the publicity would have us believe? London's National Gallery is staging two complementary exhibitions: Eden to Empire looks at the work of Thomas Cole, a Lancashire-born painter who became most famous for his landscapes of the American wilderness. Course of Empire is a smaller collection of work by contemporary American painter Ed Ruscha Daisy Johnson's novel Everything Under resets a classical myth into the modern-day, set on the waterways of rural England Snatches is a series of 15 minute monologues beginning on BBC4 to mark 100 years of women's suffrage. It tell tales of moments from women's lives over the last century, Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Jude Kelly and Rhidian Brook. Producer is Oliver Jones.

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 There's a new documentary looking at the life and career of designer Alexander McQueen who died in 2010. It includes interviews with familiar faces and also less-well-known family and friends Rachel Kushner's novel The Mars Room is largely set within the American penal system - it's not a nice place to be, especially for the narrator who is a prisoner serving a life sentence in the largest women's prison in the world Aftermath is an exhibition at Tate Britain of art from Europe following the end of the first World War - it shows new art movements emerging in Britain France and Germany reflecting and influencing the society from which it sprang City of Ghosts is being shown in the Storyville strand on BBC4. It's an Oscar-nominated documentary about a group of Syrian website that opposes ISIS and tries to tell the truth about what is happening in their ruined home city of Raaqa Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Amber Butchart, Liz Jensen and Jim White. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 had some damning reviews elsewhere in the press; what will our reviewers make of it? Francois Ozon's newest film L'amant Double deals with a Hitchcockian plot line involving twin psychiatrists both treating the same beautiful young woman who is having emotional and relationship problems. They also both happen to be sleeping with her too. It's very slick, stylish and French but is it any good? A final collection of short stories by acclaimed Irish writer William Trevor, who died in 2016, has just been published. We discuss "Last Stories" Animals and Us is the latest exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate; it reflects on the relationship between humans and other animals. How well does it deal with such a gargantuan subject? Elmore Leonard's book Get Shorty was made into a successful film in 1995 and is now a TV series starring Chris O'dowd. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Rebecca Stott and Tiffany Jenkins. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Shrigley was the curator for this year's Brighton Festival. We went to see Problem in Brighton; described as "an alt-rock/pop pantomime... requiring ear plugs and an open mind". what on earth is one of those?! Sister Corita Kent was an artist, a famously charismatic educator and a Roman Catholic nun based in LA during the 60s. Her vibrant screen-printed banners drew on pop art influences and confronted poverty, racism and war in spite of disapproval from her archdiocese who said her work was blasphemous and communist. An exhibition of her work has just opened in Ditchling in Sussex. Susannah Walker's The Life of Stuff is a memoir of the mess we leave behind. When she has to clear her mother's house, she is confronted by the random collections of a hoarder and reflects on what causes it and what it all means. Anthony Hopkins plays King Lear in modern dress in BBC TV's latest Shakespeare adaptation, directed by Richard Eyre Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Katie Puckrik, Kerry Shale and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 newlyweds whose wedding night nuptials are complicated by memories and misunderstandings The story of the scandal of 1970s Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe and his apparent homosexual affair with male model Norman Scott is now a TV series starring Hugh Grant. A Very English Scandal is written by Russell T Davis and directed by Stephen Frears. The Aviator by Russian author Eugene Vodolazkin has been translated into 14 languages and won a slew of literary prizes; how old is the central character? does his extraordinary memory have something to do with cryogenic suspension? There's a new exhibition at The Welcome Collection in London looking at all things dental- will it set our reviewers' teeth on edge or make them smile? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Elizabeth Day and Charlotte Mullins. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 subject of society's suspicions. It stars Clive Owen as a detective investigating gruesome murders. Russian theatre director Lev Dodin's production of Vasily Grossman's novel Life and Fate comes to the UK for a very limited run Benedict Cumberbatch stars in David Nicholl's adaptation of the Patrick Melrose stories for Sky Atlantic. Jesmyn Ward's novel Sing Unburied Sing was one of Barack Obama's best books of 2017 and has also won America's National Book Award. It examines the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power - and limitations - of family bonds. A new exhibition looking at the life of the co-creator of the indomitable Gaul Asterix is opening at at London's Jewish Museum Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Appignanesi and Kit Davis. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 looking up Mood Music is Joe Penhall's newest play which has just opened at London's Old Vic Theatre. It deals with the tricky business of the music biz and who can be credited with the success of a hit song. Whee there's a hit, there's a writ Rachel Cusk's novel Kudos is the third part in her trilogy which began with Outline and Transit. RIBA is currently staging an exhibition based around the idea of perspective. How we perceive it and its effects upon the observer. BBC4 is about to launch a season of programmes about contemporary dance, we look at a Michael Clark performance and a new piece about The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Dyckhoff, Barb Jungr and Jenny McCartney. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 new play at London's Almeida Theatre. Does the patriarchy work against the interests and power of women writers? Curtis Sittenfeld's collection of short stories You Think It, I'll Say It, covering subjects including unhappily married couples to happily unmarried couples, revenge and a female president of the US Rodin and the art of ancient Greece is an exhibition at The British Museum, looking at the inspiration Rodin took from the statuary of The Parthenon Netflix is embracing the scandi-drama zeitgeist with their first original Danish series The Rain, set six years after a rain-carried virus wipes out almost everyone in Scandinavia. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Denise Mina, Sarfraz Manzoor and Alice Jones. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 latest West End jukebox musical Tina is about the tumultuous life of Tina Turner and her transformation from Anna Mae Bullock - born into rural poverty in the Southern USA - into half of Ike-and-Tina-Turner and a disastrous violent marriage into a world-conquering solo superstar Aminatta Forna's new novel Happiness follows the story of two strangers who bump into each other on Waterloo Bridge in London and their intertwining narratives. An urban wildlife expert and a psychiatrist specialising in PTSD share a lot in common Marina Amaral is a photograph colourisation expert and her work is much admired. She has colourised photographs of prisoners at Auschwitz and gained plaudits from the general public and survivors groups but does altering a historical document change our understanding of its meaning? BBC TV's latest Sunday night series is an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Olusoga, Shahidha Bari and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 think the major is guilty or not of trying to beat the system. French film Custody is a searing and unflinching look at a disintegrating marriage and the emotional and psychological consequences on all those in the family 1960's sci-fi TV series Lost In Space is returning. And this time it's on Netflix with all the enormo-budgets that have become associated with that channel. But has spending more money made it any better? Nikesh Shukla's novel: The One Who Wrote Destiny is about the immigrant experience of a Gujarati family into the UK, following different generations' approach to assimilation and identity There's an exhibition of work by 50 women abstract artists from 1918 to 2018 at Victoria Miro Gallery in London, called Surface Work. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ayesha Hazarika, Pat Kane and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 emotions get in the way of such a potentially messy business? Congreve's The Way Of The World at London's Donmar Warehouse is a restoration comedy. But how funny can one make a wildly convoluted 300 year old plot about inheritance funny for today's theatre goers? Richard Powers' latest novel is The Overstory - about mankind's relationship with the arboreal world. Eight stories set around the USA over several centuries come together to make readers rethink their relationship with trees BBC TV is broadcasting a 4 part adaptation of China Mieville's novel The City & The City. It's a complicated speculative fiction work involving two cities which occupy exactly the same space and time but are invisible to each other. Well sort of... See if our reviewers have made sense of the idea The Arts Council Collection tours the UK bringing major works by established and emerging British artists to venues which might not otherwise have access to important contemporary art. The exhibition In My Shoes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is the opening venue for a chance to see the newest collection additions. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Jessica Burton, John Mullan and Sarah Crompton. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, Scarlet Johansson and Edward Norton - as dogs marooned in a garbage dump called Trash island. This is Anderson's second animation after his adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox, and tells the story of 12 year old run away Atari on a mission to save his dog, Spots, after a deadly dog flu virus spreads through the canine population. The Inheritance at London's Young Vic by American playwright Matthew Lopez is an epic two part play about gay life in New York in the shadow of the Aids crisis. Directed by Stephen Daldry, whose credits include Billy Eliot, The Hours and The Reader, The Inheritance is inspired by EM Forster's Howard's End which Lopez read as a teenager growing up in Florida Panhandle and features Vanessa Redgrave in Part 2. Viv Albertine was the guitarist in cult post punk band The Slits turned solo artist, tv and film director and now writer. To Throw Away Unopened is a follow up to her award winning memoir Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. and explores the impact her parents had upon her and her sister growing up - prompted by the dramatic falling out between the sisters as their mother lay dying. Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008- 2018 at the Design Museum in London examines the political graphic design of a turbulent decade. The political events featured include: the 2008 financial crash; the Barack Obama presidency; the Arab Spring; the Occupy movement; the Charlie Hebdo attacks; Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency.

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, female empowerment, and bullying at school. Does the presence of Oprah et al make it divine or dreadful? The Great Wave is a new play by Japanese Ulsterman Francis Turnly about the kidnapping in the 1970s of Japanese citizens by the North Korean authorities. Some returned, others were (and maybe still are) held by their captors. It's running at The Dorfman at London's National Theatre, Philip Hensher's latest novel The Friendly Ones follows two contemporaneous storylines about 2 families; one British, the other Bangladeshi. Come Home on BBC1 is a new drama about a family break-up told from different sides of the story. It's written by Danny Brocklehurst and features Christopher Eccleston as the dad, Greg America's Cool Modernism at Oxford's Ashmolean looks at art from the US from O'Keeffe to Hopper; before the word 'cool' was synonymous with 'groovy' Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Ravenhill, Deborah Orr and Amanda Craig . The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 understanding of the play and of the Creature? This year's Palme d'Or winning film The Square, is a Swedish satirical drama dealing with the world of contemporary art and our personal boundaries and responsibilities. Chloe Benjamin's latest novel 'The Immortalists' follows the lives of a group of contemporary New York Jewish American siblings and poses the question "how would you live your life if you knew the day you would die'? Two exhibitions have opened this week in London of the work of Tacita Dean (former YBA), known primarily for her work in film Annihilation is a new release on Netflix, written and directed by Alex Garland. With five female leads, its scheduled theatrical release has been dropped, but can we read into that decision: that it's no good? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Susannah Clapp, Ryan Gilbey and Alex Clark. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam - a series of life-size portraits from the masters of art history from Rembrandt to Manet and Velasquez. The National Theatre's latest production stars Rory Kinnear and Anne Marie Duff in Macbeth. Wendy Cope's first collection of poetry in 7 years is Anecdotal Evidence David Byrne has been one of the most consistently inventive and exciting musicians and performers for more than 4 decades. His latest release American Utopia is his first solo album for nearly a decade-and-a-half and looks at the state of the US right now. What does his eye alight upon and what does he make of it...? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sir Richard Eyre, Tracy Chevalier and Natalie Haynes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 is our film this week (well, to be more accurate, it's a Swedish/German/Egyptian co-production). The Nile Hilton Incident tells the true story of an Egyptian policeman investigating the death of a nightclub singer in Cairo, as The Arab Spring is beginning. But the justice system seems intent on stymieing his work. Toby Litt's latest novel is Notes For a Young Gentleman. It's told in the form of advice left behind by a WW2 soldier after a mission that went wrong. In Tones Drones and Arpeggios; The Magic of Minimalism on BBC4, Charles Hazlewood interviews La Monte Young and Terry Riley about the movement which stripped music back to its sonic essentials and power The latest exhibition at London's Photgraphers' Gallery is 'Under Cover, a Secret History of Cross Dressers' Made up of a collection of amateur 'found photographs' from Europe and the US dating from 1880 onwards, it explores the many manifestations of gender non-conformity and cross-dressing. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Linda Grant and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 pornification of culture and the sexualisation of children. Kenneth Clark's landmark 1969 BBC TV series Civilisation explored the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. It's now been remade as Civilisations. Fire Sermon is a novel by Jamie Quatro about a mother devoted to her family who begins an affair, throwing all her moral certainties into a spiral. Pop! Art in a Changing Britain is a new exhibition at Chichester's Pallant Gallery. The issues raised by pop artists in the 50s and 60s about mass media, the cult of celebrity, questions of identity and prevalent political concerns still resonate today. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kate Maltby, Viv Groskop and Kevin Jackson. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 of the finest novels ever written. How does a brand new translation improve it? For more than 35 years, Kettle's Yard in Cambridge was the home of Jim and Helen Ede and they opened it to the public allowing everyone to enjoy their art collection. Following 2 years of closure and a multi-million pound programme of improvements it has reopened Howard Brenton's play, The Shadow Factory is the opening production for a new arts centre in Southampton. Set during The Battle of Britain - when Southampton was heavily bombed - it tells the story of a government initiative to make more spitfires using the facilities and technologies of many small industries throughout the city Troy; Fall of a City is a new swords and sandals series on on BBC1 based on Ancient Greek tales Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Moggach, Meg Rosoff and Boyd Tonkin. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 challenges posed by mass migration as a result of war, poverty and persecution. Hare references ground breaking television such as Cathy Come Home, The Boys From The Blackstuff and A Very British Coup as inspiration: will Collateral prove as innovative and as game changing? Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Film at the London Film Festival, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless tells the story of a divorcing couple whose 12 year old son goes missing after an argument. Drawing parallels with Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, Loveless is a probing look at the state of modern Russian society. Gundog marks the Royal Court debut of writer Simon Longman and is directed by Vicky Featherstone, recently named the most influential person working in British theatre by The Stage newspaper. Gundog is set on a remote farm where sisters Becky and Anna are holding it together after the death of their mother when a stranger enters their midst. Emily Fridlund's debut novel History of Wolves was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. Born in Minnesota, her new collection of short stories Catapult is a wry look at the trials and tribulations of American family life. T-shirt: Cult - Culture - Subversion at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London explores the T-shirt in the 20th Century, charting the history, culture and subversion of the most affordable and popular item of clothing on the planet. From men's underclothes to symbol of rock and roll rebellion, through punk and politics to luxury fashion item, T-shirts broadcast who we are and who we want to be.

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 90 years ago . The horrors of war never really change, how do artists successfully interpret it anew? The latest production at London's Bridge Theatre is of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. There have been a lot of recent productions -what do our reviewer think makes this one special? Julian Barnes new novel -The Only Story - is about an affair between a young man and an older woman in 1960's Home Counties suburbia; an affair whose effects are reflected upon over the years. An exhibition of works from the collection of Charles I which were sold off and dispersed by Oliver Cromwell have now been gathered together for the first time in centuries, at the Royal Academy in London A new ITV drama - Trauma - starring Adrian Lester and John Simm begins on ITV. A trauma surgeon must face the reality of a bereaved father Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Bridget Minamore and Bidisha. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 multi-million pound refit with an exhibition of work by the photographer Andreas Gursky. Giant photographs on brutalist walls. Richard Linklater's film Last Flag Flying is about three Vietnam veterans who come together to bury a son who has died in the conflict in Iraq. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Brian Cranston and Steve Carell. John is the name of a new play by Annie Baker at The Dorfman at London's National Theatre. Nearly three and a half hours long it's set in a B+B in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Altered Carbon is a dystopian sci-fi series starting on Netflix. Is it possible to look to the future without mining the tropes of Bladerunner? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Katie Puckrik, Liz Jobey and Ekow Eshun. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 from Tim Pears is the second in his proposed trilogy. The Wanderers is the story of two young people in pre-WW1 England and the horses that are part of their lives All's Well That Ends Well has opened at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at London's Globe Theatre Hauser and Wirth Somerset has opened a new exhibition "The Land We Live In- The Land We Left Behind" that deals with attitudes to the countryside BBC Radio 4 has dramatised Elif Shafak's novel The Bastard of Istanbul as part of the Reading Europe season of programnmes Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Holland, Stephanie Merritt and Kathryn Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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. Written in 1982 when she was 19, can it now be seen as a period piece? 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is a darkly comic film starring Frances McDormand, written produced and directed by Martin McDonagh Lily Tuck is a winner of The National Book Award in the USA. Her latest novel Sisters imagines a woman trying to deal with her relationship with her husband's first wife. History In The Making at Alan Cristea Gallery in London is an exhibition of works which make reference to, or appropriate, historical art as part of their working practice, Britannia is a new TV series set in 43AD, "following the Roman army as they return to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia". It's on Sky Atlantic Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Miranda Carter, Maria Delgado and Lawrence Norfolk. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Trinidadian teenager Colin Warner's twenty year wrongful incarceration. The Miniaturists takes a long-running short play night and turns it into a podcast with five new short plays from up and coming British playwrights. The reviewers explore the world's greatest and strangest museums, galleries and monuments with Google Cultural Institute. The story of a refugee's journey across the sea is rendered in an interactive graphic novel format in Nam Le & Matt Huynh's The Boat. Antonia's guests are Inua Ellams, Andy Riley and Errollyn Wallen. The producer is Caitlin Benedict.

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 Dunkirk Bladerunner 2049 78/52 Manchester by the Sea La-La Land Get Out Elle Frantz Land of Mine Wonder Woman Atomic Blonde THEATRE Boudica at the Globe Barbershop Chronicles Follies at the National Theatre Hamlet at the Pinter Theatre The Best Thing Finding Joy Gloria at Hampstead Theatre Network at the National Theatre Flight Pattern at the Royal Opera House The Ferryman at Royal Court The End of Hope at Orange Tree Theatre Consent at the National Theatre Girl From The North Country at the Old Vic Angels in America at the National Theatre The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca at Hull Truck BOOK The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman 4321 by Paul Auster Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders To Kill the President by Sam Bourne Stranger in Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Homegoing Yaa Gyasi Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor ART Blade Nayan Kulkarni Jasper Johns at the Royal Academy of Arts Howard Hodgkin: Paintng India at the Hepworth Gallery Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern JW Anderson: Disobedient Bodies at the Hepworth Gallery Revolutionary Russia at the Royal Academy Kathe Kollwitz at Icon Gallery Frank Quitely at Kelvingrove Museum Glasgow Michelangelo and Sebastiano at the National Gallery Hokusai at the Victoria and Albert Museum TELEVISION The Handmaid's Tale Schitt's Creek GLOW Detectorists The Leftovers Mindhunter Ken Burn's The Vietnam War Wormwood The Good Fight Alias Grace Back The producer is Hilary Dunn.

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 of non-white actors as the Founding Fathers. It has been a phenomenon on Broadway and across the US; how will it play with British audiences? Irish film Sanctuary has a cast made up almost exclusively of actors with learning difficulties. It lightly tells the story of a trip to the cinema where the best laid plans go awry. And even though it includes hugging and learning, does it tread the difficult line avoiding sentimentality or patronising the cast and the issues raised? In Louise Erdrich's newest novel Future Home Of The Living God, evolution is running backwards and all around the central character society is crumbling. She's a 26 year old fighting for her life in an oppressive post-cataclysm America, pregnant (maybe by an angel) And we review 3 of the BBC's TV Christmas specials: Father Brown, Upstart Crow and Not Going Out - what is the attraction of these yearly yuletide delights? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Churchwell, Dreda Say Mitchell and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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? The League of Gentlemen began at The Edinburgh Fringe, transferred to radio then to TV, to a stage show and then to film. They're returning to BBC TV for 3 pre-Christmas specials, reviving favourite characters from the many iterations. Cult American TV programme Twilight Zone has been adapted for the stage in a new production at London's Almeida Theatre. How does Rod Serling's classic sci-fi series work when its not 'on the box'? From Life at The Royal Academy in London is an exhibition exploring how artists have made art from life. There's a new translation of Homer's Odyssey by Emily Wilson; the first into English by a woman. Does this give us a radically new perspective on the classical work? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Sophie Hannah and Rosie Goldsmith. the producer is Oliver Jones.

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 religious expectations Parliament Square is the 2017 Bruntwood Prize winning play at London's Bush Theatre about a woman on a mission Her Body and Other Parties is a collection of short stories by American author Carmen Maria Machado The story of the creative minds behind Winnie The Pooh - AA Milne and EH Shepard - are the subject of a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a TV drama series about a New York Jewish housewife in the 1950s who decided to become a stand-up comedian Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lionel Shriver, Bridget Kendall and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 starring Rhys Ifans as Ebenezer Scrooge The Disaster Artist is a tribute to one of the worst films ever - Tommy Wisseau's The Room. If the original was such a stinker, can a film about it be funny about the ineptitude or just cruel? Elisa Lodato's novel An Unremarkable Body tells the story of a middle-aged daughter coming to terms with the death of her mother. There's an exhibition of work by Rose Wylie at London's Serpentine Galleries Crown Court was a daytime TV series which ran for 12 years from 1972. It's being resurrected with Judge Rinder as the gavel-banging star; Judge Judy meets 12 Angry men? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Patrick Gale, Briony Hanson and John Mullan The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Mother Land is comic work about a ghastly matriarch exerting a poisonous influence on her grown-up children 20th century designer Erte worked in fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor. An exhibition of his work at London's Grosvenor Gallery includes his exquisite alphabet. "What's your idea of romance"? American indie film Beach Rats explores the story of a young man discovering his sexuality and confused by what's on offer. BBC documentary Joe Orton Laid Bare looks at the life of the playwright who died 50 years ago. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Adam Mars Jones, Ellen E Jones and Louise Doughty. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 of the 1976 Oscar-winning film about a TV anchorman who announces that he's "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" which appalls then delights and ultimately infuriates his network bosses. It stars Bryan "Breaking Bad" Cranston as the newsreader who wigs out. Javier Cercas's novel The Impostor tells the extraordinary tale of a Spanish man who falsely claimed to have been a survivor of Mauthausen concentration camp. Can we trust that anything in the story he tells of his life is true? She's Got To Have It was Spike Lee's 1986 breakout film which he has now adapted into a 10 part TV series for Netflix North: fashioning Identity, is an exhibition at Somerset House exploring contemporary artistic and stylistic representations of the north of England. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Emma Jane Unsworth, Kit Davis and Jim White. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 TV adaptation of E M Forster's Howards End Richard Flanagan's novel First Person - his first since the Mann Booker winning The Narrow Road To The Deep North - draws on his own experience as a ghost writer. Red Star Over Russia is an exhibition at Tate Modern marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and examining its impact on visual culture Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Bob and Roberta Smith, Charlotte Mullins and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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. In less than three minutes it has 78 set-ups and 52 edit cuts and is a transformatory moment of cinema. Ali Smith's second novel in her seasonal series is Winter; family ructions around a Christmas gathering looking back through previous gatherings Monochrome at The National Gallery in London is an exhibition looking at how and why artists in different eras have worked in black and white. And nowadays they can work in no colour palette at all Babylon Berlin is a new 16 part, €38m series beginning on Sky Atlantic, set in the decadent world of the Weimar era German capital. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Gillian Slovo, Damian Barr and Gaylene Gould. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Hammer plays a visiting professor who is the object of a crush by a younger man in a new film Call me By Your Name. The exhibition Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 has just opened at The Imperial War Museum in London, showing works by an international array of artists created in the wake of the events of that world-changing day Susie Boyt's latest novel - Love and Fame - examines relations between siblings as well as a difficult marriage. Alias Grace on Netflix is a new series dramatising Margaret Atwood's novel Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Antonia Quirk, Ayesha Hazarika and Ryan Gilbey. the producer is Oliver Jones.

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 hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens actually be? There's a new trilogy of Philip Pullman books on the way; it's both the sequel and prequel to His Dark Materials. We're looking at Part 1 of The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage An exhibition of work by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at Tate Modern in London profiles the lives of 2 Russian conceptual artists from their beginnings, un-sanctioned by the state, to their more modern, still uncompromising work Albion is the latest play by Mike Bartlett (Doctor Foster, King Charles III) opening at London's Almeida Theatre Gunpowder; a Guy Fawkes drama beginning on BBC1 comes in 3 episodes - concluding just in time for Bonfire Night Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Melissa Harrison, Alex Preston and Amanda Craig. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Simon Stephens. relating physics with relationship advice The Sparsholt Affair is Alan Hollinghurst's new novel about a love affair set in Oxford during the Second World War Degas: A Passion for Perfection is at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, with works by Degas himself and also looking at those who influenced him and those he influenced A new 3 part series, The Gamble, on BBC Radio 4 looks at the connection between risk and creativity, narrated by the actor Noma Dumezweni Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Kevin Jackson and Graham Farmelo. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Love tells the story of The Labour Party over several elections in the same fictional constituency somewhere in the north Midlands. starring Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig Halloween may be a few weeks away but Saturday Review is getting in early with two books - Eight Ghosts, commissioned by English Heritage (8 short stories by a range of exciting authors set in their properties) AND Ghosts :A Cultural History by Susan Owens Timewasters is a comedy series beginning on ITV in which a bunch of young present day black Britons find a time machine and head back to 1920s London. The British Library has a new exhibition celebrating 140 years of recorded sound Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Charlotte Mendelson, Tracy Chevalier and Christopher Frayling. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 the country and it's back in the capital. Multi award-winning American documentary maker Ken Burns has a new series. It's about the Vietnam war and has just begun on BBC4 Italian author Nicola Lagioia's novel Ferocity won that country's highest literary award, how well does it work in translation? An exhibition of the work of Jasper Johns has just opened at London's Royal Academy Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sebastian Faulks, Meg Rosoff and Tiffany Murray. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Town at Manchester's Royal Exchange resets it to reflect the local audience Jennifer Egan's follow up to her multi prize-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad is Manhattan Beach. Set in the docks of New York during wartime, Egan has described it as "a fairly straightforward, noirish thriller". Will our panel be more effulgent? A major new exhibition of the work of the late street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has opened at London's Barbican Centre; was he warmly or suffocatingly embraced by New York's hungry art scene in the 1980s? HBO TV's new series The Deuce begins on Sky Atlantic And - if you listen to the podcast version of this programme, you can find out what the reviewers have been enjoying when they're not absorbing stuff for the Saturday Review Tom Sutclidffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Arifa Akbar and Peter Kemp. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 destroyed by fire, when their seemingly tranquil life is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious couple played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris. Booker prize winning Irish writer Roddy Doyle frequently returns in his novels to a childhood in the 1960s and 1970s on a housing estate in north Dublin. His new novel Smile returns to the trauma of school days when 54-year-old Victor Forde, separated from his television presenter wife, is confronted by memories of his experiences at the Christian Brothers school he attended as a child. Kathe Kollwitz was one of the leading artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, notable for the emotional power of her drawing, printmaking and later sculpture. Portrait of the Artist: Kathe Kollwitz at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery includes around forty works from the British Museum's remarkable print collection. Known for painting, printmaking and sculpture, her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger, and war on the working class. Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Terry Johnson's new play Prism, based on the extraordinary life of double Oscar-winning cinematic master Jack Cardiff. Cardiff is played by Olivier award winning actor Robert Lindsay and Prism also stars Claire Skinner. And a look the art of the opening title sequences with reference to a number of recent dramas as well as classic favourites. How much has the aesthetic of the opening title sequence changed and what is the future for the form? Image: Left to right: Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence in mother!. Credit: Paramount Pictures.

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 Broadway theatre of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies", a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies), that played in that theatre between the World Wars. Salman Rushdie's new novel The Golden House invokes literature, pop culture and cinema to spin the story of the American zeitgeist over the last 8 years. The novel opens with the inauguration of Barack Obama and closes with the election of President Trump and is about a wealthy immigrant family in Manhattan told from the perspective of a young, aspiring film maker who lives opposite them. Writer/director Taylor Sheridan's Wind River stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The last in a trilogy of films which includes Hell or High Water and Sicario. Tin Star is a ten part British drama series created by Rowan Joffe on Sky Atlantic starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks. Police detective Jim Worth is the new police chief of a small town in the Rocky Mountains, where he has moved with his family to escape his past. The influx of migrant workers from a new big oil company, headed by the mysterious Mrs. Bradshaw, forces Worth to confront the resulting wave of crime that threatens his town. Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? is a new exhibtion at Wellcome Collection in London, the first major show to explore the relationship between graphic design and health and includes 200 exhibits, including the rarely displayed emblems of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the Red Crystal.

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 ourselves. British film God's Own Country has been described as Breakback Yorkshire. It's set on a farm on the moors with love developing among the livestock. It's time for Folkestone's third Triennial, inviting artists to engage with the rich cultural history and built environment of the locality, and to exhibit newly commissioned work in public spaces around the town. Since it began in 2009, NT Live has been seen by more than 5.5 million people in over 2,000 venues around the world, including over 650 venues in the UK alone. Their latest production stars Billy Piper in Simon Stone's re-imagining of Lorca's Yerma. Robert Mitchell and David Webb are back with a new series called - appropriately - Back Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Linda Grant, Katie Puckrik and David Benedict . The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Than Defeat, set in 1930s Honduras An exhibition of British Realist painters at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Kathryn Bigelow's film Detroit tells the story of the 1960s race riots in that city Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Inua Ellams, Louise Welsh and Peggy Hughes. the producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Against at London's Almeida Theatre. Can money overcome violence? Peter Kosminsky's drama, The State on Channel 4, attempts to understand why young British people might join Islamic State The plot of Nicole Krauss's latest novel Forest Dark seems to mirror her own life - down to a writer character called Nicole. The National Gallery of Ireland has undergone a €30m refit over the last 8 years and has at last reopened with a blockbuster exhibition: Vermeer and the Masters of Genre painting Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Philip Hensher, Kathryn Hughes and Sally Gardner. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, fighting and killing Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play a married couple in A Ghost Story. After he is killed, he haunts his old locations wearing a white bed sheet with eye holes cut out. Jonathan Dee's novel The Locals is the follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize nominated The Privileges. A New York hedge fund manager moves into a small rural community and becomes mayor Project X: This Is Human is a new art exhibition at HOME in Manchester The BBC launches a period medical comedy Quacks on BBC2. Rory Kinnear, Matthew Baynton and Tom Basden play Victorian doctors and medical pioneers. Shahidha Bari's guests are Abigail Morris, Michael Arditti and Gail Tolley. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, starring Olivia Coman and Olivia Williams, is the latest play by Lucy Kirkwood at The Dorfman at London's National's Theatre. It interweaves family relations, particle physics and sexting Bernard MacLaverty's first novel for a decade and a half is Midwinter Break - a long-married couple escape to Amsterdam. Can it match the success of Grace Notes? Matisse In The Studio is a new exhibition at at Lonodn's Royal Academy 'does what it says on the can' - it's a look at his work and the items which inspired it; from a flower vase or a chocolate pot to an African mask or weaving Trust Me is a new BBC drama starring Jodie Whittaker (the next Dr Who) about a nurse who loses her job and decides to keep working by impersonating a doctor Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Aaronovitch, Helen Lewis and Deborah Bull. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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

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 talking about Oscars, will our reviewers agree? The newest production of Much Ado About Nothing at London's Globe Theatre sets the story during the armed struggles of the Mexican Revolution. Sarah Winman's novel Tin Man is a love story between two boys and a woman who changes their love and their lives; it's about relationships, loss and kindness The first posthumous exhibition of the work of Rose Finn-Kelcey at Modern Art Oxford takes a selective look at the breadth of her work over several decades. The BBC's LGBTQ season marking the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act, presents Against the Law starring Daniel Mays as Peter Wildeblood, one the defendants in the 1954 Montagu case. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lisa Appignanesi, Paul Morley and Alex Clark. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 the deep south. Can hospitality overcome suspicion? And who has the upper hand? Moving Kings, Joshua Cohen's new novel, is set in New York and Israel Soul of a Nation at Tate Modern explores art in the age of Black Power. Work by African American artists exploring and celebrating black identity 1963-1983 Regent's Park Theatre's latest production is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' French Revolution-set A Tale of Two Cities. Ozark is a new series on Netflix about a Chicago lawyer whose debt to a Mexican drug lord means he has to relocate with his family to Missouri Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ellen E Jones, Sathnam Sanghera and Susannah Clapp. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 were London Road and Jerry Springer Terrence Malick's latest film Song To Song has polarised critics; will our reviewers s be beguiled or bewildered? State of Freedom by award winning author Neel Mukherjee is a novel which explores the interweaving of five stories and five lives via an initially invisible thread. There's a free outdoor exhibition of sculpture in Regents Park with 23 works from contemporary artists. The BBC's Gay Britannia season includes a drama on Radio 3 exploring the troubled creative process behind the 1961 film Victim which dealt with homosexual blackmail. Also a series of radio essays The Love That Wrote Its Name exploring significant and long-lasting gay partnerships among important figures in the arts. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Moggach,Kate Williams and Geoffrey Durham. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 acquisition of The Sun in 1969 and the grubby world of redtop journalism.Opening at London's Almeida Theatre. Christopher Wilson's novel; Zoo, a comedy set in Stalin's dying days, about a boy who inadvertently becomes the food taster for The Man of Iron Dreamers Awake is a new exhibition at White Cube Gallery looking at women in the Surrealist movement and its lasting influence on female artists 2 TV music documentaries about famous rock sideman including Earl Slick (who played guitar with David Bowie, John Lennon and many more) and Becoming a Lied Singer in which Baritone Thomas Quasthoff gives his personal guide to Lieder - poems of nature, love and death for solo voice and piano. Tom Sutcliffe's guests will be Stephen Hough, Georgie Hopton and Natalie Haynes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 enough? Gloria at The Hampstead Theatre is a play by Pulitzer-nominated American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. It's comic drama about ambition, office warfare and hierarchies Thomas Keneally's latest novel Crimes Of The Father deals with a fictionalised sex abuse case against the Catholic church in 1990s Australia Tate Liverpool has a new exhibition: Germany, Portraying A Nation 1919-1933, looking at the work of painter Otto Dix and photographer August Sander capturing life between the wars Netflix new series Gypsy is about a therapist who develops intimate and possibly dangerous relationships with people in her patients' lives Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rowan Pelling, Rosie Boycott and Cahal Dallat. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Slack Bay is a comedy about a series of mysterious seaside murders. Starring Juliette Binoche, it mixes professional actors with complete novices and slapstick comedy with cannibalism and gender-fluid relationships Amanda Craig's latest novel The Lie Of the Land tells the story of a London couple who move to the country under straitened circumstances and uncover a grisly murder in their new home Birmingham's Ikon Gallery is staging an exhibition of a series of Sidney Nolan portraits, as part of the commemoration marking the centenary of his birth. He was an Australian who moved to the UK at the age of 32 but whose work never reflected his new home. GLOW is a new Netflix series from the makers of Orange Is The New Black, set in the world of women's TV wrestling in the 1980s. It's all big hair, power ballads, coke snorting and grappling. Emma Dabiri's guests are Catherine O'Flynn, Liz Jensen and Sarfraz Manzoor. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 most famous novel "Rebecca" the narrative revolves around a large private estate in Cornwall and a powerful woman whose life is an enigma. Arundhati Roy was the first Indian woman writer to win the Booker Prize, which she won in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things, and which sold over 8 million copies world wide. A political activist and writer, it has taken her 20 years to publish her ambitious second novel, The Ministry of Untold Happiness. Raphael: The Drawings at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford includes 120 drawings by the celebrated Renaissance artist, including 50 from the Ashmolean's own collection which is the largest and most important in the world. The drawings are taken from across Raphael's brief but brilliant career, taking visitors from his early career in Umbria through his radically creative years in Florence to the period where he was at the height of his powers in Rome, working on major projects such as the Vatican frescoes. Common, a world premiere by DC Moore, and directed by Headlong's Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin opens at the National's Olivier Theatre. An epic new history play co-produced by the National Theatre and Headlong, it is set in the early days of the Industrial Revolution when the common land of England is under threat. Common stars Anne-Marie Duff. Set against an awe-inspiring backdrop of the Riviera in the South of France, Riviera is a new ten part television series from Sky, and stars Julia Stiles as Georgina Clios, the smart and resourceful second wife of a billionaire banker who dies in a yacht explosion. This catastrophe sets in motion a dramatic chain of events that exposes the darker side of the Riviera's glitz and glamour and the global art market. Conceived by Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the first episode with John Banville, the series also stars Adrian Lester.

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 Manchester Royal Exchange. It's taken an unconventional approach and includes silver swimwear and a foam party - is this a step too far for a classic text or a bold new interpretation? The work of designers Lucienne Day and Barbara Brown can be seen at The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. Their fabrics seems fresh, familiar and distinctive six decades after they were created Adam Thorpe's latest novel Missing Fay deals with a familiar trope in novels; the missing child. How does he mine something new from a seam which has been worked so often before? Channel 4 has a new drama based around a fictional school in Yorkshire. Ackley Bridge is being promoted and scheduled to get a lot of attention, but how well does it deal with modern education? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Paul Farley, Bidisha and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Jack Thorne - who adapted Harry Potter for the theatre - made the play relevant for today's audience? Finnish film director Aki Kaurasmaki's latest film is The Other Side of Hope - told in his trademark low key, quiet manner, it deals with a refugee arriving in Helsinki. There's a new TV version of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, coming to Channel 4. It's had rave reviews in the US, will it beguile our reviewers? Turkish/American writer Elif Batuman's latest novel The Idiot is set over the course of one year in a student's life at Harvard in the late 1980s. Her academic pursuits and longing for love are revealed in the novel (which intentionally shares its title with Dostoevsky) California Designing Freedom is a new exhibition at London's Design Museum celebrating the enormous range of items designed in The Golden State. It ties together the explosion in design with the hippy movement and mind-expanding drugs. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Louise Doughty, Giles Fraser and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 coping with alcoholism whose alter ego just happens to be a giant space monster. It's a kaiju movie Jimmy McGovern's newest TV offering is Broken which stars Sean Bean as an inner city priest coping with escalating personal and parish pressures. Lucy Hughes-Hallett's novel Peculiar Ground deals with the construction and changing nature of the walls of a country estate across the centuries. Thresholds is an exhibition by Mat Collishaw at Somerset House, re-staging one of the earliest exhibitions of photography in 1839, when William Henry Fox Talbot showed his first prints. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Mullan, Laline Paull and Tiffany Jenkins. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 decapitation of John The Baptist? Francois Ozon's bilingual film Frantz is a tale of love and lies in France and Germany shortly after the First World War. If telling the truth is too painful, can it be okay to lie? Anything is Possible is a new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout. Continuing the story of characters from her previous highly-acclaimed work, My Name Is Lucy Barton. Tate Modern's newest exhibition looks at the career and output of sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti BBC TV has dramatised the Rochdale sex abuse scandal. Starring Maxine Peake, it's not easy viewing but what what light can a drama shine upon such a notorious case? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Viv Groskop and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 and is it worth sitting through? Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem was an enormous theatrical success and his latest The Ferryman has just opened at London's Royal Court Theatre. Set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland it deals with one family's unavoidable and unwilling involvement The family at the heart of Japanese film Harmonium seem to have a functioning but unemotional stability. And then a stranger comes into their lives and slowly things change. For the better or for the worse? Laurent Binet's new novel The Seventh Function of Language is about the death (or was it an assassination?!) of Roland Barthes - the death of the author of "The Death Of The Author" Eric Gill was one of the finest sculptors of the 20th Century. And also a paedophile. A new exhibition in his home village of Ditchling, tries to see if it's possible to appreciate his art as entirely separate from his biography Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Damian Barr, Maria Delgado and Gillian Slovo. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 being stifled. Ivo Van Hove's prodiuction of Obsession - an adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice stars Jude Law. It should be theatrical gold... Sarah Schmidt's debut novel See What I Have Done deals with the still-unsolved Lizzie Borden case from 1892: "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks" London's Whitechapel Gallery has a new exhibition: Iself, bringing together the work of artists exploring their own personal identity Griefcast - In Cariad Lloyd's podcast she talks with fellow comedians about their own experiences of coping with grieving, mourning and death and mortality. How funny can such a grim subject be? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Alex Preston, Andrea Rose and Kit Davies. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 opened in London. It features a glittering array of actors best known for their TV work. How well do their skills transfer to the stage? Lisa McInerny won The Bailey's Prize 's for her first novel The Glorious Heresies. Her latest, The Blood Miracles, continues that story with same characters many years older and a little wiser Ashley Bickerton is a painter and sculptor whose work is much admired (and collected) by Damien Hirst, among others. A new exhibition at Hirst's Newport Gallery includes work from throughout Bickertion's career The Hours is a new radio dramatization of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer winning book inspired by Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Starring Rosamund Pike it has the tricky job of maintaining three simultaneous plotlines set in different eras Viv Groskop's guests are Emma Jane Unsworth, Ryan Gilbey and Ekow Eshun. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 transported to 1930s Korea. Award winning British writer Hari Kunzru's fifth novel, White Tears, is a ghost story, a terrifying murder mystery, a timely meditation on race, and a love letter to all the forgotten geniuses of American music and Delta Mississippi Blues. American Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph's new play opens at the newly refurbished Bush Theatre in London and tells the story of two guards at the Taj Mahal, as the magnificent monument nears completion in Agra, India in 1648. Born to Kill is a new four-part drama exploring the mind of Sam, a teenager on the verge of acting out suppressed psychopathic desires. As this chilling coming of age drama unfolds, decades of deceit are revealed and Sam's family's long buried past returns with a vengeance. Starring Romola Garai (The Hour, Suffragette) and Daniel Mays (Line of Duty). And Game Changers, Another Way to Play at Somerset House in London shows how designers and artists continuously adapt the mechanics of familiar games, featuring chess, billiards and mazes.

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 Terence Davies' new film A Quiet Passion. Does enough happen to make it dramatically interesting? Jon McGregor's newest novel Reservoir 13 looks at a community exploring the loss of one family, as life goes on for everyone else Tate St Ives is reopening after many months of closure for development. The first exhibition is The Studio and The Sea We look at a couple of car-based TV comedies; Peter Kaye in Car Share + Miriam Margolyes in Bucket And in the podcast, our guests reveal what they enjoy in the world of arts when they're not reviewing it for us Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Katie Puckrik, Alex Clark and Kevin Jackson. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 debuted a decade ago - reaches London's West End for the first time Australian poet Les Murray's latest collection On Bunyah cogitates on the rural spot in New South Wales where his ancestors settled and lived - Wild Horses Creek, known to the aboriginal Australians as Bunyah The Art of Comics, a new exhibition in Glasgow, looks at the work of comicbook artist Frank Quitely, "from Krypton to Kelvingrove.. from Gotham to Glasgow". Harlots is a TV series starting on ITV Encore - is it too good to be hidden away on a niche channel? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Miranda Carter, Jim White and Robert hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Nicolas Pesce The Eyes of my Mother is a black and white gothic tale of murder, home-invasion incest, necrophilia, abduction, imprisonment, involuntary surgery..I could go on, but I think you've probably got the idea by now. Is it any good? David Vann's new novel is Bright Air Black, a poetic prose retelling of the Medea story. BBC TV had adapted Evelyn Waugh's Decline & Fall as a 3 part series starring Jack Whitehall - do our reviewers think a good job has been done with a classic novel? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Kathryn Hughes and Alice Jones. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 brother beyond the veil President Abraham Lincoln never overcame his grief at the death of his son Willie and American novelist George Saunders has written Lincoln In The Bardo which explores how he tried to cope An exhibition of works by Michelangelo & Sebastiano at London's National Gallery explores the two artists mutually supportive and inspiring relationship Simon Amstell has created Carnage, a mockumentary from the future looking at the rise of veganism. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Ravenhill, Rosie Boycott and Melissa Harrison. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Jake Arnott's newst novel, set in 18th century London, written in street slang of the time and telling a true story about a married criminal couple of the time BBC TV's Britain In Focus is a series looking at the history of photography in The UK, at the professional and personal level The Serpentine Gallery has an exhibition of work by Zambian-born British conceptual artist John Latham Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Tusa, Bidisha and Laura Ashe. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 latest film It's Only The End Of The World was booed when it won The Grand Prix at last year's Cannes Festival and some reviewers have described it as "disappointing" "excruciating" and "deeply unsatisfying". What will our panel make of it? America After The Fall is an exhibition at London's Royal Academy which looks at painting in the USA in the 1930s, responding to social change and economic anxiety. HBO's Big Little Lies is a new TV series with an all star cast and a grubby tale of the dirt that lies beneath modern glamour Ross Raisin's new novel A Natural is about a young footballer whose dreams of reaching the upper leagues are rapidly fading and whose identity is conflicted. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Russell Kane, Abigail Morris and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 - lead songwriter with pop group The Feeling - has written a musical: Everybody's Talking About Jamie. Opening at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, it's about a northern working class lad who decides to escape his humdrum life by adopting a drag persona. A bit like Billy Elliott in a dress? Moonlight is the Oscar-touted film looking at the experience of a gay African American boy growing up to become a man and his struggle with identity fulfilment and happiness Emily Ruskovich's novel Idaho tells the story of how violence within a family wrenches it apart, through multiple perspectives and timeshifts. BBC TV has adapted Len Deighton's novel SS-GB; what would the UK have been like, if we'd lost The Battle Of Britain and Nazis had taken over in 1941? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Ellen Jones and Cahal Dallat. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 of American war heroes on leave from Iraq, will audiences be won over by what Ang Lee calls a " new immersive cinema?" Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pullitzer Prize for his debut novel The Sympathizer about the Vietnam war. His new book of short stories, The Refugees, draws heavily on his own experience of arriving in America having fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Bruegel's Defining A Dynasty at The Holburne Museum in Bath is the UK's first exhibition devoted to the Bruegel dynasty and brings together 35 works produced by four different generations of the family. A key work in the exhibition is the Wedding Dance in the Open Air, an oil painting from the Holburne's own collection which, following conservation work and technical examination, can be attributed firmly to the hand of Pieter Bruegel the Younger. The Kettering Incident is a new 8 part series on Sky Atlantic starring Elizabeth Debicki who played opposite Tom Hiddleston in BBC's hit drama The Night Manager. Shot entirely on location in Tasmania, The Kettering Incident follows a doctor (Debicki) who returns to her home town after several years overseas, only to find herself at the centre of a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young girl. Stefan Zweig's 1938 novel Ungueld des Herzens (Beware of Pity) brings together two of Europe's most boundary-pushing, imaginative theatre companies at the Barbican for the first time. Theatre de Complicite's Simon McBurney directs the outstanding Berlin theatre company Schaubühne in a story of a doomed romance set in the Austro-Hungarian empire just before the first world war.

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 film which has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. is it wunderbar or nicht so gut? John Burnside has a new novel out: Ashland and Vine about friendship, history and memories Turner Prize-winning Keith Tyson's latest exhibition Turn Back Now at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings shows more than 350 of his studio wall drawings where the work itself is the process. Sheridan Smith stars in The Moorside, a BBC TV drama about the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stig Abel, Dea Birkett, and Linda Grant. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 first novel by Nathan Hill, about a son trying to understand his counter-culture mother who has gained notoriety after attacking a right wing politician Rebecca Hall was tipped for an Oscar for playing Christine Chubbuck, a TV newsreader who committed suicide live on air in 1974. Will our reviewers feel Rebecca Hall was cheated out of a nomination The musical Death takes a Holiday opens at London's Charing Cross Theatre. Created by a multi-TONY Award winning team, will London theatre-goers take it to their hearts? Amazon TV's new series 'Z: The Beginning of Everything', stars Christina Ricci as Zelda Fitzgerald, American socialite, novelist and wife of F Scott Fitzgerald who was troubled with psychiatric problems Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Catherine O'Flynn, Sarah Moss and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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. Could it be Oscar-winning material? Raising Martha is a new comedy play at London's Park Theatre - it's farce about frogs, families, dozy policemen and digging up corpses. Hungarian prize-winning novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai's latest novel The Last Wolf tells a story in one 74 page sentence - does this feat overwhelm the content? Siobhan Davies' dance work material/rearranged/to/be is at London's Barbican BBC TV has a new Sunday night drama: Apple Tree Yard. Adapted from Louise Doughty's best-selling thriller novel, what makes it feel new? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Bridget Minamore, Elizabeth Day and Inua Ellams. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 deserves your custom? Michael Chabon's latest novel Moonglow is sort-of autobiographical - the lies, deception, rumours, legends, confessions and confusions that all families create are explored through a life lived in The American Century. Katherine Soper (a 24-year-old former perfume seller) won The UK's biggest playwriting competition with Wish List; a play informed by what she calls the government's "systematic assault" on disabled and mentally ill people. It's being staged at London's Royal Court Theatre Artist Charles Avery's work is an ongoing evolving depiction of an imaginary island. Through drawings, sculptures and texts. he has created its topology, cosmology and inhabitants. He has a new exhibition of his imaginings. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kate Williams, Maria Delgado and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 instalment of a planned five part autobiographical series Tom Hardy stars in BBC TV's new drama Taboo, Emily Fridlund's History of Wolves is the growing-up tale of a lonely Minnesota schoolgirl BBC Radio drama On Kosovo Field is a 5-part fantasy play by Finn Kennedy which includes a score by PJ Harvey, whose notes, photos, poetry and songs helped to inspire it Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Viv Groskop, Ekow Eshun and Louise Doughty The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 listeners from around the UK with their suggestions. Saturday Review's Picks of The Year Films The Revenant Alejandro Inarritu Spotlight Tom McCarthy I Daniel Blake Ken Loach Queen of Katwe Mira Nair Nocturnal Animals Tom Ford Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds Snowden starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt Sausage Party Hell or High Water David Mackenzie Arrival Denis Villeneuve Fire At Sea Gianfranco Rosi A United Kingdom Amma Asante Anomalisa Charlie Kaufman Julieta Pedro Almodovar Finding Dory A Bigger Splash Luca Guadagnino Theatre A Streetcar Named Desire Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester King Lear Talawa co-production Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester King Lear starring Glenda Jackson at Old Vic, London Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing Live Theatre Newcastle This Restless House Glasgow Citizens Theatre Any Means Necessary Nottingham Playhouse Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour National Theatre, London Midsummer's Night Dream The Globe Theatre, London Imogen The Globe Theatre, London Shakespeare Trilogy, Donmar Warehouse, London No Man's Land, National Theatre, London (NT live performance) Backstage in Biscuit Land, Soho Theatre, London Groundhog Day (musical) Old Vic, London Flowers for Mrs Harris, Sheffield Crucible Richard III, Almeida Theatre, London Faith Healer, Donmar Warehouse, London Travesties, Menier Chocolate Factory, London Television Stranger Things - Netflix Westworld - HBO The Young Pope - Sky The Crown - Netflix War and Peace - BBC The Night Of - HBO Black Mirror - Netflix Planet Earth II - BBC Happy Valley - BBC Transparent - Amazon Fleabag - BBC The Missing - BBC Flowers - Channel 4 National Treasure - Channel 4 Angie Tribeca - E4 Motherland - BBC Exhibitions Georgia O'Keeffe, Tate Modern, London Picasso Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy, London Hieronymus Bosch, Het Noordbrabants Museum, Holland Towards Night, The Towner Gallery, Eastbourne In Reading Prison, Artangle Winifred Knights, Dulwich Picture Gallery Inside: Artist and Writers in Reading Prison - Artangel The Infinite Mix, The Store in the Strand, London Stan Douglas, The Secret Agent, Victoria Miro Gallery, London Victor Pasmore, Towards A New Reality, Nottingham Lakeside Gallery Russia and The Arts, National Portrait Gallery, London The Shchukin Collection, Icons of Modern Art, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris Books Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift Golden Hill by Francis Spufford Swing Time by Zadie Smith Hotels of North America by Rick Moody The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry The Sellout by Paul Beatty The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen The Good Immigrant ed. Nikesh Shukla 1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year by David Hepworth Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner Days Without End by Sebastian Barry Also mentioned: Lemonade (album/film) Beyonce We're Here Because We're Here Jeremy Deller Bob Dylan, winner of Nobel Prize for Literature Horace and Pete Louis C.K David Bowie's Art Collection Blackstar David Bowie You Want It Darker Leonard Cohen The producer is Hilary Dunn.

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 story of two Christian missionaries in 17th century Japan. Is it worth the the long wait? We investigate Virtual Reality gaming - there are many different headsets and games on the market, but which are worth your attention Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyosi's Homegoing is a debut novel that has been garnering a lot of extremely favourable attention from readers and critics alike. It deals with slavery and its intimate weaving into the history of America Alan Bennett's Diaries on Christmas Eve on BBC2 is described as 'a candid look into the mind' of the much-loved author, following him through the year. It includes the revelation that he has always wanted to own a donkey Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Naomi Alderman, Sathnam Sanghera and Emma Woolf. The producer is Oliver Jones Photo credit: Michael Lionstar.

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 the latest Star Wars Rogue One. Blockbuster vs indie might not be an equal fight but thank goodness there's something else out this week! How good is it? Nadeem Aslam's latest novel The Golden Harvest is set in modern Pakistan, with the resilience of the human spirit fighting corruption and international interference Roger Hiorns was brought up in Birmingham and his latest exhibition at the city's IKON Gallery looks at his career-long fascinations with human corporeality and its meeting with the mechanical and he proposes a new pathway into how artists can continue to make and behave And we cionsider a couple of the big crime dramas on TV over Christmas - ITV's Maigret (starring Rowan Atkinson) and Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution on the BBC Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Alex Preston, Stephanie Merritt and Jamila Gavin. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 with the 1915 DW Griffith silent film of the same name which portrayed The Ku Klux Klan in a heroic light. This production has been dogged by controversy for completely different reasons. Alice In Space by Gillian Beer looks at Lewis Carroll's classic and resets it in the context of its time to shine a fresh reinvigorating light on the work There's an exhibition about Mathematics at London's Science Museum, looking at how it shapes our world BBC2 presents a two part series about Walt Disney - his life and legacy Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, Jacqueline Springer and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 classic Greek tale of Lysistrata imagining a sex strike organised by the women of Chicago in order to get their menfolk to renounce violence. American painter, sculptor, printmaker, photographer and performance artist Robert Rauschenberg is the subject of a retrospective at Tate Modern; the first since his death in 2008 Two books of poetry, one American, one British - Ben Lerner's No Art and Rachael Boast's Void Studies This Is Us has been enormously successful in the USA and has now been bought by Channel 4 - will it be embraced by British viewers? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tiffany Jenkins, Damian Barr and Frances Stonor Saunders. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 film The Wailing has been gaining a lot of international attention - combining a ghost story and zombies and a police drama Tim Roth plays the serial murderer John Christie in BBC TV's Rillington Place. A three part series, it looks at the story from the points of view of Christie, his wife and the lodger who was wrongly hanged for the murders. Penelope Lively's latest collection of short stories is called "Purple Swamp Hen" There's a new exhibition in Nottingham of the work of the late Victor Pasmore, British abstract artist and educator Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Barb Jungr and Andrea Rose. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 of magic? Philip Roth's novel Indignation, set in 1950's America is now a film. Dealing with social mores, the desire to rebel and how it affects the rebel Zadie Smith's latest novel Swing Time is a story of the long and complicated friendship between two girls whose lives diverge. Divines is a Cannes Award winning French film set in the banlieue where crime seems the only way out of the social structure The Design Museum has reopened at a new site in Kensington in London - formerly The Commonwealth Institute, it has cost £38m to adapt - does it impress? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Holland, Sarah Crompton and Louise Jury. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 film The Innocents is based on a true story about a convent in post-war Poland where the nuns were raped by Soviet soldiers. Linda Grant's latest novel The Dark Circle tells the story of Lenny and Miriam, two east-enders convalescing in a TB sanatorium in 1940s Kent The Radical Eye, Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection is the new exhibition at London's Tate Modern. Pinner's favourite son has been purchasing work by the world's leading photographers for more than 2 decades and created one of the leading private collections in the world. Stephen Poliakoff's Close to the Enemy on BBC TV is set in London immediately after WWII as a special British Army unit tries to turn former Nazi scientists to work for 'us' now Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rosie Boycott, Melissa Harrison and Ryan Gilbey. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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? David Olusoga presents BBC TV's Black and British part of a season of programmes under that title Naomi Alderman's novel The Power imagines a world in which women can conjure electrical charges from their hands - how does it change the gender power balance? Emma Hamilton - Seduction and Celebrity is a new exhibition in Greenwich looking at the life and career. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rowan Pelling, Christopher Frayling and Helen Lewis. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 accompanying and acting in the play Werner Herzog's latest film Lo and Behold considers the history and future, the successes and failures of the world wide web Israeli author David Grossman's novel A Horse Walks Into A Bar is a story about an edgy stand-up comedian who's playing strange confessional games with his audience Tate Britain has an exhibition of the work of Paul Nash, from his times as a war artist in both world wars and his surrealist paintings to his less well known assemblages The BBC's new period drama has been in the planning stages for a long time; The Moonstone is based on Wilkie Collins' novel, acknowledged as the first and greatest of English Detective novels. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Rajan Datar and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 reflection on the political state of modern Britain. It won this year's Palme d'Or, will it win over the reviewers? The Young Pope is a new series from Sky Atlantic starring Jude Law as the first American pontiff; new, controversial and unconventional Pope Pius XIII (born Lenny Belardo) Award-winning Irish novelist Sebastian Barry's newest work Days Without End is set in 1850s America following soldiers fighting in the Indian Wars and then in the Civil War. We visit the Yves Klein retrospective at Tate Liverpool. He was a leading member of the Nouveau Realisme movement (and invented his own shade of blue) before dying at the age of 34 Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Shahidha Bari, Demetrios Matheou and Polly Samson.

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 & American Football star Jim Brown as they decide how they can each change the world. Katori Hall's The Mountaintop is set 4 year's later and imagines Rev Martin Luther King's last night alive, in a hotel room in Memphis Charlie Brooker's distopian TV show Black Mirror was a huge success when it began on Channel 4. The new series has moved on to Netflix - a different scale of budget and a different audience. Can it have the same effect? Ali Smith's Autumn is the first in a quartet of seasonal novels. It imagines a contemporary Britain struggling to deal with its identity London's National Gallery's Beyond Caravaggio exhibition explores the influence of Caravaggio on the art of his contemporaries and followers. Razia Iqbal's guests Emma Dabiri, Ekow Eshun and Hardeep Singh Kohli. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, rather than London, and explores the voyeuristic obsessions of its alcoholic central character as she observes her former neighbourhood from a train window on her daily commute. Tom Stoppard wrote Travesties in 1974, inspired by the true story of James Joyce's involvement in a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest in Zurich in 1917. A revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory is directed by Patrick Marber and stars Tom Hollander as Henry Carr the British consular official who played Algernon and fell out with Joyce during the production. A major exhibition of portraits by Pablo Picasso opens at the National Portrait Gallery, with over 80 portraits by the artist in all media including the Cubist portrait from 1910 of the German art dealer and early champion of Picasso's work Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. In Nicotine by Nell Zing - whose work is admired by Jonathan Franzen - the author sets her third novel in a house in New Jersey inhabited by a group of anarchist smokers, united in defense of their right to smoke. When Penny Baker inherits the house from her father she becomes enmeshed in the political fervor and commitment of her fellow squatters. And in Divorce, a new Sky Atlantic TV drama written by Sharon Horgan, Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Frances, a woman who suddenly begins to reassess her life and her marriage, and finds that making a clean break and a fresh start is harder than she thought. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kamila Shamsie, Tim Lott and Charlotte Mullins. The producer was Hilary Dunn.

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. Written and directed by Gary Ross, the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali and Keri Russell. Crisis in Six Scenes is Woody Allen's first television series. Made for Amazon Studios it also stars Miley Cyrus and Elaine May and is set during the turbulent years of the late 1960s in the USA. The Royal Academy of Arts in London presents the first major exhibition of Abstract Expressionism to be held in the UK for six decades and features work by Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still amongst many others. Award winning writer Rachel Cusk's new novel Transit documents a writer and her two young sons moving to London following a family collapse. There are many transitions to negotiate - personal, moral, artistic, practical as the writer endeavours to construct a new reality for herself and her children. Marking the bicentenary of Charlotte Bronte's birth, her novel Villette is brought to life in a striking new adaptation for the Courtyard Theatre in Leeds. Yorkshire writer Linda Marshall-Griffiths reimagines Charlotte Brontë's ground-breaking novel whilst remaining true to its unique insights into loneliness, yearning and the redemptive power of love. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Katie Puckrik, Alex Clark and Francis Spufford. The producer was Hilary Dunn.

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 Royal Court Theatre is the story of a slave in Texas in 1862 who has to fight alongside those who support slavery Little Men tells the story of 2 boys growing up in New York whose friendship grows as their relationship between their respective parents deteriorates Channel 4's new comedy series (more bitter than sweet) Damned features Jo Brand and Alan Davies as jaded social workers try to cope with circumstances beyond their control London's Hayward Gallery is currently closed for repairs, so they've opened a pop-up gallery nearby, showing ten audiovisual installations in an abandoned office space: The Infinite Mix exhibition Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Jonathan Beckman, Alice Jones and Susannah Clapp. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 published novel won an array of literary prizes. Her follow-up The Lesser Bohemians is told in a similar style - will it attract a similarly delighted critical response? Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond is a new exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection which looks at how the legacy of Bethlem Hospital has shaped the mental health landscape in this country National Treasure on Channel 4 is a drama that imagines a well-known TV personality coming under suspicion for historical sexual abuse allegations Which actor plays Faustus and which plays Mephistophilis in the RSC's production of Dr Faustus at The Barbican is decided live onstage each night in a unique way. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Louise Doughty, John Mullan and Catherine O'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 with an international world-shattering incident. London's V+A Museum's new exhibition You Say You Want A Revolution looks at global changes between 1966 -1970 when the world seemed to be be in a state of political upheaval The Globe Theatre's new production, The Inn At Lydda is an imagining of Tiberius Caesar's journey to meet Jesus. But he arrives just after the crucifixion The BBC is celebrating 60 years since Tony Hancock's TV sitcom debut with a clutch of comedy pilots - are they a continuation of a noble tradition or a pale imitation? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Philip Hensher, Kate Williams and Muriel Zhaga. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Seth Rogen, it imagines the world of sentient food Artangel's project 'Inside- artists and writers in Reading Prison' is staged at the gaol where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated. It features work by contemporary artists reflecting on the themes of imprisonment and separation. Kenneth Branagh reprises another role associated with Laurence Olivier; playing Archie Rice in John Osbourne's The Entertainer. He can't escape the comparisons but can he live up to expectations? The Collection is a new TV drama series dealing with the not-so-glamorous world of haute couture.

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 on 3 short stories by Alice Munro. It was intended as his English language debut to star Meryl Streep. HBO's new TV-noir series The Night Of... tells the story of a Pakistani-American who - after a night of drug-fuelled sex - awakes to discover a corpse and is accused of the murder. Peter Ho Davies' novel The Fortunes tells 4 tales of Chinese-Americans through the 20th and 21st centuries Kaleidoscope: It's Me To The World, is the newest exhibition at Modern Art Oxford. Celebrating 50 years of contemporary art, performance and experimental visual culture Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Hepworth, Kit Davis and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Jowl's Russian language Measure for Measure Hermann Koch's new novel Dear Mr M, Surrealist Encounters at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The documentary film Tickled about the peculiar, secretive world of competitive tickling which has surprising menace lurking beneath the surface. Also the guests present their personal choices from the enormous range of art on offer across the city Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Denise Mina, Louise Welsh and Stuart Kelly. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 , written by Lee "Billy Elliot" Hall, arrives in London after a national tour and before it heads to Australia. There's plenty of profanity but is there any profundity? Tiffany McDaniel's The Summer That Melted Everything is a first novel about the time The Devil came to visit a small southern US town. The Hunterian Collection at London's Royal College of Surgeons is an unrivalled collections of human and non-human anatomical and pathological specimens, models, instruments, painting and sculptures that reveal the art and science of surgery from the 17th century to the present day. Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words is a new look at the actress whose life scandalised old Hollywood. What does it tell us about fame today. Sarah Crompton's guests are Natalie Haynes, Amanda Craig and Jake Arnott. The producer is Oliver Jones. (Main image: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour. L-R Caroline Deyga (Chell), Kirsty MacLaren (Manda), Melissa Allan (Orla), Frances Mayli McCann (Kylah), Dawn Sievewright (Fionnula), Karen Fishwick (Kay). Photo by Manuel Harlan).

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 revered aging actor at the end of his career and possibly his life in The Carer; a British comedy about fame, mortality, love and incontinence Film director Baz Luhrmann's has a Netflix TV series The Get Down which dramatises the origins of hip hop Clive James' latest book is about the phenomenon of the Box Set. Called Play All, it examines the joys and problems of binge-watching The Knives by Richard T Kelly is a novel set in the corridors of power; following a Home Secretary dealing with matters of domestic terror and family discord Sarah Crompton's guests are Bidisha, Rosie Goldsmith and Benedict Nightingale. The Producer is Oliver Jones.

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 revived at London's Lyttleton Theatre, based around Ireland's Easter Uprising of 1916 Sarah Moss's novel The Tidal Zone is a story of parental love BBC4's programme Britain's Pompeii explores a bronze age fenland village, recently unearthed by archeologists, which revealed substantial new information about its inhabitants The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is marking its 200th anniversary with an exhibition of stunning Illuminated manuscripts Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Joe Dunthorne, Stella Duffy and Lisa Appignanesi. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 with an unhappy family trying to find happiness stability and normality. An new exhibition of photographic portraits by William Eggleston provides an insight into his home life. Previously untitled works have now had the sitters identified, lending a new twist to the pictures Some Girls by Neil LaBute is revived at London's Park Theatre. It's an examination of fragile male psyche with ulterior motives Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sathnam Sanghera, Alice Rawsthorn and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 bunch of sexist fanboys determined not to enjoy it because girls are involved? Matt Smith plays a perfectionist film director in Unreachable, a new play at London's Royal Court Theatre. Kei Miller's novel Augustown is set in a lightly-fictionalised version of the real Jamaican town of the same name, involving flying prophets and civil unrest This year's Liverpool Biennial has a typically eclectic selection of artists and venues; what caught the eye of our reviewers? BBC TV has a new adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, starring Toby Jones and Vicky McClure. Sarah Crompton's guests are Naomi Alderman, Kathryn Hughes and Giles Fraser. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 complicated web of marital intrigue unfolds in Rebecca Miller's film Maggie's Plan - is it more than Woody Allen lite? Needles and Opium is Canadian performer Robert lePage's latest work to reach the UK - a revival of a work debuted in 1991 and based on the New York experiences of Jean Cocteau and Miles Davis Karan Mahajan's novel The Association of Small Bombs is set in Delhi, which follows the consequences and web of influences of a terrorist attack When politics seems wobbly, commentators in the press reach for the solid base of a good metaphor; Shakespeare, Game of Thrones and The Thick of It and Game of Cards have all been invoked to try and describe the consequences of the Brexit vote and Tory and Labour parties disarray. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Alex Preston, Rosie Boycott and Simon Evans. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 about the fallibility of remembering, revived at London's Donmar Warehouse Libyan writer Hisham Matar tells the story of how the disappearance of his father led his own exile from his homeland and political awakening during Ghadafi's dictatorship David Hockney's work created on iPad and a collection of 82 portraits are on show in 2 new exhibitions ITV's Brief Encounters is a drama about the founding of the Ann Summers' retail outlets Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stephanie Merritt, Dreda Say Mitchell and Pat Kane. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 of Shakespeare's Henry V at the Regent's Park Open Air theatre is taken by the actress Michelle Terry. Debut novel The Girls by Emma Cline looks at relationships and their consequences in a Charles Manson-like cult in California. The City of London has placed 15 sculptures by leading artists among architectural landmarks such as the Gherkin and the Cheesegrater - an opportunity to see engaging works in unusual settings. Polish television drama serial The Border dealing with the highly topical subject of immigration control starts downloads on All Four this week. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ellah Alfrey, Linda Grant and Nikesh Shukla. The producer is Harry Parker.

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 production at London's Almeida Theatre. He's a very cynical psychopath as well as a ruthless monarch Annie Proulx's Barkskins is a large novel dealing with an enormous subject - the irreversible catastrophe of deforestation Tate Modern has opened a new extension: Switch House. It improves the gender balance of artists on display and broaden the geographical reach of works BBC TV is launching a new horror drama The Living and The Dead - early last century a country doctor begins to experience eerie goings-on Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, Adam Mars Jones and Cahal Dallat. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 with Helen McRory as Hester Fire At Sea is the Italian documentary which won The Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film festival. Set on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, it examines the lives of the locals and the migrants who land there. Edmund White's novel Our Young Man is a work of gay fiction set in the world of modelling in 1980s New York, with an apparently-ageless central character and the spectre of AIDS on the horizon. Dulwich Picture Gallery is staging an exhibition of the works of early 20th century painter British Winifred Knights We consider a couple of recent supernatural/horror TV dramas - Outcast and Preacher. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Bidisha, Shahidha Bari and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Guys is a new film with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as a couple of mismatched private eyes BBC TV is showing Versailles, a drama series about the goings-on at the court of Louis XIV- the Sun King - has already caused consternation in France, but why? Francis Spufford's first novel Golden Hill is set in the grubby dangerous world of Manhattan in 1746: New York before it became New York. The 50 year career of Hungarian conceptual artist Dora Maurer is marked in an exhibition at London's White Cube Gallery Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Richard Eyre, Francis Stonor Saunders and Jamila Gavin. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 exhibition of found objects at London's Foundling Museum. The man who revived Doctor Who for the BBC -Russell T Davis - turns his attentions to an all-star version TV of Midsummer Night's Dream Simon Armitage has translated another Middle English poem; Pearl. It's the tale of a man addressing a daughter who died as an infant and returns as a bride of Christ Rory Kinnear plays Macheath in the National Theatre's production of Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Tusa, Kamila Shamsie and Nihal. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 at London's Young Vic of Joe Penhall's 2000 play Blue/Orange manages to deal in a darkly comic way with paranoid schizophrenia. Jo Brand returns to TV as Kim Wilde - a community nurse coping with financial cuts and family crises in Going Forward. It's dark but is it comic? Seeing Round Corners is a new exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate which celebrates the centrality of the circle in art. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Alex Clark and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Dazed and Confused. Everybody Wants Some!! looks at a group of baseball scholarship students settling-in at a Texas university Horror Thriller film Green Room has been making some audience members vomit and faint -how well will our reviewers cope? At the Brighton Festival: Spy Monkey's The Complete Deaths brings all of the grim and ghastly killings from Shakespeare's works into one gruesome play Gillian Wearing's A Room With Your Views captures a snapshot of views from windows around the world - what does it reveal? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Damian Barr, Viv Groskop and Rebecca Stott. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 production by Emma Rice, the new Artistic Director at London's Globe Theatre. Does it auger well for her residency? Terrence Malick is a much-admired film director whose recent work has received very mixed critical responses. Will his latest, Knight of Cups, be admired or reviled? Novelist Louise Erdrich is of North American Indian descent and her work reflects this. Her newest - LaRose - is set in the world of the Ojibwe tribe Mona Hatoum has a retrospective of her work at Tate Modern - how well does or can it chronicle her conceptual art? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Elif Shafak, Denise Mina and Boyd Tonkin. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 collection of rather dark short stories which he hopes can "create empathy for unloveable people in difficult circumstances". Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove has condensed several Shakespeare royal plays into Kings of War; four and a half hours in Dutch, telling English history. Nick Hornby has adapted Nina Stibbe's Love Nina for BBC TV Pablo Bronstein brings dance to Tate Britain Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ekow Eshun, Antonia Quirke and Kate Bassett. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Dorfman Theatre. Set in a rundown movie theatre, it explores the dynamics of the relationships among an increasingly unmotivated staff Garth Greenwell describes his novel What Belongs To You like this; "I'm a queer writer writing in the queer literary tradition for queer people". Is it a straightforward book? The British Museum in London has a new exhibition: Sicily, Culture and Conquest. It looks at the island at the toe of the boot of Italy, whose strategic position and rich soil means that - over the centuries - it has been ruled by many different nations and absorbed many different cultures BBC TV's All The World's a Screen is an Arena special on the global history of Shakespeare's work as seen on the silver screen Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Helen Lewis and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 collateral damage? Rick Moody's new novel Hotels of North America has an unusual narrative voice. It takes the form of a series of hotel reviews, as written by Reginald Edward Morse, one of the top reviewers on RateYourLodging.com, where his many reviews reveal more than just details of hotels -they tell his life story. Playwright Suhayla El-Bushra takes Nikolai Erdman's Soviet classic The Suicide and sets it in contemporary urban London at London's National Theatre, starring Javone Prince from E4's Phone Shop. A new comedy drama on Channel 4, Flowers, stars Olivia Colman and Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and features an eccentric family struggling to hold themselves together in a crumbling old house. Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979 at Tate Britain shows how artists working in Britain transformed the nature of art, bringing together 70 works by 21 artists.

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 newest play X is set on a space station on Pluto. It opens at London's Royal Court Theatre; will our reviewers think it's out of this world? David Szalay's was named as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2013. His new novel All That Man Is looks at 9 young men in modern Europe Shakespeare In Art is an exhibition at Compton Verney looking at the many ways that artists in different disciplines have depicted the work of The Bard. The Five is a new thriller TV series where a group of friends is reunited when one of them is implicated in a murder. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Malorie Blackman, Kerry Shale and Alice Jones. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 on first release? Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey Into Night is at Bristol's Old Vic starring Jeremy Irons and Lesly Manville. It's directed by Richard Eyre. Julia Davis' newest TV comedy Camping follows several couples (with varying degrees of dysfunction in their relationships) as they spend a ghastly holiday under canvas Ann Wroe's book 6 Facets of Light is a series of meditations on the essential nature of light. The Museum of Brands offers a peculiar and unique view of 200 years of British society through packaging, design, toys, magazines and other items. Formerly in Gloucester, it has now moved to a new location in London Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Andrea Rose, Geoffrey Durham and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 emotional dynamics of the mother / daughter relationship in her new novel Hot Milk. Court is Mumbai born Chaitanya Tamhane's feature film debut - an Indian courtroom drama film which explores the limitations of Indian legal system through the trial of an elderly folk singer at a Sessions Court in Mumbai. Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century at the V&A in London shows how the pioneering American photographer defined the way in which fine art and documentary photography is understood and practised today in the first major retrospective of his work for 40 years. And barrister turned writer Peter Moffat's new political thriller Undercover on BBC One, stars Sophie Okonedo as Maya, who is about to be appointed as the first black Director of Public Prosecutions. Adrian Lester plays her husband Nick, an under cover police officer with a complex past. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Arts Editor at the New Statesman, Kate Mossman, novelist Patrick Gale and writer Susan Jeffreys.

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 Ballard - an urban dystopia set in a brutalist tower block. Jane Horrocks' newest production is a genre hybrid; "a theatrical experience with music" . If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me at London's Young Vic is her tribute to the music she loved as a teenager Charlotte Bronte came to London from Yorkshire five times in her life. A small exhibition at The John Soane's Museum commemorates her visits. London's National Portrait Gallery has an unprecedented exhibition of Russian works normally displayed at The State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It's part of a cultural exchange between the two museums, both founded 160 years ago. Sarah Crompton's guests are Tiffany Jenkins, Francis Spufford and Louise Doughty. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 possibility of redemptive love: Anomalisa In The Age of Giorgione at London's Royal Academy, examines the development of The Venetian Renaissance, through works by Giorgione and his contemporaries such as Titian and Durer The central character of Ottessa Moshfegh's novel Eileen is a lonely self-loathing secretary at a boy's prison, looking after her alcoholic father. And then along comes hope... Art of Scandinavia on BBC4: Andrew Graham Dixon looks at the art of Denmark, Norway and Sweden Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lisa Appignanesi, Rowan Pelling and Elizabeth Day. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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' masterpiece Don Quixote in a new production in Stratford. Can they do justice to a book, more than 4 centuries old, which is often hailed as the The Greatest Work Of The Spanish Language? Ta Nehisi Coates writes about the experience of young black America. His work is admired by the likes of Barack Obama and he's been described as The Young James Joyce of the hip-hop generation. We look at his latest work: The Beautiful Struggle Botticelli Reimagined at The V+A examines the enduring impact of the Fifteenth century Florentine genius, BBC Three's first online only drama is Thirteen, a kidnap thriller about a girl who escapes her captor 13 years after being abducted Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Liz Jensen, Crystal Mahey Morgan and Nicholas Rankin. The producer is Oliver Jones. Main Image: Ivy Moxam (played by Jodie Comer), from Thirteen, BBC Three. Credit: BBC/Todd Anthony.

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 Javier Marias; one of Europe's finest writers Artist Mark Wallinger's recent work has focussed on religion death and William Blake. He has a new exhibition opening in London Sarah Kane's plays have always excited controversy: a restaging of Cleansed at London's Dorfman Theatre looks set to rouse familiar fury BBC TV has new drama series starting: Murder and Broken Biscuits Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Louise Scodie, Amanda Craig and Kevin Jackson. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 directed by Robert Icke giving it a fresh contemporary feel. John leCarre's 1993 novel The Night Manager has become a 6 part BBCTV series. Espionage, amoral weapons dealers, beautiful tragic women; all the best ingredients are there, what does it add up to? Award-winning French novelist Maylis de Kerangal's latest work translated into English is Mend The Living - dissecting 24 hours of a human heart. The first major London exhibition of work by - and influenced by - Eugene Delacroix has opened at The National Gallery. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Gillian Slovo, Jason Cowley and Kathryn Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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, extraordinary work OJ Simpson's 1994 trial has been turned into a US TV drama. Does it have something new to show or say? Ian McGuire's North Water has garnered positive reviews from the likes of Hilary Mantel and Martin Amis. It's a whodunnit set on board an 18th century whaling ship. "A version of Captain Ahab (if you squint a little) meets a version of Sherlock Holmes" Ralph Fiennes stars in A Bigger Splash, a tale of louche life set around a swimming pool in a baking hot Italian villa. Also starring Tilda Swinton, Matthius Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson Battlefield at The Young Vic is Peter Brook's distillation of his magnum opus Mahabarata. A few short tales which deal with life an immense canvas in miniature Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Amanda Vickery, Natalie Haynes and Jim White. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 as Trumbo, Jay Roach's film tells the story of the Oscar winning writer's relationship with the US government, studio bosses and Hollywood icons such as John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Edward G Robinson and Otto Preminger. A new ten part Sky Atlantic / HBO tv series Vinyl, created by Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter, is set in the music business in 970s New York City and stars Bobby Cannavale, with the first episode directed by Scorsese himself. At the age of 36, on the verge of completing eleven years of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His reflections on doctoring, illness and the meaning of life form the basis of his memoir "When Breath Becomes Air" - which includes an epilogue from his wife. A new production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opens at the National Theatre in London - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright whose work chronicles the twentieth century African American experience. Written in 1982 and set in a recording studio in Chicago in 1927, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom features Ma Rainey, played by Sharon D Clarke, who is determined that 'Black Bottom', the song that bears her name, will be recorded her way. The Rhubarb Triangle & Other Stories is the largest Martin Parr exhibition in the UK for over a decade, comprising more than 300 photographs that span the past 40 years, and including a new commission The Rhubarb Triangle, focusing on an area of countryside known between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell in West Yorkshire, which is famous for producing early-forced rhubarb. Parr's photographs capture the back-breaking work of moving the rhubarb from field to shed, the freezing cold and exhausting labour of picking the vegetable by candlelight and the consumption of the rhubarb by coach parties and food tourists.

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 investigative journalists, who in 2002 shocked the world by exposing the Catholic Church's systematic cover-up of widespread paedophilia perpetrated by more than 70 local priests. It has six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Booker prize winning novelist Howard Jacobson's new novel, My Name is Shylock, is a retelling of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice - part of a series of Shakespeare-inspired novels by well known writers to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Jacobson challenges the traditional anti-Semitic interpretations of Shakespeare's most performed play. Academy Award winning director of The Great Beauty Paolo Sorrentino's new film Youth stars Harvey Keitel and Michael Caine, and is set in an elegant hotel in the Swiss Alps. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children's confused lives, Mick's enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests, all of whom, it seems, have all the time that they lack. Wit is a Pulitzer Prize winning play by American playwright Margaret Edson which opens at Manchester's Royal Exchange with former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh. It portrays the final hours of Dr Vivian Bearing, a renowned expert on the work of 17th-century poet John Donne, and who is in hospital dying of ovarian cancer. Edson's first, and only, play, it was inspired by her experience of working on a cancer ward. And Electronic Superhighway, a landmark exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London that brings together over 100 artworks to show the impact of computer and internet technologies on artists from the mid-1960s to the present day.

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 artistic genius under the yoke of the Stalin's Soviet system Champagne Life - the Saatchi Gallery's exhibition of women artists. New play 4000 Days at The Park Theatre is about a man who emerges from a coma and discovers he can't remember anything from the past decade. Ray Winstone plays the author HG Wells in a new TV series"The Nightmare World of HG Wells AS Byatt, (who has just won the Erasmus Prize) and comedian Russell Kane join Tom Sutcliffe and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Leibovitz has an exhibition of portraits under the title "Women", which will tour the globe. How does she tackle such an enormous subject? The debut novel by former civil servant Nicholas Searle "the Good Liar" is gaining a lot of attention but do our critics think it's a good book? BBC iPlayer's first online-only drama is a snooker comedy film 'The Rack Pack' - which tells the story of the rise of the sport in the early 80's from a parlour game to a world-conquering TV fixture. Give Me Your Love is a play at The Battersea Arts Centre about the treatment of former combatants who have PTSD with MDMA (ecstasy). Is this a wise move? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Paul Morley, Natalie Haynes and Jacqueline Springer. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Savoy Theatre George Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and they're all being republished - how well do they stand up nowadays? The Metropolitan Police's Crime Museum is usually closed to the public but The Museum of London has a temporary exhibition showing 600 of the 2000 items it contains; fascinating and gruesome certainly... but is it distasteful? ITV's historical drama Jericho looks at the lives of the Victorian navvies who built the great engineering edifices of the age Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Schneider, Sophie Hannah and Dreda Say Mitchell. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Everything) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables). Lili Elbe defied convention and pushed the boundaries of medical science to become the first transgendered woman. How will 21st century audiences react to this telling of her story? Andrew Davies's new adaptation of Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace - into only six episodes on BBC One - features a cast of stars including Lily James, Paul Dano, James Norton, Rebecca Front, Stephen Rea and Jim Broadbent. Davies says he abridges by picking out the "best bits" - but will television audiences agree with his choice? Deutschland 83 is an eight-episode German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who in 1983 is sent to the West as an undercover spy for the Stasi secret police. The first German language series to be screened in the US - how will British audiences react? Follow Me is a thriller by Angela Clarke in which a murderer tweets his crimes. In What She Left, T R Richmond looks at the victim's digital footprint in order to piece together what has happened to her. How are writers responding to trends in social media? And a look at 2015 computer games. Fallout 4 (a sequel to Fallout 3) is high tech, spectacular and epic. Her Story, a surprise hit on the gaming circuit, is low tech and almost entirely narrative driven.

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's been hard to avoid. But is it any good? Last year WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio created the astoundingly successful Serial podcast and now there's a new series unravelling the peculiar story of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl Dickensian is Tony "Eastenders" Jordan's mash-up of several Charles Dickens stories and characters. How well does this TV series capture the spirit of the originals? Penguin publishing is putting out a series of 45 small books, each of which tells the story of a different British monarch. Tom Sutcliffe is joined for the final edition of Saturday Review for 2015 by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Rosie Goldsmith and Patrick Gale. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Tomlin plays the feisty Grandma who has to help her granddaughter find the money needed for an abortion Nureyev - Dance to Freedom, is a BBC4 drama-documentary which tells the story of the famous dancer's dramatic defection to The West in 1961 Adam Roberts' novel The Thing Itself deals with Emmanuel Kant, the search for extra-terrestrial life, time-hopping and so much more London's V+A Museum has reopened refurbished European Galleries. With an embarrassment of riches from which to choose, how have they updated the display? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Tusa, Louise Doughty and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 the role of actress Fanny Brice in the first London production of Funny Girl for 50 years. Made famous by Barbra Streisand on stage and screen, they're big shoes to fill and the current run of shows is already sold out, is it any good? Edna O'Brien's latest novel The Little Red Chairs places a major war criminal in a small Irish village and ghastly violence comes with him Big Bang Data is an exhibition at London's Somerset House which explores how artists are trying to depict the welter of data that is out there, growing all the time. Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein look at the world of popular British entertainment before TV in the BBC4 series What a Performance.

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 Haynes' has adapted a Patricia Highsmith novel for Carol. Cate Blanchett plays a woman trapped in a loveless marriage of convenience who falls in love with a shop girl Rooney Mara. Complications ensue. Richard Eyre directs Ibsen's Little Eyolf at London's Almeida Theatre - difficult play dealing with marriage and grief. A retrospective exhibition of more than 30 years of the work of Irish artist Michael Craig-Martin has opened at The Serpentine Gallery. Nobel Winnner Kenzaburo Oe's latest novel is Death by Water; a leisurely tale about family crises and family legends Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Joe Dunthorne, Damian Barr and Susannah Clapp. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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? The subject of Andy Martin's new book is author Lee Child. He shadowed Child as he wrote his most recent Jack Reacher novel. It's a meta book about a writer and his craft. Banned by the censors in 1907, Harley Granville Barker's play Waste is being staged at London's National Theatre. It exposes a cut-throat, cynical world of sex, sleaze and death BBCTV has adapted John Lanchester's novel Capital -about the crazy housing market in London - into a series starring Toby Jones Tate Liverpool imagines the world in 2053 when all art has vanished and museum visitors have to evoke the works themselves.

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 exhibition Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace allows the public a chance to see some Dutch masters from The Royal Collection. ENO is staging Verdi's Force of Destiny; great music (the Jean de Florette tune!), a chorus of 49 singers, an orchestra of 69 musicians and a crazy plot, what does it all add up to? The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre was the 2013 winner of France's most prestigious book award, the Prix Goncourt. It looks at the aftermath of WW1 on a group of very different soldiers. Main Image: Miranda Raison (Hermione) and Kenneth Branagh (Leontes) in Theatre Company's The Winter's Tale. Credit: Johan Persson.

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 fecund period 1965-66. How much light does a collection of outakes and alternative versions throw upon his creative processes? Simon Russell Beale plays an 18th century cross-dressing satirist, impressionist and comedian in Mr Foote's Other Leg. It's now transferred to the West End Jonathan Coe's new novel Number 11 is his 11th book, published on 11th November. A new exhibition at London's Jewish Museum looks at the significance of blood in religion through manuscripts, prints, Jewish ritual and ceremonial objects, art, film, literature and cultural ephemera. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kit Davis, Tom Holland and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 political or aesthetic award? Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser became an award-winning film in 1983. A new version for BBC TV stars Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen Hampton Court houses just a few paintings from The Royal Collection in The Cumberland Gallery. It's a small sample of the glorious riches The Queen holds in trust for the nation. David Mitchell's new novel Slade House tells a spooky tale of mindbending, timeslips and soul-stripping. David Hare's play The Moderate Soprano is about the beginnings of Glyndebourne Opera in the 1930s and its eccentric founder Capt John Christie Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Bull, Rebecca Stott and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 is a film that follows 2 gamblers trying to beat the odds to turn their lives around as they head down the Mississippi river to the big game in New Orleans . The latest cult TV series from the USA is Mr Robot - turning the world of computer coders and hackers into nailbiting narrative The prolific and highly influential design team of Charles and Ray Eames are the subject of a new exhibition at The Barbican in London. You probably know their work without realising it (they designed the "Mastermind" chair and much more) Beatlebone by Kevin Barry is the imagined story of John Lennon trying to reach spiritual peace by going to an island he has bought off the coast of Ireland.

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 retelling? City On Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg has been hyped by the publishers and lauded by many critics. It's a 944-page novel about New York City in the mid 1970s; does it justify the hoopla? Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes is a modern reworking of Moliere's Tartuffe at London's Tricycle Theatre. Set in a black southern baptist church with a dissembling pastor, do the themes still resonate in the twenty-first century? 'Periodic Tales, The Art of the Elements" is an exhibition at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. It explores the way the elements of the periodic table have inspired and influenced artists over the centuries. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rowan Pelling, Geoffrey Durham and Linda Grant. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 American campus - Teddy Ferrara - has been reworked from its US origination. How will it work in London? Jonathan Lee's novel High Dive reimagines the story of the 1984 Brighton Bombing where the IRA tried to kill the Tory cabinet. How well does it meld fact and fiction? Frank Auerbach is often hailed as Britian's finest living painter. We attend a retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain in London Black Roses was Simon Armitage's prose poem - originally written for the radio - about the murder of Sophie Lancaster, a young goth girl kicked to death by a frenzied group of young men. It's now been made into a TV production as part of National Poetry Week Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Charlotte Mullins, Ryan Gilbey and Emma Woolf. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 in porcelain can be seen in an exhibition "White", at London's Royal Academy Library Jeanette Winterson's latest novel The Gap of Time retells Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, setting it in the modern day. Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars in The Martian: how do you cope with life millions of miles from any other human being? And as 2 new TV crime series begin - Unforgotten and From Darkness - we consider the enduring appeal of police detective dramas. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Iwona Blazwick, Don Guttenplan and Sarah Churchwell. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 new novel The Heart Goes Last was originally published as a 4 part serial work online. 99 Homes is a film which takes what might sound like an unpromising premise - foreclosure of mortgages - and tries to turn it into a thriller. You might not expect a play about depression to use song and dance and comedy to tell its tale but Fake it 'til you make it, at London's Soho Theatre attempts to do just that. BBC4's Music for Misfits tells the tale of how independent record labels and indie bands reshaped the UK music business and were then appropriated by those they intended to replace. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Crystal Mahey Morgan, David Hepworth and Deborah Moggach. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Europe to Islam. Part satire, part science fiction, does Hoeullebecq remain the "enfant terrible" of contemporary French literature? Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film "Tangerines" is a beautifully eloquent statement for peace and the futility of bloodshed over racial and ethnic division. Set in the 1992 it features two tangerine growing Estonian farmers caught up in the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazian separatists. It is directed by award winning Georgian film maker Zaza Urushadze The Ey Exhibition: The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern shows how 60's and 70's pop art extended beyond America and Britain and dealt with more issues than consumerism, issues which include social imbalances, censorship, sexual liberation, war and civil rights. Rob Lowe and Pauline Quirke star in a new Sky 1 comedy drama "You, Me and The Apocalypse," where the characters are forced to confront imminent extinction from an 8 mile wide comet hurtling towards earth. What would you do if you were told there were only 34 days before oblivion? And Martin McDonagh's first UK play in ten years, Hangmen, receives its World Premiere at the Royal Court in London, and tells the fictional story of a rival to the well known hangman Albert Pierrepoint. How does Britain's second best-known executioner respond to the news that the British government is abolishing capital punishment?

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 shortlisted The Sisters Brothers. It's a bizarre fable of sorts set in an unspecified country and time. This is England '90 is the fourth part of Shane Meadows' partly-autobiographical series. From the initial film, it has become a successful TV series for Channel 4 Rob Brydon plays a long-suffering teacher in Tamsin Oglesby's Future Conditional at London's Old Vic Theatre. It deals with the sticky business of getting your child into a good secondary school. Drawing in Silver and Gold at British Museum looks at the once-popular art of metalpoint, with works from Rembrandt, Van Eyck, Hans Holbein, Otto Dix, Holman Hunt and more.

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 at The Dorfman Theatre is Duncan Macmillan's latest play, dealing with addiction, recovery and an individual's identity Me and Earl and The Dying Girl, is a film which sort-of delivers what the title says. It's a teenage cancer weepy, but does it have anything new to say or a new way of saying it? Lady Chatterley returns to the small screen in a new BBC adaptation. Modern sensibilities are less likely to be offended by some aspects than others. Should we let wives and servants watch this version? We visit Dulwich Picture Gallery's permanent collection - the world's first purpose-built public art gallery founded in 1811. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Meg Rosoff, David Olusoga and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 a new exhibition which aims to stimulate all our senses as we view a selection of paintings. Can they enhance or distract us from the gallery experience? Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling star in 45 Years, a British film about a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary when a long-forgotten event disturbs their happiness. Poet Les Murray has been declared by The National Trust of Australia as one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures. Now 76, he has just published his latest collection: Waiting For The Past BBC TV has begun a 4-part series The Ascent of Woman, looking at the history of women from the dawn of civilisation to the modern day. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Tracy Chevalier, Alice Rawsthorn and Kathryn Hughes. The Producer is Oliver Jones.

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 dealing with Alzheimer's, Netflix's series Narcos, a new film about drug lord Pablo Escobar. And also their own selections from the rich array available in the city.

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 stars in Trainwreck as a hard-living young woman for whom love turns her life around Sir John Hurt plays the title role in Radio 4's adaptation of John Mortimer's 1989 play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell; an entertainingly dissolute life spent in old Soho. The Scandalous Lady W on BBC2 tells the story of an 18th century noblewoman whose infidelity led to a sensational public trial. Bedwyr Williams is a Welsh artist who has exhibited work at The Venice Biennale and now has a show at The Whitworth in Manchester (Museum of The Year 2015).

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 London's Donmar Warehouse - 4 women deal with an imminent civil war, separately and together Simon Parkin's book Death By Video Game looks ta the cultural significance and influence of the industry worth £3.9bn last year in the UK alone. York Art Gallery has reopened after a 3 year £8m refit. Housing the Centre Of Ceramic Art, how well does it combine old masters with new pottery? A new US TV comedy series Last Man On Earth has a central character who is a dreadful slob - why bother making an effort when you're alone on the planet? - does that make him too unappealing to like?

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 retrospective of the work of Richard Long at the Arnolfini Gallery in his hometown of Bristol which includes new works created from the environment. 93 year old stylist Iris Apfel is the subject of a fashion documentary by Robert Maysles. Pulitzer Prize nominated author David Gates' collection of short stories "A Hand Reached Down To Guide Me" is his first for 15 years. Is it worth the wait? British indi comedy film The Last Sparks of Sundown was made for £46,000; was it money well spent?

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 flop on Broadway in 1974, how does the new production fare? Inside Out is the latest Pixar film. Set inside the head of an 11 year old girl some reviewer have praised it as the best children's film ever; will our reviewers agree? Life in Squares on BBC2, is a drama about the glamorous, bohemian world of the Bloomsbury Set and their complicated intertwining love lives and careers. Jessie Greengrass's debut work is a collection of short stories "An Account of the Decline of Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It". Is it a promising start? The Wellcome Collection in London has an exhibition by Alice Anderson - winding copper wire around everyday objects; does this process imbue them with a different significance?

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 Festival. It's about a family of beekeepers struggling to survive. Harper Lee is not a prolific author. Her first 'new' work in more than half a century is Go Set a Watchman. Can it possibly match the success of To Kill A Mockingbird (40 million sold) Marc Quinn's exhibition The Toxic Sublime at White Cube Bermondsey includes hanging works and enormous outsize sculptures of seashells , The BBC TV programme Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners looks at how widespread ownership of slaves was before the 1833 act to abolish it.

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 own experience of everyday racism as well as the way white society deals with blackness Invisible is a new work by Oscar-winning playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz at London's Bush Theatre. It's about the effect that removing legal aid will have on the justice system - how well can she breathe life into such a potentially dry subject? Sadie Jones' has adapted her own prize-winning novel The Outcast into a 2 part drama for BBC1 - does it make prize-worthy TV? Soundscapes is a new exhibition at London's National Gallery - combining specially commissioned compositions with art works from the collection. is this a good or a ridiculous notion?

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 what's out there or just another option in an already over-serviced market? Jim Shepard's novel The Book of Aron is about a young boy in wartime Poland occupied by the Nazis. Does it manage to say something new about a familiar subject? There's a revival in London of the first AIDS play: As Is. It premiered in New York in 1985 and won a TONY. What does it say about the situation today? The Joseph Cornell retrospective at London's Royal Academy allows visitors to view collages rarely seen in the UK.

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 has opened at Tate Britain. Does it do her career justice? Everyone's Going To Die is a small scale British dark comedy film about hitmen, relationships and reincarnation The author Joshua Cohen's latest novel is Book of Numbers about a writer called Joshua Cohen (not him) writing a biography of an internet genius called Joshua Cohen (also not him). Confused? Let us help you to make some sense. Channel 4's Not Safe For Work is a comedy about the staff of a government department which has been moved from London out to the regions as part of a money-saving exercise.

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 old who has retired to the Sussex countryside with only his housekeeper and her ten year old son for company, Holmes becomes obsessed with his last unsolved case. How will McKellan's elderly Holmes appeal to cinema audiences so familiar with one of British literature's most iconic characters? The Mother...With The Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis opens at London's National Theatre and tells the story of Jackie, out of jail and staying clean thanks to his sponsor. He might even have found a job. And of course there's Veronica, who he's loved since 8th grade. Nothing could come between them - except a hat. The Mother...With The Hat received six Tony nominations on Broadway - how will it appeal to British audiences? The Household Spirit is the follow up novel from American writer Todd Wodicka. Like his debut "All Shall be Well; And All Shall Be Well:And All Manner Things Shall Be Well," this book uses dark humour to provide insight into the human condition. Another dark comedy in a new HBO tv series "The Brink," that focuses on a geopolitical crisis and its effect on three disparate and desperate men: Walter Larson (Tim Robbins), the U.S. Secretary of State; Alex Talbott (Jack Black), a Foreign Service officer stationed in Islamabad; and Zeke "Z-Pak" Tilson (Pablo Schreiber), a Navy fighter pilot with a side business dealing prescription drugs. And Fighting History at Tate Britain in London explores 250 years of British history painting including work by artists as various as Winifred Knights and Stanley Spencer, and Rita Donagh and Jeremey Deller. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tiffany Jenkins, Kevin Jackson and Jamila Gavin. The producer is Hilary Dunn.

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' latest novel The Dust That Falls From Clouds looks at the lives of those 'left behind' by the First World War Channel 4's The Tribe is applying the techniques usually used in programmes such as 24 Hours in A+E to a tribe in rural Ethiopia - lots of cameras, lots of microphones and unique access to a largely hitherto unknown community. Patrick Marber's play The Red Lion deals with non-league football, corruption and compromised integrity. A retrospective exhibition of the work of Belgian artist Carsten Holler has opened at The Hayward Gallery in London. His work is characterised by playful interactivity - will it impress or delight our reviewers? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Emma Jane Unsworth and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Kundera has just published his first novel for 12 years The Festival of Insignificance Iain Banks' 2012 novel Stonemouth about a young man returning - under a shadow - to his Scottish hometown has been dramatised for BBC1 London's Serpentine Gallery has 2 portraiture exhibitions opening - Duane Hanson and Lynette Yiadom Boakye. The film Listen Up Philip follows the life and relationships of an obnoxious young author who seeks life advice from a similarly obnoxious older writer Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Linda Grant, John Mullan and Frances Stonor Saunders. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Man Up - an unconventional rom-com about a blind date that goes hilariously wrong. We review 2 new TV Sci-fi dramas: Humans on Channel 4 and Sense8 on Netflix - can they compete with the bigger budgets of film? Ryan Gattis' novel: All Involved is a fictionalised account of the 1992 LA riots which followed the acquittal of policemen for beating African-American Rodney King. 17 separate voices from gang members to firefighters tell their stories Ceramicist Grayson Perry has a retrospective at Turner Contemporary in Margate, it's a selection from more than 30 years of his work Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lisa Appignanesi, Gabriel Gbadamosi and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Barbican in London - how well does this 17th Century English play transfer to a setting in 19th Century Japan? Manchester has a brand new arts centre: Home. What will it add to to Manchester's vibrant arts scene? Francois Ozon's film The New Girlfriend is based on a Ruth Rendell novel. How does the cross-dressing of the main character - a young widower - affect his friends, male and female? Dan Snow presents Armada, 12 Days To Save England on BBC2; taking a fresh modern look at the great Elizabethan sea battle - the reasons as well as the results.

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 constitution. What does it add to the commemorations? There's a new Mad Max film, "Fury Road", with Tom Hardy replacing Mel Gibson in the title role - it's two hours of more-or-less non-stop action and taken decades to reach the screen; is it worth the wait? Film director Mike Leigh is a big fan of the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He has been working with English National Opera on a staging of The Pirates of Penzance -how does his improvisational working style fit with the formatted world of opera? Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was Susanna Clarke's 800 page novel of magic in 19th Century England. It's been turned into a 7-part TV series by the BBC. American novelist TC Boyle's newest work is The Harder They Come, about gun control and mental illness in the USA.

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 and nearly 40 more actors, can it have a life after we announce our verdict? Bapsi Sidhwa's novel The Crow Eaters is a classic of Pakistani writing; a darkly humorous tale of a family in Lahore in the early 1900s. fans include Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi and Fatima Bhutto. What will our panel make of it? The French film Girlhood tells the story of the lives of a group of young black Parisiennes; a group notably underrepresented in French cinema. Does this film do something original with the idea? We look at a couple of works at this year's Brighton Festival on an avian theme: Dawn Chorus, humans reproducing birdsong and Murmuration looking at birdwatching and spying Grace and Frankie is a new comedy series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as two septuagenarians who are surprised when their husbands announce that they're gay and intend to marry each other. Image: Mark Gatiss as Steven Crosswell in The Vote, Donmar Warehouse Photo Credit: Johan Persson.

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 Crowd, this time with Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene - is it fair to compare it with the 1969 version? Empire is a TV phenomenon in the US; a tale of power and intrigue at a hip hop record label - like a black Dynasty crossed with King Lear - it has drawn unprecedented audiences and now it's come to the UK Anne Enright''s novel The Green Road tells the individual stories of a geographically-dispersed Irish family who are brought back together for a family gathering with all the pressure that unavoidably ensues A retrospective exhibition of Christopher Williams photography at The Whitechapel Gallery in London looks at the unexpected beauty and cultural resonance of commercial, industrial and instructional photography.

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 works. He described it as a folk comedy, is it still funny today? The British Museum exhibition, Indigenous Australians: Enduring Civilisation, looks at 60 millennia of Aboriginal life and art A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence is the peculiar Lion d'Or winning film from Sweden - is it funny? unnerving? odd? magnificent? BBC 4's Storyville series - bringing the best foreign documentaries to a British TV audience - has been going for 10 years. We review the latest: "Himmler, The Decent One", which looks at the life of Hitler's deputy through his private correspondence.

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 to the 53 hour long TV series Heimat, tells the tale of a fictional rural German village from the 1840s to the 1990s. Caryl Phillips' latest novel The Lost Child reimagines Wuthering Heights through several interweaving narratives. An exhibition of the work of Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern is designed as a radical reassessment of her importance as an artist, showcasing her originality and creativity across the twentieth Century.

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 reveal his genius? In Swedish film 'Force Majeure', an avalanche during a family skiing holiday causes no physical damage but opens fissures in the happy family structure Olympic gold medallists Torvill & Dean have a new TV series: 'Ice Rink On The Estate'. They attempt to turn a group of kids from a deprived Nottingham housing estate are turned into an ice dance troupe. There are very few roles for older actresses, but in April de Angelis' play 'After Electra', the main character is 81 years. The co-writer of Peep Show, Jesse Armstrong has written his debut novel - Can a successful witty TV writer easily make the transfer?

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 centenary of Miller's birth at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon, Artistic Director Greg Doran directs Anthony Sher as Willy Loman, Harriet Walter as his wife Linda and Alex Hassel as their son Biff. How well does this production portray the darkness that lies at the heart of the American dream? Oscar nominated for The Squid and the Whale, "While We're Young" is Noah Baumbach's 8th feature film, and his second collaboration with star Ben Stiller. A comedy about the generational divide in a technologically driven age - what new insights does it provide on the perennial conflict between age and youth? Award winning novelist, biographer and poet Peter Ackroyd's turns his attention to Alfred Hitchcock in a new biography which details the director's stormy, controlling relationships with his leading ladies, as well the painstaking way in which he mastered his cinematic craft manifest in such cinema classics as Notorious, Rear Window, Psycho and The Birds. What new light can the "Master of Biography" shed upon the "Master of Suspense?" When you go to see an exhibition at the National Gallery in London you expect to see paintings. However in Frames in Focus: Sansovino Frames it is the frames themselves that are the stars of the show - one of the first times ever a UK gallery has created an exhibition (almost) purely from frames alone. What does this exhibition reveal about the art of the picture frame? And a new BBC 2 television series, Sex and The Church, explores the complex question of the church's attitude towards sex from the birth of Jesus to the present day, presented by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch.

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 with our nearest and dearest? The Norwegian film Blind plays around with perception. The lead character loses her sight and has to reassess her relationship with the world and especially those around her. We've been watching Channel 4's coverage of the re-internment of Richard III. How fascinating can many hours of television devoted to the burying of a 500 year old corpse be? The Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard could be boiled down to a police procedural about the deaths of Christ's apostles, but it is set simultaneously in the 1st and 21st centuries Defining Beauty; The Body in Ancient Greek Art at The British Museum looks at the development and influence of Greek sculpture, drawing on their permanent collection and many rarely-loaned works from overseas Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kamila Shamsie, Emma Woolf and Nicholas Lezard. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 figurative paintings too, restore his reputation as a serious artist? A new Channel 4 drama "Coalition" dramatises the negotiations which took place immediately after the last general election and is based on first hand research by writer James Graham, whose past work includes Privacy, Tory Boyz and the Olivier-nominated This House. With Mark Gatiss as Peter Mandelson, how much of a behind the scenes insight does Coalition give us about this historic moment in British politics? And how well does it work as a drama? A revival of Bryony Lavery's award winning play Frozen opens at the Park Theatre in London tells the story of the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl, Rhona, through three protagonists: the girl's killer, her mother and a New York psychiatrist researching why people commit such crimes. How does Frozen negotiate such a controversial and complex subject as child killers? Set on a collection of islands off the coast of Virginia, Bailey longlisted debut novel "The Shore" by Sara Taylor interweaves stories that trace different generations of the same family over the course of 150 years. In "Mommy" 25 year old Canadian director Xavier Dolan returns to the theme of mothers and sons, first explored in his debut feature "I Killed My Mother." Casting Anne Dorval as a strong, independent woman overwhelmed with the task of caring for a teenage tyrant, how does he portray the pressures inflicted by the chaotic, testosterone fuelled madness of a 15 year old boy.

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 a crowd-puller Suite Francaise - Irene Nemerovski's wartime novel (discovered more than six decades after her death) was a best seller. Can it repeat its success as a film? X+Y is a film about a young maths prodigy who is on the autistic spectrum. It deals with his participation in the International Mathematical Olympiad and growing up emotionally Juliette Binoche plays the lead in Antigone at London's Barbican Theatre. Directed by Ivo Von Hove, it's caused a lot of advance excitement. Tom McCarthy's new novel Satin Island is a meditation on contemporary society that some reviewers have accused of ditching traditionally novelistic techniques like plot and character. Is it all the better for it? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Dominic Sandbrook and Kit Davis. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 London's Almeida theatre raises questions about how desperate people become when they're looking for somewhere to live. Paul Whitehouse plays multiple characters in his TV series Nurse which is transferring from Radio 4 to BBC2. It deal with the travails of a Community Psychiatric Nurse and her patients. David Vann's novel Aquarium is told from the point of view of a 12 year old girl whose happy life with her single mother is thrown into disarray by a chance encounter Forensics - The Anatomy of Crime, has opened at The Wellcome Collection in London, and it looks at crime from being committed to criminal conviction. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tracy Chevalier, Catherine O'Flynn and Craig Raine. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 horror film It Follows has been a success in the US and could be a new teen creepy classic Matt Lucas' is best known for Little Britain; his new TV show is entirely devoid of catchphrases - it's a wordless series called Pompidou Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain looks at sculpture created during Queen Victoria's reign - the innovations in style and technique Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Jim White and Rebecca Stott. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 houses The Duke of Burgundy is Peter Strickland's latest film which looks at the love affair between 2 sub-dom lesbian lepidopterists Amanda Vickery presents BBC2's Suffragettes Forever, a three part series trying to tell "the unknown story" of "Britain's longest war, the 300 year-long campaign by women for political and sex equality" The touring exhibition "Art From Elsewhere" currently in Birmingham displays some of The Art Fund's acquisitions of works by artists from overseas Peter Swanson's novel "The Kind Worth Killing" is a twisty turny thing; a thriller full of unexpected surprises. Is it surprisingly good?

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 life in India in 1932. It stars Julie Walters and follows the early stirrings of political opposition to The Raj Love Is Strange is a film with Jon Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a gay couple who decide to get married after being together for 40 years and their relationship is put under a strain by forces they hadn't expected Maxine Peake is in a new play at London's Royal Court. How To Hold Your Breath is about personal and political journeys History Is Now at The Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery is subtitled "7 Artists Take On Britain" and looks at 70 years of cultural and social history.

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 Selma and Montgomery in the segregated deep south, and the high price paid for democracy. Human Rights Human Wrongs is the latest exhibition in The Photographers Gallery in London. It charts, through photojournalism, how violent flash points through the world in 20th century have shaped our perception of conflict, race, empire and ourselves. The illuminations is the 5th novel by author Andrew O'Hagan, it tells the tale of Anne, a Scottish pensioner who is slipping in to the slow slide of dementia and her Grandson who is serving with the Army in Afghanistan. It explores how memory and the past are intertwined in this cross continental, generational tale. The panel also discuss comedian and artist Kim Noble's new show You're Not Alone. He uses live action, video, music and audience participation to paint a picture of darkly comic loneliness. Better Call Saul is the prequel to cult series Breaking Bad. Its from the same creator, so can it capture the magic of the original series? Presenter Tom Sutcliffe. Producer Ruth Sanderson.

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 first time a cinema director has wrestled this famously difficult author onto the screen. How well does it work? Documentary maker Adam Curtis's Bitter Lake attempts to explain the complicated political situation in Afghanistan. It's only available on iPlayer; might this be a new way for the BBC to 'broadcast' material? If so, what might the consequences be? Joyce Carol Oates has published more than 40 novels in her five decade long career. Her latest 'Sacrifice' is based around a notorious alleged rape case in the US Christian Marclay's exhibition at White Cube in Bermondsey includes a post-pub-crawl soundscape and paintings of sound effects - turning representations of audio experiences into fine art Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rowan Pelling, Julia Peyton Jones and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 1981, a year when more than 1.2m crimes were committed. JC Chandor's film follows a man trying to build up a family business in the face of alarming violence and corruption. Fortitude is Arctic noir TV. Set in an Icelandic Research Station where mysterious and untoward things start happening, the cast includes Sofie Grabol, Michael Gambon, Christopher Ecclestone and a host of other big names. Will it leave the reviewers cold? Rubens And His Legacy at the Royal Academy attempts to explore the influence of the great Flemish master on artists over the last three and a half centuries. Sandip Roy's first novel Dont Let Him Know tells the story of a young man in modern India exploring his sexual identity. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lionel Shriver, Sophie Hannah and Francis Spufford. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 succeed in London? Reese Witherspoon is in the running for an Oscar playing Cheryl in Wild, about a woman who sets off to discover herself on a 1100 mile walk in the wilderness. Wolf Hall was first a best-selling book by Hilary Mantel, then an RSC play and now it comes to BBCTV, with Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell Adam Thirlwell is a young British writer whose third novel Lurid and Cute focusses on an ordinary egotistical young man whose life spirals out of control Bull at The Young Vic is a play about the consequences of ruthless office bullying. At only 55 minutes long it has to come out swinging, but does it land any punches?

A review of the week's cultural highlights.

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 and novelist's second work of fiction which probes the reality of his own life and in doing so raises questions about the nature of fiction and truth itself. Golem is staged at the Young Vic by the 1927 theatre company and combines performance and live music with handcrafted animation and film to create magical filmic theatre. Inspired by Gustav Meyrink's The Golem published in 1915 - the play's message challenges our current obsession with technological gadgets. Crisis is a new television drama on UKTV's Watch Channel starring Gillian Anderson and revolving around a mass kidnapping of a group of teenagers on a school bus. In this case the teenagers are the children of America's rich and powerful elite. And Kentucky Route Zero, an innovative point and click computer game in 5 acts which employs storytelling techniques as well as graphics to involve the game player in the process of the narrative itself. How entertaining is it to play and how different is it to what has gone before?

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 draw their largest crowds? Larry Gelbart's City of Angels is revived at London's Donmar Warehouse. A musical about the golden age of Hollywood, it garnered awards galore 25 years ago in its original run, will this production be a winner? Tim Burton's new film Big Eyes is about 1960s housewife Margaret Keane whose paintings of waifs with enormous dark eyes were wildly commercially successful, but her husband claimed all the glory until she decided to make a break for fame in her own right. Small Books: We look at 3 works of extremely short fiction. Hanif Kureishi, Haruki Murakami and AN Wilson all have stories to tell, that they feel are best-suited to new diminutive formats. The BBC has remade EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia in sumptuous style; is it a new classic?

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 time? Electricity is a film starring model turned actress Agyness Deyn whose character deals with her epilepsy as she tries to find a community to be a part of. Charlie Brooker is back with a one-off feature-length Christmas special edition of Black Mirror on Channel 4. It's a worrying look at a future world that may be closer to our present world than we expect. It's guaranteed to inject some darkness into the joviality of Christmas Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Olen Butler's latest novel is The Hot Country; a historical thriller set in Mexico in 1914 with a hardbitten journalist as hero The V+A has an exhibition of Dolls Houses - from 1670 to 2001. They're a world of wonder in miniature. How do they reflect the society of the children for whom they were made? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Deborah Bull, Neil Brand and Misha Glenny. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 the endless possibilities. Hope is a new play by Jack Thorne at London's Royal Court Theatre. It's a dark comedy about a cash-strapped Labour council trying to balance its books and do the least harm in the face of cuts. William Blake is the subject of a major exhibition at the Ashmolean in Oxford. He was a printmaker, painter and revolutionary poet of the prophetic books, and this show attempts to reveal how he acquired and developed his skills and also to show his legacy. HBO's new series 4 part mini series , Olive Kitteridge is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and stars Frances McDormand in a tale of marital affairs, mental illness, intrigue, crime and tragedy in a small New England town. Acclaimed novel End of Days by German author Jenny Erpenbeck explores a multi-narrative story of a family whose destiny could spiral in many directions. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Charlotte Mendelson, Kate Mossman and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 complete universe of newness, how do they orientate themselves? Netflix newest production is an epic adventure series (10 x 60 minutes) telling the story of Marco Polo; full of spectacle, does it have substance or is it an Oriental Game of Thrones? London's Gate Theatre is staging Chimera - a play about DNA, genetic inheritance and kitchens Tate Modern's exhibition Conflict Time Photography looks at the relationship between photography and sites of conflict over time - eschewing chronological arrangement, it is displayed instead according to how soon after the event the photograph was taken - from moments to a century later. Concerning Violence is a documentary that deals with the struggle for independence of former colonies - how can they free themselves from the yoke of oppression? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Bidisha, Jim White and Alice Jones. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 reviewers tiptoe gently around the explicit nature of what's on show? What We Do In The Shadows is a New Zealand vampire comedy film about a group of bloodsucking flatmates (a 'dracumentary' if you will) - who does the washing-up in the house of the undead? Behind The Beautiful Forevers is David Hare's new play at London's National Theatre, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winning author Katherine Boo. It deals with life death and hope in a Mumbai undercity Robert Edric is an acclaimed British novelist whose latest book explores the life of Branwell Bronte - brother of the more famous sisters - whose life couldn't match theirs. Legacy is a new Danish TV police programme. What is it about the Scandi Noir genre that keeps on gripping UK audiences? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Helen Lewis Pat Kane and Amanda Craig. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 cryptographer and code-breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. Also starring Kiera Knightley, it tells the tale of the team of British maths geniuses who cracked the Nazi's Enigma Code. How successfully does it breathe new life into the biography of a private and secretive man? Roy Williams' new play Wildefire, directed by Maria Aberg, opens at London's Hampstead Theatre. It deals with 'the precarious world of modern policing'; how does a good copper stay good when her world turns nasty? British artist Allen Jones is probably best known for three works he created 45 years ago; Hat Stand, Table and Chair. A new exhibition at London's Royal Academy is a look back at his career - including pop art from the 60s, through figurative sculpture to his painted steel sculptures. But do accusations that his early work demeans women still hold sway in the more broadminded 21st century? Michael Palin returns to a British TV series for the first time in 2 decades in Remember Me on BBC1; a supernatural thriller set in Yorkshire - who is to blame for a series of mysterious deaths? Razia Iqbal's guests are Elif Shafak, Patrick Gale and Miranda Carter. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 she wrote the code that unlocks prisons around the world. Carey is has twice won The Booker Prize, is this another winning work? DV8 Physical Theatre Company's new show "John" tells the tale of a man who grows up in an extremely abusive family and who- as an adult - finds comfort and company in gay saunas. There's a lot of vivid descriptions of what goes on - how will the audience at London's Lyttleton respond to such explicit depiction of gay sex? Christopher Nolan's new film Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey as a former NASA astronaut whose job is to save the human race from extinction...not an simple subject, even for such an accomplished director. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace has an exhibition called Gold, which displays some of Her Majesty's astonishing artefacts around that theme. Is it a dazzling success? Puppy Love is the latest project from Joanna Scanlan and Vicky Pepperdine (who made the award- winning Getting On comedy series set in a hospital geriatric ward). This deals with the world of canine training; is it a bit of dog's breakfast? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Giles Fraser, Susie Boyt and Antonia Quirke. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Jake Gyllenhaal, we see him begin his nightcrawling career, but will it make a good man turn bad? 'Tis Pity She's a Whore is being staged at London's Globe Theatre. Written in the early 1600s by John Ford, the plot includes incest which made it extremely controversial at the time. And it was so controversial in fact that it wasn't revived in London until 1923. How will 21st century London audiences respond? Richard Ford's new book Let Me Be Frank With You is a collection of short stories all featuring the same main character: Frank Bascombe who has appeared in Ford's previous work. He's getting older and returns in all his imperfect glory, dealing with the mess of life. The Queen recently opened the latest gallery at London's Science Museum. It's called The Information Age and it's the first permanent gallery dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies. How have they managed to bring Translatlantic cable-laying to life? BBC1's latest World War 1 drama, Passing Bells follows the lives of two young recruits, one English, one German as they take part in and are affected by the conflict. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Linda Grant, Emma Woolf and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 latest film Fury follows a tank crew towards the end of WW2, when a rooky soldier joins the grizzled old conflict-hardened team in the hell of war. London's Young Vic Theatre plays host to Dance Umbrella 2014. We'll be reviewing Harlem Dream - a work by young British choreographer Ivan Blackstock in which The Harlem Renaissance collides with hip hop. Norwegian writer Per Petterson's 2003 novel Out Stealing Horses won critical acclaim. His newest 'I Refuse' has been hailed as a masterpiece in Norway - what will our panel make of the newly published English translation? And every parent's nightmare - a child disappears on a family holiday - is the plot of BBC1's new drama The Missing, which stars James Nesbitt. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Natalie Haynes and Judith Mackrell. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 a suitable subject for a musical? Gia Coppola is the grand-daughter of Hollywood titan Francis Ford Coppola and her debut film Palo Alto has just been released in the UK. Does this film show the kind of promise that she might have what it takes as a director to match her aunt Sophia or even her grandfather? David Attenborough's ninth 'Life' series begins on BBC1 this week. Life Story follows animals from all over the world on their journey through life. Can Sir David breathe new life into an established and much-loved format? US surgeon and writer Atul Gawande's latest book Being Mortal is about how to make the process of dying as good as possible. Have we lost sight of the needs of the patient in the last moments of their life; trying to make them live longer rather than better? To celebrate 25 years since the fall of The Berlin Wall, The British Museum's major new exhibition 'Germany: Memories of a Nation' tries to encapsulate 600 years of German history. Which items should be included to reflect the vitality of one of Europe's most important nations. Razia Iqbal is joined by Alex Preston, Abigail Morris and Cahal Dallat. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 in Belfast. Gotham is a new series on Channel 5 that explores that city in the days before Batman. Our novel is Lila by Pulitzer-winning Marilynne Robinson; the third part of her Gilead trilogy. Tracy Emin's latest exhibition of drawings, paintings and bronze work at London's White Cube. Razia Iqbal is joined by Naomi Alderman, Marika Cobbold and Ekow Eshun. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 film version of Gillian Flynn's best seller Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Howard Jacobson's Booker-nominated novel J imagines a dystopian world where a Holocaust-type event might happen again. Gothic Imagination at The British Library explores 250 years of a public predilection for horror and terror. BBC4's new Australian drama The Code deals with a corrupt government dealing ruthlessly with cyber skulduggery. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stephanie Merritt, Dea Birkett and Sarfraz Manzoor. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher," in which she turns her gaze away from Tudor England to the challenges of the recent past. The first major of retrospective of German artist Anselm Kiefer in the UK opens at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. From mythology to the Old and New Testaments, Kabbalah, alchemy, philosophy and the poetry of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, Kiefer's work wrestles with the darkness of German history and considers the complex relationship between art and spirituality. Thomas Ostermeier, artistic director of Berlin's SchaubÃ1/4hne's Theatre, launches the Barbican's International Ibsen season with a potent adaptation of An Enemy of the People, catapulting Ibsen into a modern world of environmental and financial crises and involving direct participation from the audience. Pawel Pawlikowski's award winning film Ida is his first set in his native Poland - he left Warsaw aged 14 - and explores the relationship between a novice and her magistrate aunt in 1960's Poland struggling to come to terms with its recent history. And Transparent is a new ten part series from Amazon, which was greenlighted after a pilot was aired on line garnering positive viewer feedback. Directed by Jill Soloway (writer and producer of Six Feet Under), whose own father came out as transgender, this dark comedy, starring Jeffrey Tambor as Mort / Moira, is not directly autobiographical, but is heavily influenced by her own experiences. What impact is the consumption of TV on demand and via the internet having on the kind television drama currently being produced?

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 and which fictionalised the riotous behaviour of Oxford's notorious Bullingdon Club, which David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson have all been members of. Enda Walsh's new play Ballyturk at the National Theatre has been compared to Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot and stars Cillan Murphy, Mikel Murfi and Stephen Rea. Mr Mac and Me is the 8th novel from Esther Freud, a blend of fact and fiction it recounts the time spent by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in a small fishing village in Suffolk through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. Constable, the Making of a Master, is a new exhibition at London's V&A, which presents his work for the first time alongside the Old Masters whose work he copied so fastidiously, and also features the two version of his most famous painting, The Haywain, side by side. And The Driver, a new three part series on BBC One, starring David Morrissey and written by Danny Brocklehurst is the story of an ordinary man who - because of family mystery, frustration with his job and his life - makes a terrible decision.

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 lesbian and gay groups from London who supported miners during the 84 miners' strike - leading to an unexpectedly harmonious and fruitful relationship. What would America be like after a Rapture-like event when 2% of the population will be taken into heaven and the rest are left behind? The Leftovers is a TV series that considers a post-rapture-like USA. Ali Smith's new novel is called How To Be Both - 2 complimentary self-contained stories that can be read in either order. Horst was a German American fashion photographer whose work is featured in a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kevin Jackson, Barb Jungr and Catherine O'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 court judge. Little Revolution is a play by Alecky Blythe concerning the London riots of 2011 using a script drawn from verbatim interviews Watermark is a film by photographer Edward Burtynsky about the world's most precious resource: H2O. There's a finite amount and it's getting more and more difficult to protect and access. Secrets, a new mini drama series on BBC1 begins with a play starring Olivia Colman and Alison Steadman about a mother who discovers she's dying of cancer and her relationship with her daughter. Bernd and Hilla Becher were a German husband and wife photographic duo who specialised in impartial pictures of industrial structures - conventionally unpretty but given a formalist beauty Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Mark Ravenhill, Liz Jensen and Kamila Shamsie. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 with the aftermath of The Bounty. The Moth is a public storytelling event that started in America and is now coming to the UK to coincide with a book collection of stories. Obvious Child is a romcom film about abortion which has incurred the wrath of pro-lifers in the US; can it be a suitable topic for a humorous film? BBC TV's new series the Secret Life of Books examines original texts, manuscripts, letters and diaries to uncover the story behind the creation of six classic books. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Tiffany Murray, Inua Ellams and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 is a multilingual, multi sensory theatrical experience telling the stories of the First World War. Marion Cotillard's new film, directed by The Dardennes brothers is Two Days One Night; in order to try and save her own job, a woman has to persuade her work colleagues to forgo their annual bonus. The shameful history of colonisation and racial exploitation is explored in Exhibit B, a 'show' that has caused consternation and extreme - sometimes physical - reactions amongst those who have visited it. Sarah Waters' new novel The Paying Guests is set in 1920s London when a mother and daughter who find themselves in reduced circumstances, take in tenants leading to complicated repercussions. Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Lesley McDowell, Sophie Cooke and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 realises it's a very complicated role he's expected to play. Robin Wright plays a version of herself in The Congress; a live action/cartoon crossover movie directed by Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir). But where does the fantasy end and reality begin? Jezebel is a comedy by the Dublin-based Rough Magic Theatre Company in which a couple try to spice up their sex-lives with an awkward threesome which has unforeseen consequences. Match Of The Day is celebrating its 50th birthday and we've been watching a TV programme marking this anniversary. Andrew Marr's Great Scots - Writers Who Shaped a Nation is his tribute to three writers who helped to create the modern Scottish identity through their work and lives.

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 London's Donmar Warehouse. How well does it stand up 2 decades later? ''Wakolda' is a film which tells the story of an Argentinean family who unwittingly shared their house with the Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele Auschwitz's "Angel of Death" without realising who he was. As part of Radio 4's' commemorations of the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1, their biggest ever drama commission Home Front' has just hit the airwaves. It's a mammoth undertaking 500 episodes, 150 hours of dialogue The actor Kevin Eldon has written a mock-biography of his 'cousin', Paul Hamilton, a rather deluded uninspiring poet who doesn't let his own inadequacies stop his ambition and self-belief. The Art and Science of Exploration is an exhibition in The Queen's House in Greenwich of some of the work created by artists who accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyages around the globe in 18th Century. Their job was to produce scientific records and imaginative responses to the new unfamiliar territories that they encountered. Razia Iqbal is joined by Jake Arnott, Emma Woolf and Kathryn Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 fantastical films, starring Audrey Tatou as a young woman who discovers a flower is growing inside her lungs. Packed full of extraordinary images, is it a collection of moments or a good film? Secret Cinema is the new immersive form of cinema, staged in unconventional settings, encouraging the audience to dress up in clothing appropriate to the movie, their latest production is the 1985 classic Back To The Future. It can be expensive to stage and attend, but is it worth it? Philip Hensher's new novel The Emperor Waltz threads together several stories from different times and locations, dealing with how an idea gains a hold in wider society. A new Italian TV drama series - Gomorrah - looks at the mafia. It's been an enormous hit in Italy but has this once-toxic subject matter become less controversial nowadays or does it still shock viewers? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Natalie Haynes, Susannah Clapp and Patrick Gale. the producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Cage's new film Joe is a gritty blue collar tale of poverty and misery in rural Mississippi. It shows his gentle side rather than a raving onslaught; might this be a chance for viewers to reassess the way his acting has been heading? The BBC's commemoration of the centenary of WW1 continues with a series Our World War, which imagines what our view of it would be like if the soldiers had modern recording technology like headcams. DBC Pierre's novel Breakfast With The Borgias is the story of a man isolated in a rather shabby guesthouse desperately trying to contact his girlfriend, who vividly discovers the truth behind Sartre's maxim that "Hell is other people". The Imperial War Museum in London has just reopened after a multi-million pound refit - making major structural changes and opening a new WW1 gallery. Has it been money well spent? Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are James Walton, Susan Jeffreys and Kit Davies. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 concept of supremacism and back to figurative art. It is grand in its scale and vision and ambition, but will it be packing in the visitors this summer? There's another revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest, with an all-star cast including Nigel Havers and Martin Jarvis. What devices can make this 120 year old much-venerated comedy funny to a modern audience? Filipino film Norte; The End of History is more than 4 hours long and loosely based on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and it has been hailed as a masterpiece by many critics as it has been shown on the major festival circuit. There's new US TV sitcom called Silicon Valley, revolving around the lives of a bunch of internet start-up nerds. It's the work of Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space, King of the Hill) and it's already been nominated for 5 Emmys David Flusfeder's John The Pupil is a novel that purports to be a long lost diary of a 13th century monk and his companions as they journey from England to deliver a package from their Friar to The Pope in Viterbo Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Paul Morley, Kate Williams and Amber Jane Butchart. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 was 6 and it follows him dealing with life's ups and downs as he progresses towards adulthood. Linda Grant's new novel Upstairs At The Party is the tale of a group of friends at a northern university in the 1970s and how their lives are changed by a personal catastrophe Intimate Apparel is a play by African American playwright Lynn Nottage at London's Park Theatre. Set in 1905, it tells the story of Esther, a 35-year old African American seamstress who moved from North Carolina to New York City to seek her fortune and her relationships with the city's upper crust and lowlife alike. BBC 3's People Just Do Nothing is a comedy set in a London pirate radio station and its cheerfully deluded team of enthusiastic idiots. A new exhibition at SOAS in London chronicles the role of Sikh soldiers in The First World War. Indian soldiers made up one-in-six of the ranks of the British Empire forces, but their role has now been largely forgotten. Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Cahal Dallat, Louise Doughty and Antonia Quirke. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 Piper as an unscrupulous tabloid newspaper editor who is right in the middle of a web of corruption involving phone hacking, politicians the press and the police It's half a century since the Beatles made their big screen debut with A Hard Day's Night. It was considered a lightweight thing by many when it was released cost £180,000 and made many millions just in its opening weekend and has been hailed as one of the best rock and roll films of all time Jimmy McGovern's reputation as a TV dramatist is second to none; Accused, Cracker, The Lakes, and many more. His work is renowned for dealing with social issues and his latest addresses what he sees as the injustice of the law of joint enterprise. The iceberg. Marion Coutts has written a book about the diagnosis from cancer and death of her husband Tom Lubbock. Is it more a work of art than a diary? July sees the 8th Liverpool Biennial, 'an exhibition about our habits habitats and the objects images relationships and activities that constitute our immediate surroundings'. What does that actually entail? How does it manifest itself around the city? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Helen Lewis, Giles Fraser and Paul Farley. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 the truth about the victim. Richard Flanagan's novel The Narrow Road To The Deep North is a depiction of the appalling conditions endured by Australasian POWs in Japan during World War 2. Told in flashback, the main character remembers the men with whom he worked on the construction of the Thai-Burma railway. Dennis Hopper is best known as a unique edgy film actor - Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, The Last Movie and many more, but an exhibition at The Royal Academy in London looks at his photographic work. He was in the thick of the changes happening in 1960s America and his photos captured a nation evolving. Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in a TV drama The Honourable Woman, playing a British spy involved in middle east politics Idomeneus at London's Gate Theatre is a reimagining of the Greek myth about a returning hero who makes a promise to the gods and is then faced with a dreadful ultimatum. But what would happen if he doesn't follow what's expected of him? This production offers alternative outcomes.

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 terminally ill with cancer. Brought together at a cancer support group the pair embark on a pilgrimage to Holland to meet the author of a book on dying. Green himself was a hospital chaplain and the story is based on an actual encounter with a dying 16 year old girl. Following on from the huge success of The Cuckoo's Calling a second novel from Robert Galbraith - aka JK Rowling. Featuring private investigator Cormoran Strike it merges an old fashioned detective story with Jacobean tragedy, whilst providing insight into literary London, a grisly murder and a page turning plot. Comedian and actor David Schneider's new play Making Stalin Laugh - at the JW3 Community Centre in London - tells the story of the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre which in the 1920s was one of the most respected in the world. Chagall designed for them, Prokofiev, Stanislavski and Eugene O'Neill all saluted them. By 1952 the surviving members of the troupe had all been purged - executed by Stalin on the same day in August. Making Stalin Laugh tells their story, with at its centre the most celebrated Yiddish actor of his generation, Solomon Mikhoels. Making Colour at London's National Gallery is the first ever exhibition of its kind in the UK and was developed from the National Gallery's own internationally recognised Scientific Department's work into how artists historically overcame the technical challenges in creating colour. As well as paintings it includes objects such as early textiles, mineral samples and ceramics and shows the huge impact the development of synthetic paint had on major art movements such as Impressionism. And The Human Factor: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture brings together major works by 25 leading international artists who have fashioned new ways of using the human form in sculpture over the past 25 years. Featuring work from Jeff Koons, Mark Wallinger and Yinka Shonibare, exhibits include two re-imaginings of Edgar Degas's famous Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and in a work by French artist Pierre Huyghe a live beehive adorns a cast in concrete of a beautiful reclining nude woman.

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. How do we reframe our understanding of fables? Folk art has often been neglected in the story of British art but a new exhibition at Tate Britain attempts to set that right with a range of items from pictures woven from human hair to ship's figureheads and quilts made by Crimean prisoners. British film Belle explores racial attitudes in 18th Century aristocratic circles through the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy officer. Brought to England to live with his uncle The Lord Chief Justice, she became inadvertently involved in the campaign to abolish slavery. In the Light of What we Know is the debut novel by Zia Haider Rahman that deals with betrayal, revenge, love faith science and war through the relationship between two men across Kabul, New York, Oxford, London and Islamabad. And we look at how the British newspapers are dealing with the World Cup - not the matches and the scores but their depiction of the host country and the preparations, the atmosphere, the heat, the possible unrest... anything and everything bar the results. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Elif Shafak, Charlotte Mendelson and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones.

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 begins to dawn on one of them that his best friend might actually be hatching a bloody murderous revenge. The main character in Nicholson Baker's latest novel "Travelling Sprinkler" is a poet who has fallen out of love with writing poems. Trying to become a songwriter, we see his personal life woven into his lyrics. The work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian is characterised by geometric compositions using blocks of primary colours. A major new exhibition at Tate Liverpool looks at how his work evolved as he moved from studios in Paris and London to New York. Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh lived and worked in London? His job was at an art dealers in Covent Garden and he lived in Brixton. A new audio walk "At the Crossroads with Vincent" explores turning-points in life through the perspective of Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo. It's non site-specific and anyone can be take part anywhere in the world. Is it enjoyable? Informative? Enlightening? Hotel is the fourth play from Polly Stenham, whose debut was staged at The Royal Court when she was only 19. It focuses on a dysfunctional family on holiday at a flash hotel in a poor country and has strong echoes of Shakespeare's The Tempest. How important is it to know the source to appreciate this play? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Gillian Slovo, John Mullan and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Bakersfield Mist at London's Duchess Theatre stars Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner in a play about a woman who's convinced she's turned up a Jackson Pollock original in a junk shop. Ken Loach's new film Jimmy's Hall tells the story of the only Irishman ever to be deported from his own country as an illegal alien. As the Irish Republic was struggling to be born, Jimmy Gralton ran up against the Church and State too many times and their solution was to send him to America. Irish history is familiar territory for Loach; what does this story tell us about today? To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is Joshua Ferris's novel about dentistry and the meaning of life. What can a man do when his analog life is hijacked and put on the internet? Whitstable Biennale is a festival of contemporary British art on the south coast of England. It grew out of the developing artists' community in the town and focuses on moving image and performance, with a range of new commissions and specially curated programs. The Normal Heart was Larry Kramer's play about the AIDS epidemic in 1980s America. He's adapted it into a TV drama for HBO and it's been warmly received in the USA. What will Saturday Review make of it? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Jim White, Maria Delgado and Natalie Haynes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Tim Winton's new novel Eyrie is set in Fremantle Western Australia and tells the story of a man down on his luck, who tries to sew his life back together with the help of a former neighbour and her mysterious son. Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be was the 1959 musical that Lionel Bart wrote before his mega success with Oliver! It launched the career of Barbara Windsor and is running at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. How does a revival of a play about nostalgia deal with its own reinterpretation of the past? Kenneth Clark was a man who made it his life's mission to bring art to the general public. A new exhibition at Tate Britain brings together hundreds of the works he collected or commissioned as well as showing excerpts from his seminal TV series Civilisation. What does his eclectic style look like when so many items are gathered together - is this exhibition a fitting legacy? Nick Frost plays a pretty hopeless chump called Jeremy Sloane in a new TV series for Sky. Is he appealing enough to gain viewers' sympathy, or just too annoying for us to care? New film Heli shows the tragic socially corrosive effect of drug culture on contemporary Mexican society through the involvement of one innocent family who are inadvertently drawn into crime and appalling violence. Mark Coles presents this week's programme and is joined by Diane Roberts, Judith Mackrell and Tom Holland. The producer is Oliver Jones.

When Albert Einstein died in 1955, the pathologist performing his autopsy stole the brain , hoping to find out truths about the nature of genius. A new play by Nick Payne at London's Bush Theatre uses it as a starting point for an exploration of how our mind makes us who we are.Touchy Feely is the latest film from leading mumblecore director Lynn Shelton. It's the story of a masseuse who develops a loathing for skin and a dentist who seems to have extraordinary unprecedented gift for healing. How much of their skill lies in their own minds or those of their customers? In 2013 Ned Beauman was the youngest name on Granta's 20 best authors under 40. His previous novel The Teleportation Accident was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His latest - Glow - is about an imaginary brand new psychotropic drug flooding the streets of London, but who is the sinister force behind its development and ubiquity? Penny Dreadful is a new TV series that creates a gory fictionalised Victorian London where many famous figures congregate - Frankenstein, Jack The Ripper, Dorian Grey and characters from Dracula. It's a high budget production, with a big name cast and screenwriter; how can they put a new twist on the ewll-trodden gothic horror genre? Andreas Gursky is a German photographer whose work is characterised by large scale manipulated images. Recently his Rheine 2 became the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction. An exhibition of his work at London's White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey shows a range of his montages. Does their size and scope captivate or alienate our reviewers? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by David Hepworth, Kit Davis and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Joseph O'Connor's novel The Thrill of it All is the story of 25 years in the life of an aspiring Anglo-Irish rock band who seem fated to never quite make the big time. How convincing and fascinating is his depiction of the 1980s music scene?The RSC's Roaring Girls season aims to bring lesser known works (especially those with strong female leads) by Shakespeare's contemporaries back into the spotlight. The latest play to open at The Swan in Stratford is Arden of Faversham, a revenge tragedy whose authorship is unknown. How easily does the decision to play up the comedy sit with the gruesome story?The film Frank stars one of cinema's most handsome, sought-after actors Michael Fassbender playing a man who wears a large polystyrene head all the time. Is it a waste of great talent or a fascinating way to see how he copes without the chance to show any expression?Amanda Vickery's BBC2 series The Story of Women and Art aims to rediscover the great forgotten female artists in the world of fine art, and to discover why they have been sidelined through the ages. Among them a 16th century Italian sculptor and a paper cutter from The Dutch Republic whose works were largely forgotten.Lily Allen's album Sheezus is a comeback after three years away. But have her attempts to set the world to rights created a great piece of work or has her participation in the culture she targets in her lyrics forced a necessary compromise?

The exhibition Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in The UK at The British Library looks back at nearly 2 centuries of comic book art in this country. Looking at and reflecting the social mores of their time, they provide an insight into the society that created them. What insight will our reviewers gain?Edward St Aubyn's newest novel tells the story of the jury judging the Elysian Prize for Literature. If you've not heard of it, that's because it doesnt exist. The book includes extracts from novels nominated for the award, but does this satire skewer or flatter the world of literary prizes?Sunny Afternoon is a musical based around the songs and career of The Kinks - a hugely influential group of the 60s and 70s. The world of juke box musicals - trying to shoe-horn a pop performer's catalogue into a slight narrative - has proved a popular and easy device in the past, with mixed success. How can this musical play at London's Hampstead Theatre successfully get around the potential pitfalls?Blue Ruin is an award-winning independent US film; a gruesome revenge story following a normally placid modest man who seeks retribution on the killer of his parents. But it all spirals rapidly out of control.In the centenary year of Welsh poet's Dylan Thomas birth, A Poet in New York is part of BBC Wales' coverage to mark the occasion. It's a distinctly unflattering portrayal of Thomas' last few days, drunk and fatally ill in an unfamiliar city. But does it capture his genius?

Privacy is a new play at London's Donmar Warehouse, looking at the way we inadvertently give away valuable private information through our use of modern communication technology - phones, computers. Is this a surprise?Director Joanna Hogg's third film, Exhibition, continues her exploration of a very British awkwardness in the ways we relate to each other and our environment. It's a quiet film but does it have an important message?The Last Days of Troy is Simon Armitage's theatrical reimagining of Greek Legend; telling timeless tales in modern language.John Simm plays a policeman framed for a crime he didn't commit and determined to clear his name in Prey. The creative team behind it have tried to make it edgier and visually unconventional. Is it a cut above the usual police drama?Chris Marker was a French artist whose work influenced film-makers including Terry Gilliam and James Cameron. An exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery looking back at his life is crammed full of imaginative peculiarities and controversial items.

In 1941, following a life-threatening illness, Matisse decided to change the way he made his art; from painting on canvas to creating cutout shapes of painted paper and arranging them to create brilliant vivid images - he described it as "painting with scissors". A new exhibition at Tate Modern in London brings together a collection of these works, many of which haven't been seen together since their creation more than 5 decades ago.Locke is a film set entirely in a car driving down the motorway, no car chases just a bit of mild speeding, with just one actor, suffering personal crises and talking mostly about concrete. The film -and especially actor Tom Hardy's performance - has been getting rave reviews from many critics. Is it an indulgent creation for the delight of the film's director (Steven Knight) or will the Saturday Review panel be won over?Since The Coen Brothers released their Oscar-winning film Fargo in 1996 there have been a few unsuccessful attempts to turn the darkly comic work into a TV series. And now it's happened. Based on the spirit of the film rather than recreating the characters or scenarios, it features the dysfunctional citizens of a small Minnesota settlement when a mysterious drifter comes to town with evil intentions...The RSC's latest production in Stratford is Henry IV pts 1 and 2 as part of their staging of all Shakespeare's 40 plays. Directed by Gregory Doran and with a cast that includes Anthony Sher as Falstaff, this is one of Shakespeare's most dramatic history plays and the double-bill is a major undertaking; what will this new production bring to a much-loved work?Jayne-Anne Phillips is an American author of historical fiction whose newest book is based on a real-life mass murderer in 1930s Illinois. It's the story of the capture and trial of a serial killer, which followed a series of brutal murders preying on lonely middle-aged single women whom he killed for their money. The story was later the basis of Charles Laughton's chilling film 'Night Of The Hunter'. Is "Quiet Dell" deathly dull or a killer read?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Dreda Say Mitchell, Emma Woolf and Kevin Jackson.

John Michael McDonagh's film Calvary reunites him with Brendan Gleeson after their success together on The Guard in 2011. This time it's about a priest who is told in confession that - in one week's time - he will be killed. It has an allstar Irish cast and was rewarded with prizes at The IFTAs. Does the mix of serious subject matter and offbeat humour work?Simon Stevens is probably best known for his stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -which is about to transfer to Broadway. His newest work Birdland opens at London's Royal Court Theatre and features Andrew Scott as a disintegrating rock star; could it achieve the same degree of success?The BBC's new adaptation of Jamaica Inn is a sumptuous brooding production starring Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey). Filmed in Northern Ireland and Cumbria, does it do justice to Daphne du Maurier's Cornish setting?Nigerian-born Teju Cole won widespread acclaim for his first published work Open City, setting a young African man wandering the streets of New York City. His follow-up; Every Day is for the Thief, sends a young African American man back to Nigeria and explores the cultural resonances and differences he experiences.The First Georgians exhibition at The Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace, reflects the reigns of Kings George I and II (1714-1760) through a range of objects from The Royal Collection. Portraits, gold table settings, battle plans, furniture and a whole room full of works by Hogarth are among the items on display. Does it hold together and impress or just overwhelm with its opulence?

Noah is a film of biblical proportions. It's directed by Darren Aronofsky and stars Russell Crowe in the title role, and cost roughly $125m to make. The ambition is impressive, but the execution has left some film critics and religious groups underwhelmed. Is the film heaven-sent or horrible?Kamila Shamsie is a frequent contributor to Saturday Review, her new novel " A God In Every Stone" is set in pre-Partition India telling the story of a country taking part in the First World War while struggling with its own identity. What will our searingly honest reviewers make of it?Drum and Bass DJ and graffiti artist Goldie is a man of many talents, impressing the judges in a TV reality show with his instinctive orchestral conducting skills, despite being unable to read music. Now he's making his stage debut in Kingston 14 a play about Jamaican gangsters by Roy Williams, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Will he convince our critics that he can act?In Olden Days, Ian Hislop considers the British delight in looking back and invoking the past and tradition to validate the present. It's a three part series for BBC2 which reflects his personal fascination with Britain, but will it fascinate the general viewing public?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Andreas Whittam Smith, Catherine Bott and Bidisha.

At the age of 88, Dame Angela Lansbury returns to the West End theatre playing Madam Arcati in a revival of Noel Coward's wartime comedy Blithe Spirit. On Broadway it was widely acclaimed - how will a UK audience, traditionally less adulatory - receive her exuberant performance?Kate Winslet is an actress who can open and carry a movie; nobody denies her pull at the box office and skill on the screen. Her latest film 'Labor Day' is about an escaped prisoner (Josh Brolin) who ends up spending time on the run in her home. Can one of today's finest screen actresses convince us of the learning that takes place on both sides of the relationship? Sebastian Barry won the 2008 Costa book prize for his novel The Secret Scripture. His latest work The Temporary Gentleman is a highly fictionalised version of the life of Barry's own grandfather. A young man is offered a commission in the British Army for the duration of The Second World War and this work brings turmoil into his personal life. Is this novel another potential award winner?The exhibition by the sixteenth century painter Veronese at London's National Gallery includes works from art collections around the world which have never been seen together before. When he was working (at a prolific rate) he was one of the leading artists in Europe and later artists including Van Dyck, Rubens, Watteau and Delacroix depend upon his example. Will our reviewers be overwhelmed by this generous display of Renaissance Venetian art?TV drama based on relatively recent real life events is a contentious subject. The Widower on ITV stars Sheridan Smith and Reece Shearsmith in the story of Malcolm Webster who murdered his first wife and attempted to murder his second. Does our familiarity with Shearsmith's gallery of grotesque oddballs mean we can see him as an ordinary man capable of doing ghastly things?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Stephanie Merritt, Nicholas Barber and Susan Jeffreys.

Under The Skin is the new film from Jonathan "Sexy Beast" Glazer. Starring Scarlett Johansson, it's the story of an alien on earth and her encounters with humans. It's been booed and cheered at film festivals around the world, what do our humanoid reviewers make of this unconventional almost- psychedelic spacey work? Henry Pearlaman was an American cold storage magnate and a collector of impressionist and post-impressionist art. A selection from his collection has come to the UK for the first time - and it includes some stunning works. How does Oxford's Ashmolean Museum present such a sumptuous array of riches? The Olympic-themed sitcom Twenty Twelve was a rip-roaring award-winning success, and the BBC's follow up is set in The Corporation's HQ; New Broadcasting House. Is it full of self-indulgent in-jokes funny only to those "who work in the media" or do the bizarre machinations of any big organisation lend themselves to rib-tickling comedy? Urinetown is the uninvitingly named new musical that has just opened. Set in a town where one man controls the public lavatories, and his attempt to quell the opposition who want to "pee for free". It originated on Broadway and was garlanded with awards, it subverts conventional expectations of what musicals should be. But does it do so in a way that will beguile our reviewers and British audiences more generally? "Arguably the most successful author in China today", Mai Jia has sold more than 5 million copies. His espionage novels are a hit in the most populous nation on earth, but can they break out to the wider world? We look at his latest - Decoded -which deals with cryptographers in a top secret government department.

Tom Sutcliffe chairs sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events.

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Linda Grant, Tom Holland and Kate Williams to review the cinematic adaptation of The Book Thief. The young adult novel narrated by Death about growing up in Nazi Germany has sold eight million copies worldwide. How appealing will its screen incarnation be to audiences?37 Days is the BBC's dramatic contribution to its season examining the causes of the First World War. With an impressive cast, including Ian McDiarmid as the Home Secretary Sir Edward Grey, does it make effective television from the exchanges of international diplomacy?Peter Gill's new play Versailles is a three act drama which focuses on one upper-middle class family and a son who is advising the British delegation at the Paris peace conference - what does it have to say about the personal and the political impacts of the Great War?Keywords: Art, Culture and Society in 1980s Britain collects together politically engaged art from the decade of Thatcherism. With a number of works recreated especially for the exhibition, what does it have to say to us now?And Lorrie Moore's Bark is her first collection of Short Stories in fifteen years. She's long been considered a master of the form; we discuss how her latest collection measures up.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ruth Watts.

Will Gompertz is joined by this week's reviewers Ekow Eshun, Viv Groskop and Gillian Slovo. They've watched both parts, some four hours in total, of Lars von Trier's controversial film, Nymphomaniac. We hear what they make of the provocative director's latest offering which focuses on the sexual adventures of Joe, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stacy Martin.True Detective is the latest TV series from HBO, the US network behind The Sopranos, The Wire and, most recently, Game of Throne. Does the new eight part drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson live up to form?The British Library's Beautiful Science exhibition explores how scientists visualise their discoveries, from diagrams to graphs and maps. The curators have raided the Nation's greatest collection of scientific texts for illustration, but how will their choices inspire visitors?Gary Shteyngart's Little Failure is his memoir about emigrating from the USSR as a small child and growing up in New York. It's a story about family, the immigrant experience and writing - territory he's explored before in his novels. Does his memoir allow for something more honest?And we review the National Theatre's revival of the kitchen sink classic, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney which stars Lesley Sharp as a resilient single mother. How well does the gritty, social realism translate to the modern stage?Presenter: Will Gompertz Producer: Ruth Watts.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests - David Aaronovitch, Natalie Haynes and Dreda Say Mitchell, review the Spike Jonze's film Her. Released in time for Valentine's Day, it's a romantic tale of loneliness, desire and boy meets artificial intelligence set in the not too distant future. So will love blossom?Tate Modern presents the first major retrospective of the work of Richard Hamilton. A founding figure of pop art he continued to work into his eighties, exploring different media and engaging with contemporary politics throughout his career. How well does such a diverse body of work sit together? Tim Pears' eighth novel 'In the Light of Morning' was inspired by his father who was parachuted into German occupied Yugoslavia at the end of the Second World War. He has called it the novel he has "always been going to write" - so does his impulse to write this Balkan story translate well to the page? 'Fleming' is the new TV drama series about Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. It focuses on his wartime career in Naval Intelligence replete with glamorous locations, luxurious interior sets, dashing period costumes and a cast which includes Dominic Cooper, Lara Pulver and Sam West. But what light does it shed on the writer and his iconic creation? Tennessee Williams spent much of his life living in hotels, dying in one in 1983 - and he set a number of plays in them. Three of his one act 'Hotel Plays' are now showing at the Langham Hotel in London, we checked in on them this week.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ruth Watts.

Dallas Buyers Club is based on the real life story of Ron Woodruff who fought to make new treatments available to patients with HIV and AIDS. The film is nominated for six Oscars - but is it a winner?We discuss Hanif Kureishi's latest book, The Last Word. A tale of two men, an old novelist and his young biographer who comes to stay, so what does it reveal about writers and the art of writing?Abi Morgan's new play The Mistress Contract is based on the 30 year arrangement of one couple - she provided sexual services to him, in exchange he provided her with a home and an income. But does a drama about their unconventional relationship shed any light on sex, sexuality or the impact of feminism?Turner Prize winning sculptor Richard Deacon has worked over the last four decades with materials as diverse as steel, oak, laminates, marble and leather. What will visitors to a new exhibition of his work at Tate Britain make of the way he has combined the industrial with the organic?And Inside Number 9 is the latest offering in the 'Horror Com' genre that Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have made their own. How will their six new tales of the unexpected fare?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Miranda Carter, Lesley Lokko and Adam Mars-Jones.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Ruth Watts.

The BBC series commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1 is presented by Jeremy Paxman. What fresh light or perspective does it shine upon our understanding of The War To End Wars?Juliet Stevenson is performing Samuel Beckett's Happy Days - buried up to her neck in a mound of earth - at London's Young Vic Theatre. What is fuelling London theatre's current revival of Beckett productions?Canadian author Dan Vyleta has just published his third novel set in immediately postwar Vienna. The previous two - Pavel and I and The Quiet Twin - have received much critical and popular acclaim, will this be another winner?Out of The Furnace stars Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Casey Affleck and Sam Shepherd in a grim tale of rustbelt America, falling into violence with little hope of escape. It's directed by Scott Cooper - whose previous film was an Oscar winner - and an American critic has called it one of the best movies he's seen this year, will our critics concur?The exhibition of Turner Prize winning artist Martin Creed's work at The Hayward Gallery is the first major retrospective of his work. Do our reviewers think the lights turning on and off and the stacked boxes will baffle, delight or intrigue the visiting public?

The role of King Lear is famously difficult - by the time an actor reaches an age where he has the gravitas, he may be too old to cope with the physical and emotional demands. Simon Russell Beale plays Shakespeare's monarch in the latest production at The National Theatre in London, but - at 52 years old - is he too young to be playing an old, deranged king? Inside Llewyn Davis is The Coen Brothers look at the folk music scene in New York's Greenwich Village, just before Bob Dylan came along and the world took notice. Following the eponymous fictional singer songwriter (and a cat - or is it two cats?) as he tries unsuccessfully to work within the music scene of the time, the film has been much-praised, but is that good or just reviewers afraid to stand against the general opinion? Jonathan Lethem's latest novel - Dissident Gardens - chronicles a similar period and location; three generations of a New York migrant family steeped in radical politics. How do the actions of each generation affect those that follow? Programmes on television about food are an increasingly popular genre - there's even a whole network dedicated to it. Two new programmes; Restaurant Man and My Kitchen Rules - are hoping they can create a show with enough of a new twist to grab the attention of gastronomic couch potatoes. Will these two hit the spot? And a new exhibition at London's Design Museum takes a look at work in progress. In The Making considers items that are on their way to completion - have you ever wondered what an unwound French Horn looks like? or an incomplete lightbulb, or a football boot? or even a brick? or a £2 coin? Will this exhibition fully satisfy our reviewers?

Martin Scorsese's new film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a dodgy stock dealer in 1980s New York. The Wolf of Wall Street shows the life of wild excess and reckless financial and personal abandon that eventually came tumbling down.Usually we review one play per week on the programme, but this time it's 3 plays - and they take less than an hour all in. Samuel Beckett's Not I, Footfall and Rockaby are currently at The Royal Court Theatre and will be touring the country later this year.& Sons is David Gilbert's new novel. It's the story of a famous J.D. Salinger-type novelist and his complicated relationships with his sons and with friends and associates outside his own family.An exhibition of art by Hannah Hoch looks at the work of the often-overlooked Dadaist pioneer who was an originator of photo-montage. Do her critiques of 1920s Germany still resonate nowadays?A new TV series looking at the heyday of gangsters in Chicago; Mob City, is just starting - what new angle can TV bring to this much-exploited genre?

Hilary Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell - Chief Minister to Henry VIII - have been garlanded with awards and now the RSC has adapted both of them for the stage in 2 three-hour-long plays. We'll tell you whether they're worth queuing up for return tickets for.12 Years A Slave is directed by British film director Steve McQueen and tells the true story of free African American kidnapped from Washington into slavery in the Southern States. It has been praised as eye opening with stunning performances, but how will our critics rate it?The BBC's latest costume drama is The Musketeers, a lavish production starring Peter Capaldi as Richelieu - is there a TV audience for swashbuckling and pistol duels set in pre-revolutionary France?Bruce Springsteen albums are always eagerly awaited by his fans and his latest is a mix of cover versions and previously unreleased material. Can it deliver on the high hopes of listeners who don't yet worship at The Boss' altar? Zombie books and films are an increasingly popular genre and The Girl With All The Gifts is about an apparently normal little girl with extraordinary powers that she can barely control.

Robert Redford has given the performance of a lifetime according to many critics in his most recent film "All Is Lost". It's literally a one-man film set entirely at sea with about a page's-worth of dialogue over 100 minutes. Will our panel marvel at this bravura performance by the 77 year old Sundance Kid?How To be A Heroine (or what I've learned from reading too much) is a book looking at strong female characters in novels and how they've changed over the years and how readers' relationships with them have also developed as they themselves grow up.Lost Boy is a new play exploring what happened to the children in the Peter Pan story. Set on the eve of the First World War, we re-meet J M Barrie's characters now they've grown up and are preparing to face the world on the edge of horror.7.39 is a new BBC TV drama based around a flirtatious relationship between 2 commuters on an early morning train. The cast includes Sheridan Smith, Olivia Colman, David Morrissey and Sean Maguire - it seems like a simple premise, but can the drudgery of commuting become dynamic drama?And we visit The Wallace Collection in London to look at their permanent collection which is uniquely permanent in that a condition of the bequest that founded it states that no item can never be loaned out.Producer: Oliver Jones.

Love/Hate: what were the works that really divided audiences in 2013? What pushes us to extreme opinions? Comedian and writer David Schneider and the novelists Naomi Alderman and Kamila Shamsie join Tom and an audience for some lively heartfelt debate taking in the year's arts, from Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling to Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.Producer Sarah Johnson.

Australian novelist Christos Tsiolkas' previous book The Slap became an international best seller. His latest 'Barracuda' explores the mind of a young competitive swimmer who won't countenance the idea of failure; how does his obsession affect all those around him? Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Stephen Ward The Musical' tells the story of 1963's Profumo Affair, from the point of view of the man who many believe was scapegoated to protect The Establishment - 50 years later transcripts of the court proceedings are still not available to the public, is a musical the right medium to address a very old miscarriage of justice? Death Comes to Pemberley- the BBC's sumptuous Boxing Day costume drama - is PD James' detective story based around the characters from Pride and Prejudice. The programme has an ensemble cast and a look to die for, but does it work as a whodunnit for modern TV viewers? 9 years ago the US comedy film Anchorman became a cult hit - fans eagerly repeating phrases voiced by the idiotic characters. And now a sequel Anchorman 2 The Legend Continues returns to Ron Burgundy and his team as they begin work on a brand 24 hour news channel. As Ron says "that is the dumbest thing I ever heard"- could the same be said of this sequel? The Tractate Middoth is a ghost story written by MR James - the master of the ghost story according to its director Mark Gattis. He has adapted and directed this new TV version as part of "A Ghost Story At Christmas". Does his track record with Dr Who, Sherlock and many many more audience-delighting TV programmes mean he can make this a ratings-grabbing success?

Matt Smith (the almost-former Dr Who) takes his first post-timelord steps in a stage musical based on American Psycho, the quintessential yuppie novel. How will they deal with the rat?The Mind Maps exhibition at the Science Museum in London explores how mental health problems and other psychological disorders have been treated over the past 250 years. It includes objects from the museum's medical collection, archive images and art works, but how hard is it to show how the mind (rather than the brain) works?A two-part BBC TV drama tells the story of the The Great Train Robbery of 1963. Starring Jim Broadbent as the policeman who made it his mission to track them down; part one tells the story of the robber's planning and execution of the job, and part two follows the police investigation. Is it possible to dramatise a crime without glamorising the criminals?In the film The Innocents a young governess believes her two wards have become possessed by evil spirits. When it was released in 1961 it was rated certificate X and failed at the box office. In the intervening half century it has been hailed as a horror classic and is now being re-released as a certificate 12. Will a 50 year old black and white horror film appeal to a modern audience?'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Acting But Were Afraid To Ask, Dear' is a barbed guide to theatre written by an anonymous theatre reviewer known simply as West End Producer. Chapters include The Correct Way To Bow At The Curtain Call and Getting Into Drama School (learning how to sit in a circle).Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Abigail Morris, James Runcie and Cahal Dallat.Producer: Oliver Jones.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Ellah Alfrey, Craig Raine and Rosie Boycott discuss the following -Nebraska is the latest work from film director Alexander Payne, it's set in and carrying the name of his home state. Best known for his roles as menacing heavy characters, here Bruce Dern plays a old man who believes he has won a large cash prize and sets off to collect it, causing problems for his family and creating tension among his friends. It has been extremely warmly received in the USA, but what will our reviewers make of it?Suzanne Berne's first novel won The Orange Prize in 1999; an auspicious start. Her latest, The Dogs of Littlefield, tells the story of smalltown America living under the shadow of a poisoner who is killing much-loved pets leading to rifts within the community. A mix of local townsfolk and academic observers have their theories about whodunnit and why. Can canine assassination sustain the interest of this week's reviewers?The National Theatre has created seasonal shows in the past which have won acclaim from the press and public alike - His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse (which has become a fixture in London's West End for 6 years now). This year's offering is a stage adaptation of another favourite children's book - Emil and The Detectives - written in 1929. The cast includes more than 50 children onstage helping to tack down Emil's stolen money; could this turn out to be another War Horse?An exhibition of photorealism at Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery is the first major scale retrospective in Europe. The movement began in the USA in the late 60s, and was controversial and scorned by many in the art establishment of the time; but what does a modern audience who live in a high definition world make of this once-daring art?Daniel Radcliffe makes another bid to shed the Harry Potter image with his latest film, playing homosexual poet Allen Ginsberg, in Kill Your Darlings. Telling the little-known tale of the group of beat writers who became embroiled in a gay murder in 1944, it's a big switch for Radcliffe but will he bring his fans with him?Producer: Oliver Jones.

New film Saving Mr Banks tells the story of Disney's courting of PL Travers - the woman who wrote Mary Poppins. It wasn't an easy courtship as she didn't want any animation, any songs or even anything that was the colour red in it. Eventually she relented and this film shows her reconciled to the Disney-fication of her work. But is this version anything like reality? And could one expect Disney Studios to make a film about their founder that showed him in anything other than a flattering light?Irish writer Eimear McBride's first novel A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing was rejected by all the major publishing houses as too difficult. Now it's won the inaugural Goldsmith's Prize- worth £10,000. The prize recognises 'published fiction that opens up new possibilities for the novel form', and the stream of consciousness story of a young girl has been compared to a cross between James Joyce and Edna O'Brien.This American Life is a radio programme from WBEZ in Chicago and the most popular podcast in the USA. What's it about? How does it consistently win popular and critical acclaim? We listen to a couple of editions of the podcast to see whether it might appeal to a UK audience.Comedian Larry David came to public attention as co-creator, writer and producer of Seinfeld on US television. He went on to create Curb Your Enthusiasm - and both of these shows have been hailed as groundbreaking comedy and much loved by TV audiences around the world. His newest project is a 90 minute comedy film for HBO, reprising his curmudgeonly obsessive character; does it still seem funny over an hour and a half, or can you have too much of a good thing?White Light White Heat at The Wallace Collection in London is not a tribute to Lou Reed, but a display of work by contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk where they have collaborated with Venetian glass workers. Originally part of this year's Venice Bienalle, it's a small collection, but is it a thing of beauty or an indulgent experiment?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Deborah Moggach, Professor John Mullan and deputy editor of The New Statesman Helen LewisProducer: Oliver Jones.

Palme d'Or winning film Blue is the Warmest Colour has proved controversial, in part because of its subject matter - it's a story of two young lesbians who fall in love. The author of the original bande dessinee has described the film as porn, and the lengthy explicit sex scenes have caused consternation. And since its release the two actresses have said that they feel exploited. So it's a prize-winning film mired in problems but is it worth paying money to go and see?Have you ever wondered what Arthur Conan Doyle would make of contemporary crime fiction ? Or how the Marquis de Sade feels about the fact that his plays are largely forgotten and that his name is mostly associated with sexual peccadilloes? A new book from Granta allows present day authors to imagine interviews with artists who - long ago - shuffled off this mortal coil. Is this merely a vanity project for the authors to stretch their skills or can it offer some sort of insight into the mind and working of their dead heroes?2014 will mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth. The great Welsh poet's most famous work - Under Milk Wood - has long been an inspiration to artist Sir Peter Blake. A new exhibition just opened in the Cardiff shows his interpretation of the story and its characters - he still listens to the radio play at least once a week. How successfully can an Englishman translate one of the classics of Welsh literature?How can you turn redundancy into art? Earl Lipton is a New Yorker who has created a cabaret show about being made unemployed when his company relocated operations "to Mars". With songs including "Thank You (Financial Crisis Blues)"and "(When I move in with) My aging middle-class parents" it takes a satirical look at the problems that having no job can entail. It also includes a song sung by an abandoned sandwich. No Place To Go is at the Gate Theatre in London.Jim Al-Khalili OBE is a theoretical physicist and Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has a new series on BBC4/Open University that explores what 95% of what the universe is made up of. Can even he explain to a layman what dark matter is?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by professor Maria Delgado, journalist Jim White and poet Cahal Dallat.Producer: Oliver Jones.

The coincidence of a really hot cast and the restaging of a play by a writer whose most recent work was lauded and awarded should be a guarantee of a hit. Jez Butterworth's Mojo was originally staged at The Royal Court in London 18 years ago. His stratospheric success with Jerusalem and a cast that includes Ben Wishaw and Rupert "Ron Weasley" Grint (making his West End stage debut) means there is a lot of press attention and positivity towards "Mojo" at the Harold Pinter Theatre, but is there enough substance beneath the hype?The Counselor is a film with an impeccable pedigree - starring Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, directed by Ridley 'Bladerunner' Scott, script by Cormac 'No Country for Old Men' McCarthy, it can't go wrong. Or can it?Fatima Bhutto is a young writer who comes from the famous Pakistani dynasty, and her first novel The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon follows poetry, journalism and non fiction - telling the story of her father's murder. She's been acclaimed for her writing, so is this novel a successful transition into a new genre or treading on new and uncertain ground?The designer Paul Smith's career began 43 years ago in a tiny windowless shop in Nottingham and now his 'empire' extends to 37 countries around the globe. The Design Museum in London has an exhibition looking at his career and achievements, and it even includes a recreation of his office with a desk so cluttered he's never been able to sit at it, but what does it reveal about the man and his work?There's a new series on BBC2 looking at Britain during the Cold War. Historian Dominic Sandbrook considers how the UK dealt with the possible threat of nuclear armageddon and a world where nobody was above suspicion. How did the government respond and how did it affect the British people? It's a fascinating subject; how successfully can TV boil it down to a 3 part series?Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Ekow Eshun, Esther Freud and Miranda SawyerProducer: Oliver Jones.

Life in space is impossible, Gravity is a film about surviving out there. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney play astronauts working on a space shuttle when their lives are threatened by space shrapnel - a disintegrating satellite sends million of pieces of potentially murderous debris hurtling at them. Directed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, it cost $100m to make and has taken more than $400m at the box office already, but will our reviewers be impressed by the scale of its reach and its success?Rustication is the first novel in 14 years from the highly-acclaimed writer Charles Palliser. It's a mystery story set in 1864 in a rural village where someone is sending anonymous threatening letters and immolating livestock. The protagonist is a 17 year old opium addict who has tricky relationships with just about everybody, including his own family, but how much can we trust his version of eventsYoung black British playwright debbie tucker green's latest work - nut - looks at mental health issues. Opening with two friends planning their own funeral orations and wondering which of them will die first and how, it's full of honest language, frank portrayals of long-established relationships and sadness. Does the joyful use of language make for a joyful play?Between 1927 and 1932, Stanley Spencer was commissioned to paint a series of canvases showing his experience of the first world war to be displayed in a specially constructed chapel in Berkshire. Because of reconstruction work being undertaken on the chapel's fabric, 16 of the paintings are on display outside their original setting (for only the second time in nearly 80 years). Can the non-consecrated context of Somerset House in London do them justice?Yonderland is the new comedy TV series from the team behind Horrible Histories. Humans and puppets work together to create a fairytale fantasy set in a magical kingdom far far away. With puppets created by Henson alumni, it certainly has a fine pedigree, but will it live happily ever after?Producer: Oliver Jones.

The new musical from Broadway composers John Kander and Fred Ebb tells the story of a group of 9 young African Americans who- in 1931 - were imprisoned on trumped-up rape charges. They've previously created singing Nazis (Cabaret), loveable mobsters (Chicago) and created the ultimate love song to a city (New York, New York). Have they turned a historical miscarriage of justice into a hit musical?Philomena is a film starring Judi Dench as the mother of an illegitimate child born in 1950s Ireland and then put up for adoption without her knowledge. Steve Coogan is the investigative journalist who - 50 years later - helps her in her attempt to track him down. It's based on a real life story, but does a potentially sentimental story make a sentimental film?Arcade Fire is a Grammy winning Montreal band whose 4 albums in 9 years have been gaining more and more critical and popular acclaim. Their latest Reflektor, features a brief contribution from one of their most famous fans, David Bowie, alongside tribal drumming and sounds for "people who've never even heard The Beatles". Is this album a triumph of hype over substance, or further development in the evolution of one of indie rock's great hopes?Before American author Russell Banks began his writing career he worked as a plumber, and his work always retains a grounding in the real world. Many of the works in his latest collection of short stories are set around his real life in New York and Florida. Do they enhance his reputation and resonate with his heart and soul?Channel 4's new documentary series about patients at the London's Maudsley Hospital has a controversial title; Bedlam. 1 in 4 of us suffers from a mental health problem, and for the first time TV cameras have been allowed unprecedented access to wards and patients at The Maudsley, but how can it avoid being voyeuristic or making the situation even worse?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by dramatist Mark Ravenhill, critic and writer Paul Morley and writer Maev Kennedy.Producer: Oliver Jones.

A new film, The Selfish Giant, loosely based on an original Oscar Wilde fairy story, brings the story up to date and follows the lives of a couple of teenage boys who bunk off school to go trading scrap metal. It's director Clio Barnard's second film set in the north of England; what sort of performances has she got from the two main leads who have never acted before?From Here to Eternity, a new musical based as much on the 1951 novel by James Jones as it is on the 1953 film (which starred Burt Lancaster canoodling in the Hawaiian sands with Deborah Kerr), opens in London. It's the story of G Company of the US Army, based in Waikiki just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. With an original score, singing prostitutes and GIs, and lyrics by Tim Rice, is it set to run and run?Autobiography by Morrissey is exactly what it says; the self-penned life story of the singer best known for his work as leader of Manchester band The Smiths. It deals with his childhood growing up in a poor area of Manchester in the 60s and 70s and settles scores with people he holds responsible for making his life a misery at various stages. Does it make for a great read?Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings 700-1900. This exhibition at the V&A in London charts the evolving styles and subjects of painting over 12 centuries, from early religious figure paintings on silk, through landscape painting to the introduction of Western influences.In The Escape Artist David Tennant plays a highflying barrister who finds himself on the other side of the fence after defending a murder suspect in the new BBC TV legal thriller, written by the creator of Spooks.Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Michael Arditti, Giles Fraser and Gillian SlovoProducer: Oliver Jones.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Sarfraz Manzoor, Natalie Haynes and Peter Kemp discuss David Tennant's starring role in Richard II, in Gregory Doran's first production as Artistic Director at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, following on from David Tennant's successful performance as Hamlet in 2008. Richard II is the first in a cycle of Shakespeare's history plays which will be performed over subsequent seasons.Donna Tartt's long awaited third novel is The Goldfinch, published 11 years after The Little Friend and 21 years after her memorable debut The Secret History. The entire book revolves around a stolen painting, Dutch artist Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch, which in reality hangs in The Hague's Royal Picture Gallery. Starting like her previous two novels with a gripping account of a death, will it live up to the hype?The Ey Exhibition Paul Klee - Making Visible opens at Tate Modern Bankside, and focuses on the decade Klee spent teaching and working at the Bauhaus, the hotbed of modernist design. The abstract canvases Klee produced there, such as the rhythmical composition Fire in the Evening 1929, took his reputation to new international heights.James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in Nicole Holofcener's new film, a rom com Enough Said. Gandolfini starred in the hit television series The Sopranos and died suddenly of a heart attack earlier this year.And in a new BBC Two comedy drama, David Mitchell and Robert Webb star as the British ambassador and his Mission deputy who are busy in Tazbekistan, trying to secure a 2 billion pound helicopter deal for the British government.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Roddy Doyle's The Commitments, the Dublin-set musical arrives at the Palace Theatre in London. With Killian Donnelly as lead singer Deco, will it win the public's hearts as the book and the film did?Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent are a long-married couple who go to Paris for Le Week-end to celebrate their 30th anniversary - in a trip that soon puts the marriage to the test. Scripted by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Roger Michell, it's their third feature film collaboration.The Circle by Dave Eggers is the story of Mae, a naive young employee of the world's most powerful internet company. Is it a Brave New World or 1984 for our time, as some have called it?Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 at the National Gallery in London is a look at the flourishing of portraiture in the multi-cultural, multi-faith city during and after the fin-de-siecle, including work by Klimt, Schiele and Richard Gerstl.Hello Ladies is Stephen Merchant's new California-based comedy which will be showing on Sky Atlantic here. He plays an Englishman lost in LA and looking for love - but does he deserve to find it?Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Deborah Bull, Naomi Alderman and Patrick Gale.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Irvine Welsh's book Filth hits the big screen with a bang - and bagpipes - as James McAvoy takes on the role of Scotland's bad lieutenant. It is directed by Jon S Baird and also stars Imogen Poots, John Sessions and Eddie Marsan.Richard Eyre directs a new production of Ibsen's controversial masterpiece Ghosts starring Lesley Manville at the Almeida Theatre in London.Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art at the British Museum and The Night of Longing at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge are complementary exhibitions showcasing the extraordinary body of erotic pictures in early modern Japan.Masters of Sex starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan is a new American tv drama on Channel 4 which brings to life the 50s research of William Masters and Virginia Johnson in their pioneering work on sex.And Marriage Material is Sathnam Sanghera's transposition of Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale to the Black Country of more recent decades, as he tells a tale of two generations of a Punjabi shopkeeping family in Wolverhampton.Antonia Quirke, Kevin Jackson and Kamila Shamsie join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine - new territory for him as much of it's set in San Francisco. He's rumoured to be back on form: will the West Coast and a plot that owes a debt to A Streetcar Named Desire inspire a great film?Back in New York, Thomas Pynchon, author of V, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason and Dixon, has always divided readers between those who are geekily entranced by his vision and wordplay and those who just can't work out what's going on. Bleeding Edge is thought to be one of his most readable novels yet, set between the burst of the dotcom bubble and 9/11.The acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid's Serpentine Sackler Gallery has just opened in Kensington Gardens, London. It adds what one critic has already described as a Mr Whippy extension to an old gunpowder store: does it add up to a successful gallery space? There's a visit to the opening exhibition, Adrian Villar Rojas' Today We Reboot The Planet.A play that first ran off-, then on-Broadway, The Lyons, is a darkly comic view of a dying man and his family - does the telling of home truths make for good drama? Opening at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, it stars Isla Blair and Tom Ellis.And James Spader stars in The Blacklist, a new US drama about to begin here on Sky Living. It has elements of Silence of the Lambs, Homeland and 24 - can it carve out its own distinct place?Ekow Eshun, Susannah Clapp and Kerry Shale join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is the latest star-studded production in the Michael Grandage season at the Noel Coward theatre in London. Starring Sheridan Smith and David Walliams, one of its aims is to bring a fresh audience to Shakespeare. Eleanor Catton's novel The Luminaries is on the Man Booker shortlist. At 27 she's the youngest ever writer to be in that position. It's an intricate account of extraordinary interwoven happenings around the goldfields of 19th century New Zealand. Australia at the Royal Academy is a major new exhibition: some work has never travelled to the UK before, including Sidney Nolan's iconic Ned Kelly pictures. It foregrounds the work of many Aboriginal artists including Rover Thomas and Emily Kame Kngwarreye and offers both a historical survey and a showcase for contemporary work.InRealLife is Beeban Kidron's new documentary posing the question of what the internet is doing to our young people, taking in the free availability of online porn, cyberbullying and the nature of the corporations behind the search engines. And The Wrong Mans is James Corden and Mathew Baynton's new comedy for BBC2 - it's aiming for American production values with some very British laughs as a county council employee gets taken for someone very different indeed.Kit Davis, David Benedict and Louise Doughty join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Fasten your seatbelts as the Formula 1 rivalry of the Seventies between James Hunt (Daniel Bruhl) and Niki Lauda (Chris Hemsworth) comes to the big screen. Ron Howard directs Peter Morgan's screenplay in Rush.There's a double bill of science as Richard Dawkins' memoir An Appetite for Wonder details his early life in Africa and at Oxford, until the publication of The Selfish Gene; and Professor Brian Cox looks at the history and future of British science in the BBC2 series Science Britannica.Tacita Dean's latest exhibition at the Frith Street Gallery in London includes her new film JG, inspired by a long-term correspondence Dean held with the writer J G Ballard. They had a mutual fascination with the earthwork created by American sculptor Robert Smithson known as the Spiral Jetty. It also includes her re-working of original postcards of pre-war Kassel, c/o Jolyon.And Farragut North opens at the Southwark Playhouse in London, starring Max Irons and Rachel Tucker. Will the tale of American politics that was transformed into the George Clooney film The Ides of March work for a British audience? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Helen Lewis, Sir Christopher Frayling and James Runcie.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Paolo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty starring long-time collaborator Toni Servillo was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It opens with a tourist swooning at the beauty of Rome: will audiences too fall for it?Mark Ravenhill's take on Candide for the RSC is time-hopping and visually rich and offers a view for our own times on optimism and its dangers - how successful a response is it to Voltaire's classic?Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Lowland illuminates an era of Indian history through the eyes of a family torn apart when two brothers choose different paths - it's longlisted for the Booker Prize.Victoriana: The Art of Revival is the Guildhall Art Gallery in London's take on the current trend of Victorian revivalism. It gathers recent works responding to the Victorian era by artists ranging from Paula Rego to Grayson Perry, and includes Paul St George's Crookes Tube enabling viewers to "see" another viewer from a different part of the gallery.And Peaky Blinders on BBC2 stars Helen McCrory and Cillian Murphy in a stylised tale of a Birmingham gang just after the First World War, with strong echoes of westerns and gangster movies.Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Bidisha, Ellah Allfrey and Professor John Carey.

Simon Schama explores The Story of the Jews, in a big new history strand on BBC 2. Does his personal approach work for this massive subject? Margaret Atwood's latest novel, Maddaddam, follows a group of survivors after a man-made plague has swept the earth.In Blue Stockings, Jessica Swale's new play, the year is 1896 and Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate from Girton College, Cambridge, the first college to admit women.Upstream Colour, Shane Carruth's new film, is a haunting, enigmatic tale of destiny, free will and mind-controlling bugs.And Saturday Review asks its guests - this week it's Kathryn Hughes, John Mullen and Dominic Sandbrook - to select just one picture from Tate Britain's permanent collection for a kind of fine art equivalent of A Good Read.Produced by Anne-Marie Cole.

Saturday Review from the Edinburgh FestivalTheatre: Leaving Planet Earth. Old Earth has nothing left for us, so it's time for a new beginning. The audience is transported to a New Earth for this site-specific 'out of this world' theatre production by the award winning theatre company Grid Iron. Following the story of humanities first migration into space, it asks questions about our connection to this planet. Should we leave this world, and if so, who will endure and at what cost?The film Elysium also explores humans leaving planet Earth, this time the rich, who leave for the luxurious Elysium, a vast space station orbiting the planet, with technology to treat all diseases, while the rest are left behind to fend for themselves against a harsh and unjust regime in an over populated society and can only dream of a new life amongst the stars. Matt Damon is Max, a man determined to be cured on the satellite and Jodie Foster is Elysium's Secretary Delacourt, the hard-line protector of the mega wealthy colony.The internationally renowned artist Peter Doig is known for his inventive style and huge vibrant canvases. For the first time, the Scottish National Gallery is mounting a major exhibition of his work in the country of his birth. Called No Foreign Land, it showcases works created since 2000, a time Doig has spent in Trinidad, and shows how this tropical island has inspired his work.The Tragedy of Coriolanus tells the story of General Caius Martius who returns to Rome a hero. Having conquered the city of Corioles he is named Coriolanus and runs for Consul. But too proud, and rejected by the people, he seeks revenge on the city. Director Lin Zhaohua's production for the Beijing People's Art Theatre includes two heavy metal bands and Pu Cunxin, one of China's most famous actors.And guests David Schneider, Gail Tolley and Peggy Hughes discuss the favourite moments from the Edinburgh Fringe.Producer: Andrea Kidd.

2 Guns, Baltasar Kormakur's new film, stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as a DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer who find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: neither knew that the other was an undercover agent.Lucy Kirkwood's latest play Chimerica was sparked by the Tiananmen square protests in China 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe Moore, a young American photojournalist, captures a piece of history. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper more than 20 years later, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film.In What Remains, a major BBC1 drama series, a young couple move into a flat and discover a leak in the loft, which leads them to the remains of Melissa Young hidden in the eaves. She has not been seen for over two years. No one has raised an alarm or even noticed that she was gone. D.I. Len Harper played by David Threlfall investigates.The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer's latest novel, is set during the summer that President Nixon resigns. Six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but much has changed. Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.And all this month we focus on some of the treasures available in Britain all year round and free of charge. We asked our guests - this week it's Natalie Haynes, Giles Fraser and Cahal Dallat - to select a favourite object from The V&A's permanent collection of art and design.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Steve Coogan is back and stars in the film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa; which portrays the events of the greatest low-to-high ebb spectrum in Alan's life to date, namely how he tries to salvage his public career while negotiating a violent turn of events at North Norfolk Digital Radio.Had an accident at work? Tripped on a paving slab? Cut yourself shaving? You could be entitled to compensation. In Nick Payne's new play The Same Deep Water As Me, Andrew and Barry at Scorpion Claims, Luton's finest personal injury lawyers, are the men for you. When Kevin, Andrew's high school nemesis, appears in his office the opportunity for a quick win arises. But just how fast does a lie have to spin before it gets out of control?David Walliams, Frances de la Tour and Catherine Tate star in new BBC TV sitcom series Big School. Walliams is Mr. Church, a long-term teacher on the point of handing in his resignation when a new attractive French teacher arrives and re-ignites his interest in staffroom affairs.Award winning novelist Nadifa Mohamed's latest book The Orchard of Lost Souls draws on her own family history, set in Northern Somalia in 1987 and a town that waits while rumours of revolution travel on the dry winds. Through the eyes of three women we see Somalia fall.And all this month we focus on some of the treasures available in Britain all year round and free of cost. We asked our guests - this week it's Kevin Jackson, Kamila Shamsie and Dreda Say Mitchell - to select just one picture from the National Gallery's permanent collection for a kind of fine art equivalent of A Good Read.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's film Only God Forgives has already divided critics: five stars for some while others booed it at Cannes. Set in Bangkok, it's ultraviolent, awash with red, and has an extraordinary soundscape. It stars Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringarm and Kristin Scott Thomas. Roddy Doyle returns to the territory of the much-loved The Commitments - which will become a musical in the autumn - in his new novel The Guts. Jimmy Rabbitte is now 47 and has just been diagnosed with bowel cancer. He's not dying yet... but his brush with mortality leads him to embrace some of the passions of his youth.Southcliffe is a new Channel 4 drama by Tony Grisoni, starring Rory Kinnear and Shirley Henderson, directed by American Sean Durkin. It's a powerful drama set in a small town in the south east of England where the run-up to a spate of shootings and the terrible grief and consequences of the deaths are played out. Titanic was a musical that ran on Broadway just before James Cameron's film came out. It didn't delight the critics but it did delight the crowds and ran for two years, winning five Tony awards. Its huge set cost millions of dollars; now a chamber version at the Southwark Playhouse does wonders with a set of steps and a couple of pieces of rope. Can it win over crowds and critics alike?Mass Observation: This is Your Photo is a new exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery in London. The Mass Observation movement began in 1937 as a social science experiment cataloguing the lives and tastes of thousands. The material that resulted from its early years is featured alongside reports for the project from more recent years.Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Deborah Bull, Kerry Shale and Denise Mina. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Chichester Festival Theatre's main stage is currently undergoing building works so a large temporary tent-like structure has been built outside - surely the perfect setting for a production of Barnum. Cameron Mackintosh co-produces the story of the extraordinary American showman.Frances Ha is a new film co-scripted by its star, Greta Gerwig, and directed by Noah Baumbach. It's a funny and touching coming-of-age story for Frances, a 27-year-old living in New York who can't quite bring herself to do anything or leave anywhere.Alissa Nutting's debut novel Tampa has attracted attention for its explicit description of a relationship between a female teacher and her 14-year-old pupil. Based on a true story, does it offer an insightful take on what happens when a woman does such a thing?The Mill is a new drama set in the Industrial Revolution by John Fay aiming to bring the history of Cheshire's Quarry Mill to life. It's on Channel 4 and takes true stories of some of the children who worked there and the writer hopes it will be "the English Roots - with laughs".And The Queen's Coronation 1953 is a special exhibition to mark 60 years since the event, taking place as part of the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. The Queen's Coronation Dress designed by Norman Hartnell and the invitation to Prince Charles to attend are among the objects on display.Presenter Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by Dame Liz Forgan, Deborah Moggach and Antonia Quirke.Produced by Sarah Johnson.

Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike star in the film The World's End, the last of the so-called Cornetto Trilogy following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright. Can Gary King make it through the pub crawl he failed to finish as a teenager in his home town of Newton Haven?Joe Wright directs Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo at the Young Vic, a powerful political play by Aime Cesaire charting the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba in the early days of Congolese independence.Rachel Joyce's novel Perfect tells the story of Byron, an 11-year-old boy who becomes deeply troubled by the prospect of two seconds needing to be added to time in the year 1972. Can it match the success of her debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry?A major retrospective and consideration of the ethos of the architect Richard Rogers: Inside Out is at the Royal Academy in Burlington Gardens, London - the title reflects his architectural style, putting the inner workings of a building on the outside, as he did in his collaboration with Renzo Piano on the Centre Pompidou.And Burton and Taylor come to BBC4 - in the shape of Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter, taking on the roles of the stage and screen superstars over a period in 1983 when they acted together on the New York stage in Coward's Private Lives, shortly before Burton's death.Sarfraz Manzoor is joined by the author Joe Dunthorne, the journalist Maev Kennedy and the cultural commentator Ekow Eshun.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Jane Campion's Top of the Lake comes to BBC2 starring Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men fame - here playing a detective investigating what's happening to a 12-year-old girl in a small New Zealand community. Also starring Holly Hunter and Peter Mullan and with influences from David Lynch to The Killing, will it hold UK audiences in its grip? The Spanish silent black and white film Blancanieves has been winning great acclaim for its intensity and beauty. Pablo Berger's film is a surreal take on the Snow White story. After The Artist, will the appetite for silent films continue? Untangling the Web is Aleks Krotoski's book taking a look at how the new technology has influenced our lives, from our sense of self to how we interact with others. Circle Mirror Transformation is an award-winning play by Annie Baker first performed off Broadway. It's now given a production starring Imelda Staunton and Toby Jones at the Rose Lipman Building in Haggerston, London as part of the Royal Court Theatre's Local project.And Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s is a new exhibition at the V&A in London examining the individualistic influence of those who went to clubs such as Taboo and The Camden Palace on the fashion of the time, away from the world of shoulder pads and Dynasty.Tom Sutcliffe is joined by the novelists Linda Grant and Alex Preston and anthropologist Kit Davis.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston star in a much-anticipated production of Macbeth at the Manchester International Festival. The venue has been kept from ticket holders until almost the last moment... will the production live up to the expectation?Also from the Festival, intense music meets powerful documentary and extraordinary visuals in Massive Attack v Adam Curtis. And do it 2013: an art exhibition in which instructions - some to be done there in the gallery, some to be carried out later at home, some active, some philosophical - are given to participants.Ben Wheatley's new film A Field in England, set in the English Civil War and starring Reece Shearsmith, blends history, horror and humour ultimately to defy categorisation. It has a groundbreaking simultaneous cinema and home viewing release.And Harry Eyres' new book Horace and Me: Eyres' memoir of sorts that also reveals the Roman poet Horace's insight into life - still offering illumination in our own times.Joining Tom Sutcliffe to review are the poet Paul Farley, writer Emma Jane Unsworth and classicist and presenter Tom Holland.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Sam Mendes' production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been years in the making and had to be juggled with his Skyfall directing duties. Now at last the musical has arrived at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Douglas Hodge taking the role of Willy Wonka.Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life at Tate Britain is something of a response to critics in recent years who have suggested that the gallery should show more of the Lowrys it owns. He's a painter who divides art lovers: some say he's an underrated genius who's dismissed because he depicts the Northern working classes; others that his paintings lack depth. What kind of case does this exhibition make for him?Stories We Tell is a film made by the Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley about her mother Diane. Talking to different members of her family she uncovers an extraordinary story about her own birth. Using fake Super 8 footage as well as real, the film includes reconstructions of the past as well as interview in the present.Another documentary, The Act of Killing, made by Joshua Oppenheimer, tells the chilling story of the killings that went on in Indonesia in 1965 in an anti-Communist purge. Oppenheimer allows the killers to make their own movies about what they did - what do the results tell us about the power and possibilities of film?And A Thousand Pardons is the latest novel from Pulitzer Prize shortlisted author Jonathan Dee. It's an American story about saying sorry in a difficult world.Joining Tom are the musician and presenter Cerys Matthews, writer Aminatta Forna and critic David Benedict.

Conor McPherson's new play The Night Alive opens at the Donmar Warehouse, months after his extraordinarily successful work The Weir - written when he was only 26 - was revived there. The play reunites McPherson with Jim Norton and Ciarán Hinds.Before Midnight is the latest in Richard Linklater's sequence of films charting the relationship between Jesse and Celine - in the form of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Formerly it's been will they-won't they; now they have, but can their relationship survive for the long term? And do we stay with them on the emotional ride through their lives?Memory Palace is an exhibition at the V&A of artists' work inspired by a novella by Hari Kunzru. It imagines a dystopian future in which one man tries desperately to piece together what he remembers before it is lost.Phil Spector is a television film scripted and directed by David Mamet which describes itself as a work of fiction, but includes many characters and events from the real-life trial of the music producer. Al Pacino and Helen Mirren star.Evie Wyld's first book won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; her second, All the Birds, Singing, is a tense and powerfully descriptive account of one woman's attempts to keep one step ahead of her past.Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Bidisha, Patrick Gale and Stephanie Merritt.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

The Amen Corner starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste has been lifting the roof off the National Theatre according to early audiences, thanks partly to the participation of the London Community Gospel Choir. An early James Baldwin play, Rufus Norris' production looks at the lives of men and women trapped in poverty and lack of opportunity, and extracts powerful drama from it.Joss Whedon had a week off at the end of shooting The Avengers - rather than have a break, he made another film with a group of friends. The result is Much Ado About Nothing - does its sparky charm capture the flavour of classic romantic comedies, as the director hopes?Neil Gaiman has a huge international following and is well known to the Radio 4 audience thanks to the recent dramatisation of Neverwhere. Now he has a new adult novel out, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which he says is a story of childhood, memory, magic and the power of stories.The Hayward Gallery in London is offering an Alternative Guide to the Universe - an art exhibition featuring work envisaging other worlds and extraordinary takes on this one - much of it created by untrained artists.And the colourful history of the Plantagenets comes to television as Philippa Gregory's The White Queen begins on BBC1. Starring Rebecca Ferguson and Max Irons, will the screen version capture the drama of the real life events?The writers Gillian Slovo, Dreda Say Mitchell and Kamila Shamsie join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer Sarah Johnson.

Steven Soderbergh's film Behind the Candelabra tells the story of flamboyant piano star Liberace and his five-year relationship with a young lover, Scott Thorson: Michael Douglas plays Liberace and Matt Damon Thorson. It failed to find a distributor in the US until HBO backed it but was then selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Is there substance under the sequins?Chagall: Modern Master at Tate Liverpool is a major new exhibition which takes an early decade in the artist's life, 1911-22. It was a time during which he travelled to Paris and married his childhood sweetheart and gives a opportunity to witness the impact of movements such as Cubism and Orphism in his work.Strange Interlude won Eugene O'Neill the Pulitzer Prize but its 5 hour running time and its experimental asides to the audience mean that it isn't performed as often as some of his other work. With abortion, mental illness and adultery at its heart, will its dramatic impact resonate in this new shortened version at the National Theatre, with Anne Marie Duff?The Returned began life as Les Revenants, a French film which was adapted into a television series. It was a great hit there and now Channel 4 have taken it on as their first subtitled drama for decades. Will this Alpine tale of the Undead wow the British?Hammond Innes was a master of adventure and suspense but his works have been less read since his death in 1998. Now Vintage are re-issuing several of his works, including his early success The Lonely Skier and his great bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Do they stand the test of time?Historian Kathryn Hughes and writers and journalists Sarfraz Manzoor and David Aaronovitch join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests, Ellah Allfrey, Misha Glenny and Kevin Jackson, discuss the cultural highlights of the week including the £27m Mary Rose Museum opening in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard and David Mamet's RaceIn the UK premiere of David Mamet's play, "Race," starring Jasper Britton and Clarke Peters - known to television audiences from "The Wire" - Mamet sets out to write a play which explores racial tension. Mamet himself says, "Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth." A playwright who likes to shock, most famous for his Pullitzer Prize winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, how close does he get to providing a truthful analysis in this play which explores one of contemporary society's most controversial themes, both in the UK and in the US.The new £27 million Mary Rose Museum opens in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, showcasing the Tudor ship in a unique hot box. The Mary Rose is the only sixteenth century warship on display anywhere in the world, and the museum displays 19, 000 Tudor artefacts found on board King Henry VIII's favourite warship as well as bringing to life those who worked on board. Described by David Starkey as the "British Pompeii," the exhibition also documents the amazing story of the Mary Rose's 1982 rescue from the sea bed."Money, The Unauthorised Biography" by Felix Martin sets out to answer the question: "What is Money and how does it work?" Martin argues that the conventional answer - that people once used sugar in the West Indies, tobacco in Virginia and dried cod in Newfoundland, and that today's financial universe evolved from barter - is not just wrong, but dangerous. So what is the true nature of money, and how crucial is our understanding of it to our economic recovery?And ITV's answer to Channel 4's "Homelands" is "The Americans" - set in 1980s America, when the Cold War is in full swing, it follows the lives of Soviet agents posing as an all-American family. It's written by Joseph Weisberg, who himself worked for CIA in the 90s, and is inspired by a real life incident in 2010 when the FBI discovered 10 undercover agents who had been living nationwide for over a decade.Producer: Hilary Dunn.

The acclaimed US novelist James Salter is often described as "the writer's writer". He's now written his first novel in 30 years, at the age of 87: All That Is. Will his exquisite prose work for readers as well as writers?Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar has just won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in America. A play about ambition, culture and faith set in New York, its topicality is undeniable. Now it opens at the Bush Theatre in London with Hari Dhillon and Kirsty Bushell.Michael Landy has been associate artist at the National Gallery for two years. His new exhibition of extraordinary kinetic sculptures of saints, Saints Alive, has been inspired by what he's seen there.The Iraq War is a series of 3 films made by Norma Percy and Brian Lapping. As before in their work, they've managed to persuade nearly all of the major players in the conflict to talk on camera, often sharing thoughts for the first time.And Something in the Air is the director Olivier Assayas' film set in the early 70s in the aftermath of what happened in France in May 1968. He's said it started with autobiographical anecdotes but wants it to mean something broader. Has he succeeded?The writers Tom Holland and Naomi Alderman and the anthropologist Kit Davis join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan hits the 3D screens promising a great party. F Scott Fitzgerald's book has had a troubled history in film... will Luhrmann be the one to make it work?Propaganda: Power and Persuasion at the British Library is a major and thought-provoking new exhibition that brings together wartime material alongside public health messages, banknotes and social media. Does it make a convincing argument about the definition of propaganda?Up the Women (BBC4) and Psychobitches (Sky Arts) are two new comedy shows highlighting women performers and writers; both star Rebecca Front. The number of women featuring in comedy has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years. How funny are these series?The Round House by Louise Erdrich was the winner of the US National Book Award 2012. It's the story of Joe who lives on a North Dakota reservation. His mother is brutally raped and the book considers the aftermath of that attack, highlighting the difficulties of prosecuting the perpetrator as tribal and federal law fail to bring him to justice.And Ibsen's play Public Enemy - more usually translated as An Enemy of the People - arrives at the Young Vic in a heavily cut, updated version with a striking set and performances. Does its story of an individual and the masses work for our times?The novelist Louise Doughty and writers Ekow Eshun and Hadley Freeman join Tom Sutcliffe to review.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

John Simm and Simon Russell Beale star in a new production of Harold Pinter's The Hothouse at the Trafalgar Studios in London. When Pinter first wrote the play in the fifties, he put it in a drawer and pronounced it useless. Was he wrong?Mira Nair's film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on Mohsin Hamid's Booker-nominated novel, stars Riz Ahmed as Changez, who finds his loyalty questioned and torn post 9/11.Terry Eagleton is one of the best-known literary theorists in the world. His new book is How to Read Literature. Will it enhance the reading experience?Mud, written by Jeff Nichols and starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes film festival. It's a coming-of-age movie set on the banks of the Mississippi.And The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson, is a tense search for a serial killer set in Belfast, beginning on BBC2 next week.Joining Tom Sutcliffe are Professor John Mullan and the writers Michael Arditti and Aminatta Forna.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Pedro Almodovar's new film I'm So Excited! is a sky-high romp with The Pointer Sisters on the soundtrack but its plane stuck in mid-air is also a metaphor for Spain caught in economic crisis.Richard Eyre's production of The Pajama Game comes to Chichester with Joanna Riding and Hadley Fraser; a triumph on Broadway in 1954, the film version with Doris Day wasn't a critical success. Can a musical based on industrial relations in a nightwear factory prove zingy and uplifting?Lionel Shriver has turned her attention to obesity in the West in Big Brother. It's the story of a woman who tries to save her overweight brother from his own path of self-destruction.The first major solo exhibition in the UK of US artist Ellen Gallagher's work, Ellen Gallagher: AxME, opens at Tate Modern, featuring funny and challenging images from black cultural history.And US series Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller, is about to begin on Sky Living... Hannibal Lecter is back. Fuller says the violence in the show is deliberately heightened and unreal - but will audiences be ready for it?Novelist Malorie Blackman, writer Stephanie Merritt and priest and journalist Giles Fraser join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear star in the long-awaited production of Othello at the National Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner. Do the talent and charisma of its leads and a striking setting in a modern-day military conflict add up to the great theatrical event the audience is hoping for?Paul Raymond was a strip club and soft porn tycoon who became the richest man in Britain but he couldn't save his daughter Debbie from a drug-fuelled lifestyle and early death. Steve Coogan plays Raymond in Michael Winterbottom's new film The Look of Love and Imogen Poots plays his daughter, with support from Anna Friel and Tamsin Egerton. How illuminating is this biopic about his life and times?Vicious is a new sitcom on ITV starring two Sirs: Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen. Frances de la Tour features too in the show which is written by Gary Janetti, who's written for Will & Grace and Family Guy, and is co-created by Mark Ravenhill.New Order: British Art Today at the Saatchi Gallery showcases 17 artists who might come to form a new Sensation generation. Are there stars in the making?And a first novel from Sam Byers, Idiopathy, proclaims on its cover that it is a novel of love, narcissism and ailing cattle... and depicts a couple broken up by relentless arguing who have to meet again when a friend from their past re-appears.Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Dreda Say Mitchell, Cahal Dallat and David Benedict.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

John le Carré's new novel A Delicate Truth centres on the aftermath of a counter-terror operation codenamed Wildlife which takes place in Gibraltar. It raises difficult moral and emotional territory for all involved and is described as one of le Carré's most personal novels for many years.Promised Land is set in rural America and centres on whether a community will say yes to fracking when a big corporation arrives to try to buy up their land. Matt Damon and Frances McDormand star; Gus van Sant directs.Ben Elton's first sitcom for 8 years is The Wright Way, set in the Health and Safety department of a local council and starring David Haig. Will it repeat the success of The Thin Blue Line?Howard Brenton's new play focuses on the arrest of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and was written at his request: #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei opens at the Hampstead Theatre.And Richard Patterson lost 4 paintings in the warehouse fire that destroyed many of the works in the Saatchi collection in 2004. Now he's re-created one of them and it's amongst the work in his latest exhibition at the Timothy Taylor Gallery.Miranda Sawyer, Bidisha and Christopher Frayling join Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

The Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum of art and history, has re-opened after ten years of rebuilding, renovation and restoration. The building houses the country's collections of fine and decorative arts.In the film A Place Beyond the Pines a motorcycle stunt rider (Ryan Gosling) turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover (Eva Mendes) and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop (Bradley Cooper) who is navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.Americanah is the title of the new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie the Orange Prize award winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun. Americanah tells a story of love and race centred around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.The musical Once, which, on Broadway, won eight Tony Awards, including Best New Musical, has now come to London. Once tells the story of an Irish guy and an Eastern European girl who meet in a traditional Irish pub. Both musicians, their love affair is told through the songs they write for one another.Tom Sutcliffe is joined this week by Paul Morley, Deborah Bull and Julia Peyton Jones.Producer Anne-Marie Cole.

The film A Late Quartet features a beloved cellist of a world-renowned string quartet who receives a life changing diagnosis. The quartet's future now hangs in the balance as suppressed emotions, competing egos, and uncontrollable passions threaten to derail years of friendship and collaboration. Levels of Life, Julian Barnes's new novella, blends history, fiction and memoir around love, grief and ballooning. It opens in the nineteenth century with balloonists, photographers, and the actress Sarah Bernhardt, whose adventures lead the story into an entirely personal account of the author's own great loss.A history of our love affair with tea features in Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea TV two-parter. She travels from the back streets of Calcutta to the bright lights of Shanghai to find out how one small plant united East and West, triggered wars and helped win them. Along the way she witnesses a world of chai wallahs, opium smokers and Assam tea-pickers, and asks how the cuppa became such an important part of British life.In the play My Perfect Mind which is in turn funny, poignant and autobiographical, King Lear's demons are unleashed and entwined with the actor Edward Petherbridge's recovery from a major stroke. Despite suffering the effects of a stroke, rendering him barely able to move, Petherbridge discovered he was word perfect in the role he was rehearsing - King Lear. This bizarre situation forms the basis of an exploration into not only surviving, but overcoming such trauma.The photographer Bert Hardy's work features in a centenary exhibition in London's Photographers' Gallery. Hardy is best known for his work as a photographer for the iconic magazine Picture Post. This exhibition focuses on his post-war images, when he was assigned to capture the daily lives of his fellow Britons.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum arrives at the British Museum to huge advance ticket sales and great anticipation: a moving illumination of the lives that were stopped short in AD79.Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw become Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, in Skyfall writer John Logan's new play Peter and Alice, exploring the themes of lost childhood and becoming public property.Danny Boyle's film Trance is a rollercoaster heist movie starring James McAvoy and Rosario Dawson. It's got energy and twists and turns... will it be the crowd pleaser that his Olympic opening ceremony proved to be?Ghana Must Go is a feted first novel from Taiye Selasi, set in America, Ghana and Nigeria. It revolves around the death of a father before his relationships with other family members have truly been resolved.And The Village, BBC1's new series created by Peter Moffatt, takes the working class view of 20th century history. Does its ambition, restrained pace and realism work for an audience more accustomed to costume fare?Saturday Review today is presented by Sarfraz Manzoor.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

The Book of Mormon arrives on the London stage, much anticipated and as shocking as you might expect from the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It's reported to have delighted the Prime Minister already. How funny is it and does it work as a musical? Craig Zobel's film Compliance is based on real events and set in a fast food joint where the employees are convinced by someone pretending to be a police officer to strip search a colleague. Mohsin Hamid's much-acclaimed The Reluctant Fundamentalist is followed now by a novel that's superficially a self-help manual: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. The Designs of the Year 2013 are on display at London's Design Museum, from the Shard to a pair of glasses that mean you don't have to go to the optician. And Revolution is a new TV series from J J Abrams, the creator of Lost. Will its post-apocalyptic view of America prove as compelling? The comedian David Schneider, writer Ekow Eshun and historian Kathryn Hughes join Tom Sutcliffe to review. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Lee Daniels' film The Paperboy has attracted praise and boos in equal measure - the latter when it was shown at Cannes. It's a steamy Southern thriller with powerful performances from Nicole Kidman and John Cusack.Kevin Maher's debut novel The Fields has already - inevitably - led to comparisons with Roddy Doyle. It's a darkly funny account of growing up in 80s Dublin and attracting attention - some desirable, some not so.George Bellows is best known for his paintings of boxers but he also has a reputation for capturing the lives of all sorts of ordinary New Yorkers about their business or leisure: diving into the polluted East River or standing at the shore edge waiting for work. The first retrospective of his work in this country has just opened at the Royal Academy in London.A Thousand Miles of History is a new play on at the Bussey Building in Peckham, South London. It's a portrait of the lives of Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and the circle of Andy Warhol - who's played in this production by comedian Adam Riches.And In the Flesh is a new drama from BBC3 in which zombies rise... and then are rehabilitated into society. But is society ready for them? And will this satisfy those mourning Being Human? Luke Newberry and Ricky Tomlinson star.The writer and broadcaster Bidisha, and novelists Deborah Moggach and Dreda Say Mitchell join Tom Sutcliffe to review.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

The dramatically unexpected arrival of David Bowie's album The Next Day has made grown men and women weep with excitement, following 10 years of recording silence. Is it the classic his fans would all like it to be?Helen Mirren plays the Queen again - this time on stage, following her Oscar-rewarded performance in Stephen Frears' film - in The Audience, directed by Stephen Daldry, which dramatises her weekly sessions with the Prime Minister of the day. Steven Soderbergh's film Side Effects is said to be his last: a psychological thriller about the unexpected results of an antidepressant. Is all it seems in this twisting tale?Kate Atkinson's latest novel, Life After Life, imagines the life of her heroine Ursula lived - and then re-lived in many different ways. Does Atkinson still make us care about her heroine's fate?And there's a BBC1 remake of The Lady Vanishes starring Tuppence Middleton and Tom Hughes; can it stand comparison with Hitchcock's classic original? The reviewers this week are the novelist Alex Preston and the writers Jim White and Maev Kennedy. Presented by Tom Sutcliffe. Produced by Sarah Johnson.

Joe Wright is best known as a film director, his work including Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina. But Trelawny of the Wells at the Donmar Warehouse marks his debut as a theatre director.Richard Gere was Golden Globe-nominated for his role as businessman Robert Miller in Nicholas Jarecki's film Arbitrage, a tense morality tale set in the world of high finance.A boy arrives in a strange country and can find no room to sleep... JM Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus has obvious parallels with the story referenced in its title, but is a re-telling really the aim of the twice-Booker-winning author?Barocci: Brilliance and Grace is the title of a new exhibition at the National Gallery which aims to bring a previously under-recognised artist to more prominent attention. It includes some tender drawings and portraits as well as the dynamic, colourful altarpieces for which he is most admired.And BBC3's new sitcom Bluestone 42 touches on potentially sensitive territory: it's set amongst the troops in Afghanistan. How funny is it?The novelists Patrick Gale and Aminatta Forna and writer Natalie Haynes join presenter Tom Sutcliffe.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests artist Grayson Perry, playwright Laura Wade and writer Susan Jeffreys review the cultural highlights of the week.The latest film of directors the Wachowski siblings is Cloud Atlas, based on the best-selling novel by David Mitchell. It explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future.The 1975 multi award winning musical A Chorus Line has a new West End production. It tells the story of seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for eight spots on a chorus line for director Zach, who puts the dancers through their paces, mentally and physically,Give Me Everything You Have, the latest book by James Lasdun, tells a true story of obsessive love turning to obsessive hate. It chronicles the author's strange and harrowing ordeal at the hands of a former student who began trying, in her words, to ruin him. Hate-mail, online postings and public accusations of theft and sexual misconduct were her weapons which proved remarkably difficult to combat.The new ITV drama series Broadchurch looks at what happens to a small seaside community that becomes the focus of a major murder investigation, with the accompanying media scrutiny. The victim is a young boy, and two inspectors are assigned to the case - Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller played by Olivia Colman, a compassionate local, and newcomer Detective Inspector Alec Hardy played by David Tennant, a more by-the-book type.An exhibition of one of America's best-known 20th Century artists, Roy Lichtenstein, has opened at London's Tate Modern. It brings together 125 of his most recognized paintings and sculptures. Lichtenstein is renowned for his colourful large-scale Pop Art works based on comic strips and advertising imagery.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

A Life of Galileo is Mark Ravenhill's adaptation for the RSC of Brecht's play which has just opened at the Swan at Stratford, directed by Roxana Silbert. The news of the Pope's resignation has given the play an extraordinary timeliness.Maggie O'Farrell won the Costa Novel Award for The Hand that First Held Mine. Her latest novel, Instructions for a Heatwave, is set in the intense temperatures of summer 1976. The Riordan family, of Irish origin, find themselves torn apart when their father Robert goes out one day to buy a paper and doesn't come back.The Bride and the Bachelors is the title of an exhibition at the Barbican which combines visual arts, live and recorded performance. It's an exploration of the interaction between Marcel Duchamp and some of those he influenced in America: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.V, Tony Harrison's powerful and expletive-heavy poem published in 1985, was inspired by the graffiti he discovered on his parents' gravestones in Beeston, Leeds. It is about to be read by the author on Radio 4. When it was televised on Channel 4 it triggered an early day motion in the House of Commons. What will the reaction be nearly 30 years on?And Keanu Reeves takes on the role of interviewer in a new documentary about the future of film as it moves from celluloid to digital: Side by Side. Will celluloid survive? And what are the possibilities opened up by the move to digital?Presenter Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kit Davis, Kevin Jackson and Bidisha to review. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Wreck-It Ralph is the latest Disney offering, arriving in time for children at half-term. Its hero is a wouldbegood bad guy trapped in a destructive role in a video game, voiced by John C Reilly. It's got plenty of retro game nostalgia and jokes that children and adults will enjoy but does it have the longevity of the classic Disney movies?Ice Age Art at the British Museum aims to show that in surviving figurative art from over 20,000 years ago we can see the arrival of the modern mind. Remarkable figures are on show such as the Swimming Reindeer and the Lion Man, alongside the work of artists closer to our own time such as Matisse and Henry Moore. Are we convinced that the artistic endeavour is the same now?In the Beginning was the End is a new show from the site-responsive theatre company dreamthinkspeak. They're back at a site they've visited before, Somerset House in London, and venturing into some disused labs at King's College too, with a production apparently inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci, the Book of Revelation and the world of Mechatronics.Harvest, Jim Crace's new historical novel set in the time of the Enclosures, is an account of seven days that will change a community for ever, narrated by one of the villagers, Walter Thirsk, and it's already won praise.And Mysteries of Lisbon was one of the last projects of the great Chilean director Raul Ruiz who made his home in France. It was released here as a cut-down film but it's about to be shown as he first intended, as a television mini-series. With moments of surreal invention he is a favourite of critics; will a British television audience take to his work?David Schneider, Gillian Slovo and Giles Fraser join presenter Tom Sutcliffe to review.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Denzel Washington has been Oscar-nominated for his role as an extraordinarily talented but addicted pilot in Robert Zemeckis' Flight. It features a terrifying crash sequence in which he flies a passenger plane upside down. Stephen Poliakoff returns with a major new drama on BBC2, Dancing On The Edge, following the rise of a charismatic black jazz band in the early 1930s. They win royal approval but still face rising prejudice. Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Goodman and Jacqueline Bisset star. Port was an early play from the acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens, known for his recent stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Now it's been staged again at the National Theatre and is the story of one woman's attempts to find more to life than her home town of Stockport seems to offer. Lucy Ellmann's latest novel "Mimi" is a witty roller-coaster ride with a hero whose provocative girlfriend leads him to a revolution in his thinking about women. And Light Show at the Hayward Gallery in London is a striking spectacle of colour, perception and technology - it "monkeys with your eyeballs" said one critic. Joining Tom Sutcliffe to review are the novelist Naomi Alderman, writer and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor and the actor Kerry Shale. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Zero Dark Thirty ran into controversy even before it was released with its depiction of the use of torture in the run-up to finding Osama Bin Laden. Director Kathryn Bigelow has maintained that depiction is not endorsement; it's written by Marc Boal and has a cast including Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain. Michael (Lord) Grade, Deborah Bull and Dreda Say Mitchell will tell presenter Tom Sutcliffe what they make of it.They'll also be considering another film about an extraordinary moment in American history, Lincoln. It has 12 Oscar nominations including one for Daniel Day Lewis. Do the performances, Steven Spielberg's direction and Tony Kushner's script make for a powerful film?Manet: Portraying Life at the Royal Academy is described as "singularly important"; it's the first ever exhibition dedicated to his portraiture.The Turn of the Screw opens in a new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz at the Almeida Theatre in London; it's co-produced by Hammer. Will it have the horror of James' original?And the American writer Dave Eggers, still best known for his extraordinary memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, has written A Hologram for the King, a touching portrayal of a recession-struck American businessman lost in a Saudi Arabian city.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-nominated, Spaghetti Western-inspired take on slavery and the antebellum Southern states starring Jamie Foxx and Samuel L Jackson, has aroused praise and controversy in almost equal measure. No Quarter is the latest work by the young playwright Polly Stenham, known for her acute dissections of family life. This one examines the differing senses of responsibility within one family and stars Tom Sturridge and Maureen Beattie. Murder in the Library is an engaging, small-scale exhibition on the detective novel at the British Library and features jigsaws, whodunnit kits with human hair and cigarette ends, and an original Sherlock Holmes manuscript. The Starboard Sea is first-time novelist Amber Dermont's take on the campus novel and nautical literature, with frequent nods to Herman Melville. Set in the late 80s, its narrator, Jason Prosper, is a keen sailor who's been scarred by the death of a friend. And Louie arrives on these shores... Mexican American comedian Louis CK's Emmy-awarded comedy will be shown on Fox. He's won praise from Ricky Gervais and is famous for trying to keep ticket prices down to his stand-up gigs. Will his humour work for a UK audience? The novelist Kamila Shamsie, music journalist Paul Morley and literary critic Peter Kemp join Tom Sutcliffe. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

As The View from The Shard is about to open to the public, reviewers Philip Hensher, Louise Doughty and Pat Kane ask why we feel the need to build - and go - high. Les Miserables moves from the stage to the big screen in Tom Hooper's new film, famously asking of its stellar cast including Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway that they sing live on set - has the decision paid off? In the Old Vic tunnels under Waterloo Station, the actress Fiona Shaw and dancer Daniel Hay-Gordon perform The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. There are literary tricks and questions about identity in First Novel by Nicholas Royle (it's not his first novel, for starters). And Dennis Kelly, one of the writers of the musical Matilda, has created a new drama for Channel 4, Utopia. Does its blend of mystery, suspense, humour and violence come off? Presented by Tom Sutcliffe. Producer: Sarah Johnson.

2012 saw some extraordinary television comedy highs, especially in returning series. Some looked at the state of the nation: The Thick of It, Getting On and Twenty Twelve. Some, like Peep Show and Fresh Meat, simply made people laugh. Saturday Review celebrates the best of the comedy year just gone, highlighting performances by Peter Capaldi, Jessica Hynes and Joanna Scanlan. And what's next for comedy? Is there still room for the family sitcom? New, celebrated comedy from Sky has included Hunderby and Moone Boy - are they leading the way on commissioning? One of the creators and stars of Getting On, Vicki Pepperdine, joins Tom Sutcliffe, along with Peep Show and Fresh Meat co-writer Sam Bain, David Quantick and Natalie Haynes.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Life of Pi, Yann Martel's 2002 Booker winner, was reputed to be unfilmable. But now Ang Lee has attempted to prove everyone wrong with an extraordinary 3D and CGI display that brings not just a boy and a tiger to life, but a whole ocean. How effective is it in telling the story?There are two television offerings: The Girl is a film starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller as Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren which will go out on BBC 2 on Boxing Day. It focuses on their relationship during the making of The Birds, when Hedren had to endure days of live birds being thrown at her as well as Hitchcock's unwanted attentions. Restless, beginning on BBC1 on December 27, is an adaptation of a novel by William Boyd, starring Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling, Rufus Sewell and Michelle Dockery, well known for her role as Lady Mary in Downton Abbey. It is based on the reality of how Britain spied during the Second World War.At the Trafalgar Studios in London a new version by Conor McPherson of Strindberg's The Dance of Death, a depiction of a claustrophobic marriage starring Kevin McNally, Indira Varma and Daniel Lapaine, provides an antidote to Christmas fare.Finally, Tenth of December, a collection of short stories from George Saunders, of whom Zadie Smith has said, "Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny with a prose style this fine".With Tom Sutcliffe and reviewers Kathryn Hughes, Misha Glenny and Sarah Hall.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests, writers Aminatta Forna and David Benedict and actor Kerry Shale, review the week's cultural highlights. The latest Peter Jackson film is the first in a three part adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. Set in Middle Earth 60 years before "The Lord of the Rings", the story follows Bilbo Baggins (Martin Friedman) as he sets out on an epic quest to reclaim stolen dwarf treasure from the dragon Smaug. On the way he clashes swords with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers not to mentioned Gollum.There's a new exhibition of drawings and prints by renowned artist and illustrator Quentin Blake, who turns eighty this month. None of the work on display here will have been seen before, and none are illustrations of books, but are entirely derived from the artist's imagination and observations.The play In the Republic of Happiness, by Martin Crimp, is a violent satire on contemporary obsessions that follows the unexpected return of a long-lost uncle one family Christmas. This event provides an opportunity to explore the dark underside of the contemporary demand for happiness.Flight Behaviour, the new novel by Orange Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver, tells the story of a woman attempting to escape her empty marriage and the drudgery of life on a rundown Appalachian farm. En route to a tryst with a lover, Dellarobia Turnbow stumbles on a hillside covered with swathes of orange monarch butterflies that appear like fire on the landscape, an event that will transform her life.In a BBC documentary Michael Grade explores the rich history of the very British Pantomime Dame. From the extravagant productions in Drury Lane in the 19th Century to the vintage performances by Terry Scott and Arthur Askey, the Pantomime Dame has always been anarchic, witty, vulgar, affectionate and good box office.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Martin McDonagh's latest film Seven Psychopaths is his follow-up to the hit In Bruges. It's just as blood-soaked, but it's left Belgium behind for the more traditional movie settings of LA and the American desert, as screenwriter Marty, played by Colin Farrell, struggles to write a script for his film that has only a name: Seven Psychopaths. Do a star-studded cast and some fabulous lines add up to another great film?A highly-anticipated all-women production by Phyllida Lloyd of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse includes cast members from the prison theatre group Clean Break, along with stars Harriet Walter, Frances Barber and the increasingly acclaimed Cush Jumbo.Herta Muller is the Romanian-born German novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. Her latest book, "The Hunger Angel", is a powerful account of life in the labour camps to which thousands of the German population in Romania were sent after 1945. To write it she spoke at length to a poet, Oskar Pastior, who was himself deported to such a life - as was Muller's own mother.There's a new exhibition at the Royal Academy: Constable, Turner, Gainsborough and the Making of Landscape. Does the rise of British landscape painting in the 18th century have any resonance with our own attitudes towards the land?And "Loving Miss Hatto", a new film for television written by Victoria Wood, is her version of an extraordinary story about the relationship between the pianist Joyce Hatto and her adoring husband Barry. It led him to carry out what has been called "the greatest music fraud ever".Joining Tom Sutcliffe this week to review are the journalist Miranda Sawyer, writer Gillian Slovo and poet Cahal DallatProducer: Sarah Johnson.

Sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events with Tom Sutcliffe and guests Patrick Gale, John Mullan and Bidisha.They'll be talking about the new dark caravaning comedy film Sightseers written by and starring Alice Lowe and Steve Oram and directed by Ben Wheatley, who made his name with Kill List.Does Alexander Pushkin's Boris Godunov, Michael Boyd's last production for the RSC as artistic director, bear comparison with Shakespeare?There's a new TV documentary behind the scenes of the luxury hotel Claridge's, made by the acclaimed filmmaker Jane Treays: "Inside Claridge's". It's the first time cameras have been allowed behind their doors, so how revealing is it?A new permanent furniture gallery at London's Victoria and Albert Museum showcases many of the items that have previously only been in storage.And books from Susie Boyt - "The Small Hours" - and Emma Tennant - "The Beautiful Child" - share a debt to Henry James.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Lionel Shriver, Alex Preston and Jim White discuss the week's cultural highlights including Pinero's farce The Magistrate. This production marks the first time that American actor John Lithgow has appeared at the National Theatre - he is best known to English audiences for his role in the US sitcom Third Rock From The Sun.David Ayer's cop flick "End of Watch" is a fast-paced action thriller, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena with the aim of presenting Los Angeles Police Department as it "really is".In Michael Kimball's novel "Big Ray" a middle aged man comes to terms with his father's death. Told in five hundred brief entries, it's written in the form of a memoir, detailing the narrator's abuse at the hands of a father who was defined by his obesity and his violence."Gaiety is the Most Outstanding Feature of the Soviet Union" is the title of one of two exhibitions opening at the Saatchi Gallery in London. It takes its name from a quote by Joseph Stalin and highlights work by an exciting group of 20 artists who have recently emerged in Russia. The second exhibition "Breaking The Ice: Moscow Art, 1960s-80s" features leading underground artists who lived and worked in Moscow during a period described as a "golden renaissance" in Russian art.The Fear is a new mini-series on Channel 4, starring Peter Mullan as Brighton crime boss turned entrepreneur and Anastasia Hille as his wife. Pursuing his dream of rebuilding Brighton's derelict West Pier, Richie Beckett's hard-earned respectability is threatened by two new enemies: an invading Albanian mafia and an aggressive form of early onset dementia. It's written by Richard Cottan (Wallander, Hancock & Joan) and also stars Richard E Grant.Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Boyd Tonkin, Kevin Jackson and Monique Roffey discuss the cultural highlights of the week including The Effect by Lucy Prebble which opens at London's National Theatre with Billie Piper in the leading role. Lucy Prebble is the award winning writer of Enron,which explored financial malpractice in one of America's largest corporations. In "The Effect" Prebble takes on more major themes: how society treats the mentally ill, what we understand about the brain and what are the effect of drugs upon our emotions, particularly on love. Amour - or Love - is the title of Austrian director Michael Haneke's new film and won him his second Palme D'Or at Cannes this year, the first being for "The White Ribbon" in 2008. Starring octogenarians Jean-Louis Trintignant, for whom the film was written, and Emmanuelle Riva, the film explores the effect on the couple's relationship when Anne, played by Riva, suffers a series of incapacitating strokes. Isabelle Hupert plays their daughter Eva.Internationally renowned author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" Oliver Sack's new book "Hallucinations" explores a phenomenon many people assume are only suffered by the insane. Sack's account reveals that hallucinations are linked to a variety of causes in people with no mental illness, including sensory deprivation, intoxication, fever, injury and migraine. Dr Sacks weaves together the stories of his patients and his own mind altering experiences to tell us more about the structure and organisation of our brains. The Richard Harris Collection "Death A Self Portrait" opens at the Wellcome Institute in London and includes over 300 treasures from a unique collection devoted to our complex and contradictory attitudes towards death. Rare artists' prints are displayed together with anatomical illustrations and sentimental postcards, human remains join Renaissance vanitas paintings and Mexican papier-mache sculptures celebrating the Day of the Dead showing that death remains a source of powerful inspiration for many artists today.And BBC Storyville, working with more than 70 broadcasters round the world, is hosting a debate about contemporary poverty with Why Poverty? A series of 8 ground breaking international documentaries screened in 180 countries to explore why, in the 21st century, a billion people still live in poverty.Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests - the novelist Tracy Chevalier, critic Sarfraz Manzoor and director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones - discuss the cultural highlights of the week, including Alan Bennett's new play "People" starring Frances de la Tour and Linda Bassett which opens at the National Theatre this week. The play explores the theme of heritage Britain and the price we put on privacy - through the prism of analysing available options for elderly sisters occupying a grand stately home in an advanced state of decay. Ben Affleck directs and stars in Argo, a feature film which manages to be both political thriller and hilarious satire on the movie business itself. It's based on a real story in which the CIA funds a fake science fiction movie in order to rescue six fugitive Americans holed up in the Canadian Ambassador's house as the Iranian revolution reaches boiling point in November 1979. Can a fake bad film make a real good one?The Taj Mahal is one of the Wonders of the World - but how much do we know about the culture that created it? Mughal India, Art Culture and Empire at the British Library is the first exhibition to document the entire historical period of the Mughals - one of the greatest dynasties of world history - from the 16th to the 19th century, through more than 200 exquisite manuscripts and the finest paintings drawn almost exclusively from the British Library's extensive heritage collection. At its peak the empire encompassed India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.Michael Winterbottom has made 17 films in 15 years - his latest, Everyday, was made for Channel 4 and shot over a period of five years. Starring Shirley Henderson and John Simm, with four children from the same North Norfolk family - it's shot in their home and at their school - the film explores the effect a long term prison sentence has on the wife and children of the offender.The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez won Spain's top literary prize 2011 - the Alfaguara is also one of the richest prizes in the world, with prize money at over £100,000. The author was born in 1973 and says that the relationship his country has with the drug trade has shaped his life. The book is set in the 1990s when the war between drug baron Pablo Escobar and the government who were trying to stop his illegal activities was at its height. Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests Ekow Eshun, Andreas Whittam Smith and Linda Grant offer sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events.The much hyped Silver Lion winning film "The Master", directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams comes under scrutiny. Set in post World War 2 America, it explores a familiar narrative trope, the relationship between master and pupil, but in a very unfamiliar and deeply cinematic way, and through the prism of a cult which bears many parallels with the Church of Scientology - of whom Tom Cruise is a member, and co-incidentally starred in an earlier film by the director, Magnolia"Dear Life" by Alice Munro - winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2009, a lifetime career award - is a new collection of short stories from the writer who has never written a novel, and whom other writers such as Jonathan Franzen and AS Byatt compare to Chekhov and Flaubert. Now 81, this collection may well be her last. It includes 14 short stories,as well as a postscript which contains four illuminating autobiographical pieces, from a writer who has always been reluctant to reveal much about her private life. Lucy Kirkwood's new play NSFW premieres at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre downstairs. NSFW is an acronym for Not Safe For Work and refers internet sites not thought suitable for office viewing. Set in the cut throat world media world, its a timely new comedy which exposes power games and privacy in the age of Photoshop and how they impact on gender politics. Starring Janie Dee and Julian Barratt, star of The Mighty Boosh.Seduced by Art, Photography Past and Present at the National Gallery is the first exhibition to explore the historical link between fine art - including the Old Masters - and photography, foregrounding the work of great photographers from Julia Margaret Cameron and Roger Fenton to Rineke Dijkstra and Sam Taylor Wood. What is the connection between the history of painting, the earliest decades of photography and work by some of the most innovative photographers active today?And a new adaptation of Charles Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" on BBC Daytime Television, "Nick Nickleby" starring Adrian Dunbar and Linda Bassett. A five-part adaptation, stripped across weekday afternoons, it has been updated to reflect concerns and questions about modern Britain. Dickens' exploration of corruption within private boarding schools is transposed to care-homes for the elderly. Just as Dickens did, the drama invites the audience to reflect on how the vulnerable suffer when the pursuit of profit is valued more than human kindness.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests writers Maev Kennedy and David Aaronovitch and author Dreda Say Mitchell review the week's cultural highlights.James Bond with Daniel Craig is back and in the new film Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes, 007 becomes M's only ally as MI6 comes under attack, and a mysterious new villain emerges with a diabolical plan. Bond's latest mission has gone horribly awry, resulting in the exposure of several undercover agents. The villain must be stopped at any cost.Secret State is a political conspiracy thriller tv series exploring the relationship between democratically elected government, big business and the banks. This is thrown into relief when a massive industrial accident leaves many people dead and raises awkward questions about the US petrochemical company involved.The latest novel by Roddy Doyle, Two Pints, features a collection of humorous dialogues between two Irish men in a Dublin pub. Their conversation, which has been inspired by a year's worth of news, ranges from the missing Colonel Gaddafi and Greek debt to mourning the deaths of Whitney Houston and Maeve Binchy.55 Days a new play by Howard Brenton is set in the period immediately after the capture of King Charles I by Oliver Cromwell's armies in December 1648. The drama follows the chain of events and reasoning that led to Charles's execution 55 days later and stars Mark Gatiss as the doomed king. An exhibition of The Hospital Drawings by Barbara Hepworth reveals the remarkable series of drawings and paintings made by the artist during the late 1940s, illustrating surgeons at work in operating theatres within Post-War Britain.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests playwright Laura Wade, broadcaster John Tusa and anthropologist Kit Davis review the week's cultural highlightsBenh Zeitklin's film Beasts of the Southern Wild stars Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy - a young girl living an almost feral existence in the swamplands of southern Louisiana.Adrian Lester stars as 19th century actor Ira Aldridge in Lolita Chakrabarti's play Red Velvet at the Tricycle Theatre in London. Aldridge causes a sensation when he is brought in to replace an indisposed Edmund Kean in Othello - the idea of a black actor playing the role meets considerable resistance.Ginger and Rosa is a film by Sally Potter set in the early sixties and stars Elle Fanning and Alice Englert as the two girls of the title - teenagers who are preoccupied by the threat of nuclear annihilation.The comic strips that Posy Simmonds drew for the Guardian from 1977 - first under the title of Mrs Weber's Diary and then simply Posy - have been collected in Mrs Weber's Omnibus. The cartoons map the marriage and career problems and characteristic anxieties of three middle-class families.Billed as a blockbuster exhibition, Hollywood Costume at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London brings together over 130 outfits from some of the most celebrated films in cinema history that defined their characters as much as the actors who wore them. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests - critic John Carey and writers Paul Morley and Susan Jeffreys - discuss the film Ruby Sparks; the National Theatre of Scotland's documentary drama Enquirer; yet another TV incarnation of Sherlock, this time set in Manhattan; a new novel, The Daughters of Mars, from Australian Living Treasure Thomas Kenneally; and the work of Richard Hamilton at the National Gallery.Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Deborah Moggach, James Runcie and Deborah Bull review the week's cultural highlights.Stephen Chbosky's film The Perks of Being a Wallflower is adapted from Chbosky's best-selling novel and stars Logan Lerman as Charlie - a shy, bookish boy re-entering school after suffering a nervous breakdown. His anxieties and loneliness are assuaged by a sympathetic English teacher (Paul Rudd) and outsiders Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). Harry - the narrator of A.M. Homes' novel May We Be Forgiven - is a history professor whose life goes into meltdown after his brother George is involved in a car accident. Finding himself responsible for two children, a dog and a cat and facing unemployment, Harry's forays into internet sex only make his life more complicated. Fiona Shaw stars as 16th century Venetian artist Galactia in Howard Barker's play Scenes From an Execution at the National Theatre. When Galactia is commissioned to create an epic painting commemorating the Battle of Lepanto she finds herself at loggerheads with the Doge (Tim McInnerny) when she produces a scene of butchery rather than a canvas that celebrates a military triumph. The Turner Prize 2012 Exhibition at Tate Britain features work by this year's four shortlisted artists: Paul Noble, Elizabeth Price, Luke Fowler and Spartacus Chetwynd.Arena: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited is a documentary that tells the story behind the Beatles film that was first seen on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967. The audience's reaction at the time was very mixed with plenty of bemusement and fury from the older generation. The documentary is being shown on BBC2 along with the original film Producer: Torquil MacLeod Addition(s):.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests stage designer Es Devlin, novelist Kamila Shamsie and academic and critic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlightsAlan Ayckbourn's play A Chorus of Disapproval is being revived by Trevor Nunn at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. It stars Rob Brydon as Dafydd ap Llewellyn, director of an amateur operatic company attempting to stage The Beggar's Opera. Ashley Jensen is his downtrodden wife Hannah who becomes rather interested in newcomer Guy (Nigel Harman).In Leos Carax's film Holy Motors Denis Lavant plays Monsieur Oscar - a man who cruises Paris in the back of stretch limo, going from appointment to appointment where he plays roles such as a banker, a beggar woman and an irate father, but who the audience is remains unclear. The film also features Edith Scob as his driver, Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue.Two new books take on the challenge of explaining modern art, one for readers who may be too young to have seen much of it - What Is Contemporary Art: A Children's Guide by Jacky & Suzy Klein - and one for those who may be a bit older, but remain sceptical - Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That by Susie Hodge.Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London comprises seven pieces from the private collection of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Cattelan has a reputation as a prankster, but the work here also reflects his political engagement and provides a critique of contemporary Italian society.HBO series Girls stars Lena Dunham as Hannah - a privileged twenty-something living in Brooklyn with her hipster friends. Dunham also wrote and co-produced the series (with Judd Apatow) which is as edgy and uncompromising as her feature film Tiny Furniture.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests cultural historian Christopher Frayling, writer Sarfraz Manzoor and historian Kathryn Hughes review the week's cultural highlightsBrad Pitt stars as enforcer/hitman Jackie Cogan in Andrew Dominik's film Killing Them Softly - based on George V Higgins' 1974 novel Cogan's Trade. Cogan is called in to set things right after an illegal poker game is robbed. Set against the background of the runup to the 2008 presidential election, the film draws parallels between the need for economic stability in America's financial institutions and in its increasingly corporate criminal enterprises.Caryl Churchill's new play Love and Information at the Royal Court in London is a collection of 57 short fragments featuring more than 100 characters. Directed by James Macdonald, the succession of short scenes is performed in a white gridded box by a cast which includes Linda Bassett and Sarah Woodward. Building Stories by Chris Ware is not a conventional graphic novel. It comes in a box containing 14 separate books, pamphlets and posters. Together they tell the stories of the inhabitants of a down-at-heel tenement in Chicago. The order in which the separate elements are read is entirely up to the reader.Happy Birthday Edward Lear: 200 Years of Nature and Nonsense at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is an exhibition which celebrates the bicentenary of the artist's birth. Although it contains some of his nonsense poetry and illustrations, it mainly concentrates on the foreign landscapes and natural history paintings that he worked on throughout his life.Homefront written by Sue Teddern is a new drama series on ITV1 which follows the lives of a group of mothers and wives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Claire Skinner plays the fiancee of a commanding officer, trying to find her feet in a world which combines the normality of domestic life with constant pressure and anxiety. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Alex Preston and writers Miranda Sawyer and Kevin Jackson review the week's cultural highlights including Jonathan Pryce as King Lear.Jonathan Pryce is cast in the title role in Michael Attenborough's production of King Lear at the Almeida Theatre in London. Phoebe Fox plays his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who doesn't give her father the response he was expecting when he starts carving up his kingdom.Lawrence Norfolk's novel John Saturnall's Feast is set in Somerset before, during and after the Civil War. John Saturnall is an orphan who finds work in the kitchens of Buckland Manor where his prodigious skills with food win him friends and foes alike. But at the back of his mind is always his mother's account of an ancient pagan feast which has been handed down over generations. Guy Maddin is a Canadian film director whose previous works include the autobiographical film My Winnipeg. His new offering Keyhole initially has the trappings of a film noir when the gangster Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) returns to his home under heavy police gunfire. He is trying to find his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) but he has to make his way through every room of the house - encountering its ghosts - before he can reach her.Hunted is a new spy drama on BBC One, written by Frank Spotnitz, creator of The X-Files. Melissa George stars as Sam Hunter - the most skilled operative of a private espionage company. Sam drops out of sight for a year after things go badly wrong on a job in north Africa. When she gets back in the saddle, she wants to find out who's trying to kill her and why.Bronze is an exhibition at the Royal Academy which celebrates the use of this versatile alloy with a selection of more than 150 of some of the finest bronzes from Asia, Africa and Europe spanning a period of over 5000 years. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

A review of the week's cultural highlights with Tom Sutcliffe.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Susan Jeffreys, Giles Fraser and Jim White review the week's cultural highlights.Tim Pigott-Smith plays Prospero in Adrian Noble's production of The Tempest which has just opened at the Theatre Royal in Bath. This staging of Shakespeare's final play is based on the production which Noble directed at the Old Globe in San Diego last year.Jennifer Egan's 2010 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad won her the Pulitzer Prize. Her follow up - Black Box - had the distinction of making its first appearance as a series of tweets in May. Written in series of terse 'stanzas' it follows a young American on a dangerous espionage mission in the Mediterranean.Peter Strickland's film Berberian Sound Studio is set in the 1970s and star's Toby Jones as Gilderoy - a mousy sound editor from Dorking who is hired to work on a film in Italy. The film is a 'giallo' horror film and - subjected to increasingly disturbing images and the claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere of the studio - Gilderoy begins to unravel. Having played Silvio Dante in The Sopranos, Steve Van Zandt appears as another mobster in Lilyhammer on BBC4. Frank Tagliano needs to disappear after testifying against a Mafia don, so he asks the FBI to arrange a new life for him in Norway. He thought Lillehammer looked pretty when he watched the 1994 Olympics, but it's not quite what he was expecting.As a young artist Tony Cragg had a studio behind the Science Museum in London and drew inspiration from objects in all the museums along Exhibition Road. Now that the road has been partially pedestrianised, Cragg has been commissioned to site some of his idiosyncratic sculptures along the street and in the V&A, Science and Natural History museums.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Bidisha and her guests actor Kerry Shale and writers Natalie Haynes and Paul Morley review the week's cultural highlights including Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan.Serena Frome is the narrator of Ian McEwan's new novel. A Cambridge graduate recruited by MI5 in the early 70s, her first assignment beyond lowly paper-pushing involves the covert funding of anti-Communist writers. Her target is Tom Haley - an English graduate and aspiring writer working at Sussex University - but her interest in him becomes more than just professional.Soul Sister is a musical that features the songs of Ike and Tina Turner and tells the story of the couple's tempestuous relationship on and off stage. Emi Wokoma plays the role of Tina and Chris Tummings is Ike in the production which has just opened at the Savoy Theatre in London.The Nigerian film industry - also known as Nollywood - is still comparatively young and typified by small budgets and fairly basic production values, but director Mahmood Ali Balogun has tried to raise its standards with his family drama Tango With Me. Genevieve Nnaji and Joseph Benjamin play Lola and Uzo who seem like the perfect couple until a shocking act of violence on their wedding night darkens their lives and threatens their marriage.Walking is an installation on the Norfolk coast by the avant garde American director and playwright Robert Wilson, or - more precisely - three installations along a three mile stretch of coast near Holkham between which visitors walk at a snail's pace dictated by 'angels' in yellow ponchos.Danish director Birger Larsen has worked on Nordic noir hits Wallander, The Killing and Those Who Kill. Now he has come to Nottingham to shoot Robert Jones's crime drama Murder for BBC2. Karla Crome stars as Coleen - a young woman who shares a flat with her sister Erin. One night Stefan (Joe Dempsie) comes to the flat and by the end of the evening Erin has been murdered. But Coleen and Stefan's accounts of what happened are very much at odds with each other.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Bidisha and guests Dreda Say Mitchell, Maeve Kennedy and Cahal Dallat review the week's cultural events including BBC Two's new drama serial Parades End starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall and Alan Ayckbourn's new comedy Surprises which opens at Chichester Festival Theatre this week.Ford Maddox Ford's key modernist novel Parades End, published as a series of four books between 1924 and 1928, is adapted for BBC television by Britain's foremost playwright, Sir Tom Stoppard, the first television drama he has written in almost 30 years. With a stellar cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Stephen Graham, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richards and Anne-Marie Duff, Parades End explores a formative period of British history - from the twilight years of the Edwardian era to the end of the First World War.Naomi Alderman follows well trodden literary footsteps from Norman Mailer to Robert Graves in re-telling the story of Jesus Christ in her third novel The Liars' Gospel. Her narrators are Mary / Miryam, Iehuda of Qeriot / Judas, Caiaphas - the High Priest of the Temple and Bar Avo / Barrabas. Her first novel - Disobedience - won the Orange Prize for New Writing. How will her prose match up to telling one of the most well known stories in the world?Take This Waltz stars Michelle Williams, whose previous films include My Week With Marilyn, Blue Valentine and Brokeback Mountain and is directed by Sarah Polley whose last film, Academy Award nominated Away From Her, starred Julie Christie as an older woman suffering from dementia. This film explores the age old question of what long term relationships do to love, sex and our images of ourselves.Alan Ayckbourn explores the impact of long term relationships on love and sex in his new play - his 76th - Surprises which opens in a double bill with Absurd Person Singular at the Chichester Festival Theatre this week. Like Comic Potential he sets this play in the future in which humans have the ability to time travel and thus shape their own destiny. There are also robots, and much humour is derived from an android - Gorman - who develops the capacity for human emotion, played to great effect by Richard Stacey.And seven years since the release of Ry Cooder's last ground breaking album - Chavez Ravine - the election of a new US President is marked by Cooder with the release of a new album - Election Special. Tracks such as Mutt Romney Blues, Guantanamo and The Wall Street Part of Town explore themes which resonate strongly in America and resurrects a genre now out of fashion - the protest song. Will we all be marching along?Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Billy Kay, Hannah McGill and Kathryn Hughes review the cultural highlights of the week from the Edinburgh Festival including Pixar's new animated story, Brave, an American story with a very Scottish flavour. Pixar's first film to be set entirely in the British Isles it is also the first to boast a female lead. Kelly McDonald plays fiery red head Scottish Princess Merida. She is joined by other Scottish stars, Billy Connolly as King Fergus, Robbie Coltraine as Lord Dingwall and Kevin McKidd as Lord MacGuffin - aswell as Emma Thompson and Julie Walters. The British premiere of Morning by award winning British playwright Simon Stephens opens at the Traverse. Developed with young actors from the Junges Theater in Basel and the Lyric Young Company in London Stephens play begins as Cat prepares to go off to university, a prospect that is depressing her best friend Stephanie. Described as moving from brutality to banality, the play charts disillusion and alienation amongst urban youth.The panel also discuss the National Theatre of Scotland's Appointment with the Wicker Man at the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms, a spoof of the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man, The Best of Edinburgh Showcase Show at the Pleasance Courtyard and Dirty Great Love Story also at the Pleasance.NVA Speed of Light invites the audience to take part in a walking version of son et lumiere on Arthur's Seat - their advertisement for runners asked "Ever dreamed of running in a light suit as part of a choreographed mass movement on Arthur's Seat. Well this is your chance." Saturday Review joined the audience participants during the dress rehearsal, donning light sabres and suitable walking shoes to brave the rocky crags.And a series of public art commissions including Andrew Miller's artist's pavilion in St Andrews Square, The Waiting Place, Callum Innes's Regent Bridge, Kevin Harmon's 24/7, Martin Creed's Work 1059 the Scotsman Steps, the Rose Street Film Programme and The House of Fairytales. And Indian writer Manu Joseph's second novel "The Illicit Happiness of Other People" is set in a Madras tenement and explores the fall out of a family tragedy. It explores the pressures arising from living cheek by jowl with neighbours, as well as probing the quixotic nature of what we understand by the truth.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Adam Mars Jones and Lisa Appignanesi and writer Ekow Eshun review the week's cultural highlights including Seth MacFarlane's film Ted.Mark Haddon's best-selling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has been adapted for the stage by Simon Stephens. The production at the National Theatre is directed by Marianne Elliot and stars Luke Treadaway as Christopher Boone - a 15 year old "mathematician with behavioural difficulties" (his own description). When Christopher tries to find out who killed a neighbour's dog he unearths more about his own life than he anticipated.The Daylight Gate is Jeanette Winterson's latest book and is published by the Hammer imprint. The book is set in 17th century Lancashire and is based on events around the notorious Pendle witch trials. The central character is Alice Nutter, a free-thinking woman who finds herself drawn into a dangerous conflict with the local magistrate and a witch-finder newly arrived from London, determined to uproot witchery and popery. Seth MacFarlane's television series American Dad and Family Guy have made him one of the best paid writers in Hollywood. His first feature film is Ted - the story of a boy called John and his teddy bear. A wish makes the bear come to life, but John (Mark Wahlberg) is still hanging out with Ted twenty-five years later and his girlfriend (Mila Kunis) is increasingly unhappy about the situation. Water House in Walthamstow was William Morris's family home from 1848 to 1856. It became the William Morris Gallery in 1950 and has just reopened to the public after a major refurbishment. Apart from personal memorabilia and samples of Morris's work, there is also a gallery to house temporary exhibitions where Grayson Perry's Walthamstow Tapestry can be seen until 23rd September.To celebrate its 30th birthday, Channel Four is launching a season of new comedies under the title of Funny Fortnight. This will comprise over 30 hours of programming featuring sitcoms, comedy dramas and stand up from new talent and established names. The programmes being reviewed here are three pilots: Bad Sugar, Toast of London and The Function Room.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Sarah Hall, playwright Laura Wade and writer David Aaronovitch review the week's cultural highlights including the Olympic opening ceremony.The London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony - entitled Isles of Wonder - was watched by an audience of millions around the world. From bucolic idyll to a parachuting Queen, our panel assesses how good a job Danny Boyle did of directing it.Mark Rylance returns to Globe Theatre in London for the first time since he stepped down as artistic director in 2005, to play the role of Richard III. Tim Carroll's production features an all male cast with Samuel Barnett appearing as Queen Elizabeth.The protagonist of Ned Beauman's Booker long-listed novel The Teleportation Accident is Egon Loeser - a theatrical set designer who we first meet in 1930s Berlin. Despite the time and the place, the intensely apolitical Loeser is almost entirely oblivious to what is going on around him. His main preoccupation is the pursuit of a young woman - Adele - a quest which takes him first to Paris and then on to Los Angeles.Michelangelo Antonioni's 1964 film Red Desert - now released in a restored version - stars Monica Vitti as Giuliana, a woman left in an agitated and anxious state following a car accident. Against the strange and alienating backdrop of the industrial outskirts of Ravenna - made stranger still by Antonioni's first use of colour film - Giuliana begins an enigmatic relationship with one of her husband's colleagues, played by Richard Harris.As people from around the world descend on London for the Olympics, Tate Britain celebrates the ways in which foreign photographers have viewed the capital in a new exhibition - Another London: International Photographers Capture City Life 1930 - 1980. The exhibition features 177 images from the collection of 1200 photographs recently donated to the gallery by Eric and Louise Franck. It includes work by some of the biggest names in 20th century photography, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold and Bill Brandt.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Kamila Shamsie, historian Dominic Sandbrook and film-maker Carol Morley review the week's cultural highlights including The Dark Knight RisesThe Dark Knight Rises is the final film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Christian Bale reprises his role as the caped crusader, coming out of seclusion after seven years to save Gotham from another existential threat.Dutch author Herman Koch's novel The Dinner has already become a best-seller across Europe. The book's narrator - Paul - is having dinner at an exclusive restaurant with his brother Serge and their two wives, but the agenda behind the meal is driven by an outrage committed by their respective sons. Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre production of Shakespeare's rarely performed play Timon of Athens stars Simon Russell Beale. Timon is a wealthy businessman whose abundant generosity wins him huge popularity. But when he falls on hard times, his erstwhile friends are not prepared to bail him out and he descends into misanthropy and destitution. The Radio 4 series Amanda Vickery On...Men sees the social historian exploring the way in which modern masculinity has developed from various historical constructs. Each episode deals with a different era and the ideals of male behaviour that arose in it.Tate Modern in London has just opened a new space dedicated to performance and video art. The Tanks were formerly huge oil tanks used when Bankside power station was still operational. The inaugural exhibition comprises work by Sung Hwan Kim, Lis Rhodes and Suzanne Lacy and dance performances by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests writers Louise Doughty and Natalie Haynes and actor Kerry Shale review the week's cultural highlights including Magic Mike.Steven Soderbergh's latest film is set in the world of male strippers. It follows Magic Mike, a seasoned performer who mentors a novice and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women and making easy money. There's a new adaptation of the classic play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. It centres on a seemingly typical housewife Nora, played by Hattie Morahan, who gets into debt and becomes disillusioned and dissatisfied with her condescending husband.The artist Julian Opie has a new exhibition of his work which employs modern media to depict new subjects in previously unexplored mediums. The exhibition includes a striking series of walking figures and a series of digitally animated landscapes, with audio, on LCD screens. A first novel by Jonas Jonasson has become an international bestseller. The title reveals the story, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. Escaping on his hundredth birthday from an old people's home Allan begins an unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders and a suitcase full of cash. And as his escapades unfold, we also learn about his extraordinary former life.Suburgatory is a new TV series from the US is which teenager Tessa who is forced to relocate from the city to the suburbs, after her father discovers a packet of condoms in her bedroom. She finds herself slowly trying to come to terms with her new twisted world of perfection.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Susan Jeffreys and Alex Preston and historian Kathryn Hughes review the week's cultural highlights.Samantha Spiro stars as Katherina and Simon Paisley Day is Petruchio in Toby Frow's exuberant production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Globe Theatre in London.If This Is Home is Stuart Evers' first novel and centres around Mark - a young man desperate to get out of the small Cheshire town he grew up in. He moves to the US and adopts a completely new identity, but feels impelled to return 12 years later to try to make sense of what happened just before he left.Daniel Nettheim's film The Hunter stars Willem Dafoe as a mercenary who is hired by a bio-tech company to hunt down a Tasmanian tiger - a marsupial presumed to be extinct - in the mountains of the Australian island state. West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin returns to television after the success of his film The Social Network with a new series - The Newsroom. Jeff Daniels plays Will McAvoy - a celebrity news anchor in trouble after an intemperate outburst. Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) is hired to produce his new show and has a strong streak of idealism - but the two have some history. Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style at the Barbican Gallery in London celebrates the behind-the-scenes talent that has made the Bond films such a popular and good-looking franchise for half a century.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Liz Jensen, poet Paul Farley and academic and critic Maria Delgado review the week's cultural highlights including Killer Joe.William Friedkin's film Killer Joe is set in the Texas badlands. Chris (Emile Hirsch) needs some money fast so that he can pay off some local drug dealers - the only way he can see is to have his mother killed and then collect the insurance. So he enlists the services of local policeman and freelance murderer Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey).As part of its contribution to the Cultural Olympiad, the BBC are screening The Hollow Crown - new adaptations of the Shakespeare history plays Richard II, Henry IV pt 1 & 2 and Henry V. The directors involved are Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock and the impressive cast includes Ben Wishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jeremy Irons, Simon Russell Beale and Tom Hiddlestone.Leaving the Atocha Station is the debut novel by American poet Ben Lerner. It follows the experiences of Adam, a young American poet on a prestigious scholarship in Madrid, where he has gone to learn the language and, notionally at least, to research the Spanish civil war for a forthcoming work. Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye at Tate Modern in London brings together many of the Norwegian artist's paintings but doesn't feature his most famous work The Scream. It does however include photographs and cine film taken by Munch and makes a case that his interest in early cinema had a direct impact on his paintings.Dr Dee - Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris's music drama about the Elizabethan polymath and mystic John Dee - had its premiere at the Manchester Festival last year. Reworked and expanded it now comes to ENO in London. A series of tableaux from Dee's life it is possibly the only current stage production in London to feature live ravens. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Gillian Slovo and writers Sarfraz Manzoor and Maev Kennedy review the week's cultural highlights including The Last of the HaussmansStephen Beresford's play The Last of the Haussmans at the National Theatre in London stars Julie Walters as Judy - an aging child of the 60s whose children Libby (Helen McCrory) and Nick (Rory Kinnear) feel that her lofty ideals are no substitute for proper parenting and a substantial inheritance.The narrator of Ancient Light by John Banville is Alexander Cleave - an actor in his sixties, remembering the affair he had with his best friend's mother fifty years ago. But it soon becomes clear that his recollection of events may not be entirely reliable. And when he is cast in a film, there are odd echoes between the role he's playing and details of his own past life.The Russian film Silent Souls - directed by Aleksei Fedorchenko - is a low-key kind of road movie in which a husband cremates his much-loved wife with the help of his best friend. The traditions and rituals which they adhere to are those of the Merjan - the remnants of a Finnish people who settled in Russia centuries ago.Yoko Ono: To The Light is a retrospective of the artist's work at the Serpentine Gallery in London. It includes two versions of her Cut Piece in which audience members cut the clothes from her body with scissors and Amaze - a transparent plastic maze.Veep is Armando Ianucci's HBO comedy starring Julia Louis Dreyfus as Selena Meyer - Vice President of the United States of America. Fans of The Thick of It will recognise the same bracing style making the journey from Whitehall to Washington.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Linda Grant and Adam Mars Jones and writer Bidisha review the week's cultural highlights including David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis.GATZ is Elevator Repair Service's stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby in which every word of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel is read and acted by the occupants of a drab American office. Scott Shepherd plays a man who, arriving at his desk and finding his computer unresponsive, picks up a paperback copy of the book and starts reading it aloud. David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis is an adaptation of Don DeLillo's 2003 novel and stars Robert Pattinson as Eric Packer - a billionaire financial whiz-kid who is travelling across Manhattan to get a haircut in the stretch limo he uses as an office. However, a presidential visit to the city, a rapper's funeral and a threat to Packer's life mean that the journey is far from straightforward.Indelible Ink by Australian author Fiona McGregor is a novel about Marie King - a 59 year old divorcee facing large changes in her life, including having to sell her beautiful Sydney Harbour home and the garden she has spent years creating. One afternoon, on a drunken impulse, she gets a tattoo and - despite the disapproval of her three children - she goes on to have her skin covered in more and more elaborate designs.Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957 - 2012 at the Hayward Gallery in London explores the rich history of intangible art including film of Yves Klein showing the viewer around the blank walls of an empty gallery, Andy Warhol's Invisible Sculpture (comprising a plinth that he once stood next to) and Air by Teresa Margolles - a space cooled by two air-conditioners filled with water previously used to wash murder victims in a Mexican morgue.Dominic Savage's new drama series for BBC1 - True Love - consists of five short films, all of them set in Margate and all of them created by a process of improvisation. Among the actors creating their own dialogue are David Tennant, Ashley Walters, Billie Piper and David Morrissey. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Dreda Say Mitchell and Deborah Moggach and writer Paul Morley review the week's cultural highlights including Ben Drew's film iLL Manors. Ben Drew (a.k.a rapper Plan B) makes his directorial debut with the film iLL Manors. Ed and Aaron are small time East London drug dealers and the film weaves various interlocking narratives around them and others eking out a hand-to-mouth existence in a dangerous and morally hazy environment.Martin Amis's novel Lionel Asbo is also set on a London estate where deprivation and criminality are rife. Lionel is the pitbull-owning uncle of Des - a teenager with higher aspirations. But while Des attempts to break free via education, Lionel moves into the precarious world of instant celebrity and notoriety after a lottery win. Gregory Doran's production of Julius Caesar at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford relocates the action to a modern African state. Jeffery Kissoon is Caesar with Paterson Joseph as Brutus and Ray Fearon as Mark Anthony.Following in the footsteps of Kevin Macdonald's crowd-sourced film A Life in a Day, Morgan Matthews has taken 750 hours of footage shot by members of the public all round the UK on November 12th last year and edited it down to make Britain in a Day for BBC2.Photoworks at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London is the first UK solo show by American artist Nancy Holt. Holt is a pioneering artist in the field of land art and site specific work and this exhibition comprises landscape photographs of the American West and of interventions which she made in the landscape over the course of five decades.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Malorie Blackman and Giles Fraser and musician Pat Kane review the week's cultural highlights including Ridley Scott's film Prometheus and Christopher Eccleston's performance as Creon in Antigone at the National Theatre.It is over thiry years since Ridley Scott all but invented the science fiction film genre, first with Alien and then with Blade Runner. Prometheus is described as a prequel to Alien, the film which itself has spawned so many sequels. Starring Girl With The Dragon Tatoo star Noomi Rapace along with Michael Fassbender and British actor Idris Elba - does the film live up to the hype? And does the vastly superior digital technology three decades on aid or detract from the creation of monster aliens and forbidding planets?Christopher Eccleston is Creon and Jodi Whittaker is Antigone in a new production of Sophocles's Antigone at the National's Olivier Theatre translated into modern idiom by Don Taylor. Directed by up and coming director Polly Findlay and set in an Eastern European type bunker, how does a play which explores the conflict between the individual and the state resonate in 21st century Britain?Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Ford's new novel Canada explores the adolescent trauma of 15 year old Del Parsons whose parents rob a bank. This extraordinary event is recounted in great detail 50 odd years later by Del himself. The novel explores the themes of memory and survival, issues that lie at the heart of American identity.Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry brings us a new three-part series All In The Best Possible Taste on Channel 4 in which he goes on safari through the taste tribes of Britain, not just to observe our taste, but to tell us in an artwork what it means. The work he'll be creating is a series of six imposing tapestries called 'The Vanity of Small Differences' - his personal but panoramic take on the taste of 21st century Britain, from Sunderland to Tunbridge Wells to the Cotswolds. And the Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary at the V&A is the first solo exhibition of this polymath designer / architect / sculptor whose creations range from the new London Routemaster Bus to the Zip Up Bag to the controversial B for a Bang star burst sculpture in Manchester Producer: Hilary Dunn.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Lionel Shriver and Andrew O' Hagan and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Moonrise Kingdom.Wes Anderson's film Moonrise Kingdom is set on a remote New England island and features two precocious 12 year olds - Sam and Suzy (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) - who run away from scout camp and home respectively to be with each other. The film also stars Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as Suzy's parents, Bruce Willis as the island's police chief and Edward Norton as the scout leader. The Deadman's Pedal - like most of Alan Warner's novels - is set in Oban on the west coast of Scotland. It's 1973 and 15 year old Simon Crimmons has broken up from school for the summer and doesn't intend to go back. Over the course of the next year he loses his virginity, gets a job as a trainee train driver and meets the mysteriously bohemian son and daughter of the local laird.Right-wing think tank The New Culture Forum has published Igor Toronyi-Lalic's report What's That Thing? which suggests that the recent proliferation of public art in the UK and the way in which it is commissioned has resulted in many mediocre pieces cluttering up the built environment. The solutions that Toronyi-Lalic puts forward include reducing the amount of public art that is commissioned and decommissioning the art that has demonstrably failed. Matthew Dunster's play Children's Children, which has opened at the Almeida Theatre in London, focuses on the changing fortunes of TV star Michael Stewart (Darrell D'Silva) and his old actor friends Gordon (Trevor Fox) and Sally (Sally Rogers). Michael's fame and fortune come to an abrupt end shortly after he lends Gordon a substantial sum of money.Universe of Sound is an installation at the Science Museum in London which allows visitors to wander around the members of the Philharmonia Orchestra - conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen - while they perform The Planets by Holst. The different sections of the orchestra are projected onto screens in separate areas where live musicians also periodically play along. There is also the opportunity to conduct the orchestra in interactive booths.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer James Runcie, director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones and comedian David Schneider review the week's cultural highlights including the play The Sunshine Boys.The Sunshine Boys, a play which starts Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths, features a former Vaudevillian double act who are reunited for a television comedy special, after not speaking to each other for years. Their bitter rivalry is reignited in this comedic battle of two colossal egos, each unwilling to realise he relies on the other.Emily Perkins' novel The Forrests charts the life of Dorothy Forrest; one of many siblings of an American family living in Auckland who are barely tethered to reality. Dorothy moves through communes, love, marriage, motherhood, revelation, death and joy through Perkins' observant hand. The Photographers' Gallery's refurbished venue opens in London with colour images from respected Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's project 'Oil' for which he has travelled the world, documenting the effect of the extraction, refinement, transportation and use of oil on our lives.Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film The Dictator tells the satirical tale of an oppressive, democracy-hating dictator and a goatherder (both played by Cohen) whose misadventures in America lead to a series of outrageous culture clashes. Hit and Miss, created by Paul Abbott, the Bafta-winning writer behind State of Play and Shameless, is a television series with an extraordinary premise. Chloe Sevigny plays Mia, a preoperative male-to-female transsexual contract killer. She is also, she discovers to her shock, a father - a dying girlfriend has nominated Mia as guardian of the boy and his three half-siblings.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Miranda Sawyer and Ekow Eshun and historian Kathryn Hughes review the week's cultural highlights including Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary MantelBring Up The Bodies is the sequel to Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning historical novel Wolf Hall. It is 1535 and Thomas Cromwell is Henry VIII's chief minister, trying to serve the king's interests following the break with Rome.The Rest Is Silence is dreamthinkspeak's deconstruction of Hamlet, performed in a warehouse in Shoreham-by-Sea as part of the Brighton Festival. Directed by Tristan Sharps, the action takes place behind perspex screens which surround the audience on all four sides. Tim Burton has joined forces with Johnny Depp again for Dark Shadows. The film is based on a popular US television series which ran from 1966 to 1971. Turned into a vampire and imprisoned in a locked coffin by a jealous witch in the 18th century, Barnabas Collins is finally released in 1972 and returns to his ancestral mansion in a New England fishing town to rebuild the family's fortunes.Still with Brighton, Sea of Voices is an interactive walk along the Brighton seafront devised by Invisible Flock as part of the Brighton Festival. And artist David Batchelor has produced a special commission for the Festival - Brighton Palermo Remix - an installation in an unmodernised Regency townhouse. He is also showing some of his other work in the basement of an adjoining property and another piece - Skip - in the middle of Bartholomew Square. In Arts Troubleshooter on BBC2, presenter Michael Lynch tries to guide cash-strapped arts organisations to a more secure future. In the first part he visits Northern Ballet in Leeds just after they find out that their Arts Council grant is to be cut by 15%.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests poet Cahal Dallat, anthropologist Kit Davis and academic and critic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlights.The three acts of Mike Bartlett's play Love, Love, Love at the Royal Court in London are set in 1967, 1990 and 2011 respectively. The action follows Kenneth (Ben Miles) and Sandra (Victoria Hamilton) from when they first meet through their subsequent life together (and apart).The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber is a verse novel which adds a twist to the life of Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe tells his story, from his days at Cambridge when he was recruited as a spy, but his death in a tavern brawl isn't as fatal as some might think...Juan of the Dead is Cuba's first zombie film. Writer and director Alejandro Brugues uses the genre to make some points about the anti-Americanism of the Cuban government and the resourcefulness and stoicism of the Cuban people.The Israeli television drama Prisoners of War (Hatufim) provided the inspiration for the US series Homeland. Two Israeli soldiers have been returned after 17 years in captivity and face the challenge of fitting back into a world which has changed enormously.Bauhaus: Art As Life at the Barbican is the largest exhibition covering this influential German art movement to be staged in the UK for over 40 years.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests Lisa Appignanesi, Kevin Jackson and Natalie Haynes review the week's cultural highlights.In his film Avengers Assemble Joss Whedon brings together Marvel action heroes Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow as they battle to stop Loki from taking over the Earth with his alien army.Michele Roberts' novel Ignorance revolves around two girls - Jeanne and Marie-Angele - who are schoolfriends in pre-war France but whose relationship and loyalties change as the Germans invade and the differences in their backgrounds becomes more significant.Making Noise Quietly is a series of three short plays by Robert Holman which has been revived at the Donmar Warehouse in London by Peter Gill. Each play features characters whose lives are affected in one way or another by war.To coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has put on an exhibition - Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames - curated by David Starkey. The exhibition aims to show how this waterway has been used as a stage to celebrate significant moments in the nation's life over the past five centuries.The Wind in the Willows with Griff Rhys Jones is an ITV1 documentary which looks at what inspired Kenneth Grahame to write this much-loved children's classic.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Susan Jeffreys, literary critic John Carey and actor Kerry Shale review the cultural highlights of the week.Lasse Halstrom's film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is based on Paul Torday's bestselling novel. Ewan McGregor stars as an introverted government scientist who is approached by a Yemeni sheikh's representative (Emily Blunt) to fulfil her client's desire to introduce salmon fishing to his homeland.Skios by Michael Frayn is a farce which revolves around mistaken identity. Dr Norman Wilfred is an expert in scientometrics who is flying to a Greek island to give a keynote speech to a private foundation based there. Also heading to the island is Oliver Fox, a feckless young man who has a strong tendency to act on impulse, regardless of the consequences. Both are in for some surprises.Enda Walsh's play Misterman at the National Theatre in London stars Cillian Murphy as Thomas Magill. Although other characters appear on tape, Magill is the only one who appears on stage - an unhinged outsider, holed up in a vast, unused industrial building, replaying the events of a fateful day in the small town of Inishfree. In The King and the Playwright: A Jacobean History on BBC4, American scholar James Shapiro examines the later period in Shakepeare's career, following the accession of James VI and I to the English throne. Shapiro argues that the political negotiations and theological debates that the playwright witnessed as a member of James's court fed directly into his later plays. Ron Mueck's work is instantly recognisable - meticulously realistic figures made out of silicone, sometimes much larger and sometimes smaller than life. His latest exhibition - at Hauser & Wirth in London - showcases four new sculptures, including a human sized dead chicken hanging upside down from the ceiling. At the same gallery there is also an exhibition by Andy Hope - Medley Tour London. Hope revisits his earlier works in paintings he calls X Medleys, featuring characters including Batman and Beavis and Butthead.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests, playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, novelist Kamila Shamsie, and writer and columnist David Aaronovitch review the week's cultural highlights.David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf star in Anthony Page's production of Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Apollo Theatre in London. Eugene O'Neill described it as a play of "old sorrow, written tears and blood" and the family in this heavily autobiographical work are teetering on the verge of collapse due to various addictions and historical resentments.Cabin in the Woods - written by Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard - is a knowing horror film which sets out to subvert the well-worn tropes of the teen slasher movie genre. Five kids head off in a camper van to spend a weekend in a cabin in the woods... Toni Morrison's latest novel - Home - tells the story of Frank Money, a damaged veteran of the Korean War who returns from fighting for his country to face the ubiquitous racism of 1950s America. Struggling with post traumatic stress, he sets out to rescue his sister and bring her back to the Georgia town which holds so many bitter memories for him. Hans-Peter Feldman describes himself as a collector and his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London contains many examples of the sets of objects that he has amassed, including colour postcards of the Eiffel Tower and photographs of women's knees cut out of magazines. One of his more recent works displays the contents of five women's handbags in glass cases.Starlings is a new comedy drama series on Sky1, written by and starring Matt King and Steve Edge. The Starling family live in an overcrowded, multi-generational house just outside Matlock in Derbyshire and the first episode sees the arrival of two more family members.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Deborah Bull from King's Cultural Institute, writer Adam Mars Jones and BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall review the week's cultural highlights. Chichester Festival Theatre's 50th anniversary season kicks off with Jeremy Herrin's production of Uncle Vanya. Using Michael Frayn's translation of Chekhov's text it stars Roger Allam as Vanya in a cast which also includes Dervla Kirwan, Timothy West and Maggie Steed.Pure is Timothy Mo's first novel for 12 years. Its main narrator is Snooky - a Bangkok ladyboy whose life as a hedonistic film reviewer is rudely interrupted when he is blackmailed by the authorities into spying on a cell of would-be jihadists based over the border in Malaysia.The new season of Sky Arts Playhouse Presents comprises 11 short dramas and comedies from a range of writers including Will Self, Paul O'Grady and Sandi Toksvig. The first play - The Minor Character - stars David Tennant as Will - a very unreliable narrator who finds himself increasingly marginalised by his circle of friends.The first major survey of Damien Hirst's work in the UK has opened at Tate Modern in London. It brings together 70 of his works including landmark pieces like The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, A Thousand Years and For the Love of God.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Gillian Slovo, Kathryn Hughes and David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including The Chemistry of Tears.In Peter Carey's extraordinary latest novel, The Chemistry of Tears, Catherine Gehrig, conservator at a museum, learns of the sudden death of her colleague and lover of thirteen years. As the mistress of a married man, she must struggle to keep the depth of her anguish to herself. Catherine is given a special project in a quiet annexe where she reluctantly unpacks an eerie automaton that she has been charged with bringing back to life.The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster's great Jacobean tragedy and poetic masterpiece tells the dark and bloody story of the recently widowed Duchess as she struggles to retain strength and dignity in the face of death. Starring Eve Best.In the film Tiny Furniture, the director cast her own mother and sister and shot it in the family apartment. It tells the story of Aura who returns home from her American Midwest liberal arts college to her artist family's New York trendy loft. She takes a job as a hostess at a restaurant and falls into relationships with two self-centred men while struggling to define herself.The V&A's major new exhibition showcases the best of British design from the 1948 "Austerity Olympics" to the summer of 2012. Works range from the Morris Mini Minor, created in 1959, to the newly commissioned model of Zada Hadid's London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.Smash is an American musical drama tv series produced by Steven Spielberg. The show revolves around the creation of a new Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. As the production takes shape, everyone involved in it must balance his or her often chaotic personal life with the all consuming demands of a life in the theatre.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests actress Fiona Shaw, playwright Mark Ravenhill and writer Susan Jeffreys review the week's cultural highlights including The Master and Margarita.The Master and Margarita is Simon McBurney's theatrical adaptation of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. The ambitious Complicite production at the Barbican stars Paul Rhys as both The Master - a writer driven mad by the opposition to his unpublished novel - and Satan, who visits 1930s Moscow with his demonic retinue. In Greg Baxter's debut novel The Apartment the narrator is an American veteran of the Iraqi War who has moved to an unnamed northern European city. Over the course of a freezing winter day he and Saskia - who may or may not be his girlfriend - cross the city, trying to find him an apartment. As the day progresses his memories of his time in Iraq begin to indicate why he has moved to an unfamiliar city where he can find anonymity.Jean- Pierre and Luc Dardenne's film The Kid With A Bike won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year. It stars Thomas Doret as an 11 year old who is abandoned in a children's home by his father, but is befriended by a hairdresser ( Cecile de France) who he runs into by chance. He is single-minded in his desire to track down both his father and his bike.Kensington Palace in London is a royal residence which has just reopened its public areas following a £12 million renovation programme. Among the improvements is a permanent exhibition - Victoria Revealed - which traces the monarch's life in her own words from her childhood in the house, to her first meeting with her Privy Council as monarch in the Red Saloon and her first sight of Prince Albert on the staircase. There have also been major changes to the exhibits in the King's and Queen's State Apartments. The Syndicate is a new 5 part drama for BBC1 by Kay Mellor. It focuses on a group of five supermarket workers in Leeds who win £18 million on the lottery. It stars Timothy Spall and each of the five episodes is from the viewpoint of one of the winners.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests novelist Liz Jensen and the writers Susannah Clapp and Giles Fraser review the cultural highlights of the week - including Can We Talk About This?, a physical theatre piece that sets out to explore the issues of Islamic extremism, multiculturalism and freedom of speech. It's set to a text that has been taken from over 40 interviews and asks - have well-intended multicultural policies inadvertently ended up betraying the very minorities and freedoms Britain ought to be protecting?The classic novel Gullivers Travels has been adapted and updated by the cartoonist, and satirist, Martin Rowson into a graphic novel. He sets his book in the late 1990s and his hero - a distant descendant of Swift's Lemuel Gulliver - is a former Government employee who has travelled the world working for various NGOs and charities. The Lilliput that Gulliver arrives into has an oddly familiar Prime Minister with large ears and a semi-crazed smile.Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a brooding and philosophically searching film that won the Grand Prix prize at Cannes last year. The story takes place during one night as a convoy of three vehicles, containing a dozen men, drive through the badlands of Turkey. The convoy contains two murder suspects who are trying to take the policemen, prosecutor and doctor they are travelling with to the location where they buried their victim.Death Row is a new TV documentary series where the iconoclastic director Werner Herzog takes an inside look at a maximum security prison in Texas, featuring interviews with death row inmates. Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude is an exhibition which focuses on the debt that the British painter owed to the 17th century French artist Claude Lorrain. When Turner died, he bequeathed two large paintings to the National Gallery, on the condition that they were hung between two specific works by Claude. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Kamila Shamsie and Louise Doughty and the poet Paul Farley review the week's cultural highlights.Bel Ami is Declan Donnellan's first feature and is an adaptation of the novel by Guy de Maupassant. It stars Robert Pattinson as an ambitious young man who climbs from poverty and obscurity in Belle Epoque Paris, using three married high society women (Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas) as the rungs on his ladder.Silver is Andrew Motion's sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure story Treasure Island. Forty years on from the events in that book, Jim Hawkins is the disillusioned and drunken owner of a Thameside pub. His son - also called Jim - is dissatisfied with his own life of drudgery, but everything changes when a young woman turns up who wants him to meet her father - a one-legged man called Silver.Going Dark is a new piece by the theatre company Sound and Fury at the Young Vic in London. Written by Hattie Naylor and performed in darkness (sometimes partial, sometimes total) it stars John Mackay as a lecturer at a planetarium who discovers that he is going blind.Louise Bourgeois: Return of the Repressed is an exhibition at the Freud Museum in London which features work by the artist along with a selection of recently discovered psychoanalytic writings that she made from 1951 until the 1980s.Julian Fellowes' follow up to Downton Abbey is another ITV drama set in the early 20th century with the class system at its heart. Titanic is a four part series which revisits the familiar story of the doomed ocean liner.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Linda Grant and Miranda Sawyer and academic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlights including The Leisure SocietyThe Leisure Society at Trafalgar Studios in London is a play by Canadian playwright Francois Archambault. It's an account of an awkward evening in the lives of a well-to-do New York couple (played by Ed Stoppard and Melanie Gray) who have recently had their first child. When they invite a friend around for dinner to tell him they don't want to see him any more, the cracks in their perfect life begin to show.Lost Memory of Skin is Russell Banks' novel about a young man known only as the Kid. The Kid is a homeless sex offender living in a squatter camp under a causeway on the Florida coast whose life faces even more disruption, first when the camp is raided by the police and then when a professor of sociology co-opts him into helping with his research. Argentinian director Pablo Trapero's film Carancho stars Ricardo Darin as a lawyer who has lost his licence and is reduced to making a living by chasing ambulances. He works for a shady company that offers legal help to traffic accident victims but ultimately creams off most of their compensation payments.Game Plan is a major retrospective of the work of Italian artist Alighiero Boetti at Tate Modern. Boetti started as a member of the Arte Povera movement in the 1960s, but soon dissociated himself from it to make algorithmic works which derived from simple rules and repeated processes. Touch is a new TV series from Tim Kring - the man behind Heroes. It stars Kiefer Sutherland as Martin Bohm a former journalist who has struggled to look after his autistic son since the death of his wife on 9/11. His son is obsessed with numbers, but a series of unexplainable events suggests that he is using these numbers to communicate and to predict the future.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Deborah Moggach, Paul Morley and Kevin Jackson review the week's cultural highlights including Capital by John Lanchester.The Bomb: A Partial History at the Tricycle Theatre in London is a series of ten specially commissioned short plays on the subject of nuclear proliferation. It includes work by Zinnie Harris, David Greig and John Donnelly.The action in John Lanchester's novel centres around the people living and working in a well-to-do London street - Pepys Road - in the months leading up to the banking crash of 2008. The characters include a banker, a Polish builder, a Premiership footballer and a Zimbabwean asylum seeker working as a traffic warden.Woody Harrelson stars as a corrupt LA cop - Dave Brown - in Oren Moverman's film Rampart. Brown is under investigation after savagely beating a motorist who crashed into his patrol car, but he is unrepentant and both his personal and professional life are out of control.Paula Milne's BBC2 drama series White Heat traces the lives of a group of seven friends who first meet as students sharing a flat in London in 1965. It stars Claire Foy, Sam Claflin and Juliet Stevenson. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests historian Dominic Sandbrook, writer Lisa Appignanesi and poet Cahal Dallat review the week's cultural highlights including The Recruiting Officer.George Farquhar's 1706 play The Recruiting Officer is Josie Rourke's first production in her new role of Artistic Director at the Donmar Warehouse in London. It stars Tobias Menzies as Captain Plume who, assisted by Sergeant Kite (Mackenzie Crook), has come to Shrewsbury to enlist the men of the town, but is also in pursuit of a local heiress (Nancy Carroll).Lysander Rief is the hero of William Boyd's novel Waiting For Sunrise. Rief visits Vienna in 1913 to undergo psychoanalysis for a sexual problem, but an affair with a fellow patient leads to a series of sinister complications in his life which continue to trouble him through the opening years of the First World War.Stephen Daldry has made a film of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close starring Thomas Horn as Oskar, a young boy who sets out on a solo mission across New York City after his father is killed in the attack on the World Trade Centre.Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain in London explores the influence the Spanish artist had on his British counterparts - including Ben Nicholson, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore - throughout his career.Barack Goodman's four part documentary Clinton tells the story of the boy from Hope's rise to the American Presidency. It includes interviews with many of the people closest to Clinton during his incumbency - those with an inside view of what went right and wrong during his time in office.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Dreda Say Mitchell, historian Kathryn Hughes and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights.A Dangerous Method is David Cronenberg's film which centres around the relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) when psychoanalysis was in its infancy in the early 20th century. Keira Knightley plays Sabina Spielrein - a young woman who Jung initially took on as a patient but who went on to play a pivotal role in the development of the science.Solomon Kugel - hero of Shalom Auslander's debut novel Hope: A Tragedy - is surprised to find someone living in the attic of the farmhouse that he and his family have moved into. He is even more surprised when the old woman in question claims to be Anne Frank.Susan Hill's classic ghost story The Woman in Black has now been adapted for the screen by Jane Goldman with James Watkins in the director's chair. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer grieving for his wife who died in childbirth. He is sent to a remote village to settle the affairs of an elderly widow who has recently died. The villagers try to dissuade him from visiting the mansion where she used to live and he soon finds out why.Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in London features work by the artist from the 1940s through to the painting that he was working on at the time of his death last year. It is the first time that a major exhibition of his portraits has been put together.Homeland is a new television drama by the creators of 24. Damien Lewis stars as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody who has been missing in Iraq for eight years but is discovered when special forces attack a terrorist camp. He returns home to a hero's welcome, but CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) suspects that he may have been turned against the US during his captivity.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Natalie Haynes and Terence Blacker and anthropologist Kit Davis review the week's cultural highlights including Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin's film Martha Marcy May Marlene stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha - a young woman who comes to stay with her estranged sister after running away from a sinister utopian cult.Alex Preston's novel The Revelations features an evangelical movement called the Course whose founder - charismatic priest David Nightingale - wants to turn it into a global brand. The four young members he has chosen as his leaders have difficulty squaring the demands of religion and high finance.She Stoops to Conquer - the classic comedy by Oliver Goldsmith - revolves around mistaken identity and misunderstandings. In Jamie Lloyd's production at the National Theatre Steve Pemberton plays Mr Hardcastle whose house is mistaken for an inn by his daughter's suitor.David Shrigley: Brain Activity at the Hayward Gallery in London is the first major UK survey of Shrigley's works. It features 68 new works made specifically for the exhibition and includes many of his idiosyncratically artless but witty drawings alongside animated films and 3D pieces.Luck is the latest television drama by David Milch whose previous work includes NYPD Blue and Deadwood. Directed by Michael Mann, it stars Dustin Hoffman as Chester 'Ace' Bernstein - a criminal kingpin who has just served 3 years in jail. He now has plans to introduce casino gambling to a racetrack outside Los Angeles, but he needs to move stealthily. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Ekow Eshun, creative director of the Royal Opera House Deborah Bull and literary critic John Carey review the week's cultural highlights including Alexander Payne's film The Descendants.The Descendants - directed and written by Alexander Payne - stars George Clooney as a Honolulu lawyer and land-owner forced to take a more hands-on role parental role when a power-boat accident leaves his wife in a coma.Gillian Slovo's novel An Honourable Man is set in Khartoum in 1884 where General Gordon is trying to organise the defence of the besieged city. An idealistic young doctor has volunteered to accompany the expedition sent to rescue Gordon and, in his absence, his wife grapples with her growing addiction to laudanum.In Lucy Bailey's production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, Lisa Dillon plays the strong-headed Kate, while David Caves is Petruchio - the young man who believes he has what it takes to woo her and subdue her. The annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca is the subject of the British Museum's exhibition Hajj: A Journey to the Heart of Islam. The exhibition is concerned both with the treasures of the Hajj - illuminated manuscripts, hangings and ceremonial palanquins - and the experience of ordinary pilgrims.Inside Men is a new BBC crime drama written by Tony Basgallop. Stephen Mackintosh plays John - the manager at a cash-counting depot. When he discovers that two of his employees - Marcus (Warren Brown) and Chris (Ashley Walters) - have been dipping their hands in the till, rather than turning them over to the police, he encourages them to think bigger.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers David Aaronovitch and Sarfraz Manzoor and historian Amanda Vickery review the week's cultural highlights including the film Coriolanus.Ralph Fiennes makes his directorial debut with a film adaptation of Coriolanus, playing the title role in a modern day version of Shakespeare's play. Vanessa Redgrave plays his ambitious mother who wants him to capitalise on his success as a military leader by entering the political fray in Rome.Julie Otsuka's novel The Buddha in the Attic tells the story of Japanese 'picture brides' who travelled to San Francisco nearly a century ago to marry men who they had never met before. They try to fit into a very unfamiliar society and to remain as inconspicuous as possible, but the attack on Pearl Harbor suddenly makes them very visible and very vulnerable.Anthony Sher stars in Nicholas Wright's new play Travelling Light, directed at the National Theatre by Nicholas Hytner. He plays a timber merchant in a shtetl somewhere in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century who has a profound influence on a local boy who goes on to become a big shot film director in Hollywood.Since the publication of Sebastian Faulks' novel Birdsong in 1993, there have been various unsuccessful attempts to adapt it for the screen. Abi Morgan has finally created a two part dramatisation for BBC1 which tells the story of the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford (played by Eddie Redmayne) - his romance in France before the First World War and then his experiences as an officer in the trenches.David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy in London is the first major exhibition in the UK to showcase the artist's landscape work. The vast majority of the paintings here have been made in the last few years and feature one landscape - the Yorkshire Wolds.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Susan Jeffreys and Jim White and the writer and broadcaster John Tusa review the week's cultural highlights including the film ShameSteve McQueen's film Shame stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon - a Manhattan businessman who appears to be in control of his life, but who has no control over his compulsive need for sex and pornography. The Art of Fielding is Chad Harbach's first novel, set in the world of college baseball. A rising young star makes an entirely uncharacteristic error during a game, which has profound consequences for him and for many of those around him.Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse has already been adapted - very successfully - for the stage. Now Steven Spielberg has brought it to the big screen with a screenplay by Richard Curtis. Many horses were used - but none of them harmed - in the making of this film.Just over twenty years ago John Keane was appointed official war artist for the first Gulf War. He has continued to deal with conflict in his paintings and his latest exhibition - Scratching the Surface, Joining the Dots - at Flowers Central in London includes images of Tony Blair's appearance at the Chilcot enquiry and protestors in Tahrir Square.Cranford writer Heidi Thomas has adapted Jennifer Worth's best-selling novels about her experiences as a midwife in the 1950s for a new BBC drama series - Call The Midwife. It stars Jessica Raine as Jennifer, a young and inexperienced midwife who faces a steep learning curve when she arrives in the very unfamiliar world of London's East End.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the novelists Deborah Moggach and Michael Arditti and academic and critic Maria Delgado review the week's cultural highlights including The Iron Lady.The Iron Lady is Phyllida Lloyd's film about Britain's first woman Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher. Written by Abi Morgan it stars Meryl Streep in the leading role.Edmund White's novel Jack Holmes and His Friend follows its two central characters - Jack and Will - across several decades from the early 1960s in New York City. Jack is gay and can never quite get over his unrequited love for Will who is straight.Rodrigo Garcia's film Mother and Child weaves together various narrative strands all of which explore the relationship between mothers and - in most cases - their daughters. Annette Bening plays Karen - a woman in her fifties whose life has been overshadowed by the absence of the child she gave up for adoption when she was in her early teens.Fog is a new play written by Tash Fairbanks and Toby Wharton which has opened at the Finborough Theatre in London. Cannon (Victor Gardener) is a father trying to rebuild his family after leaving the army. Wharton plays his son - Fog - who has been in care for the last ten years and moves into a flat with his dad where they both face the challenge of getting to know each other. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the novel which Charles Dickens was writing at the time of his death - it consequently remains unfinished. Gwyneth Hughes has written a two part adaptation for BBC1, starring Freddie Fox as Drood and Matthew Rhys as his sinister uncle John Jasper. The first part takes the action up to the point where Dickens's novel ends, the second part is Hughes's ingenious extrapolation.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests historian Kathryn Hughes, writer Kevin Jackson and Canon Giles Fraser review the week's cultural highlights including The Artist.The Artist is a silent movie which begins in Hollywood in 1927, as silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion. For young film extra Peppy Miller it seem movie stardom awaits.We wade into the self help genre with our books. The Chimp Paradox by Dr. Steve Peters presents a mind management model that purports to help you become a happy, confident, healthier and more successful person. 18 Minutes, Find your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done is by management and leadership guru Peter Bregman. Will they change the lives of our reviewers?The great Dickens anniversary is almost upon us, and we look at some of the offerings coming up. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens' story of a humble orphan, who suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor, has been adapted into a major three part drama for BBC television by Sarah Phelps, starring Gillian Anderson as Miss Haversham and Ray Winstone as the convict Abel Magwitch. And in Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens, Armando Iannucci's television feature looks beyond the stature of Dickens as a national institution and instead explores the qualities of his works, which make him one of the best British writers.Your Paintings - Uncovering the Nation's art is the first national online museum of all publicly owned oil paintings in the UK. It was launched in June of this year by the public Catalogue Foundation and the BBC. Now a further 40,000 paintings have been uploaded to the site, over half the national collection.And we round up the year by looking back at the best, when our reviewers and listeners pick their own cultural highlights of 2011Producer: Anne-marie Cole.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Lisa Appignanesi and Kamila Shamsie and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Noises Off at the Old Vic.THEATRE Noises Off - Old Vic - revival of Michael Frayn's farce starring Celia ImrieFILM Dreams of a Life - dir. Carol MorleyEXHIBITION Rabindranath Tagore - V&A - retrospective of paintings by the Bengali polymathBOOK All Is Song - Samantha HarveyProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests review the week's cultural highlights including The Ladykillers, starring Peter Capaldi at the Gielgud Theatre in LondonProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Liz Jensen and Natalie Haynes and comedian David Schneider review the week's cultural highlights including Martin Scorsese's film HugoHugo is Martin Scorsese's first 3D film and also his first film for children. It stars Asa Butterfield as a young boy living in a Paris train station, stealing clockwork components from a toy shop owner (Ben Kingsley) to try and repair the automaton he inherited from his late father and evading the attempts of the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) to send him to the orphanage. But the man in the toy shop turns out to be cinematic pioneer Georges Melies and Hugo's life takes an unexpected turn.Fabrice Humbert's novel The Origins of Violence won the inaugural French Orange Prize when it was originally published in France in 2009. The narrator is a teacher who has all of his assumptions about his family and his background shaken when he visits the museum at Buchenwald and notices a prisoner in one of the photographs who looks a lot like his father.After his critical success as Othello two years ago, Lenny Henry returns to Shakespeare in Dominic Cooke's production of The Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre in London. The setting is modern, but the confusion surrounding two sets of identical twins remains the same.Enlightened is an HBO series on Sky Atlantic that stars Laura Dern as Amy - a 40 something Californian woman who undergoes a troubled spiritual rebirth after a spectacular meltdown at her work. Dern's co-writer Mike White plays one of her new colleagues in the dismal data entry department to which she's demoted.United Enemies: The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s is a new exhibition at the Henry Moore Foundation in Leeds which focuses on practitioners from that era from two courses at the St Martin's School of Art - one focusing on a conceptual approach and the other concerned with making objects. The exhibition shows how their ambitions overlapped and fed into larger art movements.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Louise Doughty and Dreda Say Mitchell and creative director of the Royal Opera House Deborah Bull review the week's cultural highlights including Matilda The Musical.Matilda The Musical is Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin's adaptation of Roald Dahl's much loved book. After a brief but very successful run in Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of last year, this RSC production has now opened at the Cambridge Theatre in London.Jeff Nichols' film Take Shelter stars Michael Shannon as a man increasingly crippled by anxiety. As he struggles to protect his family against a threat that only he senses, he becomes more and more alienated from all those around him.Deep Field is award-winning poet Philip Gross's new collection which focuses on his elderly father's aphasia and trying to communicate with him as he gradually loses all the words from the five languages that he spoke.Electroboutique pop up at the Science Museum in London is an interactive exhibition by Russian artists Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexei Shulgin.Charlie Brooker's new Channel 4 series Black Mirror consists of three stand-alone dramas which cast a satirical eye on our relationship with the technology around us. The first - The National Anthem - stars Rory Kinnear as a prime minister faced with an unpalatable demand from a kidnapper.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Francis Spufford and Miranda Sawyer and musician Pat Kane review the week's cultural highlights including Reasons To Be Pretty.Neil LaBute's play Reasons To Be Pretty at the Almeida Theatre in London concerns the fallout from a casual remark that Greg (Tom Burke) makes to his friend Kent (Kieran Bew) about his girlfriend Steph (Sian Brooke). He says that prettiness isn''t everything - although Steph has a 'regular' face, he wouldn't swap her for a million dollars. Kent's wife Carly (Billie Piper) overhears this and reports back to Steph who does not react well.Snowtown is director Justin Kurzel's debut feature and is based on the crimes of Australian serial killer John Bunting, played here by Daniel Henshall. Bunting was convicted of the murders of 11 people in a suburb of Adelaide. Seen through the eyes of abused teenager Jamie (Lucas Pittaway), the film shows how Bunting gradually co-opted the local community into becoming complicit in his crimes.Deborah Warner's production of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin at English National Opera stars Audun Iversen in the title role - a big city dandy who toys with the affections of impressionable young country girl Tatyana (Amanda Echalaz) and relieves his boredom by provoking his friend Lensky (Toby Spence) into challenging him to a duel.Mathematical genius Alan Turing is the subject of the Channel 4 drama documentary Britain's Greatest Codebreaker. The documentary sections assess the impact of Turing's visionary ideas about computers and these are interspersed with dramatised episodes from Turing's (Ed Stoppard) sessions with psychiatrist Dr Franz Greenbaum (Henry Goodman), following his conviction for gross indecency.50 Words For Snow is Kate Bush's first album of new material since Aerial in 2005. The seven songs - thematically linked by snow - feature contributions from Bush's son Bertie, Sir Elton John and Stephen Fry.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests playwright Mark Ravenhill, anthropologist Kit Davis and film-maker James Runcie review the week's cultural highlights including Wuthering HeightsAndrea Arnold's film adaptation of Wuthering Heights strips Emily Bronte's novel down to the story of Cathy and Heathcliff and ditches the usual costume drama conventions in favour of a muddy realism.Ian Rickson's production of Hamlet at the Young Vic in London places Michael Sheen's prince in what appears to be the secure unit of a psychiatric institution. Claudius (James Clyde) looks less like a king than a consultant psychiatrist and Polonius (Michael Gould) uses a dictaphone to record his observations about Hamlet.Seven Houses in France is the latest novel by Basque author Bernardo Atxaga. Set in a small military outpost in the Belgian Congo in the early 20th century - the arrival of a pious young officer causes a disturbance among his new colleagues who all seem to be involved in various forms of colonial plotting and scheming.Tabloid is Errol Morris's documentary about former beauty queen Joyce McKinney who hit the headlines in the 1970s amid allegations that she kidnapping a Mormon missionary and held him in a cottage in Devon.The National Gallery's exhibition Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan brings together the largest ever number of Leonardo's rare surviving paintings, including international loans seen for the first time in the UK. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Lionel Shriver and writers Ekow Eshun and Misha Glenny review the week's cultural highlights including Collaborators by John Hodge.John Hodge's new play Collaborators at the National Theatre stars Simon Russell Beale as Stalin and Alex Jennings as Bulgakov. It's 1938 and Bulgakov has agreed to write a play about Stalin's youth in order to increase the likelihood of his play about Moliere being performed, but it turns out to be a Faustian pact.Miranda July's film The Future begins with a voice-over from an injured cat in a rescue centre. This is the cat that Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) have decided to adopt and which precipitates a crisis in their relationship when they struggle to adapt to this new responsibility. The film also features a talking moon and a self-propelling T shirt. The Beautiful Indifference is novelist and poet Sarah Hall's first collection of short stories. All feature female protagonists who are experiencing some sense of loss and several are firmly rooted in the language and landscape of Hall's native Cumbria.Ghosts of Gone Birds is an exhibition organised by the film-maker Ceri Levy with the intention of raising awareness about the threat to endangered bird species and to raise funds for a campaign to prevent future extinctions. It contains work by the wide range of artists and writers that Levy approached including a roomful of birds - some imaginary, some real - by Ralph Steadman and a Great Auk knitted by Margaret Atwood. Life's Too Short is Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new comedy on BBC2, starring Warwick Davis as the subject of a reality soap following the day to day life of a dwarf actor. It also features cameos from Liam Neeson, Johnny Depp, Sting and Helena Bonham Carter.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Kamila Shamsie and Bidisha and historian Kathryn Hughes review the week's cultural highlights including The Ides of March.The Ides of March - directed by George Clooney - stars Ryan Gosling as Stephen Meyers, press secretary for Mike Morris (Clooney) who is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Paul Giammatti plays the main strategist for Morris's opponent's campaign and makes waves when he tries to get Stephen to jump ship.Penelope Lively's novel How It All Began begins with Charlotte - a woman in her seventies - being mugged and breaking her hip when she falls to the pavement. The rest of the book shows how this one event has profound effects on the lives of a whole network of people.13 is the new play by Mike Bartlett at the National Theatre that takes on some big topics: faith vs scepticism, pacifism vs justified war. Its central figure is John (Trystan Gravelle) - a gap year drifter who returns to London and begins to preach in the park, opposing an imminent war against Iran and the materialism of modern life.Peter Morgan's ITV1 drama series The Jury is based around the retrial of a convicted serial killer who has made a successful appeal. Julie Walters and Roger Allam respectively play the defence and prosecution barristers, while away from the courtroom drama, the 12 men and women of the jury are shown to have some very complicated events playing out in their lives.The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has just opened a new, expanded Photographs Gallery. It has the oldest museum collection of photographs in the world, numbering some 500,000 items. The 80 photographs on display in the gallery date from 1839 to the 1960s and demonstrate the technological and artistic evolution of photography over the decades.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Rowan Pelling, Jim White and Deborah Moggach review the week's cultural highlights, including Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin.Lynne Ramsay's film We Need To Talk About Kevin is adapted from the Orange Prize winning novel by Lionel Shriver. Tilda Swinton stars as Eva, a former travel writer who has enormous problems forming a bond with her son Kevin - a child who, from the start, seems to go out of his way to provoke and antagonise her and whose actions spiral into the truly atrocious.David Guterson is a writer best known for his 1994 bestseller Snow Falling On Cedars. His latest book - Ed King - takes the Oedipus myth and relocates it on the West coast of America. When Walter Cousins has an ill-advised fling with the teenage au-pair in 1962 he sets in train a disastrous series of events. Jumpy is a new play by April de Angelis which has opened at the Royal Court in London. It stars Tamsin Grieg as Hilary - a former Greenham Common activist who is having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that she's turned 50 and also with the challenging behaviour of her teenage daughter Tilly (Bel Powley).Dubbed 'Mad Men with wings', Pan Am is a new American TV drama - created by ER writer Jack Orman -which transports viewers back to the golden age of air travel. Centre stage are the stewardesses, wearing regulation girdles and forbidden to exceed their personal weight limit, and including a runaway bride and a spy.George Condo: Mental States at the Hayward Gallery in London is the first major retrospective of the American artist's work. The exhibition focuses on his 'imaginary portraits' which conjure varied mental states with a mixture of absurdity and pathos.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Lisa Appignanesi and David Benedict and Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral Giles Fraser review the week's cultural highlights including Everything Must Go.Will Ferrell stars in Dan Rush's film Everything Must Go as a man pitched with shocking suddenness from middle-class prosperity to homelessness. He is reduced to living on his front lawn after his wife throws all his possessions out into the yard and changes the locks. It's very loosely based on the Raymond Carver short story Why Don''t You Dance?In 1990 Claire Tomalin published The Invisible Woman - a book about the 19th century actress Nelly Ternan who had a secret relationship with Charles Dickens when he was in his 40s and at the height of his fame. She has now written a biography of the writer himself - Charles Dickens: A Life - a portrait of a frenetically busy man who revealed many contradictions in his writing, his good works, his attitude to women and his treatment of his family.When Edward Bond's play Saved was first performed at the Royal Court in 1965, it shocked audiences with its frank portrayal of disaffected youth and particularly with a scene in which a group of bored young men stone a baby to death. Sean Holmes directs the first professional production of the play in nearly 30 years at the Lyric Hammersmith.Ronan Bennett spent two years interviewing drug dealers and gang members in East London to glean material for Top Boys - a four part drama that he's written for Channel 4. One of the drama's central strands concerns Dushane (Ashley Walters) - a middle-ranking member of a drugs gang who has his sights set on bigger things.Film by Tacita Dean is the latest of the Unilever series of installations in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. In an elegy to the virtually extinct medium of analogue film - Dean has used one end of the hall as a vast vertical screen on which to project an 11 minute loop of images.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests - novelist Michael Arditti and writers Natalie Haynes and Kevin Jackson - review the week's cultural highlights including The Marriage of Figaro.Fiona Shaw directs the English National Opera production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Iain Paterson sings the part of Figaro - a servant whose forthcoming wedding to his sweetheart Susanna (Devon Guthrie) is overshadowed by the fact that his master - Count Almaviva (Roland Wood) - wants to exercise his droit de seigneur.Paddy Considine is best known as an actor, but he has turned his hand to writing and directing for the film Tyrannosaur. Set on a council estate in Leeds, Peter Mullan plays Joseph - an uncontrollably violent man - who meets Christian charity shop worker Hannah (Olivia Colman) who is, herself, married to a violent and abusive man. Dog lovers - look away now.Stephen Mitchell adds his name to an illustrious list of translators who have rendered Homer's epic poem the Iliad into English over the centuries. "We return to the Iliad," he says in his introduction, "because it is one of the monuments of our own magnificence". Blood, guts and dabbling deities beneath the walls of Troy. Conor McPherson established his reputation with the spooky play The Weir. His latest offering - The Veil - also deals with the supernatural, but unlike his previous works, it's set in the past - Ireland in the early 19th century, already haunted by the spectre of famine. A debt-ridden Anglo-Irish widow is pinning her hopes on the marriage of her daughter - Hannah - to an English nobleman, but Hannah claims to hear the voice of her father who hanged himself ten years earlier...Gerhard Richter is one of the greatest exponents of painting of the last 50 years and the major respective at Tate Modern - Gerhard Richter: Panorama - demonstrates how widely he's experimented with different genres and styles - from German romanticism to Abstract expressionism - since the late 1950s. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests writers Adam Mars Jones and Susan Jeffreys and art critic Bill Feaver review the cultural highlights of the week including The Debt.The Debt is John Madden's remake of a 2007 Israeli thriller which tells the story of a Mossad mission to abduct a Nazi war criminal from East Berlin in 1965 to face trial in Israel. The three agents who travel to Berlin are hailed as heroes on their return - having apparently succeeded - but 30 years later cracks begin to appear in the official story and the trio are forced to confront their past. Stars Jessica Chastain, Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington. Tom Lubbock was the Independent's chief art critic until his untimely death earlier this year. Fifty of the weekly essays which he wrote for the paper have been published in a book - Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored. Frank Oz makes his debut as a theatre director with a production of Saul Rubinek' s play Terrible Advice at the Menier Chocolate factory in London. Jake (Scott Bakula) and Stanley (Andy Nyman) are best friends, so are Delila (Sharon Horgan) and Hedda (Caroline Quentin). Jake is dating Hedda, Stanley is dating Delila - then Jake gives Stanley some advice...Frank Stella is one of the most important and influential American artists of the last fifty years. Frank Stella: Connections at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London assembles paintings from 1958 to the present day.Christos Tsialkos's best-selling novel The Slap has been adapted for television. Sophie Okonedo and Jonathan La Paglia star in this tale of tensions between eight characters linked by ties of blood and frienship in suburban Melbourne. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests writers Don Guttenplan and Dreda Say Mitchell and poet Cahal Dallat review the week's cultural highlights including Grief by Mike LeighMike Leigh's new play Grief stars Lesley Manville as Dorothy - a war widow struggling to keep her grief and depression at bay in 1950s suburbia. She shares her home with an older brother and a teenage daughter both of whom become equally isolated by their own unhappiness. Page One: Inside the New York Times is a documentary film by Andrew Rossi who was given access to those behind the paper during an eventful year which saw a vertiginous drop in advertising revenue and the rise of Wikileaks.Colson Whitehead's novel Zone One is being marketed as 'a zombie novel for people with brains'. The world has been devastated by a plague that has turned its victims into mindless, cannibalistic zombies. Mark Spitz is a survivor who has been assigned to a project to clear lower Manhattan of the undead in preparation for resettlement. It's a tough job and the zombies just keep coming.Costing an estimated £200,000 per screen minute, Terra Nova is apparently the most expensive TV series ever made. In the mid 22nd century, Earth is facing environmental collapse - the logical solution is to send a chosen group through a wormhole in the space/time continuum to found a colony in a parallel time-stream 84 million years in the past. Unfortunately the new Eden features carnivorous dinosaurs...John Martin was one of the most popular artists of the 19th century - some 8 million people saw his triptych The Last Judgement when the paintings toured the country. Despite - or possibly because of - his popularity, the art establishment were dismissive of his work. The exhibition at Tate Britain - John Martin: Apocalypse - is the largest ever show of the artist's work and aims to restore his reputation.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Miranda Sawyer, critic John Mullan and novelist Liz Jensen review the week's cultural highlights including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTomas Alfredson's film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an adaptation of the classic John le Carre Cold War thriller. Gary Oldman stars (amongst a wealth of British acting talent) as George Smiley - a retired spook who is tasked with uncovering a mole at the very heart of MI6 or 'the Circus'.My City is Stephen Poliakoff's first play for 12 years. Tracey Ullman stars as Miss Lambert - a retired primary school headmistress who is discovered lying on a London park bench by one of her former pupils. When they meet up a few days later a night of storytelling and revelation ensues.Michela Murgia's novel Accabadora has won six literary prizes in Italy including the prestigious Campiello Prize. Growing up in rural Sardinia in the 1950s, Maria is taken from her impoverished family and given to her adoptive mother - Bonaria Urrai - who is ostensibly the village seamstress but also has a darker role. The Channel 4 documentary series Educating Essex is set in a secondary school and focuses on pupils in their final year there. Sixty-five fixed cameras around the school recorded events without the intrusive presence of a film crew and the resulting footage has been edited to provide a fascinating portrait of life behind the school gates.Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement at the Royal Academy brings together more than 80 of the artist's paintings, sculptures, pastels, drawings and prints of ballet dancers and presents them in parallel with the experiments his contemporaries were undertaking to capture movement with photography.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests poet Craig Raine, creative director of the Royal Opera House Deborah Bull and literary critic John Carey review the week's cultural highlights including the film Jane Eyre.Rupert Goold's site specific production Decade is a performance piece with contributions from 19 writers about the 9/11 attacks on New York. Performed at St Katherine's Dock in London, audience members enter through metal detectors and a security check to find themselves in a mock-up of the Windows restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center.Cary Joji Fukunaga's film Jane Eyre stars Mia Wasikowska as Charlotte Bronte's orphaned heroine and Michael Fassbender as the forbidding Mr Rochester - a man with a dark secret. Moira Buffini wrote the screenplay.The Map and The Territory is the latest novel by Michel Houellebecq and the one which finally secured for him France's most prestigious literary prize - the Prix Goncourt. Its central character is a solitary artist - Jed Martin - who asks celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq to write an essay for his catalogue and then decides that he would like to paint Houellebecq's portrait. The Power of Making is a free exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which celebrates the traditions and innovations of craft. It brings together more than a hundred beautifully made objects ranging from David Mach's sculpture of a gorilla made out of wire coat hangers to Peter Butcher's embroidered surgical implant.Fresh Meat is the latest comedy from Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. It's about a disparate group of students accidentally thrown together in off-campus lodging in Manchester, one of whom is Kingsley, played by Joe Thomas from The InBetweeners.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests playwright Mark Ravenhill, writer Kamila Shamsie and poet Paul Farley review the cultural highlights of the week.Self Made is artist Gillian Wearing's film in which seven participants - who answered an ad which she placed - take part in Method acting workshops and then make a short film in which they can play themselves or a fictional character.Children's author David Almond's novel The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean is intended for both young and adult readers. Billy is born on the day that some terrible cataclysm strikes his village and - for this and other reasons - is confined to just one room for the first 13 years of his life.Alexi Kaye Campbell's play The Faith Machine is about disillusionment and the big question of what really matters. Sophie (Hayley Atwell) is fiercely idealistic while her partner Tom (Kyle Soller) is considerably more pragmatic. Meanwhile Sophie's father (Ian McDiarmid) is a bishop who rails against the church for their unyielding stance on gay clergy and gay marriage.William Hurt stars as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in the HBO dramatisation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's book about the start of the Wall Street banking crisis in 2008 with the bail-out of Bear Stearns followed by the failure of Lehman Brothers. Locked Room Scenario is an exhibition by Ryan Gander in and around an industrial shed just off City Road in London. Visitors to the site will find what appears to be a group show called Field of Meaning in the process of being dismantled, but will struggle to get into the gallery to see the work. Tantalising clues to what might or might not be going on are scattered around the site.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests historian Kathryn Hughes, novelist Louise Doughty and writer Jim White discuss the cultural highlights of the week including the film The Skin I Live In. The Skin I Live In is Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest film. Ever since his wife died of her burns in a car crash, surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. But the research laboratory in his own home has its own sinister secret.The Genius in My Basement, the Biography of a Happy Man is Alexander Masters' story of mathmatics genius Simon Phillips Norton. Simon is exploring a theoretical puzzle so complex and critical to our understanding of the universe, that it is known as the Monster. This is Masters' folllow-up to his critically acclaimed Stuart: A Life BackwardsBartlett Sher's production of South Pacific reinvents Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical. It swept the 2008 Tony Awards, played to sold-out houses on Broadway for 2 years, was televised across America, and now makes its London debut. The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is almost upon us. Memory Remains: 9/11 Artifacts at Hangar 17 at the Imperial War Museum is a photographic exhibition by artist Francesc Torres to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. We juxtapose that with a visit to another exhibition. The Museum of Broken Relationships is a touring exhibition, now open in London, which has collected together the weird and wonderful paraphernalia of hundreds of failed romances.Phase Eight is a contemporary spy film, by David Hare, featuring Johnny, played by Bill Nighy, a long-serving MI5 officer. His boss and best friend Benedict dies suddenly, leaving behind him an inexplicable file, threatening the very stability of the organisation. Johnny is forced to walk out of his job, and then out of his identity, to find out the truth.Producer: Anne Marie Cole.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Natalie Haynes; novelist Louise Welsh and musician Pat Kane review the cultural highlights of the week including In A Better World. This award winning Danish film tells the story of Anton, a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. His older son Elias is being bullied at school but is befriended by Christian, and the boys form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge their lives are put in danger.Precious Light is a contemporary celebration of the King James Bible by David Mach. His exhibition of sculpture and collage is at The City Art Centre, Edinburgh and features a dramatic depiction of the crucifixion at Calvary, sculptures made from match heads and coat hangers and his trademark witty and intricate approach to collage.Turner prize winning artist Tony Cragg's exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art features around fifty major sculptures, some of which are on a monumental scale and are sited in the Gallery's grounds. Cragg has worked in materials such as plastic, bronze, glass, stainless steel and wood. The novel The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje is set in the early 1950s, when an eleven-year-old boy boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the "cat's table" with a ragtag group of "insignificant" adults and two other boys. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, "bursting all over the place like freed mercury." But there are other diversions: one man talks to them about jazz and women, another about literature. And at night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner - his crime and fate, a mystery that will haunt them.Finally a selection of theatre presented at the Edinburgh festival, among them Marc Almond and Mark Ravenhill's song cycle Ten Plagues; and Art Malik and his daughter Keira starring in Rose, a play about a cultural hybrid who believes he will thrive best if he cuts off his roots altogetherProducer: Anne Marie Cole.

Bidisha and her guests comedian David Schneider, novelist Deborah Moggach and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Anna Christie.Anna Christie is Eugene O'Neill's stormy, sea-swept play about a woman returning to the docks and sailors' bars where her sea-lag father drinks himself into oblivion. He's trying to forget his guilt at having sent her away to a farm when she was a little girl. He thought he was sending her to safety, but land turned out to be just as dangerous as the sea. In Rob Ashton's production at the Donmar Warehouse in London, Ruth Wilson plays Anna, for whom redemption seems to come in the form of Jude Law's virile Irishman, Mat Burke. But he knows nothing about her former life - and when he finds out, all hell and hypocrisy break loose.The Artist of Disappearance is a trio of novellas by the internationally acclaimed writer Anita Desai. These novellas are a sober, carefully written lot, dealing with the past and its mementoes: a young government worker visits a museum full of artefacts from colonial voyages; a translator tries to render some literature in a minority dialect for a wider audience, and a hermit-like man finds his solitude disrupted by a film crew documenting the ravages of climate change. Project Nim is director James Marsh's documentary about a group of American scientists and researchers who, in the 1970s, decide to try to teach a chimpanzee sign language and bring it up in all respects as a human baby. A 10 day old chimp - Nim Chimpsky, named in satirical honour of the academic Noam Chomsky, who'd scoffed at the project - is taken from his mother and handed over to one of psychology professor Herb Terrace's former students to bring up. The documentary tells the story of Nim's chequered life and of the consequences of the scientists' intervention on their own relationships - and their conscience.Debbie Tucker Green's play Random debuted to great success at the Royal Court in 2009. Its star was actress Nadine Marshall, who played all the different roles of a black British London family going about their business on a spring morning, until their lives are transformed by a devastating event. Debbie Tucker Green has now adapted the play for Channel 4 and also directs it, while Nadine Marshall returns to narrate and to play one of the characters. Curtain Call is the latest attempt by the Roundhouse in North London to capitalise on its vast, rotund shape. Designer Ron Arad has put up a giant round curtain made up of 5,600 white silicon rods hanging from the ceiling, with a diameter of 18 metres. You step inside and sit yourself down to watch a 2 hour loop of video pieces by a variety of contributors from fashion designer Hussein Chalayan to students from the Royal College of Art. Is it the perfect meeting of form and function? Or is it like watching a big Imax screen?Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Bidisha and her guests the writers Lisa Appignanesi, Ekow Eshun and Misha Glenny review the week's cultural highlights including A Midsummer Night's Dream at the RSC.Nancy Meckler's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is set in the 1960s and has comedian Marc Wooton playing the role of Bottom. Imaginative lighting effects and choreography are used to conjure up a suitably otherworldly backdrop for the supernatural events that play out in a forest outside Athens. Queenie Dove is the narrator of Jill Dawson's novel Lucky Bunny. She grows up in the East End of London during the 1930s and 40s, learning to use her talent for deception to her best advantage. After the war she finds herself rubbing shoulders with recognisable characters from London's demi-monde as she carves out a shadowy but independent life for herself.French director Julie Bertuccelli's film The Tree stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a widowed mother bringing up her four children in rural Queensland. Her daughter Simone is convinced that her late father has taken up residence in the huge fig tree that looms over the house, a conviction that grows stronger as the tree itself begins to endanger the family.Channel 4's new late night arts season Street Summer is a celebration of street culture and includes films about graffiti, hip hop and streetdance. Bidisha and her guests have watched two programmes from the season: Concrete Circus which features four street athletes who have become YouTube legends and One Man Walking - a piece of contemporary urban choreography. The exhibition Joffe et Pye is an attempt by the artists Jasper Joffe and Harry Pye to revive salon culture in East London. Held in Joffe's studio-cum-home it features paintings by both artists which celebrate friends and family... and Snoopy.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Gillian Slovo, historian Dominic Sandbrook and anthropologist Kit Davis review the week's cultural highlights including Julian Barnes' new novel.The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is narrated by Tony Webster, a man in his sixties who is forced to think again about the story of his life when he receives a lawyer's letter about an unexpected and puzzling bequest. His problem is that he can't be sure how reliable his memory is about two significant events in his life.Lee Chang-dong's film Poetry won the Korean director the Best Screenplay award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Yun Jung-hee plays Mija - a woman who is diagnosed at the beginning of the film as being in the early stages of Alzheimer's. She also discovers that the surly and ungrateful teenage grandson who is living with her has committed a crime which has led to a girl's suicide - she finds herself coerced into persuading the girl's mother to hush the matter up.The starting point for Nicholas Wright's play Rattigan's Nijinsky - which has premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre - is an unfilmed screenplay which Rattigan wrote in 1974 for the BBC, about the relationship between Sergei Diaghilev and the brilliant young Russian dancer. Wright locates the drama in Rattigan's suite at Claridges where episodes from the Nijinsky script play out between the playwright's meetings with the dancer's widow and with a BBC producer. Amy Winehouse's death has generated a huge amount of instant reaction copy in the press. Tom and his guests have been reading news stories, tributes and opinion pieces to get a sense of how the British media have responded to this sad event -- and to what extent they have attempted to fit Winehouse's death into the same well-worn template of rock-star misbehaviour that characterised most of the coverage of her while she was alive.The Borgias is a Showtime mini-series about the prominent Renaissance family which is being shown on Sky Atlantic. Written by the Irish writer and filmmaker Neil Jordan, it stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia whose elevation to the papacy is the subject of the first episode. Sex, poisoning and corruption soon enter the picture.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Malorie Blackman, David Aaronovitch and Lindsay Johns review the week's cultural highlights including the film Beginners.Mike Mills' film Beginners stars Ewan McGregor as Oliver, a lonely graphic designer mourning his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) who came out when he was widowed at the age of 75. Oliver's only companion is the dog he's inherited from his father until he meets a beautiful French actress.Hari Kunzru's novel Gods Without Men features a set of interlocking narratives stretching from the 18th century to the present day, all located around a mysterious rock formation in the California desert. Echoing through them all are child disappearances, mysterious arrivals and the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial beings.Loyalty at the Hampstead Theatre in London is writer Sarah Helms' first play. Described as a fictionalised memoir, it is based on Helms' experience as the partner of Jonathan Powell - Tony Blair's former Chief of Staff - before and during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Laura (played by Maxine Peake) is opposed to the war, while her partner Nick (Lloyd Owen) is busy planning it with Tony Blair (Patrick Baladi) leading to inevitable conflict on the home front.Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern at the Design Museum in London is a celebration of the designer behind a host of hugely familiar objects including the parking meter, the Kodak Instamatic camera, the Kenwood Chef, the Wilkinson Sword razor and the Intercity 125 high speed train.Marcus du Sautoy is the current Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and the presenter of the BBC2 series The Code. Over three programmes he aims to show how profound mathematical principles underlie everything we perceive in the natural and manmade world.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the historian Kathryn Hughes and the writers Kevin Jackson and Adam Mars Jones review the cultural highlights of the week including The Tree of Life.The Tree of Life is Terrence Malick's allusive and fragmented film based notionally around a 1950s Texan family - Mr and Mrs O'Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) and their three sons - but which also swoops giddily around a time-frame that stretches from the birth of the universe and the evolution of life on Earth to the present day and then on to some kind of afterlife. That Day We Sang is a play with songs by Victoria Wood which was commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and is playing at the Manchester Opera House. It takes for its inspiration a famous recording of Purcell's Nymphs and Shepherds performed by a choir of Manchester schoolchildren in 1929. The play cuts between 1929 and 1970 when some of the former choir members have their memories of that day triggered by a TV documentary.Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz is a collection of linked short stories which describe a small settlement in Israel - each story concentrating on a different inhabitant of the village. Most of the characters seem to be looking for someone or something or are unsettled by a presence at the edge of their perception. The village seems to be pervaded by a sense of loneliness and irrationality. To mark the centenary of Mervyn Peake's birth, Brian Sibley has adapted the writer's Gormenghast novels for the Classic Serial on Radio 4. The History of Titus Groan has a cast which includes David Warner, Miranda Richardson, James Fleet and Tamsin Grieg and brings alive the grotesque and gothic world of Gormenghast over the course of six episodes.Sarah Waters' best-selling novel The Night Watch has been adapted for BBC2 by Paula Milne. Set during the Second World War and its aftermath it features Anna Maxwell Martin as Kay - a gay ambulance-woman - and makes great use of flashbacks to explain the complicated tensions that exist between her friends and former lovers.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests writer Bidisha, actor Kerry Shale and theatre writer David Benedict review the cultural highlights of the week including Richard III at the Old Vic.The last time Sam Mendes directed Kevin Spacey was in the 1999 film American Beauty and they both won Oscars. Now the pair are reunited at the Old Vic in London for Mendes' production of Richard III with Spacey playing the power-crazed Plantagenet.The action in Aatish Taseer's novel Noon takes place over two decades - from the mid 80s to the present day - and focuses on Rehan Tabassum as he travels from the West back to India and Pakistan, trying to reconcile himself with his long absent father and struggling to come to terms with his ambivalent feelings for his homeland.Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's film A Separation is set in present-day Tehran. It tells the story of a couple - Simin and Nader - whose marriage runs into trouble when they can't agree on whether or not to leave the country with their 11 year old daughter and Nader's senile father. The film has picked up a succession of awards including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.The BBC1 drama Stolen - written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Justin Chadwick - stars Damian Lewis as a police officer working in the Human Trafficking Unit, investigating cases of children being trafficked into the country to be sold on and exploited.Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century is an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London which demonstrates the extraordinary influence that a handful of photographers had when they left Hungary after the First World War and moved to Western Europe and the USA. More than 200 photographs showcase the trailblazing work of Brassai, Robert Capra, Andre Kertesz, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Martin Munkacsi.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Susan Jeffreys, Don Guttenplan and Miranda Sawyer review the week's cultural highlights including Bridesmaids.Bridesmaids is the latest film from the successful American producer Judd Apatow which differs from his previous gross-out comedy hits in that it stars and is written by women. Kristen Wiig - who co-wrote the film with Annie Mumolo - plays Annie whose life, already on a downwards trajectory, gets worse when her best friend announces that she is getting married and asks Annie to be her maid of honour. Trevor Nunn was in the frame to direct the first professional production of Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but it didn't pan out. 45 years later he's finally directing the play at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London. Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker star as the two minor characters from Hamlet who are at a loss as to how they should fill the time between their brief engagements with the action at Elsinore and are no longer sure that they have any free will of their own.Cain is the final novel by the Nobel Prize winning Portuguese author Jose Saramago who died last year. The book retells the story of Adam and Eve's fratricidal son, revisiting key moments from the Book of Genesis and framing these events as an ongoing argument between Cain and God.Rene Magritte: The Pleasure Principle is an exhibition at Tate Liverpool which brings together some of the Belgian surrealist's best known works alongside paintings from his Vache period - a looser, wilder style which includes cartoonish figures - and some of his commercial work for fashion houses and magazines.In the BBC2 series Secrets of the Pop Song, songwriter and producer Guy Chambers investigates what goes into a great pop song via a series of three collaborations. He writes a ballad with Rufus Wainwright, teams up with Mark Ronson to create a breakthrough hit and tries to create an anthem with The Noisettes.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Rowan Pelling, poet Paul Farley and novelist Deborah Moggach review the week's cultural highlights.Harold Pinter's 1978 play Betrayal tells the story of a love affair, starting two years after it has ended and travelling back to the moment when it began. In Ian Rickson's production at the Comedy Theatre in London Kristin Scott Thomas plays Emma, Ben Miles is her husband and Douglas Henshall her lover. The visit of a young undergraduate poet to a suburban house in Middlesex in 1913 sets in motion the events of Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child. Over the course of nearly a century the reputation of both the poet and his most celebrated poem - written during that pre-war visit - are wrestled over and reappraised.Kevin MacDonald's film Life In A Day was actually filmed by some of the 80,000 people from around the world who responded to his invitation to record a short video clip of what they were doing on 24th July 2010. The resulting 4,500 hours of footage was edited down to create this 95 minute film. Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her performance in the 1945 film adaptation of James M Cain's novel Mildred Pierce. Now Kate Winslett is playing the title role in Todd Haynes's five part TV version (which is more faithful to Cain's book) about a California divorcee struggling to bring up her imperious daughter, Veda, during the Depression. Although it was christened by Ezra Pound, Vorticism was a self-consciously British branch of Modernism, reacting to the Italian Futurists. The Tate Britain exhibition The Vorticists: Manifesto for the Modern World gathers together many of the works which appeared in the two shows the Vorticists put on before the movement fizzled out and includes work by Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier Brzeska.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Patrick Gale, writer Jim White and creative director of the Royal Opera House Deborah Bull review the cultural highlights of the week.Simon Gray's 1971 play Butley is being revived in a new production by Lindsay Posner at the Duchess Theatre in London. Dominic West is the misanthropic academic Ben Butley whose scornful attacks on everyone around him are matched only by his deep self-loathing.Aravind Adiga's first novel The White Tiger won the Booker prize in 2008. His new book - Last Man in Tower - is set in an ageing apartment building in Mumbai. Bitter divisions emerge between its inhabitants when a developer offers them a seemingly generous incentive to leave their homes.Dmitri Tcherniakov is a young Russian opera director whose bold updatings of the classic repertoire have sparked controversy. He makes his debut at English National Opera with Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Bruno Caproni sings the part of the buccaneer turned political chief.The new Channel 4 comedy drama Sirens stars Rhys Thomas, Kayvan Novak and Richard Madden as a team of world-weary paramedics. The drama is inspired by the blog of real-life paramedic Tom Reynolds published as Blood, Sweat and Tea.At the end of May the online retailer Amazon announced that sales of e-books in America had overtaken print versions around the beginning of April -- and in this country -- even though their e-book reader, the Kindle, was only launched last August -- it has sold 242 e-books for every 100 hardbacks since the 1st April. This shift in publishing has a lot of implications, and among them is the question of what happens to book covers. Our guests choose the most notable covers from recent titles and also bring in the best examples of cover design from their own bookshelves.Producer Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests film-maker James Runcie and writers Lisa Appignanesi and Kevin Jackson review the cultural highlights of the week including Much Ado About Nothing.Josie Rourke's production of Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham's Theatre in London stars David Tennant as Benedick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice - the pair of bickering lovers who overcome their mutual antipathy. Rourke has relocated the action to somewhere resembling Gibraltar in the early 1980s complete with Princess Di masks and lurid cocktails.Senna is Asif Kapadia's film about the three times World Champion Brazilian Formula 1 driver. Using only archive footage, the documentary follows Senna from his first Formula 1 season in 1984 to his final race at Imola ten years later and also charts the increasingly bitter rivalry between Senna and Alain Prost.Veteran American writer Cynthia Ozick's new novel Foreign Bodies is partly set in early 1950s Paris - a city still recovering from war and populated by many displaced people. Bea travels there from New York to retrieve a nephew who she barely knows on behalf of her overbearing brother, but her attempts to resolve the family's problems have their own unforeseen consequences.There are two new comedies on BBC TV this week. Angry Boys is Chris Lilley's follow up to Summer Heights High and sees him playing six characters including twin brothers Daniel and Nathan and their grandmother who employs unconventional methods in her work at a young offenders institution. In With the Flynns is a family-based sitcom starring Will Mellor and Niky Wardley as a Manchester couple juggling work and parenthood.The Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition is the world's largest open submission contemporary art show and this is its 243rd year. This year's co-ordinator is sculptor and painter Christopher Le Brun who says that because of some of the Royal Academicians' mixed feelings about the exhibition in previous years, a greater emphasis has been placed on how the work is hung and curated. Most of the work in the exhibition is for sale.Producer Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests literary critic John Carey and writers Natalie Haynes and Sarfraz Manzoor review the cultural highlights of the week.One Man Two Guvnors is Richard Bean's adaptation of Goldoni's 18th century comedy A Servant of Two Masters. Updated to Brighton in the early 60s it's directed by Nicholas Hunter and stars James Corden as the perpetually hungry Francis Henshall - a man who has to go to great lengths to prevent his two employers from meeting.Ann Patchett's novel State of Wonder has echoes of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Marina Singh, working for a US pharmaceutical company, is sent into the Amazonian jungle to track down a rogue researcher and find out what happened to her colleague who was previously assigned the same mission.Heartbeats is French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan's second film. With a nod to the Nouvelle Vague it revolves around Marie and Francis - a pair of twentysomething friends living in Montreal - - whose lives and friendship are disrupted when the attractive but callous Nico appears on the scene.Rockstar - the games developer behind the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto franchise - have brought gaming to the mean streets of postwar Los Angeles with LA Noire. The player rises through the police ranks as Cole Phelps (voiced by Mad Men actor Aaron Staton), investigating a series of murders and unearthing the corruption at the heart of the booming city.Richard Long has been practicing his idiosyncratic style of land art for more than four decades. His latest show - Human Nature at the Haunch of Venison in London - comprises work which has taken him to China, South Africa and his own home turf of Dartmoor. It appears alongside an exhibition by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone whose work also explores the relationship between man and natureProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests playwright Mark Ravenhill, novelist Louise Doughty and cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling review the week's cultural highlights including Win Win.Thomas McCarthy's film Win Win stars Paul Giamatti as a struggling New Jersey lawyer who also coaches a lacklustre high-school wrestling team. For a while it looks as if his problems may have been solved when he becomes the guardian of wealthy, elderly client and, inadvertently, carer of his wrestling champ grandson.In Ali Smith's novel There But For The a guest at a Greenwich dinner party locks himself in his hosts' spare room and refuses to come out. His self-imposed incarceration has an unexpected impact on people who hardly even know him.Deborah Warner's production of The School For Scandal at the Barbican in London draws parallels between Sheridan's satire on 18th century hypocrisy and gossip and our own preoccupation with privacy and the rights of scandal mongers. Alan Howard plays Sir Peter Teazle, anxious not to be cuckolded, while Leo Bill is the rakish Charles Surface.Love Is What You Want at the Hayward Gallery is the first major survey of Tracey Emin's work to be held in London. A wide, chronological selection from her work, it includes embroidered quilts, monoprints, paintings, pieces in neon and found objects.All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace is a series of three television essays by Adam Curtis on BBC2 in which he argues that, despite the utopian predictions of the post-war era, computers have failed to liberate us and have left us even more in thrall to powerful political and economic elites than we were before. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Gillian Slovo and Michael Arditti and writer Ekow Eshun review the week's cultural highlights including A Delicate Balance.James MacDonald's production of A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee at the Almeida Theatre in London stars Penelope Wilton and Tim Piggot-Smith as Agnes and Tobias - a middle-aged couple who share a home with Agnes's alcoholic sister (Imelda Staunton). The couple's lives are knocked off balance when their daughter returns home and their friends Harry and Edna turn up in flight from some existential dread.The aftermath of the 1971 Bangladeshi War of Independence provides the setting for Tahmima Anam's novel The Good Muslim. Maya and Sohail are siblings who have both played their part in the ideological struggle, but their ways of dealing with the disappointments and betrayals that come with their new nation set them at odds.Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's film A Screaming Man is another human drama played out against the background of a civil war. Adam and his son Abdel live in Chad's capital city N'Djamena. Adam (Youssouf Djaoro) is a former champion swimmer who takes great pride in his job as a hotel pool attendant, but when he is usurped by Abdel (Diouc Koma) his instinct for self-preservation has tragic consequences. The BBC4 documentary This Green and Pleasant Land explores the development of British landscape painting from the 18th century to the present day. Contemporary artists including Ralph Steadman, John Virtue and the film-maker Nick Roeg augment this history by responding to the work of their predecessors who looked at and recorded the British countryside.Holburne Museum in Bath is the former home of Sir William Holburne and contains his extensive collection which comprises a wide variety of items from majolica and porcelain to silverware and paintings by artists such as Gainsborough and Stubbs. The museum has just reopened after an £11m renovation which includes a new extension that provides more space to display the collection and also a temporary exhibition room. The opening exhibition is Peter Blake's A Museum For Myself.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests poet Craig Raine and writers Susan Jeffreys and David Aaronovitch review the cultural highlights of the week.Saoirse Ronan plays the title role in Joe Wright's film Hanna. Raised by her father (Eric Bana) in the seclusion of northern Finland and trained as a clinical killer, the teenager is pursued by a rogue CIA agent (Cate Blanchett) when she ventures into the wider world.At Last is the last in the series of Edward St Aubyn's novels featuring Patrick Melrose and his family. At his mother's funeral Patrick finds that his transition to orphanhood isn't necessarily the liberation he had so long imagined. All's Well That Ends Well comes to Shakespeare's Globe in London for the first time. Janie Dee is the Countess of Roussillon in Jonathan Dove's production and Sam Crane is her son Bertram who flees to the battlefront when the King of France compels him to marry the low-born Helena (Ellie Percy).The BBC2 documentary strand Wonderland returns with an unusual insight into the work of the relationship counselling organisation Relate. Producer/director Zac Beattie was allowed to record some of the charity's clients during their counselling, but then replaced the visuals with Jonathan Hodgson's animated images, thus allowing the individuals to remain unseen. When Simon Norfolk discovered the pictures which fellow photographer John Burke had taken in Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War between 1878 and 1880 he felt compelled to return to the country and record his own complimentary images of conflict involving the British and their allies there over a century later. The resulting exhibition - Burke and Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan - at Tate Modern brings the two men's work together in the same gallery. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Aminatta Forna and guests novelist Bidisha, historian Kathryn Hughes and theatre critic David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights.This week sees the release of the new film Thor, the Norse God of thunder and lightening, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor, one of the super heroes of the Marvel comic books, is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders. Jane Harris's first novel The Observations was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2007. Harris was brought up in Glasgow which is where she has set her new novel Gillespie and I, during the Great Exhibition of 1888 . Harriet Baxter makes friends with the Gillespie family but matters take a more sinister turn when Harriet is accused of abduction.The Shadow Line is a seven part television drama for BBC2 which has already been described as Britain's answer to The Wire and The Killing, written, directed and produced by Hugo Blick, best known for the comedy series Marion and Geoff. Jonah Gabrian is an amnesiac detective with a bullet lodged in his brain, trying to solve a violent murder.And The Horse I Rode In On is Told By An Idiot's production of experimental theatre with at political theme at The The Pit, at London's Barbican theatreLebanon: The Next Generation is a Radio 4 documentary of John McCarthy's return to Lebanon, the land in which he was held captive for five years between 1986 and 1991.Producer: Anne-Marie Cole.

Best of the week's arts review. Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright's latest novel The Forgotten Waltz details an illicit and complicated love affair; How I Ended Last Summer is a gripping, award winning Russian film, by Alexei Popogrebsky, which maroons two meteorologists in the bleak landscape of the Russian arctic; photographs that have defined modern history are on exhibition in London; Russians in space with Rona Munro's play Little Eagles, about the man who put Yuri Gagarin into orbit and a moving, BBC One, psychological thriller created by Paul Abbot, who devised the series Shameless.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Dreda Say Mitchell and Liz Jensen and art critic Bill Feaver review the cultural highlights of the week.The murder of five women in Ipswich in December 2006 forms the background to Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's play London Road at the National Theatre. It deals with the media attention that the residents of the street where the murderer lived had to endure. The words are taken verbatim from interviews conducted by Blythe and set to music by Cork.When David Foster Wallace died in 2008 he left behind a vast quantity of material that he had been working on for the follow up to to his critically acclaimed 1996 novel Infinite Jest. His friend and editor Michael Pietsch took sackfuls of notebooks, hard drives, files and floppy discs and pieced together Foster Wallace's final, unfinished novel The Pale King about a young man's year spent working for the IRS.Writer and director Aaron Katz has been corralled into the American independent film subgenre dubbed 'mumblecore'. His latest film Cold Weather is set in his hometown of Portland, Oregon and concerns Doug, a college drop out and Sherlock Holmes fan, who finds himself turning detective when his ex goes missing.Kate Summerscale's best-selling non-fiction book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher has been adapted for ITV1 by Ian McKay. Paddy Considine stars as Whicher - a detective from Scotland Yard sent to investigate a murder at a Wiltshire country house in 1860.Joan Miro: Ladder of Escape at Tate Modern is the first major exhibition of Miro's work to be held in Britain for nearly fifty years. Comprised of over 150 paintings, drawings and sculptures, it brings together for the first time the five large triptychs the artist created between 1961 and 1974.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests novelist Deborah Moggach, actor Kerry Shale and academic and critic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlights. Award winning documentary Armadillo by Danish film maker Janus Metz follows a group of Danish soldiers from their arrival in 2009 at a joint Danish and British base in Helmand called Armadillo. The film prompted an official army enquiry into alleged misbehaviour by some of the soldiers following a Taleban ambush and it was announced in November 2010 the base was to be dismantled.Television writer and humorist Steve Hely's How I Became A Famous Novelist chronicles its protagonist's successful attempt to write a best seller and what he learns about life along the way. Described as an "evisceration" of celebrity culture and literary fame.Linda Basset stars in acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens's new play "Wastwater" at the Royal Court directed by Katie Mitchell and set in an unlikely theatrical location, the periphery of Heathrow as it explores the lives of those who live there.And Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon opens at the Ashmoleon Museum in Oxford. Until 30 years ago Macedon's capital city Aegae remained relatively unknown. Excavations uncovered then revealed treasures from the tombs of its most famous heroes, King Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. And a new drama on Channel 5, The Walking Dead, adapted from Robert Kirkman's graphic novels by Frank Darabont, who describes it as a human story about zombies.Producer: Torquil Macleod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests writer Kevin Jackson, literary critic John Carey and novelist Louise Doughty review the week's cultural highlights.Jerzy Skolimowski's film Essential Killing stars Vincent Gallo as Mohammed - a Taliban prisoner who goes on the run from his US captors at a Polish facility and struggles to survive at any cost in the inhospitable winter landscape.The Free World is David Bezmozgis's first novel and it follows the Krasnansky family as they leave Latvia in 1978 to seek a new life in Chicago. However, when that plan falls through they find themselves stuck in Rome, hoping to move to Canada.Cause Celebre was Terence Rattigan's final play, first performed months before his death in 1977. Based on a notorious 1935 murder case, Thea Sharrock's production at the Old Vic stars Anne-Marie Duff as the flighty Alma Rattenbury whose husband's murder leads to her facing Niamh Cusack's repressed jury forewoman Edith Davenport at the Old Bailey.John Braine's 1957 novel Room at the Top has been adapted for BBC4 by Amanda Coe. It stars Matthew McNulty as council accountant Joe Lampton who believes that social mobility is within his grasp and Maxine Peake as the married woman who becomes his lover. The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860 - 1900 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind to have been staged. The exhibition includes over 250 objects and is set out in four broadly chronological sections tracing the growth and development of aestheticism in Britain over the four decades.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Adam Mars Jones, historian Amanda Vickery and film-maker James Runcie review the week's cultural highlights.Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a 3D film by Werner Herzog which explores the Chauvet cave in the south of France. The cave was discovered in 1994 and contains paleolithic paintings of animals which date back 35,000 years - the oldest ever found. Wim Wenders has also used 3D for his film Pina (due for release on 22nd April), about the choreographer Pina Bausch. Four of Bausch's most celebrated works are performed by key members of her company.Philip Hensher's novel King of the Badgers is set in Hanmouth - a small, picturesque Devon town which becomes the focus of national interest when an eight year old girl goes missing. There's a lot more going on behind Hanmouth's closed doors and pastoral facade than is immediately apparent.Jacques Demy's film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1964. It has now been adapted for the stage by Kneehigh as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and - as in the film - every word of the script is sung to Michel Legrand's original score. Carly Bawden and Andrew Durand are the star-crossed lovers Guy and Genevieve in the rainy Normandy port.Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everday Life at the Wellcome Collection in London is an exhibition which explores dirt and our relationship to it in six different settings - a home in seventeenth century Delft in Holland; a street in Victorian London; a hospital in Glasgow in the 1860s; a museum in Dresden in the early twentieth century; a community in present day New Delhi; and a New York landfill site in 2030.Campus is a new comedy series on Channel 4 from the makers of Green Wing. The setting is Kirke University where the behaviour of the teaching staff makes the students look like paragons of virtue and maturity. Andy Nyman stars as the venal Vice Chancellor Jonty de Wolfe.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests writer Iain Sinclair, anthropologist Kit Davies and journalist Natalie Haynes review the week's cultural highlights including Neil LaBute's new play "In A Forest Dark and Deep" starring Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams.Neil LaBute is a film director and writer as well as a prolific dramatist whose past credits include The Shape of Things and the Olivier Award nominated Fat Pig. In A Forest Dark and Deep is set in a country retreat deep in the woods to which college lecturer Betty (played by Olivia Williams) invites her brother Bobby (played by Matthew Fox). As a storm rages outside, a dramatic encounter unfolds within the cabin. Dr Who's Matt Smith stars as writer Christopher Isherwood in a BBC drama - Christopher and his Kind - which recounts Isherwood's visit to the 1930s Berlin cabaret scene where he embarks on an affair with poet WH Auden and is based on Isherwood's own memoir which he wrote in 1976. The screenplay is written by the writer of "My Night With Reg" Kevin Elyot and Imogen Poots co-stars as Jean Ross, the Sally Bowles character played by Liza Minelli in Cabaret.Submarine is the debut film of comedian Richard Ayoade and is a touching and funning coming of age story set in Swansea in which Oliver Tate (played by newcomer Craig Roberts) attempts to save his mother from running off with a mystic whilst encountering the perils of his own first love. Jennifer Egan's new novel "A Visit From the Good Squad" spans several decades and travels across America from San Francisco to New York as it portrays the lives of a group of men and women whose lives collide and then fall apart as the story unfolds. It attracted rave reviews when it was published in the States last year. And Keeping It Real: Material Intelligence at the Whitechapel Gallery looks at art and the everyday including work by Paul Chan, Arturo Herrera and Martin Kippenberger. PRODUCER; HILARY DUNN.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests creative director of the Royal Opera House Deborah Bull, poet Cahal Dallat and writer Miranda Sawyer review the cultural highlights of the week including Doug Liman's film Fair Game.Doug Liman's film Fair Game is based on the true story of Valerie Plame (played by Naomi Watts) - a CIA agent whose cover was blown by White House insiders after her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn), questioned the evidence that the Bush administration had used as justification for invading Iraq. Blithe Spirit was one of Noel Coward's greatest successes. In Thea Sharrock's production of the play at the Apollo Theatre in London, Alison Steadman plays Madame Arcati - the medium who brings chaos to Charles Condomine's life when she summons up the spirit of his first wife.Sean O'Brien's last collection of poetry - The Drowned Book - won both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes when it was published in 2007. His new collection is called November and the voice remains nostalgic, elegiac and distinctively northern.Jean Antoine Watteau is celebrated as a painter, but his drawings are even more remarkable, demonstrating his mastery of the three crayon technique. Watteau: The Drawings at the Royal Academy in London is the first major exhibition of his drawings to be held in the UK.Michael Faber's best-selling novel The Crimson Petal and The White was billed as the first great 19th century novel of the 21st century. Now adapted for television by Lucinda Coxon, the four part series on BBC2 stars Romola Garai as the ambitious and erudite prostitute Sugar.PRODUCER; TORQUIL MacLEOD.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling and writers Rowan Pelling and Ekow Eshun review the cultural highlights of the week including The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium.The Wizard of Oz is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's first collaboration on a West End musical since Evita in 1976. Danielle Hope stars as Dorothy - she landed the role by winning the BBC talent show Over The Rainbow - and Michael Crawford is the Wizard.Justin Cartwright's novel Other People's Money tells the story of a 350 year old family-owned bank - Tubal and Co. - which finds itself in trouble after its chairman, Julian Trevelyan-Tubal, leads it into the perilous waters of casino banking. Archipelago is Joanna Hogg's second film and, like her debut Unrelated, is about the cracks which emerge in an English upper middle class family on holiday. The location is the Scilly Isles and tensions and resentment soon bubble to the surface within the confines of the idyllic rented house.Nancy Spero was a celebrated American artist and feminist. The exhibition of her work at the Serpentine Gallery in London was initiated by the Centre Pompidou and is the first major Spero show since the artist's death in 2009.Twenty Twelve is a new BBC4 comedy by John Morton who also wrote People Like Us. It takes the form of a mock documentary following the progress of the Olympic Deliverance Commission in the run up to the 2012 London games and stars Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer David Aaronovitch, historian Kathryn Hughes and comedian Danny Robins review the cultural highlights of the week including Frankenstein at the National Theatre in London.Nick Dear's theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein is directed by Danny Boyle. The roles of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he brings to life are played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, the two actors alternating the roles nightly.David Michod's film Animal Kingdom is set in Melbourne and stars James Frecheville as a teenager who finds himself drawn into the criminal milieu of his late mother's violent family. Jacki Weaver plays his grandmother - a ruthless matriarch who calls the shots with her brood of armed robber sons.Like Nuri, the narrator of his novel Anatomy of a Disappearance, Hisham Matar was born to Libyan parents and grew up in Cairo. And, also like Nuri, his father was abducted by secret agents. After his father's disappearance, Nuri grows up in a world of exile, secrets and an ambiguous relationship with his stepmother.The 16th century Flemish artist Jan Gossaert is the subject of the National Gallery's exhibition Jan Gossaert's Renaissance. Gossaert visited Rome in 1508 and was the first artist to bring the Italian Renaissance's style of depicting historical and mythological subjects with sensuous nude figures into the art of the Low Countries.Niall Fergusson's Civilisation is a six part series on Channel 4 in which the historian attempts to explain why Western civilisation became globally dominant in the 16th century and remained so for the next 500 years. The series is based on his book Civilisation: The West and the Rest.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Terence Blacker and Deborah Moggach and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including Anna Nicole.Anna Nicole is a new opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Richard Thomas, starring Eva-Maria Westbroek as Anna Nicole Smith - the Texan waitress and Playboy pin-up who acheived fame and notoriety when she married an 89 year old oil billionaire.Tim Pears' novel Disputed Land is narrated by Theo, looking back on a childhood Christmas when his entire family was summoned to his grandparents' house in Shropshire for reasons which were not immediately obvious.The jumping off point for Enda Walsh's play Penelope is the fate of the suitors who were vying for the hand of Odysseus's wife in Homer's epic poem. Here there are four of them remaining, with expanding waistlines and receding hairlines, occupying an empty swimming pool ouside Penelope's house and wooing her via CCTV.Robert Popper's new comedy on Channel 4 - Friday Night Dinner - stars Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter as parents who are joined every Friday evening by their twentysomething sons played by Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal for an uneasy and fractious meal.Watercolour at Tate Britain is an exhibition which spans 800 years and brings together over 200 works including pieces by historic artists such as William Blake, Thomas Girtin and JMW Turner, through to modern and contemporary artists including Patrick Heron, Peter Doig and Tracey Emin.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests, poet Craig Raine and writers Susan Jeffreys and Kevin Jackson, review the week's cultural highlights including the remake of True Grit.The Coen Brothers' version of True Grit stars Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn - the role which finally secured an Oscar for John Wayne in Henry Hathaway's 1969 film. Cogburn is a grizzled US Marshal who is co-opted by 14 year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) to track down the man who shot her father.Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour is being revived at the Comedy Theatre in London, starring Keira Knightley and Elizabeth Moss as Karen and Martha - two women who have set up a successful girls' school. Their lives are transformed when rumours that they are lovers begin to circulate.In 1995 poet Sarah Manguso started experiencing symptoms which were finally diagnosed as being caused by a chronic auto-immune condition. Antibodies in her blood were stripping the myelin coating from her nerves. The Two Kinds of Decay is her memoir of the seven years of successive relapses which she experienced. Sexual Nature is an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London which explores the extraordinary range of behaviour and adaptation that has developed to service the ends of sexual reproduction. Included in the exhibition are several of Isabella Rossellini's idiosyncratic Green Porno short films.The latest classic that Andrew Davies has adapted for BBC1 is Winifred Holtby's 1936 novel South Riding. It stars Anna Maxwell Martin as Sarah Burton - a forward thinking young headmistress who takes up a new post in a Yorkshire town and becomes embroiled in local corruption over land deals.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests - writers Sarfraz Manzoor and Bidisha and musician Pat Kane - review the week's cultural highlights including The Fighter.Boxing half-brothers Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) are the central characters in David O. Russell's film The Fighter. Dicky's attempts at a comeback are hampered by his crack addiction, while Micky finds himself playing second fiddle to his brother instead of establishing his own career in the ring. The Champion by Tim Binding is a novel which explores the yuppie era and its fall-out through the eyes of Charles Pemberton - a perpetually disappointed young man who sees the old order of his small hometown in Kent swept away by the charismatic and forceful entrepreneur Clark Rossiter.Greenland, at the National Theatre in London, is a play about the challenges of climate change, written by four playwrights - Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner and Jack Thorne. It takes the form of a collage of overlapping narratives, many of which deal with the gap between our intellectual and emotional responses to the problem.The work of artist Susan Hiller often deals with hallucinations, dreams and supernatural beliefs. A retrospective exhibition of her work at Tate Britain in London brings together work from her 40 year career.Peter Kosminsky's new drama for Channel 4 - The Promise - deals with Palestine just after the Second World War, when British troops were vainly trying to keep the peace between Jewish refugees arriving from Europe and the region's Arab inhabitants. Claire Foy plays Erin - a young girl who finds the diary which her grandfather kept while he was stationed there and takes it with her when she visits Israel with a friend.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Liz Jensen, historian Dominic Sandbrook and academic John Mullan review the week's cultural highlights.Boardwalk Empire was created by former Sopranos co-writer Terence Winter and is being shown on Sky Atlantic. Set in Prohibition era Atlantic City, it stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson - a man who seems to have a finger in just about every pie in town. The first episode was directed by Martin Scorsese - it's rumoured to be the most expensive TV pilot ever shot. The 'O' in the title of O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous is Barack Obama. The author is apparently "an anonymous insider who has spent years observing US politics and its players" and someone who "has been in the room with Obama". The novel tracks Obama through the next two years of his presidency, culminating in the October 2012 election.Nominated for an Oscar in the Foreign Language Film and Best Actor categories, Biutiful is a film by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, set in Barcelona, which stars Javier Bardem as Uxbal - a terminally ill man who is trying to make amends for the mistakes that he's made and put his life in order during his final months.Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales at the Lyric Hammersmith in London features six of Dahl's short stories adapted for the stage by Jeremy Dyson who first came to prominence through The League of Gentlemen. The title alludes to the twist in the tail which was typical of the stories Dahl wrote for an adult readership.John Stezaker has taught some of Britain's leading artists at St Martin's, Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art, but he is also an artist in his own right, adjusting, inverting and slicing classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations to create unique, subversive images. The show at London's Whitechapel Gallery is the first major exhibition of his work.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests playwright Mark Ravenhill, critic and academic Maria Delgado and novelist Michael Arditti review the week's cultural highlights including Black Swan.Natalie Portman stars as Nina - a timid but ambitious young ballerina - in Darren Aronofsky's film Black Swan. Cast as the lead in Swan Lake, her struggle to find the necessary sensuality to play Odile, the black swan, leads her into some very dark places indeed.David Vann follows up his critically-acclaimed first book - Legend of a Suicide - with a novel: Caribou Island. Gary and Irene are a couple whose 30-year-long marriage is unravelling in the wilderness of Alaska as Gary pursues his dream of building a cabin on a remote island.Nina Raine spent three months observing doctors and surgeons at work for her play Tiger Country, which has opened at Hampstead Theatre in London. Set in a hospital, it features a hard-bitten registrar who is forced to care more and a junior doctor who is trying to care less.Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy is the first exhibition to be staged in the UK for 30 years which examines British sculture of the 20th century. Faulks on Fiction is a BBC2 series in which the author Sebastian Faulks traces the history of the British novel through four programmes - The Hero, The Villain, The Snob and The Lover.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Paul Morley, novelist Dreda Say Mitchell and broadcaster and cleric Richard Coles review the week's cultural highlights including Blue Valentine.Derek Cianfrance's film Blue Valentine stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as Dean and Cindy. The narrative jumps between two points in the couple's relationship - the beginning and the apparent breakdown of their marriage several years later.Linda Grant's novel We Had It So Good concerns another couple - Stephen and Andrea. They meet as students at Oxford in 1960s - he's a Rhodes scholar from California, while she's come up from Cornwall. The novel tracks their lives - and their fellow baby boomer friends - through the intervening years to the present.JMW Turner is the subject of Rebecca Lenkiewicz's play The Painter at the Arcola Theatre in London. It explores the artist's relationship with the three key women in his life: his mother who ends up in Bedlam, the prostitute who models for him and the widow with whom he has a child. Gilbert and George have been making work with postcards since the 1970s. They call their latest collection of 564 pieces - created from a combination of sex workers' advertising cards and London tourist postcards - The Urethra Postcard Pictures. 155 of them are on show at the White Cube gallery in London.Laura Linney plays Cathy in the US comedy The Big C which is being broadcast on More 4. Cathy's behaviour towards her family and friends undergoes a radical change - she begins telling them exactly what she thinks and doing exactly what she wants to. What she doesn't tell them is that she has been diagnosed with terminal skin cancer and has refused treatment. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Louise Doughty, literary critic John Carey and comedian Natalie Haynes review the week's cultural highlights including The King's Speech.Tom Hooper's film The King's Speech stars Colin Firth as George VI, battling against his stammer with the unorthodox help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue played by Geoffrey Rush.In Paul Bailey's book Chapman's Odyssey, 70 year old writer Harry Chapman is admitted to hospital with acute abdominal pain. During his time on the ward his life plays back in his mind, with visits from his dead parents and also from characters out of the books that he has enjoyed.Rudolf Nureyev's choreography for Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was first performed by English National Ballet in 1977 and became one of their classic productions. It has been revived for the company's 60th anniversary and has arrived at the London Coliseum on the final leg of its tour.The Beatles are one of the few pop/rock acts who truly merit the adjective 'iconic'. Groundbreaking and hugely influential, they constantly pushed the envelope during their career without ever compromising their unprecedented popularity. This may be the conventional view, but it is not one shared by Natalie Haynes. In our occasional series where a guest is allowed to take a pot shot at a cultural sacred cow of their choice, Natalie takes aim at the Fab Four.Alan Bleasdale's new BBC2 drama - his first work on television since Oliver Twist in 1999 - is The Sinking of the Laconia. It is based on the true account of a merchant ship which was torpedoed by a German U boat in September 1942 and the rescue mission instigated by the U boat commander when he realised that there were civilians among the survivors.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Director of the National Theatre of Scotland Vicky Featherstone, Director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones and writer and Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival James Runcie look at the future of funding for the arts and ask if the new austerity is a problem - or an opportunity? Historian Dominic Sandbrook, theatre critic David Benedict, former Chairman of the Arts Council Sir Christopher Frayling, Chairman of the UK Film Council Tim Bevan and CEO of Faber & Faber Stephen Page also offer their views on what happens to the cultural life of the nation when the purse-strings are tightened.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the writers Kevin Jackson and Bidisha and the historian Kathryn Hughes review the cultural highlights of the week including Tron: LegacyIn Tron: Legacy Jeff Bridges reprises the role of computer buff Kevin Flynn that he played in the original 1982 film. His son Sam (Garret Hedlund) goes looking for his Flynn inside the game where he's been trapped all these years. Daft Punk provide the soundtrack.Ours Are The Streets is Sunjeev Sahota's first novel. Its narrator - Imtiaz - is a second-generation Pakistani lad living in Sheffield. When he travels to Pakistan to bury his father he takes the first step on a journey which leads to his radicalisation and to his decision to become a suicide bomber.Richard Eyre's production of Feydeau's farce A Flea In Her Ear at the Old Vic in London stars Tom Hollander as a respectable businessman - Monsieur Chandebrise - whose wife suspects him of infidelity. Her attempts to prove her suspicions lead to a spiralling series of complications, compounded by the fact that Chandebrise's doppelganger (also played by Hollander) works as a porter in a very disreputable hotel. Upstairs Downstairs was a hugely successful ITV costume drama which ran from 1971 to 1975. It now reappears on BBC1 starring both of its creators - Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins. The action has moved on from the Edwardian era to the 1930s and 165 Eaton Square has new occupiers, but former lady's maid Rose (Jean Marsh) is persuaded to return and take up the role of housekeeper.Norman Rockwell's America at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London assembles all 322 of the covers which the celebrated illustrator created for the Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963 along with other pieces. It is the first time that these original works by the man described as "the Dickens of the paintbrush" - the archetypal chronicler of smalltown America - have been shown in the UK.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests - crime writer and playwright Denise Mina; comedian, writer, and former rapper Ben "Doc Brown" Smith; and Journalist Matthew D'Ancona - review the cultural highlights of the week.The National Theatre's seasonal offering is a revival of Season's Greetings, Alan Ayckbourn's farcical yet brutal comedy which stars Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate, and Marc Wottoon. Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp star in The Tourist, a thriller from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, writer and director behind the award-winning film The Lives of Others. The screenplay is co-written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and has a supporting cast including Timothy Dalton, Paul Bettany and Stephen Berkoff.For the first time in Europe, the robes worn by emperors and empresses of the Qing Dynasty - the last ruling dynasty of China - are being shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition features over 50 garments and accessories from the collection of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing.Tessa Hadley's new novel The London train is written in two parts. Each is a story in its own right, but brought together in a single moment. The stories examine the lives of Paul and Cora who both learn someone close to them has gone missing.Episodes is a new seven-part sitcom from acclaimed writing partnership David Crane (Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik (The Class). Sean and Beverly Lincoln - played by Green Wing's Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig - are the successful producers of a British television show who are seduced by a powerful US executive to remake their hit show for an American audience, with disastrous results.Producer: Ella-mai Robey.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests the critics John Mullan and Bill Feaver and comedian Natalie Haynes review the week's cultural highlights including The American.The American is Anton Corbijn's second film and stars George Clooney as a hitman holed up in a picturesque Italian hill town, considering his future.I, Claudius - adapted from the books of Robert Graves by Robin Brooks - is a six-part drama on BBC Radio 4 set in ancient Rome. The 1976 television adaptation won Derek Jacobi a BAFTA for his performance as Claudius and he's back again, but this time he's Augustus.To The Manor Born stars Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles are reunited in Sir Peter Hall's production of The Rivals. It's the first time they have appeared onstage together and they play Mrs Malaprop and Anthony Absolute respectively in Sheridan's romantic comedy set in Bath.Leila Abdoulela won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000. Her third novel - Lyrics Alley - is a family saga set in 1950s Sudan in which the strains between tradition and modernisation are played out in a wealthy merchant's household. Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work is an exhibition at the National Gallery in which the veteran British abstract artist has chosen to juxtapose her own work with pieces by Mantegna, Raphael and Seurat which have influenced her.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests musician Pat Kane, writer Rowan Pelling and novelist and film-maker James Runcie review the week's cultural highlights.Fela! at the National Theatre in London is a fusion of music, dance and drama which tells the story of Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti. Choreographed by Bill T Jones, it stars Sahr Ngaujah as the charismatic musician.Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's film about the last days of a terminally ill Thai tamarind farmer. It won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes.It is a hundred years since Mark Twain died, which is the period of time that the the author stipulated had to elapse before his autobiography could be published. The first volume of three is now available. In his new exhibition - Homage 10x5: Blake's Artists - Sir Peter Blake pays homage to his heroes. He has selected the ten artists whose work has excited and interested him most and created five pieces in response to each of them.Documentary maker Hannah Rothschild's film Mandelson: The Real PM? follows Peter Mandelson during the run up to this year's general election, hoping to gain some insight into one of the more controversial figures in New Labour.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests poet Craig Raine, writer Antonia Quirke and theatre writer David Benedict review the week's cultural highlights including The Train Driver.The Train Driver by Athol Fugard was inspired by a newspaper article which Fugard read in December 2000, reporting the death of a woman in South Africa who had stepped in front of a train with her three children. This production at the Hampstead Theatre stars Sean Taylor and Owen Sejake.We Are What We Are is the directorial debut of Jorge Michel Grau. Set in Mexico City, the film tells the story of a family of cannibals, thrown into disarray when their father and provider dies.Rufus Norris's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni for English National Opera is deliberately dingy and downbeat. It features a free translation of Da Ponte's libretto by Jeremy Sams and stars Iain Paterson as the dissolute Don.Jimmy McGovern's new six-part BBC1 series - Accused - places six different characters in the dock. Rather than following the traditional route of the courtroom drama, each episode explores how the accused ended up there. Stars include Christopher Eccleston, Mackenzie Crook, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Capaldi and Andy Serkis.Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices is an exhibition at the British Library in London which takes on the daunting task of telling the story of the English language since its birth 1500 years ago. Highlights include the oldest surviving copy of Beowulf and the first printed book in English along with many other treasures from the British Library's vaults.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Kevin Jackson and David Aaronovitch and novelist Dreda Say Mitchell review the cultural highlights of the week including The Kids Are Alright.In Lisa Cholodenko's film The Kids Are Alright, Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play a couple whose children track down the anonymous sperm donor who is their biological father. When he enters the picture the family implodes.Men Should Weep is a 1947 play by Ena Lamont Stewart which portrays the tough life of a family in a Glasgow tenement during the Depression. Josie Rourke's revival at the National Theatre in London stars Sharon Small and Robert Cavanah as the parents trying to make ends meet. Brian Turner served in the US Army for seven years and his experiences during a year-long tour of duty in Iraq provide the subject matter for many of the poems in his collection Phantom Noise.The British Art Show is staged every five years and aims to provide a snapshot of what is happening in British contemporary art. Its seventh incarnation - subtitled In the Days of the Comet - has opened in Nottingham. It will also travel, in 2011, to London, Glasgow and Plymouth.Michael Winterbottom's six part BBC2 series The Trip stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon essentially playing themselves. Coogan has been asked to review some restaurants in the north of England and takes Brydon along for company. Beautiful landscapes, exquisite food and duelling impressionists.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelists Terence Blacker and Liz Jensen and writer and broadcaster Paul Morley review the cultural highlights of the weekNina Raine's play Tribes has opened at the Royal Court in London. At its centre is Billy, one of three siblings in a competitive, bohemian family and deaf from birth. The play investigates family, belonging and the limitations of communication. Adam Elliot won the 2004 Oscar for Best Animated Short with his film Harvie Krumpet. His feature-length claymation film Mary and Max concerns the 20 year pen-pal correspondence between Mary (Toni Colette) in Australia and Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a middle-aged man who suffers from Asperger's, in New York. Lloyd Jones's novel Hand Me Down World tells the tale of a woman who enters Europe illegally from Africa to try and find her son who was taken by his father to Berlin. Her story is told, with varying degress of accuracy, from the perspective of the many different people who she meets on her journey. Cezanne's Card Players at the Courtauld Gallery in London brings together the artist's studies of peasants playing cards - a subject which fascinated him late in his career. This exhibition brings together the different paintings and preparatory studies for the first time.Gaby Hornsby made the BBC series The Secret Life of the Motorway and The Secret Life of the Airport, now she turns her attention to the ubiquitous but overlooked marvel of our electricity supply network in The Secret Life of the National Grid on BBC4. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Sarfraz Manzoor and his guests novelist Louise Doughty, poet Cahal Dallat and writer John Lanchester review the week's cultural highlights including The Social Network.The Social Network is David Fincher's film about Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Written by Aaron Sorkin (of West Wing fame) it stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg.Martin Sherman's play Onassis at the Novello Theatre in London stars Robert Lindsay as the Greek shipping magnate and focuses on the last 12 years of his life and his relationships with Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy.Bernhard Schlink is best known for his international bestseller The Reader. His novel The Weekend concerns a former Red Army Faction member, Jorg, who is released from prison after serving 26 years for murder. He is reunited with his former friends and comrades for a weekend house party.Ai Weiwei is the latest artist to be commissioned to create an installation in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. He has covered the floor with 100 million handmade, hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds which took 1600 people two years to create.Mark Gatiss has adapted the H.G. Wells novel The First Men in the Moon for BBC4. He stars as the eccentric Professor Cavor who invents an anti-gravitational paint which allows him and his neighbour (Rory Kinnear) to become Edwardian astronauts and travel to the Moon. PRODUCER: TORQUIL MacLEOD.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests literary critic John Carey, novelist Deborah Moggach and architecture critic and writer Tom Dyckhoff review the cultural highlights of the week including Restrepo.Filmmaker Tim Hetherington and reporter Sebastian Junger lived with a US army platoon during its year long deployment to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The result is the film Restrepo which won the Grand Jury prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.German novelist Jenny Erpenbeck's book Visitation explores the secrets of a house and its inhabitants from the Weimar republic to after the fall of the Berlin Wall, simultaneously peeling back layers of Germany's history.Handspring - the puppet company behind Warhorse - have joined forces with Neil Bartlett for the production of his play Or You Could Kiss Me. It's love story set in the South Africa of the past and the future.In the latter half of the 18th century, politician and writer Horace Walpole spent more than 40 years transforming a modest villa by the Thames into an audacious Gothic fantasy. The result was Strawberry Hill which has just reopened to the public following completion of the first stage of its £9m renovation.Lip Service is BBC3's six part drama set among a group of twentysomething lesbians in Glasgow. A bit of mystery here, a bit of comedy there and sex all over the place, it stars Laura Fraser, Ruta Gedmintas and Fiona Button.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writer Linda Grant, comedian Natalie Haynes and former cultural historian and writer Christopher Frayling review the week's cultural highlights including Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.Michael Douglas returns as Gordon Gecko in Oliver Stone's sequel to his 1987 film Wall Street. Gecko's out of jail and the economy's crashing - is greed still good?Philip Roth's novel Nemesis is set in Newark in the summer of 1944 and explores the impact of a polio epidemic on the closely knit Jewish community. Bucky Cantor is an idealistic playground superintendent who tries to manage the panic as his young charges succumb to the disease.Sebastian Faulks's 1993 novel Birdsong sold more than 1.7 million copies in the UK alone. Now it has been adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff. Trevor Nunn's production is at the Comedy Theatre in London and stars Ben Barnes and Lee Ross.Gauguin: Maker of Myth is the first major exhibition in London to be devoted to the artist for more than 50 years. Assembling more than 100 works from public and private collections around the world, it runs at Tate Modern until January 16th 2011.Channel 4's series The Genius of British Art comprises six individually authored films on different topics. The presenters are David Starkey, Augustus Casely-Hayford, Howard Jacobson, Jon Snow, Janet Street Porter and Sir Roy Strong. There is also an accompanying series of talks by the presenters at the National Gallery in London.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests comedian David Schneider, writer Bidisha and ICA director Ekow Eshun review the week's cultural highlights including John Simm as Hamlet in SheffieldJohn Simm chooses Hamlet as his first Shakespearian role in Paul Miller's production of the play at the Crucible Theatre in SheffieldJonathan Frantzen's follow up to his much acclaimed 2001 novel The Corrections is called Freedom and centres on the mid-West family of middle-class liberals Walter and Patty BerglundWorld's Greatest Dad - a film written and directed by stand-up comedian Bobcat Goldthwait - stars Robin Williams as a brow-beaten teacher whose literary ambitions get an unexpected boost from the death of his obnoxious teenage sonAgainst Mussolini: Art and the Fall of the Dictator is an exhibition of work produced by artists opposed to Mussolini both before and after his death. It's at the Estorick Collection in north LondonChristopher Reid's poem The Song of Lunch has been adapted for television and stars Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson as a pair of erstwhile lovers meeting for the first time in 15 years in an Italian restaurant.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and guests writer Miranda Sawyer, critic John Mullan and academic and critic Maria Delgado review the week's cultural highlights including Design for Living.Initially banned in the UK, Noel Coward's play Design for Living is being revived at the Old Vic in London and stars Andrew Scott as Leo, Lisa Dillon as Gilda and Tom Burke as Otto. Set in 1930s bohemian Paris and the height of Manhattan society - the play had its origins in a real three-sided friendship between Coward, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.This week's book is Charles Yu's How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, about a time machine repairman who accidentally shoots his future self, thereby becoming trapped in a perpetual time loop. In 2007 Charles Yu was nominated by the National Book Foundation as one of its '5 Under 35' writers to watch out for. Bandits, Wilderness and Magic, the first major Rosa exhibition since 1973 is now open at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. One of the boldest and most powerfully inventive artists and personalities of the Italian 17th century, Salvator Rosa was a rebel, a libertine and often in very real danger from the Inquisition.Debra Grahnik's film, Winter's Bone, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival this year, stars Jennifer Lawrence as Ree and Garret Dillahunt as Sherrif Baskin. Set in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, it tells the story of a young woman struggling to keep the family home after her father - a crystal meth dealer - mysteriously disappears.And Julian Fellowes, Oscar-winning scriptwriter of Gosford Park, pens another period drama set in a country house - Downton Abbey, the eponymous title of ITV1's new Sunday night drama. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests poet Craig Raine, historian Kathryn Hughes and writer David Aaronovitch review the week's cultural highlights including Tamara DreweTamara Drewe is a film adaptation of a comic strip by Posy Simmonds, directed by Stephen Frears. Tamara is a newspaper columnist who causes chaos at a writer's retreat when she returns to the Dorset village where she grew up.John le Carre has published his 22nd novel - Our Kind of Traitor - which concerns a young British couple who get mixed up with a notorious Russian money-launderer while on holiday in the Caribbean.Lebanese born playwright Wajdi Mouawad has written a series of four plays about war and its aftershocks. The second of these - Scorched - is currently being staged in the Old Vic Arches in London. Michael Sheen stars as Tony Blair in Peter Morgan's BBC2 drama The Special Relationship which charts the relationship between Blair and Bill Clinton from the time when Tony entered 10 Downing Street to Bill's departure from the White House.Eadweard Muybridge was a photographic pioneer who progressed from landscape studies of Yosemite to experimental exposures which proved that horses lift all four hooves off the ground when they gallop. An exhibition at Tate Britain catalogue's his extraordinary career. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are writers Iain Sinclair and Vesna Maric, and the art critic Bill Feaver. Under Saturday Review's critical lens are:Tiny Kushner - a cycle of mini-plays by Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner at the Tricycle Theatre in LondonWalking to Hollywood - Will Self's new triptych of novellas This Is England '86 - a new four part TV series by the director Shane Meadows, which revisits the lives of characters from his film This Is England, three years on.Certified Copy - a new film from Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, centring around a mysterious couple (played by Juliette Binoche and William Shimmell) who might - or might not - be married. And: Resonance and Renewal: Shipbuilding on the Clyde - an exhibition of the eight vast canvases created by artist Stanley Spencer to depict the wartime life of the Lithgow Shipyard in Glasgow, whose workings he was commissioned to document during World War Two. Producer Laura Thomas.