TVIf you only watch one, make it \u2026Time<\/p>\n
BBC iPlayer; available now<\/p>\n
Summed up in a sentence David Tennant gives one of his finest performances in the third series of Jimmy McGovern\u2019s terrifying but essential prison drama.<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThis portrait of masculinity and the misery it brings probably won\u2019t garner the attention and momentum that Jack Thorne\u2019s Adolescence did. But it should. Our boys need it.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n
Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018Me and the lads would not survive a day in here\u2019: inside TV\u2019s utterly stunning, Bafta-winning prison drama<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restThe Diplomat<\/p>\n Netflix; available now<\/p>\n Hurtling into the abyss \u2026 Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in The Diplomat. Photograph: Erika Kuenka\/Netflix<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Keri Russell returns in Debora Cahn\u2019s transatlantic thriller for a fourth series of exquisitely fraught geopolitical skulduggery.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThere are few things as entertaining as The Diplomat in a bad mood, even if the stress induced by its doomsday theatrics requires much diaphragmatic breathing and the odd diplomatic sprint to the loo.\u201d Sarah Dempster<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Being Muslim After 9\/11<\/p>\n BBC iPlayer; available now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Mobeen Azhar tackles tough issues in a brilliant documentary about the rise of Islamophobia since the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cIn his willingness to debate hard topics \u2013 even if it means hearing difficult arguments, some of which are aimed at him personally \u2013 he is still provoking thoughts and airing views that better-known journalists would never go near.\u201d Jack Seale<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026The Party<\/p>\n ITVX; available now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A juicy thriller about the British elite and a party from hell, adapted from Elizabeth Day\u2019s bestselling novel.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThere\u2019s no one to root for, no one to invest in \u2013 they\u2019re all absolutely awful, and you can just go along for the ride.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n FilmIf you only watch one, make it \u2026NAZA<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n \u2018The city in all its eerie heedlessness and heartlessness\u2019 \u2026 NAZA. Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A Guardian-produced documentary that casts a chilling light on civilian deaths in Gaza, as anonymous Israeli personnel speak under the cover of night.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThe calculated \u2018Naza\u2019 number is the amount of projected civilian deaths from each military strike, and perhaps it will come to have the same connotations as the US military term \u2018body count\u2019 during Vietnam.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018They know the house they are bombing is full of children\u2019: NAZA\u2019s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restCase 137<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A taut, charged procedural from Dominik Moll follows a conflicted officer investigating police brutality and violence against a teenager during the \u201cgilets-jaunes\u201d protests in France.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThe film is on its most solid ground when it painstakingly \u2013 almost in the narrative equivalent of real time \u2013 takes us through the process of locating the cop culprits by finding CCTV footage from the site of the attack on the teenagers.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Kiri and Lou Go Raaa!<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Best of friends \u2026 Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! Photograph: Stretchy<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The first feature-length adventure for CBeebies\u2019 prehistoric pals is a great toddler-friendly film, with beautiful stop-motion visuals, starring Jemaine Clement and Olivia Tennet.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cFor the uninitiated, Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! functions as an introduction to the characters and their world, while for fans it\u2019s a delightful origin story.\u201d Catherine Bray<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Others<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Nicole Kidman is at her glacial, patrician best in this 2001 chiller written and directed by Chilean-Spanish film-maker Alejandro Amen\u00e1bar.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cWhat a relief to have a scary movie instead of a Scary Movie, no boring irony, no tiresome inverted commas \u2013 it is well constructed, as opposed to incompetently deconstructed.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading The Others at 20: the haunted house movie that reinvigorated the genre<\/a><\/p>\n Now streamingFaust<\/p>\n Mubi; available now<\/p>\n World of knowledge \u2026 G\u00f6sta Ekman as Faust. Photograph: MUBI<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence FW Murnau\u2019s 1926 silent film of Goethe\u2019s tragic tale tells the story a man who sells his soul to the devil and remains a spectacular feat of German expressionism.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThe ambition, scale and drive of Faust are obvious: there is some wonderful model work for the landscape and cityscape that Faust and Mephisto look down on, flying above. And the still, painterly image of Mephisto as a vast evil angel, brooding over the city like a gigantic cloud, shrouding it in his black wings, is inspired.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n BooksIf you only read one, make it \u2026The Steps by Sylvester Stallone<\/p>\n Reviewed by Xan Brooks<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The Rocky star tells the story of his breakthrough year.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cStallone presents himself as a sweet innocent \u2013 monastic and almost sexless \u2013 but there is an anger to his memories that burns on every page.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restPeck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus<\/p>\n Reviewed by Clare Clark<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The follow-up to global smash Lessons in Chemistry, set at a rarefied New York poetry magazine.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cIt is hard to imagine a novel with more laugh-out-loud jokes about typography, harder still to dismiss her fierce exhortation to all of us to make words count.\u201d Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Floating World by Ben Eastham<\/p>\n Reviewed by Ian Maleney<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence An impressive debut about money, power and artwashing by the global elite.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cEastham attempts an ambitious balancing act: on one side, the cynical gamesmanship of high-end contemporary art, and on the other, the emotional inner life of a man haunted by the memory of his deceased wife.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Peasants by Maryam Aslany<\/p>\n Reviewed by Joe Moran<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A rallying cry not to dismiss those who make their living from the land.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cPeasant households make up about 2 billion people, a quarter of the human race. Their way of life is far more resilient than factory work, and there is nothing backward about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Make Me Well by Xand van Tulleken<\/p>\n Reviewed by Simon Usborne<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A no-nonsense doctor debunks the wellness industry.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cHe\u2019s the best kind of science writer, leaning into complexity while making it as easy to digest as a fish oil gummy (another thing you might want to stop forking out for).\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026 Photograph: PRThe Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland by Matthew Sweet<\/p>\n Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence This extraordinary biography of the queen of romance has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cMatthew Sweet pays his subject the compliment of absolute seriousness, regarding her as a cultural phenomenon whose life, stretching the entire 20th century, deserves deep study.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it \u2026Fontaines DC: Dopamine Chamber<\/p>\n XL Recordings; out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A beguiling, endlessly inventive and frequently astonishing fifth LP from the Irish band.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cFontaines have grown in dramatic, majestic fashion to become the best band of their generation \u2013 the kind that, to nick a phrase from another band, really might live for ever.\u201d Laura Snapes<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Fierce, frantic and loaded with menace: Fontaines DC\u2019s 20 greatest songs \u2013 ranked!<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restWorldpeace DMT: Stick Around for Tea<\/p>\n WPDMT; out now<\/p>\n Devastatingly contemporary \u2026 Leo Fincham and Rowan Miles, AKA Worldpeace DMT.<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Bringing back the hyperliterate sound design of their acclaimed 2025 debut, the London duo explore childhood with whimsical humour and terrific musicality.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cLeo Fincham and Rowan Miles sing in a self-consciously childish way that belies their taut musicality \u2026 The result is the kind of devastatingly contemporary record that even arch classicists couldn\u2019t possibly turn up their noses at.\u201d Shaad D\u2019Souza<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Weird Baile: Collected Rips 2004-2024<\/p>\n TraTraTrax; out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Two decades of work from producers JLZ, VHOOR, Mu540 and DJ RaMeMes strips the Brazilian genre to its essential parts until it chimes with grime and drill.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cRather than simply replicate these motifs, Weird Baile\u2019s skill comes in disrupting and deconstructing them into a new mould \u2026 This wonky, decades-spanning compilation, as outlandish as it is alluring, sends baile funk into a hallucinatory zone.\u201d Ammar Kalia<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Bertrand Chamayou: Mendelssohn Songs Without Words<\/p>\n Warner Classics; out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The pianist brings a singing quality and seeming effortlessness to the complete set of Songs Without Words.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cChamayou doesn\u2019t present these miniatures as if he thinks they are profound, yet thanks to his seeming effortlessness they come across that way \u2026 each new piece feels somehow familiar and yet demands your fresh attention.\u201d Erica Jeal<\/p>\n