TVIf you only watch one, make it …The Celebrity Traitors final
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence A sensational, phenomenal and genuinely mind-boggling conclusion to the TV series of the moment.
What our reviewer said “Above all I shall miss the grace and elegance of Celia Imrie, so exquisitely regal even when screaming down a well or farting in a shack. As the figure under Winkleman’s hair made clear on many occasions, you were, largely, awful at the game. But you were great, great entertainment.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading I’m a veteran Traitor – this is why the celebrity Faithfuls are so utterly shambolic
Pick of the restAll Her Fault
Sky Atlantic & Now
Kid gloves … Duke McCloud and Sarah Snook in missing-child thriller All Her Fault. Photograph: Sarah Enticknap/AP
Summed up in a sentence Succession’s Sarah Snook stars in an excellent thriller with a chilling premise: what if you went to pick your kid up from a party and there was no longer any trace of them?
What our reviewer said “All Her Fault is fantastically well done. All the carefully planted seeds come to fruition. All the narrative cogs turn and interlock fast and seamlessly. You come for the terrifying premise and stay for the absolute pleasure.” Lucy Mangan
Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter
Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence Tom Daley hosts a hugely quirky Bake Off-style show for knitting, replete with numerous maverick outfits.
What our reviewer said “Daley is a joy, a twinkling whirl of unforced cheer whose obvious passion for all things wool manages to – oh, go on then – knit the whole thing together. And lo, a potentially soggy-bottomed GBBO facsimile is instantly transformed into something that is at least 80% less rubbish than it could have been. It is, in a very real sense, The Great British Cast-Off.” Sarah Dempster
Further reading Tom Daley on his new knitting show – and pushing for Traitors resurrections
Death By Lightning
Netflix
Summed up in a sentence Matthew Macfadyen stars in a punchy four-part historical miniseries about the 1881 assassination of US president, James Garfield.
What our reviewer said “Macfadyen has obviously been cast on the back of his portrayal of greasy climber Tom Wambsgans in Succession, but here he takes his mastery of grasping losers to another level.” Jack Seale
Pluribus
Apple TV+
All smiles … Rhea Seehorn and Karolina Wydra in offbeat sci-fi Pluribus. Photograph: Apple TV+/PA
Summed up in a sentence The latest drama from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan stars Rhea Seehorn as the only US citizen to not fall under the control of an alien virus that makes everyone relentlessly happy.
What our reviewer said “It takes some chutzpah to look at the world in 2025 – especially if you are a non-Maga citizen of the US – and say to yourself: “Yes, but wouldn’t it be almost more terrible if everybody just … got along?” Lucy Mangan
FilmIf you only watch one, make it …Die My Love
In cinemas now
To the end … Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in the ‘fierce, angry and engaged’ Die My Love. Photograph: Kimberly French
Summed up in a sentence Jennifer Lawrence excels as a woman whose bipolar disorder is exacerbated by husband Robert Pattinson’s infidelity in Lynne Ramsay’s study of a woman in meltdown.
What our reviewer said “It is fierce, angry, engaged, and intensely, sensually alert to every detail of its own pleasure and pain.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Lynne Ramsay on pushing Jennifer Lawrence to the brink in her twisted motherhood drama:
Pick of the restDragonfly
In cinemas now
‘Strange and dysfunctional’ … Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn in Dragonfly. Photograph: Two Bungalow Films/PA
Summed up in a sentence Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough are two neighbours thrown together by circumstances in a haunting, genre-defying drama of lonely city living.
What our reviewer said “It is a riveting dual portrait of two gloomy people who really have, in a strange and dysfunctional way, found a new way of interacting.” Peter Bradshaw
The Choral
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Ralph Fiennes stars in laconic Alan Bennett tale of repressed passions and rousing music during the first world war.
What our reviewer said “This is a quiet and consistent pleasure: an unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Roger Allam on bad singing, big paydays and Elgar’s level of ‘gitacity’
Train Dreams
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Joel Edgerton is superb as a logger clearing a path for a railway in a passionate, heartfelt adaptation of Denis Johnson’s story.
What our reviewer said “A lovely looking, deeply felt film, clearly absorbing the influences of Terrence Malick in some of the low camera positions, sunset-hour compositions, narrative voiceovers, and epiphanically revealed glories of the American landscape.” Peter Bradshaw
Now streamingWinter in Sochko
Mubi
Summed up in a sentence Atmospheric slow-burner directed by Koya Kamura about shared identities as an enigmatic French writer visits a South Korean border city.
What our reviewer said “Fixating on absence, threatening to drown in internal sensations, Kamura musters an intriguing kind of modern ghost story.” Phil Hoad
BooksIf you only read one, make it …Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
Reviewed by Blake Morrison
Summed up in a sentence A different side of the great novelist.
What our reviewer said “Where most such backward looks are cosily triumphalist or anxiously self-justifying, hers is sharp, funny and engaging, a book you can warm to even if you’re not fully au fait with her astonishing output.”
Further reading Margaret Atwood on defying Trump, banned books – and her score-settling memoir
Pick of the restTom’s Crossing by Mark Z Danielewski
Reviewed by Marcel Theroux
Summed up in a sentence The House of Leaves author returns, a quarter century on, with an arcane epic western about a boy trying to save two horses.
What our reviewer said “Danielewski is a writer of enormous power and vision. He has invented a gripping story with mythic undertones.”
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney
Reviewed by Ian Leslie
Summed up in a sentence An oral history of Macca’s post-Beatles success.
What our reviewer said “A portal into a more eccentric age of pop, a fable about the tension between celebrity and creativity, and a story with elements of Spın̈al Tap and Wacky Races.”
Further reading ‘The world said I was dead – in so many ways I was’: Paul McCartney on the lost years after the Beatles
In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
Photograph: Sceptre/PA
Summed up in a sentence A hymn of praise to romance novels.
What our reviewer said “It is the quality of loving lawlessness, suggests Risbridger, that gives romantic fiction its deep joy and special pleasure.”
You may have missed …Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
Reviewed by Alexandra Harris
Summed up in a sentence Gay life in England from the 1960s to the pandemic, is captured through an actor’s memories in the latest novel from the writer of The Line of Beauty, who has been awarded the 2025 David Cohen prize for literature.
What our reviewer said “The finest novel yet from one of the great writers of our time.”
Further reading Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel is a sharp account of British theatre – and even pastiches my criticism – Michael Billington
AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it …Rosalía: Lux
Out now
“Uniformly beautiful” … Rosalía performing in Madrid. Photograph: Aldara Zarraoa/WireImage for ABA
Summed up in a sentence The Catalan star’s monumental fourth LP features lyrics in 13 languages, the London Symphony Orchestra – and Björk on “divine intervention”.
What our reviewer said “In truth, you don’t need to know what’s going on to find Lux a truly compelling, involving experience. These are uniformly beautiful songs, filled with striking moments.” Alexis Petridis
Further reading Catalan pop visionary Rosalía on critics, crisis and being ‘hot for God’
Pick of the restDanny Brown: Stardust
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Detroit rapper delivers a guest-stuffed, chaotically swaggering new album that no one could be bored by.
What our reviewer said “The results are remarkably arresting. There are moments where Stardust sounds more poppy and obviously hook-laden than Brown has ever done before. Equally, however, Stardust is more than capable of dealing in bracingly confrontational blare.” Alexis Petridis
The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Out now
Summed up in a sentence With some help from Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Darnielle and his band head off on a surprisingly upbeat voyage to a desert island.
What our reviewer said “It’s sumptuously crafted, full of gallows humour and – as with so much of Darnielle’s best work – delving below the surface reveals layers of deeper meaning about humanity, togetherness and the precious joys of being alive.” Dave Simpson
Martin Fröst: BACH
Out now
Swede dream … Fröst recorded in the countryside with guest musicians sleeping over. Photograph: Mats Bäcker
Summed up in a sentence The virtuosic clarinettist’s effortless phrasing and imaginative collaborations make this collection short but sweet.
What our reviewer said “There’s an intimate feel to the whole thing, which was recorded at Fröst’s studio in the Swedish countryside, with the fellow musicians sleeping over.” Erica Jeal
Now touring …Radiohead
Touring Europe to 12 December
Summed up in a sentence The band’s first gig in seven years demonstrates the pure joy they are capable of bringing.
What our reviewer said “Performing in the round, they take and switch positions behind a gossamer projection screen that initially seems like some kind of shield. As it turns out, no such protection is needed. This is not a fragile re-emergence.” Stephen Phelan
Further reading Their Eras tour? Radiohead play career-spanning set in first concert since 2018