In 2025 a mysterious nightclub popped up in central London, at the site of a former Odeon cinema. It only lasted eight months but appears to be set to return.

We’re talking about Lost, which shut up shop in May 2026 after its lease ran out.

Now, both an Instagram account and website for the returning Lost club have popped up, with a pretty enigmatic message. Well, aside from clearly spelling out the plan is to open in November.

“we have uncovered a city within a city. a 24 hour district in the heart of London. we want to build it with you. no phones. no line up. november 2026,” reads the site.

“missed you. see you soon.”

That’s it. That’s the entire Lost website content for now, aside from a link inviting you to join the “lost list” mailing list, which will no doubt keep you informed on where Lost will actually live. And when its opening date will land.

But where could this “24 hour district” be? There are relatively few legit 24-hour venues in the capital — let alone a mini city’s worth of them.

If, like most folks, you never got to visit Lost first time around, it was not like your average club.

No phones allowed, you couldn’t buy tickets beforehand online and there was no traditional advertising. Phones get locked up in a bag while you’re there, totally changing the vibe of the dance floor.

But, yeah, that does mean if you lose your friends, there’s a good chance you might struggle to find them again.

It’s worth having a watch of dj_theot’s review of the experience from last year.

He talks about how some of the Odeon’s old screening rooms were still used as chillout zones, projecting films onto the wall.

We’re probably not going to get exactly the same thing this time around. But if you want something a little different from London’s club scene, Lost is one to keep bookmarked.

• Four London Nightclubs have just been named some of the best in the world

Looking for something nourishing but mildly creepy to do ahead of Halloween in London? The Barbican’s “ghost tours” begin tomorrow, 1st October.

The Barbican After Dark tours dig into the history of the building, which — despite only opening in 1982 — apparently has quite the history attached.

“Beneath the Barbican lies nearly two thousand years of history: Roman forts, burial grounds, plague pits, fire, war and ruin. The Barbican isn't simply built on history. It's built over it,” reads the website.

The tours last around 75 minutes and, consistent with the title and theme, they only take place later in the day. Early tour days have slots at 6pm and 8pm, but as the nights draw in, earlier slots start to open up, to as early as 4pm.

“Join us after dark for an atmospheric walking tour exploring the site's hidden past and the unexplained experiences reported by Barbican staff. Hear stories of mysterious voices, fleeting figures, unexplained noises and strange encounters in spaces that feel very different once the building falls silent,” is the spooky pitch for the tour.

You end up in the Library Stack Rooms, the most obvious history-filled space amid all that brutalists architecture.

The tour also takes in the Pit theatre, found at the very bottom of the building. You may have visited it if you’ve taken in a smaller show at the Barbican — it seats a 150-odd audience.

With these tours on our doorstep, some of the early dates are — no surprise here — sold out. But you can still get a slot within the next handful of days if you opt to visit midweek or during one of the 6pm sessions.

Tickets cost £26.50 including fees, while members can buy at a reduced £20 rate.

• South London cinema to be replaced by a church — and the locals are not happy

Earlier this week we told you about an upcoming mountaineering VR experience. Prefer something more fantastical? A much larger Alice in Wonderland immersive treat is heading to London within weeks.

Alice Immersive Wonderland doesn't rely on virtual reality at all, instead inhabiting a big chunk of the Dock X warehouse space by Canada Water. It’s spread over 26,000 square feet, split into ten environments representing key parts of the Alice in Wonderland story.

It’s expected to last up to two hours, although your experience will vary based on how fast you barrel through the rooms — and no doubt the mood on the day of any youngsters involved.

Some of the key scenes include the Mad Hatter’s tea party, the Cheshire Cat’s forest home, and the rabbit hole itself. The experience finale is a 20-minute 360-degree projection, which explores “identity, imagination and reality” according to the event designers.

While bringing the story to life is a big part of the appeal for kids, there’s an educational angle here too. A mini museum area will look into the historical context Lewis Carrol lived in, that of Victorian Britain.

Presale access for Alice Immersive Wonderland begins on 6th October, at 10am, and you merely have to sign up at the website to get on-board.

Tickets will start at £26 for adults, £19 for children aged 4+. There will also be a premium Mad Hatter Experience package, which includes a gift bag, fast-track entry, a treasure hunt map and a food/drink combo — we don’t have pricing for this yet.

Alice Immersive Wonderland opens on 13th November and is currently scheduled to run until 16th May, 2027. It is not just here in the run-up ’til Christmas.

The experience is designed by Cites Immersives, which current has experiences running in Paris themed around Viking and Fontaine’s Fables.

• A huge new immersive experience from the producers of Boomtown is heading to London
  

Rachel Zegler, Broadway baby and Hollywood star, is officially coming back to London for a new show.

If securing a Golden Globe, an Olivier Award, and a Critics Choice by the age of twenty-five wasn’t (sickeningly) impressive enough, Zegler will be performing at the Soho Place theatre for a concert residency that’s “unlike anything she’s done before”. Suck on that, Vegas — you’re not the only place that gets epic residencies anymore.

The actress has described her shows, which will run from January 5th until January 17th, as “her most intimate shows to date”, no doubt putting her “sublime vocals and extraordinary stage presence” in the well-earned spotlight. Anyone who has been to Soho Place Theatre will be familiar with its intimate staging, where the audience is fairly snug with the stage, and it’s laid out so that the audience feels immersed in the production rather than just watching it.

Back to the Big Smoke

Zegler is no stranger to London’s West End, starring in the hit revival of Sir Tim Rice and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita as the lead character, the former first lady of Argentina. The role earned Zegler her first Olivier award. The performance became incredibly popular thanks in part to her rendition of the musical’s most famous number, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, which she performed from the balcony of the Palladium theatre to passers-by on the street. Crowds of excited theatre lovers who couldn’t quite shell out for the full ticket turned up each night. She also appeared in the West End earlier this year, starring as Cathy Hiatt in the musical The Last Five Years, opposite fellow US actor and broadway legend Ben Platt.

Whilst this is a new show, it isn’t the first time Zegler has done a solo concert in the capital’s theatre district; in October 2025, Zegler returned to the Palladium for a one-night-only concert full of story-telling and songs.

This upcoming series of shows mark Zegler’s residency debut, and more details are expected to be revealed soon about the show. On Instagram, the star said she was “so excited” to announce her first ever concert residency.

The concert residency has been produced by Lambert Jackson with musical supervision and arrangements by Adam Hoskins and follows her wildly successful West End debut last year.

Jamie Lambert, the chief executive officer of Lambert Jackson, said: “Being able to bring Rachel back to London, the city that showed her so much love during Evita, her solo shows and The Last Five Years, is a wonderful next step in our partnership.

“We are thrilled to be presenting Rachel in her first residency, a landmark moment for any artist and one which demonstrates the extraordinary connection she has built with audiences.

“It is richly deserved – she is a rare talent.”

Tickets for all 14 performances will be going on sale on Wednesday 30th via Soho Place.

• Ronnie Scott’s is heading to a new London location for a jazz residency this October

A South London Odeon cinemas branch is set to close within weeks, ahead of plans to turn the site into a church.

Odeon Beckenham will close at the end of November, the cinema chain has now confirmed. Its grade-2 listed building was acquired by Citygate Chuch, which currently inhabits the site over the road from the cinema, in July 2026 according to Land Registry records.

Unsurprisingly, many local residents aren’t too keen on the plan.

“Hundreds of you have been in touch,” says local MP Liam Conlon.

“As the MP for Beckenham and Penge, I'm meeting City Gate Church and Odeon next week and want to represent the strength of local feeling about this proposed change.”

Those who would rather see Odeon Becknenham remain open are invited to fill in a form hosted at Action Network.

“I will be reading every response, and putting them to City Gate and Odeon when I meet them – so please do fill out the survey, and share with friends, neighbours, and family,” writes Liam Conlon.

The other side of this drama, Citygate Church, is also holding a consultation at its current church, found at the site of Beckenham’s former post office, on 10th October.

“The proposals seek to return the Art Deco cinema to a single auditorium and uncover the original internal decoration, better revealing the significant features of the listed building,” reads a mailer sent to local residents from Your Shout “on behalf of Citygate Church.”

The site has operated as a cinema since 1930, initially as The Regal Cinema. Over the years it has been run by County Cinemas, Union Cinemas, ABC and Cannon, before Odeon took over the lease in 2000. After that point it was converted into the six screening room space it is today. For now anyway.

Odeon Beckenham offers audience-friendly perks like £5 tickets on Mondays and Silver Cinema screenings intended for the over-60s for just £2.

Citygate Church was investigated by the Charity Commission in 2021 for its investment of almost a £1 million with a Dubai property developer. Lead pastor Julian Melfi was implicated in the findings’ conclusion that “former trustees had demonstrated poor judgement and inadequate decision making.”

“This is serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity over several years,” the summary reads. Melfi is no longer a trustee of the charity.

It doesn’t appear to have stopped Citygate Church from drumming up the funds to take over the “most iconic venue” in the area, though, as MP Lian Conlon puts it.

• The BIG London Cinema List 2026: Film festivals, seasons, Q&As and rep screenings

London’s latest immersive experience opens this week — Everest: The First Ascent.

You’ll don a VR headset and, for around 40 minutes, will get to experience a virtual version of the first ascent of Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It's the famous and historic trek by explorer Edmund Hillary and his guide Tenzing Norgay, from 1953.

“In 1953, Everest was still uncharted territory. Relive the first ascent of Everest, all the way to the summit,” says Eclipso Cultural Adventures, the company behind this experience.

Everest: The First Ascent is a free-roam VR experience. You walk around immersive 3D scenes, which include base camp and a monastery as well as the mountaintop vistas you may already be picturing. It takes place in a 400 square metre set, and there are physical special effects to amp up the immersion factor.

“Cold air, wind, vibration and pressure cues your body reads as real,” reads the website.

Sound up your street/mountainside? The review of Everest: The First Ascent by Immersive Rumours is worth a read, as it goes into a bit more detail than you’ll get from the official website. It'll give you a better idea of what to expect than the wealth of what look a bit like AI-generated images on the official website.

The claim is we get a legit and properly researched view of the historic expedition, with input from Katia Buffetrille, “professor and specialist in the sacred mountains of Tibetan Buddhism.”

“Each sequence has been checked and enhanced to ensure a faithful historical, cultural and human reconstruction,” says Eclipso.

This is the same company that gave us Colosseum: The Legendary Arena, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience and Titanic: Echoes From the Past.

According to Immersive Rumours, this new experience sees the team upgrade their hardware too. It uses Pico 4 Ultra headsets rather Than the HTC Vive ones employed previously, with a 2160 x 2160 display per eye, similar to that of the Meta Quest 3.

Everest: The First Ascent is found at Eclipso London, at 213-219 Camden High Street. It’s right next to Camden Town Underground station.

Adult tickets cost £27.50, kids and students pay £21.50. It’s suitable for ages eight and up. There are also London resident tickets for £22.50 — make sure to bring some form of proof of address for that one.

The earliest slot you can currently book for Everest: The First Ascent is Thursday, 1st October.

• The best exhibitions in London this autumn: From Bayeux to Picasso and America’s scientific history

We now know who will direct the next major instalment of the Star Wars movie saga: Jon Watts.

This will be the first film in a trilogy written by Simon Kinburg, whose writing credits include X-Men: Days of Future Past, Star Wars: Rebels and Sherlock Holmes. You can never assume plans will become reality in the Star Wars universe anymore, but will this presumably be the next major Star Wars cinematic arc.

Jon Watts’s directing credits include Star Wars TV series Skeleton Crew, the one starring Jude Law and a bunch of kids. And, on the film side, a trio of super-successful Spider-Man movies, with Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home. The man has big box office history.

• EXCLUSIVE: Nick Frost on the secrets behind his new Star Wars: Skeleton Crew character

Before you get too invested, this one has apparently not had the official greenlight from Disney, according to Deadline. That means it’s years away, and judging by how things are going within Star Wars, may end up quietly canned.

But this could be a biggie. The trilogy is expected to see the return of Rey, played by Daisy Ridley in the three main line Star Wars sequel trilogy films released between 2015 and 2019.

News of this trilogy surfaced in 2024, in the era of Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership of Lucasfilm. Arch Star Wars nerd Dave Filoni took over the job in 2026, to act as president alongside Lynwen Brennan.

Since 2019 the series has only seen one major new cinema release, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu. It did not make a profit at cinemas. While not a true box office disaster like Supergirl, horror flick Obsession earned far more despite being R/18 rated and being made for — according to reports — less than a million dollars. Bit embarrassing for the Hollywood execs involved.

The next movie up on the Star Wars schedule is Starfighter, an offshoot tale starring Ryan Gosling as Kade Oberon.

“When a cynical rogue is confronted by his mysterious past, he is hurled into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a crash course with destiny,” reads the official blurb.

In a rare moment of Star Wars clarity, we can say this one is pretty much definitely coming. The main bulk of the film’s shooting took place in mid-late 2025, and Star Wars: Starfighter is due in cinemas on 28th May, 2027.

• The best Star Wars TV shows of all time

Apple Music Hall has only just announced its arrival as a new venue at Battersea Power Station, but it already has one hell of a gig diary.

Apple has announced the first run of artists set to perform at its new 600-capacity London space, with Elton John, Baby Keem, Skye Newman, Troye Sivan, Arlo Parks, Burna Boy, Chase & Status and Charli xcx all booked to take the stage.

And the first name through the door is a pretty big one. Elton John will officially open Apple Music Hall on Monday 28th September, followed by Baby Keem on 2nd October and Skye Newman on 7th October.

The rest of the initial schedule runs through the autumn and into December, with Troye Sivan on 13th October, Arlo Parks on 22nd October, Burna Boy on 29th October, Chase & Status on 26th November and Charli xcx on 2nd December.

Big names incoming

The first three shows are particularly imminent, with tickets for Elton John, Baby Keem and Skye Newman going on sale at 9am BST on Monday 28th September. Yep — tickets for the Elton show are being released the same day as the actual performance itself. Keep in mind that Elton has also retired from large-scale global tour schedules, making this an extremely rare hot ticket.

But refreshingly, the tickets are at very accessible prices — none are listed for more than £40 at present, across all shows.

Tickets for the remaining shows will be released at a later date, with Dice the partnering ticket service to book through.

So what makes Apple Music Hall different from London's other gig venues? For starters, this isn't a massive arena where you'll need binoculars to see the artist. The purpose-built venue holds just 600 people, with Apple specifically designing it to combine the intimacy of a small gig with the production capabilities of a much bigger show.

There's a 38-foot-wide stage that can be rearranged for traditional or in-the-round performances, while a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system surrounds the audience.

Behind the scenes, things get even more Apple-y. The venue has two recording and mixing studios, infrastructure for 16 or more cameras and a dedicated broadcast control room. That means performances can be recorded in Spatial Audio, turned into broadcast-ready productions and captured on multicamera video – all from the same gig. Shows will also be livestreamed globally, so that 600-person capacity doesn't necessarily mean only 600 people get to experience them.

Apple Music Hall might be one of London's smallest new venues – but its ambitions match the scale of the tech giant behind the curtains.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Tom Cruise’s recent press blitz for Digger has seen the reemergence of a seriously weird label.

Have you heard? Apparently, Cruise is ‘the last movie star’.

Setting aside Leonardo Di Caprio for a second, and dismissing the question over what exactly that makes Timothy Chalomet, there’s the small matter of Cruise’s most famous contemporary. If Brad Pitt isn’t the very definition of a movie star, then what are we all even doing?

As it happens, Pitt too has a new film to push. Two, in fact.

First up, from September 24th, there’s Heart of the Beast, directed by David Ayer. In it, Pitt’s special forces veteran is forced to embark on a perilous trek through the Alaskan wilderness, with only his faithful German shepherd Odin for company.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is set to follow later in the year. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher (two frequent Pitt collaborators), it sees the star returning to the role that finally earned him an Oscar back in 2019.

While he got a much later start in the business than Cruise, Pitt has built up an enviable body of work over the decades, encompassing indie favourites and box office crowd pleasers alike.

Throughout the actor’s career there seems to have been a fascinating tension between his obvious leading man looks and a desire to push into more challenging, less flattering territory.

These different sides are well represented in the following list of the best Brad Pitt performances.

8. Thelma and Louise

Given how minor his role is, you might wonder why Pitt’s performance in Ridley Scott’s 1991 drama warrants a place on this list. This was the movie that set a 27-year-old Pitt on a path to rapid superstardom, however, helping the struggling daytime TV star to break into the Hollywood elite. His cocksure wanderer J.D. condenses everything we think of as a quintessential Pitt performance – laid back cool and effortless sexual magnetism with a background hint of deceit and degeneracy – into seven minutes of mesmerising screen time. You’ll be every bit as taken in as Gina Davis’s put-upon housewife.

7. Inglourious Basterds

Regardless of what you think of Quentin Tarantino’s sixth movie – or indeed of Quentin Tarantino movies in general – it can’t be denied that Brad Pitt’s contribution to Inglourious Basterds is quite extraordinary. His Lieutenant Aldo Raine appears to have been plucked straight out of a mid-century comic book – a blunt, chisel-jawed hero with an impossibly thick Tennessee drawl (even when speaking Italian) and an uncompromising drive to kill Nazis. He suits the larger-than-life ahistorical tone perfectly, forming a brash counterpart to Christoph Waltz’s chillingly suave SS colonel Hans Landa.

6. Ocean's Eleven

Anyone who doubts the part of the introduction asserting that Pitt is a bone fide movie star needs to revisit Ocean’s Eleven, and sharpish. In Steven Soderbergh’s impossibly slick heist romp, Pitt’s laconic criminal schemer manages to match George Clooney’s charming lead for pure cool and charisma every meticulous step of the way. Under Pitt’s guidance, Robert "Rusty" Ryan casually glides through the movie’s labyrinthine plot, with equal parts snacking and smouldering. It’s amazing to think that his role didn’t even exist in the 1960 original.

5. Fight Club

It’s at this point in proceedings that we’re going to emphasise the distinction between the best Brad Pitt films and the best Brad Pit performances. Because Fight Club, as influential as it was at the very end of the 20th century, hasn’t aged too gracefully. Its once edgy, counter-cultural appeal feels rather crass and forced as we approach its 30th birthday. Pitt’s performance as the mercurial Tyler Durden, however, continues to impress, thoroughly convincing as both the id of Edward Norton’s nebbish office drone and as a cult leader for disaffected young men.

4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

This is the role that won Pitt his one and only Oscar (to date), scooping him the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as chaotic stunt man Cliff Booth. It’s a role that you can’t imagine anyone else but Pitt playing, combining his effortless laid back cool and weathered good looks with an underlying note of danger and tension. It’s why you’ll just as easily buy his character flirting with a young hippy or fixing an aerial as you will his casually kicking Bruce Lee’s arse or brutally slaughtering a gang of Manson acolytes.

3. 12 Monkeys

Pitt had shown plenty of signs that he was more than just a pretty boy before 1995, but this was the year when he truly arrived as a multi-faceted and genuinely interesting Hollywood actor. As one-two punches go, you don’t get much more impactful than Se7en and 12 Monkeys. The latter role was particularly transformative for the star, seeing our golden boy playing a jittery and erratic psychiatric ward patient. It wasn’t exactly a subtle delivery, but then you don’t expect subtlety from a Terry Gilliam film about a convict sent back in time to stop the apocalypse.

2. Se7en

The first release in Pitt’s annus mirabilis was this bleak and nasty crime thriller – the first of several collaborations between the star and David Fincher. Pitt plays David Mills, a hotheaded young detective tracking a fiendishly intelligent serial killer. His character’s friction with Morgan Freeman’s world-weary partner forms the heart of the movie, while the film’s devilishly clever plot hinges on Pitt’s emotional response during its devastating denouement. Suffice to say, the actor most certainly doesn’t phone it in.

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Andrew Dominik’s 2007 historical drama is a near-perfect film, with impeccable cinematography (Roger Deakins strikes again), soundtrack (from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis), and performances from a talented cast. Nowhere is that latter point more evident than in Brad Pitt’s central take on the real life Wild West bandit, Jesse James. Pitt wholly convinces as a living legend who seems to have been immortalised within his own lifetime – with fateful results, as he encounters Casey Affleck’s awkward and resentful super-fan. It might not have won him any awards, but this was peak Pitt.

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Autumn officially kicks off on 23 September, but you don’t need to consult your meteorological calendar to tell you that. The nights are starting to draw in, and it’s now possible to go out before dinner time without the risk of your shoes melting into the pavement.

Of course, while the ambient temperature might be starting to drop, London’s art scene is really heating up. As well as being able to catch the end of some of our top picks from the summer, the autumn exhibition line-up for the capital is also starting to take shape.

We’ve got a great selection of artistic showcases for you to check out across London during the latter part of the year, some of which are completely free.

With the weather predicted to be both warmer and wetter than usual this autumn, moving between the dry, temperature-controlled venues on this list sounds like a particularly good idea.

And if you manage to capture London on one of its brighter days, we have a couple of outdoors events to help you make the most of it.

Bayeux Tapestry

Where: British Museum
When: September 10th to July 11th
Price: From £25

We seriously ummed and ahhed about including this one, because the simple truth is that if you don’t have tickets already, you’re not getting in to see the Bayeux Tapestry this autumn. More tickets are set to be made available on October 21st (that’s autumn!), but these will be for the winter and early spring (that’s not). Still, the exhibition is technically taking place right now, and the chance to see this 1,000-year-old and 70-metre-long piece of embroidery on home turf makes it one of the hottest tickets in town. Still can’t go? Check out some of these alternatives..

Henry Moore: Monumental Nature

Where: Kew Gardens
When: Until January 31st
Price: Entry to Kew (From £25)

English sculptor Henry Moore gained acclaim across his 70-year career by creating huge, curvaceous sculptures that frequently wound up on display in public spaces across the globe. Kew has assembled 30 of his works, which have been scattered thoughtfully throughout London’s world-famous botanical gardens. There’s also an indoor exhibition at the on-site Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, which showcases 90 of the late artist’s smaller works, including some of his drawings and sketchbooks. All are viewable for the price of a standard Kew Gardens entry ticket.

Es Devlin: Other Worlds

Where: Design Museum
When: October 9th to April 4th
Price: From £21

London-born Es Devlin has designed sets for some of the world’s biggest musical acts (Beyoncé, Adele, Kanye West), sports events, and major theatrical productions. She’s also the creator of large-scale immersive art installations. This Design Museum exhibition will mark the first retrospective in Europe celebrating the artist’s 30-year career, and the largest anywhere to date. It seeks to place you inside of Devlin’s head, starting with a complete replica of her London studio, running through her early sketches and school works, and centring on a large ’30-Year Desk’ that’s been specifically designed for the space.

Tim Walker's Fairyland: Love and Legends

Where: National Portrait Gallery
When: October 8th to January 31st
Price: From £23

Tim Walker first came to prominence as a fashion photographer in the ‘90s, and his work has since appeared in the likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair, and iD. He also supplied the album artwork for Harry Styles’s second album in 2019. His photographic work is known for being extremely theatrical in nature, inspired by fairytales and surreal imagery. This latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery highlights his work around queer identity, with the artist having spent the past five years photographing various activists, performers, artists, and other queer trailblazers.

Korea

Where: British Museum
When: October 1st to January 31st
Price: From £18

Beat those no-Bayeux blues by popping around the corner and checking out The British Museum’s new Korea exhibition, based on works taken from the collection of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee. It’ll take you on a trip through some 2,000 years of artistic output from an East Asian country that’s having a bit of a moment on the global stage, with the oldest pieces (bronze ritual implements) dating back as far as 300 BC. Elsewhere expect luminous ceramics, delicate porcelain objects, and rare Buddhist paintings. It’s the most consequential collection of its kind to hit the UK in 40 years.

Frieze Sculpture

Where: Regent's Park
When: September 16th to November 1st
Price: Free

And now for something completely free. The 14th edition of Frieze Sculpture has arrived in London’s Regent’s Park, with 11 leading international artists supplying works. Wander around this most stately of London’s green spaces this autumn and you’ll spot sculptures from Angelo Otero, Conrad Shawcross, Carolina Aguirre and more. If you’d like further insight into this year’s selection, then curator Fatoş Üstek is offering a one hour free public tour on the last Sunday of the exhibition in the south-east corner of the park at midday.

Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation

Where: The Science Museum
When: October 23rd to April 25th
Price: Free

As the United States of America celebrates 250 years since it declared independence from Great Britain, and with the pre-eminent global superpower enduring a prolonged period of political turmoil, what better time to reflect on the nation’s historical achievements and pitfalls? The Science Museum will be running a free exhibit this autumn containing a number of maps, paintings, instruments and artefacts illustrating America’s scientific endeavours from the 1760s to today – for better and for worse. Among them, an undoubted highlight has to be a rare surviving 1776 print of the Declaration of Independence.

Painting the French Riviera

Where: Royal Academy of Arts
When: October 2nd to January 31st
Price: From £26.50

This ode to the French Riviera features more than 160 works from a number of 19th and 20th century artists that were directly inspired by the region’s azure seas. With works from the likes of Monet, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso, it makes a compelling claim to be central to the development of modern art. Hand in hand with this artistic side, the exhibit also explores how the region became the go-to destination for the great and good of the music and movie scenes in the mid-20th century. Perfect viewing as things become a whole lot greyer in the UK.

• The Barbican has unveiled its 2027 programme – and it’s an artsy tour de force

Though London has plenty of brilliant places to see live music, from tiny pub back rooms to enormous arenas, it’s an area of the capital under fire. For every great venue Londoners can enjoy, there’s a handful more either closed or under threat of closure from rising costs — especially in the grassroots space where up-and-coming artists build a name for themselves outside of record label prep schools.

Entering into the fray is Apple — yes, the Apple behind your iPhone. Having changed the way the world consumes music with the iPod, iTunes, and now purveyor of the Apple Music streaming service, Apple is hoping to carve out a rather different niche with its brand-new Apple Music Hall, which opens this month inside Battersea Power Station.

• 10 best London music venues for seeing unsigned bands

The 600-capacity venue has been designed to bring the intimacy of a small gig together with the production capabilities you'd normally expect from a much larger concert space. And, naturally, because this is Apple we're talking about, there is a serious amount of technology hiding behind the scenes.

Apple Music Hall takes plenty of visual cues from its iconic surroundings, with heritage brickwork, fluted arches and bronze balconies echoing the architecture of Battersea Power Station. It’s slick — this is a venue more in the vein of the Royal Festival Hall or Barbican than, say, the sticky floors of the Brixton Academy.

But it's what's happening behind the stage that makes the new venue particularly interesting.

Small venue, big tech

Apple says the 600-capacity space has been deliberately designed to “close the gap between intimacy and production value”.

The 38-foot-wide stage can be configured for a conventional front-facing performance or an in-the-round setup, while a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system surrounds the audience. That means you could be watching an artist from relatively close range while experiencing the sort of audio and staging production normally associated with a much larger show.

You won’t necessarily need to be in the room to enjoy the performances taking place at Apple Music Hall, either. Behind the stage are two professional recording and mixing studios, allowing performances to be captured as multitrack recordings and mixed in Spatial Audio either during or after the show.

The venue is also wired for 16 or more cameras, feeding into a dedicated broadcast control room. Apple says iPhone video capture can run alongside conventional broadcast cameras, meaning an artist can perform a relatively intimate London gig and leave with a broadcast-ready mix and multicamera footage. It’s all set for capturing a full concert movie, ready to be shared with fans — presumably through Apple’s own platforms.

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The opening also marks something of a return to Apple's long-running relationship with London's live music scene.

Apple previously brought its Apple Music Festival (née iTunes Festival) to venues across London (with a long-standing stint at the Roundhouse). Massive acts like Oasis, Amy Winehouse, Elton John, Coldplay, Charli XCX and dozens more household names played. The line-ups really were impressive.

Apple Music Hall takes that idea in a rather different direction: rather than temporarily taking over an existing venue, Apple now has a permanent London home specifically designed around live performance, recording and broadcasting.

According to Apple Music's global creative director and Apple Music 1 host Zane Lowe, the intention is to make the connection between artists and fans the centre of it.

“We’re always looking for new opportunities to connect the artists and the fans because we are fans,” he said of the opening.

“What better way to celebrate this relationship than a new music venue where we get to experience amazing music in an amazing space and share it with the world. Great music and memories will be made at Apple Music Hall.”

There are still some questions to be answered. Apple has yet to announce the full programme of artists who will take to its new stage, how ticketing will work, and how much shows will cost. Given the company's track record of landing some seriously big names for its London music events, that's the bit we're particularly interested in seeing — could Apple subsidise the cost of seeing the mega-stars it pulls into its orbit? And will there be space for unsigned artists whose live music performance options are dwindling? It’ll be exciting to see how the Battersea spot evolves, but consider us very excited indeed.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Jorja Smith, Charli XCX, Bruno Mars, Raye, Sombr – these are all names you’d usually associate with London’s O2 Arena, but thanks to Wimbledon, tennis legends John McEnroe and Billie Jean King are joining the lineup for a very special evening.

For one afternoon only in June 2027, two of the biggest names tennis has ever produced are heading to London to share some of the stories behind the scenes from their unmatched tennis careers – from first serves to their current broadcasting gigs, and even giving their own thoughts on the current players. The event comes as part of the celebrations for Wimbledon’s 150th anniversary, as well as the O2’s 20th birthday celebrations. Whilst marking milestones for both the home of tennis and the London landmark, they’re not the only not significant birthdays – June 2027 marks 50 years since McEnroe’s Wimbledon debut, and 54 since Billie Jean King won her triple title.

Swapping centre court for centre stage, the pair – who are both notoriously outspoken – will be sharing unfiltered stories from the biggest moments of their lives, from McEnroe's unforgettable Wimbledon finals to King's iconic "Battle of the Sexes" win over Bobby Riggs – immortalised in film by Steve Carrell and Emma Stone. Billed as "a spoken word event”, according to the organisers, it is set to be "a unique matinee event quite unlike any other."

Billie Jean King, the sports icon and equality champion who captured a record 20 Wimbledon championships, and John McEnroe the man with the most combined singles and doubles titles on the ATP Tour, and the voice of tennis, didn’t just win at the top of tennis - they changed the sport – and with a staggering 56 Grand Slam titles between them. And now they're coming together at London's O2.

Whether you’re a die hard tennis fan or not it’s a pretty rare opportunity to hear two Hall of Fame legends reflecting on the lessons of a lifetime spent competing at the very top – and hopefully a fair bit of Wimbledon gossip too.

Speaking about the gig, King said: “Anytime John and I get together, it is a lively and engaging conversation and I am looking forward to being part of The O2’s twentieth anniversary season,”

“Tennis has given both John and me a wonderful platform for our lives and it will be fun to share stories that take the audience behind the curtain into the real world of our careers.”

Meanwhile, McEnroe said: “I am really looking forward to coming to London for a first time ever show with Billie Jean King. She is not only the most influential person in the history of Women’s Sports, but also my good friend and a living legend."

Tickets will go on general sale on Friday 25 September 2026, with O2 Priority, LTA & AELTC Pre-Sale happening on Tuesday 22 September 2026. Tickets will cost between £56 and £541. You can browse more information and tickets here.

• The O2 marks 20 years with anniversary shows and first 2027 headliner announced

London is not short of culture – just in the last year the city has been peppered with dozens of big hitting names from exhibitions on Frida Kahlo to a Seurat special, and not forgetting the big wig Bayeux Tapestry which has set foot thread on British soil for the first time in decades. After the Tate’s announcement of a huge new Monet exhibition in 2027, and the National Theatre pulling out all the stops (i.e. huge names) for their respective 2027 slates, there was a fair bit of pressure on London’s Barbican for its own upcoming programme – and it didn’t disappoint.

The Barbican has announced its 2027 art programme, which includes the hip happenings of exhibitions inside the Barbican Art Gallery, The Curve gallery, The Barbican Lakeside Gallery and the Sculpture Court. Which as you can imagine requires a fair bit of art to fill up. Just because some of the Barbican will be closing for renovations (even giving away free plant cuttings from its conservatory), they’re not holding back on pulling out the artsy bells and whistles for its other areas. Currently, the 2026 programme is set to wrap up its run in February 2027 with the exhibition Robert Ryman: The Real Thing.

In short, it’s a lot of fashion, specifically high and flamboyant fashion that will be giving the Barb a glow up.

Barbican 2027 Visual Arts Programme at a glace:

• EXHIBITION Dayanita Singh – March – May 2027
• EXHIBITION Characters of Fashion – April–August 2027
• PUBLIC COMMISSION Ximena Garrido-Lecca, May – August 2027
• EXHIBITION Magdalene Odundo, September 2027 – January 2028
• PUBLIC COMMISSION Rosa Barba, September 2027 – January 2028
• EXHIBITION: Alice Adams, October 2027 – February 2028

Characters of Fashion will be taking over the Art Gallery, charting fascinating relationships with literature, this major exhibition explores fashion from an interdisciplinary perspective, showcasing a wide array of authors and designers. This will be kicking off on April 15th and running until late August 2027. It follows on from last year’s landmark exhibition Dirty Looks, and will use the lens of clothing, previously unexplored facets about the intimate lives of authors and their characters come to life, spotlighting literary voices from Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Virginia Woolf to James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Jean Rhys. The exhibition will explore how acclaimed authors have used clothing as a way of exploring interior worlds and developing characters, and as a tool for self-fashioning their own image.

Before that lands, a new exhibition from New Delhi artist Dayanita Singh who will be taking over The Curve, transforming it into a shifting landscape of images, reflecting the impact of Indian classical music on her five-decade long practice. The exhibition will feature several of the artist’s portable museums—modular display structures made of teak—including Ustad Museum (2025), Museum of Tanpura (2021) and Musicians’ Bus (2021), shown alongside new work. Through these structures, described by Singh as ‘mobile, organic and changing’, a selection of photographs from her archive will fill the Barbican’s 90-metre-long gallery.

Straight on its heels will be an exhibition from Ximena Garrido-Lecca which will be taking place at the Sculpture Court from 6th May until 1st August. It’s a huge new public commission marking the Peruvian artist’s first solo presentation in the UK. The installation will combine the plant as botanical organism and industrial processing system in a sculptural infrastructure exploring the colonial legacies and contemporary impact of extraction. Which is set to be pretty striking thanks to the Brutalist backdrop of the Barb.

Another first in terms of solo presentations will be heading to the Lakeside Gallery in September 2027, with Kenyan artist Magdalene Odundo exhibiting. It will be heading to the Barbican’s new Lakeside Gallery, home last year to the critically acclaimed Encounters: Giacometti series. The exhibition will present Odundo’s poetic exploration of the ceramic vessel as an elemental form that resonates across time, geographies, and cultures. Taking gestures from everyday life as dynamic cues, Odundo’s vessels have a bodily presence, their forms evoking swelling bellies, swaying torsos and gaping mouths. Considering the human body as a vessel itself, Odundo sees her own body as a channel for transforming her thoughts into clay.

Rosa Barba at the Barbican Foyer is next up on the docket and it's set to be an expansive installation, bringing together cinematic and kinetic sculptural works – using a newly commissioned 35 mm film will be projected onto the Barbican’s iconic architecture. Concluding the 2027 visual arts programme is an exhibition by Alice Adams, a retrospective which will introduce audiences to her experimental tapestries of the 1950s and architectural sculpture of the 1970s to the work she continues to make today, at the age of 95.

You can find more information about each of the exhibitions at the Barbican's website.

• Oasis confirm 2027 world tour: Here's how to definitely (maybe) get tickets

MobLand crash landed onto our screens last year, transforming national treasures Pierce Brosnan, Tom Hardy and Hellen Mirren into the narcotics dealing, trigger happy Harrigan clan, dealing out gawp-worthy one-liners and a whole lot of violence.

Well, violence à la exec producer Guy Ritchie, which usually means a helping of crash, bang and wallop, followed by a witty quip or two. Now, the Harrigans are back, and more blood thirsty than ever.

Season two picks up right after a calamitous finale, with the Harrigans – led by Brosnan as Conrad and Mirren as Maeve – struggling to show a unified front as rising rivals (including big wig Kat McAllister) threaten their fractured criminal empire. Harry Da Souza (Hardy), as their street-smart and formidable 'fixer', must walk a dangerous tightrope when tensions within the family intensify. As violence spills into every corner of their lives, loyalties snap, safety proves temporary, and the battle for power leaves no room for mercy.

Ahead of the new season landing on Paramount Plus on Friday 18th September, we sat down with Tom Hardy, Joanne Froggatt, Johnny Flynn, Anson Boon, Mandeep Dhillon, Lara Pulver, and Teddie Allen to hear about their favourite lines, co-star reunions, and potential cinematic crossovers.

SL: Congrats on S2! In episode one we see a quick cameo from Amir El Masry, reunited with former co-star Pierce Brosnan. But if you could reunite with a former co-star for a scene in MobLand, who would you pick to join the (under)world?

Joanna Froggatt: Oh easy, Dame Maggie Smith, sadly no longer with us but amazing

Johnny Flynn: Aimee Lou Wood is fab, she would be good.

Lara Pulver: [to Johnny] You’ve already just worked with Helen Mirren.

Johnny Flynn: Yeah, last time I worked with Helen she played my dying mother in a very sensitive, weepy film, and here she was causing chaos so that was a trip.

Lara Pulver: Do you think David Morrisey would come in as some kind of Policeman? Get a Scouser.

Anson Boon: I reckon Stephen Graham would be a good Scouse gangster to bring into the mix.

Teddie Allen: I worked with Andrew Scott when I was little and I feel like he’d be such a good villain.

Mandeep Dhillon: I’d bring back Daniel Betts, who played Brenden in season 1. I loved my scenes with him.

Tom Hardy: Scroobius Pip should have been in the first and the second [series] and I hope he’s in the third.

SL: There are so many brilliant one liners in MobLand. Do you have any favourite lines from season two? Any you were jealous your character didn’t get to say?

Anson Boon: There’s a line which cracked me up from the third or fourth episode, when the Harrigan’s new lawyers come round, and the female lawyer is getting on a bit too well with Conrad, and Maeve stands up and goes “Alright Meryl, you’ve had your moment, your Oscar's in the post”.

Johnny Flynn: I have to say I think I got all the best lines. I can only remember mine because I got so many good ones. I’m particularly mean to Kevin — there’s a line when he rings another character and I go “what does she want?”, I like that one.

Lara Pulver: You got so many, your episode three is full of them. Maeve always gets good ones, “f*cking google us” is a great one in the opening episode.

SL: There's a great scene with Pierce Brosnan and Emmett J. Scanlan having a quick pep talk in the bathroom — which makes a nice change from gun fights for a minute. If you had to have a bathroom pep talk before doing something important, which co-star do you think would give you the best one

Johnny Flynn: Tom – yeah he’s got a lot at his fingertips to drawn on, then it pulls together into this calm, “you’ve got this”.

Teddie Allen: I feel like Tom’s got the voice though to really lock you in.

Lara Pulver: Tom intellectualises stuff on a whole new level that my brain doesn’t even operate at so I always sit back in awe. And then he’ll throw in a Shakespearean reference and I’ll just nod in awe at where his brain has gone

Anson Boon: Dame Helen Mirren, easy.

Mandeep Dhillon: Oh, she’d fire you right up!

SL: Which National Treasure do you think would make a good mob boss?

Johnny Flynn: Stephen Fry.

Teddie Allen: Claudia Winkleman.

Lara Pulver: NOT Alan Carr. Celia Imrie would be hilarious – why are we all going down the Traitors route?

SL: Sort of feels like the closest thing we've got...

Johnny Flynn: Claudia Winkleman, she’d be good – hiding an AK-47 underneath that fringe. David Attenborough?

Anson Boon: I would be very surprised but how cool would it be if Sir David Attenborough turned around and was like “hey, guess what”... If we're talking national treasures go right in at the top, he’s amazing.

Lara Pulver: I’d tune in.

Johnny Fynn: That being his final show...

Anson Boon: Or Gemma Collins?

Mandeep Dhillon: Gemma Collins would be Incredible!

SL: Which show do you think would be cool for MobLand to have a 'cinematic crossover' episode with?

Johnny Flynn: I’d wanna see The Simpsons take on MobLand.

Lara Pulver: I thought you were gonna say The Sopranos?

Johnny Flynn: If they were still making it, Sopranos would make sense.

Lara Pulver: Dynasty!! Helen Mirren could have a cock-off with Joan Collins.

Mandeep Dhillon: I think mine would be The Gentleman.

Teddie Allen: I thought about this the other day, but The Gentleman would be cool – I feel like it isn’t that unfeasible, both in the Guy Ritchie world….

Anson Boon: Love Island!

SL: Who from Mobland would go on Love Island?

*everyone points at Anson*

Teddie Allen: I don’t think he [his character, Eddie] would be very popular with the public...

SL: He'd be prime Casa Amor territory wouldn't he?

Anson Boon: Could you imagine, Eddie as a bombshell?!

Tom Hardy: Shameless?

Joanne Froggatt: Shameless would be good

Tom Hardy: Or Downton

Joanne Froggatt: Could you imagine? Mobland x Downton

Tom Hardy: I'd watch that

Joanne Froggatt: The fourth movie that we weren't going to make

MobLand season two will air on Paramount Plus on Friday 18th September.

• "There’s nothing better than a bacon sandwich": Will Poulter talks cooking, acting and working with the kids food charity Magic Breakfast

Douglas Booth has spent his entire life in the limelight, a teen acting prodigy first seen in Julian Fellow's film From Time to Time and the BBC's adaptation of Great Expectations opposite Gillian Anderson before catching the eye of Hollywood. His leading-man-good-looks has seen him act opposite Miley Cyrus in LOL, Sam Claflin in cult fave The Riot Club, and Emma Watson in Darren Aronofsky's Noah. But he'd give it all up for a quiet life. "Sometimes I look at my gardener and think: that looks like a nice life," he tells Shortlist as he settles down for a pint in our Pub Corner.

But that spotlight is going to be squarely back on the star this autumn, as he takes on one of his most challenging roles yet, starring as s DI Tom Radley, the partner to Michelle Keegan’s wily DI Emma Crane in ITV's new twisty thriller The Blame.

Based on the novel by Charlotte Langley, The Blame follows a local police investigation following the discovery of the body of a young figure skater in a quiet town. What starts as a disappearance quickly turns into a twisted chase through police corruption, cover-ups, and the shocking choke-hold institutionalised misogyny has on the truth. It's up to Crane to get to the bottom of it.

In between solving crimes and dismantling the patriarchy, Douglas popped into our favourite The Lucky Saint pub in Marylebone for a couple of ice cold IPAs to chat about the new show, his favourite roles, memories of Maggie Smith – and spilling the tea on getting starstruck by superstar chef Yotam Ottolenghi earlier in the day.

Shortlist: Cheers!

Douglas Booth: Cheers! Been looking forward to this all day.

SL: Your new show on ITV, The Blame is based on a great book by Charlotte Langley. Having wrapped this adaptation, is there any book you would like to adapt for the big screen yourself?

DB: I just finished reading a book called Lazar and it's a multigenerational story about a family in the Austrian Hungarian Empire.

It takes them from the beginning of the Empire all the way through until the 50s. It goes through both world wars, it covers the Soviet rule and it's just all about humanity really, and... I want to say generational trauma. That makes it sound kind of heavier than it is, but just generational trauma passed down and watching how each generation affects the next generation, on and on, with all these different backdrops through history.

I read it on holiday and absolutely loved it. It is written beautifully by [Nelio Biedermann]. I would love to adapt that so if there's a producer out there doing that right now I would play any one of those parts.

SL: Or all of them, a one man show! The Blame is quite an intense police drama, but do you have a go-to comfort watch?

DB: I'm trying to avoid saying a really boring thing, but football I find very comforting in the background. Also I just demolished the UK version of Love is Blind with my wife. I did Below Deck during Covid, and then I think my brain rotted out of my ears and I had to stop – but particularly like the Mediterranean one, with Captain Sandy.

SL: Yes Captain Sandy! I loved Ben too, Chef Ben from season one

DB: Yes! We had a crazy holiday once... where were we? We were somewhere with friends and we had this really drunk idea before New Year to try and hire Ben as a chef – it didn’t come to fruition, sadly, but he's crazy.

SL: It seems reality TV is especially good if you need a palette cleanser whilst watching – and filming – an intense drama?

DB: That's what we do. We've been watching DTF St Louis – it’s a comedy so it wasn't too intense but you'd watch that and then you’d be at the threshold because I mean it was fairly stressful. When he was behind the blinds watching that stuff happen... Wild people are freaky.

SL: You and Michelle in The Blame are a great duo, and you’ve had an incredible co-star history – wasn’t your first ever gig working with Maggie Smith?

DB: Yeah, my first ever film had Maggie Smith in it and I remember sitting at the read through and Dominic West was there, Timothy Spall and Maggie Smith were there – I was only 16 years old, didn't know what I was doing, couldn't act.

I sat there and Timothy Spall's phone went off during the read through and Maggie just turned and went “another voice over?”. It was very funny – she could just do that, but with a real sense of humour. It was amazing to work with her. I've been very lucky to have some great co-stars and Michelle is definitely one of the best.

SL: If you could have had a guest star cameo in The Blame, who would you cast?

DB: I’d call on an old friend — Ray Winstone. We've worked together twice and he's one of my ultimate favourite actors to work with and to watch on screen. Ray is an absolute gentleman, he's one of the nicest people I've ever worked with.

I'd also want to cast him as a detective because I always feel like he's playing a criminal. I would love to be reunited with him because I worked with him on Great Expectations and I worked with him on Noah and he really looked after me. I remember I got to New York for the first day, I was there all on my own away from my family, I was only like 20 – the phone rings and he goes, "Dougie, it's Ray. I'm taking you out." And I was just like, "I love you so much." And then, we walked down to this sushi restaurant downtown and he was like “this street in the 70s, you wouldn't walk down here”.

He just gave me a tour of the whole of New York and just looked after me for six months. So I love him and he still texts me happy birthday every year.

SL: Jealous. Speaking of filming in glamorous places, whereabouts did you film The Blame?

DB: We filmed which was amazing because you don't get to shoot shows like this very often in London. So that was a real pleasure.

Obviously there's there's a lot of heavy themes and subject matter — you know, dealing with misogyny and institutional corruption. But we found time to have lots of fun. Michelle is famously one of the nicest people in television and she's genuinely really fun – and she's a big quiz quizzer. So you’d walk into the police detective boardroom, she'd be there with a marker and a whiteboard and she'd have the whole crew doing this general knowledge quiz.

SL: You’re a London local too – any favourite spots you like to go to?

DB: Well, I mean there's one that I probably shouldn't say because there's only seven seats and it's a place called Sushi Tetsu – I love it so much, but I actually haven't been in 5 years because I can't get in! I actually have on my phone like my mum, my wife, and then I have Sushi Tetsu. I used to do this thing where they had cancellations and I had a whole Twitter account set up just to follow the restaurant to see if they had a last minute cancellation.

I love Rovi, which is a Yotam Ottolenghi restaurant, actually. And I saw Ottolenghi earlier today and I was really starstruck. Brat I love too, but I’d always go for the steak over the turbot.

For a more everyday one, I love Dusty Knuckle. Their potato bread is insane, their sandwiches on a weekend – egg, chili, cheese vibe is just [**chef’s kiss gesture**], and their feta pastry!

SL: It sounds like you had a great time on The Blame, but were there any days that didn’t quite go to plan?

DB: You can be the judge of whether it's funny or not – it was wasn't very funny for me when it happened on this job but I was doing this eight page interrogation scene, we were breaking for lunch and I had a bit of a headache. So I go into my bag and normally I have ibuprofen just tucked on the inside zip up bit.

Went in, got the ibuprofen out, popped it, took two, I look at the packet and it's Nytol!

I'm like, 'What the actual f**k, then I was like, oh my god. Oh my god!'

I already felt like I was about to pass out, so I was imagining have to go back and do another five, six hours of filming while also going to sleep, so I made myself sick.

That was my big work fail, I was like half naked outside yelling 'help' – I didn't actually tell anyone because I was I was so embarrassed. Taking Nytol instead of an ibuprofen...

SL: It’s great seeing you play a policeman in The Blame – something you’ve not done before. And you’ve never been ‘typecast’ – you’ve been a flirty fairy in Sandman, you’ve done sci-fi, Western, drama. Is there anything still on the hitlist?

DB: I would love to work with Paul Thomas Anderson, I mean, every actor probably says that.

SL: Is there a current TV show you’d love to join?

DB: I love Severance. I'd love to be in Severance, but I also think maybe watching it is more fun than being in it? I just want to work with great people on good scripts.

SL: Is there anything you could picture yourself doing career-wise if you weren’t an actor?

DB: Sometimes I look at my gardener and think: that looks like a nice life. Otherwise, I’d love to do something on the water. I love boats and just anything to do with being on the water – maybe a pirate, I’d like to do that. Growing up I wanted to play Captain Jack Sparrow's son. Growing up, I just loved Pirates of Caribbean movies as a kid.

The Blame starts this Sunday 20th September on ITV1 and ITVX.

It seems somewhat ironic that the director of The Pete Doherty show - the ramshackle yet surprisingly wholesome new YouTube series fronted by the storied musician alongside comedian co-host Josh Pugh - came to the production fresh from a stint on 24 Hours In Police Custody.

For large stretches of his early career, The Libertines frontman would have been far more likely to pop up on the former programme. Yet now, clean for more than half a decade, living with his wife and daughter in rural France, and managing to hold down several bands simultaneously, Doherty’s pivot to beloved British institution is one of modern pop culture’s most unexpected redemption arcs.

The Pete Doherty Show acts as still-fairly-chaotic proof of his considerable charms. Filmed over five days, predominantly in Doherty’s former home of Margate where The Libertines’ recording studio The Albion Rooms still sits, it finds Doherty and Pugh interviewing guests from the sublime (a sing-song with old bandmate Carl Barat) to the ridiculous (Natalie Cassidy trying to play the Eastenders’ theme tune on a trumpet).

In between are clips of Doherty jumping in the Kent sea, messing about in the studio, and attempting to lead Pugh in a guerilla meditation session on the beachfront. Regular snippets of the first episode, featuring a guest spot from comedian Ivo Graham, are taken up with trying to figure out the question at the crux of the matter: what actually is this?

“That was just how it was edited, they weren't supposed to put those bits in,” Doherty pipes up, speaking to Shortlist from a Belfast dressing room where he’s currently on tour with his other reformed band, Babyshambles.

“It was just us desperately scrambling around for someone who might have the faintest idea what the fuck we were supposed to be doing.” Has he not harboured long-held dreams of hosting a TV show?

“Absolutely not, I was dragged in, kicking and screaming pretty much,” he jokes.

“I wasn’t really sure I wanted to be doing a podcast called The Pete Doherty Show, but I wanted to meet Josh because I’m a fan. It was the blind leading the blind,” he continues, an amused look forming, “quite literally!”

The conversation carries on for a few moments. “Just to add to the blind leading the blind thing,” Doherty clarifies, “Josh plays international men's football for the England blind team, just so you know.”

"It's just instinct"

It’s this sort of whimsical commitment to the bit that’s central to The Pete Doherty Show’s appeal. The loose framework allows its titular star to wander off down whatever trains of thought he might stumble upon, such as the truly insane tale of being held hostage in a Russian bunker that appears in Episode One. Doherty is clearly enjoying himself.

“Pete knows what he's doing, he's a born entertainer,” says Pugh. “It's just instinct, that stuff, and it's wanting to make people laugh - that’s the biggest thing. He’s got a glint in his eye that you can see. You can tell when he’s doing something, it's all just genuine.”

“We want to make people laugh because, you know, you can't tickle yourself,” the musician says sagely.

“It’s scientifically impossible. Hopefully that gets in the show somewhere because I said it about 11 times over the course of the week and I swear it got a laugh at some point. It's quite an interesting scientific fact though, that you cannot physically tickle yourself to the point of laughter…”

Doherty might not be able to tickle himself, but everyone else involved seems appropriately amused. In one social media preview clip, Doherty asks ‘disgraced’ ‘90s TV presenter Richard Bacon if he ever snorted cocaine off the Blue Peter tortoise. In another, he spends an interview with Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson shouting random Mods lyrics at him, out of context.

“Jason comes over as a class warrior, with these angry, vicious lyrics about everyone in society, so I thought I'd like to shout out random lyrics of his, just shout ‘TIT RIFLE!’,” Doherty muses.

“He liked that, I think it put him off guard a bit because he's not actually the sort of bloke that goes around shouting ‘tit rifle’. He's just imitating some obnoxious bloke in the pub. But of course, when you first hear him on stage, he is just going ‘tit rifle!’”

The boys in the bands

At the end of each episode is a live performance from one of the artists on Doherty’s record label Strap Originals, filmed at Margate’s Dalby Cafe - the scene of the musician’s now-legendary big breakfast challenge.

“There was a Canadian bloke that did two full platters in a row,” Doherty tells us, “and [the cafe owner] bet two grand he wouldn't be able to do it because he was so sure that no man, especially a slightly-built fellow from Canada, would be able to wolf down 400 pounds of gluten.”

This time round, the treats are firmly in musical form, with a blistering set from Black Country duo Gans kicking the series off.

“We put that at the end so, even if people are fast-forwarding through, they've got to at least get there,” Pugh says. “You know like in a supermarket where they've got the bread and milk right at the back of the shop?”

A section of one episode is also dedicated to Doherty and Pugh trying to write the show’s theme tune: a scrappy, punky number that manages, impressively, to rhyme “voodoo” and “YouTube”.

“Even if I do say so myself, that’s a great lyric,” Doherty nods. “What you'd pay for that experience, people would absolutely love to do what I've done there,” Pugh grins of his drumming contribution.

There’s a genuine camaraderie between the pair that comes through even on two separate zoom screens. Quipping about the influence of Tony Hancock (“Pete Doherty’s Half Hour would have been a no-brainer title…”), Doherty clearly has comedy bones in him; a genuinely decent drummer, Pugh is visibly delighted to be around the show’s musical guests. There’s a haphazard charm and a mutual enjoyment to the whole production that’s the absolute antithesis of most polished YouTubers trying to sell their brand before people even know what it is. Instead, Pete and Josh don’t really know either, but they’re having a right old laugh figuring it out.

“Specifically, for a long time now, I've noticed that there aren't any shows where you see me and Josh interviewing people,” Doherty decides of the gap in the market he’s trying to fill.

“Yeah, there's been a real dearth of that over the last 20 years,” Pugh nods.

“I feel it's a beautiful template for something that could be a bit of a cult favourite,” the musician concludes.

From a big breakfast to The Big Breakfast, The Pete Doherty Show is bringing loose, lovable anarchy back to the chat show: it’s well worth raising a cuppa to.

• 50 years of Punk: A Shortlist celebration

Even if you’re an art luddite and the closest you got to galleries was watching reruns of Art Attack on CBBC, you’ll probably be au fait with Monet. The French painter pops up everywhere from Parisian Galleries to Emily in Paris (his work that is, not him, although what a cameo that would be). London’s Tate Modern however has never hosted a solo exhibition dedicated to Monet – until now.

After 26 years welcoming in both art aficionados, school trips and people finding a free spot to shelter from the rain, the Tate Modern has confirmed a huge new exhibition featuring 60 paintings from the French Impressionist painter. The exhibition comes in time with the 100th anniversary since the artist’s death, and it will be the UK’s biggest display of his work in almost a decade.

The landmark Monet exhibition was teased back in March when it appeared on the Tate’s 2027 programme. Now, we finally have more details, including its opening date and the sheer scale of the exhibition. It will be opening up 25th February and running until 27th June.

According to the Tate, it will “bring together breathtaking paintings from lenders across the globe, including rarely seen works from private collections” meaning you could be gawping at rarely seen works and adding a new layer of smugness to your cultural conversations (boasting) at the office. The exhibition centres on Monet’s profound and evolving relationship with time. According to the Tate, in the collection, we see how he echoed the rapid pace of modern life by capturing the fleeting, instantaneous ‘impressionist’ moment, through works such as Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877). We are also shown, in celebrated series such as Poplars on the Epte (1891–1897), Monet’s attempts, through variations of the same subject, to capture a specific, transient instant in time. It will also explore the artist’s “enduring relationship with nature and how, as a subject in perpetual movement, it shifts with the passing years and seasons.”

Based mainly in France, Monet worked from around 1860 until his death in 1926, living through an era which saw the rise of railways, industrialisation, the modern city, and the adoption of standardised timekeeping, all of which massively influenced his work. Drawing on new research, the show explores how Monet responded to these seismic changes through his work. Whilst he’s known as a founder of impressionism, his influence is also central to modernism, and his portrayal of the natural world as he saw it around him still has huge influence today.

Although it won’t be opening until late February, tickets are already on sale, priced at £26, although it’s free for Tate members, with the usual £5 tickets if you’re 25 and under. You can find out more and book tickets via the Tate Modern's website.

• Oasis confirm 2027 world tour: Here's how to definitely (maybe) get tickets

It’s hard to imagine a gallery dedicated to one of Britain’s biggest designers as one in need of a little revamp and touch up but that is exactly what Walthamstow’s William Morris Gallery has done. The east London spot which has been closed across summer (for said revamp, not because they gave themselves a maximum working temperature) is unveiling a rehang of its major collection.

The gallery is homed over Walthamstow’s Water House – a Grade II* listed Georgian pad which backs onto the expansive and lush Lloyd Park. A young Morris actually lived in the building between 1848 and 1856, so it’s only fitting that it’s the home of his largest collection of work. The unveiling ties in with 130 years since the designer’s death, and the new style has been created alongside Sam Jacob Studio.

Whilst the gallery is undergoing a glow-up, it’s not a complete overhaul, with the newly revamped galleries keeping their beloved staples, like the Morris-own wallpaper and designs in its decor. There will be a couple of new additions alongside the traditional pieces, including some of Morris’ earliest works.

The new spaces have been devised with local residents and local community groups, with a focus on feeling more welcoming, accessible and homely, championing stories which haven’t had the spotlight they deserved. One of these is celebrating May Morris – William’s daughter who was also a designer and ran the gang’s embroidery biz. Joining her in the exhibitions will be pieces examining the influence of South Asian and Islamic art, looking at how it influenced Morris’ own work, through motifs, patterns and blocking.

Excitingly for art nerds fans, there will be plenty of items that have been kept firmly under wraps until now. Pieces like Morris’s original Hammersmith Socialist League banner will be heading to the gallery (on loan from Manchester), alongside his personal copy of beloved book One Thousand and One Nights (a collection of folklore and fairy tales from the Middle East) which heavily inspired his writing and love for Asian decorative arts. These aren't the only new additions to the gallery, as an entirely brand-new space called Morris Today is set to open in 2027. It will be a dedicated hub for contemporary artists to put their own spin on Morris' original ideas, with wood-turners, glass blowers, and furniture makers coming together to create and share their work. This will open alongside a major new exhibition which will explore and celebrate 200 years of British art and activism, called Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK.

Essentially a lot of newness is heading to the gallery, with new exhibitions, new artworks, and even a new space, so it's good news for anyone who loves a good gawp and a lovely (and fancy) house. And a gift shop, obviously there's a great gift shop.

• Oasis confirm 2027 world tour: Here's how to definitely (maybe) get tickets

Oasis have officially announced another huge global tour. After a good old tease across socials, the band have confirmed Live 27.

Registration has already opened for a chance to get tickets, and strict rules are already in place which is no surprise given the absolute stampede (and online queues) it took to secure spots for Live 25. Registration for a chance to buy tickets for all the 38 live shows across UK, Ireland, Mainland Europe and US is open now. However, fans must register before Thursday 17 September 4pm BST (5pm CEST / 8am PT / 11am ET) for a chance to buy tickets.

Demand for Oasis Live ’27 is expected to be extremely high (again, no surprises), and so this registration process has been put in place to reduce queuing times and organised ticket touting in order to give genuine fans the best possible chance to buy tickets. Registration is open now at www.oasisinet.com.

Oasis have today ended months of feverish speculation with the announcement, and Oasis Live ‘27 will see the band play 38 live shows, visiting Scotland, England, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, France, Italy, US and Ireland. With the exception of homecoming shows in Manchester, the tour will see the band perform in a completely new set of locations from the Oasis Live ‘25 tour. Fellow musician and artist Richard Ashcroft will also be returning on the band's live tour as a Special guest at all shows.

Fans who are successful with the registration will be sent a unique, non-transferable code to access an allocated onsale window. In the UK, onsale will take place across Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, with three onsale windows on each day. Fans will be informed directly which of the onsale windows they can access, and at what time. The registration process is the only public way to buy tickets for Oasis Live ’27. There will be no general onsale or other public presales outside of this process. This structure has been created to ensure the purchase process is as fair and smooth as possible for Oasis fans. Standard ticket prices will be fixed and range between £71.50 and £266.60, including fees.

We don't have any idea of what the setlist will be like yet, and it's likely that this will stay under wraps until opening night. Although, given the duo are performing at all new venues (bar Manchester) it's not a complete stretch to imagine they might mix it up considerably over the previous 2025 tour setlist. Will there be new music? Who knows... Liam has previously stated that the band have no intention of releasing new music for fear of critical backlash.

Oasis Live ‘27 Tour Dates

May

• May 21 Glasgow, Celtic Park
• May 23 Glasgow, Celtic Park
• May 25 Glasgow, Celtic Park
• May 28 Glasgow, Celtic Park
• May 29 Glasgow, Celtic Park

June

• June 04 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 06 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 08 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 11 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 12 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 15 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 18 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 19 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 22 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 25 Manchester, Etihad Stadium
• June 26 Manchester, Etihad Stadium

July

• July 02 Munich, Allianz Arena
• July 03 Munich, Allianz Arena
• July 10 Barcelona, Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
• July 11 Barcelona, Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
• July 16 Amsterdam, Johan Cruijff ArenA
• July 17 Amsterdam, Johan Cruijff ArenA
• July 23 Paris, Stade de France
• July 24 Paris, Stade de France
• July 29 Rome, Stadio Olimpico
• July 30 Rome, Stadio Olimpico

August

• August 10 Boston, Gillette Stadium
• August 13 Boston, Gillette Stadium
• August 14 Boston, Gillette Stadium
• August 20 Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium
• August 21 Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium
• August 24 Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium

Alien: Earth, the Disney Plus streaming hit set in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror universe, has a simple premise: What if the chest-bursting xenomorph crash landed on Earth? A great scary concept — but I’m not sure how I feel about one of the all-time great horror creations stalking around the corner from Shortlist towers in London.

That’s a fear I’m going to have to get over, as it seems that season 2 of Alien: Earth has kicked off filming in London’s East End — in the financial heart of Canary Wharf, to be precise.

Eagle-eyed fans on Reddit spotted vehicles bearing the ‘Weyland Yutani’ name — the show’s shady mega-corporation — near the glossy Docklands district over the weekend. It suggests the site might double as Weyland Yutani’s HQ — fitting, seeing as Canary Wharf regularly doubles onscreen as New York’s mega-bucks Wall Street area.

The truck bearing the logo is particularly exciting for fans of the series: it looks very much like the Colonial Marines Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), first seen in James Cameron’s 1986 ‘Aliens’ sequel. Could the most badass bug-squashing soldiers in the galaxy be about to make their Alien: Earth debut?

A cast of new face-huggable stars

Those details remain underwraps, but what we do know is that there’s a whole host of new faces set to be on the run from the formidable alien foes.

Tracey Ullman and Sam Spruell will be joining the cast, while there will be something of a Game of Thrones reunion next season too, with Peter Dinklage and Jerome Flynn also joining the show.

Returning cast members include Sydney Changler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav and Essie Davis. Noah Hawley remains show runner, with further filming taking place at Pinewood Studios.

• Alien: Earth cast on the ‘unrelentingly fascinating’ Xenomorph, brand new species, and why now is the right time for the first-ever Alien series

London is no stranger to movie magic, with many parts of the city being earmarked by big Hollywood directors as the perfect backdrop for their cinematic escapades. Just think about Alex Garland's Elden Ring spotted in Greenwich or the number of times Bond runs across a very scenic London. Now, it’s DC’s latest Batman flick which has headed to the big smoke for some Gotham-esque scenes – and fans just spotted a huge story spoiler.

Over the weekend, eagle-eyed batheads were gathered around the historic St Paul’s Cathedral in central London as it was transformed into a set for a scene from the upcoming The Batman: Part II — the next entry in Robert Pattinson's take on the cape and cowl hero.

From the videos online, it looks as though St Paul’s was the home for some kind of huge, very official Governmental Courts of Justice where people are protesting and gathering with plenty of placards. However, the big news is a sign that states "Court of Fowls," potentially confirming that the villainous Court of Owls will appear in the sequel. Either that, or it's a hell of an Easter Egg…

The signs held by the extras in shot said things like “One day the Poor will have Nothing” and “The Rich are getting Richer” as well as “Court of Fowls”, all pointing to the villainous Court of Owls.

For those as yet unacquainted, the enigmatic Court of Owls is a criminal organisation and secret society in some of the more modern Batman tales. It is described as a group of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Gotham City, and has existed since the city's founding. They are completely unknown among its general population outside of an urban legend centered around their reputation for grisly assassinations carried out by indoctrinated agents known as Talons. The group was also referred to as the Parliament of Owls, renaming themselves in a story line about their international expansion from the 2015 comic titled Robin War.

If the latest flick is featuring the Court of Owls as one of the main adversaries, it won’t be the first time they have appeared on screen. The Court of Owls made their on-screen debut in 2015's animated Batman vs. Robin, making their live-action debut later that same year in the Gotham TV series.

In the New 51 comic arc, The Court of Owls is shown as a violent cabal of some of Gotham City's oldest and wealthiest families who use murder and money to wield political influence throughout history. So far, so completely unrealistic, we can’t imagine that happening in the real world at all... One of the interesting things is the way they are portrayed, with the leaders of the organisation seen wearing white owl masks on their faces — will their style remain unchanged in the upcoming film?

In the comic Nightwing, the gang were seen wearing black owl masks, so there’s a bit of choice to be had. The gang have previously been connected with other characters including Lincoln March, the Raptor, and Dick Grayson – all of which we *might* see in the next Batman sequel.

The Batman Part II is set to be released in December 2028 (after a couple of delays and pushbacks), and so far the plot has been firmly under wraps. In addition to this new easter egg from the filming in London, all we really know is the returning cast, which includes Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent (Gotham's district attorney who later becomes Batman’s adversary, the villain Two-Face), Scarlett Johansson as Gilda Dent, his wife, and Charles Dance as Charles Dent: Harvey's abusive father.

Supporting cast members returning from The Batman include Jayme Lawson as Bella Reál, the new mayor of Gotham City, and Gil Perez-Abraham as Martinez, a GCPD officer. Sebastian Koch and Brian Tyree Henry have also been cast in undisclosed roles. Barry Keoghan is also expected to reprise his role as the Joker, momentarily teased at the end of Part I.

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At the creme de la creme intersection of aesthetic and artsy (with just a hint of art-school-smugness) you’ll find London’s Design Museum in Kensington, the world’s leading museum devoted to hailing contemporary design in every form. Amongst their usual roster of installations which cover everything from avant garde statues to something resembling a piece of IKEA furniture mid assembly, a new animated exhibition is opening up next month, from the makers behind the cult classic films Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings.

Titled LAIKA presents Wildwood: The Exhibition, it’s set to open up on 15th October, throwing open the doors to the epic world of the stop-motion animators’ new film Wildwood, taking you behind the scenes how some of its most intricate moments were captured. It’s joining the ranks of the increasingly popular behind-the-scenes, making-of exhibitions and shows which the likes of Aardman and Wes Anderson have already got stuck into.

The Wildwood exhibition will have a whole host of props, costumes, and set design behind making the detailed films. Guests will be able to look at interactive installations, original props, sketches, puppets, and miniature sets which showcase the work of the model makers, scenic painters, and the wider creative team. Plus, there will be audiovisual content to help bring the world to life.

The new film from the LAIKA Studios team follows a teenager named Prue McKeel who ventures into a secret, enchanted forest outside of Portland to rescue her baby brother after he is abducted by a murder of crows. It has been adapted from the dark fantasy novel by Colin Meloy and boasts an incredible cast including Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, and Angela Bassett. If you didn’t already get the sheer scale and ambition behind the new movie, then the fact it’s premiering at London’s BFI Film Festival probably will. It will be debuting on October 11th before heading to cinemas on October 23rd.

‘We are delighted that Laika has chosen the Design Museum to host this exhibition, following in the footsteps of our previous exhibitions on the craft of film-making dedicated to Stanley Kubrick, Tim Burton and Wes Anderson,’ says Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum.

'Wildwood is a compelling case study in contemporary design, demonstrating how creative vision, craft, engineering and technology come together through a highly collaborative process.’

The exhibition will be running from October 15th until 10th January and tickets are already available, priced at £19 for general admission.

• The Bayeux Tapestry and the 8 most important historical artefacts you can see in London right now

Turn on any really good TV show or film from the past five years and 90% of the time Will Poulter will be in it.

Warfare. The Bear. Dopesick. Poulter has been busy.

Whilst his traditional “breakout” roles that people quote back to him are usually from We’re the Millers and Maze Runner, some Brits will remember his early days starring in films like Son of Rambow (filmed in his summer holidays aged 14), and the beloved Narnia series. Whilst the stock story of a child star usually signposts to burn out and Hollywood excess, Poulter acts as an antidote to this arc, never doing the same kind of project twice, and being the definition of a genuinely great guy in the A-Z of Hollywood who’s who.

If you needed further proof of that statement, in between his (many) acting gigs, Will works as an ambassador for a dozen different charities, taking his precious days off from hectic filming schedules to volunteer and forward a bunch of great causes.

In between wrapping his new film Union County and before heading back out to the states for his next project, Will stopped by The Lucky Saint in Marylebone with Shortlist for a pint… of iced coffee.

It's an appropriately breakfast themed twist on our usual boozy chats, as he’s currently working with charity Magic Breakfast who help provide breakfast for kids in primary and secondary schools, so that no child goes hungry. The kind of cause a self-confessed huge foodie loves to get behind.

SL: Will, thanks for coming down and joining us for a pub breakfast. Kicking off with a drink, are you more tea or coffee?

Will Poulter: I don't actually like tea. They're going to take away my British passport! I love coffee though — without coffee I'm a different person.

SL: It feels like the classic mic-test question we usually ask before shooting, but considering what you're working on, it feels appropriate: what did you have for breakfast this morning? What was a usual breakfast or morning like when you were younger?

WP: As a kid I used to eat the leftovers from the night before for breakfast. So I would always be embarrassed if it came up in like a French oral class or something. I would have to ask “how do you say Spaghetti Bolognese on toast” in French, because that’s what I’d had. I actually went to a region in Italy where apparently Bolognese on bread is a real thing, so I was at home straight away.

SL: So you were vindicated? A cultural visionary in North London.

WP: It’s since changed, so now it’s more like a yoghurt bowl with granola and fruit. Which when I was younger I never thought I’d like.

SL: As an ambassador for Magic Breakfast, that technically makes you a (slightly tenuous) breakfast expert, right? So what in your opinion is a top tier breakfast?

WP: I think it’s about trying to get something in the morning that’s mostly healthy but has energy attached, because you’re next meal will be lunch, so you do need something that is slow releasing energy and balanced. I wasn’t necessarily the best advert for that as a kid, I think it took me until I was in my thirties to learn that. But Magic Breakfast do that so well – whenever I’ve gone down to help out I’m always impressed with the range they have so there’s something for everyone.

SL: You’ve had some amazing co-stars in the past — and shared some on screen roles being a chef. But if you had to team up with a former co-star and open a restaurant with them, who would you pick?

WP: I am really lucky because I’ve been able to work with amazing actors and had to learn how to cook because of the nature of the roles I'm playing – and got to a really good level. The person who immediately comes to mind, because he’s one of the nicest people on planet earth and talented in the kitchen, and someone I have a really good natural rapport, with is Lionel Boyce who plays Marcus in the Bear.

We did a fair amount of prep together and we’d spend a lot of time talking about food, and eating together off set so I think I have a good sense of his palate, he has a good sense of mine, and we have a good working relationship. Maybe we’d open a kind of Danish pastry inspired breakfast spot. With iced coffee too.

SL: You spend a lot of your time on sets, so what's the food like? Have you ever had a moment on set where you're like, 'oh wow I'm eating a bacon roll with Michael Keaton'?

WP: One of the best things about my job is being able to travel, and you get to experience food from various parts of the world, and depending on where you’re shooting you get different options that are reflective of the kind of cuisine and multicultural influences of the area. One of my favourite things about shooting in America is that breakfast burritos are a huge thing. There are a million different ways you can have it and it's a staple on American sets. From a nostalgic point of view though, there’s nothing better than a great bacon sandwich, or a sausage in a roll.

SL: Speaking of stuff the Brits do well, what are some of your favourite London spots?

WP: One of my favourite things growing up was this Thai restaurant which in the mornings was a greasy spoon — it was around the corner from my family’s place. After midday it would transition into serving Thai food, run by this lovely family and it was the best Thai food I found in London. It was a one stop shop for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but that was how I experienced my first Full English outside the house, and it introduced me to Thai food too. It was emblematic of that kind of multiculturalism we all benefit from in London.

The London greasy spoon I love is the Little Wonder Cafe right by the Emirates stadium and I’m an Arsenal Fan – it’s an iconic and beloved spot for Arsenal fans, and they’re die hard arsenal fans so that might have a little something to do with it. But the food’s amazing and the people are lovely.

SL: Thinking back to school days, I feel like you can really tell we’re in an assembly deficit as adults — I miss school assemblies and just think everyone would have a better day if we started with an old-school assembly...

WP: You know, I did a film last year and our director Greg Kwedar spent every morning addressing the cast and crew for like 10 minutes, and it just helped get everyone on the same page and establish this sort of camaraderie. I hadn’t seen a director do that before and it was really cool, it was sort of like a little set assembly.

SL: I feel like we talk about breakfast setting you up for the day, but sometimes, no matter how ready you are for the day... sometimes there’s no saving you. Have you ever had a really bad day on the job, particularly an audition you can’t forget?

WP: There’s one I wake up with the sweats about. It was in America, and I’d flown out especially for it. It was down to the final stages but even then I didn’t fancy my chances – I was sort of the outside bet. I went out and prepared the three scenes, learnt them off by heart and was doing it opposite the lead actor who was this amazing American comedian, very famous.

I finished the third scene and was like, “thanks very much everyone” turned to leave and they went “what about the fourth scene?", and I just went “I’m sorry what”. The American actor just turned over his page and I remember thinking ohhhhh no. I was given twenty minutes to go and quickly look over it, and I remember being so nervous all the words were swimming around on the page. And I could hear everyone else going in and crushing it, I could hear cheering, whooping, laughter.

Safe to say I barely remembered a single thing on the page and did a very bad job. It was like leaving the exam hall and realising you haven’t turned over and done the last page.

SL: You've been acting since you were school-aged. Were there any dream roles you were desperate to do as a kid? And have you done them now?

WP: Definitely as a kid some version of a superhero would have been on the dream list for sure [Will plays Adam Warlock in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise .ed]. Honestly my biggest interest alongside acting was always cooking – my mum was a great cook and I’d be in the kitchen watching her so playing a chef was the kind of dream. I’m so grateful to The Bear for giving me that opportunity — and that gave rise to collaborate with different people in the hospitality space. Despite facing a load of challenges themselves, especially post Covid, they’re so philanthropic and lots of people I’ve intersected with in the hospitality world [while training for The Bear] are so keen to give back, acknowledging that food insecurity and hunger is such a challenge even in a country like England.

So being able to collaborate with friends I’ve made in the hospitality space supporting organisations like Magic Breakfast, New Horizon Youth Centre, City Harvest has been one of the best things to come out of being on that show. I hope I’m able to continue doing that.

You can find out more about Magic Breakfast and how to support the charity via their website.

From the outside theatre can have a slightly dusty reputation, feeling Shakespearean and classical more than young and hip. However, London’s starry West End and historic theatres have been challenging this for years, bringing smash hit productions from old revivals to new works to locals and visitors for years. The National Theatre’s 2027 programme might be the biggest whopper yet.

The stats for the new year’s programme alone are pretty staggering, with eight world premieres, three major revivals, and Paul Mescal, Emma Corrin, Mawaan Rizwan, Emilia Clarke, Harriet Walter, Tracy Letts, Monica Dolan and Anton Du Beke all set to star across a plethora of productions.

Okay, there are a lot of plays, creatives and cast behind them to get through, so these are the main ones you need to know. In terms of the texts, the biggest billings are a major revival of Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim's West Side Story which will be taking the winter 2027 slot. Marianne Elliott - the director behind the (slightly cursed chaotic) Sunday in the Park with George musical revival - will be taking on direction for the production alongside Miranda Cromwell. The two have worked together previously on a hit production of Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic.

Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Mr Loverman is getting the big stage adaptation – well, a middle sized adaptation as it’s heading to the National Theatre’s Lyttleton theatre. Natasha Gordon has helmed the adaptation which will be debuting on February 25th, running until April 17th. Danny Sapiani stars as Barry, a charming pillar of the Black Hackney community who has been in a secret relationship with his best friend Morris (Gary Beadle) for the last 60 years.

The late great Tom Stoppard’s comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is getting a revival too, with Mawaan Rizwan and SNL star George Fouracres in the titular roles. Another major piece on the slate is a fiftieth anniversary revival of the post-World War II drama Plenty which will star PONIES and Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke. It will kick off its run in spring 2027, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead following later in winter 2027.

Paul Mescal will be leading the cast in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, marking Mescal’s West End debut. He’ll be starring as Biff, alongside legendary US playwright Tracy Letts whose play August: Osage County is heading for a West End revival starring Anna Maxwell Martin and Leslie Manville. Mescal will also star in A Whistle In The Dark by Irish playwright Tom Murphy. Award-winning actress Monica Dolan and Irish star Ciaran Hinds will be joining him onstage.

There is also set to be a new drama following Sir John Major’s reign as Prime Minister, detailing his ascent from mere whip to PM post Maggie Thatcher reign. Called Major, the play will be running in spring-summer 2027, written by big wig playwright James Graham who you may remember from This House, Tammy Faye, and Dear England. He’s reuniting with director Jeremy Herrin who also directed This House.

Also on the docket is a rare revival of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer (Feb 19-Apr 24 2027), starring Emma Corrin, Arty Froushan and Harriet Walter, directed by Michael Grandage.

Another notable entry on the programme is an adaptation of Noel Streatfield’s classic 1936 children’s novel Ballet Shoes which stars TV’s twinkle toes Anton Du Beke.

Other shows making their world premiere next year include Glorious Madness, showcasing the music of Joan Armatrading, and a play examining how the 1998 Good Friday Agreement took a big step forward at a meeting in South Africa, titled The Great Indaba. Also, Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba will appear in The Adeyemis – A Family Saga.

It's a show stopping line up all round, with plenty of fantastic shows spanning across 2027. Tickets will be available to book for the upcoming shows from Thursday 24 September via National Theatre where you can also read up more about each of the shows.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

For 16 years, for Oasis, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ was much easier sung than done. Now, the new documentary of the same name puts rock’s biggest reconciliation on the largest possible screen, capturing not only the reunion gigs but the raw emotion behind them.

ShortList sat down with writer Steven Knight (also creator of Peaky Blinders) and directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern to discuss the moment Liam and Noel finally shared a room again, the fans who left the filmmakers in tears and whether new Oasis music could follow.

Knight also reveals what we can all learn from the Gallaghers - and whether their reunion might feed into his next writing assignment: James Bond. As you were…

SL: Through the documentary, Noel and Liam talk about this being their chance to change the narrative. Steven, as the film’s writer, how did that narrative come to you?

Steven Knight: It’s not like when you’re writing fiction. [In fiction], you choose and you decide and you have your destination, and you can say, “This is going to have a happy ending.” This is you observing what’s really happening. So, for me, it was an act of faith to say, “This is a film that’s going to be about reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness. It’s going to work. They’re going to be okay,” when lots of people were saying, “This could end badly.”

So, just watching it unfold and picking up on those moments when you start to get the feeling this is going to be okay, they’re starting to get on, and just tracking that. It’s about their relationship.

Speaking of emotions, were there any moments behind the scenes that brought you to tears?

Steven Knight: Then and still. Music, I think, has a big effect, because even if it’s the score of a fiction film, when that music comes sweeping in, that’s when everybody loses it. That’s when you feel the emotion.

Here, the soundtrack is just brilliant because it’s them. There are many occasions, especially watching in the cinema with the lights off - you can hear people. They’re all sobbing!

Will Lovelace: In rehearsals, it felt quite emotional the day that Liam turned up and they were in the room together. We knew it was going to happen, but we didn’t actually know when it was going to happen.

Dylan Southern: I’m not afraid to admit I cried at most gigs because I was operating a camera, so I’m there in the middle of 90,000 people. When they’re all feeling such strong emotions, it overwhelms you. Something in these shows brought out the best in people. When you’re watching it, you feel a connection to them.

SL: Is it unusual for a concert tour documentary to focus so closely on people in the crowd?

Dylan Southern: We had people in the crowd - we wanted this to feel as much like being at the show as possible because, hopefully, as many people as possible are going to see this on IMAX or the biggest screens they can find, with the loudest sound systems.

SL: Were there any moments that you just couldn’t have scripted?

Steven Knight: All of them. The things that Noel and Liam say are so smart and funny, and virtually everything they say you can put on a T-shirt. There’s a lady in South Korea, who’s in tears and saying, “When you fall down, some music picks you up. But with Oasis, they fall down with you and get up with you.” Who’s going to write that? It’s beautiful.

SL: Liam and Noel are both so naturally funny. Do you have a favourite memory from filming with them?

Steven Knight: I’ve never made a documentary before, and I’m not an interviewer. So, when we sat down together in a pub, it was just a conversation. The funniest - but in isolation, you don’t get it - is when Liam just says really innocently, “Some of these songs are quite aggressive.” Noel just bursts out laughing like, “Well, what did you expect?” The way he delivers them is as if it’s like, “I’m trying to make them nice.” It’s very funny.

This is really a story of reconciliation and forgiveness. It’s a much more positive story than people might expect from Oasis…

Steven Knight: The idea was: here we are living in an age of division - politicians, people on social media, spite, hate, all of that stuff that’s going on that seems to have become acceptable. I wanted to make a film that was about all that sort of old fashioned ’60s peace, love, understanding: come back together, it’s okay.

And just seeing that all around the world, in so many very different places, the same song has the same effect - exactly the same effect - means you can conclude people are the same.

SL: What do you think we can all learn from the Gallagher brothers?

Steven Knight: People are the same. No matter how far apart it may seem, you can get there. What a lot of people are doing after they’ve watched the film and got very emotional is thinking, “Well, there’s somebody I haven’t spoken to for 10 years. Maybe I should give him a call. Maybe I should text him.” It has that effect!

SL: Did the film have you thinking about people you might want to reconnect with?

Steven Knight: Yeah, of course!

SL: Having spent so much time with Liam and Noel, do you think they would make new music together?

Will Lovelace: That’s a question for them. I’d like to see it, but who knows?

SL: Steven, you’re writing the next Bond movie! Are there any themes from the Oasis reconciliation that you might take into that?

Steven Knight: Oh, I can’t really talk about it, but it’s a good question. Everything that you experience feeds into what you’re [making]...

SL: You’ve crafted the stories of all these British icons - Oasis, Peaky Blinders, Bond and you even created Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?! Is there another British icon you’d like to explore further?

Steven Knight: It’s been done so many times, but Churchill, I think, is very, very interesting. Probably. I don’t know! It would probably be a footballer, actually, because I do like football. So, it would be somebody who made an impact in the world. But if I say someone, then it will go, “Oh, he’s writing a film about that person,” so I can’t really name anybody!

Don’t Look Back in Anger is in IMAX® and Cinemas now.

• Exclusive: Asa Butterfield on his darkest role yet, Hollywood's biggest problem, and his favourite East London haunts

Musical icon Stevie wonder will play a major concert in London later this year, at The O2.

When you’re not that confident you can fill a large venue, you announce the gig a year in advance. That’s not a problem for Stevie Wonder, whose management has just announced a concert at London’s The O2 on 3rd November.

The show is part of a wider tour celebrating 50 years of Songs in the Key of Life, which was released back in 1976 and is still recognised as one of the greatest all-rounder albums ever made.

You’ll have to be quick, though. Presale tickets for the gig go on sale today, 9th September, at 10am. And general sale begins at 10am on the 10th September.

The presale is for My Live Nation subscribers — which is basically Live Nation’s newsletter service. No paid subscription involved.

Stevie Wonder last played in the UK in 2025 as part of the British Summer Time day festival series, and hasn’t played The O2 since 2008. And his last conventional London concert was in 2019, at the London Palladium.

Translation: seeing Stevie Wonder live in London is quite a rare event, so don’t miss the opportunity. And, well, he’s 76 now so who knows how many such opportunities left we’ll have.

The plan is Wonder will play the entire Songs in the Key of Life album — and it’s a whopper, a double LP with a runtime around 90 minutes.

Is your favourite Stevie Wonder track not on that album? We would not be surprised if he uses a second encore set to crack out some of his other hits. All-timers on Songs in the Key of Life include Sir Duke, Isn’t She Lovely, As, I Wish and Pastime Paradise.

Stevie Wonder will play just four shows across the UK and Ireland as part of the tour, at arenas in Dublin, Manchester and Glasgow as well as London. Here’s the full list of dates:

• October 13 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
• October 15 – Accor Arena, Paris
• October 18 – Royal Arena, Copenhagen
• October 20 – Unity Arena, Osl
• October 22 – 3Arena, Stockholm
• October 24 – ZAG-Arena, Hannove
• October 26 – Lanxess Arena, Cologne
• October 28 – Ziggo Dome, Amsterda
• November 1 – 3Arena, Dublin
• November 3 – The O2, London
• November 8 – Co-op Live, Manchester
• November 11 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
• November 19 – Madison Square Garden, New York City
• November 21 – United Center, Chicago
• November 23 – Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
• December 8 – Fox Theatre, Detroit
• December 9 – Fox Theatre, Detroit
• December 19 – Intuit Dome, Los Angeles

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Has the new James Bond actor been cast? And is it Slow Horses' Jack Lowden?

Fans of the world's greatest secret agent were left shaken and stirred this weekend, as actor Gary Oldman hinted at his Slow Horses co-star having been tapped for the role.

“It’s been rumored that he’s on the shortlist,” Oldman said in an interview with Canada’s Global.

“We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”

• The best James Bond movies

Writing for Bond (without a Bond?)

Now writer Stephen Knight has weighed in on the rumour.

The Peaky Blinders creator, set to pen the next James Bond film, was grilled during a BBC interview over whether the iconic role had been filled.

“I cannot speak about this subject. Much as I would dearly love to,” Knight told BBC Radio 4 Today show presenter Anna Foster when presented with Oldmans' comments.

Knight said he is “doing my duty for King and country" writing the new instalment in the long-running franchise — set to be the 26th entry in the EON produced continuity, now under ownership of Amazon MGM. But is it possible to write a Bond film without knowing who its star is?

“It does make life a little bit easier if you know who that person is, but also you have to write the character, not the actor,” Knight said when quizzed on the limbo casting situation.

"The thing with Bond is it’s its own universe, and it’s its own franchise. So there are certain rules. I mean, obviously you have to move it along, but I love where it sits. I love that it’s British. I love that it’s not DC or Marvel … So I feel a responsibility to the text.”

There's a trepidation to Knights answers that suggest he probably does indeed know who's taking on the 007 designation — but would probably be hunted down by a real member of MI6 should he give the name away.

According to Deadline, casting for the new entry officially got underway in August, with producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman, and director Denis Villeneuve, having made their decisions and informing those who've secured roles. Front runners for the lead have previously been Aaron Taylor-Jonson and Callum Turner — but there's been a recent momentum shift behind Lowden in the rumour mill that suggests maybe it'll be him getting the call from M soon enough.

• Who could be the next James Bond? The names most likely to inherit 007

Briefcase wankers, bus wankers and everyone in between! Netflix has announced that production has officially begun on The Inbetweeners 3, bringing Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas back together as the hapless Will McKenzie, Jay Cartwright, Neil Sutherland and Simon Cooper.

The long-rumoured third film will mark the latest chapter in one of Britain's most-loved comedy franchises. Creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris will once again write and direct, returning to the teen characters — now in their adult lives — first introduced on Channel 4 in 2008.

There's no shortage of questions about what becoming fully-fledged adults has done to four characters who barely seemed equipped to handle adolescence. A teaser revealing the foursome back in their iconic mismatched motor is all we've got to go on so far, while tabloid reports suggest a production-preventing rift between James Buckley and Emily Atack (who played Charlotte Hinchcliffe) have also swirled. Indeed, Atack is not mentioned in the accompanying press release.

A Brit comedy classic

For three series, The Inbetweeners captured the uniquely awkward horror of British teenage life, following four suburban mates as they negotiated school, friendship, parties and — more often unsuccessfully than not — sex. Its mix of painfully recognisable situations, quotable quips and cringe-inducing humour quickly made it a phenomenon.

The series became a defining British comedy of its generation, setting ratings records for Channel 4 and spawning two enormous big-screen hits. The Inbetweeners Movie topped the UK box office in 2011 and set a then-record for the biggest opening weekend for a British comedy, while 2014's sequel proved the gang's appeal was far from exhausted.

Beesley and Morris certainly sound pleased to be reunited, saying: "It's been super-fun hanging out with our friends again, and we're going to work hard every week to ensure there are no problemos making this new film for humans."

• All the A-list celebrities starring in London’s West End theatres (and beyond) in 2026

After a sell-out season at Stratford-upon-Avon, Game of Thrones play The Mad King has been announced for a London run.

No less than George R. R. Martin himself released a statement on the play’s move to the capital.

“I’m thrilled to announce that the production will be moving on to London to share the experience with a wider audience. It promises to be an exhilarating journey,” George R. R. Martin wrote on his website.

The Stratford run at the RSC — the Stratford found nearer to Birmingham rather than the Jubilee line station — finished up on 5th September and for now details on the next run are next-to-non-existent.

We don’t know which London theatre it will open at, or when — other than it will be at some point in 2027. But it’s an exciting move that will no doubt shift tickets with no trouble.

A new look at Westeros

The Mad King is about Aerys II Targaryen, and is set around 15 years ahead of the main book and TV series. It’s based on events mentioned in the series, rather than a more straight adaptation of George R. R. Martin work — like series spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

It is adapted by Duncan Macmillan, best known for the play Lungs, which at one point starred Claire Foy, and his stage adaptation of 1984.

“A long winter thaws in Harrenhal, and spring is promised. At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revellers speculate about who will contend,” reads the synopsis.

“But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the bloodthirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound.”

The play is a whopper, running to three hours and 40 minutes including an intermission. It’s such a technical feat the initially scheduled previews had to be cancelled in order to fine-tune operations last minute, but most reviewers agree it’s a near-unmissable spectacle as a result too.

Its official opening night was on 8th August, so the Mad King hasn’t even seen all that many performances yet, given 5th September was its last.

“This production is unique and brilliantly demonstrates the extraordinary things that theatre can do. The reaction from audiences in Stratford has been phenomenal, and we are so honoured that 57% of our bookers were new to the RSC,” say RSC artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, in a joint statement.

If you fancy dipping back into Westeros this week, the main Game of Thrones series and spin-offs House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are all available to stream on HBO Max and Sky’s NOW TV Entertainment in the UK.

• All the A-list celebrities starring in London’s West End theatres (and beyond) in 2026

Hells yeah, it’s the start of cinema’s ‘school year’. The BFI London Film Festival turns 70 this year and for the 2026 edition, it’s back, at the Royal Festival Hall, in London cinemas and around the UK, from 7th to 18th October.

First up, the crucial dates: tickets go on general sale on 17th September, with BFI Patrons getting first dibs for screenings on 9th September and BFI Members following a day later on 10th September. Extra tickets are released a week before the fest on 1st October and most films get two or three screenings throughout the 12-day window.

Next, our pro tips: be flexible with your schedule as daytime screenings are less in-demand. Make friends with a BFI Member if you aren’t already one. Outside the buzzy must-see critical darlings and awards contenders, take a risk on a debut or international title you know nothing about. Oh, and if your screening’s at the main venue, give yourself plenty of time to get to the right doors.

The full programme is now live so you can start checking dates, times and making your wishlist. Here’s our 25 most-anticipated LFF picks across must-see films, British directors, big stars, Oscar contenders and elite auteurs. See ya in the digital ticket scrum.

Five Can't-Miss Films

1. Artificial

• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov

Amazon MGM Studios might be too scaredy to release Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but the London Film Festival is bold enough to screen it at a Gala, after the heroes at Neon picked it up. Let’s goooo. Andrew Garfield is playing ChatGPT tech boss Altman, alongside Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and Anora’s break-out Yura Borisov as co-founder and chief scientific officer Ilya Sutskever. Described alternately as ‘bleak’ and ‘a comedy’, it sounds from early chatter that Artificial’s plot focuses on the drama around the firing and re-hiring of Altman in late 2023. Can’t wait.

In cinemas TBC

2. Fjord

• Director: Cristian Mungiu
• Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Carlehed

Acclaimed Romanian film-maker Cristian Mungiu’s social drama Fjord won the top Palme D’Or prize at Cannes this year. Set to be a crunchy debate-worthy release, the story revolves around an evangelical couple who move to Norway and encounter friction with their new liberal neighbours around the way they are bringing up their children. Renate Reinsve, known for her work with Joachim Trier, is a phenomenal talent and Sebastian Stan is on an incredible run of choosing - and executing on - fascinating roles (A Different Man, an Oscar nom for The Apprentice) parallel to his MCU work. All of which makes the Fjord Gala screening a smoking-hot LFF ticket before it’s out with Picturehouse in the UK in November.

In cinemas 13th November

3. Ray Gunn

• Director: Brad Bird
• Voice Cast: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits

If you don’t know Brad Bird’s name, he’s probably made you tear up at least once. The legend behind The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille has made a sci-fi neo-noir animation that’s coming to Netflix at the end of the year. Ray Gunn is a world premiere at London Film Festival: exciting. And unlike much of current-era Pixar, Bird’s is an original story, with influences including old Bogie and Bacall flicks, The B-52s and comic book series The Spirit. Sam Rockwell plays Raymond Gunn, the last human private eye in a hybrid alien-human world, with ScarJo as femme fatale Venus Nova, Tom Waits as an alien plus Patton Oswalt and Kathyrn Hunter on the voice cast. For grown-ups then.

On Netflix 18th December

4. Behemoth!

• Director: Tony Gilroy
• Cast: Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor

Tony Gilroy, the genius behind Michael Clayton, the Bourne films and, most recently, Andor is bringing his new Searchlight pic set in the world of LA’s classical music and film scoring scene to London. Pedro Pascal is portraying a renowned cellist, with a stacked supporting cast including Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor and Will Arnett and the elegant trailer suggests more than a little Tár-style disorientation, which is music to our ears. Even more intriguingly, Gilroy enlisted the help of no less than nine composers, including greats James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri and Michael Giaccino, to create Behemoth!’s all-important score. Art about making art from a master? We are seated.

In cinemas 4th December

5. La Bola Negra

• Directors: Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo
• Cast: Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González

La Bola Negra is right up there with the autumn films we’re most hyped for. It’s an ambitious two and a half hour epic that blends queer romance, 1930s wartime drama and the legacy of poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, with mutli-stranded timelines which move from the past to the present. The images we’ve seen so far look genuinely knock-out stunning, the work of Spanish co-directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. The central performances are from Spanish singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente (Álvaro Lafuente Calvo), Carlos González and Miguel Bernardeau, with supporting roles for Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close. Catch it on a cinema screen.

In cinemas 6th November, on Netflix 2nd December

Films By British Directors You Need To See

6. Rogue Trooper

• Director: Duncan Jones
• Voice Cast: Aneurin Barnard, Matt Berry, Hayley Atwell

Duncan Jones’ long-awaited 2000AD adaptation appears to be finally ready. There’s even a quick spicy teaser of this slice of sci-fi that’s now out. The film-maker behind Moon and Source Code first announced he was writing and developing a Rogue Trooper film way back in 2018. We trust that he’s got the vision to guide this particular dystopia to the big screen and the thoroughly British voice cast, around Aneurin Barnard as the titular sole-survivor-super-soldier, is impeccable. Deep breath: Matt Berry, Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden, Diane Morgan, Reece Shearsmith, Peter Serafinowicz and honorary Brit Jermaine Clement.

In cinemas TBC

7. Ink

• Director: Danny Boyle
• Cast: Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy

Just premiered at Venice, Danny Boyle’s latest, Ink, has a lot going for it. Based on the 2017 play by the terrific playwright James Graham, the film is a late ‘60s period piece charting the origin story of the tabloid The Sun, one of the most influential newspapers of modern times. Guy Pearce plays the devil, pardon us, Rupert Murdoch; Claire Foy plays a fictional reporter named Jules Davis and we’re well chuffed to see Jack O’Connell get a meaty role as Yorkshireman and Sun editor Larry Lamb. Listen, any behind-the-scenes journalism drama with a talented director and cast has us sold but from everything we’ve seen so far, this one looks to be a high-energy, can’t-miss-it kinda deal.

In cinemas 7th January 2027

8. Tender Loving Care

• Director: Mike Leigh
• Cast: Kate O’Flynn, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson

In what might be his cinematic swan song, due to his ongoing ill health, the legendary British director Mike Leigh has once again worked with his partner Marion Bailey. Here she’s appearing alongside her daughter Alice Bailey Johnson and Northern actress Kate O’Flynn, whose CV includes all manner of stage roles as well as the recent cult Apple TV hit Widow’s Bay. Tender Loving Care follows two friends Amy and Rosie, living in London and both working within child protection and social services; then Amy’s father, played by Paul Jesson, begins to show signs of dementia. Could be a beaut.

In cinemas 12th February 2027

9. Elsinore

• Director: Simon Stone
• Cast: Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman, Billie Piper

Simon Stone is a name more often found on the lips of London theatre-heads who’ve seen his work at the National or Bridge Theatres, than cinephiles. But the Aussie director has been building up a filmography too, including The Dig and The Woman in Cabin 10. His next project is suitably theatre-themed, though. Elsinore is an account of the late Scottish actor Ian Charleson’s final performances of Hamlet at the National, when he was seriously ill from AIDs. Andrew Scott is portraying Charleson; he has both the sensitivity and intensity to do a part like this justice; he’s joined by Olivia Colman and Billie Piper, who worked with Stone on his Yerma for the Young Vic. (Elsinore is the setting).

In cinemas 29th January 2027

10. Prima Facie

• Director: Susanna White
• Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Ings, Simon Russell Beale

Wicked witch Cynthia Erivo is taking on the lead role in Prima Facie, the film version of Suzie Miller’s hit one-woman play of the same name. On the West End and Broadway, it was Jodie Comer who took on the role of Tessa Ensler, a barrister who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault, and this stage treatment was an asbolute sensation. Miller herself has adapted the material and expanded the cast of characters for Susanna White’s upcoming film and we’re fascinated to see how the intensity translates to the screen.

In cinemas 13th November

11. A Long Winter

• Director: Andrew Haigh
• Cast: Fred Hechinger, Kit Connor, Ebon Moss-Bachrach

Brit director Andrew Haigh, whose work you might know from his films Weekend and 45 Years, has written and directed a treatment of a short story/novella by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín. Published just last year, A Long Winter follows a father and son who must survive harsh conditions high up in the mountains of the Pyrenees after the woman of the house leaves and does not return. Fred Hechinger is Mike, the son, Caitríona Balfe, his mother and The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach his father with Kit Connor - soon to be Cyclops in the MCU - as Mike’s brother Tommy, who is away fighting in the Korean War of the early 1950s.

In cinemas TBC

12. 7 Miles Out

• Director: Carol Morley
• Cast: Lucy Halliday, Aidan Gillen, Gemma Whelan

One of the hidden gems playing in the London Film Festival’s Official Competition is Carol Morley’s 7 Miles Out. The film is based on the director’s part-autobiographical 2015 novel covering the coming-of-age of her protagonist Ann amongst the new-wave punk scenes in Stockport and Manchester in the 1970s and 80s. Ann is trying to make sense of her father’s suicide when she was eleven alongside puberty and discovering herself. The teaser clip, full of dry Northern humour, shows her as a teen, hanging out with friends, being skint and obsessing over Tony Wilson and Factory Records. One to seek out.

In cinemas TBC

Big Stars

13. The Debut

• Director: Jesse Eisenberg
• Cast: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey

Jesse Eisenberg is back and his new release with A24, The Debut, could not be more different from his gentle, lovely film A Real Pain in 2024. For a long time described only as ‘Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Comedy Musical’, or words to that effect, The Debut sees acting heavyweights Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti go toe-to-toe as Mona, an introvert who unexpectedly auditions for a local am-dram musical and Jerry, its director and “the biggest name in New Jersey community theatre.” Eisenberg has written the music and lyrics himself - a bold choice - and, you know what, we trust everyone involved “to shine” in what appears to be a weird and wacky project with a lot of heart.

In cinemas 15th January 2027

14. Paper Tiger

• Director: James Gray
• Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller

A favourite American director amongst European cinephiles, Paper Tiger is the new film from James Gray (We Own The Night, Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z). With crime thrills, Adam Driver at full intensity and Scarlett Johansson doing an accent, it’s ticking a lot of boxes. Set in the suburbs of 1980s Queens, Driver and Miles Teller play two brothers, Gary and Irwin Pearl, a former cop and an engineer. They end up getting mixed up with the Russian mafia and the fallout puts the whole family at risk. This will be a couple notches above the by-numbers crime thrillers on streaming services in terms of quality, that’s for sure.

In cinemas TBC

15. Wild Horse Nine

• Director: Martin McDonagh
• Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi

More funny business, this time from Martin McDonagh and if you’re familiar with his back catalogue, Wild Horse Nine looks more in the vein of an In Bruges than a Banshees of Inisherin or a Three Billboards. Dynamite cast, too. Sam Rockwell and John fucking Malkovich - yessss - play Lee and Chris, two quippy CIA agents sent to Easter Island just before Pinochet’s 1973 coup overthrowing the socialist coalition government in Chile. Steve Buscemi’s their bureau boss, Parker Posey’s Lee’s wife, War’s on the soundtrack, there’s a bunch of 70s style and swagger, the dialogue is dialogue-ing. Strap. Us. In.

In cinemas 6th November

16. I Love Boosters

• Director: Boots Riley
• Cast: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Demi Moore

Any project by Boots Riley will always be on our most-anticipated list because you simply cannot possibly guess what this guy will do next. Riley is a rapper, record producer and the writer-director behind the wild, absurdist film Sorry To Bother You and the wild, absurdist TV series I Am Virgo. Actually, one thing’s guaranteed: this guy does not like late stage capitalism! I Love Boosters, with Neon, is his colourful, maximalist comedy take on high fashion, with Keke Palmer and Naomi Ackie playing two members of the ‘Velvet Gang’ of boosters/thieves of Demi Moore’s Christie Smith designer stores. LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter and Don Cheadle are all here having fun too. It’s TIME to get LOOSE.

In cinemas 30th October

17. Bunker

• Director: Florian Zeller
• Cast: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Paul Dano

Florian Zeller’s Bunker is still something of a question mark, but this one has the potential to be great. Real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem play Sofia, a publisher and Miguel, an architect in this psychological thriller focused on their marriage from the French playwright and director of The Father and The Son. Another solid late-stage-capitalism premise here: Paul Dano plays Andrew, a tech billionaire who commissions Miguel to design him a luxury bunker, leading to an “unsettling moral puzzle” between the husband and wife. One of the titles you can see four months ahead of its wide UK release at the fest.

In cinemas 19th February 2027

Oscar Contenders

18. Club Kid

• Director: Jordan Firstman
• Cast: Jordan Firstman, Diego Calva, Cara Delevingne

We first encountered Jordan Firstman as the charmingly rude Charlie in Rachel Sennott’s underrated bratcom I Love LA. His debut as a writer-director, Club Kid, was snapped up by A24 out of this year’s Cannes in May and it looks set to be a shoo-in for a Best Original Screenplay nod come awards season. Here, Firstman plays an NYC party promoter named Peter who discovers out-of-the-blue that he has a ten-year-old son named Arlo. Early reviews suggest that the film blends cooler-than-thou underground scene-y vibes with a perhaps more surprising undercurrent of sweetness. Diego Calva and model Cara Delevingne round out the cast.

In cinemas TBC

19. Fatherland

• Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
• Cast: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl

It’s Sandra Hüller’s year. You know, she played the brusque bureaucrat lady who sang Sign o’ The Times karaoke in Project Hail Mary. She’s also one of the finest actresses of her generation and Fatherland is the first of two of her titles at this year’s LFF. Polish film-maker Pawel Pawlikowski has such a distinctive eye and is best known for his two arresting black-and-white films, Ida, which won him an Oscar in 2013, and the gorgeous Cold War in 2018. In Fatherland, a Mubi release, he takes on the German literary colossus Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler), specifically a trip he made in 1949, with his daughter Erika (Hüller), from the US to both West and East Germany to receive two Goethe Prizes. The question: which side is he on, Stalin or Mickey Mouse?

In cinemas 23rd October

20. Wildwood

• Director: Travis Knight
• Voice Cast: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan

Another animation world premiere for London comes in the form of Wildwood from Laika, the studio which made Coraline and Kubo and The Two Strings. The Portland-set story, based on a 2011 novel by Colin Meloy, follows teen Prue and her sidekick buddy Curtis as they search a magical forest, full of fantasy animals, to find Prue’s missing baby brother Mac. Directed by Laika CEO Travis Knight (who also helmed this year’s underrated Masters of The Universe), Wildwood is set to be the longest stop-motion animated film ever produced, featuring hundreds of puppets and sets. We can’t think of a finer way to turn our noses up at soulless AI slop than to luxuriate in a “hand-crafted” fairy tale like this.

In cinemas 23rd October

21. 14th

• Director: Ava DuVernay
• Cast: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Stacey Abrams, Hasan Piker

Ava DuVernay is once again teaming up with Netflix for a documentary on one amendment of the US Constitution, after the success of her doc 13th in 2016, looking at the systemic mass incarceration of African Americans and its roots in slavery. This new doc focuses on the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 during Reconstruction, which guaranteed birthright citizenship, equal protection under the law for all citizens and fair legal procedures, together with shifting powers from states to the federal government. Featuring politicians like AOC and Stacey Abrams, 14th could not be more timely and important, with President Trump’s recent attempts to overturn birthright citizenship rejected by the US Supreme Court in June.

In cinemas 27th November, on Netflix 4th December

Elite Auteurs

22. Possible Love

• Director: Lee Chang-dong
• Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Cho Yeo-jeong

South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong returns to the international festival circuit following quite an absence since Burning, his 2018 thriller starring Steven Yuen and based on a Murakami short story. Possible Love, coming to this year’s edition of LFF, is an intimate four-hander centring on two married couples, one a laid-off worker Ho-seok and his wife Mi-Ok, the other Ye-ji, a documentary film-maker, interested in Ho-seok as a subject, and her husband Sang Woo. You might recognise Cho Yeo-jeong as Ye-ji - she played the snooty wife superbly in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite.

In cinemas 23rd October, on Netflix 6th November

23. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

• Director: Clio Barnard
• Cast: Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Lola Petticrew

A bunch of mates, dancing and dicking about in the pub, shouting the words to The Streets’ Don’t Mug Yourself: that’s the scene in the clip put out by Curzon of Clio Barnard’s latest film I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. Written by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh (who co-wrote recent indie fave Ish), and based on the 2024 novel by Kieran Goddard, ISBFLL follows five working-class childhood friends from Birmingham. It’s getting a lot of early praise from the festival circuit and that’s no surprise — Barnard is known for both her documentary and feature film work and directed the wonderful Ali & Ava in 2021. The young cast includes Anthony Boyle (Say Nothing, House of Guinness), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders) and Lola Petticrew (Trespasses) with Darryl McCormack in the mix too.

In cinemas 4th December

24. Josephine

• Director: Beth de Araújo
• Cast: Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan

Brazilian-American director Beth de Araújo’s second feature, Josephine, was the stand-out at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, winning both the Grand Jury and Audience prizes. It’s tough subject matter: an eight-year-old girl, Josephine — played by child actor Mason Reeves, widely praised for her performance — witnesses an assault in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Her parents, Claire (Gemma Chan) and Damien (Channing Tatum) have to deal with the impact of the incident on their daughter and the subsequent interactions with the criminal justice system.

In cinemas 20th November

25. Look Back

• Director: Hirokai Kore-eda
• Cast: Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Masaki Suda

Japanese film-maker Hirokai Kore-eda is also gracing LFF with Look Back, his latest film, actually one of two releases this year alongside Sheep In The Box. If you’re not familiar with his back catalogue, 2018’s Shoplifters is a great way-in to his sensibilities. Look Back follows two girls, extroverted and popular Fujino and introverted ‘shut-in’ Kyomoto who bond over their passion for drawing yonkoma manga comics. Fittingly, this story is actually based on a manga itself, a one-shot from Tatsuki Fujimoto published a few years ago which also received an anime treatment. Don’t miss this one.

In cinemas TBC

BFI London Film Festival: More Ones To Watch

• Godzilla Minus Zero: Takashi Yamazaki’s sequel to the fantastic kaiju flick Godzilla Minus One.
• Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: Bassam Tariq’s hitman thriller starring Mahershala Ali, John Cho and Giancarlo Esposito.
• Everytime: Sandra Wollner’s film about a family grappling with grief in Tenerife won the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes and has been picked up by BFI Distribution for a 2027 release.
• Coward: A gay WWI romance set in the Belgian trenches from auteur Lukas Dhont and Mubi.
• Minotaur: This is a Russian remake of French film The Unfaithful Wife from Mubi and director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan).
• Gentle Monster: Léa Seydoux is garnering raves for her performance in this drama from director Marie Kreutzer (Corsage).
• The Blood Countess: Isabelle Huppert in camp/cult-mode in Ulrike Ottinger’s vampire comedy? Yes.
• The Beloved: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s story of a film director father who casts his estranged daughter, with Javier Bardem in the lead role.
• Rose: The other Sandra Hüller/Mubi picture at the fest, a monochrome period piece from Markus Schleinzer exploring gender in the 17th century German countryside.
• Wicker: You know, the one where Olivia Colman ****’s a wicker man played by Alexander Skarsgård! From directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.
• All Of A Sudden: A welcome return from Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi who gave us 2021’s exquisite Drive My Car.
• Clarissa: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is transported to Nigeria by directors Arie and Chuko Esiri, starring Sophie Okenedo.
• Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! This looks unique - Rinko Kikuchi stars as a Tokyo ballroom dancer in this film from Josef Kubota Wladyka.
• Lemonade: Barry Keoghan plays a social worker in Kim Bartley’s debut Irish drama about a young man leaving the care system.
• The Idiot(s): Well, this looks fun from Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn star as Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
• Sweet Milk Lake: A BFI Flare special presentation, Harvey Zielinkski’s film follows a young trans man’s homecoming.
• Ketticé (Giovanni Tortorici): An Italian coming-of-age story set in 2000s Palermo with Monica Bellucci as Giulio’s mother and Luca Guadagnino producing.
• Klara & The Sun (Taika Waititi): The Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation with Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, from Waititi who is hit-and-miss these days.
• Being Heumann (Siân Heder): From the director of Coda, a biopic of disability rights activist Judith Heumann, played here by Ruth Madeley, with Mark Ruffalo supporting.

BFI London Film Festival: Documentaries, Shorts, Restorations and TV Series

• DOC: Once Upon A Time in Harlem (William Greaves and David Greaves)
• DOC: The History of Concrete (John Wilson)
• DOC: Making Marie Antoinette (Eleanor Coppola)
• DOC: Imperium (Sergei Loznitsa)
• DOC: Queer Edward II (Theo Rollason)
• DOC: Tutu (Sam Pollard)
• DOC: Rebellion (Ken Fero, Tariq Mehmood)
• DOC: The Story of Documentary Film: The 1990s (Mark Cousins)
• RESTORATION: Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971)
• RESTORATION: Gone To Earth (1950) (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
• RESTORATION: La Dérive (1964) (Paula Delsol)
• SHORT: Paper Plane (Saoirse Ronan)
• SHORT: Date Night (Tanya Reynolds)
• TV: VisionQuest (Terry Matalas with Paul Bettany, James Spader)
• TV: The Trip To The Northern Lights (Michael Winterbottom with Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon)

For a generation of British comedy fans, Jim Moir will always be Vic Reeves. Except, these days, Moir is considerably more interested in Jim Moir.

Moir’s alter-ego arrived on television at the dawn of the 90s with a bag of bizarre props, a knack for penning a surreal song and a take on comedy that had more in common with Dadaism than it did the fusty club comedians that preceded him. Soon joining forces with the equally-unlikely star Bob Mortimer, the duo created some of the strangest — and funniest — television Britain has ever produced.

But ask Moir about Vic Reeves now and he'll tell you something rather definitive: “I think Vic Reeves died about 12 years ago. Ran off into the tundra.”

It is a typically mad Vic Reeves answer, even if the comedy creation is now in Moir’s rear view mirror. Long before Big Night Out, Shooting Stars and the weird sketches that made him one of British comedy's most distinctive jokers, Moir was an artist. And having increasingly devoted himself to painting in recent years, he's now enjoying recognition from an entirely different audience — birdwatchers, art collectors and a new wave of fans who have followed him from television into galleries.

Ahead of this year's Art Car Boot Fair in London (at which Moir is planning to sell his wares and do his best barrow boy impression), Shortlist caught up with Moir to talk about his daily painting routine, the art he thinks everyone should see, and whether there is any chance of a reunion with Bob.

Looking back at Moir’s South London pub memories and New Romantic nights out, there’s even a tease as to what the bequiffed Reeves would be up to these days. Should he ever be found alive, that is…

Shortlist: There’s a great variety to your art work, with pieces ranging from traditional paintings of birds to much stranger surreal pieces. What drives that variety in you?

Jim ‘Vic Reeves’ Moir: Well, I have too many thoughts crammed into my tiny brain, so I turn on the syphon and they come out. I don't, quite often, know what's going to turn up. I generally go out bird watching every day, so you're going to see plenty of bird pictures. Other days I might have other ideas. Today, for instance, I'm doing industrial scenes just because I'm getting a kick out of painting clouds and smog and horrible sort of old dirty factories.

SL: Is that part of a series you're working on now?

JM: Yeah — I'm doing about 30 small paintings on one big piece of paper using carbon ink. So at the moment, I've just done 90 of them. So it looks like a series, doesn't it?

SL: Yeah, absolutely like a series! Do you have a favoured technique? Are there preferred materials you work with?

JM: It used to be oils, and then it was acrylic, and then it went back to oils. But I really like using inks at the moment, so it kind of chops and changes. It switches with my mood, and that can change all the time.

SL: Having had a public profile prior to your more recent public-facing art career, do you think people have an expectation of what your art is going to be before they see it?

JM: Well, I don't really know. I mean, I go out bird watching and I meet blokes — usually blokes — who are bird watching as well, and they go, "You're going to go and paint that?”, and I go, "Yeah, I will.” They all take photographs and I do the painting. So I've got that little crowd. I've got a comedy crowd who say, "I like your comedy paintings, but I ain't got enough money to buy them, is the only thing”!

It sometimes doesn't work in your favour, because people don't like you to be… I'm not going to say “good”, but I will — good at two things. People go, “Well, no, you can't do that. Stick with the comedy”. So, even though I did painting before I did comedy, and comedy was kind of an extension of that, people have an expectation and make their own decision. So I think it's up to them. I mean, I make a living out of it, and that's all I'm interested in!

SL: I am one of those people who have never bought art before, but I bought one of your Chris Palmer paintings, and it's the one thing I say to my girlfriend: if the flat burns down, that's the only thing we grab.

JM: You're in that category. You're not in the bird category!

SL: You've talked about having notebooks around the house, painting virtually every day. What's a normal day in the studio look like?

JM: I get up about half five, six, start working, and I feel like I'm most lively then. I'm an early bird, so I get most of me work done first thing in the morning. Then grab lunch, and then go out bird watching. It's a simple life, but I like it.

SL: Do you do paint on location as well, or is it always back at the studio?

JM: No, I do. What I tend to do is take photographs if I see a scene that I like, and then go back and work it up from the photographs. But I do sometimes go out and do it en plein air. I've done experiments painting outside as well, like where I've painted a scene and then hidden it, or pinned it to the back of a tree and then gone back a month later seeing how it's faring, things like that.

That's quite good fun, but that came from a friend of mine, Colin Self, who was one of the first pop artists — he's got a broad Norfolk accent, so I'll try and do it. But he says, “I knocked on this old lady's door and said, ‘Do you mind if I stash all my paintings under your bush?’” She just went and hid his bits under a bush, and then returned to him the next day!

And I love that about artists who go out and paint outside. So you know, you never know! You might go and have a look under a bush and find some works of art under there.

SL: What would you say to someone, then, who comes from your comedy, and you represent like a gateway to an art world that they've not experienced before? Where would you say they should go next?

JM: I used to spend all my time in the library looking at art books, but now I suppose you just do it online. But you can follow a theme, find something you like, and then go surfing, which is what I do all the time. Like I say, I used to be in the library, and that'd lead me off onto one direction — I was really into German Expressionism when I was at art school and stuff like that. So that was just from looking at American Expressionism and then working out what it was I liked. So you surf around.

SL: What are your memories of art school?

JM: Being told off and them saying, "What do you think you've got some kind of artistic licence?” And I went, "Yeah, I have!”

Another one was, "Can you paint something which is in bad taste?” And I said, "Well, not really, because if it's bad taste, it might be good taste to someone else, and that makes it objective.”

So I was stroppy — I spent most of my extra time there working, using equipment and doing it myself, really, rather than listening to lectures.

SL: Did you enjoy it? Do you think it helped you?

JM: Oh yeah — you learn the basics of drawing and perspective and things like that. So you take away stuff like that, and then you go and sort of forget about it.

SL: ‘Jim Moir as an artist’ is kind of a second coming for you, and I wonder what you would say to someone who's maybe in their 40s, 50s, 60s, looking to take a different path? Someone who maybe feels like they've missed their chance to do something creative.

JM: Well, you just have to go for it. I mean, that's what I did — I was about 21 and realised I didn't really want to work for anyone ever again. My mum, who's 99 nearly, I saw her the other week and she said, "Are you going to retire?” I said, "I retired when I left school.

SL: That’s a nice way of looking at it.

JM: Yeah, well, you’ve just got to. You take a chance. You just mess about and see if it works. And if it works, leave what you're doing and go and do that. But I would always say do what you want to do, because if you do what you want to do, you're going to do it well. That's the crux of it. If you like fiddling about with cars, then go off and do that. You know, it’s the same thing.

SL: Beyond your painting and your comedy, do you have any other creative outlets you're passionate about?

JM: What else is there? Well, I'm writing a new book, which is a bird book, actually. I mean, it's all the art. I sculpt. I do mainly fine art. Really, I don't know what else there is. There probably is something, but I can't think of it right now…

I used to be in a band when I was in my teens. I played bass in bands — I started off on drums actually, but I could only play them in the garage on a Saturday. I learned I could play the snare drum on my bed, so I learned how to do drum rolls. But it wasn't fulfilling enough, so I swapped that for a guitar. I couldn't be bothered playing six strings, so I just played four, and that's why I'm a bass player.

SL: The upcoming Art Car Boot Fair, Jim — what's going to be your involvement? What can people expect to pick up if they come and visit?

JM: I think this might be the sixth or seventh Art Car Boot Fair we’ve done — what I've done is loads of paintings of what people want, and you can get them cheap. So I've done landscapes, birds, there's some comedy paintings in there, stuff that I know people are going to want. And there was a massive big queue at my stall last year, which was good — when I've been before, there've been big queues for Peter Blake and Tracy Emin. Last year, I thought, “Yeah, I've arrived”.

SL: Are you feeling more recognition as an artist now?

JM: Yes, I think people are kind of accepting that or understanding it. I mean, I still get people shouting "Vic, Vic, Vic" in the street. But there's a lot of people going, “Jim. I really like your artwork. I like your paintings”. I actually get that a lot more all the time, so that's good. I've landed on that planet, and I'm really looking forward to the Art Car Boot Fair — you get a really good feeling out of it because, you know, you're like a barrow boy. You're selling stuff off a car, earning your bread and butter from flogging stuff to people.

SL: Do you like the interaction? Do you have to be a wheeler-dealer, or is it a bit more refined than that?

JM: My art agent is an ex auctioneer, so he's really good at doing that. And my daughter's really good at flogging stuff, so I kind of sit in the background and say, "Oh yeah, I'll sign that. I'll do a photo”. If people want to talk to me about it, I'll go and chat to them. So you spend all day chatting to people usually about techniques, and what paintings mean and things like that. Maybe I should have been selling fruit and veg off a wagon or something because I like it.

SL: Vic Reeves' Big Night Out regularly featured your drawings. Do you have a favourite piece from that time?

When we did The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, we used to have a Reeves and Mortimer product on great big boards. When everyone else was off having their lunch, I'd be painting the boards. I’d do the sketches at home, bring them in, and then paint them with black paint. And I do remember ‘Walk Me Home Cheddar’. I enjoyed that. ‘Licky Kicky’, which was just an extending dog leg with razor blades and knives on it, which could chop the legs off of robbers and burglars.

But ‘Walk Me Home Cheddar’ was a big piece of cheddar that would walk your girlfriend home if you were too drunk. And I said to Bob, "Look, there's your girlfriend, (who's Sharon from EastEnders), being walked home by the cheddar”. And then after that, it went in all the papers, in the tabloids, saying that Bob was going out with Sharon from EastEnders. So they decided that from seeing a drawing that I made of her being walked home by a lump of cheddar!

SL: Were those pieces then on the shows were they purely yours or collaborative?

JM: No, they were all mine. I used to do everything. I used to draw ‘The Man with the Stick’ helmet and everything. Any bit of art was all my stuff.

SL: Do you know what happened to all of it? Is that in a lockup somewhere?

JM: No, I would imagine it got either burned or pilfered when it went into the skip around the back of the BBC.

SL: There will be a ‘100 Year Jim Moir Retrospective’ when it gets found somewhere, sat in someone's loft for decades, that's what we're looking forward to.

JM: Yeah, might be somewhere.

SL: It goes without saying there’s a lot of affection for what you did with Bob Mortimer. Do you and Bob still find yourselves coming up with ideas together? Are you formally working on anything?

JM: No, I haven't seen Bob for a while now. He doesn't really go out anywhere, and if he does, he goes out fishing. I ain't seen him for ages. Mind you I don't go out anywhere either…

SL: Is that partnership something that you would like to come back to, or is that chapter closed?

JM: You never know. I never say never. But I’ve kind of moved on to the next stage. I've transformed into a full time artist and I'm really happy doing that. So I stick with what I'm doing. I mean, I'm getting on now. So I can't see any going backwards.

SL: So if Vic Reeves never made another appearance, that would be fine by you?

JM: I think Vic Reeves died about 12 years ago. Ran off into the tundra.

SL: So no big Viking funeral or anything for him?

JM: I think Vic Reeves has just found some shack on the tundra and is trying to set up a hair salon.

SL: Shooting Stars — you recently said it was ‘an antidote to comedy’. Do you think television comedy is still taking risks? What do you make of what's on screen now?

JM: Well, I'm always on the lookout for something that's funny. I don't think anyone's taking risks because I don't think they're allowed to take risks. I think most TV channels are too afraid of a backlash in case something might turn out to be a bit dodgy. I don't know. I don't think anyone's taking any risks, though.

SL: I hate to use the term, but I don't know how better to put it — is ‘cancel culture’ putting people off?

JM: That's what I was trying to aim at. You said it perfectly — I think cancel culture, and also the television channels not being willing to really risk anything.

SL: Is there any comedian out there you see carrying the torch for your brand of surreal comedy?

JM: I don't know. I never watch it!

SL: How about then social media comedians — quick fire TikTok stuff. Do you think there's value in that?

JM: I don't know because I've never seen any of that either! I promise you honestly, I've never seen any of them.

SL: To be fair, Jim, you’re probably saving yourself a lot of hassle. When in London, is there anywhere in terms of pubs or restaurants or music venues you like to poke your head into. Or areas even?

JM: I used to live in Brixton in 1979, so I’d be going out to music venues. I'd go to the Moonlight Club [in West Hampstead - ed.] to see Joy Division.

That’s probably no longer open, and Joy Division aren’t around! I mean, I left London in 1995. I don't go to gigs much at all now because I'm half deaf. I like going to restaurants if I can sit outside because I can't take the cacophony indoors. So if I'm going anywhere, I go to somewhere around Coal Drops Yard. I like Caravan, I like sitting outside there.

I love London pubs. What I don't like is the upstairs and downstairs toilets. That's the thing about London pubs. I really love a London pub. I love that, did you know, they were painted brown, cream, and red to represent beer, wine, and red wine?

SL: I did not know that! Is that a fact?

JM: Yeah, that's a fact. And also, it's the same colours you get in theatres because they would represent the same thing.

SL: See, when I ask you if that's a fact, I'm just wondering, is this a ‘Shooting Stars fact’ or is this a true fact…

JM: No it’s true! I've got loads of false, fake facts, but this is a true one.

SL: And if you could spend one evening in 1980s London again, where would you go and what would you do?

JM: I'd go back to my old flat in Brixton and go to the George Canning [in Camberwell .ed] with me mates, have a couple, and then shoot off up to ‘Le Beat Route’, which was an old New Romantics club on a Friday night.

SL: Were you a New Romantic, Jim?

JM: Yeah, pretty much. We used to get them all round our house. We had Boy George, before he was famous — there were a lot of them. They all used to come round to our gaff. Yeah, I’m ex-Punk, ex-New Romantic, and then I went off in a kind of industrial way.

SL: That is the movement of music through the 80s and early 90s, I suppose then, isn't it really?

JM: Yeah, that's it.

SL: All right, Jim. One more question and we’ll let you go. Big Night Out first kicked off back at the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross. When was the last time you were there?

JM: I think it must have been about 10 years ago — it’s turned into a kind of pizzeria. When I was there, it was a gay pub — Lily Savage was on early on, and then he'd move out, and his crowds move out, and then I'd go in with all my rubbish, carrying in all my props, and my gang would turn up. It was really Hogarthian and kind of rough, but really good fun.

SL: At Shortlist we’re really fond of that area. We tend to go back to some of those pubs nearby like the Marquis of Granby…

JM: That's still a dark place, I think! I went there about eight years ago. Still, it looks like it hasn't changed much in there!

SL: Do you ever miss those early days? That sense of coming up?

JM: Yeah — I mean, there was a sense of vibrancy and urgency and all that stuff. It wasn't really, ‘I want to be famous’. It was like ‘I've got a new idea — let's see what if this works’. I think the attitude that is around now is like, ‘Let’s see how famous I can get, how quickly I can get into a stadium’. For me it was ‘Let's see if anyone can accept this idea’!

I still work like that anyway. Let's have a crack at something new — not do it ‘cos you think you're going to make it with it. It was really good times, it changed every week, there was a lot going on.

But the Art Car Boot Fair is what I'm working towards now. And I've got four exhibitions around the country at the moment, and they're all coming to an end. So go to the Art Car Boot Fair, go and have a look at that!

The Art Car Boot Fair takes place on September 5th at Coal Drops Yard, with tickets starting at £5. For more on Jim Moir's art and upcoming exhibitions, visit JimMoir.com.

Missed AEW’s enormous Wembley Stadium show last weekend? Don’t worry: you won’t have to wait another year for your next chance to see All Elite Wrestling live in London.

AEW has announced that it will return to the UK in February 2027, with AEW Dynamite heading to The O2 in London on Wednesday 10th February. It will be a significant first for the fast-rising wrestling promotion: this will be the first time the AEW Dynamite show has ever been staged in London.

A second show, AEW Dynasty, will take place in Liverpool on February 7th for those that can’t make it to the capital.

A smash-hit spectacle

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth getting involved, the evidence from this year’s Wembley spectacular suggests the answer is a fairly emphatic yes.

AEW All In: London 2026 took place on 30th August in front of more than 40,000 fans, with a card packed with big-name stars, championship matches and top performances for some homegrown talent.

The headline moment belonged to Will Ospreay, who defeated Kenny Omega to become AEW World Champion for the first time. The London-born wrestler (who Shortlist interviewed ahead of the title bout) endured a brutal beating from Omega before pulling back the match in what fans are calling one of the standout AEW bouts of 2026.

There was plenty more going on. Mercedes Moné defeated Willow Nightingale to win the AEW Women’s World Championship, while Darby Allin beat Kevin Knight in a wild Falls Count Anywhere match to claim the TNT Championship. Kazuchika Okada reclaimed the International Championship, and Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor – collectively known as the Brawling Birds – won the Women's World Tag Team titles.

There were surprises, too. Former WWE stars Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods – now competing as New Level – made their AEW debuts alongside Swerve Strickland, winning the Trios Championships. And Britt Baker made a surprise return during the pre-show.

So what can we expect from The O2? It's far too early for AEW to announce the card, and the company hasn't yet revealed ticket details. But the promotion clearly has plenty of momentum behind it.

• AEW’s Paul ‘The Big Show’ Wight on wrestling’s Wembley Stadium takeover, London’s own Will Ospreay — and the most celebrity filled game of Dungeons & Dragons of all time

The London Podcast Festival returns to King’s Place this week for yet another epic run of live podcast shows.

Not been before? It’s the 11th year the festival has been held, and it is one of the best way to see your favourite podcasts in person — and tickets don’t cost a fortune either.

It begins on 3rd September, and you can check out the entire list of upcoming shows below.

When is it, and where?

Once more Kings Place is home to the London Podcast Festival. It’s just a few minutes’ amble from King’s Cross rail station.

The first shows are on 3rd September, and the festival runs through until 13th September.

What’s the line-up

Among the London Podcast Festival’s most recent announcements are Paloma Faith’s guest spot on Jameela Jamil’s show Wrong Turns on 11th September. And that Lou Sanders will be the guest on Outsiding with Caitlin Moran & Adam Frost, on 4th September.

Here’s your entire show list round-up, along with prices, but bear in mind each ticket comes with a £2 booking fee attached, which isn’t reflected in the figures below.

• 3rd September 7pm: How AI is reshaping our minds (£16)
• 3rd September 7pm: The World’s Coolest Disabled (£12)
• 4th September 7pm: Outsiding with Caitlin Moran & Adam Frost (£20)
• 4th September 7pm: The Final FronTia with Tia Kofi (£18)
• 5th September 4:30pm: Chart Music: The TOTP Podcast (£20)
• 5th September 4:30pm: Disniversity: The Nightmare Before Christmas Special! (£16)
• 5th September 7pm: Clara & Munroe Are Into It (£18)
• 5th September 7pm: The Empire Film Podcast (£20)
• 6th September 12:30pm: Audio Drama Done Quick (£12)
• 6th September 2:30pm: We Fix Space Junk (£16)
• 6th September 4:30pm: Ade Oladipo Presents... The Green Chair LIVE (£18)
• 6th September 4:30pm: An Audience with Madame Magenta (& Bernard) (£16)
• 6th September 4:30pm: Camlann: An Audio Drama (£14)
• 6th September 7pm: Counter Pressed with Flo Lloyd-Hughes and Friends (£16)
• 6th September 7pm: Wooden Overcoats Live: Rudyard On The Moon (£22)
• 9th September 7:30pm: The Power of a Book (£20)
• 10th September 7pm: Tommy's Brownload (£17.50)
• 10th September 7:30pm: Why Are You More Successful Than Me? with Richard Bacon (£20)
• 11th September 7pm: Life After Prison (£12)
• 11th September 7pm: The Truth (In My Opinion) (£20)
• 11th September 7pm: Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil (£23)
• 12th September 11:30am: Ask the Nincompoops (£12-16)
• 12th September 2pm: 7 Steps to Making a Comedy Podcast (£8)
• 12th September 2pm: Beef and Dairy Network Podcast (£20)
• 12th September 2pm: Make Your Podcast Sponsor-Ready: Craft Your Commercial Story (£8)
• 12th September 2pm: Shaping Tomorrow (£12)
• 12th September 4pm: Make Better Pod Recordings (£8)
• 12th September 4pm: What Are Charting Podcasts Doing on Socials? (£8)
• 12th September 4pm: Why Make a Podcast Now? (£8)
• 12th September 4:30pm: Black Prose (£14)
• 12th September 4:30pm: No Such Thing As A Fish: Drop Us A Line (£17)
• 12th September 4:30pm: Wrestle Me! (£18)
• 12th September 6pm: Help! Podcasting Melted My Brain (£8)
• 12th September 6pm: Beyond The Top 10: The Audiences Podcasting Underserves (£8)
• 12th September 6pm: I Started a Podcast, What Now? (£8)
• 12th September 7pm: No Such Thing As A Fish (£27)
• 13th September 2pm: The Guilty Feminist (£18)
• 13th September 4pm: How to Start a Podcast (£8)
• 13th September 4pm: Marketing Your Podcast on Social Media (£8)
• 13th September 4:30pm: NonCensored (£18)
• 13th September 4:30pm: Our Table with Judi Love (£23)

• 12 podcasts to help make sense of this batshit world right now

The end of August means another Edinburgh festival has come to an end, and this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards winners have now been announced.

Edinburgh festival’s best show of the year goes to Chris Cantrill’s Rewilding, which was on at the Monkey Barrel.

It’s a show about Cantrill’s move to rural Northumberland, although it’s actually his second show about that move. This year’s set is a take on the furore surrounding the Sycamore Gap tree, which was cut down by vandals in 2023.

The best newcomer award went to Marty Gleeson for Dog Ear, a more off-kilter set that blends the surreal and features a bodhrán, a traditional Irish drum. It is inspired by her days at art school, in Limerick.

Both shows received quite a mix of scores from the critics, showing you never can tell what’s going to break through in the early days of the festival.

There was also an Audible Panel prize, given to the show that is seen to best represent the spirit of the festival itself. It went to One Joke, which brought together 60 comedians, who each told one joke before leaving the stage — surely a logistical nightmare.

Cantrill receives £10,000 in prize money for this efforts, which should cover at least a few days of his Edinburgh accommodation, while the other two winners receive £5000 each.

The next question: when are the winners coming to London to perform?

Cantrill is actually busy with other work right now. “I have one day off and then I’m in London for SNL. I asked whether I could come in on Tuesday and they said no,” Cantrill told The Standard.

Cantrill is part of the writing team for the UK version of Saturday Night Live, which has its second season debut on 12th September.

This does mean Cantrill may end up doing some sets around the capital in the coming weeks, although he likely needs a break after his Edinburgh run.

Marty Gleeson can be seen at the End of the Road festival, which begins on 3rd September. In recent months she has performed at the Camden Comedy Club and Park Theatre, so keep an eye on listings for future gigs.

Other shortlist nominees for the best show award for Edinburgh festival 2026 included Dan TIernan’s Quarts and All, Harriet Dyer’s Easily Distra…, Lara Ricote’s Inkling, Li Jin Hao’s Falling From a Moon and Spencer Jones’s Dogs.

• The BIG London Comedy Guide: The best venues to see the world’s funniest comedians

“This animation-lark might be worth pursuing.”

The year is 1972 and teenager Peter Lord is handing a £25 cheque to fellow student, friend and future cofounder David Sproxton. The pair have just been paid by the BBC for a piece of 2D animation they created about a hapless superhero: Aard Man. A combo of “Aardvark” and “Superman”, the name stuck ever since the duo hung it above their Bristol door in 1976.

“Aardman and the world have changed out of all recognition over 50 years,” a freshly knighted Sir Peter tells Shortlist.

“There were three terrestrial TV channels, no personal computers or smartphones. Two of us did just about everything in the studio, whereas now there are about two hundred of us.”

It all started with a borrowed 16mm clockwork camera at Peter’s kitchen table, where he says he couldn’t possibly have dreamt of the trajectory those early experiments in stop motion animation would take him on.

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS TO THE OSCARS RED CARPET

Now a multi-academy award winning studio with globally recognisable IP like Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, Aardman is celebrating its 50th anniversary this September.

For Peter, those smash hits of the 1990s and 2000s must certainly be career highlights, but his favourite year from the stretch of fifty is 1986. It was a time when Aardman was starting to make a name for itself with projects like Creature Comforts and a plethora of TV ads and music videos.

It’s a lesser known and vibrant corner of the Aardman archive, but the studio’s credits include Viva Forever for the Spice Girls, Daddy for Coldplay and Peter’s personal favourite, a surreal music video for Peter Gabriel: “It’s got to be Sledgehammer, hasn’t it? Amazingly exciting to make and incredibly successful.”

Peter says that the studio’s first breakthrough into Hollywood followed in 1995 with Wallace and Gromit’s third outing from creator Nick Park. It was in this film, A Close Shave, where the world fell in love with Shaun the Sheep for the first time.

“It wasn’t designed for cinemas, it was made for TV, but we showed it at a festival in Venice and it went down a storm,” Peter says.

“It just proved to us that our films would work on the big screen. That led on directly to Chicken Run.”

Dr Caroline Ruddell, an animation specialist at Brunel University, says that Chicken Run’s attempt to appeal to an American market clearly paid off, but that the real secret to the studio’s global success has always been its playfulness with genre. “They draw on loads of different genres that people will be familiar with, like the thriller and noir-y aspects of The Wrong Trousers,” she explains.

“FINGERPRINTS IN THE CLAY”

Aardman’s forthcoming feature film sticks to this winning formula. According to chief creative director Sarah Cox, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom blends universal comedy with witty references to classic scary movies that will delight older audiences.

Visually, the Halloween movie takes cues from Hammer Horror and old film colour processing techniques. The palette is saturated with hot pinks and lurid greens that pair with the mad science storyline. It’s a “beautifully hand crafted, perfect cinematic experience,” Sarah exclaims.

Over the years, this craftsmanship has become synonymous with the Aardman brand and is sometimes referred to by the animators as “thumbiness”.

“It’s the visible humanity in our work,” managing director Sean Clarke tells Shortlist, “You can see the hand of the maker — sometimes literally in the fingerprints in the clay — and that imperfection is part of our warmth, charm and truth.”

Sarah, an executive producer on Beast, confirms that thumbprints are dotted throughout the new movie: “The expressive and more extreme facial moments are sculpted individually in clay so that’s where you can see the thumbs.

“On a large feature like this we make identical puppets of each character. We use a kit of parts that are mainly made from either wool, clay, silicone, or textiles.

“The biggest challenge in this film was the beast as he is so wild and hairy that it was difficult to create the ten identical multiples required. A lot of hairspray was used!”

Dr Ruddell says that the “thumbiness” holds a lot of cultural cachet that’s attached to society’s ideas of authenticity. Part of the appeal is that with stop motion you can almost imagine playing with the models as your own childhood toys, she suggests.

EMBRACING GRAND NEW TECHNOLOGY

All that being said, Aardman never shies away from experimenting with digital technology and emerging tools in its filmmaking. At the current exhibition at the Young V&A, the studio showcases its use of tech like VR headsets for pre-production set modelling and software that creates special effects for weather, fire and large crowds.

“The use of CG and technology generally enables us to use stop frame in a cinematically epic fashion, but it is always in service to the stop frame world and puppets,” Sarah explains. For Beast, the animators used Gaussian splat scans, a 3D rendering technique, to capture and expand real sets and create moving backgrounds.

There’s a line in the sand though when it comes to AI. “We don’t use generative AI in our films. There would be no point,” Sarah stresses. “The magic is in the handcrafted approach.”

“Our own research shows there is real concern around the use of generative AI in filmmaking, so our focus is on embracing useful tools without compromising the human creativity, skill and care at the centre of our work,” agrees Sean Clarke.

AARDMAN ON TOUR

In recent years, another tactic in Aardman’s quest for world domination has been its roll out of countless rides, trails and exhibitions.

Ngaio Harding-Hill, head of attractions and live experiences at Aardman, says these “real life interactions” are another way of telling stories and are a “gateway” to reaching audiences and flourishing fanbases in countries like Japan.

Flanked by dozens of classic archive models being dusted off for a hometown anniversary exhibition, Ngaio tells Shortlist that a grand finale for the 50th year celebrations is on its way to the capital. The immersive Lightroom show is set to drop later this year, designed to plunge Londoners into a mix of classic nostalgia and completely bespoke Aardman footage projected at an "epic scale."

BACK TO THE KITCHEN TABLE

Sir Peter reflects on the studio’s legacy while watching young people tinkering with DIY “animation stations” at Aardman’s current exhibitions in both Bristol and London museums. As if at their own kitchen tables, children and big kids alike can direct their own stop motion masterpieces.

“It’s really important to spread the message that animation is exciting,” he says.

“Just about anybody can experiment with animation, with no experience, and enjoy the thrill of bringing something to life. An animator is like a little god: you make a world, you populate it and you bring it to life – that’s a pretty powerful idea!”

Looking ahead, he playfully envisions a Back to the Future version of Aardman HQ where “kindly and friendly” robots ferry cups of tea to employees. “Outside the studio, the animators are treated like superstars, adoring fans with rocket packs are always waiting outside offering tribute and thanks to these people for continuing to do something real,” he imagines.

Daydreams aside, Peter promises that Aardman will always place hand-made animation at the heart of everything it does.

“As long as people value it, we’ll keep pioneering it.”

• What to watch: new movies and TV shows to stream this week

Did you know Stephen King wrote a story based in London? Well he did, and it’s set to become a Prime Video show.

Crouch End, the name of both the story and upcoming series, will be a six-parter and while there will no doubt be a wait for this one’s arrival, we do know plenty of details.

For those who haven’t read the original in King’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes short story collection, here’s the official synopsis:

“London never sleeps deeply, and its dreams are uneasy. When global movie star Doris Freeman bursts into a London police station claiming that strange phenomena are behind the disappearance of her husband, police inspector Ted Vetter must investigate whether she’s telling the truth, whether she could be a murderer, or whether there’s something even more chilling at play."

The Crouch End production crew is headed up by Paul Tomalin, who previously wrote for Netflix TV series Bodies and No Offence — which, no offence to Tomalin and co, we have not seen.

“After reading Crouch End some years back, Stephen King’s vivid prose has haunted my nightmares ever since,” says Tomalin.

King's vision of London

Can Stephen King write a version of the capital that won’t have Londoners rolling their eyes and wanting to throw themselves down the apples & pears? That may not actually matter, as Crouch End is being run as a proper UK production.

Tomalin is a Brit, as is Crouch End’s attached director Tom Shankland. He’s worked on plenty of TV shows in the past, including the recent House of Guinness, The Serpent and The Punisher.

According to the Nightmares and Dreamscapes contents page, Crouch End is a pretty slender 39-page tale.

The collection was made into a TV mini series in 2006 and, sure enough, its second episode was based on Crouch End. But, well, it’s the lowest-rated episode of the season according to IMDb, so hopefully this upcoming adaptation will fare a lot better.

Crouch End is one of Stephen King’s odes to Lovecraft, featuring a good-old dose of madness-inducing horror.

It will be Stephen King’s first UK-produced adaptation according to Variety, and as yet no cast members have been announced. Casting is reportedly taking place at present.

King hasn’t posted about the show plans, instead recently urging us to go see silly-fun Dino caper The End of Oak Street, which he calls “a glorious throwback to summer movies as they were back in the day. Total fun.”

Stephen King adaptations currently available on streaming include Doctor Sleep on NOW, The Mist on iPlayer, The Long Walk on Prime, The Running Man on NOW, The Life of Chuck on Netflix, IT on NOW and The Dark Half on Tubi — among others. There are absolutely loads of the things floating around the place.

But now is also as good a time as any to raise a glass to the sadly recently departed Tim Curry, whose role as Pennywise in the 1990 adaptation of IT was absolutely iconic, even if the TV show itself was a mixed bag. A behind-the-scenes doc on that show, Pennywise: The Story of It, is available on Prime Video.

• The best Stephen King adaptations, ranked: brilliant big-screen King classics

Is there a more-loved London cinema than the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square? The West End institution has been showing cult films, midnight movies and classics on 35mm since the ‘60s, a slightly rough-and-ready gem while the rest of the West End’s screens have become increasingly glitzy.

But despite its many hardcore (and often famous) fans, the independent cinema is once again under threat of closure.

A new report from London Centric says that the long-running battle between the Prince Charles Cinema and its landlord is kicking off again. Property giant Criterion Capital is taking the PCC back to court in September, with the cinema still fighting for a new lease that it says will allow it to continue operating without the constant threat of being turfed out.

The dispute first became public in January 2025, when the cinema launched its Save The PCC campaign. Its argument was fairly straightforward: its landlord wanted a new lease containing a six-month break clause, meaning the cinema could potentially be forced to leave if planning permission was secured to redevelop the building. The PCC also claimed the proposed rent was significantly above what it considered to be the market rate.

More than 167,000 people have now signed the cinema's petition calling for the break clause to be removed.

The battle isn't over

According to Prince Charles Cinema owner Ben Freedman, very little has changed since the dispute first went public. The two sides are due to return to court in early September for another pre-trial hearing, as the cinema continues its legal fight for a new lease.

The PCC says it is entitled to a new tenancy under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, at a market rent, and has prepared its case with property experts and legal counsel.

Complicating matters while the future of the cinema is being fought over, the building above it is being transformed.

Plans have been approved for the upper floors of the building to become a capsule-style hostel, with around 230 beds. The development is being pursued by the same property interests connected to Criterion Capital, the cinema's landlord.

From the cinema's perspective, that makes the situation rather more uncomfortable. The PCC has previously said building works associated with the development have already caused disruption, including temporary closures.

The landlord, meanwhile, has maintained that it values the cinema and that it is operating within the relevant legal framework. Criterion Capital has previously denied attempting to intimidate or disadvantage the cinema.

Crucially, despite the legal wrangling, the cinema hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, its programme currently stretches well into the autumn and winter, with everything from best-worst-ever-film The Room with Tommy Wiseau, to Blade Runner, In The Mood For Love and its always-ridiculous roster of cult film events.

Regardless, the future is again shaky for the Prince Charles Cinema. With famous fans including Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, hopefully they can put their industry swagger to good use and drum up some global support for the embattled venue. Do your part too — book a screening here.

• The BIG London Cinema List 2026: Film festivals, seasons, Q&As and rep screenings

Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly have been gracing our screens for over forty years between them, but it turns out throwing the pair together in the scintillating sci-fi adaptation Dark Matter was the hit we never knew we needed.

Twisting around Blake Shelton’s topsy turvey world, Connelly and Edgerton lit up our screens and thoroughly confused us during season one of Apple TV's 2024 hit. Now, Dark Matter is back for season two, and it only gets more twisted.

For the uninitiated, Dark Matter is based on Shelton’s 2016 novel following Jason Dessen (Edgerton), a physicist, professor and family man who — one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago — is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could have lived.

Season two picks up with the Dessens as they settle into a quiet life in a world that finally seems safe — until the unimaginable forces them to run once again. As Jason’s obsessions deepen, Daniela’s (Connelly) growing paranoia pushes her to the brink, threatening to tear their fragile stability apart.

Spooky and thrilling, we had a quick catch up with Joel and Jennifer ahead of season two hitting screens on 28th August.

There have famously been a slew of fantastic adaptations recently – Jilly Cooper's Rivals, Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars, BAFTA winning Hamnet. So, the pressure is on a little for the second season of Dark Matter to uphold the current M.O. However it sounds as though it wasn't getting to the pair.

"Dark Matter was such a great thing to adapt because Blake was interested to go take the book and then push some of the characters even further," Joel explains, referencing the more emotive POV we get from his character in the series.

When it comes to adaptations the pair would like to see get the big screen treatment, it seems Hollywood already has them covered.

"I'm famously trying to get my hands on books that have already been optioned and I'm not allowed to," Joel jokes, laughing.

Adapting a killer novel is a far more laborious process that it often seems to audiences, with books' rights getting snapped up sometimes just months after their publish date, even if it takes years – decades even – until they hit our screens.

"It's best to get a hold of books that are not that well known, that have a great story or a great plot," Joel explains.

"Not just because then you've actually beaten everyone else to it [but also] because the pressure of adapting a well-loved book is so intense. Your imagination has pictured the world and the characters separately from other readers."

Translation: you're never gonna please everyone.

It's exciting to see Dark Matter getting a second series, as we've lost too many great series to the graveyard of single-season-hits – only yesterday Hulu confirmed it had cancelled Not Suitable for Work after just one season, My Lady Jane (unfairly) met the same fate. It's not just one-seasoners that have been unfairly cancelled – Joel's one that got away cancelled was the 2004 HBO series Deadwood. "I was obsessed with that show and I remember being really hungry for more of it."

From looking back on under-served shows of yore, to thinking about a possible season three of Dark Matter, there was only one thing we wanted to know. Celebrity Crushes. Or more specifically, the other celebrities the pair love who would have made an incredible cameo in Dark Matter. One of the great things about sci-fi is that no celebrity is out of place – a scientist? Well, they need to explain the time travel obvs. Alison Hammond? Of course she'd pop up even in a topsy turvey world, entertaining whatever is left of civilization.

"The person who popped into my head was Michael J. Fox," Joel laughs. "I don't know why."

"I often think about our show being like a multiverse, visiting parallel universes. And I often wonder what it would be like if you were to add time travel to that. And of course, my prince of time travel is Michael J. Fox. So for some reason, he popped into my head. And I have always adored him."

"The first person I thought of was Anthony Hopkins," Jennifer agreed, similarly unsure as to how she got to that conclusion.

"I don't really know why I just pictured him in that kind of room dispelling wisdom. You know, he's a wise man. When you're in a science fiction show and you need someone to explain a complicated scientific concept, Anthony Hopkins would be perfect because he could do anything. He could convince you of anything. He's the best."

Dark Matter S2 will premiere globally on Apple TV with the first episode on Friday, August 28, followed by one new episode every Friday through October 30, 2026.

London may have been abuzz with the news that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean was going to be the first film to get the immersive treatment at Greenwich’s newest Secret Cinema site. The new first-of-its-kind permanent venue will be hosted the swashbuckling flick for the ultimate immersive movie experience - but it’s not the only big London venue to be hosted the iconic piratical film, as a one-night-only concert is coming to The Royal Albert Hall.

Climb the rigging and shiver whatever your timbers are as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (aka the first one in the series) is setting sail for London’s Royal Albert Hall on 29th December. Not just a screening spectacle, the showings will be accompanied by a huge live orchestra with vocalists too, all bringing the incredible soundtrack to life.

The Academy of St Martin in the Field are performing the soundtrack, along with the London Voices who will all be conducted by David Mahoney. The soundtrack was co-created by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt, and whilst people tend to associate it more with Zimmer, it was actually Badelt who was credited as the primary composer for the first film.

If you haven’t watched the film since an early sleepover circa 2006, let us refresh your memory. The film follows Captain Barbossa who steals Jack Sparrow’s ship and kidnaps the governor’s beautiful daughter, Elizabeth Swann. In response, Elizabeth’s childhood friend Will Turner joins forces with Jack to save her and recapture Jack’s ship, the Black Pearl. It stars Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann, Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa – we don’t blame you if you don’t remember entirely, it has been a staggering 13 years since it first came out.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in Concert is just one of the many orchestral performances of classic films hosted by the Royal Albert Hall. Whilst they’re aren’t currently any of the film’s sequels planned in the series, you can currently catch Top Gun: Maverick (with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra), The Moonwalkers, Black Panther, Matilda, and even a very fitting Bond screening with the full orchestra and people dressed up in suits.

Tickets are already on sale, with two screenings taking place on the same day – an afternoon showing at 1pm, and an evening concert at 6pm. Tickets range from £30 for standing tickets, ranging up to £93 for the posh seats. You can grab tickets and browse the movies in concert series via the Royal Albert Hall website.

• BFI London Film Festival 2026 has officially revealed its competition line-up

Ted Lasso season four hasn’t even finished its streaming roll-out yet but season five filming plans are reportedly underway already.

This is according to Apple TV commentator Sigmund Judge, who claims he has heard from “multiple sources” the “provisional” plan is to start shooting the next series in January 2027, in London.

Ted Lasso is back in action it seems, following a chunky three year gap between the release of the show’s third and fourth seasons.

Based on the typical schedule of these large productions, you can usually expect to see a gap of around a year between shooting and release — although Judge is even more optimistic, suggesting it could arrive in “Summer 2027.”

Too optimistic? Probably.

"It's certainly good enough"

As part of the celebrations for the release of Ted Lasso season four we took a look at some of the key sights from the show, including Selhurst Park stadium, the beautiful Richmond riverside and Brockley’s Rivoli ballroom.

We don’t yet know exactly which haunts we’ll jaunt through in season five, not least because it hasn’t even been greenlit yet.

Apple exec Eddy Cue told made a coy signal the show would go on, though.

“I hope so. It's certainly good enough for that. So I think there's plenty of stories to go on. We'll show up. No worries,” Cue told Screenrant in a “red carpet interview,” which helps to explain the short, kinda glib response.

Following Ted Lasso season 4’s release, Apple revealed the show was its biggest launch to date, racking up 296.6 million watched minutes in just two days.

Show co-creator Jason Sudeikis originally envisioned Ted Lasso as a three-season arc, and was reticent to return for more despite reportedly being offered big bucks for the work.

Despite this sort of success-following often opening the door to cynicism and general televisual badness, Ted Lasso season four received comfortably better reviews than season three.

What’s coming to Apple TV that’s actually new?

There’s Ryan Reynolds-Kenneth Branagh buddy movie Mayday on 4th September, TV mystery Last Seen on 9th September, and Brothers out on 23rd September, a comedy series that sees Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play fictionalised versions of themselves — and best buds living together on a ranch.

• The best Apple TV shows you really need to be streaming (August 2026)

A Christmas Carol has had a pretty starry history already – you know you’ve reached "made it" status when you have a muppet parody film. That’s just the rules. Now, the Dickensian classic is getting a refresh with a fresh cast of fantastic actors who are uniting for a one-night-only reading of the wintery tale.

Bella Ramsey, Dame Imedla Staunton, and Paapa Essiedu will be heading up an all star cast, joined by felllow acting heavyweights Adjoa Andoh, Jim Broadbent, Emma Corrin, Paapa Essiedu, Alex Lawther, Matthew Macfadyen, Tanya Reynolds, and Grace Savage. The West End show will be a charity gig, raising money for homelessness charity Crisis. They’ll be coming together for a one-night-only performance on 7th December at Lyric Theatre in London.

As well as being a charity fundraiser, the event is also inspired by how the work would have been originally performed back in the 1800s, as Dickens began his own public readings in 1853. Dickens’ own first reading of the play was also for charity, raising funds for local organisations in Birmingham where he was performing, and the writer went on to perform A Christmas Carol more than 120 times during his life.

The production has been directed by Bessie Carter – daughter of Imelda Staunton, and fellow Bridgerton alum alongside Adjoa Andoh.

Talking about why this was the chosen piece for the performance, Andoh said: "A Christmas Carol is a story rooted in compassion. It is a powerful reminder of the precarity of life and the shared value of all human beings.

“It feels incredibly powerful to be bringing this story to life during the Christmas season alongside such an amazing cast while supporting people experiencing homelessness."

She added that: “Crisis’ vital work all year round helps people leave homelessness behind by providing practical support including housing advice, employment opportunities and training.

“Everyone deserves the warmth, safety and security of a home and I’m delighted that people joining us for this special evening can help make that possible.”

It's a pretty incredible line up, with national treasures as well as beloved new faces and a bucketload of awards between them. Across the cast, they have two Primetime Emmy Awards, four BAFTAs, four Golden Globe Awards, and six Olivier awards, to name a few. And those are just wins – if we listed nominations we'd all be here a while.

The show will take place on December 7 at the Lyric Theatre, with tickets going on sale at midday on September 1 via Nimax Theatres.

• BFI London Film Festival 2026 has officially revealed its competition line-up

An Avengers film is coming to cinemas next month, and it’s one you’ve already seen, but with a twist: Avengers Endgame: Encore.

A trailer for the film’s re-release was just posted online, and has already collected more than six million views. It is, of course, here to drum up some extra Marvel fan anticipation ahead of Avengers: Doomsday’s release on 18th December.

The film returns to cinemas on 25th September, including IMAX and Infinity Vision screening rooms. And tickets for those higher-end screens are available to book now.

One of our big questions: does this put an end to the dream of more The Odyssey screenings at BFI IMAX and our other fave London spots?

• BFI London Film Festival 2026 has officially revealed its competition line-up

Current listings for the film at BFI IMAX end on September 24th. And while no listings for Avengers Endgame: Encore are online just yet, the timing is just a little too perfect for this one.

The next major BFI IMAX film coming to the legendary cinema is Dune: Part Three, which opens on 18th Decmeber. Yep, in the battle of Arrakis versus the Avengers, Marvel lost out this time.

You can see all the currently-announced screenings for Avengers Endgame: Encore at the movie’s own website. Here are the London cinemas confirmed to be getting the re-release so far:

• Cineworld Leicetser Square
• Cineworld Wandsworth
• Cineworld The O2 Greewncih
• Cineworld Wembley
• Odeon Enfield
• Odeon Greenwich
• Odeon Luxe Acton
• Odeon Lee Valley
• Odeon Kingston
• Omniplex Sutton

For the most part, Avengers Endgame: Encore will offer the film as you remember it, but will also include “an exclusive look” at Avengers: Doomsday, while those in IMAX and Infinity Vision screens apparently get yet another different teaser.

Avengers: Endgame was originally released in 2019, and is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time before accounting for inflation, second only to Avatar.

As any fan will know, the MCU’s fortunes took something of a downturn after the Avengers saga — so can Avengers: Doomsday turn things around?

It’s expected to bring in up to $300 million on its opening weekend, which while far better than today’s Marvel norm isn’t quite on par with Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s $360 million first weekend. It has gone on to make more than $2.2 billion, and is still filling seats.

• The best Marvel movies - Marvel Cinematic Universe ranked

A bookshop has its own draw; the slightly musty smell of carpets mingled with the scent of old books, top notes of fresh ink and crisp new novels, and a woodiness which you’re never 100% sure the provenance of. Blend the nostalgia and comfort of an old school bookshop with a cosy crime drama and the razor sharp mind of Mark Gatiss and you’ve got U & alibi’s hit show Bookish.

The show, returning on 26th August with a brand new season, follows Gatiss and Bridgerton alum Polly Walker as couple Gabriel and Trottie Book (happily in their Lavender Marriage). They continue to help police solve crimes in 1946 London from the cosy interior of their beloved bookshop, along with newish recruit (and former petty criminal) Jack (played by Connor Finch) who is the lesser educated but just as curious foil to Book’s unorthodox intellect in a Pygmalion-esque story arc.

Ahead of the second season being released across the UK, we caught up with Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker, and Connor Finch to hear about their favourite books, from early childhood days up until the page turners which kept them entertained between shoots.

Shortlist: What was your first read? That one book that made you fall in love with literature and reading?

Mark Gatiss: Have you ever read the Very Hungry Caterpillar? [chuckles] No, my first read was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I was given it by Santa Claus when I was five – I didn't read it when I was five, but I remember everything about the getting of it. And then when I did read it, it blew my mind because there's a big twist and it sort of opened up to me the possibilities of stories. Still one of my favourites.

Polly Walker: Hmm, what’s the one where it's a poet that has kind of grotesque stories for children and something always horrible happens to them… Hilaire Belloc, that was it. That just blew my mind – terrified, but I loved it.

Connor Finch: I only sort of did what was necessary reading for a long, long time. But I remember when I was sort of getting ready to go and do the rounds at drama school, I was given the play Mojo and fell in love with it because the lovely Danny Mays [who also stars in Bookish] was in it. I had that for a long time and used that to do all the drama school auditions. That’s the one that comes to mind for me.

SL: How about your “re-read”? I don’t know if you guys are big re-readers, but do you have a book that you like to come back to and read again?

MG: Well, Sherlock Holmes is my comfort book. I often take it on journeys, but I don’t always read the whole story. The opening of certain stories just make me feel so nice, I don’t have to complete the whole thing.

PW: I’ve never read the Bible, I keep picking it up and trying to read that, but I don’t get very far.

CF: One I’ve read a few times which Mark put me onto because he was adamant that I should do it one day was the play Loot by Joe Orton. I read it a few times because it's sort of almost got that old school BBC comedy type, you know — it's tragic and it's still a drama. But I think the only book that I probably read more than once is Daisy Jones and the Six. I read that a couple of times because that was a great book.

SL: They did a great adaptation of that a couple of years back, I'm usually nervous of adaptations for books I loved, but they did a really good job. Do you guys prefer to read the book before watching a TV or film adaptation? Or are you not too fussed?

CF: I mean, a few years ago I did an adaptation, Everything I Know About Love and that book was everywhere. And it was quite hard to resist not reading it before doing it. So I ended up watching the series that I was in before reading the book. I think it's different if you know it's gonna be made into something, but if you don't, it's probably quite nice to start with the book.

MG: It depends, doesn’t it? The good thing is a lot of TV drama is a gateway into it. A lot of people will read something as a result of watching something, but equally by its very nature an adaptation is an adaptation. People hated the film of The Goldfinch, which is a beloved book, but that's because it should be sort of a 12 part series and you can't do that in a film. A lot of my favourites I first saw on TV – Jane Eyre, Hound of the Baskervilles. So it’s a great way in

SL: How about a new read? Either something you’ve discovered recently, or a new book on your radar to read next.

PW: Demon Copperhead, that’s mine

MG: I’ve just finished an amazing biography of Bertolt Brecht; I've just done a Brecht play in Stratford Upon Avon and I read it. Ingrid Oliver, who's in series two [of Bookish], gave me this biography, it's called the Life and Lives of Bertolt Brecht by John Fuege. As soon as I started it I absolutely couldn’t put it down, it’s a remarkable book. And, it changed my entire view of Brecht as a playwright.

PW: What did it change?

MG: Oh, well, he was a monster — 80 to 90% of his most famous work is not written by him and is mostly written by three or four extraordinary women in his life whom he totally erased from history. So that’s quite a whopper.

SL: I feel like we need a Netflix miniseries about it now...

MG: You wouldn't think it, but it would be an amazing series or film. What a life and what a life of lies and oddness. And everything we think of as 'Brechtian' is so much the product of lots of other people's minds. And he's become like the brand name for a kind of style.

CF: I read a book a long time a few years ago, Magnolia Parks, and I only found out recently that is like a whole universe of these books. And I was like, oh, so I've got a few of those to carry on with, but one, the author's Miranda July.

MG: She sounds like she’s in a Bond novel doesn’t she? Miranda July....

SL: Finally, what's your current read? Maybe it’s the scripts for Bookish S2, or it could be one that’s keeping your entertained in between interviews today...

MG: I’m reading Middlemarch (on my Kindle – it’s very dense) because I decided it’s time. It’s surprisingly funny. I understand why people struggle [with it], my friend said to me “I’ve tried three times”. The style is very long winded, but actually once you get into the meat of it, it's just about people and it's very familiar – the petty politics of a little town. And I was surprised how kind of sharp and funny it was. I mean, I’m only this much in [*index finger and thumb incredibly close together*] and it's a massive book so see me next year and I’ll see if I get to the end of it.

PW: I have one book on the go at the moment because it’s literally a paragraph and I can just about manage that, and that’s the Daily Stoic. And it's just a message, about stoicism, about approach and gaze but it gives me the perspective that I sometimes need at the end of a day, reminding you what you can affect and what you can’t. And it’s rather wonderful.

CF: I’m going away at the end of the month so I’ve got a book to read on holiday because I feel really behind that I haven’t read it yet, and that’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

SL: Oh! You’re going to enjoy it!

CF: Yeah, I’m very excited to read it, it feels like another one of those books that everyone ended up talking about.

SL: Final quick question: are you guys physical book people or Kindle people? Or both

CF: Both.

PW: Physical.

MG: I like to have the physical, but I actually read the Kindle.

SL: And bookshops all the way?

MG: Exactly!

Bookish season 2 is available to stream from 26th August on U & Alibi, with all episodes of season one also streaming on NOW TV.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – talking here of course about big adaptations of beloved books. Think Where the Crawdads Sing (best), The Golden Compass (worst). Also equally applicable when it comes to film-to-stage adaptations: Mean Girls, Mamma Mia, Chicago, Matilda – all great and beloved.

Then you’ve got Cats. The less said here the better.

However, one recent production which has landed very much on the side of 'best' is the National Theatre run of Pride, an adaptation of the 2014 film of the same name.

Pride recounts the real life story of the unlikely solidarity and friendship between the gay community and the striking miners during the '84 and '85 strikes. Screenwriter Stephen Beresford and director Matthew Warchus have reunited for the musical, bringing the same heart, fabulous writing, and immaculate direction with them.

The original film boasted a bucketload of National Treasures as well as biiiig names, including George MacKay, Bill Nighy, Andrew Scott, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton and Jessica Gunning. The against the odds, community-championing, utterly joyous flick was a big hit on release, and its musical adaptation has received a similar reception. After a short run in National Theatre’s intimate Dorfman Theatre, it’s heading to the Bridge Theatre in November.

The production was sold out for ages during its early days at the NT, so the news of the transfer isn’t exactly a surprise. The Dorfman Theatre is the smallest auditorium within the National Theatre, holding a maximum of 450 viewers, and historically acts as a flexible space where new productions (especially musicals) can have more of a trial run as they find their feet, before heading to a larger, established venue. Not that Pride really needed a trial run though, receiving rave reviews from critics.

Pride will start its run at Bridge Theatre on 12th November, taking over from its current show The Oresteia. It looks as though the production will have another limited run though, wrapping up in May 2027 as Chris Pine’s Ivanov will be taking over for the end of July

Current cast members Samuel Barnett, Matthew Durkan, Gillian Elisa, Chris Jenkins, Darren Lawrence, Kirsty Malpass, Madeleine Morgan, Sarah Pugh, Caroline Sheen, Courtney Stapleton and Matthew Woodyatt will return. Interestingly, this suggests that the rest of the roles – including the leading role of Mark Ashton – will be recast.

Tickets go on sale on 2nd September, and from the looks of things you’ll be able to book for the whole run from November 12th until May 8th.

• BFI London Film Festival 2026 has officially revealed its competition line-up

When The Dog Stars arrives in cinemas later this week (28th August), it will be a true landmark release. This will be the 30th film of Ridley Scott’s career.

That’s all the more remarkable when you consider that the 88-year-old South Shields native had a relatively late start in the business.

Ridley Scott’s stairway to the Hollywood firmament wasn’t like most other ‘70s auteurs. He was a successful director of commercials well before he made his movie directing debut, and didn’t take the plunge into full-length production until he was almost 40.

It was no callow, wet-behind-the-ears wunderkind that produced 1977’s The Duellists, but a seasoned director already well on top of his craft and confident in his artistic vision.

Scott has carried this extreme level of proficiency and single-mindedness through his whole career, which explains why he’s the closest thing to a safe bet in Hollywood. Not all of his films have been hits, but he’s always on time and always on budget.

We’d be tempted to label him a producer’s dream, if it weren’t for a well-earned reputation for being blunt and abrasive. If you’re a Hollywood executive, your best bet is to stump up the money and just get well out of the great man’s way.

That’s not to suggest that Scott’s work is in any way stolid or workmanlike. Indeed, he has produced some of the most evocative, memorable films in cinematic history.

Inevitably, in a career that has spanned nearly 50 years, there have been a fair few misfires. But a Ridley Scott film is never less than technically immaculate. At their best, meanwhile, his films have come to define the visual language of Hollywood.

Here, then, is a rundown of Ridley Scott’s 29 films to date, in ascending order of greatness.

Disagree with any of my rankings? It would be as startling and disconcerting as a chest bursting alien if you didn’t. Do please share your own favourites in the comments below.

29. 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

The charge of playing fast and lose with historical facts has plagued Scott whenever he has touched upon real world events. It’s easy enough to park that to one side when it’s sharks in the Colosseum. It’s far more problematic in Scott’s gilded account of Christopher Columbus’s ‘discovery’ of the New World. In Scott’s leaden retelling, Columbus was a pure-hearted visionary and an impeccable navigator, who treated the various native populations he encountered with dignity and respect. Hmm... Epic title track from Vangelis, mind.

28. Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Scott always seemed destined to bring the old fashioned Biblical epic up to date at some point. In the event, Exodus: Gods and Kings was a woefully misconceived jaunt through ancient North Africa and the Middle East. Criticism surrounded the casting of Christian Bale as the Hebrew prophet Moses and Joel Edgerton as Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II, though wider complaints of Biblical inaccuracy seem like a matter for the true believers to debate. A more immediate and obvious issue is the film’s overwrought tone, which makes it difficult to take the dramatic beats seriously.

27. A Good Year (2006)

In which the famously no-nonsense Scott attempts to make a breezy rom-com about wine making. An intriguing exercise, no doubt, but one that turns out about as well as you might expect. Scott perennial Russell Crowe turns in his Serious Man Of Action badge to play arrogant English banker Max Skinner, who inherits a chateau and vineyard in deepest Provence. Neither director nor star seems to have an ear for frothy comedy – at this point in their careers, at least. It’s all a bit stilted, like they’re trying (and failing) to decipher some elusive comedy formula before our very eyes.

26. The Counselor (2013)

On paper, a modern day Ridley Scott thriller starring an A-list cast, with a script by literary behemoth Cormac McCarthy, sounds like a sure-fire hit. But The Counselor was a total critical and commercial flop. Post-mortems of the production will point to a slow-paced, dialogue-heavy drama preceded by a marketing campaign that wholly failed to communicate what the film was about. We’d offer a far more prosaic explanation: The Counsellor is a boring trudge of a watch, and one that fatally fails to observe the ’show don’t tell’ mantra that makes all good thrillers tick.

25. Legend (1985)

Mr. Scott has evidently decided that the fantasy genre isn’t for him. Looking at how after his one and only attempt turned out, we can’t really blame him. There’s plenty of interest in Legend, not least a young (and seemingly miscast) Tom Cruise in the heroic role of the trouserless forest child Jack, and Tim Curry in the camp villain mode he pretty much owned for a time. Ultimately, though, Legend is just a weird film that just never quite clicks, despite its impressively lush sets and handsome cast.

24. Body of Lies (2008)

Bet you didn’t realise that Ridley Scott made that one where Madonna gets down and dirty with Willem Defoe and a melty candle, did you? That’s because he didn’t. You’re thinking of Body of Evidence. Body of Lies is far less, um, exciting, as just another one of those clumsy war on terror thrillers that cropped up in the ‘00s. Still, at least the cast is good. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a CIA field agent on the trail of a terrorist cell, while Russell Crowe plays his grumpy boss.

23. Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)

Just about the most generic film Scott ever made, Someone to Watch Over Me is the kind of flick that blurs into countless other similar efforts from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. It’s solidly made stuff, of course – this is Ridley Scott we’re talking about here – but the story of Tom Berenger’s tough cop protecting and ultimately falling for Mimi Rogers’s threatened socialite is pretty run-of-the-mill. There’s extra spice in the form of Lorraine Bracco’s betrayed wife, but generally this is Scott on autopilot.

22. House of Gucci (2021)

Adam Driver and Lady Gaga ham it up as members of the Gucci family, with the latter’s scorned socialite Patrizia Reggiani scheming to have her wealthy ex-husband killed. Gaga’s great, and the film has a certain camp madness to it, but it’s all just a little too brash for its own good. Jared Leto plays a major role, too, which supplies instant negative points to any film he blights. Sorry, but them’s the rules.

21. G.I. Jane (1997)

This one got a lot of attention at the time, as it famously saw Demi Moore shaving her head for the lead role. Look, it was the ‘90s. We were all more easily impressed. Moore is suitably muscular as Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil, the (fictional) first woman to undergo special forces training in the US, tackling institutional sexism en route. Or that’s how it all starts, at any rate. Pretty soon, our new super soldier is demonstrating she’s ‘one of the guys’ by helping to fend off an assault by faceless Arabs. Like I said, it was the ‘90s.

20. White Squall (1996)

White Squall is one of Scott’s more workmanlike efforts, and the kind of entry you’re most likely to forget when under pressure (or some other kind of influence) in a pub quiz. It tells a perfectly serviceable true-life tale about a crew of student sailors caught in the mother of all storms. The thing is, we don’t tend to go to Ridley Scott for ‘perfectly serviceable’ films, do we? That’s what Ron Howard’s for. Naturally, the storm scenes are brilliantly shot, and Jeff Bridges is always worth checking out in the central role.

19. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Kingdom of Heaven is a curious mess of a movie, with Scott and his writers clumsily transplanting the early-millennial discourse surrounding the war on terror onto a historical crusades narrative. The battle scenes are lavishly shot, of course, but much of the interpersonal stuff falls flat. Scott was perhaps unfortunate with his timing, in that Hollywood was still under the impression at this point that Orlando Bloom was an A-list actor. There’s a personality void at the centre of the movie, while some of the more flamboyant supporting performances seem to have been airlifted in from another, more entertaining production.

18. The Last Duel (2021)

In an impressively meta move, The Last Duel delivers its grim story in a fashion akin to one of its brutal medieval scraps, driving its point at you with repeated bludgeoning attacks. It tells the story of an alleged sexual assault during Medieval times from three separate perspectives – the first two from the rutting stags (played by Matt Damon and Adam Driver) sworn to duke the matter out, and the final one from the victim (played by Jodie Comer). It’s worthy subject matter alright, but the delivery makes it a bit of a slog to get through.

17. Robin Hood (2010)

Did we need yet another take on Robin Hood in 2010? The fact that movie and TV makers keep trying to adapt the British legend certainly begs the question. While this is a proficiently made piece of quasi-historical epic film making, Scott’s more grounded and densely plotted take on the hero fails to offer much that’s new or interesting to the mythology. Russell Crowe feels somewhat miscast as Robin, with a terrible north-of-somewhere accent, while none of the supporting cast of slimy villains is fit to lace the doublet of Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham from Prince of Thieves.

16. Gladiator II (2024)

Some would argue that Scott should have heeded the advice to never go back. Has he made a good sequel yet? Gladiator II attempts to follow up one of his biggest films, but falls short on multiple levels. While casting Paul Mescal as the son of the first film’s hero sounded like a smart move, the Irish actor can’t quite seem to muster the required leading man energy, not helped by a seriously flabby script. It’s left to Denzel Washington to steal the show as ambitious former slave Macrinus. The set pieces, of course, are a highlight, but also kind of ridiculous. Again: sharks in the Colosseum?!

15. Alien: Covenant (2017)

Scott’s 2017 attempt to course-correct his unwieldy Prometheus (up next) digression onto a full on collision course with his earlier Alien narrative is only partially successful. In returning to something approaching the claustrophobic dread of the 1979 original, not to mention a more familiar-shaped threat, Covenant turns out to be a more punchy movie than its immediate predecessor. Fassbender, once again, steals the show as a murderous android with designs on godhood, but the film can’t help but feel like a regurgitation and dilution of what’s gone before it, regardless of the glossy production values.

14. Prometheus (2012)

Time has arguably been kind to Prometheus, in that we can now finally judge its merits quite apart from the level of feverish anticipation that accompanied Scott’s return to the Alien universe. It turns out it’s a perfectly OK sci-fi movie with some impressively widescreen set pieces and a pleasingly unsettling sense of latent dread. Michael Fassbender is an undoubted highlight as the chillingly inscrutable android David. But as a development of the brilliantly tangible mythology of Alien that Scott himself set forth, it all feels disappointingly sterile.

13. Hannibal (2001)

This was the first cinematic sequel that Ridley Scott ever made, and fascinatingly, it wasn’t a follow-up to one of his own movies. Indeed, Hannibal was the sequel to one of the most highly regarded thrillers of all time in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. Juliane Moore here replaces Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarissa Starling, but crucially Anthony Hopkins reprises his landmark role as sophisticated serial killer Hannibal Lecter. It’s a far more lurid, schlocky film than the classy original, but an undeniably entertaining one for all that, as Lecter himself becomes the target of another sicko.

12. Black Rain (1989)

It’s not everyone’s cup of matcha, that’s for sure, but Scott’s glossy 1989 action thriller sure is stylish. The director’s technical chops are on full display, serving to elevate the generic cops vs. Yakuza material to something more interesting than it probably deserves to be. Michael Douglas plays the perfectly coiffed tough guy lead to perfection, while Scott’s cinematography serves to make a then-booming Osaka look like something from his earlier (and of course far superior) Blade Runner. Worth it for the visuals alone.

11. Napoleon (2023)

In which Ridley Scott returns to the scene of his very first film, The Duellists. This time, however, he’s dealing with the pint-sized tyrant at the heart of the conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte. Scott-favourite Joaquin Phoenix is in the lead role, and delivers a typically idiosyncratic take on this complex figure, portraying him as something of a boorish buffoon in thrall to Vanessa Kirby’s Josephine. The director himself takes a few of his customary historical liberties, but the battle scenes are quite something to behold.

10. Black Hawk Down (2002)

Arguably Scott’s leanest, meanest film, Black Hawk Down is virtually all action all of the time. After the briefest of scene-setting openings, the film lets loose the dogs of war. This is the fact-based story (though this is a Scott film, so a pinch of salt is required) of an American helicopter being shot down in the middle of Mogadishu during an early ‘90s military excursion, prompting a genuinely hair-raising backs-to-the-wall defence and rescue mission. Nuanced it ain’t, but Black Hawk Down’s very nature as one long cacophonous set piece makes it stand out from other films of its kind.

9. American Gangster (2007)

We know he’s got the whole extra-terrestrials thing down, and Ridley Scott has more than proven his swords-and-sandals credentials. But could the British director ‘do a Scorsese/Mann’ and make a compelling crime drama? You bet he could, as American Gangster goes to prove. Russell Crowe (who else?) plays Richie Roberts, an honest-to-a-fault ‘70s Newark Detective with a flaming wreck for a private life, who finds himself hot on the trail of Denzel Washington’s scheming Harlem-based heroin dealer.

8. All the Money in the World (2017)

Ridley Scott has built a reputation for getting films made, regardless of any production difficulties. It’s this pugnacious attitude that saw All the Money in the World eventually making its way to cinemas despite the scandal surrounding a key cast member. When Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct right at the outset of principal photography, many thought the film dead in the water. Scott, of course, had other ideas, pulling veteran actor Christopher Plummer in to reshoot scenes as J. Paul Getty. The resulting film doesn’t merely work – it’s one of the best of the director’s fruitful latter period.

7. Matchstick Men (2003)

Who said that Ridley Scott couldn’t do comedy? It would be an exaggeration to say that the director smashed this attempt at the genre out of the park – it doesn’t play things purely for yucks, for one thing, and it also wasn’t exactly a box office smash. But Matchstick Men’s curious tale of an old con man (played by Nicolas Cage) dealing with guilt, his estranged teenage daughter (Alison Lohman), and a jealous protégé (Sam Rockwell) holds considerable off-kilter charm.

6. The Martian (2015)

The Martian demonstrates Ridley Scott’s range as well as any of his other movies. We all knew that the great British director could do sci-fi, but we’d come to associate him with a certain brand of grand, fantastical, yet spectacularly downbeat sci-fi. The Martian is none of those things. Based on Andy Weir’s book, it doubles down on the ‘sci’ part of the equation, making sure to show its workings. Matt Damon’s smart cookie botanist finds himself stranded alone on Mars, and soon has to ‘McGyver’ his way to survival. It’s thrilling, crowd-pleasing stuff that might just have you believing in humanity for a second.

5. Thelma & Louise (1991)

Mention Thelma & Louise, and the first thing people will think about is the (SPOILER ALERT) iconic final scene that sees our cornered heroes flooring it into the Grand Canyon. However, the preceding film has much to recommend it. It’s a surprisingly tough-minded road movie about two good friends (played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) and the terrible men who blight their lives. When Sarandon shoots a would-be-abuser during a road trip, it sets off a desperate manhunt. The second thing people think about when you mention Thelma & Louise: a young, buff Brad Pitt sauntering into superstardom.

4. The Duellists (1977)

Scott’s 1977 debut is a shockingly confident and mature piece of film making, speaking to this seasoned ad man who had already managed to make a handsome living from his art by the time Hollywood came calling. Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel play the titular 19th century duellists, who stumble into a preposterous feud that blights their lives and careers in Bonaparte’s French army. Scott would revisit this period some 45 years later with the much glossier Napoleon, but would arguably fall short of this more intimate snapshot.

3. Gladiator (2000)

It’s fair to say that Ridley Scott didn’t have a particularly stellar ‘90s, with only Thelma & Louise worthy of standing with his most iconic work. That just makes his immense success with Gladiator in 2000 all the more impressive. It succeeded on all levels, from box office takings (at $466 million, his second highest) to critical acclaim (Oscars for Best Film and Best Actor). This is a relentlessly entertaining historical epic filled with brutal gladiatorial fights, but one that tells a heart-rending tale of loss and revenge as Russell Crowe’s Roman general fights his way to a reckoning with Joaquin Phoenix’s dastardly emperor.

2. Blade Runner (1982)

Has there ever been a better one-two punch than Alien and Blade Runner? Not in sci-fi, there hasn’t, and quite possibly in all of cinema. It’s a discussion to be had, at least. If anything, Scott’s 1982 Philip K. Dick adaptation may have been even more influential than his preceding masterpiece, establishing a cinematic language for futuristic cityscapes that’s still being spoken today. His other stroke of genius was to fold in elements of detective noir, as Harrison Ford’s laconic cop hunts down a gang of runaway replicants. Vangelis’s soundtrack, meanwhile, is an all time great, while the later 'Final Cut' version proved Blade Runner's all-timer status definitively.

1. Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott made his best and most enduring contribution to the cinematic medium with only his second film. Given how prolific the English director has been across an almost 50-year career, that’s quite something. Alien is very much of its time, with a sense of deep-seated paranoia and slow-creeping unease that speaks to the political tensions of the late-70s era. And yet it also hasn’t aged a day, from its faultless practical effects work that only offers shadowy glimpses at an iconic xenomorph baddie, to its evocative set design and sparsely atmospheric soundtrack. The dialogue, meanwhile, is starkly naturalistic, grounding the outlandish horror in a deeply familiar working environment. Scott would never better his first attempt at sci-fi horror – but then, nor would anyone else.

• The best Christopher Nolan movies, ranked: from The Following to The Odyssey

In the same way you say "walkies" to a dog and they go absolutely mental, uttering the words "Steven Soderbergh" will act as a smoke signal to all film students across the country, add the works “curated film season” and you’ll wake them up from the middle of a Tarantino marathon, frantically booking tickets instead. The auteur behind some of the biggest box office blockbusters is coming to London for a special season of cinematic screenings next month.

Called Man Under the Influence, the special movie season will kick off on 3rd September, showing nine movies across nine consecutive Thursday evenings, wrapping things up on October 30th.

Rather than being scattered across a plethora of different indie UK cinemas, each movie screening will take place in the gorgeous Everyman Cinema The Whiteley in Bayswater. Every single film in the slate has been hand picked by Soderbergh, whose qualifications to host this include having made: Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s 12, Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike, and Sex, Lives, and Videotape. I mean, talk about range.

Much like how Soderbergh’s own portfolio is a diverse mix of crime, comedy, drama, and thrillers, the films chosen for the season will be a range of crowdpleasers, indie faves, and blockbusters. The run kicks off with the 1950s classic Trouble in Paradise, with each subsequent week's pick being from the following decade. So September 10ths film is Notorious (1940), three weeks later you’ve got the 1970s smash hit Jaws and so on and so on. The final film bringing the plush red velvet curtain down on the celebration will be Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread from the 2010s.

Wondering what’s with the six decade theme? Well, the whole shebang is actually a celebration of Soderbergh’s 63rd birthday. Clearly, the filmmaker is switching Colin the Caterpillar cake for a curated cinema celebration. And apparently because staying on theme matters, each event will have a 63 minute happy hour, which will give guests the chance to sip on a cocktail especially creative with a different top London bar – and each will be made with his favourite Bolivian spirit. Yup, you guessed it Singani 63. Do you think people will be getting the number 63 bus there?

Each film shown has had both a personal and cultural influence, each introduced by the man himself, albeit via video rather than IRL.

The full programme and cocktail partner is:

• September 3 – Trouble in Paradise (1930s) Cocktail by Archive & Myth
• September 10 – Notorious (1940s)Cocktail by The Mandrake
• September 17 – The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1950s)Cocktail by Cocktail Trading Company
• September 24 – The Servant (1960s)Cocktail by Viajante 87
• October 1 – Jaws (1970s)Cocktail by Nancy’s
• October 8 – Do the Right Thing (1980s)Cocktail by Murder Inc.
• October 15 – Fargo (1990s)Cocktail by The Natural Philosopher
• October 22 – Lost in Translation (2000s)Cocktail by Equal Parts
• October 29 – Phantom Thread (2010s)Cocktail by Hawksmoor

Soderbergh curated a similar Singani 63 season at New York’s Nitehawk Cinema earlier this year. According to him, "The only partner we considered for the UK version of A Man Under the Influence was Everyman, whose love of movies is matched only by their commitment to the moviegoing experience."

"Ask yourself: Can I resist the idea of a classic movie, Singani 63, and the groovy Everyman vibe all happening at the same time? The answer is no, you cannot, so get your butt to The Whiteley on Thursdays this fall and let's light this candle!"

Tickets are already on sale and are priced at £20.90, although that includes the cocktail. Doors open at 6pm for the drinks reception (with that week’s speciality cocktail) with the films kicking off around 7pm.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Even if you didn’t go anywhere near the hit Netflix film Kpop Demon Hunters, you will inevitably have found yourself humming one of its main songs, Golden, at some point or the other. It was a tune so catchy, part of me joined the ranks of conspiracy theorists believing it to be some kind of guerilla psychological marketing ploy. Turns out it was less maniacal deviance and more musical genius. Now, some of the voices behind the hit characters are coming to London for a special one-off gig.

The Saja Boys are heading to the capital for a UK first in a live performance in the heart of the city. Andrew Choi and Neckwav – who play Jinu and Abby in the global hit – will play a one-off gig at Outernet Live in London next month.

On 6th September the actors/singers will be heading to Tottenham Court Road’s rather high tech immersive exhibition space, which has already hosted a slew of other musical tributes, most recently an homage to Madonna for her birthday. Fans will be able to gather to watch the on screen stars perform irl bringing some of the show’s most beloved songs to life.

“We’re incredibly excited to be sharing the stage during our first-ever performance in London,” said Choi. “The connection everyone has built with the film’s characters has been beyond anything we could have imagined and seeing our U.K. fans embrace the music makes this an even more meaningful celebration.”

Neckwav (real name Kyung Jay Minn) added: “It is an honour to bring my voice as Neckwav, and the singing voice behind Abby Saja, to life at Outernet Live. The love and support from our U.K. fans has been amazing and having the chance to finally meet and perform for them in person makes this moment so special. This will be a night to remember!”

The film featured two fictional bands: Huntr/x, whose singing voices were provided by Ejae (as Rumi), Audrey Nuna (as Mira), and Rei Aami (as Zoey) and the Saja Boys, made up of Choi, Neckwav, Kevin Woo, Samuil Lee and Danny Chung.

This isn’t the only experiential K-pop Demon Hunters musical gig taking place, as back in May, Netflix announced a new global tour which would bring some of the show’s best tunes into a live concert experience for fans, similar to a standard solo artist’s tour. However, we haven’t yet had any further confirmation about who exactly from the film’s various bands and singers will be featuring on the tour, nor where and when it will take place.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

Artist and humourist David Shrigley is holding a major exhibition in South London next year, and it’s one with a high-concept pitch.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery show, called simply David Shrigley, will see the UK artist’s works placed alongside Dutch and Flemish paintings from old masters — pieces hundreds of years old — but the aim is not just to take the piss out of old paintings in Shrigley’s signature style.

Instead Shrigley will reference the comedy that was already in those old pieces, but that the viewer does’t always appreciate when viewing them in a gallery all these years later.

That's our take anyway. Here's what the gallery says:

“Shrigley – like our historic painters – has an instinct for finding the funny side of everyday life. He is the perfect artist to bring back playfulness to the old masters, and remind us that great art doesn’t always need to be serious,” says Helen Hillyard, head of exhibitions at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

We’re yet to see what this will look like, though. The exhibitions preview only features the old paintings at present, not any of Shrigley’s reactions to them.

“Through a series of specially commissioned works, Shrigley enters into conversation with artists including Jan Steen, David Teniers the Younger, Rembrandt, Adriaen Brouwer and Pieter Brueghel the Younger, revealing how humour has been used across centuries to explore everyday life, human behaviour and social interaction,” reads the exhibition’s description.

Fans won’t need telling, but Shrigley’s work looks nothing like traditional painting, with a deliberately crude and basic style where the subject is often accompanied by a funny (in context) phrase.

This will be Shrigley’s first major UK exhibition in 15 years by the time it opens, the last being at the Hayward gallery back in 2012.

The David Shrigley exhibition opens on 25th May, 2027, and runs until 5th September. Tickets aren’t available to book just yet, but you can guarantee access by buying a Dulwich Picture Gallery Friend membership. These start at £46 a year, by direct debit, or £74 a year for one that lets you take a friend too.

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London’s theatre scene is unmatched – beyond the starry West End, there are plenty of smaller fringe-esque venues, spaces above pubs, underground gigs, and even open air performances (weather providing). It’s not surprising that its bright lights attract moth-like actors who all prove their Hollywood credentials by providing some spectacular theatre. Now, that’s being recognised in the inaugural Stage Debut Awards.

The awards are in association with Netflix, proving that a). all the arts are interconnected, and b). further proof that the two industries (theatre and film) prop one another up. In case you couldn’t grasp it from the title, the idea is that the awards are solely awarded to those who have made some kind of stage related debut, be it directing, acting, producing or other. (No, your boyfriend who went to the theatre for the first time after being adamant he hated it then proceeded to cry during the whole second half of Hamilton does not qualify for a nomination. Yet). This year, Sadie Sink, Noah Jupe, Brendan Gleeson, Tom Fletcher, Robert Aramayo and Ralph Fiennes among nominees.

Several productions received multiple nominations this year. Romeo and Juliet earned nominations for Noah Jupe in both Best Performer in a Play and Best West End Debut Performer, while The Weir sees both Brendan Gleeson and Kate Phillips shortlisted for their respective West End debuts. New musical Paddington the Musical was nominated for Arti Shah and composer-lyricist Tom Fletcher, while Sing Street was recognised across the performance and composition categories. Redcliffe, 1536 and The Fifth Step also feature across this year's shortlist.

This year's nominees range from 21 to 71 years old, with some embarking on stage careers at the beginning of their adult lives, and others embracing work on and off stage after a career in other areas of the arts . The shortlist celebrates breakthrough theatre talent from across the UK, with nominees recognised for work in the West End, at regional venues from Cardiff and Mold to Bath, Doncaster and Colchester, and on tour.

The nominees are:

Best West End Debut Performer

• Levi Brown for Cyrano de Bergerac at Noël Coward Theatre
• Brendan Gleeson for The Weir at Harold Pinter Theatre
• Liv Hill for 1536 at Ambassadors Theatre
• Noah Jupe for Romeo and Juliet at Harold Pinter Theatre
• Cormac McAlinden for Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre
• Ntombizodwa Ndlovu for Marie and Rosetta at @sohoplace
• Alistair Nwachukwu for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind at @sohoplace
• Kate Phillips for The Weir at Harold Pinter Theatre
• Arti Shah for Paddington the Musical at Savoy Theatre
• Sadie Sink for Romeo and Juliet at Harold Pinter Theatre

Best Performer in a Play

• Robert Aramayo for Guess How Much I Love You? at Royal Court Theatre, London
• Zoë Armer for The Virgins at Soho Theatre, London
• Noah Jupe for Romeo and Juliet at Harold Pinter Theatre, London
• Assa Kanouté for Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London
• Erin Kellyman for Evening All Afternoon at Donmar Warehouse, London
• Dylan Malyn for To Kill a Mockingbird at Leeds Playhouse, and touring
• Ruaridh Mollica for Clarkston at Trafalgar Theatre, London
• Amber van der Brugge for Vincent in Brixton at Orange Tree Theatre, London

Best Performer in a Musical

• Jess Douglas-Welsh for Redcliffe at Southwark Playhouse Borough, London
• Jess Folley for Burlesque at Savoy Theatre, London
• Lydia Louise for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Watermill Theatre, Newbury
• Julianne Pundan for Miss Saigon at Palace Theatre, Manchester, and touring
• James Spence for Thespians at Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and touring
• Sheridan Townsley for Sing Street at Lyric Hammersmith, London

Best Writer

• Chris Ashworth-Bennion for The Red Rogue of Bala at Theatr Clwyd, Mold
• Georgie Dettmer for Are You Watching? at Royal Court Theatre, London
• Hannah Doran for The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights at Park Theatre, London
• Leo Drayton for Dynolwaith at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
• Fran Kranz for Mass at Donmar Warehouse, London
• John Morton for Eclipse at Chichester Festival Theatre
• Jack Nicholls for The Shitheads at Royal Court Theatre, London
• Danielle Phillips for Children of the Night at Cast, Doncaster

Best Director

• Douglas Clarke-Wood for THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME. at Summerhall, Edinburgh
• Ralph Fiennes for As You Like It at Bath Theatre Royal
• Tommaso Giacomin for The Uncontainable Nausea of Alec Baldwin at New Diorama Theatre, London
• Michelle McTernan for HOP – The Hopeful Hare at Swansea Grand Theatre

Millennials and Gen X’ers will surely raise an eyebrow at this one: a Golden Axe show is coming to streaming next month.

And yes, it’s based on the arcade game — or its countless console conversions — which you can tell from just the swiftest glance at Golden Axe’s promo poster. It was a coin-munching hack and slash game in which you played as either a muscle-clad warrior-barbarian, an Amazonian woman or a dwarf. A fun diversion from simpler times.

Golden Axe the show is a 10-part animated series, and all ten episodes will be released on Paramount+ on 16th September. Hungry for more of a taste? Here’s the just-released trailer:

If the approach the team has taken has left you a little unsure on this one, you’re not alone. The current sentiment from the YouTube commentariat is the show may have leant a little too much on the potential for laughs — and folks are none too sure the trailer proves they’ve hit the comedy bullseye.

We’ll wait to see the real thing, as 90 seconds or so doesn’t seem enough to enough to judge a series.

Golden Axe features chunkily animated versions of the player characters you can pick in the original 1989 game, plus an inexperienced “adventurer” called Hampton Squib, who is a stand-in for the player character.

Whatever you think of the tenor of the show, you can’t deny a quality voice cast is involved. Matthew Rhys plays the warrior class character Gilius Thunderhead, while Danny Pudi is Squib.

Golden Axe is the brainchild of Joe Chandler, its showrunner. His previous roles include writer on American Dad! And Napoleon Dynamite’s TV series. There are those comedy roots, clear to see.

Want to give it a shot? A Paramount+ subscription starts at £5.99, for its ad-supported plan, and there’s a 7-day trial available to those who haven’t subscribed before.

What about the Golden Axe games? Sega teased a remake of Golden Axe was coming at the 2023 Game Awards, a 3D version rather than a classic side-scroller, but we have heard little of it since. And with the games industry basically on fire at the moment — and not in a good way — who knows if it will ever actually come out.

• Best video game adaptations: Proof that they don’t have to be terrible