Going out: Cinema
Bird
Out now
One of the UK’s greatest film-makers, Andrea Arnold, returns. Her latest is is a dreamy, textured film about an adolescent girl (Nykiya Adams) who befriends a mysterious man named Bird (Franz Rogowski) in the Kent neighbourhood where she lives with her dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and his fiancee Kayleigh (Frankie Box).
Piece By Piece
Out now
You may have heard this one referred to as the Pharrell Lego movie – and that’s exactly what it is. To be more precise, it’s an innovative biopic doc that uses Lego to tell the story of the former Neptunes and Nerd hitmaker who you may remember from such earworms as Happy, Blurred Lines and Get Lucky.
Paddington in Peru
Out now
A welcome return for the little bear with the marmalade addiction. This time he’s exploring his heritage in Peru, where his aunt Lucy resides in a retirement home. New characters include Olivia Colman as a guitar-playing nun and Antonio Banderas as a swashbuckling riverboat captain.
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers
Out now
A hundred years on from the National Gallery first acquiring works by Van Gogh, it staged a “once in a century” exhibition. These days the audience for such showstoppers is no longer restricted to those who can attend in person, and this film takes you through the exhibition via your local cinema. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Cigarettes After Sex
The O2, London, 12 & 13 November
Expect dry ice, abstract imagery and minimal stage production for these two shows from horny but sad Texan Greg Gonzalez and his band. July’s third album, X’s, continued his love for headphone-friendly ambient pop and it will be interesting to see how that goes over in a huge room. Michael Cragg
The Corrs
3Arena, Dublin, 9 November; touring to 20 November
There has a been a Corrs renaissance of sorts lately, boosted by vocal support from the likes of avant-pop star Caroline Polachek. This arena tour celebrates their fiddle-bothering 1997 album Talk on Corners, home to the likes of What Can I Do and So Young. MC
Arditti Quartet @ 50
St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield, 15 November
These regular visitors to Huddersfield contemporary music festival open this years event with a concert celebrating their 50th anniversary. Alongside music by Kaija Saariaho, the programme includes the UK premieres of commissioned works by Diana Soh and Chaya Czernowin. Andrew Clements
London jazz festival
Various venues, 15 to 24 November
Friday’s opening night includes the traditional curtain-raiser Jazz Voice, featuring Marisa Monte, Carmen Lundy and Cherise at the Royal Festival Hall, while jazzy R&B singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello plays Koko in Camden Town. Scores more global luminaries will perform over the next three weeks. John Fordham
Going out: Art
Dora Carrington
Dora Carrington
Pallant House, Chichester, to 27 April
This Bloomsbury Group artist who preferred to be known just as Carrington had the kind of life that’s gold dust for biographers and film-makers. But as with other Bloomsberries you have to ask: does that make the art itself compelling? I am sceptical but this is a chance to decide.
Picasso: Printmaker
British Museum, London, to 30 March
The greatest artistic genius of modern times not only overturned 500 years of western visual culture with cubism but also found time to rival Rembrandt as a printmaker. The luscious, dazzling Vollard Suite, in which minotaurs, bullfights and nudes undergo endless metamorphoses, is equal to Guernica as one of his masterpieces.
The Great Mughals
V&A South Kensington, London, to 5 May
A blockbuster survey of the art and architecture of the Mughal empire, which established Muslim rule over much of modern India and Pakistan. Its achievements in the period explored here, from the 1500s to 1600s, included the Taj Mahal as well as intricate miniatures, ornate jewellery and hallucinatory carpets.
Conversations
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, to 9 March
Anthea Hamilton, Claudette Johnson and Alberta Whittle are among 40 artists offering a Black female perspective on the superb collection of the Walker Art Gallery. British art and history are well represented here, with Hogarth, Stubbs, Millais and more, so there’s plenty of scope for thought-provoking encounters between past and present. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Jack Dee
Loughborough Town Hall, 12 November; touring to November 2025
Even in his 30s, Dee was a renowned grouch: one reason, perhaps, why his perennially disgruntled shtick has aged so well. Hot on the heels of Taskmaster, he returns to the stage with new minutiae-fixated mega-tour Small World. Rachel Aroesti
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Theatre Royal Plymouth, 11 to 16 November; touring to 7 June
A 30th-anniversary tour for Bourne’s best-known work. He tips the traditional story on its head with a flock of powerful all-male swans, plus a gay prince in thrall to a handsome stranger and a dose of comedy, too. Lyndsey Winship
Wolves on Road
Bush theatre, London, 9 November to 21 December
Daniel Bailey, the director of dazzling football drama Red Pitch, helms this high-stakes mystery, written by Beru Tessema and delving into the world of cryptocurrency. When Manny is offered a way to make money fast, could it all be too good to be true?
Kate Wyver
The Red Shoes
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 19 January
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale returns with a new version by Irish playwright Nancy Harris. Magic and mayhem unravel as an orphaned girl becomes enchanted with a pair of shoes that have a dark, mischievous mind of their own. KW
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Staying in: Streaming
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
BBC One & iPlayer, 10 November, 9pm
The vogue for TV shows taking years to return reaches a new extreme with this follow-up to 2015’s Wolf Hall. The original brought the first two novels in Hilary Mantel’s Tudor trilogy to the screen; now Mark Rylance (left) reprises his role as Thomas Cromwell in an adaptation of the final book.
Bad Sisters
Apple TV+, 13 November
Can the Garvey sisters really get away with murder? It looked as if they just might in the first series of Sharon Horgan’s pitch-black dramedy, but two years later it seems the perfect crime is finally catching up with them.
Say Nothing
Disney+, 14 November
Based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 nonfiction book about the Troubles, this high-octane series relives the period’s terror, misery and transgressive thrills – heists, bombings and abductions – through the eyes of IRA volunteer Dolours Price (Lola Petticrew, then Maxine Peake) and her sister Marian (Hazel Doupe).
Storyville: Queendom
BBC Four & iPlayer, 12 November, 9.50pm
There have been many documentaries about Russia over the past few years, but none quite like this. Director Agniia Galdanova follows queer, binary-blurring performance artist Gena Marvin as she walks through Moscow dressed in surreal, provocative costumes in an act of disturbance and defiance. RA
Staying in: Games
Slitterhead
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, out now
A bit like a horror-themed Blade Runner, this action game has you prowl the neon streets of a futuristic Chinese city, killing horrible alien monsters that hide in human form.
The Rise of the Golden Idol
All platforms, out 12 November
The newest in a superb detective series in which you must deduct what happened from frozen-in-time illustrated scenes of murder and chaos, this time set in the 1970s. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition)
Out now
The debut album by Talking Heads is probably best known for slinky, sinister breakout hit Psycho Killer, which appears on this lavish rerelease in acoustic, alternative and live versions. There’s a lot more to enjoy, including a previously unreleased live set recorded in New York.
Whitney Houston – The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban)
Out now
In 1994, Whitney Houston became the first major star to play post-apartheid South Africa, shortly after Nelson Mandela became president. This live album is taken from one of the three shows Houston performed and includes a joyful Love Will Save the Day.
Autre Ne Veut – Love, Guess Who??
Out now
Fans of Arthur Ashin’s warped R&B have had to be patient. This follow-up to 2015’s Age of Transparency is also the final part of a trilogy that started way back in 2013 with Anxiety. But on songs such as the fractured slow jam About to Lose, it’s as if he’s never been away.
Primal Scream – Come Ahead
Out now
Bobby Gillespie and his Scots rockers reunite with producer David Holmes on this their 12th album, and first since 2016’s hilariously titled Chaosmosis. Holmes adds a cinematic sheen to the string-drenched single Love Insurrection and the less jolly-sounding Deep Dark Waters. MC
Staying in: Brain food
American Railroad
Podcast
Folk artist Rhiannon Giddens’s American Railroad project is a fascinating musical journey through the communities that built the rail infrastructure across the US, featuring interviews with historians and descendants of labourers, alongside railroad-inspired music.
Smarthistory
YouTube
A vast resource of expert analysis on the history of art, this video essay channel features US academics presenting accessible explainers on everything from Jenny Holzer’s forceful writing to Van Gogh’s vibrant irises.
Music By John Williams
Disney+, out now
This charming film traces composer John Williams’s career from his early years as a jazz pianist to finding his voice on screen and receiving 54 Oscar nominations for his instantly recognisable music for films including Star Wars and Jaws. Ammar Kalia
