From Wildwood to John Legend: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

From Wildwood to John Legend: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Anination studio Laika takes flight with a grownup stop-motion tale, while the Grammy-, Oscar- and everything-winner returns with a Pharell-produced 11th album

Contents

Going out: Cinema

Wildwood
Out now

If Pixar was a chocolate bar, it would be a Mars, while Laika – whose new film Wildwood incorporates themes of war and child abduction – would be something like Green & Blacks. Darker and with more esoteric flavours, this stop-motion animation is not so much for the nursery school crowd, but for discerning pre-teens and adults alike.

Ghosts: The Possession of Button House
Out now

The beloved BBC TV comedy gets a big-screen outing, with Simon Farnaby’s trouserless Tory MP ghost, Jim Howick’s dead scoutmaster, shot by a member of his own troop, Ben Willbond’s closeted second world war officer and the other regular cast members all returning.

Fatherland
Out now

Joint winner of the best director prize at Cannes, Paweł Pawlikowski’s latest is set during the cold war, and sees an actor, writer and rally driver, Erika (Sandra Hüller), set off on a road trip across Germany with her dear old dad, the Nobel prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler).

Ali G: Who Iz I?
Out now

Twenty four years after Ali G Indahouse opened at No 1 at the UK box office, Sasha Baron Cohen revives his alter-ego for a followup, making his directorial debut in the process. Morgana Robinson also stars. Catherine Bray

Going out: Gigs

Suede, Manic Street Preachers

OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 28 October; First Direct Bank Arena Leeds, 30 October; touring to 12 November

Christmas comes early for people of a certain vintage with a penchant for evergreen British rock bands in the shape of this co-headline tour. Expect a smattering of newer material – Antidepressants, the most recent opus by Suede is Mercury-nominated – and some undeniable classics from both. Michael Cragg

Jasmine Myra

Norwich Arts Centre, 27 October; Earth, London, 28 October; St George’s, Bristol, 29 October

Alto saxophonist-composer Jasmine Myra is on the rise within the cinematic spiritual jazz orbit of Manchester’s Gondwana Records, a visionary operation devoted to the soulful lyricism and storytelling she espouses. This tour will be a fascinating insight into just how far the very promising Myra is instrumentally ready to go. John Fordham

False Idols Halloween

Drumsheds, London, 24 October

Queer club night False Idols returns to London for a special Halloween blowout featuring Boo! Bitch! hitmaker Kim Petras. Other spooky banger merchants on the bill include Swedish alt-popper Cobrah, London’s Rose Gray and US rapper Cakes da Killa. MC

London Symphony Orchestra/Pappano

Barbican Hall, London, 29 October

The LSO is the latest major international institution to commission British composer Hannah Kendall, a distinctive, ambitious voice in contemporary classical music. Her new work I Have Discovered the Secret of Death features Grammy-winning mezzo Fleur Barron. Its world premiere is paired with Tchaikovsky’s impassioned Fifth Symphony. Antonio Pappano conducts. Flora Willson

Going out: Art

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Tate St Ives, to 3 May

A big part of St Ives’s modernist boom in the early 2oth century, Barns-Graham (work pictured above) quietly became one of the UK’s most important artists of her era with an emotional take on abstraction, celebrated here with 170 works from throughout her career.

LS Lowry

MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, to 28 February

This big celebration of the life and work of one of England’s best-loved artists is the first institutional show of his grimy, gritty industrial painting for 13 years, and marks 50 years since his death.

The Rupture: No ConditionIs Permanent

Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, to 13 February

Attempting to respond to a time of unprecedented political, social and economic change, this exhibition brings together a huge cast of international artists to reckon with our increasingly broken systems.

The Way We Live

The Box, Plymouth, to 21 February

This exhibition looks at the idea of the home, and what it means to a variety of artists including the likes of Do Ho Suh, Rachel Whiteread and recent Turner prize winner Jasleen Kaur. Eddy Frankel

Going out: Stage

The Lives of Others

Adelphi theatre, London, to 9 January

Director Robert Icke adapts the Academy award-winning film set in East Berlin, 1984. A writer and an actor are put under state surveillance – and a Stasi operative is inexorably drawn into their lives. Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson star. Miriam Gillinson

Macbeth

Liquid & Envy, Oldham, to 7 November

While Oldham’s Coliseum theatre is being restored, it is staging work in imaginative locations around town. This site-specific take on Macbeth is set in a real-life nightclub, invoking a world of 70s gangsters, casinos and shifting social codes. MG

Hansel & Gretel and the Witch
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, 29 October to 1 November

Choreographer Liv Lorent and her company BalletLorent have really cornered the market in fairytale family shows with a bit of edge and a lot of imagination. The latest is a new take on Hansel & Gretel that promises a brand new ending courtesy of its writer, the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Lyndsey Winship

Susan Calman

Touring to 20 November

The Glaswegian standup has presented a slew of TV programmes and done a Strictly shift in the decade since her last tour, but new show Tall Tales – which combines showbiz stories with meditations on grief and depression – proves this glam career pivot has done nothing to dent her twinkly misanthropy. Rachel Aroesti

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Staying in: Streaming

Nocturne

Apple TV, 30 October

Stephen Graham is back in his most sinister role yet: a serial killer who is apparently able to murder from the confines of his underground cell. This psychological thriller (above) pits him against not one but two haunted detectives: Liev Schreiber’s ex-soldier Jonah and his protege Saga (Zazie Beetz).

A Course Called Ireland

iPlayer & BBC Two, 25 October, 9.30pm

As a genre, the celebrity travelogue has become tired and bloated, but this new series is fuelled by an unusual level of star power, as the one and only Bill Murrray embarks on a golf-based trip around Ireland. Extra craic comes courtesy of guests including Chris O’Dowd and Joanne McNally.

Minimum Wage

Netflix, 25 October

What started out as a micro-budget webseries about incompetent teens manning a pizzeria has been turned into a 28-part sitcom by Netflix, who will be hoping its cast – including newly recruited SNL cast member Grace Reiter – become comedy’s next big things.

Beat Luke Littler

Netflix, 30 October

Is darts really thathard? Find out this Friday, as 20 amateurs take on the 19-year-old world No 1 in Manchester in an attempt to win £501,000. The event will be streamed live, with Gary Lineker on hosting duties and Richard Osman contributing Pointless-style statistics. RA

Staying in: Games

Pardon My French Toast
PC, Switch 2, out 29 October

A brightly coloured 3D platformer, in which you’re a slice of anthropomorphic brioche toast able to cover himself in different spreads to gain a range of special abilities. Like a ZX Spectrum classic reheated for the 21st century.

Phantom Blade Zero
PC, PS5, out 29 October

An elite assassin is framed for murder and must prove his innocence while a fatal wound slowly kills him. Stylised martial arts in a dark fantasy realm? Hand me that sword. Keith Stuart

Staying in: Albums

Michael Kiwanuka – Fudge

Out now

Originally due for release last autumn, this fifth album from the Brit-nominated Kiwanuka was delayed after he suffered a haemorrhagic stroke after returning home from a tour. While his recovery continues, the self-produced Fudge is a reminder of his immense talents, as showcased on opener Summer Clothes’ gospel-tinged swirl.

Sasha Alex Sloan – And the Crowd Goes Mild
Out now
The Boston-born singer-songwriter, who’s co-written songs for the likes of Olium. As the title suggests, Sloan’s own songs veer towards the doleful, with singles Glitter and Empty pairing rich melodies with soothing soft-rock flourishes

Claud – Me and the Music

Out now

Co-produced alongside John Congleton (Alvvays, St Vincent), Brooklyn-based Claud’s third album marks a shift in their mindset. While 2023’s lauded Supermodel took things very seriously, Me and the Music finds a lightness in a heavy world, especially on She Doesn’t Love Me’s effervescent indie jangle.

John Legend – Muse

Out now

After dabbling in music for children with 2024’s lullaby-centric My Favourite Dream, the Egot winner returns to more grownup themes on this entirely Pharrell-produced 11th album. The soulful Daylight is an upbeat love song, while the more politically focused Fireflies fuses jazz and gospel. MC

Staying in: Brain food

The One About Matthew Perry
Netflix, 27 October
A moving film recounting the life and career of the late Friends actor charting his rise to TV stardom and lifelong battles with addiction, as well as the tabloid scandals that accompanied his fame.

How Houdini Made Magic
Podcast

TV’s favourite illusionist Derren Brown tells the story of one of magic’s most iconic figures, Harry Houdini, in this 10-part series. Brown builds a fascinating picture of how Houdini fashioned himself a modern celebrity image.

3ETV
Somerset House Channel

London cultural institution Somerset House is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its experimental interdisciplinary Studios space with this diverse online channel featuring archived performance pieces, documentary shorts and new commissions. Ammar Kalia

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