Going out: Cinema
Saipan
Out now
As the Irish national team descend on a small island in the Pacific to prepare for the 2002 World Cup, an epic falling out between manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) and top player Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) is looming, in this sports drama loosely based on the infamous real-life spat.
No Other Choice
Out now
Korean auteur Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) enlists Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun to lead this dark comedy about a man who has recently been made redundant but is so committed to reclaiming his role that he feels he has “no other choice” but to resort to murder.
H Is for Hawk
Out now
Based on the novel by Helen Macdonald, this drama sees Claire Foy play a woman mourning the loss of her father become on the idea of training a hawk. This project isn’t necessarily a natural fit with her life as a graduate fellow at Cambridge. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and also starring Brendan Gleeson and Lindsay Duncan.
The History of Sound
Out now
Paul Mescal (Hamnet) plays a talented singer and Josh O’Connor (The Mastermind) a committed musicologist who become lovers in this early 20th century-set romantic drama from Oliver Hermanus (Living). Based on a couple of short stories by Ben Shattuck, it premiered at Cannes last year in the main competition. Catherine Bray
* * *
Going out: Gigs
Jason Derulo
29 January to 9 February; tour starts Glasgow
Ridiculous and often ridiculously entertaining, Talk Dirty hitmaker and now one of the most followed TikTok stars in the world Jason Derulo arrives in the UK for an mammoth arena tour. Expect OTT dancing and enduring bangers such as Whatcha Say and Want to Want Me. Michael Cragg
Hannah Diamond
Phonox, London, 30 January
The PC Music acolyte returns, three years after second album Picture Perfect, with a new live experience, HD Heaven. Prone to futuristic world-building, and with the promise of various special guests, it’s likely to be a visual and sonic onslaught anchored by Diamond’s experimental pop nous. MC
Earth and Other Planets: Britten Sinfonia with Stevens & Pound and Robert Macfarlane
Milton Court, London, 28 January; Norfolk Events Centre, Norwich, 29 January; West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, 30 January
Folk duo Delia Stevens and Will Pound collaborate with the Britten Sinfonia and Macfarlane to reimagine Holst’s The Planets in a version of the orchestral suite that includes their newly written Earth. The folk-themed concert will also feature Britten’s rarely heard Suite on English Folk Tunes: A Time There Was, which he dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger, alongside Grainger’s own Lincolnshire Posy, based on songs he collected more than a century ago. Imogen Tilden
Marsalis Trumpet Concerto/Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
Brighton Dome Concert Hall, 24 January
The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra under Joanna MacGregor’s baton performs the blues, swing, Latin and contemporary-classical kaleidoscope of Wynton Marsalis’s panoramic 2023 Trumpet Concerto with exciting young Nigerian-Scottish trumpet virtuoso Aaron Azunda Akugbo, on an eclectic programme also featuring music from Michael Nyman’s The Draughtman’s Contract, jazzy variations on Henry Purcell. John Fordham
* * *
Going out: Art
Andy Warhol
Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, 24 January to 19 April
As the US changes, does our understanding of this most American artist also change? Arguably we are still catching up with Andy. His cold analysis of a future dominated by cheap celebrity that disguises a monotonous sameness has never looked more plausible. He never said it would be a utopia.
Julia Phillips
Barbican Centre: The Curve, London, 30 January to 19 April
This Germany-born artist is a sculptor of acutely modern unease. Casts of her own body, strangely rendered in shiny ceramic, are juxtaposed with steel frames, sharp tools and other pieces of technology. Her jarring collisions of flesh and metal suggest the new machine age, in the spirit of Berlin dada.
Georg Baselitz
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, to 28 February
The veteran painter and sculptor – who has spent a life expressing the human condition, from scabrous “degenerate” early works to upside-down pictures and historical provocations – is having a brilliant, honest old age. He marks his 88th birthday in typically defiant and dangerous style with depictions of the German eagle.
Caroline Walker
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, to 26 April
Realist, on the surface almost placid, paintings that explore the experience of motherhood. A mother sits with her children in one scene, and we wonder what her thoughts and feelings are in this stilled moment of everyday life. Another painting looks from the outside, at a child in a room. Jonathan Jones
* * *
Going out: Stage
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Royal Ballet & Opera: Linbury Theatre, London, 27 to 31 January
Paul Taylor was one of the most important, and popular, figures in American modern dance, from the 1950s onwards. The company hasn’t been to the UK for two decades (Taylor died in 2018) so this is a long-overdue visit, with two programmes featuring Taylor classics and new works. Lyndsey Winship
Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 24 January; touring to 7 June
Since debuting in 2022, Minnitt’s one-woman Regency heroine spoof has gradually blossomed into a word-of-mouth hit. Combining period drama parody with knowing anachronism, Clementine draws clever parallels between its protagonist’s eye-wateringly desperate search for a husband and the nightmare of modern dating. Rachel Aroesti
Arcadia
Old Vic theatre, London, 24 January to 21 March
The late Tom Stoppard’s dazzling classic – a century-hopping swirl of intellect and romance – is staged at the Old Vic for the first time. Directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Seamus Dillane, Leila Farzad, Angus Cooper and Prasanna Puwanarajah. Miriam Gillinson
Our Town
Swansea Grand theatre, to 31 January; touring to 28 March
The inaugural production for Michael Sheen’s Welsh National Theatre tours Wales and then transfers to London’s Rose theatre in February. Sheen leads an all-Welsh cast in Thornton Wilder’s achingly moving play, which quietly tracks the passing of time in a small town. MG
* * *
Staying in: Streaming
Wonder Man
Disney+, 28 January
Marvel has its cake and eats it with this mind-bendingly meta drama set in a world plagued by superhero fatigue. Wannabe actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and past-it thesp Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) are both desperate for roles in a Wonder Man reboot – but could the former be a far better fit for the lead than he first appears?
Under Salt Marsh
Sky Atlantic & Now, 30 January, 9pm
This brooding Wales-set thriller from rising film-maker Claire Oakley is more bone-chiller than winter warmer. Starring Rafe Spall and Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly, it kicks off with a detective turned teacher discovering the body of a pupil; the ensuing investigation unites police dysfunction, small-town suspicion and climate crisis-abetted natural disaster.
Take That
Netflix, 27 January
Between the BBC’s the BBC’s Boybands and Girlbands Forever strand and Sky’s Boyzone doc, sensitive yet rollickingly entertaining programmes about our favourite 90s pop stars are everywhere. Now it’s Barlow and co’s turn to get the nostalgia treatment with this chronicle of the group’s dizzying heyday plus their spectacular comeback in the 2000s.
Mission to Space With Francis Bourgeois
Channel 4, 25 January, 6.45pm
Best known as the TikTok trainspotter, social media sensation Bourgeois goes off the rails in this programme about the reality of becoming a professional astronaut. From G-force training with Tim Peake to tests in zero gravity, the life-affirmingly anorakish 25-year-old will discover if he has what it takes to make it in space. RA
* * *
Staying in: Games
Dispatch
Switch & Switch 2; out 28 January
This story-driven game about a former superhero dispatcher working at a call centre has delighted everyone who’s played it, and is now out on Nintendo’s Switch consoles. It has an extraordinarily strong cast of superheroes and villains whom you must dispatch on jobs around a mirror-world Los Angeles, and is written with wit and warmth.
TR-49
PC; out now
In a forgotten church basement, a second world war-era computer is discovered. Within, swaddled in strange code, are books, poems, diaries… and people? A mystery game from the excellent developer behind A Highland Song and Expelled!. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
IDK – Even the Devil Smiles
Out now
UK-born, US-raised rapper IDK follows up 2024’s fifth album, Bravado + Intimo, with this 15-track mixtape. Shaped by his incarceration as a teen, tracks such as the Pusha T-assisted Life 4 a Life prowl around sinister production from Kaytranada, while a posthumous verse from DMX burns through Start to Finish.
Ari Lennox – Vacancy
Out now
Across her first two albums, Washington DC’s Ari Lennox conjured up a feeling of pleasure for pleasure’s sake, channeling 90s neo-soul and modern R&B into date-night anthems. That continues on this third record, which features the languid single Under the Moon, plus production from Jermaine Dupri and Tommy Brown.
Louis Tomlinson – How Did I Get Here?
Out now
Having dabbled in dour Britpop-adjacent rock on his first two solo albums, the erstwhile One Directioner lightens up on this new record. Featuring songwriting contributions from Theo Hutchcraft (Hurts) and David Sneddon (Lewis Capaldi), the singles Lemonade and Palaces are imbued with a genuine sense of fun.
Agnes – Beautiful Madness
Out now
Despite her commercial peak in the UK being long gone (2009’s Release Me was a Top 3 smash), Swedish pop singer Agnes (below) has built a fervent cult following, bolstered by 2021’s Abba-esque opus, Magic Still Exists. This belated follow-up features glistening dance-pop, sweat-soaked electro and a bop called Uterus & Universe. MC
* * *
Staying in: Brain food
Eye of the Duck: Lord of the Rings Special
Podcast
In-depth cinema series Eye of the Duck presents a three-part special exploring Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth, featuring a mammoth four-hour opening episode on the making of 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring and its enduring legacy.
University of Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
Online
With its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, Assyrian is one of the world’s oldest languages. This free dictionary from the University of Chicago took 90 years to assemble and explores fascinating contexts for these early words.
Hungary: The Alternative to Orban
BBC World Service, 29 January
In April, Hungary faces new parliamentary elections and for the first time since his initial election in 2010, far-right leader Viktor Orban is falling behind in the polls. Nick Thorpe meets opposition activists and voters. Ammar Kalia
