Down Cemetery Road to Florence + the Machine: the week in rave reviews

Emma Thompson lights up a new thriller from Slow Horses author Mick Herron, and the singer-songwriter is back with more bombastic chamber pop. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Peter Watkins, Oscar-winning director of The War Game, dies aged 90

Radical English director who clashed with the BBC over his ‘horrifying’ film about nuclear war, was forced to look abroad to continue working

How do Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 compare against hearing aids? I put them to the test

Can these earphones, with less cost and stigma than real aids, be a gateway for millions with untreated hearing loss?

The Beatles: actors playing the spouses of the Fab Four in Sam Mendes’ films confirmed

Mia McKenna-Bruce, Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai and Aimee Lou Wood have been cast in Sam Mendes’ forthcoming four-part film series

Madrid regional government co-funding Woody Allen’s new film – but it must feature ‘Madrid’ in the title

Regional authority is investing €1.5m in the project but has stipulations about featuring ‘identifiable locations’ on screen and the film premiering at an international film festival

Digested week: Sometimes it feels the clocks do nothing else but go back

Women need exclamation marks for good reason!! Plus, Andrew is losing everything he holds dear, including his house full of memories

Horror movies have an ableism problem. Isn’t it time we found new ‘monsters’?

Films such as Frankenstein still use disability as shorthand for moral depravity. But human behaviour is far scarier than human appearance, says journalist Kathryn Bromwich

The best Android phones: flagship smartphones compared and ranked

Our tech expert is back with an updated guide to the top-tier Android phones, from budget buys to the best for battery life

‘Extreme heebie-jeebies’: writers on their scariest movies of all time

For Halloween, Guardian writers pick their most terrifying films ever – from The Shining and The Descent to The Strangers

Frankenstein to Kenny Dalglish: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi star in Guillermo del Toro’s rampantly gothic new take on the classic tale, while the footballing legend recounts the highs and lows of the beautiful game with Asif Kapadia

‘I’ve played a lot of sneery bastards’: Roger Allam on bad singing, big paydays and Elgar’s level of ‘gitacity’

He launched a thousand memes as the beleaguered Tory MP in The Thick of It, and starred in the original production of Les Misérables. Now the actor is making not-so-sweet music in the Alan Bennett-scripted film The Choral. But there are plenty of things he draws the line at …

‘The nuns were convinced they were possessed by demons’: goth and metal stars select the scariest music ever made

Forget the Monster Mash. For the ultimate Halloween playlist, reach for horror soundtracks, 1940s kids’ music and Russian darkwave – all chosen by Sunn O))), Creeper, Diamanda Galás and more

Apple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demand

Tim Cook forecast 10% to 12% revenue growth in the quarter ending in December, typically Apple’s biggest of the year

Amazon reports strongest cloud growth since 2022 after major outage

Amazon Web Services (AWS) sees 20% increase in revenue year over year, topping Wall Street estimates

Will the real De Blasio please stand up? A lesson from a UK newspaper’s gaffe

The Times thought they were interviewing ex-NYC mayor Bill de Blasio. They were actually talking to a wine importer