TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Dirty Business
Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence David Thewlis and Jason Watkins star in this three-part drama telling the real-life story of two amateur sleuths who helped uncover Britain’s appalling sewage scandal.
What our reviewer said “Mr Bates vs the Post Office showed how TV can incite public disgust at a scandal. If this doesn’t do the same, nothing will.” Jack Seale
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Further reading Channel 4’s Dirty Business is a clarion call to nationalise the water industry
Pick of the rest
The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence Harrowing accounts by Russian soldiers of beatings, executions and a military that seems almost completely lawless.
What our reviewer said “Some of the interviewees in Ben Steele’s film speak anonymously. Many show their faces but don’t give names. A few are happy to be named in full, presumably on the grounds that the Russian state has already done its worst.” Phil Harrison
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Further reading Four years ago, the world expected Ukraine to be crushed, but it has stood firm. So what now for Putin?
Scrubs
Disney+
Summed up in a sentence The beloved 00s medical sitcom gets a reboot courtesy of Bill Lawrence – now with added fury at the state of the US healthcare system.
What our reviewer said “The Scrubs revival is as Scrubsy as it gets. If you were a fan of the original, this new series is in the safest pair of hands imaginable.” Stuart Heritage
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LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence Ian McKellen portrays the artist based on never-before-played interview tapes of the artist speaking to a young fan.
What our reviewer said “There are many heart-rending moments, all delivered by McKellen with immense precision, dexterity and understatement. Never have those pale blue eyes looked so watery and brimming with undeclared feelings.” Chitra Ramaswamy
Further reading LS Lowry believed his paintings would be worthless, interviews reveal
We Might Regret This
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence The return of this comedy led by disabled actors arrives at the perfect moment to skewer all the right targets.
What our reviewer said “The quips are quick and Aasiya Shah’s delivery is laugh-out-loud funny. But the real humour comes from how our expectations are being subverted.” Frances Ryan
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Film
If you only watch one, make it …
The Testament of Ann Lee
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Amanda Seyfried plays the 18th-century missionary who took her message to the New World, in Mona Fastvold’s elusive portrait of the radically ecstatic Shaker leader.
What our reviewer said “The movie looks sometimes like a Lars von Trier nightmare of ironised martyrdom, or a Robert Eggers horror film like The Witch, and then sometimes like a weird but spectacular Broadway musical melodrama, in which the shaking and shivering of the dancing faithful – ecstatically submitting to divine joy – is shaped into a choreography not unlike the musical Stomp.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘I can understand being brought to your knees’: Amanda Seyfried on obsession, devotion and the joy of socks
Pick of the rest
Molly vs the Machines
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Emotive documentary about the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who killed herself after accessing thousands of self-harm images on social media.
What our reviewer said “In the end, it’s the interviews with those who loved Molly that give the film its power and precision. Ian Russell talks about how his life can be split in two: before Molly died and afterwards; and one of her friends expresses frustration at the lack of action to protect young people: “How many Mollies does it have to take?” Cath Clarke
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Further reading ‘The bleakest of worlds’: how Molly Russell fell into a vortex of despair on social media
Scream 7
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Neve Campbell, Kevin Williamson and Courteney Cox return for another Ghostface whodunnit that is messy but mostly entertaining.
What our reviewer said “There are also some inventively nasty kills – Williamson’s claim that this would be a less violent Scream feels like a misdirect.” Benjamin Lee
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Palestine Comedy Club
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Documentary about a roving performance collective co-founded by Alaa Shehada that insightfully reflects on the grind of war, life on the road and the reactive nature of comedy.
What our reviewer said “I would have liked to see more of the Palestine Comedy Club’s actual show, and more of the way the material is developed and performed, but we do get a very entertaining bit from Shehada as he says that over here, he gets solemn and supportive “mmmm”s instead of laughs – the audiences mulling over it, perhaps laughing later when they’ve had time to think.” Peter Bradshaw
Now streaming
Else
Digital platforms
Summed up in a sentence Intriguing pandemic horror which sees a couple forced to barricade themselves in an apartment amid an outbreak in which the infected merge with their physical surroundings.
What our reviewer said “Else shows a heartening faith in the affective power of imagery over talk. A digital-age kindred spirit of the likes of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, this is the midnight movie real deal.” Phil Hoad
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Books
If you only read one, make it …
A Hymn to Life by Gisèle Pelicot
Reviewed by Emma Brockes
Summed up in a sentence A survivor of appalling sexual crimes tells her story.
What our reviewer said “It is alive with the kind of detail that wouldn’t look out of place in a good novel, but it’s the expression it gives to something glimpsed at during the trial that makes it so singular; namely, the transformation of Gisèle Pelicot from a self-avowedly ordinary woman, ‘content with my little life’, into a figure of astonishing power.”
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Further reading Gisèle Pelicot on rape, courage and her ex-husband: ‘He was loved by everyone. That’s what is so terrifying’
Pick of the rest
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
Reviewed by AK Blakemore
Summed up in a sentence Delightful historical fantasy from the Golden Hill author.
What our reviewer said “The novel is a pleasing pasticcio of romance, occultism, non-Euclidean geometry and airborne adventure across the blitz-stricken rooftops of London – difficult to imagine it would hold together quite so well in other hands than Spufford’s.”
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Further reading Myth, monsters and making sense of a disenchanted world: why everyone is reading fantasy
Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya
Reviewed by Rahul Raina
Summed up in a sentence An intimate epic about the impact of Indian railways.
What our reviewer said “Heroine Charu symbolises that truly epochal change of modern India, as a single woman leading a working life alone in the big city.”
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My Bags are Big by Tibor Fischer
Reviewed by Houman Barekat
Summed up in a sentence Wisecracking comedy about a wheeler-dealer who makes it big in crypto.
What our reviewer said “Thirty years after The Thought Gang, the storytelling is zippier and the absurdism slightly dialled down, but the jaunty voice and cynical, compulsively wisecracking comic sensibility are unchanged.”
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You may have missed …
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
Reviewed by Aida Edemariam
Summed up in a sentence Set in 17th-century Denmark, this poetic tale of female solidarity and everyday sorcery has been longlisted for the International Booker prize.
What our reviewer said “At its best The Wax Child is richly evocative, beautiful, creepy and visceral.”
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Further reading Witches, Nazi collaborators and banned books: International Booker prize announces 2026 longlist
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Gorillaz: The Mountain
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon band mark 25 years with an album inspired by India and shaped by loss, featuring collaborators living and dead.
What our reviewer said “It feels more consistent – more like an album, less like a playlist constructed by someone with impressively wide-ranging taste – than its immediate predecessors.” Alexis Petridis
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Pick of the rest
Pekka Kuusisto: Willows
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Finnish violinist-conductor strips back The Lark Ascending to revelatory effect in an album that moves from searing grief to radiant, folk-infused transcendence.
What our reviewer said “Expressions of faith, sorrow, ritual and resistance.” Clive Paget
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Tomeka Reid: Dance! Skip! Hop!
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The cellist reunites with guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara for five stunning tracks that are boundary-pushing yet populist.
What our reviewer said “2026 will have to be some jazz year to push this one out of the frontrunners come December.” John Fordham
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Lala Lala: Heaven 2
Out now
Summed up in a sentence A hazy, mid-tempo meditation on escape from the alt-rocker.
What our reviewer said “Heaven 2 is shrouded in uncertainty, with cloaks of reverb, and lyrics buried beneath breathy deflection.” Katie Hawthorne
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Now touring
The Streets
Touring the UK and Europe from 6 June
Summed up in a sentence A Grand Don’t Come for Free, Mike Skinner’s concept album about losing £1,000 behind a TV, is performed in full with a formidable band.
What our reviewer said “Full-album shows can be hit and miss, but the picaresque nature of the record suits a recital, and an impressive live band reproduces its colourful sound world.” Peter Ross
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