Going out: Cinema
Wicked: For Good
Out now
Was the decision to split this Broadway musical big-screen adaptation into two parts motivated by art or money? Part two is here, so you can judge for yourself. The Wizard of Oz-inspired story picks up with defiant “Wicked Witch” Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) living in exile, while Glinda (Ariana Grande) relishes her own popularity.
The Thing With Feathers
Out now
Max Porter’s novel Grief Is the Thing With Feathers gets the big-screen treatment, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as the dad who must raise his two young children alone after his wife dies unexpectedly. With David Thewlis as the voice of the crow who appears to him.
The Ice Tower
Out now
Marion Cotillard stars as a star: an actor called Cristina, who is playing the beautiful Snow Queen in a 1960s adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic that also inspired Frozen. But though the other lead here is a 15-year-old girl, this is no Disney fable, but a tale of idols and obsession.
Sisu: Road to Revenge
Out now
An unexpected hit in 2022, the first Sisu film was a violent action thriller in which a grizzled prospector murdered scores of Nazis to defend his bags of gold. Now the man who refuses to die is back, and this time he’s taking on the Red Army. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
London jazz festival
Various venues, 22 & 23 November
Revered Malian vocal star Oumou Sangaré fronts the BBC Concert Orchestra (23 November), while pioneering drummer-composer and Polar Bear-founder Seb Rochford (23 November) and fast-rising young UK guitarist and singer-songwriter Rosie Frater-Taylor (22 November) present their cutting-edge bands. These and dozens more form the festival’s closing-weekend dates. John Fordham
Yung Lean
Wembley arena, London, 22 November; Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, 26 November
The creatively restless Swedish singer and rapper, whose collaborations have included Robyn and Bladee, makes two rare UK appearances. Keep an ear out for recent single Evil World and the new wave stylings of recent album Jonatan. Michael Cragg
Leisure
27 to 29 November; tour starts London
An alluring mix of funk, dance-pop and 90s boom bap, New Zealand sextet Leisure have slowly built up a British fanbase. This tour, which includes a night at London’s Roundhouse, is in support of September’s sun-dappled fifth album, Welcome to the Mood. MC
Huddersfield contemporary music festival
Various venues, to 30 November
The composer-in-residence this year is the American Sarah Hennies, whose music is hardly known at all on this side of the Atlantic. For this opening weekend, the Mivos Quartet give the UK premiere of Hennies’s hour-long string quartet Borrowed Light, composed in 2023 and described as “a kind of sonic meditation … revealing how sound can illuminate states of being”. Andrew Clements
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Going out: Art
Turner and Constable
Tate Britain, London, 27 November to 12 April
To climax JMW Turner’s 250th birthday celebrations he goes head to head with his only rival as a British landscape artist. In life, Turner famously trumped John Constable in a Royal Academy exhibition by adding a last-minute splosh of red to a painting. Will Constable get his own back at last?
Caravaggio’s Cupid
Wallace Collection, London, 26 November to 12 April
The strangest, most provocative masterpiece ever painted comes to London. Caravaggio’s art cuts across time to grab you as if he is our contemporary. His depiction of a naked boy posing as the god of love with a grin like a street kid who’s robbing the gallery takes the biscotto.
Bridget Riley
Turner Contemporary, Margate, 22 November to 4 May
One of Britain’s greatest artists, by which I mean ever, gets a survey of her unique journey in abstract art. Riley reinvented abstraction in the 1960s as an optical, scientific exploration of colour, line and human psychology. She is up there with Pollock and Mondrian as a visionary abstract painter.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, to 1 February
This radical artist and enrolled member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation sadly died while this exhibition at Fruitmarket was being put together. So it has become a memorial. A sculpture of a canoe and figures of climate heroes feature along with her expressive paintings. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Jazz Emu
Soho theatre, London, 25 November to 6 December
Conceited, nerdy, 1970s-suave, vaguely Germanic accented: Footlights alumni Archie Henderson’s musician alter ego has a very distinctive vibe and a stacked back catalogue of odd tunes. He shares the (dubious) secrets of his success in this London run. Rachel Aroesti
How Does Santa Go Down The Chimney?
Unicorn theatre, London, to 3 Jan
This year’s Unicorn Christmas show – always such a treat – is a playful take on Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s picture book. Created by Told By an Idiot, there’ll be lashings of physical comedy and silly gags for all the family. Miriam Gillinson
The Burns Project
Brodie Castle, Tuesday; 26 to 29 November
James Clements’s probing show about Robert Burns embarks on a mini-tour following rave reviews at the Edinburgh festival. It weaves together rarely seen writing and digitised archival material to create a rich and complex portrait of the much-loved Scottish poet. MG
Yorke Dance Project
Memorial theatre, Frome, 28 & 29 Nov; touring to 22 January
A quintuple bill entitled Modern Milestones, including a solo by Martha Graham (Deep Song from 1937), a new piece from veteran choreographer Christopher Bruce (Troubadour, set to Leonard Cohen songs) and something fresh from former Rambert dancer Liam Francis. Lindsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
Stranger Things
Netflix, 26 November
It’s the beginning of the end for the Duffer Brothers’ retro sci-fi juggernaut as the first four episodes of the fifth and final season are released. Definitive answers to all outstanding mysteries – including the reason behind the kidnapping of Will Byers – have been promised.
Prisoner 951
BBC One & iPlayer, 23 November, 9pm
When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran, it marked the beginning of a six-year nightmare. Adapted from a forthcoming book by her and her husband, this drama chronicles the former’s imprisonment and the latter’s desperate campaign to free her. Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes star.
Poison Water
BBC Two & iPlayer, 26 November, 9pm
The worst mass poisoning event in British history was swept under the carpet from the start. In 1988, a tanker driver accidentally poured 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the water supply of a Cornish town. Despite their skin peeling and hair turning blue, residents were assured they were safe – a lie this documentary unravels.
Clash of the Comics
U, 28 November
A bumper highlights package of the star-studded standup v standup wrestling extravaganza that took place live in London last month. The fighting funnymen and women include Ed Gamble, James Acaster, Phil Wang, Rose Matafeo and Rosie Jones, with Nish Kumar, Sara Pascoe and Greg James commentating on the action. RA
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Staying in: Games
Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons
PS5, Switch, PC; out 27 November
Taito’s iconic bubble-blowing dragons return for more single-screen platforming, but with a modern twist. Taking inspiration from the roguelike genre, each stage is part of a wider dungeon that changes layout each time you explore.
Street Racer Collection
PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC; out 27 November
This compilation brings Street Racer on to modern platforms. Pitched as both kart racer and fighting game, the four playable versions – including the SNES original and a Game Boy edition – help settle the playground debate of whether it was better than Super Mario Kart after all. Matthew Reynolds
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Staying in: Albums
Ella Eyre – Everything, in Time
Out now
A decade after her debut, Feline, and after struggling to reverse out of a dance-pop cul-de-sac, London singer-songwriter Ella Eyre returns with a new sound and attitude. Songs such as Head in the Ground and Kintsugi offer up slow-burn soul, while Red Flags & Love Hearts is a modern take on 60s doo-wop.
Oneohtrix Point Never – Tranquilizer
Out now
It has been a busy time for sonic explorer Daniel Lopatin. As well as continuing his production work for the Weeknd, he has also scored Josh Safdie’s film forthcoming Oscar hopeful, Marty Supreme, and completed this 11th album. Created using once-lost sample libraries from the Internet Archive, it sounds like diving into electricity.
De La Soul – Cabin in the Sky
Out now
Nine years after their Grammy-nominated album And the Anonymous Nobody …, the hip-hop greats make an unexpected return. Featuring previously unheard vocals from Trugoy the Dove, who died in 2023, plus guests Killer Mike, Yukimi Nagano and Nas, it’s led by the horn-heavy bop The Package.
Stray Kids – Do It
Out now
One of the biggest bands in the world – this five-track EP could become the eight-piece K-pop boyband’s eighth straight US chart-topper – Stray Kids have filled the hole left by BTS. With songs such as the elastic gonzo-pop of Ceremony, they look hard to dethrone. MC
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Staying in: Brain Food
Media Storm
Podcast
Mathilda Mallinson and Helena Wadia’s well-crafted series examines often overlooked perspectives on the week’s biggest news stories, including disinformation in Gaza and the roots of UK rightwing radicalism.
Getty Museum
YouTube
LA art institution the Getty hosts a range of filmed workshops, art history explainers and roundtable discussions on its video channel . A recent mini-series looked at the museum’s relationship with feminist ensemble Guerrilla Girls.
Witness History: The Howard Hughes Literary Hoax
BBC World Service, Wednesday, 8.50am
This fascinating, archive-rich short documentary investigates the strange 1971 tale of a falsified autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Jane Wilkinson explores how a six-figure advance and fabricated quotes led to a highly publicised fraud conviction. Ammar Kalia
