New comedy Our Ladies is the latest UK film to ditch the jolly hockey stick representation of old in favour of complex charactersYou can’t help wondering how British movie schoolgirls would fare among their American counterparts. How would Hermione Gra…
Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw review – memories of a Malaysian outsider
Aw’s memoir subtly laments the gulf between him and his parents, the present and the pastThe novelist Tash Aw was 15 when he noticed the difference. He knew that his classmates at school weren’t all ethnically Chinese like him. There were Tamil kids wh…
Sex, Succession and sci-fi nightmares: the must-see TV of autumn 2021
More teenage hookups in Sex Education, a killer Olivia Colman and the long-awaited return of the Roy family … here is all the unmissable TV coming soonAnnie Murphy moves straight from Schitt’s Creek to another swearily titled series, this time a bold m…
I’m finally seeing live shows again – and I feel like a kid in a sweetshop
Kitchen discos and archive performances kept us going – but being stuck at home made me pine for a full houseIn the early months of the pandemic, as the survival instinct of the live arts community performed a macabre two-step with the increasingly gri…
Jeanie Finlay: ‘I don’t film alpha males. They don’t need more exposure’
She spent a year in her room as a teenager, and now makes heart-wrenching documentaries about people looking for safe spaces in record shops, on goth cruises – and even on the set of Game of ThronesThere are many wonderful moments in the films of Jeani…
When Ruby Wax Met … review – excruciating outpourings from OJ Simpson, Donald Trump and more
From a menacing Trump to OJ Simpson trying to stab her with a banana, Wax looks back at her interview hits and misses – and it makes for jaw-dropping, fascinating TVWhen Ruby Wax Met … (BBC Two) gives us a double whammy of Wax, then and now, and proves…
Love Island and the concerns about psychological distress that won’t go away
Contestants get more support after Caroline Flack and two islanders took their own lives but experts remain uneasy over formatIt has been a series full of drama, dumpings and more than a few heads turning at Casa Amor. But, after eight weeks, Love Isla…
Jill Murphy obituary
Author and illustrator of relatable yet magical children’s books, including The Worst Witch and Whatever Next!The children’s author and illustrator Jill Murphy, who has died of cancer aged 72, was loved across generations for picture books that capture…
Edinburgh fringe dance and circus roundup – naked trampolining and alt-twerking
Glasgow-based choreographer Mele Broomes’ intelligence stands out amid the cascade of online dance and circus offerings from this year’s festivalWatching recorded dance on your laptop at home couldn’t be further from the Edinburgh fringe experience: th…
Joe Thomas: the post-Inbetweeners comedown
The ex-Inbetweener’s new work-in-progress standup show, about breaking beyond being typecast, has a self-lacerating characterThe maladroit comic parlaying their anxiety into humour is as old as standup itself. But it’s a highwire act: other people’s ne…