Insomnia to Buying London: the seven best shows to stream this week
Pick of the week Insomnia Whatâs bothering Emma Averill (Vicky McClure)? Is it her domestic life, which has been disrupted by the return of her feckless sister Phoebe? The stress of her high-powered work as a custody lawyer? Buried childhood…
TV tonight: Cork-set comedy The Young Offenders continues to be cracking
The Young Offenders 9.30pm, BBC One Peter Foottâs offbeat coming-of-age, Cork-set comedy continues its fourth series, with Conor (Alex Murphy) back at school to try to pass his leaving exams â all in a bid to impress ex Linda. Cue…
The Big Cigar review â proof that Hollywood canât be trusted to tell the stories of Black radicals
A few years back, in conversation with three Chicago-area Black Lives Matter activists, I brought up the then-forthcoming film Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, the deputy chairman of the Black Panther party in Illinois,…
Caleb Azumah Nelson wins ÂŁ20,000 Dylan Thomas prize for Small Worlds
British-Ghanaian author Caleb Azumah Nelson has won this yearâs Dylan Thomas prize for his second novel Small Worlds, which judges described as âsymphonicâ and âviscerally movingâ. Azumah Nelson, 33, was awarded the ÂŁ20,000 prize at ceremony on Thursday in Swansea,…
An Unfinished Film review â moving and mysterious movie about Chinaâs Covid crisis
Out of agony and chaos, Chinese film-maker Lou Ye has created something mysterious, moving and even profound â a kind of multilayered docu-realist film, evidently inspired by a real-life situation in film production. As well as everything else, the film…
Only the Astronauts by Ceridwen Dovey review â playful and deeply moving close encounters
Telling stories from the perspectives of dead animals was, Ceridwen Dovey admits, âa tiny bit nuttyâ. Only the Astronauts â a âsequel of sortsâ to her book Only the Animals â is a bolder and madder venture again. This time…
Catland by Kathryn Hughes review â paws for thought
âCatlandâ, as Kathryn Hughes describes it, is two things. One is the imaginary universe of Louis Wainâs illustrations â in which cats walk on their hind legs and wear clothes, and humans do not feature. In the late Victorian and Edwardian eras,…
âAt the start you get molested and by 45 youâre too old to workâ â the secret misery of women working in TV
âWhen is the good time to be a woman in TV?â asks Michelle Reynolds, a former TV producer and director. âIn the start you get molested and infantilised, in the middle if you have babies they wonât let you work…
Best podcasts of the week: The stone cold truth about the scandal that rocked curling
Picks of the week BroomgateWidely available, episodes weeklyNever before has a broom been responsible for so much scandal â in 2015, the Canadian curling community was rocked by a team that used one instead of two. âTo not have the…
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes review â eerie visuals and a thrilling story
It is both a pleasure and a relief to discover that while the titans of the mainstream games industry are tearing themselves apart in their unquenchable thirst for shareholder value, there are still smaller companies out there making brilliant, original…