You, dear reader, are given the chance to vote in 17 categories from October this year to tell us your favourite theatre, music, TV, film and podcast of 2026.
We last saw Anderson resplendent on a revolving London stage at the Young Vic in A Streetcar Named Desire and here she stars in the classic Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? opposite Billy Crudup (High Noon, Harold Pinter Theatre) at the intimate @SohoPlace. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, National Theatre) runs 21 September through 19 December 2026. Tickets
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 145 minutes
It’s almost half a century since director Steven Spielberg helmed Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and his 1st film since 2022’s The Fabelmans is his best since 2002’s Minority Report.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN? Tuesday 6 January, released in the UK Friday 23 January 2026 RUNTIME: 128 minutes
It’s the gift of Paul Mescal’s singer Lionel to ‘see’ sound that compels him to seek out Josh O’Connor’s musician David as the latter sits at a piano playing a rare folk song familiar to both men.
Passenger wrote the music and lyrics for this adaptation of the novel at Theatre Royal Haymarket starring The Full Monty‘s Mark Addy and Jenna Russell (Hello Dolly! London Palladium) running 29 January through 18 April 2026. It’s the story of a man who receives a letter from a long-lost friend and walks from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Tickets Our review
Rizzle Kick Jordan Stephens makes his theatre debut opposite Tamzin Outhwaite (Stepping Out, Vaudeville Theatre) in this revival of the classic Joe Orton comedy. Runs at the Young Vic Theatre 15 September through 8 November 2025. Tickets Our review
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this story of a love (match) triangle with a tennis backdrop is that its screenplay was written by Justin Kuritzkes whose wife Celine Song was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Past Lives, our film of 2023.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: 9pm Sunday 4 April 2021
WHERE?: Sky Arts
RUNTIME: 90 minutes
When the National Theatre announced that Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley were set to star in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at the venue in summer 2020, it was set to be 1 of the season’s highlights.
It’s not easy being a band with a 40-year history that wants to write new material when the fans are familiar with hits as glorious as Digging Your Scene, It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way and Wait. The trick is to write material as memorable as the songs that broke you and the Blow Monkeys played a blinder with Time Storm, a song of the week for us last year. The follow-up More Than A Miracle out 16/4/21 is in a similar vein, doesn’t disappoint and sits well with the best of the band’s back catalogue. Album Journey To You follows in September. Tickets are on sale for UK dates in October including a London gig at 229. Read our interview with Dr Robert on this site in April.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE?: Netflix from 15/11/20
There can be few women more associated with the 80s than Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher – they are so iconic that it was always going to be difficult to know how one of the most popular series on TV would cope with their arrival.
