By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN? Sunday 14 December 2025, to air at 10pm on BBC2 on Christmas Eve RUNTIME: 30 minutes
Christmas just isn’t Christmas without the now annual Mark Gatiss ghost story airing late on Christmas Eve on BBC2.
It’s been quite the year, it’s almost Christmas and what would the festive season be without some recognition of the best of 2025? Over the next week we’ll shortlist five nominees in each of 17 categories for our Oscars, or monstas if you will, of 2025.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK? ****
The winner of this year’s British Independent Film Award for best film revels in being both an unflinching look at a BDSM relationship while colliding with a very embarrassed British sense of humour more likely found in fare like Four Weddings And A Funeral.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN? 21 November 2025 on its day of release RUNTIME: 137 minutes
Wicked (Part 1) was a 5-star hit because it built on the beloved Act 1 of a classic musical giving it the visual flair and world-building that only cinema can with a superstar cast.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK? ****
WHEN? Friday 14 November, opens 1 December and runs through 25 October 2026 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)
They say the devil has the best tunes and this new musical’s showstopper is reserved for its taxidermist villainess – Pretty Little Dead Things (listen below).
It’s been quite the year, it’s almost Christmas and what would the festive season be without some recognition of the best of 2025? Over the next 3 months we’ll shortlist five nominees in each of 17 categories for our Oscars, or monstas if you will, of 2025.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN? Saturday 30 August, runs through 22 November 2025
RUNTIME: 195 minutes (including 15-minute interval)
Can you ever have too much of a good thing?
By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum
WHEN?: Saturday 23 August 2025 (press ticket)
In our attempt to fill the sad Welly gap, before we realised that Hot Wax were possibly the new best thing, we knew The Pill, who opened the Common Stage today, were a cert. We’d seen them support Welly in Southampton earlier this year, and we could see and sense the potential.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***** RUNTIME: 100 minutes
Key and Basden wrote the screenplay for this charming film which is essentially an unlikely bromance meditating on loss, nostalgia, music, its ability to bring together and the relationship between fan and star.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Friday 23 May 2025, tour runs through 15 August 2025
AG Setlist: Ride A White Horse; Number 1; Dreaming; Believer; Find Xanadu; Reverberotic; Rocket; Ooh La La; Strict Machine; Fever
SS Setlist: Laura; Better Luck; She’s My Man; Tits On The Radio; I Can’t Decide; Lovers In The Back Seat; Running Out; Take Your Mama; Paul McCartney; Fire With Fire; Mary; It Can’t Come Quickly Enough; Sex And Violence; Any Which Way; Comfortably Numb; Invisible Light; Let’s Have A Kiki; I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’; Return To Oz; Filthy Gorgeous; Music Is The Victim
It’s the Friday night of a bank holiday weekend and we arrive at our seats early to see an extraordinary greatest hits support set from 1 of our favourite pop stars.
