UK entertainment guide for the week ahead, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): John Malkovich looks set to earn an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an ageing CIA agent with terminal cancer who is sent to Easter Island with his younger colleague, played by Sam Rockwell, in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy drama Wild Horse Nine, now out.
Spanish queer drama La Bola Negra, now out, was inspired by Lorca’s unfinished four-page fragment of the same name. Directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi spin it into an epic story spanning three timelines, with an international cast including singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close.
I Play Rocky, also out now, dramatises the story behind one of cinema’s most famous roles. In 1975, a struggling actor named Sylvester Stallone gave himself three days to write a role for himself, and the result was Rocky.
Anthony Ippolito stars as Stallone in the feelgood film.
One in a Million, winner of the audience award at the Sundance film festival, follows a girl across an extraordinary decade of her life, from childhood in Syria to adult life in Germany. It is directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes.
Bristol’s Simple Things festival, running at various venues on 7 November, marks its 12th year by employing guest curators for the first time: Squid, Shabaka, Jeremy Deller and Cobrah. Their picks include Hannah Diamond, My New Band Believe and the Avalanches.
The London Jazz Festival runs from 13 to 22 November across the city. Its opening night includes the star-packed John Coltrane centenary celebration at Barbican Hall and the vocal showcase Jazz Voice at Royal Festival Hall, while smaller acts such as saxophonist Jean Toussaint’s JT5 will play venues across the capital.
SBTV20 at The O2 in London on Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the music platform SBTV. Chip, Ms Banks and Tinie Tempah are among the performers, and the event will honour the legacy of SBTV founder Jamal Edwards MBE, who died in 2022.
On 8 November at The Glasshouse in Gateshead, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, local amateurs and a large choir perform Elgar’s epic oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, conducted by Dinis Sousa. Soloists include Sarah Connolly, Benjamin Hulett and Roderick Williams.
The V&A in London hosts Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires, running from 7 November to 9 May. The exhibition covers 1,600 years of art, design, antiquities and rarities, including the 11th-century Enkolpion of Constantinos, from a city that has served as a cultural bridge between Europe and Asia.
At Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, painter Georg Wilson’s show runs from 8 November to 18 April, bringing an ecological, folkloric and atmospheric approach to landscape painting. In Edinburgh, the City Art Centre hosts printmaker Ade Adesina from 7 November to 11 April, whose woodcuts, etchings, linocuts and screenprints address colonial history and the climate crisis.
Katie Shannon’s new body of work, exploring lost musical histories and feminist rereadings of time and space, runs at Goldsmith’s Centre for Contemporary Art in London until 13 December as part of its Episodes series.
The Adam and Joe Show marks 30 years since the cult comedy series was first broadcast. Buxton and Cornish revisit its highlights at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 11 November and at Beacon Hall in Bristol on 5 December.
Dominic Cooke revives Caryl Churchill’s inventive, time-bending play Cloud 9 at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage in London until 13 January. The production begins in Victorian colonial Africa and jumps to 1970s London, with the cast performing theatrical gymnastics along the way.
In Cardiff, Michael Sheen stars as Owain Glyndŵr, the Welsh lord who rebelled against Henry IV after being declared an outlaw, in Owain & Henry at the Wales Millennium Centre until 28 November. The play is written by Olivier winner Gary Owen, with a cast including Sophie Melville, Linus Roache and Rakie Ayola.
Birmingham-Barcelona-based duo Humanhood bring their hypnotic movement work Vortex to Sadler’s Wells East in London from 10 to 14 November. Artistic directors Julia Robert and Rudi Cole have developed a method somewhere between dance and spiritual practice.
On television, Apple TV’s 12 12 12, premiering 13 November, is a heist thriller with a 12-month plan, 12-hour execution and 12 days to get away with it. Jamie Dornan plays the criminal mastermind behind a Zurich bank vault robbery, with Anthony Mackie as the FBI agent on his trail.
Channel 4’s Hunting Alice Bell, airing 11 November at 9pm, is an internet vigilante thriller co-created by Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw and his schoolmate David Baddiel. It follows a group of women who are all rumoured to be the accomplice of an infamous serial killer, played by Simon Pegg, living under a new identity.
Sky Atlantic and Now premiere The Good Daughter on 12 November at 9pm. Rose Byrne stars in Karin Slaughter’s adaptation of her 2017 novel about the secret truths behind a horrific attack that continues to haunt two sisters, with Brendan Gleeson and Meghann Fahy also starring.
BBC Two and iPlayer’s Cunk on Cinema, premiering 12 November at 10pm, sees Diane Morgan’s alter ego Philomena Cunk grill doyens of the film industry in bewildering style. The character first appeared on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe 13 years ago.
Among games, The Devil’s Due for PC, out 10 November, follows a player who must escape hell by defeating the devil’s minions at poker, with inventive cheating and a collage-like look. Shrek 2: Remastered, out on all platforms 10 November, is a surprise rerelease of the 2004 film tie-in.
In music, Kings of Leon’s 10th album, O My Beloved, is out now. Self-produced and rooted in nostalgia, it looks back at the band’s career and family life, with the country-tinged My Whole World depicting domestic bliss.
Shygirl’s second album, Swallow!, also arrives now, channelling the Prodigy, William Orbit-era Madonna and indie. Skepta returns with The Fork and Knife, his first album in seven years, absorbing grime, house and jungle.
La Roux’s Old Flames, out now, is a warmer follow-up to 2020’s Supervision.
For listeners, the Talking Common podcast from author Josh Connolly looks for answers to personal problems in community solutions, with guest Sonny Green discussing breaking the generational cycle of addiction. International Intrigue, a daily newsletter from former diplomats, offers concise rundowns of geopolitical issues, including the race for a new UN chief and the EU’s Arctic Strategy.
BBC World Service’s The Life Scientific airs Monday at 8.32pm, featuring Asel Sartbaeva on how silica materials could free vaccines from constant refrigeration.
