Going out: Cinema
Back to Black
Out now
Sam Taylor-Johnson teams up with Matt Greenhalgh, who penned Joy Division biopic Control, for a portrait of another music icon who died under tragic circumstances. Rather than focus on Winehouse’s untimely death, this film takes a character-driven approach that puts her music first and foremost.
Civil War
Out now
From the implications of AI to manifestations of misogyny, Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Men) is a film-maker unafraid of big ideas, which he wraps in character-driven films with a genre twist. His latest imagines a United States ruled by a dystopian dictatorship engulfed in the second American civil war.
The Teacher’s Lounge
Out now
Scapegoating, paranoia and stereotypes combine to create a toxic environment in a school following a series of thefts. Leonie Benesch stars as a teacher trying to maintain some semblance of reason, as students, other teachers and parents are pulled into a chaotic web of mistrust in director İlker Çatak’s drama.
Ratcatcher (25th Anniversary)
Out now
The debut film from Lynne Ramsay scores a well-deserved 4K restoration, giving new audiences a chance to experience its powerful child’s-eye view of life in one of the poorest housing schemes in 1973 Glasgow. But it’s not all non-stop social realism: watch if you’ve ever wanted to see a mouse land on the moon. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Take That
13 April to 22 June; tour starts Sheffield
Gary, Mark and Howard don the paisley and denim for this mammoth tour in support of last year’s 70s soft-rock-inspired ninth album, This Life. But it’s the back catalogue that’s the real selling point, so save your energy for Pray, Never Forget and Shine. MC
New Year
City Halls, Glasgow, 13 April
Premiered in Houston, Texas in 1989, Michael Tippett’s final, free-wheeling opera gets its first British airing in more than 30 years. Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert staging directed by Victoria Newlyn, with a cast including Rhian Lois, Susan Bickley and Rachel Nicholls. Andrew Clements
Tate McRae
17 to 26 April; tour starts Dublin
The double whammy of excellent singles Greedy and Exes have helped shuffle Canadian singer, songwriter and dancer McRae up the pack of the so-called main pop girls. This UK jaunt should help cement that status via both the tunes and McRae’s penchant for exemplary dance breaks. Michael Cragg
Sloth Racket, Arthropods
Jazz at the Lescar, Sheffield, 17 April
Enterprising double bill embracing the sharp ends of contemporary-classical, jazz, rock and global improv. Expat American drummer Mark Holub, formerly of Mercury nominated jazz-rock group Led Bib, leads genre-fluid Vienna quintet Arthropods, while saxist Cath Roberts’s Sloth Racket mix free-jazz, spiky compositions and powerful grooves. John Fordham
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Going out: Stage
Ashley Blaker
13 April to 28 June; tour starts Hemel Hempstead
Having previously mined material from his Jewish identity, dad-of-six Blaker has recently refocused his energies on his chaotic family. His new standup show, Normal Schmormal, accompanies his recent book of the same name, is an irreverent, heartening guide to raising children with special needs. Rachel Aroesti
Jones the Dance
18 April to 17 May; tour starts Holywell
Y Dewis, meaning The Choice, is an intriguing live/film experience by choreographer Gwyn Emberton, touring small venues across Wales. It’s a film about four young people’s stories, shot at the disused Porth Wen Brickworks on Anglesey, but also a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure, where the audience decides what happens next. Lyndsey Winship
The Last Show Before We Die
Bristol Old Vic, 16 to 27 April
In this swirling, gut-punch work about endings of all kinds, verbatim performance duo Mary Higgins and Ell Potter attempt to end their co-dependent relationship. Take someone you love, but beware: this show has been rumoured to have caused breakups. Kate Wyver
Shō and the Demons of the Deep
Today 13 April to 5 June; tour starts Glasgow
When Shō throws her nightmares into the river, everyone else follows suit. But when the water gets poisoned, the city must face the nightmares again. Inspired by AAnnouchka Gravel Galouchko’s picture book, this is a story of courage in the face of the climate crisis, for everyone aged eight and over. KA
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Going out: Art
Lynda Benglis
Turner Contemporary, Margate, to 15 September
The comic and exuberant sculptures of Lynda Benglis helped reinvent art in the late 1960s. She turned the tight-lipped style of American minimalism on its head by flirting with floppiness and misrule. Her molten poured cascades of colourful goo are joyous.
The Last Caravaggio
National Gallery, London, 18 April to 21 July
Shortly before the brief troubled life of Caravaggio came to an end he painted The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, a profound, unsettling meditation on death and acceptance. Ursula looks passively at an arrow just fired into her body as Caravaggio, in his final self-portrait, bears witness from the hellish dark.
Georg Baselitz
White Cube Bermondsey, London, to 16 June
At the age of 86 this German artist is still pumping out big, passionate paintings. Baselitz was a child in the Nazi era, an adolescent in East Germany, and shocked the west with his early “degenerate” paintings. His current work is among his most astonishing as he looks back in frenzy.
Murmuration
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, to 23 June
Birds have obsessed artists. Leonardo da Vinci not only drew them in flight but is said to have bought birds at market so he could set them free. Here their beauty and mystery are captured by today’s artists including Larry Achiampong, Ryan Gander and Sally Madge. Jonathan Jones
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Staying in: Streaming
Dinosaur
iPlayer & BBC Three, 16 April, 9pm
Ashley Storrie is far from the only autistic standup in the UK, but she is the first to capture her experiences in sitcom form. In this new comedy, Storrie is Nina, a thirtysomething autistic woman whose safe and familiar relationship with her sister Evie implodes when the latter unexpectedly gets engaged.
Blue Lights
iPlayer& BBC One, 15 April, 9pm
The first outing of this sensational police procedural was the sleeper hit of 2023: what started as a borderline soapy tale of Belfast cops soon blossomed into a heart-stopping meditation on the unique challenges of policing such a complex community. Series two picks up the moving, nail-biting action a year on.
Feud: Capote vs the Swans
Disney+, 17 April
After his turn as a camp, murderous con artist in The White Lotus, Tom Hollander leans into his new line in ritzy, bitchy gay men by taking on the role of Truman Capote – as he is pursued by the high-society ladies whose confidences he betrayed – in the second edition of Ryan Murphy’s argument-themed anthology series.
Danny Dyer: How to Be a Man
Channel 4, 16 April, 10pm
As star of The Football Factory and an erstwhile agony uncle for Zoo, it’s fair to assume Dyer already knows a thing or two about toxic masculinity. Still, this two-parter sees the actor delve further into masculinity’s myriad crises in order to find out how to preserve and evolve blokedom. RA
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Staying in: Games
Grounded
Out 16 April, PS5, Nintendo Switch
This Xbox survival game about holding your own against garden insects is now available on other consoles. Think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in game form.
Harold Halibut
Out 16 April, PS5, Xbox, PC
A game about life on a city-sized spaceship that’s been stuck at the bottom of an alien ocean for 250 years. Made entirely with puppets, models and stop-motion, it took the developers 11 years to create. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
Out now
Coinciding with the end of his two bands, Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming, Shabaka London jazz pioneer Hutchings announced in 2023 his hiatus from the saxophone. On this solo debut he focuses on the flute, creating otherworldly pieces such as the Floating Points collaboration I’ll Do Whatever You Want.
Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me
Out now
Created to evoke the feeling of a singing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs Sunday afternoon drive, singer-songwriter Rogers’ third album features excellent lead single Don’t Forget Me. Full of careworn emotions and a pristine chorus perfect for karaoke, it’s joined by the equally lovely Fleetwood Mac-esque So Sick of Dreamin.
Girl in Red – I’m Doing It Again Baby!
Out now
Norwegian alt-pop practitioner Marie Ulven Ringheim returns with her major label follow-up to 2021’s UK Top 10 debut, If I Could Make It Go Quiet. On Too Much she explores the various ways her eccentricities have been squashed, while the Sabrina Carpenter-assisted You Need Me Now? is a bolshier pop-rock firecracker.
Little Storping in the Swuff – Baroque Anxieties
Out now
With a penchant for Syd Barrett-esque psych-rock, and a moniker taken from 60s spy series The Avengers, Kent musician David Goggin – ex frontman of BBC 6 Music favourites Brigadier Ambrose – feels brilliantly out of step with modern life. Woozy opener Oh God, What Now?, for example, sounds like a lost Hammer horror theme tune. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive
Online
Researcher Michael John Goodman’s archive is an invaluable resource for historical interpretations of the Bard’s work. It features more than 3,000 images from editions of Shakespeare, including the first colourised depictions of his plays, as well as images of Victorian actors in character.
Reggaeton: The Soundtrack of Puerto Rico
BBC World Service, 16 April
This insightful travelogue explores the origins of the dancefloor genre first formed by marginalised communities in Puerto Rico, before courting controversy for its lyrical themes and going on to become a global phenomenon.
Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare
Podcast
This reality series is an entertaining and often hilarious examination of women’s lives throughout the US. From an octogenarian calendar girl to a fish thrower, each woman recounts a typical day. Ammar Kalia
