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The Last Duel review: It's only when Jodie Comer takes centre stage that the film comes alive
More than 40 years ago, Ridley Scott made his cinematic debut with The Duellists, about two French cavalry officers locked in an endless round of duels during the Napoleonic Wars.
From The War Below to Wolf Hall: The best on demand TV to watch this week
It's 1915 on the Western Front. Stalemate is leading to a bloody war of attrition in the trenches: something's got to give.
Stephen Hough album review: His reticence does Chopin's genius a huge service
Like a lot of us, I keep wondering how I could have frittered away all that time during lockdown.
PIERS MORGAN: Charles's Aston Martin is powered by cheese and wine... Aren't we all!
Prince Charles has revealed his 50-year-old Aston Martin is now powered by cheese and wine.
CRAIG BROWN: Jonathan Franzen is still a riveting chronicler of God-fearing America
Crossroads is set in 1971, so it is really a historical novel, just as a novel written in 1971 and set in 1921 would be.
The Tragedy Of Macbeth review: Yaël Farber's work always delivers stunning imagery
The first surprise of Yaël Farber's The Tragedy Of Macbeth , writes Holly Williams , is that it's taken her so long to tackle the play - it is perfect for the director's moody aesthetic.
Broken Heartlands review: It will give poor Keir Starmer sleepless nights
'You guys should get out of London. Go and talk to people who are not rich Remainers,' Dominic Cummings once told a mob of hacks on his doorstep.
DEBORAH ROSS: Joanne Froggatt's great, so's her kitchen island... but more violence against women?
Angela Black is the latest 'Kitchen Island Thriller' - a genre I just named, you're so welcome - written by the brothers Harry and Jack Williams, who also wrote The Missing, Liar and Rellik.
Coldplay album review: They've taken a step back towards classic rock
When you think about it, Coldplay are quite an odd band. They started out sounding like Travis, then they wanted to be Pink Floyd, and these days they're halfway from Supertramp to Take That.
Deepest Somerset review: Their love bounces off every page
Say 'Somerset' and the chances are someone else will come straight back with 'It's all a bit Notting Hill these days, isn't it?'
Let It Be review: The whole package demonstrates The Beatles' musical differences
The Beatles , who split up 51 years ago, have never gone away. Their compilation 1 is Britain's fourth best-selling album of this century, behind only Adele (twice over) and Amy Winehouse.
DEBORAH ROSS: Thrilling TV - and the reason I'm a Ross, not a Rosenthal...
The BBC's new Sunday night drama series Ridley Road is great. Just thought I'd get that out there. Also, to its credit, not a glimpse of a submarine, or anyone trapped in a torpedo tube, which ha...
From Wole Soyinka to Heather Morris, John le Carré and Graeme Macrae Burnet: This week's fiction
A woman suspects maverick therapist Arthur Collins Braithwaite of causing her sister's suicide and begins to visit him under an assumed identity in order to gather evidence.
Next Door review: A tense and absorbing German psychological drama
With Daniel Craig and No Time To Die dominating UK box offices, it can be difficult even to find alternatives. But they are out there, and some are definitely worth tracking down.
From Scenes From A Marriage to Republic Of Doyle: The best on demand TV to watch this week
A forensic portrait of a troubled relationship, the classic original 1973 Swedish TV series was written and directed by one of cinema's all-time greats, Ingmar Bergman.
Julia Sitkovetsky and Christopher Glynn album review: Sympathetic to Elgar's genius
This excellent album, vividly recorded in May at the Yehudi Menuhin School, sheds welcome light on a little known part of Elgar's output: his songs.
PIERS MORGAN: 'Brilliant by Morgan!' the Voice of Golf cried... then came disaster
After a good first day at Kingsbarns yesterday, in which my pro and I scored six under par, the St Andrews Old Course today proved to be the great leveller it's been for so many over its 257 year...
Hamlet review: Cush Jumbo's verse-speaking is supple and direct
As a British actress who found fame in the US, starring in The Good Fight, Cush Jumbo now makes a glorious return to our stages.
Genesis review: They make the Utilita Arena feel like a campfire
With energy prices rocketing and talk of a three-day week, the early 1970s are making a comeback. And so are the archetypal band of that era, Genesis.
Perfect Pitch review: Friendly tone and elegant prose
As a lockdown pastime, Tim Bouverie began emailing his friends brief, chatty essays on pieces of classical music that he had grown to love since childhood.
CRAIG BROWN: When a man is tired of Gyles Brandreth he is tired of life...
Busy, busy, busy. Has an autobiography ever been so jam-packed with such ceaseless activity?
No Time To Die review: A big moment, a big film and one you'll definitely want to see
The last time James Bond was driving his Aston Martin through Europe and uttered the fateful words 'We have all the time in the world…' was in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
From Britney vs Spears to Good Trouble: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Looking back now at the intense media scrutiny and harassment that Britney Spears once had to put up with, a breakdown seems entirely understandable.
DEBORAH ROSS: Madmen, murderers and spies, but thank God the cat survived
The key feature of Vigil, the submarine thriller that concluded this week, was viewers moaning about Vigil while still watching Vigil.
PIERS MORGAN: Me as 007? I wouldn't be seen dead in Daniel Craig's pink jacket
As James Bond fever rocks Britain once again, speculation over Daniel Craig's replacement as 007 is raging ever more ferociously. According to William Hill, I'm 1,000-1 to take over.
The Normal Heart review: Hard-hitting and an important reminder
In all the time that Ronald Reagan was US President - from 1981 to 1989 - he rarely uttered the word AIDS, and not at all until 1985. This while almost 90,000 Americans died on his watch.
Back To The Future review: Provides a whacking great hit of spectacle, entertainment and nostalgia
When considering a musical version of the 1985 movie Back To The Future, one problem surely screeched into view: how to put a time-travelling DeLorean on stage?
CRAIG BROWN: By gum! The most peculiar book I've ever read
For centuries, pilgrims would journey across land and sea to cathedrals in which relics of saints - a bone, a rosary, an item of clothing - were on display.
The Quiet Zone review: Touching accounts of how a close-knit community can function offline
Imagine a world where your life wasn't disrupted by a constant ping of emails, you spoke to your partner rather than WhatsApping them, and your kids weren't glued to TikTok.
The Magic Flute review: If you fancy some beautifully staged Mozart, this could be one for you
David McVicar's production of Rigoletto from 2001 has just been pensioned off, but happily not this Magic Flute from two years later.
From Maid to Friday Night Lights: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Adapted from the bestselling memoir by Stephanie Land and picked by Barack Obama as one of his summer reads.
PIERS MORGAN: Penny Lancaster whipped out her police warrant card and arrested me...
As I chatted with Rod Stewart and his wife Penny, I congratulated her on becoming an active special constable with City of London Police.
DEBORAH ROSS: No cape, no genius IQ... just classy Martin Clunes as a proper cop
If there is any TV series that does a better job of re-enacting true crime than ITV's Manhunt I do not know it, and would wish you to tell me of it. But I think we all know it doesn't exist.
From Richard Osman to Karl Ove Knausgaard and Anthony Doerr: This week's best new fiction
Osman returns with the much-anticipated follow up to his gigantically popular debut.
Blithe Spirit review: The evening belongs to Jennifer Saunders
The role of potty spiritualist medium Madame Arcati in Noël Coward's sublime supernatural farce is theatrical catnip for a comic actress, so much so that this 1941 play rarely seems far from the...
The Many Saints Of Newark review: Sopranos fans should still find much to enjoy
It's well over a decade since the original run of The Sopranos came to an end on terrestrial television.
Rigoletto review: The Royal Opera's new production ultimately promises more than it delivers
After an undistinguished lockdown, the Royal Opera returns with a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto that ultimately promised more than it delivered.
Gunpowder Milkshake starring Karen Gillan and Angela Bassett review: 'Disappointing and derivative'
There's no doubt that the eccentrically titled Gunpowder Milkshake begins in style but, sadly, it's a style we've seen many times before.
CRAIG BROWN: Bob Mortimer's memoir may be poignant... but what is the truth about the Shetland pony?
If you're after a misery memoir, then look to a comedian. In recent years, Alan Davies and Johnny Vegas have published memoirs that suggest their impulse towards comedy was triggered by abuse.
The Radical Potter by Tristram Hunt review: A rich portrait of the charismatic Josiah Wedgwood
When Catherine the Great of Russia ordered a dinner service from Josiah Wedgwood in 1773, the industrialist's pottery had already become a byword for sophistication around the world.
Duran Duran gig review: The band prove they have the wind in their sails again in Birmingham
It is 40 years since Duran Duran arrived in the top ten with Girls On Film. A band remembered for cavorting on a yacht have the wind in their sails again.
From Foundation to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: The best on demand TV to watch this week
There have been several attempts to bring Isaac Asimov's series of epic, sprawling Foundation novels to the screen and Apple TV+ has finally succeeded.
DEBORAH ROSS: Help, starring Jodie Comer, is important, necessary and not to be missed
Help is one of those dramas that you are glued to while, at the same time, hating every single minute of it. (Dear God, please make it end soon.) But it was important. And necessary.
PIERS MORGAN: 'Why does this Line Of Duty actor want to kill me?' cried Dame Joan
I didn't bother going to tonight's National Television Awards because despite receiving my first ever nomination for Presenter of the Year, I already knew Ant and Dec would win.
From Colm Tóibín to Joshua Ferris, Lauren Groff and Nicci French: This week's best new fiction
Is there a more consistently classy novelist than Tóibín? His latest book explores the roller-coaster life of the German writer Thomas Mann.
Lindsey Buckingham album review: It will appeal to any Fleetwood Mac fan
The 1970s are sometimes dismissed as the decade that taste forgot. These days they feel more like the decade that forgot to finish.
Frozen review: It's absolutely terrific
If you have a child aged between two and 20, the chances are you know all the songs. Every. Single. Word.
Respect review: Aretha Franklin's musical journey is covered well
Right at the end of Respect , the new biopic of Aretha Franklin, its makers score something of an own goal.
DEBORAH ROSS: Enraging and brilliant... how Stephen finally got justice
The best programme on television at the moment isn't Vigil but Stephen . It is deftly written, deftly performed, sober and meticulous, respectful and affecting.
From The Morning Show to Alma's Not Normal: The best on demand TV to watch this week
This was one of the first Apple TV+ original shows and is a hugely entertaining, pacy drama about a news programme.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof review: A darkly elegant interpretation
This stark, stripped-back production of Tennessee Williams's classic drama is directed by Anthony Almeida, who won the Sir Peter Hall Director Award for his vision for it.
PIERS MORGAN: Mark my words: Rishi Sunak will replace Boris Johnson as PM sooner, not later
The Government's announced a hugely unpopular but entirely predictable tax punishment on the British public today for a pandemic that ripped our economy to smithereens.
From Richard Powers to Giles Foden, Celia Walden and Will Buckingham: This week's best new releases
After the death of his wife, astrobiologist Theo Byrne struggles to raise their son alone.
CRAIG BROWN: Chips Channon thought Churchill a tyrant and Hitler semi-divine
Chips must rate as one of the most inappropriate nicknames ever.
They review: The importance of asking more questions
Broadcaster and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor grew up as the youngest son of Pakistani immigrants in Bury Park, a predominantly Muslim area of Luton.
Abba singles review: Do they still sound like Abba? Absolutely!
This is the mother of all pop reunions. It's bigger than Take That in 2005, because Abba are the greater band. It's bigger even than The Beatles in 1995, because that was just two singles.
Heiresses review: Heiresses have a knack of letting their fortune slip through their fingers
Daisy Fellowes was what you might call a textbook heiress. In 1896, at the age of just six, she inherited a fortune thanks to her grandfather Isaac Singer, who had invented the sewing machine.
Here Today review: Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish share a nice screen chemistry
Hot on the upsetting heels of The Father and Supernova comes another film about dementia.
Saint-Saëns review: Expertly performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra
This year marks the centenary of the death of the French composer, organist and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns.
PIERS MORGAN: I cheered my free speech victory... then smashed straight into a window
'It's no trick to support the free speech of somebody you agree with,' said the author Salman Rushdie, whose life was threatened with a fatwa for exercising his right to it.
Russell Howard review: A triumphant return
Comedy fans who had bought a ticket in 2019 for Russell Howard's Respite have been waiting a whopping two-and- a-half years to see the boyish Bristolian strut his slick, stand-up stuff.
Paradise review: It's patchy but when it lands a punch, you feel it in your guts
Kae Tempest returns to the stage in epic fashion: filling the Olivier with a new version of Sophocles' Philoctetes.
From Sally Rooney to Colson Whitehead and Cecelia Ahern: This week's best new fiction
In Rooney's hotly anticipated third novel, two clever Irish millennials navigate the challenges of life and love in their late 20s via long emails.
Bedknobs And Broomsticks review: Thrillingly imaginative staging and illusions
When negotiations for the film rights to Mary Poppins stalled, Disney started developing Bedknobs And Broomsticks, another story about a mysterious woman teaching children valuable life lessons.
From When The Dust Settles to Silent Witness and Spitting Image: The best on demand TV to watch
This eagerly awaited Danish drama airs on Channel 4 from next week, but the entire ten-part series is available to stream before then.
CRAIG BROWN: Were these really the good old days?
Just how good were the good old days? Given the choice, would you prefer to be living back in 1962?
DEBORAH ROSS: A sinking trawler, creepy crew and sinister sub? I'm all at sea!
Vigil is the latest thriller from World Productions, makers of Line Of Duty, and the BBC was not shy about this. 'FROM THE MAKERS OF LINE OF DUTY!' you will have read everywhere.
Lucian Freud review: No amount of familiarity can ever make Freud's paintings boring
If people know two things about Lucian Freud, it's (a) that he was an excellent artist, and (b) that he had rather an unsavoury private life.
From Stephen King to Elizabeth Day, David Grossman and Sebastian Faulks: This week's best fiction
Former army sniper Billy Summers now trades as a hitman for hire, persuading himself that he only kills bad guys. He wants to quit but takes one last, well-paying job.
Bunnyman review: An earthy stroll through Will Sergeant's early years
Nearly two decades after Merseybeat, Liverpool's music scene had a second flowering, producing 1980s student-bedsit stalwarts Echo & the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes.
Carousel review: Tom Deering's rescoring is fantastic
What to do with old musicals where the tunes soar but the plots creak? Like Carousel, Rodgers and Hammerstein's romantic story of Julie and Billy, a fairground barker who quickly turns abusive.
From Only Murders In The Building to Back To Life: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Fading actor Charles (Steve Martin), past-it theatre director Oliver (Martin Short) and mysterious millennial Mabel (Selena Gomez) all live in the same New York apartment building.
Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera album review: Their sound bears the hallmarks of Latin pop
For musicians, the pandemic has brought some terrible pain, from lost colleagues to wrecked livelihoods. But this vast black cloud has two silver linings.
JIM SHELLEY: Clive Myrie's masterful start... and who knew that about Britt Ekland?
Mastermind returned on Monday for approximately its 455th series with what proved to be a fairly momentous episode.
CRAIG BROWN: Why you'll always have too much to do... and only 4,000 WEEKS to do it in!
It's a brilliant title. At first glance, it means nothing, but the simple explanation makes it unforgettable: 4,000 weeks is the sum total of an average human life.
Our Ladies review: What ensues is rude, funny and occasionally rather sweet
Many films have had their release plans affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but few as badly as Our Ladies.
Luisa Miller review: The music is very stylishly presented, the drama less so
Glyndebourne ends its season strongly with quality performances of Verdi's Luisa Miller and Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde.
Inhaler review: The moment Elijah Hewson walks on stage you can see he is a natural
If you're a parent, there are three jobs you should solemnly promise your children you will never take: teacher at their school, prime minister or pop star.
CRAIG BROWN: Did boarding school really make 'sad little megalomaniacs' of all its pupils?
He begins gently enough. 'The truth is, I went to boarding school and I didn't like it.' Fair enough. I too went to boarding school, and I didn't particularly like it either.
The Daughters Of Kobani review: A story of astonishing courage and fortitude
The sudden emergence of the extremist Islamist group Isis in 2014 sent shockwaves through the Middle East.
From Clickbait to Locked Up: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Filmed in Australia but set in the US, this eight-part thriller stars Adrian Grenier, but if you're expecting something similar to his star-making role in the sitcom Entourage, think again.
JIM SHELLEY: Nicole Kidman the 'wellness' guru - compelling and very scary
The last thing we need in our lives is 'wellness'. 'Happiness' is better (certainly more fun), and difficult enough to achieve already, thank you.
Cinderella review: It delivers warm-hearted, frothy family entertainment
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella has finally made it to opening night - but while no pumpkin, it's a little short on theatrical fairy dust.
From Katie Kitamura to Pat Barker, Susie Boyt and Paula Hawkins: This week's best new fiction
An unnamed narrator leaves New York for a job as a translator at the International Court of Justice, where she's asked to translate for a former president accused of war crimes.
Reminiscence review: We are definitely on familiar, well-travelled ground
Reminiscence is one of those films that's all about memory, and it's also one part science-fiction time-bender, one part classic detective story in the best film noir tradition.
Antwerp review: Reads as brilliantly as a novel by Hilary Mantel
In the 1500s, the only place for a bright young Englishman was Antwerp.
CRAIG BROWN: Frank Sinatra? He's more like Mother Teresa in this memoir
By and large, Frank Sinatra has been given a rough ride by his biographers.
From The Chair to The Crimson Rivers: The best on demand TV to watch this week
When Game Of Thrones ended in 2019, showrunners David Benioff and Daniel Weiss signed a huge deal with Netflix. This dry, hugely enjoyable campus comedy drama is their first offering.
From Joyce Carol Oates to Wendy Holden, Michèle Roberts and Louise Candlish: This week's fiction
The dizzyingly prolific Oates returns with a raw, propulsive tale of love and grief.
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells review: It's at risk of being not merely instrumental but incidental
Tubular Bells has a curious place in pop history, being both legendary and largely forgotten.
The Courier review: Despite the familiarity of the genre, it's highly recommended
Benedict Cumberbatch's new film, The Courier , is set in the early 1960s, which means vast amounts of alcohol are routinely consumed during the course of the supposedly working day.
2:22 review: Although it raises ideas about gentrification, it never really does it justice
Pop star Lily Allen makes her West End debut in this spooky offering, written by podcaster Danny Robins.
DEBORAH ROSS: Plodding cops, daft ghosts... and a confession to my kids
Deceit is a drama based on the true story that is the shockingly catastrophic investigation into the 1992 murder of 23-year-old Rachel Nickell.
PIERS MORGAN: An egomaniac father? Me? You've just written yourself out of my will, son
The gold medal for Twitter zingers goes to my actor son Stanley, 24, who wrote himself out of my will.
From Virginia Feito to Miles Jupp, Leïla Slimani and Megan Abbott: This week's best new fiction
Abbott's fiction focuses on femininity's darkest corners and the world of ballet - obsessive and masochistic - is perfect territory for her.
CRAIG BROWN: Call a cardiologist! Fergie's written a Mills & Boon
The Duke of Buccleuch announces to his second daughter, the impetuous, flame-haired Lady Margaret: 'Your mother and I have identified a suitable husband for you.'
DEBORAH ROSS: Suranne Jones is superb at falling apart... but, oh my nerves
I Am Victoria starred Suranne Jones as a woman who is mentally unravelling, and it's a TV drama that is hard to recommend because it's so painful and stressful.
The Last Letter From Your Lover review: It is clunky and close to torture
Describe a film as a romantic comedy and people tend to have a pretty good idea of what to expect, but describe it as a romance and people can feel uncomfortable.
Billie Eilish album review: Her lyrics are open-hearted and sharp-eyed
Today's pop stars tend to be either old or very young. In 2019, as she turned 18, Billie Eilish had the fourth-best-selling UK album of the year, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
From Modern Love to Lucan: The best on demand TV to watch this week
The second season of the starry romantic drama anthology series inspired by the New York Times column of the same name.
The Pirates Of Penzance review: There were some excellent performances
Pirates, premiered in New York in 1879, was Gilbert & Sullivan's first big hit. It's still done quite a bit today, not just in Britain but internationally.
Anything Goes review: The new cast appear to approach the material with unrestrained enthusiasm
First seen in 1934, Cole Porter's musical offered lavish escapism in tough times - and it seems our needs haven't changed all that much.
An Ugly Truth review: How did Mark Zuckerberg build an empire twice the size of China?
Since founding Facebook in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg has achieved the kind of power that few on the planet can rival, and none could imagine before the internet.
From Elif Shafak to David Thewlis and John Boyne: This week's best new fiction
Cyprus, 1974, and Kostas (Greek, Christian) is in love with Defne (Turkish, Muslim). In a bitterly divided Nicosia, there's just one place safe to meet: The Happy Fig.
Tom Jones review: At Newmarket Sir Tom delivers what lockdown has left us yearning for - a singalong
Are racecourses the new rock 'n' roll? Last summer Britain's leading live music venue was Gosforth Park, Newcastle, where 2,500 socially distanced spectators stood in cattle pens.
Jungle Cruise review: Even a perfectly good Emily Blunt can't save this derivative, puddle-deep film
The important thing to know about Jungle Cruise is that it's based on a Disney theme-park ride. So what, you might say? So was Pirates Of The Caribbean.
Hymn review: Both Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani are on blazing form in this belter of a play
Anyone who saw Adrian Lester in the musical Company knows that he can sing - he won an Olivier Award. Now we know he can spin on his bottom, breakdancing in this belter of a play.
DEBORAH ROSS: Celebrity travelogues? No way. A walk with Chris Packham? Any time!
As you will know if you are a regular reader of this column, and as you will now learn if you are an irregular reader of this column I am not a fan of the 'celebrity travelogue'.
From Cruel Summer to The Devil's Throat: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Intriguing psychological thriller that requires close attention because the action flicks between the events of June 21, 1993, 1994 and 1995.
PIERS MORGAN: Come on Tom, admit it. Nobody wants a bronze medal on the mantelpiece
Watching diver Tom Daley finally win an Olympic gold medal today reminded me of when he came on Good Morning Britain a few months after he self-imploded at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ethel Rosenberg review: There's little here to make her sound outstanding
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were an apparently ordinary New York couple who became a cause célèbre.
From Laura Lippman to Howard Cunnell, Felice Fallon and Caroline Day: This week's best new fiction
Lippman's latest is a dark satire of the literary world and psychological thriller. Eminent novelist Gerry Andersen is confined to bed with a broken leg in his Baltimore penthouse.
DEBORAH ROSS: 'Brilliant' Professor T? He gets a D minus from me
Oh God, ITV, what on earth have you landed us with here? That's what I kept thinking during the hour that followed.
Paula Rego review: An unflinching observer of the human condition
Paula Rego wouldn't know how to paint a boring picture if she tried. A retrospective for the 86-year-old at Tate Britain showcases her superb skills as a storyteller.
Hamlet review: Staged with a whopping great star against all the odds
What a drama the Covid-battered theatre has become. Shows are on, then off again for no real rhyme or reason.
From Jungle Cruise to Fargo: The best on demand TV to watch this week
There are lots of big set-pieces in this epic action movie that has a strong Indiana Jones/Pirates Of The Caribbean feel and just a hint of The African Queen.
Jackson Browne album review: He isn't bothered about being original
In the Olympics of pop, two countries dominate the medal tables: the US and the UK.
Off The Rails review: Kelly Preston, Jenny Seagrove and Sally Phillips make unlikely friends
Very unfortunately, Off The Rails has been hit not by one tragedy but two.
L'Amico Fritz review: The pastoral idyll made a sunny evening especially joyous
Pietro Mascagni is one of the nearly men of Italian opera.
CRAIG BROWN: Bombs, Boyzone and naked parents running round the garden
Growing up in Belfast in the 1990s, Alix O'Neill was a slow learner. 'I was never the kind of kid who figured stuff out.'
From Rivka Galchen to Ruth Padel, Jordan Tannahill and Vaseem Khan: This week's best new fiction
A richly depicted 17th Century Germany is the setting for award-winning Galchen's triumphant second novel.
Anna X review: Emma Corrin is an amazingly assured stage presence
Emma Corrin was pitch perfect, almost spookily so, as Diana Spencer in the last Netflix series of The Crown. It made her a star.
DEBORAH ROSS: A magical musical spoof... and a very risqué Do-Re-Mi
Television is finally returning to something like normal now we've seen off the football and tennis.
Randy Newman boxset review: Endless delight
Vinyl is back, not with a bang, but not with a whimper either. The dear old LP is now outselling the format that usurped it, the CD, and rightly so.
South Pacific review: Deserves to be seen, especially if it transfers to the West End
Artistic Director Daniel Evans, both at Chichester and before that at Sheffield, has succeeded in breathing new life into old musicals. And he's got another winner here.
From Ted Lasso to The Watch: The best on demand TV to watch this week
Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is a small-time college American football coach from Kansas hired to coach a proper football team in London, struggling AFC Richmond.
CRAIG BROWN: Strange genius of the rare book dealer who made me an offer I just had to refuse
Some years ago, I was having lunch with an old friend in the garden of a pub in the middle of the Wiltshire countryside.
Nowhere Special review: One of those small, sombre films that tugs at the heartstrings
James Norton is probably best known as the vicar turned detective in the popular ITV series Grantchester.
Hogarth review: Jacqueline Riding's new biography is excellent
Much of what we know about Georgian England is down to William Hogarth.
Celeste review: Her songs range from middling to majestic
The Union Chapel in Islington is a nonconformist church and shows it by doubling as a gig venue.
From Schmigadoon! to Gold Diggers: The best on demand TV to watch this week
A couple who have gone on a camping trip to revitalise their relationship accidentally wander into a 1940s musical.
CRAIG BROWN: Why Nixon couldn't stop digging the hole that was to bury him
Richard Nixon was the most ill-at-ease of all the American presidents. Full of resentments, and prone to anxiety and depression, he was known at university as Gloomy Gus.
Le Comte Ory review: There are some meaty parts, all really well taken by a strong cast
This fun-filled romp, hugely enjoyed by the audience, and perhaps even more by the cast, with great team spirit, begs the inevitable question: Where did it all go wrong for Count Ory?
From Charlotte Philby to Duncan Hamilton, Douglas Kennedy and Miranda Cowley Heller: Fiction
Elle Bishop's family has been coming to the same Cape Cod summer camp for generations.
The Painful Truth: An accessible and well-written book
One in five people worldwide suffer from a long-term, debilitating medical condition that wrecks lives and costs economies billions in healthcare and sickness absences
The Invisible Hand review: The performances are top-notch
Think of a stinky breeze-block cell in Pakistan. Then imagine an American Wall Street banker hostage trading from it, teaching his Islamic captor how to make serious money.
DEBORAH ROSS: Who knew I'd be so gripped by a lying 'wellness influencer'?
The unexpected highlight of the week was Bad Influencer: The Great Insta Con.
Black Widow review: Scarlett Johansson is terrific as Natasha Ramanoff
Not all the big films delayed by the Covid pandemic have been quite worth the wait but, my goodness, Black Widow definitely is.
PIERS MORGAN: Relax, Gareth Southgate's got this... says me, the man who called him barely useless!
England beat Germany 2-0.
CRAIG BROWN: A Spanish salsa of surrealism, machismo and passion
How short can a short story be? Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once won a bet by writing a short story just six words long: 'For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.'
Constellations review: Zoë Wanamaker is warm and witty and Peter Capaldi is physically very funny
Constellations is a play for bee-lovers, honey fans and science nerds. Zoë Wanamaker and Peter Capaldi are part of a team of actors performing in rotation in this short, sweet piece over the sum...
Rag'n'Bone Man review: The music blossoms in front of our ears at the Jazz Cafe
A small club, a big name, a packed house, a palpable buzz: this is the most normal gig I've been to for 15 months.
French Exit review: It won't be for everyone
A French exit, apparently, is when you discreetly leave a party early without saying goodbye to your host, something which, I'm ashamed to say, I've been instinctively doing for years.
Martha Argerich album review: She has survived cancer for decades now and remains indestructible
Martha Argerich's 80th birthday last month cannot be celebrated with a brand new recording, because there isn't one.
PIERS MORGAN: Emily and I gleefully locked horns on everything from trans athletes to wokeism
I spent Saturday night shouting at Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
From Cathy Rentzenbrink to Will Burns, Quentin Tarantino and S. A. Cosby: This week's new fiction
When two young gay men are murdered in Virginia, their estranged fathers, one white, one black, decide to take justice into their own hands.
Ancestors review: A fascinating and insightful examination of the human condition
Prehistoric Britons tend to get a bad rap.
Raise your glass to '31 Days of German Riesling' - this is the perfect time to taste for yourself
Riesling, from its spiritual home in Germany, is one of the greatest treasures of the wine world - and this month I'm delighted to raise my glass to '31 Days of German Riesling'.
Try these apps and games to get you through self-isolation
Like many people, I'm now facing the possibility of several weeks confined with my four-year-old, a prospect only marginally less alarming than being cooped up with Frankenstein's monster
Pure, not prissy: Indian at its best
This is modern Indian cooking at its best, pure but never prissy, with the most eloquent understanding of spice