Going Out: Cinema
Bullet Train
Out now
Brad Pitt heads up this action movie from Deadpool 2 director David Leitch. Based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle, it’s set mostly on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto – “bullet” here signifying both train speed and actual bullets. Joey King and Aaron Taylor-Johnson also star.
Fadia’s Tree
Out now
While millions of birds migrate freely, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee stranded in Lebanon, longs to reconnect with her ancestral homeland. She challenges documentary-maker Sarah Beddington to find the ancient mulberry tree that marks the site where her family once lived in this poetic reflection on what freedom of movement means for those living in exile.
Westlife: Live from Wembley Stadium
Out now
OK, they’re not quite up there with John, Paul, George and Ringo, but for a certain generation the Irish lads in white suits will bring back just as many memories of being young and full of feelings. If that includes you, get along to the live concert broadcast for that sweet hit of nostalgia.
The Harder They Come
Out now
With a soundtrack that’s been praised for bringing reggae to the world, it’s hard to overstate the importance of The Harder They Come to the national cinema of Jamaica. Perry Henzell’s 1972 drama is now enjoying a 50th-anniversary rerelease courtesy of the BFI. Catherine Bray
Going Out: Gigs
Noah Cyrus
10 to 14 August; starts Manchester
After dabbling in pure pop (We Are … ) and echo-laden trap (Live Or Die), the youngest Cyrus sibling settles on slow-burn, country-tinged balladry on her forthcoming debut album, The Hardest Part. Expect this brief tour to showcase rustic recent single Ready to Go.
Peggy Gou’s Pleasure Gardens
Finsbury Park, London, 7 August
Promising to recreate elements of a Victorian Pleasure Garden, pioneering DJ and producer Peggy Gou’s one-day fest returns. As well as a headline slot from Gou, the lineup also includes a DJ set from 2ManyDJs and Brain De Palma.Michael Cragg
Partikel
Pizza Express Jazz Club, London, 9 August
An acoustic, improv-focused trio of sax, bass and drums might sound spartan, but for the past decade the London group has been showing just how lyrical and engaging that formula can be. This gig launches their fifth album, Anniversary Song. John Fordham
La Voix Humaine/ Les Mamelles de Tirésias
Glyndebourne, Lewes, to 28 August
A suicidal woman and a put-upon wife who changes sex, leaving her husband to raise their children, are the protagonists of the one-acters in the Poulenc double bill that closes Glyndebourne’s summer season. Laurent Pelly directs and Robin Ticciati conducts. Andrew Clements
Going Out: Art
Pre-Raphaelites
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to 27 November
Britain’s Victorian avant garde was arguably better on paper than canvas. This exhibition of drawings by John Ruskin, Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Edward Burne-Jones and more reveals the fine lines and sharp observation of these artists who combined an eye for nature with a passionate sense of myth, literature and sex.
Cooking Sections & Sakiya
Inverleith House, Edinburgh, to 18 September
In a summer of extreme weather, this may be the most climate-aware art at the Edinburgh festival. The politics of agriculture and fishing are laid bare in this gallery at the heart of the Botanical Gardens, from the British empire’s suppression of Palestinian crops to a close encounter with Scotland’s oysters.
Mariana Castillo Deball
Bloomberg Mithraeum, London, to 14 January
London’s best-preserved Roman archaeological site is also a stimulating venue for modern art. Downstairs you can lose yourself in the ancient mysticism of the Mithraic cult. Upstairs, artists engage with the past. Castillo Deball has created sculpture in response to the thousands of Roman objects found here.
Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace
Queen’s Gallery, Edinburgh, to 25 September
This dazzling sample of the Queen’s treasures is a gathering of greats. Rembrandt’s intimacy competes with the spectacular opulence of Rubens while Vermeer knocks you out with cool mystery. Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait is unforgettable, as is a grief-stricken Van Dyck. But why should they be the trinkets of royalty? Jonathan Jones
Going Out: Stage
South Pacific
Sadler’s Wells, London, to 28 August
A London transfer for Daniel Evans’s finely calibrated production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s rich musical .
Leonardo!
Underbelly, Edinburgh festival fringe, to 29 August
Mo Willems’s children’s books have been adapted for the stage by US theatre-makers Manual Cinema, who combine aspects of puppetry, live performance, cartoon and film. Miriam Gillinson
The Pulse
Edinburgh Playhouse, 8 & 9 August
Choral music and acrobatics combine in a spectacular circus show from Gravity & Other Myths. A cast of 60 comes together in one shifting, intertwining organism, dancing through a fusion of live music, movement, tumbling and human‑tower-building. Lyndsey Winship
Tom Davis
Soho theatre, London, 9 to 11 August
Davis’s ascent now seems inevitable: he simply has funny bones. His blokey clowning has mainly been showcased on screen, but he brings it to the stage with these work-in-progress shows. Rachel Aroesti
Staying In: Streaming
A League of Their Own
12 August, Amazon Prime Video
Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson makes a very welcome return to TV with a new series based on the much-loved film about a 1940s women’s baseball league. With The Good Place’s D’Arcy Carden and leftfield standup Kate Berlant also among the cast, charmingly goofy comedy is guaranteed.
Five Days at Memorial
12 August, Apple TV+
Based on Sheri Fink’s book, this series dramatises the shocking events of August 2005, when staff at a hospital savaged by Hurricane Katrina began euthanising patients they believed would not survive the rescue operation. An all-too-real disaster movie that soon morphs into a legal drama about a knotty ethical quandary.
Good Grief? With the Rev Richard Coles
8 August, 10pm, Channel 4; All 4
Being a priest, Coles thought he was familiar enough with loss. But when his husband, David, died in 2019, he realised there was much about grief he hadn’t grasped. In this one-off documentary, the 60-year-old explores curious – and unexpectedly beneficial – ways to cope with bereavement, from therapy alpacas to a “grief cruise”.
The Academy
Thur, 9pm, Channel 4; All 4
What does it really take to become a top-flight footballer? This six-part documentary goes behind the scenes at Crystal Palace’s academy to follow the young hopefuls and their families as they find out. RA
Staying In: Games
South of the Circle
Out now, PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series, Nintendo Switch
This adventure game about a Cambridge academic trying to survive a plane crash in Antarctica after getting caught up in the cold war is newly out on PC and consoles, following its Apple Arcade debut in 2020.
Two Point Campus
Out now, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Manage your own university campus and shepherd emerging adults through those important formative years in this sophisticated but endearingly cheeky simulation game. Keza MacDonald
Staying In: Albums
Lauv – All 4 Nothing
Out now
California-based singer Ari Leff returns with the follow-up to 2020’s 21-track synth-pop opus, How I’m Feeling. Clocking in at a much more manageable 37 minutes, All 4 Nothing finds the 27-year-old reflecting on his childhood hopes and dreams (Kids Are Born Stars), as well as celebrating new love on the breezy, almost-title track.
Pussy Riot – Matriarchy Now
Out now
After June’s unveiling of a 45ft Matriarchy Now banner at the Texas State Capitol to protest the overturning of Roe v Wade comes the mixtape of the same name. The Russian protest art collective are joined on the seven-track collection by Big Freedia and Phoebe Ryan.
Calvin Harris – Funk Wav Bounces Vol 2
Out now
After months of teasing, the Scottish producer has finally unleashed the sequel to 2017’s hit-laden Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1, crammed with guests from Dua Lipa to Snoop Dogg to Justin Timberlake.
Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
Out 12 August
The Leicester psych-rockers return with their seventh album. Now led by the enigmatic, always excellently coiffured Serge Pizzorno, the band expands on its more outre approach, channelling thumping electro and cinematic soundtrack scores. MC
Staying In: Brain food
Songbook
Podcast
Guardian critic Jude Rogers fronts this charming podcast on the intersections between music and literature, leading meandering interviews with artists about formative music books. Suede’s Brett Anderson and DJ Zakia Sewell are among those bringing their favourite tomes.
BBC Rewind
Online
With more than 30,000 film clips from the BBC’s 100-year history to explore, this newly available archive is a treasure trove of historical titbits, from news of royal family visits to general election results.
Clusterf**k: Woodstock 99
Netflix
Before Fyre festival there was Woodstock 99. The second attempt to resurrect the hippy hedonism of the 1969 event, this effort ended in violence, fires and reports of sexual assault. This series features first-hand accounts of the chaos. Ammar Kalia