The Comedian

Rhythms of London life gently observed in persuasive Brit feature debut

The life of the stand-up is a balance, often precarious, between those stage moments when things seem to be going just right, and the ones which look like they're about to go very wrong. The hero of Tom Shkolnik's debut feature The Comedian, Ed (Edward Hogg), seems to be making decent progress with his club appearances, but when the chance of a new relationship comes along it puts the previously settled balance of his life right out of kilter.

David Bowie - Five Years, BBC Two

DAVID BOWIE - FIVE YEARS Revisit this survey of Bowie's golden years before the follow-up The Last Five Years airs on BBC Two

Impressive survey of Bowie's golden years probes the music as well as the man

Picking five creatively significant years was quite a smart way of tackling the huge career of David Bowie, though you could argue forever about whether producer/director Francis Whately had chosen the right ones. What about 1969 and the Space Oddity album, or 1970 and The Man Who Sold the World? How about a really bad year like 1987, which gave us Never Let Me Down and the egregious Glass Spider tour?

Neko Case/Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Village Underground, London

Memorable moments aplenty as Americana goddess makes a long-awaited UK return

Neko Case wasn't about to launch a Yeah Yeah Yeahs-style pre-emptive strike aimed at the Village Underground's amateur camera-wielders. She doesn't mind the odd photograph, she said; just don't try to film her. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable. Didn't we all use to just remember?

Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall

STEVE EARLE, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Passion and politics as country's great polymath tours a powerful new album with a powerful new band

Passion and politics as country's great polymath tours a powerful new album with a powerful new band

Steve Earle is country music's great polymath - short story writer, playwright, novelist, activist, actor, oh yes, and singer and songwriter of some of the most acutely intelligent and literate songs in contemporary country. He's adept at evoking the human cost of American history, American politics and the lay of the promised land, and on his latest album, The Low Highway, the first song takes a long, slow panning shot of the body politic. It’s not in great condition. Happily, though, Steve Earle’s muse is.

CD: Stooshe - London with the Lights On

Mouthy London trio's debut is loaded with enjoyable bawdiness and attitude

Stooshe are a manufactured London girl band. They were put together a couple of years ago by shrewd ex-girl-bander Jo Perry, a self-made London studio engineer and a songwriter for, among others, Peter Andre. Despite this prosaic, business-savvy backstory Stooshe emanate a sass that’s likeable. Unlike, say, Little Mix, there’s a certain garrulous, sweary bounce to them, a sense that perhaps they really are friends and really are having fun.

La donna del lago, Royal Opera

LA DONNA DEL LAGO, ROYAL OPERA Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez and Michael Spyres triumph over adversity

Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez and Michael Spyres triumph over adversity

I mean, really, what is the point of Rossini? That’s actually not as stupid as it sounds. No-one has ever mistaken any of his operas for taut music-drama, and even the best of them are peculiarly difficult to pull off because without first-rate singers, everything collapses. That is, without doubt, not a problem facing the Royal Opera’s new La donna del lago. Trust me: London hasn’t heard such spectacular Rossini singing in decades.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane, ITV

THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER, ITV Could ITV be setting up a series with its returning 19th-century detective?

Could ITV be setting up a series with its returning 19th-century detective?

The disgraced ex-cop turned private investigator has become such a trope of contemporary noir that the fate of the first great modern detective, following the events of his first televised outing, is not particularly surprising. The Murder in Angel Lane has Paddy Considine reprise his 2011 role as the titular detective, but this time the mystery he is charged with solving has sprung entirely from the pen of Appropriate Adult’s Neil McKay rather than being inspired by true-life events.

British Academy Television Awards 2013, BBC One

BRITISH ACADEMY TELEVISION AWARDS, BBC ONE Annual gathering of the tellyocracy

Annual gathering of the tellyocracy fails to set pulses racing

For a celebration of all that's supposedly best in British television, this year's telly-BAFTAs felt mysteriously flat and anticlimactic. Even perennial host Graham Norton seemed less fleet of foot than usual, though he did manage one caustic barb about the plank-like acting skills of Downton Abbey's Lady Mary. Perhaps he was distracted by his own dual nominations (he won for Entertainment Programme). The ejector seat from his chat show might have been the perfect accoutrement to add a bit of adrenalin to the occasion.

Life of Crime/Murder on the Home Front, ITV

LIFE OF CRIME/MURDER ON THE HOME FRONT, ITV Fancy a bit of charnel hopping? Two new crime dramas pile on the corpses

Fancy a bit of charnel hopping? Two new crime dramas pile on the corpses

Another day, another murder to solve on ITV. Broadchurch, Endeavour and Foyle’s War all having recently ended, the channel has been in dire need of a fresh supply of corpses since, ooh, Monday morning. To the rescue, on consecutive nights, has come another brace of crime dramas. Both set in the past. With lady crime-solvers in play. All sorts of boxes ticked.

Leon Kossoff: London Landscapes, Annely Juda Fine Art

LEON KOSSOFF: LONDON LANDSCAPES A deeply affecting survey of an artist who captures a sense of London as a living, breathing organism

A deeply affecting survey of an artist who captures a sense of London as a living, breathing organism

Sixty years of hard work, encapsulated in 90 drawings and a handful of thickly encrusted paintings, by the distinguished, obsessive, single-minded octagenerian artist Leon Kossoff (b 1926) vividly set out a passionate attachment to a simultaneously immutable and ever changing London. An East Ender, Kossoff has had several subjects: he has painted people, and has continually drawn after the Old Masters, first visiting the National Gallery as a schoolchild. His drawings after Poussin were exhibited at the National Gallery.