Lee Miller, Tate Britain review - an extraordinary career that remains an enigma

★★★ LEE MILLER, TATE BRITAIN An extraordinary career that remains an enigma

Fashion photographer, artist or war reporter; will the real Lee Miller please step forward?

Tate Britain’s Lee Miller retrospective begins with a soft focus picture of her by New York photographer Arnold Genthe dated 1927, when she was working as a fashion model. The image is so hazy that she appears as dreamlike and insubstantial as a wraith.

Murder Before Evensong, Acorn TV review - death comes to the picturesque village of Champton

★★★ MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG, ACORN TV Rev Richard Coles's sleuthing cleric hits the screen

The Rev Richard Coles's sleuthing cleric hits the screen

Rockin’ vicar the Rev Richard Coles is not only a C of E priest and former member of Bronski Beat and The Communards, but also a purveyor of crime fiction in the shape of his Canon Clement mysteries. The first of these was Murder Before Evensong, and now it has arrived on Acorn TV, where they do a lot of this sort of thing.

Measure for Measure, RSC, Stratford review - 'problem play' has no problem with relevance

 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, RSC STRATFORD A landmark production 

Shakespeare, in this adaptation, is at his most perceptive

An opening video montage presents us with a rogues' gallery of powerful men who have done bad things. Plenty of the usual suspects appear to stomach-churning effect, but no ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, sentenced last week to five years in prison by the usually tolerant French. So the problem certainly hasn’t gone away with the Clintons, Weinsteins and they’re ilk. We all know the “power corrupts…” quote, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised and, maybe, we should be a little wary of vesting so much power in such men – that is, most men.

The Hack, ITV review - plodding anatomy of twin UK scandals

★★ THE HACK, ITV Jack Thorne's skill can't disguise the bagginess of his double-headed material

Jack Thorne's skill can't disguise the bagginess of his double-headed material

The latest instalment of the ITV drama department’s attempts at trial by television is another anatomy of a scandal, but with little of the emotive power of Mr Bates vs The Post Office. 

Album: Robert Plant - Saving Grace

★★★★★ ROBERT PLANT - SAVING GRACE Mellow delight from former Zep lead

Mellow delight from former Zep lead

Robert Plant is magnificently well-equipped to shine as a consummate musical survivor: not only has his voice kept its magic, with a range from sensual caress to ecstatic howl, but he’s deeply rooted in timeless music, Scots-Irish and American folk as well as the country blues.

The Lady from the Sea, Bridge Theatre review - flashes of brilliance

Simon Stone refashions Ibsen in his own high-octane image

Like the lighting that crackles now and again to indicate an abrupt change of scene or mood, Simon Stone's version of The Lady from the Sea is illuminated by the sense of adventure and excitement one has come to expect from this singular artist. That's the case even if the cumulative effect falls short of his devastating achievements with the National Theatre's Phaedra or, before that, Billie Piper in Yerma

Romans: A Novel, Almeida Theatre review - a uniquely extraordinary work

★★★★ ROMANS: A NOVEL, ALMEIDA THEATRE A uniquely extraordinary work 

Alice Birch’s wildly epic family drama is both mind-blowing and exasperating

OMG! I mean OMG doubled!! This is amazing! Or is it? Can Alice Birch’s Romans: A Novel at the Almeida Theatre really be the best play on the London stage, or is it not? Can it be both brilliant and exasperating? At one and the same time? Probably. Maybe. Okay, now you’re in the zone.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review - comedy rock band fails to revive past glories

★ SPINAL TAP: THE END CONTINUES Comedy rock band fails to revive past glories

Belated satirical sequel runs out of gas

That difficult second documentary – or if you will, “rockumentary” – seems to have been especially challenging for Spinal Tap, since it arrives no less than 41 years after its predecessor, This Is Spinal Tap. The latter has become renowned as a definitive artefact in rock’n’roll history, a smartly deadpan portrayal of a deeply cretinous British heavy metal band in the throes of a shambolic American tour.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale review - an attemptedly elegiac final chapter haunted by its past

★★ DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE Noel Coward is a welcome visitor to the insular world of the hit series

Noel Coward is a welcome visitor to the insular world of the hit series

It can be a hostage to fortune to title anything “grand”, and so it proves with the last gasp of Julian Fellowes’s everyday story of posh folk at the turn of the 20th century. The Granthams are facing a lowering of their status, and it’s time to move on out. 

Cow | Deer, Royal Court review - paradox-rich account of non-human life

★★★ COW | DEER, ROYAL COURT A paradox-rich account of non-human life

Experimental work about nature led by Katie Mitchell is both extraordinary and banal

I love irony. Especially beautiful irony. So I’m very excited about the ironic gesture of staging a show with no words at the Royal Court, a venue which boasts of being the country’s premier new writing theatre. Billed as “a new experiment in performance”. Cow | Deer uses only sound to evoke the lives of two animals, one domesticated, the other wild.