A Turner Prize first for sound artist

Susan Philipsz is the first sound artist to win the Turner Prize

Dexter Dalwood appeared to be an early favourite, while many wished Angela de la Cruz, who had suffered a debilitating stroke five years ago, a deserved comeback triumph (though the artist who makes evocative “sculpture/paintings” of crumpled canvases did win the prestigious £35,000 Paul Hamlyn Award last month). Few, apart from this reviewer, appeared to be backing the Otolith Group. But in the end, it was 45-year-old Glaswegian artist Susan Philipsz, with recordings of three different versions of a traditional Scottish ballad, who bagged the Turner Prize last night.

Lip Service: Series Finale, BBC Three

Entertaining lesbian drama series deserves a second bite of the cherry

When The L Word, an American drama series following the interconnected lives of a group of lesbians in Los Angeles, first aired in 2004, much of the acres of coverage it attracted made disbelieving mention of the cast members’ attractiveness, which is an implicit suggestion that lesbians are more usually at the back of the queue when good looks are being given out. Rather irritatingly, Lip Service, a drama series following the interconnected lives etc etc...

Frankie Boyle, Hammersmith Apollo

Glaswegian shockmeister is very funny but bludgeons with bad-taste jokes

The last time I saw bouncers standing at the foot of the stage at a comedy venue was at a Roy "Chubby" Brown gig. Back then, I remarked how nicely behaved his fans were, as indeed were Frankie Boyle’s last night; however, another quality the two comics share is that they both score pretty highly on the offensiveness scale.

Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900, Royal Academy

James Guthrie, 'A Hind's Daughter', 1883

Neglected proto-Modernists? A Scottish art movement re-explored

If you'd been a painter at the time of Impressionism, what would you have done? Rushed to Paris to become a disciple of Manet or Monet? Taken the Symbolist route with Odilon Redon or headed to Brittany to whoop it up with Gauguin and co? No, the chances are you'd probably have got it wrong and, like the so-called Glasgow Boys, hitched your talents to a now virtually forgotten figure like Jules Bastien-Lepage. Jules who? Exactly.

My Romantic History, Bush Theatre

Office romance: Iain Robertson in 'My Romantic History'

Terrific Edinburgh comedy hit about relationships wows London

Let's face it, the rom-com has an image problem. Too often, this genre is tainted by either sugar-sweet sentimentality or crashing cliché, or both. Often, there’s something more than a little oppressive about the whole idea of romance, as if love’s natural idealism is too weak to withstand a cold dose of reality. But there are exceptions. And this show is one of them. It’s great to be able to welcome D C Jackson’s new play, which he calls a “non-rom-com”, and which arrives in London having first enjoyed a successful outing at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Lip Service, BBC Three

The Glaswegian L Word would have been unthinkable a decade ago

Far more than gay men, lesbians are one of the great invisible minorities of British TV drama – British TV generally, in fact. Sure, there have been the milestone moments – the Brookside kiss that titillated the nation back in 1994 and was the making of the then 18-year-old Anna Friel, or Jeanette Winterson’s terrific 1989 adaptation of her own novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Both featured lesbianism as an issue or a problem rather than a well-adjusted sexual orientation.

Single Father, BBC One/ Thorne: Sleepyhead, Sky1

David Tennant returns to the BBC as traumatised widower Dave Tyler

The American networks have so far been able to resist the stick-insectish charms of David Tennant, but the BBC would probably start up a new channel just for him if he asked them. In this new four-parter, his comeback appearance after handing over the keys of the TARDIS to Matt Smith, Tennant plays Dave Tyler, a successful Glasgow photographer married to teaching assistant Rita (Laura Fraser).

Futureproof: Scottish Photography Graduate Show, Glasgow

The new crop prove they can look to the future and learn from the past

To Futureproof is to ensure that we don’t become technologically obsolete, but keep in touch with as yet undeveloped technologies and exploit those already in the ether. It’s an apt title for this exhibition of work by 16 graduates from the five Scottish university photography departments. That most are already future-proofing themselves is apparent in their diverse approaches to their work.

theartsdesk in Glasgow: Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

Douglas Gordon: a faster 24 Hour Psycho than ever before

The city's biennial visual arts fest flops with its radical Sixties vibe

During my two-day whistlestop tour of various galleries and arts venues across Glasgow, I’m afraid I didn’t spot one white bike. There are, apparently, 50 of them that punters are free to use for the two-week duration of the city’s second biennial International Festival of Visual Art. It’s a scheme that pays homage to the original Witte Fietsenplan (White Bike Plan) by radical Sixties Dutch movement Provos. Set up as a statement against consumerism, pollution and congestion, the action was predictably short-lived: most of the bikes were either stolen or trashed.

theartsdesk Q&A: Artist Douglas Gordon

Douglas Gordon: Self-portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe, 1996

The Glaswegian artist explains how the city made him

Since winning the Turner Prize in 1996 with Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Douglas Gordon (b. 1966) has lived in Germany, France, New York and Germany again. But in accent and attitude, he remains a Glaswegian. Those roots are being reaffirmed at the moment: as part of this year's Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, one of Gordon's most celebrated works is back on display in the city where it was first shown.