The Trip to Greece, Series Finale, Sky 1 review - bittersweet swansong for the cantankerous comrades

★★★★ THE TRIP TO GREECE, SERIES FINALE, SKY 1 Bittersweet swansong for the cantankerous comrades

Farce, vanity and profound seriousness somehow hang together

Could this mock-mythic journey, emulating the trek homewards to Ithaca of Homer’s hero Odysseus, really be the final series of The Trip (Sky 1)? Or will Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon see sense, and realise that they’ll never have as many free lunches as this again?

The Trip to Greece, Sky 1 review - jokes, jibes and indigestion in the footsteps of Odysseus

Argumentative duo bicker their way towards Ithaca

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan have been taking their bickering TV trips for a decade, beginning in the north of England in 2010 before working their way around Italy, Spain and now Greece (on Sky 1). They say this will be the last time, but believe that at your peril.

The Mask of Orpheus, English National Opera review - amorphous excess

★★ THE MASK OF ORPHEUS, ENO Camp carnival defuses focus in Birtwistle's bruising score

Daniel Kramer's camp carnival defuses any focus in Birtwistle's bruising score

Advance publicity overstated the case for The Mask of Orpheus. "Iconic"? Only to academics and acolytes, for British audiences haven't had a chance to see a production since ENO's world premiere run in 1986. "Masterpiece"? Sitting there after the second interval 33 years ago, surrounded by empty seats long vacated (by fellow critics, shame on them, among others), and facing a third act with a sense of fatigue, I hardly thought so then.

Heartbreak Holiday, BBC One review - can it match up to Love Island?

Ten strangers and their not so achy-breaky hearts

The BBC’s version of Love Island has familiar ingredients: ten 20-somethings, many with pale manicures and hair extensions, on an island, in this case Mykanos. It’s not to everyone’s taste. “All I see is water, I don’t see no nail shops,” observes Melissa, whose argumentativeness causes her to fall out with people and who wants to improve her friendship skills.

Marianne and Leonard review - the artist, his muse and collateral damage

★★★★ MARIANNE AND LEONARD The artist, his muse and collateral damage

Laughing Len's relationship with Marianne Ihlen gets the Nick Broomfield treatment

Nick Broomfield is never shy about inserting himself into his documentaries but here he has good reason: he was, briefly, a lover of Marianne Ihlen, Leonard Cohen’s muse (So Long, Marianne was originally called Come On, Marianne; Bird on the Wire was also inspired by her).

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Harold Pinter Theatre review - smart stagecraft, skimpy script

★★★ CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Smart stagecraft, skimpy script

Melly Still brings her singular theatricality to bestselling novel on stage

Better than the 2001 film but likely to disappoint devotees of the book, Captain Corelli's Mandolin onstage works best as a reminder of the identifiable stagecraft of its director, Melly Still. Playful, non-literal, and often endearingly physical (the human goat all but steals the show), Still's approach to this tale of love during wartime overrides a reductive and sometimes comically cliché script from Rona Munro full of lusty Italians singing Verdi and the like.

Medea, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Barbican review - lacerating contemporary tragedy

★★★★★ MEDEA, INTERNATIONAAL THEATER AMSTERDAM, BARBICAN Lacerating tragedy

Simon Stone's homage to Euripides is faultless, while Marieke Heebink tears at the soul

Hallucinatory theatre has struck quite a few times in the Barbican's international seasons. On an epic scale we’ve had the Shakespeare compendiums Kings of War and Roman Tragedies from Toneelgroep Amsterdam, newly merged with the city's Stadsschouwburg to form this present company.

Ariadne auf Naxos, Longborough Festival review - appetising energy and wit

★★★★★ ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL Strauss's chamber masterpiece brilliantly staged, finely played and sung

Strauss's chamber masterpiece brilliantly staged, finely played and sung

Much as I love Strauss’s Ariadne in its final form, I have a sneaking nostalgia for the original version (attached to Hofmannsthal’s adaptation of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme), which had Zerbinetta and her companions popping up after the final love duet and gently letting out some of its gas.

Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, British Museum review - magnificence of form across the millennia

★★★★★ RODIN AND THE ART OF ANCIENT GREECE, BRITISH MUSEUM Magnificence of form across the millennia

A game-changing exhibition illuminates the great sculptor and his links to antiquity

In bronze, marble, stone and plaster, as far as the eye can see, powerful figures and fragments – divine and human, mythological and real; athletes, soldiers and horses alongside otherworldly creatures like Centaurs – stride out. They pose, re-pose, twist, turn and captivate as that 19th century sculptor of genius, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), encountered and absorbed, with such sensual pleasure, the art of antiquity.

The Durrells, Series 3, ITV review - a winter warmer from Corfu

Take a load off with some Mediterranean escapism

When ITV scheduled this new series of The Durrells for mid-March, they probably didn’t imagine it would coincide with the return of the Beast from the East, with its blizzards and plummeting temperatures. Under these deep-frozen circumstances, what could be more reassuring than to batten down the hatches and take a trip to the glittering Mediterranean and the mountains, blue skies and historic architecture of Corfu?