CD: Babyshambles - Sequel to the Prequel

Can Pete Doherty cast off his pantomime reputation?

There are few duller subjects in popular music than the relationship between Pete Doherty and drugs. I’d like therefore to be able to tell you that I have avoided all such references in this review. The truth is, however, I can’t: from the first slur to the last jangled guitar this still sounds like the work of a man who prefers his consciousness chemically altered.

We're the Millers

Aniston strips and Sudeikis smirks in this patchy farce from the director of Dodgeball

We're the Millers is a road movie which sees a group of outsiders learn how to fill traditional roles and find happiness. It's a film that flirts with rebellion but ultimately reveals itself to be boringly conformist. Director Rawson Marshall Thurber had a memorable hit with his debut Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story but, in the manner of one of that film's KOs, he falls flat on his back here.

Top Boy, Series 2, Channel 4

TOP BOY, SERIES 2, CHANNEL 4 The pressure blows from the start in return to the mean streets of Summerhouse

The pressure blows from the start in return to the mean streets of Summerhouse

After the almost complete absence of the police from the first series of Top Boy, the sirens are blazing as the follow-on to Ronan Bennett’s tough drug-dealing drama kicks in. Specifically, they’re exhuming the corpse of Kamale, who fell victim to Dushane’s ascendance to the position of Top Boy in the East London estate of Summerhouse. What’s left of Kamale a year on is no pretty sight, even though the scene’s got some spectacular background illumination from the O2 stadium.

2 Guns

2 GUNS Bang-'em-up buddy movie with muddled aspirations to be something greater

Bang-'em-up buddy movie with muddled aspirations to be something greater

Clocking in at a comparatively lean 102 minutes, 2 Guns is a speedy and rumbustious buddy movie in which Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington) and Stig Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) form a wisecracking, fast-shooting duo forced to abandon their mutual suspicion and pool their wits to battle swarms of double-crossing bad guys.

Channel 4 Launches Second Series of 'Top Boy'

CHANNEL 4 LAUNCHES SECOND SERIES OF 'TOP BOY' After a two-year wait we return to the crime-infested Summerhouse estate             

After a two-year wait we return to the crime-infested Summerhouse estate

Originally there was never any plan to take Top Boy into a second series, but its arrival in autumn 2011 provoked such acclaim and enthusiasm (mixed with a bit of useful controversy) that Channel 4 could hardly help themselves from recommissioning it. It has partly been a phenomenon driven by social media, where fans have persistently discussed the show and demanded another series over the intervening two years.

Cocaine Capital of the World: Stacey Dooley Investigates, BBC Three

Light travel programme looking at cocaine production at its Peruvian source

Stacey Dooley is a chirpy media personality from Luton who first created TV ripples in 2008 on a BBC Three show called Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts. She made an impression then as a high street fashion fan who bridled at the Third World labour involved in much cheap garment production.

Legally High, Channel 4

LEGALLY HIGH, CHANNEL 4 Award-winning film-maker Dan Reed digs into the world of mail order narcs

Award-winning film-maker Dan Reed digs into the world of mail order narcs

“How much risk are you willing to take when the only benefit is pleasure?” asks toxicologist Dr John Ramsey, as if pleasure in itself were not worth risking much for. He has a collection of over 29,000 psychoactive drugs but doesn’t seem to have much fun with them. He pulls them out of their little drawers, prods them and tells us how in the old days he and his toxicologist chums would have a celebratory drink when a new drug hit the market. Nowadays an avalanche of them is upon us.

Easy Money

EASY MONEY Crime pays very badly in multi-layered Swedish thriller

Crime pays very badly in multi-layered Swedish thriller

Based on Jens Lapidus's novel Snabba Cash (great title, even if it is meaningless to English-speakers), Easy Money is yet further evidence of the allure of the Scandi way of looking at the world. It's ostensibly a crime thriller, featuring healthy doses of violence and drug-dealing, but equally it's an examination of class warfare, divided loyalties and racial tension. It all adds up to a portrait of Stockholm and Swedish society which blows open comfortable assumptions about Scandinavia being some kind of benign social paradise.

Iggy and The Stooges, Royal Festival Hall

IGGY AND THE STOOGES, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL The lords of Detroit rock and roll are sheer dynamite at Meltdown

The lords of Detroit rock and roll are sheer dynamite at Meltdown

Having witnessed Neil Young’s shambolic O2 concert on Monday – Young treating the occasional venture into his back catalogue with listless contempt whilst serving up multiple banalities from his recent albums – I considered skipping seeing more veteran American rockers.