Margaret Atwood: The Testaments review - pertinent but lacklustre

★★ MARGARET ATWOOD: THE TESTAMENTS Sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale' disappoints

Sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale' disappoints with bland writing and structural inconsistencies

You will doubtless have seen the protestors who dress as Gilean handmaids to protest anti-abortion legislation from Texas to Missouri. They model their costumes on those of the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale: tight white bonnets and red smocks. They appear at courthouses and state capitols as a warning from the near-future or a fiction which feels ever more like the present – and the truth.

Hansard, National Theatre review - starry argument ends poorly

★★★ HANSARD, NATIONAL THEATRE Starry argument ends poorly

Debut play about the parliamentary ruling class is timely, but ultimately unsatisfying

In the current feverish atmosphere at Westminster, with arguments about Brexit becoming increasingly shrill, the time is right once more for political theatre: serious plays about serious issues. Oddly enough, however, while television has effectively dramatized the current crisis, in films such as Channel 4's Brexit: The Uncivil War, theatre seems to take a more oblique approach by setting its stories in the past.

CD: Kano - Hoodies All Summer

★★★★★ CD: KANO - HOODIES ALL SUMMER A career best for an MC at the heart of grime

A career best for an MC who's been at the heart of grime since its inception

Of all grime's original generation, Kano has a strong claim to being the greatest rhyme-constructor in the old school hip hop sense of dense rhymes packed with multiple meanings. Add movie star looks and a penchant for fur coats in photoshoots and he was most young grime fans' tip for following Dizzee Rascal into the big league.

Hail Satan? review - the detail of the devil

★★★★ HAIL SATAN? The detail of the devil

Documentary reveals the comedy and politics of America's satanists

As Penny Lane’s documentary shows, America and Satanism have a long history. From the Salem Witch trials to the moral panic triggered by the Manson murders and films like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist in the 1970s, mass panic in America of the occult is nothing new.

Edinburgh International Festival 2019: JARV IS review - Britpop legend still delivers

★★★★ EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2019: JARV IS Britpop legend still delivers

Pulp frontman brings expertly crafted songs and a tight, talented band to Leith Theatre

”Cunts Are Still”. Well, that got your attention, didn’t it? Not my words, merely the title of one of JARV IS’s new tracks. In case you didn’t get it, JARV IS is a play on words and the name of given to Pulp frontman and founder Jarvis Cocker’s latest outfit. Cocker still is releasing new material. He still is an exuberant and energetic performer. He still is wearing those glasses. And still is very good.

The Brink review – behind the scenes with Steve Bannon

★★★ THE BRINK Funny and frightening fly-on-the-wall documentary

Funny and frightening fly-on-the-wall documentary

Donald Trump’s former strategist, alt-right propagandist and all-round provocateur Steve Bannon comes under the spotlight of a smart, dynamic, behind-closed-doors documentary, as he attempts to turn his brand of far-right populism into a global movement.  

Thatcher: A Very British Revolution, Finale, BBC Two review - a heartbreaking account of her decline

How time eventually ran out for the Iron Lady

The surprisingly touching conclusion to BBC Two’s five-part chronicle of the Thatcher years was a masterpiece of contemporary history. Congratulations to producer Alice Fraser, director Pamela Gordon, and composer Alexandra Harwood for very fitting and emotive music (for once).

Anthony B. Atkinson: Measuring Poverty Around the World review - first, second and third world problems

Distinguished professor's final book links poverty with climate change in an appeal for sustainable, inclusive growth

Five years ago, when the world was still reeling from 2008 and Britain from the swinging axe of George Osborne, Thomas Piketty’s Capital was an unlikely bestseller. It was a book probably more bought than read, but it contained an important and highly topical message: that wealth was once again concentrated in the hands of few people, just as had been the case before World War One.

CD: Kate Tempest - The Book of Traps and Lessons

Dynamic force in British poetry takes a bleak left turn that's sometimes musically flat

Here’s a strange thing: sit in a quiet room reading through the poems that make up Kate Tempest’s third album and her swirling collage of words drags you in. It’s an opaque concept work, mingling themes of a broken Britain, teetering on the brink of socio-political disaster, with the gritty, urban search for love in a time where sex is served up like fast food.