Tipping the Velvet, Lyric Hammersmith

TIPPING THE VELVET, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH Sarah Waters’ Victorian Sapphic novel gets an inventive postmodern reframing

Sarah Waters’ Victorian Sapphic novel gets an inventive postmodern reframing

Theatre is in the very bones of this bold adaptation, with the Lyric gifted a cameo role: past productions are fleetingly pastiched in a flashback to the era of the venue’s foundation. Laura Wade and Lyndsey Turner translate the vividly immediate first-person narrative of Sarah Waters’ 1998 novel into a world coloured by the experience of their heroine, whose coming-of-age story is sparked by the stage: make-believe illuminating the truth of her sexual identity.

Lady Chatterley's Lover, BBC One

LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, BBC ONE Sanitised Lawrence is more sentimental than scandalous

Sanitised Lawrence is more sentimental than scandalous

The major controversy of this revisionist BBC adaptation is not DH Lawrence’s naughty bits, but the lack of them. Gone are the four-letter words and personified genitals – just one half-embarrassed mention of “John Thomas” – while graphic sexual descriptions are replaced by soft-focus, coyly implicit lovemaking.

The Scandalous Lady W, BBC Two

THE SCANDALOUS LADY W, BBC TWO Notes on an 18th century scandal, with visuals dominating over character

Notes on an 18th-century scandal, with visuals dominating over character

What exactly do we expect when a drama opens with the declaration, “This is a true story”? The Scandalous Lady W, based on Hallie Rubenhold’s biography Lady Worsley’s Whim, brought us some unusual 18th century marriage shenanigans that ended in one of the most scandalous court cases of the era. But, despite its central legal scenes, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” wasn’t the order of the day.

The Secret Life of Tinder, Channel 4

THE SECRET LIFE OF TINDER, CHANNEL 4 Documentary about dating apps fails to ask penetrating questions

Documentary about dating apps fails to ask penetrating questions

Lucky old us. We are now living “in a techno-sexual era”. So claimed this documentary about dating apps which radar-guide you to the nearest available groin. If groins are your thing, that is, and they are by no means everyone’s. We heard about a man who wanted to paint a woman green and “spank you like a big fat avocado”. Another woman was considerably aroused by the sight of a man putting his motor into reverse. We met a puppy fetishist who trusses himself up in leather straps and yaps a lot. This is not to be confused with dogging.

The Father, Trafalgar Studios

Rarely performed Strindberg war-of-the-sexes drama misses the mark

This 1887 domestic drama by August Strindberg is rarely seen in London, and Abbey Wright’s new production of Laurie Slade’s new version might have seized the opportunity to give this gristly chunk of pre-Freudian sexual polemic a thorough 21st-century shake-up. That chance is missed.

The Mikvah Project, The Yard, Hackney

THE MIKVAH PROJECT, THE YARD, New play about Jewish faith and the limits of love makes a splash

New play about Jewish faith and the limits of love makes a splash

In the beginning was the Word and, not long after, came a need for ritual purification. “When Adam was banished from Eden, he sat in the river that flowed from the garden. Adam immersed in the water, in the very first Mikvah …”.

It Follows

Smart, striking horror starring Maika Monroe and directed by David Robert Mitchell

David Robert Mitchell's second ode to innocence lost is a rather more twisted take on the subject than his first film, The Myth of the American Sleepover. That was a beautifully judged ensemble coming-of-ager which merely teased us with horror tropes. Alongside the titular teen tradition it featured an abandoned warehouse, a Ouija board, a trip down to the basement and a midnight swim. With his chilling follow-up Mitchell goes full horror, presenting us with a STH: a sexually transmitted haunting.

Fifty Shades of Grey

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY More, please, sir. EL James's filmed fable doesn't go the distance

More, please, sir. EL James's filmed fable doesn't go the distance

Fifty Shades of Grey is upon us, more or less literally. It's a bit like the clamber-cam POV shot of Jamie Dornan materialising through Dakota Johnson’s spread legs. The teaser campaign has completed its titillating foreplay, and this weekend the fairytale fantasy franchise about fucking and slapping (but please, sir, no fisting) thrusts its entire length into the world’s cinemas. How will it be for you? The morning after, will audiences still be applying Arnica to their assaulted senses?

Two Night Stand

TWO NIGHT STAND Tired if well-acted romcom leaves you waiting for the snow to melt

Tired if well-acted romcom leaves you waiting for the snow to melt

A New York blizzard so intense that people can't get out the front door traps a random couple who have hooked up online into a rather longer mating dance than they had anticipated. That's the essence of Two Night Stand, the debut film from director Max Nichols (son of the late, great Mike, who died in November) that prolongs a wearyingly cute premise well past breaking-point.

Blu-ray: Bad Timing

BLU-RAY: BAD TIMING Obsession in Vienna with Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russell

Obsession in Vienna with Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russell

With its combination of a Tom Waits lament and visuals tracking over art works by Viennese modernists like Klimt and Schiele, the opening of Nicolas Roeg’s 1980 Bad Timing stays in the memory – its mood remains just there. The territory is defined gradually: variations on obsession, sexual but not exclusively. One line in the script suggests “lineaments of gratified desire”, though the elements of gratification here remain dubious for all concerned.