Romantic Comedy review - a not-so-guilty pleasure

★★★★ ROMANTIC COMEDY Tough yet passionate look at joys & flaws of romcoms

Elizabeth Sankey's tough yet passionate look at the joys and flaws of romcoms

Only those who really love you can deliver the hard truths, and for filmmaker Elizabeth Sankey, that one love is romantic comedies. Better known as one half of band Summer Camp, Sankey is a self-confessed romcom expert, having watched nearly every film from the 80s onwards.

Helen McCarthy: Double Lives - A History of Working Motherhood review – doing it for themselves

★★★★ HELEN MCCARTHY - DOUBLE LIVES A History of Working Motherhood

Masterful chronicle of the sleights of hand that got mothers into the workplace

Want to enact mass social change? Make it about children. About their health, their prosperity, their future. Make it about men; their security, their wellbeing. Make it about society. What benefits are there for the economy, the home? Just for God’s sake, remember… it doesn’t work to fight for women alone.

Flowers for Mrs Harris, Chichester Festival Theatre online review - a warmly open-hearted weepie

★★★★ FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS, CHICHESTER A warmly open-hearted weepie

Musical adaptation celebrates British pluck, coupled with luck

18 months or so after it opened in Chichester, Flowers for Mrs Harris launches a sequence of streamed productions from the West Sussex venue just in time to allow a new British musical to join the ever-swelling ranks of theatrical offerings online.

Jane Eyre, National Theatre at Home review - a fiery feminist adaptation

★★★★ JANE EYRE, NATIONAL THEATRE A fiery feminist adaptation

Sally Cookson's take on Brontë is innately theatrical and ferociously resonant

The National Theatre’s online broadcasts got off to a storming start with One Man, Two Guvnors – watched by over 2.5 million people, either on the night or in the week since its live streaming, and raising around £66,000 in donations.

The Platform review - timely, violent and effective

★★★★ THE PLATFORM Netflix's new high-concept horror skewers capitalism

New Netflix high-concept horror skewers capitalism

Horror has always been a good vehicle for satire, from John Carpenter’s They Live to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Some metaphors opt for the subtle precision of a surgical knife, and others the hit you over the head. The Platform on Netflix is the latter, a brutal, blunt and effective sledgehammer.

The English Game, Netflix review - it's the toffs versus the workers in this version of sporting history

★★ THE ENGLISH GAME, NETFLIX Toffs versus the workers in Julian Fellowes's version of sporting history

Julian Fellowes's fanciful recreation of the birth of the Beautiful Game

Julian Fellowes admits he knows little about football and has always hated sport in general, but this hasn’t prevented him from writing a TV series (for Netflix) about football’s 19th century origins.

Military Wives review - the surprising true story of the women who rocked the charts

★★★★ MILITARY WIVES 'Full Monty' director Peter Cattaneo returns with another feel-good Britcom

'Full Monty' director Peter Cattaneo returns with another feel-good BritCom

There’s a lot of plucky British charm to Military Wives, from Peter Cattaneo, the director who won the nation's heart with his debut film The Full Monty over two decades ago.

Pass Over, Kiln Theatre review - fierce critique of racist brutality

★★★★ PASS OVER, KILN THEATRE A fierce critique of racist brutality

Waiting for Godot meets Exodus in American drama about Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement is such an important international protest that it is odd how few contemporary plays even mention it. Since the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has been around since 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012, there is little excuse.

Greed review - so-so satire of the über rich

★★★ GREED Steve Coogan stars in so-so satire of the über rich

Steve Coogan is the retail tycoon whose misdeeds are coming home to roost

Steve Coogan’s long partnership with director Michael Winterbottom is probably best known for The Trip and its spin-offs, involving Coogan’s comic culinary excursions alongside Rob Brydon. But for its serious undercurrents and disreputable subject matter, their new film is more akin to The Look of Love, in which Coogan played the sleazy Soho entrepreneur Paul Raymond. Here he is again, playing a real heel.