Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers

Emotions too raw to explore

The best way to experience Ed Atkins’ exhibition at Tate Britain is to start at the end by watching Nurses Come and Go, But None For Me, a film he has just completed. It lasts nearly two hours but is worth the investment since it reveals what the rest of the work tries hard to avoid openly confronting – grief.

Firebrand review - surviving Henry VIII

★★★ FIREBRAND Surviving Henry VIII, as another of his marriages goes down the privy

Another of his marriages goes down the privy

Life in Tudor times is a gift that keeps giving to film and TV people, even if the history has to be bent a little for things to make sense to contemporary audiences – Elizabeth (1998) and A Man for All Seasons (1966) being two of the more successful examples of such retrofitting of the past.

The Circle, Orange Tree Theatre review - acerbic reflections on the price paid for love

★★★★ THE CIRCLE, ORANGE TREE THEATRE Acerbic reflections on the price paid for love

Jane Asher leads an ensemble cast in Somerset Maugham's comedy of manners

Tom Littler opens his account as artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre with one of the more radical choices one can make in 2023 – directing a 102 year-old play pretty much how it would have been done in 1921.

theartsdesk Q&A: actor Polly Walker on 'Bridgerton' and the new breed of period drama

Q&A: ACTOR POLLY WALKER On 'Bridgerton' and the new breed of period drama

Talking wigs, women, and her (brief) experience of coronavirus

Polly Walker's character in Netflix's sumptuous new Regency romance, Bridgerton, could've easily been little more than a villainous Mrs Bennet. We meet Lady Featherington as she's forcing one of her daughters into a tiny corset, muttering about how she could fit her waist "into the size of an orange and a half" when she was the same age.

The Luminaries, BBC One review - one of the most visually arresting dramas of the year

★★★★ THE LUMINARIES, BBC ONE One of the year's most visually arresting dramas

Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel, this new big budget murder mystery sparkles and shines

Alarm bells start ringing whenever you discover an author is adapting their own work for a screenplay. In the case of New Zealand novelist Eleanor Catton, the alarm proves to be false. 

Peaky Blinders, Series 4 Finale, BBC Two review – Tommy faces his reckoning

★★★★ PEAKY BLINDERS, SERIES 4 FINALE, BBC TWO Tommy faces his reckoning

Series four closes with breakneck twists and surprising reflections

Luca Changretta got his just desserts, Alfie Solomons made a last gasp for the quiet life, and Thomas Shelby revealed his true enemy – Peaky Blinders wrapped up another exciting series in a high-octane and neat finale.

And Then There Were None, BBC One

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, BBC ONE Elegantly cast, well-filmed adaptation of Agatha Christie's most devilish thriller

Elegantly cast, well-filmed adaptation of Agatha Christie's most devilish thriller

None, or two? Only the tiniest whiff of spoiler is involved in pointing out that while the stage version, or at least the one I saw with an actor friend playing an early victim, settled for a semi-happy ending, this magnificently brooding adaptation in three parts – just the right length, surely – dooms us to ultimate discomfort, as an especially merciless Agatha Christie intended.