DVD/Blu-ray: Maigret - The Complete Series

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: MAIGRET - THE COMPLETE SERIES Entertaining, idiomatic Simenon adaptation, brilliantly cast

Entertaining, idiomatic Simenon adaptation, brilliantly cast

This weighty box set contains all 52 episodes of the BBC’s take on George Simenon's Maigret, four seasons of which were made and broadcast between 1960 and 1963. Given how much vintage BBC material has been wiped, that this series can now be watched on Blu-ray is little short of miraculous.

Frozen, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - twinkling spectacle with a sincere drama at its heart

★★★★ FROZEN, THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE The stage version of the beloved animation looks set to become a West End staple

The stage version of the beloved animation looks set to become a West End staple

Let it snow! The Broadway musical adaptation of the Disney film behemoth Frozen premiered back in 2018 and now, following Covid delays, a rejigged version finally makes its home in the West End – to the delight of the army of miniature Elsas in attendance.

Paradise, National Theatre review - war, woe, and a glimmer of hope

★★★★ PARADISE, NATIONAL THEATRE War, woe, and a glimmer of hope

Kae Tempest’s urgent new adaptation of Sophocles puts women centre-stage

Philoctetes, Odysseus, Neoptolemus: the men’s names in Sophocles’ Philoctetes are all unnecessarily long and weighed down by expectations.

Mr and Mrs Nobody, Jermyn Street Theatre review – as comfortable as afternoon tea with jam puffs

★★★ MR AND MRS NOBODY, JERMYN STREET THEATRE As comfortable as afternoon tea with jam puffs

Edward Baker-Duly seems to have sprung fully formed from the pages of 'Punch'

If you’re looking for a distraction from the apocalyptic headlines that seem to be the norm right now, then it may appeal to descend into the pleasantly air-conditioned surroundings of Jermyn Street Theatre and take a trip to 1888.

Under Milk Wood, National Theatre review - Michael Sheen at his most magnetic

★★★★ UNDER MILK WOOD, NATIONAL THEATRE Michael Sheen at his most magnetic

One Welshman honours another in National Theatre return to the Dylan Thomas mainstay

There's commanding, and then there's Michael Sheen, who sweeps on to the Olivier stage 15 minutes or so into the new National Theatre revival of Under Milk Wood and scoops up the entire production with it. Inheriting a role made to order for this Welshman, Sheen takes to his fellow countryman Dylan Thomas's 1954 classic as if on a date with destiny.

The Beast Must Die, Britbox review - a crime story which plumbs psychological depths

★★★★ THE BEAST MUST DIE, BRITBOX Jared Harris stars in Isle of Wight-based mystery

Jared Harris seizes centre stage in Isle of Wight-based mystery

They all laughed when the streaming service Britbox declared that it wanted to become a sort of UK-orientated Netflix, because so far it’s been mostly a back catalogue operation which plunders the BBC and ITV archives. You really want to pay a subscription to watch Are You Being Served? and Rosemary and Thyme?

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's Globe review - a blast of colour from our post-vaccine future

★★★★ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE A blast of colour from our post-vaccine future

A production that revels in the joyously absurd while hinting at the play's darker edges

A little less than two years after Sean Holmes’s kick-ass Latin American carnival-style A Midsummer Night’s Dream erupted at the side of the Thames, it has returned to a very different world. It’s no longer a natural expression of the kind of exuberance we take for granted, but a reminder of what we might be again – a blast of colour from our post-vaccine future.

My New York Year review - lacklustre portrait of an ingenue

★★ MY NEW YORK YEAR Old-fashioned romcom aimed at a young female audience

Old-fashioned romcom aimed at a young female audience misses its mark

This pallid chick flick limps out on release having changed its title since its Berlinale 2020 debut; in the US it's known as My Salinger Year, but perhaps market research in Blighty decreed that name-checking the author of The Catcher in the Rye wouldn't play as well here.