Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade review - how the great man spent his thirties

★★★ BORROWED TIME: LENNON'S LAST DECADE How the great man spent his thirties

The former Beatle's final years discussed and dissected

Purporting to be a documentary about John Lennon in the 1970s, Borrowed Time is no such thing. Instead, we have a lot of fan boys stating the bleeding obvious and covering a much longer period of time. On the other hand, there are some really interesting and illuminating details here, so the film is an absolute must for fans.

Album: Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles from Abbey Road

The hits keep on coming from Lu's Jukebox

When first I clicked on the stream for this album, I really wasn’t sure about it. In fact, I thought I wasn’t going to like it, much as I had wanted to. But I’ve had it playing almost continuously while I’ve been dealing with mindless stuff – and I’ve come to like it.

Not without reservations of course – there are always reservations – but it’s got under my skin and I’m now properly in the groove, appreciating what Lucinda Williams is doing, delving into this most hallowed of song catalogues and bravely tackling numbers that are rarely, if ever, covered. As is her way.

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Tate Modern review - a fitting celebration of the early years

★★★★ YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND, TATE MODERN A fitting celebration of the early years

Acknowledgement as a major avant garde artist comes at 90

At last Yoko Ono is being acknowledged in Britain as a major avant garde artist in her own right. It has been a long wait; last year was her 90th birthday! The problem, of course, was her relationship with John Lennon and perceptions of her as the Japanese weirdo who broke up the Beatles and led Lennon astray – down a crooked path to oddball, hippy happenings.

Yoko Ono, Mend Piece, Whitechapel Gallery review – funny and sad in equal measure

★★★ YOKO ONO, MEND PIECE, WHITECHAPEL Funny and sad in equal measure

A sign of the times in broken crockery

Its more than 50 years since Yoko Ono first presented Mend Piece at the Indica Gallery, London in the exhibition through which she met John Lennon. The piece is currently being revisited at the Whitechapel Gallery and, in the intervening years, its meaning has subtly shifted. Strewn over four tables are dozens of broken cups and saucers along with everything you need to attempt a botched repair – glue, sellotape, scissors and string.

1971, Apple TV+ review - rock'n'roll's golden year?

★★★★ 1971, APPLE TV+ Was this rock'n'roll's golden year?

Amazing music, incredible footage, and more amazing music: welcome to 1971

Back in the mid-Eighties, BBC television started broadcasting The Rock'n' Roll Years, one of the first rock music retrospectives. Each half-hour episode focused on a year, with news reports and music intermixed to give a revealing look at the development of rock culture against the context of current affairs.

They say it's John's birthday

THEY SAY IT'S JOHN'S BIRTHDAY John Lennon was born 75 years ago. We revisit everything we've ever said about John (and Yoko)

To celebrate Lennon's 75th, we revisit everything we've ever said about John (and Yoko)

Not just a mere rock star but spiritual guru, peace campaigner, political icon, thorn in the flesh of Richard Nixon and the CIA, and ultimately martyr. John Lennon, who would have been 75 today (9 October), has proved an impossible act to follow. Even his former songwriting partner Paul McCartney, who's hardly been deprived of adulation over the last few decades, can't get over the fact that Lennon has achieved that mythic status known only to a rarefied handful.

theartsdesk Q&A: Actor Christopher Eccleston

Straight-talking star of The Shadow Line explains why there's no black and white

Christopher Eccleston’s performances have a raw-boned, visceral quality which makes him a sometimes unsettling - but always compelling - actor to watch. Since his big break in the harrowing Let Him Have It (1991), playing Derek Bentley who at 19 was the last man to be hanged in Britain, Eccleston has played Hamlet at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and worked alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest names including Kate Winslet (Jude, 1996), Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, 1998) and Nicole Kidman (The Others, 2001).

John Lennon's Love and Death: 30 Years On, Part 1

JOHN AND YOKO ON THEARTSDESK John Lennon's Love and Death: 30 Years On

A portrait of The Beatles' end and of Lennon just before he died

The couples profiled in the series included the likes of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Sartre and de Beauvoir, Monroe and Miller, and remoter figures from the German 19th century. Pop hadn’t made it onto the list, though I learnt, once embarked on the commission, that Lennon-Ono had been considered but no author found. In 1996, I happened to be in the right place (Berlin) at the right time.

Classic Albums: John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band, BBC Four

JOHN AND YOKO ON THEARTSDESK Superb documentary on John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band

Superb Classic Albums doc probes the troubled psyche of John Lennon

The BBC just can't stop showing that flipping Lennon Naked drama. No sooner have we emerged from the Fatherhood Season, where it first appeared, than we're into a John Lennon Night on BBC Four, featuring Lennon Naked again under a new temporary flag of convenience.