Television
The Good Wife
Considered the best network (ie mainstream) drama in the US, over here The Good Wife has just been good, full stop. Its final episode should provide fireworks, as Alicia Florrick decides whether to stand by her disgraced state’s attorney husband or ride into the sunset with another man.
No Such Thing As The News
Tucked away in between two slices of Newsnight on a Friday is a dollop of satire that looks at first glance like it’s gone off. Four people sitting in front of a cloth backdrop, their feet under a trestle table that’s been wedged up to their chests, NSTATN could be coming live from the fringe in 1961. Instead it’s the latest product from John Lloyd – TV comedy’s Dalai Lama – and stars the artists formerly known as QI Elves. Between them, they’ve created a comedy show about the news that’s smarter than Mock The Week, fresher than Have I Got News For You and with an emphasis on making you laugh by telling you something you don’t know. Catch their EU referendum special on the iPlayer now.
The Arts
Glasgow international jazz festival
Glasgow jazz fest maintains a pleasing balance of trad tyros and progressive types. In one corner you’ll find the Darius Brubeck Quartet playing standards and compositions by its leader’s late father Dave; in the other, there’s Kamasi Washington, saxophonist and Kendrick Lamar collaborator, who plays from his genre-flitting 2015 album The Epic.
Film
Tale Of Tales
Definitely the best film of the year that features Salma Hayek eating the heart of a sea monster, Matteo Garrone’s warped take on Italian fables is also unlike anything you’re likely to see inside (or outside) a cinema. Extravagant European fare full of famous names, it’s showing now.
Theatre
Cuttin’ It
Muna and Iqra, two Somalian-born teenage girls who live in the UK, are the protagonists of Charlene James’s new play, which visits Birmingham and London this week. Its focus is on female genital mutilation (FGM) and the distress caused by the custom, as Muna grows increasingly frightened that her six-year-old sister will face the same fate as she did. It’s a reminder that FGM is not something that is consigned to other continents; it affects children and women in Britain as well, with the NHS treating hundreds every month for the after-effects of this inconceivably brutal practice.
Music
Rihanna
Werk, werk, werk, werk, werk, werk … Umbrella-ella-ella … Yup, the purveyor of pop’s best sing-along gym music brings her Anti world tour to Wembley.
Glastonbury
You’ve zero chance of getting a ticket at this stage, but Glasto is usually unmissable even from the safety of the sofa. In truth it’s difficult to get too excited about two thirds of the headliners – the utterly box- office Adele being the exception – but there’s tonnes being broadcast from lower down on the bill that catch the eye, such as grungers Wolf Alice, rapper Little Simz and electronic composer Anna Meredith.
Radio
Matt Forde
More political than your average panel show-bothering comic, Blairite Matt Forde has grilled everyone from George Galloway to David Davis to Tony Blair himself for his Political Party podcast. He presides over a live spinoff of the same name: expect topical lols as he hosts a EU special alongside Labour’s Alan Johnson from Remain and Tory Leave supporter Dr Liam Fox.
Exhibitions
Elizabeth Price Curates
The work of Turner prize winner (and singer of 80s indie lot Talulah Gosh) Elizabeth Price has always had a sense of the found-footage to it, with her video installations splicing together pop songs, archive clips and images to create something beguiling. Here those curatorial qualities are put to good use as she brings together the works of artists to create an “austere melodrama” about sleep and death.
Online
Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared
This hugely popular British webseries plays out like Sesame Street for sadists, with each episode offering up an educational song that soon descends into much horror and bloodshed for its puppet protagonists. There’s set to be a new instalment out tomorrow, while the first five – very funny – episodes are available now on YouTube.
