The Latest Breaking News from Mike Leigh

The new films will celebrate 50 years of Arena, which began life as a magazine show in 1975.

Between 1970 and 1984, BBC1’s experimental drama strand Play for Today created what is now regarded as classic British drama. It launched myriad acting careers and showcased high-calibre writing in plays such as Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party and Blue Remembered Hills, Dennis Potter’s acclaimed play about lost youth. It was…

From a dark and death-haunted classic by Mike Leigh to Tom Cruise’s final highwire stunt and Timothée Chalamet’s brilliant embodiment of Dylan we rewind six months of sensational cinema – in order of their UK release date

INTERVIEW: The mother and daughter make a marvellous pair on stage in ‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’. Claire Allfree sits down with the duo to talk Academy Awards, the Harry Potter reboot, and what younger actors can learn from the late Queen’s work ethic

THE SATURDAY INTERVIEW: The prolific actor plays an American forensic expert in the BBC’s new drama ‘The Bombing of Pan Am 103’. Eddie Marsan talks to Hannah Ewens about how he escaped typecasting, where Keir Starmer is failing, how to deal with racists, and his future as a director

Open letter signed by more than 600 industry figures says corporation is failing in its journalistic responsibility

The curator of the BFI’s Black Debutantes season on piracy, truncated careers and the frustrations of dealing with big studios

INTERVIEW: The singer and actor parlayed her Noughties fame on ‘Popstars’ into an unpredictable career across stage, screen – and the cobbles. As her new play ‘Abigail’s Party’ rakes in rave reviews in Manchester, she sits down with Alim Kheraj to talk relationships, tabloid attention, and why she still speaks…

‘I wanted to do an Australian Mike Leigh film. I was convinced it was terrible – but we showed it at Cannes and they went crazy. Audiences had never seen a character like that treated sympathetically’