From The Sheep Detectives to Rivals: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson star in a farmyard mystery, while the spirited bonkbuster returns for a smutty second outing
Going out: Cinema
The Sheep Detectives
Out now
Few can claim a writing career as varied as Craig Mazin, creator of TV’s Chernobyl, co-writer of several Scary Movie and The Hangover films, and co-creator of The Last of Us. Here, he turns his hand to a comedy-mystery about sheep, starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson. Adapted from a novel by Leonie Swann.
Kokuho
Out now
Two-time Japan Academy film prize best director winner Lee Sang-il directs this prestige adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida’s novel. It holds the record for the highest-grossing Japanese live-action release ever in Japan – an impressive feat for a nearly three-hour-long period drama set across five decades in the kabuki theatre world.
Mortal Kombat II
Out now
Fatality! For a generation of gamers, the words Mortal Kombat will always have a nostalgic quality, taking us back to a time of parent-baiting video game violence. This sequel picks up where the 2021 reboot left off, with Karl Urban joining the returning cast members Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson and Ludi Lin in Earthrealm.
RomerĂa
Out now
Director Carla SimĂłn returns with the tale of Marina (LlĂşcia Garcia), an 18-year-old orphaned as a child, who must track down her extended family to help fill in university funding forms, leading to encounters with an array of estranged aunts, uncles and cousins. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
RĂĽfĂĽs Du Sol
London, 13 May; Dublin, 15 May
Despite rarely troubling the UK charts, the Australian dance trio have become a streaming goliath, with 2016’s Innerbloom closing in on half a billion streams on Spotify alone. Hence these two massive arena shows, part of the tour for Grammy-nominated fifth album Inhale/Exhale. Michael Cragg
Wesley Joseph
Manchester, 12 May; London, 13 May; Birmingham, 14 May
Walsall-raised genre polymath Wesley Joseph’s debut album, Forever Ends Someday, channels soul, sparse electronica and creeping trip-hop, all anchored by his widescreen lyricism. Its highlights will be showcased at these three shows. MC
The Choral Pilgrimage 2026
Old Royal Naval College, London, 12 May; touring to 17 October
Harry Christophers and his choir the Sixteen’s annual tour has become a highlight of the choral year. The programme this time combines music by two Spanish Renaissance composers with modern works by Kerensa Briggs and James MacMillan. Flora Willson
Andy Sheppard
Stoller Hall, Manchester, 15 May
The first night of the Manchester jazz festival (15 to 24 May) includes UK sax legend Andy Sheppard, a personification of the event’s creative view of jazz traditions. Sheppard brings longtime associates in pianist Rita Marcotulli and bassist Michel Benita. John Fordham
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Going out: Art
Henry Moore
Kew Gardens, London, 9 May to 31 January 2027
Kew and Henry Moore: a marriage so perfect the only surprise is that it’s taken this long for anyone to make it happen. And they’ve gone all out, with 30 of Moore’s monumental sculptures dotted around the place in the largest ever presentation of outdoor works by the English modernist.
Parham Ghalamdar
Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds, 13 May to 1 August
Broken ceramic airframes, melted glass, aluminium sheets: Parham Ghalamdar’s show at Blenheim Walk is full of ruins and wreckage. The Iranian’s work is meant to be an exploration of folklore, theology, violence and cosmology, a post-apocalyptic exploration of life after war.
Photo London
Kensington Olympia, London, 14 to 16 May
The UK’s leading photography fair returns for its 11th year, this time making its debut at Olympia after a decade at Somerset House. This year’s edition will feature the usual major international photography galleries, but it’s the Discovery section – with its focus on young galleries and artists operating outside the mainstream – where you’ll find the most interesting stuff.
Zineb Sedira
Tate Britain, London, 13 May to 17 January 2027
The Tate Britain commission is an intimidating prospect. Past artists have filled the gallery’s neoclassical central hall with a war plane, piles of trash, people dressed like squashes and even a whole semi-detached house. Franco-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira is next to take up the challenge, with a new multi-sensory installation exploring ideas of diaspora, identity and the history of cinema. Eddy Frankel
Going out: Stage
Sharon Wanjohi
Soho theatre, London, 13 to 16 May
Channelling both Trisha Goddard and Instagram wellness influencers, the east London comedian’s self-help satire In the House proffers fittingly ridiculous advice for young people in a world where self-optimisation reigns and capitalism’s promises are crumbling fast. Rachel Aroesti
Breakin’ Convention
Canterbury, 9 May; Newcastle upon Tyne, 12 May; Nottingham, 15 & 16 May; touring to 6 June
The long-running London hip-hop dance festival heads out on a national tour. Local acts join the lineup at each venue, alongside the Olivier award-winning Traplord by Ivan Michael Blackstock, and female dance collective Femme Fatale. Lyndsey Winship
Care
Young Vic, London, 11 May to 11 July
Alexander Zeldin’s plays are always exquisitely observed and deeply compassionate affairs. This UK premiere is about the ripple effect of a grandmother’s fall, her relocation to a care home – and the surprising riches she discovers there. Miriam Gillinson
The Psychic
York Theatre Royal, to 23 May
Following the success of Ghost Stories, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman are back with another supernatural spookfest. It’s about a TV psychic who is branded a charlatan and then caught up in a disturbing seance. MG
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Staying in: Streaming
Rivals
Disney+, 15 May
We may have lost Jilly Cooper since the first series, but this adaptation of her 80s bonkbuster is keeping the author’s smutty spirit alive. The second outing sees Lord Baddingham, miraculously recovered from his head injury, declare war on Rupert Campbell-Black’s new TV venture amid an ever-present web of sexual intrigue.
Off Campus
Prime Video, 13 May
Hot on the heels of Heated Rivalry comes another TV version of a bestselling ice hockey-themed romance novel series. This heterosexual addition to the fledgling canon stars Ella Bright as Hannah, a music student who becomes entangled with the university’s resident sports star, Garrett (Belmont Cameli).
Children of the Blitz
BBC Two & iPlayer, 11 May, 9pm
Considering the blitz spirit is something we’re still routinely asked to channel, it’s worth hearing from those who literally embodied it while we still can. This documentary reconstructs the experiences of the youngsters who remained in cities during the second world war.
Smoggie Queens
BBC Three & iPlayer, 15 May, 10pm
By turns acidly irreverent and sweetly sentimental, Phil Dunning’s sitcom about a group of Middlesbrough drag enthusiasts returns for a second outing. Dunning’s moustachioed Dickie is on a desperate search for a boyfriend while Mam (Mark Benton) reckons with the past. RA
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Staying in: Games
Outbound
PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC; out 14 May
One of the most wishlisted games of the year on the PC site Steam, Outbound gives you a highly customisable camper van then invites you to explore a beautiful wilderness, while harvesting your own food – and electricity – from natural sources. The gaming equivalent of an eco holiday.
Hotel Architect
PC; out 14 May
Design your own hotel and then manage your staff, budgets and sanity in this gleefully chaotic management sim. The bright visuals have a cartoonish charm, but don’t expect an easy ride from your unpredictable and fussy guests. Keith Stuart
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Staying in: Albums
Lykke Li – The Afterparty
Out now
The Swedish Goddess of Gloom returns with her sixth album of tear-stained indie pop. While there’s a glint of sunshine on the excellent disco noir of lead single Lucky Again, tracks such as Knife in the Heart and the corrosive epic Sick of Love arrive dressed in all black.
Muna – Dancing on the Wall
Out now
Following the success of 2022’s self-titled third album, their first on Phoebe Bridgers’s label, LA-based trio Muna return with more emotionally charged queer anthems. Their recent emergence as a proper pop band continues on the sleek lasciviousness of recent single, and future live favourite, Wannabeher.
Aldous Harding – Train on the Island
Out now
Across four albums, New Zealander Harding has traversed genres and moods with a deftness that feels supernatural. On her latest, she continues to beguile, specifically on One Stop, which manages to fuse 90s indie rock with a surreal lyric about John Cale and a beautiful tempo shift in its final third.
Olof Dreijer – Loud Boom
Out now
Since they disbanded in 2014, sibling duo the Knife’s haunted electronica has permeate pop culture via Karin Dreijer’s work as Fever Ray. Not that brother Olof has been slack: this solo debut, full of brightly coloured dance workouts, follows his remixes for Björk, RosalĂa and Robyn. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Drowned in Sound
Podcast
Music blog turned podcast series Drowned in Sound produces fascinating episodes on the ways music shapes our society. Highlights include an investigation into the AI platforms using music without permission, and the crisis in live music.
The Greatest Documentary You’ve Never Heard Of
YouTube
YouTuber Ken D’s deep dive into Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, the nine-hour documentary from film-maker Wang Bing, is an engrossing primer on the director’s ongoing documentation and endurance-style filming of the economy and society of China.
Rinsed
Radio 4 & BBC Sounds, 11 May, 1.45pm
Kate Lamble’s 10-part series examines the crisis of water companies dumping raw sewage into our waterways, aiming to find out exactly who should pay for the immense damage done, and how to properly regulate the industry. Ammar Kalia