From The Social Reckoning to Harriet Kemsley: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network, and the Last One Laughing star reckons with divorce in her new standup tour
Going out: Cinema
The Social Reckoning
Out now
The David Fincher-directed The Social Network has only come to seem more canny over time, with the site co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg being held responsible for all manner of social ills. In this sequel from Aaron Sorkin (this time directing and writing) based on the incidents around the 2021 leak of internal Facebook memos, Zuck is embodied not by Jesse Eisenberg but Jeremy Strong.
The Uprising
Out now
Paul Greengrass (United 93) tackles the 1381 peasants’ revolt, a fracas caused partly by the decision to introduce a new tax of four pence per person, regardless of whether you were in the greedy elite or a worker who might make about £2 in a whole year. Heading up the rebels with a cause are Andrew Garfield and Cosmo Jarvis.
The Lost Children of Tuam
Out now
In 2017, the New York Times chronicled the efforts of amateur local historian Catherine Corless’s campaign to expose the abuse by Irish nuns that led to almost 800 child and infant deaths in Ireland. This dramatisation of the scandal stars Monica Dolan as Corless and is produced by Liam Neeson.
Other Mommy
Out now
Jessica Chastain stars as both regular mom Ursula and her supernatural doppelganger, creeping around the house interacting with eight-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) in this Blumhouse horror directed by Rob Savage (Dashcam). An adaptation of Josh Malerman’s creepy 2024 novel, Incidents Around the House. Catherine Bray
* * *
Going out: Gigs
Arab Strap
12 to 17 October, tour starts Edinburgh
The Scottish duo returned last month with their ninth album Half-Told Tales. A 14-song collection of strangely danceable odes to ageing (You You You), angry warnings about masturbation (I Get Noise), and an overarching sense of black humour, it should make for a fun night out. Michael Cragg
Manifest
Wembley Arena, London, 16 October
Like their girl group contemporaries Katseye, this Turkish sextet were created via a TV singing competition. They also share some of their musical DNA, with Manifest’s brightly hued songs bubbling like a sugary soft drink. Support on this debut arena show comes from UK girl band newcomers XO. MC
606 Club 50th anniversary festival
606 Club, London, 12 to 25 October
West London’s much-loved 606 Club celebrates its 50th anniversary over a fortnight, with star guests including Jamie Cullum (13 Oct), Gwilym Simcock (15 Oct), and many trailblazers of UK jazz. Founded and run by saxophonist Steve Rubie, “The Six” is as devoted to good music as it’s ever been. John Fordham
Oxford international song festival
Various venues, 10 to 24 October
An ambitious local event turned major international fixture, this festival celebrates 25 seasons with big-name performances on the theme of love. Highlights include baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Tamara Stefanovich in Schubert’s Winterreise (10 Oct), and songs by György Kurtág from baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu (Mon). Flora Willson
* * *
Going out: Art
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography
Tate Modern, London, 14 October to 21 February
The Tate’s big autumn show takes a global look at the more conceptual, artier side of photography, with 200 prints by 80 artists from across the world, including Madame Yevonde, who saw the camera as more than a documentary tool.
Prem Sahib, Gordon Matta-Clark
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, 10 October to 4 January
Prem Sahib has been making some of the most interesting art in the UK over the past few years, all about queer intimacy and clubbing, and he is getting some well-deserved institutional attention here alongside the brilliant late American conceptualist Gordon Matta-Clark.
Julia IsĂdrez
Nottingham Contemporary, to 10 January
UK museums’ fascination with indigenous art continues unabated with this show of ceramics by Paraguayan GuaranĂ artist Julia IsĂdrez, filled with mythical creatures and multi-headed amphibians.
Frieze art fair
Regent’s Park, London, 14 to 19 October
Every autumn, Frieze shows up in a massive tent in Regent’s Park and plays host to the best art galleries in the world. It is a cultural phenomenon, and well worth visiting if you can stomach the price of entry. Eddy Frankel
* * *
Going out: Stage
Harriet Kemsley
Brighton, 11 October; Hull, 14 October; Leeds, 15 October; touring to 26 February
On stage, the Last One Laughing star comes across as a giggly, chaotic oversharer – but you don’t become a successful standup without serious finesse and focus. Kemsley’s current show Floozy sees the 39-year-old relate her experiences of post-divorce dating in deceptively daffy style. Rachel Aroesti
The Cherry Orchard
Harold Pinter theatre, London, to 9 January
Autumn is the season when all the stage stars come to play in the West End – and there are none bigger than Kristin Scott Thomas, who stars alongside Stephen Mangan in Chekhov’s richly rewarding final play. Miriam Gillinson
Middlemarch Parts 1 & 2
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 16 January
Nina Raine has adapted George Eliot’s exquisite novel into a play in two parts, directed by Jeremy Herrin – who is so good at injecting ambitious shows with shape and purpose. Nia Towle plays Dorothea Brooke alongside Amanda Root, playing both George Eliot and matchmaker Mrs Cadwallader. MG
English National Ballet
Liverpool Empire, 15 to 17 October; touring to 25 October
There are two ways to watch the ENB this week: see them live in Rudolf Nureyev’s staging of Romeo & Juliet, with one of the best ballet scores ever written. Or settle down with some popcorn for their sumptuous production of Sleeping Beauty, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in cinemas (13 to 18 October). Lyndsey Winship
* * *
Staying in: Streaming
Treasure Island
Paramount+, 12 October
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel – responsible for creating the pirate caricature of the popular imagination – was first adapted for television 75 years ago. This new version stars David Oyelowo, Jack Huston, and Hayley Atwell as Bess Hawkins, who helps her son Jim in his hunt for fabled riches.
VisionQuest
Disney+, 14 October
It can be juvenile, but Marvel lore has also powered some of the cleverest TV of recent times. This mind-boggling spin-off of 2021’s WandaVision rejoins Paul Bettany’s ex-Avenger Vision as he tries to understand what it means to be an android. James Spader co-stars as his maker, the villainous AI Ultron.
Time
iPlayer & BBC One, 11 October, 9pm
The bracing, brutal prison drama returns for series three, this time shifting focus to disturbed teens locked up in a young offenders institute. Siobhan Finneran reprises her role as a disenchanted chaplain, while David Tennant joins the cast as a custodial manager at the end of his tether.
Killing Anna
Channel 4, 12 October, 11pm
An expat Syrian academic sees a video of a civilian massacre in Damascus and uses social media to track down the chief perpetrator; she then poses as Anna, a regime sympathiser, to encourage him to reveal details about his work in this remarkable documentary about vigilantism in the digital age. RA
* * *
Staying in: Games
Planet Zoo 2
PC, PS5, Xbox; out 14 October
The popular zoo management sim returns, letting players build their animal kingdoms from a vast toolset of detailed habitats. The addition of aquariums and bird sanctuaries bring in new animals to observe and care for.
Valor Mortis
PC, PS5, Xbox; out 14 October
A dead soldier of Napoleon’s army finds himself reanimated in an alternate 19th century filled with plague-ridden monsters. An epic fantasy adventure crammed with gutsy combat and supernatural peril are his certain fate. Keith Stuart
* * *
Staying in: Albums
Remi Wolf – Mud
Out now
The Californian genre alchemist returns with her third album of sideways pop. Less eccentric and neon-splattered than her previous outings, here Wolf contemplates heartbreak on the contemplative Bottle, while the stuttering Twiggy spins through memories via an earworm melody. MC
Dawn Richard – Creole Culture
Out now
After two albums with avant-garde multi-instrumentalist Spencer Zahn, girlband member turned experimental art-pop practitioner Dawn Richard returns to more solo endeavours with this seventh album. Influenced by her heritage as a Black and Native American woman, songs such as the single Chuuuuurch are relentlessly thrilling.
Troye Sivan – She’s the Best
Out now
After the commercial highs of 2023’s Something to Give Each Other, there is a palpable sense of confidence on Australian banger merchant Sivan’s follow-up. Its title track is an experimental melange of spoken word and 90s trip-hop, while sugar rush banger Party contorts Madonna’s Music into new shapes.
Jamie T – Ghosts (100 Days of Morning)
Out now
Four years after scoring his first No 1 album, south Londoner Jamie T is back with this sixth record featuring a collaboration with Damon Albarn. As the title suggests, its lyrical focus is on various spectres of his past, with the nostalgia motherlode being the galloping lead single 3310.
* * *
Staying in: Brain food
13 Minutes
Podcast
The BBC’s space podcast returns with a new series on the Hubble telescope touching on its delayed and over-budget launch and the discovery of a fatal flaw in the build. We hear how scientists salvaged the operation.
@Dictionarycom
Instagram
Managing to make the mundane functionality of the dictionary more interesting, dictionary.com’s Insta account posts unusual “word of the day” picks, as well as analysis on the linguistic choices of artists such as Taylor Swift.
The Last First: Winter K2
Apple TV, out now
This vertigo-inducing film follows the extreme climbers who in 2021 attempted to be the first to summit the Pakistani‑Chinese K2 mountain in winter. During the gruelling expedition they exposed how dangerously commercialised modern climbing has become. Ammar Kalia