Going out: Cinema
Ferrari
Out now
Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) face bankruptcy: their company, Ferrari, is on the brink of disaster. Time to gamble it all on the Mille Miglia, a dangerous road race across Italy that can make or break a racing car company. Stirring drama, directed by Michael Mann.
Raging Grace
Out now
The first British-Filipino film produced in the UK, this horror-drama from writer-director Paris Zarcilla sees a Filipina cleaner and her daughter caught in the precarity of the gig economy, when a seeming lifeline is offered: a dream job in a mansion. Naturally, it’s all too good to be true.
La Notta Brava
Close-Up Film Centre, London, 30 December
Rise early (8.15am) for this rare screening of an Italian classic directed by Mauro Bolognini, a portrait of a clutch of ne’er do wells in 1950s Rome. The world of petty criminals driven by impulse will be familiar to fans of this film’s writer, Pier Paolo Pasolini, more famous for his work as a director but yet to embark on that part of his career when he wrote this screenplay.
Berliner Philharmoniker Live: New Year’s Eve Concert 2023
Various UK cinemas, New Year’s Eve
Phew! It’s our final film recommendation of the year! And it’s not even a film. But what better way to see in 2024 than getting yourself to the cinema for a live performance from the Berliner Philharmoniker, with Kirill Petrenko conducting a couple of rousing excerpts Wagner’s Ring. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Scott Hamilton
Pizza Express Jazz Club, London, New Year’s Day to 7 January
The elegant 69-year-old American saxophonist Scott Hamilton has long creatively repolished mainstream jazz styles from the 1940s to the 60s, yet his ability to make the most familiar songs take on new lives has never faded. Hamilton’s longtime UK trio perfectly frame and enhance his enduringly subtle art. John Fordham
Pulp
West Princes Street Garden, Edinburgh, New Year’s Eve
Let’s all meet up in the year 2024! Jarvis Cocker et al ring in the new year as part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, alongside a Hot Chip DJ set. While they recently debuted a new song in a live scenario in Mexico, expect this set to rely quite rightly on their stash of classic indie pop anthems. Michael Cragg
National Youth Orchestra
Barbican Hall, London, 4 January; Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 5 January; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, 6 January
Mark Elder takes charge of the country’s finest young instrumentalists, conducting Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony. Before that there’s Debussy’s Rondes de Printemps and a new work by Dani Howard. Andrew Clements
90s Baby
Albert Hall, Manchester, New Year’s Eve
This New Year’s Eve blowout is essentially a time warp back to sticky-floored club nights. Headlined by DJ and occasional lawyer Judge Jules, it also features sets from Baby D, N-Trance, Ultrabeat and Sweet Female Attitude. MC
Going out: Art
Mat Collishaw
Kew Gardens, London, to 7 April
This brilliant exhibition adds a dark twist to a midwinter trip to Kew. Collishaw , our most exciting technological artist, has woven an unnatural world of AI-assisted botanical paintings that are not what they seem, plus animated still lifes, a ghostly tree and a mind-boggling zoetrope. Holiday magic.
Turner in January
Royal Scottish Academy: National, Edinburgh, New Year’s Day to 31 January
JMW Turner’s miraculous watercolours, revealed at the National once a year in January, can be compared this year with the museum’s new displays of Scottish art. Alongside Romantic paintings of the Highlands by his contemporaries, Turner shows how truly sublime landscape can be, in Britain and on his European travels.
Titanosaur
Natural History Museum, London, to 14 January
The recently discovered titanosaur is baffling in its gigantism. Don’t miss the last chance to see this wonder. You may think you have seen big dinosaurs but you ain’t seen one this big. It will amaze kids and rekindle a sense of awe in adults. Colossal festive fun.
Colin Middleton
Ulster Museum, Belfast, to 21 January
Belfast in the early 20th century is hauntingly brought back to life in Middleton’s stilled, even eerie, paintings. Born in the city in 1910, he brought a Lowry-like eye for ordinary urban life to bear on its streets in the Depression and blitz – but with a modernist abstract intelligence, too. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Phoenix theatre, London, Running to 25 August
The Duffer Brothers’ smash-hit horror-fantasy series lands on stage with a bang in this illusion-filled origin story from writers Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry. It’s 1959 and the local folk of Hawkins are in for surprise or two … Miriam Gillinson
Biswa Kalyan Rath
Soho theatre, London, to 6 January
Soho theatre continues to provide a London platform for the best of India’s blossoming comedy scene with a mini-residency from Rath, who first found fame in his home country by dissecting terrible Bollywood films on YouTube – a success he swiftly parlayed into a standup career and his own Amazon Prime series. Rachel Aroesti
Varna International Ballet
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 2 to 3 January; Bristol Hippodrome, 4 to 6 January; touring to 15 May
An international company of young ballet dancers (including Belfast dancer Luc Burns) go on an extensive tour around Britain, dancing versions of some of the best-known ballets: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Lyndsey Winship
Sleeping Beauty
Theatr Clwyd, to 6 January
Take in a final seasonal treat with this witty rock’n’roll panto from writer and actor Christian Patterson. In a festive first, the show will take place in a giant temporary tent while the theatre undergoes redevelopment. MG
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Staying in: Streaming
The Traitors
BBC One & iPlayer, 3 January, 9pm
It was the series that single-handedly reinvigorated reality TV as a genre, thanks to its fascinating displays of deviousness, groupthink and self-preservation. Now the carnival of deception helmed by Claudia Winkleman returns to screens after a year-long break – let’s hope the format has lost none of its watercooler magic.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
ITV & ITVX, 2 January, 9pm
Over a 20-year period, more than 700 post office operators were prosecuted for stealing, when the fault actually lay with a dodgy IT system. Now the most widespread miscarriage of justice in this country’s history is being retold as a quintessentially British drama: a warmly tearjerking tale of normal people against a wrongheaded system, with Toby Jones playing the titular underdog.
Julia
Sky Atlantic & Now, 4 January, 9pm
Sarah Lancashire proves her repertoire extends miles beyond no-nonsense Yorkshire police officers as she returns with aplomb to the role of eccentric California chef Julia Child – the woman who brought French cuisine to the American people. Season two sees Julia reckon with her newfound celebrity and its myriad complications.
Truelove
Channel 4, 3 January, 9pm
A group of friends in their 70s make a drunken pact: in the event any of them starts to catastrophically decline, the others will lovingly bump them off. Yet the agreement soon becomes a horrifying reality – and the police quickly pick up the scent. Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters and Sue Johnston star. Rachel Aroesti
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Staying in: Games
Dave the Diver
PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch
The week between Christmas and new year is traditionally spent catching up on games you didn’t have time for earlier in the year. Here’s one: Dave the Diver is about a deep-sea explorer who runs a sushi restaurant …
Saltsea Chronicles
PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5
… and here’s another chill adventure you may have missed: a mystery in which you play a crew exploring an archipelago in search of your captured captain, illustrated with tastefully understated stills in muted colours. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Car Seat Headrest – Faces from the Masquerade
Out now
Will Toledo’s intriguing alt-rockers release a 13-track live album culled from their March 2022 residency in Brooklyn. The title references Toledo’s penchant for wearing masks – and the audience following suit.
Malcría – Fantasías Histéricas
Out now
Mexican hardcore punk trio Malcría specialise in short, sharp shocks. On their second album, the title of which translates to hysterical fantasies, they careen through the gears while railing against our society’s loss of moral compass and the dissolution of our liberties. Sounds like a revolution.
Mac DeMarco – One Wayne G
Out now
Released digitally back in April, but now available physically, One Wayne G finds Mac DeMarco dropping an almighty archival dump. Weighing in at 199 tracks, it takes January’s Five Easy Hot Dogs instrumental album as a launchpad and runs with it, offering up intriguing insights into his lo-fi processes.
Rebecca Ferguson – Heaven Part II
Out now
Having recently spoken out about her treatment in the music industry, the 2010 X Factor alumni releases her fifth and reportedly final album. A sequel to her 2011 debut, Heaven Part II continues her penchant for tactile, soulful pop, but on songs such as the defiant Found My Voice there’s an extra layer of strength. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
The Great Rhino Robbery
Sky Documentaries, 3 January, 9pm
Part heist film and part environmental campaign, this intriguing three-part series examines a spree of rhino horn thefts from European museums in 2011 and the ensuing heated black-market trade for the endangered animals.
The Courage to Change
Podcast
As the new year looms, this series from recovering addict Ashley Loeb Blassingame is an insightful and often moving look at how normal people have changed their destructive habits for the better.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Online
With more than 870,000 items from the NYPL collection uploaded to this online database, there are plenty of fascinating historical scans to scroll through. Choose from William Blake’s illuminated books, early American manuscripts, photography and more. Ammar Kalia
