Going out: Cinema
The Bikeriders
Out now
Bad boys on bikes have made for cinema gold ever since Marlon Brando popped on a leather cap in The Wild One. Now comes writer-director Jeff Nichols’ take on the subgenre, and he’s assembled a stellar cast including Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer for this drama about the lives of the Outlaws MC, an Illinois motorcycle club.
The Exorcism
Out now
Russell Crowe continues his pleasant recent run of B-movie fun playing a troubled actor who starts cracking up during the shoot for his new film. Standard actorly behaviour or something more supernatural in origin? Well, it’s not called The Breakdown. Also starring David Hyde Pierce and Sam Worthington.
Tigritudes
BFI venues nationwide, June & July
Curated by Dyana Gaye and Valérie Osouf, this pan-African and diaspora film season features 128 films from 42 countries, with selections dating from 1956 to 2021, and spanning multiple genres, histories and narratives.
Bread and Roses
Out now
Produced by Jennifer Lawrence, this righteously angry documentary focuses on human rights abuses taking place in Kabul following the Taliban’s 2021 return to power, taking an on-the-ground look at the perspectives of three women, Zahra, Taranom and Sharifa, whose lives were shattered by the takeover. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Kenny Wheeler’s Lost Scores
Vortex Jazz Club, London, 24 June
The lyrical yet startling jazz compositions of the late Kenny Wheeler are studied and played worldwide. Here, reconstructions of lost 1970s pieces he recorded for BBC radio will be unveiled by an international big band, featuring vocal great Norma Winstone and young sax star Emma Rawicz . John Fordham
Troye Sivan
Today to 28 June; tour starts Manchester
Continuing the horniness of recent album Something to Give Each Other, Aussie pop star Sivan leaves little to the imagination on this tour. Microphones are fellated, male dancers are kissed and signature song Rush is cemented as a new Pride anthem. Michael Cragg
CSS
22 to 29 June; tour starts Glasgow
Brazilian punk-funk party starters CSS return to celebrate their 20th anniversary. While they have four albums’ worth of songs to choose from, expect to hear a lot from 2005’s hedonistic self-titled debut. MC
Spitalfields music festival
Various venues, east London, 27 June to 10 July
This festival always spreads its events around the East End, and this year’s programme begins and ends in the Tower of London. There is Tudor and Jacobean church music, British works for strings from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Hebrides Ensemble in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and electronica from Chaines and the GBSR Duo. Andrew Clements
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Going out: Art
Summer Exhibition
The Royal Academy of Arts, London, to 18 August
The exhibition that has been a stage for new British art since the 18th century takes its latest dive into a sea of professional and amateur creativity. Michael Craig-Martin , Clare Woods, Andrew Pierre Hart and Ann Christopher, the abstract sculptor who has coordinated this year’s show, are among the participants.
Claudette Johnson
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, to 15 September
Drawing from life, revealed as radical. Johnson depicts Black women and men with calm but profoundly emotional directness. They confront you large as life, in poses of resignation or defiance. Here is a chance to see why Johnson has been shortlisted for the Turner prize and why she should win it.
Francis Alÿs
Barbican Art Gallery, London, 27 June to 1 September
Who says art can’t be funny and innocent? In this exhibition Belgian-born, Mexico-based Alÿs documents children’s games from around the world in an installation that turns the gallery into a playground. It’s a project that recalls his great compatriot Pieter Bruegel’s painting of Flemish children playing equally varied games.
Bharti Kher
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, to 27 April 2025
This culturally omnivorous magic realist who draws equally on India’s art history and European visual traditions explores and questions images of women in her ambitious gallery show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The multi-headed and many-limbed goddesses of Hindu art combine with the Virgin Mary in these provocative, surreally sensual sculptures. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Oxford comedy festival
Various venues, 28 June to 28 July
Edinburgh previews are in full swing and this festival acts as both a warm-up and an enticing alternative to the fringe, with shows from Jordan Brookes, Pierre Novellie and Felicity Ward. Rachel Aroesti
Kim Brandstrup: Echo and Narcissus
Theatre Royal Bath: Ustinov Studio, to 6 July
Following the five-star success of Brandstrup’s previous forays into Greek myth, Minotaur and Metamorphoses, a third work completes the series. This time he gives his thoughtful treatment to the story of Echo and Narcissus, with the brilliant Jonathan Goddard and Laurel Dalley Smith among the cast. Lyndsey Winship
Rush
Birmingham Rep, 25 to 29 June
With ska, rock steady, calypso, gospel, lovers rock and dancehall, this narrated musical exploration of the Windrush generation is pitched as a “joyous Jamaican journey”. Kate Wyver
Mnemonic
National Theatre: Olivier, London, to 10 August
Two decades ago, the Guardian’s Lyn Gardner wrote: “I shall remember Mnemonic all my life.” This is a story of stories, a tale of what makes us human. Booking immediately is highly recommended. KW
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Staying in: Streaming
My Lady Jane
Prime Video, Thursday 27 June
Everyone knows Lady Jane Grey was executed as a teenager in 1554, but this rambunctiously anachronistic period comedy asks: what if she wasn’t? Co-starring Rob Brydon, Anna Chancellor and Dominic Cooper, it follows young Jane’s attempts to carve out an independent life within a court that aims to control her.
Suranne Jones: Investigating the Witch Trials
Channel 4, 23 June, 9pm
The premise might sound like an amusingly arbitrary Alan Partridge pitch, but this documentary – in which one of Britain’s best TV actors delves into the world of witchcraft – isn’t quite the stretch it seems: the Vigil star has a long-standing obsession with the fantasy genre, meaning she’s sure to be an informed and open-minded guide to the supernatural realm.
The Bear
Disney+, 27 June
More sublimely stressful kitchen antics as this warm, funny and gripping drama returns for season three. Having transformed his family’s Chicago sandwich shop into a swish dining destination, Carmy is now ruthlessly pursuing a Michelin star – much to the detriment of his relationships.
Paul Whitehouse’s Sketch Show Years
UKTV, 27 June, 10pm
Sketch shows – remember those?! Having recently revived The Fast Show for a tour, comedy great Whitehouse continues to do his bit to commemorate the out-of-favour genre with this new retrospective of the past 60 years in British skits, which covers everything from The Two Ronnies to 2005’s arrestingly titled Tittybangbang. RA
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Staying in: Games
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
Nintendo Switch, out 27 June
Mario’s cowardly younger brother appears in more haunted house capers with his trusty, definitely-not-Ghostbusters-inspired vacuum cleaner in this Switch remake of 2013’s Nintendo 3DS game.
Times & Galaxy
All platforms, out now
What do you mean you haven’t been waiting your whole life to play a journalism simulator where you are an intern robot reporter chasing scoops for the galaxy’s leading holo-paper? Dream game, frankly. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Kate Nash – 9 Sad Symphonies
Out now
Six years after the indie stylings of Yesterday Was Forever, 00s wonky-pop-star-turned-unfairly-maligned-punchbag Nash returns to her more ornate songwriting roots on this fifth album. Orchestral opener Millions of Heartbeats yearns for connection during increasingly tricky times, while My Bile is about refusing to play nice.
Kygo – Kygo
Out now
Norwegian dance producer Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll continues his habit of resurrecting old hits on recent single Whatever, which is basically an Ava Max-assisted EDM reworking of Shakira’s Whenever, Wherever. It’s not clever but it is big – and became his fifth chart-topper back home.
Gracie Abrams – The Secret of Us
Out now
Co-produced by Taylor Swift fave Aaron Dessner, singer-songwriter Abrams’ follow-up to last year’s Good Riddance was launched with the folk-pop sway of Risk. Its crossover hit, however, is likely to come from the urgent synthpop of Close to You, an older demo that went viral earlier this year.
Kehlani – Crash
Out now
After the self-consciously lighter Blue Water Road, released in 2022, R&B experimentalist Kehlani ups the ante on this follow-up. The scene is set by the bubbling After Hours, which samples Nina Sky’s 2004 banger, Move Ya Body, and fiery recent single, Next 2 U. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Pack One Bag
Podcast
Documentarian David Modigliani conducts an emotive investigation into his grandparents’ early romance and life on the run from fascist Italy in the 1940s. Retracing their route, Modigliani muses on the consequences of their decision to leave home.
The Deep Ark
Online
Part eight-hour mix of ambient music and electronica and part visual psychedelic odyssey, this website and accompanying book provide a deep dive into key IDM releases from the 90s, complete with online annotations for each track played.
The Cancer Detectives
PBS America, out now
A fascinating film telling the story of the three women who helped develop a life-saving cervical cancer test before campaigning tirelessly throughout the 1950s and 60s to make it available. Ammar Kalia
