From the capital’s theatres to its opera houses, cinemas to stadiums, there’s a wealth of culture enjoy over the next twelve months.
Here’s what we’re looking forward to:
Theatre
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Woman In Mind
Sheridan Smith returns in Alan Ayckbourn’s play about a woman who suffers a head injury and starts to live two separate lives, one based in mundane reality and the other an extravagant fantasy existence. After her sell-out Shirley Valentine at the same venue, this is sure to be another star turn from Smith, who is joined by Romesh Ranganathan in his West End debut. MR
Until February 28, Duke of York’s Theatre, thedukeofyorks.com
High Noon
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Exciting Hollywood fare with screen hero Billy Crudup taking on the Gary Cooper role in a stage adaptation of the classic 1952 Western. It’s the theatre debut of writer Eric Roth (who wrote Dune: Part One and won an Oscar for Forrest Gump) and is directed by Thea (Equus) Sharrock. Denise Gough stars opposite Crudup to add further clout to this tense story of a marshal counting down in real time to the arrival of a bad guy on the noon train. MR
Until March 6, Harold Pinter Theatre, haroldpintertheatre.co.uk
John Proctor is the Villain
Playwright Kimberley Bellflower’s massive Broadway hit, right, comes to London, directed by Tony-winner Danya Taymor. Set in a high school, it has a group of students studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and as they question the lessons being taught (such as whether the character Proctor is a tragic hero or a predator) they find events in real life begin to echo the play. A post-MeToo reckoning around gender narratives, made more pertinent since The Crucible had its London premiere at the Royal Court’s opening season in 1956 — this is the 70th anniversary season. MR
March 20 to April 25, Royal Court, royalcourttheatre.com
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
A hotly anticipated revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Aaron Pierre as Randle P McMurphy, the role made famous by Jack Nicholson in the film adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel. This stage version was written by Dale Wasserman and was first performed in 1963, a year after the book. At the Old Vic it’s directed by Clint Dyer, and brings colonialism into the mix as Nurse Ratched’s placid psychiatric unit is stirred up by the rampant McMurphy. MR
April 1 to May 23, The Old Vic, oldvictheatre.com
Romeo & Juliet
Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink was Tony-nominated on Broadway for the aforementioned John Proctor is the Villain, and here will take on Shakespeare’s play opposite another young rising superstar in Noah Jupe (far right, with Sink), who’s also in Hamnet. It’s directed by Robert Icke, who was previously behind the hugely acclaimed hit Oedipus in 2024. Will be one of the hottest tickets in the capital this year. MR
March 16 to June 6, Harold Pinter Theatre, haroldpintertheatre.co.uk
Jesus Christ Superstar
Andrew Lloyd Webber is suddenly back in vogue. After the mega-hit Evita last year, Cats will be coming to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in July, after the former Eurovision rocker Sam Ryder takes on Jesus in June. Should be a huge hit with that whole feel-good resurrection ending. MR
June 20 to September 5, London Palladium
Film
Marty Supreme
Still on general release, this has matched critical acclaim with serious box office returns to show just how much clout Timothée Chalamet now possesses. This story of the rise of a table tennis player has been a lesson in modern marketing with viral videos, merch drops and premiere stunts bringing young audiences into theatres. Expect it to dominate the upcoming awards ceremonies and for Chalamet to win his first Oscar. MR
Out now
Supergirl
We got introduced to Milly Alcock’s Supergirl (aka Kara Zor-El) and her adorable pup Krypto in last year’s Superman. Now she has her own film. Having witnessed the slow death of her home and everyone she loves, Kara is not as concerned with heroics as her cousin Superman. But her plans to spend her 23rd birthday drinking away the trauma on planets with red suns (as opposed to the Kryptonian-healing yellow suns of, say, Earth) are derailed when she meets an alien girl seeking to avenge the death of her father. IB
Out June 26
Hamnet
Director Chloé Zhao (who won two Oscars for Nomadland) has adapted Maggie O’Farrell’s novel imagining the inner world of William Shakespeare’s wife with aplomb. Jessie Buckley plays Agnes, an irrepressible women of the forest who falls passionately in love with a young playwright — Paul Mescal, as the Bard himself. Their marriage is tested by the loss of one of their children, a grief so profound it may well have inspired the play Hamlet. Has a climatic set piece that is unbelievably moving. Special mention also for the US and Canada publicity campaign, which involved trucks going around giving out free hams in nets. IB
Out January 9
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The second instalment of the planned 28 Years Later trilogy has Danny Boyle handing the directing reins over to exciting new talent Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Hedda), who explores the post-apocalyptic landscape of a quarantined England through the lens of creepy cults and poses some tantalising questions about the nature of the Rage virus. Ralph Fiennes returns as charming oddball Dr Kelson, while our hero Spike (Alfie Williams) has gotten tangled up in the deliciously creepy gang of Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his young bunch of ultra-violent, Satan-obsessed acolytes. When they turn up, you’ll soon be wishing you had a simple infected horde to fend off. IB
Out January 16
Wuthering Heights
The most controversial film of the moment, above, isn’t even out until the eve of Valentine’s Day. Saltburn director Emerald Fennell is adapting Emily Brontë’s beloved classic, Wuthering Heights. Well, only the first half. It’s one of many things literature purists are furious about, alongside the casting of a 35-year-old and bleached blonde Margot Robbie as teen anti-heroine Cathy, and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff (Elordi is white, and many readers interpret the character as non-white). The trailer promises pulpy romance, lush costumes and sets — plus lashings of weird horny vibes. IB
Out February 13
The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan takes on the swords and sandals epic in a big budget adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Matt Damon is Odysseus, with Anne Hathaway playing his wife Penelope and Tom Holland as his son Telemachus. The stacked cast includes Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron as the witch Circe, Robert Pattinson as Penelope’s suitor Antinous, plus Lupita Nyong’o as a mystery yet-to-be-announced character. History nerds are already grousing about the historical accuracy of the armour and props, but it’s set to be the unchallenged behemoth of the summer — tickets for the Imax screenings went on sale in July 2025, so bums will definitely be on seats. IB
Out July 17
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Marvel are aiming to change around a long run of flops and mediocrity (though Thunderbolts was decent, in our opinion) with Tom Holland returning as Spider-Man in Brand New Day. Always the best Marvel character, Spidey will link up with The Punisher as he ditches Peter Parker to concentrate on web-slinging duties. This will be followed at the end of the year by Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr coming back to the MCU not as the deceased Iron Man but as the villain Doctor Doom. Just when you thought comic-book films had run out of ink… MR
Out July 31
Dune: PART THREE
With Marty Supreme at the start of the year and Dune: Part Three, left, landing next Christmas, this pretty much means Timothée Chalamet has 2026 all tied up already. Yes, the third film in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptations of Frank Herbert’s fantasy novels will see the star return alongside Zendaya (who is herself in almost every big film in the year) in a story which is even darker and moodier than the first two, as Chalamet’s Paul Atreides turns bad… MR
Out December 18
Dance
Woolf Works
Wayne McGregor’s Olivier-winning examination of the life and work of Virginia Woolf comes back to Royal Ballet. Set to a score by Max Richter, this is a triptych themed around Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves, but which also draws on the letters and diaries of Woolf, in a typically committed and totally immersive work by the visionary McGregor. MR
January 17 to February 13, Royal Ballet & Opera, rbo.org.uk
Sweet Mambo
The penultimate work by the iconic Pina Bausch has its London debut and promises a moving performance about the human condition. The German-born dancer and choreographer invented a neo-Expressionist style known as Tanztheater, which combines theatre and dance, and this production will feature dancers who appeared in the original production in 2008. MR
February 11-21, Sadler’s Wells, sadlerswells.com
Opera
La Traviata
Verdi’s opera will be given the full force of Royal Opera’s might as director Richard Eyre tells the story of a Parisian courtesan rejecting the glamorous life in the city for a new love, which doesn’t exactly run smoothly. Antonello Manacorda and Giacomo Sagripanti conduct and among the cast are opera superstars Ermonela Jaho and Pretty Yende. MR
January 8 to February 17, Royal Ballet & Opera
Cosi fan tutte
Anyone newly turned on to Mozart after the new Sky series Amadeus will be excited to grab this chance to see his Italian comic opera live at the Coliseum. It’s about two men who are engaged to two sisters, and are goaded into testing the fidelity of their fiancées by pretending to go off to war then dressing up as different men to try to woo the women. This should be a winningly modernised twist-fest. MR
February 6-21, London Coliseum
Rigoletto
More Verdi, this time his most famous work, a dark and tangled story about a hunchback court jester trying to protect his daughter from arch seducer the Duke of Mantua. Expect a spectacular rendering of the story, with Mark Elder as conductor and staging by Oliver Mears, this features George Petean and Daniel Luis de Vicente as Rigoletto. MR
March 25 to April 23, Royal Ballet & Opera
TV
A Thousand Blows
Season two of Steven Knight’s mob drama, above, has Stephen Graham, Malachi Kirby and Erin Doherty returning for more gritty intrigue. This takes place a year after season one, with Kirby’s Hezekiah on a downward slide before Doherty’s Mary swaggers back to reassemble her gang. MR
Out January 9, Disney+
Industry
Is Industry the most underrated show on television? Quite possibly, which means now is the perfect time to binge a few seasons before season four airs. Now both free of Pierpoint, things aren’t any better for frenemies Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Harper (Myha’la): Yasmin is stuck in a miserable marriage to Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and Harper is drawn into the orbit of a splashy fintech darling. The end result? Explosive. VJ
Out January 12, BBC One
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
While the decision to adapt one of George RR Martin’s novellas into a feature-length series does smack slightly of barrel-scraping, there’s no denying it’ll be a treat to dive back into the Game of Thrones universe. While previous shows have focused on the weighty subject of kingship (and fighting over said kingship), this promises to be far lighter in tone — namely, telling the story of hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) as they attempt to seek glory in a jousting tournament. VJ
Out January 19, Sky Atlantic & Now
Lord of the Flies
A prospect to haunt the dreams of anybody who was forced to study this for GCSE English (hello). But at least it looks like it’ll be good: prolific writer Jack Thorne has penned the script, the first-look images promise plenty of grimness and the entire thing was apparently shot in Malaysia. For those who can stomach a return to William Golding’s world of shipwrecked boys going savage, this is one for you. VJ
Release date to be confirmed, BBC One
Euphoria
After rumours that Sam Levinson’s show was going to be cancelled, season three is now confirmed for April and is set five years after season two, with the characters now out of high school and making their way in the adult world. Of course, the original cast are now mostly megastars (Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Hunter Schafer) and they’re being joined by some new megastars — Rosalía, Sharon Stone, Natasha Lyonne — which means more attention than ever on a show which thrives on dark glamour and controversy. MR
Out April, Sky Atlantic
Music
Charli xcx
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Reading Festival always used to be a place where any pop stars who dared to make an appearance were duly bottled off. How times have changed, with Chappell Roan storming the main stage last summer and now Charli xcx bringing some brat energy to what is actually the brattiest festival around. It will follow on from Charli’s highly anticipated soundtrack to the new film version of Wuthering Heights. The first single House featured John Cale in a brilliantly avant-garde track which is very different to her usual dance fare. Second single Chains of Love was a similarly elusive slice of mood music — Kate Bush on ketamine, you might say. Another big year for Charli then. MR
Wuthering Heights soundtrack is out February 13; Reading Festival, August 27-30
Florence + The Machine
Florence + The Machine will be touring off the back of excellent album Everybody Scream. The record sees Florence Welch, below, deal with personal battles with visceral fearlessness, being at once mystically ancient in her poeticism and of the moment in her feminism. These days she comes on like the lovechild of PJ Harvey and Nick Cave grown into a wild woman returning from nature to be let loose on the world… MR
February 16 & 17, The O2
Lily Allen
After releasing probably the most talked-about album of last year, despite it arriving at the end of it, Lily Allen is bringing West End Girl on tour, including three nights at the London Palladium in March, and then three nights at the O2 in June and July. No matter what you may think of the album musically — and we think it is vastly underrated — the hyper-confessional nature of the songwriting feels genuinely groundbreaking, like a Taylor Swift who has stopped burying Easter eggs to instead crack them open in front of our faces. MR
March 20-22, London Palladium; June 27 & 28, July 7, The O2
Gorillaz
Back in August, Gorillaz unveiled the House of Kong, an interactive art exhibition at London’s Copper Box, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at the HQ of the virtual band Damon Albarn created with artist Jamie Hewlett back in 1998. At a mystery show accompanying the exhibition, their new album The Mountain was performed in full. The album is now set to land on February 27, and the year of Gorillaz to climax with their biggest show to date at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. MR
June 20, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Geese
Geese went from little-known cult New York act to your dad’s favourite new band over just a few months at the end of last year after the release of their fourth album, Getting Killed, in September. Soon, frontman Cameron Winter, who had released his own solo album earlier in the year, was being hailed as the next Bob Dylan/Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen/Jesus and his show at the Roundhouse caused pandemonium. As such, Geese’s shows at the Eventim Apollo in March and Troxy in September are not so much hot tickets as ticking time bombs… their ramshackle shaggy indie brilliance fits the venues but their level of fame suddenly does not. They’re going to be one hell of a set of shows, if you can get in. MR
March 25, Eventim Apollo; September 1 & 2, Troxy
Mumford & Sons
The new Mumfords record Prizefighter comes out in February, under a year since their last one, Rushmere, and is a dazzlingly expansive work which shows a band at the top of their increasingly evolving game. Somehow they have retained the communal joy of their music with new paths into intimate and raw songwriting, and maybe it’s just the sheer effervescence of being on a creative roll that is infectious. MR
Prizefighter is out February 20; Mumford & Sons play BST Hyde Park, July 4
