Going out: Cinema
Flow
Out now
This year’s Oscar winner for best animated feature had a cult following even before the Academy ratified its status as something special. This simple, dialogue-free story about a cat surviving in a post-apocalyptic world is one of those treats that appeals in equal measure to children and adults.
The Alto Knights
Out now
He may be 92, but Nicholas Pileggi, whose nonfiction book Wiseguy became Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, is still spinning his mob stories. This time, he’s written the script for a mafia movie starring Robert De Niro in a double role as mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.
Snow White
Out now
This live-action retelling of the story that made Disney’s name all the way back in 1937 stars Rachel Zegler as the eponymous pale princess and Gal Gadot as the lady with the magic mirror. There’s also a new love interest called Jonathan, presumably because princes who go around snogging comatose women are not very 2025.
Dawn of Impressionism: Paris, 1874
Out now
The new school of painting that arrived in 1870s Paris was initially scorned, but over time its popularity mushroomed, with work from Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir and all the rest viewed by thousands every year. This new Exhibition On Screen documentary brings those works to even wider audiences. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Coco & Clair Clair
25 to 29 March; tour starts London
The beguiling Atlanta duo, who mix bedroom pop, cloud rap and electro, arrive in the UK in support of last year’s excellent album, Girl. Playful and arch, but with flashes of sincerity, the group’s highlight will likely be the breakbeat take on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Our House. Michael Cragg
1945: A Kind of Haunting
London, 25 March; Birmingham, 26 March; Saffron Walden, 28 March
The Britten Sinfonia’s programme marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war features a new work by Michael Zev Gordon, which explores how the Holocaust has continued to affect subsequent generations. Andrew Clements
Dayglow
25 to 28 March; tour starts Glasgow
Texan singer, songwriter and producer Sloan Struble specialises in the kind of amped-up pop-rock that makes you want to pogo rather than mosh. His self-titled fourth album features definite crowdpleasers in the shape of Mindless Creatures and Cocoon. MC
John Scofield Trio
Ronnie Scott’s, London, 28 & 29 March
A guitar star since his early-80s stretch with Miles Davis, Scofield’s mix of Hendrix-like rawness, soul/blues phrasing and bebop ingenuity has made him a jazz legend. This trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart is his favourite live lineup. John Fordham
Going out: Art
Grayson Perry
The Wallace Collection, London, 28 March to 26 October
Perry has said he doesn’t like the art in the Wallace Collection, so expect ironic sneers aplenty in his exhibition there. Let’s all have a laugh at the saucy Fragonard paintings and Gainsborough’s haunting masterpiece Perdita. If you love the place, as I do, you might want to avoid Perry’s intervention.
Discovering Jewish Country Houses
Waddesdon Manor, nr Aylesbury, 26 March to 22 June
The English country house is a defining myth of a nationhood imagined as ethnically homogenous but, in the 19th century, Jewish families broke through that marble ceiling. Hélène Binet’s photographs reveal how the Rothschilds and others subverted snobbery and defied racism, especially at Waddesdon, where Queen Victoria was a guest.
A World of Water
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, to 3 August
Art is a unique record of the sea and our relationship with it. Artists have been accurately depicting the North Sea especially, ever since Dutch painters turned their eyes on it in the 1600s. This exhibition surveys the sea that East Anglia shares with the Netherlands from then until now.
Textiles: The Art of Mankind
Fashion and Textile Museum, London, 28 March to 7 September
This ambitious exhibition argues that textiles are not just useful or decorative but have always hung at the heart of human history and creativity. They also survive in surprising quantities from remote places and times. Admire wondrous bright fragments and miraculous woven treasures in a tapestry of all our pasts. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Harry Hill
Shrewsbury, 22 March; tour continues to 21 September
The big-collared comic is 60 but, rather than reaching for his pipe and slippers, Hill is doubling down on his crackers comedy. Latest show New Bits & Greatest Hits offers up fresh gags about bags for life and butchers. Rachel Aroesti
Dance Reflections
Various venues, London, to 8 April
Catch the final shows of the eclectic Dance Reflections festival, including contemporary dance on high-wires in Outsider, a double bill on queerness and marginalisation (Crow/Pigeons by Jules Cunningham) and a triple bill of George Balanchine classics. Lyndsey Winship
Apex Predator
Hampstead theatre, London, 22 March to 26 April
Mixing social satire and supernatural thriller, John Donnelly’s new play critiques how we live now. Director Blanche McIntyre’s cast includes the astonishing Sophie Melville (Iphigenia in Splott) and Laura Whitmore. Kate Wyver
Pig Heart Boy
The Lowry, Salford, 26 to 29 March, then touring
Looking for a story full of heart? Winsome Pinnock’s new version of the beloved children’s novel by Malorie Blackman, for ages 9+, revives the tale of the boy offered a pig heart in exchange for his faulty human one. KW
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Staying in: Streaming
This City Is Ours
BBC One/iPlayer, 23 March, 9pm
Gangsters in TV dramas are constantly promising to go straight in the name of love. They barely ever do. Cue this new Liverpool-set series, which follows Michael (James Nelson-Joyce), a longtime drug trafficker who considers packing it in for his new girlfriend – but can he go through with it? Sean Bean co-stars.
The Studio
Apple TV+, 26 March
Having usurped movies in zeitgeist terms, TV is now rubbing salt in the wound by spoofing the current crisis in Hollywood. Here, co-creator Seth Rogen plays a studio boss wrangling stars and moneymen, as the likes of Charlize Theron, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese cameo as themselves.
My Brain: After the Rupture
BBC Two/iPlayer, 28 March, 9pm
In 2020, 38 year-old Clemency Burton-Hill experienced a catastrophic brain haemorrhage, leaving her unable to walk or talk. This documentary traces the broadcaster and classical music specialist’s miraculous path to recovery, as she returns to work and to her beloved violin.
The Change
Channel 4, 25 March, 10pm
Series one of Bridget Christie’s joyous, radical, Bafta-nominated menopause comedy saw Linda (Christie) swap Swindon for forest life after decades of domestic drudgery. But having won over the woodland community, she must now come clean about her real identity – and reunite with layabout husband Steve (Omid Djalili). RA
Staying in: Games
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Out now, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Play as a powerful samurai and a sneaky shinobi in this historical action game, which finally takes players to one of their most-requested times and places: Sengoku-period Japan. One for Shōgun appreciators.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Out now, Nintendo Switch
This melodramatic Japanese sci-fi, with hints of Final Fantasy and Evangelion, was an underappreciated classic when it was released in 2015. You won’t believe the size of some of the alien creatures you fight in this thing. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
The Horrors – Night Life
Out now
Eight years after the release of V, professional goths the Horrors return with their sixth album and two new members in Millie Kidd and Jordan Cook. While it features only nine songs, epic tracks such as Ariel and the Depeche Mode-esque Lotus Eater eerily stretch their tentacles outwards to become all-consuming.
Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women)
Out now
The follow-up to 2021’s breakthrough, Jubilee, finds the US indie-pop band moving out of the makeshift studios of their past and into somewhere more professional. Frontwoman Michelle Zauner taps the darker depths of her psyche on songs such as the rolling Mega Circuit, assisted by producer Blake Mills (Perfume Genius).
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco – I Said I Love You First
Out now
The actor-singer and producer couple explore their relationship via the prism of pop on this loved-up collaboration. Scared of Lonely is a fragile, Finneas-assisted ballad, while the pepped-up, indie-leaning Call Me When You Break Up throws Gracie Abrams into the mix.
My Morning Jacket – Is
Out now
After nine albums, the Kentucky rockers have finally drafted in an outside producer, with Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) helping to hone a suite of melodic, cosmic-tinged anthems such as single Time Waited. Squid Ink, meanwhile, throws in a bluesy rumble that could tempt Jack White into a smile. MC
Staying in: Brain food
Icons of Style
BBC iPlayer, out now
Kirsty Wark’s new series on the fashion legacy of Scotland is full of intriguing history, beginning with the links between the Dior brand and Scotland, as well as recounting how Vivenne Westwood made tartan punk.
National Trust Podcast: Wild Tales
Podcast
The latest audio series from the National Trust uncovers the unusual lives of animals. Episode one focuses on the often terrifying exploits of gulls before going on to explore everything from dolphin socialising to spider sex.
Mic the Snare
YouTube
YouTube is full of music essayists but vlogger Mic the Snare is one of its most entertaining and opinionated. His videos in defence of much-maligned stars such as Camilla Cabello and Jacob Collier are surprisingly convincing. Ammar Kalia