The Ballad of Wallis IslandOut nowComedy drama co-starring and co-written by comedians Tim Key and Tom Basden. Key plays a lottery winner with some big ideas about what to do with his winnings: namely, pay his favourite musical act to reunite. Hey, it’s more interesting than buying a fancy car. Basden and Carey Mulligan play the folk duo McGwyer Mortimer.
The Salt PathOut nowDrama based on the true story of a 630-mile pilgrimage along the coast in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs star as a married couple displaced from their home, who set out on a shoe leather-testing journey with not much more than a tent and a sense of determination.
Karate Kid: LegendsOut nowStarring Jackie Chan as Mr Han and Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, this family friendly martial arts blockbuster mashes together the worlds of the 2010 Karate Kid reboot with the Cobra Kai TV series, focusing on the journey of the newly created character Li Fong (relative newcomer Ben Wang).
Along Came LoveOut nowSet in the post-second world war period, Katell Quillévéré’s award-winning drama sees a French waitress (Anaïs Demoustier) whose young son was conceived with a German soldier building a new relationship with a bisexual intellectual (Vincent Lacoste).Catherine Bray
Lido festivalVictoria Park, London,6 to 14 JuneThe team behind east London festival All Points East launch this new, erm, east London festival. Massive Attack kick things off on Friday, heading up a lineup that also includes Air and Tirzah. Charli xcx headlines on 14 June.Michael Cragg
Nelly4 to 11 June; tour starts BirminghamAs part of his Where the Party At world tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Country Grammar album, rapper and Pimp Juice hitmaker Nelly arrives in UK arenas. Eve, Fabolous and Nelly’s own hip-hop group St Lunatics offer up ample support.MC
Tom Ollendorff QuartetVortex Jazz Club, London,6 & 7 JuneYoung UK musician Tom Ollendorff often reclaims jazz guitar-playing’s classic past, but he also understands its fast-changing present. For these two nights, he’s joined by US piano star Aaron Parks and A-list locals Conor Chaplin (bass) and James Maddren (drums).John Fordham
Simon BoccanegraGrange Park Opera, West Horsley Place, Surrey,4 June to 11 JulyVerdi’s dark masterpiece is the first of four productions in Grange Park Opera’s summer season. David Pountney’s staging, with designs by Ralph Koltai, has been revived by Robin Tebbutt, with Simon Keenlyside taking the title role of the Genoese Doge. Gianluca Marciano conducts.Andrew Clements
Sussex ModernismTowner Eastbourne, to 28 SeptemberYou probably didn’t know Sussex was the heart of modernism. Or perhaps you did, given it includes the country home of the Bloomsbury group. This exhibition roams over green hills of 20th- and 21st-century cultural history, featuring Jeff Keen, Ivon Hitchens, Jacob Epstein and more.
Rachel WhitereadGoodwoodArtFoundation, Chichester,31 May to 2 NovemberOne of Britain’s greatest modern artists inaugurates a new sculpture park with her perturbing vision. Whiteread stands apart and alone in today’s art. She set out in early works such as Ghost and House to make monuments to the traces of everyday lives. She’s still doing this in surreal, marvellous ways.
Joseph Wright of DerbyDerby Museum and Art Gallery, to 7 SeptemberThe spirit of the Enlightenment glows in Joseph Wright of Derby’s visions of science, from fiery paintings of Vesuvius erupting to Derby Museum’s masterpiece the candlelit Orrery. But this exhibition looks at the drawing skills behind his luminous paintings, revealing how he sketched and designed on paper all his life.
V&A East StorehouseQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, from31 MayA new home for the V&A collections of, well, just about everything, this state-of-the-art space is open to visit, with displays of objects, interiors and art you can explore. This may be the opening of the year: a 21st-century cabinet of curiosities to feed imaginations.Jonathan Jones
StereophonicDuke of York’s theatre, London, to 20 SeptemberA cast of actor-musicians mimic the process of a recording in all its agony and ecstasy, in David Adjmi’s much hyped Tony award winner. It’s 1976 and a young rock band teeter on the brink of megastardom. Will their new album make them or break them?Miriam Gillinson
Benji Reid: Find Your EyesSadler’s Wells East, London,4 to 7 JuneA five-star show arriving from 2023’s Manchester festival. Benji Reid was a key figure in early UK hip-hop theatre, who became a photographer, and here combines the two in what he calls choreo-photilism. The stage becomes a studio for live photography, projected large, and a space for his life story, movingly told.Lyndsey Winship
Whatever Happened to Phoebe SaltNew Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme,31 May to 21 JuneArthur Berry’s final play is being staged for the first time to celebrate the local writer’s centenary year. Set in Stoke-on-Trent, it’s about a woman who works at a meat market and yearns for escape – will a surprise TV appearance offer her a way out?MG
A Lovely WeekendFairfield Social Club, Manchester,6 to 8 JuneCo-founded by three-time Edinburgh award nominee Chris Cantrill (who’s also on the bill), this tiny festival boasts some of the most compelling characters in UK comedy, including the ludicrously deadpan Mark Silcox, the boundary-pushing Jordan Brookes, and John Kearns, who shrouds transcendence in joke-shop visuals.Rachel Aroesti
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What It Feels Likefor a GirliPlayer & BBC Three,3 June, 9pmJournalist Paris Lees’s memoir about her turn-of-the-millennium adolescence becomes a rambunctious Y2K-set coming-of-age dramedy. Ellis Howard is Byron, who bristles against humdrum Nottinghamshire life before discovering love, painful thrills and a trans identity in its hedonistic club scene.
MountainheadNow & Sky Atlantic,1 June, 9pmJesse Armstrong follows Succession with another irreverent study of the ludicrously wealthy and privileged: this feature-length TV film stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef as four tech billionaire frenemies who hole up together as the economy crashes and the world burns.
St Denis MedicaliPlayer & BBC One,6 June, 10.40pmFans of the garlanded Abbott Elementary, a mockumentary about an underfunded Philadelphia school, may be in the market for this mockumentary about an underfunded Oregon hospital. Fargo’s Allison Tolman stars as the stressed head ER nurse, while Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs) is the delusional executive director.
StickApple TV+,4 JuneFor a sport often characterised as unentertaining, golf has provided plenty of comedic inspiration over the decades (see: Caddyshack, Happy Gilmore, the last season of Curb). Now this Owen Wilson-led series about an ex-pro who bets big on a gifted 17-year-old aims to join their ranks. Marc Maron and Judy Greer co-star.RA
Elden Ring NightreignPC, Xbox, PS4/5; out nowA multiplayer reimagining of 2022’s extraordinary dark fantasy game, in which three players can work together to vanquish evolved versions of its memorably breathtaking bosses.
Nintendo Switch 2From5 JuneIf it had somehow escaped your notice, Nintendo’s long-awaited next games console is out this week, alongside a new Mario Kart in which you canfinallyrace as a cow.Keza MacDonald
Garbage – Let All That We Imagine Be the LightOut nowAfter 2021’s angry No Gods No Masters, the enduring Scottish-American rock band seek out optimism on this punchy eighth album. Despite its title, lead single There’s No Future in Optimism – with its mantra of “love, love, future” – is the perfect encapsulation of the band’s hopeful outlook.
Swans – BirthingOut nowThis 17th album from US noise merchants Swans is apparently the last of its kind before the band move to a more pared-back sound. They’re certainly going out with a bang, or should that be a drone? Single I Am a Tower is a slow-moving, 19-minute opus that’s like three songs having a scrap.
Miley Cyrus – Something BeautifulOut nowCentred on the theme of “healing”, Something Beautiful finds Cyrus experimenting with the parameters of pop-rock. The title track, for example, builds from a gently burbling ballad into a raging rock cacophony, while single End of the World’s lyrical nihilism is sweetened by a 70s MOR sonic palette.
Obongjayar – Paradise NowOut nowFusing wiry synthpop (Just My Luck), a splash of elastic post-rock (Not in Surrender) and, on the delirious banger Jellyfish, just about every genre going, the second album from British-Nigerian Obongjayar is tied together by the low rumble of his extraordinary voice.MC
My Week With Lubaina HimidSky Arts & Now,9pm, 3 JuneArt historian Kate Bryan spends a week with formidable female artists in this charming series. Her stay with Turner prize-winning Lubaina Himid includes a birthday dinner at her Preston home and even a trip to the circus.
Gaps in the DialPodcastAs part of the Barbican’s latest exhibition exploring sound, this audio series uncovers the fascinating history of pirate radio in the UK – a phenomenon that was criminalised but came to define the sounds of the underground.
Primal SpaceYouTubeThis series of animated video essays provides engaging insights into niche aspects of history you have probably never thought about before, such as why ancient ruins are found underground or how Bic pens changed literacy rates.Ammar Kalia