Saturday Review

Aquarela is a movie about water...filmed at 96 frames per second- four times faster than normal and there are fewer than a handful of cinemas in then world with equipment to show it properly. What's them point? Swive (Elizabeth) at The Sam Wannamaker Playhouse imagines Elizabeth I from teenager to monarch and the wiles and strength ways she needed to keep on top Robert Musil's most famous book The Man Without Qualities was published in 1943 and a follow-up Agathe has just been published. Compiled by scholars it pulls together notes and drafts to make a sequel. Will the reviewers consider it worth the effort? Theaster Gates is an African American social practice installation artist who has a major new exhibition opening at Tate Liverpool Mike Bartlett wrote the wildly popular Dr Foster but hasn't quite matched its success since. Will his new ITV series Sticks and Stones (about workplace bullying) reestablish his success? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Abigail Morris and Bidisha. The producer is Oliver Jones Image: Nina Cassells (c) Johan Persson Podcast Extra recommendations Bidisha - Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen Abigail - Essays of E B White and Chernobyl podcast Natalie - Peaky Blinders and Lizzo Tom - Jo Jo Rabbit

Fairview is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play just opened at the Young Vic in London. It starts out like a conventional US African American dramedy and then begins to mess with the audience's expectations. How will our reviewers feel about it? Chinese film So Long My Son has won awards at international film festivals. It tells the story of a family over 30 years of turbulent Chinese history Annette Hess' prize-winning novel The German House is the story of a Polish translator at the 1963 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Caught between societal and familial expectations and her unique ability to speak truth to power—as she fights to expose the dark truths of her nation’s past. If everything your family told you was a lie, how far would you go to uncover the truth? A new exhibition of work by British abstract painter John Walker at Ikon in Birmingham includes new paintings A Very Scandi Scandal has just started in the Walter Presents slot on Channel 4. It's a Swedish comedy heist with two extremely unlikely bank robbers Shahidha Bari's guests are Dea Birkett, Kit Davis and Robert Hanks. The producer is Oliver Jones Main image: Rhashan Stone & Nicola Hughes in Fairview (c) Marc Brenner

The Nightingale is a film set in Tasmania in the brutal days of convict settlers and soldiers. A young wife faces violence as she tries to track down a man who has violated her family The National Theatre's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend condenses the four wildly-successful novels into 2 three-hour plays at The Olivier. The creator of Jack Reacher - Lee Child- has written a short book about The Hero. It's the first of two publications in the new Times Literary Supplement imprint - the other reproduces Virginia Woolf's reviews from the TLS. Troy: myth and reality is the latest big exhibition at London's British Museum. trying to work out where legends end history begins in these classical tales Tim Minchin co-wrote and stars in a new roadtrip-based TV comedy series Upright which has just begun on Sky TV. In it he has to transport an old piano across Australia, accompanied by a sassy grumpy young female companion. Is it funny? Is it worth watching? Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Moggach, Tom Shakespeare and Briony Hanson. The producer is Oliver Jones. Podcast extra recommendations: Tom Sh: Independence Square by AD Miller Deborah: Netherlandish Proverbs explained video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tboRw6CPXjI Briony: Hanna Gadsby's Douglas (and Nanette) Tom S: The End of the F***ing World on All 4 and Les Indes Galantes https://youtu.be/Q4jy2wrjESQ and Jo Jo Rabbit film

Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen has been an enormous success and has now transferred to London's West End. It's the story of a socially awkward young man who accidentally becomes a hero Feast & Fast: The art of food in Europe, 1500 – 1800 is the latest exhibition at The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge Greener Grass is a peculiar take on the American suburban comedy British Nigerian author Irenosen Okojie's collection of short stories; Nudibranch American documentary series maker Ken Burns has turned his attention to Country music for his latest series now airing on BBC4 Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Bull, Susie Boyt and Louisa Uchum Egbunike. The producer is Oliver Jones Photo by Matthew Murphy Susie: Wednesday Afternoon matinees at Regent Street Cinema and the Joan Crawford film Queen Bee Deborah: Ballet Black on tour and Inspire The Mind blog Louisa: Chinua Achebe- There was a Country and Chinelo Okparanta - Under the Udala Trees Tom: The Pallisers on Channel 4 and Lil Nas X - Old Town Road

The Gangster The Cop The Devil is an award-winning Korean action thriller about an unlikely alliance between a maverick police detective and a ruthless mobster who have to work together to catch a serial killer Touching the Void began life as a book by Joe Simpson, about a climbing accident which nearly killed him. It has since been turned into a film and now a stage play. How can you show vertiginous dangers and a lot of internal thought processes in the theatre? Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunesekera was born in Ceylon - as it was known then - and his coming of age novel "Suncatcher" is set in his native country in 1964, as the struggle for independence began. Gold Digger is a Sunday night series just started on BBC1. When their 60 year old mum meets and moves in with a much younger man, Julia's children decide they don't like it and start to try and drive them apart George IV : Art and Spectacle has just opened at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace. He was arguably the most magnificent of British monarchs and formed an unrivalled collection of art, much of which remains in the Royal Collection Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Charlotte Mullins, Lynn Shepherd and Jim White. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Lynn - Leonardo Da Vinci at London's National Gallery Charlotte - Kathe Kollwitz at British Museum and Elizabeth Peyton at London's National Portrait Gallery Jim - Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars Tom - Giri Haji on BBC2 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Shipbuilder and his Wife: Jan Rijcksen and his Wife, Griet Jans, 1633 Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019