Jurassic World Rebirth to Gaza: Doctors Under Attack – the week in rave reviews
Summed up in a sentence A belated airing of the hugely controversial documentary that the BBC refused to show: a horrifying investigation into claims that Israel's Defence Force has systematically targeted Palestinian medics.
What our reviewer said 'This is the sort of television that will never leave you. It will provoke an international reaction, and for extremely good cause. Forget what got it stopped at the BBC. It is here now and, regardless of how that happened, we owe it to the subjects to not look away.' Stuart Heritage
Read the full review
Further reading Gaza film's producer accuses BBC of trying to gag him over decision to drop it
BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence The second series of a brilliant, startlingly feral comedy about a trio of troubled female relatives – whose first outing won a comedy Bafta.
What our reviewer said 'Such Brave Girls won't be to everyone's tastes. But if you like your comedy scary, lairy and perfectly portioned, it is a total knockout.' Hannah J Davies
Read the full review
Further reading 'Who else can we annoy with our show?': Such Brave Girls, Britain's most gleefully offensive comedy returns
Netflix; full series available
Summed up in a sentence Interviewees including Tony Blair feature in this absolutely comprehensive look at how the 2005 London transport bombings prompted the UK's largest criminal investigation.
What our reviewer said 'Though it is by now a familiar story, this evokes the fear, confusion and panic of that day in heart-racing detail.' Rebecca Nicholson
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BBC iPlayer; all episodes available
Summed up in a sentence Adam Curtis applies his archive-footage packed documentary style to explaining how the atomisation of UK society has destroyed our democracy – with mesmerising results.
What our reviewer said 'It is an increasing rarity to stand in the presence of anyone with an idea, a thesis, that they have thoroughly worked out to their own satisfaction and then presented stylishly, exuberantly and still intelligently. The hell and the handcart feel that bit more bearable now.' Lucy Mangan
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Further reading Thatcher, Farage and toe-sucking: Adam Curtis on how Britain came to the brink of civil war
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Near-extinct franchise roars back to life as latest instalment offers Spielberg-style set pieces and excellent romantic chemistry between leads Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey.
What our reviewer said 'This new Jurassic adventure isn't doing anything so very different from the earlier successful models, perhaps, and I could have done without its outrageous brand synergy product placement for certain brands of chocolate bar. But it feels relaxed and sure-footed in its Spielberg pastiche, its big dino-jeopardy moments and its deployment of thrills and laughs.' Peter Bradshaw
Read the full review
Further reading 'The script didn't have Jurassic World on the front': Gareth Edwards on Monsters, Godzilla, Star Wars and reinventing dinosaurs
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Elaborate necrophiliac meditation on loss and longing from David Cronenberg, starring Vincent Cassel as an oncologist who has founded a restaurant with a hi-tech cemetery attached.
What our reviewer said 'The film has its own creepy, enveloping mausoleum atmosphere of disquiet, helped by the jarring electronic score by Howard Shore.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading 'Something must have gone wrong with us': David Cronenberg and Howard Shore on four decades of body horror
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Superb documentary about the making of Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now, with Coppola's epic meltdown in the jungle.
What our reviewer said 'Haemorrhaging money and going insanely over-schedule, Coppola shot his film in the Philippines during burning heat, humidity and monsoons and borrowed army helicopters and pilots from President Ferdinand Marcos, only to find that on many occasions – especially during the legendary Ride of the Valkyries attack scene – filming had to halt as the Filipino military would ask for their helicopters back so they could suppress a communist insurgency. In fact, Coppola found himself reproducing reality on a 1:1 scale.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Francis Ford Coppola: 'Apocalypse Now is not an anti-war film'
Prime Video; available now
Summed up in a sentence John Cena and Idris Elba star in fun and well-modulated throwback comedy as the US president and UK prime minister, who team up to escape terrorists.
What our reviewer said 'Fun, fiery and totally frivolous, Heads of State is a perfect summer movie with great potential for future sequels.' Andrew Lawrence
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Sky Cinema and Now; available now
Summed up in a sentence Compelling story of Formula One star Damon Hill's trials on and off the racetrack in its depiction of the psychological pressure cooker in which the driver competed.
What our reviewer said 'It has quiet, but profound, lessons to impart in its emphasis on the driver's need to live up to his roistering father Graham, and on the real meaning of victory in the most alpha of environments that is Formula One.' Phil Hoad
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Further reading 'I was angry at the world': Damon Hill on pain of his father's death and how it fuelled his rise
Review by Dorian Lynskey
Summed up in a sentence An investigation into the causes of America's 1970s serial killer epidemic comes up with some surprising answers.
What our reviewer said 'It is as hauntingly compulsive a nonfiction book as I have read in a long time. It gets into your blood.'
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Review by Joanna Quinn
Summed up in a sentence A sequel to Hideous Kinky, 30 years on, explores the effects of an unconventional upbringing.
What our reviewer said 'It's billed as a novel but arguably occupies an interesting grey area between novel and memoir, resisting the expectations of both and creating something all of its own.'
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Further reading 'When I read my sister's stories I think, that's not what it was like!': Esther Freud on the perils of writing about family
Review by Beejay Silcox
Summed up in a sentence An ambitious, globe-trotting epic of political and family secrets.
What our reviewer said 'Flashlight is all kinds of big: capacious of intent and scope and language and swagger, confronting a chapter of North Korean history that American fiction has barely touched.'
Read the full review
Review by Sam Leith
Summed up in a sentence Deadpan short stories that range from the surreal to the philosophical to the absurd.
What our reviewer said 'Not so much one book as a library of tiny books, from an author who conveys as well as any I can think of just how much fun you can have with a short story.'
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Review by Houman Barekat
Summed up in a sentence Inside the glittering, gossipy world of publisher Condé Nast.
What our reviewer said 'Grynbaum quotes one journalist who believes she missed out on an editorship because, during the interview lunch, she gauchely ate asparagus with cutlery rather than by hand'
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In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence The murdered Guardian journalist's final investigation, completed by his friends and supporters.
What our reviewer said 'A book both brilliant and broken, one that is ultimately as inspiring and devastating as the Amazon itself' Charlie Gilmour
Read the full review
Further reading A deadly mission: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira tried to warn the world about the Amazon's destruction
Out now
Summed up in a sentence After a long legal battle, the pop star's sixth album harks back to her 2010s hot-mess era, with a buffet of pop styles and only rare hints of her highly publicised trauma.
What our reviewer said 'The songs are all really strong, filled with smart little twists and drops, and funny, self-referential lines.' Alexis Petridis
Read the full review
Further reading 'I would walk in and just cry for two hours': Kesha on cats, court cases, and the dangers of 'toxic positivity'
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The UK collective have been reimagining south Asian music since 2020, and their new compilation splices junglism and afro-house on to gems in Sony India's catalogue.
What our reviewer said 'Reframing this nostalgic cinema music for the modern dancefloor, Alterations proves there is still plenty of space for future generations of diaspora artists to celebrate and find inspiration in their heritage.' Ammar Kalia
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Out now
Summed up in a sentence Despair runs through the Londoner's fifth album but, in what is essentially a love letter to the trans community, his home town and partner, beauty breaks through.
What our reviewer said 'Hope and hard-won happiness, against all odds, underpins this rich, compelling and timely record.' Rachel Aroesti
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Further reading Kae Tempest: 'I was living with this boiling hot secret in my heart'
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Performed by Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, these 24 works, modelled on Bach, date from 1950 and 1951 and were originally written for pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva.
What our reviewer said 'Avdeeva takes a lighter approach, less forthright, and perhaps not digging as deeply into the barely disguised tragedy of the E minor Prelude as Nikolayeva does, but equally dazzling in the exuberant display of the A minor.' Andrew Clements
Read the full review
Playing outdoor shows this week
Summed up in a sentence Playing outdoor shows including the big send-off for Black Sabbath on Saturday, the thrash legends have reformed and are playing their first UK gigs in six years.
What our reviewer said 'Slayer are still a shocking proposition, their churning riffs punctuated by gross-out gore and grim images from endless war. Subtle? No. Effective? Absolutely.' Huw Baines
Read the full review
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Woman who livestreamed Kneecap Glastonbury set targeted by online abuse
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The Sun
10 minutes ago
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Brian McFadden shares first photos of stunning wedding day with new wife Danielle Parkinson
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25 minutes ago
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Colin Brazier: The day I discovered my millionaire grandfather
Five years ago, while explaining his conversion to Catholicism, America's vice-president, JD Vance, wrote that coincidences were evidence of 'the touch of God'. But how improbable need events be before rational explanations falter? I ask this, not for a friend, but myself. Last month, on Friday the 13th no less, something happened which stretches statistical credulity. And since I am already a Catholic, I am not minded to dismiss it as happenstance. I was sitting with my daughter at Lord's Cricket Ground when a message landed in my LinkedIn inbox. It was from a stranger, a woman claiming to be my aunt. A recent DNA test had apparently revealed the link. Without going into details, her story checked out. She also included two pictures of a man, bearing an unmistakable likeness to me, standing in front of a very grand house. This, she said, was my paternal grandfather, James JJ Doyle. Her disclosure was, to put it mildly, a surprise. I was raised knowing nothing about my father's side of the family (indeed, I had only learnt my father's true identity as a young man). Now, out-of-blue, came my grandfather's story. James 'Jimmy' Doyle was born in 1930 into extreme poverty in Hastings, where – coincidentally – I spent half a year training to be a journalist. He was a poor boy made good, up to a point. A spell in prison for handling stolen antiques (he was exposed by Esther Rantzen on That's Life) did not prevent a social ascent of Becky Sharp velocity. He became a property developer and in 1971 pulled off the biggest coup of his career. After 20 years of trying, he finally bought Wykehurst Place, a 105-room country house set in 180-acres of Sussex countryside. Doyle spent millions in today's money on a huge restoration project. Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, in their influential series The Buildings Of England, described it as the 'epitome of high Victorian showiness and licence'. The house became the setting for films like The Eagle Has Landed starring Michael Caine. According to my newly-discovered aunt, her father was a man of strong dynastic instincts. His yearning for a male heir to inherit the family pile was never requited (he had seven daughters). The reality, unknown to him, was that he had fathered a boy as a teenager in Brighton. That baby, adopted by a couple far away in Yorkshire, became my father. Neither knew of the other's existence. Sadly, Doyle's life ultimately ended in ruin and despair. After divorce and bankruptcy, he killed himself in 1995. Learning of all this made me reflect that in a world where DNA home-testing kits are cheap and widely available, the discovery of hidden branches of family trees must be increasingly commonplace. Doyle's story was simply more colourful, and ultimately tragic, than many. But the genetic science that has made this possible is about more than ancestry tests. In the eternal debate about what makes people who they are, DNA now dominates the argument. Geneticists talk of characteristics as something we are born with, innate – not bred into us or learnt. When I look at the parallels between my life and that of my grandfather, do I see coincidence or genetic predisposition? Doyle had seven daughters and a son. I had a son and five daughters. Does that suggest a biological sex-bias in our DNA, something in our genes which made us both more likely to beget girls? Or, is it broader than that? There is evidence to suggest a genetic predisposition towards the decision to have children at all. What might feel like an act of free-will may actually have more to do with what lurks in our double-helix. Some scientists even believe that personality-traits like an openness to religion are genetically encoded. God-botherers like me are just born that way, it seems. But how to explain the other stuff? As anyone who has followed my 35-year-long career in television will testify (BBC, Sky, GB News), over the decades I have moved sharply and publicly to the Right. On X, I post regularly about immigration issues, motivated to a great extent by my upbringing in Bradford, a city used (disastrously in my view) as a giant laboratory for multiculturalism. Doyle, though ostensibly a businessman, was also of the Right. He founded the Racial Preservation Society, which campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for an end to mass immigration. Until Friday the 13th, I had never heard of the Racial Preservation Society, nor of The British Independent, a newspaper founded and funded by Doyle. When I discovered Doyle's politics I was half-way through proof-reading a book about anti-Semitism for a Jewish friend. I have no time for racists. But I am also part of a growing cohort of commentators online and elsewhere who refuse to be shutdown by ideological enemies who use that slur to limit legitimate debate. I think Britain faces tough questions about its demographic future, and I am trying to explore them in the pages of The Salisbury Review, a conservative quarterly founded by the philosopher Roger Scruton and where I am now assistant editor. I have no idea how it compares to Doyle's British Independent. Yet it is odd that we should both be involved in Right-wing writing. If family formation and religiosity can be attributed to DNA, what about politics? But where does genetics stop and coincidence begin? And, indeed, where does a coincidence become so improbable that it veers beyond the bounds of reasonable likelihood? It is odd that I should call my only son John Joseph, even though I never knew James JJ (John Joseph) Doyle. It is strange that my grandfather, when he sold Wykehurst Park in 1981, should buy a slightly lesser mansion, now apparently inhabited by a famous English journalist and media personality (Piers Morgan). Yet these are everyday coincidences. How, though, to account for Bolney? I had never heard of Bolney, a village in Sussex, until a friend gave me a Virgin voucher as a wedding present last year. It was for a tour around a vineyard located there. We forgot all about it until, while my wife was organising her desk six weeks ago, she stumbled upon the card and noticed that the gift was about to expire. We decided to book a room there and spend a day walking on the South Downs. That was a few days before Friday the 13th. There are more than 6,000 villages in Britain and yet the one that had come to our attention was the very village in which Wykehurst Place sits. The home, not just of a vineyard, but of my paternal grandfather. What are the odds? The dictionary defines a coincidence as 'a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection'. I prefer the definition given by the late Alistair Cooke, long-time and much-loved host of BBC radio's Letter From America. Extreme coincidence was, he said in a letter about the subject in 2001, a potential gift of grace. 'Somebody,' he said, 'is saying 'stay the course' … reminding you that they have you in mind.'
