Film
LFF celebrates its 60th year with a lineup that doesn’t lack for talent. Things kick off on Wednesday with A United Kingdom (pictured above), Amma Asante’s drama of love and prejudice in postwar Britain, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. Closing proceedings is Ben Wheatley’s crime drama Free Fire. In between, you’ll find all manner of previews, including hotly tipped musical La La Land and a “virtual premiere” of Werner Herzog’s Reveries Of The Connected World, which is available to live-stream, if you can’t make it in person.
Various venues, 5-16 October
Louis Theroux
It’s a notable week for fans of the poker-faced documentary-maker, who has two projects unleashed. On Sunday on BBC2, there is Louis Theroux – Savile, in which Theroux seeks to understand how the entertainer and predatory sex offender, whom he interviewed 15 years before, was able to get away with his appalling crimes for so long. On the big screen from Friday, meanwhile, is My Scientology Movie, in which Theroux investigates, and subsequently finds himself being surveilled by, the Church of Scientology.
Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie is in cinemas from Friday 7 October
Theatre
Mike Poulton’s long-running staging of Dickens’s historical tome has lost none of its spark in the two years since its first performance. Now a touring production, it heads over to the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford for a five-night run.
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, 4-8 October
Events
Cheltenham literature festival
Literature’s great and good decamp to the Cotswolds this Friday as the long-running festival begins. Among those speaking are Ian McEwan, fresh from the publication of his latest novel, Nutshell; Nick Clegg, promoting his new political memoir; historian Mary Beard; and indefatigable children’s author Jacqueline Wilson.
Various venues, 7-16 October
Letters Of Note began as a website unearthing the fascinating written correspondence of significant historical figures, from Mark Twain to Iggy Pop. Since then, the project has spun off into books and live performance. From Tue to 8 Oct, London’s Freemasons’ Hall hosts readings from the likes of Gillian Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Miriam Margolyes and Michael Palin.
Music
Beethoven 1808 Academy Concert
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra take on one of classical music’s biggest tasks: performing all three-and-a-half hours of LvB’s Vienna concert.
City Halls, Glasgow, 2 October
Having already covered post-punk, rave culture and retro-fetishism, acclaimed pop historian Reynolds tackles glam in his latest tome Shock And Awe. To coincide with the book’s release on 11 Oct, Reynolds discusses glam’s rise, fall and legacy with the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis at the Forge Camden this Wednesday.
TV
Luke Cage
You’ve gasped at the gore of Deadpool and marvelled at the daring of Jessica Jones: now get ready for Netflix’s latest small-screen superhero, the indestructible Luke Cage. Of course, Cage will be familiar to Jessica Jones fans – appearing as a love interest – but this full outing fleshes out the character, as Cage seeks to defend his native Harlem from corruption. It’s a tale that touches on race and class as well as the usual amped-up ass-kicking.
Luke Cage launches on Netflix on Friday 30 September
Exhibitions
Louise Bourgeois: Turning Inwards
Best known for her Spider sculpture, late of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, Bourgeois was no less adept in her etchings. This Somerset show displays her complex late work.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, 2 October-1 January
Online
It’s not often we plug our own content, but when Guardian US makes a smart new video series about lady gardens, it would be remiss of us not to go there. Episode 1 gets inside the vulva, with various sexperts joining presenters Mona and Mae to discuss what they really look like.
