Critics Pick Top TV Shows, Films, Books and Albums of the Week

Critics have selected standout TV programs, films, books, albums and a theatre production for the week.

In television, the top recommendation is Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure on BBC iPlayer. This retrospective covers one of David Attenborough’s greatest TV achievements and includes brilliant anecdotes. Reviewer Jack Seale called Victoria Bobin’s film a rollicking story of a giant pop-culture moment. He described a gang of mates remembering how they sensed conditions were right to create a blockbuster masterpiece, if they were willing to flirt with failure and even death.

Other TV picks include Amandaland on BBC iPlayer, a Motherland spin-off focusing on delusional mum Amanda. Rachel Aroesti praised Lucy Punch’s mesmerisingly convincing portrayal of Amanda and Joanna Lumley’s magnetic performance as her mother Felicity. My Garden of a Thousand Bees on BBC iPlayer is a documentary about a man’s love for garden insects that changed his life. Sarah Dempster noted its pleasantly bee-like quality, drifting woozily around the photographer’s garden and picking up facts. The Artist on MGM+ stars Mandy Patinkin as a Rhode Island robber baron in a period comedy. Jack Seale found its pugnacious whimsy with cold steel hidden in the folds of its grubby velvet gown.

For films, Romeria leads in cinemas. Carla Simón’s drama follows a young woman arriving in a Spanish coastal city to meet her dead father’s family, who hide details of his life and death. Peter Bradshaw praised Simón’s instinctive way of immersing in freewheeling family scenes, her camera moving like another teenager at the party.

Additional film choices are Our Land in cinemas, Orban Wallace’s documentary on right-to-roam campaigners offering bacchanalian antics and a heartfelt message. Bradshaw said ramblers are justified in keeping pressure up and opening countryside to everyone is a universal good. Kokuho in cinemas is Lee Sang-il’s kabuki drama spanning 50 years of bond and rivalry between two men in female roles. Bradshaw emphasised discipline and commitment transforming pain into beauty. The Sheep Detectives in cinemas features Hugh Jackman as a farmer with plucky sheep solving a murder. Bradshaw noted the film’s feelgood trick of scooting past the death to entertaining sheep-oriented crime detection. Now streaming on Mubi, Abouna by Mahamat Saleh Haroun follows two boys’ forlorn search for their father. Bradshaw highlighted lingering moments like the boys running from the cinema or walking on hands at the Chad-Cameroon border.

Top book is Iran and the Revolution by Homa Katouzian, reviewed by John Simpson. This landmark account of the 1979 revolution provides context for current events. Simpson called it the clearest account free of preconceptions. Other books include The Given World by Melissa Harrison, reviewed by Alexandra Harris, on six months in a rural English village charged with cosmic change amid ecological crisis. Solace House by Will Maclean, reviewed by Sam Leith, is a Nineties gothic tale of students in a haunted house that whips by in 500 pages. Lady C by Guy Cuthbertson, reviewed by Blake Morrison, covers DH Lawrence’s novel’s impact, with diligent archive research including the trial judge’s marked copy. Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, reviewed by Emma Brockes, details Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes impact. Brockes said Giuffre’s recollections present Prince Andrew in a buffoonish and grotesque light.

Leading album is Olof Dreijer’s Loud Bloom, out now. Squiggling melodies and quizzical distortion banish winter gloom from his Knife days. Ben Beaumont-Thomas said Dreijer created a walled garden of psychedelia conjuring summer in bloom. Aldous Harding’s Train on the Island, out now, offers beguiling lyrics about naked owls and eating rocks. Alexis Petridis praised its subtle, richly melodic music. Helen Charlston’s A Poet’s Love, out now, centres on Schumann’s Dichterliebe with pianist Sholto Kynoch. Clive Paget noted Charlston’s voice flows like molten lava, every word crystal clear. Ana Roxanne’s Poem 1, out now, essays a broken heart with her voice front and centre. Safi Bugel highlighted her lovely, wispy voice over stripped-back compositions.

Now at the Royal Opera House in London until May 28, Peter Grimes is a gripping revival of Britten’s opera set in a present-day left-behind English coastal town. Allan Clayton excels as the tormented fisher. Erica Jeal said Clayton’s Grimes has few rivals.