Ghosts favourite leads new comedy thriller Hostages – watch first-look trailer
Charlotte Ritchie has the lead role in the feature debut film from writer/director Jim Owen.
Charlotte Ritchie is best known for her leading roles on the small screen, starring across a host of hugely popular TV shows – from Ghosts to Feel Good – but now she's landed the lead role in an upcoming movie. Hostages, which is the feature debut of writer/director Jim Owen, is billed as a comedy thriller, following five people who are "caught in an unfolding terrorism situation" – and RadioTimes.com can exclusively launch the first-look trailer ahead of its release on digital platforms on Monday 22nd December. The film also includes Tanya Moodie (Motherland), Nicholas Asbury (37 Days), Raj Ghatak (Dead Set), Luke McQueen, Nick Helm, Rachel Stubbings, Jack Barry, Georgie Jones and Simon McCoy, and you can get a good flavour of what to expect by viewing the teaser below. View oEmbed on the source website "Mariah Carey once said she just wanted a day to go swimming, to eat ice cream, to look at rainbows," Ritchie's character says into a phone camera at the start of the trailer, before we see some footage of a very dramatic explosion. The character's documentation of these events on social media then appears to see her number of followers skyrocket – even getting a retweet from Rita Ora – but it also has terrible repercussions for her and the people she is hiding out with, with their location now given away to the people behind the bombing. The official synopsis for the film reads: "After a terrifying explosion in a hotel in London, three strangers escape together and hide out in a room. "Hostages is a fresh take on the 24-hour news cycle and whether or not social media is more important than people's lives." Hostages will be available on digital platforms from 22nd December. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wicked: For Good box office revealed as sequel scores one of 2025's biggest box office debuts
Despite a more lukewarm reception from critics, the second instalment of the two-part movie musical has surpassed the first film's opening.
Following the mammoth success of the first film last year – combined with some mega pre-sale figures this time around – Wicked: For Good always looked like being another major box office hit, and so it has proved. Despite faring a little less well with critics this time around (the Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits at 70 per cent compared to 88 per cent for Part One), Jon M Chu's film has once again drawn the public to cinemas in droves, launching with a gross of $226 million in its opening weekend (split between $150 million in the US and $76 million in other territories). Interestingly, that's significantly higher than the total of $164.2 million made by the first film in its opening weekend, meaning that For Good has now comfortably overtaken its predecessors' record as the biggest launch of a Broadway film adaptation in Hollywood history. Read more: Wicked: For Good review – Oz saga conclusion will satisfy its extensive army of devotees Wicked production designer talks turning the Yellow Brick Road into a "form of oppression" It also sees the film become the fourth biggest-opening movie of the year at the global box office, with only Lilo & Stitch ($341 million), Jurassic World Rebirth ($322 million) and A Minecraft Movie ($313 million) grossing higher. That means it ranks ahead of both of the summer's major superhero blockbusters, DC's Superman ($220 million) and Marvel's The Fantastic Four ($218 million) – another impressive feat that adds further evidence to the theory that the superhero genre is no longer the box office behemoth it once was. Of course, the film is based on the second act of the hugely popular stage musical, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande reprising their roles as Elphaba and Glinda and the action coinciding with the events of the Wizard of Oz. Following the release, both Erivo and Grande – who were Oscar-nominated for their roles in the first film and could well feature on the awards circuit again this year – shared emotional goodbyes to their characters on social media. "I could write you an essay, a poem, Shakespearean prose, to describe what this journey has meant to me, what lessons this time has taught me, bought me," Erivo wrote in a lengthy caption to a post on her Instagram page, which she signed off: "Thank you for letting me be your Elphaba." Meanwhile, Grande wrote: "Thank you, my sweet Glinda, for everything. I will love you always ... Wicked For Good is out now." Wicked: For Good is currently showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The best streaming services in 2025: How to choose between Netflix, Prime and Disney+
We compare Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime Video and more to help you find your perfect streaming match.
Streaming has never been bigger – or more confusing. In the years since Netflix first revolutionised how we consume film and TV, a whole host of rival platforms have launched to the point that it can now be difficult to know where to begin. From Disney+ – which arrived for UK audiences in March 2020 – to Apple TV, which has amassed a highly impressive catalogue of original films and shows in a relatively time span, there really is a wealth of options. But which is the best of the bunch? To answer that question, we’ve tested and compared the top streaming services available in the UK, breaking down price, the best shows and what kind of TV fan each one’s is suited to. With the help of our comprehensive guide below, you'll be far better qualified to select the ideal streamer for you and your family's viewing needs. Best TV and streaming service Black Friday deals 2025 Black Friday 2025 (28th November) is fast approaching, but we have already found these deals you don’t want to miss: Sky Essential TV & 500Mbps Full Fibre Broadband | £35 a month at Sky Sky Essential TV, Sky Cinema & 500Mbps Full Fibre Broadband | £45 a month at Sky Disney Plus annual pass | £107.88 £89.90 (save £17.98 or 16%) or £155.88 £129.90 (save £25.98 or 16%) Which streaming services are available in the UK? Amazon Prime Video: Budget-friendly all-rounder Apple TV: Big-budget dramas and kids' shows DAZN: Sports and boxing fans Disney+: Families and Marvel and Star Wars lovers Hayu: Reality TV fanatics ITVX: Bingers of British box sets Netflix: Binge-watchers, film lovers and fans of original content NOW: Prestige TV from Sky & HBO and those wanting blockbuster movies Amazon Prime Video Best for those looking for value on a budget Price: £8.99 per month or £95 annually (with half-price option available for students) Free trial: Yes – there is a 30 day free trial option Max resolution: 4k Streams: Up to 3 Prime Video is a great option if you're looking for a streamer that's relatively low budget – with the £95 yearly cost also including membership to Amazon Prime, with all the usual perks including next day delivery. Although it perhaps lags behind some of the other streamers when it comes to the overall quality of its original programming, the platform nonetheless has some major hits – including The Boys and Fallout – and has also kept viewers happy with a range of highly successful young adult fare, including the mega-popular The Summer I Turned Pretty It's also worth mentioning that it hosts possibly the best library of older films of any of the major platforms, while there is also the option to pay an extra monthly fee to sign up to a number of bonus channels – including Mubi, Shudder and BFI Player. Must-watch: The Boys, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Fallout, The Girlfriend, Invincible Radio Times says: Prime Video boasts an excellent and varied selection which – coupled with its comparatively low price and added benefits – makes it the best option for those on a budget. Sign up to Amazon Prime Video Apple TV Best for consistently quality original programming Price: £9.99 per month Free trial: Yes – there is a 7 day free trial option Max resolution: 4k Streams: Up to 6 Generally speaking, Apple TV has adopted a mantra of quality over quantity, focusing on star-studded big-budget originals with exceptional production values rather than acquiring a back catalogue of older shows. Launching with major shows such as The Morning Show and For All Mankind, the library has gone on to add everything from hard-hitting dramas and experimental comedies to intelligent sci-fi and riveting spy thrillers – alongside a growing range of documentaries, almost always with a household name attached either in front of or behind the camera. Meanwhile, the streamer has also thrown its weight behind some of the world's most prominent filmmakers to fund their latest features, with movies such as Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, Ridley Scott's Napoleon and Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest all available on the streamer. Must-watch: Slow Horses, Severance, Bad Sisters, Silo, The Studio Radio Times says: Although there have been a few misfires, Apple TV maintains a remarkable consistency when it comes to the quality of its original programming – making it a great pick for fans of prestige TV. Sign up to Apple TV DAZN Best for those looking to catch must-watch sporting events – especially boxing Price: £7.99 a month Free trial: Yes – there is a 7 day free trial option Max resolution: 1080p HD Streams: Up to 2 While the likes of Netflix and Prime Video are known to all, this streamer is less of a household name – and is definitely more of a niche addition to the market. The platform is devoted entirely to showcasing high quality sporting action both live and on demand, with a huge range of options including everything from American Football to Cycling and everything in between, as well as a host of high profile boxing bouts. Must-watch: Live boxing Radio Times says: This is a specialist option which will only be of interest to sports fans – but if you're big on boxing it's a must. Sign up to DAZN Disney+ Best for those with kids and fans of major franchises Price: £5.99 for Disney+ Standard with Ads, £9.99 for Disney+ Standard, £14.99 for Disney+ Premium Free trial: No Max resolution: 4k for Premium subscribers, 1080p HD for Standard Streams: Up to 4 for Premium subscribers, up to 2 for Standard Of course, it's no secret that Disney+ is a treasure trove for fans of big franchises, housing a huge catalogue of Marvel and Star Wars content in addition to a number of animated gems from Pixar and Disney Classics. It's that combination that makes it arguably the best option for those looking to keep their kids happy. But it's more than just the franchises. Given streamer's takeover of 20th Century Fox, there are a whole host of excellent films on the platform, while there's also plenty of original programming and some top shows that initially aired on Hulu for US viewers. Must-watch: Star Wars and Marvel, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, Alien: Earth Radio Times says: If you've got kids and don't mind spending a little extra, this option is hard to resist – and even for older audiences, there is a huge selection to choose from. Sign up to Disney+ Hayu Best for reality TV obsessives Price: £4.99 per month, £23.99 for 6 months or £43.99 for 12 months Free trial: Yes – there is a 7 day free trial option Max resolution: 1080p Streams: One If you're a lover of reality TV, chances are you're already familiar with Hayu – but if this is your first time hearing of it, it could well be the option for you. Since its UK launch in 2016, it's become the only streamer devoted entirely to reality TV and there really are a wealth of programmes waiting for you if that's your thing. Most of the shows are acquisitions rather than originals – with the likes of Below Deck and Vanderpump Rules notable examples – but earlier this year, the platform did launch its first ever original commission: The Real Housewives of London. Could that be the first of many? Must-watch: The Real Housewives, Vanderpump Rules, Below Deck Radio Times says: A must-have if you're a reality TV obsessive, but otherwise probably one to avoid. Sign up to Hayu Sign up to Hayu via Amazon Prime Video ITVX Best for lovers of British TV Price: £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year Free trial: No Max resolution: 1080p HD Streams: Up to 4 You're probably already familiar with the ad-supported free tier of ITVX, which gives audiences to catch-up with all the latest shows broadcast on ITV and some from the archive – but the streamer also has a premium offering, which is one of the cheaper options on the market. As well as allowing subscribers to watch all the content on the regular ITVX without suffering the annoyance of ad breaks, there is also a wealth of material not otherwise available including a huge volume of iconic British box sets from BritBox and an interesting and varied selection of films. Must-watch: Sanditon, Life on Mars, The Vicar of Dibley, Absolutely Fabulous Radio Times says: If you like your TV classic and homegrown – and without ads – this is a great option, for a relatively small monthly fee. Sign up to ITVX Netflix Best for binge-watchers and original hits Best for those looking for value on a budget. Price: £5.99 per month for Standard with ads, £12.99 per month for Standard, £18.99 per month for Premium Free trial: No Max resolution: 4k for Premium subscribers, 1080p HD for Standard Streams: Up to 4 for Premium, up to 2 for Standard The streamer that needs no introduction – and the one that started it all. Netflix produces a wealth of original content – in terms of both films and TV shows – and while perhaps the focus could be said to have shifted towards quantity over quality, there are still some very high highs in the original library. If you want to join in the latest watercooler conversations, this is still probably the one to gravitate towards, with its popularity still dwarfing that of its rivals in relative terms – even as the monthly cost has soared. Meanwhile, a significant catalogue of non-original TV shows and films pads out the platform’s library, so you'll never have a lack of options for your next binge-watch or upcoming movie night. Must-watch: Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Squid Game, The Crown Radio Times says: Netflix remains unbeatable for quantity and global hits, though it comes at a premium price. Sign up to Netflix NOW Best for those looking for the top shows from across the pond Price: £9.99 per month for Entertainment Pass and £9.99 per Cinema Pass Free trial: Yes – there is a 7 day free trial option Max resolution: 720p HD (Full 1080p HD with NOW Boost for an extra £5 a month) Streams: 1 (3 with NOW Boost for an extra £5 a month) NOW is an excellent place to catch the latest dramas from Sky and HBO, while Sky also broadcasts a number of glossy exclusive shows across a range of genres. If you’re a film fan keen to watch the latest blockbusters soon after they leave the cinema, this might also be the service for you. The films included with a Sky Cinema pass frequently include some of the biggest recent hits, and there’s a decent selection of classics as well. One downside is that, unlike most streamers, you have to pay separately for the TV and Movie options – it's not all one package. Must-watch: Game of Thrones, Succession, Euphoria, The White Lotus and The Last of Us. Radio Times says: A more premium offering, but NOW is a great option if you want to enjoy the best of US TV and some of the latest blockbuster films. Sign up to NOW Editor’s Choice So, what is our overall verdict, then? With various factors taken into consideration, we've come to the below conclusion: Best overall value: Prime Video Best originals: Apple TV Best for families: Disney+ Best budget pick: Prime Video Best prestige TV: NOW Add your favourite shows to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out our best movies on Netflix, best Netflix comedies and best Netflix horror movies. Take a look at our best Disney Plus shows guide or best Disney Plus movies. Here are all the best series on Apple TV and best Apple TV movies. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Eight production secrets from behind the scenes of Wicked: For Good
The sequel's sets are an impressive feat from production designer Nathan Crowley.
Wicked: For Good is finally in cinemas, providing an epic conclusion to the beloved story of the Witches of Oz. Aside from the musical accompaniment and impressive costumes, what makes both Wicked movies so striking is their sets, from the famous Yellow Brick Road to The Emerald City, all of which were deeply thought out in order to bring them to life. Ahead of the release of Wicked: For Good, RadioTimes.com sat down with the movie's production designer, Nathan Crowley, who shared how he and his team were able to make a truly extravagant set, bringing Oz to life in cinemas and homes worldwide. Before you transport yourself to Oz (or after), read on to learn more about just how the sets came together for both movies. 1. Wicked: For Good features a more epic set The set of Wicked was impressive, even if just Shiz University and The Emerald City were singled out, yet Crowley explained For Good is "much more epic". He told RadioTimes.com: "The second one is much more epic… we have to define Oz as a much bigger place It's telling a much bigger story in For Good." 2. The introduction of three towers in The Emerald City View oEmbed on the source website In the first movie, just The Wizard's Tower was seen, but For Good features two more to show Madame Morrible and Glinda's sudden power in Oz. Crowley said: "I really enjoy the three towers. They represent stories. The Wizard's Tower, which we saw in the first film for Defying Gravity. Then we have Madame Morrible's tower, which is the propaganda tower. And then we have Glinda's tower." 3. Glinda's apartment was one of the most complicated sets to build The only home of Glinda's shown in the first film is her university room she shares with Elphaba, but in For Good, audiences will get a closer look at her apartment, which Crowley explained needed "a dual purpose". View oEmbed on the source website "Design wise, we needed to build out Glinda's apartment, but it also had a dual purpose – because it's a very important story point that she's giving up all this privilege," he shared. "She's looking at her reflection and not liking what she sees. She's having a conversation with herself using mirrors. So Jon [M Chu] wanted to really use mirrors to question who she was and what she has to give up. Mirrors is hard… it's probably one of the most complicated sets we've built." 4. Dorothy's farmhouse couldn't be toyed with too much Dorothy's farmhouse is shown in For Good, but not much could be changed from the original. "Dorothy's house is a slice of Americana," Crowley explained. "I know it belongs in Andrew Wyeth paintings. I know its Midwestern. So I know there's a language there that I can't veer off, and you shouldn't veer off, because we have to tell you the most famous flying house... we have to land that visually without question." 5. Finding the right shade of yellow for the Yellow Brick Road View oEmbed on the source website Perhaps one of the most well-known sets in cinema is the Yellow Brick Road, and it was important the production design team had just the right shade to bring it to life. Crowley told RadioTimes.com: "Finding the yellow [was difficult] because we're inside and we're on location with it, because we're doing things practically. So the yellow on the sound stage is slightly different to yellow out on location, because sunlight [is different] to stage light. We have to use different glazes and different yellows, and it's a lot of trial and error. And we sat and looked at enormous amount of yellows!" 6. There were actually 10 million tulips planted In the first Wicked movie, a tulip field near King's Lynn in Norfolk was featured as a backdrop to Munchkinland, with a whopping nine million bloomed for the blockbuster. Except, actually 10 million were planted! Crowley revealed: "We had to hide the yellow tulips in the field next door – three fields over. We actually planted 10 million tulips, nine coloured and one giant field of yellows." 7. Building Kiamo Ko View oEmbed on the source website Kiamo Ko is a large castle that is home to Elphaba, and is where she has her final stand-off with Dorothy in the original novels. Speaking of bringing that to life, Crowley said: "I knew I wanted to make the castle into a floating castle. So how do you put that into Ozian architecture and use that fantasy trope of the castles in the sky? What's our version of that? We found the battlements and the fact we could levitate the top to the base and really get away with it." 8. Elphaba's lair was handwoven Elphaba's lair is another new location shown in For Good, and a lot of detail went into creating the Winky forest where she resides. "When we get to Elphaba's lair, we understand that the mother tree of the Ozian and Winky forests in the West are so old and twisted, they're holding her like a piece of sculpture," Crowley explained. "We actually weaved that set out of branches. My greens department brought all this flexible wood, we piled tons of it, and they slowly wove it together and twisted it. It was really down to about four or five weavers who wove that whole set!" Wicked: For Good is out in UK cinemas now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from Wicked: For Good to The Thing With Feathers
Your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.
It's another busy week of new releases for UK cinemas, headlined by a couple of star-studded blockbusters. The first of those is the anticipated sequel to last year's Wicked, Wicked: For Good. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande return to helm the magical film, with this instalment featuring new songs penned by Stephen Schwartz, stellar performances and stunning production design. Secondly, we have the Benedict Cumberbatch-led The Thing With Feathers, which follows a father and his two sons as they struggle to cope with the sudden loss of their wife and mother. Here, grief is personified as a large crow, with the film being adapted by writer-director Dylan Southern from the original novel by Max Porter. We have verdicts on both below but of course, there's plenty else to catch in the cinemas, including Edgar Wright's new take on Stephen King's 1982 novel The Running Man, the third instalment of the Now You See Me franchise, Gurinder Chadha's festive film Christmas Karma, Osgood Perkins's latest horror Keeper, starry true story drama Nuremberg, and Noah Baumbach's even more starry Jay Kelly. And of course, you can also find our lowdown on other major films released in UK cinemas in recent weeks, from One Battle After Another and to Bugonia and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere and Die My Love. Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas. What films are released in UK cinemas this week? 21st – 27th November The Thing With Feathers Benedict Cumberbatch fronts this wrenching, if wayward, portrayal of loss, adapted from Max Porter's 2015 novella Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. When a British family experiences the sudden death of the mother, everything is thrown into turmoil, and Cumberbatch's Dad must deal with the reality of caring for two boys (twins Richard and Henry Boxall) amid his own need to grieve. Gradually, Crow (voiced by David Thewlis) steps out of the shadows, a creature from Dad's drawings that embodies their suffering and the need for therapeutic resolution. Writer/director Dylan Southern, a former music documentarian, doesn't quite strike the right balance between the fantastical elements and hard-hitting realism, despite good intentions. The eight-foot Crow, played by an actor sporting an animatronic head, is smartly filmed in the gloom, but his appearance lacks real horror. As such, you're never left feeling that Dad and the boys are teetering on the emotional brink. But Cumberbatch's committed turn as a father desperately seeking a roadmap through his pain is honest and heartfelt. – James Mottram Read our interview with star Benedict Cumberbatch Wicked: For Good After last year’s Wicked: Part One, we’re back for some more Ozploitation. Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation has already been a wild ride, tapping into the perennial enthusiasm for the long-running stage show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which itself came inspired both by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and, of course, Hollywood Golden Age musical The Wizard of Oz. Part One conjured a healthy $756 million global box office, followed by 10 Oscar nominations and two wins. There’s no reason to think Wicked: For Good won’t perform the same trick, or better it, with Chu bringing events to a rousing close. While he infuses enthusiasm into every frame, the same can be said for his leading ladies. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form as, respectively, the pink-hued Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the green-skinned witch who has been cast out of Oz, thanks to the machinations of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, wickedly charming as ever), the ultimately carney-man. Now in exile, the demonised Elphaba’s name has been stained by the Wizard, in league with her one-time tutor, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, still wearing that delicious Mr Whippy ice-cream hair-do). The slightly vapid Glinda, meanwhile, thinks they need to be trademarking the word "good", while she’s also caught up in preparations for her impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who has been charged with capturing Elphaba. – James Mottram Read our full Wicked: For Good review Read our interview with Wicked production designer Nathan Crowley Best of the rest still showing in UK cinemas The Running Man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) steps into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoes with this big-budget remake set in a dystopian United States where violent TV is the opium of the people. Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) stays faithful to the original Stephen King story, as irascible, hard-up Everyman Ben Richards (Powell) volunteers for the lethal Running Man show to provide for his family. Avoid capture for 30 days and $1 billion is the reward. But contestants are also hunted relentlessly across the country by assassins, with the action televised to an audience willing to dob them in for reward, all under the auspices of Josh Brolin’s scheming network puppet-master. No stranger to delivering breakneck action with the likes of Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver, Wright produces plenty of nerve-jangling set-pieces, while the cross-country pursuit reveals an America riven by economic inequality and manipulated by a self-satisfied few. The episodic nature of the plot, with Richards donning a variety of disguises to lay low, occasionally leads to a lull in pace and tension. However, Powell is a hero to root for, and there are tasty cameos from William H Macy and Michael Cera, whose mercurial rebel lives in a booby-trapped bolt-hole worthy of Rambo. – Jeremy Aspinall Read our full The Running Man review Read our interview with star Glen Powell Now You See Me: Now You Don't Combining legacy characters with a new trio of younger illusionists, the third film in this action-comedy series is a busily disposable – if fitfully fun – combination of reunion gig and new-generation franchise spruce-up. Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Uncharted) replaces predecessors Louis Leterrier and Jon M Chu, stepping in to juggle the expected ingredients of a tangled heist, some tricksy set pieces, a couple of crowd-pleasing cameos and splashes of globe-trotting glitz. Yet as the crowded cast grapple with the script’s patchy supplies of sparkle and finesse, it can be hard to care which way the plot’s cards end up landing. The set pieces lift proceedings, with action sequences at a public diamond display and in a house of illusions showing flashes of pacy wit, levity and invention. However, the narrative linking them is frustratingly loose – even for a franchise that revels in the ridiculous. One or two twists prove inconsequential, while the script is rarely as clever as it thinks it is and hardly ever as fresh as it should be. – Kevin Harley Read our full Now You See Me: Now You Don't review Read our interview with star Rosamund Pike Nuremberg Russell Crowe is captivating as Hermann Göring in this compelling but somewhat muddled drama set against the Nuremberg trials. These events have been dramatised before – most notably in Stanley Kramer’s 1961 classic Judgement at Nuremberg – but writer/director James Vanderbilt finds a new way in by focusing on the conversations between Göring and military psychiatrist Douglas Kelley. Kelley had been assigned to investigate whether each Nazi defendant was fit to stand trial, but also hoped to find fame and fortune by diagnosing something new about the nature of evil – perhaps something unique to the German character. Although Vanderbilt doesn’t always land on the right tone, there’s an undeniable spark to the scenes between Kelley and Göring, while a late reveal about Kelley’s translator Sergeant Howie Triest (Leo Woodall) is profoundly moving. The many scenes devoted to explaining how the trials came about feel rather more perfunctory, while as an exploration of Nazi evils Nuremberg pales in comparison to Jonathan Glazer’s recent masterwork The Zone of Interest. But this is an engaging study of Kelley and Göring’s unusual dynamic. – Patrick Cremona Read our interview with the cast and director Jay Kelly George Clooney is the titular A-list movie star in Noah Baumbach’s breezy Hollywood-insider comedy, one that starts well but veers dangerously towards indulgence. After he attends the funeral of the director mentor who first cast him, Jay’s life is thrown into turmoil following an altercation with an old classmate (Billy Crudup). On a whim, he follows his youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) to Europe to grab some quality time, on the flimsy pretext of picking up a lifetime achievement award at a Tuscany festival. Joining him are his long-suffering publicist (Laura Dern), manager (Adam Sandler) and makeup artist (Emily Mortimer), though none are able to soothe Jay as he undergoes a crisis of confidence. Baumbach shows none of the edge of earlier films like Frances Ha, aiming instead for broad comic potshots as he explores fame, family and the legacy you leave behind. Some gags land, but the concluding clips of Clooney’s real work make for a queasy homage that doesn’t quite have the desired emotional payoff. – James Mottram Read our full Jay Kelly review Keeper Modern love meets ancient evil in this folk horror hybrid from director Osgood Perkins (The Monkey). Tatiana Maslany stars as the inscrutable Liz, a city artist who is taking a break in a plush forest cabin with her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland, son of Donald and half-brother of Kiefer). It looks like an idyll but there’s something nasty in the woods – and it’s not just Malcolm’s annoying cousin Darren. At first a very slowburn relationship drama peppered with unsettling elemental images, Keeper belatedly morphs into something outrageous, outlandish and nonsensical. While Maslany is engaging as the skittish, paranoid Liz, Sutherland has a harder time with enigmatic Malcolm. Nick Lepard’s uneven script is exposition-heavy and coherence-light, but the film looks great, at times recalling Ari Aster’s excellent Hereditary (keep your eyes on the edges of the frame for the best scares). Hit and miss overall, but this cements Perkins as a bold voice in horror. – Rosie Fletcher Dragonfly Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough deliver understated but powerful performances in this quietly devastating British drama. Elsie (Blethyn) is a widow living alone in a bungalow next door to Riseborough’s Coleen, a singleton on benefits who only has her bullish-looking dog for company. Gradually, these two lonely souls find each other when Coleen starts running small errands for her neighbour. It’s a tender and touching relationship, but one that ultimately sours in a way you won’t see coming until it's too late. While the film almost entirely takes place in their adjoining abodes, writer/director Paul Andrew Williams (Bull) crafts a compelling sketch of modern-day Britain, a world where harassed care workers barely know your name and the elderly are treated as numbers. Aided by a low-key electronic score and unsettling cinematography, Blethyn and Riseborough – almost unrecognisable as the tracksuit-wearing Coleen – offer unvarnished, vanity-free turns. What results is a portrait of isolation that feels fully rounded, filled with hope, humanity and horror. – James Mottram Read our full Dragonfly review Die My Love Featuring the one-two punch of leads Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, Die, My Love is an absorbing and quietly devastating relationship drama. Lawrence plays Grace, a new mother living in a rural Montana backwater with husband Jackson (Pattinson). Gradually, as marital woes unfold between the two, Grace's mental health deteriorates. Is this a problem of nature or nurture? One flashback, to their wedding night, shows her inebriated and out of control. There’s a self-harming, self-destructive impulse buried in her DNA, but it’s clear she loves her baby more than life itself. Adapting from Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel, director Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) is in supreme command of her craft, conjuring an atmospheric character piece that showcases Lawrence's great talents as she and Pattinson are pushed to their limits. Featuring acting legends Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte in small but potent roles, the film also spins on brilliant cinematography from Seamus McGarvey, whose subtle work heightens the increasingly sombre mood. Scored with to-die-for tracks (Cream, David Bowie), this perfectly essays one woman's psychological journey and builds to a heartbreaking crescendo. – James Mottram Read our full Die My Love review The Choral This wartime tale, which is at once poignant and feel-good, could only have been engineered by British national treasure Alan Bennett. In 1916, in the fictional West Yorkshire town of Ramsgate (actually World Heritage site Saltaire), the local choral society is haemorrhaging male singers to the war. Three young possible future soldiers are among those plucked to fill the gaps, and strict choral master Dr Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) is hired to elicit tuneful artistry from the rather unpromising assemblage of the town’s willing vocalists. Sidestepping the Teutonic, he substitutes a perennial favourite by JS Bach with The Dream of Gerontius by English composer Edward Elgar (Simon Russell Beale, in a delectable cameo that chimes with the film’s lightness of touch). The climactic use of Elgar underpins a stirring film about the horrors of war and the power of music. Collaborating for a fourth time with director Nicholas Hytner, nonagenarian Bennett delivers an original screenplay rather than adapting one of his plays, and the depiction of ordinary people in hard times is at once moving, understated, truthful and very Bennett. – David Oppedisano Watch a behind-the-scenes clip Bugonia A ruthless CEO is kidnapped by two men who think she’s an alien in this pleasingly madcap comedy-drama. A remake of 2003 South Korean movie Save the Green Planet!, Emma Stone plays the power-dressing biomedical honcho Michelle Fuller, abducted by Jesse Plemons's greasy-looking conspiracy theorist Teddy and his slobby cousin (Aidan Delbis). Taken to Teddy’s mother’s basement, Michelle is tied up as her captors try and force her to confess that she’s an extraterrestrial out to obliterate our planet. Scripted by Will Tracy (TV's Succession), this marks the fourth film collaboration between Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness), and her sparring with the excellent Plemons lingers. Also featuring Alicia Silverstone in a key role, the film is unpredictable, even for those familiar with the Korean version. A prod at the way corporations have taken over our planet, maximising profits at the expense of all else, it smartly asks if we’re the masters of our own demise. Or whether, as Michelle says, 'Sometimes a species just winds down.' – James Mottram Read our full Bugonia review Relay Riz Ahmed heads the cast of a zesty thriller which, while stylistically modern, harks back to paranoid conspiracy dramas of an earlier age. An alcoholic Muslim acts as a maverick broker for whistle-blowers seeking to expose the underhand practices of big corporations. But he bites off more than he can chew when his latest client (Lily James) is pursued by ruthless goons in the employ of a biotech conglomerate desperate to retrieve some incriminating documents. Consequently, a by-the-book clandestine job becomes a white-knuckle game of cat-and-mouse with a potentially murderous end game. Director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) relishes juggling the myriad players and plot twists in Justin Piasecki’s screenplay, a smart and suspenseful narrative that respects the viewer’s intelligence. James is perhaps a tad one-dimensional as the woman at the centre of the storm, so thankfully Ahmed has the intensity and low-key charisma to make an understated but effective hero, fast on his feet and sharp of mind. – Terry Staunton Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Bruce Springsteen goes back to basics in an intimate biopic that explores the singer’s troubled past as he confronts questions about his future. Jeremy Allen White stars as The Boss, opening a can of analytical worms while writing and recording songs for the low-key 1982 album Nebraska, a far cry from the amped-up anthems of his previous LPs. As he delves deeper into the creative process, he’s reminded of an often unhappy childhood and difficult relationship with his father (Stephen Graham), while in the present day his manager and mentor (Jeremy Strong) strives to shield him from the hits-hungry demands of the music biz. Director Scott Cooper follows author Warren Zanes’s acclaimed book of the same title relatively closely, the film working best in its quieter, more subdued moments. Blessed by subtle performances from the leads (although White is less convincing when called upon to be Springsteen as a louder, strutting stage presence), it’s an eloquent, if occasionally flawed, film about self-examination and the power of music as a form of therapy. – Terry Staunton Read our full Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere review Read our interview with Scott Cooper The Mastermind Josh O’Connor plays an amateur art thief in 1970s Massachusetts in this low-key crime tale. The film's quiet approach should come as no surprise, given its writer/director is cult favourite Kelly Reichardt, who has previously deconstructed the western (2010's Meek’s Cutoff) and the environmental thriller (2013's Night Moves), generally leaving the major action off-screen. A married father-of-two, unemployed carpenter James (O’Connor) plots to steal four Arthur Dove paintings from a museum, a plan that swiftly goes awry, causing him to go on the run. Cut to the rhythms of an infectious jazz score, Reichardt’s meandering story is more a character portrait of a desperate man than a tense crime thriller. Using the Vietnam War protest movement as her backdrop, the director captures well the spirit of rebellion and unrest that characterised the era. O'Connor's downbeat turn channels vintage performances by Elliott Gould, and his compelling work is bolstered by fine support from Hope Davis, John Magaro and Bill Camp. While it's a shame that Licorice Pizza star Alana Haim is somewhat short-changed in the role of James's wife, the film ultimately satisfies with a sublime ending. – James Mottram Read our full The Mastermind review Read our interview with Josh O'Connor Black Phone 2 Writer/director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C Robert Cargill have upped the supernatural ante for the sequel with ghoulish and gory aplomb by taking the original film’s characters (and cast) out of small-town suburbia and stranding them at an isolated, blizzard-hit Christian youth camp where boys had vanished mysteriously back in the 1950s. Horror fans will spot allusions to all sorts of fright flicks, whether it’s Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist or The Shining, but Derrickson is navigating his own creepy groove, sustained by stars Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, who have literally grown into their roles and deliver emotionally compelling performances. The first Black Phone was a serial-killer horror with a side order of supernatural, but this gripping sequel embraces the paranormal and gruesomeness in all its gory glory, too. Meanwhile the dream sequences, seemingly shot on scratchy 70s film stock and recalling Derrickson’s 2012 spine-chiller Sinister, ooze unsettling menace and deliver some hearty jump-scares. – Jeremy Aspinall Read our full Black Phone 2 review Roofman Channing Tatum gives a career-best performance in this poignant, Noughties-set crime caper. He plays true-life career criminal Jeffrey Manchester, who escapes from prison after being sentenced for robbing 45 fast food outlets via vulnerable roof access. Taking refuge in the hidden spaces of a North Carolina toy store, he unwisely begins a relationship with divorced shop assistant Leigh (a top-notch Kirsten Dunst). Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance stays true to past form by creating a sharply observed, charming crowd-pleaser from the unlikeliest material. While this offbeat romp features all the hallmarks of a romcom, its third act is surprisingly melancholic as the lovers' courtship takes on new dimensions. Great back-up is supplied by Peter Dinklage as the jobsworth store manager and LaKeith Stanfield as the shady veteran pal whom Manchester asks to forge new identity papers. Both Tatum and Dunst shine at the centre of this fun and bittersweet film, which delivers entertainment through the roof. – Alan Jones I Swear Tourette’s Syndrome sufferer John Davidson became an unlikely TV personality in the late 1980s when, aged 16, he was the focus of John’s Not Mad, a BBC documentary examining the condition. This feelgood but inevitably foul-mouthed movie tells a deeper story, the teenager now in his 20s (played by Robert Aramayo) and trying to make his way in the adult world. Still mocked and ridiculed by some, he finds more supportive figures in Maxine Peake’s straight-shooting mental health nurse and Peter Mullan’s avuncular caretaker boss. Writer/director Kirk Jones skilfully weaves comedy and drama together, never losing sight of the subject matter’s seriousness (Davidson, now a campaigner, is credited as a consultant), but occasionally lapses into a mawkishness that threatens to undermine the message. Nevertheless, he benefits from a strong and sympathetic cast, with both Peake and Mullan close to the very top of their game. In Aramayo, however, he has a breakout star, an actor whose range of emotions provides the beating heart of a film destined to find a legion of fans. – Terry Staunton Read our interview with the cast and writer/director Kirk Jones The Smashing Machine In a role not so far removed from his own experience as a one-time WWE wrestler, Dwayne Johnson gives a fine performance as real-life UFC competitor Mark Kerr in this sports-themed drama. Set between 1997 and 2000, Ultimate Fighting Championship – a bruising mixed martial arts combat sport – is taking off with the undefeated wrestler Kerr among its leading lights. But as his addiction to painkilling opioids takes hold and arguments flare with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), his world begins to fall apart. Winner of the best director award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, Benny Safdie (co-director of Uncut Gems) strives for realism rather than triumphalism here. Authenticity is furthered by casting folk from the real UFC world, including the excellent Ryan Bader as Kerr’s friend/trainer Mark Coleman. While a spray-tanned Blunt and a wig-wearing Johnson are great, the low-key narrative never quite hits the dramatic heights, perhaps because Kerr’s own story isn’t exactly filled with fist-pumping moments. Sometimes too on-the-nose, it’s nevertheless a bold look at a misunderstood sport. – James Mottram Read our full The Smashing Machine review One Battle After Another This terrific film from Paul Thomas Anderson is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland. Rather than a straight adaptation, the auteur expertly borrows elements and crafts them into something his own, keeping the book's rebellious spirit, absurdist comic tone and thematic weight intact. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Bob Ferguson, a former member of resistance group the French 75, now completely sapped of his revolutionary spirit. But when his old nemesis (Sean Penn in sensationally odious form) re-emerges, Bob must rediscover his fight so he can protect his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti, a revelation). The resulting chase is thrilling, uproarious and perfectly paced, with DiCaprio excelling as a frustrated layabout thrust back into the fold. Anderson stages the film's set pieces – including a mesmerising car chase – in unpredictable, inventive ways, with Jonny Greenwood's frantic, piano-led score the perfect complement. The film feels urgent and timely, tapping into contemporary themes from the USA's barbaric treatment of immigrants to the growing prevalence of extremist ideologies among people with influence, but there's also a dash of hope and poignancy. Anderson's choice to put a touching father/daughter relationship front and centre amid the thrills gives his masterful film undeniable emotional heft. – Patrick Cremona Read our full One Battle After Another review Read our interview with Leonardo DiCaprio Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Best films to watch on TV today, tonight and this week
Whatever your taste, there's a movie on for everyone.
As we career closer to Christmas, the TV schedules are certainly reflecting just that, with the likes of The Holiday and White Christmas landing on screens over the course of the next week. While there are plenty of movies available on streaming platforms and being released weekly in cinemas, nothing quite beats the feeling of finding a hidden gem while flicking through the TV. With such a raft of options – old and new – to pick from this weekend, it can often feel like a bit of an insurmountable task to find one that really tickles your fancy. But that's where we come in to do the hard work for you, picking out some of the most stellar options available to tune into. This weeks selection includes everything from seminal musical comedy Grease, to Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine romcom The Idea of You and also, Matt Damon's iconic action spy thriller, The Bourne Ultimatum. There's something for everyone but if you're wondering where to find some of the best films on the terrestrial channels this week, we've got you sorted. Read on for an expertly compiled list of the best flicks airing across the next seven days. Friday 21st November Thunder Rock - 1:05pm, Talking Pictures TV Supernatural drama starring Michael Redgrave, Barbara Mullen and James Mason. A writer becomes disillusioned with the politics of Europe before the Second World War and leaves England to set up home in Canada. There he takes up a lonely job as the keeper of a lighthouse called Thunder Rock. Living in isolation, he conjures up some ghostly companions for inspiration. Read our full review Heat - 9pm, Legend Xtra Crime thriller starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Detective Vincent Hanna is closing in on notorious professional thief Neil McCauley. But even though he realises that the police are watching his every move, McCauley decides to go ahead with one final heist before leaving the US for a new life. Read our full review Ex Machina - 9pm, Film4 View oEmbed on the source website Sci-fi thriller starring Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson. A young software programmer is given the opportunity to spend time at the home of his company's reclusive chairman. But when he arrives he discovers that he will be required to be part of a strange experiment. Read our full review Deliverance - 11pm, BBC Two Thriller starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty. On a weekend canoe excursion in the Appalachians, Lewis Medlock and three city-dwelling friends attempt to navigate a wild and uncharted river, the future of which is threatened by a dam project. But when two mountain men appear, the mood of their trip changes dramatically. Read our full review Saturday 22nd November The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water - 11am, Film4 Part-animated comedy adventure. When the secret formula for the addictive Krabby Patty is stolen by pirate Burger Beard, Mr Krabs seconds SpongeBob to head into the live-action world and get it back. But will the dastardly pirate give it up without a fight? Read our full review She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - 3:35pm, BBC Two Classic John Ford western starring John Wayne. A US Cavalry officer suffers a setback on his last mission and is "retired" before he can take further action. In order to avert a full-scale war with Arapaho Indians, he decides to act on his own. Read our full review Grease - 5pm, Sky Showcase Musical based on the hit stage show, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Unexpectedly reunited with summer love Danny at her new high school, Sandy Olsson can't believe how different he is. Can the new Danny Zuko, the leather-clad, tough-talking leader of the T-birds, really be the boy she met down at the beach? Perhaps Frenchy and Rizzo, both members of the super-cool Pink Ladies gang, can help her develop some street cred to win back his heart. Read our full review The Holiday - 9:05pm, BBC Three Romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Los Angeles workaholic Amanda is in need of a holiday. An online search persuades her to exchange her California home over Christmas for the remote Surrey cottage of journalist Iris, who has just found out her ex is getting married. But the transatlantic swap soon leads to more romantic entanglements for the two women. Read our full review Sunday 23rd November Fiddler on the Roof - 12:30pm, BBC Two Musical comedy drama starring Topol and Norma Crane. Tevye, a poor milkman living in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka before the revolution, is determined to find good husbands for his five daughters. He will consult the matchmaker of course, but he might have a word about it with God as well. Read our full review Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 4:15pm, ITV2 The fourth instalment of JK Rowling's fantasy adventure franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Ralph Fiennes. It's schoolboy wizard Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts and difficult times lie ahead. He's forced to risk his life after being mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament in which representatives of three top schools compete in a series of dangerous tasks. But when tragedy strikes, Harry fears the worst. Could the evil Lord Voldemort really have returned? Read our full review Men in Black 3 - 6pm, Channel4 View oEmbed on the source website Sci-fi comedy starring Will Smith and Josh Brolin. The fight against aliens is taken to a new dimension when Agent J is forced to travel back to 1969 in an effort to prevent his partner's murder by ruthless fugitive Boris the Animal. Read our full review Planes, Trains and Automobiles - 10pm, BBC Two A stressed businessman just wants to make it home to spend Thanksgiving with his family. However, when his flight is forced to land miles from its destination, he finds himself sharing a disaster-strewn journey across America with an amiable but slobbish salesman. Comedy road movie, starring Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Kevin Bacon and Michael McKean. Read our full review The Last of the Mohicans - 11:15pm, Film4 Period adventure inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Hawkeye and Uncas are the sons of Chingachgook. They fight as mercenaries in the power struggle between the French and British in the New World, but suddenly find themselves involved in bitter intrigue and betrayal, where far more than land is at stake. Read our full review Monday 24th November The Sound Barrier - 12:35pm, Film4 BAFTA-winning drama starring Ralph Richardson and Ann Todd. An aircraft manufacturer is determined to produce a plane that can travel faster than the speed of sound. Read our full review Drive Angry - 9pm, Legend Action fantasy-horror starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard and William Fichtner. John Milton escapes from Hell determined to avenge the murder of his daughter by a sinister cult and prevent them from sacrificing his granddaughter - but Satan wants Milton back where he belongs. Read our full review Official Secrets- 11pm, BBC Two View oEmbed on the source website Fact-based drama about the publication of a leaked GCHQ memo in the run-up to the Iraq war. The leak had devastating consequences for whistleblower Katharine Gun, who was put on trial for breaching the Official Secrets Act, and the journalists who were determined to unmask a conspiracy. Starring Keira Knightley and Matt Smith. Read our full review Salt - 11:15pm, Film4 Action thriller starring Angelina Jolie as a highly respected CIA officer forced on the run when she is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent. She must employ all the skills she has learned on the job to keep one step ahead and prove her innocence. Read our full review Tuesday 25th November A Kid for Two Farthings - 2:50pm, Film4 Comedy fantasy starring Celia Johnson and Diana Dors. Enraptured by tales about the magical powers of a unicorn, a young boy in London's Petticoat Lane buys a goat with one horn. When the wishes of those in the neighbourhood start coming true, he becomes convinced that the creature is really a unicorn. Read our full review Skyfall - 8pm, ITV4 Spy adventure starring Daniel Craig as agent James Bond. When an operation to retrieve a computer hard drive containing the names of agents goes wrong, the authority of MI6 boss M comes under scrutiny. Her only ally seems to be Bond, who is assigned to track down the mastermind behind the theft. It's a mission that will reveal long-hidden secrets from M's and Bond's pasts. Read our full review The Long Good Family - 11:20pm, Film4 Crime drama starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. East End gangster Harold Shand is trying to set up a massive property deal involving the impending redevelopment of the London Docklands area. When his plans are knocked off course by the violent intervention of an unknown rival, Harold seeks revenge. Read our full review Wednesday 26th November Forty Guns - 1pm, Great! Action Western starring Barbara Stanwyck. The powerful influence exerted on Cochise County, Arizona, by domineering rancher Jessica Drummond and her 40 hired cowboys is challenged by the arrival of Marshal Griff Bonnell, a reformed gunslinger, and his two brothers. Read our full review Lord Jim - 3:30pm, Talking Pictures TV Period adventure adapted from Joseph Conrad's novel, starring Peter O'Toole and James Mason. Haunted by an act of cowardice, a sailor in South East Asia accepts a dangerous mission into uncharted territory, in the hope of finding redemption. Read our full review The Idea of You - 9pm, BBC Three Romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine. Forty-year-old single mother Solène finds her life turned upside-down when she meets and falls for Hayes, the 24-year-old lead singer of a globally successful boy band. As their romance develops, Solène and Hayes must navigate the complications that come with a relationship being played out in the public eye. Read our full review Thursday 27th November White Christmas - 7:05pm, BBC Four Musical starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Old army buddies Phil Davis and Bob Wallace travel with the glamorous Haynes sisters to the Columbia Inn in Vermont. There, Phil and Bob are reunited with their old commanding officer, General Waverly, who is now struggling to keep the hotel going. The visitors decide there's only one answer – to put on a show. Read our full review Inglorious Basterds - 9pm, Film4 Second World War action adventure directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt. After a Jewish woman's family are slaughtered by the Nazis, she changes her identity and flees to Paris, only to come face to face with the man responsible for the massacre. Meanwhile, Lt Aldo Raine leads a guerrilla squad of Jewish Americans into occupied territory to carry out a series of raids on the enemy, earning a fearsome reputation in the process. Read our full review Lethal Weapon 4 - 12:10pm, ITV4 Action comedy thriller starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Joe Pesci. Los Angeles detectives Riggs and Murtaugh return to do battle with a Chinese crime syndicate smuggling immigrants into the US. Read our full review Friday 28th November It Should Happen to You - 2:40pm, Film4 Charming comedy starring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford and Jack Lemmon in his feature debut. Struggling model Gladys Glover arrives in New York determined to make her fortune. When she sees an empty billboard she uses all her savings to buy the site and promote her name. Soon the whole city is talking about her, but an ambitious executive also has his eye on this prime location. Read our full review The Bourne Ultimatum - 9pm, 5Star Spy action thriller, starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen. When an article about a covert CIA operation appears in The Guardian, trained assassin Jason Bourne sets off for London to meet the journalist behind the exposé who may be able to shed light on Bourne's past. But his former employers are also on the trail with instructions to make sure that the meeting never happens. Read our full review Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation - 9pm, E4 Spy adventure starring Tom Cruise. After the CIA chief persuades a Senate committee to disband the Impossible Missions Force, Ethan Hunt and his team are forced to act covertly. Their mission is to thwart a shadowy organisation known as the Syndicate, a network of rogue operatives plotting a series of global terror attacks. Read our full review Quartet - 11pm, BBC Two Comedy drama based on Ronald Harwood's play, directed by Dustin Hoffman and starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly. At the Beecham House retirement home for opera singers, the occasion of Verdi's birthday is always marked by a special fundraising concert. But this year the arrival of one particular grande dame throws preparations into chaos as egos clash and old resentments surface. Read our full review If you have Netflix, we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix and the best series on Netflix to watch now – and Disney Plus viewers can check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Got Prime Video? We also have the best movies on Amazon Prime. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Benedict Cumberbatch reveals how his new film hopes to change the ways we think about grief
The star spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about his role in the adaptation of Max Porter's acclaimed 2015 novel, Grief is the Thing with Feathers.
Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed that he hopes his new film The Thing with Feathers will help to change the way audiences feel about grief. The hard-hitting drama is based on Max Porter's award-winning 2015 novella Grief is the Thing with Feathers – which was previously adapted into a stage show starring Cillian Murphy – and follows a widowed father of two whose attempts to move on with his life are disrupted by repeated visits from a large crow. Of course, while films exploring grief are hardly in short supply, there's sometimes a feeling that more glossy movies tend to sugarcoat the subject a little – sanitising it or making it more palatable for a wider audience. The aim of this film was to avoid that completely. "That's not allowable in our film," Cumberbatch explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "Because it's not a Hallmark movie and Crow is present – who's this reminder that grief is chaotic, unpredictable, and unwelcome. It just happens when it happens, and how it happens, in the way it happens." Crow – who is voiced by David Thewlis – is presented in the film as a massive, nightmarish figure that towers over Cumberbatch's unnamed character and refuses to leave him alone, belittling him, sardonically mocking him and generally making his life a misery. In other words, he is the embodiment of the all-consuming, chaotic nature of grief. "It's not something that is neatly divided into sort of stages as is often talked about," Cumberbatch continued. "And if it is stages, sure. But you'll go back to square one just when you think you're finished with square five. It's just all over the place." Read more: Wicked production designer talks turning the Yellow Brick Road into a "form of oppression" Joel Edgerton reveals how new Netflix film could get close to answering the meaning of life Given that all-consuming nature of the grief his character goes through, it can't have been a painless feat for Cumberbatch to access the intense levels of emotion needed to bring the character to life. But according to the star, with "material as rich as this" it was not difficult for him to embody the necessary dismay and devastation. Furthermore, he was also able to draw on some of his own personal experiences in a way that he hopes might be helpful for audience members looking for something concrete to take away from the film. "I've lived a life, and we all experience grief at some stage or another in our lives," he said. "It's one of the key reasons why I wanted to support this independent film by producing it as well as acting in it... because it's culturally still a little bit taboo. "We're still a bit ashamed to sort of bring the tone down by talking about death or grief, and that's at our own cost. Every other major sort of culture, indigenous culture deals with it in a very full-frontal, honest way. And it's just an acceptance. And acceptance is such a gift in a short life. It really, really is, it's the biggest, biggest thing. "I think if there's any takeaway from this film, it's that it's okay. It's all right to feel completely unearthed in the chaos and overwhelming, unpredictable, scary, and hard to quantify feelings of grief. And especially if you are a man and bringing up two children in a motherless environment. It's okay!" Cumberbatch had long been a fan of Porter's novel, but before he'd seen Southern's script he'd been a little wary of any attempt to turn it into a film. However, upon reading the treatment he quickly recalled how "cinematic" his experience with the novel had felt and how well the script seemed to capture that feeling. "[It's so] joyous in its invention," he said. "I mean, even though it's about a very dark and serious subject matter, just the kaleidoscope of invention and how he'd realised that and lifted it from the page of Max's brilliant novel. I was immediately hooked in by that." For his part, when Southern had initially read the book – which he completed in just two sittings – he'd immediately decided it was "unfilmable". "And then within two weeks was sitting opposite Max, trying to persuade him to option it to me," he said. " And I think he just liked that I came in and I said, ‘Look, I don't have all the answers. But I would want to make a film that retains the DNA of your book but is its own thing. “The great thing about this book is it's been proven to be iterative," he continued. "You know, there's been a play, there's gonna be a puppet show version of it in the works. It's been done in so many different forms. And even within our film, there's another version of it being created by the main character. So it's this story that's so universal but so specific, it seems to keep telling itself again and again – this film's just one occasion of that." The Thing With Feathers is released in UK cinemas on Friday 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wicked: For Good – UK release date, cast and plot for Part Two
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be back as Elphaba and Glinda in 2025.
At long last, the interval is almost over. One year on from the monumental success of Wicked: Part One – which broke multiple box office records, received a string of impressive reviews and was eventually nominated for 10 Oscars – the conclusion to the beloved Oz saga is arriving in cinemas imminently. The review embargo for Wicked: For Good lifted earlier in the week, and once again the verdict is predominantly in favour – even if some of the notices are a little less enthusiastic in their praise than they were for the first part. Still, our own reviewer awarded the film 4 stars and declared that it will "surely satisfy Wicked’s extensive army of devotees" – an army that has only grown in the last 12 months. The second instalment dramatises Act 2 of the beloved stage show and picks up directly after the events of the previous film – check our recap if you need a refresher – with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande once again bringing Elphaba and Glinda to life. Plus, some more familiar characters from the Wizard of Oz also make an appearance this time around, even including Dorothy herself. Meanwhile, fans who might be worried that the bulk of the memorable tunes from the stage musical appeared in the first film needn't worry. Not only does this second entry include plenty of great tracks from the show – including No Good Deed and the titular For Good – composer Stephen Schwartz has also penned two brand new original tracks for the soundtrack, one each fro Elphaba and Glinda. As for the sets, you can expect them to be even more epic this time around, with Production Designer Nathan Crowley spilling some of the secrets in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com ahead of the release. Whatever happens, it seems like this is going to be an experience that stays with fans for a long time after watching, especially if Grande's experience of making the film is anything to go by. "Shooting For Good was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced," the Glinda star previously told Variety. "It was such a long and emotional process. I kind of left my body. We filmed it over the course of a week, and it stayed with me. I haven’t even seen the final cut yet because I’m not sure I’m ready to feel all of it again." Director Jon M Chu previously explained the decision to split the musical into two films rather than one, saying in a social media statement back in 2022: "As we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it." He continued: "As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. "So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie, but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters." Meanwhile, star Cynthia Erivo told Variety of the second part: "We’re diving deeper into the consequences of the characters’ choices. The story is richer, and the stakes are higher. It’s not just a continuation; it’s a transformation." So when is For Good coming to cinemas? And will any new stars be joining Erivo and Ariana Grande in the second part? Read on for everything you need to know. Wicked: For Good release date Wicked: For Good is almost here! It arrives on Friday 21st November 2025 – so almost exactly a year after the first film's launch in cinemas. Of course, that was a lot longer to wait between the two acts than the 15-minute intermission theatregoers are accustomed to, but it's still a shorter gap than there often is between two instalments in a franchise. Given how enthusiastically people took to part one, we're willing to bet that many fans managed to fit in a fair few viewings of the first film while they waited... Wicked: For Good plot – What happens in the second act? If you've not seen the stage show or read Gregory Maguire's source novel and are thus unfamiliar with the events in the second half of the musical, you might not want to read too much on from here – but suffice to say that the second part follows the story after Elphaba has learned to fly and discovered the treachery going on in Oz. On stage, the second act picks up with her already known as the Wicked Witch of the West due to her opposition to the Wizard's regime, while Glinda has gone the other way – now the lead spokesperson for the Wizard and known as Glinda the Good. Meanwhile, the story also delves further into Fiyero, who is now looking for Elphaba but is led astray and ends up coming into conflict with Glinda. Crucially, the second part depicts the events we know from The Wizard of Oz, albeit from a different perspective – focusing on what is happening behind the scenes during Dorothy's venture down the Yellow Brick Road, while also including some interesting reveals about other characters we know from the classic film. Given how faithful the first film was to act one, we're not expecting any major deviations, but of course we'll update this page accordingly if we hear any snippets to the contrary. "The first tells how Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and the second tells how her best friend, Glinda, becomes authentically good,” producer Marc Platt explained in the production notes (via NBC). Wicked: For Good cast – Will Dorothy be in the film? The cast is almost exactly the same as it was for the first film – which is no surprise given that the two films were shot at the same time and that there were no character deaths in the first part, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande once again leading the way. Here's a reminder of the biggest names you can expect to see in the sequel: Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp Ariana Grande as Glinda Upland Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp Peter Dinklage as the voice of Doctor Dillamond Bowen Yang as Pfannee of Phan Hall Bronwyn James as ShenShen In the musical, there are no new additions in the second act, save for a brief appearance by iconic Wizard of Oz character Dorothy, who can be heard crying off-stage but is not normally played by an actor on stage. That said, both Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion have been given slightly expanded roles in the film – with the latter being voiced by two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo and the former played in a non-speaking role by Bethany Weaver Given Judy Garland's performance in the 1939 film is one of the most beloved screen performances of all time, Weaver has very big shoes – or ruby slippers – to fill. Will there be new music in Wicked: For Good? While the movie currently covers off all the songs from the first act of the musical, it has been confirmed that there will be a couple of additions in part two. Those tracks are No Place Like Home, sung by Erivo as Elphaba – 30 seconds of which have already debuted ahead of the film's release, and The Girl in the Bubble, sung by Granda as Glinda. During an interview with The Messenger in 2023, composer Stephen Schwartz said: "The storytelling required it, and therefore they were created—the intention was that they were organic and not imposed on the movie." He added: "There's new stuff that I think the fans will enjoy. Our hope and intention is that the people to whom the story and the show are important will not in any way be disappointed, but will be thrilled by what they will see." Meanwhile, Erivo told Variety that she collaborated with Schwartz to create the new song for Elphaba, which she said is "so special to me". Erivo explained: "When we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears. I hope audiences are ready — it’s a song that speaks to the heart of who Elphaba is." More recently, Grande revealed in an interview with Variety that the new song for Glinda comes at "a pivotal moment in [her] journey" and that "it shows a side of her we’ve never seen before". She added: "In the stage show, this transformation happens off-stage. But in the movie, we get to see her make the decision that defines who she is. It’s a privilege to sing this song and be the first Glinda to bring it to life.” Is there a Wicked: For Good trailer? Yes, more than one! The final trailer for the film was released on Wednesday 24th September – just under two months ahead of the release – and you can find it below: View oEmbed on the source website The previous trailer – which features several call-backs to the original 1939 Wizard of Oz film – can also be found below: Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wicked recap: Everything you need to remember before watching For Good
After what has felt like a very long year for fans, the second part of the beloved musical is about to land in cinemas – here's a refresher of all the major events from the previous instalment.
A lot has happened since the curtain went down on Wicked: Part One almost exactly a year ago – including the film being nominated for ten Oscars – but it's now finally time to return to Oz for the finale of the hit musical adaptation. Reviews for the second instalment haven't been quite as stellar as they were for the first part, but they're still predominantly on the positive side, with our own 4-star verdict hailing it a "wondrous, multi-colour extravaganza" and declaring that it will "surely satisfy Wicked’s extensive army of devotees". Meanwhile, we were also full of praise for returning leads Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who have both been given brand new original songs to perform written by the show's original composer Stephen Schwartz, adding to a soundtrack that will already delight fans of the show. Of course, bearing in mind we've had to deal with the longest theatrical interval of all time, it's quite possible that some of the less hardcore Wicked fans might not remember every single detail of the previous film before heading to the cinema for the saga's conclusion. With that in mind, we've recapped all the most important details below. Read on for everything you need to remember before seeing For Good. Wicked recap: Everything you need to remember before watching For Good The first film opened more or less at the end of the whole story, with the Munchkins celebrating the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West. Amongst the revelry, Glinda is asked by one of the gathered Munchkins if the rumours that she and the Witch had once been friends were true – which prompts her to tell the story of their shared past. We learn that the Witch, aka Elphaba, had been ostracised due to her green skin pretty much from the moment she was born. However, when she had accompanied her younger sister Nessarose to enrol at Shiz University, the establishment's head Madame Morrible spotted evidence that she had unique powers of magic, and offered to privately tutor her in sorcery. After her enrolment, Elphaba had been assigned to share a dorm with Galinda, but the pair instantly got off on the wrong foot, clashing over their very different outlooks and priorities. Meanwhile, she also learned of the growing discrimination against animals – who were losing their ability to speak – and allied with her goat history professor Dr Dillamond, one of the few remaining animal staff at the university. When Galinda persuaded their Munchkin classmate Boq (who admired her) to take Nessarose to a party (so that she could go with transfer student Fiyero instead), Elphaba softened towards her roommate. Their bond increased yet further when Galinda consoled her at the dance after she is ridiculed for wearing a pointed hat, the same hat which Galinda had initially gifted her as a prank. From there, they became fast friends. Meanwhile, as the campaign against animals stepped up a notch, Dr Dillamond was escorted off the premises and replaced by a new human teacher named Professor Nikidik. One of his first moves in his new job was to show off a cage that contained a frightened lion cub, which was designed especially to stop animals from developing the ability to speak. Unsurprisingly, this angered Elphaba, who then teamed up with Fiyero to successfully free the lion into the nearby forrest. During their mission, it became increasingly clear that she and Fiyero got along very well, but Elphaba believed her feelings for him to be unrequited – and that he had eyes only for Galinda. Some time later, Elphaba received an invention to meet her hero, The Wizard Of Oz. And so she made the journey to The Emerald City with Galinda – who announced that she had changed her name to Glinda out of solidarity with Dillamond, who had been unable to pronounce her name. Upon their arrival, original Elphaba and Glinda stars Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth made a brief cameo in an extended song and dance number. When they finally arrived to meet the Wizard, Elphaba and Glinda were surprised to learn that – far from being the all-powerful sorcerer they'd been expecting – he is an ordinary man, and moreover that Madame Morrible was also present. The pair of them then pressured Elphaba into casting a levitation spell, which caused the Wizard’s monkey guards to sprout wings – such that they could now be used as spies. This incident made Elphaba realise that it had been the Wizard and Morrible who were spearheading the campaign against the animals and that they now planned to use her magic for their own ends. Devastated and furious, she took the ancient Grimmerie spellbook and ran away. Glinda followed her friend and made an attempt to calm her down, but Elphaba’s mind had been made up and she flew away from the Emerald City on a broom (which she had also cast a levitation spell on). Glinda pledged her support but stopped short of leaving with her, and was eventually being taken away by guards. At the end of the film, we saw that Morrible had begun spreading propaganda about Elphaba, the shock of which caused the latter's father Governor Thropp to suffer a fatal heart attack when he hears the news. Meanwhile, Morrible also hugged and comforted Glinda, who she was now attempting to get back on side, setting the stage for Act 2. Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Joel Edgerton reveals how new Netflix film could get close to answering the meaning of life
Edgerton and Felicity Jones star in acclaimed new drama Train Dreams – from writer/director Clint Bentley.
Train Dreams – which comes to Netflix tomorrow (Friday 21st November) – is not your typical streaming film. The decades-spanning drama stars Joel Edgerton as an ordinary man living in the Pacific Northwest in the early part of the 20th century, at a time when the US was rapidly changing. Although plenty of major things – including some traumatic incidents – happen over the course of his life, the film's gentle, patient approach more or less completely eschews melodrama in favour of a more considered, meditative approach. Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com at the London Film Festival last month, Edgerton had some pretty major claims to make about the potential impact of the movie, which is based on the late Denis Johnson's 2011 novella of the same name. "Well, I think the book – and now the film – gets close to, not giving us an answer to what the meaning of life is... but it's definitely rich with ruminations around, 'What is the meaning of a life?'" he explained. "And if you're lucky to have a long life and all of its experiences, what does it all add up to? "That was very potent to me in the novella, the idea that it was a Western that was not a violent, vengeful tale like we might know as a Western. But a meditative and very philosophical examination of a very potent but ordinary life – and yet it's imbued with such meaning." Another aspect of the story which immediately stuck out to Edgerton was the manner in which it explored the relationship between humanity and nature, with the star explaining that he often has to remind himself "how disconnected I can be from the planet that I live on". "Human beings, we use the planet," he explained. "We really use it, and we chew it up, rather than, as indigenous cultures do, feel like they belong to the land. There's a lot of things that really felt very potent to me, that I felt struck a chord.” When an aspiring writer is searching for advice, one of the first things they are often told is that their protagonist should be a driver of the action – that they should actively move things forward rather than merely passively reacting to circumstances around them. What makes Train Dreams so interesting is that it very much takes the opposite approach, something which in its own way also ties in to the aforementioned exploration of nature. Indeed, Felicity Jones told RadioTimes.com that she thought of Edgerton's character as "an old tree" who is "withstanding so much trauma and being blown about". "There's a quietness to the character and an introspection," she explained. "He's kind of an observer of the world. But then it's also cut with this violence... there's a lot of death throughout the film. So it's a fascinating combination that it's quite blunt about the facts of life, and how do you deal with these terrible things that can happen in your life, how do you find a route through that? "So I think that combination of there is a stillness and a peacefulness but, like nature, there are moments of terrible destruction and damage." Meanwhile, for writer/director Bentley – who was previously a co-writer on the hugely acclaimed Sing Sing – the idea for the film was simply to "represent life as a lot of us live it". He explained: "Most of us are not stopping a bank robbery or making some big invention that's going to change the world. And yet, the first time I fell in love... I remember how deep that feeling was, or the first time I lost a parent, how awful that was. "And those are big, big emotions and big things that dictate all of our lives, whether we lead a cinematic life or not. And that was always the thing that I hoped would come across in the movie." Train Dreams is streaming on Netflix from Friday 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wicked production designer talks turning the Yellow Brick Road into a "form of oppression"
Production designer Nathan Crowley and his team were tasked with recreating some indelible images from the Wizard of Oz.
In all of cinema, there are few images more enduring than the Yellow Brick Road – the dazzling centrepiece of Victor Fleming's beloved Technicolor marvel, The Wizard of Oz. Of course, the road is just one of many iconic landmarks from the classic film to prominently feature in Wicked: For Good – another example being Dorothy's farmhouse, which unsuspectingly lands atop the Wicked Witch of the East – and so you might wonder how the team behind the film went about recreating these sets for the new film. With that in mind, when RadioTimes.com exclusively spoke to production designer Nathan Crowley ahead of the two-part movie musical's second instalment, we put exactly that question to him. In the case of the farmhouse, he explained, it was relatively straightforward. "I know Dorothy's house is a slice of Americana, I know it belongs in Andrew Wyeth paintings. I know its Midwestern," he said. "So I know there's a language there that I can't veer off – and you shouldn't veer off – because [it's] the most famous flying house [and] we have to land that visually without question." But when it came to the Yellow Brick Road, things were a little more complex. Read more: Who plays Dorothy in Wicked: For Good? Wicked: For Good's early Rotten Tomatoes score revealed as wave of reviews arrive - is it as good as the first? "The Yellow Brick Road is slightly harder because we are telling a different story with [it]," he said. "We're telling you that it's a form of oppression, not joy. The Wizard is using it to cut down the forest of Oz. And so we have to tell that story." He continued: "We also have to tell the story of how Oz made the Yellow Brick Road, which is, you know, the Munchkin story – they were farming all the colours of the rainbow, but now they're only farming yellow tulips. So for this film, we grew a million yellow tulips off in another field, and then we showed the process of using that yellow dye to make the bricks in Munchkinland. "But that's the only colour they're dealing with. So they're being oppressed, too. They're losing their colour and they're losing the rainbow, and so it has big consequences, that road. And that's what I love about Wicked – telling you that story, rather than the story we all know." Back when the first film was released almost exactly a year ago, many fans were staggered to find that as many as nine million tulips had been planted specifically for the production. But it turns out that that was actually an underestimate: when the one million extra yellow tulips are added, the total is actually 10 million. Meanwhile, Crowley added that when it came to crafting the set, he and his team had to find multiple different shades of yellow as they were filming on both sound stages and on location – due to the different effects of sunlight and stage light. "We have to use different glazes and different yellows, and it's a lot of trial and error," he said. "We sat and looked at an enormous amount of yellows!" While many of the sets in the new film will already be familiar to fans from last year's Part One, the sheer scale went up another notch when it came to For Good, Crowley explained. "There's a big difference in terms of the world building [and] environment building we had to do," he said. "Because in [Part One], the focus is on youth, the youth of high school, and Shiz and the journey to the Emerald City. But then the second one is much more epic, and we have to look at the landscapes... we have to define Oz as a much bigger place. "It's telling a much bigger story in For Good... I mean, it gets sort of epic!" Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wicked: For Good soundtrack – all the songs in Part Two including original compositions
Composer Stephen Schwartz has penned a new number each for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Wicked fans have had to endure the longest interval of all time between Acts 1 and 2 of the hit musical – but the second part of the film adaptation is finally arriving in cinemas this weekend. Titled Wicked: For Good – after the most well-known song in the show's second act – cinemagoers can expect another colourful adventure to Oz, complete with no shortage of beloved songs. And this second film also has something the previous one didn't: some brand new, original numbers. Original composer Stephen Schwartz has penned two new tracks – one each for the film's main stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande – with all the signs so far suggesting that they'll be the perfect complement to the songs fans already know and love. So, which songs from the original musical feature in For Good? And what do we know about the new music? Read on for everything you need to know about the Wicked: For Good soundtrack, including where and when you can stream it and how to buy physical copies on CD and Vinyl. Wicked: For Good soundtrack – all the songs in Part 2 You can find the full list of tracks which appear in the film below – most of which come from Act 2 of the stage musical. All tracks are written by Stephen Schwartz Every Day More Wicked performed by Cynthia Erivo (featuring Michelle Yeoh and Ariana Grande) Thank Goodness/I Couldn't Be Happier performed by Ariana Grande (featuring Michelle Yeoh) No Place Like Home performed by Cynthia Erivo The Wicked Witch of the East performed by Marissa Bode, Cynthia Erivo, and Ethan Slater Wonderful performed by Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Grande, and Cynthia Erivo I'm Not That Girl (Reprise) performed by Ariana Grande As Long as You're Mine performed by Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey No Good Deed performed by Cynthia Erivo March of the Witch Hunters performed by Cast and Ethan Slater The Girl in the Bubble performed by Ariana Grande For Good performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Finale: For Good (Reprise) performed by Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande & Cast What are the new songs in Wicked: For Good? While all of the songs in the first film were taken directly from the stage show – albeit significantly extended in some cases – this time around, two brand new original songs have been composed by creator Stephen Schwartz especially for the film, one each for the two leads. Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba will perform a song titled No Place Like Home, with the star telling Variety last December that the song was "so special to me". She explained: "When we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears. I hope audiences are ready — it’s a song that speaks to the heart of who Elphaba is." A 30-second segment of the song has already debuted ahead of the film's release. Meanwhile, the new track for Ariana Grande's Glinda is called The Girl in the Bubble, with Grande explaining in a recent interview with Empire that she was "so grateful" for the number. "We get to see [Glinda] decide, ‘I’m going to change the course of Oz. I’m going to become deeply, truly good and make a safe space for people," she said. "She earns her title for real, and we get to see that self-discovery. I’m so grateful for that song, because she deserves it as a character." Back in 2023, Schwartz had exclusively told RadioTimes.com that it had been a "privilege" to write new songs for the film's two leads. "We weren't really able to get the whole story into one movie without it being far too long," he said of the decision to split the story into two parts. "[But] it did leave some room for exploration that has led to a couple of new songs, and it's just been a privilege to be able to write with the voices of Cynthia and Ariana in mind." It's also worth noting that although not an entirely new composition, the film's opening number – Every Day More Wicked – is an expansion of the beginning of the original version of Thank Goodness. How to listen to the Wicked: For Good soundtrack The soundtrack album – which is already available for pre-saving – will be released on 21st November 2025, exactly the same day as the film. So you'll be able to listen to your favourite songs on repeat as soon as you leave the cinema. It will be available to stream on all the usual platforms, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and more, while physical media lovers will also have the option to buy CD and Vinyl copies. Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 21st November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Christmas Karma director reveals the emotional moment that reduced a crew member to tears
Gurinder Chadha spoke to RadioTimes.com about her new update on A Christmas Carol.
Gurinder Chadha's new festive film Christmas Karma hasn't exactly been blessed with the most positive reviews from critics – even being awarded a rare zero star rating from The Telegraph – but that hasn't stopped it from striking a chord with some viewers since it opened in UK cinemas over the weekend. A modern-day update of A Christmas Carol with a British-Indian lead, the film is not short on moments that attempt to tug on the heartstrings – and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, director Chadha revealed that there was one scene in the film that proved so emotional it reduced one of her crew members to tears. "There's a wonderful moment when Sood [this film's version of Scrooge, played by Kunal Nayyar] is looking at his past and his lost love," she explained. "He sees her now as an adult, and he's really sad and she's crying, and it was a very touching moment. "And as we were filming it, I noticed my grip on the camera. He was crying, and I was like, 'Oh my God, you OK?' And he went, *sobbing* 'Yes.' [I thought] Wow, if the grip's crying, we're doing something right!" For all the tears, star Nayyar – best known for his role as Raj on The Big Bang Theory – stated that the experience of shooting the film was "so much fun". He explained: "Even the difficult numbers – I mean, there was a joy in the pain too. So it wasn't just one part was fun and the other wasn't, I think every day for us was a miracle that we got through the day and got the movie made." View oEmbed on the source website Nayyar is joined in the film by an extraordinarily eclectic cast – perhaps best illustrated by the fact the ghosts are played by Hugh Bonneville, Eva Longoria, Billy Porter and Boy George. And there was one co-star who Nayyar appeared to particularly enjoy filming with: Danny Dyer (who plays a singing taxi-driver). "It's so refreshing to spend time with someone who's so unapologetically themselves," he said. "And if you want to know what fame is, anytime we shot in London, the amount of people that would swarm Danny Dyer or paparazzi or anyone. I mean, he is the most beloved guy. Everyone loved him. "The entire crew, people walking by, paparazzi – every time we shot, it was a big deal, because he's a legend over here. So I really have a lot of time for him. We got very close." Read more: Christmas Karma director reveals how she sought Charles Dickens's "permission" for new Christmas Carol update Rosamund Pike defends her Now You See Me villain against 'psychopath' label – and talks ditching her English accent for role Christmas Karma is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Christmas Karma director reveals how she sought Charles Dickens's "permission" for new Christmas Carol update
Gurinder Chadha's new adaptation of the timeless Christmas tale boasts a very eclectic cast.
A Christmas Carol is already one of the most adapted books of all time, and as of this weekend, there's another new big-screen version of Charles Dickens's timeless Yuletide yarn for cinemagoers to enjoy. That's because Bend It Like Beckham and Blinded by the Light director Gurinder Chadha has reimagined the iconic tale with her new film Christmas Karma, which unfolds in modern-day London and sees The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar play a British-Indian version of Ebenezer Scrooge named Mr Sood. Although the film takes many liberties with the original text, Chadha's version is more or less true to the, ahem, spirit of the story – and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com she revealed that she actually made a special trip while she was preparing to write the film. "I went to Charles Dickens's house in Clerkenwell," she explained. "I walked around his house, the sitting room, the drawing room, the kitchen, where the pudding is made and all this. And I kind of sought permission from Charles Dickens, saying, 'If he was alive today and he was me, what would he do?' "And then it all just clicked. With the story of Scrooge having a past where, sadly, he's come to Britain in 1972 as an Ugandan Asian and as a refugee." Chadha added that Mr Sood was also based on the true story of a family friend who had gone through almost exactly the same journey, and "was always very Grinch-y at Christmas". She said: "Growing up, I was like, 'Why are you so mean?' And he was like, 'Why are you doing Christmas? That's not our holiday.' And I'm like, 'It is our holiday!' And those feelings always stayed with me. And then he went through that trauma – happily, he's come out the other side now. But it's based on someone very real. "Scrooge we know now was actually suffering from depression and he had to go back and heal his inner child, as we say. And so I think the movie works on that level now, because a lot of people are more open to looking at your past and trying to figure out how to move forward if you've had a traumatic childhood." Of course, as well as casting Scrooge, one of the key aspects of any Christmas Carol adaptation – from the Muppets to Alastair Sim – is deciding who should play the three Spirits. Chadha opted for an especially eclectic mix of actors, with Christmas Past played by Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, Christmas Present by Pose's Billy Porter, and Christmas Yet to Come by none other than '80s pop icon Boy George. View oEmbed on the source website So how did those castings come about? "With Eva Longoria, she asked me to host her her film, Flamin' Hot, and I agreed," Chadha explained. "And then after we were having a meal, and she said, 'What are you working on? I'd love to work with you.' And I said, 'I'm doing this Christmas Carol adaptation.' And she said, 'I'm Mexican. We own ghosts. Day of the dead. That's me. I'm in this movie.' And I thought, 'My god!' "I had never thought of that because I had gone down the Dame route, you know, the British Dame route, but actually, she was totally right! "Billy, I'd come across in his show Pose, and I wanted someone who was very commanding, because his responsibility was to turn Sood around – but also to sing and dance. And Billy is such a force of nature on screen that he took that role. He grabbed it. And everything he says, he says it with such authenticity. "And then, of course, Boy George, who I just contacted because I love Boy George –and frankly, who doesn't? I needed someone to play the Ghost of Future who had a bit of a past themselves and had been through a lot to come out the other side, so they would bring that to the song they get to sing. And George grabbed it!" Read more: Vera icon Brenda Blethyn teases her potential next role after her acclaimed new film Rosamund Pike defends her Now You See Me villain against 'psychopath' label – and talks ditching her English accent for role Christmas Karma is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Keeper ending explained: Tatiana Maslany unpacks final scenes and what's next for Liz
The latest film from Longlegs and The Monkey director Osgood Perkins has just arrived in UK cinemas – here's how to interpet those memorable final scenes. **CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS**
(**WARNING: Contains major spoilers for Keeper**) If you've seen any of Longlegs director Osgood Perkins's previous horror films, you'll know by now that he's a master when it comes to building unnerving atmospheres and crafting memorable, unsettling images. That's certainly the case in his latest effort, Keeper, which stars Tatiana Maslany and has just arrived in UK cinemas. The chiller sees Maslany take on a character called Liz, who decamps to a cabin in the woods owned by her doctor boyfriend Malcom (Rossif Sutherland) to celebrate their one year-anniversary, only for things to turn out rather different than she'd planned. It's immediately clear that something is a little off. Liz keeps seeing some very strange visions, especially after Malcom explains that he must leave for an urgent work-related matter, and the strange behaviour exhibited by his cousin Darren (Birkett Turton) only adds to the unease. Eventually it all leads to a frightening – if rather exposition-heavy – reveal, before a final act that includes some truly terrifying creatures. "There was a big shift in terms of the creature design, because initially this film was a tiny little budget film," Maslany explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "And then obviously [distributor] NEON came out and bought it and changed the fabric of the film in so many ways, and allowed it to be bigger than than it had previously been." She added that when she'd film the creature scenes, the beasts "were, like, practical masks and things like that" – so she got a major fright when she watched the finished film for the first time. "When I finally saw the creatures, I think it was when they screened the final cut. And to me, I was like... I can't wait to hear what people's ideas are on what that means, what that final boss means, because there's something about that doubling effect and the faces within a face that are just like... [chef's kiss]. "When I saw it, I wanted to read 900 books about horror and about symbols and I was just, like, there's so much here and I'm curious about how people are going to interpret it." Need some help unpacking the final moments of the film? Read on to have the Keeper ending explained, with more exclusive insights from Maslany. Keeper ending explained: What was going on at the cabin? After things get increasingly eerie – and Liz's visions get increasingly extreme – we finally learn what has been going on at the cabin when Malcolm reveals all. It turns out everything has its roots in an incident that occurred two centuries ago. You see, Malcom – and his cousin Darren – are both actually 200 years old. Turns out, when they were kids they'd shot a pregnant woman – one who looked strikingly similar to Liz, might we add – who they believed to be trespassing on their property, and dumped her in a pig sty. Only, it turned out this was no ordinary woman, and before she succumbed to her wounds she gave birth to some sort of demonic entity which has been stalking the property ever since. In order to appease this presence, Malcolm and Darren have been regularly luring women to the property and sacrificing them to feed the demon, in exchange for their own eternal life and youth. All those woman Liz has been glimpsing in her visions throughout the film? They're the previous victims. How does Liz triumph over Malcolm? Up until this point, it appears that Malcolm and Darren have always had their way, but things have changed with Liz. Malcom had suspected this might be the case when his usual plan to drug her with a chocolate cake didn't go to plan, but it ends up going even more awry for the supposed doctor than he could have possibly imagined. After the freaky creatures reveal themselves to Liz, rather than devouring her, they appear to embrace her – seemingly transfixed by her resemblance to their mother. And so Liz joins forces with them, possibly possessed, and turns Malcolm's tricks right back on him. No longer with the promise of immortality, she finds him in the woods, force feeds him some of that cursed chocolate cake and dunks his head in a bucket containing a mysterious substance – seemingly consigning him to his death as she walks away. View oEmbed on the source website There are numerous ways in which this could be interpreted, but Maslany has her own read, as she explained to RadioTimes.com. "I enjoy a lot about that ending," she said. "I don't think it's necessarily a hopeful ending. To me, it just gets so many ideas going in my head about the roles that we have been predetermined societally to play and also the horror of domesticity – like the terror of not knowing who your partner is. "And the male legacy that sort of... I think we're definitely facing a lot of that," she added, "I mean, we always have, but just it feels very zeitgeisty to be like this man who wanted to live forever, and used women to give him life, to make him live forever, and they were expendable. And so it's interesting that Liz doesn't fit into that box for whatever reason, and kind of changes the pattern." Asked about why Liz resembles the woman Malcolm had shot all those years ago – essentially bringing everything full circle – Maslany was less sure. "[There's] sort of like these echoes of other women's experiences in our bodies and in our lives," she said. "I don't know what it means that Liz looks like that woman, or was that woman. Is she just doomed to be this, or is this like an ending of something for Malcolm? Is she powerful at the end, or is she stuck?" It's certainly a film that leaves the audience with a lot of questions, and your own takeaway might differ from that given by Maslany. One thing's for sure, no-one who watches Keeper will be forgetting those bizarre creatures in a hurry... Keeper is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Vera icon Brenda Blethyn teases her potential next role after her acclaimed new film
Blethyn says she has a few options on the table following the release of new drama Dragonfly.
With her long-running role as Vera on ITV's hit detective drama series, Brenda Blethyn well and truly sealed her place as one of the most beloved British actors of her generation. And just a few months after the finale of that series, the two-time Oscar nominee has again earned major plaudits for her role in the acclaimed film Dragonfly – which opened in UK cinemas last week and has already seen her earn a couple of notable award nominations. Given her enduring popularity, her fans will no doubt be desperate to hear what other roles she has in the pipeline, and so when RadioTimes.com spoke to her for an exclusive interview about the new film we had to ask her what she would be working on next. "I don't know," was her response. "I've got various things on the table [I've] got to make decisions about. But Christmas is next!" Asked if having played one character for so long had changed the way in which she chose her future roles, she admitted that she "missed" Vera. "I did 14 seasons – that's 56 films, and I was very fond of her," she said. "And then I was only finished that a week when I started on this." There is one further project that we know Blethyn will be appearing in in the not too distant future. She explained that in the time since shooting Dragonfly, she'd also wrapped production on the upcoming Channel 4 series A Woman of Substance – the second adaptation of the Barbara Taylor Bradford novel that was previously made by the channel in 1984. Why Vera icon Brenda Blethyn didn’t want to do new film Dragonfly at first - and what changed her mind Vera icon Brenda Blethyn reveals acclaimed new film Dragonfly makes viewers question their judgement Some first-look images of the series were released last month, with the official synopsis teasing that it opens in 1911 and follows "an impoverished ambitious maid in Yorkshire" who "goes on a dizzying journey to become the world’s richest woman, gazing down from a sprawling luxury New York penthouse." Blethyn will play the older version of that character. Meanwhile, away from on-screen appearances, there's another project that the star is hopeful she'll be working on next year, too. "One thing I will be doing is when I was in Newcastle, I helped out with a charity called Sunday for Sammy," she said. "They raise money for local people who can't afford to get training in the film industry... it helps local youngsters [find a] place in the arts. That's coming back next year, so hopefully [I'll] do that!" Dragonfly is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Nuremberg movie true story: Cast explain how they portrayed story of Nazi "psychopaths" and "narcissists"
Rami Malek, Richard E Grant and writer/director James Vanderbilt spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the new film.
The story of the Nuremberg trials is something which anyone with any grounding in history will know at least something about. Held by the Allied powers following the defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War, they saw a total of 24 Nazi leaders – notably including Hermann Göring – put on trial between 20th November 1945 and 1st October 1946. The trials have already been the subject of numerous film and TV projects, including the classic 1961 drama Judgment at Nuremberg, starring Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster, and the 2000 TV docudrama Nuremberg, featuring Alex Baldwin and Brian Cox. And now this momentous historical event forms the basis of another new feature, one that approaches the subject from an intriguing angle which writer/director James Vanderbilt believes will allow audiences to glean some fascinating new insights. "It was something I thought I knew something about and then learned very quickly how little I knew about," Vanderbilt explained to RadioTimes.com during an exclusive interview. He revealed that he had read a proof of Jack El Hai's 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist many years ago – before it had even been published – and instantly knew that the subject would make for a fascinating film. The book is built around the experiences of American military psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who was assigned to ascertain the competency of each Nuremberg defendant before they stood trial. This led to him having a number of meetings with Göring and other Nazis, with Kelley believing at the time that he would be able to learn something new about the nature of evil – perhaps even something that was unique to the German character. "It was a story I'd never heard and it was the fastest I said yes to anything in my life," Vanderbilt explained. "Because I thought this was such an interesting and emotional way – an intimate way – to tell what turns out to be an enormous story." View oEmbed on the source website One of the stars of the film is Richard E Grant, who plays the prominent British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe. Although his scenes are largely separate to the Kelley/Göring part of the film, it was that aspect of Vanderbilt's script that made the project such an enticing one for the Withnail and I star. Previous Nuremberg films, he explained, have essentially been more like "12 Angry Men trial movies", and by taking this new approach it was possible to touch on something perhaps a little deeper. "By going through the prism of this very intense relationship between Kelley trying to understand Göring in this cell for over a year, by going through something so personal, you then [end up] taking on the whole ideology of the Nazi Party and trying to understand how and why they did what they did," Grant explained. "And I think as soon as something becomes personal, it avoids the thing of going, 'Oh, well, I would never do that'," he added. "Because you are faced with somebody like Göring, who, albeit a narcissist, was incredibly charming. All the research I'd done said that he was one of those people that if you had an ideal dinner party list, you'd have Hermann Göring at the dinner. "But how? The man who was one down from Hitler and perpetrated the Holocaust... How could you possibly do that? But I think in understanding how psychopaths or narcissists operate amongst us... that is absolutely riveting." For Vanderbilt, it was the compelling conversations between Göring and Kelley that made the film such a tantalising prospect. "It's sort of this relationship between two men who are both trying to get something out of each other and trying to get over on each other," he explained. "Kelley has this incredible subject dropped into his lap, the highest ranking living Nazi, and he decides that he wants to dissect the nature of evil and may be able to write a book after and make his fortune. "And Göring is looking for his last moment on the world stage to define his legacy. So they're both trying to get something out of each other. We talked a lot about Silence of the Lambs, this sort of a psychological duel between the two men and how their relationship progresses and almost reaches... I don't want to say friendship, because I don't think they were friends. But they definitely have an effect on each other that I think neither one of them anticipated." The role of Göring in the film is played by Oscar winner Russell Crowe, and Vanderbilt admitted that trying to get under the skin of such a horrific figure clearly took its toll on the normally gregarious Australian. "Russell's a very wonderful man, very social man, nothing better than going out for drinks with Russell Crowe," the director said. "But he sort of said, 'On this film, I'm probably not going to be able to be as social as I normally am, because I'm going to have to go to some really dark places in terms of this.'" Part of what made the performance a difficult one to get right was the fact that rather than being portrayed as an out-and-out monster, the film goes to great lengths to understand what had made Göring seem so appealing to so many people in spite of his clearly monstrous crimes. "Every person is the hero of their own story," Vanderbilt said, "And that's how we approached Göring – he believes he did the right thing, that he was an honourable military man who was just trying to do right by his country. And so that's how Russell attacked him and played him, and that's how we wanted to portray him – as somebody who's desperately trying to show the world that he did the right thing." Opposite Göring, the role of Kelley was played by another Oscar winner – Rami Malek. The Mr Robot star had been fascinated by the story ever since reading El-Hai's aforementioned book, and had personally reached out to the filmmakers to try to land the role. Once he did so, he was able to get his hand on Kelley's own book – 22 Cells in Nuremberg – which basically became his Bible ahead of the shoot. "It was almost a diary for me, looking at Douglas Kelley's work, which is difficult to get a hold of," he said. "That was actually a gift from James Vanderbilt, and I don't know where I'd be without it. "I was fascinated by the character of Douglas Kelley, the thought that he could possibly dissect evil, the fact that he thought he could profit off of it, and I think the trauma that he ended up dealing with through the course of his life. "In discovering that evil [could] exist under the right circumstance or regime in any place in any time in the world, it wasn't confined to a certain uniform or a certain place or a certain time. The banality of evil was what was fascinating for him, and something that I think he was challenged by through the course of his life – and the inability to actually be listened to was so jarring that it led him to a certain demise." That demise – Kelley ended up dying by suicide in 1958 after ingesting a capsule of potassium cyanide, the same method used by Göring himself – is alluded to towards the end of the film. And Vanderbilt said that Kelley's life post-Nuremberg was one of the things that drew him to the film in the first place. "We do sort of touch on that and talk about that – how this took a real toll on him," he said. "And the conclusions he came to and the relationship he had... I think this was the defining moment of his life and his career, and altered him in ways that he never could have predicted." Nuremberg is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
MCU star reveals why he was "floored" by script for new Netflix animated film In Your Dreams
Simu Liu and Cristin Milioti star as parents in the streamer's latest original animation, from writer/director Alex Woo.
Netflix has already had one huge animated success story this year in K-Pop Demon Hunters – and the streamer will no doubt be hoping that it's latest new film In Your Dreams can achieve similar success. The animation is the brainchild of Pixar alum Alex Woo, and follows a brother and sister who – along with the former's stuffed toy Baloney Tony – journey into the world of their own dreams to meet The Sandman, hopeful that he will grant them their wish of saving their parents' marriage. The mother and father in the film are played by The Penguin's Cristin Milioti and Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, the latter revealed he had been "floored" by how moved he was when Woo first sent him the script in early 2021. "I mean, that original script had a very different ending and a very different way in which that story played out," he said. "[But] I just felt like the heart of it was so human and so real and really the spirit of it – which I think is unchanged in this final product – is just that idea of, like, families aren't always perfect." Read more: The Penguin star Cristin Milioti speaks out on Sofia Falcone's future amid season 2 speculation Predator: Badlands director explains why he didn't do a traditional sequel to acclaimed Prey He continued: "No matter how perfect something may seem, there's always going to be moments of conflict. And it doesn't mean there's a good guy or a bad guy. It just means that your parents are human beings who sometimes want different things or sometimes have a different idea on what the next step forward looks like." Liu added that he felt this was "such a beautiful message" to give to kids, especially due to how it differed from the more simple ways families can often be presented on screen. "I think kids internalise a lot of what they see out in the world," he said. "And I think a lot of what we feed them in terms of media, in terms of the families that are shown in television and in movies, tend to feel picturesque and perfect and that's just not true. So I felt like this was an important movie as well." View oEmbed on the source website There was another aspect, too, that attracted Liu to the project: the fact that he got the chance to sing. "Alex was like, 'Well, first of all, I hate to ask you this, but I kind of need you to sing for me,'" he recalled. "Because this character is a folk musician. And so yeah, I had to sing for him. I had to win the role." His voice clearly impressed the director, and in the end Liu got the chance to recored a duet with co-star Milioti for the film's soundtrack, an experience he greatly enjoyed. "It's such a beautiful song, original song just for this movie," he said. "And Cristin is on it – I'm so lucky to be on a song with her as well, because she's such an incredible singer. So yeah, I'm really excited for for people to hear it!" In Your Dreams is streaming on Netflix from Friday 14th November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Penguin star Cristin Milioti speaks out on Sofia Falcone's future amid season 2 speculation
Milioti won a Primetime Emmy for her role opposite Colin Farrell in the hit Batman spin-off series.
It's been just over a year since Batman spin-off series The Penguin wrapped up its hugely acclaimed run, with the show having enjoyed a very successful time on the awards circuit in the intervening 12 months. That success has understandably led its many fans to hope that a season 2 could be on the cards – despite its original billing as a Limited Series – and indeed, there have been some rumblings that discussions regarding a second run are already being held over at HBO and DC. With that in mind, when RadioTimes.com got the chance to speak to star Cristin Milioti – who won an Emmy for her role as Sofia Falcone in the series – we couldn't help but ask her what she thought of the possibility of reprising her role in the future. "I'd play her for the rest of my life," was her instant response. "I mean, I love that show, and I love those people. You know, it was like, across the board, 10 out of 10s. And I would love to be able to revisit it one day." Speaking more generally about how much the show – and her own performance – had struck a chord with viewers, Milioti added that she had found the experience "overwhelming" and "wonderful". "It's incredible," she said. "That show came out a year ago, and our time talking about it just kind of came to an end. Like, how incredible that it reached that many people, and it was just something that I loved making so, so much. "I'm still sort of just blown away by it all. I love it so much!" Milioti was speaking to us to promote her role in new Netflix animated film In Your Dreams, which is written and directed by Pixar alumnus Alex Woo, and will be hoping to find the same kind of success on the streamer that another of its animated releases – KPop Demon Hunters – achieved earlier in the year. The film follows a brother and sister who journey into the world of their own dreams so that The Sandman can grant them their wish of a perfect family, due to the marital difficulties being faced buy their parents (played by Milioti and Simu Liu.) Milioti explained how she had first become aware of the project back in 2021 and been immediately entranced by Woo's vision. "I just really liked the idea that it was a film that could explore what it's like when a family is having a moment of possibly falling apart," she said. "And to sort of help kids navigate that, and adults too! And then the many forms that can take, all through this metaphor of dreaming." In Your Dreams is streaming on Netflix from Friday 14th November 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Rosamund Pike defends her Now You See Me villain against 'psychopath' label – and talks ditching her English accent for role
The Gone Girl and Saltburn star speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about her antagonist role in new threequel Now You See Me: Now You Don't.
Rosamund Pike is no stranger to playing characters who could be described as anti-heroes, from Amy Dunne in Gone Girl to Marla Grayson in I Care A Lot. And now, she's taking on a proper out-and-out villain in the new Now You See Me film. The threequel reunites the 'Four Horsemen' of the original film – played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco – as they join forces with a younger trio of magicians to stave off their greatest threat yet. That threat comes in the form of Pike's South African diamond company CEO Veronika Vanderberg – a great villainous name, as Pike points out – who is in league with an assortment of dodgy criminal networks, laundering money and taking part in all sorts of other shady dealings. Veronika is clearly no good egg, and at one point in the film is even labelled a psychopath by Harrelson's character Merritt McKinney – but Pike reckons that this characterisation may be taking things a stretch too far. "I thought that was a bit much," she laughed during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "I was fine with all the insults – but psychopath I balked at!" So what does Pike really think of the character? "Well, she was injured and hurt as a young lady," she said. "No, I mean it's probably daddy issues like Woody says, really, isn't it? It's competing for an absent father's attention and wanting to prove that she's good enough, I guess." She continued: "And now she's inherited this diamond mine and she's doing dealings with world leaders who are powerful and nefarious like she is and she's facilitating wars and smuggling diamonds across borders…. "I think people definitely know that she's into bad stuff, bad stuff. And it's the thing of having to make her formidable and threatening enough, but also within this type of movie to also make her fun enough to watch." Read more: Glen Powell reveals he is still waiting for Tom Cruise’s feedback on one key component of new film Christy director reveals why Sydney Sweeney was the right choice to play iconic boxer One aspect of playing Veronika that probably adds to the fun – and certainly helps dial up the camp factor – is that Pike was forced to ditch her usual English accent and adopt a South African one, something she thought was crucial when it came to getting into character. "I think she is the accent," she explained. "Some of these lines, you think, 'Thank God,' because if I'd done them in an English accent it would have been much harder to get that sense that I was looking for – of someone who's very pleased with herself, with an inflated sort of self importance and vanity through the roof." That vanity is certainly evident in the character, throughout the film and presents itself in a multitude of different ways. One example which Pike found especially amusing was the fact that Veronika poses for photos with the motorsports team she owns while wearing a boiler suit – as if she herself was a member of the team. "She's never sat in a car in her life, and yet she's there in the race team colours," she smiled. "I just thought that is exactly what she would do – she'd stand with the star driver just a little bit behind her." Clearly, it all added up to a thoroughly enjoyable experience for the Saltburn star. "Oh, I love... characters who are vain really please me to play!" she said. Now You See Me: Now You Don't is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14th November. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Adele cast alongside James Bond contender in all-star opera drama film based on beloved novel
Adolescence breakout Owen Cooper is also in the eclectic cast for the new film from Tom Ford.
Singing superstar Adele has been cast in her debut film role, with the musician set to form part of a star-studded ensemble in a new project from fashion designer-turned-director Tom Ford. James Bond contender Aaron Taylor Johnson, Adolescence breakout Owen Cooper and Superman and Nosferatu star Nicholas Hoult are among the other big names with key roles in Cry to Heaven, which is adapted from the 1982 novel of the same name by Interview with a Vampire writer Ann Rice. Ford has himself adapted the book, which is set against a backdrop of opera in 18th century Italy and follows a Venetian noble and a castrated Calabrian singer as they try to find success in that world. Meanwhile, number of other high-profile actors are also set to star in the film, with Deadline reporting there are parts for Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Paul Bettany, Hunter Schafer, Thandiwe Newton, Daryl McCormack and Colin Firth – the latter of whom was Oscar-nominated for his lead role in Ford's 2009 directorial debut A Single Man. Ford – primarily known for his work in the fashion industry – has only made two feature films in his career so far, following up the aforementioned A Single Man with the more divisive Nocturnal Animals back in 2016, so it will certainly be interesting to see what he serves up this time. According to reports, the film has already begun pre-production ahead of a shooting start date in January, with filming set to take place in both London and Rome. Read more: K-Pop Demon Hunters revealed to be ineligible for BAFTA Film Awards despite huge success Avatar: Fire and Ash runtime finally revealed - and you should make yourself comfortable Meanwhile, a late autumn release date is currently being eyed, which suggests a probable festival premiere and awards aspirations. Who knows, perhaps Adele could add an acting Oscar to the Best Original Song gong she won for Skyfall back in 2013. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
K-Pop Demon Hunters revealed to be ineligible for BAFTA Film Awards despite huge success
The mega hit film's lack of a full theatrical release means that it does not meet the criteria for inclusion.
At the start of every year, you can normally make some educated guesses as to which upcoming films will really a strike a chord with viewers – but there are always a few under-the-radar releases that come out of seemingly nowhere to become genuine pop culture sensations. Step forward K-Pop Demon Hunters, a film that undoubtedly fits that description this year. After previously being sold off by Sony Pictures, the film was added to Netflix back in June and almost instantly became a global hit – leading to a later sing-a-long theatrical release and talk of various spin-offs and sequels. That success has seen it emerge as a possible awards contender – but there is one ceremony where it definitely won't be picking up any gongs: the BAFTA Film Awards. That's because the film has been deemed ineligible for consideration due to the fact that it was not given a theatrical run ahead of its streaming debut in June. Per Deadline, Netflix had appealed for exemption due to the fact that the film eventually played in UK cinemas two months later – on 23rd and 24th August – before further screenings on Halloween weekend, but it is understood that their request has not been approved. The BAFTA eligibility rules state that titles must have "at least 10 commercial screenings in UK for at least seven days in aggregate" – and so KPop Demon Hunters does not fulfil those conditions. Interestingly, the film has been deemed eligible for inclusion at the Oscars – so it could yet pick up some major awards. And whichever way you look at it, the film has been a major success. It became the most-watched film ever on Netflix, sold out its limited theatrical screenings in minutes and its soundtrack has spawned five UK top 40 singles. And that's in addition to generally dominating the cultural conversation for months. Read more: K-Pop Demon Hunters 2 finally gets update on release following smash hit success Glen Powell reveals he is still waiting for Tom Cruise’s feedback on one key component of new film As you'll probably be aware of by now, the fantasy film follows the members of a Korean girlband called Huntr/x who moonlight as formidable demon hunters, finding themselves on the tail of their rival boy band, the Saja Boys. Last week, fans were given an update on the sequel with the news that Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation are eyeing a 2029 launch. Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo are all expected to reprise their roles as K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey – let's just hope it proves worth the four-year wait. K-Pop Demon Hunters is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. Add Netflix shows to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
Glen Powell reveals he is still waiting for Tom Cruise’s feedback on one key component of new film
The star of The Running Man went to his mentor for advice ahead of taking on the lead role in Edgar Wright's Stephen King adaptation.
It's well documented that Tom Cruise has acted as something of a mentor for Glen Powell after they starred together in Top Gun: Maverick back in 2022. But the Mission: Impossible star's impact has never been quite so clear as in Edgar Wright's new film The Running Man. Powell takes on the lead role of Ben Richards – the character previously played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the earlier 1987 film of the same name – and, as the title suggests, he gets plenty of opportunities to showcase some top-tier movie-star running. Powell previously revealed that he had called up Cruise for some advice about running on camera and ended up having an over two-hour conversation with him that included some very helpful tips. "He said, ‘You should film yourself running because you don’t look as cool as you think you do," the Twisters and Anyone But You star told People. "He was so right!" With than in mind, we were curious to find out if Powell had received any feedback on his on-screen sprinting now that Cruise has seen the movie, and so we put that question to the star when we spoke to him and Wright for an exclusive RadioTimes.com interview. "You know what? Tom loved the movie, but I haven't talked to him about my running form," was his response. "I'll get back to you on that one. I'm so desperate for his approval on the running!" Read more: Why Vera icon Brenda Blethyn didn’t want to do new film Dragonfly at first - and what changed her mind Predator: Badlands director explains why he didn't do a traditional sequel to acclaimed Prey "He'd be like in Strictly Ballroom at the end, you know like holding up the cards [with scores]," added Wright, making Powell chuckle. Whatever he thinks about the running specifically, Cruise was clearly impressed with Powell's performance and the film on the whole, with the Hollywood legend lavishing praise on the movie on social media after attending it's London premiere last week. "Another great night out with my friends at the movies!" he wrote. "You guys crushed it, congratulations! I laughed, was on the edge of my seat and ate way too much popcorn." The film is the second big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's 1982 novel – which the prolific writer published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman – following the aforementioned Schwarzenegger version, although this one adopts a different tone and is far more faithful to the source material. The Running Man is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 12th November. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Vera icon Brenda Blethyn reveals acclaimed new film Dragonfly makes viewers question their judgement
Blethyn stars alongside Andrea Riseborough and Jason Watkins in the new film from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams.
New film Dragonfly has been receiving rave reviews since its release last Friday (7th November) – not least for the award-nominated performances from stars Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough. The drama tells the story of a lonely and vulnerable pensioner named Elsie (Blethyn) who finds an unexpected ally in her next-door neighbour Colleen (Riseborough) after the latter offers to lend her a helping hand. Jason Watkins also stars as Elsie's son, who is not so enthused about this new friendship – in large part due to his pre-existing judgements about Colleen and the kind of person he expects her to be. This tapped into one of the things that Blethyn found interesting about the project, as she explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "What I loved about the script as well is that you can't help but make judgments about all the different people in the film, and then question your own judgment," she said. "I think everyone has a redeeming quality – or you could blame all of them for whatever reason – and it's just circumstance. The way at the end, where it kind of turns – [there's] this kind of shock coming from something so every day, so normal. I thought [it] was brilliant." Although for the most part Dragonfly falls into the social realism genre, it takes a more sinister turn in its final act – culminating in the "shock" Blethyn mentions above. That shift in tone has led some people to label it as a thriller, or even a horror, so what does Blethyn herself think? Read more: Why Vera icon Brenda Blethyn didn’t want to do new film Dragonfly at first - and what changed her mind Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film "Well, it's just the circumstances in the film can turn ugly, if you like," she said. "[It's] not justified, you can't ever justify that. But it's just the circumstances coming out of this ordinary friendship that develops between this old lady and sort of a social outcast next door – a young lady. "It's almost like a romance, because they're suddenly getting along very well and quite enjoying each other's company. And then something happens to throw the spanner in the works and that's what turns it upside down." For his part, director Paul Andrew Williams explained that although he'd seen people describe the film as both horror and genre, he just thought "about it being a story". He continued: "And you know, people can make their own mind up what it is and what it isn't. Like [Blethyn] says, it is ugly and it is horrible, but is it horror? I don't know, it's horrific." Dragonfly is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ian McKellen stars in first look at "life-affirming" new film featuring Doctor Who and British comedy legends
McKellen stars alongside Roger Allam in an upcoming adaptation of stage play Frank & Percy – with the star-studded cast also including the likes of Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley and Ncuti Gatwa.
A new image has been released for upcoming film Frank and Percy – which sees Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Allam reprise their roles from the West End show of the same name. The still – which you can see above – features the two stars sitting on a park bench and smiling at each other, both of them accompanied by pet dogs on leads. According to an official synopsis, the comedy-drama follows two older men who meet while walking their dogs on Hampstead Heath. "What begins as casual conversation about the weather and aching hips gradually deepens into an unexpected friendship – and perhaps something more," the logline reads. It also describes the film as "wryly funny", "poignantly tender" and "a heartfelt, life-affirming tale". In addition to the new image, an impressive list of additional supporting cast members have now been confirmed – including Doctor Who star Peter Davison, Gavin & Stacey's Rob Brydon and Dame Sheila Hancock. The other new faces are Felicity Kendal (The Good Life), Nitin Ganatra (Mr Bigstuff), Peter Straker (Urban Gothic), Amari Bacchus (Adolescence), Hugh Skinner (W1A) and celebrated dancer Wayne Sleep. Meanwhile, a host of massive names had previously been announced for the ensemble, including Sir Stephen Fry, Dame Joanna Lumley, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Siân Phillips, Ncuti Gatwa and Baby Reindeer's Jessica Gunning – so there's certainly no shortage of star power. Read more: Why Vera icon Brenda Blethyn didn’t want to do new film Dragonfly at first - and what changed her mind Kenny Dalglish reflects on his glory years, the tragedy of Hillsborough and the joy of still attending Anfield The film was written by Martin Sherman (Mrs Henderson Presents), while Sean Mathias takes on directorial duties after previously helming the stage version – which opened at Windsor's Theatre Royal in 2023 before transferring to the West End later that year. No official release date has been announced for the project as yet, but we'll be on the lookout for further updates. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Predator: Badlands director teases "fun ideas” for more Alien crossovers with franchise
Dan Trachtenberg talks about the "elegant" way he managed to bring Alien lore into his new film – and what further plans might be on the horizon.
While the Alien and Predator series each include some undeniably incredible films, it's fair to say previous attempts to combine the two franchises have brought about fairly disastrous results. Both 2004's Alien vs Predator and its 2007 follow-up Aliens vs Predator: Requiem were major critical failures, and since then there have been no further attempts to merge the two properties on the big screen. At least, until now. Dan Trachtenberg's new movie Predator: Badlands – his third entry in the series in little over three years – includes some pretty major nods to Alien lore. Most prominently, Elle Fanning has a crucial role as a Weyland-Yutani synthetic, one of the artificial humans that have always featured in the classic sci-fi franchise, played by the likes of Ian Holm, Michael Fassbender and more recently David Jonsson. For Trachtenberg, the chance to dip into the world of Alien was clearly an opportunity he relished – and there was one thing that especially excited him about his approach. "The coolest part about it to me was no Xenomorph," he explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "Truly, it was not the idea of, 'What if we make Alien versus Predator again?'" He added that a larger scale crossover may still be on the horizon "later down the line" but continued: "The cool [bit] was to use a part of another franchise and include it into the story of this franchise [so] that you can link things without it being like, look at the giant action figures being smashed together. "It literally is just the components. I thought was a really elegant way to blend the two different franchises." As for what specific plans he had bubbling away as to how he might continue to bring the two worlds together in the future, Trachtenberg more or less kept schtum. But, he did say: "I've got lots of fun ideas." One thing is for sure, this certainly seems to open the door for a more fruitful fusing of the franchises in the future. And given he's now gone three for three when it comes to delivering inventive and entertaining new takes on Predator, we can't wait to see what some of those "fun ideas" might entail. Here's hoping it's only a matter of time... Predator: Badlands is released exclusively in cinemas on Friday 7th November. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why Vera icon Brenda Blethyn didn’t want to do new film Dragonfly at first - and what changed her mind
Blethyn stars with Andrea Riseborough in Paul Andrew Williams's heavy-hitting drama – which is now out in UK cinemas.
After starring as Vera on ITV's beloved detective drama for 14 years, you might imagine Brenda Blethyn would have welcomed a little break. But barely any time had passed after wrapping her final scenes on the series – which were broadcast in January – before she was enticed back to a film set for another, rather different, new project. Dragonfly, which finally arrives in UK cinemas today after attracting some very strong reviews on the festival circuit, is a bleak but captivating film. It sees Blethyn star as a vulnerable pensioner struggling with loneliness in a contemporary Britain that is presented as deeply broken. When she strikes up an unlikely bond with her social outcast neighbour, played by Andrea Riseborough, it initially looks like the pair have found some solace in these difficult times, but the film soon takes a sinister turn that puts things in a different light. Blethyn and Riseborough are both superb in the drama, but speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, the former revealed she almost missed out on the chance to star in the film before reading the script. "I didn't want to do it to start with," Blethyn explained. "I told my agent to clear off – I'd only just finished Vera [and] hadn't even unpacked." However, when her agent revealed more about the project – including the people already attached – it didn't take long for Blethyn to change her mind. "She said, 'It's a Paul Andrew Williams script, and Andrea Riseborough is in it,'" Blethyn said. "I thought, 'Oh, well, obviously I'll have a little read.' And I was very moved by the script. I thought it was great. And so I said yes straight away. And it was imminent, [production was] about to start. So I had to make a decision on that same day!" Once she'd intimated she was open to the part, writer/director Williams went to visit Blethyn at her home in Ramsgate, and recalled eating ice cream with her as they got to know each other. "We sat outside looking at the beach," he said. "Obviously Brenda said that she was interested [and] it was like, 'That's just amazing.' I sort of hadn't imagined that would be the case. And I think that what was good is that, first of all, seeing that Brenda was – for want of a better word – normal, and had an idea of what this character would be going through. "And you know, I don't want to speak for [her], but like recognising in the character and the writing things that perhaps [she] would be able to relate to, not even necessarily with herself, but just in life." Clearly, it was a casting decision that worked, and the film has already been appearing in awards shortlists. Blethyn and her co-star Riseborough – who she describes as "fantastic" to work with – shared the Performance Award at the Tribeca Film Festival where the film premiered in June, while they are also nominated together in the Best Joint Performance Category at the upcoming BIFAs. View oEmbed on the source website If the box above is not showing, you may need to change your privacy settings. In the Radio Times site footer, click ‘Manage Privacy Settings’. Under ‘Site Vendors’, consent to ‘YouTube’, then press Save & Exit. Blethyn is clearly delighted by the awards attention, and simply by the fact that the film has clearly struck a chord with viewers. "I'm just glad people get it and just totally appreciate the film," she said. "The wonderful comments, and it's won several prizes at festivals all over the place. It's very gratifying, because I'm really proud of the film." For his part, Williams added: "When I wrote it, I think people found it really hard to sort of work out what it was – in terms of, like, too many genres, all this and that. "But I think when people see it, they just get the themes, and they get these characters, and they reflect. And people say it always stays with them, and then they talk about it, and I'm really proud of it. And I think it wouldn't be what it is without everything that happened, and everyone who did it." Dragonfly is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Predator: Badlands director explains why he didn't do a traditional sequel to acclaimed Prey
The new film – which stars Elle Fanning – takes the franchise in a radical new direction.
Back in 2022, director Dan Trachtenberg found a fascinating new way in to the Predator franchise with his excellent prequel Prey, setting the action in the Commanche nation in the 18th century. Given the acclaim that film garnered, you might imagine that he'd adopt a similar approach for his next film in the series, but in fact he's done something very different. Predator: Badlands, which is due for release this week and has already received strong reviews from critics, is set on a distant planet in the distant future and does something especially radical: making the Predator itself the protagonist. The Predator in question is a young outcast named Dek, who is sent to a deadly planet and forms an unlikely bond with synthetic human (Elle Fanning) as they each try to navigate the dangerous territory. So where did Trachtenberg first get the idea for this approach? "It was at the end of the process with Prey, and we were starting to show it to people, and it was being warmly received," he explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "And I started to realise, 'They might ask me to do a sequel. Uh oh. Like, I've not thought about that at all. What would I do?'" Trachtenberg added that sometimes when people "make a cool thing" the impulse is simply to follow it with "just the sequel to the cool thing" rather than something that is interesting in and of itself. This was a trap that he wanted to avoid falling into. "I was really pressuring myself to try and figure out," he said. "Forget Prey, forget I even did that. What do I want to do? Do I still want to make another Predator movie, and what hasn't been done in Predator and what hasn't been done in movies? And that was where the big idea came from." He added that the idea of turning the monster into the hero of the story – and getting people to root for it – was "a thing that just has not existed in sci fi at all", and this was something that immediately excited him. Of course, this idea also gave him plenty of opportunity to add to the Predator lore – something he has also done with the straight-to-streaming animated triptych Predator: Killer of Killers that arrived on Disney Plus earlier in the year. And he explained that he wanted to "widen the doors a little bit into the culture" of the species without completely overhauling it. "There could have been a version of this movie that was all on Yautja Prime [the home of the Predator species]," he said. "That was all about the clan and and the culture and what have you. But instead, it really is just a little bit wider of a peek. "You get a sense of the culture, and then you're off with Dek on his journey through a gauntlet – the way that we've seen all the human protagonists go through in previous films." Predator: Badlands is released exclusively in cinemas on Friday 7th November. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Best films released in the UK this month: November 2025
Highlights include Predator: Badlands, Wicked: For Good, and Wake Up Dead Man
We're reaching the end of 2025, but – as is usually the case at this time of year – there are still a lot of major releases to come, and November's slate is absolutely packed with big hitters. In terms of franchise fare, the month gets off to a good start with Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands – starring Elle Fanning – while fans of the Now You See Me films will be glad to see the return of The Four Horsemen (and a new batch of younger magicians) in the third entry in that series. There's also two more big star-studded Netflix releases ahead of their streaming debuts in December, with Noah Baumbach's comedy drama Jay Kelly and the third Knives Out Mystery Wake Up Dead Man both getting limited theatrical runs. As for awards contenders, it's well worth checking out Jennifer Lawrence's turn in Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love and Sydney Sweeney's performance in true story boxing drama Christy, with both stars in the running to be nominated for Best Actress at next year's Oscars. There's also a new horror film from Longlegs director Oz Perkins, Edgar Wright's new adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man and a sequel to Disney's Zootropolis, plus new films starring Brenda Blethyn, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ethan Hawke. And that's before we even get to the biggest release of the month: Wicked: For Good. To help you pick out the highlights, we've put together a selection of some of the best films to watch this month – check out the video above or read on for our choices. Best films released in the UK this month: November 2025 Predator: Badlands Release date: Friday 7th November in cinemas Prey director Dan Trachtenberg returns with another new entry in the Predator franchise – which is the first film in the series to make a member of the Predator species the protagonist. It follows young outcast Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he's sent to a remote planet and strikes up an unlikely bond with a synthetic human named Thia (Elle Fanning), with some interesting connections to the Alien franchise along the way. Dragonfly Release date: Friday 7th November in cinemas Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough star in this hard-hitting British drama from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams, about the unlikely bond between a vulnerable pensioner and her next door neighbour who offers to lend a hand. Mixing social realist drama that recalls the work of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh with more thriller elements, it's a highly effective film that aims to dig deep into the heart of broken Britain. The Running Man Release date: Wednesday 12th November in cinemas Edgar Wright directs this second adaptation of Stephen King's novel – with Glen Powell starring in the role previously played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and a supporting cast that also includes Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Michael Cera and Emilia Jones, among other. As with the previous film, it is set in a near-future society and follows a man named Ben Richards who is forced to take part in a gruesome reality show titled The Running Man, in which contestants must survive being hunted by professional assassins, Beyond that, there are major departures from the previous version. Now You See Me: Now You Don't Release date: Friday 14th November in cinemas The Four Horsemen – and a new generation of younger magicians – return for this third entry in the popular heist series, which sees Rosamund Pike playing the villain. Her character is Veronika Vanderberg, the heir to a diamond fortune whose evil deeds must be exposed by the two generations of magicians. The new younger characters are played by Ariana Greenblatt, Dominic Sessa and Justice Smith, while Jesses Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher all reprise their previous roles. Jay Kelly Release date: Friday 14th November in cinemas (comes to Netflix on 5th December) Noah Baumbach's star-studded comedy drama is getting a brief theatrical release before it arrives on Netflix next month. It follows the titular movie star (played by George Clooney) and his loyal manager Ron (Adam Sandler) as they embark on an "unexpectedly profound journey" through Europe, with the stellar supporting cast including the likes of (deep breath) Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Isla Fisher, Jamie Demetriou and Louis Partridge, among others. Keeper Release date: Friday 14th November in cinemas Oz Perkins follows up his recent horror films Longlegs and The Monkey with this surrealist chiller about a sinister cabin in the woods, starring Tatiana Maslany (who also appeared in The Monkey). The official synopsis teases: "Liz and Malcolm head to a secluded cabin for their anniversary weekend. Liz, alone after Malcolm suddenly returns to the city, is approached by an evil entity that unveils the cabin's secrets." Die My Love Release date: Friday 14th November in cinemas Jennifer Lawrence gives one of the best performances of the year in this intense film from writer/director Lynne Ramsay about a woman suffering from postpartum psychosis – based on the novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz. The film also features Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek and includes all sorts of images that will be hard to shake from your mind after watching, with the unpredictable film mirroring the inner chaos felt by its protagonist. The Thing with Feathers Release date: Friday 21st November in cinemas This adaptation of Max Porter's award-winning book stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a grieving widower and father of two who is visited by a large, ominous crow as he tries to come to terms with the death of his wife. The Crow – who is voiced by David Thewlis – is the living embodiment of the character's grief, and presents some major problems as he tries to cope with a return to normal life. Wicked: For Good Release date: Friday 21st November in cinemas This one needs no introduction: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande return as Elphaba and Glinda for the second part of Jon M Chu's hugely popular Oz-based musical adaptation. Based on the second half of the stage show, it picks up where last year's Oscar-nominated film left off and even includes a couple of brand new musical numbers penned by composer Stephen Schwartz. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Release date: Wednesday 26th November in cinemas (comes to Netflix on 5th December) Daniel Craig returns as sleuth Benoit Blanc for a third starry murder mystery from writer/director Rian Johnson, which is getting a limited theatrical run ahead of a December Netflix debut. Supporting players this time include Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Glenn Close and Cailee Spaeny, with Blanc called in to assist after the charismatic monsignor of a small Catholic parish is found dead in mysterious – and seemingly impossible – circumstances. Blue Moon Release date: Friday 28th November in cinemas The latest collaboration between directer Richard Linklater and star Ethan Hawke explores the end of the creative partnership between legendary songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, as the former embarks on a hugely successful new collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein. Hawke plays Lorenz as a witty but tragic figure, while Andrew Scott shines as Rodgers, with the action all unfolding over one evening following the opening night of Rodgers and Hammersteins's groundbreaking new musical Oklahoma! Zootropolis 2 Release date: Friday 28th November in cinemas This Disney sequel sees animal detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde going undercover to catch a mysterious reptile, who "turns the mammal metropolis of Zootropolis upside down". The starry voice cast includes roles for Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Shakira, Ke Huy Quan and Andy Samberg. Christy Release date: Friday 28th November in cinemas Sydney Sweeney delivers a knock-out central performance in this emotional true story drama about pioneering boxer Christy Martin, one of the most influential woman in the sport's history. In addition to exploring the rise of her career, the hard-hitting film also explores her toxic marriage to abusive husband and former coach James V Martin, who is chillingly played by Ben Foster. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Predator: Badlands' early Rotten Tomatoes score revealed following first wave of reviews from critics
The film continues director Dan Trachtenberg's impressive run of new entries in the franchise.
In recent times, Dan Trachtenberg has very much revitalised the Predator franchise. After years of disappointing sequels and spin-offs, his 2022 prequel Prey – released straight to Disney Plus – breathed new life into the series, delivering a pared-down action thriller that brought the iconic creature to the Comanche nation in 1719. He followed that up earlier this year with Predator: Killer of Killers, another straight-to-streaming affair that served up a triptych of animated stories set against different historical backdrops – which again launched to strong reviews. Now he's returned with another new film that again explores brand new territory. Predator: Badlands is the first film to make a member of the Predator species the protagonist, following young outcast Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he's sent to a remote planet and strikes up an unlikely bond with a synthetic human named Thia (Elle Fanning). So, has Trachtenberg gone three for three when it comes to making successful Predator films? Well, the early reviews indicate that the answer is a resounding yes. At the time of writing, Badlands sits on a score of 89 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 75 reviews, with positive reviews from a number of prominent publications including Empire Magazine, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out and RogerEbert.com. However, there are some notable outliers, including The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who awarded the film just two stars. On Metacritic, the film holds a slightly less positive score of 69 per cent, which still suggests the majority of reviewers have given positive assessments. So it looks like the revitalisation of the Predator franchise continues apace! Of course, the series first launched with the original Arnold Schwarzenegger film back in 1987, and was followed up by Predator 2 in 1990, Predators in 2010 and The Predator in 2018, all of which performed relatively poorly with critics. Then there were the two Alien v Predator films, in 2004 and 2007 respectively, which were both met with overwhelmingly negative reviews. Interestingly, the new film does hint at further crossovers between Alien and Predator in the future, with Fanning's character being a Weyland-Yutani synthetic, as seen in the former franchise. The full synopsis for the film – which arrives in UK cinemas on Friday (7th November) – reads: "In the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary." Predator: Badlands is released exclusively in cinemas on Friday 7th November. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.