From Hamnet to Bridget Christie: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

HamnetOut now Bring the tissues for this emotional Oscar hopeful which sees Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star as none other than William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, whose son Hamnet died at the age of 11. It is based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell, and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) directs.David Lynch: The DreamerBFI Southbank & BFI Imax, London, to 31 JanuaryMarking what would have been the director’s 80th birthday, this new season includes screenings of key films such as The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as lesser-seen work, such as six of his short films and all eight episodes of his animated webseries Dumbland. There’s even a David Lynch VJ night and a quiz evening.GiantOut now Up and coming star Amir El-Masry toplines this sports drama depicting the rise of British boxer Prince Naseem Hamed, from untested no-mark all the way to world champion – with a little help from trainer Brendan Ingle (Pierce Brosnan)

​The Guide #225: Everyone loves an origin story: Guardian debuts, from the Beatles to Donkey Kong

From Radiohead playing in backroom pubs as On a Friday to Timothée Chalamet’s early days as an Xbox YouTuber, it’s always fascinating to see the faltering first steps of famous folk. So in this week’s newsletter we’re launching a new regular feature, Origin stories, where we’ll look at how the Guardian first covered some now very familiar pop culture figures or institutions. And you’ll find out who the tyke above is, from a 1973 photoshoot, at the end.To the archives!The BeatlesThe Guardian, regrettably, wasn’t at the Cavern or the clubs of Hamburg for an on-the-ground report of the Fabs’ early years. Instead, the first appearance that we can find is in an article about the rise of “coffee dance clubs”, basement venues in Manchester where a “metropolitan mixture of artist, Continental girls who could be students, but may just be au pair, and young manual workers having a fairly inexpensive night on the town” would dance till they dropped (though apparently not drink much coffee)

Comedy and tragedy, with Spike Milligan | Letter

I too saw Spike Milligan in The Bed-Sitting Room as a 16-year-old (Letters, 30 December), on a trip organised by my church youth club. Due to the double selling of our tickets at the theatre in London, we were put in a box next to the stage. During the performance, Milligan climbed up the outside and peered over. He shouted: “There will come a time when all those in the box will sit at the back of the theatre and all those at the back will have the best seats!” He then added: “You’re not on complimentaries, are you?”On the way home, the coach driver stopped to see why there were scores of people on otherwise empty streets buying the late-night final. The date was 22 November 1963

Warren Lakin obituary

My friend Warren Lakin, who has died of a respiratory tract infection aged 71, for many years promoted live shows and tours by comedians, singers, poets and public speakers, latterly with Lakin McCarthy Productions, the company he ran with Mike McCarthy. Among the performers he worked with were Barry Cryer, Susan Calman, Andy Hamilton, Robin Ince, Ruby Wax, Jon Ronson and – most notably – his partner Linda Smith.Warren met Linda in the early 1980s when they were founder members of the leftwing Sheffield Popular Theatre, which, as well as producing plays, also staged the cabaret nights in which Linda performed her first standup routines.Warren was with Linda throughout her comedy career and her time as a Radio 4 stalwart. After her death in 2006, he curated her legacy with the same kind of energy that made him such a successful promoter

AI, Salman Rushdie and Elon Musk: the most anticipated documentaries of 2026

The landscape for nonfiction cinema is swift, fragile and constantly in flux in these absurd times; films we discuss now may not be released, and films we discuss a year from now may not even be the germ of an idea yet. But between the usual stable of celebrity retrospectives, music documentaries and the ongoing work to record the atrocities in Gaza, the documentary slate for 2026 already seems both full and promising. From the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie to AI, a Billie Jean King retrospective to Elon Musk, here are 10 of the most hotly anticipated documentaries in 2026.In recent years, the Sundance film festival has become the premier destination for buzzy and/or prestige documentaries – three of the last five Oscar wins have gone to films that premiered in Utah, and the festival is now routinely alight with major celebrity retrospectives. Potentially combining both at the festival this year is Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, film-maker Alex Gibney’s nonfiction adaptation of the writer’s bestselling memoir, which detailed the 2022 onstage assassination attempt that cost him his vision in one eye

Stephen Colbert on ICE killing of Minnesota woman: ‘A senseless yet entirely predictable tragedy’

Late-night hosts expressed outrage over the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officer in Minneapolis.Stephen Colbert opened Thursday’s Late Show on a somber note, following the killing of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. “It’s a senseless yet entirely predictable tragedy,” said Colbert. “And our hearts go out to Renee Good’s loved ones, friends and the community where it happened.“By now we’ve all seen the video,” he continued, referring to multiple videos shot by witnesses which show Good’s car appearing to turn away from the officer, who then fires shots into the side of her vehicle as she drove