What’s on this weekend? From World on Fire to The Irishman

The Week’s best film, TV, book and live show on this weekend, with excerpts from the top reviews.

TELEVISION: World on Fire (ep 7 of 7)

Ed Cumming for The Independent

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“World on Fire is an ambitious, expensive Second World War drama with a tremendous number of bells and not a few whistles… It’s not especially clever, but it is big, exciting, and packed with watchable actors. What’s more, in a TV world where too often we are encouraged to see the Nazis as warm and cuddly real people with emotions, it’s refreshing that they are here relegated back to pure baddies, strafing cafes, shooting surrendering fathers and generally being Nazi-ish about things. When the world’s on fire, it’s nice to take refuge in the old certainties.”

Finale 9pm Sunday 10 November. Episodes 1 - 6 on BBC iPlayer

MOVIE: The Irishman

Ian Freer for Empire

“Scors­ese, helped by ter­rific per­for­mances across the board, re­places cu­rios­ity about tech­ni­cal trick­ery (you get over it so quickly) with fas­ci­na­tion with a man’s life. While it de­liv­ers all the Scors­ese-ness you want (you’ll lose count of how many times some­one gets shot in the face), this is Marty in ma­ture mode, a com­pelling med­i­ta­tion on time, age­ing, con­nec­tions and guilt that reaches the parts other gang­ster films only dream of… Of course, part of the joy of all this is see­ing De Niro and Pesci back on their bull­shit.”

Released on Netflix 8 November

BOOK: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Natasha Pulley for The Guardian

“The Starless Sea rejects older stories: it makes its own. Its magic is based in the New York Public Library, in glittering hotels, and the beautiful blatant kitsch of a professional fortune teller’s house. Rather than a traditional fantasy novel, this is an artificial myth in its own right, soldered together from the girders of skyscrapers – a myth from and for the US, rather than inherited from older nations. Like any myth, it refuses to decode its own symbols. A reader might find this deliberate vagueness either uplifting or maddening, but the novel’s scope and ambition are undeniable.”

Published 5 November

STAGE: Death of a Salesman

Claire Allfree for The Telegraph

“Marianne Elliott’s long, slow, sucker punch revival of Arthur Miller’s classic has already received a clutch of award nominations; the smart money says it will receive many more come the end of its West End run…the performances are wonderful, among the very best currently to be seen on stage… This is a long evening that refuses to rush its way to its final, terrible dénouement.”

At Piccadilly Theatre, London