What’s on this weekend? From The Gentleman to Gypsy

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Michelle Dockery and Matthew McConaughey in The Gentlemen

(Image credit: Allstar / Miramax)

published 3 January 2020

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

TELEVISION: Greatest DancerFrances Taylor for the Radio Times

“Presenters Alesha Dixon and Ashley Banjo return alongside “dance captains” Cheryl, Matthew Morrison and Oti Mabuse, while new faces joining them are US star Todrick Hall, who injects some pizzazz even if he’s prone to hyperbole, and Love Island’s Curtis Pritchard – the new receptionist who has a laptop that doesn’t appear to be switched on. As before, eclectic dance acts – including a plucky 98-year-old – take to the stage, with their destiny lying in the mitts of the studio audience. If 75 per cent or more turn their light on for a performance, they make it through to the next round.”

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“US author Kiley Reid offers a refreshing take on an age-old question: can we connect across barriers of race, gender, wealth and privilege? Emira Tucker, who works in Philadelphia as a babysitter for news anchor Peter and lifestyle guru Alix, takes their toddler, Briar, to an upscale supermarket where suspicions are stirred because she is black and the child is white. The security guard accuses her of kidnapping, and is only appeased when Emira calls Peter. A lesser novel would have lingered here...But in Reid’s debut the incident heralds a caustically funny skewering of the sort of well-intentioned liberal who congratulates themselves on having black guests at dinner.”

“Audiences are transported to the glamour, and grit, of the world of showbiz from the exploitation of child performers to the murky underworld of striptease and burlesque. But the main focus of the tale is Rose’s relationships with her daughters and what it is that drives her to push them towards the limelight, while risking pushing them away altogether. Ria Jones plays a powerful, yet deeply flawed Momma Rose with no angle of her character going unexplored. At times she is hilarious when she reveals her own hunger for fame. Other times she is scary, conniving and obsessive.”