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Coldplay crowned kings of iTunes

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:19:36 GMT

Coldplay was the hottest iTunes album download this year: Its "Viva la Vida" was crowned the best-selling album of 2008, while Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" was named the top-selling single.

The View, Astoria, London

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The View's February follow-up to their Mercury-nominated debut Hats Off to the Buskers, Which Bitch, includes moments of delicate ambition that most of their indie peers can't match. This London date is part of a tour otherwise replicating the trawl through less-heralded venues that built the then-teenage Dundee band's support in 2006. But tonight, the youthful fun has worn off. Disaffection infects the music.

Wig Out!, Royal Court Theatre, London; In a Dark Dark House, Almeida Theatre, London

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Exclamation marks are always a bad sign. You feel that the publicity agent who described Olivier's Hamlet as "the story of a man who couldn't make up his mind" would have added one in. Wig Out! is the story of men who can make up their make-up and triumph on bad-hair days. "Like the South," drawls Rey-Rey, Mother of the House of Light, "I shall rise again."

Frisson of power: blockbusting art shows

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

I've got this idea for an exhibition. The centrepiece would be a light spectacular, a ring of 150 searchlights beaming straight up into the darkness like columns. There'd be heroic statues, too, and projections of formation movement, and uniforms and flags. The gist of the show would be that a bit of history, normally seen in political and military terms, actually offers a rich visual culture. My working title is REICH: Power and Style in Germany 1933-45. I'm hoping that maybe the V&A will be interested.

Michael Glover: Brainy stuff – but can't we have some beauty?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

It has been a dismal year for the Turner Prize – and all that can be said for Mark Leckey's piece is that it is the least uninteresting of the lot. In part, this is because it has a kind of bizarre energy.

Artist who owes it all to Felix the Cat wins Turner Prize

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Animals, it seems, are the key to success. Last time round, a man in a bear suit walked off with Britain's premier art prize. This year, the Turner Prize, announced last night, was awarded to a man who took inspiration from Felix the Cat.

Last Night's Television - The Ascent of Money, Channel 4; The Story of the Costume Drama, ITV3; Sex, Drugs and Rock'N'Roll: The 60s Revealed, Five

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

In 1968, the broadcaster Bernard Braden interviewed some of the biggest swingers of the Swinging Sixties, intending to revisit each of his subjects every three years. Perhaps he was influenced by Michael Apted's epic Seven Up project, which had started in 1964, and by focusing on children from all kinds of backgrounds was a more worthwhile social experiment. If Braden's plan had come off, I suspect we would have tired of hearing from Lulu and Cilla Black every three years. Anyway, it didn't, and the original interviews were forgotten about until one of Braden's original production staff dug them out and dusted them off, and on Five last night they were unveiled under the exciting title Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll: the 60s Revealed.

The Refuge and the Fortress, By Jeremy Seabrook

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

This well-researched book marks the 75th anniversary of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (Cara). It charts British reactions to refugees, from 1915, when passports were required, to the present. While the emphasis is on fugitive scholars, a broader insight is given into those seeking asylum here.

Savion Glover, Sadler's Wells, London

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

No question, Savion Glover is a virtuoso. Bare Soundz, the latest show by the world's leading tap-dancer, is a stripped-down display of percussive footwork. There's no band, just Glover and two backing dancers. The steps are fast, hard and astonishingly intricate. Yet the show lacks variety.

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, various venues, Huddersfield

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Is it a sculptured flower, is it the latest designer toy? The curved blossoms of stainless steel and polycarbonate cones sprout from a keyboard on thin legs that might have been borrowed from a Giacometti sculpture. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Piano Baschet-Malbos, making its first British appearance at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. For those interested in family trees, it's a sibling of the Crystal Baschet employed by Damon Albarn in his opera Monkey.

All-female ensemble for E4's first sketch show

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

It's a blustery autumn day and in an otherwise tranquil Middlesex suburb three giggling women dressed in full Musketeer regalia – complete with swords, towering wigs, facial hair and ostrich feathers in their caps – are piling into a silver people carrier.

Four Christmases defies critics at the box office

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:53:14 GMT

When Reese Witherspoon's new comedy Four Christmases lined up against Nicole Kidman's eagerly-awaited epic Australia at the Thanksgiving holiday weekend box office, virtually every critic in America predicted a bloodbath.

Four Christmases defies critics at the US box office

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:53:14 GMT

Julian Hall: Not getting the joke

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:56:42 GMT

The British Comedy Awards are back on our screens this weekend (Sat 6 Dec, ITV1) and back on track after its hiatus last year when - although the jamboree was filmed - it stayed in the can because of irregularities with the phone voting system the previous year.

Julian Hall - Not getting the joke

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:56:42 GMT

Ticket forgers target Hamlet

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:22:13 GMT

The popular production of Hamlet starring David Tennant has been targeted by counterfeiters, the Royal Shakespeare Company said today.

BBC sorry after Barrowman exposes himself

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:09:35 GMT

The BBC has apologised and admitted today that a live radio show during which TV star John Barrowman exposed himself "overstepped the mark".

Britney Spears - It's my party and I'll cry off if I want to

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Saturday was supposed to be the night that Britney Spears proved to London clubbers that she had put her recent bizarre behaviour behind her by performing to her core fans at the iconic club night G-A-Y. Instead, hundreds were disappointed as the troubled pop star arrived at the venue but then refused to go on stage.

Robin Scott-Elliot: Navratilova's 'snugglebug' blows winds of change through jungle

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

When it comes to light entertainment it would be foolish to argue with Ant or Dec. Last week it was Dec, or Ant, who declared: "Farting is funny."

Lives in gritty times provide apt theme for independent British film awards

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The grim saga of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and a feel-good rags to riches tale about a fictitious Indian slum kid swept the British Independent Film Awards last night.

Morris Minor: The biography, By Martin Wainwright

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Which of today's cars might a thirtysomething recall in 2040 with a fugitive and unearthly fondness? A Smart car, perhaps: chic, cleavered, surreal; or maybe a Skoda, re-tailored, yet eternally low-tech.

Thomas Quasthoff, Wigmore Hall, London

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

No wonder the hall is full: a recital by the German baritone Thomas Quasthoff is not to be missed.

The Weekend's Television: Wallander, Sun, BBC1Louis Theroux: Law and disorder in Philadelphia, Sun, BBC1After Rome: Holy War and Conquest, Sat BBC2

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The titular detective in Wallander is gloomy – a crapulous, grey-looking figure in Ken Branagh's characterisation, poised unhappily between hangover and nervous breakdown.

Music stars issue special (RED) release

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

It is not every day that you get invited to a launch party with Coldplay, The Police and Elton John. But today being World Aids Day, you can join the performers and a clutch of other world-famous music stars at red.msn.com, for the launch of (RED)Wire, a new musical venture from the (RED) charitable initiative, which aims to halt the spread of Aids in Africa with the help of major consumer brands.

It's my party and I'll cry off if I want to

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT