Willy Russell's scabrous Scousers, Shirley Valentine (Saint Joan of the fitted kitchen units, with all her nosy-neighbour voices) and hairdresser Rita of the Open University, are still going strong after a quarter of a century. They are now as engraved in the national consciousness as Maggie May, resilient streetwalker of the Liverpool docks, or the battling socialist MP Bessie Braddock. This Menier Chocolate Factory transfer, for a summer season at the Trafalgar Studios, presents Russell's two plays in all their wit and vivacity.

The Harry Potter star has grown up and even gets naked for a movie about a hedonistic Belfast youth. But he'll still miss the role that made him famous, he tells James Mottram

Feminism with lashings of fun

The film Mo – a new biopic about Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam – boasts the perfect actress for the title role. Julie Walters, 59, gives an uncannily accurate performance as the former MP for Redcar – she captures everything from Mowlam's slight speech impediment to her pigeon-toed, backwards-leaning, chest-thrust-forward gait.

It's not often you see a magician with a male assistant," admits George, the pensioner conjuror who offers "comedy magic with banjo finale". But his wife, Nell, made a mix-up with the bookings and is "now singing at the Hard of Hearing Beetle Drive". We're backstage in the grotty dressing room of Bunter's Nitespot in Piccadilly, Manchester. We're also (as you may have guessed from that snatch of dialogue) in the world of Victoria Wood – the very young Victoria Wood.

If you can imagine Julie Walters sitting down to tell you the story of her life (with one time comedy partner,Victoria Wood, perhaps chipping in with wry asides) this earthy, moving, but none to sentimental memoir, ending with the birth of her daughter Maisie, is just as you would imagine it.

Billy Elliot has danced away with 10 Tony Awards, including the title for best musical.

"Billy Elliot," the season's biggest musical hit, dominated the 2009 Tony Award nominations today, picking up 15, more than any other show.

It's 1984 – the miners' strike is on – and Billy (Jamie Bell), a whey-faced stripling from Durham, is still reeling from the death of his mother. Billy's father and brother (both on the picket-line), are too wound up for cuddles and his weekly boxing class is adding insult to injury.

At the heart of Benjamin Britten's vision for his opera 'The Turn of the Screw' lay his infatuation with his boy soprano, the future film star David Hemmings

Alan Bleasdale, 53, taught English and PE before writing his first novel in 1975. Since then he has mainly written for television, most notably `The Boys From The Blackstuff' and `GBH'. He has recently adapted `Oliver Twist' - in which Julie Walter stars - for ITV. He lives with his wife of 30 years in Liverpool. They have three grown-up children

A year ago Peter Kay was tearing cinema ticket stubs. Now he has his own spot on television. Where does he get his material? It's all around him. All he needs is a notebook and a keen sense of the ridiculous.

Julie Walters is taking over our screens with a range of roles which fully demonstrate her versatility