The breathless anticipation is almost over as Rivals romps back onto UK screens this week. Where the first series, set in Jilly Cooper’s fictional Rutshire, was wall-to-wall Elnett, vol-au-vents and gluteal pounding, the second is, if anything, even more lurid.

The response to the first was so enthusiastic (as was the marketing budget) that showrunner Dominic Treadwell-Collins has taken the nostalgia and cartoonish bonking to new heights – along with Emily Atack’s hair, which now struggles to fit through doorways.

No one knows why this combination of local politics and regional television staged as a kind of brain-injury Glyndebourne really works, but perhaps it's the pure escapism which brings about a high like inhaling 100% oxygen.

Julia Raeside, writer

It’s perhaps just a nice coincidence that Zineb Sedira’s rich and insightful new commission for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain opens at the same time as this year’s Cannes film festival, the world’s biggest and showiest celebration of cinema.

Sedira, who was born in Paris in 1963 to Algerian parents, received an accolade at the Venice Biennale for her 2022 French pavilion work exploring postcolonial history and cinema, and now her large site-specific Tate installation spotlights the legacy of African cinema of the 1960s and 70s. More specifically, she celebrates how Algeria became a global centre for militant cinema after gaining its independence from France in 1962.

You can sit at a recreated cinema watching Sedira’s new film, or hang out at the fab little 1960s Parisian cafe she’s installed in homage to these hubs for Algerians living in exile during the war of independence. But wind your way to the back and you’ll find a gorgeous emerald green 1960s van reimagined as a “Ciné Pop” – mobile projection units used by the French to distribute propaganda which were later reappropriated by the Algerian state to bring revolutionary cinema to rural communities. The van projects an interview with film critic and historian Ahmed Bedjaoui, and neatly encapsulates Sedira’s message about the role of cinema in resistance and radical change. Utterly inspiring – now I need to clear a whole weekend to watch militant cinema classics. 

Imogen Carter, Nerve co-founder

This has everything you might want from an Aldous Harding record: intricate musicianship, raw vocals, startling imagery and psychosexual drama. The New Zealand singer-songwriter’s fifth album, produced by John Parish, leans into her penchant for eerie lyrical non-sequiturs (“Giving the hand to the Marine, plates of vermilion”), digging up buried trauma while making the most of her husky, idiosyncratic voice. She tours the UK and Ireland in May and June, and plays Green Man festival in August.

Kathryn Bromwich, writer

There’s something mischievous about rewriting Hilary Mantel’s short story for the Liverpool stage, in a city where invoking the Iron Lady’s name still provokes a vehement reaction 35 years after her resignation. But actually, this two-hander is surprisingly light on Thatcher and her policies: it’s more about what happens when two people with different worldviews and experiences are forced into conversation.

It’s 1983. Thatcher is due to emerge from the hospital opposite Caroline’s flat in Windsor when Brendan, a scouser, arrives at the door. Mistaking him for a plumber, Caroline lets him in. He’s actually arrived to shoot the PM from the bedroom window. 

Director John Young’s production is ominous yet hopeful, disturbing but very funny. I would love to watch it again with a traditionally Tory-voting audience to see how Alexandra Wood’s script lands differently.

Laura Davis, writer

The beloved Olive Kitteridge author is back with a new novel, The Things We Never Say, and it's an unexpected and brilliant departure from her usual fare. I have loved all of her novels, but this one breaks her tradition of (expertly) observing the everyday tribulations of ordinary families and instead deals with new, darker subject material including mental illness, trauma and profound loneliness. It's heart-rending, deeply evocative, totally engrossing and at times extremely funny. For my money, it's her best literary work yet.

Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nerve writer

Dave Fishwick is a big character. He’s the bloke from Burnley who set up a bank – well, more of a building society – for people who traditional banks thought too risky to lend to. His story has been told on the small screen, the big screen, in a book, and now it’s a riotously camp and frankly bonkers musical written by Rob Madge, with music from Pippa Cleary and directed by Curve’s artistic director Nikolai Foster. It’s Northern with a capital N. 

Sam Lupton as Dave and Lucca Chadwick-Patel as his lawyer Hugh drive the story but the ensemble cast, who look like they’ve had a hoot rummaging around in the dressing-up box, really bring this show to life.

Did it need to be turned into a musical? Probably not. But with the first night coinciding with local elections where the voters of Burnley elected a majority Reform council – just two weeks after their football team had been relegated from the Premier League – I think the answer is: why not?

Susan Ferguson, Nerve events

DOCUMENTARY
Sheffield DocFest
(Various venues in city, 10-15 June)

The 33rd edition of this celebrated documentary festival, which welcomes industry and the public alike, features over 100 films from all over the world plus workshops and talks.

THEATRE
Relics
(Lyric Hammersmith, London W6, 18 June-18 July)

Michael Longhurst (Next to Normal, Constellations) directs the world premiere of Ben Ockrent’s play with a cast that includes Sally Phillips and JJ Feild. Four siblings reunite after the death of their mum for what is billed as “a darkly comic family drama”.

FILM
Marilyn Monroe: Self-Made Star
(BFI, London SE1, from 1 June)

A two-month season of films and talks on London’s South Bank will commemorate the centenary of the star’s birth, and there’s a nationwide re-release of John Huston’s The Misfits – Monroe’s final movie. (From 4 June to 6 September, the National Portrait Gallery in London will also be showing Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait.)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Jacques Henri Lartigue: Life in Colour
(MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 20 June-4 October)

The first public exhibition for a decade of the French photographer (1894-1986) will focus on his rarely seen colour images.