This surprise hit became the BBC’s biggest scripted series of 2025. Now the cosy crime drama has returned – and, happily, it shows no sign of the dreaded “second series syndrome”. Socially inept puzzle-setter John “Ludwig” Taylor (David Mitchell) is now a consultant for Cambridge police, called in to solve Jonathan Creek-esque cryptic murders. On the side, he and sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) are secretly investigating the disappearance of his identical twin brother. The guest cast has gone up a notch for the new run, with the likes of Stephen Merchant, Sian Clifford and Mark Bonnar popping up. Full of nerdy intrigue, bumbling charm and whimsical wit, it’s a corduroy-clad treat that somehow makes you feel like it’s autumn already.

Michael Hogan, writer

Walsall-born singer-songwriter Jorja Smith has taken a risk with her third studio album, What Are The Odds, and she’s pulled it off beautifully. The record departs from her slower, more soulful music of the late 2010s and early 2020s and opts instead for a fast-paced, uplifting, drum-heavy album that makes you want to dance as well as feel all the feelings. What Are The Odds is produced by P2J, the mastermind behind Beyoncé and Stormzy, and it shows – every song is an absolute banger. And she does it all without losing the beautiful, powerfully evocative vocals she’s known for. 

Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nerve writer

The TV phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race gets its first big-screen outing, and of course it’s a total delight: a gag-packed – and gagging – disaster movie parody about a runaway train, full of drag queens, reality TV stars and camp icons (hello Nicole Richie!), speeding unstoppably towards a massive “Stormaganza”. It’s the first day in their dream job on the Glamazonian Express for two Stank Rail stewardess besties, DeeDee and Tess (played by Drag Race all-stars Jujubee and Ginger Minj). Can they save the day through the power of sisterhood? Maybe with a little help from RuPaul herself, aka “President Judy Gagwell”. 

Ellen E Jones, Nerve film critic

Is there any playwright more quintessentially 1970s than Alan Ayckbourn? At one point in 1975 he had five plays running simultaneously in the West End. This one, from 1969, recalls a bygone era when middle-class adultery was the essence of farce, dinner parties with the boss featured the exotic avocado, and gender politics were, let’s say, a work in progress. It might therefore seem like an unlikely revival but the play’s fiendishly elegant geometry – locations and timelines intertwine, misunderstandings proliferate – still makes for a very jolly evening, ingeniously staged in the round by director Phillip Breen. It’s clearly a hoot for the actors, too, because Ayckbourn gives each of the six characters time to shine, from hair-trigger martinet William (Adam Gillen) to the withering, jaded Fiona (Mum’s Dorothy Atkinson). Roger Allam, funny to the core, steals the show as Frank, a bungling marital detective who is as confident as he is clueless. Old-fashioned for sure, but the theatre was giddy with laughter.

Dorian Lynskey, Nerve theatre critic

One of the buzziest shows at the fringe this year, Elf Lyons's new hour sees the Gaulier-trained comedian transform into a hysterical, mid-Atlantic, midcentury actress to hilariously and resonantly reflect on her recent struggles with romance, relationships and self-confidence (with loads of other stuff – Apollo 13 references, lip-synced audience participation, operatic renditions of absurd things men have said to her – layered throughout). Lyons was shortlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award, the main prize at the festival, nine years ago. This new show seems likely to see her in the conversation once again.

Fergus Morgan, writer

Back in May, the actor and comedian Ardal O'Hanlon raved about this "extraordinary" documentary when I interviewed him for our Recommender slot, and I've been itching to see it since (Mike Leigh, Oliver Stone and Werner Herzog are also fans). Part thriller, part enraging history lesson, it's about the 1953 coup to overthrow Iran's first democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh – orchestrated by MI6 and the CIA (though the British have never officially admitted their involvement) to protect their oil interests. To mark the anniversary of the coup and shed light on current events, it's back in select cinemas with a Q&A, as well as being available to stream online – and it really is essential (though blood-pressure-raising) viewing if you want to understand the west's role in the destabilising of the Middle East. It follows Iranian director Taghi Amirani and co-writer/editor Walter Murch doggedly investigating what happened during the coup, and includes the discovery of a jaw-dropping, tell-all interview transcript with MI6 agent Norman Darbyshire, exquisitely portrayed in the film by Ralph Fiennes.

Imogen Carter, Nerve co-founder

THEATRE
Rent
(Tom Stoppard theatre, London WC2, from 26 September)

First came Sadie Sink in Robert Icke’s Romeo and Juliet and now a host of her Stranger Things co-stars are set to make their London stage debuts this autumn. There’s Noah Schnapp (Will Byers in ST) in Affluenza at Riverside Studios; Linnea Berthelsen (Elven’s sister Kali) in Darkling at the Bush; and the brilliant Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) in a new production of Jonathan Larson’s award-winning musical Rent.

MUSIC/FILM
Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore?
(Select cinemas, 18 September)

Catch Garth Jennings’s film capturing Pulp’s 2025 tour combined with never-before-seen archival material to tell the story of the Sheffield band’s rise to worldwide success. In cinemas for one night only.

THEATRE
First Encounters: Julius Caesar
(5-28 November, The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon)

Phyllida Lloyd’s groundbreaking all-female take on Julius Caesar, originally staged at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012, is reprised by the RSC with Harriet Walter as Brutus and Jackie Clune as Caesar.