Hammersmith-born actor Bel Powley, 33, came to prominence in 2015 after playing the lead in comedy-drama The Diary of a Teenage Girl and portraying Princess Margaret in A Royal Night Out. Since then, she has featured in films including The King of Staten Island, Mary Shelley and Wildling. Her TV roles include The Morning Show, Masters of the Air, and the BBC adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s memoir Everything I Know About Love; she will star as Aunt Petunia in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series. Her theatre credits include The Real Thing at the Old Vic and Tusk Tusk at the Royal Court. From 9 December to 8 January 2026 she stars in Christmas Day at the Almeida Theatre, a darkly comic play by Olivier award-winner Sam Grabiner.

Pluribus (Apple TV)

I love weird, left-field, dystopian television, and this really fits into that mould. It’s by Vince Gilligan, who made Breaking Bad, and the premise is that the world is affected by a virus which connects every human together so they’re all one mind. Everyone is really positive, really happy, can’t lie, and doesn’t want to do anyone any harm – on paper, it sounds like quite a nice time. But there’s basically one woman who the drama follows, who’s immune to the virus. The performances are incredible, and it reflects on the world today – AI, our obsession with individualism – without being directly about that. It’s got these big sweeping themes, but it’s also really funny.

Wolf Alice - The Clearing

This is definitely my album of the year. There’s a track on it called Just Two Girls, which is a very beautiful, melodic and upbeat tune, basically about two female friends loving each other and having a great time. It really reminded me of my best friend. Wolf Alice have this 70s rock influence, and Ellie Rowsell has got cracking vocals on her. I was at Glastonbury this year but I left before Sunday, which is when they played, so I watched their set on iPlayer. I’m going to go see them next week at the O2 and I’m really looking forward to it.

Mongrel - Hanako Footman

Hanako Footman, who is also an actor, has written this beautiful, touching novel. It’s three narratives about three women – some are Japanese and some are British-Japanese – and their stories intertwine at the end with this great twist which I won’t give away. The overarching themes are racial identity, sexuality, female identity, and how all those things intersect. Her writing is so poetic and flowery in some ways, but really easy to absorb, which is difficult for a writer to do. It feels very fresh. She paints these pictures of places so well, and the characters are really well drawn. I found there was a lot in there I could relate to, and also a lot that I learned. It would make a fantastic TV show.

Peter Doig: House of Music at the Serpentine South gallery, London

I didn’t know anything about artist Peter Doig – I just walked into this show randomly. He was born in Scotland and grew up in Trinidad and Canada, so he’s drawn inspiration from all these places for his art. But what was most thrilling about this exhibition is that it’s a listening room as well. He’s got these old-school, massive speakers, and they’re playing incredible records from his extensive vinyl collection, like Aretha Franklin. Usually in galleries you just hear people shuffling around – it really changed my experience of absorbing the art. All galleries should have music on. There were also these areas with chairs and tables, almost as if you were in a bar in Trinidad, listening to great music.

Mountain, London W1 

This is the sister restaurant to Brat, which is one of my favourite restaurants of all time. Those guys can do no wrong. Mountain is their new place, vaguely influenced by the Basque region. It’s a gorgeous space in the heart of Soho. It’s got a Michelin star, but it doesn’t feel stuffy or too fancy – it feels really relaxed. The service is incredible, and the food is delicious. They do this one dish that sounds so weird on the menu, but works so well. It’s called prawn and cheese on bread, which sounds like it’s not gonna go together, but it’s basically a bruschetta with really soft cheese and a raw prawn on top. And it is divine.