Welcome to this week’s hotlist featuring the best Nerve-approved new shows and releases. There’s a Brian Friel classic in Manchester and a hot new play by Nick Payne at the Royal Court. You can enjoy a vibrant free exhibition spotlighting 150 years of female print designers in east London or simply curl up on the sofa with our tips for TV and music.

Surely the greatest comic character of my lifetime, Alan Partridge has been evolving, across multiple formats and 34 years, from a parody of a sports reporter into a rich and increasingly sympathetic portrait of Middle England neurosis and showbiz derangement. Created by star Steve Coogan with Neil and Rob Gibbons, Alan’s chaotic six-part investigation into mental health is top-tier Partridge: never a false note, nor a duff joke. You can binge it all on iPlayer but I recommend taking it slowly and savouring its density of gags and ideas. It’s a comedy miracle.

Dorian Lynskey, writer

A 15 year old does not return home from school. A family is turned inside out. Seven years on - what now? Nicola Walker heads a superb cast, including an excellent Ella Lily Hyland (Black Doves), in Nick Payne's believable, occasionally comic, new play. Marianne Elliott directs.

Jane Ferguson, co-founder

The Franco-Moroccan artist who will represent France at this year's Venice Biennale has filled the SLG's main gallery in New Cross with her typically heterogeneous and visually seductive work. Barrada is a polymath (she founded North Africa's first art house cinema, The Cinémathèque de Tanger, and the eco-feminist dye-garden in Tangier), and her curiosity and commitment to the complexity, and the specificity, of culture and place subtly undergirds much of her work. A new film, Tintin in Palestine imagines alternative versions of the famous cartoon; and textile works, dyed with hues from her research garden, spool around the walls like colour wheels.

Emily LaBarge, art critic

Spotlighting the women behind some of Liberty’s most iconic fabric designs, as well as the beautiful fabrics themselves, this joyous, kaleidoscopic show has work by the likes of Althea McNish and Lucienne Day alongside lesser known figures such as Mrs Stoneley (who created many designs still on sale but little is known about). With the creative energy and insight of a sketchbook flung open, there are frocks, frills, archival photos and a great little film featuring living designers talking about their process.

Imogen Carter, co-founder

With UK clubs closing at an alarming rate, there's never been a better time to spotlight the legendary parties that changed culture. Broadcaster Robert Elms deep dives on Blitz, the short-lived but highly influential 80s rager, coinciding with a new exhibition at London's Design Museum.

Kate Hutchinson, music critic

If Kojey Radical's debut Reason to Smile set him apart from his contemporaries, then the east London rapper's sophomore album Don't Look Down, confirms just how comfortable he is in his own skin. He's really figured out what works for him—soulful choruses, introspective lyrics, and a silky sensualness that flows throughout this project with ease and flair.

Kadish Morris, writer

Brian Friel’s modern classic Dancing at Lughnasa opens Selina Cartmell’s first season as artistic director of Royal Exchange Manchester. A co-production with Sheffield Theatres and sensitively directed by their new artistic director Elizabeth Newman, the five Mundy sisters are struggling to survive in small town 1930s Catholic Ireland - with a child born out of wedlock, a disgraced missionary brother and one wage between them. None of them will be going to the village dance but it won’t stop them from dancing around their Marconi radio, if they can only get it working. A great ensemble piece.

Susan Ferguson, writer

FILM: French Film Festival at the Ciné Lumière, London

(12 - 23 November)

The programme includes this year’s Palme d’Or winner and France’s submission to the Oscars It Was Just an Accident from Jafar Panahi, as well as The Voice of Hind Rajab from Kaouther Ben Hania, winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. There’s also Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague; Francois Ozon’s Camus adaptation The Stranger; Julia Ducournau’s Alpha; Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life starring Jodie Foster and more.

THEATRE: The Line of Beauty, Almeida, London

(21 October - 29 November)

The Almeida is releasing more tickets for this sell out show tomorrow (Weds 22 October) at midday. Join the mailing list to be notified when they are available.

THEATRE: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

(March - August 2026)

Chichester festival theatre’s hit David Eldridge adaptation of the John le Carré classic embarks on a mammoth UK tour – including Malvern, Sheffield, Glasgow, York and Salford – next year.

THEATRE: Teeth n Smiles at Duke of York’s Theatre, London WC2

(March - June 2026)

50th anniversary revival of David Hare's play starring Rebecca Lucy Taylor (Self Esteem).

Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur at the Wallace Collection, London W1 until 26 October 

Lubaina Himid with Magda Stawarska: Another Chance Encounter at Kettle’s Yard gallery, Cambridge until 2 Nov