Autumn culture guide 2024: From Sally Rooney’s new novel to Jilly Cooper’s Rivals on screen
From the novels everyone will be talking about to the starriest West End productions, here’s your guide to the coming season’s cultural highlights, as picked by our writers
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Your support makes all the difference.The temperatures may be dropping and the evenings may be getting shorter, but the advent of autumn also means that there’s a whole load of cultural happenings to get excited about (without feeling guilty about being indoors). The final stretch of 2024 promises a new novel from Sally Rooney, tell-all memoirs galore and a clutch of Hollywood stars taking on the West End – plus blockbuster exhibitions, long-anticipated sequels and future Oscar hopefuls (and talking-point TV you can enjoy from the comfort of your sofa). Here are the unmissable highlights, chosen by our writers.
Music
With summer almost done and dusted, it’s time to get cosy. That means hunkering down with your record player and taking some new favourites for a spin, or else watching a fantastic live show in a spectacular indoor setting.
In September, we’re looking forward to David Gilmour’s forthcoming fifth solo album, Luck and Strange. Co-produced by Alt-J’s go-to producer Charles Andrew and with lyrical contributions from his wife, author Polly Samson, the record delves into themes of mortality and lasting love. Make sure you keep an eye out for our exclusive interview with Gilmour by Geordie Greig.
We’ll also find out whether Charli XCX’s Brat reign will continue into the colder months, as the 2024 Mercury Prize winner is announced on 5 September at a ceremony at Abbey Road Studios. Charli is up against some fierce contenders including Corinne Bailey Rae with Black Rainbows, rapper Berwyn’s astounding debut Who Am I, and English Teacher with their sprawling indie-rock effort This Could Be Texas.
One of the hottest tickets is pop singer Chappell Roan’s sold-out UK tour, including three nights at London’s Brixton Academy (19, 20, 21 September). The Midwest Princess has asserted herself as one of the breakout stars of 2024, thanks to the slow-burning success of last year’s debut album, and singles including kiss-off song “Good Luck, Babe!”, the joyous queer anthem “Pink Pony Club” and horny “Red Wine Supernova”.
Later into October and early November, we’ll hear intimate new works from British folk artist Laura Marling (Patterns in Repeat, 25 October), Sarah Blasko (I Just Need to Conquer This Mountain, 1 November) and country outlaw Willie Nelson (Last Leaf on the Tree, 1 November). There’ll also be a brand new season of Music Box – The Independent’s exclusive series of live sessions recorded in-house – starring some exciting new faces as well as a few household names. Previous guests have included Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi, Irish singer Nell Mescal, Mercury Prize-nominated artists such as Olivia Dean and rock band English Teacher, plus Emeli Sandé, grime legend Ghetts, and Golden Globe-nominated actor/musician Damian Lewis. Roisin O’Connor, music editor
Film
Will anyone survive Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga coming together to maximise their joint method-ness this autumn? That scenery in your local multiplex? Imminently chewed! Joker: Folie a Deux, cinema’s answer to the question “what if we gave Hangover director Todd Phillips too much power?”, is due 4 October, and is comfortably set to be this autumn’s most exhausting movie. But it’s also not autumn’s only movie. Rather, we’re looking at three months of genuinely impressive-sounding cinema, from Demi Moore physically rotting in the horror movie The Substance (20 September) to the return of Paddington Bear in Paddington in Peru (8 November).
You want your auteurs? We’ve got ’em. Pedro Almodovar will return with The Room Next Door (25 October), his first English language feature, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as old friends who’ve grown estranged from their daughters. Ninety-four-year-old Clint Eastwood, a man who seems to exist now only to make other great-grandfathers feel desperately inadequate, has made a courtroom thriller called Juror #2 (1 November), while Andrea Arnold is back behind the camera for the eccentric crime tale Bird (8 November), starring Barry Keoghan and a hallucinogenic toad. There’s also Francis Ford Coppola’s long-in-the-works-and-potentially-not-worth-it ensemble crime movie Megalopolis (27 September), which drew largely terrible reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in May but is, if only to be nice to the man, probably worth checking out.
Women who will absolutely factor into next year’s Best Actress race are also well accounted for — there’s Saoirse Ronan struggling through sobriety in the tender The Outrun (27 September), and sensational newcomer Mikey Madison (who you might remember from being insane and set on fire in, um, both Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream) as a Brooklyn sex worker in the anarchic comedy Anora (1 November) from The Florida Project’s Sean Baker.
There’s also the imminently divisive Emilia Perez (on Netflix from 25 October), a surrealist crime musical that both dazzled and mortified Cannes audiences earlier this summer. Stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez will draw the most eyeballs, but it’s trans actor Karla Sofía Gascón who is the real breakout here – she plays a Mexican cartel leader seeking gender reassignment surgery. And, like, singing a lot as well.
Finally, for anyone who has wondered why they don’t make movies like Under the Tuscan Sun any more, Netflix has answered the call: 11 October sees Laura Dern jetting off to Morocco where she falls in love with Liam Hemsworth in Lonely Planet. Sweet! Adam White, features editor
TV
It’s been almost a decade since the BBC aired its staggering adaptation of the first two parts of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, starring Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Mark Rylance as his right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell. Anticipation is high, then, for the upcoming series based on Mantel’s third and final Cromwell novel, The Mirror and the Light (BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC), which reunites the original cast and traces the adviser’s precipitous downfall.
If you prefer your literary adaptations to be a little more splashy and salacious, and with Eighties power suits instead of Tudor ruffs, may we point you in the direction of Rivals (Disney+, 18 October)? This take on Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster features a who’s who of British stars: Aidan Turner, David Tennant, Danny Dyer… we could go on.
Those still feeling a Succession-shaped hole in their viewing schedules will be comforted by the return of Industry (BBC One/iPlayer, October) and its gang of drug-addled, sexed-up city bankers. This time Kit Harington is joining them as the wonderfully named Henry Muck, an entitled tech bro. Also making a welcome comeback is Bad Sisters (Apple TV, 13 November), the pitch-black revenge comedy written and starring Sharon Horgan. This time, the five Garvey sisters have just about caught their breath after the “accidental” death of Grace (Anne-Marie Duff)’s horrifying husband JP, but their secrets don’t stay secret for long.
Cate Blanchett will make a rare foray into TV in another Apple drama, Disclaimer (Apple TV, 11 October), written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. She’ll play a powerful journalist who ends up becoming the story when a dark secret from her past crops up in a book written by an anonymous author. Another Oscar winner swapping big screen for small is Eddie Redmayne, who leads The Day of the Jackal (Sky Atlantic, 7 November), playing an elusive assassin being tracked down by Lashana Lynch’s MI6 agent. Top Boy writer Ronan Bennett promises a fresh spin on Frederick Forsyth’s pulpy thriller.
Those seeking psychological intrigue should look out for The Listeners (BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC), which stars Rebecca Hall as a teacher whose life is thrown off kilter when she starts hearing a low humming sound that has no obvious medical cause. Need a bit of light(er) relief? David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin have teamed up for Ludwig (BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC), a genre-hopping detective comedy that sounds like perfect autumnal comfort viewing. Mitchell plays a puzzle designer whose identical twin brother goes missing, prompting the hermit-like Ludwig to take over his sibling’s identity – including his job as a respected detective. Katie Rosseinsky, senior culture and lifestyle writer
Theatre
Musicals have come and gone in recent years, but none have been so fun – and so enduring – as Six the Musical. How can writers Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow follow up their mammoth hit show, which turned the stories of Henry VIII’s wives into a mega pop concert and went all the way from Edinburgh Fringe to Broadway? Well, they’re going to try with the brilliantly titled new musical Why Am I So Single?, about two best pals searching for love (Garrick Theatre, booking until Feb 2025). Other musicals arriving in autumn include the long-awaited adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada (Dominion Theatre, from October), starring Vanessa Williams as Wintour-a-like Miranda Priestly, and A Face in the Crowd (10 Sept to 9 Nov), the final show from outgoing Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah with music by Elvis Costello.
It’s already been an extremely starry year on the London boards, with Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Snook, Matt Smith, Dominic West and Sheridan Smith among those to have appeared on stage. Get set for more: Ben Whishaw appears opposite Lucian Msamati in a revival of Waiting for Godot directed by James Macdonald (Theatre Royal Haymarket, from 13 Sept), Mark Strong and Lesley Manville appear in Robert Icke’s production of Oedipus (Wyndham’s Theatre, from 4 Oct, ahead of Rami Malek and Indira Varma’s turn at the Old Vic next year), Jodie Whittaker is the eponymous Duchess of Malfi (Trafalgar Theatre, from 5 Oct), and Mark Rylance and Succession star J Smith Cameron team up for Juno and the Paycock (Gielgud Theatre, from 21 Sept).
One of the hot tickets will undoubtedly be Steve Coogan’s return to the stage in Dr Strangelove in a version co-adapted by Armando Iannucci (Noel Coward, from 8 Oct), and over at the Donmar Warehouse they’ve bagged Oscar winner Adrien Brody for his West End debut in The Fear of 13, based on the true story of a man on death row (4 Oct-30 Nov; alas, tickets are already sold out).
A huge talking point of the season will likely be Giant at the Royal Court (20 Sept to 16 Nov), a new play about Roald Dahl and the scandal that surrounded antisemitic comments he made in the 1980s. John Lithgow plays the children’s author, with Romola Garai (so brilliant recently in The Years) also in the cast.
Away from London, Eleanor Tomlinson will star in the European play of Reverberation by Matthew Lopez, award-winning writer of two-part epic The Inheritance (2 Oct-2 Nov). The play tells the story of a man who has become a recluse after a personal tragedy, who then develops a relationship with a woman who moves into his building. Audiences are warned to expect scenes of “sexual intimacy”. In November, a stage adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s most heartbreaking novel Never Let Me Go will be at the Bristol Old Vic (5-23 Nov), after a run at the Rose Theatre in Kingston (20 Sept-12 Oct). And the inaugural Christmas show for new Royal Shakespeare Company bosses Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans will be a new version of The Red Shoes (from 4 Nov), not long after its hit adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia arrives in London (Barbican, from 22 Oct).
Look out in September, too, for the announcement of Rufus Norris’s final season as artistic director of the National Theatre, ahead of the arrival of his success Indhu Rubasingham in the new year. It’s bound to be special. Jessie Thompson, arts editor
Books
’Tis the season for bookish millennial women to rejoice: not only does Sally Rooney – Voice of Our Generation – release her fourth novel, Intermezzo (24 Sept, Faber), but foremother Jacqueline Wilson publishes Think Again (12 Sept, Transworld), an adult novel picking up from her Girls series. We foresee big emotions and a lot of Instagram posts. Other fiction titans on the scene are Richard Osman with a new crime series, We Solve Murders (12 Sept, Viking), and Elizabeth Strout, with Tell Me Everything (19 Sept, Viking) the latest instalment from her Lucy Barton series.
Expect to hear plenty from political heavyweights who are now free from the restraints of office. None will be splashier than Unleashed (10 Oct, HarperCollins), in which Boris Johnson will reflect on Brexit, Covid, and share thoughts that will – in his words – “explode over the publishing world like a much-shaken bottle of champagne”. Perhaps less likely to make you need a trip to the dry cleaners will be Angela Merkel’s memoirs (26 Nov, Macmillan) and Tony Blair’s book on leadership (5 Sept, Hutchinson Heinemann).
Celebrity memoirs will be arriving thick and fast in time for Christmas, with Al Pacino, Rick Astley, Alison Steadman and Miranda Hart sharing memories of a career in showbiz. Poignantly, Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir will be published (15 Oct, Pan), finished by her daughter Riley Keough, following Presley’s death in January last year, and Donald Sutherland’s autobiography will be released (12 Nov, Century) six months after the legendary actor’s passing. Expect to be moved by Shattered (31 Oct, Hamish Hamilton), the story of the life-changing fall that left novelist Hanif Kureishi paralysed; expect to be dazzled by Cher: The Memoir, Part One (19 Nov, HarperCollins) – a life so iconic it needs more than one volume. And pray for the ghostwriter of Lighting Can Strike Twice by Tommy Fury (10 Oct, Sphere), who must be gathering some last-minute material to take in the bombshell of his split from fiancée Molly Mae Hague.
For a very different kind of celeb book, try Want (5 Sept, Bloomsbury), a collection of anonymous women’s sexual fantasies, collected by Gillian Anderson. And if you get sick of all the showbiz sycophancy, there’s Tim Robey’s Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops (7 Nov, Faber), recapping cinematic catastrophes – including, of course, Cats.
There’s a feast of gems for the literary-minded, from the first collected edition of work from the nation’s favourite poet Wendy Cope (12 Sept, Faber), and The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath (12 Sept, Faber), featuring much-unpublished work. Funny person and brilliant film star Jenny Slate follows up her debut book Little Weirds with Lifeform (14 Nov, Fleet), essays on pregnancy and motherhood written in her inimitable style.
Original literary it-girls Joan Didion and Eve Babitz will be cast in a new light thanks to previously undiscovered letters between the pair, now collected in a book by Vanity Fair contributing editor Lili Anolik (14 Nov, Atlantic), and The Cost of Living author Deborah Levy explores her artistic muses in The Position of Spoons and Other Intimacies (7 Nov, Hamish Hamilton). She’s Always Hungry, the debut short story collection from Boy Parts author Eliza Clark (7 Nov, Faber), promises to creep us all out, as does the return of “true crime but doesn’t make you feel grubby” author Kate Summerscale (3 Oct, Bloomsbury), who retells the story of the 1953 Rillington Place murders. And mark your calendars for 12 November, when this year’s Booker Prize winner will be crowned, ahead of the shortlist announcement on 16 September. Jessie Thompson, arts editor
Art
“Once in a lifetime” feels too weak a superlative for some of the treats on offer this autumn. Simultaneous shows of portraits by Vincent van Gogh and Francis Bacon, two of the greatest such artists of all time, on adjacent parts of Trafalgar Square, seems almost too much for one small corner of London’s West End to cope with. The fact that the former was a huge influence on the latter makes the proximity of Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers (National Gallery, 14 Sept-19 Jan) and Francis Bacon: Human Presence (National Portrait Gallery, 10 Oct-19 Jan) feel particularly inspired, even if it wasn’t planned.
There’s another sure-fire blockbuster kicking off a mere stroll away along the Strand with Monet and London: Views of the Thames at the Courtauld Gallery (27 Sept-19 Jan). If we Brits have always been slightly ambivalent about the great Impressionist’s London paintings – we tend to want waterlilies and corn fields not the rush hour on Waterloo Bridge – Monet’s views of the Houses of Parliament are some of his most incandescent essays in colour.
But London isn’t quite getting all the glory, with Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature at Nottingham’s Djanogly Gallery (21 Sept-5 Jan), exploring a little-considered aspect of the great Portuguese-born artist’s often disturbing vision. While I’ve always found Rego’s paintings a shade illustrative, that becomes a positive virtue in dazzlingly inventive prints that explore the dark underside of the British imagination, from nursery rhymes to Wuthering Heights to Peter Pan.
The Turner Prize, meanwhile, makes its first return to the capital since 2018, with its annual exhibition of nominated artists at Tate Britain (25 Sept-16 Feb). It will be interesting to see if this year’s somewhat timid shortlist can help this now beleaguered institution recapture some of its former glory and its place as the natural focus of the British contemporary art scene.
There’s a more bracing, if surprising sense of hope for art’s future at the Whitechapel Gallery where one of Britain’s most popular artists, Sonia Boyce, explores the work of the currently uber-voguish Brazilian artist Lygia Clark in two exhibitions. The I and the You, co-curated by Boyce, looks at Clark’s groundbreaking participatory and “care”-centred aesthetic. At the same time, her own An Awkward Relation (both 2 Oct-12 Jan) extends these possibilities into our own time. With the world’s current fractured and fractious state, the themes of interaction, participation and human commonality couldn’t be more timely. Mark Hudson, chief art critic
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