Sharon Horgan's new Channel 4 series Youth, about life as a single fiftysomething, has been hailed as "some of her best work ever" in the Guardian's latest round-up of the week's best-reviewed culture.
The comedy, which follows Horgan's character Alex navigating divorce, was praised by critic Lucy Mangan, who wrote: "Horgan dwells in the truth always, and there is nothing more bitterly funny or compelling than that."
Other TV highlights
The Great British Bake Off also earned plaudits, with Nigella Lawson joining the judging panel. Mangan said: "I pronounce the good ship Bake Off fully seaworthy. Long may she sail with Nigella and crew at the helm."
The Split Up, a spin-off of BBC divorce drama The Split set in Manchester and starring Sanjeev Bhaskar, was described as "delightfully soapy" and delivering "full-on sudsy fun from the start."
The Wargame, a simulation of a nuclear strike on the UK by Russia featuring ex-politicians including Nicola Sturgeon, Harriet Harman and Michael Gove as PM, was called "enjoyably terrifying," with Mangan noting "Gove, Harman and Sturgeon are fabulously awful."
Film and books
In film, Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell was praised by Peter Bradshaw for its "slow dervish swirl of hypnotic strangeness," while Brad Pitt's Heart of the Beast was described as "an entertaining anthro-canine-mance."
Books highlighted include William A Pettigrew's Britain's Slave Traders, which examines how "slave gain – Britain's gigantic profiting from the trade – funded the physical structures, from docks to canals, that helped make the country a global force."
Music picks
Gilla Band's Pugnello was called "the dictionary definition of 'not for everyone'" by Alexis Petridis, while Jae Stephens' Audacity was praised as "the sound of an artist finally getting her shot, and refusing to squander it."
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's 80th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Beethoven's Triple Concerto, saw "Petrenko and the RPO emerge as the real heroes of the night."
