From Mufasa to Gavin and Stacey: a complete guide to the week’s entertainment in the UK | Culture

Going out: Cinema

Mufasa: The Lion King
Out now
How did Scar turn into Scar? These and different mysteries are set to be uncovered on this Lion King prequel in regards to the early lifetime of Mufasa, the orphaned lion cub whose loss of life as the leonine monarch within the 1994 animation traumatised a complete technology.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Out now
The best villain in British animation – hell, British movie – is again. Feathers McGraw, the nefarious penguin from Wallace and Gromit’s most interesting journey, The Improper Trousers, returns to confound Aardman’s dynamic duo as soon as extra. It’s laborious to conceive of a higher Christmas current – besides maybe a pleasant little bit of wensleydale.

Child John
Out Christmas Day
This Indian Hindi-language motion thriller movie, directed by the mononymic Kalees, sees a police officer (Varun Dhawan) faux his loss of life and go into hiding to be able to safely elevate his daughter. Naturally, he has a nemesis (Jackie Shroff) who has different concepts.

Spirited Away
Out Boxing Day
The enchanting Studio Ghibli basic returns to the massive display screen for Christmas, at which period the sequence the place some members of the family rework into enthusiastically gluttonous pigs could show significantly topical. Screenings at Imax cinemas in January comes with a dwell intro from the pleasant common podcast Ghibliotheque. Catherine Bray

Going out: Gigs

RnB Xmas Ball
The O2, London, 22 December
Now with a tweaked lineup – authentic headliners Jodeci pulled out – this celebration of 90s R&B is again for its second 12 months. A returning SWV are joined by Inform Me It’s Me You Need hitmaker Keith Sweat, alongside supergroup TGT, AKA Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank. Michael Cragg

The Lottery Winners
Manchester Academy, 27 to 29 December
Forward of subsequent February’s fourth album, Koko, the follow-up to final 12 months’s stunning UK chart topper Anxiousness Alternative Remedy, the indie pop quartet pay a trio of reveals of their house metropolis. The proper setting for a post-Christmas pogo session earlier than getting again to the chilly meats. MC

An Italian Christmas
Wigmore Corridor, London, 23 December
Within the midst of a programme of music from the Italian baroque that features two works by Alessandro Stradella and Arcangelo Corelli’s well-known Christmas Concerto, the Dunedin Consort and a quintet of vocalists give the primary efficiency of the most recent work the group has commissioned from Caroline Shaw. Andrew Clements

Down for the Rely Orchestra
Turner Sims, Southampton, 22 December
Sharp-end contemporary-improv seekers would possibly cross on the 2 decade-old Down for the Rely Orchestra’s lovingly genuine covers of the good Nineteen Thirties and 40s songs of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and extra – however their jubilant Christmas present catches the freewheeling swing of jazz when it was the pop music of its period. John Fordham

Going out: Artwork

Dürer to Van Dyck
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, to 23 February
The wonders of North European artwork are unleashed in a present of drawings that embrace a stag with coral-like horns and a masks within the form of a lion’s face. There are slices of actuality, too, like Rembrandt’s portrait of an actor studying strains. A Christmas reward of nice artwork.

Silk Roads
British Museum, London, to 23 February
The journey of the Magi, the legendary procession of gift-laden travellers that’s a lot a part of the Christmas story, turns into actuality on this survey of the service provider routes that linked east and west in historic and medieval occasions. All of the spices and gold give this epic present a seasonal twist.

Birds: Good and Weird
Pure Historical past Museum, London, to 5 January
This present is good for the vacations, an pleasant schooling in evolution for all ages. It reveals that immediately’s birds are literally residing dinosaurs and explores how they’ve tailored with a gorgeous vary of expertise and behaviours. Hummingbirds dance, owls hunt, and interactive reveals carry avian existence to life.

The Traumatic Surreal
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, to 16 March
Because the centenary 12 months of surrealism approaches its finish, this exhibition presents a sideways have a look at the motion based in 1924 Paris. It reveals how, after the second world warfare, feminine artists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland took up its perception within the psyche. With Méret Oppenheim and Pipilotti Rist. Jonathan Jones

Going out: Stage

Stay at Christmas
Cambridge Corn Alternate, 21 December
Annually a crack crew of comics assemble for a present that might not be explicitly festive however is unquestionably unbeatably jolly. This instalment options the cerebral Sara Pascoe, Aussie comedian Steen Raskopoulos, self-lacerating Previous Etonian Ivo Graham and the reliably sensible Rhys James and Suzie Ruffell. Rachel Aroesti

Circa: Duck Pond
Royal Competition Corridor, London, to 30 December
Australian firm Circa is likely one of the finest bets with regards to modern circus with theatrical nous. This present skews in direction of comedy – the title’s a spoof of Swan Lake – and needs to be a crowd-pleaser, sturdy on stagecraft, spectacle and a few very spectacular tips. Lindsey Winship

St Nicholas
Omnibus theatre, London, to Christmas Eve
Searching for an escape from all of the Christmas cheer? This darkish story from Conor McPherson (The Weir) presents another festive fable. Nick Danan stars on this supernatural story of a jaded theatre critic, a badly made cut price and a coven of recent day vampires. Kate Wyver

Alice in Wonderland
Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, to 11 January
Dive down the rabbit gap for whimsical journey as Alice is welcomed again into Wonderland. A sequel to the basic, Nick Lane’s high-energy adaptation sees Alice collect her outdated associates to battle the evil forces and reminiscence wiping jam tarts. KW