The List December 2025

TRAVEL &

GOING

It’s that time of year again when we put together a rundown of the 100 people, places and festivals that have been inspirational, innovative and downright brilliant over the past 12 months. Projects such as our Hot 100 are not meant as exercises in showboating and merely confirming what everyone knew all along. It should provoke, confront, challenge and maybe even upset: a writer at one particular tabloid was especially miffed when we left out their favourite pop idol from the 2022 poll (spoiler: they might be chucking things around again in fury after seeing this new hundred). We await with anticipation the reaction to this year’s selection, a set of 100 which has been chopped down from a longlist of 170: no mean task.

Sometimes, though, you need a little help from your friends, and we’re delighted to be teaming up with The Scotsman once again to spread the word about our Hot 100. This issue is being carried by their newspaper on 29 November and continues a three-year collaboration which previously reaped benefits with a Best Commercial Partnership at the PPA (Professional Publishers Association) Awards. But more than that, it’s a sign that media organisations can come together when they have a positive goal in mind; in this case to highlight and celebrate the amazing cultural work created by Scots (anywhere in the world) or non-Scots who do their creating here.

But this issue isn’t all about looking back the way, we’re also projecting into the future with big previews on what‘s happening in the worlds of live and home entertainment and we’re also picking out a quartet of acts (an art duo, a comedian, an actor and a band) who we’re expecting will make great strides in 2026. Plus we hail the Edinburgh return of beloved curry emporium Khushi’s, wander around Morocco, chat to George Clooney, wave a fond farewell to Creeping Bent, celebrate the art of Rae-Yen Song, praise Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, laud the new novel from Louise Welsh and enjoy the answers to our Back Q&A from West End star Maddie Grace Jepson. As ‘they’ say, it’s a packed one, folks.

Brian Donaldson EDITOR

Isabella Dalliston

Thomson, Ailsa Sheldon, Allan Radcliffe, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Dominic Corr, Donald Reid, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Evie Glen, Fiona Shepherd, Gareth K Vile, Gary Sullivan, Greg Thomas, Isy Santini, James Mottram, Jay Richardson, Jay Thundercliffe, Jennifer McLaren, Jo Laidlaw, Katherine McLaughlin, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul McLean, Rachel Morrell, Rob Adams, Suzy Pope, Vic Galloway, Zara Janjua

front

LUCY RIBCHESTER

Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité undertook a monumental task when they joined forces to create a piece that responded meaningfully to the climate crisis. But Figures In Extinction was an incredible achievement, full of majesty, wit and grace. Beautifully performed, endlessly unexpected, it was particularly poignant seeing it in Berlin during the heatwave.

ISY SANTINI

Already one of the best musicals of this century, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812 upped its game yet again in a new production at the Donmar Warehouse, discarding its Napoleonic aesthetic for an ultra-cool grunge look. With pitch perfect performances across the board and the introduction of ghostly dancers, there’s never been a more unique or creative adaptation of War And Peace.

We reach that time of year when cold hard reflection hits its height. Musing over the past 11 months, a set of our critics flag up their own cultural highlight

CLAIRE SAWERS

In a year full of terrifying rollbacks on global civil liberties, what a tonic to find this collection of 200-odd photographs from a century of activism. Conceived by Steve McQueen, Resistance is wholly pre-internet, featuring early snaps of Suffragettes in court, mid-century anti-nuclear marchers and 1980s queers in ‘Better Gay Than Grumpy’ t-shirts reminding us of people power and the camera’s ability to continually drive change.

PAUL MCLEAN

After years of grim abandonment, the A-listed Bernat Klein Studio near Selkirk suddenly came up for auction this summer and was saved by a consortium of heritage and design groups. Built in 1972 by architect Peter Womersley for textile guru Klein, this late-modernist masterpiece deserves to become a treasured cultural asset.

DANNY MUNRO

Detailing a tumultuous few years in the life of the versatile Lewishamborn artist, Black British Music is Jim Legxacy’s love letter to the mid2000s. Nostalgic visuals are spliced together with an amalgamation of styles and sounds, as Legxacy cements his place as king of the British underground scene on his major label debut. Now time for some Scottish dates, Jim . . .

A recent Guardian feature gathered up the most stressful episodes in TV history. Oddly, no spot was found for the finale of The Rehearsal’s second season, as Nathan Fielder went to more extreme lengths just to try and prove a point. Thanks to a denouement that is moving, shocking and hilarious, you may never look at co-pilots in the same way ever again.

the insider 2025 special

BRIAN DONALDSON

PICTURE:

PICTURE:

AFREKA THOMSON

Charli XCX’s Glastonbury set was gloriously feral and completely absorbing. She walked out alone (no band, no guests) and still commanded total attention, her signature warped pop spilling across fields sticky with lip gloss and triple-melon vapour. Locked in on iPlayer, I could almost taste it from my living room. Euphoric, unserious and unsettlingly vulnerable.

EMMA SIMMONDS

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a film that manages to be insanely entertaining and just plain insane, while raging at racism and ridiculing evil political schemers. Teyana Taylor sends sparks shooting off the screen, Leonardo DiCaprio is hilarious and Benicio del Toro is the buddy we all need. Great title too.

KEVIN FULLERTON

The 80 hours I spent wandering through the dystopian Australian outback of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach has been as awe-inspiring as blockbuster games get. Combining immaculate art design and a flawless score with a story that’s at once ludicrous and a crushing meditation on parental loss, this is Hideo Kojima’s arthouse-addled genius at its creative peak. Long may his unique brand of madness continue.

Celebrity Traitors was this year’s cultural juggernaut, pulling 12 million viewers to its finale. We loved the drama, but the real hook is how perfectly it mirrors society: paranoia rising, alliances crumbling and the informed few running circles round the rest. It’s basically Britain in cloaks. And Alan Carr emerged, simultaneously the most hated and loved villain so far.

JO LAIDLAW

I’ve always been a Tattoo refuser: maybe it’s the prices, maybe there’s just too much to do in any given August. But when my choir was invited to perform in the 75th anniversary of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, I couldn’t help myself. I watched an irresistible spectacle, organised with (naturally) military precision, that celebrates our precious, fragile peace. Plenty to enjoy and plenty to think about too.

RACHEL MORRELL

Taking the horror genre to new territory, Sinners somehow met its sky-high expectations. We followed twin brothers in 1930s Mississippi who discover evil at the door of their juke joint on its opening night. Visually spectacular, with a striking blues soundtrack, director Ryan Coogler filled every scene with symbolism and crafted a cinematic masterpiece.

JAY RICHARDSON

It might seem perverse to suggest that Tim Key, Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, Alan Partridge sidekick and now venturing into US sitcoms with The Paper, has levelled up in his career. But his touching and hilarious performance as eccentric millionaire Charles in the charming Ballad Of Wallis Island, which he co-wrote and starred in with regular collaborator Tom Basden, ought to see Hollywood beating a path to his door to portray lovable oddballs.

ZARA JANJUA

PICTURE: HARLEY

We’ve immersed ourselves in another 12 months of cultural excellence by Scots anywhere in the world or non-Scots who are key players in the artistic landscape of our nation. And then we took the temperature of what’s hot and what’s not quite so hot. What follows is 100 people, places and festivals that have kept us entertained and intrigued, and occasionally left us gobsmacked and enlightened.

A quick note on a change for this year’s poll. We decided to only number the top 25 with the remainder appearing in alphabetical order. Partly this was down to a long-term niggle that having people in those lower spots (let’s call them the 80s and 90s) just feels a bit, well, unfair. That feeling was compounded a year ago when word reached us that the mother of someone who landed in the lower echelons last time was so offended and outraged about this number attaching itself to her offspring that she advised them to snub our Hot 100 event. Thankfully, said offspring did attend and seemed to have a jolly old time. Anyway, this may be a one-off experiment for 2025, but overall it just seems like a kinder way to go. Right, let’s do this . . .

Writers: Afreka Thomson, Ailsa Sheldon, Allan Radcliffe, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Dominic Corr, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Fiona Shepherd, Gareth K Vile, Greg Thomas, Isy Santini, James Mottram, Jay Richardson, Jay Thundercliffe, Jennifer McLaren, Jo Laidlaw, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul McLean, Rachel Morrell, Rob Adams, Suzy Pope

Ajay Kumar in 2019, the owner-chef has more

helped the rep, as has second Glasgow restaurant Grilled By Ajay Kumar which opened this summer and is

BETH TAYLOR

Not so long ago swapping a hospital uniform for a ballgown to entertain patients during covid, the meteoric rise of Scottish operatic mezzo-soprano Taylor is nothing short of sensational. Appearances at Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne, BBC Proms and Deutsche Oper Berlin have been lauded with unstinting praise from the international press. (CM)

BRYCE HART

for 17 years, saw the Greenock-born painter

architect John Soane’s use of light. The result

into therapy sessions and the push and pull of a marriage rocked by mental-health issues. A difficult watch, sometimes unbearably so, but the positive message at its heart makes

Seasoned event-chef Bryson launched Barry

well as a listing in the Michelin guide. Friendly

pastrami, lobster agnolotti and a great night

Bringing together Gregor Fisher and Greg McHugh to play an estranged father and son starting to slowly mend their ways in Only Child was already inspired casting. But writer Hart’s ability to tease out the story with poignancy and a steady stream of hilarity was the BBC show’s greatest victory. (BD)

CHRIS MCQUEER

McQueer ditched his trusty short stories as he boldly tackled the tricky topic of incel culture on his full-length debut, Hermit. For his efforts, the author received an array of glowing reviews and a rightful place on the shortlist for Best Fiction at The Saltires. (DM)

CITIZENS THEATRE

Nobody could envy an artistic director who had to run a closed theatre for seven years, but the re-opening of Glasgow’s Citizens reminded us we’d been missing a gorgeous venue and a striking director. Dominic Hill’s staging of Small Acts Of Love brought new life to the old building, as did a refreshed programme in the shiny new studio spaces. (MF)

CLARE COGHILL

Coghill moved Café Cùil from London back to her native Skye and built a loyal following for her cult brunch dishes. Now she has published Café Cùil Cookbook to share her joyful Skye produce-lead recipes. Described as a ‘love letter to home’, the recipes are global, proudly Scottish and utterly delicious.

Barry Bryson

Beth Taylor

PICTURE: OLIVIA DA COSTA

DICTATOR

Continued support from BBC Introducing and the release of their second EP, Middle Of The Road, were key milestones for Dictator, who attracted a healthy crowd to the King Tut’s stage at TRNSMT. The West Lothian boys also swapped Livingston for the Lower East Side, making their stateside debut at New York’s New Colossus Festival. (DM)

DONALD GRANT

Highland virtuoso Donald Grant brought his critically acclaimed commission Thuit An Oidhche Oirnn to audiences in Edinburgh, Inverness and beyond, to mark his passion for gathering with others and share a love of music-making. Performances featured Scottish Ensemble and regular collaborator Mischa MacPherson. (MMT)

EDINBURGH WOMEN’S FICTION FESTIVAL

Run by a committee of eight book-loving women (Jane Anderson, Olivia Kekewich, Kristin Pedroja, Robin Facer, Emma Steele, Sarah Garretson, Fran Woodrow and Grace Baird), this festival serves to champion books written by and for women in a variety of genres. Intersectional, warm and welcoming, it’s now a rm favourite on our literary scene. (LR)

EMILY SCOTT

The Modern Studies frontwoman, composer and multi-instrumentalist revisited her intoxicating solo Chrysanths project on the Yay, Human digital EP, reworking a number of tracks from the Leave No Shadow album for electric piano and voice(s), as well as producing accompanying bespoke mystery novels based on the lyrics. (FS)

FAITH ELIOTT

Eliott’s Dryas was one of, if not the nest album to come out of Scotland in 2025, with the Minneapolis-born, Edinburgh-based DIY singer/songwriter rif ng imaginatively on diverse aspects of nature, mythology and the cosmos across a gorgeous suite of idiosyncratic odes. (FS)

FIONA J MACKENZIE

Historian and tradition bearer Mackenzie brought Gaelic women Màiri Mhòr nan Òran and Margaret Fay Shaw to new audiences with lectures and performances. Her critically acclaimed book about Canna House’s Shaw was launched at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre. (MMT)

FORBES MASSON

He started the year starring opposite Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest and ended it alongside Caroline Quentin in The Seagull In between, he played Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing which, like The Tempest, was a thoroughly breathless extravaganza from Jamie Lloyd. (BD)

GAIL WATSON

A regular on Scottish stages, Watson (currently in River City) has previously shone in comedic roles or when showcasing her impressive pipes as both Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline. But her thrilling solo Fringe turn as the troubled title character in Faye’s Red Lines displayed a air for brutal drama and pitch-black humour. (PM)

GREG SINCLAIR

The Edinburgh performance artist, composer and cellist brought us his playful show Tongue Twisters. He danced and performed in Gaelic, Yoruba, Ukrainian, Arabic and Japanese, while wearing a pink balaclava of knitted tongues. Meanwhile, Dussskk was a colourful sensory show he co-directed for disabled and neurodivergent teenagers. (CS)

HARRY MOULD

Premiering at Pitlochry Festival Theatre before transferring to the Traverse, Mould’s debut play The Brenda Line, a heartfelt and humorous tribute to their ‘mam’ and Samaritans volunteers, was longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award and is set for a TV adaptation. (DC)

Dictator

Greg Sinclair

HAZEL JOHNSON

As Hidden Door director, Johnson and her team pulled off the most audacious festival yet at The Paper Factory, making use of a vast space with music, art and aerial acrobatics. This is as wide-ranging as an arts extravaganza can get, championing everything from the best of indie rock to DIY experimentation. (KF)

IAIN MCPHERSON

Twelve years ago, Iain McPherson blew minds with his first cocktail menu at Panda & Sons. And now that it’s nabbed top spot in the world’s Top 500 Bars, the plaudits (and punters) keep coming; a testament to McPherson’s finesse and creativity in the fastmoving, trend-led world of mixology. (SP)

IDLEWILD

Idlewild marked 30 years as one of Scotland’s most beloved and influential bands by releasing their tenth album, a self-titled distillation of all that makes them mighty: nonpompous anthems, thoughtful lyricism, indie rock blowouts and a gentle push into more experimental territory. (FS)

IONA ZAJAC

Edinburgh-bred singer/songwriter Zajac started the year touring with The Pogues as singer and harpist on their 40th anniversary celebration of Rum, Sodomy & The Lash and ended it by channelling pain, rage and dark humour on her seductive debut album, Bang (FS)

JAY CAPPERAULD

Winning the European Composition Award at Berlin’s Young Euro Classic for his NYOS commission, Galvanic Dances, Capperauld also gave us Bruckner’s Skull with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, exploring the Austrian composer’s dark obsessions. (CM)

JAY LAFFERTY

Lafferty’s Fringe show Ooft! was a gentle wonder, a little slice of Scottishness that became a calming touchstone through the August madness. She wears her skills lightly but this was fine observational work with something to say, as befits her 20-year career as one of our most underrated homegrown stand-ups. (JL)

JENNI FAGAN

With acclaimed works of fiction, scripts for theatre and film, and several poetry collections under her belt, the Scottish writer’s long-awaited memoir Ootlin, about her experience of growing up in the care system, won the Gordon Burn Prize and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize For NonFiction. (AR)

KAI REESU

Surely the only band in the room with members from Paisley, Thurso and LA, Kai Reesu took home the Scottish Album Of The Year Award. Keyboardist Paul Copeland said the band were ‘just having fun’ when recording Kompromat Vol I and now they have £20,000 to spend on having more of it. (DM)

Iain McPherson

Jay Lafferty

KESTIN

This year marked a decade of Kestin, a Leith-based menswear brand that brings an innovative twist to traditional Scottish designs. To celebrate their tenth birthday, Kestin partnered up with Woven to create a limited edition blended whisky. (IS)

KIM BLYTHE

Having successfully pivoted from viral online comic to stand-up and TV, Blythe’s Cowboy found her confronting imposter syndrome, her chequered employment record and the tabloid press she’s attracted since the broke through. (JR)

LAURA CUMMING

Thunderclap won this acclaimed art critic the Book Of The Year award at The Saltires. Her memoir explored the relationship between art and life, focusing on herself, her late father (painter James Cumming) and the Dutch Golden Age artists. (BD)

LAURA OGHAGBON

Vocalist Oghagbon had no sooner become the Scottish Jazz Awards’ Rising Star than she was bringing her gospel influences to the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s Remembering Duke tour. She has newer jazz songs mastered, too, as her reading of Jazzmeia Horn’s ‘Free Your Mind’ has shown. (RA)

LAUREN LYLE

This Glasgow actress got famous through Outlander and Karen Pirie, with the latter’s second season arriving this year, bum bag and all. That was followed by BBC’s gripping The Ridge, where Lyle played sardonic, grieving Mia who visits New Zealand, struggling with opiate addiction, to hunt her sister’s murderer. (CS)

LEN PENNIE

Pennie shot to fame during lockdown with her Scots word of the day posts. This year she released her second poetry collection, Poyums Annaw, continuing to champion the power of the Scots language alongside reflections on her personal experiences of domestic violence and online abuse. (LR)

LEONARDO MCCORKINDALE

It’s not every young dancer that lands themselves a lead part in a Matthew Bourne production two years after graduating. But then Bourne, like everyone in the audience at this year’s Swan Lake tour, could see that Edinburgh-born McCorkindale has something special to offer. (KA)

Lomond Campbell

Liberty Black

PICTURE: MIHAELA BODLOVIC

LIBERTY BLACK

Glasgow native Black made her professional debut earlier this year in the title role of Keli. She plays a young horn player from a Scottish mining town in a standout performance which delivered flawlessly on both comedy and drama. (IS)

LOMOND CAMPBELL

In addition to bringing out the synth demon in Kathryn Joseph and improving on Dot Allison’s Consciousology with a remix album, producer, composer and mad sonic professor Campbell also unveiled his latest invention, MUO, creating sound and vision by harnessing atmospheric radiation. (FS)

LOUISE BLAIN

Previously a games journalist and broadcaster, Blain has spent the past couple of years as creative lead at Blumhouse Games, the celebrated horror film studio’s gaming offshoot. Her efforts are already bearing fruit, with three terrifying titles released so far, including the new Sleep Awake. (MR)

LYNNE RAMSAY

Ramsay’s new movie Die My Love, bought by MUBI for a whopping $25million, showcased one of the best performances of 2025, as Jennifer Lawrence plays a mother sliding into depression after giving birth. Expect Oscar attention. (JM)

MARGARET MCDONALD

A classic tale of perseverance against the odds, McDonald’s debut book was rejected by 60 agents. But this year, her Glasgow Boys earned her the honour of youngest ever winner of the Carnegie Medal For Writing in its near 90-year history. (BD)

MARJOLEIN ROBERTSON

At this year’s Fringe, Robertson completed her Marj/O/Lein trilogy with an acclaimed show delving into the worst year of her life. The Shetland-born comedian has a distinctive voice, grounding her deeply personal storytelling in threads of Scottish folklore. It feels like she’s on the cusp of becoming a very big deal. (MR)

MATTHEW LENTON

It’s like Brexit never happened. The director’s Vanishing Point company continued to ride roughshod over national boundaries with a visually ravishing adaptation of Murakami’s Confessions Of A Shinagawa Monkey, staged as a bilingual collaboration with Yokohama’s Kanagawa Arts Theatre. Next, he’s cementing Danish-Scottish relations by joining forces with Teater Katapult. (MF)

Marjolein Robertson

Lynne Ramsay

PICTURE: TRUDY STADE

MELLA SHAW

Edinburgh ceramic artist Shaw’s awardwinning exhibition Sounding Line toured to The McManus in Dundee. Perfectly situated in the former whaling city, it looks at the effect marine sonar can have on deep-diving whale species that use sound to navigate underwater. (JMcL)

MIA SUHAIMI

Inspired by the Lavender Menace archive, Suhaimi became not only the first transgender writer but the first writer of colour to see her Gaelic poetry in print in Northwords Now, with works divining links between Scotland and her native Malaysia. (MMT)

NATASHA GILMORE

This Fringe, Barrowland Ballet’s choreographer/director Gilmore brought us thought-provoking insights into two often overlooked groups: teenage boys and older women. Chunky Jewellery, performed with Jude Williams, took a wry look at personal trauma and friendship, while Wee Man explored intergenerational expectations of manhood. (LR)

NCUTI GATWA

The Doctor Who star may have bowed out of his most high-profile role to date, departing the TARDIS this summer, but his stellar rise continued with an acclaimed performance as Christopher Marlowe in the West End production of Born With Teeth, while enjoying a playful cameo turn in The Roses alongside Cumberbatch and Colman. (AR)

NOUSHY

This trombonist has been a star of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s Nu-Age Sounds tours of the past two years and barely paused for breath in 2025. Her diary found her touring globally, notably with Londonbased collective Kokoroko, as well as working in an intimate duo with guitarist James Mackay. (RA)

PAUL HARRISON

Pianist Harrison took on an album of Egberto Gismonti’s music and did such a good job that he received an endorsement from the masterly Brazilian guitarist-composer himself. Harrison also took on the Great American Songbook and explored the electroexperimental side of jazz via his own (and Keith Jarrett’s) solo piano works. (RA)

PAUL MACALINDEN

Returning to Scotland from Germany, conductor MacAlindin has built a unique sense of community through music in one of Glasgow’s most deprived areas. His Glasgow Barons initiative is now part of Govan’s beating heart, whether with refugee musicians, emerging artists, chamber orchestra, rappers, Baby Strings or early music. (CM)

PETER JOHNSTONE

2012’s Young Scottish Jazz Musician Of The Year didn’t exactly rush-release his debut album, Resistance Is Futile. But when it arrived this summer, it got great reviews and radio play in the US. Johnstone was on Hammond organ instead of his usual piano. (RA)

PETER MULLAN

Two sides of the veteran actor’s skillset impressed, firstly playing a husband and father with a dark secret in Channel 4 drama After The Party, and as the empathic Tommy Trotter in I Swear who attempts to help Tourette’s sufferer John navigate the world. (BD)

Noushy

Natasha Gilmore

RACHEL O’REGAN

Award-winning playwright and producer at F-Bomb theatre, O’Regan took inspiration from herstory with Monumental, a part theatre piece, part walking tour celebrating five forgotten heroines of the past. A sold-out tour and outstanding reviews were the result. (RM)

RAMESH MEYYAPPAN

Meyyappan’s emotive fusions of sound and image saw him re-imagine Shakespeare in a gorgeous Lear, casting himself as father, king and fool. Meyyappan also toured with Last Rites, a moving depiction of a man laying his father to rest. (NC)

REECE CLARKE

Three years after becoming a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, North Lanarkshire-born Clarke continues to mesmerise both on stage and through his modelling collaboration with various fashion houses. He excelled in the title role of John Cranko’s Onegin, as well as being guest artist in Paris Opera Ballet’s Giselle. (KA)

RICHARD STRACHAN

Edinburgh-based Strachan released his gothic debut novel, The Unrecovered, and was honoured with a Saltire longlisting and an appearance in Bloody Scotland’s debut prize shortlist. A haunting evocation of loss and masculine identity, the book takes place in post-WWI South Queensferry. (LR)

SADIQ ALI

Ali continued to bring circus joy and virtuosity to audiences in The Unlikely Friendship Of Feather Boy And Tentacle Girl, a work for children. Multidisciplinary artist Ali has tackled queerness, Islam and masculine violence in past works and we eagerly anticipate what comes next. (LR)

SAM HEUGHAN

In many people’s minds, Kirkcudbright’s favourite son may always be connected to Outlander, but he gave them cause for second thoughts. At Edinburgh’s Lyceum in 2008, he played Malcolm in Macbeth but this year he took the lead role in RSC’s StratfordUpon-Avon production, garnering strong reviews for his Glaswegian gangster Macbeth. (BD)

SANDY GRIERSON

It’s not all monkey business for star of the award-winning Scottish-Japanese production Confessions Of A Shinagawa Monkey, as Grierson continually demonstrates he’s synonymous with versatility across stage and screen, recently igniting the EIF with a resoundingly sinister performance as ex-RBS chief Fred Goodwin in Make It Happen. (DC)

SANTU

When Washington and Erin Vieira opened Santu, their aim was to create a symbiotic relationship with suppliers. Beans are sustainably sourced from their former home of Brazil and roasted in Edinburgh: a brandnew coffee bar and roastery in the capital is both testament to this and a fascinating peek behind the coffee curtains. (SP)

Sam Heughan

Reece Clarke

PICTURE: ANDREI USPENSKI

SARAH ROSE

Over the last decade and a half, Glasgowbased Kiwi artist Rose has patiently compiled a body of work that makes subtle and multifaceted interventions into discourses around human-animal relations and ecological recovery. Her solo show, Torpor, marked Rose out as a significant contemporary voice. (GT)

SCOOP RESTAURANTS

Margo cemented its reputation as well as plaudits with cocktail-driven sibling Sebb’s. Glasgow diners embraced both, arguably putting the city centre back on the culinary radar. But Ox & Finch may still be the jewel in the crown: its reopening brought pomp and swagger, reminding us why we fell for these guys in the first place. (DK)

SCOTT ELLIS WATSON

Playing the young John Davidson in biopic I Swear, Watson takes the character from carefree kid to someone whose life is totally derailed when he starts showing signs of Tourette’s. It’s a phenomenal challenge and one the wildly talented young actor tackles with aplomb in his screen debut. (ES)

SNEAKY PETE’S

Radio 1’s Dance Awards shortlisted this Cowgate nightclub for Best Dance Venue alongside Manchester’s Warehouse Project and Ibiza’s Amnesia. The 100-capacity venue was pipped by Gonzo’s Two Room in Norwich, but that didn’t stop banging nights with Soul Jam and Hot Mess, plus DJs RP Boo, Auntie Flo, Michelle Manetti and Panooc. (CS)

SOLLY MCLEOD

The Orkney-raised actor hit screens both small and big, dialling up the creep-ometer as the troubled Jan in Prime’s Fear, and causing all manner of bother for his neighbours played by Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra. In cinemas, he was much softer in The Last Swim as Shea whose friend has a serious condition. (BD)

SPLINTR

Spearheaded by the minds behind Flos Collective (an organisation giving women, trans and gender-diverse artists a leg up in the creative industries), Splintr made its debut across Glasgow. Through a selection of exhibitions, workshops, performances and screenings, this DIY festival succeeded in fostering an inclusive space for community and artistry without financial barriers. (MM)

STUART FRASER

Fuzz Bat Gigs has enlivened Edinburgh’s fertile DIY leftfield gig scene for several years now, with Fraser’s irrepressible presence intent on fostering a community vibe for the weird and wonderful. Somehow he even finds time to perform in his solo bass guise as Puppet Midnight. (NC)

STUART MITCHELL

With his most revealing stand-up show to date, Tips Not Included, selling more than 50,000 tickets in Glasgow alone this year (off the back of attracting over 100 million views for his online clips), Mitchell also took over Blackfriars basement in the city, relaunching it as his own comedy club. (JR)

SUKY GOODFELLOW

Edinburgh punk poet Goodfellow has run Queer As Punk events since 2022, sharing art for queers by queers, and it was shortlisted for Creative Edinburgh’s Inclusion Award. This year, Goodfellow sang in riot grrrl band Fistymuffs and put on queer book swaps, acoustic folk gigs and a Pride afterparty at the Wee Red. (CS)

Solly McLeod

Splintr

Stuart Fraser

SUSIE MCCABE

Following a heart attack last year, McCabe had every reason to take things easy in 2025. But that’s not the way of this stalwart Glaswegian, who confronted her medical issues (and much more) at this year’s Fringe. Her bitingly hilarious podcast, co-hosted with Frankie Boyle and Christopher MacarthurBoyd, continues to leave no subject sacred. (MR)

SYNNØVE KARLSEN

Fresh from BBC period drama Miss Austen, Karlsen went straight into Apple TV+ sci-fi adventure Foundation before making her stage debut in Headlong’s The House Party, receiving rave reviews across the board(s). The Glasgow-born performer is now showing impressive range. (RM)

TARIQ MAHMOOD

Mahmood has led the Glasgow Sufi Festival to greater heights over the past year, adding an academic conference to the weekend and presenting a programme that covered storytelling, hip hop, and spectacular dance and qawwali singing. A community event/art festival, it celebrates Islamic creativity, culture and inclusivity. (GKV)

THE FILMHOUSE

The Filmhouse finally reopened its doors with Andrew Simpson from the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle taking over as executive director. Simpson’s Filmhouse was refreshed via a £2m refurbishment with programme director Rod White and chair Ginnie Atkinson returning. It’s great to have it back. (EH)

THE PITT

Change is good and the Granton iteration of The Pitt feels intentional, ambitious and, yep, different. More out of the way for most, it’s working hard to become a true community hub, with a gym, market, sauna and space for local groups. Each weekend buzzes, with a roster of top street food vendors bringing the sunshine whatever the weather. (JL)

THOMAS SMALL

Small Town Boys was a Fringe dance hit, an ode to queer joy that smashed barriers between audience and performer, trained dancer and community enthusiast. Just as importantly, Small’s Shaper/Caper company is getting the steps in at its Dundee home too, with weekly classes and a diversity-led ethos that puts bigger companies in the shade. (JL)

ZARA GLADMAN

The Glasgow West End Mum enjoyed a sell-out Fringe run with Aileen: Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser and Gladman created an excellent sketch show pilot Good For Her (shame on you, BBC, for not commissioning a full series). Let’s not forget how she publicly shared her Fringe outgoings and incomings, emphasising financial barriers faced by many acts in August. (KF)

Susie McCabe

Synnøve Karlsen

22 Top 25

MORVERN CUNNINGHAM

Co-founding Leith Kino, arguably Edinburgh’s hippest community cinema venture, has been only one achievement for this fixture of Edinburgh’s creative scene. They’ve also continued doing fine work with the Local Cinema Network and Whale Arts, and nabbed a Leadership Award at this year’s Creative Edinburgh Awards for their impressive ability to bring grassroots-focused projects to fruition. (KF)

24

MILLY SWEENEY

Sweeney’s play Water Colour had already won the St Andrews Playwriting Award before it had even been produced. When it opened at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, this study of two young people on the brink went on to win The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer. (NC)

23

SUSAN RIDDELL

After driving a van into the gates of defence and aerospace manufacturer Leonardo to protest its supplies to Israel, bail conditions precluded Riddell from entering Edinburgh. Yet she successfully performed her Fringe show for one night only via livestream in her flat. She’s also been a vocal pro-Palestine supporter and maintained her Material, Girl comedy showcases under adverse circumstances. (KF)

22

TAYLOR DYSON

Dundee-based writer and performer Dyson has had a ‘teckle’ 2025. She won a Scottish Book Trust new writer award, adapted an NHS book for new parents into Dundonian Scots and was appointed Dundee and Angus Scots Scriever, taking up a yearlong residency with the National Library Of Scotland. (JMcL)

21

PAUL SNG

After making feature documentaries on photographer Tish Murtha, Poly Styrene and Sleaford Mods, Edinburgh-based filmmaker Sng returned to cinemas with Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough. His revealing work about the Trainspotting author won a raft of acclaim after its Edinburgh International Film Festival screening. (EH)

20

LEAH BYRNE

Dept Q was the buzziest new TV crime drama in late spring and gave several strong Scottish actors a moment in the Netflix sun. But none shone more amiably than the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland graduate who played Rose Dickson, a cop in recovery from a work-related breakdown. (BD)

19

CORE FESTIVAL

David Weaver and Daniel Mutch’s festival has been a breath of fresh, noisy air since its 2023 debut in Glasgow. Now offering a year-round series of events, the Core team has a knack for snagging the most exciting new heavy bands, often just before they break big. (GT)

18 THE STAND

After 25 years in its West End basement home, the Glasgow outpost of The Stand relocated to 300-seater premises in the church that once housed Websters Theatre. With greater accessibility and broader programming, including regular live podcast recordings and irreverent discussion events, early signs are that the new comedy venue has Glaswegian audiences flocking. (JR)

17 ERROLLYN WALLEN

You don’t have to live in Orkney to be a royal Master Of Music but, like predecessor Peter Maxwell Davies, it’s where composer Wallen calls home. Awarded 2025 Personality Of The Year by BBC Music Magazine, her Proms commission, ‘The Elements’, was one of five world premieres this year. (CM)

16 ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

It’s rare that a living visual artist creates this much buzz on Edinburgh’s cobbled streets, but Goldsworthy’s 50th anniversary exhibition was quite the event. His ‘outside-inside’ takeover of the RSA responded to the building in unusual ways, bringing the land into a built environment in stunning large-scale installations that thrilled and provoked. (JL)

PICTURE: DOMINIC HARRIS

15

JACKIE WYLIE

The National Theatre Of Scotland’s artistic director, in post since 2017, shows no signs of running out of steam. This year’s NTS programme ranged from big-ticket shows such as Make It Happen, about the disgraced banker Fred Goodwin, and the West End transfer of David Ireland’s The Fifth Step, to new plays Keli and Through The Shortbread Tin, as well as countless co-productions and special projects. (AR)

14

BROOKE COMBE

Bringing soul music back into the cultural zeitgeist, Combe’s Dancing At The Edge Of The World earned her a Scottish Album Of The Year nomination and led to a support slot on Benson Boone’s US dates. She also set off on her own headline UK tour which included a sell-out show at Barrowlands. (MM)

13 DAWN SIEVEWRIGHT

Sievewright took centre stage this year in a hit adaptation of Nicole Taylor’s successful lm Wild Rose. With an already impressive CV in shows such as Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour, she made the role of wannabe country music star Rose-Lynn Harlan her own in a towering performance. (NC)

12

HANNAH LAING

This summer, the Dundonian DJ and producer launched electronic music festival Doof In The Park to roaring success with techno and trance sets from Armin van Buuren, Judge Jules and Lisa Lashes. Paul van Dyk is already announced for round two in 2026. (FS)

11

MICHAEL PEDERSEN

Edinburgh’s Makar indulged in a year-long charm offensive in interviews and on stages as he launched his stunning debut novel, Muckle Flugga. Set in an as-northerly-asit-gets lighthouse, the story (read by Jack Lowden in the audio version) featured a father, a son and a literary ghost with Robert Louis Stevenson showing up to offer the son some counsel. (BD)

PICTURE: LOGAN GRAY

10

KRYSTAL EVANS

As rst major acting roles go, co-starring in a beloved double act’s return to television and contributing to the writers’ room for Mitchell And Webb Are Not Helping, might be considered a baptism of re. But Krystal Evans and the ensemble cast lit up the muchanticipated Channel 4 show as it tentatively carried the torch for a sketch revival. And she’s certainly on-message for this Hot 100 list, with the summer publication of her memoir, The Hottest Girl At Burn Camp, swiftly followed by her sophomore Fringe hour, A Star Is Burnt

A tinder-dry, sardonic storyteller, the Edinburghbased American always hoped to be a performer but had to learn how to approach her chaotic, tragic childhood for laughs. Having come to stand-up relatively late, she’s drawn from her experience working in the hospitality sector for bittersweet humour, sharpened with a class-based edge, and has rapidly put together a burgeoning, multi-discipline career.

Evans also co-hosts the podcast Chris & Krystal Are In Heat alongside stand-up Chris Weir, in which they quiz other comics about their sex lives and relationships, while her rst special (the stage version of The Hottest Girl At Burn Camp) was recorded for release on YouTube. (Jay Richardson)

9 AQSA ARIF

Interdisciplinary artist Aqsa Arif grew up watching Bollywood blockbusters and soap operas from Lollywood (named after Lahore, Pakistan’s lm industry). When she made Raindrops Of Rani, a sumptuous, technicolour short lm featured in her exhibition of the same name, she borrowed from those melodramatic tropes, blending them with embroidery, screenprints and traditional South Asian folklore. Arif worked with her mum on the script, reimagining Heer, a Punjabi folk tale princess, as someone displaced into a Scottish council at.

‘I was born in Lahore; my family moved to the UK in 2001 and went through the asylum system,’ says Arif. ‘We lived in a high-rise at for seven years before we got permanent citizenship. It was an area of Glasgow with lots of refugees and lower socio-economic backgrounds: people who’d been in jail or with drug and alcohol issues. The area felt unsafe; there was often ghting, so my mum wouldn’t let me go to the park without a chaperone.’

Rani explores a mother/daughter relationship alongside themes of fractured identity, preserving tradition, fear and hostility. ‘The mother has decided staying inside is best,’ notes Arif. ‘The daughter has to engage, go to school; she doesn’t have that choice. I was interested in nostalgic, sugar-coated worlds and playing around with fantasy. I wanted to tell both sides carefully, without one side being right or bad. I didn’t expect there to be so much universality, but I’ve had lovely feedback from all generations. I worked with an older Muslim women’s friendship group from [Glasgow grassroots community organisation] Amina. I was worried they’d hate it. They related to both characters. I felt good that I’d portrayed the community in a nuanced, not stereotyped way.’

Following a long-term residency with Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum, Arif had her 2022 short lm The Mountain Of Light added to the permanent collection at Riverside Museum this year. She joined Lux Scotland as learning programme manager and is working on a lm about the Lakshmi statue, unearthed at Pompeii. ‘A big part of my practice now is about decolonising history.’ (Claire Sawers)

8 ROSCO MCCLELLAND

In March, comedian Rosco McClelland won the Billy Connolly Spirit Of Glasgow Award, joining the illustrious company of its two previous recipients: Susie McCabe and the late, great Janey Godley. It’s another milestone for the former plumber, who’s spent more than ten years grafting on the comedy circuit. ‘It’s been class to have my name mentioned alongside The Big Yin,’ he says of his accolade. ‘It makes expectations higher, but it also forces me to live up to those expectations.’

That wasn’t the only sparkling gong he picked up this year. During a debut trip to New Zealand, he also won Best International Act at the country’s top comedy festival. And his Edinburgh show How Could Hell Be Any Worse? went down a storm at this year’s Fringe (in our review, we described it as ‘a jam-packed, full-throated hour from one of the country’s best acts’). McClelland says he was very happy with how August panned out. ‘All bar one of the Fringe shows were great; one night it just didn’t click. But honestly, that’s a good ratio.’

McClelland reckons the Scottish comedy scene is currently in very rude health. ‘If you want to do a singleperson monologue about something topical and stick it on Instagram to shift tickets, then re away,’ he says. ‘But there are also some good acts coming through via “the old-fashioned way”, which can only be good for the Scottish stand-up scene.’ As for next year, the Glaswegian says he’ll write a new show, tour his last one, launch a podcast and ‘get a sitcom pilot sorted’. It’s clear that the spirit of Glasgow runs deep in Rosco McClelland. (Murray Robertson)

7

WELCOME TO THE FRINGE, PALESTINE

From the biggest festivals to the smallest comedy shows, the world of art and culture has found itself wrestling with genocide in Palestine. In many cases, these discussions sidelined Palestinian voices, concerned more with rhetoric than the stark reality of lives lost every day. Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine was a necessary salve, reminding people how a country being decimated still brimmed with a unique and vibrant culture.

Spearheaded by a core group including Farah Saleh, David Greig, Sara Shaarawi and Henry Bell, it took place in Portobello and featured theatre, dance, comedy, food, storytelling, music and poetry from across the Palestinian diaspora, centring its focus on the call for liberation from oppression. Given the incredible strain that many of these artists have been placed under, the fact that this festival could host them at all is a herculean feat, one bolstered by a crowdfunder which raised close to £40,000.

At a time when many feel hopeless in the face of global con ict and the geopolitical impotence of Britain’s government, this was a deftly handled celebration of the power of art to foster hope, connection and understanding. More importantly, it broadened the perception of a Palestinian culture which has been viewed through a stubbornly myopic western lens. (Kevin Fullerton)

PICTURE: NICK GIBB

6

JOHNNY MCKNIGHT

On paper, it sounded like commercial suicide. Who would programme a lecture on a Sunday afternoon in January and expect more than half a dozen folk to turn up? And in one of Glasgow’s biggest theatres? Yet there we were, watching crowds file into the Pavilion. It was stowed out. The reason? Johnny McKnight, heir to Scotland’s panto crown, was in the house (and in full dame dress) to talk about the traps and traditions of this most popular of artforms.

This was the second airing of She’s Behind You The first had been at the University Of Glasgow where McKnight had been invited to talk in memory of the late academic Alasdair Cameron. In the guise of Dorothy Blawna-Gale, he had reflected on pantomime’s capacity to be both reactionary and radical. Working at Stirling’s Macrobert and Glasgow’s Tron, he had learned how to be fresh and inclusive. Oh, and very, very funny. Even in this script-in-hand form, McKnight and his director John Tiffany had a hit on their hands. And so, She’s Behind You riotous centrepiece of the Traverse’s Edinburgh Fringe programme. (Mark Fisher)

SIMONE SEALES

Simone Seales has had a wild year. Though when asked to recall it, they stall. ‘I’m really bad at remembering what I’ve done,’ they laugh, screwing up their face in concentration. Understandable: in the past 12 months, the intersectional cellist and activist has released a tender debut album , performed at festivals, began a residency with Paraorchestra in Bristol and collaborated with Young Fathers on the score for post-apocalyptic horror film 28 ‘Everything happened at once, completely unintentionally, but it’s been exciting, and it’s seeped into my practice in different ways.’

At the centre of this chaos sits Dearest, a spacious, captivating record Seales describes as a ‘memory box’. It traces the emotional fallout of early love with softness and nuance. ‘It’s about my first queer relationship, which shaped so much of who I am. I carried it around for almost eight years before I was ready to look at it.’

Blending classical composition with improvised cello and spoken word, the project was written by Seales but voiced by performer Mele Broomes. ‘Having someone else speak the poems meant I could focus on the music; let that hold the feeling instead.’ In refining the lyrics, Seales worked with award-winning poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley, who encouraged language that feels precise and nostalgic: ‘little time capsules,’ Seales says, ‘built to carry you somewhere specific.’

For Seales, creating work isn’t separate from the question of who gets to be seen and heard in classical and experimental music. Lack of representation isn’t theoretical: it’s lived. ‘Classical music isn’t neutral,’ they say. ‘It never has been. We just pretend it is.’ Seales has spent years in spaces where openness and experimentation are celebrated, yet the bodies in the room tell a different story. ‘I want spaces where people don’t have to shrink or translate themselves to belong.’ The residency with Paraorchestra (a collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians) signals a shift. ‘Access is creative. When everyone can fully participate, the work gets bigger, stranger, more interesting.’ (Afreka Thomson)

4

PETER MACKAY

You would expect Scotland’s national poet to have a heavily marked dance card. Having only taken up the role in December of last year, Peter Mackay, the first native Gaelic speaker to be appointed Makar, has still made a prolific start, whether working with schools, speaking out against the pitfalls of artificial intelligence for writers and publishers, or championing literature in his native Gaelic, Scots and other languages. All of this activity has been accomplished while holding down a day job as senior lecturer in literature at the University Of St Andrews.

Mackay, whose poetry collections include Gu Leòr (Galore) and Nádar de (Some Kind Of), and whose subjects range from the earthbound natural world to the furthest recesses of the solar system, had a particularly busy and varied schedule at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. He not only led a workshop on the challenges of translation (he regularly translates his own work from Gaelic into English) but also curated a showcase of Scotlandbased poets writing in languages other than English, including Polish, Spanish and Arabic, and took centre stage in a wide-raging event entitled Meeting One’s Makar. (Allan Radcliffe)

3 SOPHIE LAPLANE

From the moment she burst onto the choreographic scene in 2013 with ‘Oxymore’, it was clear Sophie Laplane was a force to be reckoned with. Since then, the Paris-born dancer who made Glasgow her home in 2004 when she joined Scottish Ballet, has continued to prove herself a dancemaker unafraid to push boundaries.

After hanging up her pointe shoes in 2017, Laplane focused on choreography full-time, creating works on stage and screen that take an off-kilter approach but remain resolutely accessible. With short pieces such as ‘Maze’, ‘Sibilo’, ‘Dextera’ and ‘Dive’ under her belt, 2025 was the year Laplane graduated to the big league with her first full-length ballet Mary, Queen Of Scots We gave the show five stars and it won Best Edinburgh International Festival Show at The List Festival Awards.

‘It felt like a huge milestone in my career and a real moment of growth as an artist,’ says Laplane. ‘But creating Mary, Queen Of Scots also meant a lot to me on a personal level. I joined the company back in 2004 and never imagined that one day I’d be presenting a full-length work at the Edinburgh International Festival. And then to have it performed with an original score by an orchestra was just incredible.’

After a successful Scottish tour, the work heads to two prestigious dance houses next year, Sadler’s Wells in London and New York’s Lincoln Center. ‘At its heart, it reminded me why I do what I do,’ says Laplane. ‘Ballet has this incredible power to move people, to connect us through emotion and storytelling. So it was a year of discovery, collaboration and creation and a real re-affirmation of why this artform matters.’ Laplane’s star will remain in the ascendant in 2026, when she’ll choreograph Eugene Onegin at the Paris Opera, working alongside director Ralph Fiennes. (Kelly Apter)

Andrew Wasylyk

JACOB ALON

After FaceTiming with Elton, touring with Tempest and boozing with Capaldi, Jacob Alon has had a whirlwind 12 months. As the accolades keep on rolling in for their stirring debut album, the Fifer adds Danny Munro to a bulging contacts list and discusses expectations and trying to find their true voice

Few Scots can say they’ve had a busier year than Jacob Alon. Having only released a first single in September 2024, their acclaimed debut album, In Limerence, has catapulted the Fifer into a life of TV appearances, award nods and rave reviews. ‘It’s been really wonderful getting to do the thing I’ve always wanted to do,’ reflects Alon, who admits they’ve grappled with burnout and feelings of imposter syndrome during their first year of fame. ‘I really believe in this music, so I’m really proud that it’s had any impact at all,’ they add, humbly.

Alon joins me over the phone as they make the journey home from the Scottish Album Of The Year Award ceremony that took place the previous evening. It’s the first time Alon has returned to Dundee since their short-lived university career, a period described by the singer-songwriter as ‘dark days’. Although they didn’t scoop the grand prize on this occasion, Alon will learn that they are the BBC Introducing Artist Of The Year just days after our chat. It’s impossible not to smile as Alon bellows out a triumphant ‘yassss!’ when they first hear the surprise news live on air.

Between FaceTime calls from Elton John, a Mercury Prize nomination and a spot on the BBC Radio 6 Music Artist Of The Year list, you would imagine it would be hard to pick a single standout moment from 2025. But does Alon have one? ‘Oh, my god, yes!’ they roar. ‘I gave Lewis Capaldi a bottle of Bucky!’ Alon laughs with a delighted grin. ‘I saw him at the Brit Awards with a bottle of tonic on the table, and it just made me so happy . . . so when we were at the Mercury, we snuck in a few bottles of Buckfast in the guitar cases. I just found the whole thing so surreal and beautiful and whimsical.’

Alon would be forgiven for pining after an extended break following a hectic 2025, though they are quick to stress that the future excites them more than anything. ‘I just want to knuckle down and start writing music and writing songs again. I think that’s something I want to try and do without any expectations.’ Having just finished a run of support slots on a ‘life-changing’ tour with Kae Tempest, Alon will cap off the year with a small run of intimate and very sold-out headline shows. As for album two? ‘I want the next record to be something very different to what I’ve started with, but also to find my voice more. I believe I’m finding it more and more each day.’

PICTURE: ZACHARIAH MAHROUCHE

LAURA CARREIRA

So here we are at our number one, Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira who now calls Edinburgh home. Her stunning feature-length debut On Falling charmed critics, audiences and Ken Loach with its social awareness and compassion towards those who earn a living in the most trying of circumstances. Taking stock on a memorable year, this ‘slightly stubborn’ director meets Kevin Fullerton to discuss poverty, pickers and plastic tubs

Laura Carreira’s entrance into the world of work was cloaked in an indignity that will be familiar to anyone who’s endured a position in retail. On her first day at the now-defunct Jenners department store in Edinburgh, she was shown a jar of random nametags and asked, ‘which name do you want?’ With no Laura in the jar, and no inclination from the store to print a new tag, she wasn’t allowed her own name on the job.

The Portugal-born, Edinburgh-based filmmaker’s debut feature a sequence that echoes the normalisation of anonymity of working life. Set in a package fulfilment centre much like the Amazon warehouses that sit like satellite towns on the outskirts of every city, we find main character Aurora (Joana Santos) entering her manager’s office as he’s hunched over a keyboard, so swamped in busyness that he can’t break eye contact with his computer screen. She’s given a half-hearted congratulations for being ‘picker of the month’ and rewarded with a chocolate bar of her choice from a plastic tub on her manager’s desk.

‘I remember asking, “what happens if you do well?”’ Carreira says when describing the interviews with real warehouse workers she conducted as research for the film. ‘“What is the incentive?” And they would tell me that the incentive is almost more insulting than not getting anything.’ Similar modes of infantilisation run throughout through a week-long trudge of low-paid work and poverty-line living. It paints a timely portrait of the shadowlands of our economy, taking in phone addiction, dehumanisation and the ceaseless negotiations of house sharing.

Though less than two hours long, it presents one of the most evocative depictions of late-stage capitalism’s ability to creep into every aspect of our lives, leaving no room for contemplation. Since the film’s release at the beginning of this year, critics and audiences have heaped praise on it, and it’s gained awards for Best Feature and Best Screenwriter at the Scottish BAFTAs, as well as plaudits from BIFA, the European Film Awards, the Portuguese Golden Globes and countless festivals across the world.

Remaining fixed on Aurora with a myopic intensity, Carreira’s rigorous dramatisation of minutiae breathes the same air as Chantal Akerman while updating the tradition of British social realism exemplified by Andrea Arnold and Ken Loach (the latter’s company, Sixteen Films, produced On Falling). But the journey from inscrutability to empathy is what makes Aurora’s arc so compelling; this economic outsider necessarily keeps her cards close to her chest. ‘I don’t think anyone in poverty is rushing to tell everyone about it,’ Carreira notes. ‘I think it’s possible for us to know what she’s going through without her having to ask for help. I wanted to capture that feeling of “I’m having a tough time now, but I’ll figure it out in a few days.” That’s why the film is so dark, because it’s set in a particular week where everything compounds into a tough set of circumstances.’

If audiences have broadly welcomed the film and its underlying message of connection and collective action, it’s because of an adept balance between the personal and the political. ‘I can understand how people can watch this film and think that’s just the world that we live in. We see those issues as faults of the individual without looking at the bigger picture. I wanted to experience these issues through Aurora, but at the same time leave a lot of space for us to look at what is actually leaving her in this situation.’

The longtail of On Falling’s success, a dream for many debut filmmakers, has been a process of balancing the need to constantly push the film further into public consciousness against Carreira moving on to her next artistic venture. ‘When I finished the film in the edit, I was like “ok, it’s done”, but I didn’t realise I would still be going to festivals a year later. It makes it very hard to push for the next release. That’s been a bit of a learning curve.’ Carreira’s next project has already taken shape, however, centring its capitalist critique within the world of middle-class office culture. ‘I have a slightly stubborn way of looking at the world. I can’t help but look at how we live, our routine. I feel like my camera somehow is going to go there, because that’s what’s keeping me up at night.’

THE CALL’S GONE OUT. WILL YOU ANSWER?

7 - 29 AUGUST 2026

A Call to Gather invites you to gather your friends and family in August 2026, for an evening of spectacle, storytelling, and celebration at Edinburgh Castle. An unforgettable Christmas gi .

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eat & drink GROSSO

Months after hearing murmurings that the old TSB building on Duke Street had been taken on by Si Ferry from the Open Goal podcast, his new Italian-American restaurant is ticking over marvellously, capitalising on the reach from his football and media careers. He’s a great face for the outfit; working the floor, engaging in football banter with the young team and indulging selfie requests. The food’s not half bad either: American in the morning, Italian after midday. So fried chicken and waffles transitions to pasta and pizza, with a hefty Moretti Forni oven doing the hard yards. Beyond the buzz, it’s a sensible, sensitive addition to the hood. (David Kirkwood) n 424 Duke Street, Glasgow; eatgrosso.co.uk

Phoenix rising

As Edinburgh’s original curry house is reborn, Donald Reid looks back on Khushi’s story and explores how nostalgia weaves its way into the contemporary Indian restaurant scene

Did The Lothian Restaurant, a simple diner on Edinburgh’s Potterrow serving spiced Punjabi stews called curries, make it onto 1947’s list of ‘Best Openings Of The Year’? History didn’t record, but it’s unlikely those rationed, rebuilding post-war years were vintage ones for the hospitality trade.

Khushi Mohammed arrived in Scotland in the 1930s from what’s now Pakistan, scraping a living as a door-to-door salesman. He opened his restaurant near the university, catering to immigrants from the newly partitioned subcontinent and securing supplies of coriander, chillis, ginger and turmeric in the suitcases of travelling students.

Family stories recall live chickens clucking in the basement of the restaurant to ensure a fresh supply. Attempts were made to capture locals’ curiosity with a mince‘n’tattie curry.

In the 1970s, what had then became Khushi’s Lothian Restaurant shuffled location to Lothian Street, then to Drummond Street. Mrs Khushi, Hamida Mohammed, took over following the death of her husband. The couple’s seven

children were also involved, most prominently after the early 2000s when the simplicity of Formica tables and uncomplicated menus were left behind in a return to Potterrow that was markedly more upmarket and modern; then on to Victoria Street, an ambitious and sleek venture curtailed by a devastating fire in 2008.

Resilient, adaptable, determined, the family reopened Khushi’s in 2011 in Antigua Street, followed by outlets in Dunfermline and an early attempt to bring fine-dining Indian to Edinburgh with Mithas in Leith: ‘Not quite the right time,’ reflects Riaz Mohammed, Khushi and Hamida’s son. He’s guiding the latest re-emergence of Khushi’s, back in its old stomping ground near the university, opposite the top of Middle Meadow Walk on Forrest Road (formerly Paolozzi Restaurant & Bar).

This is no return to the no-frills era, however. Others now occupy that gap, Mohammed acknowledges, as he surveys an ‘ever-evolving industry, now with a number of big players in the curry scene’. Describing the latest version

Khushi’s through the years

of Khushi’s as ‘upper casual’, with its elevated décor, colourful furnishings and extensive small-plates menu, he’s aware of a need to move with the times. Yet there’s also a reluctance to compromise on an approach which retains a loyal following in Edinburgh. Khushi’s previously ran a BYOB policy, founded in the owners’ religious commitments; but bringing in a pint from a pub next door was cheerfully accepted. This time, a bar has been installed in the new premises but its operation is outsourced. Neither takeaway nor delivery is available, with Mohammed maintaining he wants people ‘to come to enjoy fresh food, cooked to order, which you can’t replicate with delivery’. Anchored in what’s clearly a proud history, their 1947 Club provides a very modern supporters scheme, offering perks to members.

This curation of nostalgia is a peculiar challenge. Affection towards the home-cooking ethos of Khushi’s menu contrasts with a shuddering cringe towards the legacy of Indian dining that emerged in the 1960s and 70s: flock wallpaper, poppadums, lager, vindaloo. Nowadays, across the contemporary curry scene, you can find numerous expressions of street food, railway food-stop vibes, IraniBombay café fusions, Bollywood hype, regional specialisation and fine-dining aspirations. Yet, for all its dynamism, it’s also an arena of pastiche, commodified authenticity and generic globalisation.

Khushi’s is not immune from these influences, with dishes on their menu as diverse as Motherhood Mutton Bhuna, made with ‘generations of family love’, Masala Mussels and Stay Fit Salad. What they can claim as distinctively their own, however, is a 78-year-old story, rooted in Edinburgh, riding the times and tides of curry culture.

Khushi’s, 61 Forrest Road, Edinburgh; khushis.com

side dishes

From new cookbooks to new openings to a new energy around Leith, Jo Laidlaw finds a lot of new stuff to get excited about

To Leith, where it’s good to see the old port punching back after Stockbridge pretty much spent the last year or two trying to steal its ‘coolest place for yer tea’ crown. Dogstar looks brilliant; a restaurant bringing together Michelinstarred chef James Murray and the gang behind everyone’s favourite local, Nauticus. Expect a seafood emphasis and ingredient-led approach. Brown’s Of Leith is also a biggie; it aims to link creatives and community, alongside a bunch of familiar food and drink names, all under Custom Lane’s umbrella. Food-wise, Civerinos, The Shuck Bar (a seafood spot from the Shrimpwreck team), Haze (an all-day-into-evening café bar from Timberyard) and Woven Whisky are all going to be behind the former George Brown & Sons’ iconic blue door.

In Glasgow, The Caravan Shop has opened The Cellar, a cosy basement space doing small plates and wine, while The Kelvin is a roomy spot with a traditional Scottish menu, open fires and loads of space. It’s upstairs from The Stand’s new home so a great pick for a pre or post-comedy pint.

Finally, it is Christmas and you will have to buy some presents, so may we recommend a couple of fresh-off-the-press cookbooks?

Café Cùil has been quietly re-imagining Scottish classics on Skye, and proprietor Clare Coghill’s cookbook of the same name is a belter. Winter In The Highlands is the fourth book from Aran Bakery’s Flora Shedden: it focuses on Christmas, Hogmanay and Burns Night, with gorgeous pictures in a typically pared-back palette.

The Cellar

TipList

Best of 2025

Our TipLists suggest the places worth knowing about in different themes, categories and locations. As we wave goodbye to this year, we hope you enjoyed as much good eating and drinking as we did. But if you’re still looking for inspiration, here’s our roundup of the best new openings of 2025(ish)

Glasgow Edinburgh

FOOK MEI

239 London Road, instagram.com/fookmeiglasgow

The owners of food stall Ho Lee Fook gleefully carry on with the whimsical punning for their second venture. This wee sit-in diner continues their brand of top-notch east Asian-inspired street food and noodles.

GRILLED BY AJAY KUMAR

142 West Regent Street, grilledbyajaykumar.co.uk

This sister to Swadish continues Kumar’s upscaling of Indian cuisine. Grilled dishes come juicy, tinged from the ames, enhanced by bold salsas and chutneys, while curries such as duck leg vindaloo have the meat hitting the coals before pairing with a sauce.

THE JOLLY TAMIL

95 Kilmarnock Road, instagram.com/the_jolly_tamil_

The sign playfully evokes a British country pub, but inside this multi-generational family affair is a love letter to Sri Lankan and Tamil cooking. Try the mutton rolls with ery meat, and devil ah, a tangy fusion of Indian and Chinese styles.

MALOCCHIO

159 Ingram Street, malocchio.co.uk

Malocchio sits pretty in a massive, shiny spot on the corner of the Merchant City. Choose from small plates, small(ish) plates of pasta and small pizzas: look out for a riff on a carbonara pizza where oily, crispy shreds of pancetta do masterful salty things. Very of the moment, the crowd is young and the pricing fair.

SUB ROSA

Unit 34, 147 Drakemire Drive, subrosapizza.co.uk

In a saturated pizza landscape, this unassuming spot does the best Detroit pies in the land. The cheese climb is top tier, pepperoni is nicely blackened, guindilla peppers are scorched and spiky, pulpy San Marzano toms soak into the dough, before a sesame base nishes things off. (David Kirkwood & Jay Thundercliffe)

BARRY FISH

62 Shore, barryfish.co.uk

Weel-kent popper-upper Barry Bryson’s rst solo restaurant has an unapologetically sh-forward menu in an easy-going and comfy spot where they don’t ip tables in the evening. Settle in for plump Loch Fyne oysters, signature sea trout pastrami or a seared catch of the day. Fresh and fun.

LITTLE CAPO

18 Howe Street, littlecapo.com

You won’t nd stodgy carbonara on the daily handwritten menu here. Rich and spicy cioppino (orzo seafood stew) or gnocchetti with sausage ragù are a delightful introduction to lesser-known regional Italian dishes, made with seasonal Scottish ingredients. Since opening at the end of 2024, it’s become a rm favourite: booking is essential.

NISHIKI

151–155 Morrison Street, nishikiedinburgh.co.uk

Less is de nitely more at Nishiki, where a beautifully minimalist interior is complemented by a small menu honed to precision. Kitsune udon is an umami delight and pork tonkotsu is perfectly crisp. There’s a raw bar for the sushi purists, while Japanese-style breakfasts are a welcome addition to Edinburgh’s brunch scene.

NORAH

3 Pier Place, norahnewhaven.co.uk

Norah is the perfect haven after a blustery walk, with hearty cuisine inspired by chef Claire Hanrahan’s Irish background. Think hand-cut chips and pork bangers to dip in gooey egg yolk, or a potato-layered tarti ette. It’s all about simple dishes done well; so well that the food almost distracts from the glorious sea view.

SANTU ROASTERY

23 Union Street, santucoffee.com

In this former steamie, an achingly cool coffee bar sits at the centre of a warehouse-sized space. With a fully functioning roastery, each Americano or hand-pour might be one the freshest hits of caffeine in town. There’s just a handful of seats and tables though. (Ailsa Sheldon & Suzy Pope)

Dougal Gordon, Glenfiddich Brand Ambassador, takes us through his favourite openings of 2025

CORNER SHOP

45 Old Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, cornershopglasgow.co.uk

Laid-back neighbourhood dining done brilliantly. There’s a selection of smallish plates, with standout croquettes topped with Spanish jamon. The wine list has been carefully considered but prices remain accessible. Great for a small group or a cool date night.

DOGSTAR

17 Portland Place, Edinburgh, dogstarleith.com

James Murray and the team behind Nauticus have created something special with Dogstar, a polished yet properly welcoming Leith hangout. The menu leans into Scotland’s best produce, especially from the sea, and the drinks are as considered as you’d expect.

VIVIEN

1 Barony Street, Edinburgh, vivienedinburgh.co.uk

From the team who brought you Aizle, Noto and Lyla, chef Stuart Ralston has now opened Vivien. Even though the location is just off the beaten track, this place should not be missed. The small venue creates an intimate vibe, and the mix of original and slightly tweaked classic cocktails gives ample reason to return.

Corner Shop

Grilled By Ajay Kumar Nishiki

EAST ASIAN FOOK MEI

When street food stall Ho Lee Fook opened opposite Barrowlands a couple of years ago, some didn’t take the name seriously (it translates as ‘good wealth luck’ and apes a famous Hong Kong restaurant). But the excellent east Asian dishes flying out of the wee kiosk were anything but a joke. The operation, including a slick website with branded goods, quickly outgrew the takeaway stall, so now owners Lee and Johnny Chung have taken over the spot vacated by Scran around the corner. And, of course, they’ve continued the puns: this one means ‘luck taste’.

This welcome sit-in diner offers refuge from the elements for their legion of fans, with counters to sit at around the edges of the room and a big sharing table in the middle. With mostly stool seating, this isn’t really a spot for lingering, more one in which to get stuck into their enjoyable bowls of comfort-leaning food. The menu has plenty of crossovers with favourites from the stall, although it all feels a bit more grown-up, less on-the-go; for example, the chips and K-pop fries smothered in curry or bang bang sauce are gone. But there’s still a street food vibe via super-crunchy spring rolls, fried Taiwanese pork dumplings with a satisfying meaty hit inside, or tender chicken wings in addictive sweet-salty Vietnamese-inspired caramel fish sauce. Rice and noodle bowls dominate the mains, although there aren’t distinct courses and everything comes out as and when it’s ready (which usually means superfast). Another Ho Lee Fook fave is here, the excellent biang biang ‘noodz’ with big, thick hand-cut noodles doused in spicy Szechuan sauce. They’re served with vegetables and topper options including fried egg, tofu or Japanese chicken karaage with juicy meat inside its crispy coating. (Jay Thundercliffe) n 239 London Road, Glasgow; instagram.com/fookmeiglasgow; average price £20 for two courses.

FRENCH VINETTE

Autumn swept changes through the Aizle group, Stuart Ralston’s clutch of Edinburgh restaurants. Aizle, the initial flagship site, closed, leaving Michelin-starred Lyla, Bib Gourmand casual diners Noto and Tipo, plus a new project. We didn’t have long to wait to meet the new addition. After a quick revamp of the ex-Fhior premises by Scarinish Studio, Vinette opened in October; cocktail bar Vivien, in her basement, joined the party in November (just in time for pre-Christmas drinks).

Vinette has a Parisian-ish approach which translates to bistrostyle dishes, old world wines (under the careful eye of group sommelier Stuart Skea), and a little French crushed-linen flair in the décor. The cocktail list is strong: a crisp Vinette Martini pairs beautifully with snacks of cream cheese and smoked trout roe with freshly fried crisps, or fat anchovy and olive gildas. A scallop starter is resplendent with nuggets of octopus in a glistening nduja sauce, and a bouncy crumpet arrives smothered in melted Baron Bigod cheese with truffle and apple.

There’s a fine-looking burger with bacon jam on the entrée menu and a few more French offerings: pork with cider, chicken roulade and quiche. Barbecued monkfish tail just wins the vote, and it’s glorious: juicy fish served with a brown shrimp bisque, topped with shaved fennel and purslane. With a side of fries and charred broccoli with anchovy, this is very good eating indeed. Vinette joins Tipo and Noto as a cracking place for a slightly splashy meal that’s miles from second-mortgage Lyla. Enchanté Vinette. (Ailsa Sheldon) n 36 Broughton Street, Edinburgh; vinette.co.uk; average price £30 for two-course dinner.

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Ask EADith

Got a food dilemma? Need a killer rec to seal the deal? Or just want the inside track on Glasgow and Edinburgh’s eating and drinking scene? Then why not ask EADith, our Eat & Drink team’s helpful agony aunt. This time around, she’s full of helpful advice for Christmas avoidance

Dear EADith,

Long-time reader, first-time writer here. I feel like I’ve got to know you pretty well over the last year and I suspect you’ll sympathise with what’s both a query and a confession. The thing is . . . I can’t be arsed with Christmas! The tinsel, the glitter, the Mariah Carey making my ears bleed in every other shop; the hordes in ‘ironic’ jumpers descending on the city, the dry turkey breasts in the restaurants. I’ve an old friend visiting who shares my humbug ways, so where can we go in Glasgow that rises above this whole ‘festive’ fad?

Ebeneezer77

Dear Ebeneezer77

First things first: EADith is no Grinch! I enjoy donning my sequined gladrags for a boozy lunch (Negroni Sbagliato, please) as much as the next girl. But I do concede it’s not the most wonderful time of the year for diners seeking value or variety.

Café Gandolfi is the ameliorating myrrh you seek. It’s been doing its Scottish-bistro thing in the Merchant City for almost 50 years now and grandly resists the lure of baubles and turkey. Before I even get to the food, the art deco logo and beautiful, re-assuring solidity of wood everywhere (its custom furniture was made by legendary and much-missed designer Tim Stead) are iconic in themselves. They were the first to do exciting things with Stornoway black pudding back in the day; should you and your friend visit this December, you’ll see they continue to showcase the best of our nation’s produce in simple, elegant ways that are both modern and timeless, local and global. And while their seasonal menu changes in tune with the winter season, I promise you won’t find the usual suspects parading past.

This year I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their takes on aubergine parmigiana and beef chilli and I strongly recommend their hearty plates of seafood as the temperature drops: Gandolfi’s cod with Arbroath smokies cream and potato terrine is every bit as much of a winter warmer as any roast fowl. They also do the best bowl of Cullen skink in town. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I dipped my spoon in its velvety softness. Perhaps I’ll see you there. (As told to David Kirkwood) n Café Gandolfi, 64 Albion Street, Glasgow; cafegandolfi.com; average price £34 for two courses.

folks reveal their top watering hole

Look, I’m not mad about drinking much these days, but if I’m ever treating myself, it will be in Babbity Bowster. They make the best Margaritas I’ve ever had in Glasgow. It’s tucked away in the Merchant City and I think, because it’s also a hotel, it has an especially warm, inviting feel about it. The staff are always lovely and the mix of locals and visitors gives it a wee edge. Years ago, when I worked in hospitality, myself and pals would go there after shifts to decompress. Over the years I’ve found myself talking to tourists from all over the world there and have often felt you could be mistaken for feeling you’re in a pub on somewhere like the Isle Of Skye. This is helped by the traditional Scottish/Irish music sessions in the bar which bring everyone to life. There’s an outdoor beer garden for the few scorching days we get a year and a highlight for me is the bar is dog friendly. I’ve managed to pat loads of wee doggies while out for a pint and that always makes everything better.

n Amanda Dwyer & Susan Riddell present Material, Girl at The Stand, Glasgow, Sunday 21 December, Sunday 25 January; Dwyer is part of the Hogmanay Specials line-up, The Stand, Glasgow, Saturday 27–Wednesday 31 December, and appears in Story Platform, Gilded Saloon, Edinburgh, Friday 30 January.

BAR FILES

Creative

COMEDIAN AMANDA DWYER

HOUSE OF GODS

Scottish boutique hotel House Of Gods is headed south. Avoiding the dreaded millennial grey, House Of Gods thrives on maximalism, and their new Canary Wharf location is no different. Heavy velvets, eye-catching prints, rich colours and dazzling metallics define each of the 79 rooms, though no two are the same. Nor is the luxury limited to the rooms: a Mediterranean-themed rooftop bar is an ideal spot to watch the hustle and bustle of the resurgent Docklands area. (Isy Santini) n 12 Bank Street, Canary Wharf; houseofgodshotel.com/london

travel & shop

WanderList: Morocco

From the bustling city of Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains, Rachel Morrell revels in discovering the sights and sounds of a north African gem

Four hours away by plane, Morocco is a traveller’s paradise. In the west, Marrakech hides a treasure trove of medieval architectural beauty within its high, red sandstone walls. Palaces, impeccable riads and magical gardens, all stunning examples of Islamic and African design, act as serene spaces away from the enticing chaos of the Medina, the city’s historic heart.

Its busy cobbled streets are worth a wander, though. Bursting with souks (local market stalls), start the morning with a tasty brew from Coffee Houmti before delving into endless options, from spices and street food to leather goods, antiques and custom perfumes. It’s a fantastic way to lose a day. Although you may feel a little perturbed by the prospect of haggling, the locals embrace it and you might bag an incredible bargain in the process. After the retail therapy, relax and scrub off the city smog. A traditional hammam spa will leave you with the softest skin of your life: prepare to be exfoliated in places you never knew existed.

If all that works up an appetite, browse intricate designs as you snack on falafel at the community-centred Henna Café or enjoy sunset dining in one of many rooftop restaurants. Fine dining establishments such as Le Slimana rub shoulders with local vibes at Sahara Marocain, and the cuisine caters to everyone

while allowing for exploration. Spiced lamb, seafood and fragrant rice sit alongside fresh fruit and sweet pastries drizzled with honey and sesame seeds, perfect for satisfying laid-back holidaymakers and fuelling adventurous tourists alike.

In Morocco, tours are the antithesis of underwhelming bus rides, and many providers make it a budget-friendly way to see the sights. On a three-day trip to Merzouga, travelling through the dizzying Atlas Mountains, you can visit Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and filming location for Game Of Thrones, The Mummy and Gladiator. It’s also a great place to learn about the culture, community and lifestyles of the indigenous Amazigh people (preferred to the term ‘Berber’) who have inhabited lands in north Africa since 5000BC. Stopping at local hotels along the way, it’s just a short hop through the towering limestone of the Todra Gorge to the Sahara Desert. Sunset quad biking, camel rides and sandboarding are all options, followed by a night camping under the stars, surrounded by the breathtaking Erg Chebbi dunes. After that, you’re dropped back at Marrakech and can journey on to chase the waves at Agadir or relax and enjoy the quiet of a riad pool.

visitmorocco.com

my favourite holiday

Legendary iconic acting superstar Sean Bean has partaken many a holiday, or ‘campaign’ as he likes to call them. Trafalgar. Waterloo. Center Parcs. Here, ‘Sean’ regales us with some ancient travels

One that sticks out most is a walking holiday I took with eight bastards round Middle Earth about six thousand years ago. Got a bit tasty that. Sparks flew when I posited one does not simply walk to wherever it was we’d booked an Airbnb (FYI an active volcano). My three preferred methods of taking any kind of long trip are a) shire horse b) funicular railway and 3) heady cocktail of mindaltering drugs. Alas, I got outvoted and thus calamity followed us around like a strong wind follows a gentle quiche. CGI Squid. CGI avalanche. Actual cave troll. You name it, we got ambushed by it. We even started fighting amongst ourselves, much to my chagrin. One of the little fellas with no shoes on got right mardy when I offered to carry his jewellery for him. I think at one point he might even have disappeared. Although that could have been the heady cocktail of mind-altering drugs I took kicking in. Long story short, some orcs who’d quite clearly doublebooked our chalet turned up, took umbrage, and muggins here ended up taking six arrows to the right tit. AGAIN. Blew me big horn. Carked it. Classic me.

Adam Riches As Sean Bean, The 12 Beans Of Christmas, The Stand, Glasgow, Wednesday 10 December.

on your doorstep

Afreka Thomson roams the Scottish landscape to bring you three top spots for beautiful views

SHORELINE, NEWPORT-ON-TAY

Surveying the silvery Tay from a generous deck across the water from Dundee (Scotland’s sunniest city), Shoreline’s beer garden is perfect for a sunset libation. The Tay Bridge swoops elegantly across the estuary, with the city rising in the background and the architectural accent of the V&A jutting into the water. As Dundee’s most infamous poet, William McGonagall (regarded by some as the world’s worst wordsmith), once wrote: ‘Therefore, holiday makers, I’d have ye resort to Newport on the braes o’ the Tay, for sport.’ n shorelinenewport.co.uk

RAASAY HOUSE, ISLE OF RAASAY

Granted, it’s not quite on the doorstep of the central belt, but it’s worth the road trip. Raasay is Skye’s quieter little cousin, surrounded by some of the UK’s deepest waters. In summer, sit in the lush gardens of this stately home turned hotel and watch dolphins leap alongside the ferry, with the famous Skye mist stretched thinly across the peaks of the Cuillin that tower behind. Down by the jetty, navyblue waves lap gently at pebbles slathered in lime-green seaweed. And at your feet, the lawn of Raasay House is strangely busy with hopping bunnies. n raasay-house.co.uk

SCOTT’S VIEW, MELROSE

Especially stunning in winter, when the peaks of the Eildon Hills are kissed with snowfall, this is a Munro-worthy vista without the shaky knees. According to local lore, Sir Walter Scott stopped here so often on his way home to Abbotsford that his horses learned to halt without command; a lovely bench has since been erected in his honour. The viewpoint sits around three miles east of Melrose, gazing west across the River Tweed and the undulating green landscape of the Borders. Peaceful, pastoral and perfect for anyone who loves a good sit down. n visitscotland.com

PICTURE:

Scott’s View

Living colour

Danny Munro chats to the founder of homeware store Modern Love about bringing her vibrant aesthetic to Glasgow city centre

Sarah Gibbons was met with bemusement by the owner of the next-door unit when she first got the keys to her shop, Modern Love. ‘This street’s dead, by the way,’ warned Gibbons’ neighbour, failing to instil confidence in the first-time shop owner. Thankfully, the pessimistic local businessman couldn’t have been more wrong. Based near Trongate, Modern Love is a vibrant, quirky homeware store that has attracted significantly more business in its first year than Gibbons expected.

‘The aesthetic is nicely designed, colourful pieces,’ she explains. ‘We’ve not got big furniture; we’ve not got lamps or chairs or tables. It’s all accessories, little bits that can add a bit of character to your house.’ From mushroom-shaped salt and pepper shakers to thermo-regulated wool slippers, Gibbons searches high and low to handpick each item. It’s one of many successful brands to emerge from the Barras Market and the homeware expert attributes the success of her colourful business to her native city’s dreary weather. ‘The grey aesthetic was a big trend a few years ago. But I think in a city like Glasgow, a lot of people probably realised that the weather’s grey, so why would you want your house to be fully grey?’

Gibbons and her small team were kept busy in autumn thanks to a line of pop culture-themed Christmas decorations. Among the esoteric collection is a Chappell Roan figurine, a ramen bowl and their bestseller: an injector pen filled with the weight-loss drug Ozempic. ‘We’re getting orders from Germany, America, Holland; it’s actually mental!’ Gibbons laughs, reflecting on the success of the not-particularly festive baubles. While many of Glasgow’s trendiest retailers are based in the West End and Southside, Gibbons says she has no plans to relocate Modern Love from the city centre, where it ‘still feels like Glasgow. There’s always a wee bit of drama; there’s always some stramash going on. It’s a bit crazy, but it’s good.’

8 Parnie Street, Glasgow; modernlovestore.co.uk; instagram.com/modernlovestore.co.uk

shop talk

W ARMSTRONG & SON

With four locations dotted across the city, Armstrong’s has been a giant of the Edinburgh vintage scene since 1840. You never know what you’ll discover in this treasure trove, where 19thcentury ballgowns hang from the ceilings and 1970s platform heels line the shelves.

n Various locations, Edinburgh; armstrongsvintage.co.uk; instagram.com/ armstrongs_vintage_edinburgh

GLICKMAN’S CONFECTIONERY

American candy stores may line high streets nowadays, but Glickman’s is a cornucopia of old-fashioned confectionery, from boiled sweets to toffees. The shop has long been a favourite

Shopping gets historical as Isy Santini highlights three of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s oldest retailers

of sweet-toothed Glaswegians, winning the Glasgow Business Award for the city’s favourite business earlier this ear. Going strong since 1903, they handmake their sweets from family recipes passed down through the years.

n 157 London Road, Glasgow; glickmans.co.uk

DEE OF TRONGATE

First opened in 1951 and proud to call themselves the UK’s oldest retro retailer, this Trongate locale became a staple of mod fashion in mid-century Glasgow and now caters to various musical subcultures, from rockabillies to rude boys.

n 170 Trongate, Glasgow; deesoftrongate.co.uk; instagram.com/deesoftrongateglasgow

going out

STILL GLASGOW

A bona fide who’s who of photographers have been assembled for this celebration of Glasgow life, both recent and ancient, which helps mark the 850th anniversary celebrations but carries on deep into the city’s 852nd year. Contributors include Roderick Buchanan, Iseult Timmermans, David Eustace, Alasdair Gray, Shazia Rani, Oscar Marzaroli, Linda McCartney and Matthew Arthur Williams. The pictured work is ‘Girl At Chalk-Marked Wall’ taken some time in the 1960s by amateur snapper and high-school science teacher Eric Watt. (Brian Donaldson) n Gallery Of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sunday 13 June 2027.

SCOTTISH BALLET

A myriad of festive events and yuletide treats await those who simply adore this period on the calendar. Isy Santini has gathered up a mere 26 of them, as a year with that number in it looms on the horizon

Season’ s great-things

You’re being spoiled royally by the nation’s ballet company with not one but two festive extravaganzas.

This winter Scottish Ballet lay on the return of The Snow Queen with beautiful design from the awardwinning Lez Brotherston, while Wee Nutcracker is aimed firmly at little ones and their families featuring a live pianist on stage and delivering an adapted version at under an hour.

 The Snow Queen: Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sunday 7 December; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Saturday 3–Saturday 17 January; Wee Nutcracker: Tramway, Glasgow, Friday 12–Wednesday 24 December.

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

In a delightful twist, this version of the epic fairytale is told from the perspective of Caroline the highland cow, promising giant laughs and a celebration of friendship for all the family. Plus, with an ensemble of actor-musicians, there are sure to be some toe-tapping tunes in there.

 Dundee Rep, until Tuesday 30 December.

CHRISTMAS AT THE BOTANICS

Magical lights twinkle in the trees while stunning projections illuminate buildings in this fantastical Christmas light trail. Always a good idea to make sure you’re well bundled up, but if the cold starts to seep in you can always warm yourself up with a truly decadent hot chocolate or a toasty snack from one of the vendors.

 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, until Tuesday 30 December.

THE SNOW QUEEN

Quite probably the coolest panto around, this tells the chilly tale of the titular monarch who threatens the idyllic snowscape of Upper Doonigan as enjoyed by best pals Gerda and McKay.

 Perth Theatre, until Wednesday 31 December

BEYOND

MONET: THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

Combining over 400 of Claude Monet’s artworks with cutting-edge projection technology and an original score, visitors will be transported into a world of impressionism, where every brush stroke comes alive.

 Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, until Friday 2 January.

CINDERELLA: A FAIRYTALE

Puppetry, music and movement: mix them them up and what have you got? Sally Cookson’s Oliviernominated Cinderella, that’s what. Ella is a bird enthusiast who must rely on her feathered friends to help win the prince’s heart and escape her stepmother.

 Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Saturday 3 January.

MARY DOLL POPPINS

Swapping the Banks family out for Clydebankses, and Julie Andrews’ squeaky clean persona for Neil John Gibson’s foul mouth, this is a specifically Glaswegian twist on PL Travers’ classic.

 Òran Mór, Glasgow, until Sunday 4 January.

ALADDIE

Aladdin gets an Ayrshire makeover for the story of a boy looking to win the hand of Princess Destiny from the McMinger dynasty. Written by Fraser Boyle, Aladdie is full of mischief, mayhem and . . . nuns.

 Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, until Sunday 4 January.

CASTLE OF LIGHT

Edinburgh Castle gets back to its volcanic roots with this year’s Castle Of Light whose theme is Fire And Ice. Mighty dragons will swoop across the night sky, while the Great Hall becomes a frozen palace, where (if you’re very lucky) the Ice Queen might just grant you an audience.

 Edinburgh Castle, until Sunday 4 January.

See the light: Christmas At The Botanics (and below) Scottish Ballet’s The Snow Queen, Cinderella: A Fairytale, Aladdie

WINTERFEST AT

DALKEITH COUNTRY PARK

Kids can spend a whole day with Santa at Dalkeith Country Park, starting off with breakfast in The Kitchen. Later on, head to Santa’s Grotto or listen to him read a festive story in the Christmas Cabin. And there’s still plenty to enjoy when Santa’s busy, from the ice rink to a gingerbread house workshop. n Dalkeith Country Park, until Sunday 4 January.

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Journey under the sea and follow Ariel’s quest to win her love and reclaim her voice. This star-studded pantomime adaptation features mainstay of the stage and screen Elaine C Smith and award-winning Scottish comedian Johnny Mac. n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until Sunday 4 January.

EDINBURGH’S

CHRISTMAS

Princes Street Gardens will transform with the return of the iconic Christmas Market, where you can sip mulled wine as you wander the stalls in search of that perfect present. If you’re a thrill-seeker why not opt for a daring ride on the Around The World Starflyer? n Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, until Sunday 4 January.

ICE DRAGON

Specialising in live theatre for babies and toddlers, Dragon Song Productions presents the story of a dragon and his woodland friends who discover something mysterious in the forest. Little ones will also be presented with a prop bag full of instruments and sensory lights so they can help out.

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Monday 1–Friday 12 December.

CONCERTS BY CANDLELIGHT

Stopping at eight Scottish cities to play in atmospheric venues, Scottish Ensemble will perform a UK premiere by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, known for his serene, meditative music, as well as a programme of classics from JS Bach to Philip Glass. n Various venues, Tuesday 2–Thursday 11 December.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Glasgow Kelvin College re-imagines Dickens’ ghostly tale as a jukebox musical full of 80s bangers and some fun animal characters. The whole family should enjoy this evergreen reminder of Christmas’ true meaning. n Platform, Glasgow, Tuesday 2–Wednesday 24 December.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

The first Christmas production at the reopened Citz, this is a timeless tale of love and looking beyond the surface, put together by a crack team of longstanding Citizens Theatre collaborators.

n Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 2–Wednesday 31 December.

SCIENCE LATES:

MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Leave the kids at home as you enjoy late-night festive fun. With cocktail in hand, you can travel through time on Santa’s Starry Adventure or try your luck at getting through the Home Alone-inspired booby trap trail.

n Glasgow Science Centre, Saturday 6 December.

CHRISTMAS AT JUPITER

Jupiter Artland gets a makeover as the park transforms into a Christmas village. Thought-provoking contemporary art sits alongside carol performances, elf workshops and a makers market. Finish the day off with a seasonal afternoon tea in the café.

n Jupiter Artland, Wilkieston, Saturday 6–Sunday 14 December.

SANTA’S GROTTO

Across three weekends in the heart of the Dear Green Place at Buchanan Galleries, Santa will hear everyone’s Christmas wishes with children receiving a small gift and keepsake photo. This event is held in partnership with Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, so every donation received will be used to help some young patients.

n Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow, Saturdays and Sundays until 21 December.

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

This year’s Capital Theatres pantomime is the classic tale of a cow, some magic beans and a sleeping giant, and, as ever, features comedian and panto favourite Allan Stewart as Dame Trot, plus River City star Jordan Young being the desperate lad Jack while Grant Stott does his annual baddie thing. The whole shebang is sure to deliver hilarity, mayhem and playful audience heckling.

n Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Saturday 13 December–Sunday 11 January.

SNOWY

Step into a winter wonderland for a festive family show set entirely inside a snow globe. An adorable and wellmeaning pup called Snowy must save Christmas after accidentally throwing her city’s seasonal celebrations into disarray. All of which is much easier said than done . . .

n The Studio, Edinburgh, Wednesday 17–Wednesday 31 December.

MAGICFEST

With a flick of their wands, the team at MagicFest are bringing two world premieres to Edinburgh and plenty more besides. Younger kids can enjoy new show Shape Shifters, while older children and adults are ushered into a world of dystopian magic in Magic Awareness Society. Including the likes of Kevin Quantum, Jamie Leonard and Tricky Ricky, ilusion and sorcery await.

n Various venues, Edinburgh, Wednesday 17–Tuesday 30 December.

MUSIC OF THE MOVIES

The world of fantasy has brought us some iconic scores, from Ramin Djawadi’s epic Game Of Thrones soundtrack to the stirring, soaring moments ubiquitous in The Lord Of The Rings. This is your chance to hear it all live and very direct.

n Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Saturday 27 December.

SLEIGH FEVER

It gets dark so early in wintertime, so why not start the night early too? This has all the fun of a Christmas club night, including tinsel, Santa hats and your favourite Xmas bangers, only without the late finish.

n BAaD, Glasgow, Saturday 27 December.

GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA

Step back into the 1940s and listen to those swinging sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, who will be performing the big band conductor’s own arrangements of your favourite Christmas songs and vintage classics. n Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sunday 28 December.

EDINBURGH’S HOGMANAY

As always, Edinburgh is set to welcome 2026 with a bang. Ring in the new year with Wet Leg and Scotland’s own Hamish Hawk and Lucia & The Best Boys at the Concert In The Gardens or dance till you drop at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party, all accompanied by dazzling fireworks.

n Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Wednesday 31 December.

Snow bother: (from top) Christmas At Jupiter, Snowy, MagicFest, Music Of The Movies

“ Movies are where you end You become a little gypsy

Playing a seemingly affable screen legend in Jay Kelly, all-round nice guy and bona-fide movie star George Clooney’s latest role might not seem much of a stretch on the surface. But as Kelly faces up to his past, Clooney’s own personality and that of his on-screen character diverge in many ways. James Mottram caught up with Clooney to talk regrets, the joy of working with Adam Sandler and why reading a screenplay before committing to a project might actually be a good idea

The title character you play in Jay Kelly is a successful but emotionally empty movie star. What drew you in? Well, there’s a couple of attractions. It was a beautiful script. The director [Noah Baumbach] is spectacular. Working with Adam [Sandler] is a thrill. Seeing the part that Adam was going to get to play, I was excited. Listen, it’s a really interesting part. Some people are like: ‘Well, you’re just playing yourself’ but that’s kind of not really in any way factual because I’m not a guy who lives with regret. I came to that kind of attention much later in life and I’ve had a much different run.

So what did you like about playing a movie star? I just felt like it was going to be a fun thing to play with. The minute I read the script I was in. I mean, honestly, when you get a call from Noah, you’re probably going to be in anyway. It’s like when the Coen Brothers called me: ‘We got this project’. I’m in! He’s one of those directors.

Had you seen Sandler in Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories? I really enjoyed it. I watched it late. I got to it a year after it came out. For some reason, it didn’t hit all the radars that I thought it would. I thought the movie was beautiful.

Jay has a midlife crisis and considers quitting his next movie. Would you ever do that? There are some complicated ties, because leaving means that 250 people are unemployed.

You and Adam Sandler, who plays Jay’s manager, have a great rapport in the movie. Is that the same in real life? We’ve been friends for a long time. He’s come to the house before for dinner. But movies are where you end up living together. You become a little gypsy family. And the first thing you find when Adam comes in (and particularly with his family, who were also working there) is that it’s just such a loving and warm and kind environment, and there’s none of the childish things that can happen sometimes on movie sets. I think we just laughed through the whole thing and really enjoyed working together.

In your career, you’ve done both, but do you feel comedy is harder than drama? It’s much harder because the results are so much harder. When you do a comedy, they either laugh or they don’t.

Jay comes face to face with people from his past. Do you believe it’s ever really possible to fix what’s behind us? I would hope so. Sometimes you can’t, right? There’s certain things that you can’t. When we were looking at this script . . . there were several different endings for the movie, trying to find a way to land it, by saying: ‘You can’t make it all work out with his daughters, because you screwed it up so badly.’ So how do you make it ok? Well, maybe

up living together. family

there is value in who you were, even though you ended up not being a great dad. And we’ve had people in history that have been great people who’ve also been lousy parents along the way. Benjamin Franklin, for instance. It’s an interesting question: can you fix things going back?

Jay winds up travelling on a train. Do you ever use public transport? Yes. I do like public transport! I do a little public transport in Europe. You end up talking to people. Now, some people you kind of don’t want to get all that close to!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career? After a series of very bad mistakes in film early on in my career, I learned that I should probably read a good screenplay every once in a while before I say yes! I’d been on that Batman And Robin, Peacemaker run: when you first start getting work as an actor, you just take jobs. I’d been on a lot of TV series, and I got a couple of films, and I was very excited. I’m calling everybody going ‘I got Batman! Woo!’ It’s like: ‘I’m in Ishtar! Woo!’ Who knew? It happens. And then I started to understand that I was going to be held responsible for not just the role that I was going to get to play but for the films that were going to get made. So the next three scripts I worked on were Out Of Sight, Three Kings and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which were all very good scripts. You can really protect yourself as an actor when you work with really good people. You can hide a lot of flaws along the way.

Jay Kelly is in cinemas now and on Netflix from Friday 5 December.

GAELIC CULTURE CELTIC CONNECTIONS

Celtic Connections continues its longstanding commitment to Gaelic language and music, kicking off with the irrepressible RuMac. The explosive accordionist fuses traditional roots with rock anthems, including ‘Gaelic Choir’, a reworking of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ (Friday 16 January).

Sian, featuring Eilidh Cormack, Ceitlin Lilidh and Ellen MacDonald, fuse the song traditions of Skye, Uist and Lewis with contemporary arrangements. Celebrating the release of new album Araon, their performance includes an expanded band featuring the likes of Innes White on guitar, with strings from Megan Henderson, Patsy Reid and Charlie Stewart (Thursday 22 January).

Grimsay accordionist and composer Pàdruig Morrison unveils Buin, a suite of new songs performed by Kirsty MacInnes, Mischa MacPherson and Alasdair Whyte (Sunday 25 January). In a similar innovative vein, critically acclaimed BBC Radio nan Gàidheal podcast series, Òran Ùr, transfers a wealth of new songwriting to the festival stage. Curated by Gillebrìde MacMillan, among those performing are Ewen Henderson, Isobel Ann Martin, Kim Carnie and Rachel Walker (Saturday 24 January).

Walker brings Celtic Connections’ Gaelic offering to a climax in another show, Depositions (Saturday 31 January), featuring the poetry of Anton Floyd translated into Gaelic, Irish and Scots, and set to music for the first time. These new commissions will be performed by Walker, longstanding collaborator Aaron Jones, as well as Emily Smith, Tawana Maramba, Ukraine’s Elzara Batalova and Hothouse Flowers’ Liam Ó Maonlaí. (Marcas Mac an Tuairneir)

 Various venues, Glasgow, Thursday 15 January–Sunday 1 February.

RuMac

138th new year performance of Handel’s celebrated oratorio

Edinburgh Pro Musica Orchestra DAVID BATES CONDUCTOR

Soprano Gemma Summerfield Mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown

Tenor Simon Wall

Bass-baritone Edward Jowle

2 January 2026, 12 noon

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

BOOK NOW: cultureedinburgh.com

future talent

We shine a light on people across the Scottish arts scene who are predicted to make some waves in 2026

ART

BUGARIN + CASTLE

Already established talents in their own spheres, artist Angel Cohn Castle and architect Davide Bugarin are the emerging duo set to represent Scotland at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Paying homage to their shared background in Edinburgh’s drag and queer cabaret scenes, their practice incorporates sculptural performance, moving image, sound and costume. Their 2023 film Sore Throat was set against European colonial rule and featured an interactive sound installation that cast the audience as active agents of power and resistance. Their Venice exhibition, which blends Filipino cultural heritage, Scottish archives and queer research, will mark the vibrant return of Scottish contemporary art to the world’s most prestigious art fair. (Evie Glen)

COMEDY

JODIE SLOAN

Having settled in Edinburgh after a spell in Australia, Canadian musical comic Jodie Sloan impressed this year with her bittersweet Fringe debut Is She Hot?, about the best and worst aspects of releasing a mega-hit viral sketch that got five million views on TikTok. A versatile performer, who jokingly presents herself as ‘the Taylor Swift of comedy’, she blends catchy songs on the ukulele and a breezy disposition, with often surprisingly dark, confessional stand-up. Sharing goofy skits online, she also participates in the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired improv group Tartan Tabletop. About to record and release Is She Hot? as a special, Sloan is also seeking to launch an acting career in the UK and is currently working on her second stand-up hour, promising ‘salacious personal anecdotes while tackling real-world issues’, focusing on altruism, the service industry, kink and ‘living as flawed human in a dichotomous, purist and capitalist world’. (Jay Richardson)

MUSIC

PISTOL DAISYS

As their name suggests, Glasgow trio Pistol Daisys are a band of contrasts, progressing from the sentimental yearning of early single ‘Saint Glasgow’ to the flinty vampish alt.rock of ‘Honey’ in the space of a year. The band are fronted by the two-pronged vocal assault of Malaysia-born Belly (Beverly Matujal) and Lorna Lynne (Lorna Johnson) who met at a King Tut’s open mic three months after Belly had moved to Glasgow and bonded over a shared love of Fleetwood Mac. Bo’ness-bred drummer/producer Lewis Kelly joined the band after engineering their first session and the shows and singles have flowed ever since. A new year of hard gigging and EP releases stretches before them, ushered in by a Hogmanay support slot with Big Country at the legendary Barrowlands. (Fiona Shepherd)

THEATRE

HOLLY HOWDEN GILCHRIST

Holly Howden Gilchrist had yet to graduate from the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland when she was cast as Catherine in Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge at Tron Theatre early in 2025. By that time, the then 20-year-old had already won both the Donald Dewar Award and the Pauline Knowles Scholarship at RCS. As the daughter of actors Kathryn Howden and Gilly Gilchrist, she comes from a strong pedigree. Since A View From The Bridge, Howden Gilchrist has toured in Sylvia Dow’s play, Blinded By The Light, and appeared in Small Acts Of Love, Frances Poet and Ricky Ross’ piece that was the first production at the re-opened Citizens Theatre. She returns to the Gorbals for the festive production of Beauty And The Beast. Quite a start to what looks like a bright future. (Neil Cooper)

PICTURE:

SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS IN DECEMBER Step

Where would you go if e rything fell through?

ho es s every omelessness

Cyrenians is an Edinburgh-based charity tackling the causes and consequences of in the local community.

Cyrenians is there for people who are easy to ignore.

People you walk past on the streets every day, whether you see them or not. Give

L3 TO SEE COMEDY SIBLINGS

Families can be highly competitive beasts and when it comes to humour, a culture of upstaging could lead to problems down the line. Clearly not so in the Bye household where sisters Maddy and Marina have wielded their comedy for good and in their Siblings (Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, Saturday 31 January) guise have been producing sketch comedy for a while now. Their latest show is Dreamweavers which the pair insist will be ‘absurd’ and ‘raucous’. Another comedy sibling pair is Pear (The Stand, Edinburgh, Wednesday 3 December) who are twin brothers Hugo and Patrick McPherson. Two words which they use to describe their own stuff are ‘riotous’ and ‘silly’.

Yes, ok, we cheated: after looking long and hard, another pair of comedy siblings on stage aross this two-month period couldn’t be found. But as Mr Loaf insisted, two out of three ain’t bad. But wait Rob Beckett (Edinburgh Playhouse, Thursday 15 January) has spoken about the comedy chaos that reigned in his southeast London family home when growing up as part of a gaggle of

brothers. Sure, it’s tenuous to the core theme, but let’s do it anyway.

(Brian Donaldson)

VIC ’ S PICKS

BBC broadcaster, author, actor, musician, DJ, and now a List columnist, the lad Galloway flicks through some music listings to choose top December and January gigs in variously sized rooms and across different genres . . .

os Angeles innovator Brittney Parks, aka Sudan Archives, first appeared in everyone’s consciousness in 2017, fusing homemade, experimental electronica, R&B and afrofuturism armed only with an electric violin, laptop and a whole heap of ideas. Since then, she’s consistently wowed fans and critics, drawing them further into her weird and wonderful world. Parks’ new album The BPM is another excellent, original work that absorbs club culture influences from Detroit and Chicago but continues to push forward in her own idiosyncratic style. Have your mind blown and booty shaken at QMU, Glasgow (Saturday 6 December).

One of the UK’s biggest rock bands and certainly Scotland’s heaviest export over the last few decades, Biffy Clyro returned recently with an excellent album, Futique. It sees them draw directly from the source with an anthemic collection of bangers and ballads. Unbelievably, the band formed 30 years ago and I will never forget those early days, witnessing epic gigs in tiny rooms; it’s been a wild ride watching them scale the dizzy heights and conquer all before them. Hear new songs and hard-gigged classics at Aberdeen P&J and Glasgow’s Hydro (Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 January respectively), while raising your devil horns and screaming: ‘Mon the Biffy’!

Those on the eternal quest for something new are sure to be rewarded by the inaugural Cowgate Block Party at the end of January. Maybe the ideal time to ditch your ‘dry’ penance and enjoy a few light beverages at this evening of interest and inspiration across three Edinburgh venues: Legends, Sneaky Pete’s and The Bongo Club (Saturday 31 January). This event has a great line-up but honourable mentions go to Bikini Body, Gurry Wurry and Sarah/Shaun.

Finally, if you’re looking for a party during that hazy, lazy bit between Christmas and New Year, my Vitamin C night of records and bands pulls up to the Assembly Rooms (Monday 29 December) as part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. Live acts are Swim School and Waverley, and guest DJ is Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. A good time is guaranteed, so come down and cut some rug.

 Listen to Vic Galloway every Monday night on BBC Radio Scotland or anytime on BBC Sounds.

Sudan Archives

GOING OUT

COMEDY MY COMEDY HERO

MIKE WOZNIAK

Even when dead, Spike Milligan is funnier than the rest of us. His gravestone reads: ‘Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite’ or, if you’re Irish-language-ignorant like me: ‘I told you I was ill’. It can’t be beat. A decent alternative might be: ‘I demand a second opinion’ but that’s Spike’s gag too, appearing in a single-frame cartoon of his in which an indignant man pops his head out of a coffin as pallbearers carry him away.

For his own funeral, Spike once suggested he be buried in a washing machine, purely to mystify hapless archaeologists in the distant future. He didn’t try that in the end, perhaps knowing the Church Of England would put their foot down. Indeed, the Diocese Of Chichester, within whose fiefdom he was buried, strongly objected to his epitaph when presented it in English, only waving it through when assurances were made it would be translated into Irish, thus sparing the blushes of the fine people of East Sussex. This made the leadership class of a major British institution look like a bunch of flatulent, imperious snobs: a very Spike move, and one he pulled off more than two years after his death. He’s often remembered purely as a surrealist but there was always a great deal of satire built into Spike’s work. He’d thumb his nose at the establishment but never suggested in doing so that he had all the answers or was any kind of moral lodestar. He gave me a lifelong disrespect for the bombastic British blowhard and I love him for it.

 Mike Wozniak: The Bench, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Sunday 18 January; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Saturday 21 March; Wozniak also appears in Dexter Procter: The Ten-Year Old Doctor, available on BBC iPlayer from Monday 1 December.

FILM

SENTIMENTAL VALUE

Remember when Charli XCX played Coachella earlier this year and called time on her Brat Summer, flashing up all those names on big screens? Among the artists she gave a shout-out to was Joachim Trier, the Norwegian director behind The Worst Person In The World. How did he feel when ‘Joachim Trier Summer’ was blasted all over social media? ‘That was awesome,’ he admits. ‘I’m a huge fan of hers. I was pleasantly shocked.’

With his new movie Sentimental Value due for release, it’ll definitely be a ‘Joachim Trier Winter’. Scripted with usual writer Eskil Vogt, the story sees once-famous film director Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) looking to revive his career with an autobiographical tale, one he hopes will bring him back into the orbit of estranged daughters Nora (Worst Person In The World star Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Despite coming from a family of filmmakers, Trier didn’t set out to create a reflection of his own history. ‘I started the story from the sisters’ point of view, and then slowly, this complicated father came into the picture,’ he explains. ‘Then it snapped into place when he became a filmmaker, because we didn’t want to make him demonised. We wanted there to be a sense of understanding for him.’

One of the most popular films in Cannes earlier this year, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, it also features Elle Fanning as Hollywood star Rachel Kemp, whom Gustav courts to play the lead when Nora, now an accomplished stage actress, refuses. ‘I just admire her,’ says Trier of the 27-year-old Fanning. ‘She’s still quite young, but she has a maturity and a skill which is remarkable.’ Whether it’s due to Fanning’s presence or Charli’s help, the film has just had the best per-screenaverage opening for an indie movie in America since the pandemic. For a film about filmmaking, that’s heartening, says Trier. ‘It’s still possible to make movies and be seen in theatres.’ (James Mottram)

 In cinemas from Friday 26 December.

TICKETS

As the indie record label he created takes a final bow, Douglas MacIntyre reflects on its fourdecade journey and tells Fiona Shepherd that his love of music is as strong as ever

Missionary man

All good things must come to an end, but knowing when to stop can be the tricky part. Douglas MacIntyre, head honcho of The Creeping Bent Organisation since its List-sponsored launch at Glasgow’s Tramway in December 1994, has chosen to wrap up the indie label which has dominated his life for the past three decades. The farewell is being marked with a live showcase called The End Of Definition and release of The Creeping Bent Box, a limited edition boxset with the pleasingly round catalogue number, BENT100.

‘It’s almost like the mission has been terminated,’ he reflects. That mission, as outlined by MacIntyre in his first ever Creeping Bent interview, conducted by this writer for this very organ, was ‘to do something that was an intersection of music and art’. The Strathaven-based musician was inspired by the mischievous aesthetic of Edinburgh’s legendary punk label Fast Product.

‘It was so much more than the music, it was the packaging, the photography, the way that Bob Last and Hilary Morrison presented these incredible groups. I wanted to recapture the excitement I felt as a teenager going to see Scars and The Fire Engines.’

Creeping Bent went on to release albums by Scottish indie luminaries such as The Secret Goldfish, The Leopards, Adventures In Stereo, Monica Queen, Bills Wells & Isobel Campbell as well as music from a brace of MacIntyre’s all-time musical heroes. He recalls that first List interview: ‘We discussed Suicide, The Pop Group, The Fire Engines and Subway Sect as being primary influences and, by bizarre synchronicity, we ended up releasing music from leading lights in all four of those bands.’

Creeping Bent launched at a fertile time for independent labels, back in the halcyon days when record sales were sufficiently buoyant to fund the next musical manoeuvre. Seeking to keep full artistic control, MacIntyre resisted offers from larger labels to bankroll Creeping Bent but did strike a manufacturing

and distribution deal with Rough Trade. More than 20 years later, Creeping Bent entered into a similar relationship with the prolific Last Night From Glasgow team. As MacIntyre notes: ‘They are very good at retail’.

He even enjoyed a Scottish number one album with his Port Sulphur project. ‘You can sell some albums and make some money for the artists and the label, but it’s a different beast altogether now. I don’t know how a label like Creeping Bent or Chemikal Underground could have the same impact starting up now.’

Nevertheless, Creeping Bent has experienced a breathless last lap, releasing albums by The Sexual Objects and Gareth Sager as well as The Secret Goldfish, fronted by MacIntyre’s partner Katy Lironi. ‘While we’ve been dealing with crazy children, we’ve been dealing with crazy artists as well,’ he says.

‘It’s been our life for the last 30 years but it felt like a perfect moment to cease operations. For me, it’s a really positive thing. I’m excited about the fact that we’ve created a 30-year piece of work.’

MacIntyre has documented that ride in a new book, A Leap Into The Void, and really has come full circle with the belated release of the debut album by his first band Article 58 (courtesy of some dusted-off demos and the restorative touch of Sam Smith at Green Door Studio). ‘It’s a strange feeling,’ says MacIntyre, ‘because I feel as excited and positive as I felt in that first interview with you when I was about to start releasing records.’ Going forward, his focus will be on making more Port Sulphur music. ‘But now I’ll need to get another label to release it,’ he says. ‘I’ll have to send some cassettes off to a few people . . . ’

The End Of Definition, Mono, Glasgow, Friday 12 December; Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Saturday 13 December; A Leap Into The Void is out now published by Last Night From Glasgow.

PICTURE:

PICTURE: MARTIN GRAY

The Secret Goldfish

With his latest movie, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi poses important questions about living under a repressive regime. Wrapped up in a gripping revenge fantasy, Emma Simmonds gives it the full five stars

The eponymous mishap sparks a blistering tale of vengeance and oppression in It Was Just An Accident. This meticulous morality thriller is the latest from the great Iranian director Jafar Panahi (Taxi, The Circle, This Is Not A Film), a thorn in the side of his country’s authoritarian regime who have previously arrested and barred him from filmmaking. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes, it was shot in secret in Iran (the set was raided at one point), with post-production completed in France.

When the film opens, we’re peering through a car windscreen as a family of three (soon to be four) drive by night through rural Iran. We meet the severe-looking father (Ebrahim Azizi), who is nervous when his young daughter (Delmaz Najafi) puts on some pop music, with his heavily pregnant wife (Afssaneh Najmabadi) a little warmer and more permissive. The couple allude to a quiet, highly private existence, away from the prying eyes of neighbours and guests.

When their car hits a dog, the child is distressed (‘It was just an accident,’ her mother reassures her. ‘God surely put it on our path for a reason’). The resulting damage forces this family off the road and into the orbit of former political prisoner Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) who, on hearing the squeak of the father’s artificial leg, immediately identifies him as his torturer and jailer Eghbal, a man he has never actually laid eyes on. Acting impulsively, Vahid follows his presumed persecutor, before kidnapping him, driving him to the desert and digging his grave. When his prisoner protests and insists that this is merely a case of mistaken identity (his ID gives his name as Rashid Shahsavari), Vahid is wracked with doubt and visits bookseller and fellow torture survivor

film of the issue

Salar (George Hashemzadeh) for counsel, with the bound, gagged and blindfolded man still stashed in a trunk in his van. Salar doesn’t want anything to do with Vahid’s rash actions but suggests he meet with another survivor, wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), who happens to be taking pre-wedding photos of a woman who was also held captive, Goli (Hadis Pakbaten), and her soon-to-be-husband Ali (the director’s nephew Majid Panahi). Later, the volatile Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) is brought into the fold to really stir things up.

A persistently intriguing and riveting film, it asks us to cast our minds back over what we have already seen in a hunt for clues: did the couple at the start refer to each other by name? Was their anxiety and talk of an isolated existence anything to be suspicious of, or was it just a reflection of the strain of living under authoritarian rule?

It Was Just An Accident also considers the unreliability of memory and how confidently something can be discerned if we don’t see it for ourselves. Yet it also speaks to the power of our other senses and whether there are things we know in our bones because the impact has been felt so deeply. Working with a phenomenally convincing, mainly non-professional cast, Panahi draws us expertly into the group’s terrible dilemma, showing their

differing perspectives and gradually revealing their individual experiences. Shiva presents herself as reasonable and non-violent, even differentiating between submissives and the system in terms of who is really to blame for their suffering.

On the other hand, hot-headed Hamid is hellbent on immediate action, with no room for doubt, reflection or consideration of their hostage’s own circumstances. Goli is willing to get sucked into this carnage on the eve of her wedding due to the severity of her ordeal, the memories of which come flooding back and prevent her from walking away. Only Salar is able to deny himself the opportunity for justice.

Essential for those who have lived under the Islamic Republic, along with those seeking to better understand its impact, It Was Just An Accident is a beautifully conceived, revenge fantasy of a film. It speaks volumes about a country ravaged by fear and intolerable restrictions and the psychological effect on survivors, who here refuse to be defined by their suffering yet are driven to emulate the enemy. This is cinema at its most angry, important and engaging.

It Was Just An Accident is in cinemas from Friday

ART LAUREN GAULT: BONE STONE VOICE ALONE lllll

Returning to the city of her alma mater, Glasgow-based sculpture and installation artist Lauren Gault presents a newly commissioned body of work curated by May Rosenthal Sloan, the first to be shown in Dundee Contemporary Arts’ refurbished gallery spaces. Gault’s work encompasses sculpture, print, sound and moving image, created in collaboration with a number of specialists, from stonemasons and manufacturers of scientific glassware to quilting experts and suppliers of industrial machinery.

Taking inspiration from the mythological tale of Echo from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, who was punished and deprived of speech (except for the ability to repeat the last words of another), Gault draws parallels with censorship. This filters into her exploration of the local Tayside landscape, its layers of history and lost voices. Bursting with textures of all kinds, from geological and mineral formations, metallic objects and stone scratched with chalk, to screenprints, soft textiles, paper, and rocks found locally, each piece is deliberate in its placement within the two galleries.

None of the works have titles and there are no text descriptions on the walls, but the accompanying programme makes up for this with an indepth explanation of the themes, materials, processes and collaborators involved. While ambitious in its explorations of intersecting ideas, these do need to be understood coherently to fully appreciate the works and what they represent. At times, the gallery space can seem too vast for this show, which in the end lacks an intimacy to spark connection with those well-considered objects on display. (Jennifer McLaren) n DCA, Dundee, until Sunday 18 January.

a ert • eht a tre •

THEATRE GALLUS IN WEEGIELAND lllll

Emboldened by all the colours of the rainbow, Johnny McKnight’s Gallus In Weegieland dives headfirst into a twisted Wonderland. The Tron’s annual pantomime jaunt comes fully loaded: queer energy, gallus gags by the bucket and a looking glass reflecting the absurdities of our own lives. Down here, we’re not all ‘mad’, but encouraged to embrace eccentricities and spread our wings, whatever the shade. Sally Reid’s direction ensures Marc Mackinnon’s Honey The Caterpillar gets the stardom they deserve, vocally and comedically showcasing their skills. Meanwhile, Catriona Faint’s jittering livewire Hatty keeps the show’s pacing and narrative (yes, there is one) firmly on track.

Shadowed by tart-wielding minions Jessica Donnelly and Aidan MacColl (both brilliant), the only diva capable of matching Honey’s flair is McKnight’s long-time panto ally Louise McCarthy. And if you thought you’d seen limbs before, Queenie’s royal pins are flung wherever the choreography demands, with glorious abandon, ensuring a maintenance of high energy to keep those hopped up on sweeties engaged.

Rolling heads (with killer expressions), McCarthy’s crimson-splashed Queenie Of Hearts rules this Weegieland, a glitter-soaked world where Burberry reigns supreme and chips ’n’ curry sauce is the staple diet. Her golden rule? Once you leave Weegieland, you’re barred: nae coming back. Star Penders’ Knavey shrugs it off, but Gallus gradually longs to return to Glasgow’s West End, overpriced Matcha and Waitrose in tow.

Making her professional debut, Jorgey Scott-Learmonth impresses as Gallus, balancing wishy-washy sincerity with punchy delivery and a hearty tune to match the score. Gallus In Weegieland doesn’t quite go for the jugular like past Tron pantos, but it certainly engages the head and warms the heart. A passionate party panto, it casts out the bitter cold with sequins, satire and a right royal laugh. (Dominic Corr) n Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Sunday 4 January.

art of the issue

REvie Glen immerses herself in artist Rae-Yen Song’s multi-disciplinary solo exhibition and discovers an ingenious multiverse from the mind of a unique artist

ae-Yen Song’s •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~• sinks viewers to the subaquatic core of the artist’s multiverse. The titular ‘Tua Mak’ (meaning ‘Big Eyes’ in Teochew dialect) floats in the centre of the room like a magnified amoeba with 16 legs, eight tentacles and four antennae stretching out into every corner of Tramway’s imposing warehouse-like gallery. A thin, iridescent fabric shrouds the entire sculpture like a layer of bioluminescent algae on the water’s surface. Under this canopy, visitors can follow the various currents of Song’s universe until they coalesce in a yellowing pond at the centre.

The water is transplanted from Song’s childhood pond, its leeches and worms making a new habitat in the fissures of this artist’s underwater ceramic snail sculptures. Ancestral memory and mythology are the guiding tenets of Song’s practice. According to family legend, Tua Mak is an ancestor that drowned at sea in the 1950s. Their amoebic reincarnation in this exhibition reflects both tangible and conceptual processes of transformation: of the body through bacterial decomposition and of memory through family folklore. Song roots these processes of physical and metaphysical renewal in the Daoist belief that reality is continually changing.

If the conceptual dimensions (Daoism, diasporic-futurism, posthumanism and science fact-fiction) seem overwrought, it doesn’t result in a creative deficiency in the works themselves, with •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~• expertly incorporating ceramics, costume, animation, sculpture, performance, sound and lighting design. Commissioned in 2021, it traces Song’s technical

development from learning how to mould a ceramic breast plate to incorporating the microbial sounds of the pond into a live soundscape. The result is the culmination of Song’s unique imagining: a wholly immersive, ultraviolet world complete with weird and wormy creatures reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli film, if of anything at all.

The novelty of Song’s multiverse is aided by familial collaboration, which manifests here in clippings of their sister’s hair, cat’s fur and grandmother’s silk, ‘all swirling together to make new kin’. Song believes ‘we are all chimerical beings ourselves’, a patchwork of ancestral artefacts and legends swirling together with the intangible forces of memory and imagination. Through this multimedia installation, Song magnifies these intangible forces into something palpable yet continually transforming. Its soundscape, for example, changes with the audience and the living ecosystem in the pond.

Any artistic practice benefits from such an openness to transformation, yet Song is able to balance that development with a consistent aesthetic recognisable even in earlier works such as the dragon mask in ‘It’s A Small World’ (2017). This clarity of creative direction is the triumph of Song’s worldbuilding. The exhibition is a blistering display of ingenuity and courageous experimentation, stabilised by an assured artistic vision.

Rae-Yen Song: •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~•, Tramway, Glasgow, until Sunday 16 August.

COMEDY

STUART MITCHELL: TIPS NOT INCLUDED

A potted personal history for those freshly arrived at Stuart Mitchell via his popular online clips, Tips Not Included is a case study in eliciting humour from the bleakest subject matter. In comedy circles, maybe only Kelsey Grammer has led a life of greater tragedy and personal suffering than the Linlithgow native, who nevertheless shares his tales with affable ease and cheery bonhomie. That stories about him performing in Barlinnie Prison and making his screen debut as serial killer Bible John are among the most light-hearted fare here offers an indication of the darkness that Mitchell isn’t shy of laying upon a theatre.

Like Dave Allen, he’s had fun contriving yarns about the missing parts of his fingers. The reality of the accident, of childhood play gone awry, has afforded him a visible physical legacy that’s been a pretty handy USP on the stand-up circuit. Initially, he seems to have otherwise emerged almost unscathed from the incident. But there’s a terrible kicker to his account, forcing us to speculate about the psychological damage that propels someone to seek audiences’ surrogate affection.

As his treading-water opening half of so-so crowd work indicates, Mitchell is instinctively personable, approaching middle-age but retaining a boy-next-door charm. And it’s that which carries him through a setlist that in blunt, bullet point form is a grim catalogue of grief, woe and medical trauma, yet which he crafts with so much more verve and optimism than you could credit, finding the silver linings. You’ll perhaps yearn for him to probe deeper into his anguish but the show’s draw is his cheeky, resilient wit and a soul-baring that, although cumulatively is scarcely conceivable, never once depresses. (Jay Richardson)

 Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Saturday 31 January; reviewed at Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow.

FILM SAIPAN

Love him or loathe him, football hardman turned hirsute, glowering pundit, Roy Keane undoubtedly inspires opinions. Saipan takes a famous face-off between Keane and the manager of Ireland’s national side, Mick McCarthy, and spins it into an entertaining big screen story. The film tells the tale of major tensions that arose during a disastrous pre-World Cup training camp on the titular island. The year is 2002 and Ireland have qualified for the tournament hosted by Japan and South Korea. Rising star Éanna Hardwicke (TV’s The Sixth Commandment) plays Irish captain and Manchester United legend Keane, while Steve Coogan is Yorkshireman McCarthy, the team’s affable and apparently out-ofhis-depth manager.

Used to Premier League professionalism, on arrival at the camp a spoilt and stroppy Keane is appalled by the lack of facilities, nutritious food and even footballs. Casting a withering eye over it all, he voices his disgust at every available opportunity, with the fallout threatening to derail the team’s preparations. Working from a screenplay by Paul Fraser, married filmmakers Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa (Ordinary Love, Good Vibrations) tell the story in buoyantly nostalgic, visually fun fashion as a montage-heavy patchwork with archive footage aplenty. It’s a highly strippedback version of events, with Keane’s teammates barely registering beyond their happy hedonism and desire to play ball.

There’s something devilish in Keane’s eyes that Hardwicke can’t quite capture but he has his accent and indignance down to a tee, and nails the physicality and drive of a superstar athlete, while Coogan brings charisma and incomparable comic timing to the flailing McCarthy. It’s not as insightful nor quite as funny as you might hope, but it tells both sides of the story and builds compellingly to that explosive conclusion. (Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 23 January.

FILM

ELEANOR THE GREAT

Following the success of Thelma in 2024, 95-year-old actor June Squibb once again lights up the screen, this time as the titular acerbic pensioner who leaves Florida to return to New York following the death of her life-long best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar). While Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut suffers from an overstuffed screenplay, it has memorable moments thanks to Squibb’s nuanced performance.

Squibb sent Johansson the script as she felt an affinity with the main character, and Johansson has stated she was attracted to the project because Eleanor reminded her of her Jewish grandmother. The strongest aspect of the film revolves around Eleanor and Bessie’s relationship which is mostly pieced together through flashbacks. Bessie, a Holocaust survivor, reveals her tragic story to Eleanor, and when the latter accidentally stumbles into a survivors meeting group, she panics and claims the story as her own.

Young aspiring journalist Nina (Erin Kellyman) decides to make Eleanor’s story the focus of her university project to gain attention from her famous broadcaster father Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is grieving after the loss of his wife. Feeling lonely and disconnected from her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht), Eleanor continues the lie and forms a strong bond with Nina.

As far as Johansson’s directing skills go, she elegantly swathes her nonagenarian leading lady in gorgeous natural lights, expertly assisted by acclaimed cinematographer Hélène Louvart. Yet in its attempt to tie together themes of grief, intergenerational friendship and the delicate subject of the Holocaust, a clumsy screenplay delivers an unsatisfying denouement. (Katherine McLaughlin)

 In cinemas from Friday 12 December.

MUSIC TIDE LINES

The mighty wind of nationalistic fervour whipped up by the Scotland men’s World Cup-qualifying exploits creates plenty of momentum for Tide Lines as they steam into the Usher Hall on the back of their new album Glasgow Love Story. Kicking off the Scottish leg of their UK tour, the idea of playing songs from a record that romances a city at odds with the nation’s capital serves as a rueful plot point, but a breakout of hostilities regarding which condiments to sprinkle over your chips was never in the offing tonight.

Backlit on a raised platform and framed by video screens showing animated Highland landscapes and suburban Glasgow skylines, Tide Lines’ two-pronged USP blends traditional Scottish music with anthemic folk pop. With the nation’s self-esteem on a momentary bear run, the band get their hooks in from the first cast. The clapalong stomper ‘Heroes’ and a tumultuous ‘Any Heart In A Storm’ has the audience caught up in call and response, with guitarist and singer Robert Robertson front and centre, encouraging forth a sea of arms and soaring voices. Signalling a shift into the trad instrumental ‘Pìob Mhòr’, one punter bellows ‘mon ra bagpipes!’ (surely a long overdue cheer for our national instrument) and sends the room into reels worthy of a Newtonmore wedding.

Cutting down the performance space for ‘Bring The Summer’, Gaelic ballad ‘Co-Thràth’ and the poignant ode to Glasgow’s shipyards ‘By The Quayside’ creates a stripped back intimacy that shows the band’s versatility and their sense of how best to present the material. Shortbread tin sentiment aside, only the most cynical of hearts would fail to be stirred by it. That emotional intensity peaks in the encore, and the sound of a room united in singing set closer ‘Far Side Of The World’ could rattle the whisky glasses from Edinburgh to Alness. (Gary Sullivan)  Music Hall, Aberdeen, Thursday 18 December; reviewed at Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

Design And Disability and

PREVIEW OF 2026

There’s a lot to get out and see in the coming 12 months but we’ve somehow managed to narrow it down to 26 individual highlights (hey festivals, you’ll get your chance, ok?). These include a comedian wondering if being hateful is the only way to get success now, the return of a dance thriller, mouth-watering horror films, and a full year of thrilling theatre in Perthshire

ART

ILANA HALPERIN

For her new exhibition, What Is Us And What Is Earth, the Glasgow-based artist has put together sculpture, drawing and photography to tackle the vastness of the natural world around us.

n Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, February–May.

JOAN EARDLEY

The Nature Of Painting offers a look at how Eardley engaged with both the world and the artists around her. This exhibition is a way of reflecting anew on her art by setting it into a deeper cultural context.

n National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two, Edinburgh, April–June.

DESIGN AND DISABILITY

This pioneering show will platform the radical contributions of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people to design and culture. Moving from the 1940s right up to today, the work on display spans three themes: visibility, tools and living.

n V&A Dundee, opens in June.

COMEDY

AYOADE BAMGBOYE

Last year’s Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe aims to fully capitalise on that success with a tour of her Swings And Roundabouts show. This Londonborn Nigerian stand-up has long been raising the big questions and failing to come up with any answers. But hilariously, of course.

n The Old Hairdresser’s, Glasgow; Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, March.

STEWART LEE

In his latest show, the eloquent misery-guts aka Godfather Of Modern British Comedy wonders if his form of progressive stand-up has a chance in hell of surviving in the face of the super-rich comics who peddle hate. Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf is the result of that musing.

n King’s Theatre, Glasgow; Edinburgh Playhouse, July.

TWO DOORS DOWN

The hugely successful Scottish TV comedy follows in the footsteps of Still Game in bringing its low-key charms into a vast arena. With more dates having been added to the run, clearly the appetite is there to see the likes of Arabella Weir, Kieran Hodgson, Alex Norton, Doon Mackichan and Grado do their thing live.

n OVO Hydro, Glasgow, September.

HARRIET KEMSLEY

Dating, mushrooms and embracing the chaos are among the themes of Kemsley’s new stand-up show, Floozy. Is it possible for her to enjoy things when they start to go right?

n Òran Mór, Glasgow; Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, November.

DANCE

BALLETLORENT

Liv Lorent’s acclaimed company bring us a dancetheatre production of Snow White featuring seven brave miners grafting away, unaware that the queen’s quest for eternal beauty is going to come back to bite everyone.

n Dundee Rep, February; Tramway, Glasgow, March.

BOYS DON’T DANCE

A key work in the next Edinburgh International Children’s Festival is this piece by acclaimed Australian choreographer Marc Brew which explores the tough expectations upon boys growing up in specific cultural environments.

n Venue tbc, Edinburgh, May & June.

THE CAR MAN

Matthew Bourne’s dance thriller loosely based on Bizet’s popular opera returns, with the setting now having shifted from a 19th-century Spanish cigarette factory to a 1950s diner in the US Midwest as a stranger wanders into town to change people’s lives forever.

n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, October; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, November.

FILM SCREAM 7

Feels like an eternity since Drew Barrymore took that scary first call in a franchise which, unlike many of its characters, refuses to die (given 2026 is the Scream opener’s 30th anniversary, it actually is a lifetime ago). Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard and Neve Campbell are among those reprising their roles.

n In cinemas from February.

THE BRIDE!

Maggie Gyllenhaal is the writer-director on this monster movie which draws inspiration from various Frankenstein-based works. This one is set in 1930s Chicago and has Jessie Buckley as the corpse bride with Christian Bale and Penélope Cruz also starring. n In cinemas from March.

Harriet Kemsley

Doja Cat and Scream 7 (not actually a shot from the film, just a member of The List team larking about on holiday)

THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE

A somewhat lighter affair this with Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and Keegan-Michael Key among the big names lending their tongues to an adventure comedy animation set in outer space.

n In cinemas from April.

THE ODYSSEY

Back to heavier matters as Christopher Nolan packs them into the summer cinemas to follow Odysseus’ dangerous journey home from the Trojan War.

n In cinemas from July.

MUSIC GEESE

The Cameron Winter-fronted Brooklyn rockers are clearly on the verge of very big things. Enjoy their surreal brilliance before you need binoculars to see them on stage.

n SWG3, March.

COUNTRY TO COUNTRY

A three-day fiesta dedicated to all things country with Keith Urban, Zach Top and Brooks & Dunn as headliners joined by the likes of Drake Milligan, Scott McCreery and Alana Springsteen (no relation).

n OVO Hydro, Glasgow, March.

THE TWILIGHT SAD

Fans have waited six long years for a new album, and seeing those songs (as well as a bunch of oldies) played live may well be almost too much for some. Max Richter and The Cure are fans.

n Barrowlands, Glasgow, May.

DOJA CAT

PREVIEW OF 2026

The Grammy-winning superstar brings her Ma Vie World Tour to Scotland on the back of a 2025 album which was dubbed by one critic as being full of mischief and gloss.

n OVO Hydro, Glasgow, May.

QUEEN’S PARK SPRING WEEKENDER

There’ll be a distinct edge of poignancy to this year’s weekender as the JD Twitch stage is introduced. The opening day is curated by Melting Pot while Optimo (Espacio) take control of day two.

n Queen’s Park Recreation Ground, Glasgow, May.

THE CURE

In the last two Edinburgh summers, huge Murrayfield gigs by Taylor Swift, Oasis and AC/DC have occurred. This all-dayer is a little further out, geographically, and helmed by Robert Smith’s chaps with Mogwai and Slowdive among the support. Existentially, it will lie somewhere in amongst all of the above.

n Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, August.

THEATRE

ALAN CUMMING

There’ll be no escaping the Perthshire guy in 2026 what with The High Life musical, presumably more TV, and his first full season as boss at Pitlochry which has grabbed headlines for all the right reasons. Across the year you may bump into the likes of Adura Onashile, Ian McKellen, Maureen Beattie and Frances Ruffelle around town.

n Pitlochry Festival Theatre, all year long.

ONE DAY

You’ve read the book and watched the Netflix show. Now’s your chance to see the musical version of David Nicholls’ story that revisits the lives of two friends/lovers on the same date for many years. Hankies at the ready.

n Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, February–April.

WOMAN IN MIND

Sheridan Smith, Romesh Ranganathan and Louise Brealey make for a thrilling cast in Alan Ayckbourn’s tale of one woman’s fractured reality.

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, March.

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

The tagline says it all: ‘Be fierce. Be fabulous.’ And why the hell not? A sassy, bold and joyous experience is expected to be had by all as this celebration of identity and diversity struts around the stage.

n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, March; Edinburgh Playhouse, April.

THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE

After three years of smash-hit UK runs, this musical version of Roald Dahl’s story about a croc who’s after the bones of kids for his dinner finally stops off in Scotland. n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, July.

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE

House Of The Dragon actress Gayle Rankin puts her own mark on the character made famous in the film by Maggie Smith. David Harrower’s adaptation cranks up the themes of love, life lessons and loyalty. n Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, November.

staying in

CHRISTMAS TV

Amid the traditional annual slew of festive specials spinning off from ongoing shows, some fresher programming does exist in tellyland this late December and January. The Night Manager returns for a new batch of espionage nine years on from the first lot while there’s also an adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s farm-set love story The Scarecrows’ Wedding (featuring voices belonging to Jessie Buckley and Domhnall Gleeson) and Finding Father Christmas is a one-off about a 16-year-old (played by Lenny Rush) who still believes in Santa. No festive period would be complete without a classic ghost story scaring the little baby bejesus out of viewers, and The Room In The Tower is this year’s key offering, adapted by Mark Gatiss from EF Benson’s classic spine tingler. (Brian Donaldson)

ART HEALTHY

Turns out going to see a show isn’t just fun, it’s actually good for you. Daisy Fancourt’s new book explains how the arts can not only improve your health but actually prevent illness, as Kelly Apter discovers

Go for a run, eat a salad or even reach for a painkiller and you’re aware of the physical impact it will have on your body. Similarly, an hour of therapy or off-loading to a friend can lead to obvious mental health benefits. But few of us consider the upshot of going to a gig, visiting a gallery, doodling on a notepad or singing in the shower on our wellbeing. And that’s just the start, according to Daisy Fancourt. Having spent her professional life to date exploring the impact the arts have on the human body, the 35-year-old is on a mission to spread the word.

As professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, and director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre For Arts And Health, Fancourt has published hundreds of scientific articles and won copious academic awards. But it’s with her new book, Art Cure: The Science Of How The Arts Transform Our Health that she hopes to make the biggest splash, convincing policy makers, funders and the public that engaging with the arts can improve our health on a number of levels.

If proof were needed (and of course, it is), the last 60 pages of Art Cure is devoted entirely to references. But every word of the first 240 pages reads as if Fancourt is sitting opposite you in a café and chatting. Was that combination of conversational style and scientific gravitas important to her? ‘Yes, and it actually made it a really fun project,’ says Fancourt. ‘Because in academic papers you’re supposed to be fully objective, so having the freedom to write in my own voice was a luxury. But more and more, people are interested in how to live healthy, happy lives. There is plenty of selfhelp advice, but they want to know what is actually evidence-based. So I made sure it was very clear that everything is scientifically backed. There’s not a single statement I make in the book that doesn’t have a scientific study behind it.’

Filled with real-life examples of people whose health has been transformed by the arts, Fancourt breaks down the ‘how and why’ in a friendly, accessible style. And, having explained what’s happening inside us, each chapter ends with suggestions for how we can use the arts to prevent and improve illness. ‘I didn’t want to hit people over the head with dense jargon,’ she says. ‘I wanted it to be an easy, enjoyable read in the hope that it reaches people who would never normally approach a scientific paper.’

 Art Cure is published by Cornerstone Press on Thursday 8 January.

LISTEN BACK

We’re nosing our way through the letter N in this latest alphabetically slanted series of album recommendations

Mythic and sprawling, Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign (2024) revels in sleepy textures of crepuscular hypnagogia. With the Urdu language poet Mah Laqa Bai as a point of inspiration, its epic knottiness isn’t afraid to melt into a slinky Pakistani folk on ‘Autumn Leaves’ or ‘Last Night Reprise’, communicating an ineluctable landscape of woozy majesty. Apparently its creative process was fraught with indecision and compromise as Aftab toyed with the notion of making a full-blown concept album. You’d never guess as this is one of the most confident releases of the past few years.

Ever wondered what The Slits would sound like if they hailed from China? Probably not, but Beijing-based Hang On The Box answered that question with their 2007 shonky punk powerhouse, No More Nice Girls, a lo-fi outing that revels in the limitations of its production. As China’s first all-female punk act, there’s a quiet revolution happening on every Hang On The Box record, backed up by a proudly ragged approach to craft. (Kevin Fullerton)  Other N listens: No One Can Ever Know by The Twilight Sad (2012), New Skin For The Old Ceremony by Leonard Cohen (1974), Neu! by Neu! (1972).

Edinburgh fiddle player Isla Ratcliff has taken it upon herself to re-interpret Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in its entirety.

Marking the 300th anniversary of the foundational work’s original publication, this accomplished trad musician has gone to great lengths to repurpose the violin concertos in order to reflect the contemporary Scottish landscape. ‘A few years ago I was listening to it in the car. I vividly remember it; we were driving through Glen Clova, me and my parents, and I was like, “this is just great dance music,”’ says Ratcliff of the inspiration behind rejigging the iconic work. ‘And then I thought, “what would it sound like if it was made into fiddle music with a Scottish trad twist?’” The Scottish Four Seasons is Ratcliff’s sophomore project following her 2021 debut, The Castalia. It’s been a busy few years for the classically trained player, who has toured extensively and reached the semi-finals of the prestigious BBC Young Traditional Musician Of The Year competition.

Though there is an obvious reference point for The Scottish Four Seasons, reworking the album was more laborious than you might think. Elemental aspects of the original composition, such as time signatures, harmonies and instrumental textures, were adjusted by Ratcliff, who swapped the harpsichord for a piano before writing her own melodies over the original chords.

‘The season I found the hardest to “tradify” was autumn,’ she laughs. ‘But having had that creative challenge, actually those are four of my favourite tracks on the album because it pushed me to do something really quite different.’ Also included in Vivaldi’s 1725 work was a poem to accompany each piece, a feat Ratcliff has replicated in her take on Scotland’s climate in 2025. ‘Three hundred years later, this album is about the Scottish four seasons,

For her second album, Isla Ratcliff shows no lack of ambition, boldly tackling one of the most famous works in classical music and giving it a comprehensive Scottish revamp. She tells Danny Munro how she approached Vivaldi’s seminal collection and imbued it with an environmental message

A woman for all seasons

so there’s one track in each season that’s got a climate change message to it. Each track is accompanied by a poem and the poem gives some more insight into that environmental message.’

An ambitious endeavour, the album came together thanks to a crowdfunding effort that saw the Scottish trad community chip in to finance its recording.

‘The community of art and music supporters in Scotland is really, really lovely,’ reflects Ratcliff, who was recently nominated for Musician Of The Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. As further testament to the strength of that community, a host of esteemed artists joined her for the recording of the album, including Kristan Harvey of Blazin’ Fiddles and Breabach’s Megan Henderson.

‘I’m not going to lie, it was quite daunting at first because they’re such big names,’ Ratcliff admits, ‘But they’re such lovely people, so we had a lovely time working together.’ Of course, it wouldn’t be a Scottish album without some colloquial humour, with one track titled ‘To A Midge’ while ‘Four Seasons In One Day’ is the name of a bonus piece. ‘The midge track is one of my favourites,’ Ratcliff beams. ‘They’re just such a big part of Scotland’s seasons, so they had to be in there.’

The Scottish Four Seasons is available digitally on Friday 12 December and will be performed at Barony Hall, Glasgow, as part of Celtic Connections, Friday 23 January; Isla Ratcliff & Evie Waddell play Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Monday 8 December; Isla Ratcliff & Natalie Haas play Stockbridge Music Hub, Edinburgh, Saturday 24 January.

PICTURE:

Arbikie Distillery: Sustainable spirits, from farm to bottle

This sustainable distillery is raising the bar with climate-positive spirits and a pioneering approach

Located on Scotland’s east coast, Arbikie is a distillery with a difference. Every drop of spirit produced there begins in the fields surrounding the family farm, where the Stirling brothers grow, harvest and distil their own crops. This ‘field-to-bottle’ approach lies at the heart of Arbikie’s philosophy, one rooted in provenance, craft and care for the environment.

That commitment was recently recognised when Arbikie became Scotland’s 100th certified B Corporation, joining a global community of businesses that balance profit with purpose. For the team, this accreditation reflects years of work towards reducing waste, conserving energy and nurturing biodiversity across the estate. It’s a milestone that sets Arbikie apart as one of the most sustainable distilleries operating today.

Sustainability here doesn’t come at the expense of innovation or flavour. Arbikie’s pioneering Nàdar gin and vodka are the world’s first climate-positive spirits, each with a carbon footprint that’s actually below zero. Distilled

from homegrown peas, they’re a striking example of how science and sustainability can combine to create something unique and delicious.

The distillery’s flagship Highland Rye Whisky is also making waves. Scotland’s first rye whisky, it’s a single-grain, singleestate whisky that captures the spice and character of the crop grown just outside the still house. Arbikie’s single malt, still maturing, promises to continue this tradition of quality.

From experimental spirits to distinctive whiskies, Arbikie represents a new generation of Scottish distilling, one that looks to the future while staying true to its roots. By keeping everything on the farm, Arbikie offers a rare transparency in how its drinks are made.

Whether you’re discovering Nàdar for the first time or savouring a dram of Highland Rye, each bottle tells the same story: delicious, sustainable spirits. Find out more at arbikie.com

first writes

In this Q&A, we throw some questions about ‘firsts’ at debut authors. Our subject here is Anna Maloney, author of The 10:12, a thriller about the consequences for one woman of fighting back when her train is hijacked by a group of armed men

What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? The most memorable was The Hound Of The Baskervilles. One of my brothers borrowed it from the library when I had chickenpox aged about eight. I loved the story, the oldfashioned language and that I enjoyed what I understood was an adult book. Plus it stopped me scratching.

What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer?

Reading Graham Greene as a teenager made me dream of being a foreign correspondent, braving war zones. That didn’t happen but it led me towards writing, initially as editorial assistant on an office equipment magazine.

What’s your favourite first line in a book? ‘First, I got myself born,’ [from Demon Copperhead]. You’re off into a brilliant story with a distinctive narrative voice thanks to Barbara Kingsolver. Also: ‘It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen,’ [from Nineteen Eighty-Four]. Orwell sets out his table so well

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you?

City Of Bohane by Kevin Barry was inspiring. Be bold, be ambitious! Historically, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers On A Train already reveals a fascinating writer. Reacher’s first outing, The Killing Floor [by Lee Child], was a big statement and Tana French’s In The Woods: an exciting new voice.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? Try not to think too much about the state of the world, have a coffee and chat, possibly a swim, and finally to the desk with another large coffee.

What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? Tackle a few of the chores I’m trying to avoid.

In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? Probably Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which is about burning books and ultimately why it’s wrong. Ironic that the novel itself has been banned and censored at various times.

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Be prepared: to fail and to get better.

The 10:12 is published by Raven Books on Thursday 29 January.

TV

AMADEUS

Since emerging in 2011 with his directorial debut Black Pond, Will Sharpe has played a series of likeable curiosities and engaging oddities in TV shows such as Giri/Haji, The White Lotus and Too Much. For the first time since taking on the role of a young Isaac Newton while at the Royal Shakespeare Company in his early 20s, Sharpe is getting into the mindset and crawling under the skin of a historical household name. Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus was turned into a big-screen hit in 1984 but this mini-series takes another stab at capturing the notorious rivalry between Mozart (Sharpe) and Salieri (Paul Bettany) who are initially brought together via a German soprano Constanze Weber (Gabrielle Creevy) who will eventually become Wolfgang’s wife. The drama is part of a Mozart season on Sky Arts which also features Mozart’s Women: A Musical Journey which analyses the complex heroines at the heart of his classic operas and is hosted by Lauren Laverne; Mozart: Genius For Hire explores how he defied tradition to compose, teach and perform on his own terms; and Mozart’s Sister gives a voice to Maria Anna, also a child prodigy, who continued writing music which her brother praised highly. This documentary investigates what happened to her work and considers whether she was in fact the true genius of the family. (Brian Donaldson)  Available on Sky Atlantic from Sunday 21 December.

Catch Up

Helping get you through the festive season, Claire Sawers checks out some new TV offerings featuring a messed-up mix of deranged mannys, forbidden love, sociopathic thrills and sex addiction

Christmas comes early for X-Files fans, as Mulder and Scully grace our screens again. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson pop up separately in quality dramas: Malice (Prime Video), where a vindictive manny terrorises a rich family, and Trespasses (Channel 4), a portrayal of star-crossed lovers during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

In the moreish Malice, Duchovny plays loaded venture capitalist and toughlove parent Jamie Tanner opposite comedian Jack Whitehall, who pivots into playing villainous Adam Healey, an obsequious yet sinister live-in nanny. ‘Does anyone really know anyone?’, a Greek cop asks Tanner’s wife (played by impeccably cool Carice van Houten, with matching chic wardrobe) as she holidays at their Mediterranean villa. Whitehall is adept at appearing surface normcore, while making twisted attempts to blow up Tanner’s entire life or nonchalantly watching porn in hipster cafés. A privileged London existence of members clubs and boardrooms provides the glossy backdrop for Tanner’s growing paranoia and Healey’s growing danger.

Megababe Anderson shines brightly in every scene of the gripping Trespasses. She plays Gina, the elegant yet gin-soaked, kind-hearted mother to Cushla, acted by steely Lola Petticrew, navigating similar subject matter to last year’s Say Nothing. Set in 1970s Northern Ireland, Catholic Cushla falls for controversial Protestant barrister Michael Agnew. Suffocated at home caring for her alcoholic mum, the mix of Agnew’s noble sophistication and clandestine knee tremblers proves intoxicating for Cushla. Flared and muttonchopped styling nails the period, while language of ‘Taigs’, peelers and Diplock courts zooms back into an intensely charged, violent political era where Agnew believes police brutality is leading many young men into terrorism. Louise Kennedy’s debut novel is adapted into a moving, thwarted love story, where allegiances are complex and many good deeds go punished.

Just as Gina’s alcoholism in Trespasses is turbocharged by grief, Claire Danes plays a hyper-anxious mother tormented by the death of her son in The Beast In Me (Netflix). Bestselling author Agatha Wiggs forms an unlikely bond with the suspected killer who moves in next door to her isolated mansion in the woods. That central detail never quite clicks: would this intelligent woman really be lonely enough to start following chilling sociopath Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys) onto empty skyscraper construction sites after dark? Still, Gabe Rotter’s script explores those dark human urges (greed, revenge, cruelty) against a smart backdrop of Manhattan real estate sharks and grassroots gentrification protestors. The complex tangle of dirty money and corruption mingles well with creepy jumpscares in this tense cat-and-mouse thriller featuring many rats. Matt Smith, who has memorably portrayed the likes of Doctor Who and Prince Philip, plays a loathsome lothario in The Death Of Bunny Munro (Sky Atlantic), a TV adaptation of Nick Cave’s 2009 novel about a callous sex addict. Rafael Mathé is remarkable as the sweetly trusting son, tagging along on his beauty salesman dad’s attempts to shag and swindle. Smith swaggers on a tawdry tightrope between bravado and evil with the show frontloaded with much child neglect, misogyny and thuggery before there is any hint of a reckoning. A dark, uncomfortable but astute study of male demons and whether they can be slayed. 

Angels and demons (from top): Malice, Trespasses, The Beast In Me, The Death Of Bunny Munro

PODCASTS THE COMEDY BUREAU (DoubLexx Productions) lllll

One of UK comedy’s nerdier acts, with an infectious passion for her vocation, stand-up Laura Lexx has created The Comedy Bureau

An academically inclined but accessible podcast, alongside her former university tutor, Dr Oliver Double, she discusses the history and theories behind comedy. At a time when the artform is keeping theatres open but struggling for government recognition and financial support, this is a fond exploration that demands laughter be taken seriously. Equally, it respects comedy’s mystery and magic, never dissecting the metaphorical frog so strenuously that it dies.

From their efforts to identify the first comedian to tackling more modern concerns such as cancel culture, the episodes find the exceptionally well-versed Double (a sometime stand-up with roots in the 1979 emergence of alternative comedy and great reverence for the pioneers of music hall and vaudeville) summoning convincing historical evidence for his arguments. Meanwhile, Lexx establishes a through-line from earlier comics to her own career and that of her peers, highlighting the correspondences and differences.

Although a useful primer for legendary figures such as Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and Max Miller, the podcast also introduces largely forgotten acts, such as erstwhile radio mainstay Suzette Tarri. Ideas about the essence and importance of comedy are weighed up, from such disparate thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Arthur Koestler and Plato, while Howard Jacobson’s advocacy for the social benefits of Bernard Manning’s racism needs to be heard to be believed.

There’s a collegiate aspect to the pod, with the hosts invariably in agreement and never departing too far from their tutorial format. But Lexx is always quick to ask Double to expand upon the more esoteric or unlikely seeming theories when required. (Jay Richardson) n New episodes available every Thursday.

ALBUMS DRY CLEANING

Secret Love (4AD) lllll

In June 2024, south London post-punk absurdists Dry Cleaning took to the stage at Solid Sound, a Chicago festival run by native rock royalty Wilco. Keen to get to work on album three, the band waived their appearance fee for the gig, opting instead to trade their wage for time at Wilco’s iconic studio, The Loft. Written during the frenzied 2024 US presidential election, Secret Love is lined with neatly concealed political commentary, dry wit and vocalist Florence Shaw’s enchanting spoken-word delivery.

The campaign for album three opened with what may be the band’s strongest work to date in ‘Hit My Head All Day’, a catchy, six-minute long piece on which Shaw despairs at the manipulative nature of the politically charged social media content she witnessed during that election. Produced by Cate Le Bon, the project continues on a gritty note, a reflection of the bleak political backdrop against which the album was written. Such abrasiveness is evidenced by the instrumental backing on ‘Rocks’ and the repeated drone of the phrase ‘I don’t give a fuck’ on ‘My Soul/Half Pint’. On ‘Evil Evil Idiot’, Shaw sounds as though she is trying to appease her Scottish listeners as she speaks of her fondness for well-fired rolls over a dingy instrumental.

Conversely, Secret Love also boasts a collection of gentle, melodic offerings. Shaw creates an atmosphere of surrealist romanticism with ‘I Need You’, on which she pines for a partner to scoop her out of a talcum powder box. On the blissfully arresting ‘Let Me Grow And You’ll See The Fruit’, feelings of inadequacy are grappled with over a soothing brass backing. The closer, ‘Joy’, leaves listeners with a powerful parting message for dealing with an increasingly toxic world: ‘Don’t give up on being sweet.’ (Danny Munro) n Released on Friday 9 January.

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BOOKS

LOUISE WELSH

The Cut Up (Canongate)

Louise Welsh made Rilke’s fans wait 20 years between his first and second outing, so the appearance of a third (and potentially final) book starring everyone’s favourite cadaverous auctioneer, a mere three years on, is a bit of a treat. If the OG is still on your bookshelf, it’s well worth a re-read: Rilke’s turn of the century Glasgow is a bleak place, teeming with forgotten details such as paperback A–Zs, porn on VHS and a Finnieston haunted by hustlers and hucksters rather than hipsters and hedonists. Seeing Rilke fit into a changed world is part of the charm; whether he’s Just Eating bacon rolls, derision dripping like brown sauce, or musing about queer representation, Rilke is not as old-fashioned as his clothes, job and reliance on cash would suggest. Yet the story begins where it always does: at Bowery Auctions, with a murder on the doorstep.

Rilke books are always part appraisal, part love letter to Glasgow; the city is as much part of the action as Rose, Les and the rest. This time though, Rilke’s ire feels wider; abusers are ‘as sly as privilege’ and while the utterly urban auctioneer isn’t very good at tree-spotting, he knows a tax-dodging conifer plantation when he sees one. But his friendships drive the action as much as the crime or procedural elements. Rilke’s eventual acceptance that no man is an island completes the trilogy’s emotional arc beautifully, while solving the murder keeps both jeopardy and pace high.

ALBUMS JOHN DONEGAN TRIO Interfuse (Jayde Records)

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The ‘with special guest Richie Buckley’ subtitle confirms that Irish pianist John Donegan was pleasantly diverted from this album’s initial purpose. Following an enthusiastically received run of releases with his two sextets (one London-based, the other representing all corners of Ireland), Donegan decided to revisit his first inspiration, the piano trio. While recording with his Irish sextet, which includes Buckley, Donegan was drawn to continuing the musical conversations he and the saxophonist had enjoyed. Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk and Keith Jarrett’s trios are among Donegan’s influences, and you can hear those heroes in the music he’s created here with Buckley.

So, the opening ‘Blues Jive’, with its Monk-ish edge and appealing descending progression, is the first of a notably rewarding series of three quartet pieces that showcase Buckley’s wonderful fluency and superb solo building on tenor saxophone. There’s also a soprano saxophone and piano duet, ‘A Resolute Rose’, that points to the qualities Donegan admires in Buckley’s more lyrical side. Donegan’s granddaughter, who survived a serious illness in infancy, is the Rose of the title and the two musicians pay soulful, deeply felt tribute to her.

Elsewhere the mood is buoyant. Donegan, bassist Bernard O’Neill and drummer John Daly swing ‘A Kite For Kate’ in joyful uptempo waltz time. ‘Rumba De Ciudad’ features the trio in Cuban dance mode and Donegan in the same effusive, expansive form that he brings to the lovely solo piano interlude, ‘Song For Ciara’. (Rob Adams)  Released on Friday 5 December.

It’s a heady combination and all praise to Welsh, who clearly has no truck with the idea that fiction should fit into neat little boxes. Fans will gobble this up, though any newcomers would be well-advised to start at the beginning. Either way, anyone who loves a bit of genre-busting black-as-night crime fiction will be delighted to accompany Rilke and co through Glasgow’s soft underbelly. (Jo Laidlaw)

 Published on Thursday 29 January.

PREVIEW OF 2026

Another year and another fresh batch of albums, books, games and TV shows to somehow keep track of. So where to begin? Here’s a list of 26 top titles including a new album that was written half a century ago, a literary gem from a Scottish Booker winner, a (very) long-awaited blockbuster games release and another comedy series from the creator of Derry Girls

ALBUMS

ROBBIE WILLIAMS

Britpop is the 13th solo album from Robbie, and he insists that he’s upped both the guitar quotient (Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi is on it) and the anthemic dial. n Columbia, February.

NICKI MINAJ

The release date and name of Minaj’s new album have gone through quite an epic journey, but it seems she has finally settled on it being called Pink Friday 3. Sure it will be worth the wait.

n Republic, March.

SQUEEZE

Trixies may be a new album from the classic elegantpop squad but it could have been their first, given it was conceived and written by Difford and Tilbrook back in their teenage years.

n BMG, March.

GORILLAZ

The first album to be released by this virtual band on their own label, it features a cacophony of posthumous appearances form Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, Tony Allen and Mark E Smith. n Kong Records, March.

LADYTRON

Some people find it hard enough to encounter one of them, but electronic pop troupe Ladytron are doubling their money with Paradises, their eighth album, which they’ve dubbed as ‘sleek, romantic, urgent, psychic.’

n Nettwerk, March.

TIGA

HotLife is the Montreal-born DJ and producer’s first studio album in a decade and includes collaborations with Boys Noize, Fcukers, MRD and Maara. He’s calling it ‘the best album I have ever made’: a classic ploy but he’s perfectly entitled to do so.

n Turbo Recordings, April.

MELANIE C

Having sampled ‘Work That Body’ by Diana Ross on her latest single, ‘Sweat’, the former Spice Girl known as Sporty is setting out her stall for a new album of the same name. She just wants people to have fun and a dance. Nothing wrong with that, probably. n Virgin, May.

TORI AMOS

The cornflake girl’s upcoming collection is In Times Of Dragons, which she describes as being about the current struggle in the US between freedom and tyranny and the ‘non-accidental burning down of democracy in real time’. Fair to say she’s not a fan of Trumpy then. n Fontana, spring.

SOFT CELL

More than just a twinge of sadness will be felt by those listening to Danceteria given it was completed just days before the death in October of Dave Ball, collaborator for more than four decades with frontman Marc Almond. The first Soft Cell release in four years, its influence is firmly rooted in the 80s New York club scene.

n Republic Of Music, spring.

BOOKS

BERYL BAINBRIDGE

The late great English writer is the subject of a major re-issue campaign with all 13 of her books coming out gradually. First up are The Bottle Factory Outing and An Awfully Big Adventure, both of which were nominated for the Booker Prize on their original release in 1974 and 1990 respectively.

n Daunt Books, March.

BRANDON TAYLOR

Minor Black Figures is set over a hot summer in New York as a painter falls for a priest. A modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted author who has been dubbed ‘the most accomplished, important novelist of his generation’. You’d be putting that on your CV.

n Vintage, March.

DOUGLAS STUART

From the author of blockbuster smash Shuggie Bain and super follow-up Young Mungo comes John Of John, as a penniless art-school graduate returns to his Isle Of Harris home, tail between his legs to resume his old life. A recipe for disaster, as you can imagine.

n Picador, May.

MAGGIE O’FARRELL

A big year for the beloved Northern Ireland-born author with Hamnet making it to the big screen, while Land is her new tome, an evocative exploration of family and identity in mid-19th century Ireland.

n Tinder Press, June.

Trixies by Squeeze and Maggie O’Farrell

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TENDITNA

FRANK COTTRELL-BOYCE

A British Childhood: How Our Children Live Now is a non-fiction work from the Children’s Laureate which, unsurprisingly, will pretty much lay out what it promises to do in its title n Picador, June.

GAMES RESIDENT EVIL REQUIEM

The ninth main game in this survival-horror standard, it features a new protagonist, FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, who is dispatched to investigate a series of mysterious deaths at a hotel. Wouldn’t go anywhere near there if we were her, but that’s not how this works. n Capcom, February.

007 FIRST LIGHT

Not before time are we getting James Bond’s origin story as this action-adventure affair plays out how he earned his licence to kill. We meet him as a rookie MI6 agent about to launch into a life-altering mission. Among those doing voices are Gemma Chan, Lennie James and Alastair Mackenzie while Patrick Gibson plays Bond.

n IO Interactive, March.

GRAND THEFT AUTO VI

This release has had more delays than (insert name of least favourite travel operator) but late 2026 seems pretty locked in (for now). What we definitely know is that it’ll be set in Leonida (a fictional US state based on Florida) and a modern-day version of the Miami-inspired Vice City n Rockstar Games, November.

FABLE

PREVIEW OF 2026

Full details of this latest instalment of the fantasy-action RPG have largely been kept under wraps but the trailer features a fairy moving gently through an idyllic forest before suddenly getting eaten by a huge toad.

Mood duly set.

n Xbox Game Studios, month tbc.

TV

HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST

Derry Girls’ creator Lisa McGee is back with a strong cast for her new show: Michelle Fairley, Ardal O’Hanlon, Sinéad Keenan and Roisin Gallagher among them. The synopsis: three friends investigate the mysterious death of an old school pal. n Netflix, February.

CALIFORNIA AVENUE

Set in a secluded canal-side caravan park deep in the English countryside, its peace is irrevocably disrupted by the arrival of Lela (Erin Doherty) and her 11-year-old child, both on the run, looking for refuge. Also starring in Hugo Blick’s latest drama are Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy and Tom Burke. n BBC, month tbc.

SOMETHING VERY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN

With Stranger Things about to reach its conclusion, the Duffer Brothers were clearly in succession planning mode for some time as their new show is imminent. An atmospheric horror series (you could have guessed that), it’s set in the run-up to a wedding (less predictable).

n Netflix, month tbc.

PARADISE

Arguably a show that has floated under the radar but a second season might bring it wider recognition. A political thriller created by Dan Fogelman, it stars the always brilliant Sterling K Brown as a US secret service agent trying to find out who killed the president.

n Disney+, month tbc.

BLACK DOVES

Keira Knightley’s character is still keeping a whole sack of secrets as this fun thriller series returns. Ambika Mod and Sam Riley add to an already fabulous cast. n Netflix, month tbc.

A TALES OF TWO CITIES

About time we had a new adaptation of Dickens’ classic, right? Kit Harington, François Civil and Scotland’s Mirren Mack lead this four-parter. n BBC, month tbc.

SHOGUN

Certainly not a show that you could say floated under any radars given its impressive haul at the Emmys and general rave reviews for its opening batch of episodes. Will it keep the glory going or is second-season syndrome about to strike?

n Disney+, month tbc.

THE MINIATURE WIFE

Matthew Macfadyen and Elizabeth Banks play a married couple constantly battling for supremacy in their relationship, reaching a weird crossroads after a technological accident. That’s right, Banks is accidentally shrunk (not based on a true story).

n Netflix, month tbc.

007 First Light and Black Doves

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THE Q& A WITH MADDIE GRACE JEPSON

Actor, red carpet host and social media sensation (she’s got over two million digital followers), Maddie Grace Jepson is taking a break from playing Marty McFly’s mum Lorraine in the West End musical of Back To The Future to head out on the road with her own live show. She tackles our hard hitting Q&A and talks scrunchie success, laundry laziness and her dream holiday playmate

Who would you like to see playing you in the movie about your life? Who do you think the casting people would choose? I genuinely do not know anyone famous who could portray me in a film . . . I’m sure there are plenty of normal people who do an amazing impression of me but no one in the public eye. They might have to be undiscovered talent.

What’s the punchline to your favourite joke? ‘She gave me a hug.’

If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? A cat, most definitely. I actually think I was a cat in a past life.

If you were playing in an escape room, name two other people (well-known or otherwise) you’d recruit to help you get out? I’d ask Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry. Honestly no explanation needed. I think with that duo, we could survive anything thrown our way.

When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else and what were the circumstances? I don’t often get mistaken for someone else but whenever I come out of stage door, no one ever knows I just played Lorraine. So I’m always like ‘hey, do you want me to sign that?’ And they’re like ‘oh, um, no thank you,’ because they don’t recognise me.

What’s the best cover version ever? It has to be ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston. No doubt about it. Sorry Dolly.

Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? Has to be David Attenborough, doesn’t it?

Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? That the thing I was being picked on and bullied for was my superpower and the reason I would be successful in life. I wish I had embraced fully my confident, silly, funny side sooner.

Describe your perfect Saturday evening? Having friends over to my flat to have wine and a takeaway in our comfies whilst catching up on life and laughing non-stop.

What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? Playing the piano. Ugh. I’m so upset I never learned as a child! I’m in awe of pianists.

If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? My ex situationship.

If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? Probably the day I made my West End debut in Back To The Future Or when I hosted the carpet for Wicked: For Good. Two of the most incredible days.

What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? I used to do a lot of gymnastics, so I remember at five years old I was the first person in my team to do a backflip with no support. I won a little book and scrunchie for that.

Did you have a nickname at school that you were ok with? And can you tell us a nickname you hated? I was always Mads at school. But then I would also be Jeppers. I wasn’t so much a fan of that one, especially in the Somerset accent, but it could have been worse.

If you were to start a tribute act to a band or singer, who would it be in tribute to and what would it be called? Probably would do a tribute to Christina Aguilera and I’d call it Best Tribute Act Of Christina Aguilera To Ever Exist In The World Ever.

When were you most recently astonished by something? I was completely astonished by Cynthia Erivo’s talent in the new Wicked film. She takes my breath away.

When did you last cry? Yesterday! After hosting the carpet for Wicked. Bawling!

What tune do you find it impossible not to get up and dance to, whether in public or private? ‘Crazy In Love’ by Beyoncé. That is MY SONGGGGG.

Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? Maybe Ariana Grande. She’s a theatre kid, I’m a theatre kid. She’s funny, I’m funny. I think we’d get along like a house on fire and have the best time.

As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact? I’ve had little girls tell me that I’ve inspired them to keep being silly and weird and not listen to the mean boys who might make them feel like they can’t be. That means the world to me.

Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? Probably that I’m actually very introverted and private. I find large crowds to be overwhelming and often run home to get into my PJs and watch Real Housewives. Oh and I’m very emotional. I’m a crier.

What’s the most hi-tech item in your home? I’m not a very techy person to be honest. Maybe my Nintendo Switch?

By decree of your local council, you’ve been ordered to destroy one room in your house and all of its contents. Which room do you choose? Oh gosh. Maybe my laundry room? It’s just such a mess all the time and it’s so over-stimulating. Get rid.

If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your first luxury destination for espionage? I’d probably head to a quiet, remote private island in Thailand . . . white sands and turquoise oceans. Oh yes.

Maddie Grace Jepson plays Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 28 January; check out her latest musings on TikTok and Instagram @maddiegracejepson.

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No Other Choice, South Korea’s official Oscars entry, has been hailed as director Park Chan-wook’s finest moment. Given he’s the guy who gave us Oldboy and Decision To Leave, that’s quite a claim. Released in January, this satirical gut punch revolves around a desperate man taking extreme measures to secure a job he covets.

As part of the city’s 850th anniversary celebrations, Angus Farquhar’s Aproxima art collective have re-awakened an ancient well in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral. As well as creating a new mosaic down there, concerts with music by Karine Polwart and Claire M Singer plus narration from Gary Lewis take place there on 5 & 6 December.

If the 50-year-old TV version is a gauge, pulses will race and frustrations might boil as Fawlty Towers reaches the Edinburgh Playhouse stage in January. And that’s just the audience. An air of melancholy may also fill the room given the recent death of Prunella Scales, who was perfection exemplified as the long-suffering Sybil.