Film
Luna Cinema
Chosen by Carol Morley, film-maker
I’m really looking forward to Luna Cinema, which will be hosting outdoor and drive-in cinemas all around the UK, showing old films such as Singin’ in the Rain, Sister Act, Cool Runnings and newer films such as Rocketman and Joker. Growing up seeing depictions of drive-in cinemas in American movies always made me long to go to one, and as an adult the first time I did, it didn’t disappoint. There is a freedom, a frisson – a sense of joy in watching a film outside with others.
This summer I will be finishing up my screenplay Typist Artist Pirate King, inspired by the life of overlooked artist Audrey Amiss. Recently, on a walk in the City of London, I stumbled upon Gift of Cain – a brilliant statue by Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay that commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. It has inspired me to do a lot more discovering in London this summer – no passport required.
TV
Mandy, BBC Two (August)
Chosen by Daisy Haggard, writer/actor
I can’t wait to see Mandy by the excellent Diane Morgan (of Philomena Cunk and Motherland fame). She always makes me giggle in everything she does, and as she wrote, directed and stars in this – it’ll be brilliant. David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures) always makes me think of summer. That and any image of Greece – any postcard, calendar, tacky magnet. I’m obsessed with Greece so it triggers deep summer holiday excitement and I want to eat a tomato in my bikini immediately. This summer I am finishing writing the next series of Back to Life, then filming the second series of Breeders, but if I can somehow safely leave my house and jump in the sea, I will. I long for a good swim.
Art
Otobong Nkanga, MIMA
Chosen by Frances Morris, director, Tate Modern
Galleries are only just beginning to confirm their reopening dates, and Otobong Nkanga’s show From Where I Stand is the one I’m particularly looking out for. It began at Tate St Ives last year and had only just opened at Middlesbrough’s MIMA when lockdown began. Nkanga addresses the politics of the body and the land simultaneously, connecting very human histories and struggles with those of the earth itself. The work is also beautiful as well as thought-provoking, from exquisite tapestries and drawings to atmospheric performances, and it really has to be appreciated in person. We have a display at Tate Modern curated around the theme of colour, which I can’t wait to see again after all these months away from the gallery. It contains a vast kaleidoscopic Fahrelnissa Zeid painting, full of bright greens and blues, which almost seems to glow like a stained glass window.
Classical music
BBC Proms
Chosen by Anna Patalong, soprano
Although one of the most magical ingredients – “the roar of the crowd” – still has to be on the other side of a computer screen, it is so important to see artists creating again in a live environment. The BBC Proms are valiantly adapting their season [which includes a world-premiere mashup of Beethoven’s nine symphonies], rather than cancelling it, and I will be intrigued to see how they tackle it. I still remember the first Prom I attended, well before I knew anything about opera. My dad and I queued for hours on one of the hottest days of the year and bought our £5 tickets for the Verdi Requiem. I remember the floor shaking beneath my feet. I was immediately hooked! At home, this summer’s soundtrack is undoubtedly Frozen II, which my three-year-old daughter is obsessed with. I long for some bucolic, summery Debussy!
I’m also very excited about the release of my first ever CD – Alwyn’s Miss Julie (Chandos) – which I recorded last year with the conductor Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and, rather unexpectedly, my husband, Benedict Nelson. Ben wasn’t initially meant to be involved but stepped in last minute. It’s our first ever opera together as professionals.
Theatre
Hamilton, Disney+
Chosen by Lynette Linton, artistic director, Bush theatre
I love Disney+ so much… it’s been really keeping me going! And now Hamilton with the original Broadway cast has come to the service. Hamilton is one of the best things I’ve seen in years. It’s stunning. The London cast were exceptional, but I’m looking forward to seeing the originals and how the show translates to screen. I am very proud to say that I know every word to every song. I will be playing the soundtrack loudly throughout the summer too. Here at the Bush we’re working hard to get our doors open as soon as we can. In a few weeks I hope to be working with our community partners to be useful within our local area – with a particular focus on developing young people’s creativity.
Music
Meat Rack documentary
Chosen by The Black Madonna, DJ (AKA Marea Stamper)
I can’t wait to see this new documentary about NYC Downlow, a pop-up club inside Block9 at Glastonbury that is – for its short existence – always the best club on the planet. The Downlow has been such a part of my life. I have made a lot of dear friends there and I danced my ass off. It’s going to hurt to watch, but it will also make me feel warm and fuzzy. As we speak I’m living vicariously through all the Glastonbury sets that are popping up, as so many of us communally long to be out in that field with mud on our boots. Weirdly, horror movies are one of my summer touchstones. I spent a lot of my young life in the summer soaking up ice-cold air conditioning and seeing horror movies with my dad.
We watched a lot of stuff that was wildly inappropriate for a kid, but I turned out OK. I would give anything to be in a dark, cold theatre with him, a Dr Pepper, Raisinets [classic movie snack] and something on the screen that makes me shriek. There’s an upside to everything – I’m growing tomatoes in lockdown because that’s what country girls do when they get old. I’m gonna have to give them to my neighbours. No one could eat the number of tomatoes I’m growing. Either that or I’ll blend them up and make spiked gazpacho like Carmen Maura in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
TV
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Sky Crime/Now TV (late August)
Chosen by Lucy Prebble, writer/producer (Succession, A Very Expensive Poison)
Well, of course I want to pick I Hate Suzie, the show I’ve created with my best friend, Billie Piper. But I’m also hugely excited for I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, the HBO/Sky docuseries about the Golden State Killer based on Michelle McNamara’s dark and dazzling book. It’s a horrifying story, with an ending that Michelle never lived to see. I am fascinated by things that frighten me. I love it when true crime is done well and respectfully, rather than thrashed out trashily, and HBO are the masters of doing it properly. The Before Sunrise trilogy by Richard Linklater always makes me think of summers gone by and lovers, missed and taken, but this summer I’ll be doing post-production on I Hate Suzie and mostly trying not to perish in a pandemic, or to cause others to perish in a pandemic.
Opera
ENO’s Live La Bohème (19-27 September)
Chosen by Suba Das, artistic director, HighTide festival
I was hugely impressed that, for a form so often seen as our dustiest, ENO got out there first back in April, thinking about how live performance could adapt for the era of social distancing. Their Drive & Live La Bohème at Alexandra Palace in north London is a cut-down 90-minute version of the opera that will be staged as a drive-in experience for punters in cars and on motorbikes with – we’re told – a cast of brilliant young singers. It should reintroduce an element of punk to a tale of struggling Parisian artists inventing their own rules, and it’s going to be amazing to hear a live orchestra again!
Of course, it won’t be the same, but the performing arts across the board need to embrace innovation – too much of the conversation so far has felt like a plea for a state of suspended animation until “normal” can be restored. During lockdown I’ve been enjoying the frankly extraordinary reboot of Dynasty on Netflix (which somehow manages to be simultaneously trashy and hyper-woke). And work-wise, HighTide launched its “Lighthouse Programme” in the first week, as we were profoundly concerned that it is our most marginalised voices who we risk losing first through the sheer economic uncertainty of these times. To date we’ve supported more than 150 writers with commissions, free training, script reading and mentorship. We want to show our artists and audiences we’re here for them now, and for the long term.
Comedy
Jessica Fostekew, Next Up festival (7 July)
Chosen by Tim Key, standup poet, actor and writer
Jessica Fostekew was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy award last summer. She’s funny as hell. She’s doing a gig as part of Next Up’s online festival, which I’ll be watching. You have to support online gigs because our industry is currently buggerooed! Jess and John Kearns were my favourite shows at Edinburgh last year. Both are powerful, distinctive voices on the live circuit, envied by peers. John’s got a comedy album coming out on vinyl, a recording of his Edinburgh show. It’s fantastic. Workwise this summer I am continuing to reinvent myself as a writer because doing 10 minutes as a dishevelled poet figure in front of 100 people looks unlikely for a bit. Leisurewise, I have a barbecue and a hammock and I know an off-licence and a back-up off-licence.
Tim Key’s Poetical Playing Cards, Utter and Press (£15)
Architecture
Central Somers Town, Camden, north London
Chosen by Cathy Hawley, winner of Stirling prize 2019
I will be swimming as much as possible in rivers, lakes and the sea this summer – and missing the joy of live music at festivals, but I can’t wait to visit this small community housing project by Adam Khan Architects that is close to completion. It is wonderfully expressive architecture, designed with close community involvement, which sits alongside an existing park and consists of a small block of housing and a series of playrooms and courtyard gardens for the children. Well-considered provision for young people alongside new housing is vanishingly rare in development projects, and this modestly scaled but sophisticated and generous architecture achieved in one of London’s least privileged neighbourhoods is so heartening to see.
Books
The Harpy by Megan Hunter (3 September)
Chosen by Evie Wyld, author and co-founder of Review bookshop in Peckham, south London
The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a short novel – told in Hunter’s restrained and beautiful style – about a woman who is a wife and a mother, and who has discovered her husband’s affair and starts to turn into an actual harpy. Hunter hits so many different notes of rage in the book; I’m rooting for the protagonist the whole way through, as she rips her life to shreds. When the weather is really hot, I think about Prince’s album Parade. I spent a summer cleaning toilets around Bondi beach and this was one of the only tapes I had. This summer I’m planning on catching up on all the stuff I should have read over the past few years and revisiting some childhood favourites with my son. I’d also like to do something physical, like dig a big hole or move some rocks about.
Music
The Chicks’ new album, Gaslighter (17 July)
Chosen by Nadine Shah, singer-songwriter
The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) have a new album coming out this July. If their new single, March March, is anything to go by, it’s going to be a corker. A politically fuelled one too: “We want to meet this moment,” they said, before releasing it. The video featured images from protests over women’s rights, gay rights, environmental rights and Black Lives Matter. [US commentator] Bill O’Reilly once said they should be “slapped around” for criticising George W Bush in London on the eve of the Iraq war. I was a fan from that moment on! The Chicks are class. I’m excited to be doing more of my Instagram series, Payback, in which I interview music journalists, too. Q editor Ted Kessler is coming up next.
Theatre
The Bristol Balloon Fiesta (6-9 August)
Chosen by Tom Morris, artistic director, Bristol Old Vic
Imagine all of Bristol as a theatre, with perches and viewpoints from the tower at Temple Meads to south-facing slopes of Montpelier, from the escarpment of Totterdown to the rugged cliffs of the Clifton Gorge. Above is the safest performance space in Europe: the sky. And into that space, over a gorgeous August weekend, a magical slow-motion dance will gently unfold, performed by over 100 hot air balloons. The famous “night glows” are viewable in close-up at Ashton Court (if crowds are permitted). The daily ascents can be seen from the safest seats in any theatre – your own roof terrace, window, garden, park or pavement. There is nothing like a flight of hot air balloons to lift the human heart... and in these tormented times my imagination runs riot with the choreographic possibilities of this most gorgeous theatrical event.
Film
Make Up (31 July)
Chosen by Rose Garnett, director of BBC Films
Andrea Arnold’s American Honey always makes me feel summery. You can feel the heat of a long, hot summer in every shot. What a film, what a film-maker. I can’t wait to go back to the cinema – the pleasure of watching films with an audience, and of a space dedicated to presenting them in all their glory. Claire Oakley’s excellent debut film, Make Up, is a pioneer release as theatres reopen. Molly Windsor gives a charismatic central performance in a film that’s equal parts queer love story, realist drama, and thrilling body horror. Also, online, watch Fyzal Boulifa’s startling feature Lynn + Lucy. Both films play confidently with the tradition of British kitchen-sink naturalism, and yet feel fresh. As well as getting back to the cinema, I’ll be spending time this summer in Platonic Juices in Kentish Town, north London – a new space set up by a group of 18-year-olds (including my son) who were catapulted out of school to an uncertain future. I love its spirit and its energy.
Podcasts
Alan Partridge: From the Oasthouse (3 September)
Chosen by Chris Ramsey, comedian
The podcasting world will change for ever as it is injected with an epic dose of the legendary TV broadcasting powerhouse, the man himself, Mr Alan Partridge. I must have listened to the two audiobooks released by the legend about 50 times, so to be getting a new batch of audio Partridge is just a dream come true. The books, I Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan and Nomad, were, I’m sure, hilarious in print form, but having the man himself in your ears was the only way I was prepared to enjoy them… so I am very much looking forward to this podcast. The teaser episode is just out now and the entire series is released in one go on 3 September. JURASSIC PARK! Meanwhile, me and [my wife] Rosie will be kept busy this summer releasing weekly episodes of Sh**ged Married Annoyed.
Classical music
Salzburg festival, 1-30 August
Chosen by Daniel Harding, conductor
Summer music-making is irreplaceable and important for young and established musicians, as well as for audiences. This summer risks being barren and devastating for many, given the necessary measures being taken to keep people safe, and the seeming lack of urgency to protect our enormous cultural sector. A festival such as Salzburg, which recently published its ambitious, albeit reduced programme – including Elektra and Così fan tutte – gives us some hope. I suspect the most inspiring and meaningful events this summer will be the spontaneous ones that manage to flourish in the cracks where opportunity presents itself.
Musicians are adaptable and resourceful people, but that won’t be enough if a whole cultural sector is abandoned. My July and August will be mostly free, helping my orchestra in Sweden plan for the various possible scenarios we see in the autumn. I was supposed to be at work flying the Airbus A320 [Harding is also a pilot], which obviously isn’t happening, but I will have work to do to keep myself qualified and not lose my fluency.
As for the music that most reminds me of summer – Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, for the astonishing detail and accuracy of his recreation of nature in music. In that symphony we also spend time in flower-filled meadows, if that’s more your thing…
TV
Ramy, Starzplay (starts 6 August)
Chosen by Ash Atalla, TV producer (The Office, Stath Lets Flats)
My choice is season two of the Hulu series Ramy – a sharp, culture-clash show about an Egyptian living in America not quite fitting in; it’s brilliant and awkward, how I like my comedy. I’m Egyptian myself and there aren’t many of us in television, so I’m supporting the homeland. Old-school Belle and Sebastian tracks are the sound of summer for me.
Floaty melodic guitars: perfect for a summer’s day. I’ll be spending the months ahead trying to figure out how to shoot TV shows in the post-Covid era. And as soon as cinemas open again, we’ll be audience-testing our new People Just Do Nothing movie, which is released next year.
Books
Féile an Phobail (Festival of the People), West Belfast
Chosen by Ronan Bennett, writer
This annual festival will have to go virtual this year, but among the events I’m looking forward to are Indian-Irish writer Cauvery Madhaven discussing her novel The Tainted, about the mutiny by the British Army’s Connaught Rangers in India in 1920, and singer-songwriter Imelda May reading her poem You Don’t Get to Be Racist and Irish (the title says it all). Local boy Adrian Dunbar – Line of Duty’s Superintendent Ted Hastings – will be reading poems by Seamus Heaney.
I’ve been going off and on to Féile for 25 years, sometimes to do readings and talks, but more often as a festival-goer. It is always lively, always fun. I will spend summer finishing the scripts for the new Netflix season of Top Boy – we were in pre-production when lockdown hit and had to put everything on ice – but have just started prep again and will start production in October. I’ve also been working on a novel, long overdue. Leisure has mostly been exercise and reading. Irene Vallejo’s extraordinary love letter to the book, El infinito en un junco, which will be appearing in translation soon, made the first weeks of lockdown almost enjoyable.
Art
Bold Tendencies, Peckham (opening late July)
Chosen by Zoé Whitley, curator, Chisenhale gallery
I’m looking forward to Bold Tendencies reopening in Peckham. I live in south-east London and am eager to support the new local adaptations of our cultural lives. Bold – housed in a former multistorey car park – has permanent works on its site by Richard Wentworth (Agora), Adel Abdessemed (Bristow), Simon Whybray (hi boo i love you), and the Derek Jarman Garden. They’ve also got new live and film interventions planned throughout the summer, as well as the continuation of Harold Offeh’s Hail the New Prophets. At Chisenhale we are gearing up for a safe public reopening in September, with a beautiful exhibition by Thao Nguyen Phan. I definitely associate summertime with listening to music outdoors. I was so looking forward to Green Man’s lineup this year between Sudan Archives, Thundercat and Michael Kiwanuka and am hopeful it will return next year. Our family have our GM 2021 tickets ready!
Film
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, BFI Player (16 July)
Chosen by Jason Wood, creative director of Home, Manchester
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is the film we need at the moment. It’s set during a blistering summer day, but also carries the message of the need for recognition and change. Of this summer’s new releases though, my pick is Salvador Simó’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles. An animated synthesis of fact and fiction, it tells the true story behind a fascinating episode in cinematic history, using excerpts from Buñuel’s filmography to present a deeply affecting portrait of an artist hunting for his purpose. It’s a gift to cinephiles and has wider family appeal. This is a purple patch for animated film-making, with Netflix having helped bring Studio Ghibli to new family audiences held captive together during lockdown.
Photography
Gordon Parks at Alison Jacques Gallery, London (until 1 August)
Chosen by Brett Rogers, director, Photographers’ Gallery
I can’t think of a more timely and resonant show to see now than this exhibition of defining work from American photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006). The intimate, often serene images within his series Segregation in the South (1956) and Black Muslims (1963) illustrate Parks’s interest in producing photographs that would create meaningful change: “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism and all sorts of social wrongs.”
Summer plus photography usually means only one thing to me – the Arles photography festival in France. Instead, I will be hanging out in King’s Cross, London, where from mid-July the Photographers’ Gallery presents a new photographic exhibition, Games We Play, as part of Outside Art Project, a free open-air exhibition of photographic works. You can discover work by Julie Cockburn, Luke Stephenson and Weronika Gesicka, which will intrigue, amuse and unsettle.
Books
There Will Always Be Nights Like This, short story collection
Chosen by Sharmaine Lovegrove, publisher, Dialogue Books
My family and I are going to Berlin this summer and so I can imagine we’ll be heading to lakes just outside of the city with a hotdog and beer in hand and books in my tote. I’m really looking forward to cracking the spine of the first short story collection by new queer-identified indie press Cipher There Will Always Be Nights Like This. Reading is such an essential activity to build empathy and understanding of the world. I will be publishing award-winning titles from North America: The Residue Years by Mitchell S Jackson, Reproduction by Ian Williams and a wonderful short story collection, Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid Benta.
Music
Sun Ra Arkestra album, Strut records
Chosen by Gilles Peterson, DJ and label boss
Sun Ra Arkestra have just announced a new album to be released in the coming weeks. Last year I saw the band perform several times and can honestly say they are among the greatest in the world. They are led by Marshall Allen, who at 96 has never been more vital and relevant. He still lives in the Sun Ra house in Germantown Philadelphia with many members of the band, including Knoel Scott.
The album was recorded and mixed by Dill Harris who has also been at the forefront of so much interesting British music, including King Krule and Sons of Kemet. The festival I run, Way Out Here, was supposed to happen 17-19 August, but instead we will be broadcasting live performances (and films and talks) on two radio stations and online. Some of my favourite musicians are confirmed, including Gogo Penguin, DJ Paulette, Theon Cross, Louie Vega, Mr Scruff and Colleen Murphy.
