Oasis, Charli XCX, Tom Cruise and a giant spider: 2025's cultural highlights
2025-01-01
Category: entertainment

Whether you want to know about some of the coming year's biggest gigs and festivals, or which books, films and TV shows are coming out, there should be something here for everyone.You can also discover 2025's key fashion trends, plus which theatre is reimagining Wayne and Coleen Rooney as mythical heroes - and why a giant spider is returning to London.
Music
Here they tautologically come, slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball.Yes, spectacular squabbling siblings Oasis are back after their 15-year huff, ready to go Supersonic all over again.The much-anticipated tour rocks into Cardiff's Principality Stadium on 4 July, and is set to be the comeback of the year.And a new generation of stars are stepping up to stadium headliner status. Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey will sashay into Wembley and Anfield this summer; while K-Pop band Stray Kids have booked two nights at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.Festival bills are getting a long overdue shake-up, too. Spain's Primavera has pulled a blinder, booking three of pop's biggest wavemakers - Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.Roan will also headline Reading and Leeds, while her friend and collaborator Olivia Rodrigo has booked her first headline slot at London's BST festival in Hyde Park, and Fontaines DC have a massive show at London's Finsbury Park in July (the announcement video is a must-see).Meanwhile, Coldplay have booked a record-breaking 10 night residency at Wembley Stadium, as well as two gigs in Hull’s Craven Park. Ten per cent of the proceeds will go to grassroots music venues across the UK. 
There's new music on the way from indie hero Sam Fender and brooding R&B icon The Weeknd, as well as a welcome return to pop from part-time actress Lady Gaga.Gaga's progenitor, Madonna, is also back in the studio with her Confessions On A Dancefloor partner Stuart Price; while the UK's biggest rapper, Central Cee, is gearing up to release his debut album in January.The first major event of the year (unless you're Drake) will be Kendrick Lamar headlining the Super Bowl half-time show in February. We'll also be watching the Grammy Awards, to find out whether they're prepared to snub Beyoncé in the best album category for a fifth time.The Brit Awards follow on 1 March. They should accept the inevitable now and rename the ceremony The Brats.What else? Glastonbury has booked Rod Stewart to play the legend slot, but the rest of the line-up is shrouded in mystery. And for rock fans, Leicestershire's Download Festival has an unassailable line-up: Green Day, KoRn, Weezer, Bullet For My Valentine, The Darkness and Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter.This year also marks the golden anniversary of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run - so expect a flurry of nostalgia for two of rock's most seminal works.It'll also be 25 years since Ronan Keating's Life Is A Rollercoaster topped the UK charts, but I bet that'll be brushed under the carpet.Typical.By Mark Savage
Film
Traditionally, January and the first half of February see a glut of Bafta and Oscar hopefuls being released, all hoping for glory as the climax of awards season approaches.This year, those films include Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as acclaimed opera singer Maria Callas; A Complete Unknown, in which Timothée Chalamet takes on the role of Bob Dylan; and A Real Pain, a tender story about two Jewish American cousins (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) visiting places in Poland associated with the Holocaust.There's also Hard Truths, directed by Mike Leigh and starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a depressed middle-aged woman. And September 5th looks at the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics through the eyes of a US sports broadcast team when a group of Israeli athletes and coaches are taken hostage by a Palestinian militant group. February will also see the return of Bridget Jones, with Renée Zellweger once again taking on the title role for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.
After - by its high standards - a hit-and-miss couple of years, Marvel is hoping for major success with Captain America: Brave New World, where Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson takes on the Cap America mantle; Thunderbolts, where a group of anti-heroes including Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova take on government missions; and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the titluar quartet of heroes.Director Danny Boyle, who directed 28 Days Later in 2002, returns to helm the third film in the series, 28 Years Later, which stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jack O'Connell.June and July will see franchise reboot Jurassic World Rebirth; the eighth Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible film, The Final Reckoning; John Wick spin-off Ballerina; and director James Gunn's new take on Superman. The summer will also bring Brad Pitt's Formula 1 action drama F1. Towards the of the year, the second Wicked movie, Wicked: For Good, will be released. And with the first two movies being among the biggest box office hits of all time, there's huge anticipation for director James Cameron's third Avatar film, Fire and Ash.By Lizo Mzimba
Television
In recent years, the first day of January has been when many broadcasters like to launch the shows they have particular hopes for. And 2025 is no different.New Year's Day sees Netflix releasing Missing You, about a police officer (Rosalind Eleazar) who finds her former fiance on a dating app. Netflix's last adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel was Fool Me Once, which was a monster hit - the second-biggest drama of 2024 on any channel.The same day also has the launch of the third series of BBC One's The Traitors, which has become one of TV's biggest entertainment hits. A few days later, Playing Nice begins on ITV1 - it's a drama starring James Norton and Niamh Algar as a couple who find that their child was switched at birth in a hospital mix-up.Netflix's two biggest shows ever will be returning in 2025. Wednesday, the Addams Family spin-off starring Jenna Ortega, will air its second series later in the year; while Stranger Things will say goodbye with its fifth and final series.There will be second helpings of a number of popular dramas including Tom Hiddleston spy drama The Night Manager, with Olivia Colman also back as Angela Burr; and video game adaptation The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
The stylish and slightly surreal The White Lotus is back for a third series in February. Following The House of the Dragon, a second Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, will once again take viewers to the fictional world of Westeros. Another spin-off - The War Between The Land and the Sea - comes from the Doctor Who universe, or Whoniverse. Nearly 40 years on from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, there will be two TV dramas based on the tragic events at Lockerbie in 1988. Sky Atlantic's Lockerbie: A Search for Truth stars Oscar winner Colin Firth as Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the disaster. Meanwhile, BBC One's Lockerbie will focus on the investigation into the crash and how it affected the families of those involved.And not for the first time, EastEnders will broadcast a live episode in February. But this time, viewers will decide the outcome of one particular storyline. It's all to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.By Lizo Mzimba 
Fashion
A coat and woolly hat may be the only fashion choices you're currently making, but fear not, something more exciting is just around the corner.Thanks to the way the fashion calendar works, we already know what looks are going to be in come spring time. Back in September and October, designers showcased their looks for those warmer months, and a few key trends emerged.One of them was very demure and mindful - think soft pastels, pussy bow blouses and pleats - as demonstrated by Chanel and Balenciaga.
And if you practically live in sportswear (whether you go to the gym in it is irrelevant), then the next trend is for you.Designers such as Loewe showed their racier side at fashion week - think stretchy materials and big brand logos that wouldn't look out of place on your favourite athlete.Minimalist, clean lines were a big part of autumn and winter looks, but maximum volume is in for 2025. Tutus, frills and tassels were all spotted on the runway - with Stella McCartney stealing the show with her asymmetric dresses in soft fabrics.Let's not forget the guys either - office wear was an aesthetic seen across Men's Fashion Week with Fendi's suit and tie combos one of the most memorable takes on this look.They were showcased in a selection of bright colours such as pale green, turquoise and peach - which looked great on the catwalk but may not be appropriate for the morning commute to work.By Annabel Rackham
Books
If your stocking was a little lacking in the literary department, there are plenty of bookish delights heading your way in 2025.The Hunger Games juggernaut is once again rolling into town - Suzanne Collins' Sunrise on the Reaping (Scholastic, 18 March) is a prequel set 24 years before the events of the original novels, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games.It's been 12 years since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie treated us to a long-form novel, so Dream Count (Fourth Estate, 4 March) will be a publishing event.The latest work from the author of modern classics such as Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun centres on the lives of four women living in Nigeria and the US. With family drama, career ambitions and romantic dilemmas taking centre stage, we're anticipating an ambitious, juicy epic that will hopefully be worth the wait.Another family drama comes from debut author Sanam Mahloudji, who was born in Tehran but left during the Islamic Revolution. The Persians (Fourth Estate, 30 January) is a sweeping and irreverent tale following five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family, who are trying to find an identity in their adopted home in the US. But it's a struggle to leave the past behind.
Another must-read debut is Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (Penguin, 6 March). It follows a woman with a congenital muscle disorder, who posts outrageous stories on an erotica website from the confines of her care home. Her new male carer has read it all and the pair make a pact. Funny and frank, this book lingers in the mind long after you turn the final page.Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Bloomsbury, 18 March) is the highly anticipated first novel since Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. Set in Zanzibar in the 1990s, this coming-of-age novel focuses on three very different young people, including Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents.Finally, Pope Francis's Hope (Viking, 14 January) is the first autobiography to be published by a Pope. He originally intended for the memoir to appear only after his death, but according to his publisher "the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope" moved him to release it early.By Emma Saunders
Exhibitions
If you fancy a visual feast, having just consumed plenty of the edible variety, the works of artist JMW Turner may be just what you're after. Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery says its In Light and Shade exhibition (7 February to 21 November) will offer a "rare opportunity" to see the Liber Studiorum prints, created from his etchings, and it will also display some of its other Turner masterpieces.For something completely different, London's Courtauld Gallery's Abstract Erotic (20 June to 14 September) will explore the sculptural works of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams, highlighting their "commitment to using humour and abstract form to ask important questions about sexuality and bodies".Bourgeois will also feature at London's Tate Modern, when her giant stainless steel spider, called Maman, returns there in May to celebrate the gallery's 25th birthday. The 10m (33ft) sculpture will be reinstalled in the Turbine Hall, having been the first work seen when the gallery opened.Norwegian artist Edvard Munch - famous for The Scream - will feature at London's National Portrait Gallery (13 March to 15 June). Calling him "one of the great portraitists of the 19th and 20th Centuries", it says the show will illustrate how many of his pictures "double up as icons or examples of the human condition".
Meanwhile, the photography of Lee Miller, whose life was recently brought to the big screen by Kate Winslet, will get the UK's "most extensive retrospective of her work" at London's Tate Britain.The extraordinary career of the US-born Vogue model turned World War Two photographer will be explored in 250 images, with some displayed for the first time (2 October to 15 February 2026).At the Ulster Museum in Belfast, visitors can delve into the "science of love" at the Late Late Love Lab on Valentine's Day. It will include revelations about the "scandalous" sex lives of insects - who knew? - and an exploration of "the deadly allure of beauty". Stepping outside, V&A Dundee is hosting a UK-first exhibition on the history of modern garden design. Garden Futures: Designing with Nature (from 17 May) will explore the history and future of gardens, including how they have developed around the world - and how they influence artists, writers and designers. By Helen Bushby
Theatre
In London, a string of big names are in new versions of old classics. They include Jonathan Bailey as Shakespeare's Richard II at the Bridge Theatre  (10 February to 2 May), Cate Blanchett and Emma Corrin in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov at The Barbican (26 February to 5 April) and Ewan McGregor in My Master Builder, inspired by Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, at Wyndham's Theatre (17 April to 12 July).Elsewhere, Lily Allen continues her reinvention as an actress, playing a woman trapped in a controlling marriage in Hedda, a new version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, at Bath Theatre Royal's Ustinov Studio (25 July to 23 August).News of the new James Bond may come this year - but until then, A Role To Die For satirises the spy franchise, following a female film producer (who is "legally distinct" from 007 supremo Barbara Broccoli) as she prepares to unveil her new star, at Cirencester Barn (30 January to 15 March).Another epic spoof will see Wayne and Coleen Rooney reimagined as mythical heroes in a fantasy land, where their trials and tribulations are fodder for Helen Serafinowicz's comedy The Legend of Rooney's Ring at Liverpool's Royal Court (18 July to 25 August).
A very different legend has inspired Nessie, a musical about a nature-loving 11-year-old girl whose meeting with the Loch Ness Monster leads to a quest to save the loch, at Edinburgh's Capital Theatres (28 March to 5 April) and Pitlochry Festival Theatre (9 July to 16 August).One of Indian cinema's biggest ever hits, 1995 rom-com Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), is adapted as colourful stage musical Come Fall In Love by the film's writer-director Aditya Chopra, at Manchester Opera House (29 May to 21 June).Alan Partridge's downtrodden assistant Lynn (and her facial expressions) are the inspiration for punk singer Leah in Laura Horton's Lynn Faces, about the fallout from an abusive relationship. It is on tour in Norwich, Exeter, Plymouth and London (28 January to 1 March).And Boxing legend Muhammad Ali's 1977 visit to South Shields is the backdrop to Ishy Din's Champion, a drama about a mixed-race family in the Tyneside town, at Newcastle's Live Theatre (13 February to 8 March).By Ian Youngs