Pick of the Week: Aleks Sierz

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. With the second lockdown set to devastate the arts once again not many of us are laughing. But we do have some last-minute live reviews, led by Death of England: Delroy, Roy Williams and Clint Dyer’s follow up to their similarly-titled dissection of racism earlier this year.

Final concerts before lockdown include Imogen Cooper playing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations at the Fidelio Orchestra Cafe, Raffaello Morales’ pioneering venture and the first indoor space to welcome audiences back in July, and Alice Coote’s performance of Schubert’s Winterreise. There’s also a First Person from top horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill.

On TV, series 2 of His Dark Materials, BBC One's vivid dramatisation of Philip Pullman's novels gets underway, with Lyra and Will finding themselves in a strange land. We also have an interview with Jed Mercurio, writer of Line of Duty who is now launching an online screenwriting course for the BBC.

In film, we have Roy Andersson’s reflections on human life in all its beauty and cruelty in About Endlessness. New albums from Kylie and Little Mix arrive, plus a Q&A with Mick Talbot of the Style Council.

We also have an extract from Jean Frémon’s Nativity, translated by Cole Swensen (a playful fable about the baby Jesus part inspired by five gouache drawings by Louise Bourgeois).

Aleks Sierz