culture
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'A romantic comedy? I thought they’d lost their minds'The actor, famous for playing brooding, damaged men, is back playing, well, a brooding, damaged man in the gritty western Hostiles. He talks about why the film industry has to change, balding up to play Dick Cheney – and why he will never, ever, do a romcom
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New Globe director to let cast pick roles and audiences choose playsMichelle Terry says she aims to dismantle theatre hierarchies as she announces programme including Hamlet and Othello -
Late-night hosts on Trump and Bannon: 'The rats are eating their young'Comics, including Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, discussed a new book reporting Steve Bannon’s attacks on Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner
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best of 2017
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Bestselling books of 2017While women dominate the charts, it’s been the year of the comeback kings: Philip Pullman, Jamie Oliver, Margaret Atwood …
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My pop highlight of 2017, by Rag’n’Bone Man, Charli XCX and moreFrom Craig David’s intergenerational Glastonbury success to Tim Jonze’s run-in with Marc Almond, pop stars and Guardian music writers pick their musical memories of the year
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From parasite architects to pseudo-public space: 2017's best Cities storiesThe numbers are in for our 15 best-read stories of the year. Now’s the time to check if you missed any – and let us know what you want us to cover in 2018
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Best books of 2017: indie publishers on their favourite books of the yearIndia’s answer to Lear, a teen tale set amid the London riots and the first great book on grime. Experts pick 2017’s smartest, oddest and most overlooked reads
news
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Brontë Society member's resignation over Lily Cole derided as 'snobbery'Author Nick Holland has been criticised for his response to Cole, after saying he would ‘leave the society now, before they announce James Corden as the creative partner for 2019’
Adulting
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Adulting: the Guardian's original podcast drama - ep6Events come to a head in the final episode of our audio drama series. Will the wedding even take place?
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Adulting: the Guardian's original podcast drama - ep5A series of answerphone messages reveals what really happened in 2007
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Adulting: the Guardian's original podcast drama - ep4Can Daniel discover the culprit before it’s too late?
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Adulting: the Guardian's original podcast drama - ep3Charlotte uncovers a decade of deceit in the third episode of our audio drama podcast
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Adulting: the Guardian's original podcast drama - ep2Charlotte arrives at the wedding venue, and makes an unexpected discovery
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Adulting: the Guardian's first original podcast drama - ep1Ten years after university, a group of friends gather for a wedding in the Lake District. It should be a happy occasion - but all is not as it seems...
reviews
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Renegades – ho-hum gung-ho actioner about US special forcesJK Simmons gives ballast to this Luc Besson-produced film set in Sarajevo in 1995, but it still resembles an egregiously average TV movie
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Schumann Quartet – fleetness, humour and dexterityThe German quartet were marvellously engaging in this all-Haydn programme featuring some of the composer’s most striking works
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Walk With Me – Cumberbatch narrates quiet doc about mindfulness teacherBenedict Cumberbatch narrates this thoughtful documentary about zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, whose teachings have popularised the mindfulness movement
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Savages: The Wedding by Sabri Louatah – thrilling treatment of race and politics in FranceTensions rise at a family gathering gripped by the election of France’s first Arab president, in the opening volume of an addictive four-part series
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Brad's Status – Ben Stiller wrestles with the green-eyed monsterThis downbeat yet moving comedy of midlife existential angst explores why we hate it when our friends become successful
people
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Not since Harrison Ford was president have we felt so safeComics, including Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Jimmy Kimmel, addressed Trump’s latest tweets about North Korea, global warming, and airline safety
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The Ramones at the Rainbow: 'very loud, very slick and very very simple'3 January 1978 Hailed as New York’s top punks, their style is totally different to that of other new wave bands
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I'll retire if my work becomes substandardIn rare comments on prospect of retirement, Blue Planet II narrator says physical problems could also force him to quit
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Rose Marie obituaryAll-round entertainer whose best-known role was as Sally Rogers in the American television sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show
talking points
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Who could succeed the 'irreplaceable' presenter?The nature presenter has again raised the idea of stepping away from the camera. But when he does finally stop, who might step in?
critics' picks
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Kendrick cruises, Wiley confuses and Gaga goes OTTCan Lady Gaga get away with murder? Will Kendrick Lamar stay on top? Are Franz Ferdinand set to blossom? And has Harry Styles’ transformation only just begun? We preview the new year’s pop highlights
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Prowling panthers, paranormal spies and vengeful ice-skaters:The Black Panther roars, Matt Damon shrinks, Aardman go stone age and Jennifer Lawrence takes spying into a new dimension – we preview the best cinema of the new year
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Gangsters, girlfriends and warrior queensIs Britannia the next Game of Thrones? Can Mulder and Scully get their goof back? Will samurai warriors seize Westworld? And could the OJ team fashion another smash with Gianni Versace? We preview the new year’s standout TV
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Flight of the Conchords, Chris Rock and the most uproarious standupsOne of the world’s biggest standups does his first tour in a decade, Bridget Christie looks beyond Brexit and Maria Bamford makes a rare UK appearance
pictures & video
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Albert Einstein in his lounge‘It was a little after the Hiroshima bombing. Einstein sat in his lounge wearing baggy tracksuit trousers – and spoke out against atomic weapons’
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Instagram finds stylised symmetry in real citiesBill Murray could be just out of shot in these images of buildings and locations around the world that happen to exemplify the director’s trademark style
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The beauty of Chinese aquacultureIn Coastal Geometries, architect and photographer Tugo Cheng conjures minimalist compositions from the fishing nets and bamboo poles on the coast of Fujian. It is a world that’s vanishing, since this vital culture is threatened by rapid development
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Hitchcock, Hepburn and Dirty HarryProduced for classic films such as Psycho, Roman Holiday and The Italian Job, these rare original Hollywood posters are now all worth a pretty penny as cultural antiques
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My best winter photographA polar limousine, ice skyscrapers in China, a New York snowstorm, Sitting Bull’s descendant at a pipeline protest, and a flying figure-skater … top photographers pick their coolest shot
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Tristram Kenton's stage photos of 2017 – in picturesFrom Follies at the National to Ink at the Almeida and Marnie at the Coliseum, revisit some of the year’s theatre, dance and opera productions as photographed by the Guardian’s Tristram Kenton
lists & playlists
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No 99 – The History of the World by Walter Raleigh (1614)Raleigh’s book, packed with veiled political advice and suppressed soon after publication, is a classic of late Renaissance history writing
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Steve Bicknell: ‘The ideal festival track? Laurent Garnier’s Acid Eiffel'The Cosmic Records minimal techno man and LOST veteran empties his psychic record bag
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culture webchats
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Your questions answered on Jean Rhys, love affairs and turning 100The literary editor and memoirist turns 100 in December, so she answered Guardian readers’ questions about her life, books and career
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Your questions answered on supergroups, sex scenes and comic booksThe Iron Maiden singer revealed all about what he gets up to between shows, Lord Iffy Boatrace and playing classical music on his jawbone
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Your questions answered on poshness, Pasquale and Pointless's worst ever answerThe Pointless host answered your questions on his new album, his favourite Hey Duggee episode and whether Richard Osman will donate his body to medical science
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Your questions answered on Keith Lemon, Teletubbies and the future of radioThe presenter and writer spilled the beans on anger management, meeting the Royals and what she really thought of the ropiest Live Lounge performances
you may have missed
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Michael Billington on Macbeth: profile of greatest theatrical poem ever writtenThe destructive nature of unchecked power-lust and political ambition in Shakespeare’s play speaks to us urgently still today
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Authors reveal their dream retreatsA hotel on the Moray Firth estuary; an adrenaline-filled auction room in west London; an ad man’s office in Manhattan on DVD … AL Kennedy, William Boyd and others celebrate their cultural hideouts
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The year in pop cultureA month-by-month digest of 2017’s most memorable moments, from Trump’s not-so-triumphant inauguration to Get Out reviving the horror genre, Love Island’s surprise success and beyond
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We quiz the gameshow hostsPresenters from some of TV’s best-loved shows tell us what they love about games and quizzes, and which ones they’ll be squabbling over on Christmas Day
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I’ve never got high or drunk in my lifeThe musician and Kiss frontman, 68, on what he learned from his mother, what capitalism means to him and why he’s so proud of his hair
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How Die Hard became a classic Christmas movieIt’s not about Christmas, seldom shown at Christmas, and Bruce Willis’s vest isn’t red with fur trim – but this action blast is as essential as tinsel and telly
the big picture
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Sport from aboveWatching sport from ground level puts the viewer right in the middle of the action but, if seen from above, the same event can take on a strikingly different perspective
what we're reading
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Our critic says comedy feels stagnant right now, dominated by the same stars. It’s time to make room for up-and-comers.Comedy is booming. I can’t wait for the bust
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In Season 2, the terrific NBC sitcom continues to explore ethics without sacrificing complexity or humor.How The Good Place goes beyond ‘the trolley problem’
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A cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals the truth about Steve Bannon’s alt-right “killing machine.”Here's how Breitbart and Milo smuggled Nazi and white nationalist ideas into the mainstream
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On Blade Runner 2049, and why we keep imagining a future where our cities play host to gigantic, nude, nameless women.Do androids dream of colossal women?
Hip-hop Young Dolph, the rapper dodging death: 'I’ve been targeted since I was 17'