It’s time to cast our minds back on a year of betrayal and sin, of Bad Bunnies and Such Brave Girls, with this now annual roundup of the year’s best arts and entertainment. Traditionally, a plethora of roundups are being compiled – covering films and LPs, TV shows, books and video games, stage, comedy and performance. Some of those already counted down, others will reach their respective summits in the next few days, so keep an eye.
This selection meanwhile is unashamedly personal, and far from as comprehensive as other extensive rankings: there are many albums we did not have time to listening to, and series we’re only just halfway through. Yet it is hoped it will provide a taste of a year that, despite multiple difficulties, was a pretty strong one for culture. On with the roundup!
Television
Beyond scheming to transform the theatrical experience, a leading platform was churning out TV series at its customary breakneck pace. A great deal of its output vanished from our collective memory shortly after appearing on the homepage. Still, its Adolescence felt lasting, a remarkably well-conceived and performed drama, not to mention a country-wide talking point. My platform show of the year however was The Eternaut, an Argentinian end-of-the-world tale that showed the end times with startling precision, all while exploring the country’s turbulent history. Do watch it over the festive season if you can; it’s just six parts. Another international series that captivated was Mussolini: Son of the Century, a darkly fascinating portrayal of Il Duce’s ascent, which sought to “seduce” the audience into understanding his appeal, before leaving them feeling awkwardly complicit when his grip strengthened.
It was a strong year for TV comedy. With How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), the lead actor and the writers succeeded to find one more fertile direction for its protagonist to furrow, as Alan got involved in “mental wellbeing” and plenty elsewhere. In its second series, Such Brave Girls solidified its status as the most daringly unflinching comedy around, and many roared at much of a industry satire The Studio, which has also felt increasingly relevant with every real-world consolidation and worrying AI “innovation”. Comeback show of the year, without a doubt, was South Park which, in its latest iterations, embarked on a hilarious scorched-earth satire of a recent administration. Nobody was spared, not least its president.
Alien: Earth featured its own unlikely scene-stealer – a sheep with a gruesome little octopoid creature lodged in its eye. Some vibed with the showrunner's offbeat take on the franchise, but it definitely creeped viewers out like few other series this year. Though, there were moments that rivalled it in a latest mammoth video essay Shifty, a haunting and sometimes very amusing examination of the fracturing of our common reality. Lastly, it’s hard to make a case for anything other than The Celebrity Traitors being the most popular show of the year, in Britain at least. It could have gone so awry – too chummy or stage-managed – but it felt as compulsive as any of the civilian series.
And here are five excellent TV episodes to watch: LOL Last One Laughing UK; Louis Theroux: The Settlers; Pluribus – We Is Us; Severance – Cold Harbour; Slow Horses – Tall Tales
Albums & Songs
Two longstanding favourites released much-anticipated new albums in 2025, and they were both as impressive as hoped. Cotton Crown by the Tubs expanded upon the sharp, withering jangle of the band’s first album with moments of poignant reflection by singer about his late mother. And the wonderfully unrestrained Getting Killed, by ascendant group Geese was nothing less than a phenomenon, earning the band admirers from actors to legends overnight.
Meanwhile, an album nobody expected to ever see the light of day – Let God Sort Em Out by inactive hip-hop pair Clipse – did magically arrive and was maybe even better than anticipated, full of deliciously cutting lines and featuring some of a legendary producer’s best production in a long time. If that album felt like a welcome nod to the past, the fractured, frenetic Stardust by Detroit’s finest, Danny Brown, sounded beamed in from some bizarre future, thanks to the rapper cannily collaborating with some of the most daring beatmakers in electronic music. Producer Blawan’s SickElixir was even more jarring, a collection of electronic tracks that sounded as if they had been put through a blender and put back together – but, in a great way, obviously.
There were plenty of great albums for those who like things on the crunchier end of the spectrum. Deftones are probably as popular as they’ve ever been, and their latest LP, Private Music, was as satisfyingly pummelling as anything in their back catalogue. Another highlight was Last Leg of the Human Table, the new album by band Cloakroom, which was described by most critics as shoegaze, but sounded more like 90s alternative supported by a doom-metal rhythm section. And Chrome Dipped, by Aussies Civic, pushed garage rock to its rawest, most abrasive extremes. On It’s a Beautiful Place, pair Water From Your Eyes laced their art-pop with 90s alt-rock and techno, a combination that might not have worked but really, really did. And Wolf Alice, now probably the UK's biggest rock group, also evolved on the melodic The Clearing – an album that felt stadium-sized.
And listed below are five standout songs to listen to: Bad Bunny – Nuevayol (visual of the year!); Bar Italia – Fundraiser; Model/Actriz – Cinderella; Turnstile – Birds; Underscores – Music
Film
It feels like several years ago now, but the first part of the year brought some excellent late-arriving films to cinemas, in particular two films that explored the nuances of the Jewish experience in vastly different ways: one weighty The Brutalist, about a Holocaust survivor's difficult encounter with post-war America; and another's funny, biting A Real Pain, where the star and a co-star played contrasting cousins embarking on a roots tour around Poland. Rounding out the year is a director's Marty Supreme, starring a star as a wayward ping-pong prodigy. A wild adventure through 20th century New York life, it also serves as the best film about competition of the year and will be a major Oscars contender.
The UK's film industry
