Saturday Review

The Fault In Our Stars is the screen adaptation of John Green's best selling young adult novel about a pair of love struck teenagers both of whom are terminally ill with cancer. A second novel from Robert Galbraith - aka JK Rowling - The Silkworm merges an old fashioned detective story with Jacobean tragedy, whilst providing insight into literary London. David Schneider's new play Making Stalin Laugh - tells the story of the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre which in the 1920s was one of the most respected in the world. Making Colour was developed from the National Gallery's own internationally recognised Scientific Department's work into how artists historically overcame the technical challenges in creating colour. And The Human Factor: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture brings together major works by leading international artists who have fashioned new ways of using the human form in sculpture over the past 25 years.

Mr Burns is a play about an America without electrical power, the end of everything in contemporary USA - when the TV programme The Simpsons has passed into folklore. Folk art has often been neglected in the story of British art but a new exhibition at Tate Britain attempts to set that right. British film Belle explores racial attitudes in 19th Century aristocratic circles through the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy officer. In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman deals with betrayal, revenge, love, faith, science and war through the relationship between two men across Kabul, New York, Oxford, London and Islamabad. And we look at how the British newspapers are dealing with the World Cup - not the matches and the scores but their depiction of the host country, the preparations, atmosphere, heat and unrest.

The Dirties is about two friends planning to make a film about a Columbine-style school massacre, where the bullies will be made to pay for what they've done. Nicholson Baker's novel "Travelling Sprinkler" is about a poet who has fallen out of love with writing poems. Trying to become a songwriter, we see his personal life woven into his lyrics. A new exhibition at Tate Liverpool looks at how Piet Mondrian’s work evolved as he moved from studios in Paris and London to New York. A new audio walk "At the Crossroads with Vincent" explores turning-points in life through the perspective of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother. Polly Stenham’s play, Hotel, focusses on a dysfunctional family on holiday at a flash hotel in a poor country and has strong echoes of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Bakersfield Mist at London's Duchess Theatre stars Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner in a play about a woman who's convinced she's turned up a Jackson Pollock original in a junk shop. Ken Loach's new film Jimmy's Hall tells the story of the only Irishman ever to be deported from his own country as an illegal alien. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is Joshua Ferris's novel about dentistry and the meaning of life. What can a man do when his analog life is hijacked and put on the internet? Whitstable Biennale is a festival of contemporary British art on the south coast of England, which grew out of the developing artists' community in the town. The Normal Heart was Larry Kramer's play about the AIDS epidemic in 1980s America. He's adapted it into a TV drama for HBO.

Tim Winton's new novel Eyrie tells the story of a man down on his luck, who tries to sew his life back together with the help of a former neighbour and her mysterious son. Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T' Be was the 1959 musical Lionel Bart wrote before his mega success with Oliver! Kenneth Clark was a man who made it his mission to bring art to the general public. A new exhibition at Tate Britain brings together hundreds of the works he collected or commissioned as well as showing excerpts from his seminal TV series Civilisation. Nick Frost plays a pretty hopeless chump called Jeremy Sloane in a new TV series for Sky. Mexican film Heli shows the tragic socially corrosive effect of drug culture on contemporary Mexican society through the involvement of one innocent family who are inadvertently drawn into crime and appalling violence.

When Albert Einstein died in 1955, the pathologist performing his autopsy stole the brain, hoping to find out truths about the nature of genius. A new play by Nick Payne uses it as a starting point for an exploration of how our mind makes us who we are. The film Touchy Feely is the story of a masseuse who develops a loathing for skin and a dentist who seems to have extraordinary unprecedented gift for healing. Ned Beauman’s latest novel - Glow - is about an imaginary brand new psychotropic drug flooding the streets of London. Penny Dreadful is a TV series that creates a gory fictionalised Victorian London where many famous figures congregate - Frankenstein, Jack The Ripper, Dorian Grey. Andreas Gursky is a German photographer whose work is characterised by large scale manipulated images.

Joseph O'Connor's novel The Thrill of it All is the story of 25 years in the life of an aspiring Anglo-Irish rock band who seem fated to never quite make the big time. The latest play to open at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon is Arden of Faversham, a revenge tragedy whose authorship is unknown. The film Frank stars one of cinema's most handsome, sought-after actors Michael Fassbender playing a man who wears a large papier-mache head all the time. Amanda Vickery's BBC2 series The Story of Women and Art aims to rediscover the great forgotten female artists of the past in the world of fine art. Lily Allen's album Sheezus is a comeback after three years away.

The exhibition "Art and Anarchy in The UK" at The British Library looks back at nearly 2 centuries of comic book art in this country. Edward St Aubyn's newest novel tells the story of the jury judging the Elysian Prize for Literature. If you've not heard of it, that's because it doesn’t exist; the book includes extracts from novels nominated for the award. Sunny Afternoon is a musical based around the songs and career of The Kinks - a hugely influential group of the 60s and 70s. Blue Ruin is an award-winning independent US film; a gruesome revenge story following a normally placid modest man who seeks retribution on the killer of his parents. In the centenary year of Welsh poet's Dylan Thomas birth, A Poet in New York is part of BBC Wales' coverage to mark the occasion.

Privacy is a new play at London's Donmar Warehouse, looking at how we inadvertently give away valuable private information through our use of modern technology. Director Joanna Hogg's third film, Exhibition, continues her exploration of a very British awkwardness in the ways we relate to each other and our environment. The Last Days of Troy is Simon Armitage's theatrical reimagining of Greek Legend. John Simm plays a policeman framed for a crime he didn't commit in Prey. An exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery looks back at the work of French artist Chris Marker. Tom Sutcliffe is joined on Saturday Review by Philip Hensher, Julia Peyton-Jones and Susie Boyt.

A new exhibition at Tate Modern brings together a collection of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs. Tom Hardy stars in Locke, a film set entirely in a car driving down the motorway. The darkly comic world of Fargo, the Coen Brothers’ 1996 Oscar-winning film, has inspired a new TV series by the same name. The RSC’s latest production in Stratford-upon-Avon is Henry IV pts 1 and 2. Jayne-Anne Phillips’ newest historical fiction, Quiet Dell, is based on a real-life mass murderer in 1930s Illinois. Tom Sutcliffe is joined on Saturday Review by Dreda Say Mitchell, Emma Woolf and Kevin Jackson.

John Michael McDonagh's film Calvary, is about a priest who is told in confession that - in one week's time - he will be killed. Simon Stephens' newest work at London's Royal Court Theatre - Birdland - features Andrew Scott as a disintegrating rock star. The BBC's new adaptation of Jamaica Inn is a sumptuous brooding production starring Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey). Nigerian-born Teju Cole won widespread acclaim for his first published work Open City. His follow-up, Every Day is for the Thief, sees a young African American man returning to Nigeria and explores the cultural resonances and differences he experiences. The First Georgians exhibition at The Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace, reflects the reigns of Kings George I and II (1714-1760) through a wide range of objects.

Biblical epic Noah is directed by Darren Aronofsky and stars Russell Crowe in the title role. The ambition is impressive but the execution has left some film critics and religious groups underwhelmed. The new novel by Kamila Shamsie, A God In Every Stone, is set in pre-Partition India telling the story of a country taking part in the First World War while struggling with its own identity. Drum and Bass DJ and graffiti artist Goldie is making his stage debut in Kingston 14 a play about Jamaican gangsters by Roy Williams, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. In Olden Days, Ian Hislop considers the British delight in looking back and invoking the past and tradition to validate the present.

Dame Angela Lansbury returns to the West End theatre in a revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. Kate Winslet’s latest film 'Labor Day' is about an escaped prisoner (Josh Brolin) who ends up spending time on the run in her home. The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry - a young man is offered a commission in the British Army for the duration of The Second World War and this work brings turmoil into his personal life. The exhibition by sixteenth century painter Veronese at London's National Gallery includes works from art collections around the world which have never been seen together before. The Widower on ITV stars Reece Shearsmith in the story of Malcolm Webster who murdered his first wife and attempted to murder his second.

Under The Skin is the new film from Jonathan "Sexy Beast" Glazer. Starring Scarlett Johansson, it's the story of an alien on earth and her encounters with humans. Cezanne at The Ashmolean in Oxford - a selection from the collection of Henry Pearlman. W1A is the follow up comedy to the Olympic-themed sitcom Twenty Twelve, set in the Corporation's HQ: New Broadcasting House. Urinetown is the uninvitingly named new musical set in a town where one man controls the public lavatories and his attempt to quell the opposition who want to "pee for free". And "Arguably the most successful author in China today", Mai Jia has sold more than 5 million copies. We look at his latest novel - Decoded - which deals with cryptographers in a top secret government department.

Wes Anderson's film Grand Budapest Hotel; Imelda Staunton in Good People at Hampstead Theatre; Colin Barrett's short story collection Young Skins; The Walshes on BBC4; Ruin Lust exhibition at Tate Britain.