The ubiquitous James Franco is gripping in the role of Aron Ralston, whose extreme hiking trip to a remote Utah canyon in 2003 almost cost him his life - and did cost him a limb - in Danny Boyle's supercharged (and occasionally grisly) film (January 7).
The Coens head into remake territory again, corralling some heavyweight acting talent (Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin) for their take on the Charles Portis novel that inspired the 1969 John Wayne western. Has to be better than 2004’s The Ladykillers, surely (January 14).
The Philharmonia Orchestra’s latest blockbusting series, Infernal Dance, promises to take us inside the world of the great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts all the major works throughout Britain and Europe between January and November (philharmonia.co.uk).
Having celebrated the exertions of sweaty he-men in The Wrestler, it’s time for a change of bodily emphasis for director Darren Aronofsky: Natalie Portman is the ballerina on the verge of a breakdown in his new, hallucinatory psychothriller (January 21).
The clean-cut boys and girls of the world's favourite glee club reappear on our television screens in January (Channel 4). Even more thrillingly for gleeks around the nation, Finn, Rachel, Kurt et al. will be crossing the Atlantic for a series of live engagements in the summer (June 22-July 3, gleetour.com).
It’s been nine years since Scottish polymath Peter Mullan got behind the camera – but early word suggests this tale of Seventies Glasgow tearaways (Non-Educated Delinquents, according to the acronym of the title) is every bit as admirably scabrous as 2002’s The Magdalene Sisters (January 21).
Keira Knightley returns to the London stage after her promising debut in The Misanthrope. Lillian Hellman’s 1934 work was considered controversial in its day because it was about two teachers accused by a pupil of having a lesbian relationship. Ian Rickson’s Comedy Theatre production also stars Ellen Burstyn (January 22-April 2, ambassadortickets.com, 0844 871 7622).
British modern art remains relatively undervalued, but the Royal Academy’s winter exhibition aims to set the record straight. From the world of the late Victorians to the vitrines of Damien Hirst, this promises to be an engrossing survey of an underappreciated tradition (January 22-April 7, royalacademy.org.uk, 0844 209 0051).
Bryan Ferry leads the original line-up of enduring art rock rakes – bar Brian Eno – back on the road. Warm-up shows at summer festivals revealed there was plenty of life in the besuited old dogs yet, amid their trademark mix of soulfulness and surrealism (January 25 - February 7, seetickets.com, 08700 603 777).
We once knew Dudamel as the brilliant young conductor of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. We now know him as the brilliant young conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in London for two nights only to perform Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony at the Barbican (January 27-28; 020 7638 8891; barbican.org.uk).
Bruce Norris’s spiky dissection of liberalism and race in middle-class America was a hit at the Royal Court; it transfers to the Wyndhams Theatre from January 28-February 5 (delfontmackintosh.co.uk; 0844 482 5120).
The nation’s first public art gallery celebrates its 200th birthday by borrowing a different monthly masterpiece, including Vermeer’s The Music Lesson (March) and El Greco’s The Vision of Saint John (April; dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk, 0208 695 5254).
The annual showcase of indie idols promises some excitement, for a change, this year. Dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man prove that speaker-wobbling basslines can carry a tune, while Crystal Castles’ feral lead singer Alice Glass is compulsively watchable (February 3-19, nme.com/tickets, 0871 230 1094).
Nicole Kidman is back on our cinema screens and, in case you’d forgotten, she can act. This is a wrenching, bleakly funny account of a couple trying to recover from the death of their son (February 4).
We all know an HBO Bore: the exhausted, heroic figure who’s spent the past week watching box sets of The Wire or The Sopranos, the guy or girl who corners you at a party to discuss the finer points of Six Feet Under or repeat their favourite lines from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Even your most conventional male (Entourage) and female (Sex and the City) friends were not exempt from HBO-mania. All these people quivered with excitement when Sky announced that they’d bought the rights for five years’ worth of HBO content, to air exclusively on Sky Atlantic. That means British viewers can watch HBO shows almost as soon as they air in the United States, without resorting to an illicit bit of middle-class downloading. In 2011 alone Sky Atlantic viewers will get the first glimpse of David 'The Wire’ Simon’s New Orleans-set drama Treme; Martin Scorsese’s Prohibition-era look at Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire (above); the fantasy adventure Game of Thrones, with Sean Bean and Lena Headey; Luck, a horse racing drama with Dustin Hoffman; the Kate Winslet-starring remake of Mildred Pierce; and the brilliant Ted Danson-Jason Schwartzman comedy Bored to Death. Terrestrial viewers with an antipathy to the Murdoch Empire can always wait for the box sets.
This biopic of boxer 'Irish’ Micky Ward has been Mark Wahlberg’s pet project for the past seven years. Wahlberg and co-stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams have already attracted Oscars buzz for what promises to be a tough but moving crowd-pleaser (February 4).
The National will attempt to breathe new life into the story of Dr Frankenstein and his monster, in a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Danny Boyle, the man behind Slumdog Millionaire, will direct; Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller will alternate in the roles of the monster and his creator (February 5-April 17, nationaltheatre.org.uk, 020 7452 3000).
Danielle Hope (Dorothy) and miniature Schnauzer 'Dangerous Dave’ (Toto) won BBC One’s talent show Over the Rainbow last May; now they make their West End debuts alongside Michael Crawford (the Wizard), in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of the 1939 musical at the Palladium (February 7-September 17, wizardofozthemusical.com; 0844 412 4655).
As a new year dawns, the most talented members of the film and music industry are busy writing their acceptance speeches and practising their 'I’m so happy for you’ smiles in advance of the awards season. First up is the Golden Globes (January 16) a potentially spectacular night for British film The King’s Speech, which leads the field with seven nominations. Next come the Grammy and Bafta ceremonies (both February 13) and then the grand finale, the Oscars, on February 27. Expect even more luviness than normal. For the first time since 1985, actors – Anne Hathaway and James Franco - instead of comics have been chosen to host the show.
While Batman and Superman gather their strength for films slated for 2012, a whole cast of pretenders lay their claim to the superhero throne this year. Bringing a retro gloss to the genre are Captain America: The First Avenger (July 29), which is partly set in Forties Brooklyn (and filmed in Manchester), and X-Men: First Class (June 2), Matthew Vaughn’s Sixties prequel to the first three X-Men films. The unlikely figure of Seth Rogen takes on the guise of The Green Hornet (January 14), a playboy publishing mogul with a lethal Asian sidekick, Kato (the original inspiration for the Kato of Pink Panther fame), while the even more unlikely figure of Kenneth Branagh directs Thor (April 29), a take on the Marvel comic books based on Norse mythology. Meanwhile, Ryan Reynolds stars in The Green Lantern (June 17), which looks to bring a dash of suitably overblown theatrics and silliness to the superhero season. And on that theme, there’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark (spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com), Bono, the Edge and Julie Taymor’s Broadway extravaganza – the most expensive musical in history – which, after many delays, is finally expected to open next month.
Jacques Demy’s stylish 1964 musical romance is given the theatrical treatment by the UK’s best touring company, Kneehigh (Curve Leicester, February 11-26, West End in the spring; umbrellasofcherbourg.com).
Although his cameo in The Hangover 2 (May 27) was vetoed, apparently by his co-stars, Gibson takes the lead in loyal pal Jodie Foster’s The Beaver (February 11). He plays a deeply troubled 'loser’ who comes to rely on a charming cockney-accented hand puppet to communicate with the world.
Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan recreate the eerie melancholy of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (February 11), Tilda Swinton tries to work out why her son became a high school shooter in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy gets a Hollywood reboot from David Fincher: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Robin Wright (December 26).
OK, so he was German really, but we’ve long since claimed EO Hoppé as our own. The photographer took portraits of early-20th century luminaries such as Henry James, Vaslav Nijinsky and King George V (February 17-May 30; npg.org.uk, 020 7306 0055).
Richard Thomas, co-creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera, has chosen another lovably lowbrow subject for this opera, which looks at the life and death of the late Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith (February 17-March 4; roh.org.uk, 020 7304 4000).
Twenty-five years after its premiere, the ENO revives Jonathan Miller’s take on Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, which transposes the action from the Orient to an English seaside hotel (February 26-March 11; eno.org, 0871 911 0200).
The thrill of Polly Jean Harvey is you never quite know what version of her you’re going to get. From punky confrontation to choir-girl restraint, Harvey is a musical shape-shifter. Her live performances, though, are consistently thrilling (Troxy, London, February 27 and 28, troxy.co.uk, 020 7790 9000).
The Royal Ballet’s schedules are dominated by box office-friendly revivals, but in March comes the world premiere of a full-length version of Lewis Carroll’s story created by Christopher Wheeldon. It features Sergei Polunin as the Knave of Hearts, Steven McRae as the Mad Hatter and Simon Russell Beale as the Duchess. There’s a contemporary score by Joby Talbot and designs by Bob Crowley (March 2-15, roh.org.uk, 020 7304 4000).
31 Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World, British Museum
Proof that there’s rather a lot more to the country than Taliban insurgency, this exhibition shall – via 200 loans from the National Museum in Kabul – consider ancient Afghanistan’s role as a trading and cultural hub (March 3-July 3; britishmuseum.org, 020 7323 8181).
Lost actor Matthew Fox makes his UK theatre debut playing opposite Olivia Williams in the world premiere of Neil LaBute’s new play. LaBute is something of an acquired taste and this production, which he will direct himself at the Vaudeville Theatre, is billed as 'a dark comedy’ (March 3-June 4, nimaxtheatres.com, 0844 412 4663)
Bieber-fever grips the nation as the floppy-fringed teen idol arrives for his first British tour. The Canadian-born star will have just celebrated his 17th birthday, but his boyish charms will hopefully still be intact (March 4-24, aeglive.co.uk).
For better or worse, it’s getting nigh on impossible to ignore the Mumbai-born master of mirrors. He’s just been named GQ’s Cultural Icon of 2010, and, following his much talked-about exhibitions in Kensington Gardens and the Royal Academy, in London, he’s currently staging his first-ever shows in his homeland – to great fanfare. This year promises to be even busier than last, with a new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery (March 5-June 5, manchestergalleries.org; 0161 235 8888), as well as a commission for Paris’s Grand Palais, and the unveiling of his giant Orbit tower for London’s Olympic Park.
Who’s the fairest of them all? With tours by Katy Perry (March 17-April 9, katyperry.com) and Kylie Minogue (March 25-April 12, kylie.com) two top contenders will prove their credentials, while Britney Spears seeks to regain her tarnished crown with a new album in March.
Anne-Marie Duff won pretty much every award going, playing the title role in the National Theatre’s Saint Joan in 2007. This year she appears in Terence Rattigan’s final play as Alma Rattenbury, who, in 1935, was put on trial with her 18-year-old lover for the murder of her husband (Old Vic, March 17-June 11, oldvictheatre.com; 0844 871 7628).
The key event of the contemporary dance year will be the final performance by the late Merce Cunningham’s dance company, at the Barbican next autumn (barbican.org.uk, 020 7638 8891), but in the meantime there is always Javier de Frutos and the Pet Shop Boys who have composed an orchestral score for a full-evening work based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, starring ex-Royal Ballet prince Ivan Putrov (March 17-26, sadlerswells.com, 0844 412 4319).
Rosemary Sutcliff’s beloved novel The Eagle of the Ninth gets the big screen treatment in Touching the Void director Kevin Macdonald’s new film (March 18). Channing Tatum stars as the Roman soldier searching for the standard lost by his father’s legion in the wilds of northern England.
At the Novello Theatre, the first original musical Sir Cameron Mackintosh has produced in 10 years. Based on Alan Bennett’s A Private Function, it stars Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith, with Richard Eyre directing (March 19-October 22, delfontmackintosh.co.uk, 0844 482 5170)
The glamorous designer couple’s beautifully crafted, low cost, post-war furniture and textiles make them the Welfare State equivalent of their American counterparts Charles and Ray Eames. Pallant House shows a selection of their light-hearted, thoroughly modern work from March 26 to June 26 (pallant.org.uk; 01243 774 557).
Beleaguered it may be, but Scottish Opera is bravely staging Richard Strauss’s rarely seen domestic drama, Intermezzo, which fictionalises the composer’s volatile relationship with his wife (scottishopera.org.uk, March 26-April 2 at Theatre Royal, Glasgow; 0844 871 7647. April 7-9 at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh; 0131 529 6000).
Undeterred by the mixed reviews he received for his stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Matthew Warchus will have a go at turning the film Ghost into a musical; Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy play Sam and Molly (March 28-May 14, manchesteroperahouse.org.uk, 0844 847 2295).
After a critically acclaimed performance of their seminal album for the Teenage Cancer Trust last year, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are hoping to tour the show in spring.
A show about the flamboyant and bohemian Aesthetic Movement of the late-19th-century should offer an escapist tonic in these austere times. The Pre-Raphaelites, Oscar Wilde and William Morris all feature, darling (April 2-July 17, vam.ac.uk; 020 7907 7073).
The luminous Saoirse Ronan is reunited with director Joe Wright for this distinctly un-Atonement-like film about a 14-year-old trained assassin forced to go on the run. Think teen Jason Bourne (April 8).
U2 will be releasing a new album this spring, before beginning their US tour in May. Their crown as 'biggest band in the world’ currently appears undisputed.
It’s hoodies versus aliens – a cast-iron movie conceit – in the first feature from writer/director Joe Cornish, one half of 6 Music favourites Adam & Joe. This year’s Shaun of the Dead, providing it isn’t this year’s Scott Pilgrim (April 8).
Apple will be hoping to prove that its tablet computer is more than just a big iPhone when it unveils a new version, probably in the spring. The company has been coy about the details, as always, but our money is on a bigger screen and an extra camera.
Only seen twice before in Britain, Klaus Obermaier’s menacing, light-streaked virtual take on The Rite of Spring returns for two performances each at the Birmingham Symphony Hall (April 21, thsh.co.uk; 0121 780 3333) and the Southbank Centre (April 23, southbankcentre.co.uk; 0844 875 0073).
Don’t worry if your invitation to Westminster Abbey got lost in the post, Kate and Will’s big day could be the most realistic televised royal wedding ever if, as expected, it is broadcast in 3D.
Before U2’s Spider-Man show appeared on the Broadway horizon, Sam Mendes’ adaptation of the DreamWorks franchise was rumoured to be the most expensive theatrical production ever. We Brits will get the opportunity to witness the spectacle at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with a cast that includes Amanda Holden and Richard Blackwood (from May 6, shrekthemusical.co.uk; 0844 871 8810).
Along with the likes of Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies, Abi Morgan is a reason to be excited about British television. Up until now she’s been known for crafting brilliant and minutely researched one-off dramas like Sex Traffic, Tsunami: The Aftermath and Murder. This year, however, she’s behind what BBC Two is ambitiously billing as a British Mad Men: a six-part series called The Hour, set in a mid-Fifties London TV newsroom. There’s a brilliant cast in place – Romola Garai, Dominic West and Ben Whishaw taking the leads – and if anyone can grapple with the complexities of social change in post-war Britain, it’s Morgan. Also in the pipeline are three films she’s scripted: The Iron Lady, her bound-to-be-controversial take on Falklands-era Margaret Thatcher, with Meryl Streep wielding the handbag; the long-awaited adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong (currently destined for a 2012 release); and Shame, artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen’s follow up to the award-winning Hunger.
Nobody does angst quite like that great actress Penelope Wilton, and she will have every opportunity to demonstrate the skill in James Macdonald’s production of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-winner about a group of strained middle-class suburbanites (May 5-July 2, almeida.co.uk, 020 7359 4404).
Astoundingly, Cleese has never toured Britain before but is set to take his Alimony Tour (a reference to his 2008 divorce settlement of £12million) around the country after successful runs in the United States and Canada (tour begins in Cambridge, May 6, and finishes in Bristol, June 21).
Terry Gilliam takes on The Damnation of Faust at the English National Opera (May 6-June 7, eno.org; 0871 911 0200); Mike Figgis gets his teeth into Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia (January 31-March 3), also at the ENO; and Mike Leigh directs his 1979 play Ecstasy at the Hampstead Theatre (March 10-April 9, hampsteadtheatre.com; 020 7722 9301).
With communism well and truly collapsed, Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall may have lost some of its allegorical power but Waters’ extensive new tour – which visits London, Manchester and Birmingham – is a thrill for Pink Floyd fans nonetheless (May 11-21; June 27-28, livenation.co.uk).
In a year of hardly pressing sequels (Big Momma’s House 3, anyone?), the return of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow will doubtless be the most prominent and money-spinning. It’s in 3D, too (May 18).
Emin is so adept at self-publicity that her Hayward Gallery retrospective (May 18-August 29, southbankcentre.co.uk) needs no more than a passing reference here. Likewise the gouache-painting collaborations with her idol, the late Louise Bourgeois, on show at Hauser & Wirth (February 18-March 12, hauserwirth.com; 020 7287 2300).
Glyndebourne’s season opens with its second-ever Wagner opera, his comedy Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. Vladimir Jurowski conducts David McVicar’s production, with Gerald Finley branching into new territory as Hans Sachs (May 21-June 26, glyndebourne.com).
Bill Clinton dubbed the Welsh literary festival (May 26-June 5, hayfestival.com, 01497 822629) the 'Woodstock of the Mind’. A thrilling new sponsor (The Telegraph) and an expanded programme of worldwide literary events (from Cartagena to Zacatecas) should only heighten its reputation.
After the giant elephant of 2009’s record-breaking Circus tour, who knows what the manband – with Robbie Williams back in the fold – will come up with to wow their army of devoted fans? (May 27-July 9, ticketmaster.co.uk, 0844 847 2011)
62 Six knockout performances from Jessica Chastain
Looking like Jessica Rabbit made flesh, the red-haired, porcelain-skinned actress Jessica Chastain is set to be the breakaway star of 2011, not least because she’s got six films coming out this year. She’s already had gushing reviews for her role as the younger incarnation of Helen Mirren’s Mossad agent in thriller The Debt (February 11), and she plays Brad Pitt’s wife in the director Terrence Malick’s new film, Tree of Life (May). You can also catch her in Ralph Fiennes’ Shakespearian directorial debut, Coriolanus, and Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome, where she plays the femme fatale who demands the head of John the Baptist in an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play.
Although it’s verging on the treasonous to dislike newly-minted National Treasure Julian Fellowes’ indulgent Downton Abbey (which returns for a new series), this year offers an alternative breed of period dramas to his cosy Sunday fare. Andrea Arnold, acclaimed for her grittily realistic take on modern British society in Red Road and Fish Tank, has directed a new cinematic adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Kaya Scodelario of Skins will play Cathy to virtual unknown James Howson’s Heathcliff; Howson will be the first black actor to take the role on screen. Meanwhile, director Cary Fukanaga takes on the work of another Brontë sister with his version of Jane Eyre, which looks set to ramp up the Gothic machinations of the novel and stars the intense Michael Fassbender (Mr Rochester) opposite the ethereal Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre). On television, period drama stalwart Andrew Davies has penned a three-part adaptation of Winifred Holtby’s South Riding for BBC One, a raw and honest look at post-First World War, rural Britain.
For the first time in 13 years, the iconic comic and actor – co-creator of Seinfeld, if you hadn’t worked that out – graces British shores with his presence. It’s one date only at the O2, so tickets will go fast (June 3, kililive.com; 0844 856 0202).
Last year saw Sir Elt gain plaudits from all quarters for his collaboration with the legendary Blues pianist Leon Russell, and the 63 year-old will look to maintain the high standard with a series of live dates in Britain. His UK tour kicks off in Cardiff on June 8, or catch him in concert with percussionist Ray Cooper at the Royal Opera House on Jan 28 (eltonjohn.com).
Bum-wiggling social commentator Jarvis Cocker has rounded up his old band and will show us what we’ve been missing with a series of large-scale concerts, kicking off at the Isle of Wight Festival (June 11, isleofwightfestival.com; 08444 999 955).
As ever, an impressive panoply of shows is promised by that towering consortia of national museums: the empire Tate’s buildings. At Tate Britain, The Vorticists looks at early 20th-century Britain’s only true avant-garde (June 14-September 4); for its part, Tate Modern has Joan Miró, painter pre-eminent of the whiskery, weird, fantastical pond-life of the mind (April 14-September 11); and Tate Liverpool looks at the many double-takes of Belgian surrealist René Magritte (June 24-October 16, right), the inventor of such strange phenomena as The Non-Existent Pipe, The Giant Apple and the Rainstorm of Businessmen (tate.org.uk).
70 Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril, Courtauld Gallery
Jane Avril (above) was more than just the cancan girl of Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters, she was also one of his closest friends. The pair shared everything, from a bed to a workplace (the Moulin Rouge), as this exhibition about their relationship will show (June 16-September 18, courtauld.ac.uk; 020 7848 2526).
John Malkovich plays real-life Austrian serial killer, Jack Unterweg, alongside two sopranos singing Baroque arias. 'Probably not a show to take a person to on a first date,’ says the Barbican’s artistic director, Graham Sheffield (June 17-18, barbican.org.uk; 020 7638 8891).
If you don’t have a child, grab a friend’s for what’s shaping up to be the best animated film of the year, Rango (March 4), in which a chameleon dressed like Hunter S Thompson and voiced by Johnny Depp tries to become a Wild West lawman. In the absence of an entirely new Pixar movie, and with the eagerly anticipated Muppets film delayed until Febrary 2012, we’ll make do with a series of superior sequels, in the form of Kung Fu Panda 2 (June 17), Cars 2 (July 22) and Happy Feet 2 (December 2). A new Disney animation, Tangled (January 28, above), is a re-do of the Rapunzel story, while Rio (April 8) concerns a small-town macaw causing chaos in Rio de Janeiro.
This might be a very cold winter of discontent, but be of good cheer: in May, Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey work together again for the first time since both bagged Oscars for 1999’s American Beauty. The former directs the latter, with Spacey in the title role (June 18-September 11, oldvictheatre.com; 0844 871 7628).
Long before the Stig gained notoriety, this French DJ duo proved that crash helmets could be a hot fashion accessory. Having recorded the movie soundtrack for Tron: Legacy they are heavily tipped to announce an extensive world tour this year.
A morbid but must-see show at the British Museum. Its subject is the medieval world of saint’s relics and the rich but little-regarded art designed to house these myriad fragments of sacred bone or hair. Some haunting objects will be on display, including the birth amulet of a 13th-century Valois princess: an amber-encased thorn from Christ’s crown, as she believed it to be, for clutching in her palm for blessing during the bloody labour of childbirth (June 23-October 9, britishmuseum.org, 020 7323 8181).
Precocious American composer Nico Muhly may be the toast of New York, but until now critics on our side of the pond haven't warmed to him. Will the premiere of his first opera, inspired by a bizarre real-life crime hatched in an internet chat room, change their minds? (ENO, June 24-July 8, eno.org; 0871 911 0200).
Brian May’s passion for the cosmos is almost as well known as his Charles II-like hairstyle, but he’s not the only one to have noticed that the stars have aligned for Queen this year. Not only is it 40 years since Freddie Mercury joined a band called Smile, changed their name to Queen and gave birth to one of Britain’s biggest rock acts, it’s also 20 years this November since the flamboyant star died after contracting Aids. To mark the anniversaries, there’ll be a film starring Sacha Baron Cohen and written by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen and The Deal) plus an exhibition at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane (February 25-March 12, trumanbrewery.com) provocatively titled Stormtroopers in Stilettos, with memorabilia, photographs and themed rooms. There’ll also be a BBC documentary featuring May and Roger Taylor, and – you can guarantee – many other special events.
The avant-garde superstar collaboration of the summer brings together the Serbian-born 'godmother of performance art’ with ethereal androgyne Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) and craggy actor Willem Dafoe for a 'play with songs’ at the Manchester International Festival (July 9-16, mif.co.uk; 0161 876 2198)
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Myung-Whun Chung appears at the Proms in July with two programmes, including Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.
Ever wondered what the AnglePoise lamp and high-speed Intercity trains have in common? No, nor us. But the answer, all the same, is Kenneth Grange, arguably Britain’s leading product designer. He now gets a five-decade retrospective (July 20-Oct 30, designmuseum.org, 020 7940 8790).
With acrobatics, pyrotechnics, stuntmen, supervillains and screeching Batmobiles on a 100ft-wide, 60ft-deep performance area, Batman Live promises to be the theatrical spectacle of the year (July 20-October 8, batmanlive.com)
The Bolshoi’s triumphant visit to Covent Garden last summer has set the bar very high indeed for the Mariinsky Ballet, who return to the Royal Opera House in July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company’s sensational first visit, when they were lured to the West by Victor and Lilian Hochhauser. The Hochhausers have scheduled a three-week season featuring the usual canny mix of bankable classics (most notably Don Quixote) and less familiar work. Don’t miss Xander Parrish, a Cornish lad who ran away to Russia having tired of languishing in the chorus with Royal Ballet and who now dances principal roles: the first British dancer to be employed by the Mariinsky (July 25-August 13, roh.org.uk, 020 7304 4004, booking opens April 5).
This year the festival is to have a Far Eastern theme and features a visit by the superb dancers of the National Ballet of China. They perform a ballet version of the Chinese opera, The Peony Pavillion, the curious tale of a girl who pines away after being deflowered in her sleep and who returns from the grave to haunt the man of her dreams. The Eastern theme continues with the Shanghai Peking Opera who bring The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan, a Chinese reading of Hamlet (August 12-September 4, eif.co.uk, 0131 473 2000).
The National Theatre’s play has been reducing grown men to tears since it premiered in 2007; Steven Spielberg will bring the First World War story of a boy and his horse to the big screen with fine British actors such as Emily Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch (September 9).
Up for two Grammys in February, Marcus Mumford and co were the big band of last year. Their second album is rumoured for an autumn release.
Tim Pigott-Smith, acclaimed for his performance as Kenneth Lay in Lucy Prebble’s musical Enron, takes on the mantle of King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (September 22-October 22, wyp.org.uk; 0113 213 7700).
As if life weren’t hard enough for teenagers, two of their favourite film franchises are winding down: the final Harry Potter – The Deathly Hallows, Part II (July 15) – and the first part of the Twilight finale, Breaking Dawn (November 18). What might replace them? The alien-themed I Am Number Four (February 18), a film based on the novel by James Frey is a definite contender, as is Red Riding Hood (April 15), a new spin on a classic fairy tale by ex-Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.
Marques Toliver, a Brooklyn-based singer/violinist, is straight out of the Joanna Newsom school of odd combinations. With a soulful voice and great bow skills, he is preparing a debut album for 2011. Then there’s Heathers – a female duo who look set to follow in the footsteps of Mumford & Sons. They pack even more of a punch, however, and will bring their raucous live act over from Ireland. There’s also the gipsy-tinged sound of Jil is Lucky; Pete Lawrie’s mercilessly catchy pop-rock; and the dramatic Anna Calvi, who’s already toured with Nick Cave’s Grinderman and released the grandiose single Jezebel.
Wannabe English dame, Madonna, revisits the scandal that surrounded the affair between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in her second film as director; hopefully the release date won’t clash with the royal wedding.
If you think that 3D is just a passing fad, well, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg would beg to differ: the veteran directors are both grappling with the format in 2011. First up is Spielberg’s Tintin movie, The Secret of the Unicorn (October 26), starring Jamie Bell as the intrepid, tufty-haired reporter. Scorsese makes his first foray into children’s films with Hugo Cabret (December), a turn-of-the-century Parisian tale of an orphan, his late father and a collection of automata.
Claudio Abbado returns to the Festival Hall for the first time in over a decade, bringing his Lucerne Festival Orchestra in October with two programmes featuring Bruckner.
The Mummers are a band for whom the past two years has seen jubilation, tragedy and every emotion in between. Their 2009 debut, Tale to Tell, gained the band critical praise, but their fairy-tale sound and spirit was soon tragically overcome by events when keyboardist and arranger Mark Horwood committed suicide. January sees the release of their first new material since Horwood’s death – the EP Mink Hollow Road. It returns to the fanciful atmosphere of their early records but with added darkness and foreboding.
The weturn of Jonathan Ross, hosting a new chat show on ITV, should divide the nation, while Piers Morgan - slipping on the red braces of Larry King - befuddles our transatlantic cousins with his brand of televisual Marmite.
94 Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
A blockbuster offering from the National Gallery. With a scholarly catalogue most definitely not written by Dan Brown, the show will aim to decode the work of Leonardo’s Milanese period, when he was the not-so-humble servant of the Sforza dynasty. The gallery has been trumpeting 'the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held’, and tantalising reference has been made to 'sensational loans never before seen in the UK’. The billion-dollar question is whether the Louvre will be lending its most famous, much-in-need-of-a-clean portrait of a woman smiling, the Mona Lisa. According to information obtained exclusively by The Sunday Telegraph at the very highest levels of French cultural bureaucracy, the answer is: 'Non’ (November 9-February 5, nationalgallery.org.uk, 020 7747 2885).
All the magic ingredients that made Spartacus great – blood, sex, scenery chewing – look to be redoubled for Showtime’s new series, in which Jeremy Irons is Rodrigo Borgia, padre of 'The Original Crime Family’.
This spring, the classy-looking LA Noire (PS3, Xbox 360) will transport players into the world of a rookie police officer in Forties Los Angeles. Nintendo devotees, meanwhile, will get the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) and a new console, the 3DS, which promises 3D effects without the use of special glasses (e3.nintendo.com/3ds). Sony looks likely to launch the PSP Phone, too, though it remains tight-lipped about what it’ll do.
Almost five years have passed since Stadium Arcadium topped the US and UK charts, but the Californian funk rockers are hard at work on a new album.
After The Office and Extras, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant will hope to make it a hat-trick of successful sitcoms. Centred around the life of 3ft 6in Warwick Davis, the BBC Two series promises to be as cringe-inducing as its predecessors.
After 135 missions in 30 years, Nasa’s iconic reusable spacecraft will touch down for the last time this year. From now on, if you want to go into orbit, speak to Richard Branson.
Britain’s ability to bring countryside idylls and a variety of 'olden days’ to the small screen has never been in doubt, but it’s long been accepted that contemporary, groundbreaking drama is something you import from the US. Not anymore. A new series of the BBC’s much-celebrated Sherlock Holmes – starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Conan Doyle’s sleuth and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson – is expected to put its Hollywood rival (Guy Ritchie’s second Holmes feature film, due out in December) to shame. Matt Smith’s re-energised Doctor Who will return in spring, while the Whovian spin-off Torchwood will also reappear this year. Perhaps the most loved British dramas of recent times, however, have been Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, and the writers behind them have a new project, Eternal Law, which is coming soon to ITV.
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