As the ‘fifth Beatle’ Brian Epstein, Fortune-Lloyd’s performance holds an otherwise sanitised narrative together in well-meaning biopic

British actor Jacob Fortune-Lloyd stars as the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein in this uneven but well-meaning biopic. The screenplay by Brigit Grant and Jonathan Wakeham weaves the story in and around the two or three main facets of Epstein that are always invoked in every potted bio: he was instrumental in the Beatles’ huge international success (Paul McCartney would later describe him as “the fifth Beatle”), he was Jewish, and he was gay. It certainly unfurls itself on a broader canvas than the 1991 drama The Hours and Times , although that tight, intimate low-budget work, which featured David Angus as Epstein and a young Ian Hart as John Lennon on a weekend trip to Barcelona together, still stands up as one of the most nuanced and insightful works of Beatles-themed speculative fiction. But this one has fancier costumes, particularly in its final scene, where we see the Beatles in full-on flowers-in-their-hair and brocade Nehru-jacket-finery as they film a live international broadcast, which happened just before Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose in 1967, aged 32.

Clearly, the film ends on the broadcast’s triumphant note in order to give a bit of uplift to what is largely a sad story, if you take out the bits where Epstein makes a fortune for himself and the Beatles building a management business. (He also managed Gerry and the Pacemakers and Cilla Black, played sympathetically here by Darci Shaw.) Because if you subtract the success, then Epstein’s story here is a classic tale of gay martyrdom, all semi-closeted despair and suffering as he goes from cottaging encounters (which bring beatings and blackmail attempts) to a toxic relationship with an American lover, Tex Ellington (Ed Speleers), who ends up robbing and humiliating poor trusting Brian. At least his mum Queenie (Emily Watson, avoiding the worst Jewish mother cliches thankfully) always loved him, even if his father (Eddie Marsan) could never understand his son.

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Spectres of real-life horrors haunt Raphaël Neal’s uncanny self-portraits – from a femme fatale covered in cockroaches to a leading man with blood-covered hands

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People who have been homeless discuss their experiences with the prince, plus the stunningly intense documentary Helmand: Tour of Duty. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, ITV1
A member of the royal family campaigning to end homelessness is a hard pill to swallow, but Prince William says: “Why else would I be here if not using this role properly to influence and help people where I can?” So what exactly is his plan? Well, his five-year initiative, Homewards, starts with this two-part documentary, in which he hears from people who share their lived experience as well as potential solutions to the problem. Hollie Richardson

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This world-tilting Storyville documentary examines an industry dedicated to creating realistic avatars of loved ones, so the bereaved can communicate with them. It’s beautifully balanced – and highly alarming

All that work, all that talent, all that incredible brain and computing power, and it’s being concentrated on providing the world with nothing more than a higher, more powerfully terrible form of that old fortune teller’s skill, cold reading – extrapolating from a person’s tiniest behavioural clues to produce apparently unknowable information about them.

Eternal You is a 100-minute dive into the cold and murky waters of the digital afterlife industry. To those of you blessedly unfamiliar with this phenomenon – as I was before I watched this world-tilting, mind-galvanising film – there are companies dedicated to using AI to create convincing avatars of dead people . The whole of internetted human history is crunched, including whatever digital footprint left by the deceased, plus whatever details the bereaved care to add and then, for a small sum, loved ones can communicate once again with the departed.

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Clearly neither rapper had anything to do with this deep dive into their famous feud – and it makes for a refreshing alternative to hip-hop hagiography

The sky isn’t as blue, the grass not so green, food now tastes like sawdust and life just hasn’t been as sweet, since rap superstars Kendrick Lamar and Drake ceased their epic beefing back in May. So it is with gratitude that we hip-hop heads receive this hour-long documentary rehash.

It doesn’t go deep into the music itself, a total of 10 tracks – five from Lamar, five from Drake – released between 22 March and 5 May of this year. But there are numerous TikTok explainer videos for that. Rather, Public Enemies works by paralleling the biographies of both artists, to cast light on the present state of hip-hop, the music industry and the culture at large.

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Adidas chief executive says dispute with rapper ‘belongs to the past’, and that the last of its Yeezy stock will be sold by the end of the year

Adidas says it has reached an amicable agreement with rapper Kanye West to end all legal proceedings between them, without any money being exchanged.

The German sportswear giant had been locked in a dispute with the artist, who now goes by the name Ye, since they cut ties in 2022 after allegations of antisemitism against him.

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Where are the fights? Where’s the escapism of gawping at deluded toffs having ludicrously overblown life crises? This catch-up with three Made in Chelsea stars is far too anodyne

Made in Chelsea is a castle built on the sands of cheating, backstabbing and hysterical arguments, all of which offer perfect vehicles for showing off the inherent passive-aggression of the privileged. This calm and collected spin-off, Beyond Chelsea, follows three of its big-name stars – Binky Felstead, Rosie Fortescue and Lucy Watson – as they navigate their early 30s, through motherhood, businesses (and what businesses they are!), love and dating. Sadly, two of the three are in settled relationships, so the dating takes a back seat to discussions about weaning babies and what they got up to on Made in Chelsea but are far too mature to even consider these days.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, as Marx and Engels once wrote. Binky, Rosie and Lucy try desperately to locate some upper class struggles – any struggles will do – for the sake of the narrative here. On a human level, the fact that this first episode is largely drama-free is a testament to the contentment that each seems to have found in their lives. Reality television can be a bear pit, and to watch them talk about how hard they work, how good they look and how happy they are is, in a funny way, mildly soothing and gently ambient, like an eight-hour brown noise YouTube video.

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Noël Coward theatre, London
Adding a fourth role to Peter Sellers’ three turns in the classic film, the comic excels in a fun yet unadventurous adaptation

Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satire, about cold war brinkmanship tipping into nuclear conflict, seemed to be a vehicle for Peter Sellers to showboat in three central roles. It might have ended up like Carry On … to Armageddon but with the combined genius of Kubrick and Sellers rocketed into the film canon.

It takes a confident – foolish? – team to tamper with a work quite so revered, and so suited to the screen. How, for instance, do you turn the legendary scene of a pilot riding a careering nuclear warhead into credible theatre? This production achieves the dubious feat of turning an edgy, absurdist story into broad entertainment with accessible laughs, along with a few topical references and excellent performances all round.

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Writer-director shows support for critically maligned and commercially disastrous musical follow-up to 2019 hit

Quentin Tarantino has come out in support of the critical and commercial flop Joker: Folie à Deux .

The writer-director sang the musical sequel’s praises during a recent appearance on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast . The Todd Phillips-directed follow-up to his 2019 hit Joker scored a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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