This dreadfully suspenseful four-parter about the killing of the innocent Brazilian man reveals the staggering number of blunders that led up to it

In Britain, we are not short of stories of police incompetence, malfeasance or deception, but the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes stands out because the manner of his death is so shocking. De Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian working as an electrician in London, boarded the tube at Stockwell station on the morning of 22 July 2005. Moments later, before the carriage doors could close, armed police sprinted on to the train and shot him seven times, point blank, in the head. De Menezes had been mistaken for a suicide bomber; he was entirely innocent of any crime.

Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a four-part drama by Jeff Pope, portrays the horror of that moment with breathtaking clarity. The sheer power and speed of the killing are viscerally startling: De Menezes (Edison Alcaide) is tackled, pinned and shot before he can utter a word in protest. Something has gone profoundly, unimaginably wrong, and Suspect is an enraging picture of what went wrong and how.

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Wyndham’s theatre, London
Ibsen is moved to the Hamptons in Lila Raicek’s play, co-starring Kate Fleetwood and Elizabeth Debicki, about the destruction wreaked by adultery

Henrik Ibsen’s Icarus-like architect is indubitably the patrician protagonist of his play The Master Builder. The women of that play revolve around him like acolytes, from his obliging wife to an infatuated bookkeeper and, controversially, the romanticised figure of Hilda, who reminds him of “kisses” between them when he was a renowned builder and she just a child.

In Lila Raicek’s modern take , his wife – clever, accomplished and angry – is the fulcrum. Henry Solness (Ewan McGregor) is a “starchitect” and Elena Solness (Kate Fleetwood) is the head of a publishing empire who has arranged a dinner, inviting Henry’s long-estranged student, Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki), with whom he had a tryst 10 years ago, when the Solness’s young son had just died. Love then was mixed with grief. Now it is reignited when Mathilde reminds Solness of what they meant to each other, retrospectively. “All that grief and all that rapture,” says Solness, as his memories come rushing back.

At Wyndham’s theatre, London , until 12 July

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Hit comedy drama series to return with new set of characters and Kerry Washington as executive producer

The drama on Wisteria Lane looks set to continue with a new iteration of the hit ABC show Desperate Housewives in development.

The show is scheduled at Onyx Collective, with Kerry Washington to executive-produce along with Pilar Savone and Natalie Chaidez. The latter, who recently worked on The Flight Attendant , will also write the spin-off series, currently titled Wisteria Lane.

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With star names, a Hamlet in shades, orgiastic murder and a miners’ strike musical, Indhu Rubasingham promises something for all. But can she attract newcomers while keeping diehards happy? And is she having sleepless nights?

Indhu Rubasingham is starting her tenure at the National Theatre with a blast of bloody anarchy – of the ancient Greek variety. The opening play in her inaugural programme is a part verse, part spoken-word reworking of The Bacchae, which features orgiastic delirium and violent frenzy as a group of women tear a king to bits.

Rubasingham will direct Bacchae (without its definite article) herself. This reimagining of the Euripides drama is the work of first-time playwright Nima Taleghani, better known as an actor (he featured in Jamie Lloyd’s rapping Cyrano ). There is a certain anarchic spirit to this kicking-off point: Rubasingham is putting a debut writer’s play on the NT’s biggest stage, the Olivier, which has never before showcased a first work.

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Kharmel Cochrane responded to criticism of both actors’ ages and of Elordi’s ethnicity being unfaithful to Emily Brontë’s novel, saying ‘wait until you see the set design’

Kharmel Cochrane, the casting director of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has defended the choice of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi for the leading roles.

Speaking at the Sands film festival in Scotland, Cochrane responded to criticism of both actors’ ages and Elordi’s ethnicity by saying there was “no need to be accurate” as the source material is “just a book”, Deadline reported .

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The Oscar nominated actor is the most impressive member of a ragtag Suicide Squad-esque team in an often charmingly unusual yet still baggy adventure

Thunderbolts* can be messy. Not just the movie, with its clumsily forced narrative beats and whiplash tonal shifts. But also, its title characters, the broken and lonely souls who ditch the colourful costumes and wear their emotions on their sleeves, as if it’s their brand.

These reluctant heroes, led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, the troubled sister to Scarlett Johansson’s late Black Widow, are defined by how much they need therapy. They wrestle with themselves more than the bad guys, in a way that’s more pronounced than the most unstable among Marvel’s stable of wisecracking world saviors. They’re endearingly vulnerable, at times devastatingly so, and yet still fun and exciting enough to save Marvel.

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Described by Ian McEwan as ‘a treasure of English contemporary writing’, the Yorkshire-born novelist’s career spanned 50 years

Jane Gardam, author of books for adults and children including Old Filth and The Hollow Land, has died at the age of 96, her publisher has confirmed.

The Yorkshire-born novelist’s career spanned 50 years, and she was awarded an OBE for services to literature in 2009. Her books were also nominated for the Booker prize, the Orange (now Women’s) prize and the Folio (now Writers’) prize. She remains the only person to have won the Whitbread prize (latterly the Costa) in two categories: she won the children’s book category in 1981 for The Hollow Land and the best novel category in 1991 for The Queen of the Tambourine. Old Filth was named as one of the BBC’s 100 greatest British novels in 2015.

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John Niven’s debut play explores rivalry between the two British bands who vied for the No 1 spot in the charts in 1995

It was the great Britpop showdown in the summer of 1995, billed as a contest between cheeky chaps and lairy lads. Thirty years on, a new play is to revisit the fierce rivalry between Blur and Oasis when both British bands put out a new single in the same week and competed to grab the No 1 spot in the charts. Some purchased both releases, many couldn’t care less, but for a few days it was a decision that defined you: whether to spend £2.99 on Oasis’s Roll With It or Blur’s Country House?

The Battle is the debut stage play of novelist and screenwriter John Niven who said of the era: “Music was so central to the culture that two pop groups could dominate the entire summer, the evening news and the front page of every newspaper in the country. We’re going to take you back there.”

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Actor makes dramatic bid for awards glory as UFC fighter Mark Kerr in biopic also starring his Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt aim for awards glory in the first trailer for fact-based sports drama The Smashing Machine.

The wrestler-turned-actor plays the MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the film inspired by the 2002 documentary with the same name. Kerr won multiple awards and medals in his career and also struggled with substance abuse.

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