Hampstead ****

Stuck for cultural events this week? Des O’Driscoll has great suggestions for you, whether it’s tv or theatre you’re in the mood for.

Des O’Driscoll picks the best of the box this week

Vanessa Redgrave, Nathalie Baye, Kerry Fox, Ross Noble, Anna Friel, and Ben Wheatley are among the stars joining Irish talents Jack Reynor, Moe Dunford, Cillian Murphy, John Butler, and Aiden Gillen on the red carpet.

Ok so Disney is releasing a new take on Beauty and the Beast in a live action musical starring Emma Watson as Belle. The first teaser is here.

The success of Disney's live action Cinderella and The Jungle Book for the big screen has started a new trend at the house of mouse - remaking its classic animated films with real actors and stuff.

Brooklyn has been named film of the year at the London Evening Standard British Film Awards.

It's the 2016 movie everyone's talking about.

Adam Lambert would love to see Queen headline Glastonbury.

The best of what’s hitting the cinema this week.

A female landscape gardener is hired for a major project at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV.

Tonight's things that are on telly you might like.

The first episode of Sky's deafeningly-hyped Fortitude was a lumbering Frankenstein's monster, in which the random body parts of better, smarter TV shows were stitched together with little thought to aesthetics or coherence.

ENGLAND: A polar bear appears to have turned up in London.

As he joins a stellar cast in Fortitude, Christopher Eccleston tells Kate Samuelson why he loved working on the new drama series

Des O’Driscoll highlights this spring’s TV highlights.

Des O’Driscoll reveals what he expects will be the arts and entertainment  highlights of spring 2015.

Check out our spoiler-free guide to the best of tonight's TV.

Thursday: The Fall BBC Two, 9pm

TV BITS:

Transformers: Age of Extinction is almost ready to hit Irish cinemas and its already earned over $400 million worldwide.

Despite the summer stretch in the day, The Menu feels nothing short of a turbo-booster for the bould Neidín will enable him to attend every last one of an ever-increasing proliferation of food festivals around this glorious island.

Mark Wahlberg thinks 'Transformers' is the "most iconic" franchise ever.

Ricky Gervais has joked about swapping human companions for frog friendships after starring in the new ‘Muppets’ film.

Mark Wahlberg's children will cameo in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'.

'Transformers: Age of Extinction' is the official title of the forthcoming sci-fi film.

Demi-gods embark on a perilous quest to locate the mythical Golden Fleece in the action-packed sequel to the 2010 fantasy adventure.

Kelsey Grammer has joined the cast of 'Transformers 4'.

An entirely appropriate title for a film that steals from a number of superior movies, yet never appears sure of what it really wants to be.

The English folktale of ‘Jack And The Beanstalk’ is given a smart CGI-heavy makeover in Bryan Singer’s fast-paced fantasy.

Emma Watson will not be playing 'Cinderella' in Kenneth Branagh's film.

Michael Hoffman’s remake of the 1966 screwball caper about a cat burglar and showgirl who plan an elaborate heist has impeccable credentials.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed up to appear in 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'.

We’ve had some very persuasive movies in the past on how tough it is to be a teenager — Heathers (1988), say, or Kids (1995) or the ultra-violent Battle Royale (2000) — but The Hunger Games (12A) is unambiguous: it’s a jungle out there, so get ready to kill or be killed.

Death is a lottery – literally – in Gary Ross’s nail-biting survival thriller based on the first chapter of Suzanne Collins’s post-apocalyptic trilogy.

Superstar Cher - who has previously claimed she would never go on the road again - has announced that she will tour this year.

As the current financial crisis attests, money makes the world go round and when the flow of capital is restricted, the ripple effect is felt from one continent to the next.

DID Steven Spielberg really intend ET (1982) to be read as a Christ-like figure?

Anna Kendrick has signed up to star in 'The Company You Keep'.

THE superhero grows a little less super with each successive offering from the Marvel Comics canon.

Superhero origin stories have been all the rage at the multiplex this summer, with Marvel Comics alone accounting for two such films, ‘Thor’ and ‘X-Men: First Class’, both of which happily surpassed critics' expectations.

Woody Harrelson has joined the cast of 'The Hunger Games'.

Ewan McGregor is set for a starring role in 'Jack the Giant Killer'.

IT’S NOT exactly yet another remake of A Star is Born, but Burlesque (US/12A/119 mins) is the latest Hollywood movie to tell the time-honoured tale of a star-struck hopeful who arrives in LA a nobody and triumphs against the odds to see her name up in lights.