Our critic looks back at the best, worst, most underrated and most irritating performances of 2025 and recommends the plays to see this Christmas

As Dame Judi Dench explores a connection to her hero William Shakespeare, she talks love, death, forgiveness and controlling her temper

A village hall mystery doesn’t quite go to plan

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27 DECEMBER

It has been 24 years since Kiefer Sutherland first barked orders into a flip phone in 24, the headlong war-on-terror TV drama that elevated raspy CTU agent Jack Bauer into the all-time action-hero pan