JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system

MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones

JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology

MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star

SCOTT ALSWORTH searches for something – anything – worth recommending from the year’s releases

Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY

IAN SINCLAIR recommends an important and timely book for climate politics right now and in the future

ROGER McKENZIE recommends a landmark study of black journalism in Britain that is a wake-up call to prioritise working-class struggles, where black people are recognised as an important part of the class

STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Six Billion Dollar Man, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Goodbye June, and Super Elfkins

MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama

CHRIS SEARLE picks his favourite albums of the year

GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic

by Miriam Spillane

DENNIS BROE waded through 89 TV series this year, and picks the wheat from the chaff

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters

SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime

RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today

CHRIS SEARLE recommends an upcoming concert by the leading exponent of cross-cultural music-making in Britain

Artist of the Year is, without a doubt, BC Camplight. Meanwhile the touring started in earnest, details here 

GORDON PARSONS relishes an adaptation of Dahl’s children’s tale, but issues a warning for the over 11-year-olds

DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world

JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing