Glastonbury begins and Squid Game ends: What’s coming up this week
Did you get tickets to Glastonbury festival this year? Not to worry if not, you can watch from the comfort of your own home on BBC iPlayer.
But that’s not all the next seven days have in store you.
Squid Game is coming to an end with season three, Brad Pitt is speeding into UK cinemas with his new film F1 and gaming auteur Hideo Kojima is releasing the sequel to Death Stranding.
Read on for what’s coming up this week…
More than 90 hours of music from Glastonbury
By Mark Savage, music correspondent
The UK’s biggest festival opens its doors on Wednesday, with fans gathering at the Pyramid Stage to see headline sets from The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo and Neil Young.
If you weren’t one of the roughly 140,000 people who got a ticket, though, you can follow all the action at home. The BBC is there all week, with live coverage across TV, radio and iPlayer – covering all the main stages, with more than 90 hours of music.
To whet your appetite, there’s already a Glastonbury Hits Channel on iPlayer, streaming classic tracks from previous years – with highlights including Oasis, Little Simz, The Who and Lady Gaga.
And if you’re heading down to Worthy Farm, and can’t be bothered fighting for a position at the main stages, I’d recommend a visit to the Avalon field – which might just have this year’s best line-up.
You can relive your 2000s indie disco dreams with Hard-Fi, The Fratellis and Ash; check out some of 2025’s best new indie artists, courtesy of Orla Gartland and Rachael Chinouriri; and celebrate the memory of Amy Winehouse, with an hour-long set from her former band.
Netflix brings Squid Game to an end
After taking the world by storm, Squid Game is coming to an end on Friday.
Since launching in 2021, its first season racked up more than 265 million views making it Netflix’s most-watched show ever. The second season isn’t far behind, with about 192.6 million watches, landing it at number three on the platform.
The story follows Seong Gi-hun who competes in deadly children’s games for a chance to win a cash prize that could erase his enormous debt.
Creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who lost teeth from the stress of making the show, called the ending “bittersweet”. Initially imagining the series stretching across five seasons, Dong-hyuk found a natural ending point during writing.
He explained: “I’m relieved because I finally get out of the Squid Game world, but at the same time I have to say goodbye to all the good memories… So it is kind of sad in that way.”
Lead star Lee Jung-jae added: “It hasn’t sunk in with me yet… When I get to see how the fans respond to it maybe I can be ready to say goodbye to Squid Game and Seong Gi-hun.”
Hideo Kojima delivers star-studded gaming sequel
By Tom Richardson, Newsbeat reporter
Depending on who you speak to, Hideo Kojima is either a visionary prophet or a self-indulgent, wannabe movie-maker. But there’s no doubting he’s one of the most influential video game designers of all time – and he’s got a new one out this week.
Sequel Death Stranding 2, out on PlayStation 5 from Thursday, picks up the story of protagonist Sam Porter Bridges, a delivery man who lugs precariously balanced cargo across a post-apocalyptic Earth.
We’ve only got four paragraphs here, so won’t attempt to recap the – ahem – complex plot (Kojima’s storylines and love of long cinematic sequences are the biggest source of “self-indulgence” accusations), but early signs point to a deeper, more varied experience in the moment-to-moment gameplay.
And although people criticise them, Kojima’s previous scripts have anticipated real-world events such as the rise of online misinformation and the Covid-19 pandemic with eerie accuracy. So maybe you shouldn’t skip the cutscenes, acted by an all-star cast including Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux and Elle Fanning.
Brad Pitt races into cinemas
Brad Pitt is not cutting corners when it comes to bringing F1 to the big screen.
He and his co-star Damson Idris were spotted speeding real cars around Silverstone while filming during the 2023 and 2024 Grand Prix.
Pitt plays burnt-out racer Sonny Hayes who is pulled out of retirement to help fictional team APXGP.
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski is behind the camera, he’s been keen to make sure the film feels authentic to fans of the sport. There’s a thumping Hans Zimmer score, stunning shots of international race courses and realistic high-speed crashes that will make the whole cinema gasp.
If you’re an F1 fan there are a lot of Easter eggs to be hunting for- the film is stuffed with cameos including drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle.
The film is in cinemas from Wednesday.
