New entertainment releases this week

Have you been waiting for a chance to see Molly-Mae “as never before”?

If so, you’re in luck, as she’s starring in a new TV series which comes out on Friday.

But that’s not all this week has in store.

Some familiar singles will be aiming for a second shot at love in the Love Island villa, Meghan will be baking cakes on her new Netflix show, and One Direction‘s film returns to cinemas in tribute to Liam Payne.

Elsewhere, Pope Francis will be taking on controversial topics in his new autobiography, and the late Mac Miller‘s album Balloonerism will drop at last.

Read on for all of this week’s biggest releases…

Influencer Molly-Mae Hague shocked fans last year by announcing her split from her fiancé, professional boxer Tommy Fury.

Both aged 25, they were arguably the most high-profile couple to have emerged from Love Island.

Now, her legions of fans are being promised “unprecedented access” to her life, behind the vlog camera.

The first three episodes of Molly-Mae: Behind It All drop on Prime Video on 17 January, with the second three episodes expected in spring.

It’s a fly-on-the-wall reality show meets documentary series, in which cameras follow Molly around as she raises her daughter Bambi, while pursuing her various business ventures.

“So far, so good. I’ve not lost my mind with the cameras in my house all the time,” she told Vogue magazine in November.

Molly-Mae is a pro, so you can imagine the programme will be carefully stage-managed.

But the show promises we will see her “as we’ve never seen her before – raw, real and redefining what it means to thrive under intense public scrutiny”.

The documentary also follows her journey after the breakup.

Intriguingly, over the festive break, photos emerged in several newspapers allegedly showing Molly-Mae and Tommy – who were runners-up in 2019’s Love Island – kissing at a New Year’s Eve party.

We have not independently verified those pictures.

But it’s safe to say Molly-Mae’s love life is of endless fascination, especially for Britain’s tabloids, and you can expect the topic to come up at a Q&A with her this week, ahead of the launch.

I’ll be attending that, and will keep you posted with all the juicy details. Stay tuned…

After Molly-Mae and Tommy broke up, some of us doubted if it was really possible to find true love on reality TV.

But that hasn’t put off the veteran singles heading to South Africa for spin-off series Love Island: All Stars…

The show, which starts on ITV2 and ITVX on Monday, brings back contestants from previous series for a second crack at romance.

This year, professional dancer Curtis Pritchard will be back to make everyone’s morning coffees, joined by Kaz Crossley and Nas Majeed.

Exes Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville are also set to return. The couple finished as runners-up in 2017, but broke up a year later.

Scott Thomas, Olivia Hawkins, Catherine Agbaje and Ronnie Vint will also return alongside Luca Bish, who previously coupled up with Gemma Owen (daughter of ex-footballer Michael).

All Stars started last year in response to falling viewing figures for the original series.

ITV bosses will be hoping the show can bring back the sparkle. But viewing figures for last year’s All Stars grand final suggest it hasn’t… yet.

The final attracted 1.3 million viewers – significantly lower than the show peak of six million during its 2019 heyday.

The return of so many stars from some of the show’s most popular series could also indicate it’s getting harder to make an influencer career outside the island. More on that from my colleague Annabel here.

One Direction shot to the top of the UK and Ireland box office charts with their documentary in 2013.

Now, more than a decade later, One Direction: This Is Us is being re-released in some cinemas on Tuesday in tribute to former bandmate Liam Payne, who died last year.

Announcing the news, Odeon said it would be donating all ticket profits from the screenings to mental health awareness charities. Other cinemas around the world have also announced screenings of the film.

Fans of the boyband were quick to praise the move.

“Liam’s deserved more than tributes, he’s irreplaceable. But you’re doing a good thing,” wrote one X user.

“This will mean a lot to fans,” wrote another, with a heart emoji.

The film, directed by Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock, features both behind-the-scenes moments and concert footage of the group – which also included Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik.

Given the turnout at vigils for Liam Payne around the world after the singer’s death, you can expect a similar response from fans here.

For fans, or Directioners as they are known, Liam’s death felt like the end of an integral part of their childhood. My colleague Bonnie – a former fangirl herself – wrote about that here.

There’s been a lot of debate recently about whether you should sing in cinemas, in the wake of Wicked and Moana 2… but I imagine that won’t hold back fans heading to see this film.

We’ve had the Oprah interview, we’ve had the Harry & Meghan Netflix show.

Now, the Duchess of Sussex is going it alone – in her new Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, which is due to drop on Wednesday.

In the trailer, Meghan is seen baking cakes, slicing veggies and harvesting honey.

It’s the picture of domestic bliss.

But, as ever with Meghan, it’s proving divisive. One public relations expert I spoke to praised it as “authentic”, while another called it “tone deaf”.

There have also been some calls on social media for the show to be delayed while the LA wildfires rage – but there’s been no comment from either Netflix or the Sussexes about that yet.

When the trailer dropped 10 days ago, thousands of column inches were dedicated to it.

The Daily Mail, for example, picked apart every single detail of every frame in the trailer, most of it unsympathetic.

So you can only imagine how much coverage the show itself is going to get.

I’m personally interested in how much the Duke of Sussex appears. And might we get a rare glimpse of their two children, Archie and Lilibet, too?

It’s an eight-part series, so there will be plenty to chew over – for fans and detractors alike.

It’s been more than five years since Mac Miller died following an accidental overdose on 18 September 2018.

On Friday, the rapper’s previously unreleased 2014 album Balloonerism comes out. It’s the second posthumous album to be released by Miller’s estate following 2020’s Circles.

On social media, some have expressed concerns over whether putting out someone’s music after they’ve died is the right thing to do, with fans worrying about the impact it might have on the artist’s legacy.

But Miller’s estate said the album was “of great importance to Malcolm”.

Announcing the news on Instagram in November, they said it would showcase “his musical talents and fearlessness as an artist”.

Miller, whose real name was Malcolm James McCormick, was 26 years old at the time of his death.

Shortly before he died, he released an album, Swimming, which discussed his struggles with mental health and addiction, as well as his breakup with pop star Ariana Grande.

Miller may be gone too soon, but his music lives on.

Finally, Pope Francis’s Hope is out on Tuesday. It’s the first autobiography to be published by a Pope.

He originally intended for the memoir to appear only after his death, but according to his publisher Penguin, “the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope” moved him to release it early.

Penguin also promises it will deal with “some of the most controversial questions of our times”, on topics including the Middle East, migration, the position of women and sexuality.

So you can expect plenty of reaction once the book is out.