UpCloseOpera’s Gianni Schicchi is tremendous fun. Wittily updated, arranged for an onstage quartet, great singing. The only downside is a painfully unfunny spoken word ‘podcast’ prologue which is meant to help young people relate, but completely bewildered the Chichester pensioners. #opera
The William Nicholson exhibition at the Pallant Gallery is fascinating. The still lifes and woodcuts are marvellous. The portraits variable. He has painted Gertrude Jekyll with fuddled fingers, but her gardening boots are glorious. #art
My suggestion in the consultation on the appearance of banknotes was not taken up. I submitted Paddington, the Gruffalo and Winnie the Pooh. But it seems we’re going for wildlife instead.
The RSC’s The BFG, which is currently at Chichester, is gloriously theatrical. The puppets play superbly with scale, so that live actors can appear huge or tiny. The storytelling is fluid, the use of video is exhilarating, the magic zings. Children around me adored it. So did I. #theatre
Round of applause, please, for Phil, Ben and Lee from the London Fire Brigade who visited my mother today, fitted state-of-the-art smoke alarms, gave her sensible advice, and made her laugh.
Everyone knows that the WhatsOnStage Awards are all about popularity not excellence. So they don’t matter. But I have to say that when The Comedy About Spies won best play among nominations that included Stereophonic, I laughed out loud. #theatre
"The one addition to a car’s signage which I would genuinely appreciate is a light that simply says, 'Sorry!'"
In this week's Notebook, @petergraystone.bsky.social ✍️ on car safety, dashboard signs, taking one step at a time, and the challenging world we live in 📒
It’s my turn to do the back page of the Church Times this week. I’ve written about why I hate driving, why I love my church, and how they are connected.
www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...
It’s always my favourite commission: Tell us what you’ve been doing and make us laugh. Thanks for reading!
Trump is no Roosevelt.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
Hamlet act 3 scene 1.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026... You would think that the message of Thursday’s by-election is, ‘This is not a good idea,’ wouldn’t you?
The Shitheads at @royalcourt.bsky.social is unbelievably brutal and violent. Cave people kill their way towards survival. Too unfocused to be a great play but a fiercely original debut with wonderful puppets. I’m eager to see what Jack Nicholls does next. It sure as hell won’t be a romcom. #theatre
Oh my life! Guess How Much I Love You at @royalcourt.bsky.social has absolutely shaken me. No question it’s the best new play of the year. And impeccably acted. Leavened with laughs and a glimmer of hope. But it’s desperately sad about a young couple and a terrible loss. People around me sobbed.
You have unwittingly celebrated Faustinus’ Day. He’s the patron saint of single people. In protest at your assimilation of my day I see no alternative but to open a bottle of expensive wine. Now look what you’ve done!
I am fully invested after one episode. I laughed and laughed and laughed. But it has definitely taken a turn I wasn’t expecting. Like everyone, I am struggling to make room in my life for another comedy after the glorious Small Prophets.
“Do you think that God is a Newtonian?”
“An Etonian? Almost certainly.”
Hard to imagine a better production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia than Carrie Cracknell at the @oldvictheatre.bsky.social. In the round - time zones, emotions and ideas swirling like jam stirred in a rice pudding. Utterly brilliant.
The deepest of bows, sir.
Weird green trainers with round rubber lines up the side
New trainers for those who have always wanted to look like someone sneezed on their feet.
A head-on shot of an olympic speed skater in a blue body suit. Another skater in the same suit follows directly behind, giving the appearance of one skater with four legs.
the use of performance enhancing drugs by olympic athletes is getting out of hand
Man and Boy at the NT is a curiosity. It’s a rarely revived Terence Rattigan play about a corrupt businessman who tries to get out of a financial mess by pimping out his son. Great performances and non-naturalistic staging. Interesting, but such a horrible protagonist that I recoiled. #theatre
Oh my! I Do, by Dante Or Die, is so, so, so good. It takes place crammed in six actual hotel rooms half an hour before a wedding. Scenes are contemporaneous, so every exit is an entrance into a scene you see later. Incredibly clever, but also satirical, funny, moving. I absolutely loved it.
The English language is so crazy with its silent K's. One silent K in knot. Two silent K's in knuckle. Three silent K's in republican. Four silent K's knick-knack.
#langsky
It would be impossible to stage a more loveable When We Are Married. Samantha Spiro, Sophie Thompson and Siobhan Finneran wonderfully funny, and a glorious drunk turn from Ron Cook. It still has a bit of satirical bite about marriage, but that’s not the point - it’s two hours of joy.
A very happy 89th birthday to the absolutely magnificent Vanessa Redgrave.
Eat the Rich is about a working class scouser negotiating Cambridge University. Very funny, politically savvy, full of charm. It’s been wildly acclaimed and compared with Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, which were both poleaxing. But for me … hmm! But it’s going to be a Netflix series, so what do I know.
My favourite films of the year are always quiet, unnoticed, independent British films. So I’m delighted that the #BAFTA nominations include The Ballad of Wallis Island (hilarious and charming), I Swear (hilarious and moving), and Mr Burton (charming and moving). www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
I thoroughly recommend retirement!
