British Museum: Guided Tours and Talks - FREE - ★★★★★


If you come to London, visiting the British Museum is on everyone's top ten list. The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Frieze, and all the other amazing wonders... it is impossible to see and appreciate everything on a single visit, but there is help and it's free. The Daily eye-opener tours are our favourites. There are also the Spotlight tours and excellent lunch time talks by guest lecturers or the curators. 

 Our Score:  ☆☆☆☆☆

WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:

 Eye-opener tours (30 - 40 mins) 
Daily
11:00 Japan, Room 92  
11:15 Roman Britain, Room 49  
11:30 Ancient Greece, Room 17 
11:45 Ancient Iraq, Room 56 
12:00 Africa, Room 24  
12:15 China, Room 33 
12:30 The Enlightenment Gallery, Room 1 
12:45 Mexico, Room 27 13:00 South Asia, Room 33 
2:15 World of Money, Room 68 
2:30 Ancient Egypt, Room 64
2:45 Medieval Europe, Room 41 
3:15 Ancient Rome, Room 70
3:45 Assyrian Reliefs, Room 6 

Spotlight tours (20 mins
Fri
5:00 & 5:30 The Parthenon
5:00 & 5:30 Rosetta Stone
6:30 & 7:00 The Enlightenment
6:30 & 7:00 Death in ancient Egypt

 Lunchtime talks (45 mins) -
Tue, Wed, Fri & Sat at: 1:15

The British Museum, Great Russell Street
Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road
https://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/planning_your_visit/tours_and_talks.aspx
    Map & Location: Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK

    Most Popular

    Blitz! - The Union Theatre - ★★★★ - Until March 7, 2020

    Image
    It takes real talent and imagination to recreate the true feeling of the East End during WW II, and in Blitz! Phil Willmott (director) and his team work wonders; we really get the atmosphere and the cast combine to deliver an authentic feeling of community. Lionel Bart's show was originally a gigantic spectacle which overwhelmed the performers; here the reduction in scale is a mixed blessing as the banality of the script and score is exposed. This was hardly Bart's finest hour. However, there are some excellent aspects of this production, especially the Blitztein family's feisty, diminutive matriarch superbly played by Jessica Martin. She really carries the show, whilst Caitlin Anderson and Connor Carson are charming as the star-crossed young lovers. As the bombs fall, we swirl from an underground bomb shelter via a street market to a wedding, and we hardly have time to catch our breath. Racial tensions are treated rather simplistically, but the big moments work brilliantl…
    Full Details »

    Macbeth, Guildford Shakespeare Company - ★★★★ - Until February 29, 2020

    Image
    Striking and beautifully lit tableaux abound in this vivid production of Macbeth directed by Charlotte Conquest with lighting by Mark Dymock. Even though only a relatively small performing area is used, the height and depth of the rest of the church bring an added, suitable grandeur to the dark proceedings. The omnipresent and malevolent witches are truly scary as they creep and crawl menacingly around Neil Irish's rather raggle-taggle set. Escalating insanity and paranoia drench Jack Whitam's performance and this patently weak Macbeth is definitely in the thrall of a powerful wife. At times, he seems rightly terrified by what is happening around him and his descent to defeat has a clear inevitability. Whitam's delivery is excellent and Stella Taylor's Lady Macbeth is also beautifully and regally articulated. She does a fine job of displaying the manipulative woman's naked ambition. The sleepwalking scene was exceptionally effective. The murder of Macduff's fam…
    Full Details »

    MUSIK, Leicester Square Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until March 1, 2020

    Image
    This hilarious one woman show is a retrospective of the life of Billie Trix who has inserted herself into the worlds of music, art and politics across several decades. With a stunning lack of self-insight and a self-confidence that can only be measured in light years, Billie is a wonderful creation who shares her experiences of celebrity in one of the best parodies since This Is Spinal Tap. It is not accidental that Billie is discovered by Andy Warhol who once famously opined that in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Frances Barber is simply incredible as the name-dropping, no-talent Billie whose lifestyle and art wonderfully trace the emergence of the cult of celebrity from the 1960's to its current apogee. But even as Barber creates her hilarious alter ego in this evening of cabaret, she also manages to make us share Billie's illusions, or delusions! With the help of some great tunes from Pet Shop Boys we start to clap along and embrace this artist wan…
    Full Details »

    Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, The Wallace Collection - ★★★★★ - Until April 19, 2020

    Image
    This is a show that lives up to its title! There is some wonderful work here that is largely unknown and whose neglected creators are only now being rescued from obscurity. It is such a shame that this has been the state of things for so long. This exhibition which is beautifully displayed and thoughtfully curated by William Dalrymple is a tremendous step in rectifying that oversight. This is art created by Indian artists for British patrons from the later eighteenth through to the mid nineteenth centuries. It traces the blending of Mughal and European traditions, tools and techniques, recording flora, fauna, architecture and some wonderful studies of cultural confluences. The portrait of John Wombwell, a Yorkshire chartered accountant in Mughal attire and smoking a hookah is counterpointed by the Indians pictured sometimes rather awkwardly in western military uniforms. The show honours some amazing artists such as Yellapah of Vellore, Ghulam Ali Khan and Sita Ram and their technique …
    Full Details »

    Chaplin: Birth of a Tramp, Jack Studio Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until February 22, 2020

    Image
    Charlie Chaplin was a complicated person and a tortured artist. He took his impoverished childhood in which he had absolutely no control over his circumstances and spun it into the character of the little tramp that charmed the world. When finally he was in control of his destiny as an artist he became a perfectionist, if not a martinet. And then as, perhaps the first victim of the cult of film celebrity, he began to feel that he was a prisoner of that character he had created. The greatest film star of his age was trapped and controlled by his own success, and at the same time, the era of silent film was on the wane. But then, when Chaplin did find his voice it was unsurprisingly to offer a clarion call against those who would control others. His attack on Hitler was impassioned and prescient. This production gets it right in every way. Charlotte Cooke's economical set is beautifully conceived and versatile. She picks up on the cabin in The Gold Rush and uses it to demonstrate v…
    Full Details »

    The Six Wives of Henry VIII, King's Head Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until March 7, 2020

    Image
    If winter in London has you a bit down, step back in time and enjoy this thoroughly delightful review of the 'hysterical facts' about multi-married monarch, Henry VIII. Howard Coggins and Stu McLoughlin frame their historical massacre with the two of them devising the piece because Howard resembles the concupiscent king. From that moment of inspiration, the fun never stops. The pace is perfect as the audience is bounced from one joke to another and one scene to the next. As with all great sketch comedy there's no time for unnecessary reflection about the absurdity of what you are hearing and witnessing. One is swept up in the energy and rapid-fire delivery blissfully entering the spirit of it all. Both performances are beautifully honed. Howard Coggins' Henry works so well because while being hilarious he is not simply two-dimensional. This is a man with some serious daddy issues which are very amusingly explored. Stu McLoughlin is simply amazing in his ability to crea…
    Full Details »

    On McQuillan's Hill, Finborough Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until February 29, 2020

    Image
    Lies, abuse and betrayal. How do you rebuild a family or a society out of such a past. Joseph Crilly's On McQuillan's Hill is a metaphor for the complicated and tortured history of Northern Ireland whilst recounting a family narrative that is always engaging and charged with dark humour. It is a wonderfully engaging story and this is a first-rate production. Helena Bereen as Mrs. Tymelly gives a master class in acting with her beautifully understated performance that bespeaks an older generation's approach to the betrayals which befell them. The representatives of the generation of The Troubles are also quite unforgettably captured. Declan Rodgers as Ray McCullion gets it just right as the manipulative and cynical IRA member and Johnny Vivash is excellent as his dupe who has sacrificed his personal truth to be a pawn in a game he doesn't understand. Gina Costigan as Loretta Maline and Kevin Murphy as Dessie Rigg are both touching and totally credible as those who have …
    Full Details »

    Time and Tide, Park Theatre - ★★★★ - Until February 29, 2020

    Image
    Sometimes the door to the future gets stuck and the question becomes is the past a trap or a home? Things are changing on Cromer Pier in Norfolk. The choices seem to be either adapt or move away, and in James McDermott's Time and Tide the characters are forced to face the future and themselves. May who is beautifully played by Wendy Nottingham must decide whether to sell her caff at the end of the pier and take up a new life. Nottingham subtly develops the character of a middle-aged woman who seems to have put her dreams on hold and now has another chance to change the course of her life. Her counterpart is Ken (Paul Easom) who is at ease with things as they are and regrets the changes taking place all around. Easom does a fine job of bringing to life a character that could have easily fallen into caricature. And then there's the younger generation. Nemo is hesitating about taking up his place at the university and abandoning his first love. Josh Barrow seemed to become increa…
    Full Details »

    Tryst, Chiswick Playhouse - ★★★★ - Until February 29, 2020

    Image
    Tryst promises to be a thriller and it certainly succeeds. The audience is intrigued from the moment we meet cad/con man, George Love (Fred Perry) and naïve shop girl/potential victim, Adelaide Pinchin (Scarlett Brookes). George marries women, steals their savings and then abandons them. Adelaide is an innocent young woman who meets all his criteria for being a mark. Is this all going to end as we suspect and dread, or will the story take an unexpected turn? Be prepared for more than one twist as the game unfolds. At one point, George tells us that there are two kinds of people in the world "the takers" and "the took." But perhaps, the division is actually between those who are irreparably damaged and those who can redeem themselves or be redeemed by others. This question keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Fred Perry does a wonderful job as the sly, despicable, but possibly vulnerable manipulator. Scarlett Brookes is quite perfect as his shy, gullible, …
    Full Details »

    The Morning After, Above The Stag Theatre - ★★★★ - Until March 1, 2020

    Image
    If you need a cure for the winter blues, The Morning After could be your solution. What happens when your one-night-stand becomes a family affair? Thomas (David Fenne) wakes up with Adam (Chris Cahill) and while he doesn't remember what happened last night, he is imprinted with what happens the next morning. He is introduced to one of the wackiest families since the Addams family. There is the in-your-face and in your bed mother, Barbara, who is played by Colleen Daley. She's matched by the equally intrusive and weird uncle, Martin, played by Matthew Lloyd Davies. Both actors clearly relish their over-the-top roles and the laughter keeps coming. These two are an open, lovable, wonderfully accepting and totally intrusive pair. They have no notion of boundaries, and David Fenne does a fine job playing the foil, Thomas, who gradually adjusts to this strange ménage. Writer, Peter Quilter keeps the jokes coming at furious pace and the energy so high that we might not notice that…
    Full Details »

    The City Life Magazine. Reviews and Ratings.