Gresham College Lectures ★★★★★ FREE


Gresham College is a fascinating institution that has been providing free lectures for over 400 years. Currently the College offers over 130 annual lectures and events. The range of subjects covered by their eminent lecturers is vast: law, literature, music, medicine, economics, astronomy, computer science.... The variety is amazing and the Gresham professors are leading scholars in their fields. The College is located in Barnard's Inn, but lectures are in various venues including the London Museum. The College has been recording its lectures since the 1980s and live streams all lectures. There are now over 2,000 lectures available on its website and on YouTube.

Reviewed by J.C.
 Our Score:  ☆☆☆☆☆ 

 WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Times and Dates vary
Barnard's Inn, High Holborn
Nearest tube: Chancery Lane
Map & Location: 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH, UK

Most Popular

Arcadia ★★★★★ The Old Vic | Jan 24 - Mar 21, 2026

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This splendid revival of Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is definitely one of this year’s must-see productions. Intellectually demanding yet fizzing with wit, the play is brought vividly to life by a uniformly outstanding ensemble. Seamus Dillane is superb as the rakish tutor Septimus Hodge, delivering a performance of effortless charm and sly intelligence, while Matthew Steer is irresistibly funny as the mock poet/scientist and hapless cuckold Ezra Chater. Isis Hainsworth is luminous as the prodigy Thomasina, blending youthful grace with startling intellectual authority, and Fiona Button is deliciously bold as her mother, the gloriously predatory Lady Croom. Set in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Arcadia explores how we confront death and search for meaning in our lives. Its title suggests Poussin's pastoral painting with the tombstone in its foreground, et in Arcadia ego . Faced with this existential problem, the play suggests two possible routes to understanding: scienc...
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St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

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Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
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BIGRE / “Fish Bowl” ★★★★ Sadler's Wells Peacock Theatre | Jan 28 - 31, 2026

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The art of mime has deep theatrical roots in France, evolving from commedia dell’arte and 19th-century pantomime into a modern form centred on gesture, silence, and physical storytelling. In the 20th century, Marcel Marceau elevated mime to international prominence through his character Bip and his poetic, wordless exploration of human emotion. At the same time, filmmaker Jacques Tati brought mimetic comedy to cinema, using precise physicality and keen observation to satirise modern life through his iconic Monsieur Hulot. This tradition is closely linked to silent film comedy, where meaning is carried through movement rather than speech. Like Marceau and Tati, silent-era figures such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton relied on gesture, timing, and physical invention to convey character and emotion, revealing a shared visual language of humour and poetry beyond words. The Compagnie Le Fils du Grand Réseau continues this lineage by translating French mime and visual comedy into a con...
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Samurai ★★★★★ The British Museum | Feb 3 - May 4, 2026

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“Samurai.” The word conjures images of fierce Japanese warriors in elaborate helmets with swords drawn, but this superb presentation reveals that there is far more to know about this class that came to dominate Japan’s political life and whose legacy still lingers in many aspects of contemporary culture. Structured in three sections, Rise of the Samurai AD 800 to 1600, The Long Peace 1600 to the 1850s and After the Samurai 1876 to the present , the exhibition demonstrates the importance of the samurai, both men and women, not only in warfare but also in the governance and cultural development of Japan. Bringing together more than two hundred and eighty objects from twenty nine lenders, the show offers a rich array of flamboyant helmets and intricate armour, alongside depictions of combat in scrolls by masters such as Hiroshige. There are also revealing glimpses behind the public image the samurai sought to project. Displays of smoking accoutrements, a popular pastime for both male and ...
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Cable Street ★★★ Marylebone Theatre | Jan 16 - Feb 28, 2026

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In 1936, Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists planned to march through a working-class, multicultural area of East London that was home to many Jewish and immigrant families. When they entered the area they were met with unexpected resistance. The musical Cable Street recounts this historic event from the perspectives of three families: the Scheinbergs, the Kennys and the Williams. Aspiring Jewish boxer Sammy Scheinberg and Irish communist Mairead Kenny lead the opposition to the BUF march, while the unemployed and disaffected Ron Williams becomes involved on the other side of the conflict. The story is framed by a present-day tourist tour of Cable Street, led by Sammy’s nephew and followed by Mairead’s daughter. The characters in Cable Street are fairly one-dimensional, reflecting the polemical nature of the piece, and the cast assumes multiple roles with minimal costume changes and some gender-blind casting, which can occasionally cause confusion. Despite these limitati...
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American Psycho ★★★★★ Almeida Theatre | Jan 22 - Mar 14, 2026

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The novel and film American Psycho were a satire on the superficiality and materialism of young financial professionals in New York City in the 1980s. The musical adaptation premiered at the Almeida Theatre in 2013 under its then new artistic director, Rupert Goold, and it now returns as his final production before leaving the post. With a second Trump term underway, this story of over-polished surfaces concealing a psychotic killer utterly devoid of values takes on a renewed and deeply ironic resonance. It is easy to read the central character, Patrick Bateman, as representative of America itself. References to Trump and other cultural icons within the 1980s setting enrich the parody and prompt the audience's knowing laughter which is sharpened by hindsight. The values of the Reagan era can be seen as inevitably leading to the current state of American politics. The production is beautifully choreographed by Lynne Page and superbly acted throughout. Arty Froushan is suitably slim...
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Man and Boy ★★★★ National Theatre | Jan 30 - Mar 14, 2026

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Terence Rattigan worked on his play Man and Boy from 1954 until its first production in 1963. It was intended as a statement of his continued relevance in a British theatre transformed by the arrival of figures such as John Osborne in the late 1950s. Set in the 1930s in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, the play is a pointed critique of capitalism at its most ruthless. At its centre is Gregor Antonescu, a figure of unrelenting ambition and amoral callousness. Even Patrick Bateman from American Psycho appears to be a rather low-level hustler by comparison. In this current version of Rattigan’s drama, Antonescu is even willing to pimp out his own son. His venal materialism is painted in broad strokes, and Ben Daniels plays the character with an over-the-top energy and swagger, cajoling and conning anyone who stands between him and his goals. His humiliation of the accountant who believes he has uncovered Antonescu's fraud is wonderfully arch, and Leo Wan as David Beeston reca...
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Ballad Lines ★★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Elephant | Jan 23 - Mar 21, 2026

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Sarah and her partner Alix have just moved into a new home and are on the verge of beginning their life together when Sarah is confronted with a box left to her by her guardian, Aunt Betty. Estranged from her aunt, she initially has no desire to open this window on her past. However, encouraged by Alix, she eventually opens it. The taped reminiscences she discovers transform both her understanding of the past and her plans for the future. Aunt Betty’s reflections on the music of America’s Appalachian Valley intertwine with the histories of the women in their family. Ballads from 17th-century Scotland travel to 18th-century Northern Ireland and evolve as they arrive in the New World. Yet the truths they carry endure, along with the complex emotions and responsibilities surrounding motherhood across three generations of women. Ballad Lines brilliantly captures the emotional depth and evolving dilemmas these women face. Frances McNamee delivers a luminous performance as Sarah, and Rebecc...
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ABBA Voyage ★★★★★ ABBA Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park | Extended Run

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When great music from the past meets mind boggling technology from the future, the result is ABBA Voyage . This is a concert like no other. In a purpose built arena designed specifically for the show, massive high resolution LED screens, advanced lighting, and surround sound are used to create a fully immersive ABBA concert experience. Although the group’s last appearance in London was at Wembley Arena in 1979, they return technologically in this extraordinary production. These are not holograms or AI generated performances. This is a meticulously animated concert based on real performances by the band themselves. To achieve this effect, the group came together and re-performed their music using motion capture technology. They partnered with top visual effects experts to digitally recreate their younger selves. While the show includes a live band and backup singers, the Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid seen on stage appear every bit as real as their original counterparts. One quick...
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Shadowlands ★★★★★ Aldwych Theatre | Feb 5 - May 9, 2026

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Shadowlands opens with the author C. S. Lewis, best known for The Chronicles of Narnia , wrestling with the question that underpins much of his work: why would an omnipotent, all-loving Christian God permit suffering and evil in the world? The play recounts the true story of how the celebrated children’s writer, Christian apologist and medieval scholar encountered both the rapture of love and the devastation of loss when, in middle age, he met the brilliant young American divorcee, Joy Davidman. For Lewis, still marked by the early death of his mother and constrained by the Church’s strictures against divorce, the relationship was at once emotionally perilous and theologically troubling. Yet what began as a meeting of minds deepened into a profound and transformative love, compelling him to confront fears he had long kept at bay. When Joy falls ill and later dies, his faith is tested in ways that render abstract arguments painfully immediate. The struggle to reconcile divine love with...
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