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.

“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.

New trainers for those who have always wanted to look like someone sneezed on their feet.

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.

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...

This week’s agenda: Monday: Eat the Rich (Soho) Thursday: When We Are Married (Donmar) Saturday: I Do (Barbican) All of them 5-star sell-outs for which I’ve had tickets for several months, so I’ve got high expectations.

Deep respect, prayer, love and thanks for the 100 clergy arrested at Minneapolis airport as they prayed for those who have been abducted by ICE agents.

Full marks to Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo for utter originality. It makes you engage with the issues of Iraq post shock-and-awe by allowing the witty, prowling ghost of a tiger to do some surreal metaphysical questioning. It was impressive and I did think a lot. But, ye gods, it’s depressing.

Stranger Things is one of the most spectacular things I’ve seen in a theatre. It’s old-school stage magic - traps, flies, doppelgängers, gauzes, dance, pyrotechnics. Not having seen the TV, I didn’t share the gasps of recognition at the end. But it was a dazzling journey with a huge cast.

All My Sons in Ivo van Hove’s production is completely devastating. The stage is bare but for a fallen tree and revelatory circle. Performances as raw as a wound. Guilt and denial and shame held back until there is nowhere else for them to go except destruction. What a presentation of a great play.

At St Peter & St Paul Chaldon this morning the electricity had failed. So an unaccompanied choir, I shouted the prayers, and stood under the window to preach because I needed the light. A fantastically joyful service. You really knew you were in a thousand year old building.

“We’re going to continue generating sexualised images of children but you’ll have to pay for them” has to be the ultimate example of moral bankruptcy.

“What the hell kind of Christian is this guy anyway?” From the new Private Eye, out now.

The Forsyte Saga at the RSC is absolutely the loveliest way to spend two evenings. The acting is impeccable (especially Joseph Millson) and because it is uncluttered on a bare stage my imagination soared. Gorgeous costumes. Pin-sharp wit. Deep, deep sadness.

I quite enjoyed the RSC Twelfth Night, but mainly because Feste the jester was hilariously brilliant. When he wasn’t ad libbing the actual play was a bit heavy-handed. The other characters (especially horribly alcoholic Toby Belch) weren’t lovable. But the ending redeemed it in a bittersweet way.

I really enjoyed one surprise after another in David Ireland’s relocation of the Annunciation to an Edinburgh Travelodge. You can read my review in churchtimes.co.uk

🎭 @petergraystone.bsky.social sees Most Favoured by David Ireland, a revived play about a modern-day ‘Mary’ @sohotheatre.bsky.social #theatre #SohoTheatre #MostFavoured #DavidIreland

American Beasty #MakeAFilmCheaper

Also Ran #MakeAFilmCheaper

Once Upon a Time in Hollyoaks #MakeAFilmCheaper

This is magnificent. An electricity bill in the style of The Sound and The Fury.

This is such a funny story by a great raconteur. Marlene Dietrich was born on this day in 1901.

In 1931 in Kiel, Germany, Rachel Posner, the wife of a rabbi, took this picture. On the back of the photograph she wrote: “‘Death to Judah,’ so the flag says. ‘Judah lives forever,’ so the light answers.” The light will continue to answer the darkness. Happy Hanukkah.

"Post a favourite work of art from the year exactly 50 years before you were born."

Thinking of the student Mary Young who 106 years ago today 'said "shan't" under [her] breath when told to repeat poor work'.

A sensational performance by Nicola Walker, refusing to seek closure after her teenage son goes missing. But The Unbelievers is an unsatisfying play. The point of it is that nothing changes for her, so leaping back and forth over 7 years it doesn’t climax, just stops. A convincing vicar though.

Quietly charmed by The Lost Library of Leake Street at The Glitch, the last outpost of the much-missed Vault Festival. A sweet, slight storytelling piece about the power of tales to help grief. It has a glorious wraparound Old Curiosity Shop set and hints of magic. Billed for 8+ but terribly sad.

… and the subject of London’s latest blue plaque, which I recently spotted in Mayfair. This is 3 minutes of spirit-lifting joy. It will do you good.

Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary: His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”

Since an arrow shot towards a target first has to cover half the distance, then half the remainder, and then half the remainder after that, and so on ad infinitum, though an arrow is always approaching its target, it never quite gets there, and Saint Sebastian died of fright. Thank you #TomStoppard

here, Tom, take all the money that I have.

At the school Christmas Fair I entered the raffle. I’ve won twenty yoga sessions. Oh saints preserve us! Does anyone know the legal position on this? Can they make you go? 🧘‍♀️

Best Christmas ad yet! Knocks John Lewis into a cocked hat.

Oh my word, what a gorgeous film I Swear is. It’s the true story of John Davidson, who has Tourette’s Syndrome, from miserable teenage to MBE. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone like me on screen. After laughing for 90 minutes I was sobbing at the end. (But so was everyone else!) Go see!

Interfaith chocolate

The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/t... #Croydon #Heretic #History @balhnews.bsky.social

Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms. He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.

At the

Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.

This is a sad, sad tale of failure upon failure in the @churchofengland.org — and for that reason (amongst others) it demands to be read: it must never be allowed to happen again. Don’t look away #CofEpeeps