St George’s Day on @NCPR This week’s #GlobalHeartbeat celebrates the music of England—pastoral, punk, poetic and proudly peculiar. Featuring the incomparable Half Man Half Biscuit (of course), alongside voices old and new. Sunday, 9pm ET ncpr.org

Apparently I saw a LOT of theatre at Edinburgh Fringe in 2025. In an attempt to better organize my theatre writing, I’ve gathered my reviews here: open.substack.com/pub/aconside...

What happens when the masters of political satire grow old and discover the world has moved on without them? My review of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister at the Apollo Theatre is now up on A Considered Opinion. aconsideredopinion1.substack.com/p/im-sorry-p...

Three weeks from Friday, I’ll take part in the 2026 @WaypointNH SleepOut. One night outside can’t eradicate youth homelessness — but it’s a way of standing in solidarity and saying: we see you, we hear you, you’re not alone. If you can, please consider supporting: p2p.onecause.com/waypointnhsl...

In Broken Glass by Arthur Miller at the Young Vic, history doesn’t stay in the headlines. It enters the marriage. It stiffens the spine. 1938 Brooklyn — yet it feels like Feb 2026. The personal is political. The political is personal. The echo is loud.

The fourth wall fell away and, for an hour, we were all locked inside the Coach & Horses with Soho’s most irascible wit. Robert Bathurst gives a bravura performance in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell. Five years into this residency — now one of my favourite theatre traditions.

Sunday Afternoon Tea at The Savoy. Is it slightly touristy? Yes, perhaps. Is it absolutely sumptuous? Completely. Does it need to be done every time we’re in London? Without a shadow of a doubt.

@nationaltheatre.org.uk Playboy of the Western World becomes a study in communal appetite. Legends aren’t discovered — they’re manufactured. As Christy grows in stature, the village sustains the lie for its own ends. The laughter turns sharp. Myth empowers — and devastates.

Deep Azure at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is ritual, resistance, and devastating sorrow. Hip-hop and verse pulse from the human body alone. A “no case to answer” verdict fractures the room. The political becomes painfully personal. No triumph — just truth. #Theatre #DeepAzure

Who counts as “my own”? All My Sons feels chillingly contemporary — a slow, devastating reckoning about loyalty, profit, and responsibility. Bryan Cranston dissolves before our eyes. I’ve never heard an audience so still. We endured it together.

Woman in Mind shimmers like the edge of an ocular migraine — bright, funny, and quietly fracturing. Sheridan Smith threads absurdity and tragedy with stunning control. The final image lingers.

Barbed. Simmering. Explosive. Dance of Death at the @OrangeTreeThtr turns marital warfare into something inescapable in the round. Keen, Dillon and Streatfield deliver ferociously precise performances. Dread you don’t watch — you inhabit.

Cynthia Erivo is extraordinary in #Dracula at the Noël Coward — navigating cameras and live cinema with jaw-dropping control. The production sustains relentless kinetic tension, but I missed the breath and stillness gothic needs to truly chill the bones.

Honored to be the Performance Judge at the second NH heat of Poetry Out Loud this evening. There’s nothing quite like hearing young people bring poetry to life. 🎤✨ #PoetryOutLoud

If I’m honest, this would be fine with me…

This is gloriously bonkers in the best possible way. The concept alone made me laugh & knowing it’s in Andy’s hands gives me full confidence it’ll be sharp, surprising & very funny. Thrilled to have backed it, and very much hoping to be in the audience! mirlo.space/leadmojo/rel...

Radio drama has been described as the “theatre of the mind,” and we listeners have the opportunity to vote for our favorites in the @radiotimes.bsky.social Readers’ Drama Award. Delighted to see ‘When Maggie Met Larry’ by @thattimwalker.bsky.social in contention!

Tonight’s Global Heartbeat on NCPR is a Robert Burns special — music celebrating Scotland’s national poet and his enduring legacy. Hope you’ll tune in. 9pm ET. www.ncpr.org

Heartbroken to hear this news about Martin Carthy, but also immensely grateful for decades of songs, scholarship, and inspiration. Thank you, Martin, for carrying the tradition forward and sharing your gifts so generously. I wish you peace for your next chapter.

Damn. www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

I’m sleeping out in March for the @WaypointNH SleepOut — a night to raise awareness of youth homeless. 15,000 young people in NH affected each year. One night outside to say: you are heard. I would very much welcome your support. No amount too small. p2p.onecause.com/waypointnhsl...

A favorite part of the new year: the chance to start anew with these old friends.

This is the first song I listen to every new year’s morning. “Let the darkest side of the past stay dark, and only good recall. For I must believe the world to be a good world after all.” Happy New Year. garnetrogersmusic.bandcamp.com/track/after-...

“For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.” T. S. Eliot - Little Gidding - The Four Quartets. All the best when it comes, folks.

Wherever you are, however you’re celebrating, stay safe and well. I wish you all the very best for 2026. Auld Lang Syne youtu.be/CfjHEFQXovw?...

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate. youtu.be/0YQ0dtDgYUY?...

Dreams do come true.

An evening @nationaltheatre that began with Judi Dench and Send in the Clowns — not note-perfect, but soul-perfect — unfolding as companionable conversation. McKellen, Dench & Carter trusted the room, levelled the house, and reminded us why live theatre invites us home.

The final Alex cartoon annual has landed. Charles Peattie & Russell Taylor created a world — and characters — that felt utterly real. Sharp, perceptive, politically on point without ever being political, and unfailingly hilarious. I’ll miss this voice more than I can say.

Tonight on Global Heartbeat, we honour the voice and legacy of Raúl Malo — the Cuban Caruso — and celebrate music that carries warmth, beauty, and connection. Listen tonight at 9pm ET on @ncpr ncpr.org

Tonight on Global Heartbeat we’re travelling in pairs — songs in conversation with each other, echoing moods, stories and rhythms across continents. Join me at 9pm ET on @NCPR. Listen live: www.ncpr.org

My Victoria Threlfall print ‘Benediction’ is home. Her work sits at the intersection of art & engineering — precise line work, thoughtful structure, & a beating heart. I love how she plays with colour, perspective, texture & light. If only a photo could do it justice.

Happy Saint Andrew’s Day. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join me for an hour of music from Scotland on Global Heartbeat, 9pm ET, on @ncpr and online from anywhere at www.ncpr.org.

IBlueprints by Marcus du Sautoy handed me a mirror — to the way I write, think, make & intuit. It’s about creativity, through the lens of maths: invisible structures that shape how artists, writers, & musicians create. I finally realized: “this is how I work”. Poet brain + engineer brain = me.

With thanks to Jude Rogers for this piece on one of my heroes, on and off stage. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

Axing the Iain Anderson show isn’t “schedule refresh.” It’s a loss to Scottish culture. Iain’s programme has been a place of warmth, discovery and musical storytelling for decades. Please consider signing the petition to save the show. c.org/FwnRN2ytYw

Wilde reborn in technicolour. A superb Earnest from Sonia Friedman / National Theatre — deftly paced, beautifully designed, and full of life. Fry’s Lady Bracknell commands, the ensemble sparkles, and every line lands. #TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest

Just spent an hour in the company of @marcgooderham.bsky.social ‘s work at Taylor Jones & Son in Deal, Kent. Few artists capture atmosphere like Marc — and the pieces in New York, London, Deal are among his finest. This is the final weekend, do catch it if you can.

Heartbroken to hear of the passing of Archie Fisher — writer, musician, and one of the great gentle voices of folk music. It was Archie’s show that first gave me my love of folk music, and his kindness that encouraged me to become a broadcaster. Rest easy, old friend, I will miss you dearly.

Tonight on Global Heartbeat, we travel to Vermont to meet folk duo Eloise & Co. — Becky Tracy and Rachel Bell. Their music dances between Celtic, French bal folk, and Québécois traditions. Tune in tonight at 9 p.m. ET on NCPR.org for our conversation and Music from their new project Avec Elodie.

A brilliant day at Knowlton Literary Festival! Louise Penny & Eliza Reid — fierce, funny, and full of insight. We toasted 20 years of Still Life and cheered Death on the Island — two milestones, one marvellous afternoon.

Global Heartbeat — tonight at 9 PM ET on NCPR Kinetic Spirits — from Kinshasa’s scrap-built beats to Reykjavík’s softest hush. Featuring KOKOKO!, Ibibio Sound Machine, Liraz, Tinariwen, Brìghde Chaimbeul & more. www.ncpr.org

Global Heartbeat turns one on NCPR tonight — and ten years old overall. A decade of rhythm, story, and song, and a year of Sunday nights together. Join me at 9 PM ET on NCPR or stream at ncpr.org.

Episode one of The Hack (ITV) is theatre by other means: razor-sharp writing, performances that crackle, and David Tennant as Nick Davies slyly stepping through the fourth wall. Journalism meets drama — and it’s electric.

Hail and farewell to a giant of the British music scene. www.clashmusic.com/news/legenda...

Just out of Creditors at the Orange Tree — Farrell quietly devastating as Adolph, Dance coolly menacing, James gloriously elusive. Cruelty, wit and regret tangled tight; laughter that catches in your throat. Intimate, unsettling, unforgettable. #theatre

Juniper Blood at the Donmar — Bartlett at his most merciless: a brutal, beautiful reckoning between family and planet, colliding in a final image that left the theatre in stunned silence.

Never underestimate the power and the joy of a jumpy, sweaty, singing ‘til your throat gives out gig from your favorite rock and roll band to cure what ails you. What a gig in Glasgow last night. #HMHB