You don't know what day it is. You're eating countless meals a day with lots of snacks in between. You're napping throughout they day. Either it's the time between Christmas and New Year or you're a cat.

'As we all know, when the nuns are away, the juniors will play'. Not to mention the medical mansplaining... I reviewed the Call the Midwife Christmas special:

'And man, at war with man, hears not The love song which they bring: O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing'.

I went to the theatre a little bit this year... and here are my top ten shows of 2025:

'I can almost hear the long, cold radiator behind me emit an evil, panto villain-style cackle'. In which I don't put on the central heating, but put on my woolly Christmas pudding hat instead:

Taken back for a second by the Year in Review on my fitness app

'What a rare tonic it is to sit in a 'serious' theatre and hear gales of laughter echoing all around'. When We Are Married is a glorious festive treat from @DonmarWarehouse:

'There's a great gap between a gallant story and a dirty deed'. How uncannily this mellifluous Irish classic speaks to our social media age. I loved this revival, starring Nicola Coughlan, @NationalTheatre:

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 11 pipers piping, 10 lords-a-leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids-a-milking, 7 swans-a-swimming, 6 geese-a-laying, 5 GOLD RINGS, 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. 38 people watched me devour 23 birds.

'Never forget that this is Sondheim not Disney'. A gloriously flamboyant Kate Fleetwood heads this classy revival of Into the Woods:

There's a 'puppetry predicament' at the heart of The RSC's new production of The BFG. My review:

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: six geese-a-laying, FIVE GOLD RINGS, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Goose, calling bird, hen, dove, partridge and pear omelette. Yum.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Ate them. Ooh la la.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

'Doff the red hats and bring out the finest marmalade sandwiches Buckingham Palace can muster'. This glorious new musical 'bursts with warmth and gentle kindness'. Paddington will surely be in the West End forever:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree. Ate it.

It's almost time for me to go and see Sir Bear on stage...!

'Bryan Cranston offers a magnificent performance of craggy, rugged resilience'. It's five shiny stars from me for All My Sons, Ivo Van Hove's triumphant return to Arthur Miller:

'All good things must come to an end. Or, in this case, End, as David Eldridge concludes his poignant and perceptive trilogy tracing the course of a relationship'. There's beautiful work from Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves in End @NationalTheatre. My review:

Took me a second to work out the logistics here, Fred does like to fold himself into boxes in odd ways. Obviously I went in for danger tickles. #catsofbluesky

Absolute carnage in the family group chat as my cousin posts a Christmas riddle from her fiancé’s office that no one can figure out, only to find that someone in the office got ChatGPT to make up the riddle and it’s gibberish that doesn’t have a solution

'For once, the now inevitable standing ovation come the curtain call is entirely justified'. Othello, starring David Harewood and Toby Jones, marks a triumphant West End return for Shakespeare:

The "why do you care so much about the NY mayoral election" takes strike me as pretty obtuse. The world's sole superpower is being taken over by fascists, and this was part of the struggle to define what the opposition to that will look like. That obviously has major implications for all of us?

The 1980s gay lives and class envy of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize winner make an accomplished transition to the stage @AlmeidaTheatre:

'We've both given up smoking/ 'Cos it's fatal/ So whose matches are those?'

respect to the weather today for confirming that September 19 is still technically summer

I admired David Lan's new play The Land of the Living @NationalTheatre, which tackles the subject of displaced children in 1945 Germany, but I must confess that I 'struggled to become emotionally invested':

Andrew Lincoln and Alicia Vikander make a 'phenomenal central pairing' in this not fully convincing modern adaptation of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea @_bridgetheatre:

'A sweeping, episodic, epic examination of the last century of British masculinity', Romans: A Novel @AlmeidaTheatre is a mighty evening of theatre from Alice Birch:

There's very much to admire in The Party Girls @marlowetheatre (and soon to be on tour), Amy Rosenthal's perceptive revisiting of the Mitford sisters and their political leanings. Decca takes centre stage here, leaving Nancy to fling witty aphorisms about in the background.

My car insurance has gone down by £2 annually so I am buying TWO Greggs sausage rolls to celebrate

'An exploration of creativity, rivalry and subterfuge'. Ncuti Gatwa is on sparkling form as the 'mischief-making' Christopher Marlowe, lording it over Shakespeare in Born with Teeth. It's lovely to see The RSC in the West End with a straight play. My review:

I am greatly looking forward to my first ever visit to @marlowetheatre, to see a story of those ever-fascinating Mitford sisters, The Party Girls by Amy Rosenthal.

My prize for line of British journalism of the week goes to @LucyMangan for 'Whither the rogue pachyderms of yesteryear?' Brilliant stuff.

Lily Allen 'offers a furious portrait of the self-loathing of depression' in this modern adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler'. My review:

'Productions of Brigadoon are as rare as, well, sightings of the fictional Scottish Highlands village that bears the same name'. This revival @OpenAirTheatre is a real cracker:

'I don't think that theatre awards should be given out for piano playing'. I was underwhelmed by the Tony Award-winning Good Night, Oscar @BarbicanCentre:

'A brilliant addition, in the optimum venue, to the West End landscape'. I got on very well with Lenny Henry as the first of the five performers in Every Brilliant Thing @sohoplacelondon :

It's been ages since I have enjoyed a summer blockbuster film as much as I did Jurassic World: Rebirth. I screamed, I laughed and I admired Jonathan Bailey's valiant attempt at an American accent.

'Cavils aside, this remains a very special piece of theatre'. I saw Girl from the North Country @oldvictheatre again, eight years after being astounded by its premiere:

Public service announcement: at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket tonight I have just seen Trevor Nunn in something other than a blue denim shirt. Everything I thought I knew about theatre has been demolished in one fell swoop.

I am so very much looking forward to catching the West End transfer of Till the Stars Come Down. I enjoyed and admired it immensely @NationalTheatre last year.

'A pleasingly twisty exploration of marriage and fidelity' from Somerset Maugham and Laura Wade @thersc - as well, unforgettably, as 'scandalous beach trousers'. There is much to enjoy about The Constant Wife:

I adored Jamie Lloyd's 'magisterial roughing-up' of Evita:

Fittingly, I drove to upon Avon @TheRSC this afternoon listening to Greg Doran on Desert Island Discs.

I think my knees are melting.

INTIMATE APPAREL is “One of the cultural events of the year” (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Telegraph) Check out the reviews for the third collaboration between writer Lynn a Nottage and director Lynette Linton at the Donmar Warehouse 🧵 📸 Helen Murray

Some rare and precious weeks are sprinkled with theatrical stardust - and this is one of them. In consecutive nights I have marvelled at A Moon for the Misbegotten @AlmeidaTheatre, Intimate Apparel @DonmarWarehouse and, er, the show I saw tonight...

Lynette Linton, Lynn Nottage and @DonmarWarehouse once again make for a combination of five-star brilliance for this exquisite revival of Intimate Apparel. My review:

'By no means an easy watch, but acting this fine makes it all worthwhile'. Buckle up for A Moon for the Misbegotten @AlmeidaTheatre, where Ruth Wilson is 'scintillating' in a performance of 'magnificent honesty':