5 AUGUST 2026

It’s Wednesday.

It’s summer.

It’s, for some reason, not as hot today.

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There are a million reasons to be joyful.

Here are a few more.

Rule of three

[Musical] Paddington
I still can’t get over the puppetry in this show. Paddington’s part is sung live and the same guy, James Hameed, also controls all his facial expressions whilst another performer, Arti Shah, is actually in the costume. The result is so spot on that after a few minutes your brain just gives up and goes oh that’s a singing bear on stage. Add to that, Bonnie Langford cartwheeling around and doing the splits at *checks notes* 62 years old and it’s a bit of a barnstormer.

Also, on the last note of the last song, all these orange streamers and stage-mounted confetti cannons go off (MARMALADE!) and one of them must have got some moisture gumming up the works somehow because all the confetti stuck itself together in what can only be described as a PAPER CANNONBALL and absolutely nailed me in the face, two tiers up in the grand circle. So if you go, don’t sit in row D, seat 19.

[Sport] The Art of Mini-Golf
I should have recommended this earlier because it’s only on for five more days but this is an exhibition at the Battersea Arts Centre where every work is a playable mini-golf course. They are all created by female artists on the theme of rebellion (because mini-golf was invented by Scottish women when they weren’t allowed on the main greens) and I was fittingly absolutely destroyed by Laura when we played a couple of weeks ago. So much fun, I think every work of art should have a par rating from now on.

[Pizza] Crisp
I’ve been trying to get a table at Crisp for months but finally managed to get in on my birthday. Look, it’s really lovely pizza with all the current things that people love - blah blah blah Detroit crust blah burrata blah blah HOT HONEY. But it tasted amazing and I’m definitely going back sooooooon.

Spotlight

The Pretend Company has gone dark for August so not much to offer this week - we have some exciting new classes coming up but we’re not quite ready to announce.

If anyone would like to join me for a 5 day intensive in Bristol NEXT WEEK then there’s still one place left and I REALLY want to get to even numbers - it would be lovely to see you.

Improvise some Jean-Paul Sartre with me.

Radio contact

I asked Radio if he could roll his tongue.