The radical potter

JOSIAH Wedgwood is best known nowadays for his Jasperware pottery, with its distinctive light-blue colour. But the 18th century potter was a true radical, as historian Tristram Hunt will explain when he gives Salisbury Museum’s annual lecture, on Wednesday 3rd December, at 7.30pm, at Salisbury Methodist Church in St Edmund’s Church Street. The museum currently…

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Grand opera in miniature

IF you think grand opera is all about very big voice, huge orchestras and vast opera houses, think again! Dorset’s Artsreach rural touring charity is bringing a small scale operatic entertainment to Yetminster on Sunday 14th December. Village halls may not have much in common with Covent Garden, the Met, Sydney Opera House or La…

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Hit musical comes to Bath for Christmas

A MUSICAL that was a box office hit on Broadway and in the West End comes to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio for Christmas, from Tuesday 25th November to Saturday 3rd January. The show, directed by Hal Chambers, is a co-production by Bath with Reading Rep and the Barn Theatre at Cirencester, where it delighted…

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‘Allo ‘Allo 2 – The Camembert Caper, MADS at Mere Lecture Hall

BELOVED television sit coms have an insidious habit of introducing the population to catch phrases which quickly become essentials of everyday speech – and I will say this only wernce. So when the local am dram soc chooses to perform scenes from such a sit com, you can reliably expect the audience to join in…

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Mamma Mia, Bristol Hippodrome and touring

WHEN asked what the difference was between the 1934 version in black and white of his thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much, and the 1956 remake in technicolor, the great Alfred Hitchcock replied: “The first was the work of a gifted amateur, the second of a seasoned professional” – and the same can be…

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Terra Nova, Swan Theatre, Yeovil

SCOTT of the Antarctic was a Great British Hero for generations throughout the 20th century. Indeed he was the paradigm of the English hero – courageous, honourable, thoroughly decent … and he failed bravely. And Captain Oates, one of Scott’s five-man team on that doomed journey to the South Pole, acquired legendary status with his…

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2025 Bath Mozart Fest finale

IF you are a regular viewer of the Repair Shop on TV you will be used to people who have brought in distressed heirlooms that remind them of the lost loved ones who actually made them, saying of their loved ones when they return to admire the expertly re-invented prized possession “I can see them…

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No-one is listening … who’s there?

MASTER storyteller Vic Llewellyn comes to  Sidmouth Manor Pavilion theatre on Thursday 27th November,with a wintery story to make your blood run cold, No One is Listening’(A Ghost Story), a funny and heartbreaking ride through a landscape of ghosts, forgetfulness and fading memories. How do we preserve what is beginning to fade? When a (not…

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Re-Imagine – celebrating creativity at Bryanston

BRYANSTON School staged a week-long art and design showcase, Re-Imagine 2025, at the Royal Watercolour Society Gallery in London, featuring work from across the school’s past and present, with Old Bryanstonians (OBs), current pupils and staff, highlighting imagination in all its forms. Visitors moved through a space of paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints and design, while…

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Building connections with baking

BISCUITS are a familiar feature of most European culinary traditions and they have a special place in the heart of Croatian actress Tina Hofman, who brings her one-woman show, Pepper and Honey, to Sixpenny Handley village hall on Saturday 29th November at 7.30pm and Litton Cheney Community Hall on Sunday 30th November at 2.30pm. Tea…

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