Peter Graystone

You have unwittingly celebrated Faustinus’ Day. He’s the patron saint of single people. In protest at your assimilation of my day I see no alternative but to open a bottle of expensive wine. Now look what you’ve done!

I am fully invested after one episode. I laughed and laughed and laughed. But it has definitely taken a turn I wasn’t expecting. Like everyone, I am struggling to make room in my life for another comedy after the glorious Small Prophets.

“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.

Weird green trainers with round rubber lines up the side

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

A head-on shot of an olympic speed skater in a blue body suit. Another skater in the same suit follows directly behind, giving the appearance of one skater with four legs.

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.

The English language is so crazy with its silent K's. One silent K in knot. Two silent K's in knuckle. Three silent K's in republican. Four silent K's knick-knack.

#langsky

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.

Bafta film awards 2026: full list of nominations All the nominees for the 2026 Bafta film awards have been announced, ahead of the winners’ ceremony on 22 February at London’s Royal Festival Hall

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...

I thoroughly recommend retirement!

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.

Moose, I am so very sorry. My prayers and thoughts are with your family. I am tremendously grateful for the joy you have brought into my life.

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 am extremely sorry that this has happened, Helen.

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