Last night London's Luvvieland came together for their annual award ceremony, the Oliviers. Having received 11 nominations across 10 categories, it looked like being Hairspray's night. And Londonist is happy to confirm what we already knew: the show is a deserved winner of the Best New Musical accolade. In addition, Leanne Jones (Best Actress in a Musical) rocks as the optimistic teen, Tracy Turnblad; Tracie Bennett (Best Supporting Role in a Musical) is similarly......

Back before there was Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, or Meg Ryan and virtually any other male lead, there was Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Kate Hepburn and – well, you get the idea. Never seen the inimitable Ms Hepburn on the silver screen before? Now’s your chance: she and a host of other sharp, witty, irrepressible, and, of course, gorgeous comedic heroines will......

Hang on to your TLSs. Literary London is a lioness roaring in a few weeks ahead of her regularly scheduled appearance in March. With both the London Word Festival and Jewish Book Week launching this week, we’ve got enough events in our diary to keep us busy until spring. Keep an eye on this space as we highlight our favourites from these festivals over the next couple of weeks. Monday: You want poetry? RADA’s......

A conspiracy is afoot. Literary London is listless and lethargic these next few days – after back-to-back Burns Night and Australia Day outings this weekend, we can relate – yet there’s an explosion of midweek activity, leaving us paranoid that the powers-that-be are plotting to drive us crazy, leave us whimpering and indecisive, cursing our inability to be in two places at once. Yes, between this and the stock market madness, we’re a short......

If Sun Hill were a real 'burb of London, then Londonist would want to live there, if only to have plucky PC Reg Hollis as our neighbourhood bobby. So it was with some distress that we heard Jeff Stewart, the actor who has played Hollis in The Bill for over two decades, apparently slashed his wrists after being informed his contract on the ITV show would not be renewed. Stewart was rushed to hospital,......

Well, it’s over for another year. Time to settle down, relax, and get ready for another batch of shopping in the January sales. On TV, Londonist likes: Carmen (BBC2, 13:45-16:25) This just might be the world’s most famous opera, and even if you’re not an opera fan, you’ll definitely recognise some of the songs. From the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, this production features an international cast, impressive sets and live animals. My......

It’s Christmas Eve already? How did that happen? Surely you’re all done your shopping now, so time to reward yourself with a few nice things to watch on TV. On TV, Londonist likes: Jamie at Home Christmas Special (Channel 4, 17:10-18:15) Say what you will about Jamie Oliver, he puts on an entertaining cooking show. And we’re guessing this Christmas episode will be chock full of amazing dishes that will look incredibly simple and......

A group of men robbed a St Pancras telecommunications firm on Thursday evening by dressing up as policemen, in a plot bearing a touch of Alanis Morissette about it. The thieves were let into the building by one of the firm’s employees, after claiming to be investigating reports of people on the roof. Once inside, they ditched their pretensions to law and order and tied up five members of staff. They then made off......

This dance theatre performance based on Australian David Hicks' experiences as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay packs a lot of visual punches but doesn't speak up enough. Director Nigel Jamieson and choreographer Garry Stewart have created a powerful and breath-taking production that depicts the treatment of those kept by the US government without charge or trial through an astonishing series of aerial work and dance performed inside a huge metal cage. Projections of text......

Blues skies aside, winter is upon us - the halcyon days of summer a distant memory; thermals and visible breath a present reality. Therefore what better way to raise darkened spirits during these darkened days than going to the comedy and loosing yourself in laughter? We at Londonist certainly think this is a great plan (we’ve been on a not-so-secret comedy revival mission for years), and good news for us, Stewart Lee is playing at......

We think Josie Long is magic. Like, properly magic. With spells and prestidigitation and conjuration and that. This is the only way we can explain how she is able to perform to sell-out crowds at a venue as large at The Bloomsbury Theatre, but still totally capture the spirit, warmth, friendliness and intimacy of a small, lo-fi indie comedy gig. When we saw her earlier this year at Stewart Lee's fund-raiser to release a......

Camden Town may be changing with the relentless advance of corporate chain stores (no, not those kind of chains) and glass and steel canalside developments but the Council is upholding the area's reputation for cyberpunk techno-progressiveness. It's launching webcasts and podcasts to be more accessible to the teched-up community and encourage local residents to get involved in local democracy. So, has it recorded a punchy, motivational and trendy radio show with a slurry call......

Fresh this Week: If news of the impending Doctor Who hiatus is giving you palpitations, fear not – the Book Grocer brings you not one but three new books based on the popular series: Paul Magrs – Sick Building The Doctor and Martha travel to Tiermann’s World, a planet where sabre-toothed tigers still roam. They arrive to warn everyone that an extremely hungry alien creature is on its way and if they don’t take action......

Meat Raffle has been putting on exciting live acts and banging out the hits upstairs at Shoreditch BarCatch for nearly 18 months now. So we thought it was quite time enough to get in touch with promoter and DJ 16oz Stewart, who used to run TVOD in Manchester, to get the lowdown. When and why did you set Meat Raffle up? February of 2006. To show off our exciting records and get a few......

Hello mum! I'm Chris, a stand-up comedian. I'll be blogging once a week about fun or interesting gigs I have, or just to give my opinions on the London comedy scene. As it happens, I'm very good at opinions. I've got at least three at the moment, and I'm hoping to have a couple more by the end of the year. If you enjoy my column, why not try making a game out of......

The search for Maddy has hit London. Since the Mayor gave under-16s free bus travel, youth crime on buses has risen 55%. We imagine the graph that Ken will be showing us come election time is the one showing how youth fare evasion is down 100%. Having been on a "fact-finding mission" to see Bruce Springsteen last October, two Croydon councillors are going on an all expenses paid trip to see Rod Stewart in......

Student Showcases – let’s face it, they’re normally reasonably boring. However, this Friday sees a student showcase with a difference as the Westminster Centre for Commercial Music (WCCM) launches with a star-studded showcase at Brick Lane's 93 Feet East. WCCM can lay claim to numerous famous faculty and previous students, with the Infadels, The Feeling, and Pure Reason Revolution all having attended, along with one off lectures from the likes of Russell Simmons, Pete Waterman,......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Tonight It isn't Christmas without a Dickensian orphan boy made good, and here we have a discussion about the two greatest; Oliver Twist (did anyone see the Polanski film [pictured]?) and Pip from Great Expectations. 6.30 - 8pm, £6/£4, the British Library, Conference Centre, St Pancras. Celebrate the launch of Strange Attractor Journal Three......

It was only last night at one of the BAC's wonderful 'After Hours' workshops (go) that Londonist realized that stand up comedian of the century and man behind Jerry Springer The Opera, Stewart Lee was performing! How we kicked ourselves! The good news is that he is performing tonight as well. What Would Judas Do? is a 'scratch performance' of a work in progress. Judas is best known as the betrayer of Christ, but......

Josie Long was the winner of the BBC New Comedy Award in 1999 at the tender age of 17. In that year she was also a runner up in the So You Think You're Funny? competition. She won best newcomer in the Chortle Awards 2001-2003 after which she took time off performing to complete her English degree at Oxford university. Since her return to stand up she has toured in support of Stewart Lee......

TV Troll has been dilatory of late. We missed the return of our favourite Aussies on Monday (Kath & Kim, Mon 10pm BBC2), we didn't warn you about the return of X Factor (Fri 8.30pm ITV1), and, most damningly, we didn't even cover the Big Brother final. Apologies – but we reckon the blanket coverage of BB absolves us a bit, and we'd given up by the last fortnight anyway as it was becoming......

We'd like to start writing more about comedy here at Londonist. We have (arguably) the best comedy circuit in the world yet it has gone thusfar unwritten about by us at Londonist HQ. But fear not, we have changed our ways. We kick off with an interview with comedian, Richard Herring and a comedy recommendation for the week. Richard Herring is probably best known for his television work with Stewart Lee, 'Fist of Fun'......

Well we did as we said and went to see Shiny Toy Guns last night at Barfly. Now we take back everything we said about The Modern and Linken Park, and instead realise that STG fall much closer to Panic At The Disco territory. Yes, boys and girls, this is long, drawn out, hysterically over the top emo, but it just so happens to have whacking great dollops of pop in the middle of......

Typical. Just when he’s definitely lost the job after clinging on grimly for years, an England manager finally gets the hang of it. Benefiting from the merry-go-round of the selection of his successor Sven has quietly been allowed to get on with the job in hand and has now revealed his masterstroke of including Arsenal’s Theo Walcott in England’s world cup squad. That is, of course, provided he has absolutely no intention of using......

Women would like equal prize money at Wimbledon for the singles Championship... ... but they can't be trusted with really expensive things like yachts. We're not trying to start a war here, neither are we in the mood to speak ill of the female sex. After all, some of the Londonist team come from that side of the gender divide. It's just that two pieces of news have clashed horribly in our already stretched......

Our star struck police force just can't make up its collective mind. One minute they want to be actors, the next they're arresting them. Maybe they just long to be close to famous people: A special police unit is to be set up dedicated to making it easier to film movies in London. The Metropolitan Police Filming Unit (MPFU) will be made up of a team of officers who will be a single point......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Pure Iceland at the Science Museum Given the cheesy promotional video and the long list of sponsoring Icelandic companies, it’s easy to view this new exhibition as one big advert for the Icelandic tourist industry. And it’s certainly that. But there is an important message......

A broadsheet recently uncovered the findings from a survey of British people’s sexual habits, one of which revealed that something like 47% of us had cheated on a partner. Shocking? Well, not in the emotional landscape of Stella Feehily’s play O Go My Man (an anagram of monogamy) currently running to rave reviews at the Royal Court. Granted her landscape is modern Ireland, which, according to one of her characters is “apolitical and amoral,......

Someone in the TV world really hates January. Why? Because to compensate for the month's grey, fuzzy, badly photocopied feel, they've decided to brighten it up with yet MORE imported US screen candy. Yes, Prison Break (Mon 10pm Five) is finally here - exciting, macho, and dumber than a barrelful of rocks, according to Charlie Brooker. It's got thrills, spills, tattoos of prison blueprints (er, whatever) and lots of muscular men looking moody. Will......

West End musicals - big shows with huge casts, flashy costumes, breath-taking sets and... music! Music that challenges you! Music that stirs your soul! Music that tells you a story in its melodies and soaring, swooping notes! Music that lifts drama to sublime heights and makes a mundane play into a glorious aural, visual journey into the unknown, where every nerve in your body is set alight and your very being is inspired and......