It’s almost Christmas! Over the Christmas holidays, we’ll be here every day recommending the best of what’s on television. We’ll do the hard work, slogging through the TV listings, and let you sit back with a nice hot drink and a mince pie. Enjoy! On TV, Londonist likes: Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 17:50-19:15 and 21:25-22:10) While we haven’t been keeping up with the excitement of this year’s dancing fun, we know lots of you......

It’s cold outside this week, so it seems like the best plan is to cozy up on the couch and watch some telly. Why would you want to risk frostbite? On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 12 November I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here (ITV1, 21:00-22:30) It’s off to the jungle yet again with Ant & Dec as they guide a new group of “celebs” through as many disgusting tasks as you’d......

Just out the Van: Autumn is definitely upon us - time to start wrapping up at home with a good book. Or you could throw caution to the (nippy) wind and head to Book Slam next Thursday to bask in the warm glow of literati (gliterati?) including Sarfraz Manzoor (reading from his memoir "Greetings from Bury Park"), Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Netsayi, and poet Polar Bear... Next Thursday at Neighbourhood, £5/£6, 12 Acklam Road, W10 5QZ,......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 30th July 1966: England defeat West Germany in the FIFA World Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, claiming the Jules Rimet Trophy (and, of course, the status of Football World Champions for the next four years). Tuesday – 31st July 1962: Violence erupts at a rally of the Union Movement (formerly known as the British Union of Fascists) in Dalston, East London. Sir Oswald Mosely, leader of the......

This Day In London’s History 1970: The first ever public gay protest in Britain is held at Highbury Fields. Following the arrest (and alleged entrapment) of Louis Eaks for cottaging, the Gay Liberation Front (a name that always makes us think of The Life Of Brian) gathered on 27th November 1970 for a torchlight procession through Highbury Fields in protest. Reports differ as to how many protesters attended the procession, but it was clear......

Despite what the ladies at the River Cafe would have us believe, Italian cooking, real, genuine, hardcore Italian cooking involves a bit more than drizzing expensive olive oil over bits of toast. Antonio Carluccio is the man to consult when going for the big guns in terms of Italian cuisine, and in between serving London the finest of Italian food in his restaurants, cafes and shops, he is giving a talk at the V&A......

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 Speed Dating: Laws of Attraction, at the Dana Centre What is it with trying to pair off sciency types? First we had that shindig over at the British Library, now the Dana Centre have decided to see if cupid’s arrow obeys Newton’s First Law. On......

This week: A Cock and Bull Story, Shopgirl, and Get Rich or Die Tryin' plus film news and gossip. Our very own reviewer has already tangled with A Cock and Bull Story but will the broadsheet reviewers agree with our positively glowing review of Michael Winterbottom's post-postmodern literary adaptation? Well, on the whole, yes they do. James Christopher in The Times is the most generous critic with a four star review, calling the film......

In a previous life, before blogging turned our heads, we actually used to read literature. Studied a few books too. In fact we spent more than one evening working our way line by line through the likes of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, but one novel we always came back to was Laurence Sterne's 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'. We were always bemused by the fact that Sterne managed to out......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. The late summer/early fall book publishing frenzy seems to be finally dying down, and the announcement of the Booker Prize winner yesterday is appearing to serve as its exclamation point. Yes, if the list of "Forthcoming Titles" on Blackwell's website is any indication, we're not going to have nearly as much new stuff to......

It's proper gig going weather now, so no 'it's a shame to waste the nice weather' rubbish, get thee to a venue and immerse yourself in the glory of music. And then come back stinking of cigarette smoke because the girls next to you spend more time holding their fags in a posey manner near your face, instead of actually smoking them. Anyway, more details of a gig we mentioned on Wednesday. The Sways......

If, like Londonist, you're incredibly impatient when it comes to visiting websites that are running v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, added to which you have a memory like one of those thingummies through which you sift flour, then you may have tried to download the latest Warchild album on the day of release, only to be frustrated by the downloading experience. Well, this is just a little reminder for you that Help: A Day In The Life......

As Michael once said: It doesn't matter if you're black or white. He forgot to add as long as you're rich but then again he never recorded a cover of I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles, no matter how much we pleaded. Although he has been under a lot of stress of late it's not stopping him from recording a star studded charity single for Hurrican Katrina Relief. No doubt with it's own benefit show to......

Help: A Day In The Life Anyone else spend the weekend battling with War Child's servers, trying to download Help: A Day In The Life? Frustrating as it was at times getting on that golden free server, the end result was a mostly satisfying always interesting collection of 22 tracks, recorded and released in just over 24 hours, that will make it's physical appearance in the record racks on the 26th September. Stripped of......

As the country attempts to break the record for the greatest number of non sports fans ever to bunk off work to watch a test match, a bunch of scruffy oiks (a.k.a musicians) are attempting to break another record, that of the fastest album ever recorded. As of midday today a host of bands, wherever they are in the world, entered the studio to record a track (either a new track, reworking or a......

First off congratulations to Annie Sullivan and Andy Lee who won the Kaibosh and Delta Blues competitions respectively. Prizes in the post. Soon as we get some stamps. So what have we learnt this week down in the Londonist music dungeon? Well we've learnt that it's not a good idea to be a photographer at a Britney Spears Baby Shower. We've learnt that David Gray is a little late at jumping onto bandwagons. We've......

Is Robin Williams any good or not? We can't seem to make our minds up. Insomnia: good. Bicentennial Man: bad. The Birdcage: good. Jack: bad. Good Morning Vietnam: good. Patch Adams: so very very bad. So what are we to make of the news that Williams is to play the role of Peter Sellers in a forthcoming West End play? The play, to be written by former Sellers script writer John Antrobus and his......

Back at the end of December we listed the films that we were particularly looking forward to in 2005. So far that list seems to have acted like a kiss of death on the movies we mentioned. Meet the Fockers was generally received as a bit of a disappointment and there was no argument that the sequel didn't live up to expectations. Then it was the turn of Ocean's 12, which faired equally badly......

A very quick Friday Film post before we go out to an overly-crowded pub and drink over-priced drink until midnight chimes. It's Future Film news because these are the films we're really looking forward to in the new year. We've provided links to sites/trailers where available so you can get excited too. Ocean's 12. Our obsession with heist films makes us slightly biased but we really enjoyed Ocean's 11 and there's no reason to......

No time for a fully-fledged Friday Film News this week, as it's the Londonist Office Xmas Party this afternoon, so we're just going to skip right to the interesting film tidbits section: Following on from last week's teaser trailer, there's now a preview of the War of the Worlds teaser poster online. Is it just us or does it remind you of the poster for The Life of Brian? Somehow we don't think that......