THE 2026 programme of Banff Mountain Film Festival screenings starts its local dates on Friday 6th February at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre cinema, with the Red programme. The short films range from extreme climbing and kayaking to mountain biking and other dazzling adventures in wild places. With extreme climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and the one…
STEPHEN King’s novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, inspired by Tolstoy’s 1872 story God Sees the Truth But Waits, was first published in 1982. Twelve years later the movie The Shawshank Redemption hit the screens, and, after a slow start, is now regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Now, fans…
WHAT is the first thing you say to a taxi driver when you get in his (it usually is a man) cab? Chances are that it wouldn’t be “Do you believe in God?” So the taxi driver is immediately on the wrong foot. How on earth do you answer that? And where are you supposed…
AWARD-winning Welsh folk trio VRi come to Langton Matravers village Hal on Friday 6th February, at the start of a three-date tour with Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity. Twice winners of Best Album at the Welsh Folk Awards, VRï are Jordan Price Williams (cello, voice), Aneirin Jones (violin, voice) and Patrick Rimes (viola, violin,…
PERFORMANCE poet Luke Wright has taken his own story of adoption and turned it into a show that is part stand-up and part poetry, coming to Dorset in February for three dates with Artsreach, Friday 13th at Chetnole village hall, Saturday 14th at the Mowlem in Swanage and Sunday 15th at Ibberton village hall. Later…
WEST End stars Lisa Pulman and Joe Stilgoe bring movie musical magic to Dorchester Corn Exchange with their new show Hooray for Hollywood, on Tuesday 3rd February at 7.30pm, followed by other local dates at Christchurch and Bath. The two versatile and popular performers have put together a delightful mix of some of the best-loved…
LYME Regis has two famous literary connections – Jane Austen’s Persuasion and The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the best-known novel by long-time Lyme resident John Fowles. There was a 250th anniversary production of Jane Austen’s Persuasion at the Marine Theatre last year, and this year, from 11th to 14th February, the mysterious cloaked woman returns in…
BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra, the region’s leading classical music organisation, regularly includes music with a lighter touch in its programme, alongside mainstream and more serious works. Starting on 5th February, there is a series of concerts featuring music from some of the greatest blockbuster films of the past 40 or so years, composed by two of…
A NEW short documentary, Brick by Brick, is having its first screenings at Bridgwater’s Scott Cinema. Created with the people who live and work in the town, the film takes stereotypes of Bridgwater and challenges the audience to look more deeply. It tells the story of two young, aspiring TikTok influencers who attempt to kick-start…
RENDEZ-VOUS Dance company comes to Yeovil’s Westlands centre on Tuesday 3rd February with The Monocle, a fast-paced, contemporary dance and music production dedicated to the legendary Parisian club, Le Monocle, one of the best kept secrets in the glamorous underworld of Paris in the 1930s. Created by the UK-based, French choreographer Mathieu Geffré, the dance…
THE return of a grand family and a modern family falling apart – the themes of the two most in-demand films in Moviola’s February programme. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale manages to be a reassuringly comfortable way to pass a couple of hours, while not offering anything challenging or unexpected. The Roses, on the other…
THANKS to Storm Chandra, audiences at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton were denied the chance to see Cabaret with Balls, but Artreach is delighted that the performance has been re-arranged for Thursday 26th February. Cabaret should always have a frisson of wanton wit, a hint of burlesque, some risqué songs … and even a pinch…
WHAT do you do if your cinema is planning to show all three Lord of the Rings films in one epic screening – but you only have the sound-tracks? You improvise. All three parts of the saga – all those hobbits and heroes, elves and orcs, dwarves and wizards … Parody of the Rings is…
THE new exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury is Legacy in Making, running until 10th May. Presented by Somerset Art Works in partnership with the South West Heritage Trust, it celebrates the legacy and future of the Somerset Craft Guild. It shows the remarkable breadth of contemporary and historic craft in Somerset,…
MANY of us would love to have paintings, drawings or limited edition prints, but can barely afford them in these cash-strapped times – well-known Wiltshire artist Nick Andrew is offering work from some of his drawing projects at reduced prices on Saturday 6th February. On view at Nick’s Bull Mill Studio at Crockerton, near Warminster,…
BRIDPORT’s atmospheric Electric Palace continues a season celebrating a centenary of cinema on Thursday 12th February, with a screening of Buster Keaton’s 1924 classic comedy Sherlock Jr, with a soundtrack featuring REM’s Monster. And on Thursday 30th April, musician and film historian Neil Brand marks the centenary of Laurel and Hardy’s 1926 movie debut, 45…
A NEW free exhibition at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, RNLI: Stories of Courage 1939-45, opens on Saturday 15th January, exploring the way the volunteer lifeboat crews saved lives at sea in dangerous conditions, including a lifeboat that was one of the famous “little boats” that rescued soldiers pinned down on the beaches at Dunkirk. The…
BATH Festivals has announced some of the highlights of next year’s international music festival, with tickets for five concerts released early – a perfect post Christmas gift for the music-lover in your life! The international music festival will run from Saturday 30th May to Sunday 7th June, and the first of the newly released events…
WHILE it is a truth universally acknowledged that we all love Jane Austen (well, most of us do), we probably wouldn’t call ourselves superfans as best friends Charlotte and Ellie do, and they want you to join them at their exclusive Jane Austen Fan Club, on tour from 5th February to 5th March. They start…
CONCERTS in the West opens the 2026 series on Friday 13th February, with a welcome return for the acclaimed, young, Hungarian-born pianist Daniel Lebhardt. The recital programme follows the usual pattern of coffee concert at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am on Friday 13th followed by a 7.30pm performance at Ilminster Arts Centre. The third concert…
DORCHESTER Arts has got together with Sherborne Girls School to present an exciting evening of piano virtuosity, on Friday 6th February at 7pm, when two of the most gifted young pianists of our time, Martin James Bartlett and Mariam Batsashvili give a programme of piano duets at Gransden Hall in the school’s Merritt Centre. Franz…
BATH Literature Festival 2026 has announced that Maggie O’Farrell, the bestselling author of Hamnet, is coming to Bath to celebrate the release of her new novel, Land. The award-winning Irish author of novels including Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait, After You’d Gone, The Hand That First Held Mine and her memoir I Am, I Am, I…
UP and down the country, people (often with no particular connection to Scotland) gather to celebrate the birthday of Rabbie Burns – but Dorset has its own dialect poet, and this year the annual Tea with William Barnes on Sunday 22nd February coincides with what would have been Barnes’ 225th birthday. For the past nine…
YES, we know, it’s mid-winter – but right now we all need something to look forward to, and we’re looking ahead to the end of July when Poole Harbour Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary, and the Kaiser Chiefs headline the main stage. So, in this gloomy, cold, wet January, let’s try to imagine long summer…
ALISON Steadman, one of the best-loved and most versatile actresses of her generation, will be the special guest at the Pipeline masterclass at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 11th February. Acclaimed for her stage, television and film roles, Alison first came to prominence in television plays Nuts in May and Abigail’s Party – she…
LOCALS and visitors have just over a month to take advantage of a rare opportunity to climb high into the ruins of Corfe Castle, and see the breathtaking views from a special platform on the Keep. The platform will be closed to visitors from the end of February, as a £2 million, three-year conservation project…
THE classic sitcom that made Martin Clunes a star comes to the stage of the Barn Theatre at Cirencester – Men Behaving Badly, by the show’s original creator Simon Nye, will be the adventurous little theatre’s first Built By Barn production of 2026, running from 30th January to 7th March Men Behaving Badly, the play,…
SHUTE Festival, a celebration of books, ideas and music, based in the little village near Honiton, began in 2016, but now, at the end of its tenth year, the organisers said goodbye. In their pre-Christmas announcement Sam Knights and Bijan Omrani say: “It is hard to believe that a decade has gone by since we…