2020

Texts

  1. The Butcher’s Hook – Janet Ellis ★★★ (January)
  2. The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman ★★★½ (January)
  3. The Vanishing Hours – Barney Norris ★★ (January)
  4. Everything I Know About Love – Dolly Alderton ★★ (January)
  5. Bunny – Mona Awad ★★½ (January)
  6. The Dutch House – Ann Patchett ★★★★ (January)
  7. Through the Woods – Emily Carroll ★★★ (January)
  8. Time For Lights Out – Raymond Briggs ★★★ (January)
  9. The Confession – Jessie Burton ★★½ (January)
  10. When the Wind Blows – Raymond Briggs ★★★ (January)
  11. A Different Pond – Bao Phi & Thi Bui (February)
  12. My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh ★★ (February)
  13. Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid ★★½ (February)
  14. The Glass Woman – Caroline Lea ★★½ (February)
  15. Blankets – Craig Thompson ★★★½ (February)
  16. I Feel Bad About My Neck – Nora Ephron ★★★½ (February)
  17. The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman ★★★ (February)
  18. Twenty Theatres To See Before You Die – Amber Massie-Blomfield ★★★ (February)
  19. The Foundling – Stacey Halls ★★★ (February)
  20. Glass Town – Isabel Greenberg ★★★ (February)
  21. My Mother Was An Upright Piano – Tania Hershman ★★ (February)
  22. Red at the Bone – Jacqueline Woodson ★★★½ (March)
  23. Becoming Unbecoming – Una ★★★ (March)
  24. The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates ★★★ (March)
  25. The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead ★★★½ (March)
  26. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes – Caitlin Doughty ★★★½ (March)
  27. The Secret History – Donna Tartt ★★★½ (March)
  28. Mary Poppins – P. L. Travers ★★★ (April)
  29. The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood ★★★★ (April)
  30. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – Patrick Süskind ★★★★ (April)
  31. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen ★★★★ (April)
  32. Transcription – Kate Atkinson ★★★½ (April)
  33. The Crimson Petal and the White – Michel Faber ★★★★ (April)
  34. The Improbability of Love – Hannah Rothschild ★★½ (April)
  35. Dance Nation – Clare Barron (April)
  36. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood ★★★★ (May)
  37. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott ★★★★ (May)
  38. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari ★★★½ (May)
  39. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton ★★★½ (May)
  40. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë ★★★½ (May)
  41. Everything Under – Daisy Johnson ★★★ (May)
  42. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith ★★★★ (May)
  43. Trumpet – Jackie Kay ★★★★ (May)
  44. The Hours – Michael Cunningham ★★★½ (June)
  45. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston ★★★ (June)
  46. The Poet X – Elizabeth Acevedo ★★★½ (June)
  47. Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames – Lara Maiklem ★★★ (June)
  48. Princess and the Hustler – Chinonyerem Odimba (PlayGroup #9) (June)
  49. Faustus: That Damned Woman – Chris Bush (PlayGroup #10) (June)
  50. The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton ★★★½ (June)
  51. Sunrise – Jessie Cave (PlayGroup #11) (June)
  52. Second Person Narrative – Jemma Kennedy (PlayGroup #12) (July)
  53. Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier ★★★ (July)
  54. Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi ★★★★ (July)
  55. The Sellout – Paul Beatty ★★★½ (July)
  56. A Recipe for Sorcery – Vanessa Kisuule ★★★★ (July)
  57. Since U Been Gone – Teddy Lamb (July)
  58. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood ★★★½ (July)
  59. Three Women – Lisa Taddeo ★★ (July)
  60. Three Sisters After Chekhov – RashDash (July)
  61. The Testament of Mary – Colm Tóibín ★★½ (August)
  62. Don’t Touch My Hair – Emma Dabiri ★★★★ (August)
  63. ear for eye – debbie tucker green (August)
  64. White Teeth – Zadie Smith ★★★★ (August)
  65. Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell ★★★½ (August)
  66. Chinglish – Sue Cheung ★★★ (August)
  67. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley ★★★½ (August)
  68. A Thousand Ships – Natalie Haynes ★★★ (August)
  69. Braised Pork – An Yu ★★★ (September)
  70. Hold Your Own – Kae Tempest ★★★★ (September)
  71. The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy ★★★½ (September)
  72. seven methods of killing kylie jenner – Jasmine Lee-Jones (September)
  73. The Tidal Zone – Sarah Moss ★★★★ (September)
  74. Orlando – Virginia Woolf ★★★ (September)
  75. Coraline – Neil Gaiman ★★★½ (September)
  76. The Glass Hotel – Emily St. John Mandel ★★★½ (September)
  77. The Bass Rock – Evie Wyld ★★★ (September)
  78. Lady in Waiting – Anne Glenconner ★★½ (September)
  79. The Illness Lesson – Clare Beams ★★★½ (September)
  80. Rodham – Curtis Sittenfeld ★★★ (October)
  81. Clap When You Land – Elizabeth Acevedo ★★★ (October)
  82. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates ★★★½ (October)
  83. Summerwater – Sarah Moss ★★★★ (October)
  84. Ethel and Ernest – Raymond Briggs ★★★½ (October)
  85. English Animals – Laura Kay ★★★½ (October)
  86. Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Max Porter ★★★★ (October)
  87. Blue Ticket – Sophie Mackintosh ★★ (October)
  88. The Arrival – Shaun Tan ★★★½ (October)
  89. Cows Can’t Jump – Philip Bowne (November)
  90. My Darling From the Lions – Rachel Long ★★★ (November)
  91. Black Sunday – Tola Rotimi Abraham ★★★½ (November)
  92. Ghost Wall – Sarah Moss ★★★½ (November)
  93. My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell ★★★ (November)
  94. Agatha – Anne Cathrine Bomann ★★½ (November)
  95. The House Without Windows – Barbara Newhall Follett & Jackie Morris ★★★ (November)
  96. Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths – Natalie Haynes ★★★★ (December)
  97. Things in Jars – Jess Kidd ★★★★ (December)
  98. The Emperor’s Babe – Bernardine Evaristo ★★★ (December)
  99. Real Life – Brandon Taylor ★★★½ (December)
    • Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart
    • War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

Theatre

  1. The Book of Mormon UK Tour – Bristol Hippodrome ★★★★ x2 (January & February)
  2. Romantics Anonymous – Bristol Old Vic ★★★½ (January)
  3. Ferment Fortnight – Bristol Old Vic Weston Studio
    • Florence Espeut-Nickless’s D.E.S.T.I.N.Y (January)
    • Sharp Teeth & Marie Hamilton’s Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) (January)
    • Emergency Chorus’s Something in Your Voice (February)
    • Devil’s Violin’s The Beast in Me (February)
  4. Wardrobe Ensemble’s RIOT – Bristol Old Vic ★★★½ (February)
  5. Breach Theatre’s It’s True, It’s True, It’s True – TV Adaptation (February)
  6. Beautiful: the Carole King Musical UK Tour – Bristol Hippodrome ★★★ (February)
  7. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Tobacco Factory Theatres ★★★★ (March)
  8. Headlong’s Faustus: That Damned Woman – Bristol Old Vic ★★ (March)
  • Live Screenings:

    1. The Wind and the Willows – Live from the London Palladium via willowsmusical.com ★★★ (March)
    2. Royal Ballet’s Mayerling – Live from the Royal Opera House (March)
    3. Royal Ballet’s The Two Pigeons – Live from the Royal Opera House via Marquee TV (March)
    4. Wattle & Daub’s Tarrare the Freak (March)
    5. Oklahoma! – National Theatre (1999) via BroadwayHD (March)
    6. Into the Woods – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (2010) via Digital Theatre (March)
    7. Northern Ballet’s Casanova – Live from the Palace Theatre Manchester via Digital Theatre (April)
    8. One Man, Two Guvnors – Live from the Lyttelton at the National Theatre (2011) via NTLive (April)
    9. The Royal Opera and Royal Ballet’s Handel’s Acis and Galatea – Live from the Royal Opera House (2009) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (April)
    10. Opera North’s The Turn of the Screw – Leeds Grand Theatre (2020) via OperaVision (April)
    11. Jane Eyre – Live from the Lyttelton at the National Theatre (2015) via NTLive (April)
    12. Flowers for Mrs Harris – Chichester Festival Theatre (2018) via CFT (April)
    13. Curtains: A Musical Comedy (2019) via curtainsmusical.com (April)
    14. Gigglemug Theatre’s Timpson: The Musical – Live from Stockwell Playhouse (2019) (April)
    15. English National Ballet’s Broken Wings – Live from Sadler’s Wells (2016) via ENB (April)
    16. Wasted – Southwark Playhouse (2018) via Southwark Stayhouse (May)
    17. Frankenstein (Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature) – Live from the Olivier at the National Theatre (2011) via NTLive (May)
    18. Hamburg Ballet’s Illusions – like Swan Lake – Live from the Hamburg State Opera (2001) via hamburgballett.de (May)
    19. The Royal Ballet’s The Winter’s Tale – Live from the Royal Opera House (2015) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (May)
    20. The Royal Ballet’s The Metamorphosis – Live from the Royal Opera House (2013) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (May)
    21. Fun Home – Live from the Victory Gardens Theatre (2017) via Victory Gardens (May)
    22. Sea Wall Film – via #FreeSeaWall (May)
    23. Tanika Gupta’s A Doll’s House – Live from the Lyric Hammersmith (2019) via Lyric Hammersmith (May)
    24. Barber Shop Chronicles – Live from the Dorfman at the National Theatre (2018) via NTLive (May)
    25. English National Ballet’s Nora – Live from Sadler’s Wells (2019) via ENB (May)
    26. A Streetcar Named Desire – Live from the Young Vic Theatre (2014) via NTLive (May)
    27. Gecko Theatre’s The Wedding – Live from Nottingham Playhouse (2018) via Gecko Theatre (May)
    28. Messiah – Live from Bristol Old Vic (2017) via #BristolOldVicAtHome (June)
    29. The Royal Ballet’s The Cellist – Live from the Royal Opera House (2020) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (June)
    30. The Madness of George III – Live from Nottingham Playhouse (2018) via NTLive (June)
    31. The Mountaintop – A Reading (2020) via Manchester Royal Exchange (June)
    32. Still House’s Of Riders and Running Horses – Live from Mayfest (2015) via MAYK (June)
    33. The Hired Man – Live from the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch (2019) via QTH (June)
    34. Small Island – Live from the Olivier at the National Theatre (2019) via NTLive (June)
    35. English National Ballet’s Manon – Live from the Manchester Opera House (2018) via ENB (June)
    36. Falsettos – Live from the Walter Kerr Theatre (2017) via BroadwayHD (June)
    37. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Live from the Bridge Theatre (2019) via NTLive (June)
    38. English National Ballet’s La Sylphide – Live from the Manchester Palace Theatre (2017) via ENB (July)
    39. The Grinning Man – Live from Bristol Old Vic (2016) via #BristolOldVicAtHome (July)
    40. Les Blancs – Live from the Olivier at the National Theatre (2016) via NTLive (July)
    41. English National Ballet’s Cinderella – Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2019) via ENB (July)
    42. The Deep Blue Sea – Live from the Lyttelton at the National Theatre (2016) via NTLive (July)
    43. Amadeus – Live from the Olivier at the National Theatre (2017) via NTLive (July)
    44. Funny Girl – Live from the Palace Theatre Manchester (2017) via Digital Theatre (July)
    45. The Royal Ballet’s Sylvia – Live from the Royal Opera House (2005) via Digital Theatre (July)
    46. The Crucible – Live from the Old Vic Theatre (2014) via Digital Theatre (July)
    47. The Merry Wives of Windsor – Live from the Royal Shakespeare Company (2018) via Digital Theatre (July)
    48. The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty – Live from the Royal Opera House (2020) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (August)
    49. ZooNation’s The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – Live from the Roundhouse (2017) via #OurHouseToYourHouse (August)
    50. Jekyll & Hyde – Live from the Old Vic Theatre (2016) via Your Old Vic (August)
    51. Carousel – Live from the Lincoln Center (2013) via LIVE from Lincoln Center (August)
    52. Albion – Live from the Almeida Theatre (2020) via BBC4 (August)
    53. Faith Healer – Live from the Old Vic (2020) via Old Vic: In Camera (September)
    54. Wise Children’s Romantics Anonymous – Live from Bristol Old Vic (2020) via Bristol Old Vic (September)
    55. Before After – Live from Southwark Playhouse (2020) via Southwark Stayhouse (September)
    56. What the Constitution Means to Me – Live from the Hayes Theater (2019) via Amazon Prime Video (October)
    57. Max Porter Reads Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Live from Union Chapel (2020) (October)
    58. ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop – Live from Sadler’s Wells (October)
    59. Emilia – Live from the Vaudeville Theatre (2019) (November)
    60. BOVTS’s Hedda – Live from Bristol Old Vic (2020) (November)
    61. Marry Me A Little – Live from the Barn Theatre (2020) (November)
    62. The Last Five Years – Live from Southwark Playhouse (Oct 2020) via Stream.Theatre (November)
    63. Death of England: Delroy – Live from the Olivier at the National Theatre (2020) via NTLive (November)
    64. RENT – Live from the Hope Mill Theatre (2020) (November)
    65. Red – Live from the Wyndham’s Theatre (2018) via The Shows Must Go On (December)
    66. The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk – Live from Bristol Old Vic (2020) via Bristol Old Vic (December)
    67. What a Carve Up! (2020) (December)
    68. Sunset Boulevard in Concert – Live from the Leicester Curve Theatre (2020) via Curve at Home (December)

Films

  1. Little Women ★★★★½ (January)
  2. CATS ☆ (January)
  3. Bombshell ★★★ (January)
  4. The Personal History of David Copperfield ★★★★ (January)
  5. Emma ★★★★ (February)
  6. Jojo Rabbit ★★★½ (February)
  7. Parasite ★★★½ (March)
  8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire ★★★½ (March)
    • Lady Bird (2017)
    • I, Tonya (2017)
    • Lady J (2018)
    • Julie & Julia (2009)
    • Spirited Away (2001)
    • Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
    • Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
    • Anna Karenina (2012)
    • Phantom Thread (2017)
    • Knives Out (2019)

TV

  1. This Country (1-3)
  2. Tiger King
  3. Sex Education (1&2)
  4. Alias Grace
  5. Arrested Development (1-3)
  6. The Assassination of Gianni Versace
  7. Quiz
  8. Normal People
  9. Lovesick (1-3)
  10. Pure
  11. Community (1-3)
  12. Chewing Gum (1&2)
  13. I May Destroy You
  14. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
  15. Crashing
  16. What We Do In The Shadows (1&2)
  17. The Crown (1-3)
  18. Ratched 
  19. The End of the F***ing World (1)
  20. Parks and Recreation (1-5)
  21. Ghosts (1)

Arts Resolutions

  1. See something live at the Royal Opera House
  2. Finish War and Peace 
  3. Finish His Dark Materials
  4. See 12 films at the cinema
    • Little WomenJojo RabbitThe Personal History of David CopperfieldEmmaThe Lighthouse, ParasitePortrait of a Lady on Fire, Shirley, AmmonitePromising Young Woman, In the HeightsThe French Dispatch
  5. Turn in everything still outstanding ✓
  6. Read Wolf Hall
  7. Finish all Hogarth Shakespeares
    • Shylock Is My NameVinegar GirlDunbarMacbeth
  8. See some West End/Off West End Shows
    • Sunday in the Park with GeorgeHello, Dolly!
    • The Last Five YearsOperation Mincemeat
    • Akram Khan’s Creature

Previous year

Following year