A visit to the ice rink has become something of a pre-Christmas tradition for my family and it was great to visit Whitehall Garden Centre over the half term to keep that tradition alive. Having arrived 15 minutes early, as recommended, to swap our shoes for skates, we were soon on the ice and whizzing...
Category: Reviews
Review – Awful Auntie at the Theatre Royal Bath
Susy Douch and her family enjoy the latest production from David Walliams live on stage at the Theatre Royal Bath Hot on the heels of seeing David Walliams at the Children’s Literature Festival last month and not so long since enjoying the stage production of Gangsta Granny, we were delighted to take our seats for...
Review – a family visit to the Bath Sports and Leisure Centre swimming pool
Ian Waller and his sons enjoy a early evening of swimming fun at Bath Sports and Leisure Centre Just a quick word of warning – there are sharks in the one of the pools at Bath Sports and Leisure Centre… and zombie pirates… and indeed zombie pirate sharks. But don’t worry, they’re not that dangerous...
Review – Yippee Adventures activity kits
Nicola Harvey and her seven year old try out these new kits aimed at children four to eight years old We love building, making and design in our house, and are not short of materials or ideas. Sometimes, however, it’s nice to have a kit with everything included, down to the tape and glue, from...
Review – Bath Racecourse Family Fun Day
Sarah Jones and her family enjoy a great day out at the Bath Racecourse Family Fun Day It had been about eight years since we last visited Bath Race Course – in our pre-child days. The Family Fun Day during the Bath Cup Festival weekend seemed like a great idea to try out the two...
Review – God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal Bath
Nicola Harvey reviews a ‘masterfully played comedy’ at the Theatre Royal Bath What a treat to be at the theatre on the first day of the new term! And what a particular treat God of Carnage is! I must confess, I knew very little about this production except that it involves a dispute between two...
Review – Family Friday pizza night out at Bath Pizza Co
Friday night is pizza night for our family, and last night we decided to have a change from the home cooked variety at home and pay a visit to the Bath Pizza Company at Green Park in Bath. Now you might not think that a restaurant next to a car park is that attractive, but...
Review – Fantastic Japanese slapstick comes to Komedia
An evening of comic excellence from an unlikely double act What a fantastic show! Two mohicaned Japanese mime artists might not sound that enticing, but Gamarjobat at the Komedia Bath last night was one of the best evening of comedy excellence that we’ve seen in years. The we, by the way, was me and my...
Review – Carters Steam Fair at Victoria Park Bath
Ian Waller and his family enjoy a visit to the wonderfully traditional Carters Steam Fair, now visiting Victoria Park in Bath Soaring above Victoria Park in a jet plane piloted by my seven year old son to a back drop of the rock n roll music of Jerry Lee Lewis wasn’t what I was expecting...
Review – All Cashed In at The Mission Theatre, Bath
Student journalist Jake Rosser from The Bath Studio School reviews the current production at The Mission Theatre When I first heard of All Cashed In and found out more about the story of Johnny Cash, I knew I was going to enjoy it. What’s more, listening to some of the great man’s more popular tracks,...
Review – The Selfish Giant at Pound Arts, Corsham
Sarah Jones discovers a children’s classic from Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde’s book The Selfish Giant was brilliantly brought to life by Wrongsemble at The Pound Arts Centre over the weekend. This was the most amazing show, with a cast of two and a simple – but clever – stage of three walls. For those like...
Review – The Play That Goes Wrong at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon
Nicola Harvey discovers that’s a lot to like about The Play That Goes Wrong I had heard great things about The Play that Goes Wrong and was really looking forward to finding out how much went wrong, and how. The answer is that pretty much everything that could go wrong in a play did and...
Review – One Small Step at the egg theatre Bath
Ian Waller and his family enjoy an absolutely top class piece of theatre How to tell the story of the race to the moon to a theatre full of schoolchildren, with just an hour to spare and a stage littered with junk to help out? Don’t worry, as a family we realised long ago that...
Review – Great Expectations at the Theatre Royal Bath
Nicola Harvey enjoys a night of classic Dickens at The Theatre Royal Bath I have loved Great Expectations for about 30 years now. It was the first proper classic that I read unabridged and I loved the perfectly wordy narrative and the wonderful characters that Dickens creates. I also found myself moved, even as a...
Review – The Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas at the Theatre Royal Bath
Start spreading the news – The Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas is in town and what a fantastic show it is! The Rat Pack were of course Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, quite simply three of the biggest stars of the 1950s and 60s. Individually they were amazing, together quite unbeatable...
Two dads, a rare night out and the chance to revisit a punk rock past
What do two middle aged dads do on a rare night out? Relive their youth of course, with an evening of classic punk rock at Komedia Bath. Along with the likes of the Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers and The Stranglers, The Buzzcocks had provided much of the musical background to my early teenage years,...
Review – Awful Auntie at the Bristol Hippodrome
Sarah Jones and here family enjoy David Walliams’ Awful Auntie at the Bristol Hippodrome I’m a fan of David Walliams, from his adult humour in Little Britain, to his judging ability in Britain’s Got Talent and his children’s literature, so I knew we were in for a treat with the stage adaptation of the children’s...
Review – Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain at the Theatre Royal, Bath
Sherlock Holmes fan Ian Waller discovers some bright spots in this new tale from the great detective, but a plot that leaves promising opportunities undeveloped proves ultimately frustrating Sherlock Holmes is getting old. His knees ache, he’s no longer engaged with the technology and news of 20th century Britain, and he just wants to be...
Review – Penguins at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon
Sarah Jones and her family enjoy a ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ show about families and differences We walked into this show not quite sure what to expect. From the start this was clearly going to be something quite different to anything we’d seen at the Wyvern Theatre before, with none of the usual panto style booing, calls...
Review – Family meal at Bill’s of Bath
You have to give it to Bill’s, their staff training is excellent. This was our third visit to their Bath branch and on each occasion, we’ve been completely impressed with the standard of service from everyone on the team, from the person welcoming us on the door, to the waiting staff and the, yes, the...
Review – Beautiful – The Carole King Musical at the Bristol Hippodrome
We feel the earth move with a great collection of songs that tell the story of the early years of a song writing legend Go on, be honest, did you know that songwriter supreme Carole King wrote The Locomotion for Little Eva, or Pleasant Valley Sunday for The Monkees, or I’m Into Something Good for...