Exhibitions

The largest fashion exhibition ever staged in Paris, Christian Dior – Couturier du Rêve, is opening at the V&A next February. Watch this space because we hope to have a private talk from the curator, which will be an absolute treat.

Television

Don’t forget to set your record button for the major new six part series on BBC 1 (starting on Sunday 30 December) of Les Miserables. Andrew Davies is the master of classic literature adaptations for the small screen. His two previous series, Pride & Prejudice and War & Peace, were brilliant works in their own right.  And the motivation? Davies said he ‘hated the musical version’ of Les Mis(!) and wanted to get back to Victor Hugo’s original. It stars Dominic West as Jean ValJean.

Books

Jonathan Bryan, born with severe cerebral palsy and unable to communicate in speech, shows rare humour and humbling insight in Eye Can Write, the book that he wrote by looking at the letters on an alphabet board, helped in the practicality by his loving family. The foreword, by Sir Michael Morpurgo, says it all with these words: ‘When we take his hand as we read, he is not locked in any more. And neither are we.’ This is a wonderful and uplifting book.

Films

Don’t miss The Favourite (opening on 1 January). It stars the sublime Olivia Coleman as Queen Anne, and is the story of the love triangle between the Queen, The Duchess of Marlborough and her impoverished cousin, Abigail Hill along with all the intrigues of The Court.

Coleman has already won acting awards for her portrayal and looks destined to win more. As she said in an interview, ‘anyone who has lost all 17 of her children could be forgiven anything’!

Theatre

I think we have all the new plays and major West End transfers covered in our TLC programme(!), which is being released now.