John Martin @ Tate Britainx

@matthewtaylorx: John Martin - Apocalypse @ Tate Britain. C18/19th artist famous for his large colourful depictions of old testament events. Bit samey. 6/10

Penultimate room with light projected overlay to 3 large pictures with accompanying sound track was both interesting and entertaining.

Good but over priced gift shop rounded off a pleasant evening

Sorry I haven't got a clue @ The Colloseum Watford

@matthewtaylorx: Sorry I haven't a clue @the colloseum watford. 2 show recording of this uniquely British antidote to panel games. Crazy fun, good venue 8/10

Jack Dee, Graham Garden, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Andy Hamilton. Two and a half hours of recording for Two 30 minutes shows. It will be interesting to see which bits get aired and which not. More pre show scripting than I expected and and the truth about Samatha was a surprise.

The hall was full with over 1,000 seated.

Very good pre show meal in the large well appointed theatre restaurant.

Very good night

The Kitchen at the Olivier Theatre

The Kitchen@The National. Definitely not the way mama used to make them. No real story or characters & poor sound. Left at the interval 1/10

Very disappointing. Excuse the pun but it had all the ingredients for a fast paced emotionally charged rollercoaster of a production. It served up none of that. A lame storyline and scenes designed to capture the frenzied organised chaos of a busy west end kitchen did not deliver. Perhaps I have seen too much masterchef and clever TV editing to render the staging of a busy kitchen drama an impossible task.

A bland and very large cast, an expensive set and the kudos of playing the Olivier. What an opportunity. What a shame.

Vermeers Women @ The Fitzwilliam Museum

Vermeers Women @ The Fitzwilliam. Only 5 Vermeer pictures (which is odd) in an otherwise good display of Dutch painters & their muses 6/10

Pitmen Painters @ The Duchess

Pit men Painters @ The Duchess. True story of the rise of an art school whose members were N East miners. Interesting social commentary 7/10

Set in pre and world war II years. The play covers the true events that lead to the creation of an art group in ashlington not far from newcastle in the scouts and guides hut. The play successfully explores the social norms of the day and ideas around class, nationalisation, unionisation, community, the meaning of art and how art can be inclusive and how money can make it exclusive at the same time.

Hosted at the Duchess theatre. Its spartan architecture suits this play. But otherwise possibly the dreariest theatre I have been to in London.