Things to do in London this week

Londoners tend to be a pretty cynical bunch. Normally the mere mention of enforced romance is enough to make the average city dweller’s eyes roll back so violently into their head it causes a permanent strain to their optic nerve. But there's something special about Valentine’s Day. London is predictably full of fun things to do come February 14 – a Friday this year. There are slap-up dinners for two, classic rom-com screenings and romance-themed comedy nights. And if you’re not currently boo-ed up, there’s speed-dating events, singles nights, ‘Palentines’ celebrations and ‘anti-Valentine’s’ happenings for those who find it all just a bit too saccharine. 

‘Fourquels’ are usually where film franchises start to flirt with rock bottom, so it’s a joy to report that Mad About the Boy is comfortably the best Bridget Jones outing since Bridget Jones’s Diary. For Renée Zellweger’s still klutzy but now wiser Bridge, living in cosy Hampstead, the singleton Borough era is a distant memory. Ciggies and Chardonnay have been dispensed with replaced with a big dose of lingering grief for lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). It says everything for the script (co-written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan) that even Daniel Cleaver, now entering his own Jurassic era and a bit sad about it, gets an affecting arc here. The plot will surprise no one, but it barely matters – this is Bridget’s journey of rediscovery.

In cinemas worldwide Feb 13. Streaming on Peacock in the US Feb 13.

In 1999, at the age of 10, Martin came down to the last two for the role of Harry Potter, but fell at the last hurdle. The rest is history and his competitor Daniel Radcliffe went on to become a household name, so now Martin lives in the shadow of what he could have been. In Barney Norris’s adaptation of David Foenkinos’s best-selling novel Asa Butterfield gives a totally assured and searing performance as Martin who is haunted by his lost potential, the trauma of the Hollywood audition process and the star that is everywhere. He is the nucleus of Michael Longhurst’s barebones production. An actor with less talent would have been exposed by Longhurst’s demanding direction -Butterfield is simply magic. 

A contemporary of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin and David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar was a key figure in New York’s East Village art scene in the 1970s and 80s, even if his reputation as a major force in American photography has largely come about in the decades since his death of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987. This exhibition of his later work has been curated by his close friend, the artist and print-maker Gary Schneider, alongside his biographer John Douglas Millar, and features portraits of several of Hujar’s friends and contemporaries from the downtown scene.

The latest chefs to take over the kitchen at Islington pub The Compton Arms are Rake; Jay Claus, Syrus Pickhaver and Peter Ward. Their menu is ruddy-faced British gentleman food, rethought for people who don’t own a cottage in the Cotswolds. Here, the spectre of St John is strong, with the likes of salsify and scotch broth, but rather than ostentatious ‘I-dare-you-to-eat-that’ whole beast butchery, Rake’s approach to meat is more earthy and pagan; said duck hearts come in a marvellously dank sauce which soaks into the crunchy toast. It’s a winning dish in a line-up of endless hits. Deep fried cockles on skewers are the perfect pub snack. Browned oysters rarebit are cooked with a creamy, addictively mustardy gunk and ray wing tenders are sweet, juicy and crunchy buttresses of fish. 

The capital’s favourite himbo party boy Babymorocco has just released his first full-length album. Amid bratty, slightly irritating lines like, ‘When they look at me I’m hot/I get paid cause I’m attractive,’ there are glimpses of sentimentality, as he comforts a past lover on the raging club anthem Red Eye and reflects on the heartbreak of having three people in a relationship on Left u on the Track. So don’t expect it all to be muscle-flexing and slut dropping at this Omeara show. Though there probably will be lots of that too. 

Omeara, SE1 1TE. Sat Feb 15, 7pm. From £16.68.

Daniel Fish’s take on Sophocles’ Elektra is a curious mixture of chaotic randomness and underlying respect for the 2,500-year-old play. Marvel star Brie Larson puts in a very solid turn as the eponymous princess. We meet Elektra living a twilight existence, locked in a permanent state of impotent rage at her mother Klytannestra (Stockard Channing, acid) and her lover Aegisthus (Greg Hicks, hapless). Famously, they killed her father Agamemnon. Now Elektra wants them dead. Larson’s Elektra stomps about in a Bikini Kill t-shirt with a shaven head, trading sardonic quips with her mother. It’s a gratifyingly bone-ratting 75 minutes of punk rock theatre made with respect for the Ancient Greek tradition. 

The London Bookshop Crawl takes the basic premise of a pub crawl – only instead of drowning in beer, you’ll be drowning in books. Join one of the guided group tours and organised workshops or strike out on your own and create your own route using one of the free maps. There’s a range of events all supporting bookshops and libraries with author meet and greets and signings included. One thing’s for sure: snubbing Amazon will be a lot easier once you know where all the good bookshops are. 

We’ve all heard about gay sailors, but what about queer pirates or trans seahorses? Taking place across the National Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and Queen’s House, Out at Sea is Greenwich’s annual celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month, a free week-long events series packed with historical storytelling sessions, lively performances and crafty workshops for the whole family. Head down to enjoy Drag Queen storytime sessions, performances from LGBTQ+ asylum seeker choir Rainbows Across Borders, singing workshops facilitated by the Trans Voices Young Company, drag aerobics classes and a plethora of arts and crafts sessions. 

Step into the grandeur of 17th and 18th-century France with Versailles: Science & Splendour, an enthralling exhibition now open at the Science Museum until April 2025. Discover how science played a pivotal role in shaping the magnificence of the Palace of Versailles, with stunning artefacts on display, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. Marvel at the intricate moon map by Jean-Dominique Cassini, a watch made for Marie Antoinette and learn about pioneering figures like Madame du Coudray, who transformed midwifery across France. 

Book Versailles: Science & Splendour at the Science Museum now for just £5.40, only with Time Out Offers.

The Young V&A’s exhibition Making Egypt will look at creativity in Ancient Egypt and its enduring influence on contemporary society, gathering together over 200 items from the V&A archives, with the oldest around 5,500 years old and many not displayed before. It will range from the fully painted inner sarcophagus of Princess Sopdet-em-haawt to examining the influence of Egyptian design on Minecraft and Moon Knight. New films will explore Ancient Egyptian art techniques, and there will be kids’ activities including drawing with scale, deciphering hieroglyphics and designing your own amulet.

‘Know thyself’ it says in thick red letters on a wall at this year’s Turner Prize exhibition. Those words, a directive from Ancient Greek priestess Pythia, are a common thread running through all four artists’ work: this is art about the urge, the desperate need, to figure out who you are. Pio Abad comes first, with a display exploring colonial history, lost narratives of oppression and the role of museums in perpetuating both. Glasgow-based Jasleen Kaur’s installation is a space for symbols of cultural identity and communal memory. Chaos comes in Delaine Le Bas’ hectic installation of splattered paint, mirrored walls and electronic sounds and Claudette Johnson’s big, imposing portraits of Black sitters take up space in an art history full of white people. 

In 1837, a baby-faced, wavy-haired 25-year-old Charles Dickens moved into 48 Doughty Street. Taking up two small rooms on the first and second floors of the building, the museum’s centenary exhibition illustrates the life and legacy of one of London’s greatest writers via letters, manuscripts, rare first editions, sketches and the cheesy love poems he wrote at 18 (thought to be his earliest surviving writing). If The Muppets Christmas Carol is as far as your Dickens knowledge stretches, this is an accessible showcase. You’ll leave feeling endeared to Dickens and charmed by the fervent admiration the museum evidently has for its subject.

‘Vogue: Inventing the Runway’ takes you on a journey through the evolution of fashion shows, from intimate salons to today’s epic, celebrity-filled spectacles. Step into the front row and backstage at some of fashion’s most iconic moments, all projected on Lightroom’s massive 360-degree walls. With immersive animations, a killer soundtrack, and jaw-dropping visuals, this exhibit celebrates the creativity and drama that turned runway shows into cultural milestones. Save up to 33% with student tickets at £10 and adult tickets at £19.

Get adult tickets for £19 (down from £25), or student tickets for just £10, only through Time Out Offers.

No matter what your thoughts on Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s beloved BBC horror anthology series Inside No 9, Stage/Fright is a delight, with the duo at the peak of their powers. It dips into the TV show – the first half heavily revolves around the episode Bernie Clifford’s Dressing Room – but it is a rare spinoff that feels totally a thing of the theatre. That’s partly a result of the pair’s long-standing fascination with Grand Guignol, music hall, stand-up and other forms of stage entertainment. It’s a tribute to theatre and stage life in a broader sense. It’s a parting gift, a celebration of Inside No. 9 and its influences, the real wrap party.

London’s beautiful Brutalist masterpiece The Barbican Centre is welcoming in the new season with ‘Concrete Garden’, a cross-arts programme of workshops, talks, screenings and events all celebrating those happy Spring feelings of renewal, growth and wellness. The whole series is inspired by the Barbican’s new major exhibition focussing on the work of American artist Noah Davis whose figurative paintings elevate the everyday and Citra Sasmita’s Curve commission Into Eternal Land explore ancestral memory, ritual and migration. Look out for performances and other special events. 

Get cosy this Valentine’s Day at the Prince Charles and explore their rotating programme of cult, arthouse and classic films, alongside recent Hollywood blockbusters. Veering away from the typical romcoms, the Prince Charles Cinema is offering a line-up of more obscure Valentine’s friendly films, from Wong Kar Wai’s paean to the agony’n’ecstasy of buttoned-up emotions ‘In the Mood for Love’, romantic classics ‘True Romance’ and ‘Casablanca’, Céline Sciamma’s glorious period romance ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, the wonderful ‘Before’ trilogy and rom-com faves like ‘When Harry Met Sally’.