Grads' Club: So Austria is pretty much a death trap for anyone of my clumsiness. Those who know me will be well aware of how useless I am on my feet; I believe the term ‘Winnie the Pooh on LSD’ has cropped up once or twice before....

TV Today: And so with just one more show in the series to go, it’s time for the traditional exit interviews from the semi-final’s departing dancers, Mandy Montanez and Alastair Postlethwaite. According to Mandy, participating in the show has reignited the love of dance that spurred her...

Shenton's View: We’ve already had the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, but now the biggie is coming up: the industry’s self-governed, own awards to itself, the Laurence Olivier Awards. It’s always nicer, I think, when someone scratches your back for you, but it is, of course, always possible to give yourself a pat on your own back if you have to. You do run the risk of getting contorted in the process, and it’s fascinating to see just how contorted they’ve got this year: the nominations were...

TV Today: And so once more those lovely people at E4 have provided TV Today readers with a special preview of next week’s episode… In Throwdown, Sue Sylvester is now co-director of the glee club, and her ongoing battle with Will sees the club splitting in two...

TV Today: EastEnders BBC1, Monday 8pm One by one, the Jacksons are returning to the Square. Tonight, it’s the turn of Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) who joins in Bianca’s hen celebrations. Law & Order UK ITV1, Monday 9pm A backpacking student arrives back in the UK, only to...

TV Today: This week’s So You Think You Can Dance was a different experience for me, as the BBC were kind enough to invite me down to the studio to save me live tweeting from home. And it was a great atmosphere down at TV Centre,...

Education and Training: Good to hear of something as popular as hip hop being used to focus the attention of school students, many of whom are disadvantaged. When I was teaching we used rather inelegantly to call it ‘starting where the child is at ’ (and then, by implication moving him/her on). This term, THEATRE IS is touring Hertfordshire schools to work with around 1000 students on a project which has already been very successful in Norfolk and Essex where 3000 kids have taken part. This is how it works. First Hip Hop...

Shenton's View: Brevity, they are always saying, is the soul of wit; but these are lean times for theatre reviewing, in every sense. AA Gill famously suggested a few years ago that “no aspect of the culture is as badly served by its critics as the theatre is”, and went on to complain that “Many of the national press reviewers who haunt the lobbies of the West End, picking up their complimentary programmes and free glasses of screwtop wine, are a moribund, joyless, detached bunch. Where are the voices that ring out...

Grads' Club: Forgive me for my somewhat incoherent ramblings, but this week is rapidly descending into chaos, with sanity soon to be replaced with a big bowl of almost set raspberry jelly. Lovely. On the upside, it’s great to be back in London, and despite the stresses...

TV Today: Archive on 4: Open Sesame Radio 4, Saturday 8pm Jim Henson’s Muppets have lived alongside humans in Sesame Street for forty years, educating children around the world as they entertain them. Konnie Huq looks back over the show’s four decade-long run, and the iconic characters...

Podcasts: What can actors do when they’re between acting jobs? Surviving Actors was the conference intended to answer that question, with seminars, careers advice and exhibitors. We talk to conference organiser Felicity Jackson and Phil Matthews, editor of Drama Student Magazine and sponsor of the event. The Stage education and training...

TV Today: Lost Sky 1, Friday 9pm The sixth and final season of whathas developed into one of the most confusing fantasy shows starts with a double bill of episodes. Forgotten what’s gone on in the previous five seasons? Fallen by the wayside? Never seen it before?...

Shenton's View: The Guardian yesterday ran a tribute to its long serving TV critic Nancy Banks-Smith, who joined the paper all of forty years ago - and is still writing for it today. That’s an astonishing run, but so is the warmth of the tributes that were paid to her which helps to explain it. As producer and screenwriter Phil Redmond commented, “The truth is sometimes difficult to take. She is probably one of the most objective critics I have had on my back. Most critics are too busy writing about themselves,...

Education and Training: Nine months ago I upset a lot of people by blogging about the launch of a new drama school - the Musical Theatre Academy - and reporting that its principal, Annemarie Lewis Thomas, intended to implement a strict policy of employing only successful working performers to teach in her school. Well I make no apology for revisiting both the school and the subject. Last year I sat in on auditions. Last week I observed a dance class in which Damien Delaney put MTA’s 13 enthusiastic students through their paces...

Shenton's View: OK, I know this isn’t very carbon-friendly of me, and the government is already urging me to drive 5 miles less a week since car journeys account for more CO2 emissions than other kind of UK transport, but I still drive to the theatre most nights. I simply relish the convenience of having the car waiting for me afterwards, and getting home to Borough within five or six minutes of the curtain coming down. But the news that Westminster Council is looking into a plan to extend West End parking...