Love London Love Culture’s 2025 Most Popular Reads

Showing the power and love of Strictly Come Dancing, earlier this year it was confirmed that Strictly Come Dancing’s professional dancers, 2024 winner Dianne Buswell and 2024 runner up Vito Coppola were heading out on tour over the summer of 2025!

Earlier this year saw the second recent take on the classic Greek story – this time at the Old Vic Theatre starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma. We took a look at how the critics felt about the production…

(c)Marc Brenner

Stephen Sondheim’s final musical took to the National Theatre stage, so we rounded up the reviews to see how London critics found it…

Fans of the original television series rejoiced when it was confirmed that the show was heading across the UK arenas to give more opportunity to see the Gladiators performing. Additional dates were then added due to demand!

(c) Marc Brenner

Heading back to the National Theatre in May, we took a look at what was being said about  Nima Taleghani’s new version of Euripides’ tragedy, directed by Indhu Rubasingham.

Meanwhile, at the Shakespeare Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse venue, Rory Mullarkey‘s adaptation of Chekhov’s play took to the stage – the first time that the play has been staged at the venue.

While perhaps lacking in some of the magic of the other two films in the series, this still an enjoyable adventure which sees Paddington trying to find Aunt Lucy who has mysteriously gone missing. Most of the original cast return with a few new additions to make for an entertaining watch.

We chatted to Tom about starring in the Netflix series Dept.Q and whether he would like to return to the stage.

Discover what we made of the sequel to the 2016 animated film, which sees Moana take to the seas once more. Still filled with magic, it did seem as though it was a little more serious than expected.

It was lovely to revisit the characters from Jacqueline Wilson’s The Girls series. Filled with warmth, humour and strong themes at its core it was a wonderfully entertaining read.