Film: Antidote

Today, another film - this was Antidote, a documentary centring on Christo Grozev, who used to head the Russian investigation section of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organisation. For highlighting Putin's campaign of poisoning, he now finds himself on a kill list, and living in hiding. Showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury - and this time, the app registered the booking!

I set off in the brilliant sunshine we've had all weekend - of course, that doesn't say anything for the temperatures, and it has been quite chilly. I arrived just in time for the film, and managed to get the app both to log me in (why does it keep kicking me out?!) and display the ticket. They must have had a really short programme of trailers - the opening credits were rolling as I took my seat. Well, the one beside it - it would've been weird to sit in mine, given there was someone in the seat right on the other side! Why he had to take one right beside an occupied one, despite all the others he could have chosen..

Anyway. This is a film full of shocking facts. I tell you, it's an eye-opener just to watch Putin walking around what I assume is the Kremlin, with all its chandeliers and finery. Not to mention hearing about the 5,000-odd agents he apparently has operating in the West. The camera follows Grozev around for the main part, as he is interviewed in a darkened room somewhere, as he is on the phone to his family. We also get to hear from his wife, and one of his kids, without whose support he says he wouldn't continue. They live in Vienna - he is exiled to the States, with, as he says, a bounty on his head.

One interesting sequence at the start shows a defecting scientist from the team that makes the poisons - they meet him "somewhere on the EU border", where he runs across a field to jump in the car, later celebrating with a bottle of champagne! Lucky him, his family ultimately comes to join him.. as for Grosev, he suddenly finds he can no longer contact his father, and when he calls the authorities to investigate, they discover him dead in his flat. 50/50 it could have been the Kremlin..

As a film, it kind of peters out.. but the facts it reveals will stay with me. Should be required viewing, really. Scary stuff.

And so afterwards to GBK, which was tasty as ever. Always slightly unnerving, though, to have them closing up around you - as they did from about 9pm tonight.

Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - this time, at Southwark Playhouse, for Wilko: Love and Death and Rock 'n' Roll, the true story of a rockstar who was told he had a limited time to live, only to defy the predictions.

On Tuesday, finally managed to squeeze in a trip to Darkfield..! They're in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall until Saturday - "Darkfield at the Ditch". They have a bar n all - and wow, are letting people experience the shows live that were previously only available on "Darkfield Radio" (online). So I've booked for Double - they advise that if you book on your own, you might be paired with another audience member, as it's meant to be done in pairs. Fine by me! Sadly, the only other show in this that I haven't already experienced is Visitors, and as well as participants having to book in pairs for that, it's actually sold out. Heading to the Blues Kitchen for dinner afterwards.

The next two days are Meetup. On Wednesday, I'm back with Movie Roadhouse London for La Cocina, another frantic kitchen drama, set in a restaurant in Times Square. Showing in Curzon Soho.

And on Thursday, back with London Classical Music and Theatre Group, for the first time in nearly a year! We're going to a classical concert at the Barbican, and I've booked to eat beforehand in Cote Barbican, which at one time was my local restaurant. Then back to Ireland for the weekend, of course.

On the 14th, back with UITCS for Ghosts, a contemporary reimagining of the play by Ibsen, at the Lyric Hammersmith.

And on the 15th I'm going to Tallis Lamentations for Holy Week by Tenebrae, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.