Dry January naysayers donned tartan and downed whisky on Sunday to toast the Scottish poet (and notorious soak) Robert Burns. At comedian Grace Campbell’s Burns Night dinner, the evening’s entertainment came from her dad, a kilted-up Alastair Campbell, who gave a rousing performance on the bagpipes. Designer Henry Holland, writer Hannah Crosbie and actor Michelle de Swarte were among guests at the Zetter in Clerkenwell.
Over at the Rosewood Hotel, writer Sydney Lima, florist Christie Leigh-Chung and royal Lady Amelia Windsor celebrated Burns Night with The Singleton whisky in The Chalet bar.
Adolescence creator Jack Thorne has a new show coming up about tweenage boys, but this time he’s taking the action from present-day Pontefract to a remote Malaysian island in the 1950s. Thorne has adapted the perennial GCSE text, Lord of The Flies, for a four-part BBC series set to be released next month, featuring an ensemble cast of boys aged between four and 12. He and the young stars of the show including Lox Pratt, Ike Talbot and Winston Sawyers gathered at the BFI Southbank for a special screening of episode one.
Next door at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, thesps including Benedict Cumberbatch, Damian Lewis, Dame Harriet Walter and Toby Jones took to the stage to read missives at a Letters Live x Cunard event. James Corden read one of the 40,000 letters of complaint which Coca-Cola received after changing its recipe in 1985, with lines such as: “I do not drink alcoholic beverages, I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs. My only vice has been Coke. Now you have taken that pleasure from me.”
The Hamnet press tour continues in earnest: this time it was the Queen’s turn to host a special screening of the film at the May Fair Hotel as part of her book club, The Queen’s Reading Room. She was joined by author Maggie O’Farrell, as well as cast members including Joe Alwyn. Over at Dartmouth House, model Mia Regan and singer Mahalia went to Pandora’s soiree to unveil a collection of jewellery inspired by Netflix show Bridgerton.
