On my radar: Mathew Baynton's cultural highlights

The Guardian

23-11-2024

Born in Southend, Essex, in 1980, Mathew Baynton is the co-creator and star of award-winning television shows including Horrible Histories and Ghosts, in which he played lovestruck Regency poet Thomas Thorne. His television roles include Gavin & Stacey, Peep Show and Vanity Fair, and he has starred in films such as The Falling and Wonka. He lives in north London with his partner, film historian Kelly Robinson, and their two children. Earlier this year, Baynton made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will be at the Barbican, London, from 3 December to 18 January 2025.
The Crossing, Ken Currie at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street
My partner and I have been obsessed with Currie's work since we stumbled across it in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh in 2013. He is an incredibly prolific artist and yet most of his paintings look to me like a lifetime's work. This collection is mostly people or animals at sea. His images are often uncanny, sometimes nightmarish, but soulful too. There is occasionally black humour at work, like in the image of two legs protruding from a boat at an angle that can only be possible if they are not attached to a body at all.
Song Exploder
I love Song Exploder, in which artists discuss the writing and recording of a song from their catalogue. Having spent my teens and 20s in bands, I get a vicarious thrill out of these stories. I find these tiny details fascinating, like Björk describing (in Stonemilker) why she cuts the reverb at the end of the line 'and who has shut down the chances?' to reflect the lyric sonically. I always find that by the time the song is played in full at the end of an episode, I have a deeper appreciation of it.
Weer by Natalie Palamides at Soho theatre
Extreme commitment to stupidity is probably my favourite thing and this show is certainly that. Part romcom, part hyper-tragic doomed toxic love story, the conceit is that she is playing both the guy and the girl, split down the middle. It's the kind of idea you'd think someone would get a sketch out of and would be out-staying its welcome beyond that, but Palamides clearly revels in pushing every idea to its extremes. By the end of the show she's had physical fights, giddy dances and athletic sex, all with herself – and the stage is absolutely trashed.
The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet
This is a brilliant debut novel about a lower middle-class guy who has allowed himself, out of shame and awkwardness, to become a kind of unofficial butler to his rich friends. He is both besotted with them and disgusted by them and is terrified that deep down, he has a brutal nature. It's tightly plotted, with a propulsive narrative of snowballing mistakes and disastrous consequences. The voice of the narrator is so funny – that really English thing of being outwardly obsequious while internally seething.
Brown Horse at Moth Club
We went to see Brown Horse, having discovered them at the End of the Road festival this year when they covered a Jason Molina song after a screening of a film about him. We've always loved watching bands on their way up, in small venues, before they hit big; that feeling among the crowd that you're all in on a secret. The band seemed genuinely bowled over by the reception they were getting. Paul Gilley is a standout on their debut album – an instant classic. I can't wait to hear what they do next.
Miranda, London N8
London is weirdly short on vegan places compared with some cities. My life would improve tenfold if I could get a good vegan pain au chocolat somewhere in town. But I digress: Miranda is a plant-based cafe in Crouch End run by a lovely couple, and the food is excellent. I often go in with the intention of trying something new but I always order the Latin breakfast, which is delicious and very generous too. Cornbread arepa, black beans, plantain and guacamole is a loaded but perfect forkful of food.