Do · 24 July 2026
Vocal jazz all three days — Jo Harrop upstairs at Ronnie's, Claire Martin at Crazy Coqs, a trumpet-led Sunday lunch — plus Nolan's Odyssey, PTA and Almodóvar on local screens, a Donmar real-time thriller, a solo Oscar Wilde ten minutes from home, and £7–£9 Edinburgh previews in Camden. Hot and dry all weekend, 29–32°C — the outdoor picks are wide open.
Music
Warm, smoky-voiced British jazz singer — the Guardian: “a rare mix of delicacy and boldness. Sheer perfection” — in a stripped-back trio with Sam Watts (piano) and Jamie McCredie (guitar), previewing her new album Love Now, Pay Later alongside her Parliamentary-Jazz-Award-winning catalogue. Original material verified via her recent setlists. Take the 17:00 house and you're home before 20:00; the 20:15 lands nearer 23:00.
Music
Claire Martin OBE, one of Britain's foremost jazz singers, strips right back to a voice-and-bass duo with Laurence Cottle in Zédel's art-deco cabaret room — dead-centre of the Stacey Kent / Holly Cole register. Around 75 minutes, so curtain ~21:15 and home close to 22:00. Ticketing shows limited availability — book promptly.
Music
Rising UK trumpeter-composer — Jazzwise has called her “one of the best new trumpeters” — leading a song-led, New Orleans-inflected quintet in the main room's famous Sunday-lunch slot. Melodic, unhurried, and the timing could not be gentler: jazz with lunch, home mid-afternoon.
Cinema
Nolan takes on Homer: Matt Damon's Odysseus fighting his way home in a mythic, large-format epic built for the biggest screen you can find. IMDb 8.3 and Metacritic 89; RT hasn't aggregated, so it clears on the IMDb-≥-7.5 rule. Well over the runtime cap, but this is Nolan doing epic narrative — squarely your lane. The Saturday 15:45 or Sunday 17:45 at Finsbury Park get you home by 22:00; the 19:30s end ~22:20. Also listed on 35mm at Everyman Screen on the Green — times only on their site.
Cinema
PTA's towering study of ambition, oil and false prophets — Daniel Day-Lewis at his most volcanic — back on a big screen for two shows only. The Saturday 16:30 is the one: out by 19:10, evening intact. Friday's 19:30 runs to ~22:10.
Cinema
Almodóvar's warm, structurally clever Oscar-winner about grief and reinvention — foreign-language, humane, precision-built, and comfortably under two hours. A subtitled Sunday-afternoon screening in the Phoenix's Almodóvar season at your nearest cinema; pairs neatly with the Cuttill Sunday lunch if you're ambitious.
Theatre
Russell Tovey alone on stage as a police dispatcher unravelling in real time, directed by Punchdrunk's Felix Barrett. Arifa Akbar in the Guardian, four stars: “Russell Tovey is commanding in cop thriller that fills you with dread.” Time Out's Andrzej Lukowski, also four: “nailbitingly tense… a bloody good real-time thriller.” Seventy minutes straight through — even Friday's 19:30 has you home by ~21:15. £15 standing and £20 under-35 releases daily at 10:00.
Theatre
Micheál Mac Liammóir's celebrated solo portrait of Oscar Wilde — his rise, wit and ruin, told through Wilde's own words. The Arts Desk's Gary Naylor, four stars: “Wilde is resurrected through his words… Whatley speaks them beautifully… a quietly powerful performance.” Biographical, character-driven, ten minutes from home, and done by 21:20. Dark on Sunday.
Comedy
The highest-rated act in town this weekend, working up his new Edinburgh hour. Chortle's Tim Harding gave his last full show, Dissolve, five stars: “a show of killer gags that also hinted at a mystery beyond comprehension… has the audience leaping to their feet.” Dark and surreal rather than political — and £9 for a 16:30 show means the whole evening survives.
Comedy
Edinburgh Best Newcomer nominee and one of Chortle's “razor-sharp Gen Z doomers… among his clique's most livewire and exciting performers” (Tim Harding, four stars) — sardonic, class-conscious, properly dark observational stand-up. Done by 18:30 for £7; the best pound-for-pound hour of the weekend.
Events · Comedy festival
The Greenwich Comedy Festival team fills the Somerset House courtyard with seven mixed-bill shows — Sam Campbell, Sara Pascoe, Tom Allen, Tim Key, Nick Mohammed, Nina Conti, John Kearns and more. Final nights are exactly this weekend, in weather made for a courtyard.
Events · Pop-up residency
Chef Josh Dalloway and sommelier Sinead Murdoch bring their rave-reviewed Iberian cooking to Shoreditch — gildas, mackerel crudo, coffee-ground baked beetroot, the signature Cornish mussel-and-chorizo rice, and a low-intervention wine list. Opening weekend of regular service.
Events · Member perk
A rotating residency space in London Fields with a strong Latin American accent, in secret soft launch with 50% off food for Nudge members — a window that closes on Tuesday 4 August, so this weekend is effectively last call.
Events · Street food
Max Spiro (ex-Davies & Brook and Kitchen Table) supercharges Ireland's cult spice bag — sirloin, a Szechuan-laced spice mix, handmade marinades — in a proper Peckham boozer. Peak guilty pleasure with a pint; fair warning, it's the schlep of the week.
Events · Street food
“Pop-up king” Jimmy Garcia's al-fresco rotisserie — burnished chickens turning centre-stage in a riverside cabana, chicken by the quarter, half or whole, with chicken-dripping potatoes and a spread of dips. Made for a 31°C Saturday by the river.
Events · Pub residency
Chef Yassir Chair (Afuego Burger) has settled into a first-class Soho pub with an open-fire Moroccan kitchen — charcoal-grilled lamb kofta, merguez, honey-harissa halloumi fries and a different seasonal tagine each week. Slots neatly before or after anything Soho on this list.