Strictly Come Dancing may be but a glitzy, Christmas twinkle in the memory banks but for all of you that fell in love once more with the heat and hustle of the latin section, Samba Dance Club night at Sadlers Wells is something you need to know about. Starting at 7.15pm with a beginners class (ie you don't need to know ANYTHING) then progressing to intermediate at 8.15pm (for those of you with a......

Be there first: After all the brouhaha over the From Russia paintings, this is surely the show to see in its opening week. Stunning, inspirational works by the likes of Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich come to the Royal Academy from Saturday. This is jaw-dropping art you'd normally only get to see with a deep, heavy, carbon-footprint inducing flight to Russia, we're lucky enough to have it on our doorsteps until......

It’s almost Christmas! Over the Christmas holidays, we’ll be here every day recommending the best of what’s on television. We’ll do the hard work, slogging through the TV listings, and let you sit back with a nice hot drink and a mince pie. Enjoy! On TV, Londonist likes: Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 17:50-19:15 and 21:25-22:10) While we haven’t been keeping up with the excitement of this year’s dancing fun, we know lots of you......

Last full week before Christmas, we expect your bank account's feeling the strain. All that Christmas shopping and partying taking its toll? If you want to make the most of being out and about before Christmas cabin fever and complete exhaustion set in then we're here to help. Monday: Keep the braincells going through silly season. Go to the free lecture at Gresham College about why our society rewards celebrities, fads and fashions and......

Advent is upon us. Hanukkah starts on Wednesday. Office parties are already everywhere. Tis the season to be jolly, jolly, jolly but we know this can be draining, emotionally and financially. Don't let the state of your wallet throw you over the edge. We can't afford to buy tickets to the BFI IMAX all-nighter next weekend and we're not allowed to enter our own competition. But we can do the following splendid things for......

Imagine a TV show combining all the whirl and sparkly outfits of Strictly Come Dancing with the foreign glamour and international pop-geopolitics of Eurovision... Doesn't that sound amazing?! Imagine no more, as The Eurovision Dance Contest sashays onto our screens on September 1st! Dancers from 16 countries will compete, dancing a classic dance and another unique to their country. Will the Austrians waltz, the Poles polka, Ireland's dancers Irish dance? Maybe the UK dancers......

The might of the Church of England has been unleashed upon reality television and dumb programming in general. Its members point out that Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and even Little Britain aren't very good. In fact they are accused of lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings: There were complaints about everything from BBC news bulletins undermining respect for the prime minister by referring to him only by his......

Tomorrow, the BBC announce the acts that will be in contention to represent the UK in Eurovision. Making Your Mind Up, the show, will be held sometime in the next few weeks. Whispers have been flying around for months about who'll be in the running, with some rumours hitting the headlines (yep, Morrissey), but as yet, nobody knows for sure. This year marks the UK's 50th Eurovision entry, as well as the 40th anniversary......

The best news we've heard in ages: Britain's national film and television archive is to be opened up in order for it to be accessed by the public. Visitors to the British Film Institute (BFI), which is in London, will be able to choose items from the collection and watch them free of charge. There was a time before utter shit like Strictly Come Dancing and reality TV smeared itself across our screens that......

Eurovision season is well and truly on. While in the UK we're all still waiting on the BBC to get on with Making it's Mind Up about this year's entry, there are songs being chosen all around Europe. 11 songs have been chosen and heard so far, and it's a very mixed bag. Here's Londonist's preview of what we'll be seeing, hearing and cheering in Helsinki. Belarus are sending Russian Dmitry Koldun with Work......

Everybody should learn at least one dance in their lifetime, and for maximum impact it has got to be Salsa. Releasing your inner Cuban in downtown London is easier than you think but to the Londonist’s mind there is no better place to pick up this fiery quick-step than at the bi-weekly classes held at Pineapple Dance Studios in Covent Garden. The class is taught by Sai Lee, Salsa and UKA British Mambo Champion,......

Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, for the new series of Green Wing (Fri 9pm C4) is upon us! We don't envy whoever has to go round the Tube taking down all the teaser posters, however. There isn't much we can add to this, except it makes us happy. As does the thought of Adam Rickett being eaten by Lord Freddie Whatsisface - shame that the producers of Alive: Back To The Andes (Wed 8pm Five) chickened......

Well, TV Troll was 50% right, which is better than nowt, as salt-o'-t'earth Strictly Come Dancing winner Darren might say. We're still kicking ourselves for not having put money on Shayne to win as we predicted aaaages ago; we could have bought new cushions for the dungeon or something with the winnings. Congrats to the winners and the runners-up; both finals were superb, although it was a pain in the arse having to swap......

If you thought Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and the enforced spangles of Strictly Come Dancing were hard on their participants... consider those participants lucky and enjoying an extremely nice deal. At least they are not required to go through their "reality TV" motions in front of a live audience. Plucky international theatre company Zecora Ura's new show, in collaboration with Britain's longest running experimental theatre whizzes The People......

Say it ain't so! TV Troll's two favourite telly talent shows, X Factor (Sat 6.40pm/9.10pm ITV1) and Strictly Come Dancing (Sat 6.30pm/9.20pm BBC1) have their series finales this week. We'll be stuck in front of the glowing screen, frantically flicking between the two, trying to get as much performance footage and as little Brucie/Tess/Kate in as possible. Expect to see smoke rising from the remote. Predicting a winner for either show is going to......

As Cherie Blair and whoever the hell is in the final of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here (Mon 9pm ITV1 - we don't have a clue, as we really couldn't give a broken biro who wins the bloody thing) would probably tell you, it isn't easy being famous. Once you've been in the public eye, slipping back into obscurity must be dreadfully depressing. What do you say to interviewers? "My experience......

What are the Royal Family for? As an anachronistic reminder of our forelock-tugging, hierarchy-beholden, deferential past, they're about as welcome in modern Britain as the sticky can of Stella you find hiding behind the sofa six months after the party. The sticky can of Stella won't demand to be shuttled around the world in grand style with an endless supply of gin, either. As Londonist is always loathe to miss a chance to slag......

TV is going monster mad this week, in the run-up to Halloween. There are vampires (The Real Vampire Chronicles, Tue 10.55pm C4 - about Allan Menzies, the maladjusted Anne Rice fan who took his Vampire: The Masquerade LARPing way, way too seriously), demons (The Curse Of The Omen, Wed 11.05pm C4 - investigating the supposed jinx that has struck the cast and crew of the son-of-Satan-in-suburbia film), mummies (Egypt, Sun 9pm BBC1 - featuring,......

Yes, TV Troll's joint favourite programme (along with Lost, X Factor, The Sopranos, South Park, Big Brother, The Daily Show, Spoons, Britney And Kevin: Chaotic, Good Morning With Richard Not Judy, Sealab 2021 ...) is back! Strictly Come Dancing will be waltzing back onto our screens (© every journalist writing about the return of SCD, ever) from tomorrow (Sat 6.30pm/9.25pm BBC1). It's a good thing X Factor (Sat 6pm/8.35pm ITV1) is repeated on ITV2......

There's lots and lots and LOTS on TV for a square-eyed troll to watch this week. Tonight, for example, we go from the serious (The Battle For Islam, Mon, 9pm BBC2) to the 'not so serious but still thought provoking' (Tottenham Ayatollah Revisited, Mon 8pm C4), to the frivolous (Greatest TV Comedy Moments, Mon 9pm Five), to the frivolous-and-plain-insulting (Bring Your Husband To Heel, Mon 7pm BBC2). Oh yes, and we've heard very good......

As a website that is sometimes confused by those of little brain with an American product (yes we are part of the Gothamist network, no we are not an American website) we were amused yesterday to see that some of the worst home-grown telly ideas from the last couple of years have found new life on American television networks. The Guardian reported yesterday: Over 40 years since the Beatles touched down at JFK, America......