The Big Smoke Variety Show

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we throw open the doors to Variety Week and descend into the wonderfully strange — from apprentice magicians wrestling with the laws of reality to historic London loos wrestling with the laws of plumbing.

First, fan-favourite trainee magicians The Strange Brothers return from the Xander Eldrick Institute of Illusion, Divination and, of course, Dance. This time, Salazar Strange...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we log on and step into the complex world of China’s internet, a digital landscape shaped by innovation, censorship, and the ever-shifting boundaries of freedom and control.

Kevin is joined by journalist and author Yi-Ling Liu to discuss her new book, The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet. Yi-Ling’s work has appeared in The New Yo...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we wander away from the ordinary and into a world of folklore, hidden histories, and strange things waiting to be found — from shapeshifting spirits in the north of England to forgotten objects emerging from the River Thames.

First, in a brand new segment, Stories You Haven’t Heard, Kevin takes us to Northumberland for the tale of the Hedley Kow — a mischievous bogg...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we strike a match and step into the strange, smoky, and surprisingly human world of alchemy — where fire is sacred, emperors chase immortality, and one man’s glowing urine helps shape the story of modern chemistry. 

Kevin is joined by award-winning journalist, adventurer, and author Dr Kit Chapman to discuss his new book The Age of Alchemy: How Early Innovators Shap...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we take a rather unexpected journey through the city — from flushing away the everyday to restoring what we might otherwise dump. This episode explores how even the most overlooked spaces and objects can tell powerful stories about how we live.

First, our new segment, Let’s Go to the Loo! Kevin is joined by Rachel Cole-Wilkin, creator of London Loo Tours, for a guided exp...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we press start on the world of video games. From ancient history to interactive storytelling, we explore not just what games are, but what they might become — and what they can reveal about how we understand the world around us.

Kevin is joined by Dr Richard Cole, Senior Lecturer in Digital Futures in the Department of Classics & Ancient History at the University of Bristol...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we turn our attention to the objects that surround us — the everyday things we carry, discard, and barely notice — and ask what they might reveal about who we are and the times we’re living through. From museum collections to sensory experiences and a little magical mischief, this episode explores the curious relationship between the material world and the mind.

Kev...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we follow the rich and robust story of coffee in London, from smoky 17th-century coffeehouses to the modern-day communities forming around a simple cup.

Kevin is joined by historian Dr Matthew Green and Redemption Roasters’ In-custody Training Manager Thomas Clare to explore the past and present of London’s coffee culture. From the first coffee house in St Michael’...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we lean into that strange, in-between season — when winter lingers, spring teases, and the city begins to stir once more. From the quiet reflection of Covent Garden’s Actors’ Church to the tidal rhythms of the Thames, we explore how London — and perhaps all of us — finds its way from darkness into light.

Kevin is joined by Reverend Simon Grigg, rector of...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week we stroll the hard streets of South London, tracing the world that shaped one of the greatest entertainers of all time, and the music halls that lit up Victorian London. Along the way we celebrate the city’s living performers too, from Underground buskers to a little magical mischief on our own audio stage. 

Kevin is joined by curator and author Dr Jacqueline Riding to exp...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we step into the ‘undiscovered country’ — and explore the one subject we so often avoid: death. But rather than dwelling in darkness, this episode asks a more vital question: what can mortality teach us about how to live?

Kevin is joined by social historian and bereavement counsellor Dr Molly Conisbee, author of No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Morta...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

Tonight, we look up. But also down, and within! This episode is all about the stars — not just what they are, but what they’ve meant to us across time. From ancient myths and shared human stories to cutting-edge space science, Starspotting explores how looking skyward can reconnect us to something far greater than ourselves.

We begin our mission with planetary scientist, space educ...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

Tonight, we explore music, movement, and a little misfiring magic — three very different ways humans try to make sense of the world.

We begin with music, and a deceptively simple question: what, actually, is it? Kevin is joined by director, writer and composer Bill Barclay to discuss What Music Is, a project that draws together music, neuroscience and astrophysics. From the ancient idea ...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show Christmas Special, recorded live beneath the West End at The Phoenix Arts Club.

Tonight, we gather for an old-fashioned festive tradition: ghost stories at Christmas, games played in good company, and the sense of connection that comes from gathering together at the darkest time of the year.

We begin with Charles Dickens, and a lesser-known seasonal tale from The Pickwick Papers: The Story of ...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we slip into the strange, funny and quietly revealing world of anthropomorphism — the very human habit of seeing minds, motives and meaning everywhere we look.

First, Kevin pulls up a chair with scientist and bestselling author Justin Gregg, whose book Humanish explores why we dress up our dogs, get too attached to inanimate objects, and sometimes find ourselves arguing with C...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

We’re slipping a little audio chocolate into your advent calendar: the true origin of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, plus a reading of the original 1939 story that made him a star. A festive treat from The Big Smoke family to start the holiday season.

This piece was created by our host Kevin Bennett and is starring actors Adam Cunis and Hollie Hales. It warmed the hearts of the audience...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we raise a glass to Britain’s most beloved institution — the pub — and explore how these living rooms of London connect history, community and creativity in ways as rich as any museum or gallery.

First, our guests pull up a stool: its pub historian Charo Havermans and artist Lydia Wood. Together they explore how pubs began in the hands of women, why they became vit...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we explore philosophy, freedom, and the peculiar ways we find meaning — from the quiet depths of the soil to the bustling banks of the River Thames.

First, Kevin is joined by Professor Edward Harcourt, Academic Director of The Royal Institute of Philosophy, celebrating its centenary year. Together they ask: what is philosophy, really? How can it help us think, question, and li...

Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we wander through London’s haunted past, uncover the humanity behind history’s ghost stories, and rediscover how kindness, comedy, and curiosity connect us all. From spectral legends to small acts of light in the dark, this episode celebrates the strange and the sincere in equal measure.

First, Kevin is joined by historian and author Dr Maddy Pelling — host of Afte...