The Time Out London blog team

French and Saunders officially bowed out in 2009 with a farewell tour that followed the end of their eponymous show in 2007.  Nonetheless, if Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders look relatively unlikely to come back as a sketch comedy act, retirement only goes so far, and they’re still comedy megastars who are still friends, and have sporadically teamed up on the odd charity sketch, compilation show and a pandemic-era podcast. Among their various projects, they’ve both starred in the West End’s megabudget London Palladium pantomime, sharing a stage with their alternative comedy peer Julian Clary. However, they’ve never starred in it together, but in what amounts to a serious comedy power move, they’ll play the Ugly Sisters in this year’s Cinderella. It’ll be their first stage performances together in 17 years. This is naturally very exciting, and while some might say starring in a pantomime is a bit of an anticlimactic way to get the band back together for what might be the very last time, it’s worth saying that aside from being the biggest panto in the country, the Palladium’s annual shindig is notorious for letting its stars simply do their own thing and you can certainly expect a very French and Saunders take on the roles. Expect them to have a lot of fun with being officially deemed Ugly (a term that has drifted out of fashion in panto of late) and to generally mount the first serious challenge to Clary’s status as Main Source of Attention since the panto’s inception...

Jupiter Burger – the Hackney streetfood stall that serves up one of London’s best burgers – is coming to Tottenham this Easter.  The pop-up will take place at Pasero on West Green Road, from April 1-4 and April 8-11, every evening from 5pm-9.15pm. All-day restaurant Pasero has previously hosted kitchen residencies from the likes of Marie Mitchell, Ling Ling’s (who can now be found at Godet in Islington) and Anna Sogaard, who was previously head chef at Bistro Freddie in Shoreditch.  Jupiter Burger is from the same team as sandwich shop Dom’s Subs, who also run the excellent Hackney bar Rasputin’s. Dom’s Subs recently announced the closure of their sandwich shop in the City of London, but is now serving its subs every day from noon (except Mondays) at Rasputin’s.  The original Jupiter Burger is in Netil Market by London Fields – which is one of the best street food markets in London - and pays homage to the US’s beloved In-N-Out Burger. It features lightly smashed Hill and Szrok beef patties sandwiched between specially imported Martin’s potato rolls, with special Jupiter sauce, pickles, onion, tomato and lettuce. There is a veggie option, too.  Pasero is at 120a West Green Road, Tottenham, N15 5AA. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. 

Although we’ve long lived in an age where pretty much anything can and will be turned into a musical, it is nonetheless mildly surprising to hear that Irvine Welsh’s classic ‘90s novel Trainspotting is being turned into a musical. Lest we forget, the extremely adults-only book follows the adventures of a gang of Scottish misfits on the fringes of society and features copious amounts of heroin use, gratuitous violence, underage sex and extremely dense Scottish accents.  It was, of course, famously adapted into a hit 1996 film that made a star of Ewan McGregor and director Danny Boyle, and did make copious use of music, albeit in a ‘soundtrack’ rather than ‘the cast is singing’ way. A cult stage version has also enjoyed long term albeit fringey success, often at the Edinburgh Fringe. A big (well, medium) budget musical, though? It’s clearly going to be a challenge, although Trainspotting the Musical is as legit as it comes, being written by Welsh himself, in a version that will expand on the original story of Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie et al via a couple of new characters and a bit of a material from his 2012 prequel Skagboys.  Not only that, but he’s written (some of) the songs, in collaboration with Steve McGuinness, with whom he recently teamed up to make an accompanying album to his 2025 novel Men in Love. Exactly how handy they are with a showtune is TBC. But we’re promised the song list will be further pepped up by covers of songs from the soundtrack: negotiations are...