Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2025

ACT ONE

Alan Carr

Go and pick your nose or your arse

A viewer to Shaw Taylor

Nish Kumar

Voila

Gustave Flaubert to the Gouncourt brothers

Louise Brealey

Seeking wisdom

Cheryl Strayed to a  reader

Max Porter

Please take comfort from this

John le Carré to his family

Samantha Streit

Do you mind my writing to you almost every day?

Joan to Len

Joe Alwyn

Please take this epistle as notice to quit

William Meadmore to George Melly

Celia Imrie

The High Road

B. Perry to Metro

Michael Palin

It is rather a horrid story

Lewis Carroll to Mary M

Sophie Hunter

I want to thank you 

Kylie to Jamie

Celia Imrie, Alan Carr, Nish Kumar, Louise Brealey and Michael Palin

You’ll be blown away

Various to the Guardian

Simon Amstel

Thanks mum

Simon Amstell to Tina Amstell

Sara Cox

Dear Sir

Sarah-Louise Jordan to an admirer

Benedict Cumberbatch

Dear London

Kerrin-Lee Nell to London

ACT TWO

Michael Palin

Oh Christ, the cook is dead

Spike Milligan to a fan

Benedict Cumberbatch

Dear Cretins
Robert Stokes to NTL

Max Porter

You have my permission to publish this one

PG Wodehouse to Don Iddon

Celia Imrie

The anguish must be borne

George Eliot to Cara Bray

Benedict Cumberbatch & Louise Brealey

Oh God, give him back to me

Eric Appleby and Phyllis Kelly

Alan Carr

O Peter you are AWFUL

Kenneth Williams to John

Sophie Hunter

I won’t be around to see you grow up

Sara Chivers to her sons

Joe Alwyn

We are unintelligible 

Jack London to Anna Strunsky

Louise Brealey

An animal has run into my ear!

Jane Welsh to Carlyle Agnes

Nish Kumar

We have got to respect our fellow beings

W. E. B. Du Bois to the Editor of The Tribune

MUSIC

Myles Smith

My First Heartbreak

Hohnen Ford

Skylight 

Beth Orton

Friday Night

Jalen Ngonda

Come Around And Love Me

With thanks to the rightsholders:

Simon Amstell to Tina Amstell, © Simon Amstell; Eric Appleby to Phyllis Kelly, Eric Appleby and Phyllis Kelly, ‘Oh God, give him back to me’, 1916. © the Estate of Jean Kelly; Sara Chivers to her sons, © the Estate of Sara Chivers; Fiona Collins to The Guardian, © Fiona Collins; W. E. B. Du Bois to the Editor of The Tribune, © the Estate of W. E. B. Du Bois; Christine Hawkes to The Guardian, © Christine Hawkes; Joan to Len, © Samantha Streit; Sarah-Louise Jordan to an admirer, © Sarah-Louise Jordan; John le Carré to his family, © John le Carré Ltd; Spike Milligan to Stephen Gard, © Spike Milligan Productions; Kerrin-Lee Nell to London, © Kerrin-Lee Nell; Steen I. Petersen to The Guardian, © Steen I. Petersen; Cheryl Strayed to a reader, © Cheryl Strayed; Kenneth Williams to John, © the Estate of Kenneth Williams, by permission of United Agents; PG Wodehouse to Don Iddon, Copyright © The Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate; Philip Wood to The Guardian, © Philip Wood.