PLACES TO VISIT: LONDON – Big Heads, Benedict Cumberbatch and Belly Laughs

Have you ever thought about LONDON as a campervan adventure? Yesterday Glyn and I had a brilliant adventure in London down by the River Thames. We had been given tickets to watch the TV show ‘QI’ being recorded live at the ITV studios on the South Bank so we made a day of it and had a seriously good outing…

We hopped on the Tube (metro for non-Brits) and decided to get off at Embankment station so that we could have a stroll along the riverbank which I love in London. You get to see the amazing skyline of fascinating buildings, like St Paul’s Cathedral, and new buildings like the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ (a commercial building known as 20 Fenchurch Street which has a lovely garden that you can visit on the top Check out the Walkie-Talkie here).

While we were walking along the river bank we saw Benedict Cumberbatch filming but when I asked the security guys what the film was they said they couldn’t tell me. Oh well, we’ll just have to look out for it.

Benedict Cumberbatch

We decided to have lunch at Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank near the National Theatre, a little precinct of artists’ shops and cute cafes. For those of you who are not familiar with London, the South Bank is the arty part of London while the North Bank is all about power and commerce.

Gabriels Wharf

We had lunch at a cafe called Studio 6 and we decided to ‘Tapas-it-up’ by sharing three small dishes: chicken satay, calamari and a deep-fried cheese drizzled with lavender honey. The lavender honey was amazing and I am definitely going to make some at home using the lavender in my garden.

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When we got to the studios they were advertising one of their new programs for April called ‘Bigheads’ which is a game show where contestents wear big, rubber heads of famous people while they compete (don’t ask me). Check out the Big Heads TV Program

Big Heads all

We eventually got in to the studios after some serious queuing and spent a couple of happy hours watching the QI team record an episode of QI which I gather will be shown in the autumn. This episode was about things that smell like a perfume called Apocalypse that mixes weird smells like dead bodies and brimstone. It was great to just laugh for a couple of hours and it makes you realise how clever these comedians are.

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The comedienne Sandi Toksvig was presenting and of course Alan Davies was there. At one point the whole audience had to wear Alan Davies masks and we decided to keep ours…

Alan Davies masks

Weird I know!

Anyway, if you are interested in being the audience for a TV show here is the website (tickets are free):

Applause Store; be part of the audience for a TV show

So don’t rule out a day in London if you are campervanning or camping as it is possible to camp near enough that you could take the train in and have a wander round for the day and we really recommend spending some time down by the river.

Check out campsites near London

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