The Insider – London (un)covered Jan 3 – 9

The old reliable - the Rio in Dalston. Photo: Dansmith/ Flckr

The Insider is The First Pint’s expert on all things cool and London. Picking out the best of the week’s events and activities; one-off or regular, unique or mainstream. So we have a day-by-day selection of the best events to keep you occupied all week long. Enjoy.

Still recovering from the upheaval of the holidays, so this is a slightly rapid fire look at some of the options for the week ahead.

Monday 3 January

The British Film Institute are serving up a perfect antidote to all the festive fare and holiday excess with a month long season on cinematic depictions of death. Taking advantage of the last bank holiday to see the afternoon screening of Last Night , a film about personal responses to a looming apocalypse. Should be well suited to my back to work mood. Not sure if I’ll have the stamina for two doses of morbidness in one day, but I can certainly recommend Nanni Moretti’s Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room at 6.10pm.

Tuesday 4 January

Free events are always welcome in January, and I’ve been looking for a reason to check out the The Miller near London bridge, so this night promoted by Miles of Smiles and headlined by Helm is a welcome post Christmas alternative ‘Seasonal Party’.

Wednesday 5 January

I was looking for some more music for tonight, but that scene still seems to be comparatively dormant and nothing particularly inspired me. Rather than a leap of faith into some random gig line, I’m  going for the more conservative and sedate choice of an afternoon at the Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the Norman Rockwell exhibition. Incidentally the gallery marks its bicentenary this year, and if you are in need of more fireworks the celebrations kick off this Sunday from 12pm.

Thursday 6 January

Cinema catch up time tonight with recent Oscar winner from Argentina, The Secrets in Their Eyes (6.15pm), followed in a double bill by last year’s Palme d’Or winner Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (8.45pm). £8.50 for the pair at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith

Friday 7 January

One reason why I might be ill suited to this role is my inability to get round to seeing exhibitions until they are on the brink of closure, so with only two weeks to go it’s time to check out the Eadweard Muybridge show at Tate Britain(£10/8.50, until 16 January). Today it combines with the first Tate Late of the year – Off the Wall – an eclectic mix of comedy, performance and music. Includes a reworking of the Michael Jackson album Off the Wall by invited ‘wordsmiths’, could be interesting or could be dreadful but as it is all free there is no harm in investigating.

Saturday 8 January

So today you can go see some Norwegians play music on instruments made of ice in a specially constructed igloo at Somerset House. I’ll be honest, it sounds intriguing but I’m not sure yet if the novelty value will convince me to stump up the £7.50/5.00 for a thirty minute performance. In between concerts you can go look at the The Idea of the North installation in the igloo for free which might be as adventurous as I get. Exhibition runs from Friday to Sunday.

Sunday 9 January

When I first arrived in London, Sundays were almost always film days: there were bargains to be had and some interesting programming. The Rio in Dalston continues to provide this kind of service, and while if you follow all my advice this would be your fifth and sixth films of the week, I can’t leave out the first weekend of their short run of ‘Peculiarly British’ double bills(£9/7). Kicks off with staple of early Channel 4 schedules, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, directed by Alan Clarke and scripted by Andrea Dunbar, who is the subject of the second film, The Arbor, an award winning documentary from last year’s London Film Festival.