More very special guests have been added to the line-up of Robin Ince and Chris Hadfield’s Space Shambles, the irresistible collision of comedy, science and music which lands at the Royal Albert Hall next month.

Leading space scientist Prof Monica Grady, acclaimed stand-up Stewart Lee and folk singer-songwriter Grace Petrie have been confirmed as the latest acts for the show, a headline event at the venue’s inaugural Festival of Science: Space.

Special guests already announced include Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili and science-comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd, with many more kept a closely-guarded secret until the night.

Hadfield said: “Science is just organised curiosity. Life and science and art and comedy and music should be entertaining. They push us to the limit of our ability to predict or understand what’s going to happen. Being able to get up on a stage, whether that’s on television or an historic platform like the Royal Albert Hall, to me, that’s just wonderful.”

Professor Monica Grady is a leading British space scientist, best-known for her work on meteorites, and has appeared on the BBC’s Sky at Night, Horizon and Stargazing Live. She has received numerous accolades and fellowships for her work – including having an asteroid named after her (Asteroid (4731): Monicagrady) – and in 2003 delivered the Royal Institute’s prestigious Christmas Lectures.

Stewart Lee, best-known for his award-winning stand-up, is regularly cited as one of the world’s leading comics. His cult BBC2 show, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, based around new stand-up routines, won a BAFTA in 2012.

Grace Petrie is a folk singer, songwriter, and activist. She has played around the world with the likes of Emmy the Great and Billy Bragg, and is a regular performer at the UK’s biggest festivals – including Glastonbury and Latitude – as well as on Radio 4’s The Now Show. MOJO Magazine selected her most recent album as one of the Top 10 of 2017.

Lucy Noble, Artistic Director at the Royal Albert Hall, said: “We’re very excited to announce more top-class performers for this amazing one-off event. Space Shambles is a hilarious, uproarious and fascinating mixture of science, comedy and music, and these very special guests represent some of the most important – and entertaining – voices from those worlds. We can’t wait to welcome the show to the Hall for the first time.”

The Festival of Science: Space comprises more than 20 events across four spaces, including Films in Concert presentations of Star Trek, Star Trek Beyond and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the 5,200-seater auditorium, with music performed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, who also star in Space Spectacular, a major classical concert featuring music by Holst, Strauss and John Williams.

Other events in the season are The Big Space Day – a free family fun day taking over the entire building – classical concert for kids, My Great Orchestral Adventure, a live re-score of the cult 1983 film, The Moomins and the Comet – with original co-composer (and post-punk pioneer) Graeme Miller performing the soundtrack live – and a performance from cult sexagenarian space rockers, BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

For full listings, or to buy tickets, go to www.royalalberthall.com

 

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