Sky Arts have announced a line-up of musicals to be broadcast over the Christmas period. 

The freeview channel, set up in September in response to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting access to theatres, gives a chance for people stuck at home to see various art content, including theatre. For Christmas this year, they have provided the public with four iconic musicals. 

The schedule for this Christmas looks like this:

The Phantom of the Opera

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is set to air on Christmas Eve at 9 pm. The well-known story follows a young soprano caught in an unconventional relationship with a mysterious masked figure who gives her singing lessons. The version airing will be the Royal Albert Hall production, starring Sierra Boggess as Christine, and Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom. 

With swelling orchestrations and grandiose spectacle, this show will make you want to dust off your best violin cases and play the score. 

Les Miserables

The nation’s favourite musical, Les Miserables, is set to air on Boxing Day at 6.05 pm. The version that will be airing is the 25th-anniversary concert production. 

This classic musical based on Victor Hugo’s book found its home in the West End – where it has stayed longer than any other musical. If it weren’t for the pandemic this year, it would be playing its thirty-second year in the prestigious West End. 

With iconic songs like ‘Bring Him Home’ and ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ you’ll be ready to join the barricade on Boxing Day, hearing the people sing. 

Miss Saigon

From the same team that brought us Les Miserables, Miss Saigon tells the tragic tale of a woman caught in the middle of the Vietnam War. Airing just after Les Miserables at 9 pm on Boxing Day; it will be a strong day for theatre. 

Though the iconic helicopter scene may be less impressive on a small screen than in the elegant theatre, having easy access to ‘The Movie in my Mind’ is sure to blow you away (and depress you) the day after Christmas. 

Billy Elliot the Musical

This loveable family favourite is set to air on Sky Arts at 9 pm, Wednesday 30th December.  A great way to see out a difficult year, Billy Elliot has plenty of upbeat, fun songs composed by the legendary Elton John, paired with gut-wrenching heartbreak as the mining crisis and grief over lost parents are discussed. 

In the end, Billy Elliot is the story of a community coming together, which feels fitting to see out this year of COVID. 

Theatre at Christmas

Sky Arts are also going to be showing two National Theatre shows – Jane Eyre and Twelfth Night. 

A bit of theatre at Christmas is what we all need – reminders of the strength of spirit from Miss Saigon, close-knit communities in Billy Elliot and doing your bit to help the wider society from Les Miserables. Oh, and that important Christmas message from The Phantom of the Opera – beware falling chandeliers.

For students, reading books is one of the best things to do in their free time if they want to improve their vocabulary, learn more about the world, or just be inspired to become writers themselves. But while reading books is one thing, but writing a review on a book you’ve read is quite another, with its own set of benefits and requirements. 

If you want to write book reviews, you need to know how to write a book review in the first place. Sure, you could just write all of your thoughts without structuring them, but chances are that you won’t get many readers that way. A very important thing to also consider while writing a good book review is to check your work for plagiarism. Luckily, these days it is very easy to use a plagiarism checker or plagarism scanner for free. Doing this will help you ensure that your book review doesn’t end up being rejected by the website you’re submitting it to. This also means that your work will be unique and beneficial for your readers. 

Before we start talking about how to review a novel or some other written content, we should talk about why it is important for students to do this. There are many benefits to writing such content but the main one for students is that they can improve their analytical and writing skills through this process, just like they would when writing a well-researched essay for their class. When students know how to write a book review, they can focus more on how to share their own opinions with people online. This leads to them being better at communicating their ideas with the world and getting more people interested in what they have to say. 

Writing a Good Book Review in 4 Steps

1.    Summarize the book

The first thing to do when reviewing something is to summarize it very briefly. This helps you engage your readers from the get-go and they can decide whether they’re even interested in the story or not. In this step, an important thing is not to give away any plot details that aren’t mentioned in the book’s own summary. If, however, you decide that the readers should know something about the storyline, then tell them that there is a spoiler coming up.

2.    Mention what you liked

If you have checked out book review ideas online, then you may have noticed that the main portion of each is what the reviewer liked or disliked about the story or content. Before starting to talk about all that you didn’t like, talk about what you did like. Tell your readers who your favorite character was and why, talk about whether the characters felt believable or if the story just felt unrelatable, and give your opinion on whether the story was funny or had heartfelt moments, etc. 

While doing this, try to be as unbiased as you can be. Of course, a lot of these things are very subjective, so use words like ‘in my opinion’ or ‘I felt like’ when describing some of these aspects of the content. 

3.    Talk about what you didn’t like

When you have written about the things you liked about the content, you can mention the things you felt could be better. Maybe you got frustrated with the ending or the way a certain character developed. Maybe you felt like the passages were too long and there weren’t enough breaks in the text. Maybe it was trying too hard to be comedic when the storyline was serious. Whatever your thoughts are, discuss them in this portion of your review. 

4.    Write a conclusion

Students already know the importance of writing a cohesive conclusion of their work, and a book review is no different. At the end of your writeup, it is important to give a final conclusive statement or a summary of your feelings about the work. This portion of your text will tell the readers clearly what you thought about the writing and whether you recommend it or not. 

Conclusion

If you’ve been wondering how to review a book, then these are four very simple steps that you can take in order to do so. Be honest, be clear, and try to write in a way that connects you to your readers. When you do all of that and write a well-structured review, more people are likely to take your opinions seriously and decide whether to read something or not. And be sure to always check your work for plagiarism by using an online tool or a dedicated plagiarism checker software before publishing it online or submitting it to a website!