City Centre

A Planet Earth II screening with a live orchestra is coming to Manchester

The screening will show the most iconic clips from David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II series, accompanied by a live orchestra 


Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 15th March 2022

A screening of the BBC’s breathtaking Planet Earth II series is coming to Manchester AO Arena on 25 March, accompanied by live music performed by an 80 piece philharmonic orchestra.

Viewers will be treated to spectacular scenes from the Bafta and Emmy-award winning series, alongside a live soundtrack scored by Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Jasha Klebe.

As part of the event, a philharmonic orchestra will appear on stage alongside science and natural history TV presenter Liz Bonnin. 

There are may be as few as 3500 snow leopards left in the wild. They are famously illusive and difficult to film and have become increasingly threatened by climate change and human disturbance.

Liz will share behind-the-scenes insights from Mike Gunton, the BBC television series’ executive producer, whilst magnificent scenes of natural life are projected onto a giant, state-of-the-art screen for all to see. 

The award-winning series, narrated by national treasure David Attenborough, takes viewers from the frozen tundra in the north to the dry forests of the equator – with Attenborough giving his own unique and compelling perspective on the planet throughout. 

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Now, fans can experience it live in Manchester at the AO Arena as part of this special live tour – this time with narration from Liz Bonnin. 

Showing the wonders of the natural world in breathtaking detail, its 2006 predecessor Planet Earth I was one of the very first nature documentaries to be filmed in.

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Over a decade later, Planet Earth II zoomed in even more on wild and inaccessible landscapes, elusive animal behaviours and the city-dwelling habits of those creatures that have adapted to urban life – making history as the first-ever BBC documentary to be filmed in ultra-high definition. 

Sloths are adept swimmers, as this pygmy three-toed sloth demonstrates. Found only on the tiny island of Escudo de Veraguas, Panama, the pygmy sloth is the smallest of all sloth species and is considered endangered.

Speaking on the upcoming show, wildlife expert Liz Bonnin said: “I’m delighted to be finally on the road with this as it’s been a long time coming. We’ve had to postpone it three times now. 

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“I’ve been just so excited to do it from the moment I was asked, through the initial rehearsals and shaping the script, it’s been really special for me. 


“Especially since the pandemic, to have such a multi-sensory experience that really celebrates not just nature, but the arts and the best aspects of humanity, where we can recognise the beauty of the planet around is something I’m really delighted and grateful to be involved with.”

This alpha male Rhesus macaque rules this part of town. Here in Jaipur, India, he not only takes the food he wants from the street markets but he, and his troop, have also taken over a house and been squatting it for the last 5 years!

Read more: Popular bargain store Flying Tiger is finally opening in Manchester

Conductor Matthew Freeman added: “Seeing the footage in these huge arenas on an enormous LED screen, with all that colour and those underwater worlds so closely photographed, accompanied by a 64-piece orchestra and a 16-voice choir through a huge, state-of-the-art PA system, it really is a phenomenal and powerful experience. 


“We have extraordinary visuals, heightened with music that takes the viewer to another level. It’s really quite emotional.”

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To find out more and book tickets, visit the website here.

Feature image – Supplied

City Centre

The Japanese takeaway with a Michelin-trained chef serving a secret omakase menu out back

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Good sushi is a hard thing to find in Manchester nowadays. To be honest, ever since the demise of Umezushi, it has felt out of reach.

Average sushi, however, is suddenly available in abundance thanks to an explosive proliferation of trendy, if soulless, Pan Asian restaurants.

You know the sort. The spots with the claggy, dried-out rice on ostentatious platters, whose chefs stuff cream cheese into the middle of their maki, or disguise its lack of freshness with cascading waterfalls of dry ice.

These spots, with their fake flower walls and neon signs that scream “Pick me!” seem, depressingly, to be taking over. So it’s with relish I can reassure you at least one place in Manchester city centre is doing its bit to remind us what real sushi should actually taste like.

Image: The Manc Group
Image: The Manc Group

Even better, it’s entirely missing the gaudy flamboyance of Manchester’s glitzy Pan Asian sushi scene – so if, like me, you’re not into superficial sushi, you should feel right at home here.

I’m talking about One Sushi, formerly known as Ikkan – a tiny Japanese takeaway shop on Oxford Road filled with little more than a few wooden counters and a cash desk topped with metallic maneki-neko, or beckoning cat.

Opened last year by the team behind China Buffet, a popular Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, its takeaway cabinets are stuffed with California and red dragon rolls, deep-fried ebi, and various tempting combo platters.

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These lovingly packaged takeaway morsels are already considered by sushi fiends in the know to be amongst best in the city, but – whilst they are really good – they are nothing compared to what is coming off the kitchen’s near-invisible pass.

Hidden at the back by a blue flag featuring the One Sushi logo and rolling waves that resemble Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai’s famous Great Wave off Kanagawa print, it’s here that you will reconsider whether you’ve ever really had a good piece of sushi before in your life.

Prepare to be blown away.

The no-frills setup for the omakase, which literally translates as ‘I leave it up to you’. / Image: The Manc Eats
A piece of Otoro tuna nigiri. / Image: The Manc Eats

We’re talking otoro belly tuna, A5 seared wagyu steak (that’s the highest grade you can get), sweet Japanese scallops and prawns, all prepared right in front of you by master sushi chef Eddie who trained at two Michelin star Hong Kong restaurant Zuicho.

All the fish here is super fresh, and the entire style of the menu is down to chef Eddie – meaning he chooses for you, preparing the best of the best from that day.

Read more: Inside the underground Manchester noodle bar serving Chinatown’s spiciest scrans

Priced at £58 per person, Eddie can accommodate up to four people at once for this incredible omakase sushi experience. There’s really nowhere like it in Manchester for this price, in fact the only other place where you can go to experience something like this will set you back at least £200.

For sushi lovers, this is a dream come true.

Featured image – The Manc Group

City Centre

There’s a bottomless Rocky Horror singalong happening in Manchester this Halloween

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

We all know Halloween is right around the corner, and there’s a little cinema in our city that’s celebrating the spooky season in style.

STAB Film Season is back and “bigger than ever” this year.

The much-loved frightening film event is taking over Manchester’s home of cult cinema, video games, and “cool nerdy events”, Cultplex – which is tucked away within the award-winning venue GRUB in Cheetham Hill – throughout October, and is first kicking things off by showing a full day of Wes Craven’s finest slasher satire, Scream, one after the other right up until midnight.

But one of the other stand-out showings on the packed lineup is a singalong screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Oh, and did we forget to mention there’ll be bottomless drinks? Now we’re talking.

The Bottomless Rocky Horror Show is taking over GRUB and Cultplex this Halloween / Credit: GRUB

Taking place on the weekend before Halloween, with not one, not two, but three screenings of the classic 70s flick across both Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October, GRUB says this is your chance to dress the part, sing the night away in style, and be “chilled, thrilled, and fulfilled”.

Kicking-off in GRUB’s downstairs bar first, anyone who grabs tickets for one of the three screenings will be treated to bottomless fizz, mimosas, beer/cider, or non-alcoholic equivalents and soft drinks, for 90 minutes before the screening begins, all before you head on over to Cultplex and carry on sipping for another 100 minutes while the film’s on.

The Bottomless Rocky Horror Show is just one of the many events on GRUB’s Halloween Week lineup this year.

GRUB’s Halloween Week has so many activities for the whole family to get involved in / Credit: GRUB

If a singalong cinema isn’t quite your bag, then there’s so many other activities for the whole family to get involved in – with everything from pumpkin carving competitions and SFX makeup masterclasses, to Halloween life drawing sessions, Spooky Sip and Paint, a Weird History Walking Tour, a Freaky Family Fun Day, and so much more on the lineup just announced this week.

Plus, as this is all happening down at what is one of the UK’s biggest street food and social hubs, you can also expect to tuck into a wide range of street food and Halloween-themed drinks specials from local independent traders to tuck into.

There’ll also be lots of sweets and candy to satisfy your sugar cravings too.

Read more:

Tickets to the Bottomless Rocky Horror Show screenings at GRUB on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October will set you back £25 each, and are now on sale.

Find out more about what’s happening for GRUB’s Halloween Week here.

Featured Image – 20th Century Fox

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