The Proms’ Ring has reached episode three: Siegfried, the one where a fearless beefcake falls in love with his aunt. After the incestuous passions of Die Walküre it doesn’t seem so risqué. Its five-hour span moves from darkest foreboding to love music intense almost to the point of insanity, which Justin Way’s semi-staging matched by flooding the whole auditorium with pinky-gold light.

The classical double-bass repertoire is so meagre that even virtuosi like the late Stefano Scodanibbio were forced to create their own material or transcribe works written for other instruments. Scodanibbio's former colleague Daniele Roccato is comparatively spoilt for choice here by Sofia Gubaidulina's pioneering piano duets of the Sixties and Seventies, “Sonata” and “Pantomime”.

'Andy Murray is one of the top three people I don't want to play but maybe we can...' says world No 1

The Archers' outgoing editor Vanessa Whitburn has denied that the drama has been competing with soaps such as EastEnders for sensational storylines.

...and it could prove that he really didn’t commit the greatest crime in royal history

Hans was Heiri is built around a rotating house. The set looks like a dolls’ house, a square of four rooms with simple furniture. Then it starts to spin. The performers stay upright as the floor tilts under them, until gravity sends them tumbling from room to room.

Amit Drori’s Savanna looks like a mechanical Eden. Enchanting robot creatures nose the air and investigate the stage: a trundling tortoise, a springbok made of springs. There are “ohhhs” of wonder and delight as each new animal emerges.

The Old King shows a man reduced to wordlessness, fighting to communicate or connect with an audience. Dancer Romeu Runa flails about, putting himself through gruelling tasks.

Take one room, spin it through 90 degrees and let a gravity-defying Frenchman loose in it. Then prepare to be amazed

Harlequin is traditionally an agile comic character, fast and acrobatic. Russian theatre troupe Derevo have no shortage of physical skill, but it’s stretched out to painful slowness.

Ockham’s Razor’s aerial performance on the opening night of London International Mime Festival sets out to explore the idea of being lost and visual tales about trust and identity are the happy results.

If it's running a marathon or growing a tash, I admire those who raise money money for charity

Rafael Benitez is bracing himself for a hot reception at Everton despite refusing to repeat his small-club jibe ahead of his first match on Merseyside as Chelsea manager.

Around 9,000 servicemen and women are deployed in Helmand Province an