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On the agenda: Little Black Gallery; Notting Hill Carnival; Comme des Garçons; Ricky Gervais; A is for Armageddon

Sunday 30 August 2009 00:00 BST
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Art

London's Little Black Gallery might be the new kid on the gallerist block after opening late last year, but its latest exhibition, entitled "I Want It All", should impress fans of big-name portrait photography. From Tuesday, works from such big names as Bert Stern (Marilyn Monroe), Barry Lategan (Twiggy) and Chris Levine (the Queen, right) will be on display, showing a mixture of the iconic and previously unseen imagery of films stars, rock legends and royalty, many of them one-off prints. www.the littleblackgallery.com Adam Jacques

Food & Drink

Notting Hill will be awash with Caribbean-themed street food over the next two days during Carnival but we suggest you head straight for the stall run by Jamaican chef Levi Roots (of Dragon's Den and Reggae Reggae Sauce fame) on Powis Square, to sample some of his mouth-watering jerk chicken. If you can't make the trip, the rising star's new book (Caribbean Food Made Easy, £17.99, Mitchell Beazley) is out now, and he has a new TV series airing on Mondays (BBC2 at 8.30pm). www.reggae-reggae.co.uk AJ

Fashion

There were some who doubted they could ever smell like gold or "a violet that hits a meteorite", but they were silenced when Comme des Garçons launched two perfumes that recreated just those fragrances. The brand's latest collaboration is with bohemian couture "inspiratrice" Daphne Guinness, whose idiosyncratic new scent is laced with incense, tuberose and amber. "Scent and music are very visceral experiences for me," says Guinness. "Bordering on the sacred, in fact." Fitting then that Daphne should be stocked in London's most directional high church of style, Dover Street Market. Available from Friday, doverstreetmarket.com Harriet Walker

Comedy

If you missed out on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, fear not: there's yucks aplenty to be had over the coming two months. Hollywoodite Alan Cumming returns to the British stage for the first time in 15 years with his one-man musical show at the Vaudeville (0844 579 1975, www.nimax theatres.com) from Tuesday, while the brilliantly surreal Ross Noble will be rambling his way around the Apollo (0844 412 4658, www.nimax theatres.com) from 14 September. Rob Brydon is sure to be as personable as ever on his extended UK tour (from 16 September, 0844 875 8758), and the devilish Aussie Tim Minchin will be bringing his musical skills to bear across the country for two months from this week ( www.tim minchin.com). Robert Epstein

Television

Ricky Gervais has travelled a long way since his painful mockumentary The Office; he's knocked out a second hit TV show, Extras, and now he's conquering Hollywood with a gaggle of film roles and a number of directorial projects (The Invention of Lying, in which he also stars, is out in early October). But arguably he has yet to match the genius of his TV-series debut, which is why we're clearing our schedules this evening to watch A Night at the Office, a back-to-back broadcast of the entire first season, interspersed with cast observations and previously unseen material. Tonight, BBC2, 9.35pm. AJ

Literature

An early contender for the perfect anti-Christmas present comes in the form of A is for Armageddon. This cheery tome catalogues in wittily illustrated and scarily accurate detail the different ways in which we're all going to die – everything from pandemic to food-chain collapse to asteroid attack. Buy now: the end of the world is nigh, you know... £14.99, Square Peg Lisa Markwell

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