Ri Christmas Lecture Livestream
"Mysteries of the Universe"
Watch-along party of the LECTURES
Hosted by WMG
Image (above) credit: Paul Wilkinson Photography
Dates, Times, and Info
When:
WMG will be hosting livestreams of two of the three CHRISTMAS LECTURES on:
Thursday 11th December 2025
Tuesday 16th December 2025
Arrive: 17:30
Live stream starts: 18:00
Latest finish: 20:30
Where:
WMG on the University of Warwick Campus (CV4 7AL). The video feed will be broadcast to us to watch live in our auditorium.
Note that we cannot provide the link to anyone else to stream elsewhere. This is an in-person event.
REGISTER HERE
You can watch the lectures with us as they are recorded, with live hosting and entertainment.
As the world-famous CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution are filmed for the BBC, you can watch-along with us before (almost) anyone else. With live entertainment, extra challenges, experiments, and demonstrations - all in a University auditorium - this is the perfect way for your whole family to watch the CHRISTMAS LECTURES.
What are the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution?
More information on the Ri CHRISTMAS LECTURES.
Initiated by Michael Faraday when organised education for children was scarce, the CHRISTMAS LECTURES established an exciting new way of presenting science to young people.
World-famous scientists have given the Lectures, including Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell.
The lectures are a fantastic and prestigious event and the highlight of the science calendar each year. However, only around 100 people can attend the theatre in person - so we have been given an exclusive opportunity to broadcast the lectures live as they happen in to the auditorium at WMG at the University of Warwick. There will be a live host with additional entertainment so this will be more than just another online event. This is an exciting opportunity to see the lectures as they are filmed for the BBC and before anyone else (except those in the theatre themselves!).
Think of it as a science movie premiere - and join us in the exclusive audience!
Sign up to attend:
You can use this form to register your interest as a member of Warwick Staff.
You can use this form to register your interest in attending as a member of the local community.
What are this year's CHRISTMAS LECTURES about?
We’re delighted to announce we are one of the livestream venues for this year’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution. Running for 200 years, the CHRISTMAS LECTURES were started by Michael Faraday to inspire and engage young people with science, and this year leading space scientist Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock as she takes us on an epic voyage through time and space.
This event is perfect for all the family! Children and people of all ages can come and watch the magic of the Lectures unfold in real time as they’re filmed in front of an audience in the Ri’s Theatre in London. They’ll have the chance to get involved with hands-on activities, and be amazed by the mysteries of the Universe.
Joined by a host of very special guests - from astronauts to history-making astronomers - Maggie will explore the extraordinary breakthroughs that have revolutionised our understanding of the universe, enabling us to see ever further into space, and ever further back in time.
Maggie helped develop the James Webb Telescope, the most powerful space telescope ever created – which launched on Christmas day 2021 before travelling a million miles to begin its orbit of the sun. Unpacking James Webb’s latest breathtaking images, Maggie will reveal how this “time-travelling” telescope is now rewriting the story of the Big Bang and allowing us to witness the birth of the first stars and galaxies that followed.
As NASA prepares to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972, Maggie will investigate how manned spaceflight has transformed our relationship with our nearest neighbour – and with our home planet. And, delving further back in time, she’ll explore how the night sky has always held a fascination for humanity - investigating what the moon and stars meant to ancient societies across the world.
Maggie will also explain how the latest space technologies – from probes and orbiters to the most recent Mars rovers - are shedding astonishing new light on the planets in our solar system. And we’ll discover why in 2025 we’re on the cusp of even more remarkable discoveries about our universe.
She will reveal just how far our understanding of space has come in the two centuries the Ri CHRISTMAS LECTURES have been around – looking back on previous Lectures on astronomy – from the first of these in 1826 to the 1977 lectures hosted by famed astronomer Carl Sagan, when the only known planets at that time were the eight in our solar system (thought to be nine at the time).
Maggie will also scour the Royal Institution archives to uncover some of the original props from these historic lectures, plus she’ll recreate - and supersize - some the most memorable demos from space lectures past.
In this iconic anniversary year these lectures will be a true celebration – of our universe and of the astounding human endeavours that are allowing us to solve its mysteries.
Sign up to attend
WMG at the University of Warwick will be hosting two events with livestreams of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution on Thursday 11th December and Tuesday 16th December. We will have a 'first look' at the lecture before it is shown on TV. Alongside the livestreams we will also have opportunities to meet with our researchers, engineers, lecturers and scientists, and take part in fun scientific experiments to learn more about the subject. You will be part of a live audience for this event.
The lectures themselves will take place in the Royal Institution headquarters in London. They will provide livestream videos of the lectures to us, which we will show to the audience in the room. At certain points the staff at the Ri will need to pause the lecture to set up demonstrations or fix technical issues, during which times the outreach team at WMG will entertain you.
Sign up: Warwick Staff and Students
Staff and Students at the University of Warwick can attend with their families. We will hold up to half of the tickets for each night and allocate them to staff on a first-come-first-served basis.
You can use this form to register your interest as a member of Warwick Staff.
Sign up: Local Community
We will hold up to half of the tickets for each night for members of the local community, and these will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
The Lectures are advertised to an age range of 11-17 years old, but they are so well produced that they will appeal to an adult audience. As an outreach team our priority is to work with young people, so we are encouraging people with families to attend.
You can use this form to register your interest in attending as a member of the local community.