A record number of partner venues will livestream the filming of the 200th anniversary CHRISTMAS LECTURES® when this year’s Lecturer, space scientist Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, takes centre stage at the Royal Institution (Ri) next month.
Filmed in the Ri’s iconic Theatre in mid-December each year – the same Theatre where the CHRISTMAS LECTURES have been given since John Millington’s first series in 1825 – the Ri first introduced a simultaneous livestream in 2018, to enable anyone not easily able to travel to central London, to still enjoy being among the first to watch the Lectures unfold.
Now, in the Lectures’ 200th anniversary year, universities, museums and science centres – from Techfest in Scotland and Jodrell Bank in England, to Cardiff University in Wales and Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland – will showcase one of more of this year’s three Lectures at public viewings in their own venues.
For the first time, the Ri’s public livestream partners include local libraries thanks to a new partnership with the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network; while a further 13 venues, including six hospitals, three schools, and others from the Ri’s network of Lectures’ supporters will host private livestream screenings.
The highest-ever total of 42 venues livestreaming the 2025 CHRISTMAS LECTURES® supported by IT and business consulting firm CGI as Title Partner, exceeds the previous record of 19 venues set for Hannah Fry’s Lectures in 2019. Together they will enable more than 60 hours of public viewing for their own local audiences.
Katherine Mathieson, Director of the Royal Institution, said: “Being the first to watch each year’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES unfold during the live filming is a special experience. And in this very special 200th anniversary year, we are looking forward to an equally special set of Lectures from Dame Maggie, as we ask the question: Is there life beyond Earth?
“So we are delighted that so many partners have joined us as livestream venues, enabling young people and their families across the country to join together with us in the Ri’s London Theatre.”
In the 2025 CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution entitled ‘Is there life beyond Earth?’, Dame Maggie will take viewers on an extraordinary journey from the surface of the Earth to the farthest reaches of the known cosmos.
In Lecture one we begin our search for extraterrestrial life with an exploration of our nearest neighbour, and Dame Maggie’s favourite space rock, the Moon. And in Lecture two we embark on a grand tour of our Solar System to establish whether any other planets or moons out there may be habitable. Then, with the help of the world’s most powerful telescope, in Lecture three Dame Maggie ventures through the Milky Way and into the Universe beyond, on the hunt for so-called ‘Goldilocks Planets’ located in the habitable zone around their Sun.
The 2025 CHRISTMAS LECTURES® from the Royal Institution will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer in late December.
The Royal Institution is grateful to its CHRISTMAS LECTURES® Title Partner, CGI, to Supporting Partner Aberdeen Investments, and to Partners UKRI and Viasat for their generous support for the Ri in producing this year’s Lectures.
The full list of livestream partners across the UK is available from the CHRISTMAS LECTURES® pages on the Ri website.