Museums at Night

Did you ever see the CBBC series Relic: Guardians of the Museum? I wrote a post about it a while ago. It's a show in which children visit the British Museum at night and are set challenges by a ghostly tour guide.

Did you find yourself secretly a bit jealous of those kids getting to wander around a deserted museum, heels clicking noisily across the parquet floors? Well this weekend it is your chance to sneak around after hours, because it's Museums at Night weekend.

Once a year museums across the country stay open late and organise special night-time events. Looking at a few of them, I'm extremely pleased to see liberal use of the words "spooky" and  "ghostly". That's exactly what I want from a museum at night, people dressed up as knights, scullery maids and power-crazed industrialists pretending that they've been sucked through a wormhole in space and asked to lead strangers on ghost hunts or tell them scary stories. Excellent fun - especially when the kids start asking the industrialist why his moustache is falling off.

I'm happy to say that A History of the World is joining in the ghostly gatherings too, with special screenings of Relic: Guardians of the Museum at 15 museums around the country (see the list below to find one near you).

For those of you who can't make it, here is a peek at the visions that Agatha will be taking people on. Take a deep breath...

• You can check the Culture24 website or local listings for more information about the museums staying open late this weekend.
• The museums showing Relic: Guardians of the Museum are: Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery; The Fitzwilliam Museum; Farmland Museum and Denny Abby; Tullie House Museum; North Lincolnshire Museum; Canterbury City Museum; Manchester Museum; Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts; Vale and Downland Museum; Potteries Museum & Art Gallery; Wiltshire Heritage Museum; Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum; Craven Museum and Gallery; Prestongrange Museum; Swansea Museum; Brading Roman Villa