Review by Connie
Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review
Hosted at De Montfort Hall on Monday 20th October 2025, An Audience With Stuart Broad (regarded as one of England’s all-time greatest cricketers) was presented as an opportunity to hear Broad talk about both his cricket career, and to delve deeper into his decision to retire from playing, and the new chapters he has entered in his life since.
This discussion was presented in the form of an interview, and whilst Broad was very well-spoken, had a good presence and was friendly and charming, the discussion felt orchestrated and rehearsed. I don’t feel we found out much about Stuart Broad, himself, at all. The evening covered the most prominent moments from his Ashes matches, and very little else.
His early childhood, with a father who also played in the Ashes, was discussed briefly, but there was no discussion about how he got into such a high level of cricket, where he started, or what his journey was.
In the promotion for the event, FANE announce “Stuart will delve deeper into the decision behind walking away at the height of his career, and share his new chapter as Sky Sports’ pundit and founder of ‘The Cat & Wickets Pub Company’. But this didn’t get discussed at all. We do not know anything about why he chose to retire, we heard some very brief stories of fun in the pundit box, but received no story on how or why he got those opportunities or what he thinks of them, and until a post-show re-reading of the advertisement, I didn’t know he had a Pub Company as it was not brought up once. Nor did I come away with any understanding of his “greatest friendships” and “fiercest rivalries”. Furthermore, there was no mention of him “winning the T20 World Cup”, or joining the “elite club of bowlers to take over 600 wickets”, although, a more knowledgeable friend of mine believes the taking of his 600th wicket was briefly mentioned in one of the video highlight reels, but not in discussion.
Additionally, it became clear that it was expected the audience would have an expert level of knowledge on cricket, the members of the cricket teams Broad had been in, as well as those of his competition. At several points, cricketers such as Jimmy Anderson, Ben Stokes, Andrew Strauss, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root were mentioned in discussion, but without prior knowledge, an audience member would not have understood the significance or role of any of these players. Similarly, there was much review over the taking of 17 David Warner wickets, without any context given about the significance of David Warner, the number of wickets, or their rivalry.
The evening was pleasant enough, but delivered only a selection of Broad’s Ashes achievements with minimal personalisation, passion or perspective.
An Audience with Stuart Broad plays at Fareham Live on 21st October, Grand Opera House in York on 25th October and Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on 26th October.
Tickets are available with https://www.fane.co.uk/stuart-broad
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