Doctor Who and Tudor monarchs lead NML's 2022 programme

An intergalactic voyage through the world of Doctor Who and a plunge into the world of the Tudors are among the 2022 programme announced by National Museums Liverpool.

Meanwhile Lady Lever Art Gallery will mark its centenary year, and a new pop-up exhibition at the International Slavery Museum will showcase the best in contemporary talent.

The hotly anticipated world premiere Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder will open at World Museum on May 27, promising a thrilling interactive journey exploring the world of science within the Time Lord universe.

The paid for exhibition will feature epic monsters to artefacts, costumes and props as science is brought to life exploring some of the Doctor’s many adventures and encounters through space and time.

It runs until October 30.

Further up William Brown Street the Walker Art Gallery will host The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics from May 21 to August 29.

Step back in time to the Tudor court and discover the fascinating politics, powerful family connections and unique culture of the most famous royals in history.

Portraits of Henry VIII (c.1520) and Elizabeth I (c. 1588) from the National Portrait Gallery

The exhibition includes 68 works from the National Portrait Gallery, paintings from the Walker Art Gallery’s collection and a selection of additional loans, including the extraordinary Westminster Tournament Roll (College of Arms, London) and some of the Armada Maps (National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth).

Portraits on display will include the Tudor monarchs, alongside their counsellors and courtiers including Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Robert Dudley, William Cecil and spymaster Francis Walsingham.

Some of the works included in the exhibition have never been shown outside London before, including a portrait of Jane Seymour after Hans Holbein the Younger. Tickets are on sale now.

The Walker will also feature work by local artists in Refractive Pool: Contemporary Painting in Liverpool, a new exhibition borne from a project called Refractive Pool, celebrating the diversity of painting in the city today. It opens in April.

The actor Ichikawa Danjuro IX as Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasi in the “Wait a minute!” (Shibaraku!) scene, 1895. © National Museums Liverpool, courtesy of Frank Milner

A stunning new exhibition of prints by Japanese artist Toyohara Kunichika (1843-1900) opens at the Lady Lever in April, following the gallery’s 2017 popular exhibition Edo-Pop.

And in June the Port Sunlight venue will unveil Inspired by Lady Lever – with a gown created for Lady Lever herself will go on display for the first time as the heart of the exhibition, celebrating 100 years of history at the gallery and the life of the woman it’s named after.

Benin and Liverpool: Are Museums a Laughing Matter? comes to the World Cultures Gallery at World Museum in February and April, an intervention in collaboration with comedian Daliso Chaponda.

Using comedy to interrogate the collections, their histories and how they are interpreted, Chaponda’s performances will be shown across the gallery offering a different perspective on how we view museum objects.

And the International Slavery Museum will host Pop-Up, opening on March 5, the first in a new series of pop-up displays planned for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Building, working with creatives to develop an artistic response to Liverpool and its role in historic slavery and the legacies.

National Museums Liverpool director Laura Pye says: “We’ve created an exciting programme for Spring/Summer 2022 which includes not only blockbuster shows that will get everyone talking, but also powerful displays and projects that reflect local talent and current issues.”