By now, almost six years on from the first season of Ted Lasso being released, I would suggest there are three cohorts of people who haven’t watched it yet:

• Those who don’t have Apple TV

• Those that don’t like football; and

• Those that do like football but don’t want to watch a silly comedy about it.

For me the subscription to Apple TV pays for itself even if you only watch Ted Lasso and Severance, but I’m not Martin Lewis and you’re not here for budgetary advice.

For those that don’t like football, you genuinely don’t have anything to worry about.

All you need to know is that it’s a team game played on grass and the top players are mostly pampered millionaires, and you’re ready to go. Ted Lasso is about football in the same way The Office is about selling paper; it’s what they do all day but it’s certainly not why you watch it.

And if you do like football, and don’t want to watch some middle of the road, by numbers sitcom about your favourite hobby, then wind your neck in and give it a go.

Full disclosure – I was in category three until the release of the second season.

I assumed Ted Lasso would be saccharine, cosy, crowd-pleasing and bland. I was almost right – it’s actually saccharine, cosy, crowd-pleasing and unsettlingly brilliant. It is that rare show that manages to be bitingly clever without being cynical.

The story follows the titular Ted, a successful college football (ie American football) coach from Kansas City, who is appointed as manager of the fictional Premier League underdogs Richmond FC. He’s brilliantly played by TV and film star, producer and writer Jason Sudeikis, sporting a notably naff but eventually lovable moustache.

Ted brings his college football coach (Coach Beard, played by Brendan Hunt) along for the ride as they try to navigate the steep learning curve of ‘soccer’ and ride the wave of cynicism and scepticism surrounding his appointment. It’s a rocky road.

Over the course of the first season we find out the real reasons why Ted was appointed by the new Richmond owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), and also the circumstances behind the apparently ever-optimistic Ted's decision to switch sports and countries, putting an ocean between him and his family.

The show’s success has rightly made an international household name out of Hannah Waddingham, and also dramatically elevated the careers of Brett Goldstein, who plays potty mouthed veteran midfielder Roy Kent, Nick Mohammed aka kit man turned coach Nate Shelley, and Juno Temple who plays model and PR whizz Keeley.

The Richmond squad that Ted and Coach inherit are initially a rag-tag mix of journeymen, keen youngsters and one potential superstar striker on loan from Man City. Thankfully what the new management team lack in football knowledge, they make up for in team building and catchphrases.

Over the course of the three seasons produced between 2020 and 2023 we follow Richmond as they battle to stay in the Premier League. There are friendships, love stories and betrayals, as well as tantrums, pep talks and peanut butter tips.

More than anything else, though, Ted Lasso is a big, steaming mug of feel good. Ted is possibly the most charming TV character ever to grace the screen, but the show’s ensemble cast of easy to love characters are also a huge factor in its appeal and success.

The show is the most watched programme on Apple TV and was a huge critical success, but all good things come to an end and the final episode of the third season was very much envisaged as the end of the road for Ted and Richmond. And so it proved… until rumours surfaced of some kind of return or spin off.

A fourth season has now been confirmed, with a trailer to boot, with everyone’s favourite moustache returning to Richmond to coach the newly founded Women’s team this August. Colour me excited.

Series 1-3 of Ted Lasso are available to stream on Apple TV. Season 4 arrives on August 5, 2026.

For Sam Wall, photography is rooted in energy - the kind found in crowded venues, on festival fields and in those fleeting, high-intensity moments in front of the stage.

It’s a sensibility that runs through the 10 images he’s selected from his archive for this week’s My Life Through a Lens.

Now based in Newcastle and working as lead music photographer for Darkus Magazine, Sam’s artistic instincts started early. “I’ve always been creative in one way or another, playing instruments, drawing and painting since my early teens,” he says.

His introduction to photography came through a simple gift, but one that quickly became all-consuming.

“One year on my birthday I was given a digital camera and instantly connected with it and what I could create with it,” he says. “I used to take it everywhere I could.”

Even when he didn’t have the camera on him, he was moved to document life as it happened. “I would also buy disposable cameras and take pictures on nights out and festivals I would go to with my friends.”

Photography developed further during his university years, but a personal loss proved to be a defining turning point. “It was the death of my father that was the real catalyst for me to refocus on what I wanted to do in life,” he says. “He was a keen amateur photographer and after his passing I inherited his gear, some of it still comes to every show I shoot.”

Live music is where Sam feels most at home and where he does his best work. “I feed off the energy and the atmosphere of a concert. I love just throwing myself in and reacting to it.”

Not every setting comes as naturally. “To be honest studio shoots/portraits challenge me the most, I find directing people and dealing with all the variables can be quite overwhelming at times,” he admits.

Inspiration comes from those around him. “The work of my friends and other photographers shooting music has always inspired me,” he says. Meanwhile when asked to offer tips to those hoping to follow a similar path, his advice is simple and direct: “Learn the fundamentals. Find your niche. Shoot, Shoot, SHOOT.”

You can follow Sam Wall on Instagram here.

AJ Tracey: Taken at Leeds festival last year (2025). I’m always on the lookout for unique and interesting angles to shoot from so when I noticed the lighting above flashed a union jack so with my fisheye lens equipped I lay on my back and waited to get this obscure shot.

Cian Ducrot: Shooting music can be very limiting because usually you only have the first three songs to get everything so when Cian jumped into the crowd to serenade his fans up close, I had to jump into the fray and join them.

Coldplay: Taken at Glastonbury festival in 2024, I’d snuck my camera in to cover the festival unofficially. Coldplay always put on one of the most visually spectacular shows you can imagine.

When the show was closing a barrage of fireworks was released and I kept shooting and shooting to get it all, this image is actually a result of 20 or so pictures layered together

Frank Carter: Frank is known for his explosive performances and energy on stage, even with a broken wrist he still threw everything into the show.

The stars aligned for me to get this shot, the lighting was strobing and the settings on my camera had to be just right when he got right up in my face screaming at me. I knew immediately I’d taken one of my favourite shots to date.

Fuel Girls: Fire is always exciting to be around, even more so when I have a camera in hand. The Fuel Girls are known for their impeccably choreographed performances so I jumped at the chance to shoot the show. I’d never shot anything remotely like this before and it was just as exhilarating as you can imagine.

Great North Run: The GNR is one of the biggest events in the Newcastle calendar, It brings the whole city together in support of all the runners. The atmosphere on the Tyne Bridge with all the runners streaming past and the red arrows soaring overhead is electrifying.

Iota: One thing I particularly love about shooting music is the unpredictably of it and having to react on the fly to what’s going on around you.

When the lead singer of Iota, Jodie Robinson, parted the crowd and lay on the floor like this I had to react fast to get the shot. A quick lens change, throw on the flash and hope I caught it before the moment passed.

NUFC Carabou Cup: I have great pride for where I live and football is Newcastle’s great unifier. When they won the Carabou Cup the whole city came out for the victory parade. This moment meant so much to everyone.

Sam Fender: This is from the first time Sam played the arena not long after the release of his debut album and the first time I’d shot a show of that size. I was incredibly excited to be there for his biggest show up to that point.

Wargasm: Shooting heavy music is where I thrive, the more chaotic the better, when the crowd parts to form a mosh pit from wall to wall there’s a huge rush of excitement like the charge before battle.

I loved being in the right place to capture the (relative) calm before the storm.

For nearly two decades, The Late Shows has invited people to see Newcastle and Gateshead differently - not through daytime routines, but through after-hours exploration.

This year, more than 60 venues will once again open late across May 8 and 9, offering a choose-your-own ‘culture crawl’ through galleries, studios, heritage sites and performance spaces across the Ouseburn (Friday), Newcastle city centre and Gateshead.

Alongside the established programme, in recent years a series of event-specific artist commissions have become part of the mix.

Funded by Creative Central NCL - five-year initiative working to establish a thriving cultural and creative zone in Newcastle city centre - these works are rooted in place, asking artists to respond to the city itself.

For 2026, two commissions in particular offer distinct but complementary ways of experiencing Newcastle: through poetry and through sound.

Performance poet Amy Langdown’s brief was pretty straightforward.

“The commission was to create a poem about creativity… and the importance that creatives and creativity bring to the city,” they explain. “And I was like, well, that’s right up my street. I love that.”

The result is True North, a poetry trail spread across six central locations, including Alphabetti Theatre and Dance City, which both fall in the Creative Central NCL footprint.

Each verse is installed as a standalone piece, designed to be encountered individually as people move through the city. That structural constraint shaped the writing process from the outset.

“Each verse had to work on its own,” says Amy. “So if people only see that verse, it will still make sense.”

At the same time, the poem also exists as a complete work, accessible via QR codes that link to the full text and an audio recording. That dual approach - fragment and whole, text and voice - reflects Amy’s background in performance poetry.

“There’s a whole thing about accessibility with spoken word,” they say. “I think particularly for people as well who aren’t necessarily familiar with poetry… to hear it spoken takes on a whole new dimension - something that might not make sense when you read it does make sense when you hear it.”

Amy says while the commission required careful planning - mapping verses to potential locations and themes - the breakthrough came in a more familiar way.

“I wrote an initial draft, which was pants, so I left it alone for a week and knew no one would ever see it,” they laugh. “Then I went into town to Alphabetti to be in a different space. I shared some ideas out loud with a friend and I knew I had something. And once I had that, it only took a couple of hours to finish it off.”

At its core, True North is a statement about the role of creativity in Newcastle - not as something which is nice to have, but something essential and built in.

“I really think Newcastle is a place for curiosity and for asking questions,” says Amy, who runs a monthly poetry night, Out of Your Head at The Cumberland Arms in Byker. “We’re lucky to be a city that has wonderful fringe venues supporting art that might be ‘too wild’ or ‘too much’ or ‘too strange’ to try elsewhere.”

That sense of collective energy runs throughout the work. The poem speaks to a city that creates its own opportunities.

“There are so many barriers, but also so many people creating too.”

By placing the poem across multiple sites, the piece invites people to build their own route, mirroring the wider Late Shows experience.

If True North maps the city through language, SALT’s Seven Bridges brings it to life through interaction.

Set to be installed at Discovery Museum, the piece is a large-scale sound installation inspired by the Tyne’s seven bridges, and what they represent.

“Rivers divide people, bridges connect them,” the artists who run a recording studio at the top of Westgate Hill, say simply in their description.

That idea becomes literal in the work’s design. Seven ‘bridges’ will be suspended above the main space at the Discovery Museum.

Visitors will be invited to stand on pressure-sensitive pads positioned at either side of each ‘bridge’. When two people activate both sides at the same time, new layers of music are unlocked - strings, brass, choir - gradually building a full composition.

“The artistic idea is that nobody can affect the installation by themselves,” says one half of SALT, Paul Worthington. “It has to be done in community.”

It’s a simple mechanism (spoken like a true layperson!), but one that offers the chance to create moments of connection between strangers - a child and a grandparent, best friends, a couple on a first date, two people who have never met… all brought together through a shared action.

And for anyone doing the maths, you’d need 14 people simultaneously standing on the pressure pads to hear the track in its fullest form.

“You have made a connection with someone else,” says SALT’s other half, Joe Draper. “And when either of you steps off, the element of the composition fades away.”

The project also reflects SALT’s wider ethos as a creative studio focused on collaboration and artist development.

“We’re super passionate about art and artists from the North East,” says Joe. “There’s so much here, and we believe really strongly in helping people find that voice.”

That belief is embedded in Seven Bridges itself. The piece brings together more than 20 collaborators - musicians, singers, artists and technicians - all with a connection to the region.

“We wanted to involve as many people as we could,” Paul explains, “to support artists and reflect the sense of community and shared ownership of the piece.”

Those involved include Aurora Strings, the Welfare Collective, singers Robbie Anderson, Abisola Balogun-Katung and Nathaniel Makarimayi and artist, Marcia Ley.

The music at the heart of the installation has its own story. Originally a fragment recorded by Paul around seven years ago, it found its purpose through the commission.

“It almost feels like there’s a little bit of intention in that story,” he says. “I wrote it about the bridges and about my experience of having to work away - when your heart is here, but the opportunities are somewhere else. It’s about wanting to come back and that idea of a journey home.

“When we landed on the idea of doing something about the bridges, it seemed like a perfect starting point.”

From there, the challenge was both technical and creative: building a composition that works in multiple forms - as a standalone track and as an ever-changing interactive piece.

“You have no idea what combination will be playing at any time,” Paul says. “There will be the stripped back track which will play on a loop, and then the layers will come in as and when people make the connections.

“But every combination needs to work and needs to be rewarding.”

The result will be something that shifts constantly, shaped by the people experiencing it - a collective act of making, rather than a fixed performance.

While the two commissions take very different forms, they share a common purpose: to reflect Newcastle back to itself.

While Amy’s poem highlights the city’s creative identity - its curiosity, its resilience, its DIY spirit, SALT’s installation turns that same idea into an experience, asking people to physically connect in order to create something larger.

Together, they also chime in with the wider ambitions of Creative Central NCL, which aims to support artists and embed creativity within the fabric of the city centre.

Both works are also shaped by the specific conditions of The Late Shows - an event built on movement, discovery and chance encounters.

“It’s a really beautiful thing,” Amy says of the long-running cultural event. “You can just go to a comedy event, then come around the corner and hear a poem… then there’s a workshop or a theatre performance. I think it’s spectacular.”

The Late Shows take place on the evenings of May 8 (Ouseburn only) and May 9 (Newcastle and Gateshead). You can see Amy Langdown’s poem, True North projected onto six sites in Newcastle city centre (remember to look out for the QR code to read and hear the whole thing as it was written). SALT’s Seven Bridges will be installed at the Discovery Museum. You can hear the track on Spotify here.

For the full Late Shows programme, visit thelateshows.org.uk

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Historic Tees Transporter Bridge at risk

A symbol of Teesside’s industrial heritage which featured in TV’s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet has been placed on the Victorian Society’s Top Ten 2026 list of endangered buildings and structures.

The grade II* listed Tees Transporter Bridge has been closed since 2019 due to serious structural concerns.

“Spanning the River Tees between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence, it is one of the most recognisable engineering landmarks in the UK. Its future, however, now hangs in the balance,” says the society.

Opened in 1911, the bridge was designed to carry workers and goods across the river without obstructing busy shipping lanes. Built by Sir William Arrol & Co, the firm responsible for the Forth Bridge, it stretches 260 metres (850 feet) and rises 69 metres (225 feet) above the water.

Read more

Sunderland-born Public Record inspires new New York production

A community-led theatre project that began life in Sunderland is set to inspire a new production in New York this summer.

Public Record, originally commissioned by National Theatre, Sunderland Culture and Sunderland Empire, will be reimagined at The Public Theater following its award-winning UK debut.

Directed by Emily Lim and Dan Canham, the project brings together community members, musicians and dancers to create a live album on stage in real time.

The Sunderland incarnation saw more than 100 community performers take to the stage (and a lot more besides) at The Fire Station. Supported by a committed team of professionals, they came together to create a vibrant, eclectic portrait of their city through music, dance, and storytelling.

In New York, a new cast will be drawn from all five boroughs to do the same. They - and the audiences who see the results - are in for a treat.

Blooming lovely

First look images have been released as Raby Castle prepares to open its new large-scale installation, Castle in Bloom.

Opening on Saturday (May 2), visitors will see the castle and its surrounding visitor buildings transformed with floral displays inspired by the estate’s horticultural past.

Read and see more

North East actors called to audition for landmark drama

Open auditions have been announced for the much-anticipated stage adaptation of Our Friends in the North, as producers look to cast a strong regional ensemble for the Newcastle production.

The show, is a co-production between Live Theatre, Eastlake Productions and Newcastle Theatre Royal where it will be staged in the autumn. Live’s artistic director, Jack McNamara will direct the adaptation by the iconic series’ original screenwriter Peter Flannery.

Auditions will take place across four dates in May at Live Theatre and Theatre Royal, with a deadline for applications set for May 6 at noon. Self-tapes will also be accepted.

Casting is aimed at professional actors, with producers keen to meet performers working in or from the North East. Roles include the central quartet of Mary, Tosker, Geordie and Nicky (played in the TV series by Gina McKee, Mark Strong, Daniel Craig and Christopher Eccleston respectively) alongside a wider ensemble.

Rehearsals begin in September, with performances running from October 15-24. Full details here.

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BFI award to boost community work at Tyneside Cinema

Tyneside Cinema is set to expand its community and accessibility work after securing multi-year funding from the British Film Institute.

The venue has been awarded support through the BFI’s National Lottery Audience Projects Fund for 2026-2029, backing its Everybody, Every Story! programme.

Bosses say the funding will allow the cinema to grow its programme of accessible screenings and develop more community-led activity, with a focus on reaching audiences who are currently underrepresented.

It will also support efforts to broaden participation across the region, creating more opportunities for people to engage with film in a welcoming, inclusive environment.

Newcastle Gateshead Music City sets out next steps with new board

A new strategic board has been appointed to help drive forward plans for the North East’s music sector, as Newcastle Gateshead Music City looks to build on growing momentum across the industry.

Bringing together artists, venue operators, academics and industry professionals, the board has been created to guide the next phase of the Music City initiative, with a focus on turning research into action and strengthening the region’s music ecosystem.

The group will support the Music City Office, co-led by The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and Generator, following the publication of a new Foundation Report which sets out a long-term vision for the sector.

Michelle Escoffery, chair of the board, said: “This is a dynamic and well-balanced group of leaders, bringing both depth of experience and fresh perspective. Through collaboration and a clear focus on solutions, growth and delivery, we are committed to unlocking opportunity for the region and extending our impact far beyond it.”

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Award win for North East mental health charity film

A North East short film created with a Sunderland mental health charity has picked up a national award.

Animator Scott Tyrrell’s Any One Of Us, made in collaboration with service users at Sunderland Headlight and commissioned by The Cultural Spring, won at the Smiley Charity Film Awards.

The film was developed through a series of workshops, with participants shaping the story and design based on lived experience.

Featuring narration from Matt Reed, the animation highlights personal perspectives on mental health while showcasing a collaborative, community-led approach to filmmaking.

Free arts festival to open Sunderland’s One Big Summer

A new free festival is set to take over Sunderland city centre as part of a wider summer programme around BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

Running from May 22–24, the three-day event will transform Keel Square and High Street West into a hub for live music, dance, spoken word and hands-on creative activity.

The festival launches One Big Summer, a season celebrating local talent and community creativity, with more events planned across the coming months.

These include headline shows at Cliffe Park from Embrace and Ocean Colour Scene in August, alongside a wider programme of gigs in Keel Square.

Visitors can expect a relaxed, inclusive mix of performances, workshops and interactive experiences across the opening weekend.

A new strategic board has been appointed to help drive forward plans for the North East’s music sector, as Newcastle Gateshead Music City looks to build on growing momentum across the industry.

Bringing together artists, venue operators, academics and industry professionals, the board has been created to guide the next phase of the Music City initiative, with a focus on turning research into action and strengthening the region’s music ecosystem.

The group will support the Music City Office, co-led by The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and Generator, following the publication of a new Foundation Report which sets out a long-term vision for the sector.

Michelle Escoffery, chair of the board, said: “This is a dynamic and well-balanced group of leaders, bringing both depth of experience and fresh perspective. Through collaboration and a clear focus on solutions, growth and delivery, we are committed to unlocking opportunity for the region and extending our impact far beyond it.”

The board includes representatives from across the music industry - from venues, radio stations and universities to promoters, record companies and artists. A full list of board members can be found below.

Jim Mawdsley, vice chair, said the formation of the board marked a significant step in recognising music’s wider value to the region.

“While music had always been a strong part of the cultural identity of Newcastle, Gateshead and the wider region, the impact it makes has not been recognised beyond acknowledgement and celebration. Music’s value as an economic and social driver has now made its case and is receiving the attention and backing that it deserves.

“By assembling a strong, experienced and multi disciplined music board for Newcastle Gateshead we will have even more effective leadership that will make a real difference to building an ecosystem with greater impact.

“I am honoured, excited and privileged to continue decades of commitment to the music sector in the region by accepting the role as Vice Chair of this new dynamic board and look forward to the achievements we will make together.”

The board’s work will be guided by the findings of a Foundation Report, developed with Counterculture and Newcastle University and supported by the North East Combined Authority.

The report highlights a busy sector with more than 1,400 music businesses and artists operating across the region. In 2023/24, music contributed £364 million to the local economy, supported more than 3,000 jobs and attracted 714,000 visitors.

Unsurprisingly, major national moments, including the MOBO Awards and Mercury Prize events get their moment in sun, having generated more than £2m in economic benefit as well and catching the interest of thousands of young people.

It also forecasts between £5.80 and £6.60 of economic value for every £1 invested while pointing to grassroots venues as central to the sector’s growth - 83% of those consulted recognised their role in developing artists and building communities.

Board member Adam Behr, head of music at Newcastle University, said: “Research shows that the conditions for real, sustained growth in Newcastle Gateshead’s music sector are in place: in talent, venues and the breadth of the ecosystem.

“The Board, and the work ahead of it, represents a real chance to translate that into coordinated strategic action that builds effectively on that foundation – to harness the investment now behind it and create opportunities and foster connections for the grassroots and throughout the sector.”

The report sets out priorities including strengthening grassroots networks, improving funding, expanding spaces for music and creating clearer pathways for talent to develop careers in the region.

Maia Beth, BBC Radio 1 presenter and DJ who is also on the new board, said: “I’m so proud to be joining the Newcastle Gateshead Music City Board.

“The North East is my home, it’s always been class and it feels like people are finally starting to notice. There’s so many talented people in this area and I can’t wait to help make sure they’re seen everywhere and to ensure opportunities are there for everyone, no matter who you are or where you’re from.”

A mystery portrait has prompted a public appeal in County Durham as a major new exhibition celebrating miner-artist Tom McGuinness opens at Bishop Auckland’s Mining Art Gallery.

Visitors are being asked to help identify an unknown man depicted in a 1963 charcoal drawing, Portrait of an Unknown Man, now on display as part of Tom McGuinness: Out of the Darkness.

The exhibition marks the centenary of the artist’s birth and will run throughout 2026.

McGuinness, who was born in nearby Witton Park, worked in the mines for nearly four decades after entering the industry as a Bevin Boy in 1944. His experiences underground shaped a distinctive artistic style, capturing the physical and emotional realities of mining life.

He once said: “I find it difficult to express any feelings in words; that is why I paint… my art mirrors my life in the mining community.”

The newly highlighted portrait dates from the early stages of his career, when he was developing his skills through life drawing. Initially labelled Cathy’s Dad, the work was thought to depict the artist’s father-in-law. However, that assumption has since been challenged.

Corinne Aspel, McGuinness’ daughter, said: “When I saw the drawing, I knew straight away it wasn’t my grandad. There are clear differences - particularly in the shape of his nose. It just didn’t match. It makes you wonder who he really was, and whether someone out there might recognise him.”

Now, the gallery, part of The Auckland Project, is appealing for help from the public.

Anne Sutherland, mining art and industrial heritage curator at The Auckland Project, said: “Tom McGuinness had a remarkable ability to capture character and personality in his portraits. This drawing is no exception, but we don’t yet know the story behind the man in the picture.

“Given Tom’s strong ties to this area, we believe there’s a good chance he was someone from the local community. We’d love to hear from anyone who thinks they might recognise him.”

The wider exhibition brings together more than 50 years of McGuinness’ work, including oil paintings, sketches, etchings and lithographs, alongside rarely seen loans. From February to June, the focus is on portraiture, with later displays set to explore scenes from the Durham Miners’ Gala and the artist’s printmaking.

Anne added: “This exhibition celebrates a man whose work captures the emotional truth of mining life as Tom interpreted what it felt like to be a miner. His art remains a powerful reminder of the resilience and identity of mining communities across the North East.”

Anyone who may recognise the sitter is encouraged to contact The Auckland Project via email: enquiries@aucklandproject.org

First look images have been released as Raby Castle prepares to open its new large-scale installation, Castle in Bloom.

Opening on Saturday (May 2), visitors will see the castle and its surrounding visitor buildings transformed with floral displays inspired by the estate’s horticultural past.

On the terrace, newly-sown flowers will introduce colour to the exterior, while inside, visitors will encounter suspended pieces, meadow-style arrangements and floral walk-through spaces.

Alan McKerchar, general manager at Raby Castle, said: “Every department at Raby has played a part in bringing this theme to life. In the past Raby Castle would have been an incredibly productive place with home grown flowers, plants and even tropical fruits!

“Old photographs show us that flowers and plants would have filled the castle in the past and we were all delighted to lean into that history and bring this theme to life.”

The installation continues into the grounds, where planting has been designed to create a clear route for visitors as they move through the site.

Gardens and landscape manager Dickon Harding said: “We also wanted to extend the experience to the exterior of the castle and delight visitors with a sea of colours as soon as you walk through the castle gates. The castle is a very dominating building but the addition of flowers to the terrace will soften the façade and show the historic building in an entirely new light.

“The placement of the seeds and flowers, which have been provided by Boston Seeds, has allowed us to create a visually stunning pathway for visitors to follow after entering through the Neville Gateway and we’ve also left the lawns to the north of the castle to grow, ensuring there is a beautiful and natural environment all around.”

Inside, the displays have been created by a mix of designers, including local floral designer Deborah Simpson Boston and florist Anna Potter of Swallows and Damsons, alongside contributions from other regional suppliers.

Deborah said: “The design for the passageway has been created to welcome guests to the space and draw them into the Castle in Bloom experience.

“A mixture of textures has been incorporated, including soft grasses, wildflowers and dried British flowers, and we’ve purposefully chosen flowers which are warm, fragrant and inviting for an immersive experience down the corridor.”

Running until August 31, Castle in Bloom is included with standard Castle, Park and Gardens admission.

There was glitter, there were heels and wigs, and there was A LOT of excitement in the depths of Middlesbrough Town Hall on Wednesday night.

Nearly 300 people had packed into the venue’s Crypt space for the launch of series two of Smoggie Queens, the BBC Three sitcom that quickly became one of the North East’s loudest and proudest screen exports when it landed on screens at the end of 2024.

Created, written by and starring Middlesbrough native Phil Dunning, the show has struck a chord for its unapologetic humour, big-hearted chaos and its affectionate portrayal of Teesside life via a chosen family of LGBTQ+ friends navigating life, love, drag, eyebrow pencils and Dickie’s latest drama.

Series one went down a storm with audiences and notched up a trio of BAFTA nominations and a North East Royal Television Society Award win. It wasn’t a surprise when producers Hat Trick Productions were given the green light for a second series.

As the audience – a mix of cast, crew, industry figures, fans and a fabulous contingent of North East drag queens – gathered to get a first look at episodes one and two, there was a real sense of ownership in the room

“We’re just buzzing,” said Phil ahead of the screening. “We filmed in August last year and had the best time. It’s like being back with family.”

That family dynamic runs through both the show and the production itself. Much of the cast and crew have been with Smoggie Queens since its earliest stages, from pilot-pitching table read to award show red carpets and now into a second series.

“It’s the most wonderful job ever,” said Mark Benton, who plays the gloriously larger-than-life matriarch Mam. “You always have jobs where there’s someone you go, ‘oh, not them’… I can’t think of any on this one.”

That warmth translates on screen, where Dickie (Dunning), Mam, Lucinda (Alexandra Mardell), Sal (Patsy Lowe) and Stewart (Elijah Young) have all returned for a second sitting.

Series two promises new relationships, revived tensions and plenty of beautifully barbed one-liners, with Monica Dolan joining the cast and guest appearances once again from the likes of Michelle Visage and Steph McGovern.

For the cast, one of the most rewarding aspects has been the reaction from the people who know the setting best.

“To get the approval of actual Smoggies… I mean they’ll tell you if it’s bad,” laughed Elijah whose character Stewart - introduced as the “baby gay” new arrival on the scene in series one - is enjoying his newfound rightful place in the group in series two.

“I think people were just delighted to see something that actually shows how nice life is here, and the people who live here - celebrating the place.”

Showing Middlesbrough and the wider Teesside area in a positive, joyful light has been central to the show’s success. It’s also a big part of why its recommission matters beyond just entertainment.

Supported by the North East Production Fund, administered by North East Screen, the series is a growing example of what regional production can achieve.

“It proves that not only can we shoot something here, but people like it – they really like what they see,” said Gayle Woodruffe, operations director at North East Screen.

“Smoggie Queens is so Tees Valley, so Middlesbrough. To have that reflected on screen, and then recommissioned, it just means so much.”

Gayle also pointed to the increasing number of local crew working on the second series.

“We were on set on the last day of filming and all you could hear were Teesside accents,” she said. “That level of people working on a show here just means the world.”

Back in the Crypt, that sense of pride was everywhere. Between greetings, selfies and the occasional sweeping entrance, there was a clear feeling that this was a show made with the region, not just about it.

And as the lights dimmed for the first two episodes - introduced by Drag Race UK runner up Michael Marouli - the reaction was immediate. Big affectionate cheers and even bigger laughs.

“It’s so nice the way the people of Middlesbrough have embraced Smoggies,” said Mark. “I think we knew it had gone down well when we were dressed in the most outrageous costumes, skipping down the pavement outside the bus station… and nobody battered an eyelid!”

Now, with a second series ready to land on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, the show is not just a regional success story - it’s a national one with a sequin-dipped smoggie heart.

And if the reception in Middlesbrough is anything to go by, audiences - who have already been treated to Dickie’s spin off chat show on YouTube - are more than ready to welcome the Smoggie Queens back.

“Now all we need is a Christmas special,” laughed Phil… to a chorus of agreement from his fellow Smoggie Queens.

I mean, it seems like a no brainer to me. Let’s hope the BBC agrees.

The second series of Smoggie Queens kicks off on May 15 on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.

After a near sell-out debut last year, performer Joe McElderry is bringing concert fundraiser, Something in the Water back to Newcastle Theatre Royal this summer.

And this time, the ambition is stretching beyond the stage.

Returning on Sunday, June 28 with both matinee and evening performances, the cabaret-style show - once again powered by funk-soul juggernaut, Groovetrain - will be trumpeting the region’s talent while also raising much-needed funds to support the up-and-coming cohort of North East performers.

“Something in the Water is all about celebrating where we come from and giving something back,” says Joe, who has become part of the Theatre Royal family since joining the regular cast list for the ever-popular pantomime in 2021.

“The North East has incredible talent, and it’s so important we create opportunities for young people to explore that.”

That balance of celebration and opportunity sits at the big heart of the event, which last year saw the likes of Rosie Ramsey, Danny Adams, Lorraine Crosby and Steph McGovern take to the stage.

While audiences can expect another lively mix of live music, comedy and musical theatre bangers (more of the 2026 line-up shortly), the project’s deeper aim is to support the next generation - not just through fundraising, but also offering direct access to the industry.

“I had this idea years ago, but I kind of felt a little bit too young to bring it to fruition,” explains Joe. “As I got more experience, I built up the confidence to not just think about getting something like this together - but to actually do it.”

What began as a one-off fundraiser organised with owner of Newcastle venue Pilgrim (and lead singer of Groovetrain) Michael Lavery, has quickly evolved. Backed by the Theatre Royal, the event now looks set to grow into an annual platform. And there won’t be any arguments from Joe.

“We were fortunate enough to virtually sell out both shows last year,” he says. “There’s definitely an appetite there for it… as long as I can keep doing it, it’s really nice to be part of something that’s platforming the amazing talent we have up in the North East.”

To be clear, while Joe will absolutely be belting out some tracks in his signature fashion, he very much sees his role in proceedings as a singing conduit (I’m paraphrasing).

“I want to welcome people on and allow people to take the torch of the show,” he says. “It’s about showcasing other people.”

The confirmed line-up so far for the 2026 concerts includes Joe’s Theatre Royal panto co-star, Danny Adams, as well as Hairy Biker (and drummer) Si King, comedian Jason Cook, Drag Race UK performer Michael Marouli and West End stars Adam Strong, Christina Bianco and Carly Burns. Further guests are still to be announced too.

“I couldn’t be happier with the line-up,” says Joe, “and I’m really grateful to everyone for giving their time for free. It means a lot.”

New for Something in the Water’s 2026 activity is a dedicated Industry Day, designed to give emerging performers a clearer route into the creative industries.

Taking place on May 19, the initiative will bring young people together with industry professionals for advice, mentoring and the chance to perform on the Theatre Royal stage - with at least one participant invited to join the final line-up.

“It’s sometimes just having the opportunity to be in one of those rooms,” Joe explains. “Somebody goes, ‘they’re great,’ and then you’re onto that path.”

The idea has been partly inspired by Joe’s own experience of entering the industry through winning TV talent show, The X Factor in 2009. Mentored by fellow North Easterner and Girls Aloud singer, Cheryl Tweedy, the series offered him a platform that accelerated his career literally overnight.

“Having that kind of platform obviously gives you a massive shortcut,” he reflects. “People work 15, 20 years to get that kind of exposure.

“But also, historically, people have had to move away from the region in order to get those opportunities. And that can be a huge issue. The thought of just getting on a train and moving to London… where do you begin?” he says.

“There are so many barriers… so we’re trying to create something that gives people a chance here.”

The money raised from Something in the Water will be split 50/50. One half will go to the Theatre Royal’s Creative Engagement programme, including bursaries for young people to attend the Theatre Royal Youth Theatre and Project A, its year-long actor training course.

The other half will be donated to NEMO (North East Music Opportunities CIC), enabling the organisation to continue delivering inclusive, community-led music-making opportunities across the region.

Kim Hoffman, director of creative development at Newcastle Theatre Royal, says: “We’re delighted to present Something in the Water once again. It’s a brilliant showcase of regional talent, but crucially the funds raised help us provide bursaries that open doors for young people to take part.

“Through our Youth Theatre, participants build confidence, wellbeing and performance skills, while Project A provides progression routes to equip young people with the professional experience and industry-ready skills needed to move forward. Working with partners like NEMO strengthens our shared commitment to access and opportunity in the arts.”

For Joe, who remains based in the North East, the project fits nicely into a wider commitment to keeping creative work rooted locally wherever he can.

Following last year’s successful stints in Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Aladdin at the Theatre Royal Joe has also been back in the studio working on new material for his first release in several years.

“I hadn’t written for ages,” he says. “And then I had this really overwhelming feeling to just get in the recording studio.”

The result is a new single, Love Me Out Loud, due for release in June.

“It’s pop, disco… what I’m calling heartbreak disco,” he says. “It feels really fresh and exciting… and it has been written up here, recorded here, mixed and mastered here. Everything has been done within 10 miles of Newcastle.

“I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

Sounds like perfect fodder for a fundraising concert encore to me.

• Tickets for Something in the Water at Newcastle Theatre Royal can be booked via the website at theatreroyal.co.uk or by calling the box office on 0191 232 7010.

• Applications are still open to take part in the Industry Day on May 19. Applicants should email talent@theatreroyal.co.uk with a brief personal artist biography; a video/self-tape of them performing; links to work if available; and performance requirements (if applicable).

It was time for a pocket watch to cross the Atlantic and return home from New York 124 years after it was presented to a North East cavalryman.

The gold watch was inscribed with the name of C.P. Warner and was given to him by his friends when he returned from two and a half years of active service in the South African Boer War.

The watch was presented to the Discovery Museum in Newcastle by its current owner, John Coleman, and will go on show at its gallery Charge! The Story of England’s Northern Cavalry, which tells the story of the Northumberland Hussars and associated regiments.

The story behind the timepiece is being brought to the small screen via a new TV documentary series, The Reunion Project, which explores themes of legacy, identity, and historical connection, demonstrating how an object can bridge generations and continents.

The watch will now ensure its story and that of Cuthbert Warner will be preserved and shared.

Made by NBCUniversal Local, The Watch That Found Its Way Home follows one such journey from New York City to the North East, where a single object - namely the gold watch - becomes the key to preserving one man’s legacy.

The episode will be available to stream on Peacock and will also be accessible in the UK via Sky TV on Peacock upon its release.

The museum ceremony involved the watch owner, representatives of the regiment under which C.P. Warner served, the TV crew and museum staff.

John, 62, a print Broker from New York City, said he was really happy to be donating the watch to the regimental collection at Discovery Museum.

He said: “How did this watch get to the United States? My first wife gave me this as a gift. It had wound up in an antiques shop – I’ll never find out how, but we tried.

“It just didn’t feel right the watch being in the United States, so I figured that I would like to try and find it a home back here. I was hoping possibly to find a member of his [C.P. Warner’s] family. We came close, but long story short, I’m really happy that it’s going to be in a museum here.

“Hopefully some people will come in, know who this family was, and know the history to them. I just think it’s great.”

Cuthbert served in the Imperial Yeomanry, which was created out of Britain’s disastrous start to the Second Boer War in 1899.

General Sir Redvers Buller, commander of the British Forces in South Africa, requested 8,000 mobile, mounted troops organised in companies.

Reserve, or Territorial troops had never before been mobilised for active service overseas, and the Government had resisted earlier suggestions that they be used to help the Regular Army in the South African conflict.

Their stance changed when Henry Hall Scott, a wealthy farmer from near Alnwick, Northumberland, wrote to his local newspaper suggesting that there were many young men serving in the County Yeomanry regiments, or otherwise skilled in riding and shooting, who would be willing to go to South Africa.

He suggested that he, and other men of property, would fund the venture. This offer was accepted, and the War Office invited Lords Lieutenant of other counties which had yeomanry regiments to do the same.

In Northumberland and County Durham, just over £50,000 was raised (£7m in today’s money) which was the largest sum raised by any fund in the country.

The Government realised that in areas such as weapons, ammunition and other vital equipment, standardisation was essential, so they undertook to fund these items, leaving Yeomanry funds free for other purposes.

For the Northumberland and Durham fund, one measure paid for was life insurance for each man, with a pay-out, on death, of £250 if a man was married, £100 if single, to their nominated next of kin.

In just over six weeks 355 men were recruited, about 100 being serving members of the Northumberland Hussars.

Cuthbert, described as a County Durham man, headed to Newcastle to enlist at the age of 28.

He passed his initial riding and shooting tests and signed up on January 10, 1900 at the Army Riding School in Northumberland Road in Newcastle, designed by John Dobson, which was established in 1849 and which today is owned by Northumbria University.

“We can assume that he was an accomplished horseman, as he rose very quickly through the ranks to Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant,” said David Weatherstone, secretary of the Northumberland Hussars Association.

There were three drafts of men into the Imperial Yeomanry. When the first draft of Yeomen opted overwhelmingly to return home, Cuthbert was one of the few who volunteered to stay.

On September 14, 1901 he was commissioned in the 5th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He was wounded in action on January 14 1902.

On May 31, 1902 Boer forces surrendered, enabling the annexation of Transvaal and Orange Free State to the British Empire, and a local newspaper described Cuthbert’s homecoming as a warm and touching welcome from friends and neighbours.

“The award of the pocket watch, probably bought by public subscription, is further evidence of the esteem in which he was held,” said David.

Cuthbert served as a commissioned officer in the First World War and was awarded an OBE in 1919. He died in 1946.

Steven Moffat’s comedy seems to be popping up all over the place, the rights for amateur productions presumably having been made available quite recently.

It was on last week at Gateshead’s Little Theatre which is when friends of mine also caught it in a theatre on the Wirral.

Now the People’s have taken it up, with director Ian Willis at the helm.

The setting is suburban sitcom territory – living room, kitchen, staircase - although the opening scene has us aboard a cruise liner with the Lindels, Peter and Debbie, engaging in casual holiday small talk with a garrulous American.

Elsa Jean Krakowski, flamboyantly brought to life by Ann Zunder, says they must visit if ever they’re in Denver. But suddenly – it seems like suddenly - she’s at the Lindels’ door with luggage following in hot pursuit.

Thus is family life in the couple’s “little home” turned upside down – sort of.

For although Debbie has discovered something alarming about Elsa on the Internet, enough to have made her want to ‘unfriend’ her and cancel a visit they hadn’t particularly welcomed in the first place, the couple’s teenage kids, typically awkward and bolshy, seem to take to her.

How, then, to cope when a possible killer has infiltrated your safe space?

I dare say most of us will have one or two very effective answers to that question. But to buy into the world Steven Moffat has created, you must suspend disbelief from the highest branch and stretch plausibility just about as far as it will go.

Peter and Debbie, played with commendable conviction by Daniel Magee and Helen Parker, are hapless to an extreme degree, hamstrung by an innate politeness.

“We lack the necessary social skills to avoid death,” laments Debbie at one point, although at least her frustration prompts action, even if her ranting and raving (Parker letting rip) doesn’t result in much more than the uncorking of a bottle.

Magee’s Peter responds to the crisis differently, becoming more tongue-tied, absent-minded and action-averse as time goes by – as Mark Buckley’s neighbour (just The Neighbour, too boring to have a name) would testify.

As kids Alex (Jamie Cordes) and Rosie (Sarah Jane Fisher) become more human in Elsa’s presence, the adults – the English ones – get ever more stupid and ineffectual.

I felt frustration mounting, the same frustration as I feel in horror films when there’s something threatening outside but someone always has to go to the shed. Or in pantos when people never turn round to see the ghost.

“Call the police,” I wanted to yell.

But then the police are on the scene in the form of Steve Parry as the unlikely PC Junkin, the name alone hardly inspiring confidence.

What with this and a prolonged and rather icky toilet scene, I felt that plausibility elastic extending to within a millimetre of a mighty snap.

Ayckbourn it ain’t, despite a fair spattering of laughs, but Wednesday’s audience seemed to like it very much – and the set is extremely well furnished if you like that kind of thing.

The Unfriend runs until Saturday, May 2. Tickets from the People’s Theatre website or call the box office on 0191 265 5020

North East classical music lovers will be saddened by news of the death on April 23 of Jean-Bernard Pommier, the great French concert pianist and conductor, following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 81.

He was principal conductor and artistic director of the Northern Sinfonia (not yet ‘Royal’) from 1996 to 1999 but he had already worked with the orchestra for over two decades.

Thus Jean-Bernard put in 35 years of high quality musical contribution to this region of which he’d become truly fond.

During his prodigious career, starting in the early 1960s, Jean-Bernard Pommier performed as solo pianist with almost every major orchestra across the world and with most distinguished conductors of his time.

In addition, he performed as a chamber musician with the finest instrumentalists in many important capital cities, while latterly he was also in demand as an accomplished orchestral conductor.

Before Pommier’s first appearance in Newcastle in 1975, as a visiting guest conductor to prepare for concerts in France, the orchestra had no previous experience of him.

Very quickly, though, the musicians realised that he was assured, competent and clear in expressing his wishes by gesture without having – in those early years - more than the simplest English.

When an intended soloist became unavailable, Pommier simply shrugged and said: “So, we play together…..”

He sat down at the keyboard, played the concerto himself and directed the orchestra too.

“Hey, this guy’s the real deal!” I thought at the time. And so it proved, for he was to return as a guest soloist, solo director and conductor annually for the next quarter of a century, a popular figure with both the orchestra and audiences.

Of course, there were occasional moments of tension for Pommier was a mercurial Languedocian (from Cazoul-les-Béziers, southern France) let loose among Brits, but he would always apologise with his ready smile if he thought he’d caused offence.

Nonetheless he could be relentlessly demanding, and rightly so.

In time, Northern Sinfonia concerts with Pommier conducting featured all around the North East and the wider UK including London.

There were also concerts in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Andorra, Norway, Switzerland, India and the USA.

Concerts with Jean-Bernard never became ‘routine’ for he could always call on something new in his performances, making them fresh experiences for his musicians and for audiences too.

His respect for the public was a genuine attitude from deep within.

As 1999 was to be his last official year with the Northern Sinfonia, four of its musicians decided to bring him back by means of an enterprise of his called Musikè, a mobile form of international summer school for advanced student performers and young professionals.

Pommier himself and four like-minded solo artists (our ‘professors’) coached violin, viola, cello, oboe and, of course, piano, the concept being to hold Musikè events in locations of cultural ambience, in our case Durham.

The professors also contributed chamber music ‘master concerts’ that were attended by the young artists.

It proved so successful that it was repeated in 2001 and then annually to complete a full decade.

Jean-Bernard leaves a second wife (violin soloist Olga Martinova) and two adult daughters from his earlier partner.

Max Cooper, it says on The Glasshouse website, “will interact with our venue this May”, which is a departure from the usual wording relating to musicians who just rock up and perform.

But then he’s a little different to musicians who come with a pre-determined set.

You’ll know this if you’re familiar with the club or rave scenes where Max Cooper made his name, or if you caught his previous performance here last February.

Back at The Glasshouse recently to deliver a masterclass, he confirmed that every gig is different.

“My performance system is that there’s no pre-defined structure. I can play anything at any time.

“There will be a loose structure, in that I know certain things link together nicely and certain visuals go with certain music, but the path through it can really vary.

“I don’t decide until the day what I’m going to play and even then only decide what I’m going to start with.

“I’ll then play something else and see how it goes, so the early part is trying to feel what works. Then I might play something more intense, a bit more techno, and if people start screaming then I know they want more.

“Or if no-one reacts, I go, well, that’s not the way to go and I’ll try something more ambient. I’m feeling my way. That’s my background as a DJ, trying to interact with people.”

It’ll sound terrifying to anyone reassured by a playlist or script but on the rave scene a certain agility clearly doesn’t go amiss.

In the masterclass he’d alluded to having bottles thrown at him. Did he mean this literally?

“Oh, I’ve had bottles thrown at me,” he confirmed afterwards. “But maybe not for playing ambient music. People get upset sometimes in parties and they do mad things, so I’ve seen it all.”

If he’s a survivor, he’s a hugely successful one, having built a worldwide following for his audio-visual shows, immersing audiences in a changing environment of sound and light.

Recently thousands saw him transform the immense interior of the Royal Albert Hall with 3D visuals chosen to complement his own compositions.

It was, wrote one witness to a show that sold out in 48 hours, “a psychedelic night curated with mathematical precision”.

It had gone well, he allowed in Gateshead, but that ‘mathematical precision’ hadn’t made him wholly happy.

Whereas the famous show he’d done in 2021 at the Acropolis in Athens had been 50% pre-planned, he said, the Royal Albert Hall performance hadn’t allowed for any improvisation.

“I was working with such a big team. We were doing this really extravagant show with eight projectors and four lasers and loads of light systems and there were all these people.

“I was controlling the visuals and music but others were controlling lasers and lights and haze.

“It needed to be structured but I actually dislike that. The show worked and we did what we wanted to do but there were moments when I really wanted to break out.

“But then I thought I couldn’t because it’d really confuse everyone and cause mayhem.

“It’s very rare that I do shows like that.

“The show I’m touring here, for example, is all of that content minus lasers and it’s going to be more improvised.”

He’s going on tour supporting his latest album, Feeling Is Structure, which grew out of the Royal Albert Hall commission and is released on May 8.

According to Cooper, it “explores the relationship between physical form and human emotion”.

It promises to be quite a spectacle and a ‘must’ for anyone who thrills to the pulses and rhythms of electronic music.

Showy, however, Max Cooper decidedly is not. In his masterclass, he sat behind his laptops and beneath a screen while speaking eloquently of his many collaborations and adventures with digital technology.

Reports of that London performance have him similarly positioned, more a low key facilitator than a flamboyant frontman, as befits the scientist and academic he was until music claimed him.

He grew up near Belfast to Australian parents who had moved to Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

“My dad was an engineer who then worked on the trains but also taught nautical engineering at Queen’s (University, Belfast),” he said.

“Mum taught piano but she’s also an expert on the lyre, which is an ancient harp-like instrument, and still very active in that community.”

(Passing thought: did a player of the lyre ever have to dodge a bottle?)

Reflecting on what his parents think of his music, he said: “I’d say they tolerate it.

“They come to the shows but there’s a difficulty for people who haven’t had a lifetime of going to techno clubs. It’s this wall of sound, so I think my parents struggle with that side of things.

“My sister, who’s five years older, was really into the club scene and got me into electronic music, so I had these different influences – scientific and musical, both classical and electronic – from an early age.”

Growing up during the ‘Troubles’ had been challenging, he said. “Not having family connections on either side, it was confusing and scary… there was a lot of tension with people wanting to know what side you were on.

“I found it quite oppressive so it did push me towards nature, which in Northern Ireland is beautiful. There’s this complex interaction of land and sea with hills coming off the coastline.

“Ten minutes and you’re away on your bike, so nature made a massive impact.

“But then I first started going to trance and techno clubs in the ‘90s and they were spaces where people from all sides would be hugging. It was where I came out of my shell.”

There was a touching moment during his masterclass when he recalled being struck by the sound of rain on a skylight window and nudging a recording of it into a rhythmic drumbeat to blend nature and technology.

Music, initially, he saw as a hobby while he pursued another love, science, which he assumed would be his job.

He went to Nottingham University, stayed for a master’s and then did a PhD in computational biology, all the while honing his DJ skills with a residency at a techno event called Firefly.

Briefly he worked as a geneticist at University College London but the time came when the funding ran out and he was starting to get bookings as a musician.

“I was like, this is paying the bills so I’ll focus on this for six months. That was in 2008 and the more I pushed the music thing, the more it kept working.

“It still took years to get to the point where I was financially stable but I didn’t need a lot of money to survive at that time.”

Science’s loss may be music’s gain, but hearing him talk you can see how they – and nature, too – converge in what he now does.

And it’s perhaps not a world away from some of the classical music programme in The Glasshouse’s Sage One, where a 90^th birthday tribute to Steve Reich is coming up in October.

He said he loved the work of Reich and other American minimalist composers such as Terry Riley and Philip Glass (Cooper made an album called Glassforms with pianist Bruce Brubaker).

Glass, he said, “was making techno even before techno with classical instruments. These were godfathers of a lot of the techniques I employ now.”

You can experience the Max Cooper techniques when he performs on Thursday, May 21 at 7.30pm. Tickets from The Glasshouse website.

Gorgeousness is what Matthew Bourne fans have come to expect and this production duly delivers, with sumptuous costumes, clever sets and crisp choreography brilliantly executed.

A large first-night audience lapped it up, me among them (although I also loved The Midnight Bell, a bit of a Bourne outlier spun from bleak, sepia-tinted source material, the stories of Patrick Hamilton, yet translated to the stage last year with characteristic panache).

As a friend remarked: “Matthew Bourne hasn’t so much captured the market as created it.”

It’s hard to dispute.

First performed on this stage in 2017, The Red Shoes is running for a fortnight – as will his Cinderella this time next year – and in between comes The Car Man, Bourne’s early Carmen spin-off revived and heading our way in September.

There will be seven performances of The Car Man. But no-one is likely to be complaining about too much Bourne.

Rambert, here in June and celebrating their centenary, only offer two performances while Northern Ballet, coming in October with Cinderella performed to live music, manage six.

Matthew Bourne shows have recorded music, which is a shame in a way, particularly in a production like The Red Shoes which is a dance show about a ballet company in which music (here largely inspired by the work of Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann) plays a major part.

But in another way, an orchestra would mean disappointment because seats would have to be removed and ticket prices, since Bourne is of the commercial rather than the subsidised world, would no doubt rise.

What Bourne and designer Lez Brotherston, his long-time accomplice in the New Adventures company, have is an unerring eye for the visually arresting.

This show opens at the ballet, with a man – ramrod straight, evening dress, slicked hair, straight from the 1940s heyday of Powell and Pressburger – stepping into a spotlight.

It’s an image reminiscent of a Jack Vettriano painting, he having been another with the populist touch.

The film of The Red Shoes, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, was a box office hit of 1948, making a star of Moira Shearer who played Victoria (Vicky) Page, the girl chosen to play the lead in a fictional new ballet called The Red Shoes.

It’s based on Hans Christian Andersen’s gruesome fairytale in which a girl called Karen acquires fabulous red shoes which won’t let her stop dancing, even unto death, as punishment for her vanity.

It all means there’s a lot to unpick in an adaptation with no words (the odd gasp is allowed) to aid in the telling of the story.

At the end of the first act, when the ballet within the ballet ends and the curtain falls, I sensed some around me preparing to rise for the interval. But that, of course, is not quite the end of act one.

Bourne, though, as he has shown many times, is a master of visual storytelling and the plight of Vicky, with her passion for ballet and her rival suitors, carries us through to a final moment of tragic melodrama and loud applause (all audience-generated this time rather than augmented over the speakers, as when the curtain falls on the fictional ballet).

Even should you lose the thread, this production is eye candy from start to finish with a series of wonderful tableaux, a seductive scene from Monte Carlo, all swim suits and beachballs, contrasting with the humour of a London music hall and the wild drama of a tempest.

All the dancers are wonderful, with Cordelia Braithwaite leading the line as Vicky, and adept at making sustained effort seem effortless while radiating personality and emotion in time-honoured New Adventures style.

I do hope they’re treated better than their fictional counterparts in the company run by tyrannical Boris Lermontov.

The Red Shoes runs until Saturday, May 9. Tickets from the Theatre Royal website.

Hello and welcome to this week’s Curated Culture – our regular collection of arts and culture pointers from across the North East.

If you’re just joining us, or returning after a short break, here’s what you have to look forward to every Tuesday:

🗓️ Top Picks – a handpicked selection of featured listings coming up over the next fortnight
📌 Still Showing – highlights from Curated Cultures gone by that are still going strong
📅 Now Booking – a sprinkling of signposts suggesting things to get in the diary
🎁 Subscriber Prize Draw – this week, you could win a pair of tickets to see comedian Kelly Rickard’s new show, Burning Love at The Stand Newcastle on June 14.

All the details on how to enter are waiting for you at the end - don’t waste the chance to soak up everything en route

As ever, thanks for reading, sharing, and keeping us in the loop

Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally occupied with North East Culture

EVENT: The Late Shows
Where: Newcastle & Gateshead
When: May 8 and 9, evenings
Bookings and info: thelateshows.org.uk

It’s that time of year again, when places which show and make arty stuff extend an after-hours welcome

It began in 2007 when a steering group led by what is now North East Museums experimented by seeking new audiences with late opening.

An annual cultural highlight ever since, it boasts more than 60 places to fit into your bespoke itinerary this year.

On Friday (May 8), from 6-10.30pm, the focus will be on venues clustered around the Ouseburn Valley with Flea Circus, The Biscuit Factory, Cobalt Studios and 36 Lime Street among those laying on cool stuff.

On Saturday, Gateshead venues will open from 6pm to 10pm and those in Newcastle from 6pm to 10.30pm (last admission 30 minutes before closing).

Check out new artist commissions in Newcastle funded by Creative Central NCL.

They are Grainger Unplugged, a live music takeover of Grainger Market, Seven Bridges, an interactive music installation at Discovery Museum, and True North, a poetry trail by Amy Langdon at six city centre locations including Alphabetti Theatre and Dance City.

Stagecoach is providing free Late Shows buses to operate on both evenings (check website for timings and pick-up points).

THEATRE: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Where: Queen’s Hall, Hexham, and elsewhere
When: May 12 (Hexham) and on tour until May 31
Bookings and info: elysiumtc.co.uk

Eugene O’Neill’s bleak, semi-autobiographical play, set in New England in the summer of 1912, is remembered as his masterpiece and has been lauded by critics.

It was premiered in 1956, in Sweden, and then opened on Broadway where it won the Tony Award for best play.

The following year it earned O’Neill a posthumous Pulitzer Prize (he’d won three others during his lifetime along with the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1936).

This 70^th anniversary production from Durham-based Elysium Theatre is directed by Jake Murray and has a cast comprising Dan Bradford, Edmund Dehn, Sarah Dorsett, Macy Stasiak and Danny Solomon.

The seeds of Elysium Theatre were sown 10 years ago with a conversation in a Waterstones café between Murray and Solomon. It staged its first production in 2017.

You can also see this new production at Southpaw Dance Studios, Sunderland (May 13), Hartlepool Town Hall (May 14), Northern Stage, Newcastle (May 15), Ushaw House, Durham (May 18), Gala Durham (May 19), Alnwick Playhouse (May 21), Princess Alexandra Auditorium, Yarm (May 25), The Witham, Barnard Castle (May 26) and Washington Arts Centre (May 27).

COMMEMORATION: The General Strike
Where: The Glasshouse, Gateshead
When: Monday, May 4, 4pm and 8pm
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org

Monday marks the centenary of the General Strike when more than 1.5 million British workers downed tools to support mineworkers faced with a wage cut.

Centenary, presented by Wisecrack Productions, will comprise songs, comedy sketches and stand-up.

Producer Ed Waugh says: “It’s amazing to think we’ll be performing the show 100 years to the day that the General Strike started.

“It will also celebrate other working class struggles using popular culture.”

Wisecrack has produced Ed Waugh plays including Hadaway Harry, Wor Bella and, most recently, The Cramlington Train Wreckers, telling of the miners who derailed the Flying Scotsman during the General Strike.

That play, well received in 2024, comes to the Theatre Royal on July 12 (performances at 3pm and 7.30pm).

The General Strike will also be remembered at Redhills, Durham, on Sunday, May 3 (2.30pm) with Voices from the Coalfield featuring poetry, storytelling and live performance with poet and playwright Tom Kelly as special guest and an open mic session.

It’s the culmination of a creative writing course led by writer-in-residence Andy Willoughby shaped by the experiences of coalfield communities. Book via the Redhills website.

SCREEN: This Is Not A Murder Mystery
Where: UTV and streaming on Channel Four
When: From April 29
Info: channel4.com

Set amid the glamour and excess of the 1930s art world, This Is Not a Murder Mystery promises a stylish twist on the classic whodunnit.

When a young artist is found dead at an English country estate, North East actor Stephen Tompkinson steps in as Scotland Yard’s DCI Thistlethwaite, tasked with restoring order among a houseful of eccentric suspects.

The guest list reads like an art history roll call, with figures including Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte drawn into an increasingly macabre series of murders inspired by their own work.

Trailed as unashamedly lavish, witty and knowingly offbeat, this European import blends real-life artistic lore with playful fiction.

This is cosy crime with a distinctly continental edge.

THEATRE: Legally Blonde - The Musical
Where: Newcastle Theatre Royal
When: May 12-17
Bookings and info: theatreroyal.co.uk

Amber Davies steps onto Tyneside in Elle Woods’ iconic pink heels next month (May) as Legally Blonde The Musical arrives in the region for the first of two 2026 North East tour stops.

Best known to many as the winner of Love Island in 2017, Davies has since carved out a successful career in musical theatre, originating the role of Jordan Baker in the London production of The Great Gatsby; starring as Vivian Ward in the UK tour of Pretty Woman, Lorraine Baines in the West End production of Back to the Future The Musical, and Campbell in Bring It On.

Based on the hit film starring Reese Witherspoon, the musical adaptation charts Elle’s journey from fashion-loving ‘It Girl’ to determined law student, as she heads to Harvard to win back her man, but finds something much more important along the way.

Promising a fast-moving mix of sharp humour, catchy numbers and a steady stream of feel-good moments, it sounds like it’s going to be very easy to love for fans of the film… and not hard to enjoy for those encountering Elle for the first time.

The production will be back in the region from December 1-5 at Sunderland Empire.

SCREEN: Sunderland Shorts Film Festival
Where: David Puttnam Media Centre and various other venues in the city
When: May 11-17
Bookings and info: sunderlandshorts.co.uk

Now in its 11th year, the Sunderland Shorts Film Festival returns with a packed programme celebrating all manner of filmmaking from the North East and beyond.

Kicking off with an opening night showcase of 2026 submissions, the BIFA-qualifying festival spans everything from Film Hub North’s Northern Exposure selections and RTS student award winners to international shorts, documentaries and music videos.

The schedule is brimming with genre-spanning screenings including sci-fi, thriller, horror, LGBTQIA+ and comedy alongside animation and experimental work.

There’s live music in the mix too plus a feature presentation of Red Riding, the debut film from North East actor-turned-director Craig Conway.

EXHIBITION: Eugene Schlumberger
Where: RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth
When: May 9 until June 13
Booking & Info: republicgallery.co.uk

Next up at the pub-turned-gallery (with a nice café by way of an entrance) is an exhibition called Time Was Away & Somewhere Else by North East-based photographer Eugene Schlumberger.

It is described by Claire and Mags, who run the place (formerly The King’s Head at 85 Bridge Street), as comprising work from two new bodies of the photographer’s work which continue to investigate his preoccupation with memory and urban landscapes on the cusp of erasure.

They are Painterly Alignments in The Fabric Of Reality, urban landscape studies in which space, weather and the effects of time combine to make the world look like a painting, and As It Is When It Was, described as “snatches and fragments of the city, initially created in response to seeing the colourful Polaroid work of Walker Evans”.

It has been said of Eugene Schlumberger that he “works in the space where the shadow of popular culture falls on concrete surfaces”.

One of his projects was Haçienda Landscapes, a book exploring the aesthetic of the iconic Manchester nightclub made with its designer, Ben Kelly.

There’s a preview of the Blyth exhibition on Friday, May 8 (6-8pm) to which all are welcome.

The gallery opens Tuesday to Friday (9am to 3pm) and Saturday (10am to 2pm).

MUSIC: Nigel Kennedy - A Virtuoso Concert Performance
Where: Darlington Hippodrome
When: May 8
Bookings and info: darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk

Nigel Kennedy brings his Virtuoso tour to Darlington Hippodrome, marking a rare set of UK dates after more than 15 years away from large-scale touring.

Note: Looking for a YouTube clip to go with this listing, I stumbled across this collection of highlights from the film my Mum and Dad (Andrea and Geoff Wonfor) made when Nigel recorded and released Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Didn’t take long to remind me why it won the Golden Rose of Montreux. Lovely stuff.

Known for moving comfortably between classical repertoire and looser jazz and contemporary influences, the programme for this tour draws on Bach alongside original material and Kennedy’s own interpretations.

He’s joined by regular collaborators Alec Dankworth and Peter Adams, keeping things rooted in a small ensemble setting rather than a traditional concert hall format.

FILM: There’s Still Tomorrow
Where: Redhills, Durham
When: May 10, 7.30pm
Booking & Info: redhillsdurham.org

Where better to see a black and white Italian film with subtitles than in the grand setting of the Miners’ Hall?

Released in 2023, the film – the directorial debut of its star, Paola Cortellesi – became a huge hit in Italy, picking up a clutch of awards and becoming one of the country’s highest ever earners at the box office.

Billed as a comedy drama, it is set in post-war Rome where Delia (Cortellesi) is a working class mother who dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter while suffering abuse at the hands of her bullying husband.

When a mysterious letter arrives, she musters the courage to change her circumstances for the better.

Cortellesi had the idea for the film and co-wrote the screenplay, basing it on the lives of women, especially her grandmother and great-grandmother, after the Italian campaign in the Second World War.

At Redhills they’re calling it a beautifully crafted film which is “hugely poignant and empowering”.

THEATRE: Waitress
Where: Sunderland Empire
When: May 4-9
Bookings and info: atgtickets.com

Ten years after its Broadway debut, Waitress is preparing for service at Sunderland Empire with Les Dennis among the cast.

The production tells the story of Jenna - a waitress and gifted pie-maker navigating life, work and complicated relationships.

Written by Jessie Nelson with music by Sara Bareilles, the show has built a lasting following.

Bareilles has described its staying power as rooted in “heart, humour, community”, with audiences returning to a story about flawed people doing their best and leaning on each other when it counts.

FESTIVAL: What Are Words Worth 2U2?
Where: Northumbria University
When: April 28 to May 8
Bookings and info: northumbria.ac.uk

What Are Words Worth 2U2? is described by the university programmers as an interdisciplinary, cross-artform festival that asks what language does, who it belongs to and what it costs.

It follows a pilot event last year called What Are Words Worth 2U? Hence, we assume, the second numeral.

Much of the action is focused on Gallery North where an exhibition runs throughout the festival featuring work by university staff, students and alumni along with exhibits by invited artists and writers.

Among them is George Shaw who, in 2022, had an exhibition at Cherryburn, the National Trust property and birthplace of Thomas Bewick, and in 2009 was one of the four Turner Prize nominees who exhibited at Baltic.

George will be giving a talk in the gallery at 3.30pm on Wednesday (April 29).

A host of other language-related talks and events is taking place, including – it caught our eye – one by Emma Patchett called Creative Loitering: The Art of Going Nowhere?

You’ll find Gallery North in the Sandyford Building, Sandyford Road, Northumbria University, Newcastle NE1 8QE.

MUSIC: James Morrison
Where: Stockton Globe
When: May 6
Bookings and info: stocktonglobe.co.uk

Singer songwriter James Morrison is marking 20 years since the release of his debut album Undiscovered with a tour bound for Stockton next month (May).

Released in 2006, the record saw Morrison move from open mic nights to chart success, producing hits including You Give Me Something and Wonderful World.

The setlist for this tour sees him performs the album in full, alongside a selection of tracks from across his career. Support comes from emerging artist Cordelia.

STILL SHOWING

Theatre: The Unfriend, People’s Theatre, Newcastle, until May 2
Film: Underland, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle; Forum, Hexham, April 24-30 (Tyneside); April 22 and 23 (Forum)
Exhibition: Foundation Press – Starting Lines, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until Aug 30
Festival: Hexham Book Festival, Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham, until May 3
Exhibition: The Sheer Brass Neck, Newcastle Contemporary Art, 39 High Bridge, until May 9
Theatre: Hold The Line, Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle, Apr 29-May 2
Exhibition: The Graduates, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, until Jul 31
Radio: Si King on Desert Island Discs, BBC Sounds/iPlayer
Exhibition: Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Sept 6
Exhibition: Following the Eagle, Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend, until Oct 3
Exhibition: Picture This: Someone Like Me, Great North Museum: Hancock, until Jan 2027
Exhibition: Portrait Award 2025, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Sept 5
Exhibition: Enigmas, RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth, ongoing
Exhibition: Rebel Women of Sunderland, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, until Aug 1
Exhibition: Northumberland Open Exhibition, Woodhorn Museum, until May 10. Read more.
Screen: Torvill and Dean - The Last Dance, streaming on ITVX
Screen: Jools Holland’s New Orleans Jukebox, BBC iPlayer
Radio: Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!, BBC Sounds
Exhibition: For All At Last Return and first major UK exhibition by filmmaker and artist Saodat Ismailova, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until Jun 7, 2026
Exhibition: Out of the Darkness, Mining Art Gallery, Bishop Auckland, until December

NOW BOOKING

Music: Duke Special + Conchur White, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, May 28
Theatre: Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Sunderland Empire, Jun 5-27
Music: Midge Ure - A Man of Two Worlds Tour, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Jun 5
Theatre: Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse for England, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Jun 11-13
Theatre: Austentatious - An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Jun 26
Music: MusicManMike - Memory Lane UK Tour, The Cluny, Ouseburn, Jul 12
Event: Beyond Van Gogh, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Jul 12-Aug 9
Theatre: 9 to 5 The Musical, Darlington Hippodrome, Aug 4-8
Music: Maximo Park, Parade Ground (The Fire Station, Sunderland), Aug 28
Music: Morpeth Music Society 26/27 season, dates from Oct to April 2027
Poetry: Rowan McCabe - Hard Knocks and Special Guest, Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham, Sept 8
Talk: Susie Dent - Word Perfect, Gala Durham, Sept 12
Comedy: Maisie Adam - Whatsherface, Tyne Theatre and Opera House (Sept 27); Middlesbrough Town Hall (Oct 8);
Music: Transvision Vamp, Newcastle o2 City Hall, Oct 6
Music: Hayseed Dixie, Boiler Shop Newcastle, Oct 22
Theatre: balletLORENT’s Hansel and Gretel and the Witch, Northern Stage, Oct 29-Nov 1
Theatre: The Hollow (A Hercule Poirot Mystery), Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nov 10-14

2027

Comedy: Andrew Bird - On Edge, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, Jan 24
Theatre: The Picture of Dorian Gray - A New Musical, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Jan 31
Theatre: Dirty Dancing, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Feb 9-13
Music: Stornoway, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Feb 18
Music: Editors, Newcastle o2 City Hall, Mar 4
Comedy: The Eternal Shame of Sue Perkins, Stockton Globe, Mar 19
Music: Laurence Jones, Cluny 2, Ouseburn, Mar 27
Music: Metropolis in Concert, The Glasshouse, May 8
Theatre: Jersey Boys, Sunderland Empire, May 25-Jun 5

COMPETITION TIME

Welcome to our latest newsletter prize draw - offering our subscribers an exclusive opportunity to win tickets to see or do something great.

This week, we’ve got a pair of tickets to see comedian Kelly Rickard’s new show, Burning Love at The Stand Newcastle on June 14.

Kelly, who recently made a triumphant debut as the MC for the Sunday for Sammy fundraising concerts, describes it as a stand-up show built around a “sliding doors moment” that saw her join an Elvis theatre tour for what she calls the “most rock and roll summer of my life”.

At the centre is the show’s Elvis impersonator - remembered as a “big old hunk of rhinestones and misogyny” - and the long tail of that experience.

Blending storytelling with sharp observations, the audience will be let into a web of revenge which is “what happens when you’re Welsh and a Scorpio”… and willing to bide your time for 15 years.

HOW TO ENTER:

To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: I feel my temperature risin' by 5pm on Sunday (May 3)

The winner, who will be selected at random, will be notified within 24 hours of the entry deadline.

Terms and conditions: Only subscribers to the Cultured. North East newsletter are eligible to enter the Newsletter Prize Draw competition. Prizes are as stated - subject to availability - and non-transferable. No cash alternatives will be offered. You must be over 18 years of age to enter. The Editor’s decision is final.

Organ sensation Alison Lapwood has sold out The Glasshouse at the end of May, but here’s six concerts you’d not want to miss across the North East in the coming weeks.

May the Fourth Be With You

Hats off to the Royal Northern Sinfonia for performing the most iconic film music ever written, on the one day in the calendar when it absolutely must be played (May 4).

Head to The Glasshouse on Star Wars Day to round off the bank holiday and hear the John Williams themes and motifs from the film cycle burned into the soul of several generations.

The Sinfonia promise that come members of the orchestra may be coming in character costumes … and we suspect some members of the audience may be too.

Details and tickets here.

Ah! Mahler brings that big orchestral thrill

We know that there is always a distinct ripple of excitement in the region when a visiting orchestra comes to Gateshead with an epic romantic symphony on the programme.

Conductor Domingo Hindoyan has made a habit of doing that with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in recent times, not least with the symphonies of Bruckner.

His Friday night treat on May 8 is that Austrian giant from the start of the last century... Gustav Mahler’s music is heartfelt, angst-ridden and ultimately gushing. His Ninth Symphony is for many his masterpiece, with a slow movement of aching beauty.

Details and tickets here.

Hear the one piece that truly puts Mozart among the greats

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a good classical composer who achieves greatness when he writes for the voice and for wind instruments.

Mozart’s operas are constantly staged but his wind serenades much less so, because being composed for a handful of flutes, clarinets and the like they don’t fit into normal concert hall programmes.

So - thank you, thank you, thank you Royal Northern Sinfonia, for bringing us Mozart’s ultimate (but under performed) masterpiece the Gran Partita in concerts at St George’s Church Cullercoats and then Sunderland’s Fire Station on the weekend of May 9 and 10.

You’ll know its slow movement from soundtracks and the radio, don’t miss the chance to see the whole thing live.

Details and tickets here here.

Was this the first long player to go triple platinum?

In the last years of the 18^th Century the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn released what may have been the first true hit ‘album’.

His huge choral work The Creation was not initially available on vinyl, of course, but if live performances across Europe were an equivalent to triple platinum on disc then he scored a success to rival Michael Jackson’s Thriller or Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

Haydn’s musical evocation of the creation of the world for orchestra, soloists and choir has been popular ever sense. The music is full of drama and beauty which the tight corsets of classical form only make more gripping.

The Royal Northern Sinfonia bring the light to the Sands Centre in Carlisle on Saturday May 16 and to The Glasshouse, Gateshead the following night.

Details and tickets here

A modern, moving and meditative choral classic

The same weekend the Joseph Haydn’s Creation is thrilling the crowds at The Glasshouse there’s the opportunity to hear a striking modern choral work down the road at Durham Cathedral (May 16).

Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna was written at the end of the 20^th Century as is mother was dying and has struck a chord with many through its serenity and meditative quality, well suited to the Cathedral’s great spaces.

It is performed by the Durham Choral Society alongside the Czech 19^th Century composer Anton Dvorak’s bright and accessible Mass in D Major (Note: Masses written in major keys are always uplifting things to tune in to).

Details and tickets here.

Four musicians: One evening that excites at every turn

With centuries of music to choose from, sometimes the smart folk who plot classical concerts nail it with a programme that excites at every turn.

The Marmen String Quartet are at The Glasshouse on May 23 with just such a concert, ranging from the flamboyant 17^th Century English genius Henry Purcell to the 20^th Century Hungarian master of the genre Bela Bartok.

Also on the menu are Joseph Haydn’s elegant (with a properly funny punchline) Joke Quartet as well as French impressionist Claude Debussy.

Put together this is a Saturday night of sparkling white wine, with Bartok providing a shot of Islay single malt whisky in the middle.

Details and tickets here.

A symbol of Teesside’s industrial heritage which featured in TV’s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet has been placed on the Victorian Society’s Top Ten 2026 list of endangered buildings and structures.

The grade II* listed Tees Transporter Bridge has been closed since 2019 due to serious structural concerns.

“Spanning the River Tees between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence, it is one of the most recognisable engineering landmarks in the UK. Its future, however, now hangs in the balance,” says the society.

Opened in 1911, the bridge was designed to carry workers and goods across the river without obstructing busy shipping lanes. Built by Sir William Arrol & Co, the firm responsible for the Forth Bridge, it stretches 260 metres (850 feet) and rises 69 metres (225 feet) above the water.

Its distinctive gondola, suspended from the overhead structure, once transported vehicles and pedestrians across the river, a rare and ingenious solution that made it one of the largest transporter bridges of its kind in the world.

For more than a century, the bridge has been both a vital transport link and a powerful emblem of local identity. It has also become a cultural touchstone - its aforementioned appearance in the revival series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, saw a fictional storyline about its dismantling prompt real life concern among local residents.

More recently, public support for its restoration has remained strong, with overwhelming backing expressed in local consultations.

But the society says: “Despite this, the bridge’s future is uncertain. Responsibility for its ownership and operation is shared between Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough Councils, and the estimated £60 million required for repair and restoration is beyond their means alone.

“A central challenge remains unresolved: whether the bridge is to be treated primarily as transport infrastructure or as heritage. That distinction will determine what funding streams may be available, and whether the bridge can return to operation.”

Before its closure, the bridge was one of the few remaining operational examples of its type worldwide. In addition to its historic and functional role, it had developed a reputation as a visitor attraction, hosting events including abseils, bungee jumps and zip slides.

“Its loss would therefore be felt not only as the disappearance of a working structure, but as the erosion of a defining feature of the region’s identity,” says the society, which is calling for a co-ordinated national response to secure the bridge’s future.

“Whether as a functioning crossing or as a conserved monument, this extraordinary structure must not be allowed to fall into permanent disuse.”

Griff Rhys Jones, Victorian Society president, said: “People love this bridge. It is a symbol. It is a monument, and more than that, it is a link and a potential working part of Stockton and Middlesbrough. Got to be saved. Got to be operational again. If we can find money for new bridges, we can find money for this great survivor and all that it means.”

James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, said: “The Tees Transporter Bridge is one of Britain’s most remarkable feats of engineering and a defining landmark of the North East.

“Its future cannot be left to uncertainty. A clear strategy, supported at national level, is urgently needed to secure both its structure and its continued role in the life of the region”.

It’s 10 years since Shelagh Stephenson took a plaque on Tynemouth Front Street and turned it into a sparkling, funny play called Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing.

Martineau, a writer who campaigned against slavery and for women’s rights, came to Tynemouth and took to her bed while supposedly receiving treatment from her mild-mannered brother-in-law, Dr Thomas Greenhow, who proved no match for her powerful personality.

Or at least, that’s how it was in this telling (and a re-reading of the play will remind you how clever it is, having a little fun at Martineau’s expense without diminishing her achievements).

Even more years have passed – 16, in fact - since A Northern Odyssey, in which Shelagh speculated tantalisingly about the American artist Winslow Homer’s 19^th Century love affair with Cullercoats, just along the coast.

And now comes Astell & Woolf, the (long ago) promised third play which was “supposed to be part of that trilogy but it isn’t because I couldn’t think of a third one”, says the playwright with refreshing candour.

Live Theatre artistic directors have come and gone since that initial loose arrangement of some two decades ago.

“I think like most writers – me, anyway – you have to get yourself into a state of panic, like it’s got to be delivered in a minute, before you can actually do it,” muses Shelagh in a studio at Live Theatre.

“If someone says you haven’t got a deadline, you don’t have any urgency or you think, I’ll just keep doing some more research. You have to get yourself in a state of anxiety and terror.

“My agent’s used to it now. Whenever I say, ‘Can we just give the commission back because I can’t write this play?’ they go, ‘Oh, I know. But why don’t you just write it?’”

This approach, says Shelagh, has tended to work, so along comes North East play number three, sitting apart from the others in that it isn’t set in North Tyneside where Shelagh grew up.

It came about, she says, because Jack McNamara, current artistic director of Live Theatre, asked if she’d write a one-woman play about Mary Astell.

Like Mrs Martineau, the only memorial to this lady in the North East is a plaque, erected more recently than Harriet’s on the boundary wall of Newcastle Cathedral.

And since she was born in 1666, 136 years before Martineau, the mists of time have enshrouded her even more completely.

Shelagh said she’d check her out, this Newcastle-born pioneer of feminist thinking from a time before feminism was, as they say, a thing.

But having checked, she wasn’t enamoured.

“I came back and said, ‘I’m having huge difficulties because she’s so Christian in a really irritating way and I just can’t write a one-woman show and ignore that. And in any case I hate one-woman shows’.”

Jack, taking a different tack from Shelagh’s agent, reportedly said: “Don’t worry, we’ll think of something else.”

Then two things happened. Shelagh was reading Three Guineas, a book by Virginia Woolf “about the patriarchy”, and saw that she mentioned Mary Astell several times.

“And then I discovered that Mary Astell had a parrot and everything fell into place. Once you get the parrot, you think, Oh, that makes her a different personality to what I thought.”

So she presented the idea of a play involving Mary Astell and Virginia Woolf (1882 to 1941) to Jack who asked the obvious question: “How are they going to meet?”

Well, obviously, Shelagh replied, they were going to be dead. And she’d put them in a waiting room, somewhere municipal. “It’s not a period drama, you know. It’s not flim-flam. They’re sitting in a waiting room.”

Equally literal-minded questions from a journalist draw similar exasperation.

“The thing is you can make anything up. It’s not about the real Mary Astell. I don’t know what she was like.

“I don’t even know what Virginia Woolf was like, to be honest. They’re dead. There will be people coming to see this who will say, ‘Actually Virginia Woolf didn’t do this or that’, and you think, no, well they’re dead and it doesn’t really matter.

“It’s not real. It’s not a biographical piece in any sense of the word.”

This waiting room, though. Is it purgatory, this half-way house?

Cue another deep sigh: “It’s a waiting room. On a stage. In a play. That’s what it is. I mean, it’s whatever you want it to be. I don’t know what it is.”

So Astell and Woolf (with shades of French and Saunders, Morecambe and Wise, Newman and Baddiel) are in a waiting room, the former with a stuffed parrot and the latter with… a stuffed dog?

“Virginia Woolf wrote a book about Flush, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel, and there’s been a misunderstanding and somehow she’s ended up with it on a lead.”

And stuffed.

And what’s more, Mary is tethered to an exit sign and wants Virginia, who is free to come and go and is armed with two bottles of sherry, to cut her free.

Don’t imagine Shelagh hasn’t done her research. She can tell you that Mary, denied the university education bestowed on her brother, was the daughter of a wealthy Newcastle coal merchant who died and left his family with nothing.

“She was obviously extraordinarily bright and hugely brave because she went to London by herself, aged 22.

“She’d never been there before and didn’t have enough money to live on, so she wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury who gave her money. I don’t think she’d met him before.”

Perhaps the thing most people know about Mary is her published rhetorical question: “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?”

“I haven’t put that in the play, though,” says Shelagh.

“Bad plays are ones where all the research is on the stage. You do the research and throw most of it away. You know what you’re talking about but you only keep the bits that work… like Mary Astell’s parrot.

“I don’t know why that’s interesting but it is and it does make her a bit different.”

Both were feminists of their respective eras but here they display their differences, says Shelagh, because “you can’t have a play with two people getting on. That’s just having a chat.”

The pair get drunk. Virginia introduces Mary to “the concept of wave particle duality”. And whatever that might be, it introduces a scientific element reminiscent of one of Shelagh’s most famous plays, An Experiment with an Air Pump, set in Newcastle but premiered in Manchester in 1998.

Shelagh left the North East when she went to Manchester University to study drama but says she still comes back often to see family, even if she spends most of her time in London or at their house in France, where her husband is currently looking after their beloved Bedlington terrier.

She’d wanted to be an archaeologist for a long time, she says. But she became an actress although she insists she shouldn’t have – “I can act but I’m not an actress” – before finding her groove as a writer.

“Don’t think I haven’t written anything for 10 years,” she says.

Seemingly television and radio – much more lucrative – have consumed her recent output.

But it’s good to see her back at Live Theatre where Phillippa Wilson (Mary) and Tessa Parr (Virginia) are bringing her latest creation to life under director Karen Traynor and with the aid of two stuffed creatures.

“It’ll make you laugh,” promises Shelagh.

“It’s funny but also sad… like life.”

Astell & Woolf runs from May 14 to June 6. Tickets from the Live Theatre website or call the box office on 0191 232 1232.

Welcome to this week’s Cultured. On Sunday.

There’s plenty to get stuck into this week, from hands-on creativity at BALTIC to stories that look both forward and back.

David Whetstone previews an exhibition that invites visitors to take part, while we also take a look at Jill Halfpenny’s latest TV role, starring alongside Sally Lindsay in a new thriller set in the world of daytime television.

Tony Henderson reports on a Gateshead community preparing to mark the 200th anniversary of a pit disaster, and in this week’s Sunday Column, New Writing North chief executive Claire Malcolm responds to a recent school book ban and the wider “reading crisis”, arguing strongly for the value of deep, engaged reading.

There’s a fresh recommendation for your bookshelf from Collected Books in Durham via the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, while photographer Jodie Beardmore shares a selection of images from her archive in this week’s My Life Through a Lens.

Elsewhere, Michael Telfer heads to the southern hemisphere to recommend a TV police procedural like no other, and this week’s Sunday Plate serves up a standout sweet treat from Dobson and Parnell’s head chef, Kyle Bowman.

Tuck in!

From banned books to shrinking attention spans, New Writing North’s chief executive, Claire Malcolm explores what’s at stake, and why protecting access to books has never mattered more.

As the National Year of Reading continues a pace and as national media coverage of what we are now calling ‘the reading crisis’ (the continued downturn in children finding the attention, solace and stimulation in reading books) continues it’s both enraging and deeply depressing that a Head Teacher in a school in Greater Manchester took it upon themselves to ban 200 books from the school library and to bring about the resignation of the school librarian through pernicious threats about ‘safeguarding’ young minds.

The books in question included Laura Bates’s study of the manosphere and contemporary misogyny Men Who Hate Women, a terrifying but important book when Andrew Tate has such a hold on many young men’s attention, Alice Oseman’s chart topping Heartstopper comics and somewhat ironically George Orwell’s, 1984, which in my day was something you were made to study for exams rather than ban from the premises.

You may be imagining a principled and dedicated teacher reading lots of books in search of offending material but of course the person doing the banning wasn’t actually doing the reading and apparently just asked an AI chatbot which books in the library should be removed. Good to understand both the dereliction of duty and the utter laziness there.

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Founded by Emma Hamlett, Collected Books is an independent bookshop in Durham, with two floors of books to browse as well as coffee, wine, and cake to enjoy. They specialise in writing by women but stock all genres of fiction and non-fiction as well as books for kids, YA titles, poetry, and classics.

As excitement builds in the book world for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in its 30^th anniversary year, this week has seen the announcement of this year’s shortlisted books: Susan Choi’s Flashlight, Marcia Hutchinson’s The Mercy Step, Rozie Kelly’s Kingfisher, Lily King’s Heart the Lover, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion, and Virginia Evans’s The Correspondent. We’re delighted that Heart the Lover by Lily King – one of our favourite books of 2025 – is on the shortlist. We’re putting all our winning chips behind it and have been urging it into hands ever since its publication last October.

I just love Lily King - she writes the messiness of love and loss so well, delivering affecting, believable, and relatable love stories for those of us who don’t really read romance. Heart the Lover is all about first love, lifelong love, grief, regret, the mistakes we make when we are afraid, and - perhaps above all - the importance and impact of books and literature in our closest and most enduring relationships.

This interweaving of life and fiction is in this book from the off with a narrator who is also an author and so understands how to pitch and plot good love stories – the secrets they hide, the highs they ride, and the falls they suffer. But the greatest love story she knows is the one she lived, that didn’t follow the narrative conventions, and that she has never properly told...

Starting as a campus novel, our narrator is in her senior year of college when she gets drawn into and completely swept up with the lives of fellow students Sam and Yash. The friendship between the three is wonderfully youthful and geeky – nights spent drinking and debating, revelling in academic fervour and quickfire banter, and messing around playing the card game that lends the book its title. But the course of these intertwined relationships is not straightforward or smooth, and unpredictable passions and the pull of first love disrupts their happy, innocent trio.

Decades later, the narrator is a successful writer, living a happy, relatively typically domestic up and down life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present. No longer able to hold that past away from herself, the narrator is forced to confront and address the decisions she made in – and the things she has kept hidden from – her youth.

Heart the Lover really is an ideal read. King writes with an incredible balance of precision and beauty, steering well clear of cliche or mawkishness while taking the reader through all the emotions – an epic on a perfectly relatable human scale. Lily King is an excellent novelist and a master in documenting and communicating the human experience. Prepare to laugh and cry just make sure to read it - you won’t be sorry!

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We’ve been asking asking North East-based photographers to open up their archives and select two handfuls of images which encapsulate life as they’ve captured it

Originally from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire and now based in Chester-le-Street, Jodie Beardmore’s journey into photography began simply enough. “I remember using a really basic handheld camera when I was still in high school,” she says. “Nothing technical or polished, but I think that’s where it started.”

Creativity had always been there - she “used to draw a lot” growing up - but photography quickly became something more meaningful. “Finding photography, and art more broadly, genuinely helped me figure out who I was,” she explains. “It gave me a sense of direction and something that felt like mine.”

As a teenager, she began experimenting more seriously, drawn not just to taking pictures but to the possibilities they held. “Early on, I was really drawn to more conceptual, otherworldly work,” she says, citing Brooke Shaden as a major influence. “Her work definitely shaped how I think about photography - not just as documentation, but as a way to create something more imaginative and emotionally driven.”

That idea of photography as storytelling has stayed with her ever since.

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Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s choice mixes sandals, swearing and a giant seal that eats tongues.

When Deadloch was recommended to me by a friend last year, she provided scant detail or description other than “Just watch it, and thank me later”, and so I had the rare experience of firing up a box set with no idea of what I was about to watch. Which may be the best way to blunder into this brilliant, quirky one-of-a-kind show.

And if you want to stop reading here and fire up the first season I won’t take it personally. Go for it, thank me later.

For those who need a bit more convincing, Deadloch is an Australian comedy murder mystery series, which debuted on Amazon Prime in 2023. When a dead body turns up in the sleepy coastal town of Deadloch it sets a fire under the previously peaceful existence and threatens to tear the whole place apart.

Fastidious local policewoman Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) is reluctantly teamed up with no-nonsense (or no shit, as she would undoubtedly say) Darwin based detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeline Sami) who is parachuted into Deadloch to provide homicide expertise.

Pairing two contrasting personalities – in this case the diligent, by the book, happily married lesbian Collins with the hair-trigger impulsive, radioactively tempered Redcliffe – is a well-trodden trope in police dramas, but the sheer gulf between the characters and approaches of the two policewomen in Deadloch gives them an irresistible chemistry.

Eddie gets some of the best lines I’ve ever heard in a TV show, but unfortunately none of them are repeatable on a Sunday morning. Imagine In The Thick Of It’s Malcolm Tucker played by a horny Tasmanian devil and you’re in the right ballpark.

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The Sunday Plate sees chefs from kitchens across the North East share a recipe for you to try at home - a taste of the region’s food scene, one dish/treat at a time.

This week’s Sunday Plate comes from Dobson & Parnell, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a major refurbishment and a fresh take on modern British dining on the Quayside.

Now centred around a more open, social kitchen, the restaurant continues to evolve while staying rooted in quality, seasonal produce from across the North East.

At the helm is award-winning head chef Kyle Bowman, whose near 20 years in the industry - and accolades including North East Chef of the Year - inform a style that’s creative, precise and grounded in sustainability.

While his favourite dish is whipped peas pudding with pork cheek, crackling, and pork jus, he’s delved into the dessert section of his recipe book for this week’s Sunday Plate.

Sticky Stout Pudding

Ingredients

200g self raising flour

200g dark brown sugar

200g chopped dates

1 bottle Saint Dominic Porter

54g butter

11g baking powder

1 tsp bi carbonated soda

2 eggs

Method

1) Place butter and sugar in a mixer and whisk until smooth and light.

2) Add in the eggs 1 by 1.

3) Place dates and porter in a pan and bring to a simmer, once simmered put in the bi carb and remove from the heat.

4) Add flour to the butter sugar mixture and mix until smooth.

5) Add the date mix and mix until incorporated.

6) Place in a greased tray and bake at 160°C for 30-45 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

7) Serve with butter scotch sauce and vanilla ice cream.

As the National Year of Reading continues a pace and as national media coverage of what we are now calling ‘the reading crisis’ (the continued downturn in children finding the attention, solace and stimulation in reading books) continues it’s both enraging and deeply depressing that a head teacher in a school in Greater Manchester took it upon themselves to ban 200 books from the school library and to bring about the resignation of the school librarian through pernicious threats about ‘safeguarding’ young minds.

The books in question included Laura Bates’s study of the manosphere and contemporary misogyny Men Who Hate Women, a terrifying but important book when Andrew Tate has such a hold on many young men’s attention, Alice Oseman’s chart topping Heartstopper comics and somewhat ironically George Orwell’s 1984, which in my day was something you were made to study for exams rather than ban from the premises.

You may be imagining a principled and dedicated teacher reading lots of books in search of offending material but of course the person doing the banning wasn’t actually doing the reading and apparently just asked an AI chatbot which books in the library should be removed. Good to understand both the dereliction of duty and the utter laziness there.

As we have seen with the broader polarisation of our politics, we are following the US ultra-right political playbook in so many ways. In the US, school and library boards are very busy banning books that they haven’t read from libraries in schools and communities. To be both humbled and afraid, watch the documentary The Librarians on BBC i-player and experience the full horror of men waving guns about in meetings with librarians and terrorising them online for stocking LGBTQI books.

So far this appears to be a one off case, but I’m shocked by how little attention this has garnered in the national media following a thorough report by Index on Censorship.

If I was doomy, I’d say that we may be naturally approaching a point in time where nobody reads books, where nobody can concentrate for very long and that everything that we consume will now be a short vertical video (‘Hey guys!’) with an ad for vitamins or crypto at the end. I do not wish to live in world where ChatGPT gets to be our chief literary critic – that is literally the rock that I would die on. But we don’t have to and there is another narrative taking shape which gives me hope.

If you are on social media, you may well have seen content about ‘my analogue year’ (I know, ironic to find it there but here we are) – a movement where a generation of younger adults are turning off their phones and turning back to reading print books and magazines and to doing other crafty things with their hands rather than scrolling. A new generation is discovering that reading calms the mind, makes you cleverer and that crafting and making bring wellbeing and satisfaction in ways that technology doesn’t. Vogue recently did a whole feature on models posing with books – being clever being the new ‘cool’ – bring it on.

In an ideal world this is what we’d be teaching in schools, the skills to read deeply and widely. Helping everyone to see the benefits to health, wellbeing and democracy that books and being able to think empathetically and critically can bring.

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s futuristic dystopian novel where addiction to technology has led to a lack of empathy and connection (sound familiar?), Guy, a ‘fireman’ burns books in a society where literature is banned to suppress independent thought. He eventually realises that this is bad idea and joins the ‘book people’ a resistance group whose aim is to memorise literature. One of the characters that encourages him on this path is Clarisse, a teenager whose curiosity and love of nature challenge his world view.

On my hopeful days I look forward to a new generation of Clarisses who can see junk tech, AI’s racist, homophobic and sexist reading lists, and associated book banning for what it is, and lead us down a different path.

Luckily, I work with a committed team of Clarisses and we hope to turn the tide on some of these issues through our work. Our new centre for writing and publishing which is now in the works will be a beacon for reading and engaged debate and a place where all books – and especially those that challenge and open minds will be championed and celebrated.

For a deeper dig into why freedom of expression is important join us next week on April 29 where the writer Max Porter will be delivering the 2026 PEN Lecture at Newcastle University. If you want to know more about reading and your brain, I highly recommend James Marriot’s BBC Radio 4 series How Reading Made Our Brains available on Sounds.

In the meantime, get reading and enjoy your analogue spring!

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