Culture Digest 12.09.25
A round up of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention over the past week or so...
Mercury Prize shortlist revealed - as Newcastle prepares to take centre stage
Sam Fender is in the running to bring the Mercury Prize home when the prestigious music award is handed out next month… and he won’t have far to take it as the ceremony is being held in Newcastle.
The North Shields singer’s third album People Watching has earned him a place on the coveted shortlist of 12 Albums of the Year’ announced yesterday (Sept 10) on BBC Radio 6 Music by Sunderland presenting treasure, Lauren Laverne - who will also present the ceremony at the Utilita Arena Newcastle on October 16.
Getting canny cosy, the Mercuries like, aren’t they?
Alongside Sam’s People Watching are Sheffield icons Pulp with their comeback record More, Dublin rockers Fontaines D.C. with Romance, and Mercury favourites Wolf Alice with The Clearing. FKA twigs is recognised for her bold release EUSEXUA, while the wonderful CMAT brings her distinctive twist on country with EURO-COUNTRY.
The list also spotlights rising stars and distinctive voices: Jacob Alon with In Limerence, Joe Webb with Hamstrings & Hurricanes, and Pa Salieu for Afrikan Alien. PinkPantheress earns her first Mercury nod for Fancy That, while jazz innovator Emma-Jean Thackray is shortlisted for Weirdo. Completing the line-up is folk legend Martin Carthy with Transform Me Then Into A Fish - a reminder of the prize’s reach across both the emerging and the established.
Davey Nellist takes Protest Song to New York
Award-winning North East actor Davey Nellist will revisit his performance in Protest Song on stage in New York in the run up to Christmas, with a run at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, one of the city’s most respected Off Off Broadway venues.
Written by Tim Price, the one-man play is set during the Occupy London protests of 2011 and follows Danny, a homeless man swept into a movement he struggles to comprehend.
Newcastle-born Davey, whose theatre credits include Billy Elliott, War Horse, The Pitmen Painters and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, performed the role at London’s Arcola Theatre in 2023.
So if you find yourself in New York between December 4 and 21, get yourself along.
Hit musical Annie heads to Newcastle Theatre Royal
The sun sill be coming out on Tyneside next summer as musical theatre classic Annie has booked a run at Newcastle Theatre Royal as part of a UK and Ireland tour.
Set in Depression-era New York, the show follows a brave young orphan’s escape from Miss Hannigan’s orphanage to a new life with billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Directed by Nikolai Foster, this acclaimed production features classics including It’s the Hard Knock Life and Tomorrow.
Produced by Newcastle’s Michael Harrison and David Ian, tickets go on sale on September 25 from theatreroyal.co.uk
Trailer released for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The official trailer is available to view for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, giving audiences a glimpse of the North East landscapes that play a starring role in the latest instalment of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s apocalyptic saga.
The film is set for release on January 16, 2026.
***Warning - this is a trailer for a horror film. If you don’t like them, don’t watch it***
Directed by Nia DaCosta, The Bone Temple continues the story introduced in this year’s 28 Years Later, which was pretty much entirely shot in the North East and enjoyed a gala ‘black carpet’ premiere at Tyneside Cinema.
Ralph Fiennes leads the cast as Dr Kelson, whose disturbing new relationship threatens the fragile remnants of civilisation, while young Newcastle actor Alfie Williams’s Spike faces a terrifying ordeal at the hands of Jimmy Crystal, played by Jack O’Connell. Erin Kellyman and Chi Lewis-Parry also feature.
Flags fly high to honour Berwick’s women
Berwick-upon-Tweed is ushering in autumn in colourful fashion as 20 vibrant new flags fly across the town, celebrating women’s overlooked contributions to local history.
The striking artworks are part of Berwick Shines, a programme from The Maltings (Berwick) Trust’s Living Barracks project, launched on September 11.
Artist Beth J Ross led the residency, working with a group of local women to research stories from Berwick, Spittal and Tweedmouth. Their findings inspired geometric, symbolic flag designs that now line civic buildings, private gardens and public spaces until October 13.
Fashion on the rails at Bowes Museum
A journey on the newly arrived railway would have been a memorable occasion for passengers whose lives would be changed by the train.
On an individual basis, the railways impacted everything from fashion to the new leisure opportunity of the development of the seaside holiday.
This month’s 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway - the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives - is being marked by a new exhibition, titled Dressed for Departure: Fashion in the Age of Rail, at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.
It assembles historic fashion, artworks and objects that reflect how the engineering advances reshaped lives and culture, especially in the North East, and how the beginning of the railway transformed not just transportation, but also personal style, artistic expression and social habits.
Record crowds flock to Magna Carta exhibition at Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral has welcomed a record number of visitors this summer, as thousands flocked to see three rare Magna Cartas on display. Since the exhibition opened on July 11, more than 15,650 people have visited the Cathedral Museum - over double the number compared with the previous year.
The exhibition, Magna Carta and The North, runs until November 2 and offers a rare opportunity to view the only surviving 1216 Magna Carta, alongside issues from 1225 and 1300, as well as three Forest Charters.
These historic documents, over 800 years old, remain enduring symbols of social justice, brought to life through contemporary art and interactive installations across the cathedral.
Andrew Usher, Chief Officer for Visitor Experience and Enterprise, said: “Visitors aren’t only coming to see rare documents, they’re staying to explore the cathedral, to reflect on the impact of Magna Carta today, and contribute to the ever-changing artwork in the Nave.”
That artwork, The Words That Bind Us by Nicola Anthony, responds to visitors’ choices on what values they would include in a modern charter. The most popular phrase so far? “Peace in our time.”
For details, visit the Cathedral website.
Double tribute for young artists and a fisherman's legacy
A venture which uses art to help young people with diverse needs is celebrating the success of an exhibition which doubled as a tribute to one of the project’s most inspirational supporters.
Flow, a community interest company, has been based at the Old Low Light heritage centre on North Shields Fish Quay for 10 years, where it holds sessions three times a week for participants.
They created sculptures from a variety of recycled materials which went on show at the Tynemouth Station gallery, attracting widespread praise.
The exhibition was also a memorial and celebration of the life of retired fisherman Henry Howard, who was a staunch backer of Flow and contributed to the activity sessions.
Colliery paintings capture Durham’s lost pits
Twenty paintings of County Durham collieries by a little-known artist have become a valuable historical portrayal of a now-lost mining landscape.
The detailed images of the pits by Michael Ronald Prenelle are thought to have been created in the 1950s–70s
The paintings have come to light in a sale by Boldon Auction Galleries, where they fetched a total of £680.
Coastal tales brought to life
Actors collective, The Border Readers are returning to the road this autumn with Shore Lines, a new touring production of short stories inspired by the coastlines of Northumberland and Devon.
The company’s professional actors will visit 17 arts and community venues across the Borderlands, promising audiences an intimate experience of fiction read aloud.
The tour, which runs from September 22 to December 4, features newly commissioned stories from regional writers Jo Scott and Tony Glover.