Culture Digest 16.01.26
A round up of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention over the past week or so...
Newcastle’s literary ambitions given a national platform
“Signalling ambition is what we’re about,” Claire Malcolm said on Tuesday (January 13), concluding an interview on the BBC Radio 4 arts programme, Front Row.
The Old Post Office on St Nicholas’ Street, opposite Newcastle Cathedral, is quite some signal.
“I looked on Google Maps and you’ve got a brilliant portico,” said interviewer Tom Sutcliffe, impressed.
Newcastle City Council have agreed a £1m grant towards a new Centre for Writing and Publishing, adding to the £5m already allocated by the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and bringing the total raised or pledged so far – according to the Front Row interview - to £10.5m.
If this is to be the new Centre for Writing and Publishing which has been an ambition of New Writing North’s founding chief executive for several years, then shy and retiring it will not be.
Graham Norton’s Forever Home heads to Northumberland in new Channel 5 drama
A new Channel 5 drama backed by North East funding is set to bring a darkly twisted story of marriage, memory and buried secrets to screens in 2026.
Forever Home, a six-part adaptation of Graham Norton’s best-selling novel, will film in Northumberland with a cast including North East actors Kevin Whately, Denise Welch and James Baxter alongside Amy Nuttall, Douglas Henshall, Samantha Bond, Lewis Cope, Jenny Walser and Shane Zaza.
The adaptation has been written by author and screenwriter, Clara Salaman, whose previous work includes acclaimed ITV drama, Too Close.
Norton, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, said the story began with a deceptively ordinary idea.
“In writing Forever Home, I was initially inspired by the simple idea of packing up a home later in life, and the ‘what if’ scenarios and complexities that come with later-life relationships,” he said.
“The novel soon evolved into a funny, twisted, ‘dark-romp’ full of farcical scenes and it’s wonderful to see the depth and richness of Carol’s story realized as a screenplay.”
Black and white dreams reach the West End as Gerry and Sewell opens at the Aldwych
The Strand was awash with black and white on Thursday night as Gerry and Sewell officially marked its West End arrival with a gala opening at the Aldwych Theatre.
Inside, the sense of occasion was unmistakable as a sizeable expat Geordie contingent - those who had made the journey south and adopted Geordie, Vera legend, Brenda Blethyn - gathered to support a production that, in just over three years, has travelled from an attic theatre in Whitley Bay to one of London’s most prominent stages.
That journey, forged through sell-out runs at Live Theatre and Newcastle Theatre Royal, has been as improbable and hard-won as the story unfolding on stage.
The 16-performance West End residency represents the most ambitious chapter yet in the show’s relatively short but dramatic life. Announced with little more than eight weeks’ notice - Christmas firmly wedged in the middle - the transfer demanded rapid adaptation, expansion and belief from a village of creatives determined not to let the opportunity pass.
The result is a production that looks entirely at home in Theatreland, while simultaneously serving up something the West End too rarely sees: a defiantly regional story told on its own terms.
Baltic and Side unite to sustain documentary tradition
The next chapter in the inspiring but chequered story of Side, whose Newcastle Quayside gallery has been a beacon for documentary photography for decades, will see it teaming up with Baltic.
It is to open a curatorial office at the Gateshead centre for contemporary art from February, thereby becoming its ‘cultural tenant’.
The initiative has been hailed by both parties as an exciting but pragmatic move in challenging times – and timely because of two anniversaries coming up in 2027, Side’s 50th and Baltic’s 25th.
A letter to Side supporters from Laura Laffler, managing director of Amber Film & Photography, says it’s the first of the “big changes” she warned of last year.
“We’re excited that it marks the first step in making the AmberSide Collection, our programming and documentary photography more accessible than ever, and finding ways for work to be seen in free-to-access public settings by more people,” she writes.
Wraps come off Monet masterpiece in South Shields
The Monet is now in the building, as the sign outside South Shields Museum and Art Gallery indicates.
The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil is the third painting to come our way as part of the National Gallery’s Masterpiece Tour, aimed at making its treasures more widely available.
It follows Constable’s The Cornfield, displayed in Jarrow in 2023, and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire, exhibited at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery the following year.
The Monet here is accompanied by paintings from North East Museums’ collections and work done by young people experiencing EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance).
Showing a wintry riverside scene, this is not the Claude Monet famous for sunsets, poppies and water lilies.
But it’s an important painting, says South Shields gallery manager Geoff Woodward, showing the artist developing his Impressionist technique.
See the exhibition from Saturday (January 17) until March 25.
Blyth boasts world first at spring Festival of Energy
You might have seen one of Luke Jerram’s fabulous planetary sculptures in one of the North East’s landmark buildings.
Newcastle’s Life Science Centre hosted one, as did Durham Cathedral. More recently Seaton Delaval Hall and Hexham Abbey have been transformed by the presence of one or other of them.
But Blyth will soon be able to boast a world first – two Jerram sculptures, his Earth (known as Gaia) and his Moon (Museum of the Moon), together in one place; and a place, moreover, not normally open to the public.
They’re to be a highlight of the Festival of Energy, the climax of the Blyth Celebrates creative programme that began in August.
“I’ve done plenty of festivals,” says Bev Ayre, senior producer with Walk The Plank, the Salford-based outdoor art company commissioned to produce it.
“I’ve done a wine festival, a tall ships festival, even a nonsense festival, but this is my first festival of energy.”
Steph McGovern brings the art market into play for new TV series
Middlesbrough broadcaster Steph McGovern is set to front a new BBC Arts competition series exploring the high-stakes world of contemporary art dealing.
Scheduled for broadcast in 2026, The Big Deal with Steph McGovern will be a six-part series following seven pairs of art-curious contestants as they attempt to buy and sell artworks for profit, despite having no prior professional experience in the art market.
Each week, the aspiring dealers will face challenges designed to test their instincts and entrepreneurial skills – from spotting emerging artists and building relationships to persuading buyers and closing sales.
Their progress will be judged by series expert Cordelia de Freitas, alongside guest judges including curator Matt Carey-Williams, artist Margo McDaid and digital art marketplace executive Ani Petrov. The winning pair will take home £50,000 worth of art.
Steph said: “This show dispels the myth that the art world is exclusive. I’m buzzing for you to see how our dealers, from all walks of life, get on when we take them into the heart of the art market.”
Celebrating a long drive
For Tyneside pioneering women golfers there were more challenges than simply improving their game.
The City of Newcastle Golf Club was founded in 1891 with its clubhouse in the windmill facing a course on the Town Moor.
The first female golfers played in heavy, full-length dresses and skirts and stiff petticoats, which all severely restricted movement, but they were determined to make their mark despite disapproval from many men.
New play Shuggy Boats heads to Live Theatre
Newcastle’s Live Theatre has announced a two-week run of a new play in the spring, promising a mix of comedy, confrontation and celebration.
Presented by Jackdaw Media and written by Jacquie Lawrence, Shuggy Boats centres on Maeve, described as a force of nature who reveals a life-altering secret during her birthday party, in front of a family already under strain from grief, work pressures and clashing expectations.
What follows is “a shuggy boat ride full of chaos, comedy, confrontation and celebration as the action veers between the disparate worlds of Provvy Women, Mastermind addicts and Tynemouth Pride”.
The ensemble cast includes Dave Johns, Natalie Ann Jamieson, Alicya Eyo, Libby Davison, Phillippa Wilson, Barbara Heslop, Benjamin Storey and Soroosh Lavasani, with additional screen appearances from Denise Welch, Charlie Hardwick and Si King.
The production runs from March 6-21. Tickets on sale now from the website.
Three free exhibitions to open in Sunderland in January
A trio of distinct free art exhibitions will open in Sunderland later this month, spanning contemporary landscape, queer identity and the legacy of glassmaking in the region.
Two exhibitions – Smoke and Mirrors and Bottoms – will open at the National Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA), while The Graduates opens at the National Glass Centre (NGC).
All three open on Saturday, January 31.
North East artist’s ‘nose-pickers’ selected for national exhibition
In terms of subject matter, a painting by university lecturer Dr Colin Cameron will be the pick of the bunch in a London exhibition.
Colin’s artistic speciality across around 200 of his works is portraying people in a wide variety of poses and locations picking their noses.
He won recognition when two of his paintings were accepted for display in the Royal Academy’s 2021 Summer Exhibition. Both sold quickly.
Now another picking picture by Colin, from Whitley Bay, showing participants passing the time while waiting for a bus is part of a new exhibition at top auction house Christie’s in London.
Ant and Dec go off-script with new podcast launch
Geordie presenters Ant and Dec are launching their first podcast as part of a new digital entertainment channel.
Hanging Out with Ant & Dec, will debut later this month and promises a more informal take on the presenters’ lives, with the pair chatting openly and responding directly to listener questions and comments.
The first episode is due to drop on January 22, with new episodes released every fortnight alongside bonus episodes each Monday.
The podcast forms part of a wider new venture, Belta Box, a digital brand which sits on platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Alongside the podcast, the channel will feature clips from Ant and Dec’s long TV careers, as well as new digital formats developed specifically for online audiences.
Belta Box went live on YouTube today (Friday), launching with archive material from shows including Byker Grove, SM:TV and Saturday Night Takeaway.
Both the podcast and the Belta Box channel are produced by the presenters’ own company, Mitre Studios.
The digital launch follows the pair’s recent contract extension with ITV, which will see them continue at the helm of flagship shows including I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Britain’s Got Talent and Limitless Win.
Double call out for artists
Artists across the North East are being invited to get involved in two large-scale creative projects set to shape Newcastle’s public spaces in 2026.
As part of NOVUM Festival 2026, Newcastle City Council’s arts, culture and events team is seeking a participatory artist to co-create banners, flags and bunting with communities across all 26 city wards. The commission fee is £9,900, with artists asked to propose a separate materials and fabrication budget. Applications close at 12 noon on Monday, February 16. The full brief is here.
Meanwhile, artists are also being invited to submit designs for Peter Rabbit: Tales on the Tyne, a major public art trail launching across Newcastle and North Tyneside in 2026. Featuring more than 40 full-size sculptures of Peter Rabbit, the trail will raise funds for St Oswald’s Hospice, which has previously delivered Great North Snowdogs, Elmer’s Great North Parade and Shaun the Sheep on the Tyne.
Submissions for the trail close on February 13.
Vicky is Strictly buzzing to be dancing on home turf
North East broadcaster and presenter, Vicky Pattison is diving back into the sequins and sparkles as she prepares for the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour, which arrives at the Utilita Arena Newcastle on January 27 and 28.
The former Geordie Shore star joins fellow celebrities Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, George Clarke, Lewis Cope, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Ellie Goldstein, La Voix and Layton Williams for the all-dancing, all-dancing tour, which will enjoy three performances on Tyneside.
Vicky said: “I am buzzing like an old fridge to be going to Newcastle! I’ve grown up going to the arena, it’s been so many lovely moments of my childhood and my adult life as well, so it’s nice to be going back there and actually performing.
“A moment, quite frankly, that I never, ever thought would be mine. And it probably never will be again. So I’m taking it very seriously, I’m gonna put on the absolute best show that I can for all of the Geordies!”
The tour, which follows the format of the hit BBC series, brings together a mix of recent finalists, familiar faces and professional dancers - Karen Hauer, Aljaž Škorjanec, Kai Widdrington and Katya Jones are in the mix this year - for a series of live performances voted on by the audience each night.
Hosted by Janette Manrara and judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood, the show combines well-known routines from the TV competition with new large-scale group numbers created specifically for arena stages.
Tickets available here.