Culture Digest 26.09.25
A round up of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention over the past week or so...
North East Screen celebrates blockbuster growth in film and TV
The region has become the fastest-growing screen hub in the UK while nurturing homegrown talent and attracting world-class productions.
That’s the elevator pitch for North East Screen’s 3 Years of Big Impacts report, which was released today (September 25).
The findings chart a surge in production that has seen the North East host the final series of beloved ITV detective drama Vera and serve as a post-apocalyptic backdrop for Danny Boyle’s international blockbuster 28 Years Later, alongside a raft of new dramas and comedies filmed across the region.
Between 2022 and 2025, the North East recorded a 131% surge in production spend, translating into more than £65 million in gross value added (GVA). Backed by the North East Screen Industries Partnership (NESIP) and support from both combined authorities, the sector has grown against a backdrop of global challenges for film and TV.
Bailiffgate Museum set to move into historic new home after £4.3m award
A volunteer-run museum has landed a £4.3 million award which will see it expand its activities and bring back to full life a town centre historic building.
Since its creation, the Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick has been based in the town’s listed St Mary’s Church for 23 years.
For the past seven years, the museum’s aspiration has been to move into the Grade I-listed Northumberland Hall in the Market Place in Alnwick, which is under-used.
Now the National Lottery Heritage Fund has provided the major financial boost which will allow the museum’s hopes to be realised by moving into the hall, built in 1826 as a gift by the third Duke of Northumberland to the townspeople.
Bad Lads brings the stories of Medomsley’s forgotten survivors to the stage
“They talked solidly for two days.” That was Jenny Sealey’s first encounter with a group of men who had once been inmates at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre in County Durham.
Their experiences of abuse during their time at the facility had been brought to her attention by a friend, Dr Susan O’Rourke, a consultant clinical psychologist who had been undertaking assessments with the survivors as part of a compensation claim
“The more she talked to them, the more she realised that they really wanted to have their stories out there.”
Invited into a rehearsal room during lockdown in 2021, Jenny and playwright Mike Kenny expected to begin working with the men slowly, with gentle introductions and theatre exercises. Instead, they needed no prompting. Decades of silence poured out in testimony after testimony, accounts of abuse that had shaped entire lives.
From that moment, Graeae Theatre Company’s ‘gripping and devastating’ Bad Lads - produced in association with Newcastle’s Live Theatre - began to take shape. The new play, written by Mike and directed by Jenny, premieres in Newcastle next week (October 2) before a national tour.
Fossil fish poems land major prize for North East poet
It has been a good few days for Northumberland poet Katrina Porteous whose fourth collection, Rhizodont, has won this year’s Laurel Prize.
The prize, run by Poetry School, the national poetry education charity, was established by Simon Armitage when he was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019.
He donates his annual Poet Laureate’s ‘honorarium’ of £5,000 as the first prize in the competition dedicated to poetry about nature and the environment, subjects he cares deeply about.
Big cast for Big Ange
The cast has been revealed for Big Ange, the latest play from Olivier Award-winning writer Jamie Eastlake, which opens at Live Theatre Newcastle in November.
Joann Condon, Gavin Webster, Curtis Appleby, Erin Mullen, Lucy Eve Mann and Ashen Hazel will bring the story to life in a ‘surreal and spirited’ production that blends football, politics and community.
Set in a forgotten town held together by broken bus shelters and fading murals, the play follows a teenage football squad fighting to find meaning in a world of collapsing housing estates, Instagram hearts and glowing graffiti.
At its centre is Big Ange - a whistle-blowing dinner lady armed with blue jeans, a Neil Diamond playlist and the determination to make a difference.
Jamie, whose previous work Gerry and Sewell sold out at Laurel’s, Live Theatre and Newcastle Theatre Royal, says he is excited and delighted with the cast who will serve up what promises to be a sharp, funny and urgent piece about growing up in a fractured political landscape.
Tickets for the run (November 6-22) are on sale from Live Theatre.
Exploring Englishness through the medium of dance
Wednesday was the the night for Anthony Lo-Giudice’s new dance work when Middlesbrough Town Hall hosted the premiere of The Guest.
Don’t worry if you couldn't be there. Other interesting venues await on the tour itinerary – and a follow-up, taking Anthony’s multi-talented company to Iceland, is pencilled in for next year, funding permitting.
Dance is a fabulously broad church. It can accommodate ‘Strictly’ and it can accommodate this, although it would be hard to imagine them in the same room.
Heritage contractor sought to restore maritime treasure
A significant step in Hartlepool’s waterfront regeneration has been announced as the borough council seeks a specialist heritage contractor to work on the paddle steamer PS Wingfield Castle.
The vessel, moored at the Museum of Hartlepool, is seen as a treasured symbol of the town’s maritime history.
Emergency repairs have already taken place but a £1.8 million grant from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, administered by Arts Council England, means a dramatic transformation can now be undertaken.
This next phase will see the ship relocated to land at Trincomalee Wharf for extensive hull and deck restoration along with the installation of new moorings and improved public access infrastructure.
Work is scheduled to begin before the end of the year with the bulk of the work to be undertaken between next summer and spring 2027.
Applications open for Emerging Artist Award at historic home
Applications are open for the fifth annual North East Emerging Artist Award at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall.
The award, a collaboration between the National Trust and independent curator Matthew Jarratt, is open to artists in or from the North East who are in the final year of their undergraduate degree, studying for a master’s degree or who have graduated in the last three years.
Practitioners in any artform can apply, with applications encouraged from those specialising in music or sound, theatre, film, literature and design as well as visual art.
Application forms can be downloaded via the Seaton Delaval Hall website.
Bob Harris to host Country fundraiser in Newcastle
Bob Harris goes all the way back to the early 70s, and an era when glam rock ruled, as he recalls his first experience of a typically warm Geordie welcome.
“Newcastle’s been a regular destination of mine since 1971 when I was touring with Marc Bolan,” explains the former host of The Old Grey Whistle Test. “T Rex played the City Hall just after Hot Love had taken off. I was compering the shows and that was a real hot spot moment for Marc. It was the first of many, many trips to Newcastle over the years. I love the place.”
Bob’s most recent performance in the city was alongside Danny Baker on the Harris and Baker’s Backstage Pass tour. “It was the day before my birthday and I was at a loose end for lunch,” he adds. “That’s when I reconnected with long-time friend Angie Jenkison. We had a lovely afternoon on the Quayside and I suppose that’s when the seeds were sown for Country Rock N Raise.”
Pub on track for historic listing for railway bicentenary
Regulars will be raising a glass to a 200th railway festival celebration this week after their pub was listed to mark the bicentenary.
The Cleveland Bay pub, in Eaglescliffe, County Durham, is one of seven new sites to be listed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England to mark 200 years of the modern railway.
The new listings celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of modern passenger railway services with the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on September 27, 1825, an event which ultimately transformed the world.
The Cleveland Bay is the earliest identified pub in the world to be built specifically in association with a railway line.
Love Island meets Legally Blonde
Amber Davies will step into Elle Woods’ iconic pink heels when Legally Blonde The Musical heads to the North East as part of a new tour next year.
The hit stage show will stop off at Newcastle Theatre Royal from May 12–17 before returning later in the year to Sunderland Empire from December 1-5.
Best known to many as the winner of Love Island in 2017, Davies has carved out a successful career in musical theatre.
Mural celebrates Arthur Wharton and Darlington’s railway legacy
Darlington has unveiled a striking new mural honouring Arthur Wharton – the world’s first black professional footballer - and the town’s pivotal role in shaping global history.
Commissioned by the Arthur Wharton Foundation and funded through Darlington Borough Council’s Creative Darlington project, We Changed the World from Here was created by artist Dan Walls (Illumination Wall Art).
Unveiled as part of the S&DR200 bicentenary celebrations, the mural depicts the iconic Skerne Bridge - the world’s oldest working railway bridge - alongside George Stephenson, Locomotion No.1 and Wharton himself, who played as a goalkeeper for Darlington F.C. in the 1880s.
Largest Iron Age hoard found in UK enters next chapter
A vast hoard of Iron Age objects buried 2,000 years ago is set to leave Durham University this week after two years of research work by experts.
In 2021, metal detectorist Peter Heads came across the first evidence of what would prove to be almost 900 items in Melsonby, North Yorkshire, and alerted Durham University Professor of Archaeology Tom Moore, whom he knew from the academic’s previous studies in the area.
That sparked excavations by a team of archaeologists from Durham University led by Prof Moore, with £120,000 support from Historic England and advice from the British Museum.
Hoard burials were retrieved from two locations near each other and included items ranging from parts of at least seven vehicles such as chariots and wagons, horse harness pieces and spearheads, to a wine-mixing bowl, two ornate cauldrons, an iron mirror and personal adornments.
It is the largest hoard of Iron Age metalwork found in the UK. The site is located near the large ramparted power base at Stanwick – 10 miles from Darlington – of the Brigantes tribe, whose territory stretched across Yorkshire and County Durham.
Now the hoard will be going back to Yorkshire after being acquired by the Yorkshire Museum, which received £192,096 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund alongside support from public fundraising.
Step out for parkrun and support Macmillan this Saturday
Lace up for parkrun tomorrow (Saturday, September 27) as Macmillan Cancer Support hosts a region-wide takeover.
If you haven’t had the pleasure, the free, 5k community event welcomes everyone -walkers, runners, buggy-pushers, cheerers and volunteers - every Saturday at 9am.
Participants and those cheering them on are being invited to donate “the price of a cuppa” to Macmillan’s Big Coffee Morning at their local event.
You can find your nearest parkrun at parkrun.org.uk