Culture Digest 29.08.25
After a brief summer hiatus, here's a round up of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention over the past couple of weeks
Sheridan Smith joins Ann Ming in Durham for emotional screening of I Fought The Law
The Gala Theatre in Durham was the setting for a powerful and moving screening of the first episode of ITV’s new drama I Fought The Law on Thursday night.
Cast, crew, and those who helped bring the production to life gathered to watch the story of Ann Ming - the Teesside mother whose tireless 17-year fight changed an 800-year-old law.
The series, produced by Hera Pictures and filmed entirely in the North East with the support of regional screen agency North East Screen, stars Sheridan Smith as Ann. It dramatises the campaign she waged after her daughter Julie Hogg was murdered in 1989, and her killer initially walked free under the double jeopardy rule.
For many of the North East crew, the project carried extra weight. Having lived through the original events, they were determined to tell Ann’s story with authenticity and respect.
That commitment was recognised by the BAFTA winning lead actress, and the series’ executive producer Charlotte Webber, director Erik Richter Strand and writer Jamie Crichton, who all praised the warmth, skill and professionalism of local teams in bringing the series to the screen.
Album anniversary triggers tour for Maxïmo Park
Maxïmo Park will celebrate 20 years of their breakthrough debut A Certain Trigger with a special anniversary tour next February.
The Mercury Prize-nominated album, first released in 2005, put the Newcastle-bred band on the map with its sharp hooks and indie anthems like Apply Some Pressure and Graffiti.
Frontman Paul Smith, originally from Billingham, will lead the band through a set mixing the much-loved album with greatest hits spanning their two-decade career.
For North East fans, the highlight will be a homecoming show to round off the tour at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall on February 21. Support on all dates comes from art-rock outfit Art Brut. Tickets go on general sale today (August 29) from maximopark.com.
REVIEW: Grief Floats, Company of Others, Tynemouth
It’s dark at King Edward’s Bay at 5am but the dawn comes quickly, a lightening of the sky and a sudden orange glow through the wispy clouds above the cliffs.
But even before the sun this morning (August 27) came the latest iteration of Grief Floats, a contemporary dance work from Company of Others.
It is a piece in which Nadia Iftkhar’s innovative, Newcastle-based dance company demonstrates its willingness to defy convention, spurning a theatre’s comfortable certainty for an amphitheatre fashioned by nature and open to the elements.
It is, according to Company of Others, “a gentle protest, an act of remembering and an annual communal reflection on all we have lost and continue to lose, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the North Sea”.
Lauren Laverne fronts Mercury Prize in Newcastle alongside week of fringe events
Sunderland treasure and BBC Radio 6 Music presenter, Lauren Laverne has been confirmed as host of this year’s Mercury Prize, which will take place in Newcastle on October 16 - the first time the prestigious awards have been held outside London.
The Mercury Prize celebrates the best British and Irish albums of the year, with past winners including Ezra Collective, Little Simz, Arctic Monkeys, Portishead and Pulp.
Lauren, a long-standing champion of the North East music scene, will fittingly front the ceremony at the Utilita Arena, broadcast live by the BBC.
Alongside the main event, the Mercury Prize Newcastle Fringe - run by Generator NE and supported by the North East Combined Authority - will run from October 9-15, bringing live gigs, workshops and discussions to venues across the region, from The Glasshouse in Gateshead and Pop Recs in Sunderland to Hexham’s Queen’s Hall Arts and Newcastle’s World Headquarters.
The 12-strong shortlist will be revealed on September 10.
Reams of goodies in store at Durham Book Festival
An enticing and wide-ranging programme has been announced for this year’s Durham Book Festival – all crammed, miraculously, into one hectic October weekend.
Among those gathering to celebrate the power of the written word will be real authors (not an AI bot among them) including Dame Pat Barker, Ann Cleeves, Jonathan Coe, Eliza Clark and Natasha Brown.
Joining them – or at least sharing the programme – will be poets Malika Booker and Andrew McMillan, music fan and political columnist John Harris, shopping guru Mary Portas and Durham University chancellor and former US presidential advisor Fiona Hill.
Steph McGovern and Jeremy Vine, joining the ranks of broadcasters turning to crime (fiction), will be present to talk about their debut additions to the canon, the former discussing Deadline with Ann Cleeves and the latter (a Durham Uni graduate) spilling the beans on The Murder on Line One.
Why National Theatre brace is good news for audiences here
No prizes on offer to any passer-by for guessing the big autumn season opener at the Theatre Royal, what with it being festooned with promotional material for War Horse.
No prizes on offer to any passer-by for guessing the big autumn season opener at the Theatre Royal, what with it being festooned with promotional material for War Horse.
The global mega-hit which took puppetry to new levels is taking up residence for a September fortnight on Grey Street and chief executive Marianne Locatori could hardly be more delighted.
“It’s such a beautiful, poignant story and it’ll look stunning on our stage. People might have seen it before but it’s a phenomenal production that really transports you.
“That’s the beauty of theatre – and also why this show keeps getting brought back.”
She has every reason to regard it with particular fondness.
The first UK tour of War Horse, back in 2013 after it had been wowing audiences at the National Theatre and in the West End, opened at Plymouth Theatre Royal which Marianne was running at the time.
BBC launches 'game changing' first digital accelerator with North East Screen
The BBC has announced its first digital-focused accelerator, in partnership with North East Screen, representing the broadcaster’s largest investment of its kind in the region’s digital screen sector.
Unveiled at the recent Edinburgh TV Festival 2025, the Digital Accelerator will provide £600,000 in funding to fast-track the growth of digital-first content companies in the North East. The scheme will combine direct investment with mentoring and skills development, aiming to unlock long-term creative and commercial potential in the region.
Over a 9–12 month period, up to four independent production companies will be selected to take part.
Each will receive funding to develop and produce innovative content for both BBC and non-BBC platforms, ranging from vertical video (aka portrait mode, upright clips) and livestreams to creator collaborations and storytelling native to platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Twitch.
Finally, the Lit & Phil has a ghost we can all see
Are there really ghosts at the Lit & Phil? Step inside Newcastle’s 200-year-old independent library and it won’t seem implausible. All those nooks and crannies; all those old books.
Book uncovers stories of life inside Newcastle’s lost prison
A century ago the doors of Newcastle Prison, through which an estimated 250,000 unfortunates had passed, closed for the last time.
The gaol, east of Pilgrim Street in Carliol Square, had opened in 1828 and was described as having the appearance of a fortress built to withstand a siege.
The jail was designed by leading Newcastle architect John Dobson, a commission in stark contrast to his Central Station, Royal Arcade and a series of Northumberland mansions.
Dobson was nothing if not thorough and while working on his design consulted well-known burglars to glean information on how they had escaped from jail.
Now to mark the centenary of the prison’s closure, a book based on years of research has been produced which details how the jail functioned, the life inside its walls led by inmates and staff, and the remarkable stories the place generated, including escapes and executions.
REVIEW: Pits, People and Players, Ensemble ’84, Horden
Ensemble ‘84 announced its presence in the North East – in the County Durham village of Horden, unlikely as that might seem – back in the spring with a triumphant production of Brecht’s Mother Courage.
That was a collaboration with the acclaimed South African company, Isango Ensemble.
Could the County Durham players – mostly raw recruits trained by Mark Dornford-May, founding artistic director of both ensembles and director of this show – hack it on their own?
I can’t have been the only one asking myself that question as I took my place in the auditorium which, as a former Methodist church, is more rough and ready than grand circle luxury.
Afterwards, in fact, one of the actors confessed they’d been asking it of themselves.
The answer came in seconds. Of course they could.
Exhibition explores our relationship with 'damaged' planet
A big exhibition opens at the Hatton Gallery in September – one to make you think, maybe change your mind and perhaps even act.
That, presumably, would be the hope of Uta Kögelsberger who cares deeply about the planet and whose artistic practice (to quote from her own website) “frequently positions itself beyond the gallery walls and in the public realm”.
On her Newcastle University staff profile – she is a professor in the school of arts and cultures – she describes her practice as “a multi-tentacled beast” featuring interconnecting strands.
“It is often collaborative and brings myriad people from different disciplines together to set out to articulate social, political and ecological concerns through video installation, photography, sound and sculpture.”
Miners’ voices from 1984 strike come to life in new Berwick exhibition
A new exhibition opens in Berwick this month, marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike of 1984–85.
The Burr of Berwick Film Library - a community video archive and exhibition series - launches its latest show on Saturday, August 30, 4–6pm, with a focus on Miners’ Weekend School (1984) – a six-part documentary created by Amber Films’ Current Affairs Unit.
Filmed in Ashington at the height of the strike, the tapes capture a weekend of grassroots political education, where miners, families and supporters came together to share strategies, discuss legal rights, challenge media narratives, and build solidarity networks. The issues they grappled with - policing, bias, community resilience - remain sharply relevant today.
The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the power of mutual aid and working-class organising, as well as Amber’s radical legacy in British cinema.
The show runs every Saturday, 12-4pm, from August 30 to October 31, at 22 Bridge Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
National Television Awards: North East nominees to look out for
The region is well represented in this year’s National Television Awards, with a host of familiar names and shows vying for honours.
Geordie favourites Ant and Dec are nominated twice, in the Reality Competition category for I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and once again for TV Presenter – a category they have famously dominated for more than two decades.
Darlington writer Mark Brotherhood is behind Ludwig, a BBC drama starring David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin, which is shortlisted in the New Drama category (and which has been commissioned for a second series, so it has already won, really).
The region also has reason to cheer in Returning Drama, with the final series of Vera - filmed across the North East and based on Ann Cleeves’ book series - earning a nomination. Adopted Geordie Brenda Blethyn is also recognised individually for her role as DCI Vera Stanhope, shortlisted for Drama Performance.
Elsewhere, Loose Women competes in the Daytime category, with Denise Welch a regular panellist. You can vote in all categories on the NTA website.
Locals in the frame to launch Blyth Celebrates
Blyth residents came face to face with their photographic portraits on the eve of the Blyth Celebrates launch weekend which will see the Northumberland town come alive… well, more alive than usual.
Assembled for the mayoral formalities and the official unveiling at the new Market Pavilion, the sitters (or standers) seemed pretty pleased with the results.
The 100 Portraits of Blyth project was commissioned for Blyth Celebrates from Candle & Bell, the Gateshead-based creative production company founded by Maria Caruana Galizia, its lead producer.
She and North East documentary photographer Sel MacLean call it one of the most exciting projects they’ve ever worked on.
Briggflatts reading a Hexham Abbey Festival highlight
A chance to hear Basil Bunting’s rarely heard masterpiece Briggflatts read by Sean O’Brien seems certain to be a highlight of September’s Hexham Abbey Festival.
The festival, now in its 72nd year, also includes performances by Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening, celebrated choral ensemble The Sixteen and the Hexham Abbey Festival Chorus and Orchestra.
But the afternoon reading on September 25 of Briggflatts, with harpsichord interludes by John Green, former director of music at the abbey, sounds particularly special.
“One of the most important poets of the 20th Century” is how Bunting is described in the festival billing. But how many people know of him or could recite a single line of his work?
He is one of those major figures of North East - and national and international - cultural life who tends to be rediscovered periodically.
Newcastle to host BBC New Comedy Awards heat
Newcastle is set to take centre (stand-up) stage in the BBC’s biggest comedy talent search this September, as the BBC New Comedy Awards 2025 celebrates its 30th anniversary with a live regional heat at the city’s Boiler Shop.
The Northern Heat, taking place on September 22, will see five rising stars of stand-up battle it out for a coveted spot in the Grand Final.
Audiences can secure free tickets now for what might be the night to see the next big thing when it comes to stand up… but either way it’s pretty much nailed on to be an excellent night of good times.
Yorkshire’s own Amy Gledhill, winner of the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show and familiar face from Alma’s Not Normal and Hullraisers, will host the night, which will be broadcast on BBC Three and available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Judging the acts will be an expert panel led by Fatiha El-Ghorri, acclaimed comedian and actor known for Mr Big Stuff, Taskmaster and Live at the Apollo. She will be joined by Manchester’s Dan Tiernan (8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown) and Teesside’s Phil Dunning (Smoggie Queens, Am I Being Unreasonable?).
National spotlight for North East photographer’s dancer portrait
A striking portrait of an 11-year-old ballroom dancer from Newcastle will be displayed in one of the world’s most respected photography exhibitions.
Christopher Owens, a Newcastle upon Tyne-based photographer, will see his image of young dancer Abe exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the world-famous Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2025.
The annual competition, widely regarded as the gold standard for contemporary portrait photography, attracts submissions from across the world, showcasing everyone from gifted amateurs to celebrated professionals.
This year, Christopher’s image was selected from 5,910 entries submitted by photographers from 51 countries - placing him in the top one per cent of entrants.
Why the region is fertile ground for contemporary dance
Seeds were sown when Dora Frankel founded her Fertile Ground dance company in Newcastle – and now it’s time to bring in The Harvest.
That’s the name of the company’s mini-festival of contemporary dance in September, which current artistic director Renaud Wiser hopes will prove fruitful in many ways.
All are invited for a programme of workshops, discussions and performances aimed at highlighting the region’s “rich and growing” contemporary dance scene.
And in Renaud’s personal contribution as choreographer, a new 30-minute work called E-Motion, there’s an opportunity to participate in an original and very 21st Century way. But we’ll come to that.
What of this growing contemporary dance scene?