Cultured. On Sunday 08.03.26
Our weekend edition for longer reads and cultural recommendations
This week’s Cultured. On Sunday begins with a chat with actor, producer and now director Craig Conway, who has been up in Glasgow at FrightFest this weekend premiering his directorial debut feature, Red Riding. Consider this your cue to grab a cushion.
Tony Henderson previews an upcoming exhibition at the Great North Museum: Hancock which brings together remarkable discoveries and lost treasures to tell the deep history of the North East, while we also take a once-around the newly unveiled programme at Live Theatre - packed with world premieres, nostalgic nods and opportunities for emerging talent.
Collected Books marks International Women’s Day with a special recommendation for your shelves, Boxing Clever revisits the True Detective franchise and its return to excellent form, and the Wonfor Vaults rewind Sam’s formidable VHS collection to the very beginnings of The Tube.
Elsewhere, photographer Victoria Wai shares 10 images from her archive in My Life Through a Lens, and we finish in the kitchen with a recipe from Hairy Biker Si King.
Plenty to settle in with this Sunday. Hope you enjoy it.
In a series of recollections, Sam Wonfor is sharing her rather special back catalogue of memories of and personal connection to the iconic 1980s music show, The Tube and other telly treasures.*
*First published during Cultured. North East’s time as the arts and culture section for the region’s subscription platform, The QT
The Tube: Where it all began
So far in this series, we’ve been to 1985 with Fats Domino; caught up with Tina Turner in 1983; been to Paris with Wham!; taken a once around the many Wonfor/McCartney encounters; and served up memories of some Fine Young Cannibals as I continue to work my way through the (unfinished) list of 40 memorable moments I started with my Dad (and director of The Tube) Geoff Wonfor to mark the 40th anniversary of its first episode on November 5, 1982.
Although I agree it’s a bit late to quote Julie Andrews when we’re this far in, I am going to go back to the very beginning of the groundbreaking music show… and even a bit further.
Let’s start in the kitchen of our old house in Hillhead Parkway, Chapel House. (It’s a very good place to start.)
While last night’s telly might be a subject you’d expect to hear talked about at your average breakfast table, in our house, it was often telly which hadn’t been made yet which was top of the bacon and eggs agenda.
In 1982, it was the exciting - some might even say terrifying - prospect of delivering a new kind of show for a new kind of channel.
A bit of background.
Mum (Andrea Wonfor) was head of the children’s department at Tyne Tees (which included youth - ‘yoof’ - programming) and had been getting some industry attention with producer, Malcolm Gerrie, for a strong commitment to making ambitious series like magazine and music shows, Check It Out and Alright Now from the City Road studios in Newcastle.
When the advent of an alternative new fourth channel* edged into view they went off to London to confidently present their proposal for Jamming, a music/magazine series comprising six half hours, which would be recorded in Tyne Tees’ new Studio Five.
*I think we can all agree, the name the powers that be decided on was possibly the least alternative option on the channel-naming table.
Mike Bolland - the new channel’s ‘youth controller’ - wasn’t blown away.
“I really liked Andrea and her producer Malcolm Gerrie. I greatly admired the shows they made for ITV, but Jamming didn’t excite me,” he wrote in a piece for The Independent in 2016.
But rather than send them back to Newcastle empty handed, he sent them on their way with a cup which was running over. And a couple of overflowing saucepans to boot.
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 range across all genres in fiction and non-fiction as well as books for kids, YA titles, poetry, and classics. Founder Emma Hamlett offers a recommendation for International Women’s Day.
At Collected Books every day is a celebration of women from across the world – their words, their creativity, their stories – but International Women’s Day is, of course, particularly special!
To help readers mark this important day we want to recommend a brand new, debut novel by a brilliant Edinburgh-based author, currently studying at Durham University.
Aimée MacDonald is a writer of novels, short stories, and poems and a graduate of the Faber Academy. The Last Witch on the Knock is her debut novel and Collected’s March Book of the Month.
Bookseller, Caly says: This book is a fantastically mesmerizing debut following an unsettled young woman over one hazy summer in the Scottish Highlands. In need of a fresh start, Thomasin leaves her toxic boyfriend, absent father and empty friendships to spend time with her eccentric Aunt Agnes and stern little cousin, Nina. But amidst the sprawling fields and ragged hills thrums a secret that has cursed the land for generations.
300 years earlier, Kate McNiven labours in The Big House by the Knock hill, wishing for a brighter future far away from the lecherous clutches of her master, the Laird. When she is exiled as a witch for refusing to succumb to his advances, Kate finds the escape she so desperately seeks in Thomasin, whose vulnerable body becomes her unwilling host. In the thin place between centuries, through a pulsing wound that bleeds out history, the truth of the past is finally ready to be revealed...
Wonderfully funny and feverish, The Last Witch on the Knock is a vivid blend of folk horror and contemporary fiction exploring the mental and bodily suffering of women, over centuries to the present day. Reading like a twisty modern fairytale, this is an original and razor-sharp retelling of a Celtic witchcraft myth not to be missed.
Upcoming events at Collected include Marie Darrieussecq on Pig Tales, March 11 at 7.30pm; Ali Isaac on Imperfect Bodies, March 20 at 7.30pm; Charlotte Cross on The Brides, March 31 at 7.30pm; and an evening of lively conversation with writers from the Royal Literary Fund talking about their writing life, their favourite books, and their routes to publication on March 25.
We’ve been asking asking a North East-based photographer to open up their archives and select two handfuls of images which encapsulate life as they’ve captured it
It was an Eternal concert at Newcastle City Hall in 1994 which first got Victoria Wai into photography, but it wasn’t until 2019 that she made it her job.
“After years of having a day job to pay the bills where I was getting more discontent I finally bit the bullet,” says the South Shields-born snapper, who now resides in Gateshead.
Asked what makes her a good photographer, she refers us to her nickname.
“I’m not sure to be fair, but I have been nicknamed a ninja in that I am fairly unseen to make sure I get the photo and many have liked the results.”
Specialising in live music photography, Victoria says she feels most content when capturing behind the scenes moments.
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week, he’s looking back at 2024’s creepy - and chilly - return to form for True Detective.
Released at the beginning of 2024, Night Country is the fourth season of True Detective, with each telling a separate, self-contained and usually disturbing story.
The enduring success and popularity of the series is largely down to two things; the consistently high quality of the casting and the spectacular virtuosity of the first series, which saw Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson investigating a gruesome set of murders in the blistering heat of Louisiana.
Seasons two and three featured new detectives played by Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell, and Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff respectively, but in the eyes of most critics and viewers they failed to hit the same levels of intensity and intrigue as the original.
The most recent season sees Jodie Foster as police chief Danvers reluctantly teaming up with newcomer Kali Reis’ Detective Navarro to determine what happened to a team of scientists who came to a grisly (and chilly) end on the Alaskan ice, apparently dying of either exposure or terror.
This week’s recipe comes from Hairy Biker and founder of Propa Pies, Si King.
Launch a year ago, Propa Pies - which can be found at Sunderland’s Sheepfolds - serves up hearty comfort food made with ingredients sourced, where possible, within a 50-mile radius.
Si has shared a recipe which he says is a great favourite from the Hairy Bikers’ Chicken & Egg book, “this is one of the best of all pies I reckon”.
Chicken, ham and leek pie
Ingredients
For the pastry:
500g shortcrust pastry (shop-bought or make your own)
Flour, for dusting
Beaten egg, to glaze
For the filling:
450ml chicken stock
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
75g butter
2 leeks, trimmed and cut into 1cm slices
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
50g plain flour
200ml whole milk
2–3 tbsp white wine
(optional)
150ml double cream
150g thickly sliced ham, cut into 2cm chunks
salt and black pepper
Instructions
Heat the stock in a saucepan. Add the chicken and bring the stock to a low simmer, then cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the breasts and set them aside, then pour the stock into a jug for later.
Melt 25g of the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the leeks and fry them gently for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until just softened, then add the garlic and cook for a further minute. Add the remaining butter, then once it has melted, stir in the flour. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Slowly pour the milk into the saucepan, a little at a time, stirring well. Gradually add 250ml of the stock, then the wine, if using, and stir until the sauce is smooth and slightly thickened. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 minutes. Season the sauce to taste, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream. Pour the sauce into a large bowl and cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin forming. Set aside to cool.
Chicken Ham and Leek Pie - one of Si King’s favourites from the Hairy Bikers’ Chicken and Egg book Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C /Gas 6. Put a baking tray in the oven to heat up.
Cut off about a third of the pastry for the lid of the pie. Roll out the remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 5mm thick and 4cm larger than the pie dish and use it to line the pie dish. Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and stir them and the ham and leeks into the sauce. Pour all the filling into the pie dish.
Roll out the rest of the pastry and lay it over the filling. Trim the edges and
crimp them together, then cut a small steam hole in the top. Brush the pastry
with the rest of the beaten egg. Put the dish on the preheated tray in the oven and bake for 35–40 minutes until piping hot and golden brown on top.
