Cultured. On Sunday 14.06.26
Our weekend edition for longer reads and cultural signposts
Hello and welcome to this week’s Cultured. On Sunday.
As ever, we’re rounding off the week with a mix of stories from across the North East’s cultural landscape - some celebrating new beginnings, others reflecting on journeys which have reached significant milestones.
David Whetstone reports on important recognition for The NewBridge Project and the return of the Northern Chords festival.
Tony Henderson shines a light on a new Bishop Auckland exhibition and unearths some musical history, and we’ve got reviews from stages in Sunderland and Newcastle.
Elsewhere, Forum Books offers this week’s reading inspiration, while Michael Telfer is firmly back in Slough House thanks to the first trailer for Slow Horses series six.
Meanwhile, the final curtain call for Gerry and Sewell got me thinking about the remarkable journey which took it from a tiny attic theatre in Whitley Bay to the West End.
Happy Sunday!
A little festival with big stars and seductive sounds
Northern Chords is back this month with three concerts of exceptional quality, all indicative of festival founder Jonathan Bloxham’s wish to swell the audience for the classical music he loves.
If you’re aged 25 or under, or a student, you can get in free to all of them (assuming there are tickets left).
At a time of spiralling costs, that’s a jaw-dropping offer. The musicians visiting the region over this long weekend regularly perform in some of the world’s major concert halls.
Even relative oldies pay only £15 for the first two concerts, at St Mary’s Church, Whickham, and The Common Room (formerly the Mining Institute) on Westgate Road, Newcastle, while tickets for the grand finale at St James’ and St Basil’s Church, Fenham, will set you back only an extra fiver.
Speaking from Switzerland, where he is music director of the historic opera house in Lucerne, Jonathan explains: “We want to encourage people who’ve never been to a classical concert before.
“We discussed the pricing a lot with the board but we really want to make sure there are no barriers.
Arts group welcomes Gallery of Sanctuary status
Gallery of Sanctuary status has been awarded to The NewBridge Project in Shieldfield, Newcastle, in recognition of its support for refugees and asylum seekers.
In gaining this recognition from City of Sanctuary UK, the artist-led studio complex joins Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle.
Newcastle-based D6: Culture in Transit is also part of the City of Sanctuary UK network as are the amenities managed by North East Museums (which include the Hatton).
The timely announcement comes just ahead of Refugee Week (June 15 to 21).
A City of Sanctuary UK spokesperson said: “The commitment that The NewBridge Project has made to welcoming people with lived experience of seeking sanctuary is phenomenal.
“We can’t wait to see more of the work to come.”
Exhibition captures beauty of Wensleydales
It was all happening in 1839. The first British-China Opium War broke out, Charles Goodyear successfully vulcanised rubber and the first recorded use of “OK” occurred in the Boston Morning Post.
In the same year the announcement of the daguerreotype process marked the birth of commercial photography - and a special lamb called Bluecap was born in the North of England.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the naming of the descendants of the ram lamb as the Wensleydale breed at the 17th Great Yorkshire Show in 1876.
Now photographer Elaine Vizor has brought together photography and the sheep in a new exhibition to celebrate the milestones.
Commissioned by Durham County Council, the Following Ewe display by photographer Elaine is at Bishop Auckland Town Hall until August 29 (open 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday).
Vintage guitar links football and music history
A guitar used in recording a song which is part of Tyneside music and football history is to be sold.
It is one of two rare 1962 Fender Stratocasters, and will be offered for sale at an auction in Newcastle on June 17.
Released in 1976 to mark Newcastle United reaching the League Cup final, the song United, Newcastle United was penned by Jarrow-born singer-songwriter Mike Mason.
Players who featured were Alan Kennedy, Frank Clark, Malcolm MacDonald, Terry Hibbitt, Pat Howard, Paul Cannell and John Tudor, as well as singer Bobby Webber, who autographed some of the copies of the record. Newcastle lost the final against Manchester City 2-1.
Black, White and Beyond… Gerry and Sewell always told a story about chasing the dream. Off stage, the team behind it did exactly that. And caught it. Sam Wonfor reflects on a remarkable journey.
Supping on my Purely Belter-branded beer after Thursday’s gala performance of Gerry and Sewell, I realised this show has offered me a cultural PB I can’t see myself topping. (Unless Matilda The Musical is still going when the grandkids come along).
Never before have I seen a piece of theatre seven times. A quick rundown.
Twice at Laurels in Whitley Bay, because after seeing it once, I immediately took a mate who I knew would love it.
Twice at Live Theatre, partly because my son was in the hooligan chorus and took great pleasure in giving his parents a full and enthusiastic breakdown of his newly acquired hand gesture vocabulary.
Once during its first run at Newcastle Theatre Royal.
Once in the West End.
And then one final time on Thursday back at the top of Grey Street during its final season of performances.
While that might seem excessive, the truth is that seeing Gerry and Sewell - Jamie Eastlake’s stage adaptation of Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket and the film (Purely Belter) it inspired - never really felt like seeing the same show twice.
True, it has always been raw, funny, moving, sharp and full of heart. It has also always told a story that feels deeply rooted in this region while also saying something much bigger about friendship, hope and what it means to keep reaching for something that feels out of grasp.
What has changed is the scale.
Watching this production grow from a 60-seat attic theatre in Whitley Bay to Live Theatre, then Newcastle Theatre Royal, then all the way to the Aldwych in London has been a real privilege.
This week’s thrilling recommendation comes from Forum Books founder Helen Stanton. You can pick it up at Forum Books in Corbridge, or one of its sister shops, The Bound Whitley Bay and The Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick.
Abir Mukherjee’s last thriller, Hunted, rightly won the Crime and Thriller of the Year gong at The British Book Awards 2025.
He is also known for the historical Wyndham and Banerjee series. His new contemporary page-turner The Pinnacle is a piercing satirical thriller - think The White Lotus meets The White Tiger - a place where murder meets luxury and the world’s most privileged depend on the most desperate.
When Bollywood star Sweet Sahota is found murdered in Mumbai’s most exclusive skyscraper, her washed-up American actor husband George Abercrombie is the obvious suspect. But as George scrambles to piece together a drunken night, others in the building are covering their tracks – a blackmailed assistant, a servant who knows too much and neighbours with everything to hide…
Propulsive, twisty, slick and so damn funny too… The Pinnacle is high-octane stuff. I loved it!
Abir will be at the bound on Wednesday (June 17) as part of Independent Bookshop Week (June 13-20) tickets here.
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s choice is a cross between Tinker Tailor and The Office
If television spy dramas make you picture sharply dressed agents living in the shadows, seamlessly exchanging files in airports or placing high-stakes bets in casinos while casually smoking, then you are in for a change of pace with Apple TV’s Slow Horses.
Apart from the smoking, of which there is plenty, the main characters eschew many of the traits you might expect to find in a Le Carré adaptation, or indeed hope to find in those tasked with guarding our nation’s secrets.
They are impulsive, reckless, sometimes incompetent and nearly always damaged goods.
The series is based on the brilliant books by Newcastle-born Mick Herron, which follow the inhabitants of Slough House, a run-down office above a Chinese takeaway where MI5 agents that screw up (nicknamed Slow Horses) are sent to serve out their careers in administrative purgatory until they quit or die of boredom.
They are ‘managed’ by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a cold war legend of the service who now exists on whisky, knock-off cigarettes, suspicious-looking takeaways and the unhappiness of the unlucky agents assigned to him.
Fortunately for us, life is never as boring in Slough House as it’s supposed to be…