Cultured. On Sunday 15.03.26
Our weekend edition for longer reads and cultural recommendations
Another weekend brings a fresh edition of Cultured. On Sunday and a new selection of stories and recommendations from across the North East’s cultural landscape.
A public vote has opened to decide which artist will create a new public artwork from the timber saved after the illegal felling of the Sycamore Gap tree - and there’s a North East proposal among the shortlist. Tony Henderson has the details.
Music inspired by place is also on the agenda as David Whetstone hears about a new album of choral music shaped by the sweeping landscapes and coastline of Northumberland.
This week’s rummage through the Wonfor telly vaults rewinds to the late eighties when chart-topping sibling pop outfit Five Star were helping keep the lights on.
Opera lovers can also look ahead as we take a once-around the newly unveiled 2026/27 season from Opera North, ahead of the company’s upcoming visit to Newcastle Theatre Royal.
Down in the creative heart of the Ouseburn, David Whetstone chats to artist Kate Stobbart about a new exhibition pieced together from fragments of overheard mobile phone conversations.
Photography also takes centre stage as Paul Alexander Knox opens his archive for My Life Through a Lens, sharing the stories behind the images that have stayed with him.
There’s something new (and tasty) for the bookshelf courtesy of the ever-reliable team at Forum Books.
Our resident TV box-set enthusiast Michael Telfer revisits a BBC crime drama that had viewers hooked from its unforgettable opening episode.
Meanwhile we have reviews of Shuggy Boats at Live Theatre and RONiN at Dance City.
And finally, if all that culture leaves you hungry, the head chef at Michelin-starred Solstice shares a recipe that might stretch the ambitions of most home cooks - but promises serious rewards for those who give it a go.
We hope you enjoy it all… and a very happy Mother’s Day to all those who play maternal roles in our lives.
In a series of recollections, Sam Wonfor is sharing her special back catalogue of memories of and personal connection to the iconic 1980s music show, The Tube and other telly treasures. This week, she’s taking a break from The Tube to look back on a period which her 12-year-old self would give a sparkling review.
As someone who went from seven to 12 during The Tube’s five series (1982-87), it’s fair to say that the Green Room snacks and electric typewriters in the production office of the Newcastle-based groundbreaking music show often offered more excitement than an extended set by Tina Turner, Paul McCartney or Iggy Pop.
So while I loved knocking around Studio Five at Tyne Tees on City Road, and understood that lots of the people I was getting to see soundcheck were cast iron music legends and should be committed to memory, they were rarely the popstars who were blu-tacked to my wall.
Similarly, although I had loads of fun travelling the UK and wider world on occasion (too many, according to my party-pooping headteachers) with The Tube film crew (on which my Dad Geoff was the director) and spending time with the likes of Wham!*, Eurythmics, Boomtown Rats, Squeeze, The Smiths, Mick Jagger and Grace Jones… I don’t remember being particularly starstruck, because those guys weren’t my pop idols.
*I didn’t become a Wham! Fan until my 20s. I’d say I was too edgy, if I wasn’t about to tell you what I’m about to tell you.
It wasn’t until The Tube was all wrapped up that my Dad finally landed a job with a band the Wonfor household’s teenybopper-in-residence could get excitedly squeaky about.
And I couldn’t wait another minute to devote one of these columns to them.
Helen Stanton is the owner of FORUM Books, Corbridge the Bound Whitley Bay and The Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick. This week’s recommendation is a tasty one…
The perennial ‘what’s for tea?’ is answered deliciously in Dinner at Mine?
Yes, please invite me round … but if I have to cook, this has all the answers I need.
Using 15 every day ingredients - not even ones I have to go out and shop for! - such as tomatoes, eggs, frozen peas, a chicken, rice, spring onions, the book is neatly / brilliantly set out for two or four or for six people, picnics and tomorrow’s packed lunch.
These are recipes that are easy enough for every day and just as simple to knock up if people are coming round. I think we’re all pretty instinctive and know when we read a recipe or list of ingredients if it’s going to work - and this absolutely does.
And more importantly you will want to eat it - there are so many good things in here from salsa verde shoulder of lamb to beans on toast, apple pie with chai ice cream to jazzed-up ramen noodles.
You can probably tell we love Kate - Dinner at Mine? published last week and, we couoldn’t be happier to be welcoming Kate to FORUM Books on March 18.
Tickets are £7 or £30 (with book) and include a free welcome drink and small tasters from the book as cooked by our booksellers.
We’ve been asking asking North East-based photographers to open up their archives and select two handfuls of images which encapsulate life as they’ve captured it
Born in Sunderland, Paul Alexander Knox grew up in Easington in the eighties and strongly remembers what became the iconic photographs of Keith Pattison and Mik Critchlow, who documented the Miners’ Strike in the 1980s.
But while a young Paul would “borrow my parents point and shoot camera as a way of recording life and important events”, he says his passion for photography was ignited during a year long trip to India in his late twenties.
“The first photograph that came out as I intended was of a Holy Cow silhouetted against the sunset.”
On his return, he enrolled on an HND in Photography at Sunderland College in 2003 and started getting jobs throughout his time at college and then (Sunderland) university. He graduated in 2007.
An interest in people and a passion for telling stories are the qualities which Paul says make him a good photographer.
Always opting to capture “things as they are” Paul says: “I love the challenge of capturing people and events as they unfold, whether that is live music, a protest or a boxing match.”
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s choice is so good it’s more of a prescription than a recommendation.
When the first series of Happy Valley aired in 2014 it was an instant hit for the BBC, backed by fantastic reviews and even better word of mouth. It is a show that has everything; heart, humour, drama and possibly the most powerful performance by a British lead actor.
Sarah Lancashire may still have been best known for playing Coronation Street’s Raquel before Happy Valley – but her portrayal of world-weary Sgt Catherine Cawood changed that overnight.
Cawood was written specifically for Lancashire by the excellent Sally Wainwright, after being hugely impressed with her on Last Tango in Halifax. Strong yet vulnerable, and stubborn as granite, she is a tour de force that treats criminals and constabulary middle management with equally short shrift.
Scott Hodgson is the head chef at Solstice on Newcastle’s Quayside and works with Kenny Atkinson to create the seasonal lunch and dinner tasting menus. Opened in 2022, Solstice - which is just down the road from Kenny’s flagship restaurant, House of Tides - was awarded a Michelin star in March 2023. Scott has provided the perfect recipe to showcase Craster Kippers in fine dining fashion.
SOLSTICE SMOKED CRASTER KIPPER DISH
Smoked Craster Kipper Dashi
Ingredients
500g water
50g daikon, sliced
25g fresh ginger, sliced
20g Kombu
1 sheet Nori
8g mirin
1g salt
1/2 Leek - chopped
1 Smoked Craster Kipper
Method
First make the dashi. Combine all the ingredients for it, except the kipper, in a saucepan.
Bring to a simmer, then take off the heat, cover, and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
Bring back to a boil.
Add the kipper and allow it to infuse for 3-4 hours.
Strain Smoked Kipper Sauce
Smoked Kipper Sauce
6 shallots
6 garlic cloves
700ml white wine
700ml noilly prat
750ml above Dashi stock
1.5l cream
Salt
Lemon juice
2 x craster kippers
Method
Sweat shallots, garlic in oil adding a little smoked butter butter at the end and caramelise till golden brown.
Add white wine - reduce a lot
Add noilly prat - reduce a lot
Add dashi and the craster kippers - reduce by half
Add cream - reduce by half then check consistency and taste.
Pass through a chinois
Season with salt and lemon juice
Note: Might need reducing more for correct consistency
Kipper Rillete
1 x smoked craster kipper
1tsp Creme Fraiche
1tsp Natural Yoghurt
1 x lemon (zest)
Fresh Lemon Juice
Smoked Maldon Sea Salt
Chives
Dill
Method
Pour boiling water over the kipper, leave for a couple of minutes.
Remove then gently flake the kipper away from the bones. Go through the kipper a couple of times to ensure there is no bones.
Add the creme fraiche, yoghurt, zest and chopped
Season with lemon juice and maldon sea salt
For the Potatoes
6 x northumberland pink fir potatoes
Smoked butter
Method
Using a Mandoline carefully slice the potatoes about 1cm thickness
Melt the smoked butter
Cut the potatoes using a cutter into desired shape
Toss in a little salt and allow to sit for 10 minutes
Pop them in the warm butter and gently poach them till al dente
For the Nori crisps
3 x Sheets Nori
Basic 50/50 Sugar Syrup
Method
Lay the nori out and using a pastry brush apply the a good amount of sugar syrup till the nori has moistened. Working quickly place the next nori on top and repeat. Finally add the last sheet of Nori.
Punch the same cutter as potatoes to create a outline. Using sharp scissors cut the shape and place onto a baking sheet with baking paper.
Once completed place another baking paper atop with another baking sheet on top to create a weight.
Dehydrate or place in the oven at 120°C for 25 minutes until crisp. Allow to cool before checking if crisp as they stay soft while warm for a couple of minutes.
For Assembling
Smoked Exmoor Caviar
White Alyssums Flowers
Smoking Gun & Chips
Method
Using a ring cutter press the kipper into the bowl.
Arrange the potatoes and nori into a flower/petal shape.
Apply a scoop of caviar to create the centre, this will also weigh the garnish down in place.
Place 1 single caviar egg on the potato and 1 single white alyssum on the Nori.
Place the lid on the bowl and then smoke the dish.
Reveal the dish by removing the lid and pouring in the sauce. Not too much to drown the dish, leave a jug on the side for mopping it up with bread.
I love reading this newsletter (especially the pieces about The Tube!)