Story-teller, author and playwright Richard O’Neill, and historian, author (The Northumbrians) and trustee of Beamish, Dan Jackson, talk about the rich history of story-telling and ‘having a crack’ in the North East. Both Dan’s family who were miners and Richard’s Romani Gypsy family, told stories to entertain each other and as a way of teaching and passing on knowledge of your family’s culture. Dan believes Geordie’s are ‘very well-drawn in the national consciousness’ due to their friendliness and story-telling.

They discuss the roots of the region’s pro-social culture. Including how the Durham miners put in place welfare systems long before the post-war Labour government: people had purposeful lives, full employment and there was a thriving social structure in mining communities. Together they talk about how a ‘constructive nostalgia’ could build on the region’s history and help tell the story of the north east’s present and its future. Richard talks about a Romani tradition of a trenora story which translates as ‘three time,’ one story can talk about the past, present and future. Both believe story-telling and the intimacy of convening to hear about each other’s lives could play a positive role amidst a mental health epidemic.

Forged in the North is funded by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival, with support from Durham County Council, Durham University and Arts Council England. 

Produced by Hunter Charlton
Researched by Lucy Valance
Mixed and mastered by John Scott
An Ember Production.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Brendan Foster are both residents of the North East and former athletes now taking on the huge challenge of trying to reverse the steep decline of physical activity levels of the British public.  Foster talks about the enduring success of the Great North Run, the world’s biggest half marathon. The first one held just weeks after the first London Marathon in 1981 (but with double the runners) it has gone on to become an indelible part of North East life. The first race in the world to have one million runners, and the first to see runners running for causes, Foster makes it clear its success as a public spectacle is entirely down to the people of the North East. As well as their own passionate advocacy for the need for sport and physical activity in everyday life they discuss personal motivations, competitiveness, the need for exceptional teacher training at all levels, and the need for a better understanding of elite sport at Higher Educational Institutions.

Forged in the North is funded by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival, with support from Durham County Council, Durham University and Arts Council England.

Produced by Hunter Charlton
Researched by Lucy Valance
Mixed and mastered by John Scott
Presented by Fiona Hill
An Ember Production

Musician and activist Sting and Yale historian Paul Kennedy grew up streets away from each other in 1950s Wallsend, a place entirely dominated and proudly defined by the shipbuilding industry. Both passed the 11+ exam and attended St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle, which ‘educated them out’ of their working-class background. Both now live in the US but discuss the strong sense of identity their Wallsend roots have given them wherever they are in the world. Sting’s original musical The Last Ship is an elegy to the decimation of the shipbuilding industry; one he was determined to escape but realised much later in life had given him so much. Kennedy discusses the short-sightedness of multiple UK governments to back the world-leading shipbuilding industry of a sea-faring nation. Together they discuss family pride in their achievements, their experiences of both being teachers and being taught, the commoditisation of music, their shared love of Bach, the Geordie diaspora at Sting gigs and the musician’s regular pilgrimage to the ruins of 10th century Holy Cross Church in Wallsend where he imagines the ‘father of English history’ St Bede the Venerable rowing over from Jarrow to get some peace.

Forged in the North is funded by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival, with support from Durham County Council, Durham University and Arts Council England.

Produced by Hunter Charlton
Researched by Lucy Valance
Mixed and mastered by John Scott
Presented by Fiona Hill
An Ember Production

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and business owner Sara Davies MBE are two women whose leadership and vision are changing the societal and economic landscape in the region. Growing up in working-class communities they both recall first seeing leadership in action in community and family settings by the women in their families.

Davies has built a multi-million-pound business proudly located in the North East, employing hundreds of people, which has inspired many of those employees to go on and start their own businesses.

McGuinness is on a mission to end child poverty in the region and to support those children’s own high aspirations for their lives. Connecting schools to businesses and companies she wants children to understand what is possible for their future lives and see a pathway to achieving it.

They also discuss the challenges of being a woman with a public profile, the power of being underestimated, how strong regional identity is an economic asset and their take on what work-life balance means. With such an abundance of aspiration and talent in the region, an infrastructure that is ripe for business investment and breath-taking beaches, they both believe there is no better place in the UK to live right now.

Forged in the North is funded by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival, with support from Durham County Council, Durham University and Arts Council England.

Produced by Hunter Charlton
Researched by Lucy Valance
Mixed and mastered by John Scott
Presented by Fiona Hill
An Ember Production

Lee Hall and Peter Straughan are acclaimed award-winning writers for stage and screen. Both were born in the 1960’s, on opposite sides of the River Tyne in the North East, into working-class families, and both cut their teeth in the thriving publicly-funded theatre scene in Newcastle. They discuss writing 'in Geordie', the region's music tradition and long history of working-class people having a deep appreciation of the arts. They both bore witness to dismantling and very quick disappearance of the mining industry, which had given such a powerful sense of identity to the region. But are excited about the new story-tellers that could now emerge from non-white communities on Tyneside. They reflect on public funding of the arts post-war and in the 1960’s and where funding might come from now, the catastrophic impact of streaming on their profession and where the future may lie be for dramatists like them. Both believe in the power of unique human creativity and urge others to have a go and not ask for permission. Be obsessive about your art, make it in any place you can, and it can lead to a wonderful life.

Forged in the North is funded by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival, with support from Durham County Council, Durham University and Arts Council England. 

Produced by Hunter Charlton 
Researched by Lucy Valance
Mixed and mastered by John Scott
Presented by Fiona Hill
An Ember Production