As a performance in Bingley’s Myrtle Park, Brighter Still marks both the longest night of the year and the culmination of ...

As we approach the end of 2025, we’re looking back at the things that have brought us immense comfort during the year. For the team at Northern Soul, books were once again a source of great joy, and ...

The disembodied voice is that of David Hockney, arguably this country’s greatest living artist, and the words are very much his own. Warm in tone, and movingly direct, they narrate the images that ...

Scour the country. Nay, the universe. Pay what you will and marvel at the exquisite ...

I haven’t been to a pantomime since I was a child. As it turns out, pantos are much more enjoyable when you’re old enough to understand the jokes. In the return of Manchester’s Opera House panto, ...

As I explain the plot of The Pied Piper of Hamelin to my 13-year-old niece, I watch her expression turn to horror. “Well, there’s this piper who is asked to rid a town of a rat infestation. He plays ...

Ebenezer Scrooge doesn’t usually travel by scooter. For generations of Christmas Carol retellings, he’s sulked and trudged. But, at Bolton Octagon, David Birrell’s portrayal of the iconic miser ...

So far as the arts are concerned, the working class are the exception, patronised by low expectations, hardened into the amber-hued, outdated stereotypes of craft and graft. And all the more so as the ...

They had me at the first tap break. If you know the movie of Singin’ in the Rain, imagine how good this stage adaptation could be. It’s better. I’ve heard theatre crowds cheer and clap before, but ...

It’s nose-bitingly cold outside, but the glowing red lights of the Copper Bar at Manchester’s Band on the Wall invite me in on this dark Tuesday evening. Having tried to warm up by power-walking ...

When I meet Jason Wilsher-Mills at the Grundy, he greets me with a line that sets the tone for everything that follows: “Welcome to the inside of my head.” Walking into the gallery, it becomes clear ...