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York project Homeless Bound to launch interactive book on homelessness misconceptions at December 13 event

The book cover for Homeless Bound. Design: Justin Grasty

THERE is no such thing as “the homeless”, only people experiencing homelessness, asserts the York project Homeless Bound, ahead of the December 13 launch of its interactive book at Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

Working in tandem with the Good Organisation, at the Priory Street Centre, Coterminous CIC and producer/broadcaster Jez Russell, the year-long grassroots project has brought together 20 people with direct experience of homelessness to create content collaboratively for a book that uncovers how public misconceptions of homelessness continue to shape public attitudes. 

“It’s a book about how public preconceptions of homelessness, and the language we use to discuss the issue, can lead to greater marginalisation and infantilisation,” says Jez.

One such preconception leads to the response: “I hate when people talk about ‘the homeless community’. It paints a false picture that everyone is looking out for each other when many people are dealing with their homelessness in isolation.”

Consequently, Homeless Bound challenges how the use of “othering” language such as “they” or “them” can inadvertently cause further exclusion and isolation for people experiencing homelessness. 

Homeless Bound also explores the default perception of homelessness – a man in a doorway, living on the streets – that misrepresents its range and shifting nature, limiting our understanding of what homelessness is, leading to “the public often challenging the ‘realness’ of homelessness other than rough sleeping”.

Demonisation, criminalisation, gentrification, politicisation and blame are among the themes illustrated in the book, all factors that “further exclude and stigmatise those experiencing homelessness and ultimately make homelessness easier to ignore”. 

The interactive book uses graphic design, photography and creative writing to explore a broad range of themes, such as “how language and stereotypes ultimately lead to the infantilisation and disempowerment of those affected by homelessness”. 

The completed 120-page publication also addresses how prevailing public perceptions often retain a focus on the individual as “problematic”, rather than the systemic and structural causes of poverty.

Those who contributed brought a wide variety of personal insights, encompassing rough sleepers, those living in hostels or temporary accommodation, as well as individuals whose homelessness is hidden or rarely acknowledged.

In addition to building the confidence of all the participants, the project contributed to a thought-provoking discourse among those who took part, with a range of discussions on how best to articulate many of the underlying concerns and how to reframe those for a broader audience in an engaging manner.

The flexible nature of the activities enabled individuals to contribute written and visual content to the book, either as an attributed co-author or through anonymised quotes and other short submissions. Next month’s book launch provides an opportunity to meet some of those participants.

The book also incorporates pertinent games and puzzles, with each copy being distributed with an accompanying NFC tagged bookmark that links to a website that will act as an autonomous information and research repository, now being developed by LIFE (Lived Insights From Experience).

In addition to readings from the book, the launch provides a unique chance to view supplementary digital content. Free refreshments will be available.

As Fellow Of The Royal Society of Arts artist, filmmaker, playwright, author, journalist and social campaigner Paul Atherton says: “There is no such thing as ‘the homeless’. There are people experiencing homelessness. In the mind of the public, if you use terms like ‘the homeless’, people will immediately hear, ‘Oh that’s other, that’s not me!’.”

To reserve a free book launch ticket, go to: eventbrite.co.uk/e/homeless-bound-book-launch-tickets-469524479357. To buy the book, go to: coterminous.co.uk/product/HomelessBound/66?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

What is Coterminous CIC?

THIS collaborative project brings artists and designers together with those experiencing homelessness, ex-offenders and former drug users to co-create unique products.

What is the Good Organisation?

THIS heritage and tourism-based social enterprise is led by individuals affected by homelessness within York.

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Paul Thompson and John Watterson: Beware Of The Bull concert and book launch

Book launch for Paul Thompson and John Watterson’s Beware Of The Bull: The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray

Paul Thompson and John Watterson: Beware Of The Bull – The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray Concert & Book Launch, presented by Black Swan Folk Club at National Centre for Early Music, York, October 28

DESPITE being a household name in the mid-to-late 1960s, Jake Thackray is now largely forgotten.

His  humorous topical songs popped up on That’s Life (and before that Braden’s Week). The ephemeral nature of much of his television material was not made with posterity in mind. His slim album output does not fit neatly anywhere – certainly not anywhere near the mainstream.

For those who cottoned on in his lifetime (he died in 2002), or have discovered him through famous admirers, Thackray is held in the highest of esteem.

Paul Thompson and John Watterson have done much to keep the cult alive. Watterson’s Fake Thackray project is much more than a tribute turn, also breathing life into songs unheard in decades or putting new music to works never completed.

Two rarities graced the performance at the NCEM, The Ferryboat, extolling the charms of a public house, and a scabrous number about National Service that was aired, reluctantly, once in 1986.

The new biography seems to have kickstarted a wave of renewed interest in this Yorkshire chansonnier. Thompson and Watterson have produced a wonderfully researched book, the work of dedicated fans rather than biographers for hire.

It does not shy away from the sadness of his decline and later years, and also makes a strong case for his writing (Thackray was a columnist of note for the Yorkshire Post in the early 1990s, his contributions posted, often hilariously late, from his Welsh outpost).

Tantalising gaps in the story remain, particularly how Thackray’s time in France and civil-war Algeria transformed him both as a guitarist and performer. What the French made of Thackray is also unknown.

His love of their language and the chanson form is well documented however. Unique among his English contemporaries Thackray sought to write songs that contained both humour, poetry and insight – in the French style of Georges Brassens, where the words come before all else.

Watterson and Thompson performed ten songs, and 50 years after Thackray’s heyday, crowds continue to laugh and admire his singular dexterity with words. The performers chose their selections carefully, as Thackray’s humour is sometimes dated (all on stage exchanged knowing looks after the line “I shan’t lay a finger on the crabby old bat face” from La-Di-Da, which drew a consciously muffled laugh). His stories of the underdog, or sticking it those in authority, will never go out of style.

The artistry of the material shone. Bantam Cock, freed from its maddening keyboard refrain, was out-and-out funny while the Widow Of Bridlington was both sad and wry (a precursor to Richard Thompson’s Beeswing).

Thompson and Watterson did a splendid job performing these difficult songs. Perhaps Thompson unnecessarily underlined a line or two, in contrast to Thackray’s determinedly deadpan style, but it was a treat to hear the tunes live.

Thackray was a complicated man, marked by his difficult upbringing in Leeds. This working- class hero really did have (smelly) feet of clay. In later years, after the stage fright and weekly terror of performing on national television had passed, his songwriting slowed dramatically as he toiled to write more serious works. One of these, Remembrance, is one of the best anti-war songs, but not one you are ever likely to hear on November 11.  

Yorkshire is the centre of the Thackray cult, so with luck we will be graced with many more opportunities to savour this underappreciated master of his craft channelled through Thompson and Watterson.

Review by Paul Rhodes

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When opera meets vocal dating app, here comes SINGLR sound experiment at NCEM

Loré Lixenburg: Hosting SINGLR An Appera at the NCEM, York, on Sunday

MEZZO soprano Loré Lixenberg hosts SINGLR An Appera, an experimental sound event, at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, on Sunday at 8pm.

Developed at the University of York, the world’s first contemporary music experimental voice Appera – a cross between an app and an opera! – comes to St Margaret’s Church for one night only.

The stories presented on stage recount the first meetings of participants in a specially created purely vocal dating app, SINGLR.

Welcome to SINGLR’s “fabulous dreamlike musical evening”

SINGLR ponders: What kind of voice do you like? Low growly voices or high and pure? Are you a fan of a throaty, husky sound or a voice as clear and sonorous as a bell? What would be the outcome if we chose who to be with on the basis of the voice and vocal creativity, rather than the usual parameters of visual appearance, income and what kind of pizza someone prefers?

“For the audience, the SINGLR salon will be a fabulous dreamlike musical evening where ambient electronic tracks and live musicians accompany the vocalised conversations of the SINGLR app participants,” says Lydia Cottrell, of York event organisers SLAP.

Tickets can be booked on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk on a Pay What You Can basis: £2, £4, £6, £8 or £10.

Them There Then That, Tabitha Grove’s story about stories, tours Explore York York libraries for Big City Read through October

Tabitha Grove explores beauty in the way that everything holds a story in Them There Then That at Explore York libraries

IN a second SLAP event, Big City Read 2022 artist-in-residence Tabitha Grove is exploring the beauty of the way that everything holds a story in Them There Then That, on tour at Explore York Libraries on various dates until October 30.

This new solo performance is inspired by Behind The Scenes At The Museum, York shopkeeper’s daughter Kate Atkinson’s 1995 debut novel, wherein she depicts the experiences of Ruby Lennox, a girl from a working-class English family living in Atkinson’s home city.

“It isn’t just books that hold our stories. It’s the people. It’s the places. It’s the times. It’s the objects around us,” says the event blurb.

The poster for the Big City Read 2022’s tour of Them There Then That, a story about stories by Tabitha Grove

“We’ve all created stories from the moment that we could. We haven’t always written them though. We’ve drawn them, we’ve spoken them and we’ve sung them. And the point of all this? To share them.”

In doing so, “if we listen carefully enough, these tales can even help us create our own stories”.

Tabitha will be performing “a story about stories” at Tang Hall Explore Library tomorrow, 11am to 12 noon; Hungate Reading Café, October 26, 7pm to 8pm; Dringhouses Library, October 29, 1pm to 1.30pm, and York Explore Library, October 30, 2pm to 3pm. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, starting at free, at slapyork.co.uk/events?tag=TTTT.

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Next Door But One take storyteller version of Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter to York libraries at half-term

Ceridwen Smith: Performing The Firework-Maker’s Daughter at York libraries next week

NEXT Door But One are teaming up with Explore York Libraries to bring a magical storyteller performance of Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter to four York libraries over half-term.

The award-winning York theatre company originally created their theatrical adaptation as a Zoom performance during lockdown, reaching hundreds of young families desperate for creative projects to engage young ones stuck at home.

The online version was such a hit that Pullman gave permission for a solo storyteller version to be developed for community touring, performed last year by Emma Liversidge .

Backed by City of York Council and Make It York, Next Door But One’s show is to visit Acomb, Tang Hall, New Earswick and York libraries during October half-term, the story now told by Ceridwen Smith .

The poster for Next Door But One’s half-term performances of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter

The show tells the story of Lila’s journey across lakes and over mountains as she faces her biggest fears, learning everything she needs to know to become the person she has always wanted to be.

Next Door But One’s production has been designed to be accessible to all young people and their families, including those with additional sensory needs and learning difficulties. It features Makaton [a language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate], magic and loads of audience participation.

Lyndsay Glover, of Explore York said, “We’re so delighted to be bringing this beautiful and magical version of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter to four of our libraries this half-term. We hope to reach a wide range of young families across York with daytime performances at local Explore sites and tickets at just £2.50.”

Sir Philip Pullman, best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, has been vocal in his support of Next Door But One’s production. Recognising the cost-of-living crisis, he has waived all royalties for these performances, in lieu of a donation to the Trussell Trust, in support of a network of more than 1,200 foodbanks across Great Britain.

Emma LIversidge performing The Firework-Maker’s Daughter on Next Door But One’s 2021 tour. Picture: James Drury

Emma Revie, the Trussell Trust’s chief officer, says: “We’re really grateful to Philip Pullman and Next Door But One for their support. Soaring food and fuel costs are affecting us all, but for families on the very lowest incomes, this crisis means so much more and more people are likely to need a food bank’s help.

“The support of Philip Pullman and Next Door But One will help food banks within our network continue to provide the lifeline of emergency support for local people, while we work in the long term to end the need for food banks, for good. Thank you so much.”

NDB1 artistic director Matt Harper-Hardcastle says: “This project encapsulates everything that Next Door But One stands for. Brilliant, original theatre made in York, for York audiences, with York artists… but also targeted at an audience that might not otherwise get to access theatre and, thanks to Sir Philip’s generous donation to the Trussell Trust, making a wider social impact. I couldn’t be prouder to be bringing this show to York families this half-term.”

Next Door But One present The Firework-Maker’s Daughter at Acomb Library on October 24 at 10am and 11.30am; Tang Hall Library, October 24, 2pm and 3.30pm; New Earswick Library, October 25, 10am and 11.30am, and York Explore, October 25, 2pm and 3.30pm. Tickets: £2.50, family tickets £8.50, at nextdoorbutone.co.uk.

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Normal service resumed as Henry sits down for night of relaxed, thoughtful poetry that’s easier on the legs at Selby Town Hall

In the red chair: Poet, storyteller and comedian Henry Normal

ARMED only with a chair, a microphone, stories, jokes and poems, Henry Normal takes on the world at Selby Town Hall on October 22, looking for a win-win situation.

Writer, poet, TV and film producer, Manchester Literature Festival founder and BAFTA-winning BBC Radio 4 perennial, Normal will be delivering his Sit Down Poetry show at 8pm.

“Henry Normal is a magnificent, idiosyncratic chronicler of the quotidian,” says Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones. “He delivers understated, wryly observed yet incredibly powerful poems from the heart with a wonderfully warm and easy style. We’re honoured to be hosting one of just a handful of tour dates he’s undertaking across the country this autumn.”

Labelled “the Alan Bennett of poetry” by the Scotsman newspaper, Normal has written and presented nine of his own comedy, poetry and storytelling shows for BBC Radio 4, the latest being this summer’s series A Normal Community.

For television, he co-wrote and script-edited The Mrs Merton Show and the first series of The Royle Family. Alongside Steve Coogan, he co-wrote the BAFTA-winning Paul And Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan’s Run, Tony Ferrino, Doctor Terrible and all three of Coogan’s live tours.

In 1990, Normal set up comedy production company Baby Cow, executive producing the entire output while at the helm, with highlights including Gavin And Stacey, Alan Partridge, Marion And Geoff, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf and the Oscar-nominated film Philomena. In 2017, he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television.

Born in St Anne’s, Nottingham, Normal now lives in Fairlight, near Hastings, with his wife, screenwriter Angela Pell, and their artist son, Johnny. He performs at literature festivals across the UK and has published 11 poetry collections, while his memoirs, A Normal Family, were an Amazon best seller.

He has been given honorary doctorates by both Nottingham and Nottingham Trent universities and has a beer and a bus named after him in the city, where he founded the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Praised by the Guardian for work that is “succinct, heartrending and peppered with gentle punchlines”, “stuff of proper substance, marrying the suburban beauty of Beatles ballads with the blunt candour of the kitchen sink”, Normal describes new show Sit Down Poetry as being “like stand-up poetry but more thoughtful and relaxed and easier on the legs”.

“I’ve been looking forward to this one for a good while,” concludes Chris Jones. “It’s definitely a highlight of our autumn programme.”

Tickets cost £15 on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk.

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Tim Murgatroyd to launch silent movie-era novel The Electric with readings, talk on York’s ghost cinemas and Phantom film

The book cover for Tim Murgatroyd’s novel The Electric. Illustration by South Bank architectural artist Elliot Harrison, alias @york.360, who says. “My first book cover, so I’m really pleased it worked out well and totally suited my illustrative style that also matches my other York cinema prints. It was great working with Tim and I wish him success launching this title”

YORK author Tim Murgatroyd is launching his latest novel, The Electric, in a series of events spread over October, starting this evening.

Published by York independent publishers Stairwell Books, this work of historical fiction depicts a young pilot returning from war. Can music, cinema, love – and a curious cat – heal his wounds?

“Each event is very different, with a special focus on the glamorous, lost world of silent cinema,” says Tim, whose writing spans historical novels, a dystopian trilogy and a poetry series, as well as being a former columnist for The Press, York.

Combining romance, tragedy and offbeat comedy, The Electric is set in 1919 when young pilot David Young returns from the First World War, scarred physically and mentally.

A gifted concert violinist, he drifts into a humble job accompanying silent movies at The Electric, a fleapit cinema in provincial York, joining a diverse cast of misfits, each with secrets and tragedies of their own.

A detail from Elliot Harrison’s cover illustration for Tim Murgatroyd’s historical novel The Electric

“These strangers, and a chance meeting, hold the key to regaining his lost hopes as the world of silent cinema meets the glamour of the Downton era in Britain’s most popular tourist city,” reads the publicity blurb.

As part of The Big City Read 2022 collection, Tim’s book will be the subject of an entertaining hour of readings, wine and discussions at York Explore Library and Archive, in Library Square, Museum Street, this evening from 6pm

Tim will explore bringing silent cinema back to life and love, with assistance from award-winning poet Ian Parks. Afterwards, Tim will be hosting drinks in the Eagle & Child on High Petergate.

Tickets are available on the door or by pre-booking at: eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-the-electric-with-tim-murgatroyd-tickets-403289819707?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1. A Pay What You Can policy offers four options: £0, £2.50, £5 or £7.50.

Pianist Neil Brand: Improvising his piano accompaniment to The Phantom Of The Opera at City Screen Picturehouse on October 28. Picture: Julie Edwards.

On October 26, in An Evening With Tim Murgatroyd at 7pm at Waterstones, in Coney Street, the focus will be on Ghost Cinemas of York: Bringing silent cinemas back to life.

Prepare for surprising facts and stories about the characters and picture palaces of York that brought Hollywood glamour to a city recovering from war. Through images, music and film clips, Tim will show how the ghost cinemas of York haunt us still, and how silent cinema was never really silent at all, as he explores those lost cinemas and their legacy.

In addition, he will explain how he wrote The Electric in an evening led by Dr Rob O’Connor, from York St John University, in association with York Literature Festival.

Tickets are on sale at Waterstones, Coney Street, York or at waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-tim-murgatroyd/york. The £5 admission qualifies buyers for a 20 per cent discount on the book price.

Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in Rupert Julian’s 152-minute silent classic The Phantom Of The Opera, showing at City Screen Picturehouse later this month

The book launch trilogy will culminate in a night of romance, horror and suspense at a gala performance of the silent classic The Phantom Of The Opera (PG), with live improvised piano accompaniment from Neil Brand, at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, on October 28 at 6pm.

Lon Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces”, gives his most famous performance in this first version of the oft-filmed tale, drawn from Gaston Leroux’s novel. Chaney’s Phantom haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, where he falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer (Mary Philbin). Infatuated, he kidnaps her, dragging her to the depths below, where she will sing only for him.

Directed by Rupert Julian, this lavish 1925 production launched the Hollywood Gothic style, one that can be appreciated all the more in the British Film Institute (BFI) Photoplay restoration that carefully reinstates the film’s dramatic colour techniques.

The screening will be preceded by a short Q & A with pianist and broadcaster Neil Brand and author Tim Murgatroyd about music in the silent cinema and its impact on audiences. Please note, a British Sign Language signer will be on hand at the Q & A; the BSL accessible viewing seating will be on the left-hand side of the auditorium.

Tickets can be booked at: picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00012085/the-phantom-of-the-opera-1925-with-neil-brand?date=2022-10-28&cinema=018

Tim Murgatroyd: Author of The Electric

The author

TIM Murgatroyd was brought up in Yorkshire. He read English at Hertford College, Oxford University, and now lives with his family in York. He is the author of several novels of historical fiction, a poetry series and a trilogy of dystopian novels.

The verdict on The Electric

“AN evocative, almost poetic, love letter to 1920s’ York and the silent movie era. Poignant, charming and wryly funny, with a cast of beautifully drawn and unforgettable characters. Not to be missed.” Emma Haughton, author of The Dark.

“Fascinating…the ending was a lovely surprise – romantic but in a completely unexpected way.” Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures.

Did you know?

THE Electric Theatre, on the north-east side of Fossgate, was the first purpose-built cinema in York, opening in 1911 and later being renamed the Scala, closing in 1957. Converted into a furnishings store, Macdonalds, that shut in early 2016. Since 2017, it has housed the Cosy Club York bar and restaurant.

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‘I’m a nice bloke doing a terrible job with care and compassion,’ says pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd, ahead of York talk

Dr Richard Shepherd: Pathologist, professor, lecturer, author, apiarist and aviator, presenting Unnatural Causes at York Theatre Royal on Thursday and Leeds City Varieties on Friday

FORENSIC pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd is unearthing Unnatural Causes on his 22-date autumn tour, visiting York Theatre Royal on Thursday and Leeds City Varieties the next night.

Already this autumn, his latest true crime television series, The Truth About My Murder, has been running on CBS Reality since September 21, wherein he revisits high-profile cases from Great Britain and the United States of America.

“I know how the living send out signals which are designed to appeal to our hearts. But the dead can only tell the unadorned truth. I listen to their stories,” he says.

Now retired, Dr Shepherd, 69, has worked for the Home Office on multiple cases and was the forensic expert for the Bloody Sunday inquiry, the Hungerford Massacre and the death of Princess Diana, also advising on the management of British fatalities following 9/11 in New York.

He has performed more than 23,000 autopsies and is a detective in his own right,solving the mysteries of countless sudden and unexplained deaths. He has faced serial killers, natural disasters, perfect murders and freak accidents. 

His evidence has put killers behind bars, freed the innocent and turned open-and-shut cases on their heads. Yet all this has come at personal cost, having been diagnosed with diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after suffering flashbacks.

Heading out on tour from Wednesday (12/10/2022) to November 11 with Unnatural Causes, a title shared with his book that spent ten weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller chart, Dr Shepherdtells the stories of the cases and bodies that have both fascinated and haunted him the most.

Additionally, he will explain his admiration for the complexities of the human body and examine how he has lived a life steeped in death. This week’s York and Leeds audiences can take part in solving a real-life crime scene mystery too when he invites their involvement.

Why pick pathology as a career choice, Dr Shepherd? “Really, it’s quite simple,” he says. “It was a Damascene moment. A schoolmate’s dad was a GP and when he smuggled a book on forensic medicine into the classroom, like any curious 14-year-old boy, I thought that’s amazing and took it home,” he recalls.

“My dad was quite an ‘anorak bloke’, and instead of saying ‘that’s disgusting, you shouldn’t be interested in that’, he said, ‘you have to work hard if you’re interested in that’, and I ended up going to medical school. All because of that moment at Watford High School.” 

Dr Shepherd trained as a doctor at St George’s Hospital medical school from October 1971, qualifying in 1977. It was a great place to be, at that time a very small school at Hyde Park Corner – it’s since moved to Tooting – with a very forensic component to it.

“I oscillated a bit around pathology. Bizarrely, I really liked obstetrics, but came back to qualifying in forensic pathology.”

Thirteen years later, in 1984, he was fully qualified, studies completed in Gower Street. “Most of those years, you’re being paid, remember, which makes it easier to study,” says Dr Shepherd, who took up a post at Guy’s Hospital in 1987. “It’s important to say that though I studied for 13 years, that’s the usual time for most consultants, but you do have a clear finishing point of a fellowship at the Royal College of Pathologists.”

Pathologist, author, professor and lecturer, Dr Shepherd spread his wings into television presenting (The Death Detective, Autopsy: The Last Hours Of…, Murder, Mystery And My Family) and theatre tours.

“I always did a lot of lecturing, mainly to medical student groups, but also to Rotary groups sometimes, and then did The Death Detective. It was going to be called Dr Dick, bit it was pointed out, ‘No, that might not be appropriate’!

“I wanted to not only tell the story of a case, putting the jigsaw pieces together, but also to say, ‘here is the face of forensic pathology’,” says Dr Shepherd. “I’m a nice bloke doing a terrible job with care and compassion.”

Looking back over the years, Dr Shepherd says: “I think society has changed. Often people don’t talk about ‘death’ now but about ‘passing’ and ‘passing on’, and we’re beginning to fudge the process; I suspect it’s becoming more hidden,” he says.

“I had to have my 14-year-old Jack Russell put down in my arms, and I thought it was important to feel that emotion in death, whereas now people are turning funerals into a bit of a media presentation with My Way and You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Dr Shepherd does not watch such series as Silent Witness. “Not because I dislike them, but because they are so far from what I know to be the truth, like not showing bits of a brain. The reality is not there, but then people think that what they see on TV must be close to reality, but then it happens to them and it’s not like it is on the TV,  and it’s a double blow. Deaths are sanitised, even in Casualty,” he says.

“A lot of people love how the forensic pathologists looks very clever on Silent Witness, and it all looks very exciting, but the reality is I don’t go around arresting people.”

How does he transfer his forensic expertise to the theatre stage? “I can talk about how I see things in my profession, but I can also talk about more about emotions; how the body has failed; how I can detect injuries and how they’ve been caused,” says Dr Shepherd.

“I have to be very careful for it not to be like a forensic lecture that I would give to students about how they would deal with injuries. On this tour, I’ll bring an imitation ‘body’ on stage with a knife sticking out of the chest. It’s a theatrical moment, and it’s always great to hear the audience gasp, so it’s close to reality, with no fudging. It’s the truth, but not the absolute truth because that’s too hard. The reality is, it’s that thing of life and death and going from one to the other.”

You may have seen Dr Shepherd contributing to Channel 4’s documentary Investigating Diana: Death In Paris on the 25th anniversary of her death in August. “It’s one of those deaths that I can feel viscerally, as many of us do,” he says, but he does not buy into any conspiracy theories. “She should have put her seat belt on.”

This month, his forensic mind is on his Unnatural Causes tour. “It’s the starting pointy of every report I’ve written: ‘Death is not due to natural causes’. ‘Death is due to unnatural causes’. It’s a phrase I have used all my professional life.”

Dr Richard Shepherd, Unnatural Causes, York Theatre Royal, Thursday; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Friday, both 7.30pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.co.uk .

CBS Reality’s The Truth About My Murder is available on Freeview (67), Sky (146), Virgin (148) and Freesat (135). From a state-of-the-art laboratory, with ground-breaking digital technology, viewers will hear directly from the victim as Dr Shepherd uncovers the truth behind these perplexing crimes as told through the victims’ bodies.

These victims’ narratives are often re-written, hidden, manipulated, weaponised and concealed by their evil killers. In each case, Dr Shepherd will “separate fact from fiction and ensure the truth always prevails”.

Did you know?

Dr Richard Shepherd is an apiarist (beekeeper) and aviator (with a private pilot’s licence since 2004).

Did you know too?

His latest book, The Seven Ages Of Death, explores what death can teach us about living.

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REVIEW: An Evening With Graham Norton, York Theatre Royal, 3/10/2022

Graham Norton: Forever Home and first ever away day in York

MAKE that An Entire Evening With Graham Norton and part of an evening with Konnie Huq that should have been the first half but became the second at this novel event of the week.

The first clue was the change of start time to 7.45pm and the accompanying note, “We Apologise For Any Inconvenience”.

The inconvenience, it turned out, had been caused to chatterbox Graham, BBC broadcaster, Virgin Radio presenter, own label wine & gin dispenser, agony uncle and novelist, and the late-arriving Konnie, TV and radio presenter, screenwriter and children’s author, once of Blue Peter (1997 to 2008).

Train delays. A problem on the track. Exit Graham from King’s Cross, taking the car to York, for his first ever visit. “What a lovely city,” he said, dashing hopes of a more waspish critique in the manner of his quizzical Eurovision quips.

Konnie would be taking a later train, he explained. From Peterborough. “Not going well,” he stage-whispered. Once a stand-up, always at ease on stage, and if part one should have been Graham in conversation with Konnie about his fourth novel, Forever Home, newly published by Coronet, instead it became Graham in conversation with the full house, roaming back and forth in a suit that tricked the eye at first. Not stains, surely, dapper Graham? No, some far trendier detailing!

Ask away. “Did you get the book we left for you in reception, Graham?”. Come on, York. Ah, here comes the excitable woman in the front row, the one in a group all (bar one) wearing T-shirts emblazoned with cherry-topped buns. Buns, geddit. “Did you get the cakes we left for you, Graham?”. Come on, York, you really can do better than such distractions, handled knowingly by gracious Graham.

York did thankfully do much better than that, mainly asking about his TV shows, the big interviews, one about his wines, another about the beard – should it stay or should it go? – but  not the books, leaving that to Konnie.

Favourite guests? The list kept growing. Worst guest? Very definitely, Harvey Weinstein, accompanied by an anecdote that revealed much about the jailed film producer’s sense of entitlement. Most wanted guests yet to appear? Brad Pitt. Julia Roberts. William & Kate.

Does he ever watch back old episodes? No, he said, the question prompting Graham to imagine himself sitting there thinking, “aren’t I marvellous”. Eurovision popped up too, reflections on Sam Ryder and Ukraine, and no, he couldn’t say where 2023’s jamboree would be held, Liverpool or Glasgow, until Friday. Liverpool, for the record.

Part stand-up, part Q&A, he held back his own excruciating Red Chair revelation to the last, ever the comedian with timing. In a nutshell. Gentleman caller. Departs. Next morning, stretchy item gone missing. Dog. Morning walk in the park. What’s that protruding from pet Bailey’s posterior? Graham stretched the story to the max. Just look at his face.

Time for a break, then Graham reading an excerpt from his new book on the screen, and… here’s Konnie. She’d arrived halfway through act one, watching from the wings, laughing as much as the rest of us. Time to discuss Forever Home, its themes, characters, locations, set in a small Irish town, where divorced teacher Carol’s second chance of love brings her unexpected connection, a shared home and a sense of belonging in a darkly comic story of coping with life’s extraordinary challenges.

Darkly comic. Why darkly comic, Graham? Small rural Irish communities, where they live outside rather than inside the villages, have that darkness to them, that mystery, that something to hide, even if everyone thinks they know everything but everyone else. That side comes out in Graham’s novels, rooted in his experiences of growing up (as Graham William Walker) at 48, St Brigid’s Road, Clondalkin, County Dublin, and leaving at 20, first for America, then London.

Not until three decades later did he reconnect, both physically and in his novels that he began writing as a new challenge on turning 50. His mother’s habits, the butt of his humour, but in affectionate way rather than the mother-in-law jokes of Les Dawson, feed into one of the characters in Forever Home. He has given her a copy, but not told her about the resemblance. No doubt he will delight audiences with an update as and when.

Graham, newly married in West Cork in July, turns 60 next April. A new decade, another new venture? To beard or not to beard? These are the questions. Can’t wait for the answers.  

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More Things To Do in York and beyond: The Mirror Crack’d and other cracking ideas. Hutch’s List No. 100, from The Press

On the case: Susie Blake’s bandaged Miss Marple and Oliver Boot’s Detective Inspector Craddock in the Original Theatre Company’s production of The Mirror Crack’d. Picture: Ali Wright

COINCIDING with Miss Marple’s arrival, Charles Hutchinson  applies his investigative skills to to pick out the best prospects to see, whether usual or unusual.  

Mystery of the week: Original Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2pm, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday

SUSIE Blake’s Miss Marple, Sophie Ward and Joe McFadden lead the cast in Rachel Wagstaff’s stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1962 psychological thriller, a story of revenge and the dark secrets that we all hide.

In the sleepy village of St Mary Mead, a new housing estate is making villagers curious and fearful. Even stranger, a rich American film star has bought the Manor House. Cue a vicious murder; cue Jane Marple defying a sprained ankle to unravel a web of lies, tragedy and danger. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

On the move: Dance time for the Barbara Taylor School of Dancing at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Every body dance: It’s Dance Time 2022, Barbara Taylor School of Dancing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

IT’S Dance Time is “a festival arrangement of dance, infused together to arrange a variety of dance styles”, featuring the whole Barbara Taylor School of Dancing intake.

From tiny toes to fully grown, this song-and- dance parade through the years takes in Commercial Ballet, Tap, and Freestyle Jazz, finishing off with excerpts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Bingham String Quartet: Playing the first Saturday evening concert of the new York Late Music season

Season launch of the week: York Late Music presents Jakob Fichert, today, 1pm, and Bingham String Quartet, today, 7.30pm, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York

ON the first weekend of its 2022-2023 season, York Late Music returns with its regular format of a lunchtime and evening concert. First up, pianist Jakob Fichert marks the 75th birthday of American composer John Adams by performing his works China Gates and American Berserk.

Later, the Bingham String Quartet play string quartets by Beethoven, Schnittke, LeFanu and Tippett, preceded by a talk at 6.45pm by Steve Bingham with a complimentary glass of wine or juice. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.

Graham Norton: Discussing his darkly comic new novel, Forever Home, at York Theatre Royal

Novel event of the week:  An Evening With Graham Norton, York Theatre Royal, Monday, 7.30pm

BBC broadcaster, Virgin Radio presenter and novelist Graham Norton is on a promotional tour for his new book, Forever Home, published this week by Coronet. Set in a small Irish town, it revolves around divorced teacher Carol, whose second chance of love brings her unexpected connection, a shared home and a sense of belonging in a darkly comic story of coping with life’s extraordinary challenges.

In conversation with author and presenter Konnie Huq, Norton will discuss the novel’s themes and how he creates his characters and atmospheric locations, share tales from his career and reveal what inspired him to pick up a pen and start writing, with room for audience questions too. Tickets update: sold out; for returns only, check yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sax to the max: Jean Toussaint leads his quintet at the NCEM

Jazz gig of the week: Jean Toussaint Quintet, National Centre for Early Music, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

SAXOPHONIST Jean Toussaint, who came to prominence in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1982, after his Berklee College of Music studies in Boston, has released 12 albums since moving to London in 1987.

His latest, Songs For Sisters Brothers And Others, reflects on the turbulent Covid-19 years. “The pandemic caused me to focus on the fragility of life and the fact we’re here one moment and gone the next,” he says of penning songs as a “tribute to my wonderful siblings while they were still around to enjoy it”.

Joining him in York will be Freddie Gavita, trumpet, Jonathan Gee, piano, Conor Murray, bass, and Shane Forbes, drums. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Feel like dancing? Leo Sayer steps out at York Barbican on Friday

The rearranged show must go on: Leo Sayer, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

DELAYED by the pandemic, Leo Sayer’s York show now forms part of a 2022 tour to mark his 50th anniversary in pop.

Sayer, 74, who lives in Australia, is back on home soil with his not-so-one-man band to perform a setlist sure to feature  One Man Band, Thunder In My Heart, Moonlighting, I Can’t Stop Loving You, More Than I Can Say, Have You Ever Been In Love, When I Need You, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and, yes, The Show Must Go On. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Buzzing: Maisie Adam heads home for Harrogate Theatre gig. Picture: Matt Crockett

Homecoming of the week: Maisie Adam: Buzzed, Harrogate Theatre, October 8, 8pm

BORN in Pannal and former head girl at St Aidan’s in Harrogate, anecdotal stand-up Maisie Adam heads home next Saturday on her first full-scale British tour to discuss relationships, house plants, her footballing aplomb, hopefully her beloved Leeds United and that haircut, the one to rival David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane for multiple choices across one barnet.

Adam played her first gig at the Ilkley Literature Festival in 2016 and won the nationwide So You Think You’re Funny? Competition in 2017. Now she pops up on Mock The Week and Have I Got News and co-hosts the podcast That’s A First. She also plays Leeds City Varieties on Friday. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Digging the digital: The poster for Foto/Grafic’s Human After All digital-media exhibition at Fossgate Social and Micklegate Social

One exhibition, two locations: Foto/Grafic, Human After All, at Micklegate Social and Fossgate Social, York, today until November 27.

TWO sister bars that “show a bit of art every now and then championing local and innovative creativity” present Foto/Grafic’s group show from this weekend.

Human After All features digital-media artwork by young and early-career artists in celebration of their “leap from physical earthbound creations to the stratosphere of the unlimited digital toolbox”.

December Morning, by Judy Burnett

Exhibition launch of the week outside York: Judy Burnett, Time And Tide, Morten Gallery, High Street, Old Town, Bridlington, today until November 13; open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm

YORK artist Judy Burnett’s latest show of paintings and collages at Morten Gallery winds its way across the Wolds from the River Ouse in York to the sea.

Over time, water in all its forms has created the East Yorkshire landscape, firstly as a melting glacier at the end of the Ice Age, gouging out deep valleys and folds on its way down to the Vale of York.

The River Ouse then connects with other Yorkshire waterways to spill out into the North Sea at the mouth of the Humber and return on the tide to crash onto the cliffs of the Wolds coastline.

Judy lives by the Ouse in York, with a view from her studio window directly onto the riverbank, leading to the changing effects of light on moving water being an inspiration for her work. The colours and rhythms of the water alter with the weather, the time of day, the seasons and the frequent floods.

This interest in the luminosity and movement of water is also reflected in Judy’s many paintings of the Yorkshire coast, most particularly at Flamborough Head and Bridlington.

During the past year, she has made many trips across the Wolds, observing the rich tapestry of the countryside that links the river to the sea.

Her sketches are completed on-site in varying weather conditions. Back in the studio, they are developed in a range of media, utilising hand-printed collage paper and paint. The aim is to keep all the mark-making fresh and spontaneous, to echo the power of the elements at the time of observation.

 A Meet The Artist event will be held on October 22, from 1pm to 3pm, when “you are welcome to join us for a glass of wine and to enjoy the 30 pieces of work, together with Judy’s sketchbooks on display,” says gallery owner Jenny Morten.

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Prue Leith advises Nothing In Moderation as Bake Off judge takes off on first ever tour. Grand Opera House, York, awaits UPDATED with Christmas tips 17/12/2022

Dame Prue Leith: First tour at 82 next year (or 83, as her birthday falls on February 18, part-way through the 34-date run)

THE Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith’s debut tour, Nothing In Moderation, is in the 2023 diary for March 2 at the Grand Opera House, York.

Running from February 1 to an April 6 finale at the London Palladium, the 34-date UK and Irish itinerary by the restaurateur, chef, cookery school supremo and doyenne of food writers also takes in Sheffield Memorial Hall on February 28.

Tour tickets will go on sale from 10am on Thursday (29/9/2022) at Mickperrin.com; for York, on 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Nothing is off the menu in this frank, funny show, wherein Dame Prue will share anecdotes about her life: taking audiences through the ups and downs of being a restaurateur, novelist, businesswoman and Bake Off judge; how she has fed the rich and famous; cooked for royalty and even poisoned her clients – all to be told for the first time.

In the second half, she will be joined on stage by Clive Tulloh, who will take questions for Dame Prue from the audience “that they’ve always wanted to ask”.

Dame Prue Leith will be “singing the praises of food, love and life”

Dame Prue says: “I’ve never done a stage show before and at 82 [83 by the time she plays York] I’m probably nuts to try it, but it’s huge fun, makes the audience laugh and lets me rant away about the restaurant trade, publishers, TV and writing, and sing the praises of food, love and life.”

Baking guru Dame Prue Leith has been a judge on the world’s biggest baking TV show, The Great British Bake Off, since when 2017, when she joined Paul Hollywood after the switch to Channel 4.

Before Bake Off, South African-born Dame Prue had long enjoyed success in her career as a restaurateur, chef, writer and journalist. In the 1960s and ’70s, she ran her own party and event catering business and then set up Leith’s Food and Wine to train professional chefs and amateur cooks.

Dame Prue has written multiple cookery books and many features on food for publications such as The Guardian. She has appeared on TV shows aplenty, including Great British Menu and My Kitchen Rules.

The poster for Dame Prue Leith’s Nothing In Moderation tour, visiting York and Sheffield

Two quick questions for Dame Prue Leith on cooking for Christmas Day

Which do you prefer, goose or turkey, Prue?

“Either. We sometimes have goose; sometimes turkey. Turkey is much cheaper and it can be absolutely delicious, but do get the full bird. Just the turkey crown doesn’t have the full flavour. Turkey also gives you the best gravy.”

How do you make sprouts more exciting?

“I note that in America, at the moment, sprouts are the most fashionable vegetable, toasted and roasted in oil in a hot oven.

“But I prepare them the day before, then very briefly roughly chop them up in a liquidiser, mixing in cream, garlic, salt and pepper, sometimes bits of bacon, then bung them in the microwave for a couple of minutes – and you have sprouts for sprouts haters!”