A still from Felipe Castelblanco’s prize-winning work at the 2026 Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition at York Art Gallery
FROM the Aesthetica Art Prize to Boyzlife’s boyband hits, York River Art Market at Spark to NETheatre’s Shrek, Charles Hutchinson marks your card for plenty to enjoy.
Last chance to see: 2026 Aesthetica Art Prize, York Gallery, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
WORKS by prize winners Felipe Castelblanco (Main Prize) and DIVA (Emerging Prize) are joined by 18 more shortlisted global artists in the 2026 Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition.
“This is art with purpose: work that operates as a force of disruption and recalibration, unsettling fixed ways of seeing and opening up new ways of understanding a world in flux,” says Aesthetica director Cherie Federico.
The mixed-media works address strong environmental themes, relationships to nature both past and present, as well as health and wellbeing in the modern age. Entry is included in general admission at yorkartgallery.org.uk.
York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner
Market of the week: York River Art Market Winter Market, Spark: York, Piccadilly, York, today and tomorrow, 11am to 6pm
YORK River Art Market’s winter market at Spark:York features featuring 30 stall holders each day, selected from 180 applicants, spread between the studio upstairs and working spaces on the ground floor, with further stalls at the entrance and a couple more elsewhere. The focus will be on gifts and cards for Christmas. Admission is free.
Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden of Boyzlife: Returning to York Barbican tonight
Boyband alumni of the week: Boyzlife, featuring Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
BOYBAND supergroup Boyzlife, comprising Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden, celebrate the hits from both defining Nineties and Noughties groups, who notched 55 million sales and 21 number ones between them. Here come I Love The Way You Love Me, All That I Need, No Matter What, My Love, I Lay My Love On You and more.
Recommended but sold out already at York Barbican in the week ahead are Scottish band Del Amitri, marking four decades of songs and stories in Past To Present on Monday (doors 7pm), and Alison Moyet performing the songs of Yazoo and from her two solo electronica albums, The Minutes and Other, on November 18 (doors 7pm). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Alison Moyet: Focusing on electronica albums at York Barbican. Picture: Naomi Davison
Persian trio of the week: Nava Arts presents The Trembling Land, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
THE Trembling Land brings together three prominent musicians from Iran, now spread out to three European countries: the Persian classical voice of Samin Ghorbani (based in Germany); the electronics, clarinet and arrangements of Rouzbeh Esfand (Netherlands) and the compositions of Vahid Taremi (UK), who plays the shurangiz,a six-string, long-neck lute.
Together they play “the sound of their shadows from a Trembling Land”, living in separate cities yet connected through a shared artistic language where they combine traditional Persian music and contemporary elements to “create a telling atmosphere of what remained unspoken rather than a pure retelling of the past”. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
The poster for Rob Lamberti’s tribute concert to George Michael
Tribute gig of the week: Rob Lamberti Presents Perfectly George, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm
ROB Lamberti’s dynamic show “tactfully and appropriately” celebrates the career of George Michael, from Wham! all the way through to the diverse eras of George’s solo career, taking in Careless Whisper, Faith, I’m Your Man, Club Tropicana and so many more as he tells the story of the East Finchley-born pop icon. Lamberti featured on the BBC’s Even Better Than The Real Thing in 2017 and Steve Coogan’s film Greed in 2020. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Helen Glaisher-HernándezandLorena Paz Nieto: Exploring The Secret Art Songs of Women Latina Composers at NCEM
Spanish spotlight of the week: Lorena Paz Nieto & Helen Glaisher-Hernández: Mujeres Presentes, The Secret Art Songs of Women Latina Composers, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 17, 7.30pm
SPANISH soprano Lorena Paz Nieto and British-Hispanic pianist Helen Glaisher-Hernández explore the captivating world of Spanish and Latin American art song as conceived by its most outstanding and beguiling women composers. At 6.50pm, the two musicians give a pre-show talk in a chance to learn more about the female Ibe/rican composers featured in a programme presented in association with Instituto Cervantes Manchester. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Martin Roscoe: Piano soloist at York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at Helmsley Arts Centre
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow, 3pm
CONDUCTED by music director Simon Wright, York Guildhall Orchestra presents an intimate chamber concert, using a small group of players from the full orchestra. Martin Roscoe will be the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb in an afternoon programme also featuring Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7, Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Symphony 25 in G minor. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Blair Dunlop: Showcasing new album What Still Survives at the NCEM. Picture: Paul Rhodes
Singer-songwriter of the week: Blair Dunlop, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 19, 7.30pm
CHESTERFIELD singer-songwriter and guitarist Blair Dunlop has made six studio albums and a live record since 2012 while touring extensively around the world. Once part of The Albion Band and a former winner of the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award, he is on tour to promote the October 30 release of latest album What Still Survives, a record marked by his continuing pursuit of craftsmanship, curiosity and an unwavering commitment to the song itself.
At the heart of What Still Survives lies a meditation on endurance: what remains after upheaval, what survives the passage of time and what continues to connect us. Throughout the record, Dunlop reflects on the creative forces that shaped him, from the British folk tradition he grew up within, to the great songwriters of America’s West Coast. Liz Stringer supports. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
A montage of cast members in NETheatre York’s Shrek The Musical
Musical of the week: NETheatre York in Shrek The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 20 to 22 and November 24 to 28, times vary
STEVE Tearle directs NETheatre York in Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s musical based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film Shrek. Shrek the ogre is the unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue.
Then throw in a short-tempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude and multiple fairy-tale misfits in this irreverent tale of beauty truly being in the eye of the beholder. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
“My performances are a tad vulgar and ramshackle – non-negotiables with Dickens! – but they’re always unmistakably alive,” says York storyteller James Swanton as his York Medical Society season beckons. Picture: Jtu Photography
HURRY, hurry or it will be Bah Humbug time! “I’m now rapidly getting to the point where all my Christmas Dickens shows at the end of the month are going to sell out!” forewarns York storyteller and actor James Swanton ahead of his return to York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, from November 23 to November 29.
As of November 9, only 37 tickets were left out of 400 seats for the eight performances that will complement five renditions of festive favourite A Christmas Carol with three of The Haunted Man, a neglected Gothic gem.
“Their words unlock a world teeming with chain-rattling spectres, with dark and shadowy doubles, with Ghosts of Christmases Past and Present and Yet To Come,” says James. “These tales chill the marrow and tickle the funny bone, but always they enchant, as only the works of a master storyteller can. These ghost stories are the very spirit of Christmas: enchanting, exuberant and ultimately redemptive.”
Only last week, James enjoyed a fully booked return to York Medical Society with Dickens’s most frightening ghost story, The Signal-Man, back on track in Halloween’s afterglow from November 2 to 9 in a delightfully macabre double bill with the supernatural terrors of The Trial For Murder.
Here James discusses his annual word-spinning challenge of Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories with CharlesHutchPress.
Take a seat: James Swanton is ready to tell Charles Dickens’s ghost stories once more
What draws you back to A Christmas Carol each winter, James?
“Typically, A ChristmasCarol reminds me why I became an actor in the first place – and with the acting world (and the real world) in its current wretched state, I’ve this year needed that reminder more than ever.
“Now that AI’s constantly threatening to replace us all on screen, these live shows of mine feel like the most useful contribution I can make. My performances are a tad vulgar and ramshackle – non-negotiables with Dickens! – but they’re always unmistakably alive. That’s the real gift of the Carol, for Scrooge, and for an audience, and certainly for this clapped-out actor: to bring us all back to life.”
What makes you pick The Haunted Man as the companion piece?
“As Dickens’s fifth and final Christmas Book, The Haunted Man provides the most extreme twist on the Christmas Carol formula. It’s peculiarly right for our times, a portrait of a man stricken with depression, and it’s unstintingly dark, offering no easy answers.
“Some people say they can’t stand A Christmas Carol because it’s too damn jolly. They’ll get none of that in The Haunted Man; it moves with the deathly solemnity of a Victorian funeral procession, seasoned with approximately two-and-a-half jokes.”
James Swanton as Claude Frollo, “easily the most reprehensible human being I’ve ever played”, in Quasimodo’s Keeper, filmed in York churches this year
Johnny Depp’s Scrooge in Ti West’sgothic dark fantasy comedyEbenezerarrives in cinemas today. What makes an actor suited to playing Scooge?
“Innocence. There are other elements, but let’s never forget how easily Dickens’s Scrooge cries; the instant he enters Christmas Past, this seeming monster is in tears. The reason that Scrooge is so irresistibly funny is because we know, deep down, that he’s only playing at being the villain, relishing the theatrical role.
“It’s for that reason that I don’t like it when Scrooges turn abusive. Remember all that business in the Steven Knight version where Scrooge emotionally and physically abuses poor Mrs Cratchit? That may have worked for some people, but I thought it out of drawing.”
What are the merits of a storytelling theatrical performance as opposed to a megabucks movie?
“In the one-man form, you maintain Dickens’s glorious narration, which I’d argue is responsible for more than half the story’s impact. The Dickensian narrator is an expert stage manager throughout, as Gonzo proves to our satisfaction in the Muppet masterwork. You also get me in the theatrical version, which is certain to enormously please two or three people.”
“Places are in very short supply, but I can guarantee that everyone who does attend will have a good view,” promises James Swanton
Will you be using the bigger or smaller room at York Medical Society?
“The bigger room, which is the lecture hall, although I’ve placed a cap on the number of tickets on sale to ensure there’s still a degree of intimacy. As a result, places are in very short supply, but I can guarantee that everyone who does attend will have a good view.”
Where else will you be taking your Dickensian Ghost Stories this season?
“Following my eight shows in York, I’ll be straight off to the Charles Dickens Museum, the author’s only surviving London home, where I’m giving 40 performances from December 1 to 23 (and 30 of those are A Christmas Carol, Lord help me). This punishing southern schedule is why I’m now serially unable to perform in York in December!”
What have been your creative pursuits in 2026?
“The usual eccentric mixture. I returned to Big Finish to play a showy villain in one of their Doctor Who audio dramas, this time opposite Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. I’ve also carried on working for the rejuvenated Hammer, which has meant starring in a new Hammer film, Victim Of His Imagination, about Bram Stoker and my great hero Henry Irving. That one’s available on the Blu-ray box set for their beautifully restored Dracula.
“Last month, I appeared as Count Dracula at the restoration’s West End premiere, which involved hours of prosthetics from the Oscar-winning Dave Elsey to turn me into a plausible Christopher Lee.
James Swanton appearing as Christopher Lee’s Dracula at the West End premiere of the 4K restoration of Terence Fisher’s 1958 film, Dracula, in October.Picture: Dave Elsey
“This year, I’ve also been making Quasimodo’s Keeper, a one-man film of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, with various York churches serving as key filming locations. My character there is Claude Frollo, who’s easily the most reprehensible human being I’ve ever played.
“On top of that, I’ve been memorising plenty of Gothic poetry, which I suspect will become an ongoing project. For the opening of Horrifically Good Books last month in Goodramgate, I performed two little-known titles alongside The Raven by Poe, and that went down very well.”
What’s in your diary for upcoming commitments?
“I have to finish off Quasimodo’s Keeper early next year. I still haven’t been cast as Richard III, despite my love of the macabre and my terribly wonky spine, so Victor Hugo’s hunchback will have to do for now. Other than that, it’s back to probable retirement. Who’d be an actor, eh?”
James Swanton presents Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, November 23 to 29. Performances: The Haunted Man, November 23 & 26, 7pm; A Christmas Carol, November 24 & 27, 7pm, November 28, 2pm & 6pm and November 29, 2pm; The Haunted Man, November 29, 6pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Please note: Tickets cannot be bought on the door and must be booked in advance. The nature of the performance demands a No Latecomers policy. Doors will close promptly at the start time stated.
James Swanton, right, in the poster for The Fairy Moon, now available online
James Swanton: back story
JAMES has played the title roles in two BBC chillers, The Curse Of The Ninth in Inside No. 9 and Lot No. 249, Mark Gatiss’s annual ghost story, for which the Telegraph called James “the scariest man on TV this Christmas”.
His work with Dickens includes his one-man play Sikes & Nancy at the West End’s Trafalgar Studios, praised by fellow Dickens devotee Simon Callow as “fantastical…remarkable…startling and enthralling”, and sell-out seasons of the Christmas Books at the Charles Dickens Museum, in London. “Extraordinary…superb…it couldn’t have been more vivid,” enthused fellow regular Dickens performer Miriam Margolyes.
In 2025, James made the “alarming” short film The Fairy Moon. “Only recently has it been made available online,” he says. ” In fact, the director, Craig Williams, moved to York last year.” View it at: The Fairy Moon | Videos & Movies on Vime.
NEWSFLASH, 13/11/2026, 6.23pm
JAMES Swanton’s rendition of Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories has been picked by The Times as one of the 30 best shows to see this Christmas for its upcoming return to the Charles Dickens Museum.
“If you’re looking for an extra touch of authenticity, James Swanton is reprising his much-admired solo performance in the intimate surroundings of Charles Dickens’s former home,” the recommendation reads.
Jamie McKeller’s sarky, sceptical Sam in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
YORK spook specialists Neon Crypt tend to put comedy first, but Danny Robins’ smart metropolitan thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story is a chance to “scare the absolute beans out of you”, forewarns actor Jamie McKeller.
You should know that McKeller and his wife, Laura, have another life as Dr Dorian and Dede Deathly, purveyors of the Deathly Dark Tours ghost walks in York, Europe’s self-anointed “most haunted city”.
This week, our city has a new addition to its hauntings in the form of Robins’ psychological drama, now being staged in traverse for the first time in York after two tour productions under the proscenium arch at the Grand Opera House in May 2024 and April this year.
Traverse places the audience in seats either side of the stage, in this case matched by the seating on the mezzanine level too. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” says McKeller, explaining the reasoning behind the design.
Disputatious dinner party:Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
The set runs the full length of Theatre@41’s black box studio, filling the space with the open-plan kitchen and sitting room that is undergoing renovation by Albanian builders after scientist Sam (McKeller) and teacher-on-maternity-leave Jenny (Laura McKeller) moved in with their baby, Phoebe.
Sam has been away all week observing the dark skies on the island of Sark. For four days, he has not been answering his phone, and in that time, in between busying herself with painting and looking after Phoebe, Jenny has been disturbed by the sound of footsteps and adult crying in the child’s room at 2:22am each night, picked up on the baby monitor. She is becoming convinced the house is haunted.
Tonight Jenny and Sam are hosting their first supper party. American Lauren (Laura Castle), Sam’s best friend since university days, has arrived already with new boyfriend Ben (Michael Cornell), a builder who never left. She is stirring the asparagus risotto, but where is Sam? Ah, here he is, at last, to stir things up with his scepticism and know-all sarcasm.
All the while, Robins’ thriller is suffused with unnerving soundscapes, whether the propulsive incidental music before each half and in between scenes, or the cries of Phoebe needing attention, or more piercingly – and definitely louder than in the Grand Opera House tour shows – the yelps and screeches of foxes in flagrante in the garden. Huge glass patio doors and lighting that responds to movement further shred the nerves every time someone suddenly appears on the terrace.
Michael Cornell’s Ben setting up the seance in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
To go with these noises, unnatural, maybe supernatural things keep happening: Why is the window in Phoebe’s bedroom open and why is white spirit suddenly in the basin of the downstairs loo? Jenny decides they must all stay up until 2:22am to resolve who or what is disturbing the house. An electronic clock to either side of the stage will count down to that fateful/fatal time.
From the gleefully wicked imagination of The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Robins, this paranormal thriller is more than a ghost story with Hitchcockian jump scares. He combines the social and cultural wit of a James Graham comedy with a sleight of hand worthy of Derren Brown’s mind games as these bright sparks debate whether they believe in ghosts or not.
Later, Cornell’s Ben, one of those cocksure types who wears no socks, will give both barrels to yuppie intellectual Sam on how the houses where he once lived have been newly gentrified by “posh tw*ts”, who strip out all the interior and make them all look the soulless same. Yet Ben and co are still under the floorboards, he says, like a ghost of the street’s past.
Class warfare plays out between Sam, a non-believer in ghosts, and Ben, who believes in the supernatural. As the trendy wine flows and arguments rise, so too does the sexual heat in an echo of the tensions of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf or a Tennessee Williams play.
Laura Castle’s Lauren putting out the flames in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
2:22 A Ghost Story rivals The Woman In Black for spooks, but now applied with modern technology, not least an unpredictable Alexa, topped off with illusions at the climactic séance conducted by Ben.
Alex King’s cast plays it straight, nothing hammy or Hammer Horror here, to the betterment of Robins’ state-of-the-nation character study: from the choices of wine to Sam’s dinner party playlist (Portishead); from the reference to Sam and Lauren working together for a charity in Africa to the discussion about the lizard, mouse and monkey sections of our brain, and how fear, rather than love, is our most powerful emotion.
2: 22 A Ghost Story is Neon Crypt’s best production yet, satisfying with both its delivery of well orchestrated shocks and alarms and its exposure of uncomfortable truths within the verbal jousting that is as witty as it is revealing. The warring McKellers times two, Cornell’s obdurate Ben and Castle’s whip-smart Lauren make Robins’ dialogue spark and sizzle, all the more intensely within the claustrophobic traverse.
Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.3pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Moving experience: Hands at the ready for the seance in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
Jane Asher as The Queen, surrounded by royal dresses on show in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
THERE has been a multitude of portraits of Elizabeth II, from Spitting Image to The Crown, Helen Mirren in The Queen to Moira Buffini’s play Handbagged.
Now comes By Royal Appointment, the debut play by Daisy Goodwin, creator of ITV’s historical television drama series Victoria.
The novel spin here is that By Royal Appointment is as much the story of The Dresser (played by Laura Main), The Designer (David Robb) and The Milliner (Matthew Cottle) as it is a depiction of The Queen (theatre royalty Jane Asher). More to the point, it is the story of how The Queen’s clothes spoke volumes for her.
Unfortunately, the words now wrapped around that statement are stiff and awkward, reduced in impact by their methodical, metronomic, repetitious, monotone rhythm and a chronological structure led by Laura Matthews’ Curator/narrator that undermines momentum.
No amount of high-quality acting and droll humour can save By Royal Appointment from feeling underwhelming, especially by comparison with the wit and political commentary of Buffini’s Handbagged, with its heavyweight clash between The Queen and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in younger and older years.
Handbagged still covered the passing years, but was more concentrated in its focus, whereas Goodwin’s play spans 1969 to 2022, opening and closing with The Dresser, Gigi Gaunt’s attendance at The Queen’s Funeral and taking an episodic format, where Matthews’ Curator introduces each scene with a snapshot of that year’s cultural highlights.
By Royal Appointment is based loosely on two books by Angela Kelly, The Queen’s senior dresser, advisor and confidante from 1994 to her death, albeit that Gigi is a conflation of her dressers from 1969, made into a working-class woman from Wigan with vaulting ambition and a blunt tongue for all but Her Majesty. She puts service and care first but all while serving her own goals too.
credit:-Robert Day
Laura Main’s Gigi Gaunt, The Dresser in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
Humour is not her bag, whereas Goodwin gives The Queen and especially her Milliner and Designer (based on Norman Hartnell) plenty of room for quips and observations. At the same time, the playwright counters those barbs and ripostes with emotional outpourings, whether by Asher’s Queen after her uncle, Lord Mountbatten’s death and the Windsor Castle fire, or Cottle’s unguarded Australian Milliner, when his partner dies in the grip of Aids.
Then add Robb’s guarded, repressed Designer, recalling how his father favoured his chip-off-the-old-block older brother over him, a mere “shaving” despite his Military Cross and design prowess.
In a nutshell, By Royal Appointment is in part the tale of The Queen and a Buckingham Palace “stuffed with queens”, but Goodwin’s set-pieces feel mechanical in seeking a balance of humour and something deeper. The overall tone is light, and yet Main’s manipulative Dresser becomes embittered, except in the presence of The Queen.
Asher has the regal air, the manner and the stature, and a voice and look to carry off the changing of the years. In Goodwin’s dialogue, she lets us see behind the front, especially when expressing The Queen’s love for Prince Philip and how he made her heart throb, but around her the behaviour is mannered and restrained (save on occasion for Cottle’s Milliner).
Consequently the drama is as starched as a shirt collar, in keeping with the time-honoured British characteristic of chronic reserve that prevails.
By Royal Appointment is well dressed and well pressed by director Anthony Banks and designer Jonathan Fensom, but ultimately it says less than its clothes. Style over discontent.
Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge, presentBy Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion with cast members after Thursday’s 7.30pm show. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura Main as The Dresser, Gigi Gaunt, dressed for The Queen’s funeral in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
CALL the Call The Midwife star! Laura Main has stepped in to replace the originally announced Samantha Womack in the tour of Daisy Goodwin’s debut play By Royal Appointment, playing York Theatre Royal this week.
“I had only two weeks of rehearsals – shorter than it would otherwise have been, and even then there were some things that were non-negotiable as I have to do panto at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this Christmas” says Laura, who has played Shelagh Turner (formerly Sister Bernadette) in the BBC medical drama since 2012.
In the role of The Dresser, Laura is starring opposite Jane Asher as The Queen in Goodwin’s exploration of their relationship and how the pair created the public image of the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for her discretion, expressing what she really thought only through her wardrobe. In Goodwin’s play, The Queen is uninterested in fashion, at her happiest instead in a head scarf; her look is managed by her Designer (played by David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Main).
In Goodwin’s chronological play, the Dresser goes from advising the Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne, but the Dresser, like all royal favourites, is living on borrowed time.
“It’s such a wonderful play and such a wonderful subject, and so many things have slotted into place for me, like how I got a ticket to the exhibition of The Queen’s wardrobe at Buckingham Palace on a day off,” says Laura.
“This one ‘Return’ ticket appeared so I snapped it up, when they’re like gold dust, and so I had the chance to look at the dresses, the fabrics, the designs.
“On top of that, one of the things I’d been doing this year, after I’d bought the book for her, was reading Gyles Brandreth’s book [Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait) to my mum, who needs care and support these days. It was like I’d been studying for this role and now it’s about getting the character [of the Dresser] right and doing her justice.”
Gooodman’s Dresser, Gigi Gaunt, is a composite of various dressers to The Queen from 1969 to 2022, most notably Angela Kelly, her personal assistant, adviser and dresser from 1994 until the monarch’s death, says Laura: “We’re playing all these different ages and all these significant times in The Queen’s life.”
Part of the joy of taking on The Dresser’s role was the chance to perform with Jane Asher. “It’s the first I’ve worked with Jane, and I would say one of my favourite moments was looking into Jane’s eyes for the first time as The Queen. It was pretty spine-tingling. Jane is so talented and nice and generous, and such fun. She’s an amazing person.”
Laura Main as The Dresser with Jane Asher as The Queen in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
How did Laura “find” her character? “I hear what you say about thinking about who she is dressing and how extraordinary that is, but you have to find your own way in. The Dresser really loves The Queen, cares for her and she absolutely has that sense of responsibility of serving The Queen. They had this chemistry and bond,” she says.
“I know how it feels when you have to do something scary, where you have to perform, and you have a make-up artist and wardrobe assistant making sure everything is OK, so I channel my friends from Call The Midwife into this role.”
Laura continues: “I know the Dresser is loosely based on Angela Kelly, and I’ve been listening to her audio-books, where she talks about those emotional moments, like before the State Opening of Parliament, where there’s just the two of them preparing in this small space; the silence of those moments.”
Laura not only draws on Angela Kelly’s recollections, but she also has been working with costumer designer and fashion stylist Laura Parkes. “Again it’s a tiny window into that world, which in a way the Dresser has, as she’s not from that world [as a working-class woman from Wigan] but she has access to it,” she says.
“This woman is completely different to anyone I’ve played before, though there are elements that, as Laura, share. I feel really excited to be playing Gigi.”
Scottish actress Laura, who has mastered a Wigan accent for the role, says By Royal Appointment gives a complete picture of The Queen in a play that starts and ends with her funeral and looks back at significant moments in her reign.
“I feel that Daisy has created The Queen behind closed doors when there are tender moments, comical moments, real moments,” she says. “I suspect, having met Daisy, that she is maybe closer to the world of The Queen, having written about Queen Victoria too, but I feel that Gigi is singing off the page too.”
The dresses speak volumes in the play, designed for this production by Jonathan Fensom. “Having been to the exhibition at Buckingham Palace, it’s wonderful to see The Queen in so many iconic outfits. What style, spanning so much time, so many fashions, and she was really bold. I think she had such fun with what she wore,” says Laura. “Jonathan has made us all look fantastic in this heightened, elevated world.
“I have just one dress throughout, whereas The Queen is changing all the time. It’s a simple and stylish dress that can span all the times the play covers, which is really clever. The moment when Gigi was ‘here’ for me was when I first first wore the black hat, that dress, and coat for the funeral.”
Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge, present By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion after Thursday’s 7.30pm show. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura Main as the Dresser in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
Laura Main on saying Yes to playing The Dresser on tour either side of Christmas at short notice
“THERE were some things that were non-negotiable as I have to do panto at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this Christmas, where I’m Fairy Snowfall in Sleeping Beauty,” says Laura.
“I did it in Sunderland last year and had so much fun that when they asked me again, with my mum needing care and support these days. it was my sisters who said, ‘you loved it, go and do it again’.
“With that care and support, my mum has been so much better, but it’s a wrench to leave her.
“I love theatre, I absolutely love it, but I do have family time too, which has been good, and then this opportunity to do By Royal Appointment came up. I know the director, Anthony Banks, after playing M’Lynn, Shelby’s mother, in Steel Magnolias, so right at this moment in time, being offered a huge, huge tour for a long time…
“…you never know what will be right right for you personally and creatively, but I did really want to do some more theatre as I love all the magic of storytelling, the connection with the audience and the chance to play a new character.
“There’s a week off before the panto starts and a week off afterwards, and then we start again in Aberdeen, which is where I’m from and where my mum lives. I thought, when am I going to get the time to do both, acting and looking after my mum, and it felt like Anthony was giving me the chance to do both.
“These are less than perfect circumstances, but we can make it work. I’ve found freedom in doing this role because, in a way, there’s less to prove as you’re stepping in and helping out.”
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Robert Day
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry to Lady Nade’s songs of identity, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who are staging the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits: Playing NCEM tonight. Picture: jameslascelles.co.uk
World jazz, folk and Caribbean groovesof the week: James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
LED by Harewood composer, musician and visionary James Lascelles, Talking Spirits is less a band and more a musical convergence of world-class artists whose combined experience reads like a hall of fame of modern music. Performing a lively blend of world jazz, folk and Caribbean grooves, the line-up comprises Lascelles, keys, dulcimer, melodic and percussion; Richard Bailey, drums; Tim Herniman, sax and violin, and Kenny Higgins, bass.
Between them, band members have performed, recorded, and collaborated with the avant-garde Frank Zappa, the pioneering violinist L. Shankar; the rock theatricality of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the soulful songwriting of Joan Armatrading. Brought together, their network of influence spans continents, genres and generations, yet somehow converges in a single, unexpected place. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig this week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, tonight, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man!, tomorrow at York Barbican
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie, who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Latinos: Cuban and Latin music at Milton Rooms, Malton
Havana spirit of the week: York Latinos, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
YORK Latinos return to the Milton Rooms for a night of Cuban and Latin music, bringing the spirit of Havana back to Malton. Inspired by the sounds of traditional Cuba and the golden era of Buena Vista Social Club, the five-piece blends authentic Caribbean rhythms and high-energy performance into a vibrant experience full of salsa, son and Latin classics. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Brian Bilston: Hatching his new poetry collection in Hemsley and Pocklington
Poet of the week: Brian Bilston: How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS autumn, Brian Bilston, a poet with 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside. Prepare for an evening of comic verse as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day. Box office, Helmsley, for returns only, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Alligator Gumbo: Bringing the New Orleans jazz sound to Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Jazz gig of the week: Alligator Gumbo, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALLIGATOR Gumbo’s seven-piece line-up plays jazz from the New Orleans swing/jazz era, in particular the “Roaring Twenties”, when music was raw and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously.
Performing extensively for more than ten years, James Paylor, double bass/vocals, Mike Rudland Simpson, guitar/vocals, Chris Lloyd, piano, Greg Surmacz, clarinet/saxophone, Chris Williamson, trumpet, Tim Hurst, trombone, and Jose Williamson, drums/washboard, have performed at international jazz festivals and clubs throughout the country. Expect raucous singalongs. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Lady Nade: Songs of self-expression and self-love in her Identity show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Connection and compassion in tandem: Lade Nade, Identity – Live, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
BRISTOL songstress Lady Nade showcases her fourth album, Identity, self-released on October 2. Blending roots, folk, soul, Americana, jazz, blues and pop, her songs of honesty and vulnerability offer sanctuary, encouragement and a powerful celebration of self-love and self-expression.
Featuring the anthemic BBC Introducing Song of the Week One Of Us, the soul-soothing Rainbow and the retro-infused pop of Sober, championed by Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 6 Music, Identity advocates being seen, being heard and discovering the freedom of fully inhabiting who you are. Special guest Holly Carter is a folk/Americana singer, songwriter, fingerstyle guitarist and pedal steel player. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Martin Roscoe: Piano soloist for York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at Helmsley Arts Centre
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 3pm
CONDUCTED by music director Simon Wright, York Guildhall Orchestra presents an intimate chamber concert, using a small group of players from the full orchestra. Martin Roscoe will be the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb in an afternoon programme also featuring Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7, Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Symphony 25 in G minor. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Edwina Hayes: Playing Milton Rooms, Malton, on Sunday
Singer-songwriter of the week: Edwina Hayes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm
EAST Riding folk singer/songwriter Edwina Hayes brings together English folk, Americana and the rich northern singer/songwriter tradition to create her own sound. She has toured with Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Loudon Wainwright III and the late Nanci Griffith, who called her “the sweetest voice in England” and covered the title track from her album Pour Me A Drink.
Hayes’s cover of Randy Newman’s Feels Like Home was featured in the Cameron Diaz film My Sister’s Keeper and has since had 20 million plays on Spotify and 50 million plays on YouTube. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Ebor Players in their 2025 pantomime Dick Whittington
PROPS and scenery are being painted. Lines are being learned, forgotten and learned again. Songs are being fine-tuned. Yes, it must be pantomime time again in Bishopthorpe.
Preparations are well underway for Mother Goose, this year’s show by the Ebor Players at Bishopthorpe Village Hall, near York – the Players’ home since 1994 – where it will run from November 30 to December 5 in the society’s first ever panto to be set in Norway.
Written by Ben Crocker and directed and produced by Philippa Parrish, this fun, feathery and fabulous family show will be replete with the traditional cheering and booing, songs and laughter, nonsense and romance, colourful costumes and slapstick surprises, peril and villainous skulduggery.
Who will win the battle of good versus evil: Fairy Aurora or Smorg, the wicked troll? Can Mother Goose and her beloved Heidi escape the treacherous clutches of the Baron and his sidekick, Gonk? Will Freya and Sven find love amid the mayhem? What will the Grand High Snow Goose have to say about it all?
In the cast will be: Paul Brook as Smorg; Phil Pickering, Mother Goose; Denny Davis, Freya Goose; Remo, Heidi the Goose; Katie Pickering, Baron von Rumpensmakka; Amy Bruce, Gonk; Sarah Frankland, Sven; Vincent Loach, The Grand High Snow Goose, and Bella Rutherford, Bobbie Lay-Flurrie, Diane Curran, Jules Rutherford and Mhairi Dunn as Trolls, Snowmen & Choir.
Ebor Players in Mother Goose, Bishopthorpe Village Hall, near York, November 30 to December 5. Performances: 7pm, Monday; 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday; 2pm (sold out) and 7.30pm, Saturday. Please note, the Wednesday and Saturday evening shows are adults only, with cabaret-style seating.
Red light spells danger:Neon Crypt’s Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show for the first time in traverse – with audiences to either side of the stage – under the direction of Alex King.
“The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns actor and company co-founder Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know.
“Ready to scare the absolute beans out of you”, here Jamie McKeller discusses Neon Crypt’s latest spooky production with CharlesHutchPress.
What attracted Neon Crypt to presenting 2:22 A Ghost Story, Jamie?
“Nick Hern Books, who we’ve previously worked with on Dracula – The Bloody Truth and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, let us know that the rights were available, so we had a very quick read-through with the four of us to decide if it was the right fit.
“Neon Crypt have a reputation for very silly, very chaotic theatre, so 2:22 is quite a diversion for us. We all agreed that if any of us felt that it wasn’t working, we would abandon the idea.
“We read Act One and it wasn’t great. We had a chat about the tone, the delivery and character. When we read Act Two, it fired into life and we knew it was one we had to do.”
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben gather around the dinner table in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
What makes 2:22 such a good modern ghost story…and what makes it distinctive in an already well-stocked market?
“In a time of modern horror, audiences can be somewhat desensitised to shocks and jumps. Theatre cannot do what a 70ft projection screen can, so there’s a magic to figuring out how to deliver those shocks and jumps in the moment.
“2:22 is a ghost story, but it’s also a story about grief, loss and family. The temporary nature of a human life, and how the spaces we inhabit are more fixed and forced to change around the living. Threaded through it all is a great big question: ‘Do ghosts really exist?’”
What are the attractions of staging 2:22 in traverse?
“Theatre@41 is such a diverse space, and we love taking advantage of that. We’ve performed here in end-on, cabaret, thrust and now traverse. Then landscape in July next year for an original show, going back to our comedy chops in The House On The Hill That Is Haunted!”
Jamie McKeller as arch sceptic Sam in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
“Having the flexibility as a company is wonderful. In terms of 2:22, the rights state that we could not emulate the touring productions, urging people staging it to find their own design.
“By building the show in traverse, we’ve moved it as far away from the end-on staging as possible, and for an audience it provides a really immersive experience. They are IN the room with us, and there is nowhere to run.”
What will be the stage design within that traverse staging?
“The whole show is set in one large room in a modernised Victorian house, a space which features a living room and kitchen and great big patio doors. That last element is going to be a headache for smaller companies: actual working patio doors are very expensive, and very, very heavy!
“But we have them (thanks eBay and a miscalculation in measurements by someone) and they look incredible. There’s a real ‘WOW’ moment when people walk in, and then a sense of ‘oh no’ when they realise just how immersed into the horror they will be. What a splendid night out.”
Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Hands-on-the-table time as tension mounts in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Nick Walters’ Honey Dipper, on show in The Wisdom Of The Desert at the Red Tower, York
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to honey artworks at the Red Tower, the Aesthetica Film Festival to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Pop-up art show of the week: Navigators Art presents No Spinoza & Nick Walters, The Wisdom Of The Desert, The Red Tower, Foss Islands Road, York, today, 6pm to 9pm; tomorrow, 1pm to 4pm
GROUNDBREAKING multi-media York artists No Spinoza (Thomas Pearson) and Nick Walters share an interest in the immersive, provocative, multi-sensory experience of film, sound and sculpture, as represented in their joint show in York’s historic Red Tower.
No Spinoza presents Jupiter’s Great Hurricane (2026), a cycle of experimental music and film that broadly explores themes of temptation, progress and inheritance with references to desert spirituality. Walters’ Honey Dipper (2026) passes electrical current through honey to create mysterious and ever-changing textures of sound, while Ex-voto (2026) is a series of small sculptures set in niches in the tower walls that alludes to beeswax votive statues placed in shrines as a gesture of gratitude and devotion.
Victorian Penny Farthing Rider lit up at Ghosts After Dark at York Museum Gardens. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Sculpture trail of the week: York BID and York Museums Trust present Ghosts After Dark, York Museum Gardens, today and tomorrow, 5.30pm to 9.30pm; timed entry slots until 8pm
IN the wake of Ghosts In The Gardens’ free public art trail of 70 wire-mesh sculptures across 32 city-centre locations, Ghosts After Dark brings storytelling, light, smoke and sound to York Museum Gardens, plus King’s Manor courtyard and Library Lawn, the Anglian Tower, Edible Wood, Artists’ Garden, St Olave’s churchyard and the area beside York Art Gallery.
Representing a fascinating person, creature or story connected to York’s history, each sculpture was made by York creative agency Unconventional Design. A new immersive experience (the Witch Encounter) and the inaugural night market are further highlights of the 90-minute trail. Bookings: www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-after-dark/.
The VR Lab at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, at the Aesthetica Film Festival
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Film Festival, York, until tomorrow
IN its 16th year under the artistic directorship of Cherie Federico, Aesthetica Film Festival welcomes filmmakers, games developers and virtual reality experts from around the world. The five-day programme comprises screenings, VR & games labs, a podcasting lounge, industry masterclasses and workshops, networking sessions, live performances, pitching opportunities, the New Music Stage and much more. For the full programme and tickets, go to asff.co.uk.
Gareth Malone: Inviting you to Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth’s afternoon of movie songs
Instant choir of the week: Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth At The Movies, Grand Opera House, York, today, 4pm
LIGHTS, camera, sing! Choirmaster supreme Gareth Malone returns with a new tour show in an immersive celebration of the greatest songs from the movies and the joy of singing together. Please note, there is a maximum of ten tickets per household and seats in higher levels or with restricted views may not have full visibility of the on-stage screen. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes: Championing flamenco music at the Grand Opera House, York
Flamenco gig of the week: The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes present Viva El Arie, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THE Gipsy Kings by André Reyes transcend musical borders with their flamenco music and rumba. Led by Gipsy Kings co-founder Andre Reyes, the family project combines the band’s original essence with a renewed energy.
Together with his son and nephews, Reyes still conquers the world’s most prestigious stages after three decades. His dedication celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the gypsy community while ensuring this music continues to resonate with new generations. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Ellie Mackenzie in a montage for Oddsocks Productions’ Motherhood
Maternal matters of the week: Oddsocks Productions in Motherhood, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
REGULAR visitors to the JoRo, Matlock company Oddsocks Productions present an amusing and moving look at the bizarre and downright unbelievable aspects of raising children while running a family business in Motherhood. Actress and writer Elli Mackenzie explores the highs and lows, the frustrations and joys of being a working parent alongside her husband Andy, an orangutan and a giant woodlouse. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s play By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Author Miles Salter holding a copy of his new book, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83
Book launch of the week: Miles Salter, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83, Topping & Company bookshop, Museum Street, York, November 10, 7pm (doors 6.30pm)
YORK author, journalist, songwriter, band leader, podcaster, storyteller, festival organiser and poet Miles Salter launches A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83 in conversation with poet and author John Goodby at Topping & Co.
“Their remarkable, strange, dark, sad tale was a gift to a writer,” says Salter. “Every time I thought ‘this can’t get any stranger’, something else came up. The more I talked to people, the stranger it became, the darker and darker it became. A story of totally living that rock’n’roll life but to the detriment of band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon as it cost them their lives.” Tickets cost £17.95, including hardback book or £5 “if you just want to come and listen”. To book, go to:https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/york/miles-salter-the-pretenders/
Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Neon Crypt’s production of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig next week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, November 11, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man, in York on November 12 with the last few tickets still available
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, November 12, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
In Focus: Teenage Fanclub, Project House, Leeds, November 9, 7pm. Raymond McGinley in discussion with CharlesHutchPress
Teenage Fanclub on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera when recording Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture Donald Milne
TEENAGE Fanclub head to Project House, Leeds, on Monday (9/11/2026) on their 15-date November tour to promote Do Not Dare To Dream.
“Last time in Leeds we played the Brudenell Social Club, and it’s good when you’ve been doing it for so long, and you’re going a back to cities you’ve been before, to play somewhere new there,” says co-founder and lead guitarist Raymond McGinlay.
Released on October 9 on Merge Records as the follow-up to 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, their 13th studio album was recorded at Black Bay Studio on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera, the Glasgow band’s most remote recording location since their formation in 1989.
This setting helped the five-piece to focus on the work, while putting them in a place of awe, surrounded by the sound of crashing waves and the haunting presence of ancient ruins.
“It was a new studio to us,” says Raymond, who is still at the heart of Teenage Fanclub’s signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting, along with fellow songwriter Norman Blake, after 37 years. “We’re always on the lookout, when we’re making a new record, to find a new place that we’ve never been to before.
“We usually start with fragments of songs, allowing things to happen in the moment, reacting to the surroundings, and when we were looking for a studio, there was this one on an island off the far end of the Isle of Lewis. We looked at pictures and it looked interesting.
“It worked out for us, doing the album in late January and early February, when we thought it would be bleak, but actually it was really beautiful: lovely to walk around, with not many people there and the main inhabitants being sheep. Not many hours of daylight, but at least there was light in the studio.”
Production duties were shared between band members, the band’s studio engineer and the studio owner. “There was no producer as such; it was a collective endeavour,” says Raymond, who “feels lucky that you find people that you connect with”.
Teenage Fanclub in Black Bay Studio when recording 13th studio album Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture: Donald Milne
“From that point of view, experience tells you to let things happen without having too much ego or someone trying to impose an idea. We’re pretty good at working together, with me and Norman presenting ideas, and then it’s all quite instinctive with the band.”
McGinlay and Blake are “the ones sitting up at night, maybe three in the morning, trying to figure out lyrics”. Alongside them for the recording sessions are long-time members Euros Childs (keyboards), David McGowan (bass) and Francis Macdonald (drums).
“Euros starts contributing or David does what he feels like doing, Francis joins in on drums, and it just kind of evolves into songs,” says Raymond. “The input of everyone is important.” So, on this occasion, were synthesisers and a Domus church organ found by the band at Black Bay, the organ now heard prominently on many songs, most notably on Over And Over.
“We approach everything kind of the same way each time we make a record,” says Raymond. “Whether you intend things to be different, you just have to be conscious of trusting your instincts in doing our thing. We are the people we are now that we were then, but the subtlety of things changes year to year All you can do is offer something that comes from within yourself.”
Raymond continues: “Sometimes, if you’re going to show something of yourself, you show vulnerability, which exists in everyday life, and I find it’s best to reveal something of yourself, rather than constructing a persona.”
How was the album title chosen? “It’s difficult when it comes to…coming up with a name for an album,” says co-founder Norman. “Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.” In the end, his song I Do Not Dare To Dream was adapted to represent the overriding theme of pushing back on hollow optimism while still embracing a quietly hopeful outlook. “Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” reckons Norman. “I don’t think the world works that way.”
Raymond adds: “Norman came up with the title as a riposte to that soundbite optimism, those completely meaningless expressions.” Instead Teenage Fanclub advocate resilience when facing an increasingly uncertain world, where the need is to find clarity and comfort in the everyday, rather than giving in to despair.
“Now it’s the unknowingness of it that makes it more scary,” he says. “We’re no different to anyone else in presenting introspective reflections on creativity.
“In the place where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago,” says Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinlay. Picture: Donald Milne
“We’re not that different to people before technology, people dealing with difficult circumstances, though most of us had been far less pessimistic before.” That said, Raymond declares: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great”.
Picking a favourite from Do Not Dare To Dream, Raymond says: “I really like Norman’s song Somewhere To Land, the last one of his we recorded, where he added mellotron when we got back to Glasgow.”
Reflecting on Teenage Fanclub’s longevity, Raymond says: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place [Great Bernera] where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.
“What you do with your life, doing this mad thing for 37 years, it‘s a privilege, because most people who want to do this, be in a band, make records, play concerts, most people don’t manage to do that. I don’t think we’re better than others, but somehow we connect with our audience and that has allowed us to continue.
“We started the band in 1989, going into the studio wanting to make a record in our little bubble. Me and Norman had played in the band The Boy Hairdressers, which then fizzled out and we thought, let’s do something, as opposed to just talking about it. Let’s make an album and ask if others are interested in these songs, going from just doing something for yourself, to then having an audience. That’s something you can’t take for granted.”
Four decades have taught McGinlay and Blake that “when you make a record you never presume anyone will be interested”, but that interest has sustained. For proof, Do Not Dare To Dream has just been placed at number 48 in Uncut magazine’s Top 80 albums of 2026.
Futuresound presents Teenage Fanclub at Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on November 9, doors 7pm. Box office: https://www.seetickets.com/event/teenage-fanclub/project-house/3481726.
Track listing for Do Not Dare To Dream:
There Was You; Tomorrow People; Over And Over; Be With You Tonight; The Same Air; I Do Not Dare To Dream; Take Time; Day In The Sun; Somewhere To Land and Young And Wise.
The cover artwork for Teenage Fanclub’s Do Not Dare To Dream, released on Merge Records last month
York author Tom Wilson holding a copy of his first book, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic
YORK playwright, poet, TV scriptwriter, musician, artist, outreach worker and teacher Tom Wilson has written his first book, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic, part one of his How To Relapse And Die double bill.
Let Tom introduce himself, “I’m a recovering alcoholic in the 12-step fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve been sober now coming up to 38 years.
“I’ve lived here in York for just over 20 years now and I’m so glad I came here. It’s a wonderful place for artists such as myself to garner inspiration and to find opportunities to express themselves.
“My biography covers a lot of my Salford childhood and the more recent years covering the first 25 years of my recovery in the rooms of AA.”
One of 11 children, from whom only nine survived the poverty cull, in his early school days Tom was bullied relentlessly until he went to secondary school, where he became a notorious and disruptive “pain in the a**e” for teachers.
“I was constantly fighting, swearing, smoking and causing trouble most of the time while involved in truancy, vandalism and petty crime,” he says. “Early futile jobs led to extreme frustration and increasing dependence on drink and drugs and further forays into serious criminal behaviour.”
The back and front cover artwork for Tom Wilson’s The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic
Tom’s drinking, self-destructive attitude and immature belligerence raised his marriage to the ground and his now added drug indulgences soon took him into jail.
“Then a road accident left me with a serious disability after being run over on Christmas Day! I then formed a band, The Parody, which absconded to London when Manchester was an apathetic ghost town,” he says.
“London eventually provided me with a harrowing rock bottom after the demise of the band in 1985. I was at the ‘jumping off place’.”
Roll forward to late-2005, when Tom moved to York. “I began to think more and more about getting out of London but I really didn’t want to go back to Salford as it had become incredibly feral with the drug wars and even more deadly with the burgeoning gun culture,” he says.
“I think I managed to get out of London just in time, looking back. York opened up a lot of new vistas and challenges for me. I’ve done another four plays, two of which I wrote. I‘ve had three successful art exhibitions, all for good charitable causes, I must stress – people from the Ukraine living in York; Medical Aid For Palestinians; MIND and the Haiti earthquake foundation.”
Tom Wilson at the launch of his exhibition at St Bede’s Pastoral Centre with York Central MP Rachael Maskell in September 2022
Tom continues: “I’ve made around half a dozen short films and I’ve written a feature film about my sister Christine. I’ve done a little teaching since settling in York and I’ve worked at the council as a drug and alcohol strategy advisory role.
“I’ve retired from full-time work and decided to take Mark Herbert (This is England and Adolescence) at his word and write a book just to send a copy to ‘him’ in particular. The original title originated from a kind of comedy sketch I’d been working on a few years earlier called (very tongue in cheek) ‘How To Relapse And Die’.”
Tom used this as the starting point for the book’s title when contacting a publisher, i2i Publishing, in Manchester. “They were recommended to me by two dear friends, both great writers: Alan Franks, formerly of The Times and Simon Van Booy, who I knew from Dartington College of Arts,” he says.
“They liked the concept of me telling my true life story but also with an emphasis on my drinking and debauchery but also on my cataclysmic fall from grace and subsequent recovery and resurrection, for want of a better word.
“As I’d never written a book before, only standard plays on A4 paper, I started to write like fury once I’d started and then when I got to something like page 480, I submitted it to the publishers, only to be told it was far too long. After long discussions with the powers that be, we decided to split the manuscript in half, thus producing not one but two books!”
In 1991, Tom had a poem published called The Intrepid Sylph. “I’ve always liked the word ‘intrepid’, especially when it’s attributed to an alcoholic’s journey. So I thought also of various word searches that would dredge up good traffic. Then I came up with The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic,” he says.
Tom Wilson with his artworks at his City Screen Picturehouse exhibition
“I thought it had a certain ring and a cachet to it. So under the banner of ‘How to relapse and die’, part one, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic. Part two will be called ‘The Gift Of Desperation’, which is the term we use in the fellowship to describe every alcoholic’s moment of heartfelt surrender and it invokes a kind of a spiritual awakening.
“The first book deals with my making it to my first ever A.A. meeting and the second picks up from the previous 38 years of sobriety and recovery.”
Tom wrote his story with “a lot of humour and a kind of flippant attitude”. “But, believe me, there’s a strong serious undercurrent and a powerful message for the souls that are still suffering who may not know there’s a way up and out of this maelstrom,” he says.
“There are a lot of light-hearted japes and some intriguing and zany memoirs but it also carries a vitally important message for those who may need hope and some guidance; it’s all in there.
“I’m hoping that the books serves to entertain and enthral the non-addict and the non-alcoholic but should anyone with those insidious tendencies read it, they may find something in the book more valuable than just entertainment and an old ‘sot’s’ nostalgic romp.”
The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic, by Tom Wilson, published by https://i2ipublishing.co.uk/, is on sale on Amazon and at waterstones.com and foyles.co.uk.
