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More Things To Do in York and beyond the endless rain when films turn Dead Northern. Hutch’s List No. 40, from The Press, York

Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton, on show in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall

YORKSHIRE landscapes, campsite class division, horror movies to the max and a talkative traveller herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.

Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5

THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in seasonal images.

Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.

The artwork for the Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York

Film event of the week: Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival, City Screen, Picturehouse, York, today and tomorrow

IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern presents a festival of movies, music and social gatherings. Today opens with Demonic Shorts at 11am, followed by the regional premiere of Scopophobia, 12.30pm; Slasher, Thriller and Creature Shorts, 2.30pm; UK premiere of The Healing, 4.30pm; Dead Talk film-making panel, 7.30pm; regional premiere of Kill Your Lover, 9pm, and VIP Awards Party at Revolution, York,11pm.

Tomorrow features the Mad Props documentary, 11am; mini-feature Strike,12.45pm; feature film The Monster Beneath Us, 1.15pm; music mini-feature The Black Quarry, 3.45pm; Music Videos, 4.30pm; UK premiere of Kill Victoria, 6.30pm, and world premiere of Lake Jesup, 8.30pm. Guests must be aged over 18 to access screenings and live events. Box office: deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2024-film-festival.

Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch

Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, today, 2pm and 7.30pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.

The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The bird man of RedHouse Originals Gallery: artist Jim Moir at his Birdland exhibition in Harrogate

Last chance to see: Jim Moir, Birdland, RedHouse Originals Gallery, Cheltenham Mount, Harrogate, today, 10am, 10am to 5pm

“PEOPLE think that I am a comedian, but art comes first,” says Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, as he mounts his second RedHouse show. “This one is Birdland because of my love of birds. I spend most of my days bird watching and painting,” he says.

On show – and for sale – is an exclusive collection of 50 new paintings celebrating his favourite subject ahead of the October 24 release of his second bird book, More Birds, Paintings Of British Birds, published by Unbound. Free entry.

Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince: Plenty to discuss at Pocklington Arts Centre

Double act of the week: Clare Ferguson-Walker & Robin Ince, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm

TAKE a tour around two marvellous minds via the vehicles of poetry, storytelling, jokes, and general silliness when Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince link up in Pock. Poet, comedienne, sculptor and singer Clare’s explosive second collection, Chrysalis, lays bare the poet’s soul on a journey laced with humour and humane observation.

Humorist, presenter, poet and author Ince co-hosts the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. His books include Bibliomaniac, The Importance Of Being Interested, I’m A Joke And So Are You and his next work, Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity, will be published next May. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The cover design for Michael Palin’s new diary collection

Globe-trotter of the week: Michael Palin, Grand Opera House, York, October 3, 7.30pm

IN the words of Monty Python alumnus, actor, presenter and Yorkshireman Michael Palin: “In There And Back – The Diary Tour 2024, I’ll bring to life the fourth collection of my diaries and the first to be released for ten years.

“Lots of fun as I go through the Noughties, and some dark times too. I constantly surprise myself with the sheer amount I took on.” Tickets update: still available at atgtickets.com/york.

Barbara Dickson: Acoustic October concerts in Pocklington and Leeds

Folk gigs of the week: Hurricane Promotions present Barbara Dickson & Nick Holland, All Saints Church, Pocklington, October 4 (sold out) and October 16, 7.30pm. Also Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, October 20, 7.30pm

SCOTTISH folk singer Barbara Dickson and her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs in these acoustic concerts in intimate settings, where the pair will let the words and melodies take centre stage as they draw on Dickson’s folk roots, contemporary greats and her classic hits, from Another Suitcase In Another Hall to I Know Him So Well. Box office: barbaradickson.net; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Mundane matters: Josh Widdicombe mulls over really niche observations about silly little things in 2025 and 2026

Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026

PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.

“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.

In Focus: Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show, The Crescent, York, tomorrow. More Yorkshire shows to follow

This is the modern world: Mark Thomas returns to stand-up venting at The Crescent, York. Picture: Tony Pletts

LAST appearing in York in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England & Son in the Theatre Royal Studio last September, South London’s grouchy “godfather of political comedy”, Mark Thomas, returns to polemical stand-up in Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show at The Crescent tomorrow night.

One of the longest-surviving alternative comics after close to 40 years of stand-up, theatre, journalism, human rights campaigning and the odd bout of performance art, his latest tour’s fusillade of jokes, rants, politics, play and the occasional sing-song adds up to “generally mucking about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people”.

Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show? Explain the extended tag, Mark. “What happened is I liked the idea of ‘Gaffa Tapes’ as a title and had it last year for my Edinburgh Fringe show, but halfway through the Fringe run I got Covid and had to stop.

“Last year I toured England & Son, written by Ed Edwards, which I was really pleased with. It picked up more awards than I’d ever done before – six awards – and one of them was to perform the play in Australia, taking it out to Adelaide for five weeks – and we might be going to New York …

“But we made no money out of it. I thought, ‘right, how do we make some money?’, so it’s great to be getting back to stand-up. What I love about stand-up is… and this is simple…if you stop doing it, they say you’ll feel rusty, so if you have a hiatus, what you have to learn to do is put your hand on the neck of the beast.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to do all the clubs at the bottom of the eco-system, doing ten minutes here, ten minutes there, doing shows in different places, and the thing about it is, I died on my arse a couple of times, which feels horrible each and every time…

“But if you take a break, you need to get your muscle memory back working again. That’s why I loved doing Edinburgh this summer. I did 26 gigs. It’s just bang, bang, bang, every night. You can muck around, try things out.

Mark Thomas in England & Son, toured to York Theatre Royal Studio in 2023. Picture: Alex Brenner

“The riots were happening around that time, so I wrote about them – and it’s important to be able to talk about that. It’s a living, breathing affecting thing. I love being a warrior in the culture wars, and it’s good to be back on the battlefield.”

The tectonic plates of the political landscape keep shifting: fresh meat to a polemicist comedian’s grist. “Things are always changing,” says Mark. “What I love is that when I started work on the show, there was loads going on, because the Tories were no longer in power, and it’s good to be able to react to that and to suggest what should be happening.

“I was at the Diggers Festival, celebrating Gerrard Winstanley [English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, activist and leader and co-founder of the ‘True Levellers’ or ‘Diggers’], doing a talk in a church, where someone said, ‘if you get rid of the oath to the King, that would be the most radical thing you could do’.

“I said, ‘well, actually, I don’ think it is. If you want democracy to work, you should have voting at 16, proportional representation, and you need to abolish the House of Lords’…whereas they’re just tidying up what [Tony] Blair started all those years ago. The most radical thing would be to ban donations to political parties. Make it state-funded, giving money to run parties and campaigns, making it a level playing field.

“Do you know who is the only other country in Europe to have a ‘first past the post’ electoral system? Belarus. So if anyone is out of step, it’s us. I think eventually PR [proportional representation] will come in; it’s just a question of what form it takes.”

How does the change of ruling party in Westminster from the Conservatives to Labour after 14 years have an impact on Thomas’s venting? “It changes the goalposts because it’s a new set of people to attack for a new set of reasons,” says Mark. “It’s the new austerity that they’re proposing that’s not great.

“The fact is that Starmer got some of the things right over the riots. I find it fascinating that there is this a disconnect; the idea that everyone who rioted was a racist, but not everyone was, because riots have a movement of their own, but certainly the organisers were far right.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socilaist, why on Earth would I vote Labour?” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Art by Tracey Moberly

“You can be a Zen Buddhist but if you set fire to an asylum seekers’ hotel, then you’re a racist.”

Long associated with spouting anti-Tory sentiment aplenty, Thomas will hold the incoming Labour Party to account too. “I think it’s healthier that way in politics. The honeymoon period is over already,” he says.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socialist, why on Earth would I vote Labour? There shouldn’t be a honeymoon period anyway,  but I expect the right-wing press to go at Labour with gusto because they want to shape not only this government, but the next Tory one too.”

Any suggestions for policy change, Mark? “Local government can run the bus companies, but it’s really important that it’s not about making the maximum profit. That’s what used to happen until Thatcher changed it,” he says.

“I’m lucky now – because I’m 61, I get the 60+ London Oyster card for £20 [administration fee] that allows me to travel everywhere in London for free and I use buses a lot. That’s one of the great things about London: wherever you are, there will be a night bus coming along in a moment.”

He is looking forward eagerly to tomorrow’s return to The Crescent. “I love The Crescent,” he enthuses. “What they may lack in technical facilities, it’s a proper community venue. I always say, when talking about what community venues could be, take a look at this place.”

Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes, Burning Duck Comedy, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm; Marsdsen Mechanics, November 8, 8pm; Social, Hull, November 16, 8pm; Sheffield Memorial Hall November 10, 8pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, February 5 2025; Wakefield Theatre Royal, February 6 2025, 7.30pm.

Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Marsden, 01484 844587 or marsdenmechanics.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Hull, socialhumberstreet.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; Wakefield Theatre Royal, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk (on sale soon) Age guidance: 16 plus.

Mark Thomas: the back story

The next step for Mark Thomas: Touring Gaffa Tapes

“IF you don’t know what Mark does, ask your parents. In his time, he has won eight awards for performing, three for human rights work… and one he invented for himself. He has made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and three Dispatches for Channel 4, made five series of The Manifesto for BBC Radio 4, written five books and four play scripts, curated and authored two art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and was commissioned to write a show for the Royal Opera House.

“He has forced a politician to resign, changed laws on tax and protest, become the Guinness Book of Records world-record holder for the number of protests in 24 hours, taken the police to court three times and won (the fourth is in the pipeline), walked the length of the Israeli Wall in the West Bank (that’s 724km), and generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people.”

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Comedian Mark Thomas takes the reins off for new role in Ed Edwards’s political play England & Son in York Theatre Royal Studio

From stand-up to sit-down: Mark Thomas devours the stage in England & Son. Picture: Alex Brenner

GROUCHY godfather of political comedy Mark Thomas is taking to the stage for the first time in a one-man show written by someone else, playwright Ed Edwards.

Warmed up for last month’s award-laden Edinburgh Fringe run in a work-in-progress performance at Selby Town Hall in July, England & Son returns to North Yorkshire tomorrow (22/9/2023) and on Saturday in the York Theatre Royal Studio.

Set when The Great Devouring comes home, Edwards’s play has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s experience in prison in the early 1990s, when jailed for three years for drug offences. [Edwards would write the first of his five novels while inside].

Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, empire, Thatcherite politics, stolen youth and robbed wealth, domestic violence, addiction, hope and recovery merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him.

Serendipity brought the two polemicists together in 2018. “I came out of a performance of Ed’s play The Political History Of Smack And Crack at Edinburgh and turned to my mate and said, ‘that was amazing’. This voice behind me said, ‘I wrote that’!” recalls Mark.

“So we met up, got on like a house on fire and became mates, coming to gigs, talking till the early hours about politics, and we always said it would be great to work together.”

Two years ago, they made the commitment to crack on with it. “We used to talk about stories, his story, my story, and then we’d work on it. I’d remember half of it, then make up the rest, and then I didn’t see the finished script until the first day of rehearsals, but I knew he’d written a banger, an absolute stormer.”

So much so, England & Son has won a Scotsman Fringe First Award, Entertainment Now Best Theatre Award, Lustrum Award for Unforgettable Festival Shows and Holden Street Theatres’ Award for its run under the direction of Cressida Brown at The Roundabout, a theatre-in-the-round tent.

Now Londoner Mark, 60, is back on familiar territory, on the road, albeit in an unfamiliar setting. “I get to play characters, be the narrator and me, all of that, in a show that’s all about how you tell a story, where you will do the voices, little shrugs and mannerisms, with me charging around the stage and knowing you can’t take your foot off the pedal for a second,” he says.

“The thing about stand-up is you have to be in the moment, but there’s a massively structured script with this show, though we always call it jazz, because if you do the same show twice, you will fail, but that’s good because it makes each show special.

“If you put yourself on stage telling a story, you can’t coast, you can’t cruise, you have to put in 100 per cent, otherwise cancel the show,” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

“I’ve got a great opportunity to go and do something I’ve never done before, and because I’d never done it before, I didn’t know what to expect – I’ve been doing stand-up for 37 years – and what’s brilliant is you see the impact and you want that every night.

“If you put yourself on stage telling a story, you can’t coast, you can’t cruise, you have to put in 100 per cent, otherwise cancel the show.”

Mark “wants people to be rent asunder in the desolation of the emotional wreckage” in England & Son. “I’ve always tried to do stuff that does more than make people laugh. Stand-up is in the moment, whereas theatre takes you into an emotional place and I’ve always dabbled in both, but now I’ve taken the reins off and it’s thrilling. I’ve loved it, but I got Covid at the end of the [Edinburgh] Fringe, so I was livid! I couldn’t wait to get back out there.”

Already Mark has “some ideas to get another play out there”, having so enjoyed working with Edwards. “The interesting thing with Ed is that he’s an addict, who got clean before going to jail, and I’ve had issues with alcohol, so we both recognise addiction. There’s something about being in a room with brutally honest people, which has been an influence on this show,” he says.

“Addicts and alcoholics are always telling their stories at meetings and consultations, and what we do in the comedy workshops I run with addicts is to turn it into something beautiful, making it into art.

“Because of my own issues, I’d ask them questions and say, ‘go and write something stupid that you did’, and then I’ll give them my list. It’s a meeting of people as equals.”

More of those workshops are on the way, along with Mark’s England & Son travels, rooted in the political philosophy that any nation that devours another will one day devour itself. “It’s Ed’s title and it’s about England’s relationships, about fathers and sons and families, the damage they can do to each other, but also the hope,” he says.

“As Studs Terkel’s book said, hope dies last, and there’s something with addiction where there can be a thin line between hope and illusion, and that’s why people keep going to those meetings that are profoundly honest.”

England And Son captures a basic human instinct too: “Every single one of us, from the moment we are born, we want the love of our parents,” says Mark. “We want their attention.” 

Wanting attention? That applies to writers, performers, comedians too. Give England & Son yours. Five-star reviews demand it.

Mark Thomas in England & Son, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 22, 7.45pm; September 23, 2pm and 7.45pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The artwork for Mark Thomas in Ed Edwards’s England & Son. Picture: Design By Greg

Ed Edwards: the back story

STARTED his creative career as a circus performer but stopped at the age when you start to think, “This is actually dangerous”. He now juggles a writing career, lecturing, making films and rearing two sons.

Virtually illiterate at the age of 11, Ed eventually managed to educate himself, go to university and become a professional writer. Today he is “only one-third illiterate”, he says. 

He did three-and-a-half years in prison in the early 1990s for drugs offences, publishing his first novel while inside. He has five novels and a children’s book to his name and has worked for several continuing television dramas, including Holby City and the now defunct Brookside and The Bill, although he maintains that is not the reason they died.

​ He has written several original plays for BBC Radio 4 and made short films for Channel 4. He has turned to guerrilla film-making, directing short films and co-directing and producing the feature film Scrambled.

His plays include The Political History Of Smack And Crack and England And Son. He misses the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro and loves making jam and writing about himself in the third person.

Did you know?

MARK Thomas has done shows about visiting the West Bank, starting a comedy club in Jenin, espionage, lobbying Parliament, walking in the footsteps of the highest NHS officials, playing at the Royal Opera House, stopping arms deals and creating manifestos.

Devouring the stage: Mark Thomas in England & Son. Picture: Alex Banner

The artwork for Mark Thomas in England & Son. Picture: Design By Greg

“If you put yourself on stage telling a story, you can’t coast, you can’t cruise, you have to put in 100 per cent, otherwise cancel the show,” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when truth will out for tips for trips on days ahead. Hutch’s List No. 38, from The Press

Dawn French: Frank confessions of a comedian at York Barbican

FRENCH comedy, a very English murder thriller, state-of-the-nation politics and police procedures stir Charles Hutchinson into action for the week ahead.

Comedy gigs of the week: Dawn French Is A Huge Twat, York Barbican, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm

HER show is so named because, unfortunately, it is horribly accurate, says self-mocking comedian and actress Dawn French. “There have been far too many times I have made stupid mistakes or misunderstood something vital or jumped the gun in a spectacular display of twattery,” she explains. 

“I thought I might tell some of these buttock-clenching embarrassing stories to give the audience a peek behind the scenes of my work life.” Tickets update: Limited availability at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Tonight, meanwhile, Sarah Millican plays a Work In Progress gig at Pocklington Arts Centre at 8pm. Sold out already alas.

A scene from Original Theatre Company’s touring production of Torben Betts’s new play, Murder In The Dark, starring Tom Chambers and Susie Blake. Picture: Pamela Raith

Thriller of the week: Original Theatre Company in Murder In The Dark, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

TOM Chambers and Susie Blake star in Torben Betts’s new ghost story chiller cum psychological thriller, set on New Year’s Eve, when a crash on a deserted road brings washed-up singer Danny Sierra and his dysfunctional family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England.

From the moment they arrive, inexplicable events begin to occur…and then the lights go out, whereupon deeply buried secrets come to light. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Robin Simpson: Pantomime dame and storyteller, bringing Magic, Monsters and Mayhem to York tomorrow afternoon. Picture: Joel Rowbottom

Children’s show of the week: Magic, Monsters and Mayhem with Robin Simpson, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, tomorrow, 4.30pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – he will be playing Dame Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk this winter – switches to storyteller mode to journey back to magic school on Sunday afternoon.

He will be telling stories of wonderful creatures, exciting adventures and “more magic than you can wave a wand” as he places the audience in charge of an interactive show ideal for Harry Potter fans.  Suitable for Key Stage 2, but smaller siblings are welcome too, along with Potter-potty grown-ups. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.

Hannah Baker, left, Harvey Badger, Eddie Ahrens and Rachel Hammond in Mikron Theatre’s A Force To Be Reckoned With. Picture: Anthony Robling

Police spotted operating in the vicinity: Mikron Theatre in A Force To Be Reckoned With, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, tomorrow, 4pm

IN Amanda Whittington’s new play for Marsden travelling players Mikron Theatre, fresh from police training school, WPC Iris Armstrong is ready for whatever the mean streets of a 1950s’ northern market town can throw at her.

Joining forces with fellow WPC Ruby Weston, they make an unlikely partnership, a two-woman department, called to any case involving women and children, from troublesome teens to fraudulent fortune tellers. Box office: 07974 867301 or 01904 466086, or in person from Pextons, Bishopthorpe Road, York.

Kathryn Williams and Polly Paulusma: Songwriters at the double at Pocklington Arts Centre

Songwriting bond of the week: Kathryn Williams & Polly Paulusma: The Big Sky Tour, Pocklington Arts Centre, Tuesday, 8pm

AS label buddies on One Little Independent Records, Kathryn Williams and Polly Paulusma met on a song-writing retreat. They wrote songs together and tutored courses at Arvon Foundation and as their friendship developed and strengthened, they supported each other over lockdown.

It seemed a foregone conclusion that they would tour together at some point. Finally, those Thelma and Louise dreams – hopefully without the killing or the cliff finale – come true on a month-long itinerary, playing solo sets and uniting for a few songs. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Mike Skinner: The Streets’ composer-turned-filmmaker discusses his debut film in Q&A appearances at Everyman Leeds and Everyman York

Streets ahead: Mike Skinner’s film The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light and Q&A, Everyman Leeds, September 21, 8pm; Everyman York, September 25, 7pm

THE Streets’ Mike Skinner presents his debut feature film, the “neo-noir” clubland thriller The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light, in an exclusive Q&A tour to Everyman cinemas.

Birmingham multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Skinner funded, wrote, directed, filmed, edited and scored his cinematic account of the seemingly mundane life of a DJ whose journey through London’s nightclubs turns into a tripped-out modern-day murder mystery. Each screening will be followed by a live question-and-answer session with Skinner, giving an insight into the music and story behind the film. Box office: thestreets.co.uk.

Mark Thomas: Comedian stars in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England And Son at York Theatre Royal Studio

Political drama of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 22, 7.45pm; September 23, 2pm and 7.45pm

POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by playwright Ed Edwards.

Edinburgh Fringe award winner England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rowntree Park, by Jo Rodwell, one of 26 printmakers taking part in the York Printmakers Autumn Fair

Print deadline: York Printmakers Autumn Fair, York Cemetery Chapel and Harriet Room, September 23 and 24, 10am to 5pm

IN its sixth year, the York Printmakers Autumn Fair features work by 26 members, exhibiting and selling hand-printed original prints, including Russell Hughes, Rachel Holborow, Michelle Hughes, Harriette Rymer and Jo Rodwell.

On display will be a variety of printmaking techniques, such as linocut, collagraphs, woodcut, screen printing, stencilling and etching. Artists will be on hand to discuss their working methods and to show the blocks, plates and tools they use.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn: The truth will out when he takes to the SJT stage tomorrow afternoon. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

In Focus: Theatre event of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s Truth Will Out, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tomorrow, 2.30pm

IN a rare stage appearance, Sir Alan Ayckbourn plays Jim in a rehearsed reading of his Covic-crocked 2020 SJT premiere Truth Will Out, joined by John Branwell, Frances Marshall and the cast of his 89th play, Constant Companions.

Truth Will Out is an up-to-the-minute satire on family, relationships, politics and the state of the nation, wherein everyone has secrets. Certainly former shop steward George, his right-wing MP daughter Janet, investigative journalist Peggy and senior civil servant Sefton do.

Enter a tech-savvy, chippy teenager with a mind of his own and time on his hands to bring their worlds tumbling down, and maybe everyone else’s along with them, in Ayckbourn’s own “virus” storyline, written before Coronavirus stopped play.

“It’s ‘the one that got away’, with most of the cast in place, and we even did a season launch,” says Sir Alan. “The play was one of my ‘What ifs’: what if a teenager invented a virus that brought the whole thing down. A ‘virus’ play, like Covid, with the virus escaping and the play ending in the dark, waiting till dawn.”

Racism, trade unionism and infidelity all play their part in Truth Will Out too. “It’s a melting pot of wrongdoings,” says Sir Alan. Tickets update: limited availability on 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when Connecting with culture. Here Hutch’s List No. 29 for 2023, from The Press

Shed Seven, 2023: Vocalist Rick Witter, left, guitarist Paul Banks, second from right, and bassist Tom Gladwin,right, are joined by drummer Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield and keyboardist Tim Willis at Millennium Square,Leeds, tonight. Picture: Barnaby Fairley

GOING for gold, whether with the Sheds or down at the maze, Charles Hutchinson heads outdoors but is drawn back indoors too.

Outdoor gig of the weekend: Shed Seven, Sounds In The City 2023, Millennium Square, Leeds, today, from 6pm

FRESH from announcing next January’s release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, York’s Shed Seven head to Leeds city centre for a sold-out, 6,00-capacity Millennium Square show.

Performing alongside regular vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bassist Tom Gladwin will be Tim Willis on keyboards and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield on drums. Support slots go to fellow Britpop veterans Cast and rising York band Skylights.

Be amazed: York Maze reopens for a new season today

Opening of the weekend: York Maze, Elvington Lane, Elvington, near York, today until September 4

THE Cobsleigh Run race and Crowmania ride are among the new attractions when York Maze opens for its 21st season today with a new show marquee too – and the giant image of Tutankhamun cut by farmer Tom Pearcy into a 15-acre field of maize.

Created from one million living, growing maize plants, Britain’s largest maze has more than 20 rides, attractions and shows for a fun-filled family day out. Where else would you find a Corntroller of Entertainment, corny pun intended? Step forward Josh Benson, York magician, pantomime star and, yes, corntroller. Tickets: 01904 608000 or yorkmaze.com.

Gary Stewart: Celebrating the songs of Paul Simon at Helmsley Arts Centre

Show title of the week: Gary Stewart, The Only Living Boy In (New) York – An Evening of Paul Simon Songs, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm

GARY Stewart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, Hope & Social drummer and programmer for At The Mill’s folk bills, turns the spotlight on the songs of New Yorker Paul Simon, his chief folk/pop influence.

Born in Perthshire, Stewart cut his Yorkshire teeth on the Leeds music scene for 15 years before moving to York (and now Easingwold, to be precise). He is sometimes to be found fronting his Graceland show, another vessel for Paul Simon songs. Tonight, his focus is on The Boxer, Mrs Robinson, Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Kodachrome et al.  Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

The Young’uns: Playing Ryedale Festival on July 20 at 7pm at the Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Pamela Raith

Festival of the week outside York: Ryedale Festival, running until July 30

DIRECTED once more by Christopher Glynn, Ryedale Festival returns with 55 concerts, celebrating everything from Tchaikovsky to troubadours in beautiful North Yorkshire locations. Artists in residence include Anna Lapwood, Nicky Spence, Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.

Taking part too will be Boris Giltburg, the Dudok Quartet, Jess Gillam, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, guitarist Plínio Fernandes,trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, jazz singer Clare Teal and north eastern folk musicians The Young’uns, among others. For the full programme and tickets, go to: reydalefestival.com.

Mark Thomas: Performing one-man play England And Son at Selby Town Hall on Sunday. Picture: Tony Pletts

Work in Progress of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, Selby Town Hall, Sunday, 7.30pm

POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards.

Directed by Cressida Brown, England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

Bee Scott: Presenting her queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This at Connect Festival on Thursday

Festival of the week in York: Four Wheel Drive presents Connect Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Sunday

FOUR Wheel Drive’s Connect Festival opens with Women’s Voices on Wednesday, staging two new shows, Giorgia Test’s Behind My Scars and Rhia Burston’s Woebegone. Thursday’s Non-Linear Narratives features Bee Scott’s queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This and Natasha Stanic Mann’s immersive insight into hidden consequences of war, The Return.

Friday’s Comedy and Burlesque bill presents Joe Maddalena in Gianluca Scatto and Maddalena’s dark comedy about male mental health, Self Help, Aidan Loft’s night-train drama On The Rail and A Night With York’s Stars burlesque show, fronted by Freida Nipples. More details next weekend. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Four Forty Theatre’s cast for the Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet comedy doube bill: Amy Roberts, Luke Thornton, Dom Gee-Burch and Amy Merivale

Unhinged comedy of the week: Four Forty Theatre in Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

MACBETH in 40 minutes? Romeo & Juliet in 40 minutes? Both shows performed by only four actors on one raucous night? Yes, welcome back Four Forty Theatre, returning to the JoRo with a brace of Shakespeare’s tragedies transformed into an outrageous, flat-out comedy double bill.

In the line-up will be actress and primary school teacher Alice Merivale; Liverpool actress, musician, director, vocal coach and piano teacher Amy Roberts; company debutant actor-musician Luke Thornton and company director and pantomime dame Dom Gee-Burch. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for Legend – The Music Of Bob Marley

Tribute show of the week: Legend – The Music of Bob Marley, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

LEGEND celebrates the reggae music of Jamaican icon Bob Marley in a two-hour Rasta spectacular. “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright” when the cast re-creates No Woman No Cry,  Could You Be Loved, Is This Love, One Love, Three Little Birds, Jammin’, Buffalo Soldier, Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sheriff. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jorgie Willingham’s Referee and Jim Carnall’s boxer Paul Stokes in rehearsal for The Sweet Science Of Bruising at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Harvey

Knock-out show of the week: York College BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm

JOY Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science Of Bruising is an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism in the world of 19th-century women’s boxing, staged by York College students.

In London, 1869, four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring as they fight inequality as well as each other. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond to put colour in Thomas’s black and white world. Hutch’s list No. 105, from The Press

The Commitments: The return of Roddy Doyle’s story of an Eighties’ working-class Dublin band driven by Sixties’ soul power at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Elllie Kurttz

AS The Commitments return, what other commitments would Charles Hutchinson urge you to put in your diary?

Irish craic of the week: The Commitments, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

WHEN schoolteacher Roddy Doyle wanted an excuse to bring a bunch of young people together in book form in 1986 to “capture the rhythm of Dublin kids yapping and teasing and bullying”, he decided to find a setting outside school. “That’s when the idea of a band came to me,” he recalls.

Cue a big band with a brass section and backing vocals, playing Sixties’ Motown and Memphis soul “because it felt timeless”. Cue The Commitments, the novel, the Alan Parker film, and the musical, now revived on tour with Corrie’s Nigel Pivaro as Jimmy Rabbitte’s Da and Andrew Linnie in the director’s chair. Box office: 0844 871 b7615 or atgtickets.com/york.

Dave Gorman: Making his stand in Powerpoint To The People

Analytical gig of the week: Dave Gorman, Powerpoint To The People, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

DAVE Gorman, the comedian behind Dave TV’s show Modern Life Is Goodish, is touring again, determined to demonstrate how a powerpoint presentation need not involve a man in a grey suit standing behind a lectern saying “next slide please”.

“We’ve all had enough of that, so let’s put it all behind us and never speak of it again,” he says. “There are far more important things to analyse.” Well, they are more important in Gorman’s head anyway. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/york.

Oboe player James Turnbull: Performing this evening’s York Late Music concert with pianist Libby Burgess

Power play of the day: York Late Music: Duncan Honybourne, piano, today, 1pm; James Turnbull, oboe, and Libby Burgess, piano, tonight, 7.30pm, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York

AT lunchtime, pianist Duncan Honeybourne plays David Power’s arrangements of David Bowie (Art Decade) and Bowie & Eno (Warszawa), concluding with Harold Budd/Brian Eno/Power’s Mash Up Remembered. Prokofiev and Satie works feature too.

Power gives a 6.45pm talk tonight ahead of James Turnbull and Libby Burgess’s concert, when his composition Imagine Another receives its world premiere, alongside works by Stravinsky, Tansy Davies, Vaughan Williams, Diana Burrell, Britten and Ravel. Box office: latemusic.org or on the door.

Love’s trials and tribulations: Simon Radford’s Jamie and Claire Pulpher’s Cathy in White Rose Theatre’s musical The Last Five Years

Musical love story of the week, White Rose Theatre in The Last Five Years, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Saturday matinee

FOR York’s newest stage company, White Rose Theatre, director Claire Pulpher and Simon Radford perform Jason Robert Brown’s emotionally charged American musical, charting the path of two lovers over the course of five years of courting and marriage, trials and tribulations.

Struggling actress Cathy Hiatt’s side of the story starts at the end of the relationship; rising novelist Jamie Wellerstein tells his tale from the beginning, but will they ever meet in the middle? The Last Five Years promises laughter, tears and everything in between in a score of upbeat songs and beautiful ballads. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Mark Thomas in Black And White, seeking answers and finding hope

Political points of the week: Mark Thomas: Black And White, The Crescent, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm

BURNING Duck Comedy Club presents political comedy firebrand Mark Thomas on his Black And White tour, promising “creative fun” as he takes down politicians, mucks about, ponders new ideas and finds hope.

Londoner Thomas asks: how did we get here? What are we going to do about it? Who’s up for a sing-song? “After lockdowns and isolation, this show is about the simple act of being in a room together and toppling international capitalism,” he vows. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Kaiser Chiefs: All roads lead homewards to Leeds next Saturday. Picture: Edward Cooke

Homecoming of the week: Kaiser Chiefs, plus special guests The Fratellis and The Sherlocks, All Together UK Tour, Leeds First Direct Arena, November 12, 7.30pm

NOW in their 22nd year, Kaiser Chiefs head home to Leeds on their November arena tour, as well as playing Hull Bonus Arena on November 8. “It’s been a while…and we can’t wait to see you all again,” they say. “We’re looking forward to putting on a big KC show. See you there!”

Alongside Yorkshire anthems Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less And Less and Ruby, listen out for new single How 2 Dance, produced by former Rudimental member Amir Amor as the first taster off their eighth studio album, set for release in 2023 as the follow-up to 2019’s Duck.

“I hope to hear it at weddings, on the radio, and in the last remaining indie discos across the land,” says lead singer Ricky Wilson. “How 2 Dance is about letting go, not worrying about what other people think you should be doing. It may not be the smoothest of journeys, but sometimes you need a bit of turbulence to remind you that you are flying.” Box office: Leeds, firstdirectarena.com; Hull, bonusarenahull.com.

Pulp fact, not fiction: Jarvis Cocker and co’s poster for next year’s comeback shows

Book early for next summer’s comeback: Pulp, Bridlington Spa, May 26 2023, and Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 9 2023

LET frontman Jarvis Cocker explain why Sheffield’s Pulp have decided to play their first shows since December 2012. “Three months ago, we asked, ‘What exactly do you do for an encore?’. Well…an encore happens when the crowd makes enough noise to bring the band back to the stage,” he says.

“So…we are playing in the UK and Ireland in 2023. Therefore…come along and make some noise. See you there.”. Box office: gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.

Back in action: Ryan Adams to play acoustic solo gig in York next spring. Picture: Andrew Blackstein

York gig announcement of the week: Ryan Adams, York Barbican, April 14 2023

NORTH Carolina singer-songwriter Ryan Adams will play York for the first time since 2011 on his eight-date solo tour next spring, when each night’s set list will be different.

Adams, who visited the Grand Opera House in 2007 and four years later, will perform on acoustic guitar and piano in the style of his spring 2022 run of East Coast American gigs, when he played 168 songs over five nights in shows that averaged 160 minutes.

This year, Adams has released four studio albums: Chris, a tribute to his late brother; Romeo & Juliet; FM, a more traditional rock’n’roll record, and Devolver, given away to fans to mark a year’s sobriety. Box office: ryanadams.ffm.to/tour.OPR and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Mark Thomas isn’t mucking about as he puts the need for change in black and white

No hidden meanings: Everything is in black and white in Mark Thomas’s new show. Picture: Tony Pletts

MARK Thomas, the grouchy godfather of British political comedy, is taking down politicians, mucking about, offering new ideas and finding hope in his new tour show, Black And White.

At Leeds City Varieties Music Hall tomorrow night (3/11/2022) and The Crescent, York, on Tuesday, he asks: How did we get here? What are we going to do about it? Who’s up for a sing-song?

“After lockdowns and isolation, this is a show about the simple act of being in a room together and toppling international capitalism,” says Londoner Mark, veteran alternative comedian, television and radio presenter, satirist, journalist and purveyor of political stunts on Channel 4’s The Mark Thomas Comedy Product.

He is heading out on the road after this summer’s sold-out Edinburgh Fringe run at The Stand Comedy Club elicited such reviews as: “seething, righteous and largely evidenced anger”… “incandescent critique of UK and world politics”… “his ire is something to behold”.

Here comes doubting Thomas, putting everything in Black And White in a turbulent world, but why give the tour that tagline? “Because it matches the tour poster!” he reasons. “A mate of mine took the photo, and then an artist called Tracey Mobley put it through a computer that turned it into a drawing. It looked amazing!

“So, when they said you need a name for the show – where I’m just going to muck about – I thought, let’s call it ‘Black And White’. But if you want to go for an ideological understanding of it, I guess it’s got to the point where it’s all of us against the one per cent, where this economic Ponzi scheme isn’t working for us and it’s got to change.”

Mark is up and running now. “Liz Truss espoused the free market, as a willing supporter of the Tufton Street think tanks, which means big responsibilities for human beings, but no responsibilities for businesses. Now she’s gone, Sunak is in, but it’s not even a U-turn.

“It’s like, ‘how much s**t do you want to take? 100 per cent or 99 per cent?’, then 99 per cent is what it will be. What communities need to do is build up resistance.”

How, Mark? “I wouldn’t want to tell people how to do it because they’re the ones doing it,” he says. “There are loads of people doling stuff. Some are doing food banks. There’s a brilliant centre in Sheffield that helps asylum seekers and refugees, The Sanctuary.

“They do English classes, IT classes, help with legal matters, as well as hot meals and advice. It’s a fantastic place just doing its best to help the community.

The poster image of Mark Thomas that prompted his tour title, Black And White

“Then there are community pubs. They’re the things that’ll keep going. That’s the kind of stuff I love, that really excites me. Like my football club, AFC Wimbledon, winning the community club of the year award, making sure it’s embedded in the club. Trade unions, communities, that’s what we have to support.”

In past shows, Mark has discussed visiting the West Bank and Jenin; lobbying Parliament; walking in the footsteps of the highest NHS officials; playing at the Royal Opera House; “making stuff” for TV, radio and newspapers and going undercover.

Black And White promises “creative fun”, or mucking about, if you prefer. “My favourite playwright is Bertolt Brecht, dear old Bertolt Brecht [the 20th century German theatre practitioner, playwright and poet]. I went to his house…he wasn’t in,” says Mark.

“What was fascinating about him, I remember seeing his play The Caucasian Chalk Circle at 15, and it changed my mind, which is one of the cornerstones of theatre, that you can go to a show and have your mind changed.

“Brecht always talked about creative fun, creative dissent, like those climate protestors throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery. The point being that people were really, really shocked by it, and it was only afterwards that they realised nothing was destroyed.

“It led to more thinking about how we need to have discussions about climate change, how we discuss it and how we may bring about change. In 100 years, no-one will remember a petition, but they will remember dangerous and creative acts because that’s the stuff that’s genuinely upsetting.

”Look at the Suffragettes. They burnt buildings, smashed windows, went on hunger strike. It was a mass movement with masses of acts of defiance. Women were being force-fed when they were on hunger strike. They brought about change.”

What new ideas for change is Mark proposing. “Nationalising the banks,” he says off the cuff. Unlikely, surely? “It doesn’t matter if it’s likely now. It’s about starting the conversation and then it might become reality,” Mark asserts.

“We need to have much more devolved power, given to communities. Proportional representation. Voting at 16. Why shouldn’t someone of 16 have the right to vote? Politics and history are the things that give people agency.”

Mark Thomas: Putting forward new ideas and finding hope in his new comedy tour de force. Picture: Tony Pletts

Where might we find hope, Mark? “Hope is a precious commodity, but there’s a difference between optimism and hope. Just don’t give me false optimism,” he says. “Defiance is the bedrock of hope.

“If you destroy a statue, you can get ten years in jail. That means a statue has more rights of protection than women. That’s nuts.”

Mark is on a roll again. “I voted Remain for one reason, and that’s because I thought a vote for Leave would increase racism and I won’t vote for that,” he says. “But once the vote has happened, that’s the vote, that’s it. Now we need to have a conversation about Brexit, how it’s working out , and what we might do about it in the future.

“Now everyone is feeling the pinch of stagnation and austerity, but all Brexiteers will stand up to say is they’re for sovereignty.

“I hope what we’re going through is the high water mark and this is our time for change. It might not be the high water mark, but one thing is for sure: I love that Bob Crow quote: ‘If you fight, you won’t always win, but if you don’t fight, you will always lose’.”

That fighting spirit permeates through Black And White: “The show is about being rude,” says Mark. “Shouting, mucking about, looking at what communities can do, celebrating us and defiance.”

As ever, Mark Thomas promises “I’ll be around, I’ll help” with his political ire, his zeal for change. How will he mark turning 60 on April 11 next year. “I’ll get my London bus pass and go on the longest route I can,” he says.  

Mark Thomas: Black And White, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, tomorrow, 8pm; The Crescent, York, November 8, 8pm; King’s Hall and Winter Gardens, Ilkley, November 9, 8pm. Box office: Leeds, leedsheritagetheatres.com; York, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com; Ilkley, bradford-theatres.co.uk. Age guidance: 16 plus.

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“Who we think we are is not who we are,” says Mark Thomas in national identity show

Opinions this way: Mark Thomas welcomes you to his 50 Things About Us show

IN his new tour show, mischief-making activist comedian Mark Thomas is pondering “how we have come to inhabit this divided wasteland that some of us call the United Kingdom”.

On the road since January 23, the South London satirical writer, political agent provocateur, TV and radio presenter, journalist and podcaster is bringing 50 Things About Us: Work In Progress to The Crescent, York, on March 4.

“The Crescent has a certain ramshackle charm, and it’s run with absolute integrity,” says Mark, breaking away from cooking up a pot of a very British winter warmer, leek and potato soup, to take this interview call.

Introducing the show’s theme, he explains: “I was really struck by one thought: how on earth did we get to the point we’ve got to, and part of the answer is that we’ve never come to terms with who we are.”

Was he referring to the English or the British here? “Well, Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland too, and it’s been England that’s driven the creation of the union,” says Mark, whose show combines storytelling, stand-up, mischief and typically well-researched material.

“All these places have a very distinctive identity and culture, and it defies this binary, simplistic definition.

“The Irish language was kept alive by Presbyterians when the English buried it, and now the Irish language is being taught by Unionist women on the Falls Road [in Belfast], so it’s a fascinating place that defies your normal expectations.”

“People say, ‘can’t you say something positive?’, but there’s a load of positives in there ,” says Mark Thomas of his new show

Mark notes how “English culture is seen as part of the British empire, when Britain was ruling the world with this bombast, without understanding the implications of that”.

So, it may be a generalisation, Mark, but why is that people think the abiding negative aspects of the British empire are defined by Little Englander characteristics, not British ones?

“That’s the weird thing. Scotland joined England in the union in a time of fantastic prosperity, so Scotland doesn’t get out of its role in the empire,” he says.  “It’s fascinating that it’s about England adopting the empire as its nationalist cause, with everyone else slipping off.”

50 Things About Us is billed as “a show about money, history, identity, art, tradition, songs, gongs, wigs, guns, bungs, sods of soil and rich people”, as Thomas picks through the myths, facts and figures of our national identities to ask how we have so much feeling for such a hollow land”.

Summing up his night of story-telling, stand-up and subversion as a “sort of funny national edition of Who Do You Think You Are?”, Thomas says: ” It’s another slightly odd show, a sort of sweary, History Channel with laughs and creative mischief. If you’ve seen my shows before, this one’s in the vein of 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent.”

As a work in progress, the list of 50 Things is not set in stone. “It’s always being added to. You always do that. You keep going ‘b****y hell’ when you discover new things,” says Mark. “I found out the other day we’re the only nation that doesn’t have its name on its stamps.

“We have a picture of The Queen, not even a picture, but a silhouette, and there’s a certain weirdness about that. We won’t even say where we are! We say, ‘here’s The Queen, we’re better than everyone else’.”

Thomas, 56, has made his mark down the years by stopping arms deals; creating a manifesto and bringing the winning policy to parliament; walking the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank and setting up a comedy club in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

“Just looking at who we think we are, this idea we can stand alone is completely myopic,” says Mark Thomas.

He has hosted six series on Channel 4, alongside several television documentaries and radio series; written books; grabbed a Guinness World Record; sold out numerous tours; won awards aplenty; nabbed himself a Medal of Honour and succeeded in changing some laws along the way. 

In other words, he is a man of both action and words. How are his latest words going down on tour? “People say, ‘can’t you say something positive?’, but there’s a load of positives in there, like Britain being one of only five countries that doesn’t have a [codified] written constitution. New Zealand is one other, Canada another,” says Mark.

“We have the Charter of the Forest, our economic charter that came in in 2017, which recognises that idea of shared assets of the country [the charter re-established for free men rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs] .

“It was there for our mutual benefit and no-one else has ever produced anything like it. It used to be read out four times a year in church, when the squirearchy were at the front, the peasants at the back.

“It was the statute that remained longest in force in England, but they just got rid of it in 1971 [when it was superseded by the Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act]. But it’s something to be proud of as part of our history; there’s an historic part of our character that, since 1217, says we have the right to run things for our common benefit.”

Where does Brexit fit into Mark’s exploration of who we are? “I think that notion that we are a country that can go it alone is really that characteristic of English exceptionalism, where we believe we’re different, we’re superior, because we’re the cleverer than anyone else, reckoning we won two World Wars and a World Cup by playing fair, which is nonsense,” he says. “Just looking at who we think we are, this idea we can stand alone is completely myopic.

“I’m not a great supporter of the European Union, but I did vote Remain reluctantly, as I don’t want a move to the far right, which is what we’ve ended up with.”

Mark Thomas’s Gilbert & George-style poster for his 50 Things About Us tour

Mark continues: “I’m a Socialist and I think massive changes are needed but when you ignore democracy [the Brexit referendum vote], it will bite you on the backside. If I were a Leave voter, I’d be b****y angry. This idea that people got it wrong, and we should vote again and again until we get it right is extremely patronising. The way they’ve been treated is pretty awful, though I’m not defending the far right.”

Why does Mark call Britain “a hollow land”? “The fact that masses of our history is ignored at the expense of our identity, like the history of the NHS…that sense of absence, because we don’t tell parts of our history, is wrong,” he says.

And now for the big question, after all Mark’s research, can he define who we are? “It’s an important question to answer, because we’re changing all the time, as a collective, as individuals, as parents, grandparents, how we see ourselves,” he says.

“Though interestingly, who we think we are is not who we are.” Let’s leave that thought hanging in the air, the perfect enticement to find out more at The Crescent on March 4.

Mark Thomas’s 50 Things About Us: Work In Progress tour also takes in further Yorkshire gigs at Sheffield Memorial Hall, March 1; Wakefield Theatre Royal, March 5, and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, April 9.

Box office: York, 01904 622510 or at thecrescent.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Wakefield, 01924 211311; Leeds, 0845 644 1881 or cityvarieties.co.uk.

Did you know?

Mark Thomas also broadcasts 50 Things About Us as a podcast.