Playing The North

The CLR James book that we refer to is called Beyond A Boundary - recently reprinted by Vintage. We watched a great documentary called Race and Pace covering some of the issues we talk about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vmAhKkfhNs&t=315s We want to record massive thanks to club chairman Andy Pettinger and to captain and wicketkeeper Michael Bradley of Nelson Cricket Club. They were very generous with their time and knowledge. We sent a very pleasant afternoon in the sun watching the cricket, we are just sorry that Nelson did not win that day. Any comments or feedback gratefully received at [email protected] 

With thanks toJoanna Walpole of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena – ASSAP and Dr Sam George Associate Professor in Research at the University of Hertfordshire and convenor of the Open Graves, Open Minds research project for their generosity of spirit and their time. The read quote is from Bram Stoker's Dracula with thanks to Tom Scott for reading it. 

We have now established the tradition of beginning each series with a walking episode. The first was around the city of Sheffield and our second is around Grasmere in the Lake District. Made famous by the Lakeland poets and especially William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy who lived in Dove Cottage, Grasmere town sits next to the lake of the same name. We began at the cottage and the wonderful museum dedicated to the Wordsworths and then walked right around the lake. We encountered other walkers and then finished off in the Churchyard where the Wordsworth's are buried. We stayed the night in the wonderful Traveler's Rest on the edge of the town. The next morning we headed up towards Easdale and the path up to the Tarn looking over Sour Milk Gill. Thanks to all the people we encountered on the walk for their time and obvious love of the Lakes. We would recommend Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, any version of the Prelude by William Wordsworth and Jonathan Bates excellent biography Radical Wordsworth. For Coleridge's Frost At Midnight click https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43986/frost-at-midnight 

With huge thanks to Mike Jones - former songwriter with the 80s band Latin Quarter. Programme director of an MA in Music Industry Studies. He also contributes to the MA in the Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage. In 2017 wrote, directed and produced the concert 'George Harrison and Indian Music’ which was performed at Liverpool Philharmonic. The poem Four Northern Boys Coming At You that Adrian reads will be part of his next collection - working title Grim Up North?! This is the last episode of series two - we will back in the autumn. Please send us any comments on this or the last series and please send ideas for series three to [email protected] We are really happy to hear your ideas and want to do some more jaunts across the North. 

The BFI film - The Dale that Died mentioned in this episode can be found at https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-dale-that-died-1975-online With thanks to Matt Gibson (Joe Gibson's Grandson) for a great impromptu interview on his farm in Grisdale. Thanks also Paul Renison from Renwick for a great interview and a nice cup of tea in his Farmhouse kitchen.  The final song is by Show of Hands and is called Country Life from the album of the same name. https://open.spotify.com/album/5KbyPGFAqyZC2gqJaSmj4I The cover image for this episode is Joe Gibson, from the film, riding bareback on his horse and rounding up his sheep with his dogs. 

We are especially grateful to Peter Flannery - the writer of Our Friends in the North for this extensive interview. As fans of the series we felt it deserved a whole episode in this our second series of Grim Up North?. If you haven't seen it then there will be plot spoilers! It would be worth watching the series first, before you listen - it is a brilliant piece to TV - you wont be disappointed. This series defined an era and also has rather chilling echoes in our own time. 

With many thanks to Dr Robert McKenzie from Northumbria University for giving his time and expertise. The book he mentioned is Implicit and Explicit Language Attitudes: Mapping Linguistic Prejudice and Attitude Change in England, McKenzie, R., McNeill, A. 2023 If you want to share your experiences of accent prejudice or anything in reaction to this episode send your thoughts to [email protected]. The poem used at the beginning and end of the podcast by Tony Harrison can be heard at Them & (Uz) - Tony Harrison  

We wish to thank Carly Lee and all at Maggie May's Cafe on Bold Street in Liverpool for their time and hospitality and of course the Scouse! We also want to extend our gratitude to Thom Hetherington for his time and extensive knowledge of the Northern food scene and his love of Manchester. Thanks to Eva Scott and Izzy Coward who voiced the piece from the T. Thompson story called ‘The Epicures’. 

With thanks as ever to the KLF for the opening credits music. This podcast was recorded on Thursday 30th November on a very bight and cold day in Sheffield. With thanks to all those we spoke to, especially the staff at the Grind Cafe and Linley & Simpson estate Agents. Thanks to the South Street Kitchen for a lovely lunch. The songs you hear snippets of are Standing at the Sky's Edge by Richard Hawley, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite by the Beatles and Common People by Pulp.   

After a break for various projects including Matt's trip to South America and Adrian's to the Midwest of the USA and various publishing work we return with a new series of Grim Up North. Focussing on the issue of immigration to the North and the welcome (or not) we have extended to those who arrive here from other shores. Our interview was with Zaiba Malik about her book 'We Are Muslim Please'. For more about Zaiba click here Thanks to Lemn Sissay for such a brilliant poem and to Fahaan for his love letter to Bradford. See episodes 33 and 34 of this podcast Working Class History for more of Tariq Mehmood and the Asian Youth Movements in Bradford. Finally thanks as ever to Ken Loach for his wonderful latest film The Old Oak. Some of the voices in the opening sequence are from this powerful movie. For More on this Film.