It's fun up North!

The BFI has announced the complete programme for Northern Voices, a season dedicated to exploring the northern talent and creativity that has driven distinctive storytelling across both film and television, as well as the major contribution the North has made to our national culture. Working closely with partners HOME in Manchester and Film Hub North (part of the BFI Film Audience Network), this BFI season will be presented in London at BFI Southbank, at HOME Manchester and in Leeds. Further screenings are expected to follow in the spring at cinemas across the North.

The season will interrogate the myths about northern culture and look towards current representations of its many distinct districts. Above all, Northern Voices will celebrate the richness and quality of the work, past and present, from Colin Welland, Keith Waterhouse and Andrea Dunbar to Elaine Constantine, Jimmy McGovern, Terence Davies and many more.

Few writers have mined northern culture and specific northern speech patterns as successfully as Alan Bennett, who will appear onstage during Northern Voices at BFI Southbank on 17 April. Growing up in Leeds, he listened in on the chatter of his relatives, absorbing the patter of domestic conversation, which would emerge across a glittering and much-loved range of plays, particularly those written for television.

Following Alan Bennett In Conversation, where audiences will have a rare chance to hear from the celebrated writer, there will be screenings of Bennett’s first television monologue A Woman Of No Importance (BBC, 1982) starring Yorkshire native Patricia Routledge, who powerfully conveys the quiet desperation behind a life of loneliness; and Waiting For The Telegram (BBC, 1998), Bennett’s sixth and final collaboration with Thora Hird, whose BAFTA-winning performance as a resident of a nursing home who reminisces over lost loves and a largely unhappy life, reportedly reduced the film crew to tears.

You can find details of all the screenings and events at https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=northernvoices