Lubaina Himid, Richard Armitage, David Pountney’s new opera

Actor Richard Armitage – who starred in North and South and the Hobbit - joins Nick to discuss writing his debut novel, the bio-tech thriller Geneva, which is about to be published in hardback but was originally commissioned as an audio book.

Autumn 2023 has seen Opera North launching its first sustainable ‘Green Season’. This includes the world premiere of an ambitious new production, Masque of Might which repurposes the music of composer Henry Purcell in a spectacle of song and dance. We hear from its director Sir David Pountney and soprano Anna Dennis.

The Leicester Indie band EasyLife is about to play its last gigs under that name - because the owners of the airline easyJet said their name was too similar to that of the budget airline. EasyGroup confirmed they'd received an agreement from the band saying they would cease using the name after playing at Leicester's 02 Academy and London's Koko. It's not yet known what their new name will be.

The Turner prize winning artist Lubaina Himid was once told “black people don’t make art”. Part of the 1980s movement of Black and Asian British artists, it was decades before her contribution to the arts was recognised with a CBE. She’s now curated an exhibition called A Fine Toothed Comb that looks at the hidden communities of Manchester though her own work and that of other women artists. She steers Nick Ahad around the show and talks about belonging, removing statues and the joys of opera