BBC Question Time and Victoria Wood with Chris Evans

BBC Question Time from Huddersfield on BBC One (23rd June 2011)

As always, David Dimbley's high-brow panel show depends upon its guests and audience questions. This week the panel included Tory backbencher John Redwood, economist-turned-Labour MP Rachel Reeves, Lib Dem Transport Minister Norman Baker, David Mitchell and – increasingly inexplicably – Fern Britton. Oh, and Dimbleby's lurid green tie, always something to watch for in itself. Redwood got off to a shaky start, but once into his stride became a remarkably calm and patient panellist in an increasingly heated debate (Thatcher got some praise, which in the north was never going to get a positive response). Reeves had a habit of addressing her answers directly to one person – her gaze unwavering and unblinking, terrifyingly like an automaton. But the three politicians kept up a lively and interesting debate through the hour, but Mitchell and Britton...well, someone must have thought it was going to be a good idea for them to appear on BBC Question Time. Comedians on this show usually just throw out digs at politicians and do a bit of low-level rabble-rousing, but Mitchell – who could be expected to make sensible points – was lost without a script and toed a disappointingly careful line. Britton, meanwhile, worried that she sounded 'wishy-washy'. She was right to worry.

Victoria Wood and Chris Evans on Radio 2 (24th June 2011)

This should have been great. Chris Evans interviewing Victoria Wood (CBE) on his Radio 2 Breakfast Show really should have been great. Wood's funny, and Evans is experienced as an interviewer usually able to get on well with guests. But today, he sounded out of his depth, despite his usual boyish enthusiasm for life and his guest. Wood sounded like she didn't want to be there, and was talking to someone who just didn't get her. “Why would you start writing a play?” Evans yapped, joyously. “Well, first of all, because someone asks you to. I don't think you would otherwise” Wood replied (woodenly – sorry for the pun). He asked if she had been the first to write funny songs, leading Wood to patiently explain about a few people who'd been doing the same thing earlier (like the wonderful Jake Thackray). They ended awkwardly with a discussion about how she treated interviewers, but the worst moment was when Evans asked if she'd ever work with Richard Stilgoe. She told him that he'd not understood her at all if he thought she'd enjoy doing that...

I leave you with Victoria Wood and Jake Thackray: The Ballad of Barry and Freda and Pass Milord the Rooster Juice.

Artistic Director's Note to Merge 2011

They say that a band's second album is always the hardest, the 'difficult second album', so I like to think of Merge 2011 as the 'difficult second Festival'. Once we've got through that, we should be ready to take over the world and be as all-conquering as [insert your favourite band's name here].

Last year's Festival involved just over one hundred students as participants, and this year we've been even more ambitious. The Festival is split across several host venues and now happens over four days. It's all been designed to allow any audience member to see just about everything on offer. You could also look at our lovely little website, www.mergearts.org.uk.

There's a lot of stuff, so have a look around. We've got theatre, jazz, classical music, poetry, dance, performance art, workshops, burlesque, visual art...and it's all about showing off Hull's artistic scene.

Like any good band leader, I should thank the band. The Festival needs several people working hard on it through the year, and those people are listed below. I'm grateful to all of them. Once again, the University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has funded the Festival, and we're again grateful for their generosity in doing so.

The Merge band has also relied on our host venues for somewhere to put our second album; this year they are the Albemarle Music Centre, Fruit and the Ringside. We'd like to thank staff at each for their hard work and patience over the last year.

For Merge 2011 we experimented with some run-up events called EarlyMerge, which were hosted by the Haworth Arms, Pave, Hull's History Centre and the Ringside, while workshops have been hosted by Hull College – so we extend our thanks to them too.

Finally, can I thank you for coming along? I hope you find at least one performance or artwork that really makes you think and shows that Hull has artistic talent to be proud of. That would be a good legacy for this year's Festival.

Once again, thank you for coming – have a look around, see some shows, and I hope to see you for next year's Festival.

Richard T. Watson, Artistic Director

PS. Enjoy the album!

The Merge Arts Festival is:

Artistic Director: Richard T. Watson

Finance Director/Co-Producer: Alison Best

Technical Directors: Jon Cole & Adam Foley

Publicity Director: Rachael Abbey

Education Director: Zoe Hughes

Designer: Will Langdale

With special thanks to:

Professor Valerie Sanders and the University of Hull's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Sarah-Jane Dickenson and staff at the University's Department of Music and Drama

Chris Maynard and staff at the Albemarle Music Centre

Dean Shakespeare and staff at Fruit

Darren Bunting, Anna Fox and staff at the Ringside

Arike Oke and staff at the Hull History Centre

Staff at the Haworth Arms and Pave bar

Jamie McGarry

Lucy Thurlow, Hayley Nikolay and staff at Hull College

Simon Bedford and Hoipolloi Theatre

Keira Walker

Janet Pearce and Marianne Lewsley-Stier

Jonno Witts

Elizabeth Coombs

The Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn