Ed’s role as the North East’s go-to anti-Thatcher spokesman has put South Shields firmly on the map – of Switzerland!
South Shields (and Ed) feature in a top Swiss television programme on Wednesday. The five-minute slot on Kultureplatz, a culture magazine programme on the channel Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), was recorded this week in response to the recent release of the film The Iron Lady.
Reporter Richard Herold read an article about the play Maggie’s End in The Guardian and contacted Ed through this website. Ed explained: “Richard asked if he could come over to South Shields to interview us about the play. I got Davey Hopper from the National Union of Mineworkers involved and we showed them around the devastation Thatcherism and the Tories had caused to the borough – places where shipyards and mines once employed thousands of people as well as long-gone former workplaces that were secondary industries.
“It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. Richard was taken by the friendliness of the people he met when we took him to the beach and to the river and he was so impressed he’s seriously considering coming back for a holiday!
“Sadly, the official Tories couldn’t send anyone – despite being asked – along to debate with me but we managed to rope in a Thatcherite when we were filming in the Maltings pub, where the beer Maggie’s End is sold.”