Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by Sunderland-born designer, photographer and entrepreneur Ian Wright for a conversation about creativity, confidence and what can happen when you’re prepared to back yourself.
From spending his early childhood in South Africa and returning to Sunderland in the 1970s, to getting bullied at school and being told by a careers adviser to think about getting “a real job”, Ian’s route into the creative world was anything but obvious.
It all changed with a drawing of Bruce Lee.
That sketch helped land him his first job in print at 16, beginning a career that would take him from Letraset and darkrooms to photographing Sunderland AFC at Roker Park, shooting Kevin Keegan’s first Newcastle goal, building his own design agency Rufus and helping businesses completely rethink how they present themselves.
Ian shares the thinking behind redesigning Hayes Travel’s identity and stores, why understanding people matters as much as design itself, and the philosophy that has shaped almost everything he’s done: if somebody else can do it, why can’t you?
That mindset eventually led Ian and his wife Vicky to take on one of their biggest challenges yet — buying a derelict Victorian pumping station during COVID with nowhere near enough money to do it, and transforming it into The Pump House, a spectacular wedding venue built around obsessive attention to detail.
We get into risk, resilience, creative problem-solving, retail psychology, customer experience, Sunderland heritage and why sometimes the smallest moments can completely change the direction of your life.
And naturally, there’s plenty of Local Heroes territory too — Bruce Lee, Roker Park, Black Forest gateau, profiterole mountains, mushy pea fritters, sticky beef, sticky toffee pudding and a very respectable Greggs double order.
A fascinating conversation about design, graft, instinct and the importance of giving things a go — because sometimes one drawing, one conversation or one decision really can change everything.

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan welcome Richard and Dominic Colman back to the studio to talk about an extraordinary year for one of South Shields’ best-known hospitality families.
A century after the Colman family first entered the food business, the brothers reflect on reaching their 100-year milestone, creating an exhibition at South Shields Museum, opening new venues and continuing a family story built around food, hard work and the town they call home.
We hear about their plans to transform a much-loved Whitburn café, preserving its history while creating the next chapter with great breakfasts, Sunday lunches, cakes and elevated versions of the British classics people grew up with.
The conversation explores what makes a brilliant full English, why simple food is often the hardest to get right, the importance of local produce and how Richard and Dominic develop new ideas — usually around a table, late at night and with plenty of food involved.
They also share plans for the new Sandhaven Coastal Village, bringing beach huts, independent businesses, food, retail and community activity together on the South Shields seafront — close to the site where their family’s hospitality story began. And, as always, things head wildly off course.
There are hypothetical drinks flowing from fingers, condiment hands, curry sauce secrets, 84 eggs, chicken-wing world records, Black Forest gateau, nostalgic sweet shops, tinned mixed grills, sausage menus designed by a seven-year-old and a very serious debate about whether hash browns belong on a full English.
Funny, hungry and full of ideas — a conversation about family, food, legacy, creativity and building the next 100 years of the Colman story.

This week, Chris and Dan are joined by South Shields-born producer, filmmaker and content creator John Nejjy for a conversation about creativity, curiosity and using social media to tell better stories about the North East.
From joining the Merchant Navy at 17 and travelling the world, to training as a stonemason, working in bars and eventually building a successful career in the video games industry, John’s journey has never followed a straight line.
He talks about working his way from customer service and game testing into design and production, while continuing to explore his own creativity through filmmaking and online content focused on local people, artists, history, food and place.
We get into why authentic storytelling matters, the unpredictability of social media, the pressure to keep feeding the algorithm and John’s mission to “heal the algorithm” by creating positive, human content in a digital world often driven by outrage, division and exploitation.
John also shares why he keeps trying new skills, the importance of staying curious and his determination not to reach the end of his life wishing he had given something a go.
And, as always, the conversation heads in several unexpected directions.
There are fears of flying, red jackets, Flash Gordon, South Shields beaches, Greggs orders, chocolate pasties, shrinking Feasts, Angel Delight, 84 eggs and a WhatsApp group dedicated entirely to boiled egg content.
Funny, thoughtful and completely unpredictable — a conversation about creativity, identity, local pride and finding your own way to make something positive.

This week on the Local Heroes podcast, Chris and Dan met Luke Smith - a distiller who survived an explosion that blew his hat off, built his first still at fifteen, and once sent Chris home from a rum-making night so happy he nearly ate a slug outside a Newcastle church.
Luke is head distiller and co-founder of a Newcastle distillery, ten minutes from Central Station, where he makes white and dark rum from molasses, a bourbon-style whiskey, and gin. He got there via a home brew kit at fourteen, a garden centre where he sold 15,000 bottles of ginger wine a year, and a chance conversation at Durham Farmers' Market that landed him a job at Sonnet 43.
From there: head distiller at Poetic Licence, one of the North East's earliest gin distilleries, then Mason's Yorkshire Gin - where a pinhole in a Portuguese copper still ignited on a gas burner and took the whole building down in ten seconds.
Nobody was hurt and they never missed an order. Chris and Dan dig deep to try and understand the science and the art of it - why ambient room temperature changes your ABV, why Scottish distillers still ding a rock against the still to listen for bubbles, and how a batch that tasted inexplicably salty for three weeks turned into one of the best things Luke's ever made.
There's the history too: Gin Lane as government propaganda, quinine and the accidental birth of the G&T, and why gin boomed here while tequila never could.
Chris tastes the spiced rum he made at Luke's rum academy and gets a six and a half out of ten, there's two new product ideas born live on the mic, and the Greggs order is settled.
And remember, a sausage roll is always the thing you eat before the other thing.

Jo Milne and Steve White join us for a conversation about empathy, connection and what it means to truly understand the world from someone else’s perspective. Jo lives with Usher syndrome, a condition that causes both hearing and sight loss.
After being profoundly deaf from birth, her experience of hearing for the first time through cochlear implants was captured in a video that went viral around the world. But behind that moment is a much bigger story. Together with Steve, Jo talks about their partnership, the often-unseen role of caring, navigating a world that isn’t always accessible, and why awareness begins with being willing to ask questions.
From the sounds we take for granted to the importance of simply “zooming out”, this is a warm, funny and thought-provoking conversation about disability, difference, human connection and the empathy we could all do with a little more of.

Paul Mort is known for his energy, honesty and no-nonsense approach to business and life, but behind the success is a story very few people know.
In this episode, Paul opens up about building a business from nothing, surviving depression and suicidal thoughts, rebuilding his life, and the mindset shifts that changed everything.
He talks about learning to sell, embracing discomfort, becoming alcohol-free, and why personal responsibility has been the biggest catalyst for change.
Along the way, we also dive into football, South Shields, Greggs orders, public speaking, social media, and why humour has always been one of his greatest strengths. It’s raw, hilarious, emotional and packed with practical wisdom.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, struggling with your mental health, or simply looking for a reminder that it’s never too late to rebuild your life, this is a conversation you won’t forget.

What happens when you lose everything, and have to rebuild your life from the ground up?
In one of our most powerful conversations yet, Claire Liddle shares her extraordinary journey from childhood trauma and alcohol addiction to prison, recovery, and building a thriving bakery business that’s changing lives.
Claire speaks with remarkable honesty about growing up with abuse, the spiral into addiction, serving 22 months in prison, and why prison ultimately became the turning point that saved her life.
She reflects on forgiveness, accountability, football as therapy, and discovering a passion for baking that gave her a new purpose. Today, Claire is the founder of Cakeaholics, creating award-winning cakes while proving that our past doesn’t have to define our future. This is a story about redemption, resilience, second chances, and finding hope when everything seems lost.
It’s raw, funny, emotional, and ultimately incredibly inspiring.

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Carley Armstrong of Sunderland - producer, filmmaker, and one of the hardest-grafting people in North East film right now.
She's gone from runner to script supervisor to producer the hard way, building her own company while refusing to leave the region that made her. Hendon born, Hendon loyal - the kind of place she can still knock on any door for a cup of sugar.
There's the young lass who heard Carley on BBC Radio Newcastle, messaged her on Instagram, turned up to set with her own car, and was working at the BBC five weeks later.
As Carley says, an email can change your life. There's the philosophy from our Sunderland filmmaker + a proper deep dive into 50 Cent's The 50th Law as a survival guide for the industry.
There's the moment she first found filmmaking and felt genuine love, family and belonging - keeping her loyal to the industry family ever since. She talks about thinking in decades not days, the strange loneliness of rising when the people who cheered you up the hill go quiet at the top, arts disappearing from schools, and why the North East only wins when we stop competing and start collaborating.
And, as is tradition on Local Heroes, Carley reveals her last meal - and it's about as Sunderland as it gets.
Saveloy Dip from Dicksons + a Muller's pink slice + a chip sandwich with Lurpak and red sauce.
Then the Greggs order.

<span;>This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with Andy Haddon - beekeeper, baker, accidental troublemaker, and the man Charlotte Crosby once crowned "the David Attenborough of the Stottie."
<span;>Andy's the founder of Big River Bakery in Shieldfield, but that's only where the story lands.
<span;>We start with bees - the waggle dance, the venom that kills cancer cells, and what twenty years of getting stung teaches you about altruism, resilience and the interconnected life.
<span;>From there it's a proper journey: a psychology degree, learning to fly at Cranfield to go and kill locusts, cold stores at minus 25, designing Marks & Spencer's Christmas hamper system, and a few empty years working for big companies for profit alone before a moment on a Shanghai high street sent this Geordie boy home.
<span;>What he built when he got here is something rarer than a bakery.
<span;>Andy talks about turning a pallet of leftover Spamalot tins into the seed money for a village climate group, growing the first wheat in Newcastle for 200 years, six or seven years without a wage, and why the bakery is really a business model in disguise - healthy, affordable food for all, with neurodiverse folk on the payroll and a cross-subsidy that keeps prices honest.
<span;>We get into shortening the supply chain, why you have to start where people are rather than preach rosemary sourdough at them, and the three times he very nearly didn't make it home.
<span;>And of course, the Stottie - going extinct until Andy brought it back, gave it a giant suit and appearance money, trademarked the Stottini, and turned the stale loaves into Stottie beer.
<span;>Plus a serious debate about whether you could strap two stotties to your palms and survive a fall.
<span;>Then the all-important food finish: top three stottie fillings, curry chips versus gravy, mushy peas on the fish, and a Greggs order that needs a time machine to answer.
<span;>#LocalHeroesPodcast #BigRiverBakery #Stottie #NorthEast #Shieldfield #NationalStottieWeek
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This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Bobzilla - artist, muralist, DJ, photographer, and a man whose own mum still refuses to call him anything but Robert.
The name itself is a tale. Born Robert Page (yes, both off Led Zeppelin), he became Rob, then Bob courtesy of a big lad called Robbie, and finally Bobzilla on a drunken night when a mate needed a DJ name and turned himself into Optimus Prime.
Sheffield-raised and Newcastle-adopted, Bob takes us from photographing illegal graffiti in dodgy railway yards (and getting arrested in one - though he did get a free lift back to town) to painting murals on the Quayside, in people's backyards, and on a Beetle now driven around by a Whitley Bay midwife.
There's the cars at the Salt Market, the burger joints he's transformed, and the eternal question of what happens to graffiti's soul when the money turns up. He talks about clubland and the photo book born from it - 'It's a Family Affair' - a gritty black-and-white document of grassroots nights at World Headquarters and beyond, back when people went out to dance and not a single phone was in sight.
He's honest about the baggage that comes with the lifestyle, and taking risks behind the decks - dropping Public Enemy into a techno set, and playing Windowlicker when nobody dares. And he's honest about the eight-year wait for an ADHD diagnosis, the medication that finally quietened his mind, the anxiety behind the cafe that didn't work, and why Newcastle - with neighbours who turn up to help with the gardening - has been the friendliest place he's ever lived.
Plus, his last-meal favourites get a proper airing: a fierce love of PEK, a deep distrust of tinned salmon, and childhood jars of potted beef made next to his school.
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