Review of 2017 Britain's City of Culture

Fiona Bruce will begin at ten

o'clock with the news.

First Anne Marie Tasker

and Kofi Smiles look back

at the highlights of Hull 2017

and find out what impact this year

long festival of arts and culture

has had on the city.

Hello and welcome to Hull, Britain's

City Of Culture as we review 12

months of cracking events.

That's right, it's

been an absolutely

phenomenal year.

We have so much to look back on.

Across four seasons,

Hull took art out of galleries and

theatres and into the streets.

365 days of events

changed the way the

city has been seen by

the rest of the world.

The year has gone by

been so quick, I cannot

believe it's almost over,

and

I hope these guys get to stay.

This is the latest

installation for 2017

called where do we go from here.

These robot arms brought

out of retirement

to do some dancing here

in the City Of Culture.

And it sort of mirrors the start

of the back in January

when the whole of the city centre

was filled with lights and sounds.

That was amazing that was how

we started this evening, Made in

Hull.

CROWD:

Eight, seven, six, five,

four, three, two, one.

2017 really did start with a bang.

With three and a half

tonnes of fireworks.

And Made in Hull,

a spectacular light show

telling the story of

the city and its people.

What do you think to this

unbelievable display.

I thought it was amazing.

Absolutely fabulous.

I've got family in Canada

and they're watching it live now.

I'm from London and

I think if this was

in London...

The reaction you get

is absolutely fantastic.

It's amazing.

Fantastic, I thought it was really

very moving, very emotional.

I am from Brazil and

I spent two new years

in Copacabana and it's

the

same quality here.

It's amazing.

I am so proud of Hull.

It's absolutely amazing.

I think it will launch

a really positive year.

And the centrepiece

of a season called

Made in Hull, something that was.

A huge wind turbine blade handmade

and the city's Siemens factory.

An incredible 75 metres

long and to put that

into some perspective

I am about six foot so I would fit

along this 41 times.

That's a lot of Kofi.

Getting it in was a big job.

50 lamp posts, traffic

lights and barriers were

taken down for its four hour journey

from factory to city centre.

And it drw in the

crowds, one in five

And it drew in the

crowds, one in five

people who came to see

it were from outside

Hull and East Yorkshire.

Caroline Quentin

and Mark Addy starred

in the world premiere

of The

Hypocrite.

I've spent the last two days

running round inside a

cardboard box which represents

a commode for reasons

too complicated to go

into.

The play was by award winning Hull

born writer Richard Bean and

told the story of Hull's role in

the start of the English Civil War.

Shutting the city's

gate on the King.

Who will make the first advance?

I'm really looking forward

to the people of Hull seeing this

play.

There's so much great stuff in it.

Some of the jokes, they are

so deeply entrenched in the culture

here, they are going to love it.

Upon your conscience!

The show had the theatre's

biggest cast, biggest

set and spectacular special effects

and it won a new audience, one third

of them had never been

to this theatre before.

February brought

another world premiere.

6000 Pipes, written

by Britain's most popular

living composer, Sir Karl Jenkins.

MUSIC: Starman by David Bowie.

Weeks later the orchestra made way

for one of David Bowie's old

bandmates, the spider

from Mars Woody Woodmansey.

The last surviving member

of the band from Hull

performed the Rise And Fall

of Ziggy Stardust album live

and in full for the first time ever.

It is somewhere that Bowie

wanted to play himself.

So to come back now, to Hull

the City Of Culture is amazing.

Made in Hull also

celebrated pioneering

women of the City Of Culture.

From the world's first

woman conductor to

the first women's world boxing

champion Barbara Buttrick.

I think all this talk

about girls not boxing

is old-fashioned.

Girls are not the delicate

flowers they used to be and

anyhow my boyfriend doesn't mind.

Art's original bad girl

from her performance art collective

and one of Hull's most famous

daughters,

Maureen Lipman, on inspiring

the next generation.

If there's one kid out

there watching who thinks, if that

white-haired woman with spectacles

can be on telly, so can I.

And even if you are not

famous and from Hull

you could pretend to be,

as photography shows Hollywood icons

letting people take

on the favourite film roles.

And other ways to get involved,

people choosing coloured

filters for flats as part of this

community project, called I wish to

communicate with you.

I think is brilliant,

it makes you feel good

that you are part of

the City Of Culture.

By March nine out of ten

people in Hull had been to

a City Of Culture event

and with 60 community

projects in 2017 many

were

even taking part.

That was one of the community

projects put together

by people from Hull.

For people from Hull.

Really a great way to

get everyone involved.

The woman who masterminded

it is Sharon Darley.

Before 2017 some people might have

thought art is not for me, is just

for the cultural elite.

Has this project changed that.

Yes!

In what ways, what have you seen.

The whole year has

changed that, the project

we were involved with definitely

helped oil the wheels.

What changes have you seen,

explain to people who

don't know Hull, the problems

in the estate where

you started that work.

Lots of the usual inner-city

challenges, lack of

employment, lack of prospects.

Lack of aspiration.

Sometimes.

Although I like to say

that I work with a

really creative, innovative,

funny community.

Do you think 2017

has drawn that out.

I think so and it

doesn't take a lot.

How can you keep these things

going for the people

who might not have the time

or the money to go to theatre

or the art gallery.

I'm going to say the L Word, legacy.

This year is a beautiful launch pad.

It is now up to us to keep it going

and going and make it, if it is

around for a long time,

the more chance you've

got of seeing stuff.

Sharon, thank you so much.

And so many more community events

stretching into season two called

Roots and Routes.

My favourite was seeing Katy Perry

at Big Weekend, she was

for me one of the highlights

of season two.

Season two looked to Hull's

place in the world.

And you don't get much

more global than Katy

Perry.

Dozens of stellar pop acts came

to Burton Constable near Hull

for Radio 1's Big Weekend.

In a festival environment

just outside of

Hull is crazy.

It is so cool.

To have this on your

doorstep. We keep running into

people we know.

It is like all the

city in a big place. It's great.

Just from the crowd you can always

tell what type of energy is out

there and it sounds like people

really appreciate the music, it

seems like a real freedom here.

Music should be somewhere where

people can come together no matter

what background you are from. We

need music to connect and I don't

think that should ever be something

people are afraid to come together

for.

We saw Stormzy earlier.

Are you

a grime fan? Miz I'm interested in

that scene and he's one of the best.

I saw Little Nicks earlier, they are

trained, they are in the dressing

room next to mine and their vocal

warm-ups were quite impressive. I'm

going to stay at the French level,

below that.

But that was not the only festival

in town. North Atlantic flags

celebrated Hull's historic ties to

Scandinavia and was created by the

musician John Ground.

Hull is a

place that has been on my radar for

some time, some of the artists I

admire have connections of Hull. I

think you will see what Hull has two

off and also things from the North

Atlantic, it is quite Scandinavian.

Another event with sound at its

heart, height of the reads as a

sonic journey across the iconic

Humber Bridge.

The Swan spend their

necks backwards to see God. Then the

magnetism of the blue space.

Listening through headphones they

are hearing a piece of work which

combines poetry with the sound of

the bridges and sways in the wind.

Opera North's chorus and orchestra

married with sound recordings of the

bridge itself.

Look up.

And a Hull

schoolgirl who guided the audience.

It will be weird hearing myself but

it will be pretty cool.

Australian

company Circe brought circles, dance

and sound to a Hull graveyard.

A

horse, horse, my kingdom for a

horse!

And more world-class theatre

with Matt Fresia in Richard III by

Shakespeare.

Amity formed back to

playing a deformed character for the

first time in Britain, which is

extraordinary that it should be the

first but exciting that I get to do

it.

Thousands came to see the

Weeping Window poppies from the

Tower of London. And revealed in

more ways than one more than 3000

people from around the world who

took part in Sea of Hull. In April

they saw the final artwork unveiled

in the gallery.

I'm about there. You

have only one life, just livid. I

don't care if anyone sees me or not.

# I've got the eye of the Tiger

# Dancing through the fire #.

Is Big Weekend was a highlight of

season two it was the perfect warm

up for a season of festivals in the

City Of Culture. We are now halfway

through the year and it is clear

that Hull is getting pretty good at

putting an unexpected, innovative

and exciting events like this

installation and that that is

changing perceptions of the city. It

was not that long ago when Hull was

voted Britain's most rubbish town

but if you look in the papers today

you will see that is no longer the

case and whether some are packed

full of events to come things got

better and better.

# What are you thinking? #.

Summer was a season of festivals.

More than 100 local bands at the

Humber Street set. We are sitting on

an amazing wealth of talent in this

region and it is about time that the

rest of the country was aware of

that. The tenth annual Freedom

festival with a lecture from former

United Nations secretary-general

Kofi Ayn Rand.

Art and cultic is

very much part of life. It brings

people together, they may not

understand what the artist is saying

that they will stop and look at it

and question something within

themselves.

The city's airfare

children's literature festival, the

Big Malarkey.

They all live at

number 41 Fairfield Rd and their

next-door neighbour is Nigel

McNulty, a grizzly bear.

And Hull

was even on show at the world's

largest arts festival, the Edinburgh

Fringe.

We are representing Hull,

the UK City Of Culture this year.

The Proms came outside London for

the first time in more than 80

years. And Hull hosted the first

ever UK pride parade marking 50

years since the partial to

criminalisation of former sexuality.

After all these years. As part of

LGBT 50 radioed to brought the I

Feel Love to town.

Of the reflective

and I feel I stand on the shoulders

of great people who have done, one

artist is amazing, an amazing

advocate for LGBT people. Why would

I not say No to being in the company

of these people.

Hull took over the

airwaves again in September with

contained strong language, a

festival celebrating poetry and

spoken word.

Is exciting to see the

Hull axe and taking its place on

this global stage.

Here, domes and

statues spire, cranes...

You

mentioned Philip Larkin and Andrew

Marvell today, bidding them of

today, who is Hull's best.

I never

compare, I never compare poets all

others, I never compare music, it's

just different. I'm glad we don't

have Oscars for poets, it's

ridiculous enough practice!

Then the

weird and wonderful, Bill Bailey

invented tales about strange items

in his cabinet of curiosities at the

Maritime Museum.

Are you the first

museum to have curated a museum

exhibition? I don't know, I'll see

us.

It certainly seems like new

ground.

In the spirit of this

exhibition, I, Bill Bailey, Bill of

Bailey, and the first comedian to

cure an exhibition of this kind

anywhere in the world!

And an

immersive experience like no other,

from high-tech shopping and captured

by the police of 1980, South Korea,

in a performance called one day

maybe.

If I don't make it out to my

mum, dad, and brothers that you

can't touch my stuff.

You see that,

he doesn't want!

One of the season,

special gala performance by the

world-famous Royal Ballet. Its

principles joined a handful of top

ballet dancers who had all taken

their first lessons at Skelton

Hooper School of dance in Hull. So

many wanted tickets, 5000 people

watched on screens in a nearby park.

The gala showing of the great

dancers who started their journey to

the top in the City Of Culture.

Well, you may have noticed in there

somewhere, some of the Army of 2500

turquoise coated volunteers who are

working for City Of Culture. And

joining us, this is special, three

generations of volunteers, the

young, Sheila, and cabin. How many

hours of volunteering have you done

between you this year?

1300 hrs of

volunteering. Between the three of

us.

Incredible. What are the

highlights. Mine was One Day Maybe.

It was long shift but worth the

effort.

One of mine was the

Gatorade, I really enjoyed that.

I

was lucky enough to be in Flood.

We

will be seeing some of that later in

the programme. And you will stick at

it next year as well?

And longer to

come. We have really enjoyed it,

everybody. Just like one big family.

Thank you so much of a coming down.

We are getting to the end of our

review, season four is called Tell

The World.

The final season of 2017 and the

world in me coming. Maxine Peake's

play, the last Testament of Lillian,

told the story of four Hull women

who fought the government for better

safety for fishermen and women.

The

winner of this year's Turner

prize...

This year 's Turner prize

was awarded in Hull to the oldest

winner in its history, and the first

black woman to win the prize.

Thank

you, panel. First, to the people who

stopped me in the streets of Preston

and Hull to wish me luck, thank you,

it worked.

The show at the gallery

featuring the short listed artists

has drawn huge crowd more than

doubled and usually gets in the most

second visited Turner prize show

ever. Another trade for lovers of

visual art was Hull Portrait of a

City. Every shot taken by world

renowned photographers Martin Park

and Bolivia after in the City Of

Culture. But the contemporary art

was not confined to galleries, it

took over the streets of the city

with huge installations like Flow

and a Hall for Hull. And mythical

mystical beast is roamed the streets

for the Land Of Green Ginger And

leashed parade. It took charge out

to the communities of the city.

Fantastic, well worth the wait, I

want to see it again.

I didn't know

what to expect, I didn't know it

would be like that.

It just shows

with the amount of people who are

here that we all wanted it and long

may it continue.

Art even found its

way into hospital. The footprint of

every baby born in Hull has been

taken in 2017 and along with the

handprint of the midwife made a huge

mural reflecting every new life in

the City Of Culture.

It's lovely

that he was born in 2017 and the

little footprints are a great idea,

they will be a gorgeous little

tribute to him and to all the staff

as well.

On October one, all of

Hull's cream phone boxes rank and

the public took calls from the

future. The live experience was part

of We Made Ourselves Over 2017. It

rank alongside five short sci-fi

films and an interactive ad. And on

the victims of a possible future

came from one theatre company with a

year-long performance called Flood.

Tell me how I can save them, save

the world.

The dystopic story

emerging Europe flooded and its

citizens as refugees. Told online,

in a TV and a series of live

performances in one of Hull's old

docks, its ambition reflected that

of Hull's entire year as City Of

Culture. Those were some of the

fantastic moments from season four's

tell the world. The man who made

2017 happen as its director, Martin

Green. When you moved to Hull three

years ago, Martin, did you ever

imagine that 2017 would be as

successful as it has been?

Never in

a million years. I don't think

anyone would have that ego. It has

been the most extraordinary year in

the life of this great city.

How

would you sum up the changes you've

seen in that time.

What we have seen

is how art force of the city and

apart from the many exhibitions and

performances you have seen the

re-finding of the voice of the city.

A re-finding of its pride and the

rediscovery of the city by many

people not from this city.

You will

leave soon and hand over the reins

to the management, what is the one

thing you would like to see carried

on.

I think it's that ambition. We

have done the unexpected, really

interesting cultural experiences. I

think this city has a great ambition

to be different and if Hull can

continue to be a city of the

extraordinary that will be one of

the many legacies from this year.

Thank you so much Martin, that is it

false, reveal 2017. This year has

been incredible, can you believe

there has been at least one event

every single day. And we have been

to most of them. To take a look

back, good our website. BBC .co .uk

slash Hull 2017. There's been so

much going on, here are some bits we

haven't managed to squeeze in. Bye

bye. See you.

If you haven't heard

of first feed whether hell have you

been?

Where have you been.

If you like your coffee hot let me

be your coffee pot!

I am a loose cannon.