:00:02. > :00:09.Facing the cameras for the first time, the marathon man accused of
:00:09. > :00:12.taking the bus. I did not cheat at any given point, and I most
:00:12. > :00:16.certainly, certainly, did not get on a bus. To be honest, I'm a bit
:00:16. > :00:19.sick and tired of him denying it now.
:00:19. > :00:26.Writing home - a Cumbrian artists captures the true feelings of
:00:26. > :00:29.soldiers on the front line. There are two wars being fought - one
:00:29. > :00:31.which is publicised, and one which goes on in a soldier's head when
:00:31. > :00:36.everything goes quiet. And in the spotlight - charting the
:00:36. > :00:38.year in which Newcastle's Theatre Royal rediscovered its sparkle.
:00:38. > :00:44.is incredible, the great grandeur of the Victorian theatre, and
:00:44. > :00:48.Newcastle's probably got the best in the world.
:00:48. > :00:58.Stories from the heart of the North East and Cumbria. This is Inside
:00:58. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:08.We're proud of our athletics heritage here. There's Brendan
:01:08. > :01:12.Foster, Charlie Spedding, Steve Cram - all famous names. Now
:01:12. > :01:17.there's a new name to add to the list, but for very different
:01:17. > :01:20.reasons. Rob Sloan is no world champion or Olympic medallist. He
:01:20. > :01:29.hit the headlines after standing accused of jumping on the bus to
:01:29. > :01:32.claim third prize in the Kielder COMMENTATOR: That looks like a look
:01:32. > :01:36.of relief on Rob Sloan, the Sunderland Harrier's face...
:01:36. > :01:39.Was it relief or an attempt to hide his face? This is the moment Rob
:01:39. > :01:42.Sloan crossed the line at the Kielder Marathon and walked into a
:01:42. > :01:45.media storm that's made him Britain's most notorious runner.
:01:45. > :01:50.Everything revolves around running. I try and do between 100 and 120
:01:50. > :01:53.miles over a seven-day period. does your wife think about that?
:01:53. > :01:59.We've had a conversation. "It's me or the running," and I chose the
:02:00. > :02:02.running, but thankfully she stayed with me. And she's been very
:02:02. > :02:05.supportive throughout these whole... Shenanigans. Those shenanigans led
:02:05. > :02:09.to former soldier Rob being thrown out of his running club and banned
:02:09. > :02:14.from competition until next March. He's accused of jumping on a bus to
:02:14. > :02:17.complete the Kielder marathon. Two months on he's still denying it.
:02:17. > :02:20.argument is, who in their right mind runs 24 miles of a 26 mile
:02:20. > :02:24.race, diversifies off the race, manages to find the bus and then
:02:24. > :02:34.lies in wait until not only first but second has gone past, and then
:02:34. > :02:37.
:02:37. > :02:40.rejoins the race? And finished third. In my opinion, I should have
:02:40. > :02:44.joined the SAS, if I can pull off something like that. We'll examine
:02:44. > :02:54.the case against Rob shortly. Before then, he was keen to show me
:02:54. > :02:56.
:02:56. > :03:01.he can run a marathon, even on a treadmill. I will start my
:03:01. > :03:04.stopwatch. Cameras are on. No stopping. See you soon. Rob's story
:03:04. > :03:12.begins the day before the marathon when he ran the Kielder 10K. This
:03:12. > :03:17.time the result was undisputed. was something I did basically just
:03:17. > :03:24.to make the whole Kielder weekend and experience. I won by 2.5
:03:24. > :03:30.minutes. Ten kilometres and then a marathon on top, is that not too
:03:30. > :03:34.much? If you ask a sane person, probably. He was looking forward to
:03:34. > :03:38.the race. I asked if he was not taking a bit too much on.
:03:38. > :03:40.flushed with success, Rob headed for the front row at the start of
:03:40. > :03:43.the marathon, shoulder-to-shoulder with the cream of the Northern
:03:43. > :03:47.running scene. The race order became set just seconds from the
:03:47. > :03:57.start. The leaders quickly pull away. A gap opens up with Rob now
:03:57. > :03:58.
:03:58. > :04:02.falling back. There was a girl who went off quite quickly as well. She
:04:02. > :04:05.was ahead of me and I slotted into third place quickly. Three men
:04:05. > :04:13.occupy the lead positions at the front. Steve Cairns, a veteran long
:04:13. > :04:17.distance runner, is third here at a mile, and still third at 15 miles.
:04:17. > :04:20.I knew the whole where I was third and I was confident I was third.
:04:20. > :04:24.was going around the cause and saw the leaders at various points
:04:24. > :04:29.between Miles 50 and 16. The leader had already gone through when I got
:04:29. > :04:34.there but I watched the second person and the third person, who
:04:34. > :04:38.was Steve Cairns. He's quite a distinctive runner. I saw the
:04:38. > :04:45.fourth Renault coming through and it was not Broxtowe. As I saw him,
:04:45. > :04:48.I said, hello, Steve. It was a massive gap. Precise timings are
:04:48. > :04:52.recorded at halfway. Steve Cairns is third, at one hour 23 minutes.
:04:52. > :04:56.Rob Sloan is eighth, at one hour 27. The gap between the two is now more
:04:57. > :05:02.than four minutes. At 17 miles, the course photographer snaps Rob in a
:05:02. > :05:05.group crossing the Kielder dam. He's now fallen back to tenth place.
:05:05. > :05:15.A couple of miles further down the course, the race route runs close
:05:15. > :05:15.
:05:15. > :05:21.to road. A bus is laid on for spectators. We were on the bus
:05:21. > :05:27.taking us up to the finish line and we saw a man running and flood --
:05:27. > :05:31.fled the bus down. He got on the bus and he had a running shirt on
:05:31. > :05:37.with his number on so we knew he had been a participant in the
:05:37. > :05:41.marathon. He had a Sunderland Harriers vest on. He had a big
:05:41. > :05:47.tattoo on his right leg as well. He was standing in front of us facing
:05:47. > :05:51.forward. You could see the tattoo quite distinctively. It looked like
:05:51. > :05:55.lines of verse. We joked that it was a good way to finish a marathon,
:05:55. > :05:58.get the bus. The driver also recalls stopping for a runner who
:05:58. > :06:01.looked like Rob Sloan and who told him he was injured having run the
:06:01. > :06:05.10K the day before. But despite the uncanny resemblance - the earrings,
:06:05. > :06:14.haircut, running vest and a tattoo on his right leg - Rob Sloan says
:06:14. > :06:19.it wasn't him. I did not cheat at any given point and I most
:06:19. > :06:25.certainly did not get on a bus. I think it is more a case of mistaken
:06:25. > :06:32.identity. The bus stopped and he got off and we joked, he's going to
:06:32. > :06:37.join back in, not thinking he would. We made our way down to the finish.
:06:37. > :06:41.We saw the winner and the guy who finished second. And then the guy
:06:41. > :06:44.who finished third, we were thinking, that is the guy he was on
:06:44. > :06:52.the bus half an hour ago. Then Steve Cairns crossed the finishing
:06:52. > :06:59.line, believing he was third. turned to the Marshall and said,
:06:59. > :07:04.was I fourth? Who was there? He pointed at this man who was now
:07:04. > :07:08.doing a television interview. I wanted to grab hold of him and so,
:07:08. > :07:14.how were you Third? How did I prove what just happened? At that time I
:07:14. > :07:17.had no idea what he had done. young ladies came to the village
:07:17. > :07:20.and asked to speak and they said the guy who had crossed the line in
:07:20. > :07:28.third place had been on a Spectator's Bosman bus with them.
:07:28. > :07:30.We had another lady within a few minutes who said they had seen him
:07:30. > :07:36.join the cause coming from a direction which was not the
:07:36. > :07:41.marathon route. We put out a Tannoy announcement for Rob Sloan,
:07:41. > :07:44.ostensibly at that point to ask him to come for the prize giving, but
:07:44. > :07:49.we did want to talk to him, but he disappeared. So we took the
:07:49. > :07:53.decision that we already had enough evidence to disqualify him. I first
:07:53. > :07:56.heard he got off the bus and was heading towards the British and
:07:56. > :08:01.then the commentators saw him and sort of build him up, so he decided
:08:01. > :08:06.to run in. He did admit to me what he had done and I felt sorry for
:08:06. > :08:13.him. I think if he came clean at that particular time, the club
:08:13. > :08:17.would have taken a lenient point of view towards him. Yes, I am in the
:08:17. > :08:24.record books now as third but there are no pictures of May on the
:08:24. > :08:30.podium at the finish. Every -- he took me -- he took that from me.
:08:30. > :08:33.am a bit of -- I am a bit sick and tired of him denying it now. He
:08:33. > :08:38.admitted it the day after on the phone and we prepared a statement
:08:38. > :08:42.saying he had made a mistake and apologised and we were happy with
:08:42. > :08:45.that. It happens in all marathons but usually people do not come in
:08:46. > :08:48.the top three. Back at the gym, our cameras confirm Rob has completed
:08:48. > :08:58.this marathon fair and square in three hours, seven minutes. That's
:08:58. > :09:00.
:09:00. > :09:04.it. How are you feeling? All right. Slightly Atta prev. Well, we know
:09:04. > :09:07.you can do the marathon. The bad news is there is no medal for this
:09:08. > :09:11.one. Rob bases his defence on the read-out from his Garmin sat nav
:09:11. > :09:14.system, worn on his wrist. He says it shows him travelling at a
:09:14. > :09:23.constant pace, until the last couple of miles of the race when it
:09:23. > :09:27.went haywire. It sounds incredible, unbelievable, that it was not you.
:09:27. > :09:34.Something stinks. I totally agree. All I know he's I came third in
:09:34. > :09:38.that race, I was timed, I have my Garmin. Someone might say, you have
:09:38. > :09:43.done a fantastic job the day before, he has won the ten kilometres. The
:09:43. > :09:47.next day you are running, whatever reason, just before the end it is
:09:47. > :09:51.too much, you get on the bus and say, I want to be let off just
:09:51. > :09:54.before the end, because in your head you are thinking, I mean to
:09:54. > :10:00.fish is raised, but by accident you come in third and that is where it
:10:00. > :10:03.all falls apart. You tell a small fee of which then gets difficult to
:10:03. > :10:08.get out of ten gets bigger and bigger and bigger and basses the
:10:08. > :10:14.situation you are in. A live that has just gone bonkers. That is very
:10:14. > :10:19.conceivable but my Garmin cannot live. It's clearly shows you it
:10:19. > :10:27.does funny where the words of. From that point to the road is certainly
:10:27. > :10:32.over a mile and a half. But it also says you went at around 30mph,
:10:32. > :10:37.about the speed of a bus. It does, but a Garmin would not work on a
:10:37. > :10:42.bus. You say that, but it could be next to the window, these
:10:42. > :10:46.satellites... I know you are saying this adamantly but there are plenty
:10:46. > :10:51.of people who could pick holes in this. Yes, I know but I am just
:10:51. > :10:55.here to give my side of the story. So if on paper, at least, you are
:10:55. > :11:00.guilty, because you are not appealing, how do you rehabilitate
:11:00. > :11:05.yourself when the sporting world? want to come back next year and run
:11:05. > :11:11.the marathon of the North and do it for charity, for Help For Heroes,
:11:11. > :11:16.something close to my heart, being an ex-soldier. He would like to run
:11:16. > :11:20.in his home town. Can he? Before we consider having him in any of our
:11:20. > :11:25.events we would hope that he would come and apologise and admit that
:11:25. > :11:28.his story does not bear any trees at all. If you want to share your
:11:28. > :11:35.thoughts on any of the stories you see on Inside Out, then head for my
:11:35. > :11:39.blog at bbc.co.uk/chrisjackson. This Christmas, many families
:11:39. > :11:41.across the North East and Cumbria won't be able to celebrate together.
:11:41. > :11:44.Soldiers serving in Afghanistan will no doubt be sending home cards
:11:44. > :11:50.and letters, but it's often difficult for those at war to spell
:11:50. > :11:53.out how they're feeling. Well, as Jacey Norman reports, this year one
:11:53. > :12:03.Cumbria artist came up with a novel way to capture the thoughts of men
:12:03. > :12:10.
:12:10. > :12:16.There are two wars being fought, one which is publicised and one
:12:16. > :12:19.which goes on in a soldier's head when everything goes quiet. This
:12:19. > :12:21.could be a beautiful walk in some forgotten world that time has
:12:21. > :12:30.merely neglected, but then a burst of reality strafes across my
:12:30. > :12:40.platoon. Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die
:12:40. > :12:41.
:12:41. > :12:43.Derek Eland from Penrith walks in the footsteps of war artists who've
:12:43. > :12:52.risked their lives on the front line - capturing photographs,
:12:52. > :12:56.poetry and paintings. In the history of war art, predominantly
:12:56. > :12:58.it's dominated by painters and people who draw. And I wasn't sure
:12:58. > :13:03.I could bring something unique to people's perceptions of that
:13:03. > :13:06.conflict. But what Derek could bring was experience. He's a former
:13:07. > :13:12.paratrooper - serving five years in the 16th Air Assault Brigade as a
:13:12. > :13:16.captain. Inevitably, he turned his attention to the art of war. He
:13:16. > :13:19.didn't want to simply represent the conflict in drawings or paintings.
:13:19. > :13:27.Instead, he wanted the soldiers to tell their own stories in
:13:27. > :13:37.handwritten notes. Here I'm in Camp Bastion with six or seven hours'
:13:37. > :13:38.
:13:38. > :13:44.sleep. Men have been to war before I have a few things to sort out
:13:44. > :13:48.this morning, like get better body armour, get masking tape for the
:13:48. > :13:54.more story nodes, and this afternoon get the helicopter to
:13:54. > :13:59.Lashkar Gah. Men have been to war before us. It's easy to think they
:13:59. > :14:02.were warriors, afraid of nothing, but they were just men like us.
:14:02. > :14:05.beginning to appreciate all the things I've taken for granted all
:14:05. > :14:15.these years. Six months to push and I'm back to normality, whatever
:14:15. > :14:16.
:14:16. > :14:19.The soliders mostly thought I was still a painter and they asked me
:14:19. > :14:25.where are my paints, where is my easel, and I said, well, actually,
:14:25. > :14:28.all I've got are hundreds of coloured postcards.
:14:28. > :14:32.Well, certainly lying in bed last night, worrying about it. Just
:14:32. > :14:36.running it through my head - just how it's going to work on the
:14:36. > :14:46.ground. How easy it is, or difficult it's going to be to
:14:46. > :14:54.
:14:54. > :14:59.persuade the soldiers to write down Right-handers going to take a
:14:59. > :15:01.little look inside. It is pretty good, actually. I reckon we've got
:15:01. > :15:11.about 115 different stories and we've got about 150-odd individual
:15:11. > :15:16.
:15:16. > :15:20.I think they very quickly got it. That was the key thing. And then
:15:20. > :15:25.they just wrote away. As the end of the tour approaches, fear of being
:15:25. > :15:29.injured really starts to play on your mind. A guardsman has set off
:15:29. > :15:37.an IED. You run over to him. You see his legs gone, his arm hanging
:15:37. > :15:41.by sinew, his rifle smashed. He's dying. When my mate got blown up,
:15:42. > :15:44.it really brought it home. I was sent up to clear the blast site and
:15:45. > :15:50.collect any bits and pieces, including his foot, if I could find
:15:50. > :15:53.it. It's not a thing they would talk about between themselves. In
:15:53. > :15:56.their letters home to their families they play down the dangers.
:15:56. > :16:04.These are raw, honest accounts that clearly these soldiers are carrying
:16:04. > :16:09.around in their heads. He's been shot. How bad is he? Is he still
:16:09. > :16:15.alive? He is still alive. Saying goodbye hurts. But saying goodbye,
:16:15. > :16:18.not knowing if you're coming home, is one million times worse.
:16:18. > :16:22.Everyday a bang happens. Some small, some large, some so big it shakes
:16:22. > :16:29.you in your bed. I didn't know which bang was the one which blew
:16:29. > :16:33.my mate's legs off. SHOUTING. in an ops meeting one night and
:16:33. > :16:36.someone came in and shouted, "Contact!" Whilst everyone else
:16:36. > :16:42.went and grabbed their weapons and got on with things I switched on my
:16:42. > :16:44.camcorder and filmed for about 15 or 20 minutes this contact going on.
:16:44. > :16:49.I filmed these soldiers who had written these stories doing their
:16:49. > :16:58.job. And the shouts and commands in the darkness was very impressive,
:16:59. > :17:05.I've been fired at loads of times, but only ever seen one Taliban with
:17:05. > :17:15.a weapon. They are like ghosts. Responsibility. The sniper with a
:17:15. > :17:17.
:17:17. > :17:20.Tragedy is seeded throughout this project, throughout the cards.
:17:20. > :17:27.Soliders who wrote cards, and put their names to those cards, went on
:17:27. > :17:29.to be injured, shot or blown up, and in some cases killed. There was
:17:30. > :17:33.a soldier from a regiment who wrote about life in Afghanistan,
:17:33. > :17:38.particularly being on sentry duty in the middle of the night and all
:17:38. > :17:42.of that. He was shot about ten days after writing that. In a way, I
:17:42. > :17:48.felt fortunate to have captured his story before he was killed. And the
:17:48. > :17:51.family have given permission for that story to be shown.
:17:51. > :17:53.Derek's exhibition will run for nine months as part of the War
:17:54. > :18:00.Correspondent season at the Imperial War Museum North in
:18:00. > :18:09.Manchester. When people read these they'll be surprised, they'll be
:18:09. > :18:11.shocked, they'll be moved. I see this now as a huge self-portrait.
:18:11. > :18:14.I've facilitated this artwork, but the artwork itself, when it's seen
:18:14. > :18:24.by the public, I think should be seen as an extraordinary self-
:18:24. > :18:25.
:18:25. > :18:35.The only ones to understand will have stood where we now stand. It's
:18:35. > :18:36.
:18:36. > :18:38.the honesty of these stories that As the curtain goes up on the
:18:38. > :18:40.Christmas pantomime, the visitors to Newcastle's theatre Royal will
:18:40. > :18:47.be watching from an auditorium sparkling and glittering after a
:18:47. > :18:50.remarkable facelift. Throughout the year we have had exclusive behind-
:18:50. > :19:00.the-scenes access to watch as the theatre re-emerged to become the
:19:00. > :19:09.
:19:09. > :19:13.It is the people and the cast in the theatre, and people have been
:19:13. > :19:17.coming up to me and saying, what have you been doing to our theatre?
:19:17. > :19:26.That makes you realise how important it is to the people of
:19:26. > :19:31.the city. The Theatre Royal, pet -- built in 1837, the grand old lady
:19:31. > :19:35.of Grey Street. Each year, 300,000 people converged here for their
:19:35. > :19:40.dose of romance, passion and laughter. Like any lady of
:19:40. > :19:44.advancing years, she is in need of a bit of maintenance now and again,
:19:44. > :19:49.but when you modernise somewhere as historic and as much loved as this,
:19:49. > :19:52.you better do it with care. It is an exciting time. We have been
:19:52. > :19:58.talking about this for the best part of five years and it is all
:19:58. > :20:03.about to happen. We always knew it was going to be tight and everyone
:20:03. > :20:08.would have to work together. It is March. The theatre is raising
:20:08. > :20:12.almost �5 million to spend on a refit. Most of it is being paid for
:20:12. > :20:20.by the theatregoers themselves, with a small levy on each ticket
:20:20. > :20:24.sold. The building with be shut for six months. It is a huge task.
:20:24. > :20:32.has to be on time. We have sold tickets for the Madness of King
:20:32. > :20:39.George. We are at a point et of no return. It is going to happen.
:20:39. > :20:42.we start with a run of 18 seats here, single seats. First job, to
:20:42. > :20:50.flog off the unwanted fixtures and fittings to raise extra cash
:20:50. > :20:54.towards the project. �100, thank you. There are 1,200 seats to sell,
:20:54. > :21:04.including some sponsored by celebrities who have performed here.
:21:04. > :21:06.
:21:06. > :21:13.What shall we say, �50, �60? ridden at �270? Thank you. -- Are
:21:13. > :21:22.we don't. But not every celebrity is in such high demand. 50 pounds
:21:23. > :21:31.anywhere? �30? Then at �80, sold to you, madam. �80 for bridges got's
:21:31. > :21:41.seat. I am quite excited because he's my favourite director. -- so
:21:41. > :21:50.
:21:50. > :21:57.You are very late, you know. before everything is ripped out and
:21:57. > :22:05.taken away, there is one last performance, a charity variety show.
:22:05. > :22:13.Newcastle is famous for two things. Football and beautiful women. What
:22:14. > :22:23.position do you play? And the curtain goes down for the very last
:22:24. > :22:32.
:22:32. > :22:36.time before the work begins. It is The task really is to clear the
:22:36. > :22:38.entire auditorium of all the Giddings that get in the way of the
:22:38. > :22:46.builders so when the builders arrive on Wednesday it is an empty
:22:46. > :22:51.shell. Everybody from across the building is playing their part. The
:22:51. > :22:55.marketing staff are carrying all the poster frames around. I spent
:22:55. > :22:58.almost every Christmas in here because I do all the pantomimes.
:22:58. > :23:03.You spend a lot of time in here, more than at home. You have
:23:03. > :23:12.pictures of your family on the walls. It feels like packing up
:23:12. > :23:16.your life, really. Four weeks later. The staff told his basically to get
:23:16. > :23:22.us all the way up in the centre of the auditorium to the main ceiling
:23:22. > :23:26.level, which nobody can see. It is four floors up. There is a lot of
:23:26. > :23:29.restoration to be done on there. The most challenging and think as
:23:29. > :23:35.far as the fabric of the building is concern is the historical
:23:35. > :23:44.features in the auditorium. Really ornate ceilings. The last thing we
:23:44. > :23:49.wanted to his damaged them. -- the last thing we want to do.
:23:49. > :23:54.builders' brief is to restore the interior to the way it was in 1901,
:23:54. > :23:58.the classic Edwardian design by one of the world's greatest theatre
:23:58. > :24:05.architects, at Frank Matcham. That meant hours of painstaking research
:24:05. > :24:12.using old photographs and original research. Here we have a 1900
:24:12. > :24:16.drawing and a 90 No one drawing, both for the stalls level.
:24:16. > :24:22.Sometimes he asked the question, why has that been done like that?
:24:22. > :24:31.There seems to be no logic. The rule now is quite obvious. Do not
:24:31. > :24:35.question it and rejected, so had to back the way it was -- putting back
:24:35. > :24:43.the way it was. Nine weeks to go and Simon and his team are working
:24:43. > :24:48.flat out. There is a lot of dust and mess and deconstruction. It is
:24:48. > :24:56.starting to make it feel a little bit more intimate. The carpet is
:24:56. > :25:00.going down, all ready. I'd do wake up in a cold sweat. I just hope it
:25:00. > :25:06.all happens. Equally, I have complete confidence in the builders.
:25:06. > :25:14.My biggest concern is that the seeding went quite match
:25:14. > :25:19.everybody's expectations. -- the seating. It is the day before the
:25:19. > :25:24.Tyne and Wear derby and Simon, a Newcastle United fan, has big
:25:24. > :25:29.concerns about the colours in for the walls. Red-and-white stripes?
:25:29. > :25:35.We have a few lads from Sunderland who thought it would be pfennig to
:25:35. > :25:40.put those in. We will be covering them with maroon wallpaper so you
:25:40. > :25:44.will never see them. The big day is here. 1,200 people are expected for
:25:44. > :25:50.the opening night but there is still masses to do. Five Arrows
:25:50. > :25:55.before curtain so it is quite an exciting time. -- five hours. Work
:25:55. > :26:00.is going on in the front of house and outside. The paint will be dry
:26:00. > :26:04.by 7:30pm, rest assured! While the work goes on, potential disaster is
:26:04. > :26:10.waiting in the wings. Many of the cast, on the way from London, asked
:26:10. > :26:14.it because of higher wind. There are some power lines down which
:26:14. > :26:18.means some of the trains have had to go back to Darlington. They got
:26:18. > :26:23.stuck halfway, so we have had actors going up and down the line
:26:23. > :26:28.the last few hammers. We are trying to get a taxi bore them and they
:26:28. > :26:36.should all be here in time. The new look gets the thumbs-up from a
:26:36. > :26:41.familiar face. It is incredible, and the place is quite beautiful.
:26:41. > :26:46.It is a great grandeur of the Victorian theatre, and Newcastle
:26:46. > :26:52.has probably got the best in the world. I am still getting my breath,
:26:52. > :26:57.really, and I played here three or four times. I did Richard III here.
:26:57. > :27:03.And King Lear. I was really moving in that! So it is wonderful to play
:27:03. > :27:08.in a theatre like this but now I have to just try to get a job! Try
:27:08. > :27:18.to get it right! And this is the moment they have been waiting six
:27:18. > :27:28.months for. Sir, that is why you are back! Fight it!
:27:28. > :27:29.
:27:30. > :27:34.I told you they would be here on time and the show would go on.
:27:34. > :27:39.Nobody believed me. As sure as eggs is eggs, we are here and everybody
:27:39. > :27:45.is enjoying it. The way they have refurbished it back to the original,
:27:45. > :27:51.it is absolutely gorgeous. You can feel as if you were there that time.
:27:51. > :27:54.It has been so sensitively restored. They have managed to recreate the
:27:54. > :27:59.theatre of 100 years ago without losing any of the 21st century
:27:59. > :28:04.comforts. They are not enough of these buildings left in this
:28:05. > :28:10.country. There were 1,200 in 1914. There are less than 120 now.
:28:10. > :28:19.Newcastle, you have got a beautiful theatre here. I am sure it will be
:28:19. > :28:23.enjoyed by many generations to come. Shall I throw this bucket over the
:28:23. > :28:27.side? This year's pantomime is threatening to make a mess of the
:28:27. > :28:33.new seats but the theatre bosses can take a joke. After all, the
:28:33. > :28:38.show is expected to attract 80,000 this Christmas, a big audience for
:28:38. > :28:41.a grand old theatre back in his prime. You can see more on the
:28:42. > :28:45.theatre's restoration in a special programme coming to your screens in