Lucy Beaumont explores her home city in BBC documentary celebrating the UK City of Culture 2017
Comedian Lucy Beaumont comes home to Hull, for new BBC Two documentary exploring the UK’s City of Culture 2017.
Published: 23 January 2017
I have always been incredibly proud of my roots in Hull and am thrilled to be fronting this documentary that celebrates and explores the city’s rich heritage and culture.
Hull-born comedian Lucy Beaumont takes a look at the cultural treats taking place in her home city during City of Culture 2017 in a new documentary for BBC Two, Welcome to Hull – City of Culture 2017, and asks what legacy the yearlong event will leave on the city.
Best known for her BBC Radio 4 comedy To Hull and Back, Lucy takes viewers on a whistle-stop tour of her home city, from the Old Town to the marina, as she explores what makes the city unique. She talks to key figures in this historic year for Hull, including actress Maureen Lipman and writer Richard Bean, and discovers the rich culture that comes alive in Hull.
Throughout the 1x30 documentary, Lucy explores the legacy of Hull’s foremost cultural figure, the poet Philip Larkin, who helped put Hull on the map, and discovers the more avant-garde side of the city with the performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti, who invented industrial music with the band Throbbing Gristle.
Lucy visits local Ferens art gallery, which will host the Turner Prize this year, to see some of the masterpieces from its permanent collection and the exciting artworks on loan this year, including Francis Bacon’s series of paintings known as The Screaming Popes and Spencer Tunick’s iconic mass nude photograph taken in Hull last year.
The documentary also finds out how smaller communities are engaging with City of Culture 2017 as Lucy follows an arts project in which residents are creating a light spectacle, with their high rise blocks being lit up at night in bright colours inspired by maritime flags – a nod to the city’s long heritage as a fishing port.
Lucy Beaumont says: “I have always been incredibly proud of my roots in Hull and am thrilled to be fronting this documentary that celebrates and explores the city’s rich heritage and culture.”
Welcome to Hull – City of Culture 2017 is produced by Georgina Leslie and executive produced by Janet Lee. It is commissioned by Mark Bell, Head of Arts Commissioning, BBC.
Welcome to Hull – City of Culture 2017 will broadcast on BBC Two in February.
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