The Northern Agenda

Wear on the up: The transformation of Sunderland

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Episode notes

What comes into your head when you think of the North East port city of Sunderland? Is it the football team, battling to get back into the Premier League. Or maybe it's car production, with a huge Nissan base now being used to build electric vehicles?

For most people, what won't come to mind is the smartest city in the UK, powered by the fastest 5G connections and with passengers travelling in driverless vehicles around the city. Or a place where you can see not only the prestigious BBC Reith Lecture being recorded but also gigs by Bruce Springsteen and even the acclaimed musical Hamilton.

You'd be even less likely to imagine a proposed Hollywood-style film studio, the only one in the North of England, where thousands of people are hard at work producing the next blockbuster film or Netflix series.

But in fact all these things are going on (or hopefully will be in the future) in Sunderland - a city that away from the limelight is in the process of quietly transforming itself in a way that could offer a valuable lesson to places elsewhere in the North of England looking to reverse their post-industrial decline and forge a new future for themselves.

In a special episode of The Northern Agenda podcast, Rob Parsons has spent time in Sunderland speaking to the people behind its ongoing transformation, as well as locals in the city itself.

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The Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. It is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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