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T Dan Smith

Writer and film-maker Graeme Rigby looks back on the life of T Dan Smith, former leader of Newcastle City Council. He envisioned the city as the 'Brasilia of the North'.

Four essays about free thinking figures and places in North-East England whose ideas challenged their times, recorded in front of live audiences at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas at The Sage Gateshead in 2009.

In the first essay writer and filmmaker Graeme Rigby looks back at the career of T Dan Smith, the Newcastle city boss whose architectural "Brasilia of the North" captured the headlines in the 1960s. Smith's spectacular fall from grace - jailed for corruption in 1974 - has written him out of history. But do the ideas and regional ambitions of this out-of-the-ordinary politician still resonate today?

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15 minutes

Last on

Mon 30 Aug 2010 23:00

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  • Mon 26 Oct 2009 23:00
  • Mon 30 Aug 2010 23:00

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