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Simon Armitage, Paula Hawkins, Ria Lina, Bill Ryder Jones, Stuart Maconie

Simon Armitage, Ria Lina and Paula Hawkins join Stuart Maconie at the Durham Brass Festival, with music by Bill Ryder Jones.

Loose Ends is the guest of Durham Brass Festival this week, providing flugelhorns, euphoniums and an enthusiastic audience at the newly refurbished 110 year old Redhills Miners Hall, once known as "the Pitman's Parliament". Far from brassed off to be with him is the poet laureate Simon Armitage who finds exactly the right words to describe the magic of brass music but then admits to never having won a game of Cluedo. Perhaps unsurprisingly the thriller writer Paula Hawkins tells us she was something of a Cluedo ace in her youth but these days sticks to reconnoitring ideas for places to stash bodies for future novels. And there's laughs aplenty from the comedian Ria Lina who sensibly doesn't enter the Cluedo-debate though one suspects her masters in forensic science might give her an edge.
All this with gorgeous music from Bill Ryder Jones with cellist Evelyn Halls and members of the NASUWT Riverside Brass Ensemble.

Presented by Stuart Maconie
Produced by Olive Clancy

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42 minutes

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  • Sat 19 Jul 2025 18:15
  • Thu 24 Jul 2025 21:00

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