In Focus Podcasts

Recently re-elected MSP Finlay Carson is Galloway's Gazetteer's first big-name interview. He discusses what brought him in to politics and why he is a Conservative. He explains why he believes there needs to be a pause in the development of on-shore windfarms and outlines his hopes for Galloway. And he recalls too when his mother heard he was planning to stand for the local council she told him he...

The history of Hastings Pier is a chequered one. But no one could have anticipated the mess that it would become when it was triumphantly reopened a decade ago after a £14m rebuild following a devastating fire in October 2010. Today, at the height of summer it is devoid of visitors and only three businesses operate on the pier - it wasn't mean to be like this. There is also a video version of this...

Here are the important addresses and remember you have to have your submission in by 5pm on June 23rd and make sure you attend the community meeting in the McMillan Hall on June 30th. Email laura.walker@scot.gov.uk quoting WIN-170-2009 Glenvernoch community hearing submission, to speak Or email contact@handsoffourhills.co.uk if you want HOOH to submit and have read out on your behalf, or you just...

It’s 18 months since The Stables Theatre here in Hastings got its own Improv group and it’s going from strength to strength with a pool of 18 participants and regular monthly shows coming to The Stables’ Gwen Watford performance space from the start of June. Tim Kendrick, Scott Kingsnorth and Aisling Teodorescu recently chatted to Stuart Baillie about the group, its inception and how improv works....

Stuart Baillie was delighted when Terence Starr invited him to appear on the Business Buzz and Banter show on Ashford's Channel Radio. Terence turned the tables on Stuart as the niormal interviewer became the interviewee. Channel radio was happy to share a file of the recording of the show which we are delighted to share here - minus the music. If you'd like to listen to Channel Radio here is a li...

The story of Alexander Murray's short life is a fascinating one; raised as a Shepherd's boy in the Galloway Hills and with little formal education he taught himself not just to read but to read and understand foreign languages, eventually becoming a Professor at Edinburgh University before his death in 1813 aged just 37. Hear more about his life - and death - in this podcast. Hosted on Acast. See...

A well stocked, well managed river brings a lot to a local community; it brings tourism, it provides an amazing learning resource and it can help create jobs and training oportunities. Maintaining stocks of salmon in the Cree has been exactly what the Cree River Hatchery and Habitat Trust has been doing since its inception in 2010 and now every year the hatchery produces up to 200,000 young salmon...

The Quarrymen's Art Centre, opened in 2021, is described on it's Facebook profile as 'a wee venue at the heart of Creetown', it's all that and more. Brought back to life by a dedicated team of local people The Quarrymen's in home to Creetown's Silver Band. Its re-opening was marked with a ceremony and, of course, by a performance by the band. The Silver Band had maintained the former church as bes...

As a 20-year-old cub reporter in the early 1980s I was invited in to the 16th century Ayrshire castle that had been the base for many of the nation's Pre-Raphaelite artists who aimed to reform art by rejecting the "formulaic" academic approach in favor of bright colors, intense detail, and "truth to nature," inspired by Italian art before Raphael. My invitation came from Elton Eckstrand, a US corp...

The first episode of a new season of People & Landmark podcasts. This time we're visiting Linlithgow Palace in central Scotland, home to Mary Queen of Scots and a significant royal residence for the Stewarts. Photograph by Andrew Sutherland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Bravaco is an American playwright whose work 'One Good Thing or are Ya Patrick Swayze' won an award for new writing from The Stables Theatre in Hastings. In this interview he discusses his career and his inspiration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone knows about 9/11 not so many know that when the US closed its airspace, 38 planes carrying nearly 7,000 passengers from around the world were unexpectedly diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, nearly doubling the town’s population overnight. Come From Away is a heart-warming and multi award-winning musical, based on this remarkable true story. The show follows both the stranded 'come from awa...

Stuart Baillie has been writing about the Seaview Project in St Leaonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, since 2019. Seaview is a local charity that works with those on the margins of our society and reaches out to offer help to the homeless and rough sleepers. Last Friday (Oct 3rd) Seaview staged one of its Big Sleep fundraising events. There was a night of live music and entertainment then around 40 hardy...

The Seaview Centre in Hatherley Road in St Leonards-on-Sea is a remarkable place. Stuart Baillie has been out with the early morning outreach team meeting those sleeping rough on the streets of Hastings and St Leonards and he has been to the centre itself talking to those who make use of its many facilitiers and for whom Seaview, a charity that celebrates its 40th birthday this year, is nothing sh...

Homelessness and rough sleeping are big news when politicians decide to use the issues to make political capital. But behind the headlines are real people living on the margins of society. The Seaview Project in St Leonards in East Sussex has been providing an open access wellbeing centre since 1985 and is currently the only such facility focused on homelessness and mental health in East Sussex ou...

Too many young men are taking their own lives and too high a proportion of those are former military men who feel cut adrift from the life they have lived and loved. Darren Clark from Bexhill in East Sussex is doing something about it; raising awarenes and raising money as he battles his own mental health demons. He seen close friends and former comrades die needlessly and carried their coffins to...

Peter Mould is more than just a well known face around The Stables Theatre in Hastings, he has been taking pictures of the shows and the actors in them for getting on for a quarter of a century. The soon to be 80-year-old is as busy as ever and has seen so many changes in his craft over the years, hew took his first photographs with a camera given to him by his father when he was just 14 years old...

Actions should speak louder than words but when you can't get any action are the words on their own enough? Governments have pledged Hastings tens of millions but where the evidence of that moeny working to our benefit? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's all happening at The Stade hall this summer with a series of plays squarely aimed at young families from tots to teenagers - creating theatre experiences for families at all stages, says Ross Drury Book your tickets at www.stadehall.com/whatson Or join the mailiong list at https://www.spunglasstheatre.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roger Wilcock was a fascinatibng man to interview. He's done so much with his life; he started his career in teaching then swapped to stonemasonry for example. He formed the Hastings Big Choir and was the force behind the Hastings Prom which makes a return this year after a five year break. In this interview Roger talks about his childhood, his studies and his adult life and underpinning it all is...

Episode two of Hastings Five in 5 where we take a brief look at five local issues in around five minutes. If you want to contact us and let us know what you think then email hastingsinfocus@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a perfectly normal afternoon in 2021 Claire Claire Duffield and her familty were watching the football but just hours later they were in a London hospital being told that 15-year-old Oli might have a brain tumour. Claire faced every parent's worst nightmare. In this interview she bravely recalls how devastating the news was and talks about the last two years of Oli's life, which given the circu...

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What's in this edition The state of our roads Over running A21 roadworks The Stables Theatre Sandrock Bends The old bathing pool site New openings in the town centre Get in touch hastingsinfocus@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'It became this forgotten place...' In this episode we meet Alex Adams, the artistic and managing director at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre in Eastbourne and hear about his journey to to bring Eastbourne's oldest theatre back to life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.