Festival aims to inspire its visitors

A CONVERSATION with writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, taking tea Mad Hatter-style, marking 50 years of Doctor Who, and getting tips on how to get a book published are among the highlights of a new Lincoln Inspired Festival, which starts on Tuesday.

It has taken more than a year of hard work by a volunteer-led team to make the festival, taking place at venues across the city, a reality.

“It was a big idea and it’s only happening thanks to a lot of hard work by the team and our supporters and sponsors,” said arts consultant and Inspired chairman Sara Bullimore. “Now I just can’t wait for the audiences to start arriving and for the programme to begin.”

The festival hub is Lincoln Drill Hall, the venue for some of the big-name events. Melvyn Bragg will talk about his new book, Grace And Mary, on the day it is published a week today.

Radio 4 comedian Mitch Benn performs there a week on Saturday, and, in a collaboration between Inspired and Lincoln Jazz Week, singer Claire Martin appears a week tomorrow.

There is a chance to come face-to-face with a Dalek on May 11 at a special panel session to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Writer Terrance Dicks, director Graeme Harper — the only man to work on the old and new incarnations of the series — and actor Richard Franklin, who was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s sidekick, are taking part. Tickets are available from the Drill Hall.