Derby QUAD

Work with staff and artists as a young decision-maker and reviewer, helping plan projects and shape how cultural activity reaches other young audiences. Get hands-on with filmmaking and editing, interview artists, curate and exhibit work, or explore multimedia equipment.

A professor of English, a cinema head and film voices unpack why some book adaptations soar and others stumble, testing the “book is always better” debate against familiar screen stories. Ticket holders also get a free screening of Sense and Sensibility.

Hear art historian Mark Rawlinson explore how photography and collaboration challenge inherited stories, then join artist Rita Pena and project artists for a panel on identity, memory and cultural histories. Your free ticket covers both sessions in Studio 1 at QUAD.

Hear crime novelist Stephen Booth trace his Cooper and Fry novels’ journey from page to screen, explore their enduring appeal and Peak District setting, then get insight into his work on a new novel.

Sathnam Sanghera explores George Michael’s life, music and place in modern British history, from Wham! and his solo career to his relationship with fame. Trace how his story intersected with the AIDS crisis and changing attitudes towards homosexuality in Britain.

Hear Stephen Sackur unpack ten dramatic cases of journalists going to extraordinary lengths to uncover the truth. In conversation with BBC Midlands Correspondent Navtej Johal, explore how reporting challenges political power, exposes corruption and defends democracy amid disinformation and digital manipulation.

Author and speaker David Torrance traces how the General Strike reshaped Britain’s political memory, from its effects on transport, industry, newspapers and everyday life to why it was seen as a national crisis. Hear how a short-lived dispute left a lasting mark on 20th-century history.