Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh (Joe Giddens/PA) Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh has said the campaign to save Oldham Coliseum is “a part of a much bigger conversation” happening around access to the arts for working-class people. Oldham Council announced on Monday that the historic theatre in Greater Manchester, which closed in 2023, would reopen following a successful campaign spearheaded by Hesmondhalgh and her husband, the writer Ian Kershaw. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the 54-year-old actress, known for her roles in Coronation Street, Broadchurch and Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, said: “I think that nobody could really anticipate the outpouring of love and absolute sadness when it looked like it was going to be closed forever.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. “And I think we’ve got the media to thank a lot as well because you didn’t let up on it.
“I think that people were quite surprised that two weeks after the closure people were still talking about it. (It’s) because of what the Coliseum represents. “There’s a lot of conversation at the moment about access to the arts, especially for working-class people, people from backgrounds like ours (her and Kershaw), people from less advantaged backgrounds.
“And that’s a huge national conversation about what art and culture means in education. “A.
