The Pitmen Painters

Based on a true story, this is a feelgood, moving tale of a group of ordinary men who achieved extraordinary things.

The Ashington Group were Northumberland miners and one "dental mechanic" who, in 1934 employed Robert Lyon, Master of Painting at Kings College Newcastle, to teach an evening class in Art Appreciation. Lee Hall's play itself is extraordinary for all sorts of reasons, but chief among them is the fact that it manages to be both a great night out and gravely serious, where sentiment is kept in check by political reality, raw as the Northumbrian wind.

Asking big questions about education, culture and the working classes without ever being patronising, stupid, or boring; it remains a funny play.