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Just to follow on from my last blog, it seems that Belfast playwright Sam Thompson idolised Orson Welles.

So much so that when he heard that Welles was in Dublin at the same time as he was, (Thompson'sÌý"Over the Bridge" transferred to Dublin from Belfast in 1960,ÌýWelles wasÌýplayingÌýFalstaff in Chimes at MidnightÌýat the Gaiety) he said he was going to meet his hero.

According toÌýJimmy Ellis, the two of them got tickets to goÌýto a matinee . AfterwardsÌý theyÌýasked to see the great man butÌýWelles wouldn't come out of his dressing room.

Cut to a drinking establishment in Dublin later that same night. Thompson and Ellis are there. Welles is there too, with his friend the Irish theatre impressario Hilton Edwards.

Somehow a strong exchange of words between Sam and Orson kicks off,Ìýwhich involves Ellis having to physically force himself between the two.ÌýNo punches are thrown,Ìýbut Jimmy said that he and Thompson were pushed across the roomÌýby the sheer bulk of the man.

Afterwards Thompson said that even though Welles had really annoyed him he just couldn't bring himself toÌýhit his idol.ÌýÌý

Fifty years ago tomorrow on Tuesday the 26th January 1960 a play opened in Belfast which shook the theatre world here to the core.Ìý

The play was "Over the Bridge" by former shipyard worker Sam Thompson.ÌýHe started writing it inÌý1955, set in theÌýshipyards he had worked in since he was 14. The play was a bald study inÌýthe clash of trade union officialsÌýfaced withÌýsectarian conflict.

It would be nearlyÌýfour years before Thompson's playÌýwas accepted by a theatre. It's said that when Thompson met the actor James Ellis, then the Head of Productions at the Ulster Group Theatre, he remarked that nobody would touch the play with a bargepole.

Ellis had the bargepole. And started rehearsals.ÌýBut with just a fortnight to go before it opened, the play wasÌýbanned. ItÌýmade front page news.Ìý

When EllisÌýheard that the Board of the theatre had withdrawn the playÌýciting that Ìý"it is the policy of the Ulster Group TheatreÌýto keep political and religious controversies off our stage",Ìýhe did what he had to do to keep said controversies on "our stage". He resigned, and left the Group theatre, along with many others,Ìýto set up a new company, Over the Bridge Productions, whichÌýstaged the play in the Empire Theatre Belfast on the 26th January 1960.

Apparently Brendan Behan sentÌýSam Thompson a congratulatory telegramÌýon the night. Like Behan, ThompsonÌýtrained as aÌýpainter and spoke out passionately against the systemÌýbefore becoming a playwright. Ìý

Do you ever wish for a time machine toÌýhave been there that night?ÌýThe closest I can get to it is talking to the people who were.ÌýJames Ellis is comingÌýover from hisÌýhome in England to talk to me about this quite extraordinary time in Northern Ireland's cultural history for an Arts Extra special tomorrow.Ìý

And in a kind of time travel, joining him will be Belfast playwright Martin Lynch who has updated the original play for 2010 which will be premieredÌýin the Spring.

By the way, ifÌýyou're in and around East Belfast tomorrow, to mark the dayÌýan plaque is being unveiled at the location of the house where Sam Thompson was born. It will take place atÌý11am at Montrose Street South, Ballymacarett.

And James EllisÌýis the man doing the unveiling,Ìýopening the curtainÌýonce again on a local writerÌýwho told it as it wasÌýwhen politics and religion clashed.

I was up in my hometown of DerryÌýyesterday to chair a public forum about the city's bid for the UK City of Culture 2013. Now operating under the official unofficial title Derry~Londonderry (not aÌýstroke in sight!), the cityÌýis one of 14Ìýin the competition now. Early next monthÌýit could beÌýshortlisted toÌý3, possibly 5,ÌýandÌýthe winning city will beÌýannounced in June.

There was alot of excitement and energy in the room, we were all given a glossy brochure "Cracking the Cultural Code", the forward was a passionately written letterÌýby Seamus Heaney one of the city's cultural champions, "that the omens are encouraging" he writes. There wereÌýspeeches, Q & A and what were termed break out groups when, for about an hour,Ìýthe people there were able to air their views on theÌýinitial bid.

Derry City Council is leading the bid, along with ILEX (the urban regeneration company and the Strategic Investment Board for Northern Ireland.) But this was the first time a wider arts group of artists, film makers, curators and administratorsÌýwere consulted.ÌýÌý

Some people there seemedÌýgenuinely encouraged by the bid. Some not so,Ìýthey said that they were worried, angry even,Ìýthat not enough was done at an earlier stage to talk toÌýthem.

It has been said thatÌýthe bid was rushed. That much wasÌýadmitted yesterday.Ìý And while there was a residual feeling of "why talk now, we might not even get shortlisted in a few weeks, what's the point", it was theÌýfirst time I have ever seen such a group of people come together to talk about a cultural vision.Ìý

Derry City Council was criticised after IMPACT 92, the year-long festival of arts and culture in the early nineties, for not keeping the momentum going in the years that followed.

18 years and a new generation later the chance has come again. Even though one of the teenagers at yesterday's event said she had only heard about the City of Culture bid the day before, was told to come along to the workshop and "be positive"!Ìý

Now I don't know ifÌýDerry will be shortlistedÌýbut, as was said to me yesterday,Ìýwhen Belfast didn't get shortlisted for the European Capital of Culture 2008, it turned out to be the most successful failure ever. Belfast and Northern Ireland gotÌýa funding windfall forÌýculture and theÌýarts, and many of the new builds we're seeing today came from that initial desire to be a cultural capital.

I'm not saying let's aim to be a successful failure, nor am I ignoring the voices anxious to see the bid work, but worried that the moment has gone. Maybe we should look at the very powerful lines from Heaney's "The Cure at Troy" quoted on the front cover of the bidÌý

"So hope for a great sea-change

on the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore

is reachable from here.

Believe in miracles

and cures and healing wells"

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On tonight's programme I triedÌýtoÌýpersuade Ìýthe chair of the judging panel for the TS Eliot Prize 2009 to reveal theÌýwinner ahead of the 7pm announcement.

Armitage is a very funny man, the kind who wears his writing skills lightly. From being a supermarket shelf stacker to a probation officer he has lived. And all, apart from a brief stint in Portsmouth England and Massachusets US of A, he has lived mainlyÌýinÌýhis native Huddersfield.Ìý

This is the man who, with no interest in classical music, wrote a new narrationÌýto the Oscar winning animated film "Peter and the Wolf" which played at the Royal Festival Hall last month while three years ago his dreams of being a rock star were finally realised when he and a friend set up the band . His dad had suggested the name Mid Life Crisis.

So I reckoned if anyone was going to chuck the 7pm embargo out the window along with theÌýrock n roll television etc it would be him.

No.

We started talking at around quarter to 7, he was at the ceremony, worried that he had only another 15 minutes of having 10 friends, ie the 10 poets shortlisted for the great poetry prize.ÌýSo we talkedÌýabout the prize, the money (15K), the recession (15K would come in handy), Ìýthe reality of selling poetry books these days, I mentioned Michael Longley and his annoyance that the major book stores never promote poetry books at the front of the store andÌýhe has to rummage through the shelves to find his own. Anyhow, bottom line is I knew SimonÌýknew. He knew the winner's name. He had chosen him. Or her. And I hoped that he would tell.

We were chatting away but secretlyÌýI was watching the clockÌýthinking if I just kept him talking to as close toÌý7 as possible, the time the winner would be announced, he had toÌýlet the name slip.ÌýI mean what's a few minutes? And come on, we had two Irish poets in the running, Sinead Morrissey and Eileen Ni Chuilleanain.Ìý

And another Irish poet, DerryÌýwomanÌýColette Bryce was on the judging panel.ÌýÌýI felt with that trinity of poetesses allÌýSimon had to do was cough and in the cough say the name. Come on.ÌýEasy. What's a few minutes on an embargo???

But he didn't. So I find out after we go off air that the winnerÌýis for his poetry book The Water Table. Water eh, watertight more like where Simon Armitage is concerned.

If you ever need someone to keep a secret then Simon, this grounded,Ìýmodest, Huddersfield born and bredÌýwriter and lead singerÌýis your man.

Met this morning. The internationally renowned Welsh bass baritoneÌýisÌýin Belfast for a concert with the tomorrow night.

I was due to interview him at 11.15 this morningÌýfor Sunday's Sounds Classical.ÌýAnd with no one to look after the child at 11.14, I rushed in toÌý´óÏó´«Ã½ reception with two-year-old daughter and nappy bag in one arm, Bryn'sÌýlatest cd "Bad Boys" in the other, which I had just taken out of the car cd player. TheÌýtwo-year-old had just given it a favourable review . "I like that music". But she also lovesÌýAqua's Barbie Girl.

Bryn was sitting in reception, and as I babbled at him, 'hello I'm doing the interview with you, this is my daughter, thank you for coming in,ÌýOMG it's Bryn Terfel in front of me, don't panic',ÌýI was saved by my phone ringing. As I took the call, Bryn, let's put him in context, oh yes, only one of the world's leading opera singers right now,Ìýstarted entertaining my wee girl withÌýsilly voices and animal impressions.Ìý

When he offered to carry the nappy bag upstairs to the studio and continued to entertain her by pulling comedy faces all the way upÌýthe three floors, I thoughtÌýif the New York Met, La Scala and the Royal Opera at Covent Garden no longer wanted his services he could haveÌýa big future in children's entertaining.

His album may be called "Bad Boys" but he's really a big softie.

Ìý

A French filmÌýwith subtitlesÌýset in a prison. I have to say my heart felt asÌýgrey and heavy as the leaden Belfast sky above me as I went to a press screening earlier today of "AÌýProphet". Walking past posters of "It's Complicated" (which yes I really do want to see) I wasn't sure how the next 2 and 1/2 hours (yes 2 & 1/2 hours) were going to pass.Ìý How I would rather be watching Meryl Streep and Alex Baldwin kid about in a rom com forÌýan hour or two.ÌýWell more fool me. "A Prophet" is stunning.ÌýAnd everything I would normally not warm to. It's violent, bloody, shocking. And beautiful. Move over Michael Corleone. There's a new godfather in town. We're reviewing it on ArtsExtra tonight.

It opens at the Queens Film Theatre on the 22nd January and is there untilÌýthe 4th February.

After theÌýnews that Iris Robinson isÌýsuffering fromÌýacute depression,Ìý I was struck by reading the words of one of my favourite writers about the hell she has been going through these past few weeks because of her own depression.Ìý

Writer Marian Keyes. HerÌýbooks have helped me through some rubbishy times in my life, made meÌýhowl with laughter, cry big fat tears and generally feel better for reading them.

But while Keyes' writing was making meÌýfeel better,Ìýit seems cruel thatÌýshe can't do the same for herself.ÌýWriting on her this month she says thatÌýshe has beenÌý"laid low with crippling depression". It's a very candid piece of writing. "I can'tÌýeat, I can't sleep, I can'tÌýwrite, I can'tÌýread, I can'tÌýtalk to people".

This wasn't theÌýwoman I met a few years ago in her house in Dun Laoghaire. I was there to record a major interview with her for the radio arts show. And she was in flying form. Full of anecdotes,Ìýthe sofa she and I were sitting on was bought from the sales of the first book, she kept saying "thanks a million" every time I said I loved her work, which was, on reflection, a bit too often,Ìýand she wasn't fazed when our sound engineer asked could she sign a copy of one of her books for his daughter and proceeded to bring out a rucksack full of her back catalogue!ÌýÌý

The response to Marian Keyes' posting has been as expected, a mail box full ofÌýhundreds of wellwishers sending her speedy recovery good wishes and the bizarre one saying they wish they could rub her back (!)

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Iris Robinson is now getting acute psychiatric treatmentÌýfrom the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust,Ìýthe revelations about herÌýprivate life have opened the floodgates toÌýjokes, songs andÌýdoctored images ofÌýThe Graduate.

But theÌýstrangest cultural shift has come in the form of anÌýinternet campaign to get Simon & Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson into the download top 40,ÌýApparently it only takes 1500 sales.

As of writing this it looks like it's working.

While the winners and losers of the Rage against the Machine versus X factor for the Christmas number 1 were obvious,Ìýthis latestÌýone isn'tÌýso clear.ÌýÌý

IsÌýit a step too far?ÌýA use ofÌýcultural democracy thatÌýisn't thatÌýfunny? And will it just be Simon & GarfunkelÌýthe only ones really laughing?..... all the way to the bank.Ìý