There’s a Manchester-based charity which is helping uplift and champion communities throughout the city centre and wider Greater Manchester region.
Us Mancs certainly know a thing or two about community, whether it’s our influential music scene, football clubs, our hospitality scene and so on, but Forever Manchester takes this to the next level.
This charity has been consistently funding and supporting community initiatives throughout Greater Manchester by helping people achieve the extraordinary, all while maintaining plenty of local pride.
Forever Manchester was born from a mission to support the people and places that make Greater Manchester magic, and is all about making sure the community is at the forefront of everything they do.
Credit: Forever Manchester
The community-first charity has invested over £65 million into local communities and awarded £517,968 to over 100 different community groups.
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This isn’t a new charity either, Forever Manchester has been deep in our city’s culture for quite some time since launching in 1989, most notably commissioning local poet Tony Walsh’s ‘This is the Place’.
The piece was originally published in 2012 before finding a very special place in our hearts back in 2017 when Walsh performed the poem at a vigil for the Manchester Arena attack.
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This love letter to Manchester has not only gone on to become a part of the city’s history but also reaffirmed this organisation’s place throughout communities in the region.
Credit: Supplied
Now, the community-minded charity is ready to make a mark in 2025 with a whole host of initiatives, including a Forever Manchester lottery, pub quizzes, comedy nights and disco bingo.
Anyone looking to find out more information about this community-first charity and see some examples of the work it does can visit Forever Manchester’s official website.
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Remember, this is a city that looks after its own – that’s the kind of energy we want to see you keeping up all year long.
And, if you have a soft spot for a tote bag or wall art prints, look no further than Forever Manchester’s shop, where every purchase directly contributes to community activities in Greater Manchester HERE.
A first look into the highly-anticipated TV soap crossover ‘Corriedale’ has just dropped
Thomas Melia
The wait is nearly over for TV soap fans, as producers behind the highly-anticipated ‘Corriedale’ crossover have just dropped an exclusive first look.
Whether you’re team Coronation Streetor team Emmerdale, this show has all areas covered as it merges both the iconic TV soaps into an hour-long special.
Now, it feels like Christmas has come early as pictures of two very distinctive cast members smiling next to each other while filming the crossover episode have been released.
In the newly-released images we can see Vicky Myers, known for playing the assertive and dedicated DS Lisa Swain, representing the Manchester-based production Coronation Street.
Vicky Myers (DS Lisa Swain) and Danny Miller (Aaron Dingle) pictured together ahead of upcoming TV soap crossover Corriedale / Credit: ITV Press Centre (Supplied)
Stood by her side is Danny Miller known for his role as the complex and vulnerable Aaron Dingle in Leeds-based hit soap Emmerdale.
Both can be seen on-set and are pictured in front of a white trailer filming for the upcoming Corriedale special.
Although the shows are set just a one hour’s drive away from each other, separated by The Pennines, this soap special marks the first time that characters from each drama will have ever crossed paths.
Most details for this soap crossover are being kept very tight-lipped although filming kicked off in September with this latest update marking the first-ever major cast announcement for Corriedale.
ITV Executive Producer for Continuing Drama Iain Macleod said: “It’s beyond exciting that filming is under way on Corriedale.
“There is a massive buzz around both the Leeds and Manchester sites and the images coming out of the shoot are utterly spectacular. And that’s before we’ve even got to all the brilliant transpennine interactions between characters from the different shows!
“As a soap fan myself, I think my head is going to explode when the episode airs next year. It will be mind-blowing, historical and unmissable.”
Corriedale is coming to our TV screens in early 2026 and heralds the start of a new soap power hour with 30 minute episodes of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale to air every weekday.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman to step down from Strictly Come Dancing
Danny Jones
Long-serving Strictly Come Dancing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have announced that they will be stepping down from the beloved reality TV competition after more than three decades between them.
The Strictly team will, of course, ‘keep dancing’, but this still feels like the end of an era.
While Claudia Winkleman only became a joint co-anchor back in 2010 in preparation for the legendary Sir Bruce Forsyth’s eventual retirement in 2014, Tess Daly has been one of the two lead presenters since the hit smash-hit UK show first started way back in 2004.
Boasting a cumulative and incredible 31 years as the respective lead faces on one of the nation’s favourite IPs, Daly and Winkleman released a joint video on their social media pages confirming the bittersweet news.
Writing in the caption on Instagram, the pair said: “We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together, and now feels like the right time.
“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series, and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show.
“They’re the most brilliant team, and we’ll miss them every day. We will cry when we say the last ‘keep dancing’, but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”
Although Winkleman, 53, began as the presenter of the spin-off programme ‘It Takes Two’, it now seems hard to imagine the main show without either of them.
Confirming that they will be departing the British telly favourite at the end of the current series, which is around a month into its 23rd series.
Daly, 56, went on to share a further statement addressing the decision to quit the Strictly lineup after such a lengthy stay on BBC One.
It goes without saying that, much like when ‘Brucey’ left 11 years ago now, the show just won’t be the same without them.
For now, all we can say is thanks for all the memories, and we’d better see them back in the ballroom or popping up for special cameos in Blackpool again one day soon.
What do you make of the announcement, Strictly fans – and who do you think should replace them?
Thomas Melia -
12th July 2025 
