Our Manc of the Month series is back, but this time round, we wanted to do something a little bit different.
We all know that Manchester is home to plenty of special people, some born here and others drawn here, who have inspired and led us through tough times, so we decided to start a series that shines a light on those who should be celebrated.
Following on from our ‘The Mancs of the Year’ feature towards the end of 2020, Manc of the Month officially kicked off in July 2021 – with Marcus Rashford MBE, Manchester’s mural king Akse P-19, the local chef feeding the region’s vulnerable families Mary-Ellen McTague, and Manchester’s groundbreaking new Council leader Bev Craig among previous honourees.
In earlier editions, we had chosen to feature people who had an impact on our region in the recent weeks prior, but for this month, we want to cast our minds back and pay worthy tribute to an inspirational pair who are sadly no longer with us.
With International Women’s Day – a global holiday marked annually to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women – coming up on Tuesday 8 March, and Manchester getting ready to celebrate the females who have made our city what it is today, we cannot think of a better time to remember the careers of a duo who not only changed the comedy landscape for women, but changed the game entirely.
Victoria Wood and Caroline Aherne truly left their mark.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV and The Mrs Merton Show / Credit: BBC
Although born in London to Irish parents, BAFTA award-winning actress, comedian, and writer Caroline Aherne moved to Manchester at the age of two, was raised in Wythenshawe, went to school in West Didsbury, and kick-started her illustrious career on the city’s comedy circuit by performing as a collection of characters, before developing the iconic ‘Mrs Merton’.
Aherne developed her Mrs Merton character with Frank Sidebottom for his show on Piccadilly Radio, where she worked as a receptionist.
She made a number of television appearances as the hilarious character, before rising to prominence in 1994 with the mock chat show The Mrs Merton Show, where she was known for asking celebrity guests a series of outrageous fake questions – the most-memorable example being to the wife of magician Paul Daniels, Debbie McGee, asking: “So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?”.
Aside from the Mrs Merton character, Aherne was known for appearing on BBC comedy sketch programme, The Fast Show, and then cemented her place in the heart of us Mancunians when she co-wrote and starred as Denise in beloved Manchester-based sitcom, The Royle Family – which ran for three series from 1998 to 2000, and was a largely stereotypical portrayal of working-class family life at the turn of the millennium, with almost all of the episodes taking place in the Royles’ telly-centric living room and showing the hilarious conversations they’d have.
The Royle Family could not be a more perfect lasting legacy for Aherne, as it’s often included in the conversation when it comes to Britain’s best sitcoms, and was named in BFI’s 100 greatest British television programmes of all time.
The Royle Family was co-written and starring Caroline Aherne / Credit: BBC
Known for having an instantly-recognisable voice, Aherne narrated the Channel 4 reality television series Gogglebox from its inception in 2013 up until her death in 2016.
She passed away from cancer on 2 July 2016 at her home in Timperley at the age of 52.
2016 was also the year that the world tragically lost the multi-talented Victoria Wood, who, just like Aherne, had a wealth of strings to her bow as a comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer, and director.
Born in Prestwich, and raised and educated in the Greater Manchester borough of Bury, Victoria Wood was struggling with self-confidence, identity, and her place in the world when she discovered a love for performing after her father gifted her a piano for her 15th birthday and she joined the Rochdale Youth Theatre Workshop later that same year.
Wood began her career in show business while she was undergraduate studying drama at The University of Birmingham in the 1970s.
Throughout her decorated and multi award-winning career that spanned over four decades, Wood wrote and starred in countless sketches, plays, musicals, films, and sitcoms, and she was particularly known for humour grounded in everyday life that included references to activities, attitudes, and products that are considered to be typically British, with eclectic live stand-up shows that were often interspersed with her own musical compositions that she performed at the piano.
Her very-own comedy variety sketch show, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, aired on the BBC from 1985 to 1987, undoubtedly making her a household name and paving the way for her to become a mainstay on our screens.
But if you ask Mancs what Wood’s career highlight is, most would point to the cult-classic sitcom, dinnerladies – which ran for two series from 1998 to 2000.
BBC sitcom dinnerladies ran for two series from 1998 to 2000 / Credit: BBC
Created, co-written, produced by, and starring Wood herself as Brenda “Bren” Furlong, dinnerladies is set entirely in the canteen of the fictional Manchester-based factory of HWD Components, features the caterers and regular customers as the show’s main characters, and was beloved for the fact that it depicted the lives, and social and romantic interactions of all of the staff.
Victoria Wood also sadly died of cancer on 20 April 2016 at her London home, surrounded by her children and former husband.
Although we’ve done our best to take you through the lives of these two late local legends and give a worthy nod to everything they went onto achieve throughout their careers from humble beginnings, it’s almost impossible to truly sum-up the impact that Caroline Aherne and Victoria Wood had and quantify just what they mean to the people of our proud city.
Their talents will always live on, and Manchester will never forget our comedy heroines.
Featured Image – BBC
Feature
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025
Danny Jones
Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.
You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.
We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.
Get your playlists at the ready.
Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. Arkayla
First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”
However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.
There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.
They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.
If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.
Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.
No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.
She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.
Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.
We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.
And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.
‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.
Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.
Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.
We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.
And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.
But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.
Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.
Featured Images — Prido (via Facebook)/Arkayla (via X)/Grace Kelly (via Facebook)
Feature
You can sleep in a luxury train carriage at an old railway station in Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
There’s an Airbnb listing in Delph where you can stay in a classic converted train carriage, and it’s even situated in an old train station, so someone buy my ticket ASAP.
Get ready to have the best train experience of your life, as the only cancellation you have to worry about is booking the day off work.
The Carriage at The Old Station is a two-person character property in Delph, Saddleworth that offers you the chance to live out your vintage fantasy by stepping back in time on a luxury static train coach.
It may be situated at an old station, but the interior is refreshing and light with mint blue beams, fuchsia cushions and a royal red carpet and curtains.
As well as a majestic interior, this carriage has an equally impressive amount of amenities, including a Bluetooth sound system, board games and its own indoor fireplace.
This Airbnb is fairly new too, with only 44 reviews to its name – the first only dating back to September of last year; don’t say we don’t find you some absolute gems.
Inside the Airbnb that’s an old converted train carriage.The interior of this Airbnb listing is bold and impressive.
One user even stated, “We regularly stay in five-star locations and this surpassed five-star easily! We highly recommend a stay here.”
While another opened her review with three simple adjectives that we also feel perfectly sum up this train carriage property perfectly: “Opulent, indulgent, extravagant”.
It should come as no surprise that this place is beautiful inside and out, as in the description, host of the property Nigel states he’s a retired designer.
The train carriage stay is also close to a proper country pub, The Old Bell Inn, as well as the Diggle canal walk if you fancy a stroll and a pint before tucking into bed in your old train carriage for the night.
Even the bathroom has pops of colour throughout.You could stay in this train carriage at an old train station.
If you’re after boarding The Carriage at The Old Station and having a fabulous overnight stay or mini holiday of your own, you can find the Airbnb listing and everything you need to know HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
25th February 2022 
