Lisa Campbell, director, Creative Cities Convention on Bradford in 2025

I've spent the last few weeks in Bradford, West Yorkshire—UK City of Culture 2025 and host?city for?this year's Creative Cities Convention. The energy and excitement in the region are electric, a long-overdue recognition that this is their time.

To say Bradford has a rich cultural heritage is an understatement. Nowhere was this clearer than at the BBC’s premiere of?Virdee, a groundbreaking detective drama?about a flawed Sikh cop, screened in the grand Victorian setting of St George’s Hall—the very birthplace of the Labour Party in 1893. From politics to the Bront?s, Hockney to the Peace Museum,?Zain Malik and Dynamo?to the newly renovated National Science and Media Museum, this young, diverse city has long been a creative powerhouse.

Virdee?itself?would once have been seen as?an unlikely primetime drama—set in Bradford, tackling themes of family, identity, and interfaith marriage. Now it’s a reality, reflecting the wealth of talent and stories waiting to be told from beyond the capital.

And there’s more to come. Brit School North opens in Bradford next year, and West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has pledged millions to the creative industries. As she said at her recent Big Creative UK Summit:?“We have to push back on the narrative that you have to go to London to make it. London should be thanking us for all the talent that’s gone there!”

Yet the snobbery towards the creative potential of the regions remains stark. The lack of sustained investment, infrastructure, and opportunity outside London is a brutal reality. It was true when I left my northern roots in the ‘90s to chase a media career in the capital—but today, it's worse. Back then, if you could tolerate a grotty flat, tweak your accent, and survive on next to nothing for a few years, you had a shot. Now, the cost of living is closing that path entirely.

Despite?the barriers, some of the most iconic television has come from the north—particularly in an era when regional broadcasters fostered sustainable careers.?Shameless, Steve Coogan’s legacy,?Band of Gold—these wouldn’t have happened without deep, local creative ecosystems. Would?Happy Valley?even exist if Nicola Schindler had packed up and left for that London? The idea that the north lacks creative capability is a total fantasy.

But we now face a triple threat: inadequate regional infrastructure, a cost-of-living crisis pricing out all but the independently wealthy, and a broadcasting sector struggling with its own existential challenges.

And yet, amid the uncertainty, a fantastic opportunity emerges—to build a more democratised entertainment industry. At CCC, we not only want to showcase existing talent to key decision-makers – the ‘right’ people - we want to help creative professionals build the skills, networks, and resilience needed to navigate shifting power structures and take control of their own futures.

Content production and distribution have fundamentally changed. The old routes to success are disappearing, but the future is wide open. The CCC aims to be a catalyst—providing resources, intelligence, and crucial connections to strengthen regional creative ecosystems. Our theme,?Local to Global: More in Common, is about legacy-building—creating opportunities for talent to thrive right where they are.

The City of Culture initiative is about regeneration, not an overnight fix—a vision we share. We stand at a rare inflection point where old structures are crumbling, and new ones have yet to be built. That’s an exciting place to be.

So, while CCC will highlight the incredible legacy of northern creative powerhouses, we’re also focusing on?sustainable production?and asking the question on everyone’s lips:?where’s the money?

We’ll put this question to commissioners across public service broadcasters, Amazon, and UKTV. We’ll hear from YouTube MD Alison Lomax on how they’re working with broadcasters and indies to elevate and help monetise content; we’re exploring how "new" distributors are working with brands or going direct to consumers. We’ll tackle the challenges of sustaining access docs despite increasingly challenging relationships between media and emergency services. And we’ll examine how soaps have shaped class representation and the talent pipeline.

We’ll also go behind the scenes on Netflix’s?Adolescence, starring Stephen Graham and produced by Sheffield’s Warp Films—another testament to the strength of northern storytelling.

And on top of all that, we’re going to have a good laugh and the finest curry in the land. If you’ve ever?been?to Yorkshire, you’ll know it’s?reet champion.