Friends in high places: Meera Syal announced as patron of HOME

Susie Stubbs

The fast-being-built Manchester arts centre adds another stellar artist to its growing list of patrons.

It may still resemble a building site, but things are hotting up at HOME. The £25 million arts centre, which isn’t due to open until spring next year, has just announced the latest in its series of patrons: the actress Meera Syal. Actually, to describe Syal as an “actress” is to do her an injustice. This is a woman who, despite spending her life feeling like – in her words – an outsider, has achieved great things. She was one of the writers and stars of Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at Number 42, the pioneering comedies that gave British Asian communities a place on mainstream television (and were funny too; The Kumars won an Emmy).

She gave British Asian comedy a voice – and a place on mainstream TV

That’s not all. She’s a professor and a playwright. She’s a novelist whose first book, Anita and Me, a semi-autobiographical account of growing up in a mining village in the Midlands is both heartbreaking and blackly comic (there’s a moment in the book when the young Asian protagonist is asked what she wants to be when she grows up. “Blonde,” she replies). She’s also appeared on stage and on American TV, was awarded an MBE in 1997 – and has a long-standing connection to Manchester. She came to the city in the early 1980s to study, graduating a few years later with a double first in English and drama.

So it seems fitting that Syal, who is most definitely not just an actress, is one of HOME’s new patrons. This is, we are promised, an arts centre that will blur the lines between visual art and performance, film and technology. It is a place that, Syal says, will foster “diverse talent and new voices across art forms.”

Meera Syal joins film directors Danny Boyle and Asif Kapadia, the actress Suranne Jones, artists Rosa Barba and Phil Collins, poet Jackie Kay and National Theatre director Sir Nicholas Hytner as the centre’s figureheads – which, even if HOME itself is still half-built, is a stellar line-up. Here’s hoping they’ll all make themselves at home at, er, HOME next year.

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
Spotlight on

Walking Tours in Manchester by Jonathan Schofield

Presenting the best walking tours in Manchester for history buffs, culture enthusiasts, and those looking to scratch beneath the surface of the city.

Take me there

Culture Guides

Theatre in Manchester
Theatre in the North

Summer signals theatre festivals, world premieres and open-air spectacle - from MIF25 to comedy, outdoor circus and beyond, here’s what we’re looking forward to.

Cloudwater Production One
Tours and Activities in the North

Go forth with wild abandon to dance the pavements, dabble with the paint and down the pints in this month's tours and activities guide.

Star Nhà Ease
Cinema in the North

July's cinema highlights include spotlights on international cinema, a new cult classic, plus a visit from one of our favourite directors.

Harry Baker
Literature Events in the North

From environmental to experimental, our poetry and prose picks from around the North are focused on the unusual and the fun.

Exhibitions in the North

Captivating, urgent and intimate - we bring you our top exhibition picks, with even more art festivals, artist-led shows and new venues.

Helena Hauff
Music in the North

Shape-shifting bands, scorched-earth techno, and off-grid festivals. Our latest music picks catch the live scene at its most urgent, inventive and alive.