Living life in the shadow of the Ferrybridge cooling towers

Blow Down is written by award-winning playwright and television writer Garry Lyons (The Bill, Soldier, Soldier, Heartbeat).

It will get its first public reading on Thursday July 29 at 7pm at Wakefield Theatre Royal via Zoom

Lyons has spent the past few months talking to people in Ferrybridge and Knottingley, many of whom have lived in the shadow of the towers for their whole lives.

From the stories he’s collected, he’s created a script that captures the raw reality of life in a northern community.

The show takes the form of recorded script-in-hand rehearsed reading with a live Q&A with the writer and director.

It lasts 120 minutes and there will be an interval during this performance.

Tickets, price £3,25 can be booked online at: https://www.theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk/events/blow-down

Ferrybridge C Power Station closed on March 31, 2016 and the first of the 374ft towers was demolished on July 28, 2019.

Four more went down on October 13, that same year, leaving the final three in place.

A spokesman for owners SSE said that two chimneys and the boiler house would be demolished at the end of the summer with no date yet for the final cooling towers to come down.