Dirty makems, you're from Sunderland
Is soap a luxury to Makems?
Before you answer that, before Makems send death threats down in the information superhighway, and before Magpies nod in agreement, let me put that comment in context.
It's one of the gags in a new series of the Radio Four quiz Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
It's in the show recorded - yet to be broadcast - at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle.
There's a potted introduction to the area by one of the panel, Rob Brydon, I think.
In it we learn Newcastle had one of the first department stores. We also learn people came from Sunderland to buy luxuries from that department store. Luxuries like soap.
Now I don't know about you but I find that funny.
It's a nice take on the Sunderland - Newcastle rivalry and is loosely based on real-life events.
Newcastle really does lay claim to the first department store and it doesn't stretch the imagination to assume word reached Sunderland where wives - men don't shop - came to see what the fuss was about.
Bainbridges, now part of John Lewis, was founded in 1838 as a drapers and fashion shop but on record as collecting its takings by department as early as 1849.
Enough history. This is a panel show and a darn good one at that.
Sorry is back for its first series without the late Humphrey Lyttelton and, although it will never be the same, early indications look like it will find its own voice.
Billed as the antidote to panel games it is, oddly, one of the best.
Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon take it in turns to keep some kind of order, as they share the chair.
Regular panellists Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined by a special guest each week.
The guest on the show recorded at Newcastle was Phat Phill with two Ls Jupitus. (Phat, by the way, is something to be admired. I didn't call him Fat - although he is!)
Keep tuning into the show with games like Famous First Words, Name Droppers, and Singing Relay.
You won't be disappointed but you will need a sense of humour.
And, finally, yes, I know this blog is supposed to be about TV but sometimes you've got to rest the eyes.
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The generally accepted spelling of "makem" is "mackem" hence the pronounciation of the word being mac'em not may'cem
WOW! This blog is pathetic (well done).
Cool. We had the Venerable Bede so by your logic we taught your lot how to write. I can live with that.
yes and you lot have the best of champion chips also , well done
Sunderland also as a premier league football team. Do people from Newcastle go to Sunderland to watch premier league football?
using a television review blog, to review a radio show as it has a tedious link to the people of sunderland js to get a sly dig in. get a life.
An embarrassing blog from an embarrassing newspaper.
Mary poppins
Alan shearer
Guthrie
Championship
United
Newcastle
Taylor
Shola
Ahh, enjoy Blackpool!
hysterical article - you could wave keys at Mackems next, that would be really funny
Embarrassing attempt at journalism that The Star would have rejected
Fancy moving to Belfast, you could have a pop at some Romanians
Is that the best you can do? Seriously is it? I'm embarrassed for you and your laughable excuse for a news service, you must be so proud.
A pathetic blog from a pathetic geordie written in a pathetic paper.
Do you come through to Sunderland for:
Take That
Oasis
Premier League Football
The Beach
Airshow
West End Shows at the Theatre
etc...etc...
Get a life, no wonder no one wants to buy your pathetic football club who have morons like you supporting them who desperately crave attention.
Enjoy Scunthorpe boys!!
We love Mary Poppins on Wearside.
Just love it, just love it if you fools give that man the job.
Doon Army enjoy the championship
Great blog..... proof a grade C GCSE in English can get you a career as a top journalist in a quality paper ... FTM
Newcastle have the saddest most deluded fans in the history of football.
You Geordies really should have learnt not to wind the Mackems up by now, why do you think I bought your shambles of a club?
Binns (now House of Fraser) was founded in Sunderland in 1811....kind of destroys your childish article.
The only bins in Sunderland now are the ones you go diving in you dirty mackems.
Listen lets get one thing straight you have always been jealous of Newcastle,
Why did you go against the crown and side with Cromwell, well it was because you where jealous that all the trade and growth was happening in NEWCASTLE so it goes back years.
Did Sunderland meet the national criteria to become a city, the answer was no but the queen was allowed two make to towns into city's and it was decided that because Sunderland was such a s*** hole and needed developing and a commercial input that you would be allowed to become a 'PLASTIC CITY'. However the redevelopment they thought this would bring failed miserably as Sunderland is still a s*** hole, and it is not just people from the Newcastle or the rest of the NE who believe this it is the whole country.
What the people from Sunderland need to remember is your are and always will be 'A SMALL TOWN IN DURHAM'
Im amazed at how many Mackems complain about this newspaper,if you dont like it dont read it.Message to Thomas Reed,when Binns in Sunderland first opened it was only a drapery shop,not until they moved did they become a department store in 1884,so the article is correct,kind of destroys your claim does it not?
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