Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
Three years ago, Nicola Williams was faced with the devastation of losing her husband Mark in a car crash near their Midlothian home, just days after the delighted couple had announced they were expecting another child.
Determined that some good might come out of the tragedy, she is working to support struggling fathers and families navigating difficult circumstances in her late husband’s name.
David Forsyth met her to hear about her latest challenge and what she hopes it might achieve.
More on that below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
MARVEL(LOUS) CASTING: Former Broughton High School student Ruaridh Mollica is to star in the latest Marvel TV series VisionQuest. The 27-year-old, who started acting with Leith’s Strange Town Youth Theatre, appears alongside Hollywood stars Paul Bettany and James Spader. Ruaridh, who has a first class computing degree from Heriot-Watt University, plays the role of Thomas Sheppard, ‘son’ of the super-powered android Vision.
HIGH NOTES: A collection of rare bank notes handed in to the British Heart Foundation charity shop at Straiton Retail Park proved to be an extraordinary donation. The 160 notes from around the world, including rare examples from Iraq, Borneo and Saudi Arabia, has sold at auction for £85,000.
TACKLING THE TOXIC: Former First Minister Humza Yousaf is to give two lectures at Edinburgh University aimed at helping students navigate political division. Announcing the talks as part of the university’s Common Ground Leadership programme, he warned that public debate in Scotland had become “deeply polarised, and often toxic”.
PRICEY PINTS: Edinburgh has been named the third most expensive university city for a night out in the UK. Sports bars chain Sixes Cricket compared the cost of a night out, including three pints, night club entry, food and a 2-mile taxi home, in 56 university cities and towns. It found prices of between £41.51 and £52.13 in Edinburgh, more than 40 per cent more than the £29.07 in Liverpool, which was ranked cheapest.
MOVIE MAGIC: The Filmhouse has been longlisted for the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa)’s cinema of the year award. More than 50,000 film fans voted to choose the 15 finalists which also include the Bo’ness Hippodrome.
SKIPPER’S NEW ROLE: Former Scotland rugby captain Greig Laidlaw has taken up a role coaching students at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh after returning from a spell coaching in Japan. Laidlaw captained Scotland 39 times.
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Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops
Greetings, Pop Pickers!
With the city still reeling from Paul Hollywood dropping in for a pastry at The Bearded Baker, and the momentous return of the Edinburgh Zoo penguin parade after a 10-month bird flu lockdown, you might think our local stages would struggle to hold their own against such fierce competition. Not so!
Inside our auditoriums, this week’s chart is as fiercely contested as ever. We’ve got an epic storytelling takeover muscling its way to the summit, iconic cinematic restorations scaring up an audience, suffragette hip-hop holding its ground, and last week’s chart-toppers aggressively jostling for position.
Right then, pop pickers - let’s count them down!
Honourable Mentions: Bottom’s Dream, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen & Chunky Jewellery
Bubbling just outside the top five, we have some real gems. Over at the Traverse, we are keeping Bottom’s Dream (October 20th – 24th) close at hand; it finds writer-performer Martin O’Connor joining forces with director Debbie Hannan to give Shakespeare’s famous weaver a fresh spin. Dropping down into the honourables this week is Catherine Opie: To Be Seen (National Galleries of Scotland, until November 1st). It remains one of the most spectacular things on offer in the city right now, but simply makes way for more temporary highlights - don’t be surprised to see this peerless retrospective surge back up the chart in future weeks. Finally, for one night only, you can catch Barrowland Ballet’s Chunky Jewellery (October 21st) at the King’s Theatre - a brutally honest, joyous, and moving physical celebration of friendship and motherhood.
New in at Number 5 is... Halloween at Filmhouse (Filmhouse, October)
Sneaking into the fifth spot is a magnificent cinematic season. There are some genuinely cracking films on offer at the Filmhouse this Halloween - a screening of the timeless Dracula (1931) and a meticulously restored version of The Wicker Man (1973) are my picks of a beautifully curated bunch. Beyond the obvious crowd-pleasers, this programme digs deep into the weird and wonderful corners of cult cinema. From Brian De Palma’s bonkers musical horror Phantom of the Paradise (1974) to the much-lauded 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s deeply controversial and visually staggering The Devils (1971), there is a spooky, celluloid treat for absolutely everyone.
Staying in at Number 4 is... Sylvia (Festival Theatre, until Saturday)
Holding firmly onto the fourth spot is a thoroughly modern musical juggernaut. Kate Prince’s visionary hip-hop, funk, and soul-fuelled take on the suffragette movement is refusing to budge from the chart. With a tremendous cast and riding a massive wave of critical praise from its London run, this revolutionary slice of history - which brilliantly reframes the Pankhurst family’s fierce political fractures - is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser that more than justifies its hype. Catch it while it’s hot!
Falling to Number 3 is... The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until Sunday)
Slipping down to the bronze medal position is Muriel Spark’s most famous creation. Having now seen this latest theatrical behemoth set sail on its inevitable victory lap around Scottish stages, I must report a slight caveat. Despite some truly marvellous performances and a stunningly executed set design, this adaptation has sacrificed rather too much of Spark’s cynical, religiously underpinned drama on the altar of 21st-century sensibilities. It is definitely one for those perhaps less enamoured of Spark’s merciless nuances, or for whom the novel is a distant memory. You can read my full review on The QR.
Moving up to Number 2 is... Jersey Boys (Edinburgh Playhouse, until Saturday)
Climbing up to snatch the silver medal this week! It is certainly not the first time Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have marched up the charts, and it’s easy to see why. Interestingly, this will actually be my first time formally reviewing Jersey Boys; in the past, I’ve simply bought a ticket and gone along just to enjoy the show. Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s groundbreaking book elevates this far beyond the usual lazy jukebox cash-in, shining a gritty, authentic light on the band’s mob-tied history while treating their iconic songbook with absolute reverence. A slick, harmonic masterclass. Oh, what a night!
Booking Link: Book via ATG Tickets
New in at Number 1 is... The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (October 21st – 31st)
Straight into the top spot of the pops! Keeping traditional lore and storytelling craft at the vibrant centre of the city’s calendar since 1989, there is nothing quite like the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. This year’s offering is bursting with global and local magic. Highlights include Donald Smith leading two epic three-hour Rewilding Scotland’s Epics sessions, exploring the life of St Columba and the legends of Ossian alongside guests from Scotland and Ireland. Elsewhere, Drut’syla traditional storyteller Shonaleigh collaborates with Turkish storytellers to interweave traditional Anatolian tales with her own inherited ‘Bubbe’s tales’, while Riikka Palonen shares stories from the cow sheds of Finland, and Satu Lankinen explores the traditional Nordic cow-call ‘kulning’. Truly, there is something for everyone!
And that’s your Top 5!
So whether you’re catching a classic horror screening on Lothian Road, revelling in suffragette funk, or losing yourself in epic Celtic legends and slick New Jersey harmonies, our stages are positively bursting with life.
What’s catching your eye on the cultural dance card this week? Think my chart needs a thorough shake-up? Head down to the comments and make your case—right after you’ve snagged those tickets, of course!
Until next week: Stay bright!
‘I couldn’t climb their mountain, so I decided to climb mine’
Grieving mum raising funds to help struggling fathers
by David Forsyth
Ten days from now Nicola Williams will stand at the foot of the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates to begin an ascent of close to 6500 feet to raise funds for a cause that could not be closer to her heart.
She is hoping that the task will help focus her at a time of year which brings back terrible flashbacks and memories, the time in the calendar she finds most difficult.
Almost certainly she will have tears in her eyes, and not because she knows that the climb she is taking on will involve the risk of heat exhaustion, dehydration, scree fields and steep drops. She will be walking for the husband she loved, taken from her three years ago on October 31 2023, following a head-on road crash.
Mark Williams was a successful young businessman, a keen and expert motorsports driver, and a devoted husband and father. His Range Rover and an Audi crashed near the family home in Midlothian on 28 October. The driver of the other car was killed. Mark suffered severe injuries in died in hospital two days later. A legal case continues.
Only a few days earlier, the overjoyed couple had announced to families and friends that they were expecting another child. A boy, he was later named Mark in honour of his Dad. He now lives in Dubai with his mother, and his older sister Mae, where Nicola moved to make a fresh start.
The Mark Williams Foundation was set up after Mark’s death. At that time, he was the chief executive of NWH Group, a waste management company. Nicola still works with the company and the Williams family businesses, as well as volunteering with the Foundation. The family set up the charity to help fathers and families facing some of the issue which Mark faced during his life.
She said: “October destroys me. I wish there were a softer way to describe it, but there isn’t. Every year, as October approaches, I can feel it coming before the dates even arrives.
“October has become a month of memories, dates, flashbacks and tears. Tears are simply a feature of October now. This year, I have decided to do something different. I can’t change the dates. I can’t change what happened. And I certainly can’t make October stop hurting. But I can give myself a focus.”
So on 25 October she will set out to climb Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the UAE, straddling the border between Dubai and Oman. “When people hear Jebel Jais, they often think of the road winding high into the Hajar Mountains, the viewing decks, restaurants and the famous zipline. That isn’t what I’m doing.
“We have deliberately planned a significantly more demanding challenge. The route involves around 1,900 metres of ascent through the Hajar Mountains.”
She has been working with a personal trainer to improve her strength and condition, and has also been tackling practice climbs: “We’ll begin before sunrise to avoid as much of the day’s heat as possible. We’ll be climbing for hours with very little natural shade and we’ll need to carry litres of water and electrolytes. Hydration will have to be managed carefully because dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are very real risks.
“The terrain brings its own challenges too. There are steep ascents, loose rock and scree, uneven limestone, exposed ridgelines, significant drops and remote stretches of mountain. Every metre we climb also has to be walked back down on tired legs, when concentration is lower and loose terrain becomes even more difficult to negotiate safely.”
The idea for the climb actually has its roots firmly in Scotland. In September, supporters of the Mark Williams Foundation including close friends climbed Ben Nevis to raise money for the Foundation, and Nicola could not be with them.
“Anyone who knows me will know there was absolutely no chance I was going to sit this one out. So, if I couldn’t climb their mountain, I decided I would climb mine.”
The Foundation works to help support fathers and families navigating difficult circumstances. Nicola said: “We believe children deserve loving relationships with good fathers, and we want fathers who feel isolated, overwhelmed or completely unsure where to turn to know that somebody is in their corner. We also want to create opportunities for young people with ambition and ideas who perhaps don’t have the connections, mentoring, confidence or support to turn those ideas into something real. That work is already changing lives, and every person we help adds another piece to Mark’s legacy.”
Nicola, who will shortly announce another major climbing challenge she will take on next year, believes there is something fitting in the challenge for her: “There is something about climbing a mountain that feels strangely appropriate. The last three years have felt like that at times. You can’t stand at the bottom and think about every metre ahead of you. Sometimes you just have to take the next step, and then another.”
She plans to set off before sunrise. “I will walk that mountain with a hole in my heart. I’m fairly certain I will cry on it, probably more than once, but I will keep walking.”
You can read more about the Mark Williams Foundation and its work here.