From TikTok to BBC Breakfast: why the national media is now watching Wigan
The national media is watching me… and watching Wigan.
And I’ll be honest, it’s left me slightly bemused.
After 26 years working as a journalist in the mainstream media, 22 in radio, four in TV, I never imagined I’d be on the other side of it, watching national outlets follow stories I’d already told. But that’s exactly what’s been happening. And not once or twice either, but repeatedly.
It all started in May last year. I set up what’s happening in Wigan with a single TikTok video on 24th May. No big launch. No grand plan. Just a simple test to see if people actually wanted good news about Wigan. I genuinely didn’t know what would happen.
What happened blew me away.
That first video racked up 72,000 views in two days. Hundreds of comments. And not one of them negative. People were proud. Proper proud. Delighted that someone was finally sticking up for Wigan and telling the stories we never seem to hear.
Fast forward to now and this little experiment has turned into something much bigger. The Facebook page has over 24,000 followers and more than 4.5 million views every month. TikTok’s passed 12,000 followers, Instagram over 6,000, and videos regularly go viral across all of them. And it’s not just online either. People stop me constantly for a chat. One woman even went into a hat shop (Grace Accessories in the Makinson Arcade) to hire the exact hat I’d tried on in a video. That’s when I realised this is actually landing with people.
And then something else started happening.
The mainstream media started watching.
Four stories I featured first have gone on to regional and national TV. Three of them ended up on BBC Breakfast. One even landed on Have I Got News For You. After decades inside that world, seeing it from this angle is… surreal.
Bill the toy maker is the perfect example. I featured him on 17th November and he went viral almost instantly. From there it snowballed. Local radio, national radio, national newspapers, regional TV, then BBC Breakfast. Bill even got a mention from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called him the ‘best of Britain’. Interflora cheekily used him in an advert. A proper Wigan character, celebrated nationally, after starting life on my page.
Then there’s the Gold Man at Grant’s Bulldog Forge. Twenty feet tall, naked, gold, and never far from controversy. I covered his return to Wigan and within five days Channel 5 News were on it. Then BBC North West Tonight. Then BBC Breakfast. At the same time, Wigan Council had been threatening Grant with court action unless the statue was removed, and after the coverage, they reversed their decision. A lot of people have put that down to the positive attention the story brought to Wigan.
That’s the power of telling the story differently.
Some of the most meaningful moments, though, haven’t been the loud or controversial ones. Last summer I spoke to Joanne Bourne, about her teenage son Harry, who is autistic, and Harry’s hairdresser Matty, who’s built an incredible bond with him. I shared their story because it mattered. Six months later, that same story appeared on regional BBC and then BBC Breakfast.
National attention for something rooted in kindness, patience and understanding – exactly the sort of thing Wigan does brilliantly. When Joanne and Matty were invited to go onto the BBC Breakfast sofa, live, they asked me to go with them, and I was only too happy to go with them and support them. Live TV can be daunting, I know that after four years working in it. They both smashed it, and I was so proud to be there. So proud they’d asked me.
And then there was Wigan Warriors player Terry Newton. On the 15th anniversary of his death, I spoke to his daughters, the first time they’d ever spoken publicly about their dad. That story went on Granada Reports and travelled far beyond Wigan online. Quiet, dignified, important.
All of these stories have taken on lives of their own across social media too – LadBible, Mail Online, etc shares everywhere. And every time it happens, I’m reminded why I started this in the first place. I didn’t set out to “take on” the mainstream media. I know it inside out. I just wanted to do things differently. I was tired of the negativity. Tired of seeing my hometown reduced to stereotypes. I wanted to tell stories that mattered, about people who deserved celebrating.
Now, over the past couple of months, Wigan has been in the national spotlight, and for once, it’s been for good news. And the irony isn’t lost on me that after 26 years in the mainstream, it’s this that’s caught their attention.
But it’s not just people’s stories that I’m putting out into the world, it’s Wigan itself. Through ‘what’s happening in Wigan’, I’ve been showing people the businesses, organisations, and community projects that make this town tick. The independent places. The family-run ones. The hidden gems that deserve a much bigger audience.
Highlighting so much going on, from the Little Green Platter Company, to Grant’s Bulldog Forge, Caffè Rosso, Muffin Man, Baldy’s Pies, Spud Lad, The Retreat Wellbeing Clinic, to name but a few – there are too many to mention them all.
I’ve spent time at Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls and The Trawlerman. At Wigan Artisan Market at the Cotton Works people stopped me to say they’d travelled from Southport, Chorley, and Warrington, all because they’d seen it here.. and people are waiting to see where I go next..
Alongside these, I’ve been putting Daffodils Dreams, The Girl’s Club, two incredibly important organisations, out there, as well as Wigan Warriors Women and Wigan Athletic, giving people a chance to see them in a way they’ve never seen before.
So so so MANY special people and places… I am smiling as I’m typing this, as it’s reminding me just how special my hometown is.
And Wigan’s creativity isn’t being left behind either. From young singer Marty B, already catching the eye of Liam Gallagher, to bands including The Lilacs (on the cusp of something big), and Casino Club, the local music scene is thriving and starting to get noticed far beyond our borders.
Local matters. People matter. Good news matters.
And Wigan?
Wigan’s worth shouting about.
And, I’m only just getting started……
If you’ve got a story you think needs shouting about, email me… Wigan is special and I’m on a mission to show the world just HOW special!
