The Torchbearers [Drama On 3]

Award winning poet and dramatist Simon Armitage captures our extraordinary relationship to the Olympic flame in this years Free Thinking Drama transmitted live from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Ray - Kevin Whately

Paula - Julie Hesmondhalgh

Colin - Mark Benton

Chloe - Phillippa Wilson

Spencer - Christopher Connell

Director: Kate Rowland

Kevin Whately (star of ITV's Inspector Morse and Lewis) Julie Hesmondhalgh (best known as Hailey Cropper in Coronation Street) and Mark Benton (Early Doors and Murphy's Law) lead the cast in a new drama written for Free Thinking by award winning writer and poet Simon Armitage to be broadcast live in front of an audience in the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. In the aftermath of the Olympic Games, The Torchbearers tells the stories of five people whose lies and obsessions come within touching distance of the eternal flame.

Can an illness be cured? Can a death be undone? Can the past start haunting the present? As their loved ones struggle to cope with their lies, a blazing torch passes through their worlds and changes things forever. Strangers meet in unexpected places.

Live drama from Free Thinking 2012, capturing our relationship with the Olympic flame.