Routes of English: Pitmatic (Series 3, Programme 1)
Melvyn Bragg Audio Book

Talk of the town, talk of the pit in Ashington, Northumberland.

It's been called the most beautiful dialect in England. It's the talk of coastal Northumberland that until recently encompassed some of the most heavily mined areas of the country. But now all but one of the collieries has closed. Melvyn Bragg travels to Ashington to listen to old Pitmatic, trace its roots through a thousand years of Northumbrian speech and find out just how the latest generation of young Northumbrians are talking local.