The Manchester Weekly from The Mill

Late last year, when the Royal Exchange Theatre was forced to cancel its production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the media fallout became one long nightmare. Stef O'Driscoll, the play’s director, accused the theatre of censorship, and its chief executive Stephen Freeman eventually stood down. But there are two sides to every story - over the last month, insiders at the Royal Exchange have been telling us they've been uncomfortable with the narrative that the play's director was censored for a rap about Palestine, and that they feel the theatre was the victim of a "witch hunt". In this week's episode, Mollie and Jack take you inside our reporting and reveal what really caused the theatre to cancel the entire run of its long-anticipated autumn production.

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A midsummer’s nightmare: What really caused the Royal Exchange’s cancelled show? The Mill

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On a cold day in January, our reporters stumbled upon a strange story about Joseph Wheeler, a car marketing executive from Milton Keynes who had been granted extraordinary power at the University of Greater Manchester (formerly the University of Bolton), whose company had received £8 million in the past six financial years for performing marketing and brand management services, and who was accused of making racist remarks and threatening to sack people if they didn't bend to his will.

Then, the story became stranger. We uncovered evidence that Joseph Wheeler and another senior university executive, Paul Starkey, tried to pressure ECN, one of the university's biggest commercial partners, into transferring 40% of its revenue into a private company that Wheeler owned. That deal looked like an arrangement for kickbacks – a form of illicit payment in return for something – to be paid to Wheeler’s firm, and the circumstances in which it was signed suggest bribery laws may have been broken.

Private Eye has picked up our story, and MPs Phil Brickell and Neil O'Brien have raised our reporting to the Department for Education and in parliament. In today's episode, Mollie and Joshi reflect on the last month of reporting, and where the university goes next.

The University of Greater Manchester saga in full

16/08/2024: Our first story about the university. The university was planning to let 82 members of staff go, and was battling to change its name from the University of Bolton to the University of Greater Manchester.

06/02/2025: Over a dozen staff members accuse Joseph Wheeler of making racist remarks, and Wheeler is caught on tape saying: “At the end of the day, somebody from Nigeria looks exactly the same as somebody from Ghana.” 

10/02/2025: The university announces that Joseph Wheeler had resigned.

15/02/2025: Our sources give us evidence that showed the university had misled us. Joseph Wheeler was still taking calls with staff members and his marketing agency, RSM, was still under contract with the university.

19/02/2025: Our latest exclusive. We uncover evidence that Joseph Wheeler and another senior university executive, Paul Starkey, tried to pressure a key university partner into diverting hundreds of thousands of pounds in tuition fees into a private company.

24/02/2025: The Office for Students, the university's audit committee and board of governors ignore our questions about the allegations. Phil Brickell MP writes to the Department for Education asking for an independent investigation into the university.

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In this week's episode, Mollie and Jack look back on the last two years of reporting on Sacha Lord.

With thanks to Manchester Building Society for sponsoring this week's episode. In 2025, Manchester Building Society will be offering a different way to manage your money. We believe in branches, where people can access savings, mortgages and in-person financial advice. We’ll be opening on King Street later this year, before setting up in high streets and towns across Greater Manchester. Now we need your help. Building societies exist to serve their members and communities — so we want to hear from Mill readers about what you would want from your building society. Find out more here.

16 months, 12 stories — the Sacha Lord Saga in full

15/07/2023: Part one of our profile of Sacha Lord, delving into the childhood, personal life and success of the nightlife impresario.

19/07/2023: Part two looked at the conflict of interest created by Lord being a nightlife boss as well as an advisor to the mayor.

16/05/2024: Mark Turnbull said he could prove Lord had cheated his way to over £400k by telling the Arts Council a regional security company was in fact the “backbone of the national creative events sector”.

18/05/2024: Lawyers representing Lord threatened legal action unless we took our story down.

20/05/2024: Lord continued to threaten legal action.

20/05/2024: We found further evidence that the application was misleading.

22/05/2024: The Arts Council announced a review of Primary Event Solution’s application, and the GMCA announced a fact-finding mission.

24/05/2024: Lord withdrew his legal threat.

14/06/2024: We found the assessor of the application was Karen Boardman, who sits on other nightlife committees with Andy Burnham.

28/09/2024: We requested the original assessment document of Primary’s application, and found that the Arts Council had taken the most easily falsifiable claims at face value. 

29/01/2025: The Arts Council withdrew the grant and began proceedings to recover the £401,928, and Lord resigned.

31/01/2025: We dug into the questions left behind.

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