It has seen its fair share of Hollywood parties \u2013 albeit with a twist. Instead of champagne and caviar it is usually Guinness and scampi fries. Red carpet? There aren\u2019t even cushions on the seats.<\/p>\n
The tiny Sheffield pub, Fagan\u2019s, has raised more than a few toasts in the last year as Adolescence, the Netflix hit made by two of its owners, scooped multiple awards at the Emmys<\/a> and Golden Globes<\/a> and became one of the world\u2019s most-watched dramas<\/a>.<\/p>\n A year after the drama\u2019s release, Sheffield<\/a> appears to be basking in a newfound confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like we\u2019re on the cusp of something really exciting,\u201d said Niall Shamma, the chief operating officer of Warp Films, the production company behind Adolescence.<\/p>\n Shamma is not the only one excited. The former steel city is now home to the UK\u2019s biggest podcast festival, Crossed Wires, as well as the genre\u2019s leading independent producer, Persephonica, which makes Lily Allen\u2019s show with Miquita Oliver, Political Currency with Ed Balls and George Osborne, and launched The News Agents with Emily Maitlis.<\/p>\n Dino Sofos, the former BBC News podcast boss who runs Persephonica, said the success of Adolescence \u2013 Netflix\u2019s second most-watched show of all time \u2013 had transformed South Yorkshire\u2019s creative scene: \u201cBetween Arctic Monkeys and a few years ago it\u2019s been nostalgia driven. What\u2019s great about Adolescence is that we\u2019re proud of what we\u2019re doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n Civic leaders all say South Yorkshire has for years punched below its weight creatively and economically, notwithstanding the success of Arctic Monkeys (two of whom co-own Fagan\u2019s).<\/p>\n The region struggled to recover from the brutal dismantling of its heavy industry and missed out as money and jobs flowed to Manchester and Leeds.<\/p>\n Oliver Coppard, the Labour mayor of South Yorkshire, said its leaders had failed to offer an ambitious vision of the area\u2019s future: \u201cThere was never a moment where someone stood up and said: \u2018And now we\u2019re going to move on.\u2019 We\u2019ve been shit at that. That sense of renewal never came.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time in decades, he said, there is optimism about South Yorkshire\u2019s future: \u201cYou can feel it. It\u2019s palpable.\u201d<\/p>\n In Westminster, government ministers are now taking the region seriously. Rachel Reeves mentioned the area in her Mais lecture last week, pledging to transform the former coalfields into a \u201cmodern industrial heartland in manufacturing and defence\u201d.<\/p>\n Oliver Coppard, Labour mayor of South Yorkshire, said the area had been held back by a lack of ambition from its leaders. Photograph: Milo Chandler\/Alamy<\/p>\n Jon Healey, the defence secretary and a South Yorkshire MP, last year opened Britain\u2019s newest weapons factory in Sheffield, where BAE Systems makes M777 howitzers destined for Ukraine.<\/p>\n Nearby, Sheffield Forgemasters, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2021, produces steel for submarines.<\/p>\n More controversially, a firm that supplies parts for F-35 fighter jets, used by Israel among others, has a site near Meadowhall shopping centre. Protesters claim to have shut down the factory twice last year.<\/p>\n Jim O\u2019Neill, the former Treasury minister and one of Britain\u2019s leading economists, hailed the region\u2019s turnaround as \u201cinspiring\u201d, comparing it to Manchester when it started taking off nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill, who sits on Coppard\u2019s advisory board, points to the growth of Barnsley and Doncaster, two of the UK\u2019s fastest growing cities economically according to research<\/a> published in January.<\/p>\n He cautioned, however, that South Yorkshire could not rest its future solely on bombs and blockbusters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great gift for South Yorkshire in the near term [but] the mood can change so dramatically on these things,\u201d he said<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not entirely obvious to me a decade from now it will be so fashionable to think we need to boost defence spending.\u201d<\/p>\n Coppard, who was elected in 2022, will next week unveil plans to bring thousands of jobs and new homes to the Don Valley corridor, the UK\u2019s first investment region, which links Sheffield to Rotherham.<\/p>\n His plans include the former Orgreave site, where striking miners faced brutal policing in 1984, and now hosts Rolls-Royce, Mclaren and Boeing\u2019s only European manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n The proof of South Yorkshire\u2019s success, though, will only become clear in years to come. It relies on the area\u2019s young people choosing to stay in the region for high-skilled jobs and, crucially, a public transport system that can get them to work on time.<\/p>\n