Written by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), this is the heartbreakingly funny play, base on a true story, about a group of Northumberland coal miners who in 1934 sign up for a union-sponsored art appreciation course and become the darlings of the UK art set, sponsored and promoted by a wealthy heiress.

Following a sellout run at both the Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2007 and its transfer to the Royal National Theatre, it returned to the National for a limited season a UK tour. A Broadway production opened in September 2010 and featured the original cast. The Pitmen Painters opened in London’s West End in October 2011