A five-metre by five-metre mural celebrating Smoggie Queens has been unveiled in Middlesbrough town centre, putting the show’s stars on a wall in the heart of the town’s shopping area just days before the comedy returns for its second series on 15 May.
The artwork, created by Middlesbrough artist Stephen Irving, who works as Zero Gradient, shows Dickie, Mam, Lucinda, Sal and Stewart in character in front of the Tees Transporter Bridge. The commissioned it as part of its Made Of Here campaign, and Middlesbrough Council owns the wall at the Cleveland Centre on Grange Road where it has been installed.
That location matters. The mural is being used not just as a piece of local fan art but as a marker of how much the broadcaster is leaning into the region around the show. The says it has committed a further £15m of investment by 2027, taking total Network TV commissioning spend in the North East to at least £40m, with the unveiling landing alongside other regional activity including the Academy’s Production Unlocked event in Newcastle on 21 May and Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland from 22 to 24 May.
Smoggie Queens itself is written by Phil Dunning, an RTS winner and BAFTA nominee from Middlesbrough, and it is filmed and set in the town. Series two brings back Dickie, Mam, Lucinda, Sal and Stewart in the Boro, keeping the story rooted in the same streets and landmarks that the mural now turns into a public display.
Gregor Sharp said everyone involved was over the moon when they heard the idea for a mural, and that the final design had delivered. He said seeing the five characters immortalised alongside the Tees Transporter Bridge, right in their home town, was fantastic, and added that the was proud to have commissioned a show that is filmed in, set in and unmistakably made of Middlesbrough. He also said fans should visit the mural, take selfies and check out the show.
Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke said the series is full of the humour and personality of Middlesbrough and that the council was pleased to support the mural. Dunning said some of the best things about making Smoggie Queens had been filming in his old haunts, employing talented people from the area and shining a light on the creativity in Boro, and called the finished mural mint. The open question now is not whether the town has claimed the show — it plainly has — but how far the second series can carry that local energy when it lands on iPlayer and Three on 15 May.
