EP71 | Carley Armstrong | Hendon, Hustle and Heart | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit with Carley Armstrong of Sunderland - producer, filmmaker, and one of the hardest-grafting people in North East film right now. She's gone from runner to script supervisor to producer the hard way, building her own company while refusing to leave the region that made her. Hendon born, Hendon loyal - the kind of place she can still knock on any door for a cup of sugar. There's the young lass who heard Carley on BBC Radio Newcastle, messaged her on Instagram, turned up to set with her own car, and was working at the BBC five weeks later. As Carley says, an email can change your life. There's the philosophy from our Sunderland filmmaker + a proper deep dive into 50 Cent's The 50th Law as a survival guide for the industry. There's the moment she first found filmmaking and felt genuine love, family and belonging - keeping her loyal to the industry family ever since. She talks about thinking in decades not days, the strange loneliness of rising when the people who cheered you up the hill go quiet at the top, arts disappearing from schools, and why the North East only wins when we stop competing and start collaborating. And, as is tradition on Local Heroes, Carley reveals her last meal - and it's about as Sunderland as it gets. Saveloy Dip from Dicksons + a Muller's pink slice + a chip sandwich with Lurpak and red sauce. Then the Greggs order.