Actor and presenter Craig Charles said his latest work had given him a chance to reflect on the city which shaped him.

Charles’ new spoken word piece pays tribute to his home city of Liverpool in honour of National Poetry Day.

His performance coincides with the 50th anniversary of him winning a poetry competition aged 12, which he said had changed his life.

“I was just reacting to what was going on,” he said. “Reacting to the riots, reacting to Thatcher, reacting to police harassment, reacting to poverty.

“Liverpool was getting kicked to pieces at that time.”

By the age of 16, Charles was performing at Liverpool’s Everyman Bistro basement venue, which was known for its open-mic events.

Within a year, he was performing his poetry on BBC 2 show Riverside.

“I just got stuck into that and started shouting from the rooftops my opinion on things,” he said.

“I was quite an angry young man, I suppose, but for some reason it resonated with people.”

He described how Liverpool’s “really vibrant” music and poetry scene was a reflection of the city’s reaction to hardship.

“Liverpool has always had a different kind of attitude, especially to adversity,” he said.

“We make something out of it, we make a song, make a poem, make a football chant.

“We do something with it, and we’ve always had the gift of the gab.”

He said poetry was in “Merseyside’s DNA”.

Charles’ new work traces through Liverpool’s cultural history following the split of The Beatles.

It references a number of the city’s poets, the punk explosion and bands and clubs of the time.

“There was so much stuff going on in Liverpool when I was a lad,” he said.

“It was all part of the same argument… it all came from this city of ours that is just such a melting pot, so full of ideas, so full of warmth, and so full of wit.”

Charles’ poem featured as part of BBC Radio 6 Music’s Way With Words event, a day of programming marking National Poetry Day on Thursday.

Watch Charles perform his new poem, Liverpool Rocks., external

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