KYNREN kicks off tomorrow night and at the preview last weekend, I was surprised by the flamboyance and prominence of Bishop Antony Bek. He declaims magnificently from a podium while behind him, pavilions – those rounded, knightly tents – light up beautifully and in front of him knights on horseback charge at full pelt and set the targets spinning with their lances.

His part of the performance leads into a full scale battle between the English and the Scots in which the Scottish bagpipes ignite with fireworks flying out of their pipery.

I wondered if Bek's portrayal was just one of the volunteer “Archers” over-acting and grabbing his moment in the spotlight, but, no, the bishop really was as flamboyant as he is portrayed. He was known as the “magnanimous bishop”, more of a warrior than a churchman, renowned for his charisma, his bravery and his exuberant extravagance.

He became Bishop of Durham in 1283 and transformed Auckland Castle “in a most sumptuous way” so that it, rather than Durham Castle, became his main residence. He liked it because it was closer to his great sporting and hunting grounds in Weardale.

He became the second most important person in the kingdom after Edward I and in 1290, when the Scots were short of a king, he pushed successfully for John Balliol, the lord of Barnard Castle, to take the Scottish throne.

This did not go too well. The Scottish nobles called the Barney boy “Toom Tabard”, or the empty coat, and deposed him. Edward I sent Bek in with an army to put the Scots in their place, and then the king and the bishop went off to Europe to wage war there.

In their absence, William Wallace invaded the North-East, reaching Hexham. Bek flew back, raised 140 knights and 1,000 foot soldiers from Durham and, marching under the banner of St Cuthbert, defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk.

Bek, though, had failed to look after Durham properly, and in 1302, the prior rebelled against him. This led to Bek laying siege to Durham cathedral for three days with his Weardale heavies, the monks shut up inside with three loaves and 16 herrings between them. The king became involved, the pope became involved, and the king decided to confiscate Bek’s land.

Fortunately for the bishop, the king then died, and Bek got to conduct his funeral in Westminster Abbey. The new king, Edward II, restored Bek’s land and fortune and so for the last years of his life, the bishop ruled the North-East in the manner of a prince.

He died in 1311, was buried in the cathedral and Edward II so liked his Weardale stud of 240 horses that he took them as his own.

No wonder the Scots’ bagpipes explode into flaming fireworks when they do battle with the flamboyant bishop.

I FELL in with a senior member of the Labour Party in County Durham this week who told me how amazed he was at the Corbyn effect. He had noticed that since the election, loads of people have taken to dying their hair red and this he put down to their adulation of his party’s leader. He’s certainly correct that redheads – well, the colour is more of a pinky-purpley hue than a pillar box red – are everywhere at the moment. On Darlington’s High Row yesterday, there was even a young male with a red top. Is this the Corbyn effect, or is the Corbyn effect just a passing fashion?