Mancunian Films was a British film production company first organised in 1934. From 1947 it was based in
Rusholme
Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, England, two miles south of the city centre. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north, Victoria Park and Longsight to the east, F ...
, a suburb of
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, and produced a number of comedy films, mostly aimed at audiences in the
North of England.
History
Founded by
John E. Blakeley, the company produced films in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on extremely low-budgets. Blakeley's first studio consisted of a single soundstage in a loft space above a taxi garage. Whenever the filmmakers wanted to shoot a scene, they would first have to signal the mechanics below to stop working, so the noise from below wouldn't register on the soundtracks. Blakeley's first production was ''
Boots! Boots!
''Boots! Boots!'' is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Bert Tracy and starring George Formby, Beryl Formby, and Arthur Kingsley. It was made by Blakeley's Productions, Ltd. (later Mancunian Films) at the Albany Studios in London.Richards ...
'' (1934), starring the variety entertainer
George Formby
George Formby, (born George Hoy Booth; 26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he s ...
in his first released film. Production values were so low that some scenes were filmed in semi-darkness, to hide the lack of set decorations. Despite the limitations, the debut film was a huge success in the regions, recouping Blakeley's investment several times over and launching George Formby as Britain's leading screen comedian. Within the year "Blakeley's Productions, Ltd." had become "The Mancunian Film Distributors, Ltd". Blakeley initially used facilities like
Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.
Having closed for redevelopment i ...
; the films were released via
Butcher's Films.
Dickenson Road Studios
Escalating costs and a desire to cater for the robust tastes of northern industrial audiences led to the establishment of the two-stage facility
at
Dickenson Road Studios
Dickenson Road Studios was a film and television studio in Rusholme, Manchester, in North-West England. It was originally set up in 1947 in a former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel by the film production company Mancunian Films and was acquired by B ...
, a former Methodist Chapel on Dickenson Road in
Rusholme
Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, England, two miles south of the city centre. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north, Victoria Park and Longsight to the east, F ...
, the only film studio outside the South East. The buildings were converted at a cost of £70,000 in 1947,
with funding from the
National Film Finance Corporation
The National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was a film funding agency in the United Kingdom in operation from 1949 until 1985. The NFFC was established by the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, and further enhanced by the ...
(NFFC), which provided grants to support independent British studios.
Beginning with ''
Cup-tie Honeymoon
''Cup-tie Honeymoon'' was the first motion picture to be filmed at the Dickenson Road Studios by the Mancunian Film Corporation in 1948, themed around football.
Plot summary
A business man's son (Powell) has to choose between playing for his ...
'' (1948) starring
Sandy Powell, over the next six years the films went on to feature northern favourites
Frank Randle
Frank Randle (born Arthur Hughes, also known as Arthur McEvoy or Arthur Twist; 30 January 1901 – 7 July 1957) was an English comedian. A contemporary of fellow Lancastrians George Formby and Gracie Fields, he was regarded as more subv ...
,
Josef Locke
Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 – 15 October 1999), known professionally as Josef Locke, was an Irish tenor. He was successful in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.
Background
Born in Derry, Ireland, he was the son of a ...
,
Diana Dors
Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer.
Dors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. Dors was p ...
, and
Jimmy Clitheroe
James Robinson Clitheroe (24 December 1921 – 6 June 1973) was an English comic entertainer. He is best remembered for his long-running BBC Radio programme, '' The Clitheroe Kid'' (1956–72).
Early years
Jimmy Clitheroe was born in Clitheroe ...
. The Mancunian Films production operation earned the nickname "the
Hollywood of the North", or alternatively "Jollywood", on account of its output of comedy films. Critics of Mancunian's productions dubbed the studio the "Corn Exchange", a humorous reference to the
Corn Exchange
A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...
in Manchester (''""'' being a slang term for unoriginal, poor-quality humour).
The studio, often working on shoestring budgets, was profitable. The
cinematographic
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
expertise developed in Manchester formed the foundations of
Granada Television.
In 1950, the NFFC demanded that Blakeley repay its £50,000 loan. The NFFC chairman,
Lord Reith
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
, expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of Mancunian's comedy productions; of ''
Over the Garden Wall
''Over the Garden Wall'' is an American animated television miniseries created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network. The series centers on two half-brothers who travel across a mysterious forest to find their way home, encountering a variet ...
'' (1950), Reith said it was not "of as high a quality as the Corporation would have wished". This created a funding crisis for the studio, but Blakeley managed to raise the necessary monies from profits on his movies and by hiring out the facilities at Dickenson Road to other production companies such as
Hammer Horror
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic fiction, Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of thes ...
for filming
B-movies. After overcoming these difficulties, Blakely decided to retire when he reached 65, and handed control of Mancunian Films to his son Tom Blakely.
In the 1950s, the
growing reach television and the decline of cinema's audience size, led to many film studios being converted to for television broadcasts. In London, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
in 1955. Dickenson Road Studios was bought from Mancunian by the BBC in 1954, and it became the first regional
studio outside London.
and variety programmes. The first episode of the
". The studios remained the home of ''Top of the Pops'' until 1967, when the show moved to the larger facility at Lime Grove.
The Dickenson Road building was demolished in 1975 after operations were transferred to the BBC's new building at
.
Mancunian Films Library, in storage at Kay Laboratories, was lost in a fire in 1980. Mike Blakeley, cameraman and grandson of John E. Blakeley, was reported to be attempting to find and restore all of Blakeley's films in 2003.
in promoting the detailed history of the Mancunian Film Studio via film screenings and facts about Mancunian Films and its actors.
*Williams, Philip Martin & David L. (2001) New Edition(2006) ''Hooray for Jollywood - The Life of John E. Blakeley & The Mancunian Film Corporation''
*Montgomery, J. (1969) ''Comedy Films, 1894-1954''