Mancunian Films

Mancunian Films was a British film production company first organised in 1934. From 1947 it was based in Rusholme, a suburb of Manchester, 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 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!'' (1934), starring the variety entertainer George Formby 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; 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, a former Methodist Chapel on Dickenson Road in Rusholme, 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 (NFFC), which provided grants to support independent British studios.

Beginning with ''Cup-tie Honeymoon'' (1948) starring Sandy Powell, over the next six years the films went on to feature northern favourites Frank Randle, Josef Locke, Diana Dors, and Jimmy 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 in Manchester (''""'' being a slang term for unoriginal, poor-quality humour).

The studio, often working on shoestring budgets, was profitable. The cinematographic 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, expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of Mancunian's comedy productions; of ''Over the Garden Wall'' (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 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
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