Mancunian Films
In the 1930s, British film producer John E. Blakeley was expanding his film production business, Blakeley's Productions Ltd. Despite the low production values of filming in unsatisfactory rented spaces, the company's film releases had helped to launch the career of the variety entertainer George Formby. Blakeley's films relaunched his company as Mancunian Films.[4]
Focussing on the northern market, Blakeley decided to establish his own studio in Manchester. In 1947, he purchased the disused church on Dickenson Road and converted the building into a two-stage film studio at a cost of £70,000, creating the first British film studio outside south-east England.[5] The studio received funding from the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC), which provided grants to support independent British studios.
Dickenson Road Studios were officially opened in 1947 at a ceremony attended by "John E." and Mancunian screen stars George Formby, Frank Randle, Norman Evans, Dan Young and Sandy Powell. The new 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 first production there was Cup-tie Honeymoon in 1948, starring Sandy Powell and featuring future Coronation Street stars Pat Phoenix and Bernard Youens.[6] It was filmed at the Dickenson Road Studios, with location filming taking place at Maine Road football stadium.[7] Over the next six years, the films featured northern favourites Frank Randle, Josef Locke, Diana Dors and Jimmy Clitheroe. The studio, often worked on shoestring budgets, was profitable, but Blakely decided to retire when he reached 65. Mancunian Films continued under Blakeley's son Tom for many years, providing facilities for Hammer Horror productions (Hell Is a City, 1960) and making a number of B-movies.[8][9]
Mancunian Films productions after 1948 included:[6]
- Cup-tie Honeymoon (1948)
- International Circus Review (1948)
- Holidays with Pay (1948)
- Showground of the North (1948)
- Somewhere in Politics (1948)
- What a Carry On (1949)
- School for Randle (1949)
- Over the Garden Wall (1950)
- Let's Have a Murder (1950)
- Love's a Luxury (1952)
- Those People Next Door (1952)
- It's a Grand Life (1953)
BBC Television
In the 1950s the growing reach of television affected the size of cinema audiences, and as the mass media market evolved, numerous film studios were taken over by emerging television broadcasters. In London, the BBC acquired Lime Grove Studios from Gainsborough Pictures in 1949 and Ealing Studios in 1955. Dickenson Road Studios was bought from Mancunian by the BBC in 1954, and it became the first regional BBC Television studio outside London.[10] Programmes made by the BBC at the studios included series starring comedian Harry Worth and variety programmes, and the studio became the production headquarters for BBC television drama in the North, being used for the production of early plays by television writers such as Alan Plater.[11][12] The studio possessed no recording facilities; the pictures were fed by landline down to London for recording and were then played back for checking at the studio.
The first episode of the pop music television show Top of the Pops
