Morning in the Streets

Morning in the Streets
Directed by	Denis Mitchell Roy Harris
Written by	Frank Shaw (research)
Cinematography	Roy Harris Gerry Pullen, Graham Turner, Ted Wallbank
Edited by	Donald James
Music by	Thomas Henderson Melos Ensemble Tommy Reilly (Harmonica)
Distributed by	BBC Northern Films Unit
Release date	25 March 1959 (1959-03-25)
Running time	35 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Morning in the Streets is a 1959 BBC television documentary directed by Denis Mitchell and Roy Harris. ^[1] It was produced by the BBC Northern Film Unit and was first broadcast on 25 March 1959. ^{[2] [3]}

The documentary was described simply as "an impression of life and opinion in the back streets of a northern city in the morning". ^[2] It is an impressionistic slice-of-life documentary, featuring footage of working-class people and street scenes, accompanied by a montage soundtrack of voices conveying opinions and philosophies on life. The film was researched by a writer on Liverpool life and dialect, Frank Shaw.

The music was specially composed by Thomas Henderson and Liverpool songwriter Stan Kelly, and featured the harmonica of classical musician Tommy Reilly.

The Talking Streets

The Talking Streets was a radio feature produced by Denis Mitchell for the BBC North Region, as part of his People Talking series, and broadcast on 27 October 1958. The programme was a kaleidoscope of voices, sounds and stories recorded by Mitchell using a portable tape recorder. These recordings provided the inspiration and the basis of the soundtrack for Morning in the Streets.^{[ citation needed ]}

Revivals

The film was shown on BBC Four in 2008 as part of the Liverpool on the Box season to coincide with the city being European Capital of Culture, and again in September 2010.^{[ citation needed ]} It was then further repeated in July 2011 on BBC Four as part of the "Britain through a Lens" season.c^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "Morning in the Streets". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
2. Russell, Patrick (2003–14). "Morning in the Streets (1959)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
3. "Morning in the Streets". BBC Programme Index. Archived from the original on 23 January 2025. Retrieved 26 December 2024.

External links

• Morning in the Streets at the BBC Archive
• Morning in the Streets BBC Liverpool article
• Morning in the Streets at BBC Online
• Morning in the Streets (1959) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline website