Morning in the Streets

Last updated

Morning in the Streets
Directed by
Written by Frank Shaw (research)
CinematographyRoy Harris
Gerry Pullen, Graham Turner, Ted Wallbank
Edited byDonald James
Music by
Distributed by BBC Northern Films Unit
Release date
  • 25 March 1959 (1959-03-25)
Running time
35 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Morning in the Streets is a BBC television documentary directed by Denis Mitchell and Roy Harris in 1959, for the BBC Northern Film Unit. It was broadcast on 25 March 1959. [1]

Contents

The documentary was described simply as "an impression of life and opinion in the back streets of a northern city in the morning". [1] 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.

Recent revivals

It 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. It was then further repeated in July 2011 on BBC Four as part of the "Britain through a Lens" season.

Related Research Articles

<i>Till Death Us Do Part</i> British television sitcom (1965–1975)

Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom for six episodes, calling it Till Death.... The BBC produced a sequel from 1985 until 1992, In Sickness and in Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Wood</span> British comedian (1953–2016)

Victoria Wood was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul McGann</span> English actor

Paul John McGann is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial The Monocled Mutineer (1986), then starred in the dark comedy Withnail and I (1987), which was a critical success and developed a cult following. McGann later became more widely known for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 television film Doctor Who, and its audio drama continuations. He is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush in the TV series Hornblower (1998–2003).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITV Granada</span> Channel 3 regional service for North West England

ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Norden</span> English writer

Denis Mostyn Norden was an English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during the Second World War. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir. Muir and Norden remained associated for more than 50 years, appearing regularly together on the radio panel programmes My Word! and My Music after they stopped collaborating on scripts. He also wrote scripts for Hollywood films. He presented television programmes on ITV for many years, including the nostalgia quiz Looks Familiar and blooper shows It'll be Alright on the Night and Laughter File.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Aherne</span> English actress, comedian and writer (1963–2016)

Caroline Mary Aherne was an English actress, comedian, writer and director. She was best known for performing as the acerbic chat show host Mrs Merton, in various roles in The Fast Show, and as Denise in The Royle Family (1998–2012), a series which she co-wrote. She won BAFTA awards for her work on The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family.

Alan George Bleasdale is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels. Bleasdale's plays typically represented a more realistic, contemporary depiction of life in Liverpool than was usually seen in the media.

<i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> (British TV programme) British TV series or programme

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. It starred Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence and André Morell.

<i>Armchair Theatre</i> British TV drama series (1956–1974)

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968.

John Richard Hopkins was an English film, stage, and television writer.

<i>The Grove Family</i> British TV soap opera (1954–1957)

The Grove Family was a British television series soap opera, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and broadcast by the BBC Television Service from 1954 to 1957. The series concerned the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's Lime Grove Studios where the programme was made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terence Davies</span> British film director and screenwriter (1945–2023)

Terence Davies was a British screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films, including Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008), as well as the literary adaptations The Neon Bible (1995), The House of Mirth (2000), The Deep Blue Sea (2011) and Sunset Song (2015). His final two feature films were centered around the lives of influential literary figures, Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion (2016) and Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction (2021). Davies was considered by some critics as one of the great British directors of his period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Griffith</span> Welsh actor (1921–2006)

Kenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker. His outspoken views made him a controversial figure, especially when presenting documentaries which have been called "among the most brilliant, and controversial, ever made in Britain".

No Trams to Lime Street is a 1959 British television play, written by the Welsh playwright Alun Owen for the Armchair Theatre anthology series. Produced by ABC Weekend TV for transmission on the ITV network, the play was broadcast on 18 October 1959. The original version no longer exists.

Sir Horace Shango Ové was a Trinidadian-born British filmmaker, photographer, painter and writer based in London, England. One of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain in the post-war period, Ové was the first black British filmmaker to direct a feature-length film, Pressure (1976). In its retrospective documentary 100 Years of Cinema, the British Film Institute (BFI) declared: "Horace Ové is undoubtedly a pioneer in Black British history and his work provides a perspective on the Black experience in Britain."

Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson with Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza Mazzetti, the movement began with a programme of three short films at the National Film Theatre, London on 5 February 1956. The programme was such a success that five more programmes appeared under the ‘Free Cinema’ banner before the founders decided to end the series. The last event was held in March 1959. Three of the screenings consisted of work from overseas filmmakers.

<i>Whickers World</i> TV series or program

Whicker's World was a British television documentary series that ran from 1959 to 1994, presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker.

Denis Mitchell was a British documentary filmmaker, known for his radio and television documentaries. His radio and television career can broadly be characterised by the constant interest Mitchell displayed in "giving voice to the voiceless" and in the rhythms and prosody of everyday vernacular speech.

<i>Benefits Street</i> British documentary series

Benefits Street is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 4. It followed the lives of benefit claimants and showed them committing crimes, including a demonstration of how to shoplift, and portrayed a situation in which people are dependent on benefits and voluntarily refuse to seek employment.

This is a timeline of the history of Granada Television, and of the television interests of its former owner Granada plc.

References

  1. 1 2 Russell, Patrick (2003–14). "Morning in the Streets (1959)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 28 July 2020.