Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Dec 19, 2021 22:28:42 GMT
I think this might have been mentioned in here before and I hadn't seen it, but I noticed it was on BBC4 a couple of weeks back so I recorded it and I've just watched it, and it's very good.
Filmed in Lower Broughton, Salford in 72/3, late 72 at a guess, and it's a great reminder of what Manchester was like at Life on Mars time, it's just how I remember it. My gran lived in a terraced house just like those and I used to spend quite a bit of time there then, the women wearing headscarves and rummaging around on market stalls for stuff, an orange and white Selnec bus on a 73 to Whitefield (travelled on that a few times) it was an ex Salford City Transport Daimler, the scruffy taxi office, there was one just like that near us.
The cast were great, Liz Smith as a fed up middle aged cleaning lady, Clifford Kershaw as her grumpy husband (Sweeney face, Loving Arms) Alison Steadman, Bernard Hill and Ben Kingsley.
A couple of motors, a Mark 2 Cortina and a Rover P4.
Recommended if it's on.
Watching this now it seems like a long time ago, but I can very clearly and easily remember life then
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on Dec 19, 2021 22:52:52 GMT
Filmed in Lower Broughton, Salford in 72/3, late 72 at a guess, and it's a great reminder of what Manchester was like at Life on Mars time, it's just how I remember it. My gran lived in a terraced house just like those and I used to spend quite a bit of time there then, the women wearing headscarves and rummaging around on market stalls for stuff, an orange and white Selnec bus on a 73 to Whitefield (travelled on that a few times) it was an ex Salford City Transport Daimler, the scruffy taxi office, there was one just like that near us. Will have to check it out. I had an Auntie who lived in Lower Broughton around that time and a trip there was always a big adventure in the early 70s as a kid. I could sit for ages watching the world go by from the 10th floor of the high rise, the orange Selnec busses going over the bridge by the Irwell and an impressive looking Victorian building with a tower close by which I later found out was Strangeways ! |
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Dec 19, 2021 23:16:39 GMT
Remember going home on the 73 through Lower Broughton a couple of times in the 70s, probably late 77, after school, so it was dark. I had been to Manchester for some reason and usually got the train home to Radcliffe, but went home by bus which went up Leicester Road and Bury Old Road to Whitefield.
Selnec and Greater Manchester Transport s orange and white buses were great, cheap fares too.
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Post by Charles Bronson on Dec 20, 2021 8:46:35 GMT
I've just checked the BBCiplayer and its still available for viewing for another 17 days. I will have a look at it.Thanks Cartman  |
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Post by Steve Austin on Dec 20, 2021 20:10:05 GMT
It's on the "Mike Leigh At The BBC" DVD Box Set which I can heartily recommend. It also features "Nuts In May, "Abigails Party" & his 5 minute shorts.  |
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Dec 20, 2021 23:41:00 GMT
Mike Leigh's most serious tv play ( that I can think of at least, I've not seen 'Four Days In July' which concerns the Troubles ), very little of his trademark humour in it, a depressing film when you think of the wives & mothers living such miserable lives, taken for granted by their husbands & children. I think I read that Leigh based the horrible woman who Liz Smith cleans for on his own mother.
No doubt The League Of Gentlemen based the 'posh' woman character Mrs Levinson & the woman who cleans for her on this play as you can see much of Mike Leigh in other LOG characters, the toad couple & their 'in this house' dialogue is taken from 'Nuts In May'. Like Mike Leigh LOG writer Jeremy Dyson claims he based the characters on his mother & her cleaner. My gut tells me he just copied it from Hard Labour.
As Steve says his tv plays are well worth watching, much better I think than his feature films.
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The Saint
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Swinging London - 1967
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Post by The Saint on Dec 20, 2021 23:44:37 GMT
Sounds interesting Cartman, I will take a look at this 👍
The Saint
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Dec 21, 2021 8:06:08 GMT
Mike Leigh's most serious tv play ( that I can think of at least, I've not seen 'Four Days In July' which concerns the Troubles ), very little of his trademark humour in it, a depressing film when you think of the wives & mothers living such miserable lives, taken for granted by their husbands & children. I think I read that Leigh based the horrible woman who Liz Smith cleans for on his own mother.
No doubt The League Of Gentlemen based the 'posh' woman character Mrs Levinson & the woman who cleans for her on this play as you can see much of Mike Leigh in other LOG characters, the toad couple & their 'in this house' dialogue is taken from 'Nuts In May'. Like Mike Leigh LOG writer Jeremy Dyson claims he based the characters on his mother & her cleaner. My gut tells me he just copied it from Hard Labour.
As Steve says his tv plays are well worth watching, much better I think than his feature films.
Yes I've noticed the similarities between Nuts in May and The League of Gentlemen. I think also that the supervisor in Hard Labour who was telling Clifford Kershaw off for the wrong tie was a bit like Pauline from the job centre |
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Dec 21, 2021 19:15:43 GMT
I like Clifford Kershaw, I've only seen him in four things, Loving Arms, series 3 of The Sweeney, Sweeney 2, Ripping Yarns, and Hard Labour. I think he was really good as middle aged and ordinary northern blokes. He was just typical of old boys you used to run into all the time in the 60s and 70s. Sadly this generation will probably have died out now.
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