Jimmy Jewel

Documentary featuring a cavalcade of Northern comedy stars including the great Frank Randle, George Formby, Arthur Askey, Norman Evans and many more. The North of England has always enjoyed its own very particular brand of comedy, best seen today in Coronation Street. 80 years ago however Mancunian Studios produced feature films for the northern masses. Funny Up North tells the story of the Mancunian Studios, its eccentric owner John E Blakeley and its cavalcade of stars including such household names as Arthur Askey, Jimmy Jewell, George Formby and the legendary Frank Randle. Hosted by Professor Chris Lee, the authority on northern cinema, Funny Up North takes you on a journey from its humble beginnings to its sad demise in the 1960s.

A man discovers his love for his wife as he prepares to live without her

During a visit to childhood friend Edith, retired housewife Hetty Wainthropp discovers that Edith's husband, Frank, has a son by a previous marriage. Hetty decides to turn amateur detective to trace him. When this gives her a taste for detection, Hetty decides to set up a private detective agency.

The Krays is a film based on the lives and crimes of the British gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray, twins who are often referred to as The Krays and were active in London in the 1960s.

The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a dying child's hopes and dreams, and was first published in 1845. This adaptation was made for Harlech TV and broadcast on 28th December 1986 and starred Twiggy and Roger Daltrey, and features the song 'Mistletoe and Wine' which became a Christmas number one for Cliff Richard in 1988, the biggest selling record of that year.

England, mid-1980s: Bill embarks on a dream-like odyssey around rural England, breaking into country houses, taking photos of anything that interests him, until he meets a mysterious woman in a van, who seems to be on the run from the authorities.

Arthur is the groundsman. He's a perfectionist who has lovingly tended the cricket pitch for 45 years. Now he is given a new assistant.

"I wish I could write ... about what Spain was like - a real cause. Not just Cornford, Hemingway and Orwell, but the ordinary blokes who went." A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley 's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.

Colin Pasmore tests his strength against his family ties but finds them stronger than he ever imagined.

This 1976 BBC documentary sees Ken Campbell (and his Roadshow) investigate the origins and the development of the traditional British Christmas pantomime.

Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker star in this big screen spin-off of one of ITV's most popular comedy series of all time. When the father of Eli and Nellie Pledge dies, they are left in charge of his pickle empire. The two siblings are completely different and Eli wants out of the business, but he can't leave until Nellie is married. So Eli sets about finding a husband for his old-fashioned sister.

A successful talent agent enjoys the good life until his wife leaves him. Moving in with his friend and igniting an affair with the man's wife, he also acquires a difficult new client whose public image must be preserved at any cost.

Edgar Lunt lives his life by scientific principles, that is, for every action there is a reaction. He believes that any pleasure he might have, will mean, somebody will suffer somewhere else. The result is he is not very happy at all, until Trevor, a young student,tries to show him a fresh outlook on life.

Two clumsy detectives investigating the murder of a singer scare themselves when they accidentally reveal the killer to be a respectable psychiatrist, secretly a notorious jewel-thief. A rare film venture by this top radio comedy team.

Northern comedy greats, Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, decide to enlist in the army. Their singing sergeant-major, the Irish tenor Josef Locke, misappropriates the mess funds. When he picks on Jewel and Warriss, the duo’s comic routines come thick and fast.