Eli Woods

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 team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.

In the summer of 1947, Britain prepares to commemorate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. To get around food-rationing laws, Dr. Charles Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Frank Lockwood are fattening a black-market pig for the big day. Egged on by his wife, meek Gilbert Chilvers steals the swine, but the couple must conceal it from inspector Morris Wormold.

Grand Challenge pie-eating contest : ' Winner finishes most whole pies off the belt in half-an-hour. Ties decided on a raw cabbage '. The Bedworth Hog faces tough competition.

The Twiggs are a typical working-class family: Sam (Jack Warner) and Mary (Marjorie Rhodes) are trying to bring their family up in the shadow of the Blitz whilst taking everything in good humour. Their neighbours Joe (Charles Victor) and Emma (Gladys Henson) are constantly in the Twiggs house, borrowing a cup of sugar or using their Anderson shelter and between them the two working class families put the world to rights. But when their daughter falls for an upper class RAF pilot the Twiggs are asked by his mother, Lady Diana Stephens to tell their daughter to call the romance off, as the social gap between the families is too large. Incensed by Lady Diana s offer of money, Sam Twigg throws her out of the house. But events take a sudden turn as the war enters the Twiggs own living room. Will the two families manage to overcome their disdain for each other and let true love find its way?

In Over the Garden Wall, a working class couple (Jimmy James and Norman Evans) are planning to give their only daughter and their new GI son-in-law a right Northern welcome. As always, though, riotous trouble starts to flare up when a young man starts to flirt with James and Evans's daughter!