The Skinny
Cerebral Manchester-based comic Sean Morley unearths a little-known feminist gem Feature by Sean Morley | 12 Apr 2021
I read about
The Rag Trade years ago. A 1960s workplace sitcom about female textile workers with the punchline that they’re always going on strike. It sounds interesting! It sounds risky! Sometimes when delving too far back in the archives of 20th century comedy the best you can hope for is an artifact best viewed with the humorless curiosity of an archaeologist meticulously brushing silt off a cacked glob of bronze, and the worst is a low-res bigotry winceathon.
In researching this article I watched the original 1961 series of
These include That ll Be The Day, Something To Hide, Endless Night, Victoria and Abdul and Fragile. A much rarer film, the thriller I Met A Murderer, starring James Mason, was shot here in 1939. This has recently been shown twice on the Talking Pictures TV channel. The final exciting police chase was filmed in Whale Chine, near Atherfield, and other shots were taken at various Island locations. Very little is known about this movie, which was also released in America. Luckily, when the late Military Road farmer Sylvia Jones made the first of her five appearances on my IW Radio show John Hannam Meets, she could clearly remember much more than anyone else.