The Real Don Tonay, a Follow Up Post

A couple of weeks ago I received an email relating to a post I made in January about Manchester's Don Tonay. The email was from his daughter Donna and, after some back and forth, I got some answers to the questions, opinions and myths that were evident in that original post about one of Manchester's most intriguing businessmen and a key figure in the early days of Factory Records. With Donna's permission, here is the answers she provided me that shed some light on her late father.Included in this post are photographs she kindly shared with me of Don. I hope you enjoy...

I started by asking Donna just what her father's ethnic background was, given that it was the source of much confusion and conflicting opinions among the Factory set;

"My Dad always said he was from Dublin. But we are not really sure" she replied. "We know he changed his name but we don't know what it was before. My Mum has a lot of theories about that. It was either during the war to avoid going back or to get away from his family. Who knows. He would never tell you"

"He definitely was Irish. He knew Dublin like the back of his hand. I have had a DNA test and I have come back as 70% Irish so I think that was true. His friend, Phyllis, Phil Lynott's (Thin Lizzy) mum said they were neighbours when they were children in Dublin"

I asked her about Don's life prior to owning the Russell Club, home of the Factory nights;

"He opened the first blues in Moss Side called the Monton house. Engelbert Humperdinck used to try and get in every night, but he was too young so my Dad said he was throw him out most nights" 

"He owned property all over Moss Side and rented it out. If they didn't pay their rent he would smash the toilet so they had to move out. He said it was cheaper to buy a new toilet"

"When he met my mum they travelled around the country opening illegal gambling dens, as gambling was illegal in the '60s. In their place in Bristol, Cary Grant used to come in"

"It was my stepdad, who was one of the Quality Street Gang, that allegedly put the Krays back on the train (when they arrived in Manchester with an eye on taking over the city). The Thin Lizzy song, 'The Boys are Back in Town', is about them"

One thing that everyone seemed to agree upon, I said, was that Don Tonay was a handsome, tall and well-dressed gentleman. A cool man who was a world away from the blunt northern club owner stereotype played by Peter Kay in 24 Hour Party People. Donna agreed and confirmed this;

"My Dad was always well-dressed and well-spoken. He wore silk socks and handmade shoes. He was also 6ft 4". Saying that, he could always scruff it and get cracking with whatever needed doing in the clubs or many shops that he owned"

Returning to 24 Hour Party People, I asked if the family were consulted at all on the production;

"We were not consulted. A friend of mine was friend with one of the cameramen who got me onto the set where I had an argument with Tony Wilson, as my dad had only just died of a massive heart attack on the 19th September 2000 and this was November of that year when they were filming. He (Wilson) had the good grace to apologise. You see, there would be no Factory without my dad, he bankrolled it all."

Donna concluded with her belief that her mother should write a book. It's one I emphatically agree with. Hollywood film stars, music legends and gangsters, it would make for great reading!

The Real Don Tonay

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog how keen I am on the Madchester scene. When Michael Winterbottom's film 24 Hour Party People came out in 2002, I went to see it at the cinemas twice and it fast became one of my favourite films. I loved the way that the film recreated the whole scene and the immersive, bewildering world of Factory Records, populated by so many eccentric creatives and larger than life characters. However, there was one particular character who intrigued me and that was Don Tonay, the owner of the Russell Club in Moss Side.

The Real Don Tonay - photo taken from the Excavating the Reno site, 

a site dedicated to the Moss Side cellar club that Don owned in the 1970s.

In the film, Tonay is played by Peter Kay as your stereotypical northern club owner, not too dissimilar to the type of comic creations Kay is known for. But I quickly learned that this was not a truthful account of Don Tonay, a man with Irish, Italian and Jamaican heritage (a Jamaican father and Italian mother I believe, though I may be wrong) who was a much suaver and more imposing figure than the film depicts.

In Tony Wilson's suitably eccentric novelisation of the film (only Wilson would approach his own life story in such an irreverent fashion; as he says in the film "I agree with John Ford. When you have to choose between the truth and the legend - print the legend" and that's literally what he does in this book) he depicts the real Tonay thus; 

"The front door was open. They walked straight in. At the bar, cashing up, a tall, striking, late-middle-aged man in a fine cashmere overcoat. Imposing wasn't the word. Self-assured as only someone who took on the Krays and lived can be. Story was, he came from the tenements of Dublin's North Side, tough as those streets. After a slight altercation with London's premier family, he has come north"

This then, is corroboration for a bit of mythologising I had once heard in a Manchester boozer when raising the subject of Don Tonay. Rumour has it, a sage in his cups informed me, that Don Tonay had heard that the Kray twins were coming to take a look at Manchester in the late '60s. The train from London Euston arrived at Piccadilly and the brothers decamped to be met by Don and what can only be described as a posse of hard bastards. The Krays took the next train back. 

Is it true? I dunno, but I'd like it to be. Already, I'm falling into the Tony Wilson school of 'printing the legend'.

In his book, Factory: The Story of the Record Label, Mick Middles elaborates more on Tonay's 'gangster' qualities; 

"The Russell Club had numerous guises, mainly though as the PSV Club (Public Service Vehicle...no, I never understood that, either). It had made its name in later days as a suitably downbeat reggae-orientated venue handily placed, as it was, for nearby Moss Side. (Tony) Wilson had chanced upon the venue following a meeting with the owner, local 'businessman' Don Tonay. He was, in the eyes of Wilson, ' an incredible character...a civilised gangster' 

Tonay, undoubtedly, had style. He was a tall, commanding handsome man in his late forties. Each night, after prowling around the club, he would leave at precisely 1 a.m. A van would pull respectfully onto the car park. The rear door would open to reveal two beautiful prostitutes in reclining poses, between whom Tonay would stylishly flop. The door would be pulled shut and the van would cruise away into the night. Tonay's style was a throwback, of sorts, to the gangster tradition - he did have links, it was strongly rumoured, with the Kray fraternity - and most people who knew him, and knew him well enough not to cross him, regarded him as a lovely individual. One is tempted, of course, to break into Pythonesque tales of a Piranha Brothers nature; 'Oh yeah Don... he was a lovely bloke...' etc, and such cliches wouldn't be too far from the truth as Tonay ruled his patch with an iron hand, be it a loving hand or otherwise. This was, perhaps, typified by a conversation overheard at the Russell Club one night when Magazine were performing. The band's van had been cynically and pointlessly broken into in the car park. Two 'drug squad' officers, standing at the bar - drinking Red Stripe - were heard to mutter, 'Whoever broke into that van will be very sorry...very sorry indeed...pity for him that it wasn't our precinct. Don will sort them out, poor guys'

Tonay had a few other quirks. There were signs in the club that read 'NO TAMS ALLOWED'. It was difficult to know quite what this meant. However one clue could be the time Tonay wandered into the club and, spying three Jamaican guys in woolly hats, screamed 'Haaaattttts!', following which the offending articles were removed. On another occasion Tonay entered the club at 2 a.m, and two or three straggling tables remained - students mainly - only too slowly finishing their Guinnesses, smoking dope, chatting about the evening's gig.  'Don't you know how to clear a club out?' asked Tonay, his question directed at Alan Wise, his sidekick Nigel, and Wilson. Wilson answered pointedly, 'No...not really, Don'. Tonay proceeded to pick up a table, hurl it in the air and, before it crashed to the ground, screamed 'OOOOOUTTTTTTT!!!!'. The students, needless to say, filed out respectfully, silently, nervously."

Alan Wise himself had this to say in a conversation with New Order frontman Bernard Sumner, included in Sumner's memoir, Chapter and Verse;

"Don was actually quite an erudite gangster who's been involved in political activities all over Africa. He went off to be a paratrooper and had been involved with certain members of the African National Congress. He'd gone to Africa and dealt in iron pyrites. Fool's gold. Don was a fascinating character and I really took to him...he was a pirate...he was a fence. The police used to come round to his house and he'd say, 'how's things, guys?' and they'd say, 'we're broke, Don': they used to openly come round to take money, so he was still involved."

Whilst Lindsey Reade, Tony Wilson's first wife, recalls in her book, Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl, that Tonay was;

"A man of Irish gypsy descent with black wavy hair...(Don Tonay) looked like a big Mafiosi character. Tosh (Ryan) recalled accompanying Don's right-hand man to collect Don from the airport after a trip to Italy. The first thing Don said was, 'Anything happen?' '5 Mitten Street got torched,' came the reply. (This was a shebeen that Don owned.) To which Don responded, deadpan, 'Anything else?' 

So as you can see, the reality was far and away quite different from Peter Kay's interpretation in 24 Hour Party People - even though the film retained Tonay's flamboyant mode of transport home from the Russell Club each night.  

Emphatically NOT the real Don Tonay,

played by Peter Kay in 24 Hour Party People

On my special limited edition DVD of 24 Hour Party People (number 1756 of the DVD release which, of course, has a Fac number too: DVD424) there is a great extra entitled From the Factory Floor; an in-vision DVD commentary of Winterbottom's film, featuring the likes of Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), Bruce Mitchell (The Durutti Column), Martin Moscrop (ACR) and Rowetta (Happy Mondays), and chaired by the delightful Miranda Sawyer. In it, Hooky talks about Tonay and how radically different the film chose to portray him, and unconsciously challenging the Middles anecdote that made it into the movie;

"Don Tonay wasn't like that though was he? He was much more aloof, much more of a gentleman, you wouldn't catch him in the back of a van with fuckin' hookers. It's probably a good thing that he's dead, the poor bugger, otherwise we'd all have our legs chopped off for that!"

Later on, as Peter Kay makes his first appearance in the film, Sawyer asks the group to recall the real Tonay. Hooky is somewhat confused as to what Tonay's ethnicity was; "Was he black or Italian?" he asks, and Moscrop replies "Italian" "He was very dark skinned though wasn't he?" Hooky continues. "He was from Manchester, but he was of Italian descent" Moscrop concludes - which differs from Wilson's claims that he was originally from Dublin. It's left to Bruce Mitchell to fill in more detail;

"He was a very serious level. He wore like £500 suits...and a £500 suit in those days was a serious suit. He run all the blue beats, he ran all the deliveries of the beer to the blue beats, and this guy was seriously cool..." 

Mitchell then goes on to say something that is presumably libellous as the sound drops out! When it returns, he concludes with "...But he was a very charming guy as well"

The performance by Peter Kay, and the way the character is written in the film, still rankles with Hooky;

"But that's such a strange portrayal. That portrayal of him, if you knew him, is the strangest"

Ultimately, it's Moscrop who sums it up in relation to the audience;

"Everyone knows who Peter Kay is, but they don't know who Don Tonay is" 

In short, the film required the depiction of a northern club owner, Peter Kay was, at the time, playing a northern club owner in his sitcom Phoenix Nights, therefore the film cast Peter Kay, a popular comic, to more or less play himself. A case of printing the legend rather than the truth again.

Did you know Don Tonay? Do you have any stories about him? I'd love to hear from you if you do. Just drop me a line in the comment section below. 

I, Tonya (2017)

Time was, Hollywood would make a Nancy Kerrigan biopic. A story about how, an exceptional figure skater and appropriate ambassador and role model for America was heinously attacked and suffered potentially career-damaging injuries but, to the amazement of all, overcame the odds to win a silver medal at the Winter Olympics. Cue stirring music over look of triumph on the actor's face, fade to black and wait for the Oscars to roll in.

But something very interested has happened to Hollywood in that the focus has shifted. Now, the industry want to tell the morally complex stories. They're more interested in the ambiguous (anti) heroes and heroines who occupy the grey areas, or simply the out and out villains, than they are the good guys now. This approach can often fall flat on its face (Pain and Gain), other times it can divide audiences (The Wolf of Wall Street) and sometimes, it's pulled off like a triple axel. I, Tonya is that triple axel.

Everything about I, Tonya more or less works. The soundtrack is brilliant, Margot Robbie delivers an incredible performance, and there's a good balance between the drama and the humour. This last bit in particular is key, because the absurdity of what occurred in 1994 cannot be ignored. They say truth is stranger than fiction and Craig Gillespie and his screenwriter Steven Rogers certainly get that in their approach to the subject matter. Earlier this year I read Seinfeldia by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, a book that explores how the TV series Seinfeld not only impacted upon the world at large but that it also seemed to subconsciously shape it too. Was it really the reality of 1994 that a man called Newt Gingrich was in the senate and that the rivalry between two figure skaters led to a brutal yet deeply incompetent assault, Keishin Armstrong argues, or was it a Seinfeld episode? Gillespie addresses not only the bizarro situation by willfully heightening its comic potential (Paul Walter Hauser's Shawn Eckhardt is clearly a Newman-like contact of Kramer's) but by repeatedly breaking the fourth wall to acknowledge the wildly contradictory opinions expressed by the real-life protagonists. In doing so, he borrows liberally from Michael Winterbottom's excellent 24 Hour Party People. That's the kind of thing that can be very foolish to do, but if you're going to steal you may as well steal from the best, and thankfully Gillespie manages to make it work for his own purposes.  

It's not a flawless film though. It could be argued that Gillespie is too cavalier with the incidences of violence that occur throughout (and are integral to) the movie. The scenes of domestic violence are played almost comedically, as if it's just another happy-go-lucky chapter in the life of Tonya Harding and that can send out all kinds of wrong messages. This is further expounded by the fact that, in choosing to represent all sides of this conflicting tale, he allows Jeff Gillooly to dismiss any accusation that he was ever violent towards Tonya, just as later Tonya is shown to shoot at a fleeing Jeff, before turning to camera to assure us that, from her POV at least, this never actually happened. It is here that the film is most reminiscent of Winterbottom's aforementioned Factory Records biopic, with its infamous scene of Buzzcocks' Howard Devoto cleaning a toilet in which his fictional self is seen screwing Tony Wilson's first wife, Lindsay. "I don't remember this happening" he says to camera. In both films, it's a funny scene, but it ought to be remembered that these scenes stem from personal pain someone has gone through and that they only exist to act as a compromise in order to avert lawsuits. 

Likewise the film has a duty to Kerrigan that it often fails. Gillespie becomes so fixated on Tonya's story that he forgets to pay the victim in all of this the respect she deserves. It's a real shame that, for a film that was keen to address how hard a hand life had dealt a talented young woman like Tonya Harding, it didn't want to give any such due to Nancy Kerrigan. Maybe I'm a touch to sensitive but when the film was released I did have to wonder what Kerrigan made of all this sudden interest in the people who, the court found, attempted to ruin her life. Maybe the truth is Kerrigan wanted nothing to do with the movie, I don't know, and that's fine of course and totally understandable too, but Gillespie ought to have known when to draw the line at some of the opinions expressed in Rogers' screenplay purportedly from Harding herself.

Overall, it might not have got the full marks from the judges, but I, Tonya comes damn close. I really enjoyed this and I think Robbie thoroughly deserved her Oscar nomination and probably should have got it with her performance here. I wish I could say the same about Allison Janney who did pick up the gong for Best Supporting Actress. Don't get me wrong, she's really great in it, but it's an easy Oscar win for a part that has all the work already done for a performer. The Academy love those grouchy scene stealing turns.

RIP Kenny Baker

Veteran actor Kenny Baker, the 3ft 8in star behind Star Wars' most loveable robot R2-D2 has died after a long respiratory illness at the age of 81.

Birmingham born Baker played his most famous, much loved role in six Star Wars films; the original trilogy and the three prequels from 1999 to 2005 and was serving as a consultant for the latest Star Wars films whilst actor Jimmy Vee took on the role he made famous. A fan favourite, he appeared at conventions across the world.

But there was more to Kenny Baker than R2-D2; indeed his own favourite role was as Fidget in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. Other films Baker appeared in included Flash Gordon, Mona Lisa, Amadeus, The Elephant Man, Labyrinth, Willow, Sleeping Beauty and 24 Hour Party People. He also appeared in TV series such as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and in several comedy shows featuring the likes of Dave Allen, Russ Abbott, Dick Emery, Ben Elton, Ken Dodd and Little and Large.

Baker was a talented vaudevillian and, with fellow little person Jack Purvis, formed the musical comedy double act The Mini Tones in the 1960s touring the clubs and pubs. Purvis would later star with him in the Handmade films Time Bandits and Mona Lisa. Baker met his wife Eileen through a television appearance on the Michael Parkinson chat show; she wrote in explaining that she was a little person too and would like to meet him and the pair got married soon after, the relationship lasting until her death twenty years ago.

Baker lived in Preston (a fact made famous in 6 Music DJ Shaun Keaveny's 2010 book, R2-D2 Lives In Preston) and following respiratory and mobility complications in recent years was cared for by his nephew, Drew Myerscough, who relates a 'normal, down to earth guy' who had 'a liking for lasagne and wildlife documentaries' 

RIP

Good Vibrations (2012)

If you were ever looking for the middle ground between Michael Winterbottom's Factory Records biopic Twenty Four Hour Party People and Yann Demange's Troubles set thriller '71, you can now say you have finally found it with Good Vibrations - Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn's film about Belfast's godfather of punk, Terri Hooley. 

Terri Hooley is what you'd call a character. An idealist with the best of intentions and a firm conviction, at the height of The Troubles he decided to singlehandedly draw people back out from the cracks and unite the divisions by the power of music alone. He did this by opening up a record store on Great Victoria Street, a dilapidated war torn street that was known to all as 'Bomb Alley', which led in turn to a label putting out music from Rudi, The Outcasts and, most famously, bringing The Undertones' hit single Teenage Kicks to the masses. 

Or as Hooley puts it;

"Good Vibrations is not just a record shop. It's not just a label. It's a way of life" 

This film made its network premiere on BBC2 last weekend and it is a wonderfully cheerful, optimistic, warm and  immensely likeable movie whose title couldn't be any more apt - it really does have 'good vibrations'. There's something genuinely uplifting about Hooley's spirit - brought vividly and lovably to life by Richard Dormer - as he defiantly goes about bringing joy and shelter from the miseries of Sectarian life and boots on the ground British rule, even if his entrepreneurial skills and business sense could leave Factory's Tony Wilson shaking his head. Tellingly, 24HPP's producer Andrew Eaton also produced this biopic and this film shares both that one's wit and vitality as well as a similar (real life) story trajectory. It's also laugh out loud funny in places and boasts a great performance from the lovely Jodie Whittaker as Dormer's long suffering wife as well as a series of cameos from the likes of Dylan Moran, Adrian Dunbar and Liam Cunningham.

Really not at all convinced by the guy playing John Peel though!

Spike Island (2013)

Ok, I'm probably rating this far higher than it deserves I know. But you know what, I vote films on two levels; on the one hand there's critical overview and on the other there's just sheer enjoyment, with a little bit of added sentimentality too. Spike Island, and the reason I'm rating it as I am, is definitely down to the latter.

The coming of age story is simple; a bunch of Mancunian scallies and wannabe rockstars attempt to gain entry to their idols, The Stone Roses, now legendary but equally shit gig at the Widnes chemical hinterland Spike Island in May 1990.  And that's it.

The cast includes familiar faces like Shameless star Elliot Tittensor as the appropriately named Tits, star of The Village Nico Mirallegro,  Game of Thrones Emilia Clarke (near unrecognisable without the white hair and dragons...and with her kit on!) Matthew McNulty, Chris Coghill (who also wrote the film) Lesley Manville, Steve Evets, Michael Socha, Philip Jackson, Trollied's Nick Blood, Danny Cunnigham and Paul Popplewell - who had previously played The Ryders in 24 Hour Party People, alongside Coghill's Bez - and a blink and you'll miss her cameo from the divine Jodie Whittaker as a petrol station cashier in Wigan. Believe me, if the likes of Jodie Whittaker lived up the road from me in Wigan I'd be there all the fucking time!

This is a slice of life I'm all too familiar with - especially being wedged inbetween the two giants Manchester and Liverpool, not a million miles away from Widnes. I was a little too young to be totally mad fer it in 1990 (I was more like the little junior baggies who rate the band Shadowcastre here) so I can't admit to schlepping up to Spike Island. But I knew Spike Island, I still do. It isn't just the association it has now thanks to the Stone Roses. Hell, one of my first girlfriends was from stinky Widnes! The little nostalgic touches like seeing GM buses again really struck a chord with me. And I definitely recall our class at school shouting 'Hammer time!' after the teacher screamed 'Stop' at us, just like the main characters do here!

Directed by Mat Whitecross and written by Chris Coghill, this is Coghill's second cinematic attempt at capturing the Madchester scene, the first being his pill popping ode Weekender. Spike Island is definitely a better movie than that hit and miss but still charming enough effort and for my money, was a genuinely fun and nostalgic way to pass an hour and forty minutes. It's just a shame that this labour of love wasn't allowed a tighter script. It feels like a good enough first draft that just needed a little more attention. But you know what,  is it a truly great film? No. Is it enjoyable? Yes. Yes it is.

Buzzing!

Out On Blue Six : Karl Denver

Karl Denver, performing 'Wimoweh' live at Granada TV's The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club in 1975

As seen in the film 24 Hour Party People

I'm nothing if not willfully eclectic and obscure!

End Transmission

Breaking Glass (1980)

They don't make 'em like this any more.

No seriously they don't. Whatever happened to the band film? The semi autobiographical movie of a pop/rock star roughly playing themselves? They just don't get made now.

Breaking Glass is the 1980 film that looks at the post punk/new wave scene in London at the time. Real life new wave artiste Hazel O'Connor (using her own hits as the soundtrack of the film) plays Kate, an aspiring young singer looking for a band, management and a record deal. She gets a band including a young Jonathan Pryce as an inoffensive, sensitive heard of hearing heroin using sax player, and The Bill's Mark Wingett on bass, a manager in the shape of small time hustler with big dreams, Phil Daniels (reuniting with fellow Quadrophenia star Wingett) and during the course of the film, she gets a record deal...but the highs are soon overtaken by the lows in a film that is essentially a post punk A Star Is Born. 

There's nothing new here, it takes a standard rags to riches to rags story and adds a different flavour reflecting the music taste of the time. Indeed where the film is truly interesting is in depicting that time; It's the winter of discontent, tired Callaghan's last gasp and the horror of Maggie's breaking dawn. The film takes great pains at pointing out just what a mess we were in, referencing short supplies and industrial action. Indeed, the whole country, virtually every industry seems to be/is shown as being on strike and we're shown that petrol is low (O'Connor's Kate is working at a station in one of the early scenes that is only serving regular customers because of the short supply) It's also a deeply racist period, with the rise of youth fascism on the fringes of the punk scene. This is conveyed (occasionally a little too earnestly it must be said, though it's a hard heart who holds that against the film) with scenes of pogoing seig heiling skinheads at the band's early pub gigs and later, when they play on the back of a truck at a Rock Against Racism type event which is swiftly overcome by the NF. It's here that she witnesses the stabbing (Altamount style) of a young skinhead played by Only Fools and Horses own Mickey Pearce, an event which sets her on course for a nervous breakdown and the dissolution of the band.

It's the film's attempts at highlighting the bleak times, with the use of real inner city urban locations and the nature of the racist element to the music scene and the industrial actions that puts me in mind of the later 24 Hour Party People's scenes which focused on Joy Division.

I last saw this film about 10 years ago (just a couple of years after seeing Hazel live on the Beyond Breaking Glass tour) and on this rewatch it's still an enjoyable experience. Perhaps because I saw it long after its release, there's an extra enjoyment in spotting familiar faces who went on to bigger things; as well as those already mentioned here you'll also see Peter Hugo Daly as the band's drummer, Janine Duvitski working alongside O'Connor at the petrol station, Richard Griffiths as a sound engineer, Mark Wing Davey as a DJ, Jim Broadbent as a striking railywayman, Derek Thompson (Casualty's Charlie) as an A+R man and the legendary Ken Campbell as a pub landlord. There's even a young Jonathan Ross in the crowd scenes at the anti racism concert!

As the film is a music piece, Hazel O'Connor is planted slap bang in the middle of it and it is her acting and her music that is essentially expected to carry it. It is of course the music aspect where she utterly shines, coming into her own with the straight singing performances, both in the more low key situations and also when the band hit it big (with one massive gig where she seems to be wearing what looks like a prototype Tron outfit!) The music, all O'Connor's work, is also rather good - though it's admittedly to my taste, and certainly was so ten years back when I first saw it - and produced by the legend that is Tony Visconti. But whilst it's fair to say that O'Connor was never going to win Oscars she is by no means a poor actor;  She has great chemistry with Phil Daniels as her manager and on/off boyfriend and later with suave Jon Finch who attempts to muscle in on Daniels interests in the band, and her character is convincing and likeable which is no surprise as she's essentially playing a version of herself.

Out On Blue Six : New Order

End Transmission

King Of Soho

First glimpse of the new Michael Winterbottom/Steve Coogan movie, The King Of Soho which chronicles the life of porn baron and property mogul Paul Raymond.

I have to say, I cannot wait for this. I think Coogan does his best film work with Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People is one of my all time favourite films, and he also did A Cock And Bull Story and The Trip with him) Like 24 Hour Party People this promises once again to be a fun look at the life and career of an extraordinary man at the fore of what certain aspects of the nation desired over some heady culturally important decades.

It also stars Anna Friel as Jean Raymond, his first wife, Tamsin Egerton as his girlfriend and sexploitation star Fiona Richmond and Imogen Poots as his daughter. 

In The Year Of Our Lord 1980

Antagonism between old Raging Bullring himself, Paddy Considine, as top cop Peter Hunter (based on John Stalker) and the rotten to the core local cop Bob Craven played by Sean Harris. The pair had previously played Joy Division manager Rob Gretton and lead singer Ian Curtis respectively in 24 Hour Party People

1980 another gripping 'chapter' in the trilogy, made all the more unnerving by the grafting of the real life Yorkshire Ripper case of the time and co-starring the great Maxine Peake. Anyone reading who enjoyed this film should check out the dramatisation of the real police squad's efforts to catch Sutcliffe entitled This Is Personal: The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper It's stupidly unavailable commercially, but again if you know where to look...