Accession Number

B93

Series Title

CHANGES

Programme Title

A CHANGE OF AIR

Producer

Tony Wilkie Miller

Other Credits

Editor: Ken Langston Jones

Transmission Date

17/06/83

b/w & colour, sound (sep), 30 mins 36 secs

Synopsis

Programme focusing on tourism in Blackpool and how it has both resisted and embraced change over the years. Opens with "Changes" series music and shots of aeroplanes performing aerobatics over Blackpool seafront. Various people talk about holidaymakers going abroad and taking weekend rather than fortnightly breaks. There are signs for bingo halls, arcades and takeaways. Includes footage from the 1920s and 30s featuring Blackpool promenade, beach, fairground, bowling green, boating lake, a passenger steamer, pier, brass band, the exterior of Blackpool Winter Gardens (04m00s to 06m12s). The interior of a B&B is shown and landladies and landlords are interviewed. There are numerous exterior shots of Victorian B&Bs and hotels. Further archive footage shows Blackpool Tower and trams (11m23s to 11m46s); entertainers performing acrobatics (14m50 to 15m16s); bathers at the South Shore Open Air Swimming Pool (19m07s to 19m51s and 21m19s to 21m48s); the Pleasure Beach (22m22s to 22m25s); and Blackpool train station (25m56s to 26m11s). There are shots of the tram depot and trams being driven. Stills are shown of Tower Circus' resident clown Charlie Cairoli, organ player Reginald Dickson ("Mr Blackpool"), George Formby and Frank Randle and Dickson is interviewed. Ventriloquist Keith Harris is interviewed (with Orville) in the Grand Theatre's auditorium. We see the open-air pool being demolished and Pool Manager Frank Cruickshank laments its demise. The Pleasure Beach and Imperial Hotel are shown. Pilot Andy Walbridge describes his business which offers flying lessons to holidaymakers. Ends with aeroplanes doing aerobatics in sky.