We’re pleased to share with you two short films inspired by our Lancashire heritage. Join us after the screening for a Q&A with director Gillian Wood and writer Michelle Crane to find out how they use film to explore and celebrate local history.
Granny
This award winning short film celebrates the life of the Dick Kerr Ladies football team star of the early 20th century, Lizzy Ashcroft.
Set in Preston in the 1970s, Granny looks at Lizzy’s life after her football career and explores how some of the amazing stories from her playing days were rediscovered by family members in later life. The film also looks at Lizzy’s relationship with her grandson, Steve Bolton, who is also one of the film’s producers.
Lizzy formed part of the pioneering Dick, Kerr Ladies side after joining in 1923 and representing the team for more than a decade before her retirement from the game. Despite the Dick, Kerr Ladies’ huge popularity, success and significant charity work, the FA banned women’s football in December 1921, which was not lifted for almost 50 years. The ban prevented female players from playing on FA pitches, but the Dick, Kerr Ladies and other women’s teams showed determination to continue playing on other pitches, with the large crowds coming out in force to support them.
The film was written and produced by Blackpool-based Michelle Crane, who was inspired by an article penned by Lizzy’s grandson about the footballer’s life.
Flyte of Fancy
A mysterious man claiming to be author Evelyn Waugh’s (Brideshead Revisited) butler visits the magnificent mansion Lytham Hall, the home of Waugh’s friend from Oxford, Harry Clifton.
He’s greeted by the formal and aloof butler, who proceeds to witness the slow unravelling of the mind of the spirited visitor.
The film was shot in the spring of 2022 at Lytham Hall, the former home of the Clifton family and is set in the late 1930’s. It is suggested that Harry Clifton had been a friend and inspiration to Evelyn Waugh for the character of Sebastian Flyte in his book ‘Brideshead Revisited’. Waugh himself visited Lytham Hall on more than one occasion.
The lead is played by former Emmerdale actor Mathew Bose (Paul Lambert) supported by Lytham born Martyn Coyne as Lomax and Anne Bouget as Violet Clifton.
The screenplay was written by local playwright David Slattery-Christy, with significant research having been carried out through Oxford University. It was filmed and directed by local filmmaker Gillian Wood.
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