
Tony Wilson
Acting
Biography
Anthony Howard "Tony" Wilson was an English record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC. As the head of Factory Records and one of the owners of the infamous Hacienda nightclub, Wilson was the man behind some of Manchester's most successful bands and was known as Mr Manchester. His day job as a broadcaster saw him present programmes such as regional news show Granada Reports, music showcase So It Goes, World in Action, After Dark, Remote Control, Granada Upfront and the Politics Show to name but a few. His role in the music industry formed the basis of Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed film 24 Hour Party People.
Known For

Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game show with a pop and rock music theme. The show is infamous for its dry, sarcastic humour and scathing, provocative attacks on the pop industry.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks

World in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964.
World in Action
Channel 4 documentary series covering all branches of the arts.
Arthouse

The story of Joy Division’s lead singer Ian Curtis, from his schoolboy days in 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.
Control

Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.
24 Hour Party People

Steve Coogan, an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life, is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's.
A Cock and Bull Story
Spoof chat show that sees divorced character Keith Barret explore what makes a successful relationship, with a celebrity guest couple featured on each episode.
The Keith Barret Show

Documentary that outlines the 1990s and the decade the changed the world.
The 90s: Ten Years That Changed the World

A chronological account of the influential late 1970s English rock band.
Joy Division
Four-part series demonstrating different kinds of censorship, such as censorship by the government or of art.
Banned in the UK

Bill Nighy, Pete Postlewaite and (briefly) Julie Walters, then all of the Everyman Theatre Company, feature in this potent reportage/dramatisation hybrid about the occupation of the Fisher-Bendix Factory in Kirkby. Dohany uses a variety of imaginative techniques to explore the longstanding dispute, and a pronounced sense of urgency pervades this act of solidarity.
Occupy!
A one-off series of sixty minute shows where a band were given total control over the programme's content with no input from the production company or Channel 4.
Play At Home

In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.
The Summer of Rave, 1989

The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex front-woman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey through her mother's archives in this intimate documentary.
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché

Documentary celebrating the triumph, tragedy and human comedy that was Manchester record company, Factory. Started by the late Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, Peter Saville and Martin Hannett in the late 1970s, it became known as the home of Joy Divsion, New Order and Happy Mondays and for creating the Hacienda club. The label pioneered Britain's independent pop culture, creating a new Manchester and blowing a shed-load of money. Includes interviews with all the main players in the Factory story.
Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays
Upon his release from a mental hospital, James re-kindles his relationship with pirate DJ Marion, helping her kick her nasty heroin addiction. However, when Marion is found dead, James and Marion's father hatch a plan to trap and expose the 'protected' killer. A plan that leads to a tense and bloody showdown that will leave you shattered. Filmed in the Moss Side area of Manchester this gritty tale of futility pulls no punches in its graphic depiction of drug addiction, political corruption and society out of control.
The Frontline

A 1-hour Documentary looking at the Manchester post-punk group and its infamous leader Mark E Smith. The Film follows the current band recording their final Session for the John Peel Show (they were his favourite group and recorded more sessions than any other band) as well as chronicling the chaotic history of the band & its numerous line-up changes.
The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, the enigmatic New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most influential and acclaimed bands of the 1980's, embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contempraries. "New Order Story" is the definitive documentary on the band and traces their history all the way back to its origin with Joy Division. This extended version includes additional interviews and live footage, over 2 hours of great New Order footage. A longform video chronicling the band's history and music with interviews by Bono, Neil Tennant, Quincy Jones and others.
New Order Story

Part concert, part documentary, this film follows the band’s preparations in the re-staging of their acclaimed collaboration So It Goes.. with the artist Liam Gillick and the 12-piece synthesiser orchestra that spectacularly captured the headlines during Manchester International Festival 2017.
New Order: Decades

An examination into Factory Records. The members of New Order interview founders Tony Wilson and Martin Hannett, who speak on the philosophical and cultural purpose of their label, and their associates, who mostly appear frustrated or confused. Rob Gretton, Factory founder and manager of New Order, interviews himself. Also includes three live performances of New Order at the Haçienda.