Mr Manchester Tony Wilson nominated by Terry Christian
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He was a broadcaster, music mogul, social activist, local celebrity, publicity seeker, loud mouth, surreal politician, showman and, according to Paul Morley, "a great resourceful man of the north." Now Terry Christian provides a passionate account of why he was also a great life. This was certainly an extraordinary life, and by the end even presenter Matthew Parris is won round.
Produced by Miles Warde
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's international podcast day. To celebrate, we want to tell you about some amazing BBC |
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| 0:24.0 | And there's more where that came from. Discover your new favourite podcasts. Listen on BBC |
| 0:29.6 | sounds. |
| 0:31.6 | BBC sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:35.6 | Three decades ago on Channel 4 TV, a new show was born. |
| 0:41.6 | The aim? To threaten the traditional dominance of pop culture on the BBC. It's certainly scared |
| 0:49.2 | the people running top of the pops. And while a media had a field day with some of its |
| 0:53.9 | wilder exploits, it definitely looked like fun. The show was The Word. And the lead presenter |
| 1:00.8 | is my guest today. The Word. |
| 1:05.0 | Terry Christian's previous claim to fame had been interviewing me on Radio Derby, or so he |
| 1:13.1 | says, when I was the local MP. Now Terry, my big claim to fame is having you here today. |
| 1:20.0 | Well, the person I picked is known popularly as Mr Manchester and it's Tony Wilson. |
| 1:26.0 | Tell me a little bit more about why Tony. Tony Wilson was kind of the urbane knowingly |
| 1:32.0 | ironic local TV presenter in Manchester. And he kind of came on to our screens as someone |
| 1:38.5 | a bit young and groove. Then he got into the local music scene and we hadn't really had |
| 1:42.2 | one for a long time. Manchester was quite a grey place. And he came along saying, no look, |
| 1:47.3 | this is a fantastic city. And he had all this kind of positive vision for the place. |
| 1:52.0 | He kind of conjured it out of the air so that now Manchester is the second biggest |
... |
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