Steve Coogan’s cult Manchester music film returns to cinemas across the UK for two days in October
Manchester music classic 24 Hour Party People is returning to the big screen this October, with Steve Coogan and director Michael Winterbottom appearing for a special 24th anniversary screening.
The remastered film will open Beyond The Music at MediaCity in Salford on Tuesday 6 October, followed by a conversation with Coogan, Winterbottom and producer Andrew Eaton.
The screening comes 24 years after the release of Winterbottom’s 2002 comedy drama, which tells the story of Manchester’s music scene from the late 1970s into the early 90s through Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, played by Coogan.
Beginning with Wilson witnessing the Sex Pistols at the infamous Free Trade Hall show in Manchester in 1976, the film charts the creation of Factory Records, the rise of Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays, and the opening of The Haçienda.
Alongside Coogan, the cast includes Paddy Considine, Simon Pegg, John Simm, Rob Brydon, Lennie James, Keith Allen and Andy Serkis, with appearances from figures including Happy Mondays’ Paul Ryder and Rowetta, The Fall’s Mark E. Smith and Stone Roses bassist Mani.
The MediaCity event will be followed by a wider return to cinemas, with more than 100 independent venues around the UK showing 24 Hour Party People for free on 5 and 6 October through Escapes, a nationwide cinema initiative supported by the BFI and National Lottery funding. The screenings form part of a new 4K re-release of the film.
Speaking about the film, Coogan said: “24 Hour Party People is the work that is closest to my heart. I haven’t seen it for nearly 25 years. It captures the creative spirit of the town I am proud to have grown up in. I feel very sentimental about it all, which Tony Wilson would have deplored.”
The Beyond The Music screening takes place at MediaCity on 6 October, with registration of interest open through the festival. Free tickets for the wider screenings on 5 and 6 October can be booked through Escapes.
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