Something for Everyone: Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS at HOME

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
NHS HOME Manchester

Something for Everyone: Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS at HOME Manchester, Manchester 28 — 30 July 2018 Tickets from £7.00

Much loved, fiercely defended and often grumbled about, the National Health Service is woven into the fabric of life in the UK today. As such, since its formation in 1948, the NHS has been the subject of soap opera, high-stakes drama, social realist polemic and lovingly bawdy comedy. To mark the service’s 70th anniversary, HOME take a broad look at the ways in which cinema has affected, defended and poked fun at our healthcare system, with a six-film season pulled together by Senior Visiting Curator, Andy Willis of Salford University.

The NHS is perhaps sometimes taken for granted today, but the idea that good healthcare should be available to everybody, regardless of circumstance, had to be fought for. HOME’s film season begins at the beginning with a 35mm screening of Hollywood director, King Vidor’s 1938 film The Citadel (Saturday 28th July). Starring Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell, the film is based on A.J. Cronin’s novel — which was seen as something of a call to arms regarding the subject of a national health service — and tells the story of a doctor confronted with the illnesses of Welsh Valleys miners.

Once established in 1948, the NHS quickly became a critical part of the lives of the citizens it served — present for everything from everyday healthcare needs to the darkest hours. Director Pat Jackson’s 1951 film, White Corridors (Saturday 28th July), was made just four years after the establishment of the NHS and follows, with detail and empathy, the day-to-day heroism of a group of dedicated professionals in a rural Midlands hospital. Similarly, Alexander Mackendrick’s Ealing drama, Mandy (Sunday 29th July), released in 1952, charts the trials of a deaf child who is sent to a school for the deaf in Manchester, in the hopes that she might learn to communicate; whilst stressing the vital nature of NHS services.

The high drama of serious illness, disease and emergency medical care is, of course, fertile ground for cinema. But cinema isn’t all drama, and HOME present a 35mm double bill of Carry On films that demonstrate the lighter side of hospital life on Sunday 29th July. Stacked with gross out moments, medical anomalies and no small amount of taxpayer-funded sexual shenanigans, Carry on Doctor and Carry on Matron (“A film that does irreparable harm to the medical profession.” boasts the trailer.) document the comical comings and goings of the doctors, nurses and unfortunate patients who keep the NHS ticking over.

It’d be remiss to programme a season of films about the NHS without acknowledging the troubles that it has, and continues to, face. With that in mind, HOME close their ode to the NHS with a screening of Lindsay Anderson’s 1982 black comedy, Britannia Hospital (Monday 30th July.) Taken alongside if…. (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973), the film forms a bleak, surreal trilogy that follows the adventures of charismatic troublemaker, Mick Travis (Malcolm MacDowell). In Anderson’s typically sharp, anti-establishment style, Britannia Hospital centres around protests sparked by a visit from the Queen Mother; raising increasingly relevant questions about encroaching privatisation along the way.

NHS staff attending the season will receive 20% off full price tickets and 10% off in HOME’s restaurant when coming to watch any of the films in the NHS Season. Use the code NHS20 when booking online and present your NHS ID card as proof when picking up tickets or purchasing food in the restauraunt.

Something for Everyone: Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS at HOME Manchester, Manchester 28 — 30 July 2018 Tickets from £7.00

What's on at HOME Manchester

Where to go near Something for Everyone: Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS at HOME

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

The Ritz Manchester live music venue
Manchester
Music venue
The Ritz

The Ritz was originally a dance hall, built in 1928, has hosted The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and The Smiths and is still going strong as a gig venue now.

Homeground
Manchester
Event venue
Homeground

Homeground is HOME’s brand new outdoor venue, providing an open-air space for theatre, food, film, music, comedy and more.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Burgess Cafe Bar
at IABF

Small but perfectly-formed café – which also serves as the in-house bookstore, stocking all manner of Burgess-related works, along with recordings of his music. It’s a welcoming space, with huge glass windows making for a bright, welcoming atmosphere.

Rain Bar pub in Manchester
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Rain Bar

This huge three-floor pub, formerly a Victorian warehouse, then an umbrella factory (hence the name), has one of the city centre’s largest beer gardens. The two-tier terrace overlooks the Rochdale canal and what used to be the back of the Hacienda, providing an unusual, historic view of the city.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally patriotic name The Ancient Britain.

What's on: Cinema

Culture Guides

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in Manchester and the North

Affecting contemporary performances and fresh, relevant takes on enduring classics, we pick out shows that help us scrutinise the world we live in.

Teenage Dads
Music in Manchester and the North

Fresh concert seasons, forward-thinking festivals and a revolving door of amazing gigs. Things are looking bright as spring comes into view.