The comedy duo Laurel and Hardy rose to fame in America during the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, a golden age of film. By the time they arrived at Cobh Harbour on 9th September 1953 after a series of appearances on this side of the Atlantic, their renown was such that they were greeted by crowds of adoring fans. Added to which all the church bells in Cobh started ringing out to the tune of the duo’s theme song “Dance of the Cuckoos”.
This is just one of the scenes recreated in the new film about the pair “Stan and Ollie”. However, the scene was not filmed in Cobh but on the Bristol Harbourside. The production team made use of the MV Balmoral, which is normally moored by Prince Street Bridge but for the purposes of the film was anchored outside the M Shed on Princes Wharf, a vast interactive exhibition space which was formerly used as a dockside warehouse. Another revamped harbourside building, now the Arnolfini Gallery, can be glimpsed on the opposite side of the water. Although now given over largely to leisure pursuits, the wharf has been conserved as a working quayside, and this makes it ideally suited for film productions such as this. Another recent film which made use of the Bristol Harbourside/MV Balmoral double act was the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, this time with Bristol standing in for Weymouth.
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| Part of the vibrant Bristol Harbourside |
As well as the wharf, the exterior of the city’s HippodromeTheatre makes an appearance in the film, renamed Queen’s Hall. In real life this was a cinema in Newcastle and the pair received another rapturous reception there. The interior scenes were shot in the Old RepTheatre, Birmingham.
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| The Bristol Hippodrome - geograph.org.uk - 1444344. Photo by Steve Daniels, via Wikimedia Commons |
Bristol has certainly made the most of its Harbourside in recent years, opening the area up to a host of bars, restaurants, galleries and other attractions. The M-Shed is free to enter and is well worth a visit for a look at all aspects of the city and its past. One unusual addition to the scene within the last couple of years is the complex known as CARGO at Whapping Wharf, just behind the M-Shed, where shipping containers have been repurposed as restaurants, shops and other outlets. The MV Balmoral is part of the White Funnel line and has in the past offered trips to a variety of places around the British Isles, but sadly there are no trips running at present, pending the raising of sufficient funds for sailing to resume. The Hippodrome, in a bustling area adjacent to the Harbourside, plays host to family-type entertainments such as musicals as well as bands, real and tribute, ballet and so on.
Map of the city.
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