{"id":475905,"date":"2025-10-05T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475905\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:14:11","slug":"we-wanted-to-capture-the-reinvention-of-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475905\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We wanted to capture the reinvention of Sheffield’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty years ago a documentary following the fortunes of four people with big dreams in post-industrial Sheffield was released to critical acclaim.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tales from a Hard City could be described as a tragicomedy. While humour was the intention of its creators, struggle is a strong theme.<\/p>\n

The 1995 film’s main characters fall flat in their attempts to become actors, performers and music moguls – though their participation in the documentary was where their quest for stardom peaked.<\/p>\n

Still, their admirable efforts earned it a dedicated following, and now it is hoped the opening of an exhibition about the documentary, will give it a new lease of life.<\/p>\n

Tales from a Hard City was the brainchild of Kim Flitcroft and Alex Usborne. The friends had previously made two other films about Sheffield’s thriving boxing scene: Brendan’s Boys, based on the legendary Ingle Gym, and Johnny Fantastic, following the career of world champion Johnny Nelson.<\/p>\n

Those films helped provide the spark and even some characters for their next project, recalls Usborne, who grew up in the Steel City and witnessed its industrial decline.<\/p>\n

One day, while standing outside the Ingle Gym in Wincobank, he noticed the Lower Don Valley – previously the beating heart of Sheffield’s steel industry – resembling a “wasteland”. In the distance, Meadowhall shopping centre was being built.<\/p>\n

“There was this notion that Sheffield would regenerate through shopping, media, sport and celebrity,” Usborne says.<\/p>\n

Flitcroft recalls seeing building work “everywhere we were going” as regeneration gathered pace.<\/p>\n

To that end, Tales from a Hard City was “about a moment in time” for the city and its people, says Usborne.<\/p>\n

“It was looking for stories that were about a reinvention.”<\/p>\n

The film was several years in the making. Four years after the idea was coined, filming took place in 1993 during construction of the city’s tram network – another transitionary phase for the city.<\/p>\n

Its eventual release came two years later.<\/p>\n

The documentary is centred around the ups and downs of four people trying to reinvent themselves; Glen is a self-confessed petty thief who dreams of a music career, ex-boxer Paul now wants to become an actor, while entrepreneur Wayne spots an opportunity to reinvent single mum Sarah as a performer after her dancing in a Greek bar saw her arrested and thrown in jail, causing a tabloid stir back home.<\/p>\n

“Sarah might not be the world’s best dancer, Glen not the world’s best singer, and Paul not the world’s best actor, but they were having a go,” says Flitcroft.<\/p>\n

“I admired what they were doing.”<\/p>\n

For Flitcroft, part of the film’s enduring appeal is its memorable characters.<\/p>\n

“People engage with these characters and they generally like them and find them good company.<\/p>\n

“That was certainly my experience with them, I enjoyed being with them.”<\/p>\n

‘Surviving and flourishing’<\/p>\n

Comedy was also central to their appeal, with each one providing several standout scenes for the viewer.<\/p>\n

“Every scene we are going for laughs,” says Usborne, who still lives in his home city.<\/p>\n

All the while, the film “very much captures Sheffield at a real crossroads coming out of the 80s”, according to archivist Alex Wilson, who has helped curate the upcoming exhibition as part of the No Bounds festival.<\/p>\n

Viewed 30 years later, many scenes and locations have a nostalgic quality to them.<\/p>\n

“Looking back, you get the sense of Sheffield in change,” says Flitcroft.<\/p>\n

Before the documentary was commissioned, photographer Bill Stephenson was enlisted to capture “a vibrant city which was surviving”, with his photos used to help storyboard and later promote the project.<\/p>\n

As part of their research, he and Usborne became regulars at nightlife hotspots like Josephine’s and Millionaire’s Bar, as well as Park Hill and the Ingle Gym.<\/p>\n

“I would just shoot off and wander around looking for characters,” says Stephenson, whose photos will feature in the exhibition.<\/p>\n

“Surviving and flourishing in a city which was in post-industrial decline […] I was looking for people who epitomized this type of life in early 90s Sheffield.”<\/p>\n

Usborne recalls a “blitz spirit” in Josephine’s, where several scenes in the film take place.<\/p>\n

“There was a real scene in Josephine’s in the 80s. We were a bit late to it but there was a real champagne character; the nightclub in World War Two, that sort of vibe.<\/p>\n

“It was a real moment in time that we had.”<\/p>\n

Along with Wilson, he hopes the exhibition, which will run at the Post Hall Gallery from 10 to 25 October, will help Tales from a Hard City find a new audience.<\/p>\n

“A whole new generation of Sheffield kids and beyond have never seen this film,” says Wilson.<\/p>\n

“It needed to happen for that reason.”<\/p>\n

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North<\/a><\/p>\n

More stories like thisRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty years ago a documentary following the fortunes of four people with big dreams in post-industrial Sheffield was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[158003,158004,748,393,158010,4884,158009,158011,158006,158005,158007,158008,1620,103120,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-475905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-alex-usborne","9":"tag-bill-stephenson","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-flitcroft","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-industrial-decline","15":"tag-johnny-fantastic","16":"tag-johnny-nelson","17":"tag-kim-flitcroft","18":"tag-main-characters","19":"tag-meadowhall-shopping-centre","20":"tag-sheffield","21":"tag-the-documentary","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115321743997124186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}