The Night People
For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by a radio documentary, made in Manchester, nearly 60 years ago. It was called The Night People, and it featured a series of conversations with people who were out and about in the city after dark, doing things that in many cases weren’t legal. Prostitution, homosexuality, drug addiction and thieving all made appearances and were spoken about. The documentary was presented by a BBC reporter called Barbara McDonald, a woman I got to know, but only later - and subsequently, we lost contact. I always wanted to know how The Night People was recorded, and to compare the city it captured then with the one we know today.
Telling the story meant bringing three historical periods together: the mid-1960s, when The Night People was made, the 1980s and early 90s, when I worked with Barbara at Granada Television and first heard a recording of The Night People, and the present, when Manchester’s night-time economy has created thousands of jobs, and the character of the night-time city has changed dramatically.
The Night People is compelling listening. From the very first interview, you can’t switch off, as Barbara McDonald invites herself to sit down next to a young man sitting on a bench in Piccadilly Gardens. He tells her, “I’m waiting for my boyfriend.” She asks him about his life and he admits, “I’m worried about my family and the way the law is” – this, don’t forget, being the period before homosexuality was legalised. When he tells her how difficult it is to get a job because he is “one of ‘them’”, McDonald then observes, “Well, if you don’t mind me saying, you’ve got your hair dyed blonde and you’re wearing makeup.” Soon after, the boyfriend arrives, who candidly admits, “In a man’s clothing, I can’t feel comfortable.”
Interest in The Night People has increased in recent years, after it was acquired by the British Library and started being played at public events. One such example I discovered, for instance, was the British Drag Symposium, which took place in 2017 at Manchester’s Central Library, where interest focused on the couple mentioned above. But they were just the first of the Night People we encounter as listeners. Later on, Barbara wakes up two teenagers trying to sleep inside a parked bus, one of whom tells McDonald he lives by “robbing coats, shoes, frocks” from the shops and selling them; she talks to a “business girl” who recalls how one of her customers “gagged me and stole £14 off me”, there’s a man who admits spending £50-£60 a week on heroin, purple hearts and hashish, but then admits, “I’d like to be a better father.” And there are many others.
One ingredient missing from my research, however, was Barbara herself. I found an old address for her, in a village near Oldham. But would she be there, if I just turned up out of the blue? I asked around on Facebook for any information from ex-colleagues I’d known at Granada. And eventually, I was sent a phone number. I can report that Barbara is alive and well, aged 93, and she talked to me, face to face, all about how The Night People happened, and more.