Twenty five years ago, Manchester passed as Venice in a classic ad for Boddingtons beer – and the canals were never the same again
There is a sense of erotic anticipation. Two gondolas drift towards each other languorously. A woman and man eye each other in a knowing, sexually charged way. Ribbons on the gondoliers’ hats flutter out of focus, bouquets adorn the boats. “You’re meant to think you’re watching an art film set in Venice,” recalls director Jeff Stark. But you weren’t. You were watching a beer ad filmed under leaden skies on Manchester’s grimiest waterway.
“We shot really tight at first so that the bridges looked Venetian – or just about.” A scratchy recording of O Sole Mio completes the mood. Purists will complain that the 19th-century song was Neopolitan rather than Venetian, but that misses the point. “We used it to spoof the Cornetto ad that was popular at the time,” Stark explains.
Few things symbolise the way our cities have transformed more than canals. Around the world, cities have woken up to the power of their urban waterways: from Milan to Manchester, the former economic arteries of industry are being turned into corridors for walkers, boaters and wildlife. Cafes and restaurants are proliferating and canalside living is newly chic – and newly costly.
Related: The canal revolution: how waterways reveal the truth about modern Britain
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