NORTH WEST CELEBRITIES VISIT HOUSE OF COMMONS

A host of North West celebrities will be uniting at the House of Commons next week (19/11/03) to -help raise the profile of the media industry in England’s North West.

Jonny Vegas (Comedian), Sue Johnston (Royale Family) and William Roache (Ken Barlow, Coronation Street) are just some of the well-known names that will be showing their support at the event organised by North West Vision and the North West Development agency.

The aim of the event, which will be hosted by Phil Woolas MP, is to showcase the North West’s Media industry to MP’s and influential decision makers from the world of media.

England’s North West already has a thriving media industry and has been home to an array of fantastic productions and produced a host of talented performers. The industry is the largest outside London with 11% of all network programming being produced in the Northwest, including Hollyoaks, Cold Feet, The Forsyte Saga and Coronation Street. Just recently Manchester and Liverpool were home to the remake of Alfie, starring Brit actor Jude Law. Both cities doubled up as New York for a two week shooting period and £1.5 million was ploughed into the local economy as a result.

Contributing hundreds of millions of pounds to the regional economy, the future of the Film and TV industry is both vital to, and a great opportunity for, the Northwest. Growing confidence in the region’s productions and new investment in skills training is creating a strong base for a new generation of visionary entrepreneurs.

Steve Morrison, Chair of North West Vision and owner of Chrysalis TV said:

"We are delighted that the TV and Film industry in the Northwest has such support and generates such interest amongst our local MPS. It is a great sign of the strength of the industry that some of the best-loved names in TV will be there to help North West Vision explain its plans for growing the talent and businesses in the region."

Gaining the support of top decision makers at this event is vital to maintaining a strong and healthy media industry in England’s North West.