It’s July 20th, 1976. Punk has come to the northern English city of Manchester in the form of the Sex Pistols playing at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Some audience members will be inspired to go out and form bands. Others will go out and produce records. One audience member, Anthony Wilson, Cambridge graduate and presenter with Granada Television, will be inspired to introduce punk bands on his TV program So It Goes, and then to go out and form a record label-cum-cultural enterprise.

The end result of this inspiration would be one of the most important independent record labels ever to exist, one that would unfortunately be undone by a welter of drugs, violence and general mismanagement. 24 Hour Party People is the story of Tony Wilson and his adventures with Factory Records through the 1980s, with a particular focus on the band that made the label (i.e. Joy Division) and the band that effectively unmade it (i.e. the Happy Mondays); oddly enough, although Joy Division would soon mutate into Factory’s other major mainstay, New Order, the latter have a noticeably limited role in the film.

The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom, and the end result is an outstanding and frequently uproarious telling of the Factory Records tale. Winterbottom is blessed in this enterprise by his star, Steve Coogan, who’s best known in the UK for his own TV host character Alan Partridge. Partridge was apparently based on Tony Wilson, so it seems appropriate that he should now be playing Wilson himself.

I suspect that people’s reactions to this film will largely be determined by their reaction to the character of Wilson. Although Wilson insists he is a minor character in his own story, this is most definitely not the case, as Winterbottom puts him centre stage as not only the leading character but also the on-screen narrator of the film. This is a fairly risky move, I think, although in my opinion it works well. Coogan’s rendition of Tony Wilson is not a particularly reverent one, presenting him as the somewhat absurd figure that in many ways he is. If, unlike me, however, you don’t find yourself warming to Wilson, then you’re probably not going to enjoy the film too much.

Indeed, if you don’t have some prior knowledge of what went on with Factory Records, you might find yourself wondering a bit at what’s going on. This is a film that, in many ways, has been made for fans of the 1980s alternative scene and people already into Factory and their bands. It’s not particularly interested in making converts, I don’t think. That said, one thing it does communicate unambiguously is Tony Wilson’s love of the music and how it overrode other concerns, to the point where Factory guaranteed its artists total creative control and would wilfully lose money on a project (as it did with New Order’s “Blue Monday” 12” single, where the cover cost more to produce than the record did to sell).

Throw in a few well-chosen cameos from people involved in the scene, including the real Tony Wilson, and the end result is a pretty damn entertaining biography/comedy of the rise and fall of Factory. It’s not like most biopics and it’s certainly not a documentary account by any means, but it’s a lot of fun, whatever it is. If ever you were a fan of Joy Division or New Order or the Happy Mondays or Factory Records in general, this is something you won’t want to miss.