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Fig. 17.3.
Still from Liverpool: World in One City (2002) (courtesy of River Media Ltd).
ironic rather than 'star' appeal. The inability of
Craig Phillips, a former winner of the reality TV
programme Big Brother, to even complete the
phrase 'Good luck to Liverpool for Capital of
Culture' (the viewer is shown several toe-curling
takes of him trying to get it right) is no doubt
intended to convey an inclusive, 'democratiz-
ing' message that all Liverpudlians, irrespective
of class, educational background, or communi-
cation skills, have a stake in the Capital of Cul-
ture enterprise (Phillips' bungling performance
is inter-cut with a word-perfect endorsement by
the conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra). However, it could just as easily be
read in a more cynical light: the vacuity of
'celebrity culture' becoming synonymous with
that of city branding and 'place marketing cul-
ture'. The clearly prompted nature of the celeb-
rity endorsements, as if reading from a cue card
(which they probably were), does not exactly
convey the kind of assured, heartfelt and
authentic sense of civic belonging and solidarity
that one might otherwise expect from a down-
trodden city fi ghting its corner in the rough and
tumble world of place competition.
The narrator goes on to observe that 'Liv-
erpool is the most fi lmed city in Britain, after
London', noting that '141 fi lms alone last year'
were shot in the city. While this statement is
true, what it does not acknowledge is that, in
the case of the majority of fi lm productions
based in the city, Liverpool all too rarely 'plays
itself'; that is, the productions are not place-
specifi c to the extent that landmarks and loca-
tions are expressive of the city's own on-screen
identity and urban character. Not so much the
'star' as 'body double' (Brown, 1995, p. 10),
Liverpool's architecture and locations are more
prominently exploited as backdrops for narra-
tives set in other cities and historical periods.
Suggesting an altogether different take on the
theme of 'world in one city', Liverpool's cine-
matic geographies have served as a stand-in for,
amongst others, Cannes, Vienna, Moscow, St
Petersburg, Dublin, Amsterdam, Rome, New
York, Chicago, Paris, London and war-time
Germany (Roberts, 2008, p. 201).
In 2002, the same year as the Capital of
Culture bid, Liverpool Council's tourism unit in
association with Liverpool Film Offi ce (the UK's
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