The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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The Fertiliser Salesman
Fertiliser and farce on Teesside with ICI’s satirical players, The Smoker.
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Overview
Two salesmen on the road in Teesside face off for a lucrative farm contract in the explosive, dog-eat-dog world of fertiliser sales. A seductive farmer’s wife swings the pitch ICI’s way despite the swagger of the stylish rival salesman from Fisons. ICI’s muck-spreading satirical team, The Smoker, lampoon their company’s old-fashioned sales technique in an irreverent farce full of silent film ‘pratfalls’.
A rich amateur theatrical tradition sprang up at ICI on Teesside, which included the Synthonia Players group. But this irreverent 1960s production, filmed by the ICI Billingham Film Unit, was created for the Norton Hall ‘Smoker’, a hotbed of comedy and satire. Their annual concert, a version of the famous Cambridge Footlights revue, was attended by the ICI elite, including the Chairman, Lord Fleck. The Synthonia Club was open to all employees, but Norton Hall was not. Its membership was restricted to higher grades of staff.
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