Saturday 6 July 20:00 BBC Radio 4 Archive on 4; Dirty Old Town at 75

In 2024 Dirty Old Town will be 75 years old. Its lyrics were written about the Salford streets they were written on and its writer Ewan McColl used the song to celebrate his grimy, industrial, smoky hometown, starting life as a melody to bridge a tricky junction in his play about Salford - 'Landscape with Chimneys’.

Presenter Mike Sweeney will be the guide from the old Salford to the new, how the city has been transformed and how despite the huge changes in the cities character Dirty Old Town is being reclaimed by the city.

BBC Sounds Radio Manchester Listen Now "There's anger and love in Dirty Old Town" Release date:12 June 2024 Duration: 3 minutes
BBC Radio Manchester's Mike Sweeney has rewritten Dirty Old Town, originally written by Ewan MacColl about the Salford Docks.