Three Salons at the Seaside documentary filmed in Blackpool in 1994 a hit all over again

If you do, there’s a chance to take a trip down Memory Lane on the BBC’s TV streaming service in a documentary which puts the spotlight on Blackpool of all those years ago. If you have no memory of that time, Three Salons at the Seaside is a fascinating insight into everyday life of that era.

It’s a 40 minutes-long fly-on-the-wall film focusing on three hairdressing salons in residential areas of the resort which, after first being shown on BBC2 in August ‘94, is proving a hit with a new audience on BBC iPlayer.

The show focuses on the proprietors and customers of salons Vanity Box, Mary's Way and Tricia's and was directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, now well-known for directing episodes of drama series such as Call the Midwife and The Crown.

Three Salons was this year selected as one of the best documentaries of the past 50 years by the charity the Grierson Trust, which promotes documentary filmmaking.

That’s one of two factors which apparently prompted the BBC to bring it out of its archive and onto iPlayer, where it is available for a year.

The other factor which put the original back in the spotlight was that earlier this year, Hollywood stars Cate Blanchett and Harriet Walter made a spoof version of Three Salons, called Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport, on the US mockumentary series Documentary Now.

Produced by the team behind the long-running US sketch series Saturday Night Live, it’s a cult show in the US – and popular in the UK too, available on Prime – specialising in remakes of famous documentary films in a comedic style.

The episode was filmed at the premises of one of the salons which feature in the original.

While Tricia's and Vanity Box have closed in the 28 years since Three Salons originally aired, Mary's Way, at the corner of Empress Drive and Holmfield Road in North Shore is now called an outlet called Salon K.

That was renamed ‘Salon de Edwina’ for the episode and because it is set in the 90s, crews had to briefly close the road when filming to avoid any modern cars appearing in shot.