The UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}}/Manchester area comprising the counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside as well as parts of Cheshire, Lancashire and the town of Glossop in Derbyshire. Cheshire is quite the prosperous county, being to Liverpool and Manchester what the UsefulNotes/HomeCounties are to London. Lancashire, which borders the area to the [[OopNorth North]], on the other hand is more [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion working class]] and has a large South Asian Muslim minority population, as do Oldham and Rochdale in Greater Manchester. The area lies on the western side of the Pennine Hills, with Yorkshire and Derbyshire to the east. West Yorkshire also has a large Muslim population, mainly in the large cities of Leeds and Bradford, which are separated from Greater Manchester by the sparsely-populated Pennines. The principal cities are Manchester and Liverpool, with other notable towns and cities including Bolton, Bootle, Southport, Wigan, Widnes, Warrington, Salford, Macclesfield, Stockport, Southport, Oldham, Rochdale, Runcorn and Birkenhead. In the southeastern part, near Glossop, is The Peak District.
Liverpool now has [[UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} its own page]].
'''Football'''
->''"[T]he country is divided into two unequal halves: the South, and the other bit with the good football teams."''
-->-- '''Leon Brittan''', ''Series/SpittingImage''
The area is home to the [[UsefulNotes/FootyLeagues English League's]] two most successful clubs of all time, Liverpool and Manchester United, along with several other notable teams such as Manchester City, Everton, Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.
'''Pop Music'''
Due mostly to being a major port, a lot of American blues and rock and roll music came to the UK through Liverpool, inspiring Music/TheBeatles and many other bands. Not to be outdone, Manchester has produced a number of bands and became one of the main cities where British AlternativeRock and indie bands came from. They even ended up at the forefront of the British music scene for a while between the late eighties and the early nineties thanks to the "Madchester" movement.
'''Flat Caps'''
During the industrial revolution, Manchester was the UK's largest manufacturer of cotton, earning the nickname "Cottonopolis", and flat cloth caps became the stereotypical headwear of the Northern [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion working-class man]]. During the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, the people who gave out the medals wore silk cloth caps during the presentations (easily the silliest thing about a Games that, on the whole, went well for the city).
Famous real people from the area:
* Music/TheBeatles - Liverpool
* Music/TakeThatBand - Manchester
* Creator/CraigCharles - Liverpool
* Creator/FredDibnah - steam engineer and demolition artist, from Bolton.
* From ''Series/DoctorWho'', four different [[TheNthDoctor Doctors]], at least two Masters, and several companions:
** Creator/TomBaker - Liverpool
** Creator/ColinBaker - born in London but raised in Rochdale
** Creator/PaulMcGann - Liverpool
** Creator/ChristopherEccleston - Salford
** Creator/JohnSimm - born in Leeds, but raised in Lancashire and Manchester
** Creator/SachaDhawan - Bramhall
** Plus the quintessential companion, Creator/ElisabethSladen - Liverpool
* Nicola Roberts from Music/GirlsAloud - Runcorn
* Creator/MikeHarding, comedian and folk singer, born in Crumpsall, Manchester, and a man who made a career out of taking the North up to eleven.
* Creator/PeterKay, comedian - Bolton
* LS Lowry, artist - Manchester
* Music/JoyDivision and by extension Music/NewOrder, post-punk bands, Music/TheSmiths, "Madchester" bands (Music/TheStoneRoses, Music/HappyMondays, Music/TheCharlatans), Music/{{Oasis}} - Manchester
* Music/{{The Fall|Band}}, arguably the quintessential post-punk outfit - Manchester
* The Teardrop Explodes - Liverpool
* Creator/IanMcKellen, actor - Bolton
* Creator/LeeMack, comedian - Southport
* Creator/BernardManning - Manchester
* Music/TheVerve - Wigan
* Creator/AnthonyBurgess, author - Manchester
* Music/TheHollies - Manchester
* Creator/KenReid - Manchester
* Danny Jones from Music/{{McFly}} - Bolton
* Music/{{Ingested}} - Manchester (Lyn Jeffs currently lives in Wales)
* Creator/KarlPilkington - Manchester
* Music/AFlockOfSeagulls, Music/DeadOrAlive, Music/EchoAndTheBunnymen, Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood, and many other {{New Wave| Music}} bands - Liverpool
* When In Rome, OneHitWonder SynthPop trio ("The Promise") - Manchester (Michael Floreale moved to Dallas, Texas after their breakup)
* Music/OrchestralManoeuvresInTheDark - Wirral, across the River Mersey from Liverpool
* Låpsley(Holly Lapsley Fletcher), {{indie pop}} musician - Southport
* Lisa Stansfield - Rochdale
* Davy Jones of Music/TheMonkees - Manchester
* Creator/AlbertFinney, actor - Salford
* Creator/JohnThaw - Gorton
* Creator/BernardHill - Blackley
* Creator/MillieGibson - Tameside
Famous fictional people from the area:
* WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit - Wigan
* Everyone from ''Series/CoronationStreet'' - Mostly, Manchester
* [[Series/LifeOnMars2006 Gene]] [[Series/AshesToAshes2008 Hunt]] - Manchester
* [[Series/RedDwarf Dave Lister]] - Liverpool
* ''ComicBook/JohnConstantine'' - Liverpool
* [[Series/{{Lost}} Charlie Pace]] - Manchester
* [[Series/DoctorWho Ruby Sunday]] - Manchester
Appearances in fiction:
Manchester is a very common setting in British fiction due to the historical presence of [[Creator/{{Granada}} Granada Television]], the most successful Creator/{{ITV}} franchise by far.
* ''Film/The51stState'', partially set in Liverpool.
* ''Series/BoysFromTheBlackstuff'', set in Liverpool.
* ''Series/{{Bread|1986}}'', set in Liverpool
* ''Series/{{Brookside}}'', set in Liverpool.
* ''Series/ClockingOff'', which centres around a Manchester factory.
* ''Film/{{Control}}'', a {{biopic}} of Music/JoyDivision frontman Ian Curtis.
* ''Series/CoronationStreet'' is set in a fictional part of Greater Manchester called Weatherfield and has Manchester trams going past frequently; or, in one case, crashing through a shop and exploding.
* ''{{Series/Cracker}}'', set in Manchester.
* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'': The comic strip storyline "Mancopolis" is set in a futuristic Manchester MegaCity, in which the mills have been brought back to make artificial fibres for spacesuits
* ''Film/EastIsEast'', set in Salford, with scenes in "Bradistan" and featuring the immortal line "He's not [[IHaveNoSon dead]], he's living in Eccles!"
* ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'' and its sequel ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' are both set (and were filmed in) Manchester.
* ''LookingForEric'', set in Greater Manchester and starring Man Utd star footballer Eric Cantona AsHimself.
* ''Film/NowhereBoy'', a {{Biopic}} of some guy called Music/JohnLennon.
* ''Series/PhoenixNights'' is set in Bolton.
* ''Series/QueerAsFolkUK'' is set around Manchester's [[{{Gayborhood}} Canal Street]].
* ''Series/TheRoyleFamily'' is set in Manchester.
* The [[Series/ShamelessUK original UK version]] of the show ''Shameless'' is set on a fictional UsefulNotes/CouncilEstate in Manchester.
* ''{{Series/Survivors}}'' is set around Manchester (Naj has a Man City duvet cover and other signs indicating it have been seen).
* ''Series/{{Trollied}}'' is set in Warrington.
* ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'', covering the history of Factory Records and their bands in the Manchester scene from TheSeventies through to TheNineties.
* ''Series/TwoPintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfCrisps'' is set in Runcorn.
* Warburtons bakery advertisements feature Bolton's "I ♥ BLTN" logo, reflecting the location of the company. (On Stallone's T-shirt in the Creator/SylvesterStallone ad, and on mugs in ''Franchise/TheMuppets''' ad. The Muppet ad also references ''Corrie'', the Manchester Arndale Centre, the Happy Mondays and the phrase "Mad for it!")
* ''Series/WaterlooRoad'' is set in Rochdale, Greater Manchester in the first seven seasons, and having moved to Scotland returned to Greater Manchester for the 2023 revival.
* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', er, sort of.
* ''Series/ZCars'' was set in Newtown, a NoCommunitiesWereHarmed version of Kirkby, which was in Lancashire when the programme first aired but was reassigned to Merseyside before its run ended.
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