Isobel if you come from the folk music scene then may I recomend that you watch the Tony Palmer film this England as there is more.folk than soul content in it . (sorry just being glib )
There has never been a decent documenary or programme about northern soul ,they either patronise us or make us look stupid . This England apart from a few minutes footage from the Casino just reinforces the idea that its grim up north and so is of very little worth .
As Chorleysoul has said any programme or film has to be made by people that know and love the scene .
Black music never gets the credit or attention it deserves most of these top 100 best music list type programmes on tv usually only have one or two black artists listed usually Jacko and Houston ,not a lot of soul there. Soul music wether we like it or not is a minority music and nothern soul is a minority within that .
Because of the passion of a small amount of people in reality the scene has continued for longer than anyone expected and in deference to the scene and the artists deserves to be treated with respect .
In earlier posts some comparisons to Once upon a time in wigan were made , a great example of it going wrong ,The urban expansions play made by people that had passion and live and breath northern soul was exellent and through humour and observation managed to capture a moment in time . however the Octagon version of the play produced by the clueless just became Mamma Mia meets the Casino wrong on so many levels
I am sorry if I sound cynical its because I love this music and care about how its interpreted by people , the plastic bag tells a story in itself if they cant be bothered to get that right why bother at all .