Cliff Somers

Cliff Somers was the son of the Manchester filmmaker Gerald Somers [qv], but he began his career as a still photographer with the Manchester branch of the Keystone Press Agency. In 1936 he joined Pathé as a freelance newsreel cameraman, and in 1938 he was taken on the staff of the Pathe Gazette. After the outbreak of war in 1939 Somers served in the forces, but in 1948 he went to work for the Universal News. When the Universal News folded in March 1949 Somers joined Times Productions Limited as film manager and staff cameraman, but within a few years he was working as a freelance cameraman, filming newsreels for television. He was probably the ‘Somers’ credited as silent cameraman for British Paramount News in February 1953, filming ‘MRS CHURCHILL LAUNCHES NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIER’ in Barrow for No.2293, and as working for Gaumont in March 1953 filming ‘THE GRAND NATIONAL’ for Gaumont British News No.2007.

In June 1953 ‘Somers’ was credited as filming the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, his material being supplied to the other newsreels as rota footage. He was probably on the Paramount staff by this time, and was certainly with them by the time he helped to film ‘RAY AMM WINS T.T.' for No.2327 in June 1953. In 1955 Somers joined the BBC’s Manchester staff, and continued until the creation of BBC Regional News in 1957, when he moved to the Plymouth station. In June 1964 ‘Somers’ supplied film for a number of Movietone items, beginning with ‘THE OPEN ROAD’ in British Movietone News No.1828, and this may have been Cliff Somers. Somers retired from the BBC in 1978.

Sources

BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 2293 (Somers dopesheet, c.February 1953), Number 2323 (Somers dopesheet, June 1953), Number 2327 (Cliff Somers dopesheet, June 1953: M. Gomes ‘The Picture House’ (NWFA: 1988), pp.78-82.