THE cultural life of Lancaster and Morecambe was the subject of three new revealing documentaries screened by university students this week.

The second year Culture, Media and Communication students examined the colourful history of Morecambe's Midland Hotel, the life of bouncers at Lancaster nightclubs and the local karaoke circuit.

One, entitled Jewel in the Crown , looks at the efforts to preserve Morecambe's celebrated Midland Hotel and brought a new perspective to the controversy surrounding the fate of the elegant building by featuring an interview with a chambermaid who worked in the hotel in its golden days.

The Good, the Bad and the Bouncers put the spotlight on the bouncers that are employed in some of Lancaster's leading nightclubs and examined the ways that are used to remove "undesirables." The film-makers found that not all bouncers conform to the stereotype and succeeded in interviewing a female bouncer and a young trainee bouncer who explained the training they undertook both to keep fit and to avoid major confrontations.

The third film, My Way, featured karaoke singing in Lancaster pubs as a source of community entertainment and personal fulfilment. While karaoke can be just an excuse for drunken exhibitionism, the CMC students found a group of regular performers with real talent, who were able to explain the satisfaction they derived from winning the applause of the audience.

The film-making was supervised by documentary tutor, Bob Millington, who said: "In documentary you are never quite sure what your interviews are going to come up with. For instance, the documentary on the Midland became rather depressing because all the interviews were talking about current problems. The students realised they needed a more up-beat story about what it was like working in the hotel in its heyday and landed the story of the ex-chambermaid who used to mix the cocktails of the good and the great and who used to try on their fur coats in the cloakroom."

Mr Millington added: "By using new miniature cameras the students we were able to get round problems of people feeling self-conscious in front of the cameras in the karaoke project and of getting reasonable access to bouncers in action."