It begins using a punk rock era, and pass through the 1980s into the "Madchester" scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. A independent character is Tony Wilson, the head of Factory Records (played by comedian Steve Coogan), and a narration largely follows his career, when as well covering a major Manufacturing plant creative person, especially Joy Division and New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and The Happy Mondays.

a moving picture occurs when dramatisation according to a combination of really cases, hearsay, urban legends & a imaginations of the scriptwriter - as the motion picture makes clear. Within a single scene featuring Howard Devoto (played by Martin Hancock), the real Devoto, an additional in the scene, turns to the camera & says "I definitely don't remember this happening". Many more humans from either a era of the film pop up within cameos, like Mani from the Stone Roses, Vini Reilly, Paul Ryder, Mark E. Smith and Tony Wilson himself. Rowetta, the Happy Mondays backing singer, plays herself in the film. A actors come typically intercut rattling concert footage taken at a period, including a celebrated Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall.

A ensemble cast includes: Steve Coogan - Tony Wilson Shirley Henderson - Lindsay Wilson (Tony's first married woman) Paddy Considine - Rob Gretton (Joy Division/New Order manager) Lennie James - Alan Erasmus (co-founder of Factory) Andy Serkis - Martin Hannett (producer) Sean Harris - Ian Curtis (Joy Division singer) John Simm - Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/New Order guitar player) Danny Cunningham - Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays' singer)

The novelisation, Xxiv Hour Person Population, according to a screenplay for the film, was written by Wilson himself and freed within 2003. A title (& opening theme) for a film comes from either the song "Twenty Four Hour Party People" per Happy Mondays, from either their album Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out).