Set-Jet The UK
Uncover Favourite UK Film and TV Locations
When I lived in Oxford a decade or three ago, it would have amazed me to imagine that my modest street in the working-class neighbourhood of Jericho would one day witness scores of escorted tour parties earnestly retracing the murder investigations of Inspector Morse. But at last this sign of the times has gained a name. Set-jetting is defined as a passion to visit places you read about in books or see portrayed in films and television. Estimates vary on how widespread the fad is, but it's a fair guess that well over a quarter of us are influenced to some extent in our choice of holiday destinations by novels or screen presentations.
Perhaps it all started in the land of Hollywood, but the UK is catching on fast - the blockbusting success of The Da Vinci Code has produced a massive hike in visitor numbers both to the places mentioned in the original novel and to the locations used in the recently released film starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.
It's a rare destination these days that fails to make the most of any fictional media coverage, however tenuous the association. Visitors are just as likely to find themselves on the Dracula Trail or in Catherine Cookson Country as in Whitby or Tyneside. Acknowledging ‘spirit of place' as an essential element in film production, the Film Distributors' Association celebrated its 50th Cinema Days event last autumn by inviting over 2,000 film writers and critics to nominate the ten films that had made the most atmospheric use of British locations. The top three were Local Hero (set in Pennan, Aberdeenshire), The Full Monty (Sheffield), and Trainspotting (Edinburgh).
You can find out more about film and TV locations in Britain from these websites.....
www.information-britain.co.uk/movies
www.curious.org.uk/filmsets
www.westcountrynow.com
www.pinewoodshepperton.com
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
www.cornwallfilm.com
www.cornwall-calling.co.uk
www.swscreen.co.uk
www.yorkshirenet.co.uk
www.visitbath.co.uk
www.westdorset.com
www.gloucester.gov.uk
www.scotlandthemovie.com
www.filmhebrides.com
www.moviemapnw.co.uk (North Wales)
Over the past few decades, long-running TV soaps like Coronation Street and Eastenders have given just about everyone in Britain some mental picture of urban Manchester or London's Docklands, though not necessarily encouraged many people to go there. In those dramas, it's the human stories rather than the locations that drive the ratings. But who could fail to warm to the idyllic north-country settings of hardy perennials like Last of the Summer Wine (set in Holmfirth) or the National Park landscapes of Derbyshire that make such an enticing hinterland to Peak Practice and The League of Gentlemen?
Article published in full on 50 Connect