These pages aim to help promote the south-central region as a film and TV setting.
Productions Shot In The South-Central
Region, 1910-
Chronological listing of local-interest 'shoots', with basic details. [Last update 15-10-12]
[View Listings page
]
Production History
A narrative outline version of the above listing, summarising the main developments and trends
up to 2000. [View]
Dorset As A Film-TV Location:
A Report For The British Film Centenary
A report done for the 1996 Film Centenary on the lack of recognition of the area's longstanding
role as a locations 'backlot.'
[ read report ]
Setting
The Scene In Wessex: The Crime Novel & Drama
Broadchurch - ITV's answer to the hit Danish series The Killing.
Our new 2-part guide includes a number of local-interest film and tv adaptations
as well as novels, from Hitchcock and Fritz Lang on through recent tv adaptations. This
is the region's most popular genre and for page-length reasons the guide had to be split into
two parts. Part One is here
(a link to Part
Two is also provided at the end of the Part One page).
A screengrab from Joseph Losey's 1963 The Damned, with Oliver Reed as the teddy-boy leader
of a biker gang, in the opening scene shot on Weymouth Esplanade.)
PRODUCTION HISTORY UPDATES Summer
2012 [28-7-12]
Various new entries added, and others updated, too many to list.
Chronological listing page here.
Ken
Russell, 1927-2011: British Film's Wild Man In The Woods Britain’s veteran film-maker Ken Russell, “the wild man of British cinema,” who worked for over 50 years right up to his death last November at Lymington, had lifelong local connections. For three decades, he lived in the New Forest and for budgetary reasons shot many scenes here and in the surrounding area, for both his arts documentary bio-pics and his feature films as well as his own final DIY indie productions, where his New Forest home also became his studio. [view feature page]
Dorset In Film: A Cinematic
Journey Through The County
This new coffee-table style book, by Dorset-based film journalist Anwar Brett, from Halsgrove
Publishing/Dorset Books, is the first devoted to Britain's long-standing film-tv "backlot"
or favoured repertory location. Films covered go back to Hepworth's Lulworth visits pre-WWI and
the book includes interview-based reminiscences from dozens of production personnel. The main
cover photo opposite is an on-set production still from the 1967 Far From The Madding Crowd,
with Shaftesbury portraying Hardy's "Casterbridge". It shows Alan Bates as Gabriel
Oak striding up Shaftesbury's famous Gold Hill, while Terence Stamp as Sgt Troy leads his dragoons
down it.
Above: The deserted and ruined hamlet of Tyneham in the Purbecks, dressed with fibreglass facades
to portray 1830s Tolpuddle for Bill Douglas's realist drama about the Tolpuddle Martyrs, Comrades
(1986).
New entries just added: Target 1977-78, Tezz 2011, Cavegirl promo 2011. Amended entries : Hepworth 1900s, Little Women 1970-1, Worzel Gummidge 1978-81. A few entries for productions that were announced (like Ridley Scott's Stones and several low-budget indie efforts), which haven't been heard of since (no trace on IMDB), have been deleted. Chronological listing page here.
Top-20 main recent updates : Danger Man 1959, Tess 1960, The New Forest Rustlers 1966, Junket-89 1970,The Black Arrow 1972-5, Into The Labyrinth 1980-82, Suspicion 1987, Milk 1999, Billy Elliot 2000, Blood Of The Vikings 2001, He Knew He Was Right 2004, Bare Naked Talent 2005, Four Seasons (Vier Jahreszeiten) 2008, The Queen: The Life Of A Monarch 2009, U Be Dead 2009, Churchill's Spy School 2010, The Drummond Will 2010, From Time To Time 2010, Tamara Drewe 2010, Montague Jack 2010, War Horse 2010. (These are all recently added entries - the shortlist doesn't include various amendments to existing entries.) Chronological listing page here.
This is a page on local-interest
film and TV dramas, compiled for the 70th anniversary of WWII. These are mainly set in WW2, but
Wessex has been a key military centre since before the beginnings of cinema, and continued to
play a key role after WW2, during the Cold War, so some titles are set in these eras. And as
with our companionate guide to novels set in wartime ( part of our “Setting The Scene In
Wessex" series), The WWII
Era In Local-Interest Literature, the focus is not just on combat, but on the overall experience
of life in wartime. The annotations are in a ‘Notes & Queries’ style in the hope
readers will be able to supply more particulars of these screen dramas, which date from recently-made
productions back to those made back in WWI.
Go to “Wessex At War - On Screen” page
The
Bournemouth Bomber Blackmail Plot - A Real-Life Local 'CSI' Case
Update:
This feature page was a 2007 follow-on to a blog item I did in response to a CSI producer's
on-air suggestion they'd love to do a "CSI Bournemouth" [2007 blog item "Would
You Believe 'CSI Bournemouth'?" here].
The feature page has now been updated since an ITV documentary re-enactment was commissioned
in 2008 on the case of the Bournemouth Tesco Bomber/Blackmailer, which I devoted a large part
of the page to on the premise it had all the right story ingredients for a possible pilot script
for a local CSI (or similar) series.
View feature page 'The Bournemouth
Bomber Blackmail Plot - A Real-Life Local 'CSI' Case' .
The First Of The Few: Our 2006 feature web-page has also now been updated [15-4-09] with new info on this local-interest fact-based aviation drama. Scroll down this page for original intro, and link.
Film-TV
Productions Chronology - Listings Updates
Latest
entries [most recent first] to our Film-TV
Productions Chronology page:
Oct 2009: The Sound Barrier 1952; The Saint 1964; The Avengers 1966; Man In A Suitcase 1967; Department S 1968; Return Of The Saint 1978; No Child Of Mine 1997; The Real Jane Austen 2002; The Lost 2006; Speed Of Light 2007; Patrol Men 2009; Fathers of Girls 2009; The Echo 2009; The Harsh Light of Day 2009; Zombies of the Night 2009; A Day Of Violence 2009; Tour de Force 2010.
August 2009: Bright’s Boffins 1970; Return Of The Psammead 1993; The Buccaneers 1995; Creatives Grow Better In The South West (aka The Harvest) 2008; The Tesco Bomber 2009; Cranford Xmas special 2009; Die Rose von Kerrymore 2001; Far From The Madding Crowd 2009.
Jan-April 2009: Bright’s Boffins 1970; Return Of The Psammead 1993; The Buccaneers 1995; Creatives Grow Better In The South West (The Harvest) 2008; The Tesco Bomber 2009; Cranford Xmas special 2009.
Oct-Dec
2008 new or amended entries (thanks to those who contributed location details):
Above Us The Waves [1955], The Bed-Sitting Room [1969], The Goodies [1970-81], Hannah [1980],
Five Children and It [1991], The Phoenix And The Carpet [1997], The Ultimate Truth [2004], Am
Ende des Schweigens [2006], Stardust [2007], Small Town Folk [2007], The Relief Of Belsen [2007],
Heist [2008], Léif Lëtzebuerger [2008], Lark Rise To Candleford Series II [2008-09],
Emma Of Lulworth Cove [2009], Right Hand Drive [2009], Creation [2009], Bravetart vs The Loch
Ness Monster [2009], The Boat That Rocked [2009], From Time To Time [2009], U Be Dead [2009].
September 2008 new or amended entries: The Gipsy Cavalier [1922], The Virgin Queen [1923], The Grass Is Greener [1960], Paranoiac [1961], Monty Python [1969-], Hereward The Wake [1966], The Black Arrow [1972-75], Triple Echo [1972], The Pallisers [1974], Nuts In May [1976], Blake's 7 [1978-83], The Barchester Chronicles [1982], Robin Of Sherwood [1981-4], Brat Farrar [1986], The Day After The Fair [1987], Archer's Goon [1992], One Foot In The Grave [1990-8], Waiting For God [1990-5], Pride And Prejudice [1995], Sense And Sensibility [1995], Emma [1996], Fierce Creatures [1997], Saving Private Ryan [1998], Happy Birthday Shakespeare [2000], A Place To Stay [2001], Martin Luther [2002], Footprints In The Snow [2006], Walking With Shadows [2006], Van Wilder 2 [2006], Beau Brummell [2006], Children Of Men [2006], Number 13 [2006], Elizabeth The Golden Age [2007], Gavin & Stacey [2007], Right Hand Drive [2008], Into The Storm (Churchill At War) [2008], Ein Schneespaziergang [2008], The Heart Of Thomas Hardy [2008], Stones [2009], The Wolf Man [2009].
July
2008 new or amended entries:
July 7th: Overlord [1975] and Ken Russell's Lady Chatterley [1993], as well as for several titles
still in production: Ruddy Hell! It's Harry And Paul [2008], The Spire [2008], Quantum Of Solace
[2008], Tess Of The D'Urbervilles [2008], and Richard Curtis's The Boat That Rocked [2009].
July 23rd: The Tomb Of Ligeia [1964], The Goodies [1970-81], The Two Ronnies [1971-87], Some
Mothers Do 'Av 'Em [1973-78], Brief Encounter [1974], Overlord [1975], Only Fools And Horses
[1980-], Private Schulz [1981], Tenko [1981-4], Don't Wait Up [1983-90], The Black Tower [1987],
Full Metal Jacket [1987], Rockliffe's Folly [1988], One Foot In The Grave [1990-98], Waiting
For God [1990-95], Mulberry [1992], Erotic Tales: "The Insatiable Mrs Kirsch" [1992/96], 2 Point
4 Children [1991-99], Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince [2008], and The Young Victoria [2009].
I've also updated the Purbeck
locations page in regard to the new info and stills.
Feature Pages
Below is a listing of our full-page features, each on a particular local-interest film, filmmaker, subject, genre, or locations area.
Bonekickers
And Beyond: The Wessex Archaeo-Mystery Drama
A slightly different type of feature, looking at the development of a niche subgenre
with potentially many regional opportunities, despite the failures of BBC's now-cancelled archaeo-mystery
series Bonekickers ... [read feature]
"Long-Lost" Comedy Classic Resurfaces
Group 3’s rarely-seen 1951 smuggling comedy Brandy For The Parson, filmed mainly in Dorset, was finally released on DVD in the UK in 2008 under the "Long-Lost Comedy Classics" banner. It was the closest the region would get to having an Ealing-style comedy filmed here. John Grierson's Group 3 Films was a state-backed production company set up that year by the National Film Finance Corporation to supply low-budget feature films that would be a training ground for a new postwar generation of British filmmakers ... Read more
This was perhaps the first
sound film to showcase Dorset's countryside. (Mouse over screengrab picture to see 2nd image.)
(Web-page updated with more info and screengrabs October 2012.)
Further to
previous MediaScene entries regarding recent film-TV adaptations ("Jane
Austen 2006"), the first screen biography of the author ("England's
Jane Takes Centre Stage""), and an item on the press controversy after the recent hoax regarding
Austen novels ('Publishing,
The Jane Austen Way'), I've also compiled a local-interest guide to Austen screen adaptations,
as a separate feature. [read
feature]The Isle of Purbeck On Screen
Purbeck’s
variety of landscape within a small area has made it a popular district with England’s film
directors since the days of silent films, whenever the Home Counties around London do not offer
the requisite variety of country locations. Historical, contemporary and futuristic dramas have
all been filmed here, with the district doubling for story locales from the tropics to the Baltic.
Click here for our illustrated guide to the locality and its major film-TV appearances.
Came The Dawn: Cecil Hepworth And Lulworth
The
first known filmmaker to use the area as a repertory location was pioneer Cecil Hepworth (1874-1953),
who was able to take hs cameras on location after his 1905 hit Rescued By Rover made him
a major player in early British cinema. [read feature]
The
First Of The Few (US title Spitfire)1942 British Aviation Pictures
" ... brilliantly conceived, superbly produced and directed"
—BFI Monthly Film Bulletin, Sept 1942
This year has seen various events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight in 1936. The First Of The Few, made in wartime with official backing as a morale booster (with location work shot on a local RAF airfield), tells the story of what led up to that flight, of how the fighter that saved Britain in 1940 came to be developed between the wars.
[read feature]
Far
From The Madding Crowd (1967). John Schlesinger's production,
scripted by Frederic Raphael, was shot almost entirely on location, at over twenty sites in Dorset
and Wiltshire.
" ... the pleasures and pains
of rural England .... there has never been a better film about the British countryside."--David Shipman, The Story Of Cinema