18 June 2020

In search of the UK’s great “city films”: South Yorkshire


By Gareth Potts

Note: if you’ve read previous blogs in this series, please just skip to ‘The Films’ section.

About the City Films blogs

A couple of years back my wife and I had just bought our first home and I quickly turned to the top priority - a man-cave (or the end room as my wife still mistakenly calls it). What to put on the walls of said cave was a central question. As a film-loving Brit. now based in the U.S., I decided some British film posters and/or stills might be part of the answer.

I quickly realized that several of my favourite British films have strong associations with cities and metro areas: Get Carter (Tyneside), 24-Hour Party People (Greater Manchester) and The Full Monty (Sheffield). Get Carter was especially important to me, as I’d lived in Newcastle for four and a half years. But what about other places I had lived such as Liverpool and London – what were their city films?

As someone interested in most things ‘cities related’, I decided to widen the search to all of the U.K.'s cities and major towns. I devised a rough method for finding and short-listing films and a scoring system for assessing which of the short-listed ones were the best city-films. This method – and it really is just a bit of fun rather than anything highly scientific – is outlined here.

The key thing to note is that, for short-listing, films must have received a total IMDb score of at least 6.5 from at least 100 votes. I do mention the films that didn't meet this criterion - these are the ones indicated by LL (for 'Long List'). I also limited it to the last 60 years - which, since I began this in 2018, meant 1958 and after. And of course, I also tried to watch as many of them as I could.

I have already blogged for online magazine City Metric here on the city films for London and here on the South, Midlands and Eastern regions. However, I am now moving the blogs for the remaining UK regions onto this site - starting with the North East. In  time, I will also be reworking those early blogs into the new format I'm using here.

Anyway, enough chit-chat ... let's look at some city films from South Yorkshire.

The Films

Tread Softly Stranger (1958), about a woman (played by talented and pretty Diana Dors) who causes trouble between two brothers, both of whom have financial worries. The film, based on a play by Leeds’ Jack Popplewell, has no great local ties but offers numerous shots of a bygone Rotherham such as a steelworks (Park Gate Iron and Steel Company), the Parkgate and Rawmarsh railway station and a power station cooling tower. It is unclear where the racetrack scenes were shot but nearby Doncaster would presumably be a strong candidate. The town is re-badged as Rawborough and is really just a cinematic device – it is the place that the smarter, successful brother (played by George Baker) has left to go to live in London but has now had to return to. There are no South Yorkshire actors in lead roles and not even any convincing south Yorkshire accents to be heard. The children who kick a bill around in the streets when the (London) brother returns were, apparently, paid “a shilling and a Mars Bar" each for their efforts. It’s black and white but fast-moving, well-scored - a decent film with a wryly amusing finale.



Kes (1969), a story of a boy and his pet falcon, was shot in Barnsley and surrounds and is based on a novel by local Barry Hines (whose brother had trained a kestrel). St Helen’s school, where Hines had taught PE, was used as the school and provided the film’s star. Hines also taught at nearby Central School with teachers who inspired characters in his novel – including Brian Glover who also had a key film part. The film contains local dialect and the extras were all local. It’s years since I saw it but I remember it being a serious piece of work. Comedian-actor Greg Davies did a 2019 BBC documentary about the book and film which you can catch here if you’re interested.

OK, now we are getting into real South Yorkshire films – ‘real’ because the area only became an official area (Metropolitan County) in 1974, having previously being part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. But I digress…

The Price of Coal (1977) warrants a quick mention here. It was a 2-part TV drama that, when combined, made a feature film length. It too was written by Barry Hines and directed by Ken Loach. It was set at the fictional Milton Colliery, near Barnsley and centres on efforts to cosmetically improve the pit in preparation for a royal visit (part one) and the safety shortcuts that cause a fatal accident (part two). Hines grew up in the mining community of Hoyland Common near Barnsley and had been a coal miner when he left school. However, it is probably best characterized as a South Yorkshire film rather than a Barnsley one. The drama was filmed around the disused Thorpe Hesley colliery near Rotherham. The plot has similarities to the 1912 pit disaster at Cadeby Main (Doncaster), which occurred whilst the King and Queen were visiting pit villages in Yorkshire. Finally, the film featured several local comedians from the South Yorkshire area – Jackie Shinn, Duggie Brown, Stan Richards and Bobby Knutt. LL

Looks and Smiles (1981), about two teenage mates trying to find work in early 80s Sheffield, is another Barry Hines screenplay. Hines went to school in Sheffield and the city (such as Park Hill estate, the now-demolished 'Ole in t' Road' and a Sheffield United match) features heavily. Two of the three stars, all of whom were amateurs, were working in apprenticeships in local industry. A few of the support actors were well known on the city’s working men’s clubs circuit – most notably Rita May who was also to get a role in Threads (see ahead). Friday night club-goers at the Genevieve nightclub were recruited as extras for scenes later filmed at said club – one subsequently told a Sheffield message board that “they fed us and gave us £25 per day for a few hours filming over 2 days. (It) was good fun”. It’s also a good film.

A tale of two Sheffield lads. This was the first and only film for Graham Green (left) as, unlike his co-star Tony Pitts, he chose not to pursue acting.

Threads (1984), about a nuclear attack on Sheffield, is yet another Barry Hines-scripted work. Officials at the city (a "nuclear-free zone") assisted with the script and the City Hall hosted well-attended auditions for extras. Hines also recruited extras from the Sheffield Polytechnic writing course he taught on (although it is Sheffield University library that holds his papers). There’s even an unscripted appearance by a brass band. The film is still relevant and still disturbing.

South Yorkshire screenplay writer Barry Hines - a key figure in South Yorkshire film from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s (in some very large glasses) 


Bird Fancier (1985) is an hour-long comedy BBC 1 tv movie about the world of pigeon racing (and a bed-hopping pigeon fancier). The film starred Michael Elphick and was written by Eric ‘Mal’ Middleton and filmed on location in the latter’s hometown of Sheffield. Middleton was one of the subjects of a 1980s documentary on Sheffield’s Manor Estate – we see him, at the time an unemployed 50-ish lorry driver, sat in the bedroom of his council house typing, hoping to make a career as a writer. The documentary returns to interview him when there was interest from the BBC. Middleton based the work on his own experience of seeing pigeon racing as a child. He taught himself to write the screenplay from reading a book on it that he’d bought from a Sheffield bookstore. Many shots featured the Shirecliffe allotments and huts on Park Wood Springs - locals were apparently paid cash by producers to light their fires in their huts to create smoke. The New Bridge Inn, the pigeon club’s meeting place, also features heavily. It’s a watchable film and an insight into an interesting pastime – one I remember my two great uncles taking part in. LL

Mal Middleton being interviewed (by BBC Look North's Harry Gration) ahead of the showing of the BBC TV film Bird Fancier


Much of Brassed Off (1996) was filmed in Grimethorpe, a mining village just outside Barnsley. The plot – about a colliery brass band dealing with the closure of their pit – is based on real events in the village. The soundtrack (and band members) were provided by the village’s colliery band whose long-time secretary, Ken Hirst, inspired the conductor character.


When Saturday Comes (1996) is about a local brewery worker who breaks into professional soccer with Sheffield United. For the star, Sean Bean, a Sheffield lad with a near lifelong affiliation with the club (including a 100% Blade tattoo on his arm) - this must have been a dream role. His character starts with well-known non-league side Hallam F.C. and quickly (meteorically in fact) graduates to a contract with Sheffield United Football Club. The film was shot at various locations including Sandygate Road (home of Hallam FC), Bramall Lane (home of Sheffield United) and Stones’ Cannon Brewery (closed in 1999). The Shakespeare pub on Well Road had its name covered and changed to the 'Fox House' for the filming - the landlord was David Fox! There was also some filming in Rotherham. Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, a Sheffield lad and supporter, wrote two songs for the film. Elliott even made his acting debut in a scene as Jimmy's brother, but this was cut from the final production. American writer-director Maria Giese based her script on the early life of her then husband, Sheffield-born producer James Daly. A promising local footballer with Hallam FC, Daly was given a trial for United but went out boozing, got drunk the night before and woke up next to a stripper – he blew his chance. In the last couple of years, Daly has also been linked to a sequel screenplay. The Sheffield United legend Tony Currie appears a lot in the film, albeit without much dialogue. Sheffield Wednesday legend Mel Sterland (who also appears in the same documentary on the Manors estate that featured Eric ‘Mal’ Middleton) is in several scenes and is team captain in the match scene. Sterland’s name also appeared on the team sheet seen in the film – along with the names of people working for Sheffield United at the time (such as grounds-men Glenn Nortcliffe and Kelly Barraclough). United club officials saw the film first which then opened at the Warner Multiplex at Meadowhall – the latter was eleven days ahead of the official Charity Premiere (presumably in London). It’s a good solid sports-plus-love interest film although one or two scenes reminded me of the Golden Gordon episode of Ripping Yarns – the brainchild of famous son of Sheffield Michael Palin. LL


Fictional team sheet containing some Sheffield United staff names - a nice touch although not sure how happy some of them were to be in the Arsenal team

The Full Monty (1997), about unemployed men turned male strippers, only has one Sheffield actor in a lead role – the boy Nathan. However, the film was shot almost entirely on location in and around the steel city and even features some local dialect. The opening sequence is a (now amusingly dated) Sheffield promotional film from 1972 commissioned by the city council's first ever publicity officer.

Among Giants (1998), which has a great cast, centres upon a team painting pylons. Simon Beaufoy wrote it before he wrote The Fully Monty and the film only got greenlighted due to that film’s success. However, whilst it includes shots of Sheffield, it is mainly set on moors around Sheffield – so not easy to call it a city film. LL

Whatever Happened to Harold Smith (1999) shows quite a few Sheffield locations along with one scene outside a Doncaster fish and chip shop (and a brief post-script bit on a Blackpool roller-coaster). It is a 1977-set comedy about a young guy’s love for a female work colleague and about his father (played by Tom Courtenay – who was knighted two years later) who has a talent for mind-reading and object-moving. None of the lead actors and actresses are from South Yorkshire but the screenplay writer, Ben Steiner, was Sheffield-based – somewhat ironically, I have been unable to find out Whatever Happened to Ben Steiner. There are also decent attempts at South Yorkshire accents. That the film had European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding – owing to Sheffield being eligible for it – was perhaps a factor in the choice of film location. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot that, in the scene where Stephen Fry’s character runs over a bridge, Sheffield tram tracks can be seen (the tracks were not laid until 1994 – i.e. long after 1977!). The performances are what you’d expect from such a high-profile cast and the film is worth sticking with. LL


Blood (2000), about a man addicted to a woman with narcotic blood (!), was apparently shot in Sheffield but, other than an IMDb entry, I can’t find anything about it and have yet to see it. LL

The Navigators (2001) centres on how privatisation of a Sheffield railway maintenance depot affects five rail workers that work for it. The film is based on (Sheffield-based screenwriter) Rob Dawber's experiences on the railways during privatisation in the mid-90s – he spent eighteen years working for British Rail within the Signalling and Telecommunication department in Sheffield. Dawber, who appears briefly as one of the workers at a derailment, died while the film was being edited, from cancer caused by exposure to asbestos while working on the tracks – he received the 2001 BAFTA award (posthumously) for "New Writer" for the film. The film was mainly shot in Sheffield although there were also scenes at Balby Sidings, Doncaster and at Loughborough Great Central Station. Of the five main characters, only Tommy Craig is from Sheffield (his name is a stage name – named after former Sheffield Wednesday player Tommy Craig). Dean Andrews, one of the other five, is from Rotherham. Steve Huison, of Full Monty fame, is another of the five but is not from the city. Sean Glenn, who plays the Harpic character is from Sheffield whilst Charlie Brown is from Goldthorpe (between Barnsley and Doncaster). The Navigators premiered in Sheffield and ran for two weeks at Sheffield's (arthouse) Showroom Cinema before being shown on Channel 4. I’ve not seen it and it’s not one of the films available on Director Ken Loach’s YouTube channel. But it looks a good city film.

Sheffield is also the shooting location for The Principles of Lust (2003) - about a struggling novelist who, on the same day, meets an attractive mother with a small child and a risk-taking couple who participate in a dark subculture of sex (it is very explicit in places), drugs, and children who participate in bare-knuckle fighting for watching adults who bet on the outcome! The Sheffield History website has included numerous screenshots of Sheffield locations – albeit without labelling them. Amongst the more obvious locations are the city centre and the Owen Building at Sheffield Hallam University – one of the main characters is meant to be a student there. The film also used Woodthorpe Manor Community Centre and a Sheffield swingers' club, La Chambre (still there if you’re interested). Amongst the acknowledgements at the end is thanks for legendary Sheffield boxing trainer Brendan Ingle and his famous boxing gym (St Thomas' Boys & Girls Club). Again, the film was part-funded from ERDF money. LL

Take Me to Your Leader (2008) is a mockumentary about a tragi-comic unemployed middle-aged Yorkshireman who decides to make a sci-fi film in Sheffield. It was written and directed by Sheffield born-and-raised Keith Wright. The star, Roger Bingham, also hails from Sheffield – indeed as far back as 1969 he and friend John Hurt set up the "Keep Lyceum Live" campaign to prevent the (then closed) Lyceum Theatre being demolished by the council. The two other lead characters include Grant Bridges (a Sheffield-based film professional) and Tristian Cooper (also from Sheffield). The Director apparently enlisted his father (as stuntman Chet Harris). There are not many shots of recognizable Sheffield – some of the city centre, Lowedges to the south and, even, Conisbrough Castle (near Doncaster). LL

Four Lions (2010) is a comedy, directed and co-written by the genial Chris Morris, about ‘homegrown’ idiot jihadis. It has no great local connections but does have lots of Sheffield locations: a terrace near the Tinsley viaduct; Meersbrook Park; a house on Sheffield's steepest hill, Blake Street; The Moor; Vicar Lane near Sheffield Cathedral; and the Kebabish restaurant on The Wicker (a street noted for its history and viaduct that crosses it). Warp Films, with offices in Sheffield and London, was involved in the production and a lot of the crew were from Sheffield.

Warp Films was also behind Kill List (2011), a Sheffield-shot horror film around the World of two contract killers. There are no great local connections, but numerous Sheffield locations can be seen and it gets a good review from Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw. LL

Five Pillars (2013), about race and class, is a Sheffield-Rotherham affair – the two town centres being just five miles apart. Rotherham is the hometown and base of the Writer-Director Jon Rosling whilst the film was made with a crew largely composed of graduates from Sheffield Hallam University's film and media courses, including producer Rob Yeomans and composer Dave Walker. George Newton (the depressed former steelworker) and Charlie Glossop (the boy Billy) are from Sheffield whilst Sameer Butt (the love-struck Asian lad) is from Rotherham. Rotherham shooting locations include: the Mckay Territorial Army Barracks; Lillies Coffee Shop in Bramley; Rotherham Hospital; and Woodlaithes Village. Sheffield locations include: The Wentworth pub; the World Calls Mini Market in Pitsmoor; Sheffield Manor Lodge; Fir Vale and All Saints Church in Aston-cum-Aughton. Other lesser local connections include a Sheffield Star Calendar on a house wall and the fact that the film’s hair and make-up were provided by a Sheffield salon owner. My only concerns with the film were the London accent of one of the key characters (despite the plot implying that he was a local lad) and, more seriously, that the Asians featured seemed to have been included almost as a plot device rather than out of any desire to explore their lives and attitudes to England. That said, it is a good film with some strong performances. LL

A play on the Five Pillars of Islam presumably - despite Islam getting only a passing nod

Someday (2013), about an Indian club-goer in Sheffield, is a sort-of-true story in that, although produced by an Indian film company (PRBA Productions) it was written by Saahil Prem, a Sheffield Hallam University graduate, who is originally from Mumbai. When a student in Sheffield, Prem used to go clubbing and danced when there. While most of the film's crew are from India, some of the dancers have been selected from south Yorkshire, including Sheffield. Locations included Sheffield nightclubs Plug, Embrace and Corporation as well as at Magna (a science adventure centre in Rotherham) and the Peak District. The film was due for a Sheffield premiere in March 2011 before a nationwide release. All I can find of the film is this trailerLL

The Library (2013) is a Doncaster film written and directed by local lass Daljinder Singh. Singh subsequently became Associate Producer at Doncaster’s CAST theatre and directed a play, The Last Seam, about the second-last coal mine to close in Britain, Hatfield Main near Doncaster. There were local connections: Doncaster College loaned all the film equipment in return for some of its film students getting to work on the film and most of the crew were unpaid but got free accommodation for the two-week shoot at the local High Melton University campus, where some of the scenes were shot. The main library in the film is the school library of the (Sir George Gilbert Scott-designed) Hall Cross Academy, located in Doncaster town centre. The three leads are non-local but locally based actress Faridah Rimmer appears as a college lecturer. A scene involving a reporter for a local paper was helped by a location shoot in the Doncaster Free Press offices. LL

X+Y (2014), is a tale based (albeit fictitiously in places) on the early life of austistic maths prodigy, Daniel Lightwing. The film was mostly shot across Sheffield, with additional scenes shot in Cambridge and Taiwan. Amongst the Sheffield locations were: schools (King Edward VII Upper and High Storrs); Rails – a shop for model rail enthusiasts, Crookes Cemetery, Thornbury BMI Hospital, Aston Hotel, The University of Sheffield and the interior of Sheffield Town Hall (used to double for Cambridge University). Creative England’s Film Friendly Partnership with Sheffield City Council was used to secure vital filming permissions during filming in said city. It’s a true(ish) Yorkshire story but not a Sheffield one - Lightwing was from York (in North Yorkshire) and went to school there too. I have yet to see the film but do remember watching a good (2007) BBC Two documentary on Lightwing and his Great Britain team-mates at the International Maths Olympiad.

My Bloody Banjo (2015) is a comedy horror film, about a man with an imaginary friend, by Sheffield writer-director Liam Regan. Shooting locations include Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster although, from the trailer and clip about the film’s production, these don’t look very revealing about any of these urban areas. LL

Billionaire Boy (2016) is an hour-long made-for-tv film about the trials and tribulations of a teenage schoolboy, Joe Spud, whose father has become rich overnight by inventing a revolutionary kind of toilet paper. At the beginning of the film you can see the premises of Rotherham company Booth Steel Stockholders near where Joe’s Dad works – next up we see Joe’s house, but this turns out to be in Coates Street, Sheffield. Despite the Sheffield shot, much of the filming took place at Oakwood High School in Rotherham and at Wentworth Woodhouse a local Grade I listed country house. Several Oakwood pupils had short speaking roles and about 150 other students and a few staff were able to participate as extras. The star, Eliot Sprakes, hails from Doncaster – 12 miles away. The film has a star cast and was co-written by David Walliams - based on his book of the same name. Screen Yorkshire invested in the production through its £15m, ERDF-supported Yorkshire Content Fund. The premiere was in London but there was also then a Rotherham screening. It’s a good (Rotheram-ish) children’s/family film. LL

Pit villages between Doncaster and Rotherham (i.e. on the fringes of both places) are the key film locations for Pond Life (2018), the story of a group of kids in a former mining village and their summertime adventure to land a giant carp in the local pit pond. The screenplay, by Doncastrian Richard Cameron, is based on his early 1990s play of the same name. The idea for the story came from when Cameron ran an activities summer school for special needs teenagers - to relax he would go back to the pond near where he grew up in Doncaster, next to a former pit village. 20 years later, Cameron rewrote it as a screenplay. Filming was centred on the villages of Maltby and Edlington and the scenic Ravenfield Ponds between Doncaster and Rotherham – there’s also a glimpse of Roche Abbey. In prepping for the film, the Director, Bill Buckhurst, claims to have spent many hours getting to know the area and its people – and doing some fishing as he previously knew nothing about the pastime. Several younger members of the cast, such as the two who play Dave and Shane, came through an open casting session in Doncaster. To continue the South Yorkshire angle, the Rod and Reel Angling shop in Bawtry also features and original music is provided by Sheffield-raised Richard Hawley, probably best known as the guitarist for the band Pulp. Pond Life is worth sticking with and, if I didn’t know differently, I’d think it was by the great Shane Meadows. What I really love about this film is that it was reviewed by the carpfeed website – I feel like they must have been waiting for a fishing film for years!  LL



Sheffield is the setting and main filming location for Everybody's Talking About Jamie (2020), inspired by the 2011 television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 – a true story about a teenager as he overcomes prejudice to become a drag queen. The Director, Park Hill-born Jonathan Butterell, grew up in what he has described as “a tough part of Sheffield” and was also responsible for co-developing both the musical, which initially played at Sheffield's Crucible theatre, and later the film. The only thing stopping this being a great Sheffield city film is that it is based on the true story of Jamie Campbell – a boy from Bishop Auckland, Country Durham. The film, another from the Warp Films stable, is scheduled for release in October of 2020.

So … my top South Yorkshire city films, and their scores, are:

Barnsley                                  Kes                              (15)
Sheffield                                  Threads                       (12)
Sheffield                                  Looks and Smiles       (9.5)
Sheffield                                  The Full Monty            (7)

Honorable mentions:
Doncaster-Rotherham            Pond Life
Sheffield                                 Bird Fancier
Sheffield                                 When Saturday Comes
Sheffield-Rotherham              Five Pillars

The author, a Brit. based in Washington DC, is on Twitter at @newbarnraising.

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