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 trailer. LL
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment