“That’s Paul Weller’s piano in the corner,” Richardson says, speaking to me in his shop. “He gave it to me when he played here in July. “Every day, you see people walking,” Rob Brydon calls when he’s in Halifax. He wore a pair of Loafers on stage and talked about us. It’s not like water off a duck’s back, but I expect to see these things now. This place is so amazing – worth the attention. I’m very proud of that.” There’s a picture of my friends with Tom Cruise in the Dales before he ran off to parachute off a cliff The former mill town seems to be establishing itself as the Hollywood of the North. Or ‘Haliwood’ as some call it. In fact, the entire Calderdale district – including Brighouse, Elland, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge and Ripponden – is screened. Along with Secret Invasion, the exciting line-up of productions recently shot here includes Shane Meadows’ highly anticipated first-period drama Gallows Pole, based on the award-winning novel by Benjamin Myers. How has this humble bit of West Yorkshire become such a sought-after destination? Secret… Tom Cruise is filming Mission: Impossible in Yorkshire. Photo: Michael Mayhew/Allstar With Channel 4 announcing its relocation to Leeds, there was already an air of optimism about the region’s future in film and television. The lockdown then forced productions to reconsider locations and find cheaper solutions. “Marvel was a godsend,” says Piece Hall chief executive Nicky Chance-Thompson over a cup of tea. “Cities have struggled to open in lockdown, but here there is less engine to ignite. We said we can help. We could offer a package, mobilize and have flexibility. We could respond much faster. Also, site crawlers like to ‘discover’ new places.” The staff, he says, have loved it. “They have to work on a Hollywood production location! I know people who were extra – they got like 200 from here. Our MP, Holly Lynch, said to me: ‘The people of Halifax have this newfound swagger!’ Perhaps Calderdale felt under pressure given North Yorkshire’s past: parts of the latest Mission: Impossible were filmed in its moors last year. “There’s a picture of my friends with Tom Cruise in the middle of nowhere in the Dales,” Chance-Thompson says, “before he runs off to parachute off a cliff or whatever.” Or perhaps the pressure came from neighboring Bradford, home of literary mecca Haworth and the mad, windy moors of Brodet Country, the location of endless adaptations of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and related productions, the most recent being Emily . But Calderdale has always offered a different but distinctive palette of sites: the sparse, brutally beautiful uplands stitched together by stone walls. densely wooded valleys cut by streams. the stone terraces and mills of untouched industrial cities. In the past, parts of it were used for the filming of the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, as well as the 1996 film Brassed Off and Channel 4’s Red Riding. A Georgian buffet? No problem… Emma Mackey on Emily. Photo: Michael Wharley But it was the famous TV writer Sally Wainwright who really put Calderdale in the spotlight. After growing up in Sowerby Bridge, she left to start her career. “I felt Halifax was a cultural quagmire,” he previously told the Guardian. But she later returned home when writing three of her longest series: “West Yorkshire has become more and more important to me as I get older. There’s a real depth to the landscape – it’s so dramatic and awe-inspiring. Now I see Calderdale as really beautiful.” Wainwright’s 2012 BBC drama Last Tango in Halifax, starring Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as reunited lovers Alan and Celia, often feels like a love letter to the region and its people. Then there was Happy Valley, the 2014 crime series starring Sarah Lancashire, which returns after a six-year hiatus later this year. It was so popular that as part of a tour, crowds of fans were taken to the house where the kidnapped Ann Gallagher was held hostage during the first season. Perhaps most significant in Calderdale’s rise, certainly for American audiences, was the 2019 BBC drama Gentleman Jack. Starring Suranne Jones, it tells the story of queer diarist, entrepreneur and contemporary LGBTQ+ icon Anne Lister. Drive down the road from Piece Hall and Lister’s home, Shibden Hall (“neat little Shibden”, as he lovingly calls it on the show), is hidden in the foliage. Now a museum, it was used for much of the filming. Walk through the crazy rooms and it feels like you’re in a scene – the creators of the series keep the simple mansion true to how it really is. “It’s become a pilgrimage for lesbians,” says Richard Macfarlane, director of Calderdale Museums. “After the third episode, we got a message from someone in America saying they wanted to visit. By the next week, they had booked a plane and turned up.” This international recognition is underlined by the hall’s visitor numbers: 2019 was Shibden’s most successful year yet, with triple the usual amount. Despite the devastating lockdowns of 2020, a second series was filmed and there were even more visitors than in Jack’s pre-Gentleman era. Get our weekly pop culture email delivered free to your inbox every Friday Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our site and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “Lesbian Pilgrimage” … shooting of the second series of Gentleman Jack. Photo: Aimee Spinks/BBC/Lookout Point/HBO This in turn gave a boost to the local economy. “People used to be day-trippers, but there’s no denying that nights in bed have increased,” explains a very tight-lipped Jane Scullion, deputy leader of Calderdale Council. Demand for local businesses and talent has also increased: “Cafes, hair salons, restaurants – they are very happy to provide services and sad to see productions go. And we are grafters. There are people around here who can whip up a Georgian buffet in a matter of hours! Set design, sound, music, lighting – we haven’t seen the full potential of apprenticeships in these areas yet, but that’s where we want to be.’ This focus on homegrown talent and inspiring the next generation is something that Screen Yorkshire – one of nine regional agencies set up by the UK Film Council in 2002 – is passionate about. The achievements of this small group of industry experts are showcased in the posters that hang on the walls of their Leeds office, from Peaky Blinders to This Is England. They run a variety of programs for local young people: Beyond Brontes, for example, ensures that the most diverse trainees get hands-on experience in the industry. Having just one such production credit on a resume can be a game changer. “We want more stories about Yorkshire, not just filmed in Yorkshire,” says communications manager Rachel McWatt, who finds that people who moved to London for work are now desperate to return. “One message we keep saying is, ‘You don’t need a degree to work in television.’ Trainees, he says, are actually on the ground working on productions. “We had them on Ackley Bridge recently,” adds McWatt, referring to the hit Channel 4 high school drama which was filmed in and around Halifax. Sign of the times… Halifax during the filming of Secret Invasion. Photo: Windmill Images/Alamy It helps that the organization has the enthusiastic support of former Coronation Street actress Tracey Brabin. Currently the Mayor of West Yorkshire and previously MP for Batley and Spen, Brabin played Corrie barb Tricia Armstrong in the 1990s. Screen Yorkshire has also built a long-standing relationship with Meadows from This Is England and teamed up with him again in Gallows Pole, which is set in Cragg Vale. Most of the filming took place in the village of Heptonstall (where, by the way, Sylvia Plath is buried). “It’s going to bring in a lot of tourists, that one,” McWatt muses. Of course, not everyone is basking in the Hollywood glitz, with some small businesses rightfully complaining that they were forced to close during filming. But locals are largely positive about Calderdale’s glamorous reinvention. Peter Vardy from Film Calderdale, which has been set up by the council to facilitate producers, hopes to find new ways to involve local residents: “We have a location database where people can advertise their properties for productions for use’. However, there is such a thing as over-involvement. Vardy recalls that, during the filming of the Full Monty series, which will star many of the original cast, including Robert Carlisle, his colleague almost ended up in the shot. “They had to drag her out of the way!” He says.
