As seen on TV
English television programming has a deserved reputation for high standards and quality around the world. Over the years millions of people have grown up with and enjoyed the thousands of productions filmed and produced throughout the country.
From Dr Who to a country vet
Woodnorton Hall has seen a cast of thousands pass through its beautifully wood panelled hallways and rooms. However, in the 1960s it went back to the future when it was used for an episode of Dr Who and taken over by something more sinister than tourists, none other than the Daleks!
Such is the strength, spirit and versatility of Yorkshire’s backdrop that it crops up in everything from endearing series like All Creatures Great and Small – in places such as Thirsk, to the familiar streets and moors around Holmfirth, home to the much loved Last Of The Summer Wine, while Heartbeat resides in the heart of the North York Moors around Goathland.
More info about Yorkshire
By the seaside
Barely a week goes by without Blackpool popping up on the small screen. From soap favourites such as Coronation Street and Eastenders to comedy classics such as Phoenix Nights the resort has been the backdrop for some of TV's most dramatic, touching and humorous moments. Visit the legendary Tower Ballroom, made famous by BBC TV’s Come Dancing, or Pleasure Beach, Blackpool – so famous it even had its own documentary.
More info about Blackpool
Murder mysteries
"The P.D. James Mysteries" are adaptations of the novels written by the East Anglian writer and feature Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh, who lives partly in Norfolk in a converted windmill. Here amongst the quiet country lanes, pretty villages and seaside towns, murders come thick and fast. The series were filmed throughout Suffolk including Felixstowe Ferry, Bawdsey and Ipswich. While in Oxford an inspector by the name of Morse solved many a brutal murder among the gleaming spires of this seat of academia.
More info about Norfolk
More info about Oxford
TV's best loved
Picturesque villages have often been used as substitutes for fictional villages. Romsey in Hampshire is Kings Markham in Ruth Rendells' Inspector Wexford television series. Wallingford in Oxford doubles as the town of Causton in the Midsomer Murders series which starred John Nettles as Chief Inspector Barnaby. The village of Pluckley in Kent was the setting for The Darling Buds of May with the wonderful David Jason and Catherine Zeta Jones. Perffick!
The picturesque Bluebell Railway in East Sussex was used for the TV version of "The Railway Children" made in 2000. Richard Wilson's character, Victor Meldrew in the television series One Foot in the Grave, died close to Shawford Station near Winchester. Yyou won't believe this, flowers are often left!