Film, Book, TV Locations that inspire a visit
 

Not my favourite, but an enjoyable book, Tucci’s “Taste” gave me a taste for travelling to some of the less visited parts of New York; but yet to be done.

Books, films, and TV Programmes have inspired me to visit places or to reminisce on places I have visited in the past that are now featured in them.

I am lucky to live on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire and can visit some wonderful locations: Bronte’s desolate moors; Hughes and Plath’s Heptonstall. Closer to home, the film
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On the path to Towneley Cafe
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A lovely walk to Towneley Cafe
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Towneley Cafe - still serves nice grub
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The Playground off Barden Lane.
“Whistle Down the Wind” featured the village of Downham and one of the scenes was shot in the Café at Towneley (still serving) and the Swings at Barden Lane (still working – just).

The wonderful BBC thrillers “Happy Valley” set around Halifax and “The Ferry” set around Todmorden are both familiar to me and well worth a visit for a taste of something different.

Any other offerings of locations that encouraged you to visit or by luck you found out was a location (or became one)? The pictures added are those of Towneley Café and the Playground off Barden Lane.

The Dales from Otley to Masham are often featured in local TV drama and are wonderful. Abbeys of Fountains etc spectacular. But don't tell anyone.

This question made me smile! In the mid-90s, my husband and I took a road trip through northern England, Wales and Scotland. We’d just seen the early Hugh Grant movie, “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Down a Mountain” so we thought it would be fun to find the town it was filmed in. And we did! Of course, there was no hill or mountain in or near the town, but we went into a local pub and there were lots of photos of the film shoot. The pub owner (publican?) regaled us with stories and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of visiting this otherwise untouristy town.

I remember being on a road trip in Northern California a few years back (we were actually tracing Robert Louis Stevenson's footsteps) and we pitched up in Bodega Bay, where The Birds was partly filmed. Bit of a strange place! Or was that because the film scared me silly when I was young?

I live in the Yorkshire Dales - many films and programmes filmed around here. Grassington is getting lots of visitors because of the recent All Creatures Great and Small series. Previous series were filmed more in the Askrigg area.
As Bilbo says, Fountains features in many films - The Witcher, The Secret Garden etc.

I love the movie "Local Hero" which takes place in Scotland. When I was planning our trip, someone on this forum suggested that we visit Arisaig and its lovely beaches. I looked up Arisaig in my Michelin Green Guide and discovered that the beach scene from "Local Hero" was filmed at the White Sands of Morar, and from there I discovered the actual beach is Camusdarach Beach.

So, when we left the Isle of Skye via the Armadale to Mallaig ferry, I made it our mission to find Camusdarach Beach. We had fun exploring this beautiful area. To get to the beach, we walked down a lovely path past some grazing sheep and through sand dunes, and then found the beach where the character Ben lived and refused to sell it to the oil company.

The reason I initially watched "Local Hero" is because I've been a fan of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler ever since Sultans of Swing. I didn't know Mark wrote the music score for "Local Hero" until the pandemic when I spent too much time on the internet. So, I watched the movie several times before our Scotland trip in 2023, and fell in love not only with the music but with the movie, too. So it was my mission to find Ben's beach, and in doing so, we discovered a lovely, uncrowded slice of Scotland!

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Camusdarach Beach - scene from Local Hero
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Ben's beach in Local Hero
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Almost there!

What a fun thread!

I have to admit that movies, TV and books have always been the driving force of my travel plans. For example, the Shirley Temple movie "Heidi", a movie my sister and I watched a zillion times as kids, inspired our family's decades-old Alps trip, LOL. It was one of our earliest European trips with my husband and kids, initiated only because my health had done such a deep nosedive around 1998-1999, I was offered a "bucket list" opportunity. Eating cheese and bread with a view in an Alpine pasture WAS first on the list. I am so happy I proved my doctors wrong while making my kids and husband very happy.

Audrey Hepburn DEFINED Paris for me in film, so wherever she was filmed or photographed, our family went. Heck, "Roman Holiday" directed much of what our family did in Rome, too.
My love of Nordic Noir in both film and word inspired our latest trip to Scandinavia.

Enjoyed some of the mentions--
I loved Bodega Bay because...I'm a bird watcher! How ironic. It was a fabulous place to do so.
I'm a big "Local Hero" fan

(Apologies - it should read "The Jetty" and not "The Ferry").

On my bucket list is Dingle in Ireland, after seeing "Ryans Daughter" (hit and miss film - great location and great John Mill's performance), although, apparently, much of it was filmed in South Africa. My Brother - in - Law heard I was keen to go to South Africa and recommended watching "Out of Africa", which I have yet to see.

AZ, your mention of Paris reminds me of our trip to Paris. I watched "Midnight in Paris" probably about a dozen times before we visited Paris. So, we had to find the church where the 1920's car picks up Gil Pender (played by Owen Wilson) and delivers him to the party with the famous authors. We were being very silly, and we decided to visit the church at midnight and sit on the steps, waiting for our 1920's car, along with quite a few other silly people!:)

stevelyon, I remember watching Whistle Down the Wind with Hayley Mills in the 1960's! I was a big fan of hers way back when.

There was a British TV series called Heart Beat (beat being a police term for their area of responsability) set in the 50s and 60s about Yorkshire country cops.

The original series police station is the building where I run a Maker Space at the moment. Later Series they moved to a professional lot.

I went to Lyme Regis in Dorset to walk along the Cobb after reading & watching The French Lieutenants Woman. Since then, multiple versions (3?) of Persuasion, also featuring the Cobb, & Ammonite in 2020 set in an easily recognized Lyme.

Nearly thirty years ago when my two boys were very young, we spent two weeks in the Dingle peninsula because I was so taken by the scenery in Ryan’s Daughter too! Was SO disappointed not to find the really stand out beach and it was years later I discovered some of the scenes were filmed in South Africa.As it turned out we did visit SA twice a few years back and stood at the very spot I’d admired for so many years….the ship wreck is still there, the bones of it sticking out of the very white sand - Noordhoek beach with Chapman’s Peak behind.Stunning spot.

There are really countless places and since SkyFall, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Outlander -- many of the more remote spots get a LOT of visitors.

Some of my faves - West Sands in St Andrews for the iconic Chariots of Fire beach runs. The Opening scenes of Braveheart (and scattered scenes throughout the film) in Glen Nevis. Glencoe / Skyfall. Doune Castle has been really popular . . . parts of Monty Python an the Holy Grail, Game of Thrones and Outlander were filmed there. Local Hero's village of Ferness was a mashup of a lot of places -- but mainly Pennan in the NE and the beach in Morar (there is a real/tiny village of Ferness between Nairn and Grantown-on-Spey that has nothing at all to do with the movie)

Most every stately home in England has been a film location - from Downton Abbey to Brideshead Revisited, to Bridgerton to all the Harry Potters, to Pride & Prejudice to the Favourite and countless others

Fun fact - many of the desert scenes in Lawrence of Arabia were filmed on the south coast of Wales!

Of course lots of places build a lot of business on their connection with popular films and TV, going back quite a way: Carnforth railway station and Brief Encounter, Mull for fans of I Know Where I'm Going, all over Scotland for fans of Whisky Galore

And in other countries too: St Sévère-sur-Indre celebrates Tati's Jour de Fête, and St Marc-sur-Mer Les Vacances de M. Hulot

I realise this is tagged UK, but I grew up in outback Australia, and our desert landscape became film locations for Red Planet, Mad Max, those sorts of movies.

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my backyard…


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my preferences for holiday locations is anywhere green! With mountains and lakes…



I think I fell in love with Europe watching Sound of Music.

Adelaidean, the mystery novel, The Lost Man, by Jane Harper, could be set in your backyard!

'Brief Encounter' - Back in 2023 the refreshment room was still looking like it did in the film. They make a good bacon butty - if you like that sort of thing. The walk from here to Lancaster along the canal is a dream - one of the best canal walks we have done, thus far.
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Carnforth Refreshment Room
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Carnforth Station
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Inside Refreshment Room

Stopped in Carnforth many times on the way to Silverdale RSPB and have narrow boated along the Lancaster canal, lovely area. On the subject of TV series filmed in the north west/West Yorkshire:

Coronation Street
Happy Valley
Emmerdale
Cold Feet
to name but a few. Happy Valley was a great series, with Sarah Lancaster. Cold Feet was iconic.