In
Kirklees...
It
sometimes seems that you cant travel around the valleys
around Huddersfield without falling over television crews.
For
nearly thirty years Last of the Summer Wine has been something
of a showcase for the Holme and Colne Valleys and has also served
to put Holmfirth firmly on the tourist map. Bill Owen who played
Compo made the area his second home and is buried in nearby Upperthong.
The pub featured in the series is the White Horse Inn in Jackson
Bridge.
 |
| The
Bamforths used to show their films at the Valley Cinema in
Holmfirth, now called the Picturedrome |
It
ís a very different group of villagers that feature in
The League of Gentlemen. Although most of the filming has taken
place in Derbyshire some believe the series is actually about
Marsden folk. Scenes were filmed around Holmfirth and Marsden
- many a walker has been surprised to see the set for the 'Local
Shop' up on the moor.
You
dont have to be much of a detective to realise that the
fictional Skelthwaite (Where The Heart Is) is actually Slaithwaite.
The health centre is in Marsden and the hospital shots are, we
think, Hudersfield Royal Infirmary. Marsden also became Wokenwell
in the police series of the same name with the tiny Sair Inn in
Linthwaite playing the part of the local pub.
Thornton
Lodge in Huddersfield has been used in an advert for an insurance
company, the one where the chap throws the money away in the street
while Dewsbury has featured in Emmerdale, The Darling Buds of
May and A Touch of Frost.
While
Oakwell Hall was used as a film location as long ago as 1921,
for a silent version of Charlotte Brontes Shirley, we need
to go back to Holmfirth to find out where it all began. It was
here that the Bamforths used to produce their saucy seaside postcards
but before this they made movies, using local people as actors.
They showed these at the Valley Cinema which has recently reopened
as the Picturedrome complete with a Bamforth postcard exhibition.
