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The area on screen
External links
The Internet Movie Database
Time Team (Channel 4)
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Some of North Northumberland's best-known landmarks have featured in films and on television. Even villages such as Belford have rubbed shoulders with the most famous Hollywood stars.
CASTLES ON CAMERA
The castles in the area have proved a major attraction for directors. Alnwick Castle was the location for the exterior scenes in the first series of
the
BBC's Black Adder, starring Rowan Atkinson (1983). A few years earlier,
it was used in another BBC production, Dracula with Frank Finlay and Louis
Jourdan in the title role. Walt Disney Productions filmed The Spaceman and King Arthur at Alnwick in the 1970's and recently the Castle acted as 'Hogwart's School' in the Harry Potter movies. Shooting on the second Harry Potter film began at Alnwick in March 2002.
Alnwick Castle's new water garden has received extensive coverage, including a programme in late 2002 about its opening, featuring gardening expert Charlie Dimmock and HRH Prince Charles.
Elizabeth (1998), starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes, was shot at Alnwick Castle and Bamburgh Beach.
Bamburgh Castle appears in the first episode of the TV series Robin of Sherwood. If you see these scenes, watch out for the drainpipes on the Castle and a white car in the far distance! The Castle has also appeared in advertisements and feature films.
BURTON & TAYLOR
Richard Burton came to Bamburgh to shoot scenes on the beach for Becket (1964) and brought Elizabeth Taylor with him. They stayed in the old coaching inn in Belford and viewed the rushes in the ballroom there. Roman Polanski filmed a violent and bloody version of Macbeth (1971) at Bamburgh.
Some five years earlier, Holy Island and Lindisfarne Castle had provided the location for Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (1966). The film stars Donald Pleasance and Lionel Stander, who is perhaps better known as Max in the TV series Hart To Hart. Instead of staying in a hotel on the Island, Polanski chose to live in an old caravan that was invested with earwigs. Not surprisingly, he hated the experience.
Lindisfarne Castle also appears in the finale of the TV movie The Scarlet Pimpernell (1983) starring Anthony Andrews. The sequence begins with an atmospheric shot of a horse-drawn carriage crossing the causeway. Highway, ITV's religious programme, has been televised from Holy Island and Bamburgh. In his TV series More Rhodes Around Britain, chef Gary Rhodes cooked in the kitchen at Bamburgh Castle.
In 2001, excavations and many interesting discoveries, at both Holy Island and Bamburgh, were featured in two Channel 4 Time Team programmes.
WILDLIFE
The Farne Islands have appeared in several programmes, often about the wildlife there. These include a live broadcast of BBC Bristol's Birdwatch and items on its Really Wild Show. Simon King reported live from the Farne Islands in the third week of the 2005 series of the BBC's popular Springwatch.
The departure of the last keeper on the Longstone Lighthouse was covered in a BBC daytime special.
ACTIVISM
In April 1994 (following a telephone call from the author of this website), BBC CountryFile arrived in Belford to film a report about the deteriorating electricity supply in the area since privatisation.
Their film report was broadcast twice on national BBC Television (on 10th & 13th April 1994). The programme suggested some avenues to explore, including the Department of Trade and Industry. Following this, residents of Belford gathered together and launched an ongoing campaign to have the electricity infrastructure in the area upgraded.
As a result of CountryFile and the campaign, Belford and other local villages now enjoy a better electricity supply.
We have some behind-the-scenes video of the BBC filming in Belford, which will appear here on our website in the future.
In April 2000 there was massive publicity surrounding the closure of Barclays Bank in Belford. The closure featured on the national news and on the web on BBC Online -- which used pictures from North Northumberland Online.