Shropshire Star

Movies and TV filmed in Shropshire

With its lush countyside and historic towns, Shropshire has proved a popular setting for countless films and television series. Lara Page looks at the county's diverse screen history.

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With its lush countyside and historic towns, Shropshire has proved a popular setting for countless films and television series. Lara Page looks at the county's diverse screen history.

Last year's wartime blockbuster Atonement, starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy, is partly filmed in Stokesay Court in Onibury, which was used for the Tallis' home in the movie. The set was visited by our Movie Blogger Carl Jones in September 2007, when he took an Atonement Tour of Stokesay Court with owner Caroline Magnus.

The 1978 thriller Absolution, which starred Richard Burton (pictured here in 1963 with former wife Elizabeth Taylor) and featured a young Billy Connolly, follows the story of a rebellious young scholar at a Catholic public school. Ellesmere College provided the backdrop to many of the school scenes.nextpageThe Severn Valley Railway which was used for The Chronicles of Narnia

Although most of the 2005 blockbuster remake The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was filmed in Auckland, New Zealand and Trutnov in the Czech Republic, Highley Station on the Severn Valley Railway was used to film some of the train scenes (above). Interestingly, large parts of the 1988 BBC television series The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe were also filmed in Shropshire, in The Grotto at Hawkstone Park in Weston-under-Redcastle.nextpageKeith Barron and Maggie O'Neill in TV drama 'Take Me Home'

The 1989 television drama Take Me Home, starring Keith Barron (Coronation Street; Where the Heart Is) and Maggie O'Neill (Shameless; Mansfield Park), was predominantly filmed in Telford.nextpageColin Baker and Nicola Bryant from the 1985 Doctor Who (picture courtesy of Matthew Ashton)

In a 1985 two-part episode of the original Doctor Who series, entitled The Mark of the Rani, Colin Baker (pictured with Nicola Bryant who played Peri) found himself on the receiving end of an evil Time Lord. Both episides were shot in the Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Ironbridge, and the pair revisted the set on the episode's 10-year anniversary (above).nextpageGillian Anderson and Danny Dyer in the film Straightheads

Last year's Hollywood thriller Straightheads, starring Gillian Anderson (The X Files; Bleak House) and Danny Dyer (The Business; Mean Machine) as a couple who plot to murder their attackers, was predominantly shot in Shropshire. The set features woodland around Bridgnorth, Cleobury Mortimer, Kinlet and the Wyre Forest, along with Mawley Hall.nextpageDerek Acorah in Shrewsbury

Psychic medium Derek Acorah (pictured here with Melanie Molineux) visited Shrewsbury in 2005 as part of the hugely popular paranormal investigation series, Most Haunted. In episode 3.7, Derek and his team spent the evening at the reputedly haunted Fitz Manor in Montford Bridge, and later visited Bailey Head in Oswestry for his subsequent series Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns on Living TV.

The writer and historian David Starkey from Channel 4's Moral Maze filmed at Ludlow Castle to illustrate part of his 2001 documentary series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Parts of his subsequent series Monarchy with David Starkey also featured the castle.nextpageThe BBC's 2004 remake of Carrie's War (picture courtesy of the BBC)

This is an image from the BBC's 2004 remake of Carrie's War, based on the novel by Nina Bawden, about two London children who are evacuated to Wales during WWII. The original version, however, which was released in January 1974, was filmed along parts of the Severn Valley Railway between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster.nextpageAnneka Rice in Treasure Hunt

During Season 3 of the action-packed 1980s game show Treasure Hunt, presenter Anneka Rice and her team trekked around the county on a hunt which took them to Burford House Gardens, Action Scott Working Farm, Stokesay Castle, The Feather's Hotel in Ludlow and The Plough in Wistanstow. The episode was aired in early 1985.nextpageTony Robinson at Bridgnorth Castle for Time Team

In October 2004, presenter Tony Robinson and his team took part in an archeological dig of the ground around historic Bridgnorth Castle for the Time Team series. Shropshire has proved an area of great interest to the programme, which has also held digs in Kynnersley, High Ercall and Ironbridge.

David Niven and a young Jodie Foster starred in the 1977 Disney family movie Candleshoe, in which popular filming location, the Severn Valley Railway, is featured.

Green Green Grass was the hit BBC television series which followed Only Fools and Horses' shifty car salesman Boycie and his wife Marlene as they swapped life in Peckham to start again in rural Shropshire. Aired in September 2005, the series was based, and filmed, almost entirely in the tiny village of Ratlinghope near Church Stretton.nextpageJohn Cleese, who starred in Clockwise (picture courtesy PA Archive)

Clockwise, the 1986 comedy of errors about the hilarious consequences of being late, stars John Cleese (pictured above in Fawlty Towers) as a school headmaster trying to get to a teaching conference. Much of the movie is filmed in the West Midlands, with Menzies High School in West Bromwich and King Edward's School in Edgebaston featuring heavily in the opening scenes. But the film also featured Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock, which was used for the telephone box scene in which Cleese meets an old flame.

Shifnal film director Matt Daniels used the old railway bridge in his home town to shoot a murder scene in his 2004 indie thriller Powerless. The rest of the film is shot in Pembrokeshire and stars Matt's wife's family (pictured) in a compelling plot about the consequences of a national power failure.nextpageGeorge C. Scott filming A Christmas Carol in Shrewsbury

Perhaps the most famous Shropshire-based film is the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol, starring George C. Scott. Considered by many to be the definitive cinematic adaptation of the Dickens novel, it was filmed entirely in Shrewsbury. Most of the market scenes are set in the town's main Square or around the Royal Infirmary building, while Ebenezer Scrooge's house is filmed in the Claremont area of town, near the Quarry Park.nextpageThe Stiperstones, which featured in the film Gone to Earth

The ruggedly beautiful backdrop of the Stiperstones provided an ideal setting for the 1950 film Gone to Earth, about a rich landowner who falls in love with a gypsy. Almost the entirety of the film was shot in Shropshire, including Much Wenlock, the point-to-point racecourse at Eyton, Longner Hall in Shrewsbury, Pontesford Hill, Snailbeach and the Devil's Chair (above), where the gypsy casts her spell.

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