Five great movies set in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire might get a bit of slack for being the home of places like Bradford and Leeds, but I’d argue that it’s one of the most spectacular places in England, as long as you steer clear of Briggate on a Saturday night.
Its expansive landscapes were the driving force behind the Brontë sisters’ imaginations, inspiring them to write the likes of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, while legendary artist David Hockney grew up in Bradford and used the local countryside as a subject countless times.
Other places like Saltaire, Haworth, and Hebden Bridge offer some gorgeous escapes away from city life, proving just how beautiful West Yorkshire really is, so naturally, following representation in literature and art, the area has also varyingly been the subject of the silver screen, whether it be the pastures or the stunning old buildings serving as the setting for romantic stories or mystery dramas.
So, from the British classics to darkly comic masterpieces, here are five great films set in West Yorkshire.
Five great movies set in West Yorkshire:
‘My Summer of Love’ (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2004)
Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski brought a tale of deception, friendship, and identity with his debut My Summer of Love, a gorgeously shot film where the bright green landscapes of a hazy Yorkshire summer are a prominent feature, almost becoming a character in and of itself, and it also gave Emily Blunt her first major big-screen role.
We see the girls lazing around or riding horses as the summer passes by, spending much of their time outside on the grassy landscapes that make Yorkshire such a stunning country, with the film shot in Todmorden, a town that can be found in the Upper Calder Valley, which Pawlikowski extensively recced to find the most beautiful locations.
‘Wetherby’ (David Hare, 1985)
The town of Wetherby became the inspiration for the 1985 mystery film of the same name, which starred some bigwigs, like Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave. Wetherby sees a middle-aged woman host a dinner party in which one of her guests, Tim McInnerny’s John, begins acting strangely, only for him to call round in the morning and shoot himself at her kitchen table. The film tries to piece together what led to this moment, and despite earning various accolades, it has since faded into relative obscurity.
Wetherby is a great West Yorkshire film, however, and you can spot many towns and villages across the movie’s runtime besides its namesake, which also has Jean teaches at Harrogate Grammar School, while Leeds’ iconic Hyde Park Picture House is visited by the characters (rightly so, it’s the best) in this underrated film.
‘God’s Own Country’ (Francis Lee, 2017)
Josh O’Connor starred in the queer romantic drama God’s Own Country back in 2017, and with a title like that, it could only be set in Yorkshire. Alec Secăreanu appeared opposite the actor as a Romanian migrant whom O’Connor’s Johnny meets while working on his family’s farm, and while Call Me By Your Name emerged that same year as a Rohmer-esque take on the discovery of identity and sexuality, Francis Lee’s film was much grittier and unmistakably British.
The film was shot in Silsden, a small town near Keighley, whose bus station is also featured, and the great pastoral landscapes of West Yorkshire give the film a certain kind of romanticism, which is tied down with a distinctive dirtiness, the mud of the fields a defining feature; moreover, Haworth also served as a shooting location, which is best known for inspiring the gothic minds of the Brontë sisters.
‘Billy Liar’ (John Schlesinger, 1963)
John Schlesinger brought Keith Waterhouse’s novel Billy Liar to the big screen in 1963, right in the midst of the British New Wave, and with only two previous credits to his name, including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the Hull-born Tom Courtenay took on the role of Billy, who fantasises about a life far removed from his working-class upbringing. This leads him to make up stories about himself as a way to escape his boredom, and he soon finds himself in various messy situations, often involving different women.
Set in Bradford, much of the film was shot on location, and today you can easily visit the places that defined the films, such as the town of Shipley, where you can find Billy’s house, 37 Hinchcliffe Avenue, while the steps next to his place of work at a funeral directors can be found just off Sunbridge Road in Bradford.
‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’ (Alan Clarke, 1987)
One of the greatest tales set in Bradford is Rita, Sue and Bob Too, which playwright Andrea Dunbar adapted for the big screen, taking inspiration from her own experience of growing up in the city. It’s a rowdy, piercing film, with schoolgirls Rita and Sue starting an affair with an older man whom they babysit for, making for a messy, loud, and ultimately distressing feature, perfectly capturing something so painfully raw and real.
Directed by Alan Clarke, it remains a defining piece of Yorkshire cinema as the movie was filmed in and around Bradford, and in one sequence, you can see the girls take a school trip to Haworth, where a fight breaks out down the main street (“slag!”). Elsewhere, various scenes take place in Baildon, just a few miles north of Bradford’s city centre, and like Billy Liar, Shipley also appears on screen here, specifically at Staveley Garages.
