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East Midlands on film

Royston Vasey - Home of the League of Gentlemen

Lights, camera, action! The East Midlands is becoming a mecca of movie making. From Middlemarch to Mansfield Park, film makers are putting the spotlight on the area's many locations.

A small solitary town in Derbyshire has also become one of the most popular TV sets in the country.

The gritty streets of Hadfield have also become Britain's least likely tourist hotspot.

The town has remained relatively unchanged since the war. It's now taking centre stage as the backdrop to the surreal black comedy series The League of Gentlemen.

The real Royston Vasey

Be afraid, be very afraid - you'll never leave Royston Vasey!

Since its cult success, League of Gentleman fans have been arriving in Hadfield in their droves.

There's even a tour of the main sites featured in the TV show from the old fishmonger's (the vet's surgery in the show) to the handicraft emporium (transformed by the show into a joke shop) and the butcher's.

Hadfield fever is set to continue when the new series of the League of Gentlemen hits our TV screens on 26 September.

Hollywood hits your hometown

Hadfield isn't the only East Midlands location to become a celluloid star.

Rutland gets a Hollywood makeover in the forthcoming action adventure film Four Feathers, about cowardice and courage at the turn of the century.

Hollywood glamour comes to the East Midlands

Glamorous stars Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson, spent a freezing cold January shooting the movie in Leicestershire.

Elsewhere in the region, Belvoir Castle was recently the spooky backdrop for the spine tingling thriller The Haunting starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Liam Neeson.

The castle also stars in the costume drama The Golden Bowl starring Uma Thurman and Nick Nolte. Look carefully and you may also spot Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire.

Train spotters will recognise Loughborough's Great Central Station in two movies. Look out for its impressive railway architecture in the British film Enigma starring Kate Winslet.

And clever clogs will spot it again, this time doubling as Oxford station in Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins.

TV addicts will know that Peak Practice is filmed at Crich in Derbyshire, with Meldridge House in Dimple Lane standing in as the doctor's surgery.

Costume classics

All dressed up and ready for action - Middlemarch

Bonnets and braces are to be found in abundance if you're looking for costume dramas made on your doorstep.

The hugely popular Pride and Prejudice saw Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth exchanging furtive glances at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire and Belton House near Grantham.

Whilst the TV adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch was filmed largely in the historic Lincolnshire town of Stamford, and Grimsthorpe Castle.

Once upon a time in the East Midlands

So will the East Midlands become a film making Mecca?

Robert Carlyle and Kathy Burke get starry eyed in Once upon a time in the Midlands

It certainly could if the new Brit flick Once Upon A Time in the Midlands is anything to go by.

With a cast that boasts Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans and Kathy Burke, the film is set to make Nottingham the next trendy film location.

Finally let's not forget that The Full Monty boys got their kit off in Bolsover, and the late lamented Crossroads was shot in Nottingham!?

It can't be too long before tourists are pouring in to see our many film and TV locations...