From Westminster Abbey in Lincoln to Harry Potter’s Malfoy Manor in Derbyshire, Hollywood has spent rather more time in the East Midlands than you might think.
Forget Los Angeles. Forget Pinewood. When filmmakers need a Gothic mansion, dramatic stretch of countryside, stately home or suitably atmospheric bit of England, it turns out the East Midlands will do very nicely.
Over the years the region has masqueraded as everything from Gotham City to wartime Germany, with some surprisingly big films making use of locations across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
Here are ten you might not have realised were filmed right on our doorstep.
1. The Da Vinci Code – Lincolnshire and Leicestershire
It might look as though Tom Hanks is racing around some of Europe’s most famous landmarks in The Da Vinci Code, but parts of the 2006 blockbuster are considerably closer to home.
Lincoln Cathedral was transformed into Westminster Abbey for the film after the real Abbey refused permission for filming. The cathedral features in the sequence in which Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu continue their hunt for clues surrounding Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb.
And Lincoln wasn’t the film’s only East Midlands stop. Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire was also used by the production, standing in for the Pope’s summer residence, Castel Gandolfo.
So while the story hops between Paris, London and Scotland, a surprising amount of the Hollywood globetrotting actually involved Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Derbyshire
Not all of Harry Potter’s magical world was hidden away on a studio lot.
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire provided the imposing exterior of Malfoy Manor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire provided the imposing exterior of Malfoy Manor.
In the Potter universe, the manor is the decidedly sinister home of the Malfoy family and becomes a base for Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
Which is a little unfair on Hardwick Hall, admittedly.
Still, if you’ve ever thought the National Trust property looked like the sort of place Draco Malfoy might spend Christmas, now you know why.
3. The Princess Bride – Derbyshire
One of the most beloved fantasy films of the 1980s found part of its fairy-tale kingdom in the Peak District.
The 1987 cult classic The Princess Bride used Haddon Hall as Prince Humperdinck’s castle, while the spectacular Cave Dale near Castleton also appeared in the film.
It’s easy to see the appeal. With its medieval architecture, rugged limestone cliffs and dramatic countryside, parts of Derbyshire require remarkably little assistance to look like a fantasy film set.
Inconceivable? Apparently not.
4. The Duchess – Derbyshire
Keira Knightley didn’t have to travel quite as far as you might imagine to find appropriately extravagant surroundings for The Duchess.
The 2008 period drama used Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire as one of its filming locations. VisitBritain identifies the spectacular neoclassical house with the production. Whilst Kedleston Hall stood in for the Spencer family’s Althorp estate, the wedding sequence was filmed at Chatsworth House. Derbyshire really was doing a great deal of the visual heavy lifting.
The film tells the story of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, so Derbyshire’s grand country-house landscape was a pretty natural fit.
Whilst Kedleston Hall stood in for the Spencer family’s Althorp estate, the wedding sequence was filmed at Chatsworth House. Derbyshire really was doing a great deal of the visual heavy lifting.
5. The Dam Busters – Derbyshire
Here’s one where the location has a connection both to the film and the real story behind it.
The Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire was used during the making of the 1955 wartime classic The Dam Busters, standing in for Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
The area is also famously associated with training for the real RAF raids depicted in the film, giving the location considerably more historical resonance than the average movie backdrop.
Nearly 70 years later, the landscape remains closely associated with the story.
6. Atonement – Lincolnshire
Remember the bleak coastal landscapes of Atonement?
For some of them, the filmmakers headed to Lincolnshire.
The coastal marshes at Gedney Drove End on the Wash were used for the 2007 film, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.
It is perhaps not Lincolnshire’s most obvious claim to Hollywood fame, which makes it exactly the sort of movie connection we like.
A seemingly remote corner of the East Midlands quietly ended up in one of the most acclaimed British films of the 2000s.
7. Jadoo – Leicester
Here’s one that didn’t merely dip into Leicester for a convenient exterior shot.
The 2013 comedy Jadoo, starring Harish Patel, was filmed entirely in Leicester, according to Midlands Movies.
The food-centred comedy concerns two feuding brothers and rival restaurants, making Leicester much more than an anonymous backdrop to the story.
For anyone interested in seeing the East Midlands properly represented on screen rather than pretending to be somewhere else, this is one to seek out.
8. The Haunting – Lincolnshire and Leicestershire
Now we’re getting properly Gothic.
The 1999 horror movie The Haunting, starring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, used locations on both sides of the East Midlands.
Parts were filmed at Harlaxton Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire, while Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire was also used by the production.
Which means that when Hollywood required somewhere suitably enormous and unsettling for a haunted-house movie, the East Midlands essentially replied: How many creepy mansions would you like?
9. The Damned United – Derbyshire
Michael Sheen’s acclaimed portrayal of Brian Clough naturally has plenty of connections to this part of the country, given Clough’s legendary spell in charge of Derby County.
But there’s another neat East Midlands filming connection.
For the 2009 film, Chesterfield FC’s ground was used to stand in for Wembley Stadium.
There’s something rather wonderful about Chesterfield’s old Saltergate Ground pretending to be Wembley for the cameras.
Saltergate was chosen because it had not undergone any significant structural modifications since the 1970s.
And considering Clough’s immense importance to football in both Derby and Nottingham, The Damned United arguably couldn’t have much more East Midlands DNA if it tried.
10. The Wolfman – Derbyshire
Chatsworth House normally looks like one of the grandest stately homes in Britain. Hollywood, naturally, decided it needed a werewolf.
The Derbyshire landmark appears in the 2010 horror The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, where its exterior became Talbot Hall, the suitably gloomy ancestral home of the film’s troubled Talbot family.
If Chatsworth looks a little less welcoming than usual, that’s deliberate. Visual effects were used to cover the normally pristine estate in virtual weeds and decay, transforming one of Derbyshire’s grandest houses into a crumbling Gothic pile.
Stuck verdict: apparently all Chatsworth needed to become a horror-film mansion was a bit of CGI gardening and Anthony Hopkins.
- Read more about where movie magic was made in the East Midlands by visiting the Midlands Movies website.
