‘Hullywood’ is hitting the headlines again, this time with the world premiere in London of the biggest production yet filmed in the city.
In another boost to its growing set-jetting credentials, acclaimed British director Steve McQueen’s new movie Blitz, partly shot in Hull, is to open the London Film Festival in October before hitting cinema screens on 1 November.
The wartime drama, which is already a serious contender for top movie awards, will then stream globally on Apple TV+ from 22 November.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman and Stephen Graham, the film tells the story of how Londoners survived the German bombing campaign in World War Two.
Filming took place at locations across Hull in 2023, including Hull Old Town, Hepworth Arcade and Walton Street fairground, using more than 750 extras. Red buses, vintage lamp posts and shops were given a make-over to become 1940s London.
It follows smash-hit Netflix productions, The Crown, Enola Holmes 2 and Bodies, as well as cinema success The Extraordinary Life of David Copperfield, in using Hull as a prime filming location, something which has earned the city its nickname.
And with ‘set-jetting’ a top travel trend among visitors, earlier this year Hull launched a new trail guide offering visitors a chance to follow in the footsteps of the stars and discover some of the real-life locations. It must be Hullywood features 11 productions, detailing where they were filmed and which leading actors were involved.
This latest film also provides a poignant reminder of Hull’s own past, as well as a close connection with London and the movie’s central theme.
During the Second World War, as a key port within easy flying distance from occupied Europe, Hull became the second most bombed city in England. In the Blitz of 1940 and 1941, Hull was pounded by German bombers, and out of 91,660 houses, only 5,945 survived the air raids undamaged.
The city is also home to one of the UK’s last remaining relics of bomb damage from the Second World War, which is currently being given a new lease of life.
Listed as a Grade II historic structure because of its significance as a rare surviving blitzed building, the remains of the National Picture Theatre have stood on its original site on Beverley Road since the 1941 bombing raid. Ironically, the audience were watching the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator when the bomb fell, but thanks to two large concrete beams within its structure, the lives of the 150 people inside the theatre were saved.
When the refurbishment is complete, the former cinema will serve as a monument to the ordinary civilians who served on the Home Front, as well as those city residents who died in the war.
The BFI London Film Festival runs from 9 to 20 October.
Hull’s set-jetting guide is available at the Visitor Information Pod at Paragon Interchange in the city, or downloadable at www.visithull.org/to-do/hullywood-film-tv-trail/
For tourism information about visiting, and staying in, Hull, see www.visithull.org
Check out our feature on Hullywood’s TV and movie credits here.
Photo of Blitz filming in Hull, above: Dave Todd
