Screen tourism

Given the high levels of feature film and high-end television production in the UK, Screen Tourism is expected to increase in the UK in the coming years and can be developed in this region.

Department of Culture, Media and Sport research in 15 countries suggests that two thirds of visitors to the UK have been motivated by film or TV locations. There has been recent regional success with films such as Netflix’s The Dig, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield and the Danny Boyle / Richard Curtis movie Yesterday. Much of this success can be attributed to Screen Suffolk which has been contracted through Suffolk Public Sector Leaders funding for a further five years to deliver and develop film location services. Norfolk County Council commissioned Olsberg SPI to analyse the opportunity. They have previously done a study on Screen Tourism for Creative England and VisitEngland that provided clear evidence that tourists will travel to sites specifically because they have been depicted in feature films and television drama.

36.1% of all international tourists and 11.6% of all domestic tourists surveyed on site at six locations studied for the project, including Holkham Hall, could be defined as core screen tourists ie a screen production was the primary motivator for their visit. The value of these visits is significant, with the best-performing sites attracting day spend value from international visitors of up to £1.6m annually. Combined with the day visit value of domestic core screen tourists, the best performing site saw £4.3m total screen tourism spend annually. Across England, a conservative estimate puts the value of international screen tourism between £100m-£140m.

Regarded by the sector as a ‘highly experienced, film friendly location’, Ely has welcomed several large-scale productions, including The Crown (2016), Maestro (2022), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and The King’s Speech (2010). Ely received an award as ‘Best Film Location’ for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Starring Cate Blanchett, the production saw a cast and crew of over 400 on site for seven weeks.

Film makers are drawn to Ely Cathedral for the vast internal space, stone walls and medieval floors which create a highly adaptable blank canvas, and the surrounding grounds and parklands which provide acres of accessible space to locate the unit base, crew parking, technical equipment, props, and areas for cast and crowd.

In 2020, Ely Cathedral hosted its first film costume exhibition, Crowns & Gowns, which attracted more than 12,000 additional visitors, and offers a bookable guided tour, On Screen & In Film, which has proven popular with inbound visitors.

Opposite: The King’s Speech Ely. Below: The Crown Ely (© Alex Bailey); The Theory of Everything Cambridge; The Personal History of David Copperfield Bury St Edmunds (© Rebecca Austin).

Yesterday Halesworth High Street; The Dig Sutton Hoo; Yesterday Shingle Street, Suffolk.

Screen and TV made recently in the region.

The Dig (2021) Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan – Sutton Hoo

This Sceptred Isle (2022) Michael Winterbottom (d), Kenneth Branagh – Aylsham Spencer (2021) Kristen Stewart, Sally Hawkins - Hunstanton

The Personal History of David Copperfield

(2020) Armando Iannucci (d), Dev Patel, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton – Bury St Edmunds, King’s Lynn, Weybourne Annihilation (2018) Natalie Portman – Holkham

Tulip Fever (2017) Judi Dench – Norwich Cathedral

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017) Tom Holland - Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich The Crown (2016) Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Jared Harris – Ely Cathedral 45 Years (2015) Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay – Norwich, Broads National Park Ant-Man (2015) Paul Rudd - Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Robert Downey Jnr – Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich

The Theory of Everything (2014) Eddie Redmayne - The Backs, Cambridge Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) Steve Coogan – Norwich, Cromer Pier

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

(2010) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson - Lavenham

The King’s Speech (2010) Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush – Ely Cathedral The Duchess (2008) Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes – Holkham, Cley-next-the-Sea Atonement (2007) James McAvoy, Keira Knightley – Walpole St Peter

Yesterday (2019) Danny Boyle (d), Richard Curtis (w), Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran – Gorleston-on-Sea, Halesworth, Dunwich, Shingle Street, Cantley, Latitude Festival, Ramsholt Arms

Top left: Scriptwriter John Orloff, original Masters of the Air book author Don Miller and Playtone executive Kirk Saduski researching at Thorpe Abbotts airbase.

Masters of the Air: The Friendly Invasion TV series will attract inbound visitors to the region.

A significant opportunity to benefit from Screen Tourism will come in 2023 when Apple TV+ stream the $275m Masters of the Air, the final series in the second world war trilogy produced by Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks’ Playtone and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin. Following Band of Brothers and The Pacific, Masters of the Air tells the story of the 350,000 servicemen of the US Eighth Air Force who transitioned through the East of England from 1942 to 1945. The D-Day Beaches were already a wellvisited destination, but when Band of Brothers aired Normandy Tourism reported a 40% uplift in North American visitors. The series is still being shown around the world, so Screen Tourism has a long tail. Home Box Office, which bankrolled the first two series, were hesitant about Masters of the Air. However, after Visit East of England brought the executive producer and screenwriter to the region in 2017 as part of the VisitBritain Discover England Funded ‘Friendly Invasion’ project, the production team were convinced of its merits and the project subsequently moved to Apple TV+. The series was shot in Oxfordshire in late 2021, with post-production completed in California. However, the story is entirely owned by this region, where the air bases were and where the museums and memorials reside.

A new project is now in co-production with Playtone on a Friendly Invasion film and cinema/conference attraction in Norfolk which would complement Masters of the Air and act as a hub for visitors exploring the story further. The Friendly Invasion film will focus on the cultural and social impacts felt by the native population. The US servicemen brought with them peanut butter, chewing gum, Swing and nylons. They took back with them tens of thousands of wives and girlfriends. Currently, North Americans interested in the wartime story go to The Second World War Museum in New Orleans and The Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah. Masters of the Air gives us the opportunity to attract them across the Atlantic to this region. A second Friendly Invasion would be of huge value to the visitor economy.