Shropshire launches county's first film office

Shropshire Film Bureau has launched its first film office in an effort to promote the county as a filming location for productions.

The agency has been launched by Visit Shropshire’s Mark Hooper and Sarah Creighton who say bringing productions to the county would provide a boost to local businesses and the tourism industry.

It comes as production gets underway in Shrewsbury on a new BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic, Great Expectations.

Previously, Shropshire has been used for some notable productions such as: A Christmas Carol and Atonement to the more recent Enola Holmes and BBC drama Time, starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham. 

Shrewsbury and Ludlow are noted for their Tudor and Georgian architecture and 70's & 80's 'brutalist' buildings, which recently played host to Steve McQueen’s Small Axe. Shrewsbury Prison was also used in Brassic 3, Time and Without Sin. 

Speaking exclusively to KFTV, Hooper explained the agency offers a dual role of promoting Shropshire as a film-friendly county, as well as providing production support offering the management of unit bases, accommodation, catering, road closures and licenses plus more.

'It aims to expand rapidly as a ‘go-to’ location for the film and TV industry with a brand new website filmshropshire.co.uk soon to launch at the end of June and looks to hit the ground running after recently welcoming the production team of Steven Knight’s Great Expectations,' said Hooper.

The county is situated in the West Midlands within one and a half hour’s drive time of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and only two hours to Bristol, and offers an abundance of period buildings.

Film Shropshire is the first port of call for productions considering filming in the region managing both private and local authority locations.