Target Towns: Could Grimsby give Hollywood a run for its money?
Compared with Hollywood, Grimsby is perhaps more fish factory than dream factory – but just like La La Land, the Lincolnshire port town is aiming for the stars with ambitious plans to become a go-to location for filmmakers.
“Build it and hopefully they will come,” is the belief of Emma Lingard, a resident who once worked in TV but is now a manager at Associated British Ports (ABP), the owners of Grimsby Docks.
“Every producer or location manager that has come to us is saying that London is overpriced,” she says. “They’re finding there are too many other productions jostling for the same space… so they’re looking up North.”
Grimsby has plans to become a go-to location for filmmakers
Seeing the potential, ABP has set up the Kasbah Film Quarter, based around some of its historic buildings. The plan is to expand by building a much sought-after resource in the UK – a sound stage, for soundproof recording of film and TV, as well as production hubs.
It might seem a stretch to compare Grimsby with the famous Hollywood film and musical Sunset Boulevard and its antagonist, the fading silent movie star Norma Desmond – but there are definite parallels as it tries to find its place in an industry that doesn’t exist as it was.
The town recently doubled up for wartime London in the Netflix drama Bodies
Once the biggest fishing port in the world (it’s still big, it’s the catches that got small), signs of that faded glory remain but that’s actually quite a sought-after asset within UK film and TV.
“There is a great appeal for the old buildings we have… the authenticity and the character,” says Lingard. Part of the appeal for filmmakers is how they can save costs when it comes to building sets, she says.
Emma Lingard, manager The Kasbah Grimsby, Associated British Ports
It is an area that’s home to a wealth of empty historic buildings, including eight nationally listed ones which are clustered together and closed off to the public. These recently doubled-up for wartime London in the Netflix drama Bodies, starring Stephen Graham.
“You can look at that building and think East End of London or maybe a street in the back of New York somewhere,” Lingard says. “You’ve just got to have that vision.”
Actor Thomas Turgoose, best known for This Is England, still lives in Grimsby
Grimsby also provided a location for filming of the 2007 film Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.
And it already has the acting talent. Thomas Turgoose, who found fame in his early teens when he was cast in Shane Meadows’s critically acclaimed This Is England, has remained a resident despite his film career taking him all over the world.
“Shooting in London is a nightmare,” he jokes. “If you’re in someone’s way or put a five-minute delay on them getting a coffee, oh my God, it’s like you’ve just ruined their Christmas… which is probably one of the reasons I’ve never moved.”
Turgoose is convinced more productions would shoot in his hometown if everyone was more aware of what it has to offer.
“We’ve got so much going on around here… if you want to come to Grimsby and shoot period drama it looks amazing, but then also you can go to the beach in five minutes. Hopefully this opens people’s eyes.
“It goes back to people being proud of Grimsby and having a vision and being confident in it… and hopefully the film industry is going to do that for it.”
Would the likes of Hollywood stars such as Timothee Chalamet enjoy swapping the capital for Cleethorpes, a nearby seaside town?
“I think he’d quite enjoy it, actually,” says Turgoose. “I mean, he’d love the fish and chips.”
But are locals quite ready for an invasion of carb-denying A-listers?
Read more:
‘It was known as murder mile’
The frustration of Grimsby Town fans in battleground seat
Jade Shearer, manager of Ernie Becketts fish and chip shop
Jade Shearer, the manager of local chip shop Ernie Becketts, reckons she could convert a few.
“I definitely wouldn’t say no to serving Brad Pitt,” she laughs. “We need more things to bring people back here again and make it as busy as it used to be.”
With Grimsby and Cleethorpes likely to be a battleground in the next general election, politicians will undoubtedly promise all sorts of investment, including getting on board with Grimsby’s Hollywood ending – but the creative minds here are currently ploughing on alone.
They say they’ve learned over the years that politicians’ promises tend to end up on the cutting room floor.
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Putting it politely, Lingard says: “If opportunities came along to give us pockets of money to help restore the heritage, then great… but you need to see action sometimes more than words.”
For now, it’s the big screen action she’s concentrating on, including coming up with ways to attract the likes of 007 up North.
“Actually, in 1981, a James Bond movie was filmed in Grimsby,” Lingard laughs. “So why not?”
Get ready, Mr DeMille – Grimsby is ready for its close-up.
Sky News’ Target Towns series aims to follow the build-up to the general election from a key constituency prized by both Conservatives and Labour – Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Send in your stories to targettowns@sky.uk.
The European elections have formed a new EU Parliament that will rule for the next five years.
Politics
General election: Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson
Nigel Farage is “terrorising” the Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak is afraid to take him on, Labour grandee Lord Mandelson has told Sky News.
The former cabinet minister and spin-doctor, who masterminded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win, argued the job of the Tory leader should be to stand up to Mr Farage and Reform UK rather than seeking to appease them.
Trying to outflank Mr Farage had only served to embolden the maverick politician and make him stronger, the peer said as he appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
The decision of the former UKIP leader to contest a Tory-held seat at the election and take the reins at Reform UK has exacerbated Mr Sunak’s electoral woes, threatening to split the vote and the party.
Fresh polls gave an even bleaker outlook for the Conservatives, with one indicating the party on course to pick up just 72 seats.
A separate survey on Thursday night put Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.
It led Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, declare his party was now the opposition to Labour.
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Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper has repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
As well as failing to distance himself from his predecessors – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – Mr Sunak had made an error in vying to “outflank” Reform UK, argued Lord Mandelson.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The peer said: “He’s doing so by appeasing them, by sort of throwing red meat, to Farage, which is not outflanking him. It’s just making him bolder. It’s just making him, frankly, stronger than Sunak. And therefore the tactics, the strategy has been got wrong, in my view, by Sunak, right from the beginning.
“But I think the reason he doesn’t take on Farage is because he sees him as a stronger politician and frankly, he’s afraid to take him on.”
Read more on Sky News:
Tories heading for ‘warfare’, Farage predicts
How much would a Labour government change football?
Eyewitness: Behind the scenes of covering the election campaign
On Mr Farage himself, Lord Mandelson said: “I think he terrifies the Conservative Party. I mean, he terrified David Cameron into conceding a referendum on our membership of the European Union, and now he’s doing the same, to Sunak. He terrorises them.
“Now you, you’ve got to stand up to terrorists you know, in this world and including in, in British domestic politics.”
👉 Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈
He added: “But Farage is an effective politician. There’s no point in denying it. He has a clear message. It’s not one that I happen to agree with in any respect at all.
“I think that Farage is much better at, you know, taking people down and destroying things than he is in offering a constructive, clear alternative.
“But be that as it may, the job of the leader of the Conservative Party is to take that on and show an alternative to the right, not to appease it.”
He later clarified: “I’m not saying he’s literally a terrorist. I’m saying he’s terrorising the Conservative Party.”
Politics
General election: Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson
Nigel Farage is “terrorising” the Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak is afraid to take him on, Labour grandee Lord Mandelson has told Sky News.
The former cabinet minister and spin-doctor, who masterminded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win, argued the job of the Tory leader should be to stand up to Mr Farage and Reform UK rather than seeking to appease them.
Trying to outflank Mr Farage had only served to embolden the maverick politician and make him stronger, the peer said as he appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
The decision of the former UKIP leader to contest a Tory-held seat at the election and take the reins at Reform UK has exacerbated Mr Sunak’s electoral woes, threatening to split the vote and the party.
Fresh polls gave an even bleaker outlook for the Conservatives, with one indicating the party on course to pick up just 72 seats.
A separate survey on Thursday night put Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.
It led Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, declare his party was now the opposition to Labour.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper has repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
As well as failing to distance himself from his predecessors – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – Mr Sunak had made an error in vying to “outflank” Reform UK, argued Lord Mandelson.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The peer said: “He’s doing so by appeasing them, by sort of throwing red meat, to Farage, which is not outflanking him. It’s just making him bolder. It’s just making him, frankly, stronger than Sunak. And therefore the tactics, the strategy has been got wrong, in my view, by Sunak, right from the beginning.
“But I think the reason he doesn’t take on Farage is because he sees him as a stronger politician and frankly, he’s afraid to take him on.”
Read more on Sky News:
Tories heading for ‘warfare’, Farage predicts
How much would a Labour government change football?
Eyewitness: Behind the scenes of covering the election campaign
On Mr Farage himself, Lord Mandelson said: “I think he terrifies the Conservative Party. I mean, he terrified David Cameron into conceding a referendum on our membership of the European Union, and now he’s doing the same, to Sunak. He terrorises them.
“Now you, you’ve got to stand up to terrorists you know, in this world and including in, in British domestic politics.”
👉 Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈
He added: “But Farage is an effective politician. There’s no point in denying it. He has a clear message. It’s not one that I happen to agree with in any respect at all.
“I think that Farage is much better at, you know, taking people down and destroying things than he is in offering a constructive, clear alternative.
“But be that as it may, the job of the leader of the Conservative Party is to take that on and show an alternative to the right, not to appease it.”
He later clarified: “I’m not saying he’s literally a terrorist. I’m saying he’s terrorising the Conservative Party.”
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