Filming has brought in nearly £1M for Bolton, it was revealed this week.
The borough has become known as the Hollywood of the North for the amount of high quality TV and film productions shot in the town.
Only recently Hollywood A-lister Ewan McGregor was in Victoria Square filming for the drama series A Gentleman in Moscow - which attracted the national media to the town to try and get a glimpse of the actor.
The figure made through filming was revealed at the recent full meeting of Bolton Council this week amid calls to distribute the money made evenly across the borough’s wards.
Cllr Debbie Newall, who represents Kearsley which hosted crews filming Sky comedy Brassic last year, said she hoped the money could be used to fund local projects.
She said: “I am beyond thrilled that we have filming in Bolton all the time, I love it.”
She added: “I made a list, Happy Valley, Ridley, Bancroft, Nolly, Peaky Blinders, and all the Netflix films that have been filmed in Bolton.
“So I’m a big fan of filming in Bolton.
“However, whilst not every ward contributes to the locations which they don’t, I feel and others feel that all wards benefit.”
In total, Bolton has made £975,250 from filming since 2019, which still came to a total of £746,053 after costs.
Locations all over the borough have become familiar sites to viewers after appearing in the most recent series of Happy Valley, while Le Mans Crescent has recently featured in Peaky Blinders and Coronation Street.
Crews were most recently seen in the town centre filming A Gentleman in Moscow, starring Ewan McGregor.
Cllr Newall suggested the money could be used for improvement work on the filming locations themselves after crews have departed.
She drew upon the example of Ringley Bridge and St Saviour's Church in Kearsley, which she felt would make ‘ideal’ locations for period dramas.
Cllr Newall suggested that in their case, the windfall money generated could be used to pay for illuminations, while other locations could also have appropriate improvements made.
She said: “If a percentage of this filming windfall could be channelled back into wards, that would be a good way of using this money.”
In response, Bolton Council deputy leader Cllr Hilary Fairclough said that the authority was prepared to light up locations like these on “significant anniversaries or celebrations.”
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She also explained how the money created from production companies was used by the council.
Cllr Fairclough said: “The filming income supports the town’s revenue budget so you could say that we all get some of it because it all goes into the one pot for the revenue budget and that benefits all wards.
“It’s a corporate asset so we think it should be used corporately for the whole borough.
“We are currently working on plans to review the asset list for the whole borough and create further opportunities to attract production companies.”
Producers and directors have often complimented the town for its stunning background.
Phil Collinson produced the first series of Bancroft, starring Sarah Parish, with filming taking place in Bolton.
He said at the time: “We went to Bolton very deliberately. Bolton has an incredible Victorian crescent, town hall and civic centre. It really feels like Paris or New York around there with the old cobbled streets and big sandstone buildings.
“Then once you get inside there are long marble corridors and great big open spaces.
“The CID office is a large old room with pillars in it. Lots of old, dark wood. We tried to make it feel like the present inhabiting locations with lots of history bearing down on them.
“So this modern world is crashing together with the past. A sense the past is around you all the time. A happy by-product of that was we got really handsome locations. The whole things feels special. Steeped in history.
He added: “The locations are a big star of this show and really important to the atmosphere of the whole thing.”
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