Eat your heart out Hollywood, television and film-makers are beating a path to Barnet in ever-increasing numbers.

Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates and Michael Gambon just a few of the A-list stars recently filming in Barnet.

With programme makers and film directors alike choosing the borough, if you think you spotted someone famous, the chances are you probably did. In fact, according to the London Film Commission, the amount of filming taking place in Barnet has doubled over the last year alone.

Situated near to Elstree Studios and in easy reach of central London, Barnet has proved a perfect setting for filmmakers who do not want to spend hours shuttling between locations. Added to that is the borough's lush mix of town, country, wealth and poverty and they are prepared to pay for the privilege. Recent episodes of The Bill spin-off Beech is Back, for example, featured the borough's former civil defence bunker in Partingdale Lane, Mill Hill.

Barnet Council which estimates £2.50 comes into the borough's economy from every £1 spent is keen to encourage the phenomenon. Councillor Monroe Palmer, Barnet's cabinet member for development and regeneration, says: "It adds a bit of excitement to the borough, especially when you see it on national TV. We are welcoming film companies from across the country."

And it's not just episodes of perennial favourite Grange Hill either.

Two major films due for release next year were filmed here, while the soon-to-be-released British drama Me Without You is set in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Gosford Park, American director Robert Altman's controversial new offering, was shot largely at Wrotham Park. Pronounced 'Root-em', the picturesque stately home on the A1000 Barnet Road just north of Monken Hadley also featured in Bridget Jones's Diary and the BBC's serial The Way We Live Now. Owned by the publicity-shy Byng family, it provides a secluded location out of the public eye.

The new film from Altman who famously directed MASH, The Player and Short Cuts is due for release on February 1 next year. Part comedy of manners, part murder mystery, it features an impressive all-star cast, including Kristen Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Richard E Grant and Charles Dance among others.

Erotic thriller Killing Me Softly, starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes, includes scenes filmed largely in the un-erotic surroundings of East Finchley Tube Station. The makers of the potential blockbuster, due for release in April next year, were apparently attracted to the Great North Road station because of its extra platform.

Me Without You, one of the most highly anticipated British dramas of recent years, is actually set in Hampstead Garden Suburb but filmed in Sussex. Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and starring Anna Friel and Michelle Williams, it is written and directed by the Suburb's own Sandra Goldbacher.

Harvey Edgington, the London Film Commission's officer for Barnet, puts the borough's success as a backdrop for filming down to Barnet Council's open-arms attitude.

"Production companies often work to very tight deadlines and the efficient approach of departments like parking, neighbourhood management, parks and open spaces can make all the difference to a location manager under pressure."

Other locations used over the years have included Brent Cross shopping centre, a car chase for 1997 Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies was shot in its car park; the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, featured in Tom Cruise's Interview with the Vampire; and Whitehouse Way, Osidge, which gave the backdrop to scenes from Mike Leigh's award-winning Secrets and Lies.

Shooting Fish the only National Lottery-funded film to make a profit was partly shot on location in Mill Hill, while some of the 1976 Likely Lads movie was filmed in the Green Dragon pub in St Albans Road, Barnet.

On that note, let's raise a glass to Terry and Bob and Barnet's continuing success as the backdrop to film and television.

November 15, 2001 14:00