The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Went to watch the film this afternoon. Halfway through the film there was a shot lasting about 2 or 3 seconds that surprised me, because I’d walked past the location on the way to the cinema. It was of the junction of Wharncliffe Street and Summer Lane, with the view suggesting it was taken from a balcony of the Premier Inn. A bit odd for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there were no other shots in Barnsley and secondly, how on earth did Mr. Fry’s route from Devon to Berwick-Upon-Tweed result in him walking down Wharncliffe Street?!?

It’s the fourth time I’ve watched a film and spotted a location very close to where I was living at the time. Most recent was Harold’s Going Stiff (a zombie film, not porn!), which was shot around Penistone when I was living up that way. Before that a scene in Hot Fuzz, which is set in the West Country, had them running through a garden centre, which I recognised as being our local one in Mill Hill, north London. And after that, and this makes me quite annoyed, scenes from a film were shot at a building in front of said garden centre, the National Institute for Medical Research. Annoying because I’m a Batman fanboy and that building was used as Arkham Asylum in Batman Begins. So as I slept, or didn’t sleep, cos I’m a rubbish sleeper, all I had to do was walk to the top of my street and up the little path to the Adam and Eve Pub (as seen in Silks and Peep Show - honestly, Mill Hill is like Hollywood!) I could have seen the Batmobile and Batman and Jim Gordon scrapping with runaway nutcases. D’oh!

Would have been interesting had I been staggering home pissed from a late night session at Kings Cross Snooker Club while they were filming, getting home and telling the missus I need to stop drinking, cos I’ve started seeing things, like the Batmobile driving up the Ridgeway.

But if you go to see the Harold Fry film, keep your eyes peeled just after the scenes in Sheffield, because the shot of Wharncliffe Street/Summer Lane is a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss it’.

 

I was in the ind est behind the petrol station when they were filming that scene thought it was a protest at first

 

Seems to be following the book then as this describes meeting the follower north of Barnsley on the A61. Hope the film is significantly better than the book.

 

David Jason likes the Pontefract, Castleford and Wakefield area and a lot of that area was featured on Touch of Frost. They used Pontefract Hospital, Golf Club, Wakefield Westgate Station as "Denton". Also on the title credits they use Castleford Town Centre as "Denton".

No glamour neither. Whilst it was being shot he stayed in a caravan in Pontefract lorry park.