In
Wakefield...
Back
in the 1960s This Sporting Life seemed to be a remarkably tough
and uncompromising film. It was shot around Wakefield and, in
particular, Wakefield Trinity Rugby League Club.
The
film tells the story of Frank Machin, a young and ambitious coal
miner, who is on his way up as a rugby league star. Richard Harris,
who plays Machin, has said he considers this to be his finest
role. He certainly gives a powerful and convincing performance.
Rachel Roberts is also unforgettable as Machin's widowed landlady
with whom he has a futile affair. The always excellent Alan Badel
plays Weaver, the club¹s major shareholder.
Based
on a novel by David Storey who had grown up in Wakefield, and
directed by Lindsay Anderson, this was the last of the gritty
northern dramas which had begun (in film at least) with Room at
the Top. The film was critically acclaimed but the 'swinging'
sixties had begun and its themes of class and society now seemed
out of date.
If you know of
any productions, whether
for the large or small screen,
filmed in Wakefield
or elsewhere in West Yorkshire
and want to tell us about them then please get in touch.
Email:
westyorkshire
@bbc.co.uk
|
Rugby
League was also the setting for Alan Plater's Trinity Tales, first
transmitted in 1975. This was an updating of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales. Six fans from a West Yorkshire rugby league club travel
to Wembley for the Challenge Cup Final and pass the time by telling
stories. Here, we have the wife of Batley, not of Bath.
Plater
also wrote the Biederbeck Affair, a popular and quirky romantic
drama series which used locations around the city and starred
James Bolam and Barbara Flynn. Some of us still don't understand
what was going on in that allotment!
And,
finally, Emmerdale's courtroom scenes are filmed in Wakefield
Town Hall. k
